mid term
It's Downtime Tuesday again! I wrote nearly 5000 words in yesterday's post, about dinner and a movie with Ivan on Friday; touring through Seattle from Amazon Spheres to Shake Shack to Theo Chocolates Factory to Volunteer Park Conservatory to filling voting ballots at my place with Danielle and her work friend Elise on Saturday; and seeing a movie with Laney on Sunday.
Actually I think I may have even forgotten one thing I did on Sunday, which I never mentioned in yesterday's post. Shobhit and I went grocery shopping. Exciting stuff! We needed to go to Costco, and were actually going to wait to do so until after I got home from work yesterday -- but part of the need was to get fabric softener, which I completely forgot about until the first load of laundry was done and I found myself completely out. So, off to Costco we went after all. We also stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home. The drive home took way too long because we got stuck in traffic near the stadium after a home game with the Seahawks ended.
So yeah, that was my other thing I did yesterday: laundry. I did mention that yesterday though as I remember referring to Gabriel also doing his while we spoke on the phone. I think he must have to walk to some other building for it in his apartment complex; I could hear his footsteps while he was walking at one point. I did three loads, the third one being both towels and the sheets on the guest room bed, which Ivan had used when he lived here, he left behind when he left, and he continues to use after every time he comes to visit. But, since we now get other overnight visitors every once in a while, I still make sure the sheets and pillowcases get washed after every time he's here. (He was really great and washed them himself after visiting in August, largely because he wanted to wash some of his own clothes anyway, but he couldn't have done that if he tried this time, having to catch a 7 a.m. train on Saturday. And that was fine; he's officially a guest every time he comes now, and I would never expect that.)
Oh hey, has anyone mentioned today is election day and you should vote? Like, has a couple dozen or more people mentioned it in your social media feeds, your life, the line at the checkout stand? I'm honestly not trying to be too flippant here; there really can't be too many reminders. Not today. Not this year.
I am cautiously hopeful about today's results. This is a watershed election, a profoundly important one, a profoundly important midterm election perhaps unlike any other in history. And the advantage we have this time as opposed to 2016 is that they are all localized, a result of voters in local districts, at the very largest in specific states. We're talking about shaking up the makeup of Congress itself, sending the mandate of holding this vile excuse for a human being we have as a President, a duty at which the Congress of the past two years has tragically failed at every turn. This is way, way different from the fate of our country hanging in the balance between merely two widely reviled individuals, as it was in 2016. This isn't just one single coin toss here.
And of course I am compelled to note: Hillary Clinton was never reviled or hated by me. But she was by a massive amount of the country, the right and left alike. The same could be said of President Fuckwit, actually. He was actually only slightly more hated, on average, than Hillary had been (and still is). He also got assistance by Republicans who cheat and who get unfair advantages by the likes of the electoral college (although honestly I'm not convinced it's a given that he would have lost without it, considering how differently campaign strategists would have worked), gerrymandered districts, and by demonstrably proven Russian interference, not to mention festering racist resentment against Barack Obama that our current president stoked, but did not create on his own -- an important point to remember.
It's time to hold this wholesale monster accountable, which cynical Republicans have refused to do simply because, no matter how much they dislike him, they see his presence as a means to an end -- to stack the Supreme Court, for instance. It's exasperating to be reminded of all the people who insisted we were all being irrational and hysterical with our warnings of what would be wrought by this man becoming President. And well, look where we are. Literally tearing children from their mothers and putting them in cages. Being forced to face the stunning fact of not just how racist this country remains, but how anti-Semitic it still is. Racism is something I can wrap my brain around (which of course is not the same as agreeing with it); the level of hatred against Jews, in 2018 America, is something I cannot even comprehend. And sure, we can all agree that this president is "probably not an anti-Semite." (He's sure as shit is a racist.) We can also agree that he doesn't particularly give a shit about anti-Semitism either. And in the end, what, effectively, is the difference?
Sadly, whether we can have any shred of hope left in the American system really seems to come down to today's election. I'm certainly grateful to be in the state I'm in, with universal mail-in ballots, leaving really no excuse for anyone not to vote. Shobhit and I did it two weeks ago.
Anyway! On that happy note, what else can I tell you? I went home and helped Shobhit finish up making Magi noodles for dinner. And, oh right, this was the whole reason I went on all that stuff about it being election day -- I wanted to watch some TV episodes, but had to wait until 7:00 because Shobhit is all about the live audio feed he's found of the MSNBC shows he likes: Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow. And this week in particular he's all over this live coverage, all about the midterm elections. He'll be all over news all evening tonight and probably won't even want to watch any other TV -- so, I'm going to a movie.
But, last night, after 7 p.m., we did watch Sunday's episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (which had a great and depressing main story on the aforementioned family separation issue). And then we got into the first two of six episodes of the smash UK series now streaming on Netflix, Bodyguard. I'm quite liking it, finding it as gripping as they say. Near the end of episode two, Shobhit actually said, "I'm losing interest. A little bit." I said, "You're kidding!" Yeah well, when the episode I heard about where Richard Madden spends the entire hour in his underwear comes along, I'm sure his interest will intensify again. Having only ever seen him with a beard on Game of Thrones, I had no idea how insanely hot that guy actually is. I'm looking forward to it myself!
I mean -- yes, actually, the show lacks depth. But that's kind of not the point anyway. This is supposed to be tense and suspenseful, and so far, in my opinion, it delivers.
[posted 12:32 pm]