6. Afterglow...

I don't mean to be extremely political in this blog, but with the election and with admittedly how much my heart was in this one, I can't express my happiness about today. President Obama. I can't wait! I re-watched both speeches last night online before I went to bed and I have to say - McCain's speech was very classy and gracious, even if his audience wasn't the most becoming. Props to him. He obviously loves this country very much. I *almost* feel bad that his VP selection shot him in the foot - but then I don't because it helped Obama win that much more. And Obama... well, I was personally willing to let myself be moved by his. He knows how to speak so well, and eloquently, and the realization that the last eight years are finally going to be behind us was somewhat overwhelming. I definitely teared up. Cause I'm a dork like that. It's sunk in more and more, the more I read about it.

Franken and Coleman are still in a dead heat in MN, the votes being recounted with only a 300-700 some difference at the moment. I want Franken to pull ahead, but I was honestly much more passionate about getting Bachman out of our district than the Senate race - and sadly, that didn't happen. Oh well.

Tonight I go home and clean clean clean for James to arrive bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm driving out to pick him up from the bus station in St. Paul, then we're popping across the street to have breakfast with Mike and Diane (Paddie & Bea)! That should be fun! Friday I'll probably take him to the Mall of America, cause... that's my standard for anyone visiting, as there's not much else to do around here! Otherwise I'm sure the weekend will consist of a lot of hanging out and eating out and a movie or two. It's SO nice that today's the last day of the week.

Okay, geek-time. I'm getting more and more anxious about the release of the Wrath expansion for WoW. Next Thursday?? What??? It's just a game, I shouldn't stress - but I'd love to actually level up and experience new content with all my guildies who were all level 70 before I even started playing. It'll be so new and exciting! But I'm anxious because I've got a lot of clean up to do on my laptop before then - moving all this extra music to my external hard drive. Which isn't hard to do but it's ANNOYING because then iTunes is going to freak out on me cause it won't find half of them, and then I'll re-load them all into the library and have to go and delete duplicates and BAH. For as much as I love iTunes, it does NOT make it easy to keep your stuff organized when it's not stored on your default C drive. Maybe I'll undertake one of my severely OCD projects and move and reorganize EVERYthing, then just re-load my entire iTunes library. Must... have... organized.. music collection.... guh.

On the upside though, now that I can take my MacBook with me places, I can probably keep my hard drive plugged into Rupert (my IBM) almost all the time, which will prevent it from losing it's place all over again so much. We'll see. That reminds me though! I need to name this snazzy new li'l MacBook. Maybe I should have it be a chick? Nah, it's too hawt. He'll get a classy name though, fo sho.

Alright, time to wipe down all the computers and go home!

5. Day in the Life...

Going to make this post a bit different... jot down little notes from the day. With the election news and all, thought it'd be easier than trying to sit down at the end of the day and summarize everything.

11:11am - omg make a wish! HAHA. I just looked at the clock to put down the first time and that's what it is. Gee - wonder what my wish was! Anyway, just finished the mad morning computer lab rush. Was trying to find somewhere online to track exit polls or something, but I guess those are still only tracked when they closed. FOOD TIME. >:D

12:30pm - JESUS. I swear all six year olds are bi-polar. HR came up to me while I was putting up badges, and I always get surrounded by kids when putting up badges, so I try to do it when they're busy/not around. They rarely are though, so usually I have at least 5 kids trying to "help" which means grabbing at the badges in my box and arguing over the new ones I'm putting up. Anyway! HR is a bit of a feisty little girl, I think she may have a slight mental thing, but it's not really noticeable. Could just be severe A.D.D. or something. At any right, she's funny and cute so as much as she can be a stubborn turd I don't dislike her in the least. She wants to help with badges but I tell her I don't need any help right now cause I'm almost done yadda yadda. So she asks if she can help later and I said maybe, so she gets happy, gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek (I'm sitting on a mini-chair, so I'm at eye-level) and I'm all awwww - then she turns around and goes "WHERE'S MY PINK" in a growly voice. I don't even know what that means. But I am amused.

12:52pm - ... okay, teachers, let's have me work my ass off on ballots to the point where I drew the clip art. And then not use them. What. The. Hell.

1:00pm - All right, my ballots were used by about half the kids. Slightly less frustrated now.

1:45pm - Owned. Obama - 85, McCain - 41. If only my students determined the fate of the nation... er... in this one issue. Hell yeeeah! 1.75 hours until I vote!

