The Pineapple Express and Election Day

Western Washington is a ginormous mess today due to rains and the resulting floods. After reading this article, I asked myself why anyone would be crazy enough to actually go to the Seahawks and Raiders game at Qwest field. They should just dress those people into some straight jackets and bus them off to the looney bin to deal with their obsession. Or someone should kick Paul Allen and the designer of the stadium for building it without a roof - for a sport that takes place in SEATTLE in the FALL.

On the bright side, tomorrow is election day, so the crap-ola political ads will finally be over. I was listening to an audiobook, Don't Get Too Comfortable by David Rakoff recently. I thought it was quite eye-opening that during the naturalization process, everyone is instructed to say that voting is the greatest right in our country, and then when Rakoff walks out the door and asks for a voter registration form, there were none. As he points out, you'd expect that they would be clipped to the other paperwork they receive or at least have some in the lobby. But according to his account, he was informed that the church group that used to hand them out no longer does so. I guess that could be a good thing if it was the crazy religious right handing them out. Who knows?

I definitely have no room to talk about the outcome of this election. I am not voting this year, although only partially due to my own doing. Due to some mix up about my name change, address change, etc. after the divorce, I didn't receive my absentee ballot this year. In the past, whenever I moved and updated my driver's license, they automatically updated my voter registration at the same time. Considering I have moved every year since starting college ten years ago, I have some experience with the process. I assumed that this time was no different. However, I didn't receive my ballot at the same time as everyone else (in mid October). Now, here's where my responsibility comes in. I downloaded a form to send to my county to have everything updated, but I forgot to print it out in time to be sent in and updated for voting in this election. So, I will be ready for the next election, but not for this one. At least it's not a presidential election, although there are some important offices at stake this year.

The odd part is, they had no problem finding me for jury duty. Blech. I get to take part in that fascinating process later this month.