Constitution Face Mask o’ the Day and starry, stripey Bow Tie o’ the Day will be watching election results with me throughout the evening, because Suzanne is working late—and I cannot watch scary things when I’m alone.🤡 (Skitter is too scared to watch at all.)
One of my three minors in college at Weber State was Political Science. I’ve always been drawn to understanding how government works, and how it can work better for citizens. I briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a political speechwriter back when I was a young whippersnapper. But, even waaaay back then, I knew that when bigly money is involved, respectable politicians are few-and-far-between, and I did not want to take the chance of having to spend my time writing lofty, lying speeches for slickster candidates to spew forth into a microphone. Nope. Political speechwriting wasn’t my true calling. Instead, I was called to do something else. I still don’t know exactly what that “something else” is yet. The older I get, the less I know. Knowing that I know less—that’s called wisdom. And it’s my wisdom that made sure I voted in the 2020 General Election long before any and all voting deadlines.
See ya on the flip-side of the bigly VOTE, my pals!
If ever a day requires a cape, Election Day is surely such a day. As Americans, we have the amazing gift of being able to vote for what we want our future to look like. In my opinion, too many eligible voters don’t utilize this mighty little superpower. Voting is a right, and every right carries with it a bigly thing called responsibility. It is my personal pet peeve that people are so quick to yap about others encroaching on their rights, but then conveniently ignore their own responsibilities for being knowledgeable and civil.
If you’ve already voted, you have my thanks. If you haven’t already voted, please do. It’s your right as an American citizen. It is also your responsibility as an American citizen. If you feel like your vote doesn’t count, you’re only right about that if you don’t vote. See how that works? If you vote, your vote is counted; therefore, you count. You’re a part of shaping this country’s future. Sounds cheesy, I know, but I’m not wrong. Don’t stand on your country’s sidelines. You aren’t being asked to die for your country today. You’re simply being asked to use a dark pen to fill-in some bubbles on a sheet of paper.
Finally, in the midst of this election’s overly contentious, uncivil, hullabaloo, please remember to be kind to those who don’t cast their votes for your candidates. Please don’t belittle, bully, or injure another citizen in an attempt to make them vote differently than their own conscience demands. And don’t try to keep others from casting their votes. If you see any of those things happening, it is your duty as an American citizen to step in and stop it. All of that behavior is childish, unnecessary, and just plain bad manners. And I cannot believe that in 2020, some of my beloved country’s grownups still have to be reminded to be nice and play fair with their citizen-neighbors.
I’ve been working on a secret thing that I can’t talk about until tomorrow. Rest assured it has nothing to do with the election. It is difficult for me to get the election off my mind, even so. When my brain implodes due to all the political noise, I go silent. I do. I shut up. Tie o’ the Day and masked Face Mask o’ the Day, however, are always there to do my talking for me. They express my Election Eve feelings so very well. 😱
Tie o’ the Day and I will wear anything (almost) at any time (almost). It’s sort of my job to do so. The clashier, the better. The more you-can’t-look-away-even-though-it-kinda-freaks-out-your-eyes, the better. I know I’m dressed like my true self if my attire incites at least one of two things: a chuckle, and/or a conversation—even if the conversation is with yourself. I am ecstatic when both goals are met in a tblog post, simultaneously. That’s why I make the bigly bucks, folks. I am really just a very uncomplicated, complicated chick with a brimming Tie Room.
Yup, I’m still in my pajamas. Still recuperating from being old, or whatever condition I’m in. I’ve been napping around the living room today, going from couch to love seat, then back again. I’ve been quite boring to myself and Skitter. I’m just so bloody tired. I fall asleep at the drop of a hat, or the drop of a tie. Full disclosure: I did walk upstairs to the Tie Room once to grab my afternoon post accessories. Different Hat o’ the Day. Different Tie o’ the Day. Different Face Mask o’ the Day. I wouldn’t want to wear the exact same outfit in two different posts—ever. I do, however, stand by repeating the words on my mask. We should be nice humans to other humans, over and over again, every day. That Masked Message goes with any outfit I could ever possibly dream up.
When I tell y’all about my aches and pains—whether mental or physical, I am not in search of a pity party. I am not saying, “woe is me.” I just tell you what’s up with me and the residents of the Tie Room. And what’s up is that yesterday I woke up feeling like I’d been run over by a golf cart. My head ached, and I never get headaches. My whole body ached. It felt like a belt was tightening around my ribs. Even my Spock ear hurt. The bottoms of my feet kept cramping. I am the whitest person on the planet, but yesterday I was whiter than that. I made a bed on the couch, which I haven’t done since right after I was recovering from my Hanky Panky decapitation surgery. That’s been two years now.
I had my flu shot a few weeks ago, so I figured it wasn’t the flu. I could tell Suzanne was worried about me because she called me from work, via FaceTime, to ask me all kinds of questions about which of the COVID-19 symptoms I might be feeling. You have to understand that when Suzanne is at work, Suzanne is at work. She doesn’t know home exists. That is not a criticism, it is just a slight exaggeration. I am simply making the point that Suzanne was worried about me. She doesn’t text, call, or Face Time me from work unless there is a bigly problem. Yesterday morning, I guess she considered my health a bigly problem. She even ordered me not to die.
