Single What? Female...

"Is it just me..."

"or does the air smell sweeter this morning?" my husband asked after he got out of bed.

No, it's not just you.

It may be overcast outside, but through that thin layer of clouds is the dawn of a new era. And it is a happy one.

Does anyone else feel like the clouds opened up and rays of light just came down from the sky? (angels singing, flowers popping open randomly, dry earth becoming green with grass and trees, the sun finding its way to formerly dark corners and alley ways...) :p

Last night, Jeff and I headed to Times Square with the initial intent to watch the Daily Show live broadcast, but a) they were not going on until 10ish...and it was around 8:30pm and b) the crowd in Times Sq. starting around 47th was already heavy. We went to the CNN set of two jumbo-trons at the TKTS set-up and as the crowd poured in around us, didn't move until after midnight.

Anderson Cooper, Wolf Blitzer and Campbell Brown wandered the CNN set around their two sets of pundits, while John King stood faithfully by his giant touch screens, which I am sure he will be so glad never to have to touch again. (If he has an iPhone, he's probably thrown it out just so he will not have to deal with touch screens ever again.) And every time a poll closed and a projection could be made, the music started and a huge graphic of "CNN PROJECTION" splashed across the screen (in case you were watching some other network. By the way. CNN also that must have some sort of military technology contract as they used 3D table-top graphics and interviewed artist Will.I.Am by hologram...it rivaled Star Trek and the X-Men for sure).

The crowd was mildly apprehensive, and who wouldn't have been after 2004? I personally was treating it like a Red Sox game: it is not over until the last out, rather, until the last vote was counted. And speaking of the Sox, in 2004, we got the World Series, thus we were not allowed the election. This time, we did not get the World Series, hence, it appears the election was okay...to have had both would have been too much joy to have asked for...and would have been a sign of the apocalypse for sure. In 2004, my mom came to visit, we had dinner at Rockefeller Plaza, watched NBC crew members paint various states red or blue on a map on the ice rink, and watched the rest of the painful, gut-wrenching returns in her hotel room. We all have some sort of memory like this which we have tried to block out. But as the returns came in last night, more and more often, the states came back...BLUE. The crowd went wild when Obama got Pennsylvania...and then Florida...and then Ohio...(we got OHIO!!!)

There were some who figured it was all good; that is was a done deal: they cheered, held up bumpers stickers that read "Mission Accomplished: Obama for President", but one could tell that others were more like me, holding back and shouting at the pundits to "SHUT UP!" as they began to predict an Obama win before the west coast was called. It just seemed too good to be true. After eight years of darkness and a near complete lack of faith in the judgement of the American people was this really finally going to happen?

There was a countdown at 15 seconds to 11pm...and Wolf Blitzer didn't even try to say "California goes to Obama" he just said "It is official. Obama is president..."

CHEERS! SCREAMS! JUMPING UP AND DOWN! TEARS OF JOY! I remember just looking up at the screen, near tears; moved, surprised, thankful...and then I just started hooting and hollering with the rest of the folk.

John McCain came on later to make his concession speech, which was gracious and thoughtful...and went on a bit too long. (It's hard to leave the stage sometimes, I know.) As the cameras panned the crowd in Phoenix and my husband muttered, "Come on...one black person. There has to be one in that crowd..." Upon closer inspection of the John McCain faithful in Phoenix, it appeared difficult to even find a brunette. There was one Latina girl that was glossed over, but the crowd remained...well, just surprisingly (or not so much) white. And was it just me or did Sarah Palin look like a teenager not picked from prom queen? (oh Sarah, don't cry...we all know you are going to go after Ted Steven's senate seat...)

And then they showed the dancing crowd in Chicago...

There were white people, black people, Hispanic people, Asian people, mixed people, young people, old people...it was a true representation of our present nation, and by midnight, the new representative and leader of this great mix of peoples we call the United States of America came to the podium. Horns were honking, people were cheering, and then as Obama began to speak, the crowd went quiet...

and then the screens in New York went out.

Yes, CNN either just screwed up or there was a disgruntled Republican intern who messed with the picture, so instead of looking up and listening to our new president on TWO jumbo-trons, both screens showed the rainbow flag of technical difficulties.

Suddenly the chants changed from "OBAMA!" and "YES WE CAN!" to "CNN SUCKS!" and "WHAT THE F***?!" Jeff and I took this moment of brief dispersal to finally make our way out of the crowd to meet with friends we'd been trying to join and when we cound each other, we all headed out through the masses for the Playwright's Tavern up the street. We paused only once on our walk to join a small crowd surrounding a van who's owner had turned on the radio so people could hear the speech. I pulled out my own transistor radio (yes, I own one), but the volume would not go high enough. We hit the bar, joined the overflow crowd and watched the end of Obama's speech. As he spoke if the things a 106 year old voter had seen and lived through, describing the evelution of our nation, I could not helped but be moved and feel the power of the moment. I looked around at the people around us and then back at the screen...It was real. This man was actually up there, making this speech in front of his fellow Chicagoans, and to the nation.

I so wish my father had been alive to see this...though I am sure he was watching :)

America spoke last night. America said eight years of a stolen, secretive and criminally prideful and incompetent presidency was enough. America said over 200 years without a black president was enough. America said that this is a new generation where a man's actions are indeed more important than his race. America said it is time to get over old prejudices and just elect the best person for the job...and that one day that person may be a woman (you know I had to go there...)

In the meantime, I feel, this morning, the continuation of the evolution of our nation. I am proud. I am happy. And boy am I feeling for the Obama people as they prepare to take on the mess and the pressure - the pressure on historic level - to follow up on promises made. As we got ready for bed around 3am last night, I thought about how mice it would be if later in the morning the stock market immediately would shoot up, peace in the middle east would be declared and I would wake up with a job just because of the seismic shift caused by an Obama win; but I know better. It will be a long, hard first couple of years...and we will, like with any president, have to hold him to task...keep him honest and focused...but at least a change has come...it really has and it does feel like the nation has finally decided to see the light at the end of a long dark tunnel.

Woo Hoo!

Peace --Alex

posted by funkweee @ 6:27 AM