Idea for e-greeting card:

"We apologize for our 'president.' We're doing everything we can." And we are. This debacle has certainly highlighted some weak spots in our checks and balances, to put it mildly. OTOH, it has also suddenly "woke" as the kids say, millions of patriots who aren't taking this shit.

OTOH, we also have the complacent ones who are passing around that "Oooh, I want Facebook to be all kittens and puppies and recipes!" bullshit.  Nope, sorry, not from this angry grandma. Not until this national emergency is over.  And make no mistake: this IS a national emergency. Our government has been hijacked; that wasn't an election, it was a coup.  That is now exhaustingly, glaringly obvious to anyone paying attention to the daily onslaught. I can't even begin to make a list of the things that are going on that are NOT NORMAL AT ALL, so seriously, don't even come near me with your "Oh, my, why are we still talking about this, it's so unpleasant?"  Nope, sorry, I am going to talk about this, act against this, remain engaged, and engage with others who don't have their heads up their goddamn asses. (Oh wait, was that rude? Too fucking bad.)

OTOH, we do have to think about things like self care, and pacing ourselves, and taking breaks. Taking breaks is really hard, because it's been what, two weeks, and so much awful has transpired. And it's easy to claim it's all "Trump," but really, it isn't. He's a nasty, shallow, bloviating rodeo clown/reality show star/bankrupt businessman fraud. He's not the mastermind of any of this, he's the lightning rod, put out there to distract the media.

The Republican Congress is pulling so much outrageous extra-legal bullshit on an hourly basis, and that's where the real power lies.

Trump hung up on Australia? I'm sorry Gae, apparently he's to be treated like a toddler past his nap time, as if that is NORMAL. Please tell your friends and neighbors that only around 27% of Americans voted for this, and now his approval ratings are at record lows during what is supposed to be his "honeymoon period." But none of that helps, because the Republicans are using him while they push through a truly alarmingly corporate/fascist agenda. They do back off when screamed at by their base. They tried to do a land grab of public lands in the West, to sell off land owned by the citizens for drilling/mining/destroying, and that got shut down.  It was so adorable the way they phrase it for their base: "This is 'government owned land' - because the government isn't US to the indoctrinated, the "government" is the eevil entity that takes stuff away from you and gives it to the OTHER.  That land was protected BY the government, and I suspect Teddy Roosevelt (a Republican) is spinning in his grave so fast it sounds like a turbine engine. And I'm very proud that my own freshman Congresswoman introduced a bill to get that nightmare Bannon person the hell away from National Security, and it is picking up bipartisan support. So we aren't entirely lost yet.

But back to self care.  It's hard, it really is, especially when you're somewhat of a news junkie. My daughter's doing great with training for a 5K, it's a stress reliever. I'm stress eating, and that has to stop. I've somehow shifted from being unable to eat a bite in dry-mouthed horror to nervously wanting every salty snack I can find to get me through the day. Not okay.  I'm working on Delaney's afghan still, and have my own on hold, and have a sudden, wild urge to crochet something full of wild colors, scraps from the others. And there's walking and yoga, and I'm back to my serious purge/decluttering, and weekly drop-offs to charities, and trying to pace my outrage, without losing focus. It's hard.