President Obama: The Two Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

What a great night! For the first time EVER I stayed up to watch the election returns. I've always voted, and been fairly active in the process. But never before have I been so excited by the prospect of who might be our next President.

After dinner we all gathered in the Dancing Rabbit Common House; Tony hooked up his computer to the projector and we flipped between BBC News, MSNBC, and even Fox - he was very accommodating and good humored about all the demands being shouted from around the room (i.e.: "Hey Toe! we need something funny now!" and then a few minutes later "Tony! What's happening in Virginia? What about Boone County, Missouri?"). I found it especially gratifying to watch Fox have to concede state after state to Obama (hee hee).

In between state by state returns and checking in on local election results, we watched a little Jon Stewart:




Then we watched John McCain at the Alfred Smith Memorial Dinner. He's a great speaker. It gets pretty funny after the first three minutes.




But when 10:30 rolled around, we were there for McCains concession speech. I found it very touching, and feel he is what my mom would have called " a class act." It is too bad (for him, not for us) that his advisors chose to saddle him with Scary Sarah Palin.

Watching the crowd in Grant Park in Chicago was exciting, too. It was sure a more diverse crowd than the lily-white group gathered in Phoenix. As much as I am not a fan of Jesse Jackson, I was very touched by the shots of him in the crowds, tears running down his cheeks. Many of us went through a lot of tissues yesterday. Another thought I had was that it was interesting that Jesse was in the crowd and not up on a dias with other "dignitaries." It's a brand new day.



Michelle Obama looked fabulous - I was first taken aback by her choice of dress (2009 Narciso Rodriguez), then came to believe that it was a powerful choice. Very goddess-like, as if to say women DO have curves (as well as brains!); we are reclaiming our booties and ALL of our bodies, in all of their glory.

For the first time in eight years I am not ashamed to be a US citizen. I have hope that for once we'll have a leader who will unite us and not divide us. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping for the best. Sigh.