It's Finally Our Turn

Today is the day South Carolinians cast their votes in the democratic primary! It's 12: 06 pm and my phone has been ringing off the hook since 6:50. That's right, I got my wake up call from The Man on his way out the door to vote. Within 20 minutes, I was out of the house and heading to my polling place. I was in and out in less than 5 minutes. It was all done with military precision. It went a little something like this:

I was met by the greeter (little old man there to say good morning, check your id or voter registration card, and point you toward the correct table- two precincts were voting in one large place), checked off the registration list, and escorted to the voting booth. It was over and done with in five minutes.

We had plenty of booths, plenty of volunteers, and at 7:20 am, a steady stream of voters. It was all very efficient.

As soon as I walked out, I called my girlfriend Adrienne to see if she was heading out. Of course she was, and I talked to her until she got to her polling place. She called me back in what seemed like exactly five minutes and said she was done. We compared notes and then it was on the next phone call. And so on and so on.

The thing about being an early voter (and most of your friends and family being early birds) is that I won't be able to get any first hand accounts of how things go throughout the day. Even my former mother-in-law was seen at the polls before 7:30 this morning.

Which means that I am on pins and needles for the rest of the day. It is going to be a tight race. Last week Obama was estimated to be ahead in the polls by like 20%. Since the weekend and week of stupidity, he is slipping, Clinton is shoring up, and Edwards has even gained considerably. Or so they say. I take everything with a grain of salt. Seeing as I didn't collect the data myself.

Does it sound like I don't trust the media? Good, 'cause I don't trust the media.

Anyway, we are all excited and awaiting to see the results. Even the guy who does my therapeutic massage is excited about today. He's an older white guy who has had a couple of careers. He's now doing what he enjoys, lives by the beach, and he and his wife can come and go as they please. He's usually all about business- letting me enjoy the massage while he works on my many issues (neck, back, or calves from running), but yesterday he was ready to talk. Obama is his candidate of choice. It was one of the most interesting conversations I've had all week. His logic for voting for Obama was sound, and he was even more impassioned than I am about this candidate- and that is hard to do.

So, as I hear it, ya'll will hear it. So far, no need to call out the cadre of attorneys standing by to deal with voting issues. Ya'll knew we were ready. LOL