The Post-Campaigning Blues

I've read everyone else's opinions, now it's time for mine. It just feels so unsatisfying and masturbatory when I do it here and no one sees it.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal had a cute little article on what I'll call "Post-election depression." The feeling that now that the election is over the euphoria will die down, we will cease to dance in the streets and the calm will settle in. We have lost our purpose. It's sort of like the post-wedding letdown. We spent the last several months drowning ourselves in media coverage, attending rallies and knocking on doors, socializing with our other Obama fan friends and disowning and denouncing anyone Republican. We took all of this very personally and revolved our lives around what it said about us that we were supporting Obama. How much it meant to us, and how smart we must be to support this candidate. How dumb the other side is. We made our plans to move to another country if McCain won. We blogged and emailed with our sisters about Sarah Palin, the devil. All this was rather consuming, got a lot of adrenaline pumping and it all came to a head on Tuesday night with a landslide victory by our man, Obama. Yay, history-making and all that not to be diminished. But why did the camera at Obama's victory speech stop on Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Spike Lee? C'mon guys. I don't need to see any of them wallowing in their pride. We're all proud, this isn't about them.
This is about me.
Wednesday if we weren't too hungover, we could continue to watch the residual votes come in. We could watch the victory speech again and continue to cry. We could pay attention to who Obama is selecting for his cabinet. But let's face it, none of that is very exciting, and if we're all honest, we've never heard of any of these people he's choosing. They're white men and they don't mean anything to us.
I think I had a very different personal experience than my "comrades" because I live in rural Massachusetts, don't really know anyone and my boyfriend isn't as excited about Obama as the rest of my people. I voted for Obama, but without the fervor of most of the people I know. I watched as the votes came in on Tuesday night, and mostly what I felt was loneliness. Lonely because I knew all of my friends were at Obama parties staying up all night celebrating, and I felt left out. I wanted to party too and be a part of the excitement, but instead, I was in the bubble with Muffin & Sam, watching John Stewart and Steven Colbert announce the incoming results. Mostly it just made me realize that I have to get out more.
Wednesday I went to work at the vet's office and no one was talking about it. Huh? I thought people were going to work on Wednesday just so they could celebrate. I didn't really expect that anyone would work.
I cried a lot on Wednesday morning. First, when I watched Obama's speech online, then when I watched McCain's speech online (his best one yet - he should have pulled that stuff out during the election), and then at work when we euthanized Madeline, the kitty. It was a very emotional morning.
I think Obama is a leader and a brilliant speaker. He looks great and he has really white teeth. I think he's a good choice because the rest of the world likes him. Maybe they won't hate us as much as they do now. I think things can't get much worse for us in this country. I mean, I don't really think they're that bad to begin with, or at least I don't personally know these people who are having such a hard time. I mean, all my friends are getting great jobs, have health insurance and own big houses in great neighborhoods. So I'm not really sure who's suffering. I'm the only one I know who can't seem to get a decent job and has to pay for my own health insurance, and I'm not complaining. It's certainly not the fault of the government that I've become a loser and a slacker. We're always going to have problems. No one is going to solve them all. So it's really moving that we elected a black president - it makes us all feel really good about ourselves - but now, it's back to life and time will tell what, if anything, changes for the better. I have no idea.
Mostly though - and this is really the crux of the whole issue for me - I'm really depressed because this whole election thing has accentuated the fact that I have no life and no friends and no parties to attend. I go to sleep way too early, and I watch too much TV. If Obama's election has done anything for me, it's awakened me to the realization that I have to meet people. And they can be Democrats or Republicans for all I care. Since I always sympathize with the underdog, I really don't appreciate the way the Republicans are being chastised. I know some of them, and I feel sorry for them. They basically can't show their faces in public. It's reverse discrimination. I've heard people publicly denounce republicans as stupid - without having any idea who they're talking to. How is that different from making racist comments? (Except now, no one can claim that anyone is less intelligent because they're black. We have a president to disprove that theory.) So give the Republicans a break. They're not all stupid.
Now, it's back to job hunting, cleaning the house and going to the gym. Because if change is on the way, great, but the only way it's going to reach the bubble is with me getting off my fat ass.