It's Time For Change! Even for me- it's my first to vote.

I've been a US citizen for 17 years- and believe it or not but it's my first to vote. When I was growing up, I was not exposed to politics by my family or friends and thus it certaintly was not a topic brought up at the dinner table. And like most people who tend to ignore things they feel uncomfortable with, I had not voted. So years go by---

Then having run across my goals (a list of things I want to do before I die)- voting was one of them. And since this was such an important part of history- I too wanted to participate with the thousands of others that also decided to vote- and probably for their first time. So with my hands up in the air I registered a month before the presedential elections and read up on politics- whatever I could soak up by the deadline. I started to worry when 2-weeks to the elections I had not received my voter registration information but alas got it in the mail...my official 2-page ballot!

I wanted a close on the war- so you can guess who I voted for, considering I did not approve of the war I was involved with in the Persian Gulf.

It was actually quite easy to vote. I filled in my ballot, stuffed it in the envelope, signed it and then marched a block down from our house to the poll (in a garage) and slipped it into a locked box. I received an "I voted" sticker and got a free coffee at any Starbucks just for wearing it.

Other experiences included running across so many deragotory statements, slogans, and advertisements. Here are a few I wanted to share... of course there's quite a lot on Palin...

Then there's the Richmond council and the Chevron refinery backroom incident that happened in our neighborhood.

And there's Prop 8 about prohibiting gay marriages...

And not to mention the phone calls I was getting on that one along with Prop 4 about notifying family in 48-hours about a minors attempt to abort a fetus.

And then there was more on the Richmond council (local).

Either way- it was a great experience. It's never too late to start grooming Kai for the presedentials elections in the next couple decades!!!