I voted a couple of days ago. For however many years I’ve voted I never encountered a glitch of any kind, as best I can recall. This time was different. There were two sheets. I filled the ovals perfectly, like a true SAT champion. The first sheet went into the machine perfectly. But the second one gave no such joy. We tried every possible way of sliding it in but the machine kept saying the page was “UNREADABLE” or “COULD NOT BE READ” or somesuch. My perfect ovals notwithstanding I was issued a sort of a warning. You only get three chances if there’s a mistake, even if the mistake is not your fault. After three mistakes I would have had to sign some kind of affidavit.
It was determined, perhaps a little half-heartedly, that something was amiss with the page itself. Someone pointed at the pattern of lines along the backside of one the page and suggested the page had been printed improperly, or that maybe the printer itself was disturbed or disrupted mis-print. Is it possible they printed forms for each voter as they arrived? I don’t think so, but after it was determined that my second sheet would not be accepted by the machine I was handed another one, freshly printed.
One of the clerks took possession of the failed sheet, which was something I thought they were never supposed to do. I thought voting clerks never touched your ballot after you filled it out, regardless of the circumstance. I would have thought they would just tell me to wad it up and trash it. But they took the ballot, my votes clearly visible to them, and I watched one of them use a pen to scrawl a big X across both sides of the sheet. Couldn’t they just throw it out? I guess every sheet is audited?
I filled in the replacement sheet and submitted it to another machine with no problem. Yay. Yet later I started to question if I’d done something wrong that time. I submitted my second sheet into a different machine than the first one, which was in use when I returned to submit the sheet again. Does casting two sheets into different machines cause any problems? I don’t know. It seems it would be easily fixable/sortable should someone find an errant second sheet without its accompanying first one but how would I even know?
The only other incident I’ve had when voting was when, out of ignorance or misinformation (I don’t remember which) I showed up to vote in a primary election. As an independent voter I was either unaware or misinformed about the fact that I was not eligible to vote in primaries. When my name was not found on the rolls I was made to sign some kind of affidavit (there’s that word again). Weeks later (and I wish I could find it now) I received a somewhat threateningly worded letter implying I could be in a lot of trouble for attempting to vote in a primary without a party affiliation. Color me stupid but I was somehow unaware of this. So I don’t vote in primaries, nor do I even attempt to do so. Which is too bad. Voting is one of the most satisfying and inspiring feelings I know.
After voting I gave something called “Too Good To Go” a try. It’s an app where restaurants give you a surprise bag of food that was left over at the end of their day at a pretty steep discount. I got what looked like $45 or $50 worth of stuff for $5. Unfortunately, it was almost all candy, and while I’m not complaining (they make it very clear that you should not expect anything in particular) candy is something I need to avoid from now on, or maybe just for a little while. Aside from all that candy there was also a large container of almond milk and a container of cottage cheese. So at least I got my $5 worth. But I will have give the candy away.
Indeed, I attempted to give away the candy through one of the Facebook “BUY NOTHING” groups, but this turned into an annoying waste of time similar to the last time I tried to gift stuff through that format. There needs to be a better way than the FB Groups format to do something transaction-based. For whatever reason the moderators of that group hold my posting in review for far longer than I have patience to wait. Last time it was 2 weeks. Another time I cancelled the posting after several days in review. It happens to be Halloween this weekend. I’ve never done Halloween here but maybe I’ll just leave the stuff downstairs or outside. Yeah. Or maybe give it away at the office. Or leave it at the community refrigerator down the street. So many options but still the inability to penetrate the FB Buy Nothing group remains irritating. Could it be something personal? I see other peoples’ postings that, given the fact they includes dates and times, seem to go up right away. Boo hoo for me.
It is raining today, expected to pour something apocalyptic by afternoon, and I may do something I’ve not done in I don’t even know how long. I’m not going to leave the apartment today. I’m going to feast on almond milk. I already finished the cottage cheese. Staying indoors for an entire day is way out character for me. I’m a walker. I’ve reached at least 10,000 steps every single day since I don’t really even know when, but it’s been 207 days since I started using the Pacer App to track steps and be semi-competitive about it with strangers all over the world. Yesterday I hit 26,000 steps. There is one guy I see, I think he’s in India, who clocks something like 65,000 steps every single day. At first I thought he was out there walking every waking minute of his life, but I assume he must be running instead. Yeah, duh.
Another unexpected flourish regarding the Too Good To Go experience is that they make a big caveat-esque thing of saying you’ll get food that is at or near its expiration or “Best By” date. Almost everything they gave me was nowhere near expiration, save for one bag of a long-expired buttery cracker concoction that had an expiry date of April, 2025. All the other bags of candy had expiry dates in 2026, some as far off as September. The almond milk had a reasonable expiry date of November 8, while I found no BB date at all on the cottage cheese. I also didn’t understand the selection process. This was clearly not stuff they had left over. Most restaurants that do TGTG have a pickup time when they close for the day, which makes sense. This place does the TGTG thing all day long.
I can hear the rain falling. Normally, when inside this apartment, I would have no idea it’s raining. The building somehow mutes the sound most of the time it rains. I’m no wuss about most weather but I really hate being in the rain. If there is work to be done I’m fine with being out in it but on a day like this I’m just going to be lazy.
This is the 4th day away from the office and it feels like I’ve been gone a month. I return, in full splendor, tomorrow. I work a compressed 4-day week now, Friday through Monday. With a day off here or there it’s become an almost relaxing routine. The job does not stress me out like it used to, though I maintain a baseline of almost continuous anxiety when I’m there. I’d like to move onward and upward but there really is nowhere to go at this company, or at least nowhere I would want to go, or anyplace where anyone would even want me. Forget about finding another job, it’s hopeless out there.
I joined to another walking group yesterday. Nice people. About 20 showed up, including the “leader.” Almost all who attended were women, all quite a bit older than I, retired, and not really relatable on that front but everyone was very nice, which means a lot. I don’t forsee retiring, ever. I don’t want to. One woman and I discussed my voting glitch experience. She commented that she thinks it odd that no receipt is issued when you vote. The “I VOTED!” stickers are cute but they don’t legitimately prove you voted since someone could grab extras for you. There is proof, if needed, that you voted, but you don’t get to take any of it with you for bragging rights.
I once knew a guy whose politics were toxic. He was a nice guy otherwise but get him going on anything political and he was a fucking dragon. Of course he would never admit this but he does not vote. He could if he wanted to but I think the deal is that he owes over $100k in student loans and has lived under the radar for over 20 years. Without meaning to be too high and holy about it I do believe that if you don’t vote then your politics don’t matter. That said, I don’t talk politics with much of anybody.
It’s 12 noon and already I feel weird for not exiting this apartment yet. I barely touch the piano anymore but maybe I’ll give it a go. At a previous walking club meetup, a few weeks ago, a woman asked why I quit being a professional pianist. I told her the truth: “I hated it.” She was surprised and even offended when I said I felt like nothing more than an entertainer.