My friend – who is out about watching Fox TV – had to cancel dinner, which freed me up to witness in real-time what I sensed – horribly, in my innermost core – would be a trainwreck of gutterally epic proportions. My sense of dread was so great that I knew I couldn’t be alone…I simply had to be among others to avoid being reduced to a fetal-positioned wet noodle by 6:05pm PST.

The strategy worked: I lasted until exactly 6:35pm PST!

But there is only so much a human can take. By 6:50pm I was alternating between fervent, assenting house-motions accompanying Biden’s unrattled, experience-driven and germane remarks which addressed the questions posed, to barely dangling by a thread, head-in-between-knees babbling creature as Palin winked & smiled knowingly at the camera while she avoided the questions posed in order to spew out the sound bytes she’d invariably been fed in her boot-camp prep over the past week.

O Lord, thank you for that 30-minute extension of relative emotional health!

Dare I list all the infuratingly frustrating examples that sent me into such a nearly-frothing psychological ball of goo? That had me muttering under my breath and groaning “ooooooohhhh” the entire way home….to try to seek solace with my neighbors who were listening to the time-delayed broadcast but knowing I couldn’t bear to hear another subatomic particle of ‘golly gee I really get it even if I don’t know anything but that’s not my achilles heel it’s my strength’ messaging lest I wished to remain a functional member of society….

…at last to enter my home, pop in some amazing rap and dance…REALLY HARD….

I have a whole sheet full of -isms, sayings, contradictions and the like which may be therapeutic to elaborate on…but on the other hand, such an exercise just might keep me down in that low, desolate place that has me wondering if we are no longer in a place to support a healthy democracy in this country.

So I’ll weigh it out. Can’t bring myself to even read the pundits’ recap yet. All I know is that for now, there is hope. With some good music, I’m coming back.