Bought and Paid For

My garage is the polling place for my precinct. Too tired to tell the story about how that came about tonight, but I have been doing this for 6+ years now. Tomorrow is a Los Angeles City Election. We are voting for Mayor, City Council, and a few other things that I need to review after I find and dust off my sample ballot. I have no excuse for not voting no matter how small or few items on the ballot. No time to research the issues just doesn’t cut it in my book so I had better get on it.

The inspector and poll workers can change from time to time, but surprisingly there are quite a few repeats for my location. I think one of the big draws is that I always make a nice dinner for the workers so they don’t have to worry about rushing out to get something since dinner time is always the busiest time. Chicken Enchiladas are on the menu for tomorrow. (If any Pasadena SMC’ers are checking in, get your taste buds ready because I made several batches and plan to take one to our meeting next week!)

Anyway, the current inspector likes to get everything set up the night before. For City Elections, they use cardboard voting booths that you just recycle afterwards. As we were setting up, she commented that it was too bad that I didn’t have kids because they get a kick out of using them for forts, etc. once the election (tomorrow) and run off (May) are done. I agreed and told her that I have saved them for my cousins’ kids for when they visit in the summer, but that if things go well, I would have a kid to use them by the end of the year. She stopped what she was doing and said “What?” I think trying to figure out if she heard me right. LOL. I said, I’m 4 months pregnant and if all goes well, I should have a kid by the end of the year. She said, “Are congratulations in order?” I responded by saying that I am very happy and it was a planned pregnancy…the first time I was able to use “my line”. It didn’t stop her cold, like I hoped it would, and she went on to ask if there was a father in the picture. I hesitated briefly because one of the neighbor boys who is in Jr. High School came over the help set up and I wasn’t sure I wanted to get into it in front of him, plus I was a bit disappointed that my explanation didn’t stop her from more questions. I guess my hesitation was enough time to for her to think and she comes back with, “ahh, bought and paid for?” I just started laughing.

Hours later and I am still laughing. I may have to use that line just because I think it is so funny!!