My first stop on this journey is Los Angeles. I am looking forward to catching up with some friends I made here on my last visit and eating at some of my favourite spots in the city. The real bonus for a political junkie like me is being in the USA on election night. And, as an added bonus, one of my best-also-a-political-junkie friends from Ottawa will be joining me in a couple of days for a detour to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park.
As I sit around a TV set in Stephen’s downtown LA apartment with a mix of new and old friends and some pizza (the gourmet kind), I am in disbelief. Is this really happening? Ignoring where one stands politically, this wasn’t supposed to happen. The overwhelming majority of political commentary (whether rooted in polls or a more qualitative analysis) predicted a Democratic White House, maybe even a Democratic-controlled Senate.
In the days and weeks leading up to this journey, I got a lot of questions: what did I wanted to accomplish? How long would I be gone for? Where would I go? As well as a collection of other, seemingly reasonable, questions to which I did not have complete answers. My approach was to be as open-minded as possible. Anything could happen on this journey. And it didn’t take long for that phrase to ring true. Here I am on election night, my very first night, anything did happen.
Chris and I sure are going to have a lot to talk about over the next couple days. Hopefully it’s not all politics…
Impermanent Establishments 