One Day

There is - mercifully - one day left in this marathon election season. Anything can happen and probably will. Nobody knows: not the "experts", not the polls, not the candidates, not even the voters. (sidebar to undecideds: WTH?)

As far as I'm concerned, we go into tomorrow with a 0-0 score on the board.

When I cast my ballot last weekend, I had to smile. Anybody looking at it might be inclined to think it was cast by two or three different personalities. My choices were all over the place.

Then again, I think the larger trend shows that most people across America vote for candidates - for people, not parties. And I think that's a good thing.
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In North Carolina, we have a slate of strong candidates in almost every race. Since I've made no bones about my choice for President, here's the full disclosure on how I voted on some key races at the state level.

• * US Senate - Kay Hagan (D): Liddy Dole has been an absentee Senator for this state, and that's one of the kinder things I can say about her service to her electorate these past few years. Her "godless" ads against Hagan were abhorrent, and universally rebuked across the breadth of North Carolina. Her response to the outcry? She ran a second one.
• * US Congress - BJ Lawson (R): This guy is one of the most refreshing, common sense state level candidates I've seen in a very, very long time.
• * Governor - Pat McCrory (R): His strong record in governing beats out his opponent's strong record in mudslinging, by a landslide.
• * Lt. Governor - Walter Dalton (D)
• * Secretary of State - Elaine Marshall (D): I've met her several times. She's a truly amazing woman. And when she runs for Governor, I will work my backside off for her.
• * Treasurer - Janet Cowell (D): Ditto the above comment. I worked a little on her first ever campaign, when she ran for (and won) a seat on the Raleigh City Council.
• * Attorney General - Roy Cooper (D)
• * Commissioner of Labor - Cherie Berry (R)

There you have it.
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My emotions are all over the place, and my mind is dutifully following suit. I'm trying to focus my scattered thoughts on things I can do to distract myself from the outside world's static today. So far, those things have included and/or will include:

A long discussion with co-workers about the three hot chocolate flavors our coffee vendor made available to us last week. Unfortunately, this conversation broke along party lines and the Mint Chocolate camp is now embarking on a brutal negative campaign against the White Chocolate partisans, while the Mochas are making a run at a third party challenge.

Multiple static-filled phone calls from my husband, who keeps dropping his signal but is determined to have someone to talk to as he makes his way out into the middle of nowhere natural gas fields of northern Pennsylvania.

Work. I do actually have a job that requires some measurable proof of daily output. So it's an important addition to the list, I'd say. Yes. Work. There's always work.

Grocery shopping. I normally do this on Sunday, but I deliberately put it off. Between planning menus, clipping coupons, shopping, putting the groceries away, and actually cooking a meal for dinner, this less than favorite activity will at least serve the useful purpose of filling a good two or three hours of my time this evening.

Rambling my ass off here. Writing this post. Which is unintentionally long and therefore, by default, time consuming. Your loss, but hey. A win for me!

Penning encouraging words in the comment boxes of some fellow NaBlo blogger sites. It was my goal to get around to all of them at least once during this month until I got Mrs. Kennedy's email this morning talking about record participation. 10,000 blogs?!?! I really suck at math, but that's got to equate to visiting hundreds per day to hit them all in November. And I'm already three days behind!

Work. Did I mention that?

Yeah, speaking of the work thing, maybe I should get on that.

Although, if you've got any other distracting ideas to toss my way, I won't hold it against you.

I promise.

Comments

[renn]

We voted for many of the same people. I worked (*temp) for the state for about a year. During that time, I spent almost every Monday afternoon with Elaine Marshall.

Loved her then, love her NOW.

[Jennifer]

Yes, it will.

Don't get me wrong: I will be devastated if Obama doesn't cross the finish line. But the sun will shine, the birds will sing, life will go on and the USA will still be the greatest country on earth.

[wordnerd]

My ballot was all over the place as well. These days, it has to be.

May we both get thru tomorrow knowing that the sun will come up Wednesday either way.