First Time Voter

Maddie voted for the first time today!  Can you believe she's old enough to do this?  We registered her some time ago, submitting the form, and although we hadn't heard back in mail or email, we were able to check online and saw that her status was active.  So we went over to the library for early voting, and I think this was the first day for that.  Election Day is a few weeks away.  Anyway, there were quite a few people there today, and from what I hear, there was a new record set with the amount of people to show up and vote.  This ballot we were able to look at early, and things were relatively easy to vote on, except for this one position, which was the "Upper Chattahoochee Soil & Water Conservation Supervisor."  Great teachable moment here.  I mean, we can't just go in and pick a name, right?  So using my expertise on soil and water conservation, I looked up both these candidates and managed to find some pages from both, and from there we had a small family gathering to discuss the merits of both.  I won't say which candidate, but I will say we unanimously chose one over the other.  As for all the amendments that we have to vote on, I read these aloud and was actually pretty grateful that I didn't have to do so much research on those.  You see, this Saturday we were at a booth that had a guy talking about these amendments, and from that visit to the Cumming Fair, I sort of knew what direction to vote in there.  So the three of us were armed with information in our heads, and we went off to vote.  Maddie was a little nervous, but she did just fine filling out her form and going in to the library to perform her civic duty.  And it was quick too, very efficient!  A few of the volunteers congratulated Maddie on her first time voting, and soon enough we were out in the lobby again, collecting our voter stickers.  Maddie has hers in the room right now.

Okay, so as for the rest of the day, I was home sick.  Sort of.  It was a blood pressure thing.  I'm feeling a little bit better now, although there's still something giving me slight pain in a specific spot on my upper torso, and it's concerning.  Maddie spent the night studying for her AP Calculus test, and meanwhile Mom and I were watching a few movies.  First, we saw "Cadet Kelly."  We did this for research, as we're doing this military series and I've never seen this movie before.

It was fun, and I got a few joke ideas from it.  But mostly it was just me getting into the spirit of the thing. We miss these old harmless movies.  But after that, we continued our classic horror Universal movie fest with a first-time viewing of the 1931film, "Dracula." 

For all my fears and built up anxiety about this horror movie, it was pretty tame.  It is also pretty historic, I suppose, and the grandfather of all horror movies.  I think.  But it wasn't terribly exciting, and there were no twists at all, plus a super abrupt ending.  But I finally saw it, and I'm glad we saw it to say we did.  Bela Lugosi was in his prime here, not to be messed with.  And although you assume he was killed, of course it didn't happen on screen.  Which means he's still lurking somewhere, ready to show up for Abbott and Costello at the museum.  That will be the last one in our classic movie marathon, the reunion of all these classic characters.  First though, we have to watch "Frankenstein."  Maybe tomorrow!

So Maddie finished studying and we watched the KidPak Costume Party special together, laughing at that, and just loving the memories there.  Putnam has a big creepy role in that movie, and so when Maddie was ready to go upstairs, it was a big funny moment when he was suddenly there, halfway up the stairway, looking down on us.  How'd he get there?

We did spend some time reading tonight, starting off the novel "Wyrd Sisters."  Maddie's ready for this next book in the Discworld series.  It's seasonal fun too!  We said our prayers afterwards, and the Plush Entourage - including Putnam - made it's way down to Maddie's room to get tucked in.  Big day.  Maddie's first time voting.  I'm pretty sure I know who she voted for, but I'm not going to say that here!