I voted!

I know I've mentioned in this blog before, probably several times, that I love voting. I particularly love voting in person, and I was more than a little sad when Colorado went to an all-mail-in ballot system. Some years I wait until the actual Election Day in November to turn in my ballot, to try to recreate some of the magic of "real" voting. But this year things are different. The process of the election, the horrors of Donald Trump, have made me want to vote as soon as possible. Vote early, vote often!

Well, OK, I'm only voting once. No voter fraud in this household. But I did it as soon as I possibly could. Boulder County ballots were mailed on October 17th, we received ours on October 19th, and I dropped mine off at the nearest drop-off box on October 20th. I also signed up for Ballot Track,where they send you an email when your ballot is received, and that happy email arrived on October 21st. They have my ballot! I have voted!

Can you see the lovely blacked-in box for Hillary? I honestly was so happy to vote for her, it's a little hard to express. Rocket Boy was very disappointed that Bernie Sanders didn't win the nomination, and I fully understand his love for him -- Bernie seems like a wonderful guy. But I'm not at all convinced he'd make a good president. He wouldn't want to compromise, he wouldn't want to make deals. The president does not have the power of an emperor, even though Trump seems to think he does. The president has to be able to maneuver, to make deals, to work behind the scenes. Everything I've read about Hillary tells me that she knows how to do that. The Republicans are not going to want to work with her, not one little bit, but if the Senate goes Democrat, she'll have a chance. Bernie wouldn't have a chance.

But the other side of it is that I really honestly like her, and I find myself liking her more and more each day. She's so strong, so resilient. Sort of the opposite of me, to be honest. On days when I feel really low, just dragging myself through another day, I think of her and her phenomenal energy. How can someone be that way? And I'm so excited to think we'll have a woman president, just a little less than 100 years after women got the vote. I know a lot of people say "I want a woman president, just not this woman." I disagree! I want this woman to be president! So many people say they don't trust her. I trust her! I think she's going to be great.

Anyway, October is here, my favorite month, though I admit I haven't done much to celebrate it. I'm drowning in classwork, extremely conscious of the fact that there are seven more weeks in the term (even though one is Thanksgiving week), plus another week of grading beyond that. Teaching is a very tiring job. I don't know why, really, but it is.

In addition, I had a second apicoectomy a week ago, this one on a molar in my lower jaw. Nasty, nasty, not to mention expensive. I had intense swelling and pain, and of course I had to rely on ibuprofen instead of Vicodin or whatever, because I'm still taking Contrave. It's been 9 days since the surgery and I am a lot better, but still slightly swollen and it still hurts to chew. During the last 6 weeks of dealing with this infected tooth I have been on antibiotics twice, the second time with Augmentin, which is a very unpleasant drug. I was nauseated the whole week I was taking it. The only thing that tasted good to me was milk! I drank gallons of the stuff. Now I've been off the drug for 2 days and I feel as though something else is happening -- I've had a headache all day and have been a little short of breath yesterday and today. Maybe I'm catching Rocket Boy's cold -- he's been miserable for almost 2 weeks.

The other exciting thing that's been happening is that we've had a plumbing leak. Three or four different days during the past few weeks, Rocket Boy and I have been awakened by a truly worrisome sounding leak, deep within the walls of the house. He fixed it a couple of times, but then it came back. Thursday night I could hear it when we went to bed, but he said he couldn't. We woke up Friday morning to a very loud drip, and discovered that the floor of the kids' room was wet (the pipe involved goes through the wall between their room and ours). That afternoon, after my classes, we took their room apart -- about one third of their carpet was soaked, mostly under Kid B's bed, along with all the junk under his bed. Rocket Boy spent 6 or 7 hours on this project in total, finally thinking it was fixed and turning on the water -- only to have it come shooting out of the wall into the kids' room! Finally finally finally he got it fixed for real. I know that normal people would have called a plumber, but we need to save money where we can. There's a lot of water in the walls, but RB thinks it will dry. There's a lot of water in the basement, too, but it's the part of the basement that's just dirt. It'll probably soak in. We'll probably be OK.

None of this is the end of the world, but it does feel overwhelming. Today I was trying to put away the kids' laundry, hanging little shirts on little hangers. Their closet is crammed to the gills, even though I'm extremely diligent about giving away old clothes. It's just such a tiny closet and dresser to be shared by two growing boys. Also, the drawer in the dresser that we use for their shirts has broken, so I've crammed as many shirts as possible into the closet, with a pile of their long-sleeved shirts on the floor. I suppose I should find a box for them! Anyway, I kept putting one of Kid B's shirts on a hanger and then reaching into the closet to hang it up in a tiny little space I'd made for it. Three times in a row, the hanger caught on the one next to it and pulled that shirt off the hanger, so that I had to hang that shirt up again, which caused the shirt I was trying to hang up originally to fall off its hanger. Rinse and repeat. After this happened three times I just snapped and started hitting all the clothes in the closet with the little plastic hanger I was holding. This caused about five little shirts to fall off their hangers, and then I had to put all of them back on their hangers too. Note to self: hangers do not misbehave on purpose, so there is no use punishing them.

It will be OK. We just keep going. I washed two big loads of towels today (Rocket Boy had been using them to mop up the plumbing leak) and there is enough for one more load tomorrow. We ran the dishwasher twice (we're always getting behind on dishes). RB took the kids swimming, and late in the afternoon we all went to our favorite pumpkin patch. We chose our pumpkins, admired the farm animals, ran through the two corn mazes, and then splurged and went out for pizza. Back at home, the boys and Z (our neighbor) stuck their pumpkins under their shirts and pretended to be pregnant, after which they delivered large orange babies. Then they took their babies into the (almost dry) kids' room and had a whispered discussion about where babies come from. Funny little boys. Only 9 days until Halloween. Kid A is going to be a sort of Grim Reaper thing and Kid B is going to be a wizard, with a long purple robe and hat. Should be fun. Just have to keep trucking along.