I wonder what the dystopian writers in Hollywood are writing about these days? I spent at least the first six weeks of the pandemic in a state of genuine gratitude that my mom was dead, she passed last August, and that I still had a job. I was also grateful that I had visited one of my out of town kids in early March and obviously happy that my family did not get immediately ill. It’s hard to be too worried when you are thankful.

The next six week were spent busily transforming a job that requires a lot of public speaking into a virtual format. It required daily hoop jumping and an enormous amount of work which kept me quite busy. When I wasn’t working I was at meetings that blamed Covid for our lack of bonuses and a reduced workload. As usual in corporate America no good deed goes unpunished.

Because I run on work-related-non-bonus-getting-bitterness (other American workers claim they run on Dunkin but I know better) I spent the next 12 weeks stewing in the type of resentment which makes people hate their neighbors for 35 years over ONE incident of parking just a tad over a driveway. We’re talking blackbelt resentment. I know it’s bad for me, but it’s staved off the past 6 weeks of pre-election ennui.

It crept upon me slowly. I first really noticed it when I went to the Antietam Battlefield with my sister in July. We were both pretty sick of looking at our husbands every night and figured a weekend in a small air bnb was better than familicide so we met up outside of Sharpsburg, MD. It was a perfect weekend. My sister travels with a Yeti full of cheese and olives. She’s the bomb, obviously. We toured Harpers Ferry by car as there were just too many people on the street and basically enjoyed the scenery. We decided to take the county roads around the area when we noticed the “no more bullshit” flags in the yards of these Good Country People, lots of them

Yea. No More Bullshit. Where to begin with this? That the sign really isn’t meant to be meta or that the stars look like an umlaut over the U in his name or that the homes that featured these flags definitely did not benefit from the recent tax cuts? I have so many questions.

Because I can’t stand this show of unearned nationalism, I looked it up and these flags are inexpensive Chinese trash. Sold by Kaiyuan Dynasty and most likely manufactured there. I spent precious moments of my day looking that up, as if it helps anyone.

I’ve gone from ennui to anger and I’ll probably stay there for the 10 weeks left until election. I have two camping trips scheduled and will compete in a couple writing competitions but  I’m still going to be angry. I’ve accepted it as a healthy and natural reaction to a pandemic, prolonged quarantine and an election that just may reelect a man who unabashedly hates public service.

It’s ok to be angry which is good news for me because this is where I’m living for awhile.