It’s not a conspiracy...it’s stupidity

I have this theory that I’m pretty good at my job (some days, I even got a promotion and an office recently, so that’s a good sign) but life in general is not necessarily my strong suit. Case in point, on my to do list for at least the last 6 months, if not longer, is to make one call to get the information to withdraw the money from my travel savings account for my trip to Israel. They sent me information about 2 years ago and I didn’t respond so now I have to go through all of these extra steps...alright, it’s just a phone call...you see my point. The trip is next month, better get to it. I recently showed up for a doctor’s appointment and my doctor was actually in Hawaii....well we sent you a letter. A letter? I thought that was a receipt from a bill I just paid....who actually reads mail? If it’s really important it should show up in my email or on my voice mail.

I finally bought a shredder – it’s tiny but can do a lot of criss cross action damage...so I sat on the floor the other night surrounded by piles of mail. Which now is sorted....pieces that need some sort of action, which is the largest stack, stuff to file, and then just random stuff that I have no idea what to do with. I had dinner with a friend recently and had to actually use my table...I literally put everything from the table into tote bags and put them in my room...which did spur me into action to shred the next day. We’ll see what happens next with my now neatly stacked piles.

So after the last election I decided to change my address from my parents’ house - which since I rent I’ve always considered my permanent address, especially since the taxes in that county are lower – to my apartment in Clayton. Why did I tempt fate? Why was voting at the crack of dawn and then having pancakes with my parents no longer ok?? Turns out when they say “voter change of address card” it actually means “voter termination in this location, get yourself registered in your new county, we are not doing it for you” card. I should have taken it as a sign when I put it in the mail and it came back to my parents....I hadn’t put it in an envelope....who knew? It was stamped.

I was waiting to see which address my voter registration card would show up at...and turns out it’s neither. After speaking to a lovely woman in the Franklin County voter office, it seems that I’ve been terminated, and they did not move me, they just deleted me. Do you go to school in St. Louis? Well, sort of, I work there and have an apartment....hey, I did that commute for years, it bites. After discovering I was not on the St. Louis County list either I pleaded with her to reinstate me in my original county. Well, you don’t live there do you? Did she not see the magnitude of this? I really thought I was going to throw up. Even when I convinced her that was still my address, the deadline for reinstatement had passed. Seriously, I’m like an eternal fuck up.

Before this call, I had left a message for my parents saying...Hey, has my voter registration card shown up? The 2nd message, quite panicked went something like this....Mom, I’m NOT registered to vote (blah blah mix up), you HAVE to vote for OBAMA...mom, it’s not an EXTRA vote for him, it’s just MY vote – you’re not actually voting for him, I am! PLEASE VOTE for Obama! In the beginning we had my mother convinced not to vote for the president at all. She and my father, lifelong democrats just feel strongly about not voting for Obama....totally their choice and I have to respect their decision even if I don’t agree...isn’t that what being an American is all about? Trisha and I were going to balance them out anyway. This past weekend my mom decided she would just throw her vote away on Ralph Nader. Fine, whatever, just DON’T vote for McCain...repeat...do NOT vote for McCain.

I keep getting emails from people about democrats mysteriously being deleted from voting lists and other election scandals. As much as I’d like to blame someone else – it’s not a conspiracy, it’s my own stupidity.

Good news on getting organized on one front. I’ve already started updating my Dead List for 2009. I’m inspired by the passing of Paul Newman (sad, but he was on the list) and from watching that damn Hallmark Channel now that my parents got direct TV....this truly is the epitome of 200 channels and nothing to watch.

This past weekend Trisha was in town and we went to Cory’s football game in Illinois. He’s a freshman dressing out for varsity and apparently we supposed to root for him NOT to play so that he doesn’t get red shirted....3 more games to go and he gets a championship ring for sitting on the bench. Woo hoo! Saturday night we watched this movie with Ed Asner, who is going on the list because we were all shocked he even made it through the taping of the movie. (not to be a spoiler but he died in the movie – I checked the news, it was not a write in because he kicked it in real life.) This movie also had the grandpa from the waltons, going on the list, and some other really old dude I need to look up....i should just add the entire cast of the movie – one of the Golden Girls was in it too...it’s like the jackpot of geezers. Even better, during a commercial the Bionic Man, Lee Majors (going on the list) was hawking...I’m not lying...the bionic hearing aid!...and he said....it doesn’t costs 6 million dollars. For the love.

So next week when you’re going to the polls remember all those people who fought to give women the right to vote...then think of me who fucked it up...and vote for Obama.