Wake me when it's over

I plan to spend most of today sleeping, since I maybe got three hours last night owing to a late night blood infusions and the less than relaxing accommodations, and reading. If I deign to turn on the telly, it will be to hover around the neutral cable channels so as to avoid all the squawking from the networks.

My mom's friend Sarah said her nightmare would be a repeat of the 2000 elections where it becomes too close to call, everyone goes ape shit, and the election results get smacked around the court systems for a couple of weeks while the rest of America rends their garments and gives up.

I am so weary of ads and junk mail and phone calls. Especially the phone calls. I don't know which were worse, the automated calls or the cold calls, one of which went down like this:

(I'm in the kitchen last week cooking dinner. The phone rings.)

ME: Hello

CALLER: Terry? TERRY? (I'm not exaggerating. The woman was hollering.)

ME: Excuse me?

CALLER: Is this TERRY?

ME: No, I think you have the wrong number.

CALLER: I have THE WRONG NUMBER?

ME: Yes.

CALLER: Terry...Terry...AMOS?

ME: Um,this is the Amos household.

CALLER: Well I'm calling on behalf of Barak Oba...

ME: *click* Guh.

Some people sould not be let near a phone.

I'm just not one to get all swooped up in a Presidential election. Maybe if we were a dictatorship and the person running the ship called all the shots, I'd be more passionate, but really if we were a dictatorship I think there'd probably be only one name on the ballot. And probably if you didn't vote for that name, you might disappear for a little while to be "re-educated". I'm more interested in local and state politics because decisions made at that level tend to have a more immediate and direct impact on my day-to-day living.

Cynicism is the word that best describes my attitude towards national politics. It's mostly business as usual up on Capitol Hill, no matter who's behind that big desk. Because once all the dust has cleared from the election and the fancy speeches and gilded promises faded, it's back to crabby, partisan squabbling and power plays and the well venerated game of finger pointing.

So as I've said after nearly every election, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."

Totally unrelated note, is the new Vanity Fair out on magazine stands yet? The celebrity websites have been covering it, and Kate Winslet, my girlfriend, is on the cover looking smoking hot and not unlike a certain iconic French actress whom I also admire. I think I might support Vanity Fair in their choice of cover subject and pick up a copy