Sunday Nov 1: Rest for the Weary

Dave Chappelle in character as an addict: "Ya'll got any more of them days off?"

 
Saturday night as Greg and I ate dinner together, I felt mostly good. Tired but not exhausted. Glad early voting was finally over. Grateful to have a break before election day. Relieved Tim and Michelle had not called me back to the office to help with additional tasks. I had rehearsed in my mind to politely decline if they called, and it hurt my feelings only a little bit not to have been asked. Slept well thinking the past 17 days had been worth all the blood (paper cuts), sweat, and tears. Tried to prepare emotionally for the possibility Trump might win NC but did not allow myself to think he might take the electoral college again. I did not allow myself to even consider that possibility.
 
Sunday was a full day of rest with the added bonus of an extra hour of sleep due to turning our clocks back an hour to end daylight savings time. Internet service had not yet been restored after the storm so we were limited to watching antenna tv between naps. My brother Randy and I had planned to talk on the phone but neither of us remembered to call the other so we missed our opportunity. Greg’s sister Tonya wanted to chat but Greg and I were both groggy from naps so we postponed until the next day. We picked lettuce and spinach from the garden by lantern light in anticipation of overnight freezing temperatures. Slept through the night peacefully, more or less.
 
Monday began as another day of rest though feelings of anxiety slowly crept in. I worried about election day and what could happen afterward. When I told Tonya I might drive to Raleigh to join a pro-democracy gathering Saturday, she said she would like to see me but didn’t seem to understand why people planned to march. Greg understood completely but was unlikely to participate due to covid concerns.  
 
Around 4:30pm Monday I drove to the Tobaccoville Community Center to meet a new team of election workers as we set up our voting site for Tuesday.
 
Chief Judge Chris was tall and thin with a gentle and slightly high pitched voice. He reminded me of actor Matt Frewer (aka Max Headroom) though considerably younger. A certified physician assistant, Chris was intelligent and professional yet a wee bit disorganized. We both had attended training and received a booklet with detailed instructions and checklists though he didn’t refer to his until the end of the evening. He had never worked an election before yet felt comfortable volunteering to be a chief judge on perhaps the most important election day of our lives. His confidence bordered on arrogance, in my opinion, like a man refusing to use GPS directions because he’s sure he can figure out where he is going on his own. 

Betty Jo was an assistant judge with decades of previous election worker experience, most recently during the 2016 general election. As the other assistant judge I tried to make myself useful without stepping on her or Chris’ toes. Carol, Margaret, Anthony, Eddie, Joe and Michael rounded out our team. We were all white, and most were registered republican. I wondered who among them might be a democrat or unaffiliated but had no way of knowing for sure.
 
With 9 people pitching in, set up was relatively fast and painless. Some wanted to know what exactly we each would be doing the next day but Chris said we would finalize assignments in the morning, bless his heart.
 
I returned home a little before 7pm. Greg helped me prep curbside voting signs as I told him how set up had gone, mostly fine. We ate dinner together, watched tv, then went to bed early.