Today is Election Day. Today America chooses its next president. And to be honest, I couldn’t care less. No matter who wins, nothing essential is going to change in America. While Clinton likes to take credit for the current economic prosperity, there’s much more to it than his presidency that made it possible. It’s like Regan and Bush taking credit for the fall of communism, as if they accomplished what six or seven presidents before had all tried but failed.

I honestly hate to hear what Fahy is going to be saying today. “I’ll kill myself if Bush wins.” Unless

1. Bush gets to appoint two or three Supreme Court Justices in the next year;
2. someone gets a case challenging Roe vs. Wade before the Supreme Court within the next year or so after that;
3. they decide to overturn Roe vs. Wade; and,
4. Fahy gets pregnant at that point or later and wants an abortion,

then nothing is really going to change in her life. We’re all solidly middle class folks and we’re not really going to feel anything.

Yesterday at work was hellish — especially in the beginning. I had the disgusting realization that my job consists of sitting in front of a computer all day long. That’s one of the main reasons I try to write in here in the morning now — otherwise, I won’t do it. I don’t really want to come home and flip on the computer when that’s what I’ve been doing for the last nine or ten hours. Anyway, I got in and my password wasn’t working, so I spent the first thirty-five minutes of my day waiting for someone from IT to show up and re-set my password so I could get something done. Add to it the fact that in general I hate my job and it’s not difficult to see why my day got off to such a shitty start.

I had a thought yesterday about going to Lipnica. I remember trying to figure out whether I should break up with Kathe or not and it suddenly occurred to me — the desire to break up with Kathe is enough.¹ I was trying to justify it, trying to legitimate it, when it had all the legitimation it needed. Now I’m experiencing the same thing with this desire to go to Lipnica. I keep trying to think of some way to “sell” it to Chhavi, to convince her that it’s for the best and all that nonsense. Yet I’m just doing the same thing — I’m just trying to make it sound plausible, trying to make sure that I have a response to every objection she has. In other words, to make it seem as logical to her as it seems to me, to make her say, “Oh, I see. Well, in that case, you should go. Absolutely — no question whatsoever.”

Last night we went to see Wonder Boys then stopped for sushi at Gyuama’s on Boylston afterward. The movie itself was okay — it seemed to lack direction at some points and I found that to be a little tiring, but overall I liked it. Dinner was good — I was surprised at how filling the sushi was. But that was about the extent of our evening — fairly boring in many ways, I guess. There’s a lot we could talk about, but I just don’t have the guts to bring it up.

Things like what Mona and Shrikanth said when they came over to dinner Sunday don’t help: it’s a great place — you have to stay here for as long as you can. True enough, but I don’t want not to go to Lipnica just because I don’t want to give up a nice apartment. That’s the heart of the problem — I hate living in a place where nice yet affordable apartments are so hard to come by. I’m sick of living in a place that has such an inflated opinion of itself that a two bedroom place can cost $1,000 a month and leave me thinking, “Wow, that’s a good deal.

Time to get ready to go.

9:54 PM 55 Adams Street, Malden MA

With 15% reporting, here’s the results:

It seems that there’s a real possibility that the seemingly unthinkable will happen: the candidate more people want as president will lose. Is that true democracy? If Gore wins on electoral votes but not on popular votes, Fahy, Bishop and others will be thrilled — but if the opposite were to happen . . .

The electoral college is nonsense anyway.

Literally, moments later:

And Nader seems to be getting the support he needed:

1 That was six years ago. I find that difficult to believe now. It seemed like it took six years to make it through the first year. Now I’ve no idea where Kathe is, and I don’t really care to be honest. I finally realize that you can’t hold on to every single relationship in your life. It’s only natural that you drift apart after some time.