2000-11-29 - 9:23pm

On the internal soundtrack: "Brown-Eyed Girl", Van Morrison.

If you were a child of parents whose looks were comparable to, say, Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel, and you didn't turn out so good, looks-wise, wouldn't you be mad at your mom for marrying an ugly guy instead of, say, a male model?

(My apologies to anyone who thinks Billy Joel is a hottie. He's not unattractive, but he's not model material either. And from what I've seen, their daughter turned out pretty cute. This is a hypothetical question.)

Somebody on the Fox News channel is putting very glossy lip gunk on all the female guests. Shiny, shiny, shiny. It looks horrible. Make them stop.

Poor Poindexter. He didn't sleep well last night. Watched too much election coverage and ended up in that panicky half-sleep all night. There's no hockey on to distract him in the evenings, so he lands on Fox News and can't tear himself away. Bad thing.

I've managed to distance myself mentally from the whole thing, so I just watch. I'm enjoying the drama, but I've stopped caring about who wins, I think. I'm relieved that both candidates are assembling administrations, so that whoever ultimately gets sworn in will be prepared.

I do feel horrendously sorry for Al Gore. By all accounts he truly believes he won Florida. And it's really quite possible that he did. That butterfly ballot thing, the possibility of accidental votes for Buchanan, is what really gets me. It's very unfortunate. If the legal wrangling doesn't work out for him, it's going to be incredibly painful for him to give up, I would think.

People have said that Gore's career is over at this point, but I don't know that I agree. I think he looks a little pathetic right now, but you could point to just as many dopey things that the "Bush camp" has done. Anybody who wants to be president bad enough to get to this stage is going to look pathetic at some point. I think that if Gore doesn't win, and he ends up conceding gracefully, that he might have a chance in four years. America's got a pretty short memory.

Megan disagrees. She said he's a terrible campaigner and that this was his last chance to be president, with Clinton's success behind him. I suggested that if he ultimately loses, he could work on his campaigning skills over the next four years, since he'll have nothing better to do. Won't be caught up in vice-presidential or senatorial duties. She shrieked, "He's been working on his campaigning skills since he was three years old! I don't think they're going to improve!!"

This from a Gore voter! The poor guy. Honestly, I think if there was ever another Perot situation, he could win. Not that I want a socialist in office, but like I said, I feel bad for him.

Al looks like a beefier version that guy who used to play Jack on "Days of Our Lives". Something about the mouth. Hm.

I sounded grumpy yesterday. It's just that I really, really care about my grandfather, did about all my grandparents, and it makes me crazy when they don't take care of themselves and make themselves feel worse than they need to. Being old is tough, and having cancer is horrible, and I want them to be as comfortable as possible, and I get frustrated.

Lest anyone think I don't like old people in general, this couldn't be farther from the truth. If I had to choose between living in a neighborhood full of senior citizens versus people my age, I'd probably pick the former. They tend to be friendlier, more polite, and they've got a lot of interesting history and life experience to share.

When I was a kid, I was fascinated with "olden times" and used to go next door and listen to Mr. Thornton's mom tell me about when she was a little girl. When both my dad's parents were alive and healthy, I liked nothing more than sitting around the table with them "exchanging differences of opinion", as Mom's mom called it, and teasing each other and laughing.

I am so, so lucky that I had relationships with my grandparents like that. Some people don't even get to know their grandparents, much less enjoy spending an extended period of time with them. Pop-Pop's the last grandparent I've got, and he's a lot of fun.

Ugh. The whole thing just sucks.

On a more mundane note, I've decided to try an experiment. I usually sleep 9 hours. But I noticed that sometimes when I only get 8, I am still not falling asleep after lunch. It's almost like I'm getting enough, unless it's because I got 9 the night before.

I figured I'd try 8-hour nights for while and see what happens. If I get up & go to sleep at the same time every day, it might work.

I can hear Poindexter laughing. Nevertheless, I'm going to try.

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