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13 november 2000

ow, ow, and ow again

I'm sure you have, but I'm going to ask anyway -- you ever had one of those weekends? One of those where no matter where you go or what you do, you end up injured?

Okay, maybe you haven't. Shut up then and go eat a cookie.

So I went swing dancing Saturday night, which was a good way to wind down my travel-heavy week with work. There were lots of nice people there and a good band, so there was some bodacious boogy-ing that night. Unfortunately, as the night wore on, my right arm kept getting these shooting pains down to my hand. More unfortunately, I'd been having them for about a week-and-a-half, but just figured I lifted something wrong. But it turns out that I've got a strained rotator cuff, and it's from the dancing. So grr.

I had this one time before, and it was in college when I swam everyday. Was really busting out a backstroke, when I threw my arm back and felt like it nearly ripped out of the socket. The rotten thing about this is that all you can do is take aspirin and wait about a month for the pain to subside. So big poopy snoogerballs, it's waltzing for me for a couple of weeks and no arm weights at the gym.

Alright, so Sunday rolls along, and I'm making a big batch of carrot juice. Yum-o-licious, and let me say right now that I bought my Juiceman four years ago before the trend really got out of control. Anyway, I'm looking for a bowl, I turn around, and WHACK! Knock myself silly on the corner of my wooden cabinets ow ow ow! As in, my vision got blurry ow. Dammit. The next two hours are spent periodically checking my pupils like Mom told me to do when I was a clumsy kid, to make sure there was no concussion. Thanks, Mom! Taught me to walk that fine line between caution and paranoia.

It's about 10:00 p.m. now. No serious damage done but a lump. I just hope my haircut doesn't look uneven in the morning like one of those bumpy-headed Star Trek characters.

So, in news outside of the Lioness Den, NO we don't yet have a president. And YES, the hand counts are tedious, but I'm glad they're doing them. For those of you who read Jason's Front Page, I agree with him on some aspects of maintaining the Electoral College. A lot of Europeans are calling for the termination of this, but what they don't realize is that most of the population of our country lies on the Eastern Seaboard (from New York to Florida,) and out in California. Basically, only coastal America would have a fair say in the presidency. That's why small states have what seem to be a disproportionate say in our elections.

The problem, however, lies in what I face every time I vote. From state to state and region to region, people and ideals can be quite different. Vermont, for example, is a progressive, often liberal-leaning state. There, my vote would count for something. However, in North Carolina (where I live now,) my vote doesn't count for much of anything in presidential elections because NC is generally a conservative Republican state. People here want to hang onto their money, go to church every Sunday, and carry a gun. I'm generalizing, but if you look at the way North Carolina votes, you would get that impression. You'd never know that there is a large number of people like me who probably ought to move to Vermont. There's just a larger number of people with guns and Jesus air fresheners in their trucks.

So what do I do if Bush is elected president? I buck up and live more conscientiously than ever. I volunteer more deliberately, speak up, and make sure I keep writing stuff that might matter to someone. Not because I am political, but because I like to think of myself a decent world, and not just American, citizen.

For my readers outside of the United States, take heart -- we're not all like Bush. We don't all like Bush. We're not all money-hungry, gas-guzzling, death-penalty advocates. The ironic beauty of this country, however, is that all these different ideologies can cohabit somewhat peacefully. It works well enough, I suppose.

I'm going to pour a nice cold glass of juice now and put it on the head bump. Or wash down some aspirin with it. Or just beat myself with a raw carrot until I'm out of my misery.