i broke my promise

Yesterday, I said that I wouldn't watch any election results until 10:00 PM. That was shot down right after supper, because Sara's homework was to track the states and electoral votes for each candidate. So I did a combination of watching election results, watching the Miami/Toledo football game, and reading. But even when I wasn't watching FoxNews or MSNBC, I wanted to know what was going on with the election. We're so used to instant results in our country that it seems odd that we can't decide on a winner for president in an equally expeditious manner.

I'm reading John Grisham's The Street Lawyer, and I'm having a hard time with it. The book is well-written, so it's not that. It's just that the concept of what the main character does with his life is pretty foreign to anything I'd ever do. Michael's an up-and-coming lawyer who works for a top firm in the D.C. area. A partnership is 2-3 years away. His income is already 6 digits, and a partership would mean 7 digits. One day, he and 8 other attorneys are held hostage by a homeless person in their own firm. Everyone but the homeless person survives, and this leaves Michael wondering about his shallow existense. He decides to work as an advocate for the homeless, to be a street lawyer. His income is cut by 75%, all because he wants to feel alive and "do the right thing." His new "mission" in life, although in the same field, is completely foreign to anything he's ever known, but he does it anyway. Friends and family members think he's lost his mind. I tend to side with his friends and family, although I applaud his efforts. Plus, it would have made for a boring book. Anyway, I just can't see giving all that up. I've always been of the opinion that if you're not moving forward or up, you're going backwards. I guess I'm pretty shallow, I don't know.

Well, I started this post almost 5 hours ago. Since then, Kerry has conceded the election to Bush. I have never cared for Kerry, but at least he did the right thing by not stringing this thing out any longer. Thanks, John, for not being like Al Gore......