XIV

5-2-2006

Wet T-shirt Democracy

The only thing I needed to accomplish after work today was voting in the primary. I love voting. It's my favorite thing in the world. When I was little, I didn't look forward to my sixteenth birthday like so many other kids. I looked forward to the eighteenth, the point at which I'd finally be able to take part in the democratic process with which I had always been so infatuated.
I have to wear a white shirt to work. Black pants as well. I believe this is called a uniform.
There are some things in this world about which I'm not so bright. Or perhaps I'm just defiant. Yes, let's go with defiant. One of these things is the way I protect myself from the rain. I protect myself with denial. I refuse to carry an umbrella. No one looks cool carrying an umbrella. Well, no one but Charlie Chaplin, and if you notice, he never really had his opened. Anyway, I certainly don't look cool carrying one. Something I came to terms with years ago was that people also don't look cool walking around dripping wet. Sadly, by the time I came to this realization, the no umbrella thing was so deeply set within me that there was no turning back.
I guess the point I'm driving at is, it was raining pretty hard when I left work this morning. Did I let that stop me from my voting destiny? Hell no. Instead I turned lemons into lemonade. I gave democracy something that's very dear to me. Something that I've given less than a handful of people over the course of my entire life. I marched into that polling station shoulders back and wet, white shirt clinging. I let democracy get to second base. It seemed only right after a 25 year love affair.
Call me crazy, but I think that when things work out the way they should in November, my Girls Gone Wild moment at the polls today will be at least partially responsible. Flash the political system, get a governor you can stand. It only seems fair.