We got it right!

Election Night is like Christmas morning for me. Or maybe the SuperBowl. Maybe even both all rolled into one.

I tally results and post them in the residence hall lobby for the students to see who are busily running to check mail and aren't as interested in following the state by state result, just want to know when they call it.

After spending the early evening trying to explain to Koda why I wanted to watch out next President and not Little Einsteins (and failing, and resorting to bribes of all the crackers you can eat...or stomp...whatever), I put the children to bed and watched state by state. After watching many election result nights, you'd think I would know not to panic when McCain was up in some states with a whopping 0.5% of the polls reporting. After spending some initial hours sick to my stomach, remember how I felt this very night in 2000, it started.

It started with Pennsylvania. Being the political geek I am, I knew it was close.

When they called Ohio, I knew it was to be, if not officially.

When, at around 11pm they simultaneously announced our new president-elect, suddenly it was.

And yet, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it as I watched tens of thousands of people erupt in celebration. I couldn't believe it when I saw the tears run down Jesse Jackson's face - only imagining him thinking back to walking next to Martin Luther King Jr and wondering if this day would ever come. I couldn't believe it when I watched an acceptance speech that made me hope for better days ahead and found tears in my own eyes.

Tristen was asleep in the corner of the living room in his pack and play. As the glow of the television slightly shown on his face, listening to my new president talk about what could be, I believed.

I usually end my posts on an uplifting note like the one above. However, as I logged into my Facebook account today and read the postings of people I know, I read one that weighs heavy in my heart. A "friend" from high school wrote "How could any white person vote for Obama..." She noted she was not a racist. Instead of being fired up, instead of alienating her by blasting a posting back, I will do what I think our new president would do. Put my head down, and work. Work to fix this country and do my part. Those that doubt can hypothesize conspiracy theories, can yell what ifs. Some day soon they will look around and say WITH us, as one country, yes we did. Our Country has moved forward as the UNITED states.

Voted Early Today!!

*Caution...this post contains political opinion. Continue at your own risk ;) Today is early voting on campus. Early Voting has been going on for a while at the town office, but today the town office came to campus. I sit on a non-partisan committee for the university to try and get out the vote. The town hopes to get 200 people through today. I hope they are successful.

It was really important to me that I bring Koda with me, even though I knew it would be a whole lot more work. Forunately, I don't go to work until 1pm on Thursdays, so after breakfast and a daily dose of Little Einsteins, we bundled up for the walk over to the Union, packed some snacks, toys, and in a momentary act of brialliance, Travis's cellphone that has a Backyardigans episode uploaded to it.

The process itself was really painless. The line was shorter than I expected. We got there about 15 minutes before they opened. Keep in mind I am registered in a ward that is pretty much 99.9% college students. I stood out a little with my double stroller, bottles, cheerios, and a now singing/shrieking cell phone "we're back yard friends...the backyardigans...". For the first time in my voting life, I felt a lump in my throat. I'm an admitted political junky through and through, but for the first time my vote wasn't about me. It was about the drooly kids sitting in the stroller who were currently dropping cookie crumbs all over the hall.

Earlier this morning I was trying to explain to Koda what were going to do today, and why it was important. I interupted his third round of "Kwinkle Kwinkle wittle star" sung/yelled from the top of the slide to tell him today we were voting for the president of the United States.

Koda: Pwesent?
Me: No honey, we are voting for President. Mommy is voting for President and is voting for Obama.
Koda: We go get a Pwesent Obama?

I just laughed and we continued on our morning. A few hour laters I thought how smart my little democrat is. Why yes Koda, today I got to vote for Senator Obama, and that is, in my belief, a huge gift to our country. What a great "pwesent" Obama will be.