What is this? You seriously want me to connect the arrows? That’s funny! The new voting ballots in some places (Calhoun County, AL, for one) require you to connect arrows to select your candidate of choice. I felt like maybe I’d gone back to preschool, or maybe kindergarten. LOL!

You can see an example of these new ballots here: Election Shenanigans Watch and there is a Flickr pic of one, too (which may be illegal…hmm…): Gotta Connect the Arrows Interesting…

And the ballot looked a lot different from the one I saw four years ago, in that there were so few things for which to vote. I realized, just a few minutes ago, that the reason for that is that I’m in a small town now and I was in a huge city last time I voted. Duh me!

It was a crazy day, though – completely crazy. Lots of fun and exciting, but, crazy. The kids had these ballots from Scholastic that had Obama and a box for a check mark and then McCain and a box and then one more box with a line next to it on which they could write the name of an independent, if they chose to vote for one. One child checked ‘Independent’ and on the line wrote: Hillary Clinton. Haha! Sounds like someone was not paying complete attention in history class, eh? ;)

I was finished up helping with the sixth grade elections and Sammie asked me to come to lunch with her, saying that it was at 12:15. I thought, ‘Sure, I can do that – that will give me plenty of time to go vote and then make sure all the kids have what they need, are where they need to be, get picked up when they need it, etc.’ Turns out – she meant to say 1:15 – oops.

So then it was one hour later than I expected, and she was begging me to come to band class with her, right after lunch and listen to them play. I tried to get out of it at first, sort of arguing with her, and then I realized, ‘You know what? It’ll be fine. I’m never up here at school with her, I left a key out for the boys, voting goes until 7pm – it’ll all work out fine.’ So I stayed – and I really enjoyed listening to them.

Except for one thing – of course, I was breaking out in a migraine. Ay ay ay. Dang, my head! Maybe I should list it on Craigslist and just see if I can find myself a newer, better model.

It was fun listening to them, though. And the librarian had given me a book, too, so I was enjoying reading that, too. The book has a few pages out of order, so they gave it to me. I figure that will be half the fun, figuring out how it all fits. I am loving the book – it is so good! I’ll definitely have to blog about it at Bookworm Broadcast!

After band class, I was finally leaving the school. My plan was to walk to Burger King and eat my yummy veggie burger, about which I was so excited, and then walk to the church and vote. On the way there, however, I discovered that I didn’t have a ride for Sammie after choir. She stays later for choir days and so there is not a bus for that. And my ride plans for her fell through. So I’m starting to freak out just a little. I start calling people.

And I realized it was time to text Patrick and tell him about where I’d hidden the key for him and Shawn, since I’d forgotten to tell them in the morning. It was then that I was reminded by him that he was going home with a friend to work on a history project. Crap! It sounded to me like he was already at the friend’s house and I was afraid Shawn didn’t have his phone with him. I know Patrick takes his every day, but, I’m not sure if Shawn does. So I frantically start texting and calling him. And I’m picturing him showing up to the empty house, not knowing what is going on! I can’t even walk there in time to meet him, should I decide to ditch all my plans, because, it takes me thirty minutes to walk home! Crap!

Luckily, I got another text from Patrick saying they were still in the band room and that he would tell him. Whew! That’s one crisis averted. Now what about Sammie? Dangggit! I realize that I could just go eat at Burger King and relax there a while with my cool, new book and walk back to the school to get her on foot, and then she and I can walk to the church with plenty of time left for me to vote. She was not going to be happy about walking with her trumpet and all of her things, but, that was just all I had left in my bag of tricks.

Walking to the church was not too bad, because, it was all flat, but, then the rest of the way was all uphill. We live in an extremely hilly area – it is so beautiful, but, even the cars struggle sometimes, much less our poor feet! Heh! We had finished up at the church and we’re just about to face ‘the hill’ (not the most evil one, but, a pretty tough one) and we came upon this woman and her seventh grade daughter. I told Sammie to move and let them pass, as I’m sure they were going faster than we were. They were out for their evening walk and we were exhausted and carrying stuff.

The lady was so sweet, she slowed down and offered to carry stuff for us! I was shocked! So she carried Sammie’s trumpet and we walked almost all the way to our house with them. She was really sweet and I really appreciated it. It made the last part of the hard day of walking social and social always makes things more pleasant! So thank you, Marsha and Hayley!

This migraine is trying to kick my batooshka, but, I mustn’t let it! I absolutely HAVE to watch the returns! Seriously, either way this goes, this election is historical and just simply amazing!