Two voices, one vote

We voted this morning. Well, I voted. Torsten is not a US citizen and therefore does not get to vote. But he came with me to the polling station, waited in line with me while I checked in, and politely stood to the side while I cast my ballot. In case I secretly voted for Hillary without telling him? I'm not sure. I guess he did it on the same principle that causes me to look totally in the opposite direction if someone is typing their PIN. Just to make sure they don't think I'm trying to steal it, even though they know full well that I'm not.

Anyway, Torsten and I both support Obama, so I consider my vote to be cast on behalf of both of us. And if you live in DC, Maryland, or Virginia, today is the day, so go cast your vote. Especially if you're going to vote for Obama. Just kidding. Sort of.

In other news, remember how I posted yesterday about how I ordered wedding stamps? Well, last night I saw this article about how postage is going up 1 cent in May. Half the stamps that I ordered will still be good for sending out the save-the-dates, because those are going out before May. The other half will require the addition of a 1-cent stamp. And all I can say is that they had better introduce a purple 1-cent stamp, QUICK. Because I do not want to blemish our RSVP envelopes with these hideous green, lamp-adorned stamps. Oh, I am bitter about this.

Also, I've learned something about Torsten recently: when he's in pain, he gets all panicky and generally acts like a paranoid hypochondriac. It is tempting, therefore, to be dismissive of his panic. However, when he acts like that, there is always something wrong. Yesterday was no exception. He had a mild toothache over the weekend and by Sunday night was all freaking out and unable to sleep, partly because of the pain but also because he was so worried.

I, being the bad fiancée that I am, told him he probably had a cavity or something and should just make a dentist appointment and not worry about it. Of course, it turns out that he has a strong distaste for dentists ever since his old dentist in Germany inadvertently drilled into his nerve without anesthesia. So he spent a couple of hours obsessively researching dentists online and finally managed to find one that was a) highly recommended, b) across the street from his office, and c) covered under his dental insurance plan. Let me tell you, finding all three of those things in one dentist? Nothing short of a miracle. Especially given Torsten's very high standards.

Anyway, so he went to the dentist yesterday, and wound up having a root canal on the spot. I did not even know what a root canal entailed until yesterday, and believe me, I wish I still didn't know. It sounds absolutely horrible. Apparently it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but still. Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me shudder. And he'll have to go back next week to have the root canal finished, and then again to have a crown put on.

And also? We're lucky in that both of us have dental insurance. But even with? The root canal is covered at 80%, and the crown is covered at only 50%, and apparently crowns are very expensive, like possibly $1,000 or more. And he has a $1,500 annual maximum, and he's already used about half of that on x-rays and the root canal. My question is, why couldn't this have happened a month and a half ago so he could have had half the work done in 2007 and saved some of his annual maximum for this year? Now we just have to hope that he doesn't need any dental work for the rest of the year.

Now, just to re-emphasize: DC, Maryland, and Virginia readers, go vote!