Things do feel better.

You know how, at the end of Return of the King, after the ring melts into the lava and Sam and Frodo are carried off by the Eagles for the first of what seems like twenty endings, the music is solemn and calm and everything is filmed in golden light?

Yesterday I fetched a frozen pizza, a pint of ice cream and an adult beverage from the corner store in celebration. I sat on the couch with the kitties in an otherwise empty apartment, as I have for many events in the past months. This time it felt hopeful.

I don't believe Biden is some kind of savior. I don't care about the gender of elected politicians.

But man, is it nice to not have to worry about you-know-who doing something nutballs, or feeding blatant lies to his followers, or adding a fresh layer of incompetence to the pandemic response. Maybe I could go more than a couple hours without checking the news. Maybe I could go a whole day.

We can't "go back to normal".

But just for now, I will take a deep breath and relax.