I do not think Henry is registered to vote. He is vigorously intending to vote, but I don’t think he’s going to be able to. Our state has a site where you can check your status, and I checked his status, and it does not recognize him, and I think this means he is not registered or that he is incorrectly registered. BUT: he and I recently had a mini-Come-To-Jesus about an error I made in overstepping the parenting boundaries. And I feel like he might consider “looking up his voting status” to be overstepping in a similar way. But it is two days until the midterms in the U.S., and I know probably one single vote doesn’t make the difference, but WHAT IF IT DOES?? WHAT IF IT DOES?? I have already done the maximum Nonchalant Hints, including sending all the kids the link to the site where they can check their status.
I’m finding I can’t really focus on anything until the midterms are over. I am in a holding pattern.
I asked the twins in mid-October what their Thanksgiving-break schedules were like, so we could figure that out while train tickets were still available. I realized today that although Elizabeth answered me, Edward never did, and the issue had gotten stuck in the Waiting To Hear Back part of my brain. I texted again today, and Edward answered, and when I went to buy their train tickets I found there were no tickets available for either the way home or the way back. So I will need to go fetch them on Tuesday/Wednesday, and Wednesday is usually Day One of Thanksgiving cooking. This is not a big deal. It’s not a big deal! It’s just one year. Maybe someone else can do some of the cooking. Or I can make the Wednesday things on Thanksgiving Day instead and it’ll just be a little more harried than usual! Or I can skip them this year, or purchase equivalents. And I LIKE driving to get the kids, even in Holiday Traffic! It’s fine! It’s fine!
I was visiting my parents for a week, and when I came home there was…kind of a lot for me to do. Things I would expect the two grown-ups left behind to handle. And the things I’d specifically asked them to do while I was gone, like scooping the litter box, had been done at an Extremely Poor level. Like, so badly that it’s hard to know how to correct it for the future. Like, how to begin. “So…the goal when scooping the litter box…is to remove everything the cat left there. We do that by using this SCOOP to…SCOOP…all of that OUT. Of the litter box.” It has been disheartening. It makes me feel as if I can’t leave the house without HIRING someone to take over for me. Honestly I have spent the last couple of days wondering if the next time I leave, I should just hire the same person I hire when none of us are here. “No, just ignore the two grown men. Work around them.”
Rob has gotten a new job, and it sounds like a side-hustle rather than a job, and it is working to train AI, and you might already know how I feel about that. Furthermore, when I nonchalantly asked if this would affect the health insurance he gets through the state, he DID NOT KNOW AND HAD NOT CHECKED, AND DID NOT KNOW HE NEEDED TO CHECK, AND ALSO THOUGHT HE COULD JUST LET THAT COAST.
Would you like to share a fret?
I am assuming since this is still an active fret that you/Henry live in a state where people vote in person and that has same day registration. If that is the case, then I think it is safe to assume that some nice people at the polling place will help him. Although maybe you could be ready with whatever proof of address & eligibility he is going to need someplace very handy and then gently nudge the whole family to vote at the beginning of the day (or the day before if that is possible) because this is how we are all defending against election shenanigans, not because you suspect one person might have to make multiple trips to the polling station.
I already talked about this on BlueSky, but: I applied for an income-restricted apartment, but I earn slightly too much to qualify. (Which in theory is good news, because it means the overtime I’ve been working lately REALLY HAS been adding up, but it’s bad news for this specific situation.) They offered me another (bigger! nicer!) unit at full price, and it’s more than I was planning to spend on rent, but not quiiiiite enough to be an automatic dealbreaker. There are apartments available at my ideal price point, but I don’t like them nearly as much. (This one has a FIREPLACE!) So now I have to decide, like, today or tomorrow if I want it or not, and I hate making these kinds of choices. Also I don’t know if I can get my holding deposit back if I bail, and it was $200!
My other fret is that when I move (to this apartment or a different one), I’ll have to figure out how to move my 10-gallon fish tank and that sounds unpleasant.
I am fretting because my partner has not early voted, which is something I generally take him to do when I drop off my mail-in ballot but he refused to come yesterday when I did it. I have told him that he will need to go on Election Day, but his work can be rather demanding and I am fretting that he will suddenly have to go in early and/or stay late so that he doesn’t get to vote AND I AM NOT OKAY WITH A) NOT VOTING AND B) NOT BEING ABLE TO TELL YOUR WORK NO, I NEED TO GO VOTE SO I CAN’T COME IN EARLY. Sigh.
I’ve shared this in a few comments over the past year—but I know people won’t remember. But my sister’s husband announced an affair and a lack of interest in being a parent when she was 7 months pregnant with their first child. The year has been a rollarcoaster to say the least. Relevant to my fret is that the affair partner—if you can call it that—turned out to work on an app where she took off her clothes for money. And my brother in law spent upwards of $40,000 on her. He’s somewhat figured out he was scammed and is in some ways being a father. And the affair partner has contacted my sister, him, his place of employment, and the police saying he’s harassing her. Is he? Or does she want more money? No one knows. But I’m tired of the whole mess. I’m just freaking tired of it. (But the baby—who is named Larry!—is simply the best. He is joy and happiness. The aunts and grandparents have been told that we might just be spoiling him. And that’s just the way it is. As God is my witness, he will be in therapy because his aunts are crazy about him and not because his father is a god damned idiot.)
Also, just as important, the midterms. I am sick. I don’t think I can take learning yet again that the people in the country are terrible.