335 days, 16 hours, 28 minutes

So, some of you might recognize what this post title refers to, but for those of you who don't, click here.

I must admit, this time around, I'm less excited about who the next president is going to be than I am about the fact that it won't be him. How glorious the day will be when there is no fear of innocently turning on NPR in the morning and hearing that man commenting on Castro stepping down from power:

"This gives the international community an opportunity to . . . um . . . establish . . . to establish institutions to . . . um . . . ."

My God, spit it out, man! And make some small effort to make your subjects and verbs agree while you're at it! Please?

Actually, it's kind of weird to hear W speak these days. There's something different in his voice that's kind of pathetic. He still has that annoying defensive tone that he's always had, but now, there's also something defeatist there, something sad and resigned. He also sounds like he's just dutifully reading off a script (which he still manages to screw up somehow, frequently), blindly reciting words written by someone else, talking about stuff he doesn't really care about. In some ways, it's more disturbing to hear a president talk like that than it is to hear him adamantly and passionately espousing dangerous and very wrong policies. I mean, who would you rather have in charge--a crazy person, or a lobotomized person? It's kind of a tough call.

I also have to wonder if it's possible that W has entered a period of self-reflection, if it's starting to dawn on him what a failure and shambles his presidency has been, and if that's what's driving his new demeanor. I never would have thought him capable of self-reflection, but I guess anyone can grow. (?) Unfortunately, at this point, there's not really much for him to grow into. . . .

One thing's for sure--the RWBF and I are not going to be hashing out these issues any time soon. Recently we made a pact--for the next several months leading up to the election, he is not to say anything about Hillary, and I'm not to say anything about Bush. (And I haven't even made up my mind about who I'm going to support--I'm just tired of his endless cracks about Hillary. Obama doesn't seem to bother him so much.) Such are the little deals we have to make with each other in order to successfully navigate the landscape of our relationship. If we didn't, we would no doubt have endless repeats of "Reagan Sunday," a day a few weeks ago where we spent the morning arguing about Reagan and the afternoon not speaking to each other. It's not fun and it accomplishes nothing, so what's the point?

Another rough one . . .

O.K., trying to sneak in a quick post before the RWBF gets here. We are going on a kamikaze Valentine's date--meaning, neither of us made reservations anywhere, so we're just going out to hit the town hard and find somewhere to eat before the end of the night. That is our mission. (Yes, the RWBF was in the military. It comes out in little, funny ways.)

Anyhoo, I probably have a little bit of time, because the RWBF is always late. Hey, no one's perfect. It doesn't really bother me, because I'm not the most prompt person, either. Generally, he's not majorly late, and I've easily adapted--whatever time he gives me, I automatically tack on about 20 minutes, and it all works out fine. (We're talking about when he's coming over to my place, by the way, not when we're meeting out somewhere. Actually, that never really happens--he always comes to get me. So, never mind.) 

He's going to be here momentarily, though, so I have to keep this short. Just wanted everyone to know that they should stay tuned--I'm trying to pull myself out of my recent bout of writer's block, and the only way to do that is to write openly and frequently. So, please excuse the probable lack of polish on the next few entries as I try to write my way out of this slump.

Blast (or something) from the past

So, tonight I was cleaning out some computer files, and I came across this random document containing a blog post I started to write . . . a year ago? More? Actually, I must have written it in the last 7 months, in the time since I got the new computer, but still, it was a while back. I only vaguely remember writing this post, and I don't remember where I was going with it (as it's obviously incomplete). It's interesting for me to think about what I might have been doing when I wrote this--like, was it on a weekend or a weeknight? What was I listening to? Was I watching Law & Order while writing? (I do that sometimes.) That's one of the great things about writing--it helps you track your life.

Anyhoo, without further ado, here is the entry:

Things that irked me tonight:

1. Wilco song as a jingle. (Some car commercial, I think.)
2. Scott Baio is 45 and single.
3. Someone on the VH1 show "Charm School" has the exact same comforter as me. Yeah, they shop at Target too.
4. I have so much to do, but I can't stop watching the World Series of Pop Culture.
5. Transformers trailers. Understand, this is a Michael "King of Crap" Bay film based on a TOY. Yeah. (Slightly even more heinous than basing a movie on a video game.)
6. God, I don't want to do laundry.

So, probably not all that interesting to anyone but me, but there it is--random thoughts that were going through my head at some point about 7 months ago. I often jot down random thoughts like this, but I generally incorporate them into a blog entry or an e-mail and then delete them. This one I just let hang out there . . . and it's kind of fun to come across stuff like this at some point in the future and think back.

Yes, writers are easily amused.