Election Day

It's the dawn of a new era, life is good, all is well with my world.

Given the date, you would probably think that I am talking about the election, but no, this is blog is not about politics. There are far more witty, engaging and pithy pundits who blog out there, and you can read them if you like.

No, the source of my good vibe is not the predictions of the election results, but the new Dunkin Donuts at Princeton Shopping Center finally opening for business. Be still my caffeinated little heart, bliss just got that much closer to home. No more driving up Route 206 to Hillsborough (though the drive-thru there is sweet) or out to Route 1. Caffeine and concentrated carbohydrates are a two-minute drive and two traffic lights away from my driveway. Truly the heavens are smiling on me. Unfortunately the shop was quieter than a mortuary and the teenaged counter help doesn't know how to measure one teaspoon of sugar to save his pimply-faced little life. If that's how it stays, I give it six months because it occupies a large chunk of pricey retail space.

This discovery brought to you because Micah and I went to Radio Shack to buy an odd-size 23A battery for our doorbell and Radio Shack is in the same shopping center. I'd completely forgotten about it because the 'coming soon' sign had been in the window for what seemed like months.

Even though it's Tuesday, I'm not working today; I worked yesterday, the first Monday in ages. If I were in the office it would be too hard to concentrate, plus worrying that I'd be finished in time to get home, get dinner done and get to the polls.

Today we had Ela at the house in the AM and then Micah went down for a nap. I think it's a sign that he's not completely adjusted to the time change yet since he went down for his nap by 12:15 with nary a protest. He just chugged his bottle, watched Sesame Street for a few minutes and was out. Elmo has that effect on me, too.

Instead of charging downstairs to check in with MSNBC, CNN and NPR, I made a salad and just sat and watched "House" for 20 minutes. Somehow, despite washing my hands so many times in the day, to the point they feel like sandpaper, I have managed to pick up a head cold so I feel like road kill. I stopped in at MSNBC while the other channel was on a commercial and there was an aerial shot of long lines at the polls in New Jersey. Fortunately, I think our district is relatively small and I've never had much of a wait and am hoping that today will be no different.

I'm glad that it will be all over tomorrow. . . .no more auto-dialed phone calls, no more reams of political mailings clogging the mailbox.

Thea got to 'vote' twice today, once with her father on the way to school, and once after school. And she was elected Kindergarten class leader of the day in what her teacher described as a unanimous vote. The leader of the free five-year old world then proceeded to order her brother in a somewhat intimidating tone of voice to put the cars and trucks away so we could go to the polls. There is no such thing as a secret ballot with Thea in the booth; this time instead of just pressing the CAST VOTE button, I let her push the individual candidates buttons, with her saying, "Daddy, didn't hit that button. . . ." most of the time. I was too busy trying to make sure that Micah didn't smack the brightly like CAST VOTE button prematurely.

Then we left the building and walked down to the Millstone River bank behind the polling place and threw rocks and sticks in the water.

Thea and I calculated that the first presidential election she'll be able to vote in will be in 2024, the same year as Micah turns 18 and will also be eligible to vote. I won't tell you how old I'll be; the thought that I'll be over 50 the next time I vote in a presidential election was a chilling enough thought.

Addendum:

Thea and I have started our first chapter book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo (she wrote Because of Winn Dixie, in case anyone is interested). We're four chapters into it, Thebes fell asleep during chapter five.

And I'm on call tonight. Fortunately, most everyone is either in line at their polling place (until 8 pm when the polls close in NJ) or watching the returns on TV instead of ruminating over their own miseries, aches and pains. Only one call so far, a mother of a kid whose prescription for an antifungal cream was sent electronically to the pharmacy at 4:53 pm (much as I detest the EMR software being on our home computer, it's good for somethings and time stamping records is one of those things) and at 5:47 pm the answering service was calling because the prescription wasn't at the pharmacy. I want to do my part to save the world from dermatophytes, a fungus is NOT a medical emergency.

What was probably not made clear to the patient is that it takes an hour or more for an electronic prescription to transit cyberspace and land in the hand's of the pharmacist. I was a little annoyed when I checked out the details in the EMR and found that it was not quite 60 minutes from the time it was sent. I phoned the pharmacy and repeated the Rx on the voice mail and then wrote up the note on the computer and sent it to the patient's doctor, which beats the heck out of the little pink call slips we once used.