stuck with you

We've had some fun, and yes we've had our ups and downs
Been down that rocky road, but here we are, still around
We thought about someone else, but neither one took the bait
We thought about breaking up, but now we know it's much too late

i woke up this morning with "stuck with you" by huey lewis running through my head. my arms and thighs ached. my head hurt. my right ear/sinus system was clogged from sleeping on my side. my stomach burned.

We are bound by all the rest
Like the same phone number
All the same friends
And the same address

the alarm went off at 6:15, but i think my eyes opened at 6:03. i lay in bed, thinking about last night. the shockingly expensive dinner. vegan irish coffee gut and anxiety. anger and confusion. adrenaline and disappointment.

let me start from the beginning. yesterday was tari's birthday. because of it's proximity to election day, and her dad's 3 unsuccessful bids for DA, birthdays have been rough for her. i tried real hard to make it special for her.

after an afternoon of furious mouse clicking and browser reloading, i took tari out to dinner at millennium. although we were reluctant to leave the TV for a few hours of vegan decadence, millennium was once again a flavor symphony in my mouth.

for a starter, i had a kombu and avacado salad, served in a martini glass. tari ordered the raw-violi. both dishes were so good, i could have stopped there. for my main course, i had a squash, resting on black forbidden rice rissoto, stuffed with tofu and smothered in a gravy. tari had a stuffed pablano chile, that was equally good, especially with a a spicy un-cheesy sauce drizzling the plate.

dessert made a brief appearance as the aforementioned vegan irish coffee, and a little chocolate cake with chocolate sorbet. a bottle of vegan organic red wine, a mojito and a yellow rum cocktail snuck onto our table at some point during the meal. not really sure how that happened.

several times through the meal, i tried to get election results via SMS on my cell phone, to no avail. we left the restaraunt at around 21:30. we walked up geary to edinburgh castle. the bar was crowded, tense and festive. CNN flickered from a projecter aimed on the wall above the pool table, while smaller TV's crammed between top shelf liquor and empty pint glasses belched the latest analysis.

every time wolf blitzer projected a state in kerry's favor the sizable crowd erupted in cheers. when ohio was brought up, people would bellow "OOHHHHIOOOO" with disdain. joe and kana k showed up. i drank a lot. we discussed expatriation options. around midnight, we took a dizzy cab ride home. i watched the election fade into the night until my eyelids and heart became heavy.

Yes, it's true, (yes it's true) I am happy to be stuck with you
Yes, it's true, (yes it's true) I'm so happy to be stuck with you
'cause I can see, (I can see) that you're happy to be stuck with me

right now, i am at my desk, listening to john kerry officially concede on the radio. my coworkers in the art department are circulating a picture of "president" bush with text that reads "we're fucked." our british customers are calling us, asking us how we feel about the results. jokingly, my coworkers respond by asking for a room to rent or a work visa. our colleagues at fat wreck chords get the day off to go get drunk. at least they'll be able to sell their "not my president" shirt for another four years.

they say that "moral values" was probably a deciding factor in this election; that george bush had a firmer grasp on these things. is war mongery and contempt for social justice representative of these "moral values?" is it moral to ignore obligations of world citizenship? where's the morality in senseless death?

We've had our doubts, we never took them seriously
And we've had our ins and outs, but that's the way it's supposed to be
We thought about giving up, but we could never stay away
Thought about breaking up, but now we know it's much too late
And it's no great mystery
If we change our minds
Eventually, it's back to you and me