This is months behind, and I didn't even post it in time for his inauguration, but it's never too late to show patriotism.
This was my second presidential election to vote in and I have such fond memories of the election process the first go around. I was a freshman and living in a college town where I didn't know very many people, but had one of my best friends Ross around. The two of us were very supportive of Obama and able to participate in so many of those collegiate political events. I voted in my hometown with my friend Kelsey and I remember when Barack's win was announced I was sitting in her living room alone and so very touched to have taken part in something so important.
Having been my first election and the first time in my life I had felt that I could really do something with my voice, plus it was a candidate that I was extremely passionate about, it was so very special.
Fast forward four years, and my life is completely different. Still in school, but married, settled down, and in a much better place emotionally and geographically. Though there is always so much at stake with a political election, I felt especially wound up with this one. For months I would get up in the morning, drink a coffee, and immediately read The New York Times from front to back while biting my lip, looking for comfort in its pages. I laid in bed at night worrying about what it would mean for our future and how our planet could possibly survive if this election swung to the right. I don't like talking politics in mixed company and avoided all the heated discussions around me but supported my beliefs in a reserved, semi-private way. We watched the debates and filled out new voter registration forms. We were ready. And I was ready to get rid of the ulcer I'd developed.
The day of the election, we got up nice and early and went down to the courthouse before classes to vote.
We tried to get a good photo together of the event, but it was as tough as always. Especially with heavy wind.
We managed to get a few that were kind of cute.
I was so happy to see the turnout.
I have strong beliefs and political opinions but I think that no matter what your views are, it is important to encourage everyone to educate themselves on the matters and vote. I've met so many young people who seem disinterested in the elections and say they don't care about politics, but it is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely important. The right to vote is something that our citizens have fought for fiercely since the formation of our country and there is so much bitterness wrapped into the history of it. To think of how casually this blessed, blessed right we have is taken these days? I think so many before us would be ashamed. It is so imperative that we get our young people to realize that their voices matter.
It is so easy to feel discouraged with the way our world operates... America has a wealth of problems and I'm not pleased with so many things. But if we ever, ever want these things to change we have to fight for it and as exhausting and tedious as it is to make a difference and a stand, it's a privilege that we should never take advantage of.
After we cast our ballots, we walked around town and grabbed a coffee. I swooned over all the beautiful fall foliage and somehow it seemed that we had the whole town to ourselves. Everyone else must have been at the polls. ;)
After savoring as much beauty as time would allow for, we returned home and cooked a nice dinner. We had beer to help us through a loss, and champagne to pop open for a win. I washed our glasses carefully and asked the universe to please give me a reason to use them.
And--we got to! We watched the footage for hours in our cozy living room and as it rolled in, we felt just as on edge as if we knew nothing. Florida had my stomach in knots. We needed those 29 votes. Once the announcement was made, we hugged and kissed and fist pumped. We exchanged happy messages with friends and opened up the champagne to celebrate.
I'm the champagne-lover in our marriage, so the ratio of consumption wasn't very even. Shhh...
Kyle wrote on the cork and I tucked it away with other memories in a little box.
Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, we got to hear that wonderful man accept his victory.
Or, one of us did. My husband fell asleep in his nice shirt and his paint-stained sweatpants.
The next day we were on a mission. After the election was over, it was officially time to get ready for Thanksgiving. For us, that meant finding the wood to build a table.
I took some pictures of our little garden, including a giant spinach leaf I was so proud of. My spinach really had done so well. During the fall, I keep a few things around to supplement our groceries and keep me from going crazy from all the grey drab in the world.
I planted pansies and violas for winter color, too. And we always have our evergreens flanking the doorway.
I love my happy little gnome.
Because we are two college kids with a love for the earth (meaning we're skint and resourceful) we drove around our town, looking for discarded wood that we could use for the project. We hit the jackpot at a construction site that was converting an old building into a vintage shop.
My husband let me sit in the car wrapped in a warm scarf while he braved the freezing rain and roped the palettes to the top of our shrunken car. We didn't find everything we needed that day, but we still had plenty of days to explore.
***
Right now, I'm in the lowest pits of my winter depression. Thanksgiving and Christmas are over, so there's no excitement to the cold, barren world. The newness of January 1 isn't quite shiny enough to keep me excited all month. The light is thin and grey when it comes through our windows and though the days are slowly getting longer, it's still dark outside before 6 p.m. The trees outside are black and brown and the grass is dried and white.
I haven't been holding it together too well. I feel so silly that the weather gets me so down, but I don't have much of a solution for it yet. Last year, I got engaged and that distracted me through the cold. I don't know that Kyle is planning to propose again so that might not be an option this go around...
BUT. We are halfway through. It's just January and February that are the pits and soon enough March should be here with its wild winds and promise of spring as I start my seeds.
I have also begun my winter routine of longing for the tropics.
I've cooked Hawaiian food a couple times and have spent far too many nights telling my husband about how wonderful it was there and how much I miss it, trying to convince him to let us move there after college. He actually is okay with that idea and wouldn't mind living there for a while. The convincing is really more for me. I don't know how I would feel being so far away from my mom. Moving to an island is a huge commitment.
Kyle always puts Forgetting Sarah Marshall on the TV when I'm in one of those moods where I crave sun. And he endures me telling him all the "fun facts" about the island every time I recognize a place or a name for the thousandth time. And always asks me to tell him the state fish, too.
Not too long ago I finally got him to try Spam musubi. He really liked it. I was shocked, but happily so.
The thought of not having to go through this each winter is pretty enticing. I can't lie about that. I could garden year round. I could be tan and wear skirts and tank tops year round. I know I would miss the nip of November or December as the holidays set in and the beautiful fall foliage that you see in these photos. But by the time January is here each year I really have myself convinced that I can't possibly do another season of cold and grey. Then March comes around and I forget all about the dark times and feel just fine.
I cannot wait for those days. This week, I got my invitation to the community garden potluck for our plot assignments and the meeting will be held March 2. I'm ordering all my seeds in the next week or so (all heirlooms this year!) and these little things are helping me feel positive.
Hope you're all well where you are and that you're feeling less down by the weather than I am! After our flirtations with spring and tornados, we got snow the next day. Weather is a funny thing.
