Photo via Bob (and starring my favorite little buddy, Oliver):

Have you voted yet?

If so, please share your story.

I have lived on Bardstown Road in Louisville, Kentucky, since June. It was just the change of pace and place that I needed, and I’m really fond of the area and the people here.

And the food.

Whoa.

One of the most important things for me when I moved was to get my voter registration switched over from Indiana so that I could vote for Barack Obama today.

So this morning I got up early and set off on foot to cast my vote in what I feel to be the most important election in our nation’s history.

(And Senator McCain, I was a huge supporter of yours in 1999 and 2000, when you were everything that you say you are now, but aren’t. I even sent you a check for $25, because I believed you wanted to shake up Washington and I knew that George W. Bush was going to be trouble. And even though I’ve been an Obama man through and through, I still respected you. But you lost me at Sarah Palin, who, beneath her $150,000 wardrobe and $28,000 makeup job, is one of the most ignorant, arrogant, divisive, and despicably hypocritical figures in politics right now or ever. You are a better man than this. And you know it.)

It took less than 10 minutes to walk down to my polling place at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, where I’d accompanied Bob’s family to the Boar’s Head Christmas pageant and festival many times in my youth.

And when I got there at 5:45 a.m., I counted 34 people ahead of me in the winding line packed into the atrium — to the point that I couldn’t see around the corner anymore.

A man in front of me said there were already 75 people in line.

(I was hoping to meet and marry a sweet Obama gal, but I was the youngest person there by about 10 years, and I’m not exactly the most spring of chickens at 33. Come on, young people. Get out and vote.)

At 6, they let us into the room they’d set up for voting. Most people didn’t know their precinct, but on a whim I’d brought my voter registration card and was therefore able to jet right over to the table I needed.

I got my ballot — it was the kind where you filled in the circle for the candidate you wanted — and was walking back to my apartment by 6:10, where I hopped in the car, went to Hardee’s, got another Pork Chop & Sausage Gravy Biscuit to reward myself for participating in democracy, and now … we wait.

And while Sarah Palin might tell you that I don’t love America because I don’t agree with her particular brand of hateful filth, you’ll be hard-pressed to find someone who loves living in this country as much as I do. I have been lucky enough to enjoy some truly dream-come-true opportunities in my life. I have the best family and the best friends a man could ask for. I get to see the best movies and listen to the best music. I am free to tell it how I see it. Do I appreciate that? You’d better believe it.

So, whoever you are and however you vote, make sure you get out there and vote today.

Okay?

Thanks.

And good luck, Barack. You speak to the best in all of us, sir.