CareerMom called and told me that she was going to have to make a day trip on Tuesday, which is of course, election day. Unlike millions of my fellow Americans, I had previously decided to skip the early voting and just vote on Tuesday and pray the lines weren’t too long. However, this new revelation prompted me to get up fairly early on Friday morning and vote, since I figured if the lines were long and she was out of town, there was a very real possibility that I wouldn’t get a chance to vote if the line ran late into the evening when I needed to pick the boys up.

And, my friends, NOT VOTING, is not an option this election cycle.

There was only one early voting precinct even close to me, so I hopped in the truck and got over there, only to be greeted with a full parking lot and a line about 300 feet long outside the door of the “Recreation Center”; a place that I had never been in. But I quickly found a parking spot and with optimism in my veins, I stood in line for about 45 minutes just to get in the door.

As soon as I got in, I thought to myself, “Well, that wasn’t too bad.”

Little did I know, that the Recreation Center is really two large gymnasiums connected in the middle by this little foyer where I now stood. And the voting line was being funneled first through one gymnasium and then into another like some kinda Disney Land ride where you wait and wait and just when you get excited because you finally got in the building, you realize that it was all a setup and that you still have to make your way through a maze of back and forth steel cattle corridors. Here’s how it was set up to vote:

Here’s me standing in line in the first gymnasium:

This is me in the very first part of the line as it came in the door and as I realized just what I was in for.

All told, I spent almost four hours–FOUR HOURS–in line to cast my ballot. But, it wasn’t all bad though. I met some pretty nice people, and saw some pretty strange ones.

A lady came in and hollered that you couldn’t wear any candidate clothing, so everyone with a McCain or Obama shirt had to either take it off or turn it inside out. I’m pretty sure I saw some gang colors on display, but apparently the First Amendment protects that, but not your supporting your candidate at the polls (yes, I know about the 150′ rule).

Anyway, when I finally did make it into the other gymnasium, I was shocked by what I found. Whereas the other gym was jam-packed with people, this other side was barely in use. There were only twenty voting booths set up in the whole daggum thing!

I’ve since heard that the lady who runs our elections is under fire for the complete lack of preparation, and in truth, after nearly two weeks of this, they should have brought in more voting booths.

I mean, I’ll all about patriotism and suchly, but standing up in line for four hours to push a button is a tad on the ridiculous side.

But I voted and that’s really all that counts. Hope your Tuesday is better than my Friday!