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October 05, 2015 - 11:01 p.m.
"just call me election inspector"

Hey Journal!

Today I did something exciting and I'm equally excited to tell you about it! I became in Election Inspector! Yes, very weird... but here's the story...

A month or so ago, I got this card in the mail telling me that my polling place had changed because Dan and I recently updated our information to reflect our new address! For reference, this coming election will be the first time that I haven't voted at the Nesconset Elementary School (or the fire department next door!)

So, the card said that if I was interested in becoming an election inspector I should go online and fill out a form, and I did. I got some paperwork back in the mail and it said I had to go for a certification seminar to complete my registration.

Tonight, at 6:00, we had to meet at the Brentwood Library and get all the information about being an election inspector! I arrived about 5 minutes early and there were about 20 other people in the room. Before I went, I was telling Dan that I was certain there would be at least ONE person who was a pain in the ass.... as there always is in any class. Sure enough, there was one. The class was made up of almost all women. I think there were three guys, including me. I was definitely the youngest person there by a lot.

There were two parts of the class separated by a 1 minute break. The first half was presented by a woman named Kelly who was absolutely amazing. I loved everything about her. She made it really interesting and she was a fun, energetic person! The stuff she said really cracked me up and she was serious, got all the information across, but she really had a good way of doing it.

We learned all about the procedures to start up the machines, things people can and can't do, things we should and shouldn't do, things poll watchers can and can't do, forms to use, things to fill out, all sorts...

Now, I mentioned that there was one annoying person. Well, there were two people in the class who had already taken it before in the past. (I don't know why they were back...) Anyway, one of them was a man and he asked a few questions referencing his past experience but they were normal questions and not annoying. The woman who had done it in the past was QUITE annoying. First, she was sitting next to me. Of course. Everyone else was quietly listening and paying attention. She was setting up a smorgasbord. She took out nuts, popcorn, and other snacks. I think she also had a drink. EVERYTHING that the woman told us, she nodded her head along. She also muttered things to herself.

She really looked like the woman from What Would You Do? and with the way she was acting, I wasn't so sure she wasn't!

In the middle of the first half, she got up and made a lot of noise leaving the room....returning about 3 minutes later with a bottle of Pepsi.

At about 7:30 we had a ten minute break and I went to the bathroom and walked around a little. Just before the class started back up I realized I was hungry and so I ran out to the lobby to check out the vending machines. They had some chips I liked so I ran out to my car to get some coins!

I got back only to find out that the vending machine that had the good chips was not working. It kept returning my money every time I put it in! I got some weird baked chips from the other machine and headed back.

I was about 30 seconds late, but it was no big deal. The presenter of the second half was a nice woman who had some funny one-liners, but... no offense to her, Kelly was my favorite.

She explained some things about filling out forms, certifications, and other things. She talked about what you have to do to sign people in, what to do if people don't put their ballots in properly, how to help people with questions, and how to close out the machines.

In the beginning, we were told that because we would be working the whole day and wouldn't be able to go vote (if we are not assigned to our own polling station,) we would have to fill out a request for a special ballot. Towards the end, this weird woman towards the back of the room asks how she could vote! Are you serious? They spent like 10 minutes talking about this. The lady explained it again and then she was like "but you said we couldn't leave..." and so the presenter woman said, "You aren't listening!" It's true...she wasn't.

At the end, there was an approximately 10 question test. It was super easy! I am very very confident that I got them all correct. (Though I am certain that more than a few people will not get them all right.)

I filled out everything on the form according to the instructions but, like an idiot, I forgot to circle the time of the seminar. What a fool.

Oh, and just before the end of the seminar, we all took the oath to become official election inspectors! I feel so accomplished.

They said they may not pick everyone to work this coming election but I have a feeling they said that so that they could have an out when they don't call the people who did really badly on the test. Watch, they won't call me. Oof!

Anyway....rewind to the beginning of the day when my alarm went off abruptly and woke me up at 8:00. I just wanted more sleep. I had a dream last night that I went to Busy Buy to buy something... I'm not even sure what... and I found this GIANT fireworks launcher tube thing and for some reason I went to get a price check on it. It came up the wrong price... really really cheap...so I bought it (even though I didn't really want it!) Then, this kid who worked there helped me by getting it ready to set off the fireworks. I have no idea.

I also had a weird dream that I was at work, but there were students around... and I said something to one of the kids about a "minotaur." Well, the principal was around and didn't like that I was talking about minotaurs with the students and he complained about me. I couldn't figure out WHY that was a bad thing....and I don't think there was much more to that dream!

So, I got up, listened to some Moyles and then hit the road to work. There wasn't much traffic today at all. It was a quiet day in the office because we had no golf outing today. It was a beautiful day for a golf outing, however. The people who had booked for today cancelled on us. They said they were certain it was going to rain today and, despite our assurances that we had checked the weather and it was going to be fine...they were rude and told Dan's mom, "I don't know what weather you're looking it!" Meanwhile, today rolls around and oh, look.... no rain!

I spent the morning doing some stuff...preparing some emails and catching up from the weekend.

I went through the mail and then at about 12:30 I left to go get some lunch. I met my mom at Target and had a pizza! After that, we walked around the store and then I went to get gas in my car.

I got back to work, did a few more things, and then left at 3:20 to go to the bank. We had a problem with a recent deposit and I'm desperately trying to get it sorted out. I contacted our rep at BoA and they FINALLY sent me the check images I requested....except they didn't. They sent 30 out of approximately 120 images. Not helpful at all! Because I can't get access to these check images, I can't solve the problem that occurred in September, can't finalize the month, and can't print the bills. It's bad. And I need to get it sorted out! Anyway, I figured if I went to the bank maybe I could just see the copies of the checks and get it solved... but no luck. They couldn't pull them up.

I got home around 4:30. I had actually planned to stay at work late and then go directly to my election seminar, but because of the bank I had time to come home. I did some random stuff and then headed out at about 5:25.

When I got home, Dan and I watched the season premiere of Homeland! Exciting! I can't believe it's finally back. Tonight's episode was good... I'm looking forward to next week's!

It seems like there are SO MANY SHOWS now! I can't keep up with them all. We keep watching one and then banking another two!

So, it's late and we should be getting to bed!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)