A woman can shut this whole thing down, right?

Unwittingly, and despite a good plan, I've descended into political hell.  It began innocently enough with a comment from my husband said while we were on vacation:  "Mitt Romney is going to be your new president." Since then, I've allowed myself to buy and read books about politics and have been watching the 24 hour news cycle.  Money has been donated to the political party of my choice and on a daily basis, I get at least 6 emails from that party begging me to give more.   Who do they think I am?  The Koch brothers? I need to go back to donating to charitable organizations because  they only ask for more money once a month or so, not 6 times a day.  For nearly 48 hours this week, iCloud email was down for about a million users worldwide and I counted myself blessed that I was finally one of a million because I got no emails during that time.

I need a better plan for combatting television news.  I feel so anxious about all of the unrest around the world and a few times this week, I've felt real despair.  In my heart, I believe this constant news cycle feeds the unrest and muddies the waters.  There is no way that what happened in Libya was anything but a well planned terrorist attack meant to coincide with 9/11.  It was a colossal mistake for me to delve deeper into what really happened to the four men who died there because what I found truly sickened me.  The immediate spin--especially by the media & pundits-- of their tragic deaths has been despicable and I wonder how it took off in the direction it did at a time a little more respect should have been shown.  Ted Koppel's fascinating piece on Rock Center (which I had never watched before last week) really opened my eyes to how this 24 hour hateful news cycle works.  I'm hopeful what I learned will help lift me out of this hole I've dug myself.

In the meantime, I've honed my action plan. Late last night I bought a new book that has nothing to do with politics and during the day yesterday, I knit a bit on a new shawl while watching the movie, Butter.  OK, so the movie had political undertones, but I didn't know that when I started watching and at least it was satirical and humorous.   Today there is a local art fair on the menu for distraction and tomorrow a trip to the cider mill. It has been really helpful that the pattern for the shawl is full of mistakes and has required intense concentration and significant fudging to get it right.  That's distracting me for sure.  Even Leo is trying to help:

Someone doesn't like the change in weather.

Thank you to all who have helped me find jammies for Stinkerbell.  It turns out a local discount store had them for $18 in a fabulous Hello Kitty pattern.  I know I said I'd never go into that particular store and give them my hard earned money, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  I capitulated.