My office spouse, Shannon (yes, she’s okay being called my office spouse and I’m glad to have her as one), is insane. For many reasons. But the reason that relates to this blog is that she’s very politically involved. She’s actually going to spend her Sunday morning canvassing the neighborhood to educate the undecided voters why Obama is the better choice for president. I say she’s insane, but in I respect that kind of involvement. I myself, have been rather proud of never having registered to vote. If I didn’t turn on the news (which I don’t) or listen to friends when they talk politics, I’d have no idea who was president, what congress did or why we have a vice president. Nothing that came out of Washington DC ever really impacted me (I thought) and my one voice wasn’t going to change it if it did.

Don’t get me wrong. I also never whined about what the president did or didn’t do. I cashed my stimulus checks. I laughed at the stupidery. But other than that, democrat or republican, it didn’t really seem like it mattered who was going to be eligible to be on a coin or a bill after they died.

Then Shannon said that her mother was voting for McCain and gleefully told Shannon that she would effectively cancel her vote. Then I found out Nevada is a swing state and my one little vote might actually mean something.

So I decided – if only to show appreciation for all of her time at caucuses and canvassing and all the other things she does – to register. Yes, after 20 years of refusing to do it, I did. But I was kinda scared. Not that my name was now in some secret system being tracked by the government for potential UFO abductees. But that I couldn’t just go and vote willy nilly and mess up the chance to finally have a say in how our government is manned. I was actually going to have to pay attention and know what the hell these people were promising and how feasible it was and what it meant to me and my family.

Long story short, there was a little game online at ABC News where you pick which quote you most agree with. Now, I am a political n00b, so there was no chance I’d heard the candidates saying one of them to sway my vote. So I played the game. Out of 13 questions (on issues like economy, the Iraq, health care, immigration and “hot topics”) I agreed with Obama on all but 2 (and, to be fair, saying is one thing).

I think the toughest decision out of this whole process was whether to tick “Democrat” or “Libertarian” on the registration form.