Tired and Grateful

Wow, what a day to wake up to, huh? It is amazing that every single thing I checked off on my ballot won! The last couple of days I have had been nauseous from nervous tension and had very odd dreams. I was convinced that the Republicans would steal this one again. Guess what bitches? When you screw with the electoral process you flip the state blue (see Ohio and Florida).

Last night, I had a personal training appointment - which really helped work off my nervous energy. When I got home, I camped out on my sofa with my handy map, laptop and the TV. I flipped between BBC, MSNBC, and CNN. BBC was hilarious and bit delayed in terms of projections. They had a bitter American right winger for commentary and every time a state was projected, they gave a bit of history or screwed up on the name: North Hampshire. I colored along on my map as projections came in. When Ohio went blue and the projections said Florida would follow I started feeling cautiously hopeful.

After the Daily Show live special, I turned over to CNN and Barack was President-Elect! I still have no idea what sequence of events lead to that (I assume it was the West Coast). Many ecstatic phone calls to friends and family later, it sunk in. This is what it feels like when 8 years of hope repressed emerges victorious. I will be able to watch States of the Union without a bottle of wine and a string of invective thrown at the TV. I will be able to listen to our President give speeches without cringing. All my friends abroad can stop bugging me about my country's leadership and policies. My goodness, I slept so well last night. On the flip side, can Obama live up to the hype? There is a lot of wiggle room for "better than Bush". Also, don't taunt your Republican acquaintances. Remember the painful election days we had to endure this past decade.