Sorry for the lack of update on Friday. I spent the day with the baby. Just the two of us. We partied hard and renamed her as a baby rapper. She’s now the Ghost White Dipaa Fillah. As exhausting as the day was, we had a great time. We had snacks at the mall, visited friends and played, played, played. Then, before Matilda came home from school, we took a nap together. All in all it was a really nice day.

Matilda and I watched ET on Friday. She bawled like a little baby. It’s amazing how well the movie holds up after 20 years. To me, it proves that a good story and strong emotional content over rules any need for bombastic explosions and digital effects. ET works because you feel sorry for the little guy. Not because he’s a lifelike alien. You feel for his problem. And when he “dies” you’re heartbroken that he didn’t make it home. On Saturday we watched Max Keeble’s Big Move and had a great time laughing and eating popcorn. Matilda just about had a heart attack three minutes into the movie when Tony Hawk made a cameo appearance. Heh. Hero worship.

I assume everyone will go out and vote tomorrow? To be honest, as much as I enjoy democracy, I can’t wait for this bloodfest to be over. I mean, really, why don’t we just strip down the candidates and let them fight to the death? It’ll be a hell of a lot easier to watch than these campaign commercials and a lot more fun.

What makes me tingle with happiness is how these guys are in a blood battle over one seat in the senate. Yes, if one party gets the majority then they win for the next two years! That’s your vote at work! If your guys win the popularity contest, then you get someone voting party lines for two years, serving the interest of the boys club he is part of rather than doing his job and giving you the representation he’s supposed to give you.

I love that my local candidates and political parties assume that everything is black and white. That if I am anti-gun, then I’ll also be anti-cigarette tax. Or if I agree with a candidate’s stance on education I’ll agree with their beliefs on drilling for oil in ANWAR. I don’t think so.

You see, I’m a full human being who makes decisions based on my personal beliefs and not by some blind system set up by a bunch of crusty old guys in navy suits and red ties who decide what I should think. It’s a “with us or against us” stance and I’m sick of it.

The bottom line is that I’m an independent voter who is not aligned with any party, be it Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian or otherwise. I just don’t believe that a group of people can sit down and say, we stand for this that and the other and I can fall in line with that. Group politics don’t work for me.

So tomorrow, I’m going to vote for who I believe will do the best job and represent me to the best of their ability.

But the truth is that, in this government, I don’t feel like I have representation. Because the Republicans with vote for what their party believes in, not their constituents. The Democrats will do the same. Green will always lose and the Libertarians scare the crap out of me. It’s a huge mess.

So, when I go in to punch my card tomorrow I’m going to do just that. Give that friggin’ card a nice, closed-handed punch. Because if I get one more phone call telling me that Candidate X is a jerk because they sling mud, but Candidate Y is good because they kiss puppies I’m going to scream.