Happy Pi Day. . .

I asked Zach today, like I do everyday, how his classes went.  He usually gives me a pretty vague answer right off the bat but eventually gives me a few details.  Today, however, my question was answered with an enthusiastic, "Today was a really good day for two reasons".  The first reason he gave me is that it is "Pi Day".  March 14th.  3/14.  3.14.  The Math Building at BSU celebrated this special day by putting Pi up around the hallways:

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209 7494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651 3282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102 7019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461 2847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432 6648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920 9628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841 4695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179 3105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011 9491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798  (into infinity, of course. . . )

The second reason that it was a good day: "We started Long Division with Polynomials in math."

He wrapped up our conversation by saying, "I just really like being a student".

I really like how he thinks. . .

Poll Worker. . .

So I spent my day today as a poll worker.  I worked the polls.  My official title was "Ada County Deputy of Elections".  Sounds impressive but all I had to do was tear a ballot off of the ballot pad, stamp it with an official looking stamp, put it in the "Secret Envelope", hand it to the voter and direct them to the "Voter Booth" and then to the "Ballot Box".  It was pretty easy except for the fact that the Voter Booths are actually cardboard boxes where you fill out your ballot which led to my confusion in directing people to vote in the Ballot Box.  I finally wrote myself a note and eventually remembered to call them voting booths.  By the end of the 13 hour day, I had gotten pretty good at it. 

Despite the long hours (7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.), it wasn't a bad day.  There were four of us (Tami and Kristin were my fellow Deputies of Elections and Judy was the "Judge" as in "Judge Judy" HA!) and during the dry spells between voters we talked, watched Youtube videos on Tami's IPhone and snacked. 

I'm a people-watcher so during the course of the day I made an interesting observation.  I've decided there are four categories of Voters. 

The first category are the Passionate Voters.  The people who believe we all MUST exercise our right to vote regardless of the issue or the outcome.  These people expressed disappointment at the low turn out and many drug along reluctant friends and neighbors.  Which leads me to the next category.

The second category are the Reluctant Voters.  Motivated only by guilt or Passionate Voter friends, these voters drug their feet and a couple of them were visibly relieved when it turned out they couldn't vote due to a technicality after all.  Many of them had not registered in advance and either weren't at the right precinct or didn't have the proper documentation. 

The third category was probably the largest of the first three and is made of up the Just-Doing-My-Civic-Duty Voter.  They trickled in throughout the day, most were already registered and they voted in a very matter-of-fact way.  They wore their "I Voted" stickers with a sense of satisfaction and are probably sleeping comfortably tonight.

The fourth and final category are the No-Show Voters.  The biggest category of all.  Out of 300 voters in the precinct we were in, only 129 people showed up to vote and I think that was considered to be pretty good.  171 people didn't vote. 

My confession is that I am a former No-Show Voter.  I haven't paid attention to the issues or the candidates.  When a Presidential Election comes around, I turn into a Just-Doing-My-Civic-Duty Voter mostly for the sticker but I turn a deaf ear and a blind eye the rest of the time. 

However. . . I've been educated in a very short period of time with my experience as a Poll Worker.  Voting is important.  Voting isn't difficult.  Or scary.  Maybe my vote won't count for much in the long run but maybe it will.  And maybe I will vote because I CAN vote.  Hmmmm. . . that almost sounds like something a Passionate Voter would say.  I guess I should actually do more than just work the polls in order to decide which category I'll be in from now on. . .

I Survived. . .

Well, we survived. . .

And eventually I'll have a lot to say about it but right now I'm still in recovery. . .

The Quiz Meet. . .

 

Ready. . . Or Not. . .

We've worked hard getting ready for the weekend's quiz meet.  Tomorrow and Saturday we will welcome more than 200 people into our church and our homes and even our mall.  Are we ready???

I guess we'll find out soon enough. . .

Politics. . .

I'm pretty sure this post is a first for discussing my political views.  I don't affiliate with any party in particular and mostly keep my views to myself.  I suppose if I had to name my party I would say Independent.  However, Zach has some pretty strong political ideals and he is continually wrestling with where he stands on political issues.  He wisely realizes that his views are subject to change as he investigates information and receives education.  But he's processing these things all the time which causes me to also process these things all the time because I am his sounding board.  It also puts me in a position of re-thinking things that I've taken a position on because I'm given new or different information.  On the other hand, I think I've influenced some of his thinking in a direction he might not have gone in as well.  I don't like to talk about politics.  I don't like to debate.  I don't like to have my opinions challenged.  But I do like talking with Zach.  So I've been willing to listen and think about things I might not otherwise have taken the time to process if it weren't for Zach bringing them to my attention. 

