This year’s elections are absorbing most of us, and not in a good way. Most of us are anxious about the results and about the possible fallout from the race, locally and nationally, and immediately and for the long term. On Election Day most of the polling places in the City had small lines because so many people had voted early out of anxiety about voting, store windows were being boarded up in anticipation of protests, and lines at grocery stores wrapped around blocks in case the protests got violent and kept people inside and extra provisions were needed. Wednesday, the day after the election, the results still weren’t decided. Many of us stayed up late watching the results come in, and one of us even was still up at 3:00 am to watch Trump insist he had won and votes after Election Day didn’t count, which of course was debunked. Of course the conversation was dominated by the election, by the different results from different states coming in, by the Senate and the House of Representatives races. Many of us were watching our televisions reporting the races as the call went on. We talked a little about some television shows we’re watching, some exercising we’re doing and how one can get rhabdomyolysis from exercising. We talked a bit about languages we knew, in light of the impact the Cuban and Venezuelan communities made in Florida on the incoming result, and about some past trips abroad we made. The conversation consistently came back to the election and how disappointed many of us were that although Biden is kind of winning, it’s too close to call and what that failure of a deciding side signifies for the country going forward, that we’re so split. We would have kept going, we were anxious. However, when the young daughter of one of our regulars wandered into her mom’s computer room sleepy eyed to see what was going on we realized it was time to say good night and to return to our television screens, and to continue to hope for the best for our country.
Wednesday Nov. 5 – Day-After Groove
