A sigh of relief

So it’s been nearly two weeks since Obama trounced Romney in the election. I wouldn’t be surprised if weather scientists noticed a huge gust of wind across the globe approximately 3 seconds after the election was called: it was the whole world breathing a huge sigh of relief.

It’s funny how petty politics can make people. I didn’t quite sink to the low level of texting all my Republican friends saying ‘I told you so’, although it was very tempting, but I did still make a big deal out of it when I saw them in person. (What? I was happy!) But seriously, it causes arguments; people stop talking to each other; they get so worked up that friendships can take temporary break. It’s interesting, I don’t recall it being such a big deal in the UK when we were unfortunate enough to have a stupid coalition government voted in, with stupid David Cameron as Prime Minister, and stupid Nick Clegg as vice deputy PM, who run the country about as well as if a goat were in charge. Anyhoo, my point is I don’t really think I even know who my friends voted for, or if they even voted at all. People in the US seem to be sectioned into colours a lot more – you’re red or blue, no matter what. It doesn’t normally matter who the candidate is, what they say, or how they say it; most people are set for life in their political leanings. I think it’s only about 3% of people who actually make their minds up on who to vote for depending on what their policies are! (I may have made that statistic up. Don’t quote me.)

Well, the world can breathe easy(er) for four more years, and hopefully the Democrats will come up with a good enough Obama replacement that the US will have at least four more blue years after he has to leave office too. And hopefully the Republicans will stop talking about rape as much as they did this election cycle. Seriously, it was scary how many times it came up.

In other news, I recently had my first experience with healthcare in America. I’ve written about it before, but I’d never been to the doctor in the States until last week. I had a stomach virus which, to put it politely, made my body reject its contents for five days. It was not pleasant, to say the least, and to top it off, it somehow triggered my eczema, something I haven’t suffered from since I was about 9. So it was a fun few days. I went back to work after a few days, and probably between not eating more than a few crackers in four days, and barely keeping water down, I was still a mess. About 3 hours into the morning, I decided that I should probably go home before I collapsed, but was talked into going to an Urgent Care place to be checked out first. Urgent Care is basically like a doctor’s surgery where they don’t let you book appointments, it’s just first come first served emergency care. It’s a bit like A&E but not in a hospital, so generally lines are much shorter because people aren’t coming in with really sever emergency illnesses or injuries, its more if you have the flu and want a prescription asap. It turns out I was severely dehydrated, and needed to be put on an IV, which I’d never had before. They also gave me a steroid injection for my eczema, and the very attractive male nurse administering my injection had to break the news to me that the shot didn’t go in my arm – it went in my bum cheek. Real fun stuff. I got a prescription for my skin, had a blood sample tested, and had a litre of fluids pumped into my body, all for the extremely upsetting cost of $90. It made me miss the NHS a lot. I know I know, someone pays for your treatment in the UK, it’s not ‘free healthcare’ in the true sense of the word, it still costs money. But my point is, it doesn’t directly come out of my bank account, so I definitely prefer it our way!

Apart from that, no news really. Getting ready to go traveling at Christmas, so have 6 weeks left at work before then. Very excited about South America, although sad that I’ll be missing a big family Christmas. I’m sure spending five months in six counties will be a good enough consolation. Plus it’s Thanksgiving next week so I still get a big fat turkey feast, just a month earlier than usual!