Do I have to say that last week was TOO much?
I feel like as a nation, we just performed an exorcism.
Just got out of an abusive relationship.
Just aged four more years.
Just barely got out alive.
Emotionally, I was chill election night because I stuck to my plan of NOT PAYING ONE BIT OF ATTENTION to the news and EXTREME SELF-CARE.
The next day, I plugged in and was wholly disenchanted and furious. How was the vote so close? If you put any two Americans in a room, one of them voted for 46 and one for 45. How was this possible after all the chaos, crazy-scary stunts, shoddy leadership, malicious lies, inhumanity and bullshit we witnessed flung out of the White House these last four years?
I fed the cat and went back to bed. I debriefed with two people about it. We cried angry tears and swore. Put the phone back on Do Not Disturb. Worked that day in my fuzzy onesie, but I wouldn’t trust anything I did.
Wednesday was a wash.
Thursday, I lit some incense, prayed and crawled back onto my yoga mat for an hour. Checking the numbers again, I wasn’t nearly as fazed. I still wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but I knew who I was going to be. Regardless.
Went to work and later refreshed the numbers like a maniac. For an hour. The saving grace was that it was my BFF’s birthday, so I Grub-Hubbed her her favorite meal. Carbs are my kryptonite, but I didn’t even pretend to try to stop myself from making a noodle and sushi run before we met online to celebrate her day and share a meal.
Early evening found me puzzling and laying on the floor in fetal position until the cat found me and inquired about some scritching and her food. I had leftover jambalaya, a glass of wine and binge-watched Mr. Bean.
By Friday, I’d lost the will to check on electoral college votes. I worked out like I was in training for something beyond the moment and deep-cleaned my house, lit some sage. I couldn’t get away from updates later though because I had a Crisis Clinic shift. There were 200+ calls in the cue when I logged in. The most I’ve ever seen in the years I’ve been a counselor is 20. Fortunately, helping others was a calming distraction for me.
When I signed out, it felt good to have been of service. Had a little dinner, a little Dave Chappelle and topped the night off with candlelight yoga.
Early Saturday morning , I was still in my bubble, lots of music and dancing. I’d decided someone was going to have to call me and tell me when the race was done because I had mentally left America. It was my big brother. Of course, the good news was a HUGE RELIEF and I savored President-Elect Biden’s and Vice-President Elect Harris’s hopeful, restorative, sane-sounding speeches. I still don’t like winning by a hair, but I’ll take it. We’ll take it.
I feel like as a nation, we just performed an exorcism.
Just got out of an abusive relationship.
Just aged four more years.
Just barely got out alive.
Let’s all take the week off. Who am I kidding – let’s take a year off.
How are you doing?
Better For That 
Gosh, I loved this post… smiling… waiting those four days (hell, four years) was not great, the race was disturbingly close. How can half our nation support such a thug? It is beyond me. Our nation has a lot of healing to do. Ready for the miracle, we got start somewhere. ❤
Thanks Eliza. Exactly. It was SUCH a MUCH. But in the end, thug out, healing begins. Let’s do this.
Yup: feels like still looking out the windows with the blinds down and the lights turned out to make sure he’s not still there.
Yesssssss!
LOL and also tears. This is the most accurate photo journal of that week’s events. Luckily, Dwight was celebrating his 50th bday, so I was otherwise preoccupied; otherwise, this may have been me, too.
Yeah, that was one of those SUCH-A-MUCH kinda weeks Glad you were focused on Dwight’s big 5-0 and birthday blessings to him. :-}