exit, pursued by bear

civic duty.

{circuit court via stltoday.com}

No real posts today, as I spent the majority of the day sitting in the circuit court building: yay, jury duty! And since my number wasn't called and tomorrow is a government holiday (Veterans Day) ... I'm due back on Wednesday morning.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. I had my iPhone, two books, a magazine, snacks. I finished one book (The Secret Life of Bees) and read more than half of my second book (The Witches of Eastwick). Plus, I've always been secretly looking forward to being called for jury duty. When the summons arrived in the mail, Jeremy called me at work, since he knew I'd be excited. Yup, I'm a big dork ;o)

go ahead.

"And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man!"
-- Martin Luther King, Jr., I've Been To The Mountaintop

No. 44

{by Henry Payne, The Detroit News, via cagle.com}

it's on.

{"It's Up To You" (1958) by Gil Elvgren via Jezebel and Vintage Ads}

Whatever your political persuasion, aren't you glad that this day is finally here?

I got up extra early this morning and waited for about two hours to cast my ballot. Seeing that huge line stretch out of our polling place and around the corner almost brought tears to my eyes. Everyone seemed excited and engaged, even at such an early hour. I am now happily wearing my little "I Voted" sticker - "Proud City. Proud Voter."

Twitter users -- definitely check out twitter vote report (feed here), where you can share your voting + polling place experiences (good and bad). From their site:

Including “#votereport” in your tweet is enough to get your report tracked by Twitter Vote Report. But the more details you can stuff in, the better. So, for example, include in your Twitter post:

• #[zip code]to indicate the zip code where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″
• L:[address or city] to drill down to your exact location; ex. “L:1600 Pennsylvania Avenue DC”
• #machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”
• #reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”
• #wait:[minutes] for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”
• #early if you’re voting before November 4th
• #good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience
• #EP[your state] if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH

Go vote! It's up to you :o)

finally!!

Is registered! I love those words!!

After literally countless hours spent on hold with the Board of Elections, it's now official that the state has my correct voter registration information: name AND address. Honestly, despite all my worrying, everyone at the Board of Elections was extremely helpful and friendly --- and I'm very grateful that this was all straightened out, just in time :o)

• Live in Missouri and curious about the status of your own registration? Check out the voter information lookup here.
• Outside of Missouri? Check here.

And consider this your friendly, uncensored public service reminder about voting, the importance of this election, things that matter, etc. Just doing my part here, people ;o)