Few things make a post, I suppose.

• I'm starting to edge toward my seasonal...maybe not depression, but I'm definitely feeling more down than usual, and I think it has to do with the clustering of the harvest holidays at the end of the year. The sorts of holidays where you go feast with friends and family and celebrate making it through again.
  
  Something is twisted around in my psyche such that it assumes, essentially, that everyone already has plans, has their guest lists set, and they haven't invited me because I'm not really a person they know well or not a good enough friend to invite to the table. (And furthermore, it only counts if the invite comes without prompting or suggestion, because then they feel guilted or obligated.) That was likely a bad conclusion drawn while I was with someone else, because that other person was probably the reason for the lack of invitation. But I think I start feeling it a bit more around these times, because it's one more way for me to try and convince myself that I'm A Failure at adulthood.
  
  Reality checks appreciated.


• A person came to the library today and wanted to know if they could register to vote here. My state does online registration and in-person, so it seemed like it would be an easy situation. Except that they had just moved, and the cut-off date for online registration was a few days ago. They could still go to the county seat and register in person for a few more weeks, but this person didn't seem inclined to do so.
  
  "I just moved here," they said, "so I don't know anything about what's going on, so I don't need to vote this time around, right?"
  
  I reminded them that there were federal offices up this election, so if they wanted to do stuff about Congress, they'd need to register.
  
  Through this entire encounter, they'd assumed reluctant to do anything particularly onerous, and were ready with stories of things like where they were from, they could register at a college, and that because they just moved here, they didn't really need to do anything for this cycle.
  
  They left, likely not going to register, and I find myself torn between two things that I'm mad at. One, the likely lesser, was that this person didn't seem to want to expend any real effort to get registered and vote, and that annoyed my civic sensibilities (and the part of me that needs people to vote on the library levy) that someone preferred not voting because they would be slightly inconvenienced by registration.
  
  The greater one is "why isn't it easy, or even automatic, to get registered? Someone got their license updated and/or renewed, or their vehicle tabs paid, or otherwise interacted with the government and confirmed the necessary data? Good, now their voter registration automatically updates. Just moved? You're registered as soon as you provide the information needed for your identification card. (And there needs to be ways for the undocumented to be able to participate in the process as well.)
  
  Why do we deny inmates voting rights? Why aren't they automatically restored at the end of their sentences? Why not be able to register on the same day and cast a ballot?
  
  I know partisan reasons why certain political actors want more or less registered voters, but they shouldn't be allowed to mess with the system, and the sensible default should be that unless someone had a really good reason why they can't, they should be eligible and registered as painlessly and automatically as possible.


• Every public library worker you know has long since learned what the past tense of "shit" is, because they have discovered or had sometime mention to them that someone using their bathroom has done such a thing outside the boundaries of the receptacle designed to dispose of such things. Today was my turn to use the word "shat" in my official request to have someone else's shit get cleaned up off the walls. This is not the first time. It will not be the last. And we definitely don't pay the custodians enough for this.