…when you wake up with a splitting headache at 5:00 a.m. because your body needs an espresso-strength jolt. “I drink coffee so I can sleep” sounds pretty crazy, doesn’t it?
you know you’re addicted to caffeine…
Category Archives: story of my life
“tear down this wall”
Fifteen years ago today the Berlin Wall began to come down. In December of 1999 I flew to Berlin, walked up to the wall with a hammer, and pounded on it until pieces fell off in my hand. I was there when they opened the Brandenberg Gate.
Crooked Timber has some relevant links.
and so to bed
Can’t sleep. Must sleep.
election day narrative
Do we talk about our voting experience? Not usually.
Up at 5:30 (“twirly,” indeed), downing caffeine at 5:40, out the door at 6:00, in line at 6:05 or so, back home at 6:20. There were about 25 people in line when we arrived and about 50 when we left 10 minutes later. One line was for A-L, the other for M-Z. Six people sat behind the table. One person checked ID, called out the names, initialed next to each voter’s entry on the printed list. Another person also initialed, and then I initialed and signed my name. Another person (an “observer”? I should have asked) wrote down each name on a pad of paper.
They handed me a paper ballot, and I had to wait a minute or two until one of the ten booths opened up. The booths are very small and do not have a curtain, just raised sides. I slid the punch card (technology almost as old as our nation itself) into the slot and used the small metal punch. After making my selections, I returned the ballot to the presiding election official, who tore off the top portion before handing me the remainder, which I dropped through the slot in a locked metal box. As we left, a young guy in a full-on “Uncle Sam” costume arrived to take his turn.
Random voter: Is this your first time voting?
Uncle Sam: Yes
Random voter: Awesome.
I didn’t wear a black hoodie (somewhere in the laundry circuit), but L did.
Today I have reading to do, grading, a couple of meetings, and a funeral. Tonight I’ll be following the news and perhaps participating in the RIT-IT election night party. My gut feeling is that we won’t have a decisive winner for awhile. I hope I’m wrong.
Update: 
2004 election
So tomorrow’s the big day. We plan to hop out of bed first thing and walk down the street to our polling place. I have to admit to being nervous. This will be my fourth fifth presidential election (I just barely missed 1984), and it seems like more is at stake in this presidential election than in the previous three four. The world cannot afford another four years of the Bush adminstration’s lethal cocktail of myopia, arrogance, dishonesty, and incompetence.