My psychiatrist’s office is in the next town over, so I generally rely on the graces of others for a ride every two weeks. The alternative is a $40 round trip cab ride with a driver who, more often than not, smells like rubbing alcohol.
I like to get into town an hour early so I can walk around. It’s not much of a city, but it’s ten times the size of my little village and has an actual “downtown”. Until this past summer there was a used record store I’d hang out in — a couple of years ago I sold four seasons of The Sopranos there so I could pay my heating and hydro bills. I could generally find something obscure but cool there, plus they always had a great selection of stickers and band logo postcards.
But they went out of business and now the only “record store” left in the area, other than the box store stuff, is a tiny, dark downtown pawn shop. The only time I was in there I bought two PS2 games. Their entire CD collection was stored in a small cardboard box behind other stuff on a bottom shelf.
Last year a really nice, decent quality video rental place opened up in town, and it’s right across the street from my psychiatrist’s office. So I’ve started buying movies instead. For less than $20 I can walk out with four used movies worth seeing a few times.
This was originally intended only to be published on my [other] blog, where I’m trying to get back into the rhythm of writing news columns, but then I figured “what the hell”. So feel free to let me know if 1. the words are in the right order; 2. the words are written in English; 3. the general focus is coherent.
President Elect Obama won the election, yet Senator McCain didn’t lose so much as he came in a very close second. The person electors wanted to punish was President Bush, and they have.
The almost-former President’s place in history has been set in stone with this election. There will be no redemption. His will forever be known as the “Idiot Presidency”. Everything he “accomplished” will be forever eclipsed by the absolutely historic election of an African-American president. The Bush legacy will be reduced to books written about the lies used to get into a second Iraq war, and the disgraceful response to Hurricane Katrina.
Ding dong the wicked witch is dead. But she had been on life support for four years and wasn’t expected to live much longer anyway, so taking credit for her death after sticking a sword in a her lifeless body, and dancing on her grave after her body had already been put into the ground might be justified by the amount of relief which needed to be released, but it’s hardly a victory.
President Obama is a remarkable person, with a remarkable personal narrative, and his election to the presidency is an incredible testament to the historical narrative of the United States. But his election owes almost as much to American dislike, even hatred, of a president who would have been gone in a few months no matter who was running.
This is voting day in the United States, Canadians had ours a couple of weeks ago.
The first time I ever voted was federally in 1988. It was an unofficial referendum on the “Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.” I decided I didn’t know enough about it (no Internet access) so I voted for the local Liberal Party candidate… they were against it. They also lost.
Since then, federally, I’ve voted Liberal (1993*), Progressive Conservatives (1997), Natural Law Party of Canada (2000), Conservative (2004, 2006, 2008)… the Liberal Party did some things between 1993 and 1997 that pissed me off, so I’ve pretty much voted against them ever since. And the NLP were just too funny not to vote for.
…*so I’ve only voted for an outright winner once. There are differences between the Liberal and Conservative Party’s, but policy in Canada is fairly easy to reverse so I don’t see a huge deal voting for either party. However, by losing twice in three years to the Conservatives (two minority governments in a row), the Liberal Party has definitely been embarrassedhumiliatedshamed kicked in the political nuts… which makes me smile.
American politics has way more glitz, and maybe even more quality candidates, but Canadians do have far more choice on Election Day than American voters. During this past federal election there were four National parties, with another sixteen regional parties.
…actually my uncle has run for a few federal elections as a candidate for the Communist Party of Canada, and my biological father has run for election a couple of times for the New Democrat Party of Ontario.
Technically Canada and America have the same British-French political roots, but after the Canadian election the Daily Show joked that our Conservative Party was the American equivalent of the “Gay-Loving Nader Fans For Peace Party.” Which is about right.
If Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain were running in Canada as they have been running there I doubt either would be elected. The abortion issue alone would automatically have 66% of Canadian voters out protesting against them.
Something I wrote on [my other blog] last year: “The biggest difference between Canadian and American politics is Canada does not have a cheerleader culture. There’s a clear separation between Hockey, Religion and State in Canada whereas, in America, football, baseball, Christianity and State are all wrapped up into one hyperbolic message which is then shouted out in short rhythmic bursts by dynamic pyramids of young, hyper-enthusiastic, impossibly healthy, ridiculously optimistic übercitizens.”
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So my questions, for anyone willing to play along, is:
Who was the first person and party, you voted for?
The second year of Salted Lithium ends on November 14, 2008. This is the third post in a series taking a look back at the past two years.
The first post was a collection of posts I’ve written about my relationship with my father. The second was about my relationship with manic depression. But both posts had other stuff as well, just like this one.
This collection is made up of my favourite posts which have little to nothing to do with manic depression or my recovery. Most of them are about being poor, falling in love and living in the big city with my punk friends.
The idea of these Anniversary Posts is to encourage people to take part in the conversations which were started on the original posts last year or two years ago. But no pressure.
I’ve been meme’d by Natalia. This one seems fairly simple, all I have to do is list “six random things about me”… but which six? Lets see how well I can remember myself…
The rules of the “6 Random Things About Me Meme”:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself. (See below)
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. (See further below…)
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.
My regular appointment with my psychiatrist is in… eleven hours and I’ve been up all night working on another anniversary post thing. So I think I still have time for a decent sleep and a shower. Although I haven’t confirmed a ride yet…
Something he asked me to do was to think of someone I trust. Someone I feel comfortable with. It has to do with the EMDR thing we started a few weeks ago. The general idea, as I remember it, is to have this someone in mind as I work the knots out of my memories and clinical depressions.
I think it’s meant to work something like a spirit guide… or not. A force of good while I deal with the worst stuff. I do remember it can be a fictional character, or someone I’ve never met, or someone I know.
So, at the moment, I have two selections. One is Arizona Ames. He’s a recurring character in books written by Zane Grey. The other is my step-father. Watching my step-father with his kids, and having to come to know his character over the past… almost twenty years, he’s pretty much my ideal image of what a “father” should be.
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." ~Maya Angelou
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