I have a secret. It is heavy and dark and well worn after four years of travel. So I am just going to spit it out.... I didn't vote in 2004. Yup, that's right. I am a tree hugging liberal to my very core and I didn't even vote that year. In my defense I have to say that two weeks prior to the elections Devon had been diagnosed with a life threatening heart defect and the day after the election he was scheduled for surgery. But still. I just didn't get it together to vote. For the last four years, when it's been all about me, I have wondered if perhaps it has been all my fault those vile Republicans roost in the White House as they destroy our country a bit more every day. I have frequently wished them an eternity in the burning depths of hell, but never without a small twinge of guilt over the thought that I helped put them there.

I have long been imagining the arrival of this election just so to make the karmic balance a bit more in my favor. The only thing is that when my father died and I moved in with my mother I ended up in a different county. This only affects me when it comes time to register my car and, I realized a couple of weeks ago, when it comes time to vote. For the last two weeks I have been subtly asking about trying to discover if I could still vote in my old location, though nothing too loud as to draw enough attention to my idiocy. Because to fuck this one up would seriously earn me enough shame to be forever banned from claiming any sort of liberal rights. So imagine my relief this morning when I went to cast my ballot and my card was in the C box. "It is?" I exclaimed to the woman guarding the name cards. "Really? Because I wasn't sure and all. Thank you so much! I can't tell you how much it means to me!" She likely thought me a complete simpleton fool as I ambled over to the next table with tears in my eyes as I clutched the card to my breast. Of course I had to call my mother from the voting booth because I couldn't recall all those amendments and I never bothered to learn the legal-speak mumbo jumbo from my father. She happily filled me in and I pranced out of the town hall with an "I Voted!" sticker affixed to my chest. So proud was I that for the rest of the day as I went to as many public places as I possibly could, sticking out my left boob for anybody willing enough to look at my sticker. I would shake my head and give the other sticker wearers a sly smile knowing we were both not only clever enough to vote but to register as well.