Election Night

As with many people, I think I hit 100% saturation on this Presidential Election thing. I'm just god-damn sick of it, and frankly it brings out things in some people that just make me uncomfortably ill to dwell on for too long. I voted over a week ago, and I'm ready for this thing to just be over. Absentee voting in Washington state rocks, and I don't have to see the lines of people with signs outside the local school this way. Ideally, I'd like the Chimpster (and perhaps more importantly, the nutballs he has surrounded himself with) to be packing his crap come Wednesday, but until this thing actually finishes it is only a fevered dream.

Seems like people have plans for parties or other election night events. I think I'm going to do my best to be hiding in my apartment watching DVDs or enjoying some other some other non-live media. I personally wish it was illegal for the media to do any 'predictions' or 'exit polling' or other crap until all the damn polls actually close and the counting is more than 0.0001% done. I'm also betting we won't even know the final results for weeks if we have the kind of voting challenges we saw last time around, and it isn't like the country has gotten healthier or less paranoid since 2000.

And really, once you have cast your vote and done your best to encourage others to actually participate (at any level) in the decisions of our country, what is there to do but try to remain calm and wait. If Kerry wins, there will a lot of upset people in the country. If Bush wins, there will be a lot of upset people in the country. There isn't any result that will unify the country, or make most people feel like the country is heading in the right direction again. Calls for riots, anger, and bitterness are guaranteed to fill the national consciousness no matter how things turn out tomorrow night. I'm really ready for that to be over as well.

(no subject)

I had plans to do more this past summer, but the Sierra/Microsoft transition really took most of my attention. jeliza and I talked about trying to do some camping in the Olympics, but with her push to get her business going and her familial duties, it didn't happen. I love the outdoors, but somehow going on my own seems potentially boring and/or depressing. Hopefully scheduling next year will ensure I can attend Summerstar, as I miss getting a chance to camp with those alterna-hippy-pagan types.

I think I've reached a plateau in my on-going efforts to expand my social circle. I'm very grateful for the friends I have, and in my 3+ years here in Seattle I've managed to make a fair number of acquaintances through gaming, the con scene, the poly dinners, live journal, and so on. I never was a social maven, so I don't know that my current social circle is all that much smaller than it was back in Austin--at least towards the end of my time there--but it still feels like I don't have enough people around to call up on a whim for dinner or a movie.

On the positive side, the job at Microsoft is definitely not boring and with the work-related travel added to my own gaming/convention hobbies, my schedule is reasonably busy. Seeing jeliza continues to be immensely fun and enjoyable, although the reality of time and other commitments keep it more or less constrained to the level things are now. I should probably be working harder to get out and date more broadly, but frankly I never liked the 'dating' thing.

I'm looking forward to Orycon this weekend, as I usually find the social events around fandom amusing at least. Where else can I dance knowing nobody else is any good at it either?

Part of me is afraid that I'll still be living the same life when I hit 40, the thought of which I find immensely depressing. I realize I inverted my 20s and 30s, but I'm not sure I can see a path from here that leads to a life I would want for the longer term. One heartache to heal at a time I suppose. Next year my big plan is to try to get a house. I've been living in an apartment way, way too long.