at least today it is over?

i am a sap. i admit this. i admit that I got teary-eyed when we got to the polling place this morning and there was a line a good block long. i admit that I got teary-eyed when i went to register and the woman sitting next to me was a 92-year old woman who had never voted before in her life. i admit to getting teary-eyed when i got to cast my vote. and it was kind of hard not to flat out cry when i saw a little old man who could hardly walk dressed in his sunday best telling the election inspector that it was only fitting, since this was one of the most important days of his life.

i feel like I have been on the verge of tears all morning, and granted, some of that is no doubt related to hormones, and some to anxiety about the state of the world, but elections do this to me. have done it to me, as far back as i can remember.

i wish I could say that i am confident about what’s going to happen today, but i’m not. call it irish pragmatism or pessimism or the fact that the bush administration and its 2004 reelection have taught me all too well that the american people are not always as smart as i want to believe them to be, or my deep mistrust of polls and polling and the irrelevance of them anyway on a national level when the popular vote means jack.

i am mostly a little bit exhilarated and a lot terrified, and i don’t know how i’m going to make it through today. can’t even rely on alcohol, the avoidance tool of champions, to pull me through. ah, well. better angels, if you are out there somewhere, now would be a really good time to make your presence known.