I'm Going to Bed

On Thursday afternoon, we officially voted.

My wife and I filled our ballots on Wednesday night at our kitchen table after spending a few evenings looking up some of the local down-ballot candidates for board of commissioners, school board, and the like. The next day, en route to our daughters' daycare for their annual Halloween parade, I stopped at the township office on Mercer Street and dropped my and my wife's respective ballots, each properly signed and sealed, in the drop box around back, the way we've cast our votes in nearly each election since 2020.* It was quick, convenient, and unceremonious. I did not get a sticker. I will live.

I voted for Democrats and third party candidates all the way down this year, including some preposterously-named "parties" that certain school board candidates purportedly represent.** For the first time I can remember, I did not vote for a single Republican, mainly because nearly each one I would have considered voting for on the basis of policy also somehow inextricably tied themselves with the MAGAfication of the GOP in either their messaging or campaigning, as if no conservative would deign to consider voting for a county clerk if they don't also promise to, like, stop the steal or whatever.

So we've done our civic duty. I can't say I did any phone banking or other "Get Out the Vote" initiatives, but I did write this, which I hope was enough of a catalyst for someone to at least cast their vote for The Big One, if nothing else. If you didn't vote yet, you still have time - all day tomorrow, as a matter of fact, if memory serves. If you did vote already, right on.

Tomorrow, I will help get my kids out the door for daycare, then go to work. I will undoubtedly check the news a few times and scroll social media once or twice at minimum. At the end of the day, I'll pick up my kids and go do something fun - maybe the library, or the park if the weather cooperates - before heading home for dinner. Once my wife gets home and the kids are (finally) (reliably) (soundly) asleep in bed, I will go to the gym, sneak in a quick workout, come home, and shower. Maybe I'll watch a couple minutes of election coverage with my wife to get caught up or play some Switch to decompress after a long day.

And then, I will go to bed.

I am not going to watch the news all night long. I am not going to watch Steve Kornacki gesticulate wildly in front of electronic maps and charts and tables like he's Bill Henley tracking a nor'easter, detailing down to the pixel which candidate stands to benefit from what cul-de-sac whose votes have yet to be counted. I will not watch Wolf Blitzer flatline on national television, nor will I watch Jesse Waters or Brett Baier or whoever is anchoring Fox News' coverage explain the ramifications my vote has for my masculinity. I am about as interested in watching Brian Williams' lying ass reading results on Amazon Prime as I am in watching Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit call NFL games on the streaming service, which is to say not at all.

It will be days before we know the final results of many of these races, in particular The Big One. Whoever wins at the federal, state or local levels is going to win whether I stay up until 1 AM, desperately awaiting any morsel of news. If a result is reached, it will still be the result when I wake up the next day. And if not, I'll get caught up then.

In the case of The Big One, there are 76 days between Election Day and Inauguration Day, and if recent history is any guide, it will take each and every one of those squares on the calendar to suss out the future of our nation's government, and in turn the future of those citizens most heavily impacted by who gets elected to public office. It will be weeks of new information, new developments. There will be plenty of time to fuss and fret and - if needed - take further action.

The future can be a big, dark, scary unknown, in my experience darker and scarier the further you are from sunup or sundown, when your brain fills the darkness and the silence of the hour with the most uninhibited thoughts it can muster. But when the sun does rise on Wednesday (likely before, in the case of my sleep-averse toddler), regardless of what transpired the day before, my family will need me. My friends will need me. My job will need me. And I ought to be ready to meet those needs, as I need them all too, day in and day out.

As for everything else, I've done what I can do for now. So I'm going to bed.

---

*I forgot to vote last year - we had just moved and I believe we had also just learned we were having another baby and...yeah. My bad.

**School board candidates get to put a "slogan" by their name instead of a party affiliation. They could have just said "you can't be affiliated with a political party if you're running for school board" and been done with it, but they get a catchphrase instead. I'm sure there is a fine reason for this, but I'm also sure it throws off someone intending to vote straight D or R to now have to consider whether "Innovation Engagement Fairness" or "Compassion Excellence Reliability" best aligns with their party.