This day was special. Voting day. No school day. Parent-teacher conference day.

Evie’s after-school program is open on days that school is not, but they don’t open until 10. So it was a lazy morning after my morning walk. No schedule other than having to be at school for the conference at 8:40. Evie and I were still ready before we needed to be, so we entertained ourselves with the latest game-of-choice, Uno. My bad luck at card games seems to be getting better, as I’m winning almost every game. Can’t explain it other than the universe is balancing out all my losses from my earlier years.

After the teacher conference, we played on the playground on a beautiful blue sky day with temperatures in the 60s. She showed me some of the latest tricks she can do on the monkey bars and I showed her a new way of climbing on one of the structures. I thought it was a fair trade.

We then walked a pleasant 1/4 mile to the community center that is both my polling location and home to her after-school program. It turned out to be a great teachable moment.

I found tears welling up as I tried to tell a six year-old why voting makes our country a good place to be. It may not be perfect, but she should be darn proud that we have the privilege to vote for the people that govern us. We went through the whole process together, and I tried hard to explain each choice I had.

Since this was a digital voting booth, at one point I gave up on reality and just told her it was a video game that she’ll get to play when she’s 18. Every time I put a check mark, I saved someone. Tomorrow we’ll find out who was saved.

She seemed to understand that explanation better….

I’m enjoying my expanded role with Evie and getting to spend so much time with her. But it sure is exhausting!