Free Stuff for Voting: Ice Cream with a Friend

I walked through the rain for some Ben & Jerry's. I got there at 5:10, and there was a line, but it was really short. I took my place behind a guy in a black hooded sweatshirt and held my umbrella above him and me. (It's a really big umbrella. Some Jewish girls who did not look old enough to vote got in line behind me and also stayed underneath my umbrella; I could hear some of them giggling about it.)

After a while, the guy in the black sweatshirt turned his head just a little and said "Who'd you vote for?"

I identified him as a crazy, obviously, but there wasn't much to do about it. I said, "Oh, you know..."

He made a face and said, "Oh, um, okay, you don't have to."

I said, "The younger one."

He said, "Aww yeah," and terrorist-fist-bashed me.

He went on to say that even if I voted for McCain, that would be cool, but for him, he didn't want a 72-year-old in the White House, and he didn't want 4 more years of Bushlike stuff. Then he made sure I understood that his sticker was missing because it fell off... or maybe he had changed clothes from when he voted... it was unclear. I went into my crazy-dealing mode, smiling, nodding, but not really saying much. I did however assure him that you didn't need a sticker to get free ice cream.

Then he said, "Did your team win on Sunday?"

"...I'm not really into sports."

He wasn't sure where to go with that. He said, "Not into sports? Why not?"

"Just never got into them."

Sweatshirt guy was quiet for a while, and then said, "You like women?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, well that's two things we can agree on."

"Yep."

"Obama and women. Those are two of our similarities. But you got a job, and I don't."

I smiled, but was silent. It wasn't worth going into that I, too, am jobless while I am going back to school. He might've taken my silence poorly, since he mumbled something about getting around to finding one sometime but then stayed quiet until we got our ice creams.

He had "Chocolate Therapy." I asked for "One Cheesecake Brownie" but got shot down, so I went with Sweet Cream and Cookies.

Outside Ben and Jerry's, sweatshirt guy spoke up one more time. "We meet again."

"Yep." I fiddled with my umbrella. "See you later."

"See you around."