I voted today. (Yes, absentee. Geez. How else would I have done it early like this?) It felt both monumental and very small. Such a tiny piece of paper for such a big thing. That's my vote, you know? The Declaration of Independence, the revolutionary war, the suffragettes, the endless campaigning... all condensed into one standardized form with the Fairfax City seal pressed into it. It blows my mind.

There's nothing like participating in an election to make you realize which country you live in. I can't imagine something this organized and infrastructurally intense working in The Gambia, for example. In America, though, it's something that we take for granted. Crazy.

I have a huge pumpkin waiting to be carved and lots and lots of seeds inside that pumpkin waiting to be salted, toasted, and devoured. I'm not sure what I'm going to carve, but I'm sure there will be pictures of whatever it ends up being. No worries.

Tuesday night, I went to see Nervous but Excited perform. They were lovely. If you're interested in a "pleasantly aggressive folk duo," they might be just the group for you. They played in C-Ville (at the Gravity Lounge) about a week ago. I wonder if anyone from TO/Acorn went to see them.

Yesterday, I printed out a ton of reading for my SMP. I guess I'm finally cracking down. I talked to my adviser about getting my SMP cross-listed with Environmental Studies, and it looks like it'll work out. The ENST department head has already given me the nod, so I don't foresee any difficulties. I do need to talk to my adviser about the what I'll be producing, though. I think she wants a scientific paper as the ultimate product. I don't mind writing a paper, but that's not all I want to have to show for this. I want an awesome multimedia presentation or a zine or something. You know, something I can actually show off and feel cool about, rather than "that paper I had to write for my research."

After spending quite a while in the library running down my pay-for-print, I spent about three hours in the plants lab by myself. I was pressing and mounting plants. Mounting plants takes forever! I had no idea. Whatever. My plants are all lovely. I feel good about my herbarium. I also feel good about using the word herbarium.

There was a moment today when I was struck by how good my life is. There were a million little details that combined to make me just feel amazing. I am so lucky.