4:15pm - VOTED! :D Took me longer to get through the McDonald's Drive-Thru than it did to vote. Wooo for getting off work an hour and a half before rush hour. Whew. So that was pretty easy, haha! Now, to try and chill until Kara tonight... oh yeah, path day in WoW. The Hallowed title, you are mine! Also, talked to Corlett on the phone on the way home and we squeed about Obama's chances.

7:11pm - Watching the results avidly until Kara raid starts up! So far, nothing to worry about but TV stations are putting a ridiculous amount of information on the screen at once. I'm trying to figure out what all these different numbers mean - is that projected? Is that called? Is that for the president or a Senate seat? Bleh! Megan, Kevin, and I disagreed with a guildie who was supporting the electoral college by saying he'd rather that than have the mostly uneducated public deciding these things and it got me a bit riled up. I really disagree with the electoral college - I think it's flawed and outdated and while yes, sucks to have the morons of the country make stupid voting decisions, but if we're a democracy then stay with that and deal with it, yeah? I don't mind everyone having a voice. And it's not even like the electoral college is made up of people making more educated decisions, it's supposed to reflect the majority of the votes in the State. It hasn't always done that in the past cause people screwed up the numbers, not because someone with an electoral vent went "I think they're dumb and uneducated, I'm voting opposite of them." Basically, the college is not doing what it's supposed to be doing and if we go on and on about everyone having a voice - let everyone have a freaking voice! /soapbox

10:04 pm - NBC HAS CALLED IT FOR OBAMA, along with others. I'm not gonna completely breathe easy, but pleeeeeeease. Now just keep Al Franken up there. And a miracle would be nice to get rid of Bachman.

11:38pm - Okay, I have to post this before the night is up so it still counts, but I was just talking to Whit on the phone and I can't believe how relieved I am. I can actually be proud to be under this president. This will take some getting used to.

4. Bono, the King of Ireland

Stressful sort of day today. I finished the ballots and got the I Voted stickers all ready, but I didn't have any volunteers with me in the computer lab today which had me running around like a short-order chef from student to student again. I wish more parents would volunteer if the teachers insist on ending me fifteen kids at once. It won't even help when I get the other side of the lab up and running because if there's still only one person to check kids off, kids are just going to be sitting and waiting with their hands up versus standing and waiting to be shown to a computer like they are now. But then crap kept coming up all day like it was picture retake day and no one told me that I should come up to get mine taken for the yearbook since I wasn't hired in time for pictures before. So I completely missed that memo until the photographers were already gone. Sigh.

Although the weather was AMAZING today! Since when is it 70-some degrees out in November in Minnesota?? Of course I was stuck inside doing the play versus having outdoor recess for once but I thoroughly enjoyed driving home with no jacket and my windows down. I like that feeling whenever I can do it, but it feels especially good when the previous week you were wearing three layers along with gloves to touch your steering wheel.

But now I just feel a little bleh about the week. It's a short week, but I'm dreading dealing with voting and the election... it'll be nice that it'll be OVER, cause we got probably seven phone calls today from stupid campaign people. I'm nervous though. I'm nervous to vote in person for the first time since the last couple have been via absentee when I was going to school in FL. I hope it's warm out tomorrow too as I can't go until after work and who knows how long the lines will be. I can just feel this knot in between my shoulders not coming out until it's over.

And then I've gotta clean like a mofo so the house is ready for Thursday instead of Friday as previously planned. Mmmm mmm last minute schedule changes, nom nom nom.

I love how it didn't take too long for this blog to get whiny. Oh well. I'll be infinitely more happy if a certain candidate owns face in the polls tomorrow.

3. Cute vs. Badass?

So I have to make ballots for the kindergartners and first graders at school, and I couldn't find any little bits of clipart to use for a cartoon elephant and cartoon donkey that fit what I was looking for. So I drew my own, by starting with the elephant cause I knew more what an elephant looked like than a donkey. (As in, how to draw a donkey that's obviously a donkey and not a horse.)

Then the dilemma arose: I was very proud of the cute elephant I drew.... Dammit! I'm a democrat! I can't make the elephant CUTER than the DONKEY! Cause I know the kids will probably be voting based on the drawings more than anything else. I know I would at that age.

But how do you make a donkey look cute? Sure I could make it look like a badass devil-donkey - ala Stillwater High Schools making the Pony mascot slightly satanic looking so we didn't look like total wusses (example) - but that'd a) probably only appeal to the boys and the girl who dressed up as Darth and b) is totally not equal to a Cute Elephant. Not wanting to be biased either way, I went ahead and did my best: