I did my civic duty today

Voting didn't feel as good today as it usually does. I usually leave feeling proud of myself for participating in our country's government. Today, I was just glad it's over. There wasn't a clear-cut choice for me today. I ended up voting not for the person who I think would make a great president. That would have been "none of the above." Instead, I had to vote for the person I believed to be the lesser of two evils. It could end up being a loooooong 4 years.

On the upside, early voting went very smoothly. Alli, Elvis, and I went. We were in and out in under 10 minutes. The only snag was Alli's last name. (She's 21 and has had 4 different last names.) The last time she voted, she was still going by her alleged bio father's last name. Since then, she's had my last name and now her husband's. We did a lot of name changes but evidently forgot to change it on her voter registration. They let her go ahead and vote but had her sign everything by the last name she was registered under. Once we got past that section, things went quickly.

This is my long week at school. We have a teacher training Wednesday from 3:30 until 6:30 and on Thursday, we have parent-teacher conferences from 4:00 until 7:00. Then Friday is Halloween and, even though we aren't celebrating it at school, the day promises to be wild. No matter how hard we try to ignore it, the kids know.

And, just to make this week even better, it's gotten to be cold weather. We have freeze warnings, even. Ordinarily, I would love this (and I do love the cold) but it caused a minor disaster this morning. Realizing that it was going to be 48 degrees with a 20 mph north wind on the playground, I knew I'd need a jacket. I dug around and found a suitable one but it had been wadded up and tossed around for a few months. I tossed it in the dryer with a dryer sheet and continued getting ready. Beth (who likes her clothes to be warmed before she puts them on) threw her wardrobe for the day in with my jacket. When she went to retrieve her clothes, there was much fussing and gnashing of teeth. She wanted to know what was all over her clothes. Upon further investigation, she discovered the source of the black film on her clothes...a black crayon that had evidently spent the summer in my jacket pocket. It escaped the pocket and melted all over the inside of the dryer and the contents of said dryer. Yuck, yuck, yuck!