Life Will Go On

I just got back from a long weekend visiting my folks at the Old Folks’ Home in Maryland.  My mother was frantic with worry over the election. I advised her not to stay up to watch election results on TV.  Tuesday morning I raced home in time to vote.

Last night, in solidarity with my Mom, I put myself on a total media break.  I didn’t want to hear about the election until I read it in the newspaper this morning.  This morning I drove the kids to school very early for various reasons.   When we left the house at 6:30 AM, the newspaper had not come yet, so we did not know who had won the election.  We tried listening to the radio on the way to school, but they were going over local elections.

This afternoon, when Youngest Daughter got home from school, I asked her, “So, did you hear who won the election?”  She said, in a bored voice, “O- BLAH-ma.”  

Son said, ‘You know, I don’t see what difference Obama made as president.  In the past 4 years, I haven’t noticed anything that changed in my life, other than when trash day changed from Thursday to Tuesday.”

Ah, youth.

And now, in the category of "Life must go on after the election"….

This afternoon I was in my office filling out the CSS profile for Son's early action admission to college.  The deadline for this onerous form is next Thursday.  Son was also in the office, at the other desk.  Because the form is due before the end of the year, I have to estimate everything that would go on our tax return for 2012, plus make estimates of other items, too.  I had been working on it for about 2 hours. 

At 5:15 I groaned, “My brain is fried.”

Son said, “Why don’t you take a break and go make dinner?”

I emitted outraged laughter.  “Like making dinner is taking a break!” I protested.

Son:  “Well, at least it’s not doing those numbers.”

Me:  “Why don’t YOU go make dinner?!”

Son:  “Because I’m doing IMPORTANT things.” 

He was filling out the 3-line form (name, e-mail, signature) for the band trip to Virginia Beach, at which approx. 3% of their time will be spent playing music in the band, 95% will be spent frolicking on the beach, and the rest of the time sleeping.

Yesterday when I went to vote, there was a small line – about 4 people.  The person in front of me in line said to the election staff person, "Well, you look a lot better than the last time I saw you.  Last time you looked REALLY sick."  This prompted a long badinage between the two of them, but that was the only thing that held up the line, really. 

After I voted, I saw my neighbor sitting at a table.  I went over, and saw that he had a label that said, "Constable."  He told me that our other neighbor had roped him into being the election constable.  I think that is an easy job in our neck of the woods.  That’s a good thing, too.  The average age of the election workers at our polling station is 87, so if there was ever trouble, they would probably all just fall down.