I'm not exactly a morning person. But today I got up much earlier than normal to go cast my vote. Not only was I hoping to avoid long lines by arriving at the polling booths at 7:30 AM, but I wasn't exactly sure I knew where I was supposed to be voting.

This is my first time voting on Manhattan's Upper West Side, having been a Brooklyn resident for five years prior to this summer. I knew where to vote in Brooklyn, but when I received the card with my new voting information, I was a bit confused.

Under "POLLING PLACE", my card says the following:

PS 53 or 811, OLD PS 9 (NEW PS 811)

I talked to several friends in the area, one who told me that PS 9 (that stands for "Public School 9", for those of you who are unaware of NYC's creative school-naming procedures) was on Columbus, and one who told me that PS 811 was on West End Avenue. The letters "WEA" were also on my voting card, so I figured that PS 811 was the way to go.

Since I only live a few short blocks from that school, I took a quick stroll through the neighborhood. Call me crazy, but I just wanted to make sure that there was actually a school there. Sure enough, PS 811 was right there as advertised. An added bonus, the school also apparently goes by the name, "The Mickey Mantle School".

Well, that Mickey Mantle reference is about as close to a baseball tidbit as I can muster right now. I'm a nervous wreck. If you haven't had a chance yet today, go out and vote.