Did you vote?

Never in my life have I felt so unsure about voting. Seemed like almost everyone running in the local elections were a bunch of liars and scoundrels. I even thought about not voting at all.

I was able to vote for the first time when I was 19, recently married and pregnant with Nicki. The voting age had just been dropped from 21 to 18 and I couldn't wait to get into the voting booth. I never missed voting after that, until last year. I had slipped into a funk and just didn't bother to vote.

Today I worked both of my jobs then rushed to the drug store to pick up some cold medicine (sniffle, sniffle) then decided to go pick up a few groceries. As I drove up to town, instead of making the left turn to head to the grocery store in Alden, I turned right and went to the polling location. We have six districts in my little town and of course I can never remember which district I am in. I walked into the room with districts one and two figuring two sounded good to me. I walked into the room, had several people smile and wave and I just said nice and loud, "I'm not sure where I should be". Within seconds I was directed to district four in the next room.

As I walked to the doorway for my district, I notice an old friend from town studying the election selections. I stopped to say "Hi" and Donna proceeded to tell me that she had been talking about me the night before to someone that knew and worked with my Dad years ago. She couldn't remember her name but when I asked her if it was someone who worked with Dad at Lusterprint, she said yes, that was it. After comparing a couple more notes, we confirmed that it was someone name Nicki that was a secretary in the late 60's.

Now here is the story. I fell in love with the name Nicole years before I was pregnant, but kept wondering what nickname would you use for that name. Then one day Dad came home from work and told us about a new secretary whose name was Mary. If I remember correctly, there already was a lady working there name Mary, so they took the 2nd Mary and called her Nicki because her last name, which I can't spell, started with Nicki. Then one day I went to work and met Nicki. She was so beautiful. Long dark hair, tall and slim. I knew right away that I would someday have a daughter called Nicki.

Flash ahead a couple years. I have my daughter, Nicki (Nicole) on March 2, 1972. The next day Dad goes to work and says to Nicki, "something nice happened to you yesterday" thinking how surprised she will be to know that I had named my daughter Nicki after her. Before he got to tell her, Nicki replied, "yes, I know, it was my birthday". Imagine our surprise to think that my daughter Nicki was born on Nicki's birthday!

So when I try to tell Donna this story at the polling place, she had already heard it the night before from Nicki! Just another small world story I guess.

While standing there talking to Donna, another lady walked in that I hadn't seen in a couple years. We quickly caught up on each other's lives.

Now it was time to get into the voting booth. When I walked up to district four's table, everyone seemed to know me, especially after Sally W, (a neighbor) mentioned how they had seen my mother earlier in the day and that she had made them all laugh. Then I was told my number was #200 and next thing I hear is that Mom was #100. Geez, what are the chances. So after we all have a bit of a chuckle, I went into the booth to vote.

I looked at all the names, remembered the ads I had heard and seen in recent weeks and started pushing the levers after making the best possible decisions I could on the information I had. I'm registered as an independent and when I was done, I noticed that I didn't follow any party lines which pleased me to know that I don't just pick a person by what party endorses them.

Out of the voting booth with another stop to talk to a gentleman I have known much of my life. We exchanged pleasantries and then it was out the door and to my car to finally head to the grocery store.

I couldn't stop smiling. I had voted in another election, hopefully picking the best people for the jobs and had seen some people that I hadn't seen in a while to catch up on the latest news. Wow, voting can be fun! Now I just have to wait until the morning to see who won their elections. I already feel like I won! I voted and visited.