A Return to Blogging

And what better a day than today?

My beloved Democrats have taken decisive control over the House of Representatives.

By all accounts, they will also take control of the Senate by a very slim margin, as soon as the dust settles in Virginia and Montana (which could potentially be a while).

Arizona became the first state to defeat the ever-popular ballot initiative to enact a state-level ban on same-sex marriage. South Dakota rejected a ballot initiative to ban nearly all abortions with little exception, a measure clearly designed to put Roe v. Wade back before the eyes of our (now much more conservative) U.S. Supreme Court. Missouri passed a measure to allow embryonic stem cell research to occur in the state. California and Oregon defeated measures that would require minors to receive parental consent before getting an abortion.

Oh yeah, and the State's Attorney's office called this morning to inform me that the charges against me have been dropped, and I won't need to appear in court.

Now that one needs some explaining, as I'm sure virtually all of you who may read this are out of the loop.

On October 18th, after a heated parental argument that got out of hand, I landed myself in jail and stayed there for fifteen days on a Domestic Violence: Aggravated Assault charge. That's a felony, folks.

It's not as big a deal as it sounds like (though I'm not attempting to excuse my actions; I was wrong); no one was hurt and there was really very little potential for anyone to have been hurt, but, to make a long story short, while my dad and I were arguing over him essentially forcing my girlfriend and I out of the house (and out of the state) over an argument that had occured a week previously and which I had presumed to be resolved, he said something that I interpreted as being a sort of insult to my girlfriend, at which point I stood up, picked up the chair I had been sitting in and threw it at him before leaving the room yelling obsceneties. I didn't intend to hurt him. I don't know what I was thinking, really. I was just more angry with him at that moment than I think I've ever been with anyone in my entire life. Anyway, in fear for his safety and what I might do if and when I came out of my room, he and my mom drove to the local police station, thinking that an officer could simply remove me from the home momentarily and have a talk with me to help me cool down and that be the end of it. Nuh-uh. In Florida (and in most other states, I imagine), any time domestic violence is reported, an arrest of the accused party must be made, and if the victim doesn't press charges, the state will. My dad didn't want me arrested, let alone did he want me charged with a felony, but the moment he took the issue to the police it was out of his hands.

Well, fifteen days later, on November 1st, I was released on bond (I'd had the 10% fee for the bondsman sitting in my account the entire time, but needed someone on the outside to sign for responsibility for the full amount should I fail to appear in court) and immediately began contacting attorneys to see what my options were. In fact, I had a free consultation scheduled for this morning. I was expecting to spend a month and a half sitting here just waiting on court dates (the Lake County court system is obscenely slow), and now it's all over. I can go back to Alaska to continue my life with Danielle. (Oh that's right, I didn't mention: After I was arrested my parents kicked her out of the house whether or not she had a place to go [nice, huh?], and my friends John and Rakel let her stay at their place for a week [I can't express how grateful I am for that] before her mom's boyfriend bought her a ticket back home.) No more waiting. No probation. No court fees. No attorney's fees. I will probably enroll in an anger management program when I get to Alaska, though. But the bottom line is that all this stupid crap is over.

Today is a very happy day for one mister Danny McGee.

P.S. This blog is ugly. If I'm going to be writing in this thing again (and I want to start writing in here again), I'm going to have to deuglify it. There are other, more pressing concerns right now, but that will occur sometime in the near future.

EDIT: And I've just heard that Donald Rumsfeld has also stepped down as Defense Secretary. Unbelievable. We have turned this country around and dramatically changed the direction of our government for at least the next four years, all in the course of less than 48 hours. I'm just a little bit more proud of my country today.