The Amazing Race, Version 6.0 started last night.

For those of you who were as taken with Iceland as I was, Icelandair has a travel package that traces the route of the first leg of the race.

This Open Letter to the Democratic Party is all over the web this morning. A friend passed it along to me and 85% of that letter is exactly how I feel. The writer put it so well. I’d say I personally didn’t have the “fear-factor” that she mentions, and I don’t think I really wanted to vote Democratic, but what I would’ve liked is for the Democratic party to have given me a candidate and a platform that I would want to really consider making a choice for. In the end, the writer nails why I never considered voting for anyone except the President:

He won because he has values, clearly defined values, and even though I agree with little of what he believes, at least I know what he believes. At least I know that he really does believe in something. At least I know that he will do what he says he will do.

I don’t really know how to put this post together coherently. These are more snapshots of random thoughts being put out there to just get them out of my system so they don’t manifest in any bad way by becoming snippy with friends.

I am sad today. An emotion I don’t have very often.

And I voted for President Bush and I’m happy he won the election. And happy that its over already, I was expecting a repeat of 2000.

That said, I am completely honest when I say I woke up this morning and expected two things: 1) that the election would not be officially decided and 2) that in the end, John Kerry would win. [I found this article on salon.com an interesting perspective on the internet in politics and how it can convince.]

I took a deep breath, was sad for 30 seconds and then realized my life under a Bush(43) presidency was no different from the eight years under Clinton. Did I like Clinton? Not so much. Heck, I voted for Dole. I understand supporting the losing candidate. So that was my minute and I went on with getting ready. After a bit, I sucked it up and turned on the TV and found that expectation #1 had been met but that #2 was not so certain.

And we know the rest of that story.
What made me sad was the demenor I encountered at work. No one was talking about anything. It was like some one had died. It all seemed a bit dramatic.
I expected to endure a day of ribbing from the democrats, but obviously, I didn’t get that. But I didn’t say anything to any of them in any celebratory way. I just want to get on with life, back to football and movies, and while I know that there are bigger things in life that we must face. I was just surprised at the level of insane hatred I read online. I know that both sides of the political spectrum can be extreme and hateful, but when I read post like this from a person I’ve met and know. (Not saying she’s my favorite person in the world on a normal day.) Or this post or this one, I am just saddened and a bit angry. I realize that these three people do not speak for every single person who voted for Kerry, but man, I’m just shocked at the level of hate. And they wonder why the country is divided. If Kerry had won, I would never had thought the people who voted for him were ignorant or stupid or weak-minded. I didn’t think that about all the people who voted for Clinton. All I thought is that they differ from me and there are more people like them who voted than think like I do on a majority of the issues.

My brain is running out of semi-intelligent thoughts to string together and I’m a bit peckish, so I’ll just say I hope hope hope that people can be angry or disappointed for a few days and work to move past our ugly divide and towards a more agreeable country, and I hope President Bush can lead us in that direction in the next four years.

On a semi-lighter note, if there was a McCain/Giuliani ticket in 2008, I might get motivated to get actually get involved in the political process. I saw McCain back in 1996 when he was running for the Republican nomination and he’s the only politician who’s ever made me want to get involved.