doing the deed

San Francisco City Hall, North Light Court, 2 pm Election Day. There are ranks of folding chairs set up on either side of an aisle leading from the atrium to the stairs to the ground floor. On one side, the signs tell us, sit the clerks. On the other, the inspectors. Waiting their turns to staff the polls.

Really strange walking down that aisle; even though the group is not broken out along red/blue lines, the sensation of deep division is strong. Resonant with where we are as a country today.

I am feeling especially conspicuous; having modeled this morning for painters who wanted "a lot of color", I am wearing a very silly sundress with a crinoline, and yarn braided into my hair. I hope people don't think this is my special voting outfit. That one's got fringe. This, I feel like saying, is my job interview outfit.

Absentee ballot, man. I didn't even have to get in the line; a woman asked if I was ready to hand in the (signed, sealed) envelope I had in my hand, and I watched her put it in the box. So I got to fill out the ballot in the privacy of my own home, and do some people watching. Best of all possible worlds.

Now I spend the rest of the day trying to soothe my agitated stomach.