I feel like I was hit by a truck travelling backwards through time
The time change can do strange things to the brain, especially when it\'s coupled with a day trip to a wedding in Garrison NY, three and a half hours away by car. That\'s seven hours of driving for about four hours of wedding, for those of you keeping score at home. At least the wedding was beautifully sited on the hills above the Hudson, and the hall featured a wall of windows for admiring said hills and river from the comfort of the warm inside.
Anyways, time change: yesterday morning, with half the clocks in the house on the old time and half changed to the new (and a third half stopped thanks to not having been wound) Leah and I kept asking each other, \"what time is it in real life?\". It leaves one in kind of a vague, bemused state, something that still persists this morning. Wait, do I have to go to work today?!
voting day
Never mind when I voted early this morning feels like about three days ago, the count is still going on and we don't know for sure how the presidential election—or the overall national picture—is going to turn out, but it seems like it's looking good for the Democrats. Certainly, I can say that he won the Hastings school vote handily, 215 to 56 or something. Much cheer among most of the first-graders. Me, I didn't vote for Obama; the rest of my ticket was straight Democratic, but I went Green/Rainbow for the presidential race.
We had some friends over to watch the coverage, but mostly we just played games and ate cookies. Still, we were part of the excitement!
the Winniest
Like the old lady I am, I fell asleep at 9:30 while watching the election returns, but as Dan carried me to bed (not literally... I ate way too many cookies for that) I asked him to promise to wake me up when there was a winner. Just after 11 Dan opened the door to the bedroom and I shot up from my cookie coma repeating "Did he win? Did he win? although I'm sure it sounded more like "Daaaaad eeeeeeee wuuuuuuuh?" Through the sleep fog I heard Dan say that, "they called Virginia and yes, that means he wins." It was enough to let me fall back asleep, but having no concept of the other states that had closed between 9:30 and 11, I didn't really believe the news. On the other hand, I did go to sleep and have a wonderful dream about a magical world where anything was possible including, with no glass ceilings and deck furniture constructed out of gummy bears.
This morning I woke up at 6:30am and immediately turned on the computer. To get the play-by-play that I missed, I caught up on the economist live blogging, where I learned that before Virginia came Ohio and Iowa. Oh, no wonder the race was over with Virginia. Still, reading it post-facto, the excitement was palpable. When mister purple wrote at 11pm "That's Virginia, and that's the ballgame" well, I'm not going to lie and say I didn't get choked up a little bit.
Yeah, okay, I cried over my breakfast cookies. I can't help it. Just think, our first child will be born under a Black president. Hopefully too our second and third and fourth. They won't have to work jobs they hate just to afford health care. They won't be afraid to travel abroad out of shame for their country. When our kids play cops and robbers with their Black cousins, they won't just start playing, they'll negotiate who gets to play the cops and who the robbers. Today, I fucking love America.
more warm fuzzies
I spoke with my Dad this morning, and after we debriefed how late we staid up last night, he said, "As a representative of the baby boomers, I just want to thank your generation for all the hard work you've done getting this president elected. It's really been an amazing movement."
Oh, and also? He's glad the pot questions passed too.