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We have an "election" of one sort or another with some level of frequency at the Kiaski household.
I was reminded of this after we had headed to the polls Tuesday and done our patriotic duty, casting our votes on a paper ballot and filling in those little ovals/circles, whatever their shape, to make our selections.
Doing that brought back stressful memories of taking standardized tests during my formal school years. Some of my educational history leaves me traumatized to this day, including making those "eeny, meeny, miny, moe" decisions on multiple choice questions in which I had obviously invested a lot of study time.
Anyway, we -- meaning Better Half and I -- have varied "voting" mechanisms we put into play when the need arises.
Back in the day when our arm muscles needed less BenGay, there was a time when we might have actually arm wrestled out of exasperation at the lack of an outcome, and the winner was entitled to "I'm-right" status in whatever it was being decided, no doubt something of critical importance -- we couldn't decide on the date of something or what something had cost or who had said what to whom or who had starred in a movie way back when, so rather than continue the discussion, hey, let's arm wrestle! That works!
After all, we're just a typical married couple employing reasonable means of resolution.
If we're trying to decide where to eat out and we're down to two final choices at long last, a "his" pick and a "her" choice, an "election" is likely in order to make a decision and have a victory -- at least for one of us.
That's especially necessarily if you're caught in that whole scenario of I don't care, you pick, no, you pick, either is OK with me, I'm just hungry, blah, blah, blah.
In this case, we might resort to a good old-fashioned hand game of rock, paper, scissors.
That's a very mature way to solve an issue or determine the outcome of an "election," yes?
Ditto for flipping a coin.
That calls for some serious financial arrangements to be made -- coughing up a whole quarter.
And the toss of the coin can sometimes require multiple attempts to get it right, i.e. my restaurant selection. Maybe two out of three times or 50 out of 51, whatever it takes.
It's amazing to me that sometimes a quarter can get lost in the process -- rolling under the sofa or slipping down a heat register.
A popular weekend question Better Half is inclined to pose is "What's on our agenda?" which translated really means, what's on my agenda.
At this time of year, it's off to a craft show or two or three, much to my delight.
I always tell Better Half that he doesn't have to go and tag along like a Girl Scout cookie, but he does dutifully, following me from booth to booth, his rationale that it's better than staying home "at the museum."
But there was some rebellion one recent weekend, his argument being, Janice, how many wreaths do you need to be fulfilled and how many "welcome" items for the porch would qualify as sufficient?
Another "election" day was warranted, this time the paper bag one into which you put two slips of paper for a drawing -- one says "craft show," the other says "No way!"
Only Better Half cheated and wrote "No way!" on both slips.
Fortunately, the integrity of the election was challenged, and I came away the victor.
Another wreath and a welcome sign!