A Beautiful Day

I have never been with a group of people so happy about standing in line. None us actually burst into jubilant song, but that was certainly the vibe out there this morning at seven in the morning. In all the years that I have gone to this particular polling place, I have always been able to walk straight in. The poll workers has previously always outnumbered the voters somewhere along the lines of three to one. Not today. Today there was no time for small talk or donut breaks, this one was going to be work.
I had the good fortune to be standing in line next to a neighbor, the one with the McCain sign on his front lawn. We talked a little politics, but quickly turned to a discussion of the changing fortunes of the Denver Broncos. When the line spilt, we discovered that we were on the "B" side. We were told that "B" was on the left. I suggested to my neighbor that this might be the only time in recent memory that he would be going left for anything. We shared a chuckle at that as we took our ballots and headed to our fold-out voting tables. I filled mine out quickly, having spent the better part of the past two weeks studying, and I made my way over to officially cast my vote. The room was full of moving pens and paper. There was a quiet intensity hovering over the entire proceedings.
I gave the manager of my local polling place a hearty handshake and a pat on the back and headed off to work. In my pocket I carried my three souvenirs: the barcode tab from the top of my ballot, an "I voted!" sticker, and a red and white mint. The sun was out, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.