Proud of my sticker

I VOTED

Yes, I did. It's such a great honor to be able to vote. I love the process and find myself like a child in line to enter Disneyland each time an election comes around.

This morning DH and I packed up the kids and headed to our polling place to vote. We arrived about 15 minutes before polls were scheduled to open. The fact that a sizable line had already developed frustrated the Mom with two children in tow in me but the proud American in me absolutely loved it. Yes, there we were husband and wife with our 5 yr old and antsy 1 yr old waiting to play our part in the democracy that defines our country.

I bent down to explain to LJ that everyone there gets a choice that no one person gets to tell us who will be our leader. "Are they voting for John McCain? or Obama?" I reminded LJ it didn't matter. That the greatest thing is we do get a choice.

We get a choice. What a wonderful thing. Luckily for us, and admittedly for those in line with us, things moved in such a manner that we managed to sneak ahead of a number of people so the kids didn't get too antsy. Turns out that location housed the polling places for two neighborhoods. One labeled orange, one green. Despite having one large line there were two check in tables and banks of machines. For whatever reason the early birds were primarily from the green neighborhood. We were from the orange side of town. This meant we got to quickly move into line to check in and subsequently vote.

The kids were great and tolerated the process nicely. DH and I walked out proud to be sporting our "I VOTED" sticker and happy to start our day. While walking back to the car DH wondered aloud why we've never done the absentee voting routine. I quickly agreed with him that that wasn't a bad idea, certainly easier. As soon as it was out of my mouth I realized I wouldn't prefer to do that. There is something about standing in line with people from all different walks of life and waiting my turn to cast my vote. It is certainly a disruption to our usual morning routine but it's something I will happily do whenever called upon to do so.

Plus, absentee voters don't get stickers.