Potomac Primary

I like to vote first thing in the morning. That way, I don't feel rushed to get home. And it's usually less crowded. It's also something of a remnant of having lived on the west coast for 22 years and not wanting to have elections declared over before our polling places had closed.

Since I moved, this was my first time at a new polling place. Finding it was easy enough, especially since I sort of knew where it was to begin with. What amazed me was how long the line was at 6:30 a.m. I had to wait outside about 20 minutes in the cold before even getting into the building. They finally figured out that, with four poll workers, they could split the book in half and handle 2 people at a time, which helped a lot. (Why 2, not 4? Remember, there is no party registration in Virginia, so they have to cross you off in both party's books to make sure you vote in only one party's primary.)

The bigger problem is the layout of the building they were using, which is the historic house at a nearby park. By the way, so far as I can tell, the building is not accessible, so I guess wheelchair users have to vote by absentee ballot. At least here they use public buildings as polling places. I knew people in California who voted at somebody's garage or at a beauty parlor. The districts here seem too big, though. Maybe that's what comes of having grown up in a town of 5000 which had 3 polling places - 2 schools and the firehouse. (Actually, I suspect the reason for that had to do with the boundaries of the incorporated village, but that's too logical.)

Oddly, the voting slips were red for the Democratic primary and blue for the Republican. Has anybody in the Virginia department of elections watched a newscast in the past decade?

Vacation Planning

I called up United today to see if I could get frequent flyer tickets for the trip I've been planning for a while. I'm always reading about how hard it is to redeem miles but my experience is that, if you have a few days flexibility, the customer service folks can find you seats.

So I have tickets to Madagascar for August / September. It's economy class, alas, and not a great routing (stops in London and Johannesburg) but paying under $150 in taxes and fees is a lot better than paying the $2500 or so that buying the ticket would involve. It was also amusing to listen to somebody with a strong Indian accent attempt to pronounce Antananarivo.

While I was on the line, I figured I might as well see what I could do for later in the year. My Christmas plans are now set. I'll be going to Cambodia. That's mostly business class, too. (Mostly, because the flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh is economy. But that's just over an hour.) And, on the way back, I'm going via JFK and the hop to Dulles from there is also economy. Which is not surprising, given that it's a short haul puddlehopper.

I've got a travel agent working on the land details for Madagascar. Cambodia will be a do it myself cheap trip.

And, while I was at it, this doesn't quite count, but I did book a hotel room for an upcoming Volksmarch weekend in West Virginia. I did not, however, get around to buying various theatre tickets and baseball tickets since I did have to spend some time actually working.