Diana's Writing Blog

So, yesterday was E-Day, as I like to call it. It was my first time voting, and I was super excited. I got up an hour early to go to my polling place, which was a block from where I work, handily enough. When I got there, however, I wasn’t on the list of eligible voters. I wasn’t on any of the lists. So they sent me down to City Hall to figure out what the deal was. The very nice county clerk looked up my voting edibility and apparently Michigan had canceled it because they had decided I had moved out of state. Even though I still lived in the exact same place listed on my voter registration card and driver’s license and had paid Michigan taxes this year. Yay, friggin’ democracy.

But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. The county clerk reinstated my voter eligibility and said I could go straight back and vote if I took the photocopy of my reinstated voter form with me. So back I went across town to vote again. The county clerk called ahead to let them know how to deal with me and my paperwork. So, when I got back everyone was really nice and they were all glad that I had gotten it sorted out and came back, not just called it a day. I was proud of me, too. No way was I missing the chance to be a part of something historic.

And it was! So historic! I voted for Obama and he won. By an embarrassing majority. Like I actually feel bad for McCain. It wasn’t even close. But I’m so glad Obama won. If he can get even half of what he promised done in his term, I’ll be happy.

Of course, my happiness is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that every bigoted anti-gay proposition and amendment on the ballots passed–though some only squeaked by. Arkansas banned gay adoption and Arizona, Florida, and California banned gay marriage. That’s right, even California, the most liberal state I know and whose No on Prop 8 campaign I personally donated to has banned gay marriage. I cannot even fathom that a country that just elected is first black president also took so many backwards steps when it comes to equal rights. How can people in this day and age still believe that a person’s sexuality makes them any less deserving of the right to get married and raise a family?

In other news, I won a flip camera from the Pepsi sweepstakes. I’ll probably sell it for X-Mas cash. The fun thing is that Pepsi doesn’t notify you when you win. A package just showed up today, wedged between my “mail box” and the next one up. By mail box, I mean one of those boxes that are supposed to hang on the outside of houses, but in the case of my apartment, hangs in an unlocked vestibule area. Most of the time, the door is propped open. This is why I usually have boxes shipped to my work.

And finally, here’s my writing box for today. Hoping to do another 1,000 words tonight, but we’ll see. I actually did an extra 1,000 last night, so if I get lazy, no biggie.