And Now the REAL Fun Begins!

The polls have just closed here in Illinois and my favorite part of the day is just beginning. Yes, of course, I voted this morning and I very proudly asked for my Democratic ballot. And I reminded everyone I saw, spoke to, or thought about (via ESP) to vote.

But now the REAL fun begins. I'm set to be glued to my TV until all the ballots have been counted tonight. I do this every election, unless I'm attending an election night party for a candidate I've worked for. Yes, I'm a political wonk. And I'm damn proud of it.

Watching the results pour in is my favorite way to spend an evening. I get more excited about this than I did about Santa Claus when I was a kid.

Here's an example of just how big of a geek I am . . . .

In the Spring of 2002, I was dating a nice man, we'll call him Tim (not his real name). Illinois was in the midst of a hotly contested gubernatorial primary in the wake of the George Ryan downfall. The night of the primary, my man had a meeting and wouldn't get home until late (he lived in the city and I was in the Burbs), so I hung out at my house. About 8:00pm, I called and left him the following message: "Hi Tim! It's me! I hope you had a great day and remembered to vote. And I hope your meeting went well tonight. I'm crawling into bed right now to spend the rest of the night doing my favorite thing, but you can feel free to call when you get home - I'm sure I'll still be awake." About an hour later, my phone rang and it was him desperately wanting to know what I was doing. I have to say he was terribly let down to learn that I was watching the election returns. He was actually irritated that I would leave such an allegedly suggestive message on his voice mail. But it honestly never occurred to me that he might think I was doing anything other than watching the election results!

Clearly, he didn't know me very well. I should have known then that he wasn't the right guy for me.

Needless to say, I'm a bit more careful about the messages I leave now.