Monday, September 26, 2016

there's gonna be an accident

Welp, today was something. I spent most of it trying to work and also trying to get ready for Iowa. That means I woke up, showered, checked in for my flight, and then walked down to Philz, where I worked for 3+ hours. It was a two-coffee kind of day, which was probably overkill, but I wasn't ready to leave when I was done with my first coffee, so I grabbed a second and kept going. I think Lucy's book is going to be good, which probably means it's going to be horrible...but those are doubts for another day.

Then I came home, took care of some stuff, took a nap, and ate a late lunch. Then I ran a couple of errands, came home again, and packed - packing for Iowa is pretty easy, since no one particularly cares what I wear there (my stylish stuff elicits jhokes and my non-stylish stuff is easily washed and reworn while I'm there, so it's easy to go for ten days in a carry-on). Still, I needed to make sure I had enough clothing, but more importantly enough pens/washi tape/notebooks/books/electronic gadgets/etc.

By the time I was done with that, it was time to watch the debate. One of my errands had included, as an incidental side benefit, buying a half-bottle of sauvignon blanc since I figured I'd want a drink during the debate but also knew I couldn't drink a full bottle of wine, and it turns out that this was probably a good decision (although I really only wanted a glass, and then really only out of principle).

I watched the debate by myself because a) I wanted to be able to hear all of it, without loud commentary from people at a bar (I was invited to a bar, but didn't feel like it was the scene I wanted), so that b) I could form my own conclusions. I also watched it without checking twitter or facebook or other media sources at all - again, I wanted my conclusions to be my own. And I don't typically talk politics here because it makes no one I know happy, since my views tend to be straight down a middle that seems to be slipping away more and more every day.

[editor's note: I then went on to write a 1200 word rant about the debate, and to publish it - but then I thought better of it and redacted it all, since it would have made no one on any side happy. And, more importantly, I think the issues facing our country require discussion and debate and thoughtful consideration of a multitude of viewpoints, not carefully-distilled blog posts thrown into the ether. If you would like to be made unhappy - and, better, if you would like to have a bona fide discussion about the debate rather than talking about memes and soundbites and preexisting personal biases - let me know and I'll send it to you offline!]

So you're all going to vote for whoever you're going to vote for. And I'm going to drink a lot of wine and go to bed, and then watch political ads for the next two weeks until I need to switch out the wine for bourbon instead. But at least I wrote this for me, since writing always helps me to clarify my own heart. And you can all unfriend me at your leisure. Goodnight!

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