A quiet night with not much going on
Nov 3 plans?
The above photo was me the day after Election Day 2016. The weekend before I’d slept in a bedbug bed on a trip and this shit happened. That night I stopped watching the poll numbers the second things started to look bad for my candidate, but my husband would come tell me, in disbelief, how it was going. I was mad at him for delivering bad news, and for the gall to be as angry as I was. It wasn’t like he had gotten up that morning thinking he’d, for the first time, see a President who kind of looked like him. I went to bed and scratched my bites all night. The next day, I scrolled through social media looking at my friends’ sad posts about uneaten HRC cakes, unpopped champagne, and parties where people went home early. And I scratched some more. God, I’m scratching right now just thinking about it.
No, I don’t think I will watch the returns November 3. I know the election will likely drag on well beyond that night. But, I know myself and that any type of coverage of POTUS and his pals, whether they’re happy, or angry, or acting strange, will consume me any more than any possible good news.
My plan for now is to lock my phone and computer away as much as possible that day, and possibly the day after. I’ll watch Netflix. I’ll read. I’ll practice guitar until my fingertips crack. I’ll stay sober. I’ll go to bed early and try to stay offline the next day too.
Unless of course something good happens.
Many of you feel the same way, feeling burned from tuning in 4 years ago, but some of you are braver when it comes to Election Night plans:
“Gawd, in 2016 we were trapped in the ER watching f-in F*x News. Definitely not repeating any of that. My son ran through a glass door in our basement that night while being chased by his older brother. 16 stitches and the worst president ever. Fun times.”
“I'm actually going to be an election worker and I'm working the ENTIRE goddamn day. Like, literally have to be there at 5:30am and will be there until at least 8:30pm. And one of the best parts about it is that I cannot spend the day watching TV and scrolling Twitter. Once I'm home, though, BOY I DON'T KNOW. I don't think I'm going to be able to keep myself off of MSNBC.”
“I got up at 4:00 am in 2016 and went to a giant party thrown by the embassy at a fancy hotel (I live in the Netherlands). It turned out to be a really shitty party. Obviously this time around I won't be doing any of this for so many reasons.”
“I'm planning on buying all the snacks so I can stress eat my way through the evening. But I will have a break in the middle for my kid’s bedtime.”
“My plans may involve tequila, or going to Y and getting on a rowing machine to practice for my escape into Canada. I'm thinking I could row a boat from Presque Isle, Pennsylvania to Ontario.”
“I still have PTSD from the huge, lush party at Wellesley College that I was at with thousands of alums and students, AKA the worst night of my life. (There were ‘smashed glass ceiling cupcakes,’ friends.) I think I'll be ‘monitoring from a slight distance’ watching comfort TV as my husband follows the news in another room.”
End credits
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One witchy thing