Anyhoo… I answered Suzanne’s questions about any possible COVID-19 symptoms I might be having. Suzanne said the questionnaire she was reading from said, based on my answers, I should go to urgent care. I don’t know everything, but I sort of know my body, and I highly doubt COVID-19 is the culprit. Nevertheless, I promised Suzanne if I didn’t feel better the next morning (today), I would hop, skip, and jump to the urgent care clinic to be tested.
Well, I woke up this morning feeling just enough better that I doubt I’ll be going for a COVID-19 test in the immediate future. My head still hurts, but not as much. My feet are still cramping up weirdly, but not as much. My chest is feeling bear-hugged too tightly, but not as tightly as it felt yesterday. I am still whiter than my usual whitest-person-on-the-planet pallor, but I’m not as white as I was yesterday.
I’m starting to think there is such a thing as “aging pains.” I remember having growing pains in my legs when I was about 10, and Mom rubbed them down with alcohol so I could fall asleep at night. Those kinds of pains mysteriously came and went for a couple of years. Just as mysteriously, I think I’m starting to have the opposite kind of pains: those growing old pains. Some days an arbitrary pain, ache, or twitch shows up and sticks around for a few hours or a few days, then it’s just as mysteriously gone. I will always be fish-belly white, but my aging pains will surely come and go. No worries here.
October is not just the month of Halloween celebrations, whose basic colors are black and orange. We know it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, whose symbolic color is pink. October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, symbolized by the color purple. With that in mind, Skitter and I don some of our purple today to tell you about something called the PURPLE LEASH PROJECT. A huge number of domestic violence victims who have pets say a major reason they don’t leave an abusive situation is because their pets aren’t allowed to stay with them in domestic violence shelters. The PURPLE LEASH PROJECT is trying to help people and pets stay together to heal, by working to create more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters across the country. If you want to know more about how to help the situation, please visit PurpleLeashProject.com
TIE O’ THE DAY hopes you will reach out every day to do good in the world, in any way you can—for any causes that matter to you.
Y’all know I have a one-track mind, which pretty much begins and ends with Ties/Bow Ties o’ Every Day. Some days my one-track mind is one-trackier than usual, and today is one of those days. I’m likely suffering a hangover from the final 2020 presidential debate which was last night—even though I could tolerate watching it for only a grand total of 15 minutes. Golly, I’m glad the debate farce is over for another 4 more years. Folks, whatever monstrosities exist in the world, I’m grateful to know I can always count on my mighty neckwear to revive my troubled soul. Every person needs something ever-unfailing in their life. Everyone needs a go-to passion. I hope you’ve found your thing, like I’ve found mine.
FYI My apologies to some of you tblog email subscribers who haven’t been getting pix with the text the last couple of posts. (I hope it came through on this post.) I’m working on the technical problem, which means it might or might not be fixed at some point. Photos are showing up as they should on the website itself and on the posts relayed to Facebook, so you can find them there. I hate when technology that has always worked for me suddenly stops working, for no discernible reason. Makes me wanna put on another bow tie.
This Tie o’ the Day is a keeper, no matter what. If Suzanne ever orders me to get rid of all but 10 ties, this would be one of the lucky 10 I would never let go. It’s a treat for the eyes, and it has a gleeful vibe to it. I feel like skipping when I wear it, and there aren’t a whole lot of things that inspire skipping in me anymore—which is probably a good thing because people who don’t already know me seem to be a tad bit disturbed about a 56-year-old woman skipping down the sidewalk in a stunning Tie o’ the Day. On the other hand, my friends and neighbors wave at me exuberantly—egging me on in my skippy neckwear antics. Ah, my people!
Skitter’s showing off her ghost-and-owl Halloween Tie o’ the Day, while I am pleased to wrap a Day of the Dead-themed Bow Tie o’ the Day around my neck. I’m most proud to wear my “SPREAD EMPATHY” Face Mask o’ the Day. It’s a sentiment I completely believe in. I wholeheartedly recommend it to others.
During the pandemic, we have been good citizens about staying home whenever possible. I putter around in the piles of my poetry manuscripts, and through stacks of half-read books. Suzanne has spent most of her down-time with her coloring books. She hasn’t been as crochet-y or sew-y as in the past. She says nothing’s wrong: she just happens to be in a coloring phase—every pandemic evening after work. She swears coloring relaxes her, and I can tell that it truly does.
I do my best to make sure that she has every Sharpie marker color ever made, and I occasionally go online to hunt for interesting coloring books for her. I ordered QUARANTINE QUEENS for her a couple of months ago. It’s not as funny as it could have been, and a more accurate title would be PANDEMIC QUEENS. However, the coloring book does have a few clever gems, like this Suzanne-completed page showing a fitness tracker which has counted the wearer’s movement through the whole 23 steps traveled in a pandemic day. I realize that I myself probably haven’t taken a total of 23 steps in the entire time since mid-March, and I don’t feel a bit guilty about it. Every inch of my skin feels a little flaccid these days, but not a bit guilty.
