Crap. Only one day left!

I'm not sure whether to celebrate the end of this presidential election marathon, or mourn it. If things go the way they should, we can all celebrate (Alison & I are making mojitos for our election party tomorrow, and we plan to drink heavily in celebration or mourning). But, but...what happens to my procrastination time? What will I do from 8am to 10am, if not read every political blog and newspaper article before starting to work? (And then working for a half an hour before re-checking). What am I to do? And what's worse, what are the real political activists to do? I canvassed for Obama in Philadelphia (I know, pointless...) on Saturday, and the guy giving out directions told our group that he had been working on this campaign for a year and a half. And I felt so sad for him. What is he going to do on Wednesday morning? Hopefully he will be happy, but even if he is, what next?

This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. While I am not nearly as busy as all of those hard-core political campaigners, a combination of the election, the fiscal crisis, and a hardcore avoidance of my dissertation has made me very interested in doing...something. I've been looking into policy research, as well as trying to figure out where I could do some volunteer work. The more I read up on politics and policy, the more I feel like a floating bank of knowledge that could be useful, but just isn't.

Also, I might note that my newest admiration-crush, Rachel Maddow, has a phd but is employed in news. While I don't want to be on tv, I admire her job as a public thinker.

Other updates...

Research: I am working on a post-doc application very, very slowly. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I really can't muster the energy to care about any more applications. I think I just want to spend another year in graduate school. I definitely want to get back to research, rather than these applications. On Nov. 10, I'll start interviewing high school students again, and I should take a little over a week to finish up.

Philadelphia: Being here is good for my psyche--I am in such a better mood. I am quickly regaining weight I lost in Ohio and spending money at a much more rapid pace, but it's all worth it.