only four more days...by judi sadowsky

i can't stand the suspense. i can't remember counting down days like this since my last pregnancy. up until a few months ago, the only morning numbers that had any meaning for mean were on the scale. now, i can't wait to open my eyes in order to check out the latest zogby poll and let's face it, the dow jones.

for twenty months we have waited for the outcome of this battle and now that it is finally here i am terrified. what if we win? what if we don't win? and most importantly, regardless of the outcome, what is going to happen to all our new friends? just the way hurrican katrina turned anderson cooper into a media star, this election has had it's own share of new faces.

i am going to miss all the pundits who, up until twenty months ago, had never had a tv presence at all. the last time some of these guys and gals even had their pictures taken was probably for their high school year book and you just know they were on the nerd page. now they are super stars and oh how i am going to miss them. little michael wolfe with his impish grin and over sized glasses always brightened my day and howard fineman of newweek magazine always had something pithy and amusing to say. but with only four days left how are we ever going to know how howard's hair is going to turn out? for the first year and a half of tv fame howard, a man of a certain age, was sporting a hair color that could best be described as titian red as worn by an old stripper. whether or not howard, or possibly mrs. fineman seemed to be doing the dying at home in the kitchen sink you could always tell when he had been freshly dyed due to the residuals of color around his hairline. suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, howard started letting the grey grow out. four days is not enough time to see the finished product. and little chuck todd has grown into a man right before our very eyes. with his pie charts and graphs, there are times, i swear, he is channeling the late tim russert.

yes, i am going to miss these guys. they have become like family. come to think of it i have been spending more time with them than i do with my own family. my friend paula called me last night in a panic to tell me that jon stewart and rachel maddow are starting to look exactly alike. i calmed her down and then turned on my tivo to check. she is right - twins separated at birth - they are all starting to look alike. it is time for this endless election to be over and i can stop obsessing about all these strangers and get back to weighing myself obsessively.