HAPPY ELECTION DAY!

Happy Election Day everybody! I hope you voted today. This was probably the hardest election I've gone through yet. I've been voting since 1994 (my first election - City of Chicago, Mayor Daley in the March Primary.) I think it's partly because I have been very involved in the politics of the area and personally know many of the candidates, good bad and ugly...and because I've been super busy with work and the book and haven't been following the newspapers as I normally do. Partly, I think it's because I'm getting older and finally more grumpy with the whole system. Do I vote for the person who is pig-headed and doesn't listen to anyone around her...or the incumbent who gets in fights on the house floor and routinely doesn't show up for committee work? Do I vote for the governor who votes and writes legislation I like, but is under a cloud of suspicion...or do I give my vote to the Green Party guy who's never held office and may have some great progressive ideas, but will get eaten for breakfast by the state legislature on his first day and be completely ineffective? (Forget the third option, despite the best pleas, I am just not buying the fact that she worked for us, not the former governor who is on his way to jail.) Sigh. It was so much easier when I was 22 and idealistic!

But, I am still idealistic and hopeful, so I went...my mom and I met up and went together. We joked around about the people we know and discussed who we voted for and why. And now, I sit and watch the news, flipping through the channels for local races and national races. Going back and forth between the local channel and CNN. I'll be camped out here all night, happy as a clam, enjoying one of my favorite days...and all the sweeter because with the insanity of holiday overlap and Christmas Creep, there is nothing commerical about Election Day and there are no annoying songs...