Ridiculous

No, I’m not talking about the last two weeks in the news. I’m talking about my life over the last two plus weeks.

For those of you who are new to the blog and have only been reading Justin’s comments over the last several weeks, allow myself to introduce…myself. I am his other better half. You can think of me as the rational side of the argument. I need to very much apologize for being distinctly absent on these pages over the last few weeks. Especially over an incredible election. This blog was never intended to be a one way conversation on the issues. Justin recently told me that he believed my lack of input was due to my apathy over the poll numbers leading up to the election. I won’t say he is entirely wrong, though I would only attribute apathy to about 10% of why I haven’t been writing recently. Instead, I can attribute my absence to the ridiculous nature of my life over the last 14 days. One week before the election, I began six straight days of shooting in which my earliest call time was 5:30 am and my earliest arrival home was 11 pm. Didn’t expect that. We were shooting in a location where cell phones worked only half the time. Didn’t expect that either. I got very little sleep. After those six days, now one day before election day, I planned on sleeping in and catching up on the latest news only to discover that my landlord rented my apartment (I had given her 30 days notice in October and never rescinded it). I definitely didn’t expect this. So last week, I was forced into an emergency move which took the better part of the week. On election day, after one all-nighter, rather than staying updated on the latest poll numbers, I was stressed with trying to move my refrigerator and large bookshelf from my old apartment to my new apartment. Moving a frig sucks! Then I had a shoot that lasted into the early evening. But, at the end of the move, I found myself in a one bedroom as opposed to a studio so there is a good part to the story. Due to the move, I was without internet for a full five days! Can you imagine? No internet for five whole days!!! It’s amazing how much we rely on computers and the internet to conduct our day to day affairs. I have to admit it was kind of nice to not check my 50 plus emails a day. But it was painful to go through 250 emails at the end of the week. I now on and off contemplate moving to a remote location in order to shun all technology and cleanse my spirit. Maybe I’ll study math in a tiny little cabin and start wearing hooded sweatshirts. Just joking! Gosh, calm down.

As you can guess, this was the last way I expected to spend election week. I was, however, able to make it over to Justin’s on election night to see the speeches by John McCain and Barack Obama. I was impressed by both. For the record, I voted for John McCain. He remains to me a true patriot and American hero. But, I share in the concerns of many fellow conservatives in his distinctly negative campaign and his selection of Sarah Palin (I know I didn’t always feel this way). As it turns out, these two areas ended up hurting him in the end. It does sadden me the finger pointing I’ve heard about from the right after the election. As for the election of Barack Obama…I’m happy for him! Truly. I wish him the best. I’m happy for my liberal friends who are so energized by this event. I will say that one comment I heard on election day, “He shouldn’t be called President Obama, he should be called King Obama” made me chuckle before realizing the potential power that the people could give to this man. Just as a word of caution, we should think very clearly and carefully as an electorate, especially in this time of economic emergency, in giving too much power to any one man. Obama’s celebrity image makes it all the more likely that we will willingly give him a blank check to do as he wishes. I’ll admit this is cynical. But crazier things have happened in history. In the end, I think Obama has the potential to be a good, if not great, president. I’m happy that the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton era of race relations will now come to a close. No minority has an excuse for the “man” keeping him down as a reason to not succeed and excel in life. For this reason, I have hope for an Obama presidency. I will pray for him as I did his predecessor.

Well, my place is now less of a disaster than it was two days ago, which is saying a lot. I couldn’t even walk through my living room without stepping on bags, papers, and other stuff that I should have burned long ago. Had I needed to move into a place other than the building next door, I would have contemplated lighting a match and throwing it on the floor before I left for one of my shoots. I don’t consider myself a very materialistic person, but daggonit I have a lot of junk!

In time, I’ll respond to some of Justin’s recent comments. Stay tuned…..

Cheers,
Joel

Tagged as: election, joel, Obama, presidency, ridiculous