Woke up at 4am stressing about getting the Japan application in for Matilda.

By 7 I was up and there was an email saying today was the last day to get it in.

So woke her up, gave her some coffee and we worked our way through the various forms and attachments and parental approvals and got it in.

Then I had to shift gears to finding a Passport Expediting service (muy expensive) so we can get Matilda's passport in time for her other trip to Berlin in October with Hannah (the mother of her friend, Norah, who is going to school in Berlin).

And then I realized we've tentatively planned on going down to LA next week for four days to look at schools, see my friend Josh and Matilda to see her friend Veronica. So I need to get Cousin Nicole up to mind the Guinea Pigs and make those plans as well.

In short: I'm paying a lot of money for the Euro trip because I didn't plan it earlier but I'm fine with that.

It'll be a very good way to break up Matilda's gap year and give her some time with Hannah and also a taste of travel.

Ended on a bit of a high note, but I did a phonebank of my legislative district that might depress Cory Booker, man. Sample quote: "I don't really like voting,"(Well, nobody thinks of it like a sloppy makeout session right? We don't live on "The West Wing" But I do like it in a not very id-ish way.) I had hoped that the quote from "Sixteen Candles" I might live out is "You might come back next fall as a completely normal person." But looks like I'm still stuck with "I've lived here my whole life and I'm like a disease." Sigh.

Dammit. Willie Mays and James Earl Jones within a few months is too much. I don't care that they were both 93; I was not ready.

I'm paying a lot of money for the Euro trip because I didn't plan it earlier but I'm fine with that.

It is worth it. Brendon spent much of his youth in other countries and various environments in this country. It was the best education. I have virtually no regrets with my children, but that we didn't give them those experiences is one of them.

"I don't really like voting,"

Yeah, it makes me nuts. It was probably my parents, but I couldn't wait to vote and still get excited about it every time. I'm chuffed that I got my son's 27 yo girlfriend to register this year, and she is excited to vote for the first time. (That and they are huge Tim Walz fans.)

I don't care that they were both 93; I was not ready.

It's always sudden.

I can't say I like voting (I like the idea, but not the process), but I keep doing it even if almost everyone I vote for loses.

Not sure I can watch the debate, the way Trump lies really grates on me and I think the debate will end up a wash. Unfortunately, I think he's going to win the election and nothing that happens in the debate is going to overcome the fact that eggs are expensive.

I was encouraged by Allan Lichtman's prediction process. I'm going to believe that he is right again and show up. I'm even hopeful about Florida for the first time since Obama. [link]

Bring back the old fashioned lever machines and more people will enjoy voting. (ka-CHUNK!)

My first vote was on one of those! Very satisfying. (the tech in me feels the paper scan ballots are much better)

The levers were fun. The push button machines that felt like video poker were awful. I like the scannable paper ballots we do here well enough. And that it's the same thing to mail in is nice. Getting the text that my mail-in ballot has been received and counted is pretty sweet.

I am waffling between watching the debate and going to the movies.