I became conscious of the fact that today was voting day at 7:20 this evening (I had remembered it vaguely this morning when I was deciding not to go to work, but I forgot again when I was taking my three hour nap). Luckily I had my absentee ballot ready to fill out. Unluckily, the only thing I knew how to vote on was the parental notification prop (see, I can't even remember the number), and the local Santa Cruz County measures. Ack! I had only about half an hour to figure out how to vote, vote, and drop off my vote at the local voting place. Luckily (see how quickly one's luck can change?), I called my mom, who is both a public school teacher and someone who shares my political views, to find out what to do for the public school tenure one, and she gave me her votes on everything. I felt slightly uneasy about voting everything she said without checking it myself first, but I knew that at worst, I'd be off on maybe one, and not one of the ones that mattered the most to me. Whew. And reading through what everyone said on Jed's blog (both Jed and those who left comments), I still feel that way. And luckily (again), I made it to the church on time. I strolled in at 7:46, dropped off my absentee ballot, got several "I voted" stickers to wear tomorrow to school, and drove myself home without crashing into anything.

That last is pretty important, I think. Driving myself there and back (about four blocks each way, okay, maybe five), I was really glad I hadn't driven to school all the way over 17 this morning. It would have been a really bad idea. Of course, some of that driving disorientation might be because this evening's excursion to vote was the first time I'd left my apartment (aside from a feverish and queasy episode of doing laundry in the apartment complex laundry room) since Friday night. I'm amazed that I haven't gone completely insane from being inside this long.

Anyway, I think now that I've had a little tiny trial run of being in control of a large, powerful, dangerous machine (nobody ever said that about a Prius before, I bet), I'll be fine driving it tomorrow.

Besides, I voted. I almost didn't, because I didn't want to go anywhere, or do anything, but I decided that post-flu apathy should not be confused with political apathy, and it was really, really important to me to vote No on the parental notification proposition. It was worth leaving the apartment for. It was even worth having to focus so hard on driving that my head hurt. I would have walked except I was afraid the church polling place would close before I got there. And also, it didn't occur to me until I got home.

Voting is worth it. Every time. Even my one vote. There is no excuse for not voting.