Better times are coming still.

I'd set the alarm for 6:10 this morning. No time for breakfast, coffee, or e-mail, just getting my clothes on and my stuff together to get out the door. I had three books and a fully loaded MP3 player with me, just in case. I got to the polling station around 6:30, waited in line for almost 45 minutes, cast my vote and went to Starbucks afterward. I wasn't the youngest person there, not by a longshot, not when the guy two people ahead of me in line brought his daughter with him, and she couldn't have been more than 30 months. Old enough to talk about her hair, young enough to be carried almost the whole way through. I don't know what she'll remember - hopefully nothing but good things, not too much waiting, just going to the poll with her dad. I remember going with mine, once, in what must have been 1992. A fair bit older then than she is now, but perhaps, she'll keep on with this. It's a nice thought, starting the tradition while they're young.

My parents went later in the day and had to wait at least an hour and a half. Losing a couple hours' sleep was in fact a sound investment for once.

Between getting up early and staying up late - and the tension of the last few months disappearing like that - there's no way I can do anything more with myself besides take a good, hot shower and sleep. And tomorrow, wake up without quite so much worry.