A couple of months ago, while I was out of town, Zach and his grandpa went to a political rally for Ron Paul.  Zach seemed to resonate with much of the things that Paul represents and filled me in on his views when I got back into town.  Some of the things I agreed with, too, and some of the things I didn't agree with at all.  So Zach and I have been talking about these things together, deciding what we agree with and where we disagree.  Yesterday two very interesting things happened.

First of all, we were asked by the Civic Center to provide camera work for an event.  Turns out it was a Ron Paul event, with Ron Paul, himself, presenting his political positions.  Zach had to miss a class to attend but decided it was worth it.  During the event, we learned more about Super Tuesday and the fact that this would be an historic event for Idaho.  Honestly, this wouldn't normally be my cup of tea.  However, I really wanted to experience this with Zach so we made plans to go to the Taco Bell Arena and do our civic duty.

This leads to the second interesting thing.  In order to vote for Ron Paul, who I had decided I agreed with enough to get on board, I had to make a declaration.  Even though Ron Paul considers himself an Independent, he has to run as a Republican in the US election.  I won't go into all of that because I don't fully understand it but what it meant for me was that I would have to align myself with a party.  In this case, the Republican Party.  It hurt.  I don't consider myself a Republican.  I had to really wrestle with signing the form and I told Zach it felt dishonest.  Sure, there are some Republican issues that I agree with but there are many that I don't.  It felt like I had to choose the lesser of two evils. 

I've already said more than I intended to because what I really wanted to say was that it was all worth it to have this experience with Zach.  We were taking part in an historic event.  Despite parking half a mile away and waiting in 30 degree weather outside of the arena for 45 minutes, once we were inside, it was pretty amazing. 

Each candidate's representative had 5 minutes to talk about why we should vote for that person.  It was interesting to see and hear all of the reactions as each person spoke.  Gingrich seemed to have very little support and even got quite a few boos.  Romney was represented by Gov Butch Otter who seemed more interested in presenting himself to the nation than Romney.  Santorum had a video which seemed really cheesy to me but presented his views in a clear, concise way.  And Ron Paul was represented by the same woman who spoke at the Civic Center earlier in the day.  She was very passionate about his beliefs and referred to him as a Christian man with great integrity.  He's dedicated to balancing the budget and following the constitution. 

When the speeches were done, we all filed out into the hallways in as orderly a fashion as 9000 people can and dropped a penny into a bucket behind a curtained off area for the candidate we had chosen.  I had already registered as a Republican so I dutifully dropped my penny into the Ron Paul bucket still feeling twinges of regret.  We then had over an hour to wait in our seats while they counted the votes to see if we would need to vote again.  If a candidate received 51% of the votes, they would win and we could go home.  If no one received over 51%, the candidate with the lowest amount would be eliminated and we would vote again.  This would continue until someone reached the 51% mark. 

While we waited, we were "entertained" by a band that was probably playing for free.  We talked about politics, Legos and Star Wars.  He bought me a pretzel and we shared a bucket of popcorn. He showed me the games he plays on his Ipod and I showed him how bad I am at playing them.  We participated in a 10 minute crowd "wave" with over 9000 people.  It was good. 

Before the votes were tallied, we were getting reports on our cell phones that Romney would be the clear winner.  People started to trickle out of the arena but we decided to hold out hope and continued to wait.  Shortly after 10:00 p.m. they made the announcement that Romney was in fact the winner with 4,223 votes followed by Santorum with 1,866, Paul with 1,766 and Newt Gingrich with 307.  Zach was very disappointed to say the least.  I half-jokingly told him that I declared myself a Republican for nothing and that now I would have to live with that decision for the rest of my life.  Or at least a year. 

Truthfully, the statistics aren't the important thing here.  What counts for me is that I was part of something BIG with my kid.  We were part of a process that he's been learning about and investing himself in for the last several years.  It was worth it.  It made me think.  It made me get out of my comfort zone.  It made a great memory.  If it takes being a Republican to have this connection then that's the sacrifice I'm willing to make. 

Favorites. . .

This is pretty much my favorite picture.  Ever.

Actually, I guess it's a toss up with this one:

Just feeling a little sentimental these days I guess. . .