My first instinct was to lay in traffic. On. The. Mass. Pike. Then I thought of my family and friends and how unfair to leave them…….

Then I decided we should all lay in traffic.

I tried to get my husband, but he was in a meeting. My son was another problem, he was in California. Plus he just started a new job and I thought maybe his boss might not like it if he told them he was going back East to lay in traffic with his mother. My daughter was at soccer practice with no phone, but she wants to be a lawyer and she would probably want to convince me she could help save the country if she could just go directly to law school and stop with her useless undergrad studies. My friends were hard enough to wrangle for a dinner together, so I didn’t even try.

Instead I decided to just lay on the couch. And cry. And then cry some more.

Here’s what I really did and gratitude for each and every thing, because every step helped me feel just a little bit better about the political shit show going on right now:

–I turned off the news. I am a political news junkie. I get six news alerts on my phone, I check online constantly while I work. I have the car tuned to MSNBC, CNN and NPR. I had to just turn it all off. It helped not to have to watch. Sure, was I pretending it wasn’t happening? Yup. But sometimes out of sight, out of mind is exactly what can help you get back on your feet.

—I sat with my husband on Friday night, not watching the news for the first time in two years and had a giant vodka & tonic with a splash of lemonade and discussed the week that was. We decided the country should break into two countries. It wasnt the vodka, we think it’s a really good idea. That’s how divided we are anyway. We’re only 200 years old, we can create something new. Who’s in? Anyway, just quieting ourselves and being together helped.

—I connected with friends and family and like-minded people. This is as good as it gets in terms of healing yourself and finding the chutzpah to move on in the best possible way. I am not alone and neither are you. There are many of us who feel alienated and despondent and angry and want to eat a truckload of potato chips (oh, maybe that’s just me). Reach out. Don’t go it alone. I messaged with a friend during the initial vote and even in our despair, we made ourselves laugh (a little bit).

–I noticed the trees. I went to my daughter’s soccer game on Saturday in the formerly great state of Maine, that traitor and all-around miserable Susan Collins’ territory. I gave the side-eye to every ME license plated car. But I also took in the changing colors of Fall and allowed the sun to hit me in the face without sunscreen on and just tried to breathe deeply and think about the natural beauty around me (and not how the powers that be are trying to ruin it). Seriously, nature is never a letdown and can help a tortured soul like nothing else.

—I sat down and decided to figure out exactly the best way to help Democrats slaughter the GOP in the midterms (I will take a close race, too, no need to be greedy). I signed up for all sorts of organizations that can tell me what I can do. I am considering where I can canvas, who I can give money to, and possibly holding a community party where we can commiserate and get on computers and give to candidates that need our help.

I still feel like I want to throw up everything I’ve eaten since kindergarten, but I know I am not alone and if we all work together to fight this, we can (I’m not really sure of this, but I’m going to act as if here, so play along).