Well, Here We Are

Trying to shake off the dread and focus on making instead of worrying

I saw two posts on instagram the morning of Nov 5th. One was Willy Nelson saying that worrying doesn’t do you any good. It doesn’t solve anything and it just makes you sick The next post I saw was of Elmo, sitting quietly on a stoop, listening to birds, looking around, and taking it all in. It prompted me to put on a rain jacket and take a walk in the rain. I stopped and spoke to a neighbor then walked to my local park and let the rain wash over me.

That night Tom and I went to Florida room to escape the dread and get out of the house. By the time we left the bar, cheetoh-face had won. I couldn’t sleep so I took another walk around the neighborhood. I shortly came home and read a few short chapters from “One Nation Under Song: My Karaoke Journey Through Grief, Joy, and America” by Kris Gowen. I’m a very slow reader so I started it ages ago, maybe the start of October? I still have a third of the book to finish. It was written in 2016 just as cheetoh-face was taking office. When I picked the book up, I knew better than to get my hopes up too much, but I really thought Harris was going to be my next president. Now, as I read the pages of a book that travels through 48 states in the US, I’m trying to shake the frustration I feel towards so many people who voted in a monster, felon, narcissist, greedy bastard, stupid, ignorant sack of shit. It’s hard. I’m hoping the book has some insights about these humans I don’t understand, it may not, and that’s ok. I hold out hope.

On Wednesday, I decided rose trimming would keep me busy. I started with small garden shears and quickly upgraded to hedging sheers, then to an extendable branch trimming pole. I cut up every piece of my garden that I could without killing anything.

I watched Harris’s concession speech and cried. She quoted Martin Luther King Jr: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” I’m trying to hold onto that. I thought about ways of resistance. I feel like I need more comedy in my life. I went to Turn Turn Turns open mic last week and will try to go most weeks. I want to work on my own material. It could be a good outlet. I also need to keep making art. I have urges to make a cheetoh-face voodoo doll. Last night three episodes of Letterkenny helped me get to sleep. I’m guessing there will be lots more where that came from.

My daughter is worried. Her entire High School life is going to be spent with him as president. She’s worried about trans teens and teens with parents who aren’t citizens. She’s worried about her reproductive rights. She also proudly stated that she would be able to vote in the next presidential election and I am proud of her for having the wherewithal to look into the future.

This is a drawing of a trucker in a truck stop. I drew it while thinking about my 1984 Colorado round trip. Now it just makes me mad. I don’t want to work on that project anymore. I don’t want to think about Americans in red states who just signed up for a shift back to the dark ages. Do you think he has any idea that he just f#cked himself?

I went to my non-fiction comic class last night. It was hard to leave the house. Unsurprizingly only half the class showed up but I’m glad I went. It was good being around others who were feeling the same way. We had a productive class and did some drawing while we listened to a Charlie Rose interview with the Comic illustrator Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, and Paulk Giametti about the film “American Splendor” about Pekar’s life and work. The class was good medicine.

There were protests in Pioneer Square last night. I saw a video of people chanting “We will not be quiet.” The person taking the video was a pro-cheetoh-facer. Tom is of the belief that protests only fuel them, he thinks the only way to get them where it hurts is by humor and ridicule; they can’t stand it.

I’m chewing on that.

My immediate plan is to hunker down and get busy making and building everything I can.

Oh hey, if you live in Portland Oregon or are going to be in town in December, we’re having our annual holiday market. Who knows, maybe I will have cheeetoh-face voodoo dolls for sale. I had fun making a poster. Chuck Westmoreland, the owner of Red Fox, has a daughter, how old is she now? I’m going to find out. She also made a poster. Here they are in all their glory. Libby’s is really tiny, I’m hoping I can work some magic and make images for our SM campaign.

Anyway, over and out for now. We got this. I love you and believe in you. We are the light.