Eight years ago, things were very different for me and my family, as I imagine they were different for you and yours.  We were living in an apartment complex over in the northwest part of town (a part of town I often wish we still lived in, though not in the apartment, thankyouverymuch).  We had actually moved to our third and final apartment in that complex just days before (in fact, if I recall correctly, we hadn’t finished the moving process entirely just yet), and it was a lot larger and nicer than our previous apartment.  Harry’s first birthday was rapidly approaching and we were planning a big bash with lots of out-of-town family to take place that weekend at the clubhouse.  I was working at the apartment complex, actually, leasing out apartments.

I didn’t work on Tuesdays since they and Mondays were “weekends” for me.  So I had Harry at home with me when I went to vote at a nearby elementary school.  I remember him in his stroller as I pushed him over to the booth, my sample ballot in hand.  It was a rainy, grey day and I didn’t doubt for an instant that Al Gore would be our next president.  I was probably (probably?) a little naive.  There wasn’t anything to it.  No way would people want BUSH to be president.  Pfft.  Yeah.  I was DEFINITELY naive.

I grew up in California, after all.  My blood just defaults to Democrat.  And while not everyone I knew growing up were Democrats, liberalism was just a way of life in California.  Particularly social liberalism.  So I was surrounded by this way of viewing the world from a very young age and as I’ve grown up, I’ve often been surprised that not everyone thinks this way.  Remember what I said about naive?

Waking up on the day after election day in 2004 was a harsh reminder.  I couldn’t believe that the election was still so close.  Still, I expected Gore would triumph in the end.  When he didn’t… well… I had a hard time understanding how that was even possible.  But, Bush was our president and he probably couldn’t screw up the country THAT bad, right?

SNORT.

We all know the rest of that story, don’t we?  With our economic system in shambles, our troops mired in a war that we shouldn’t have had to fight in the first place and the disease of fear running rampant like it never has before, I think it’s safe to say that Bush did in fact screw up our country.

Let’s not make that same mistake again, okay America?  Please?

I know the lines may be long today, and there might be some last minute tactics to stall, influence or just flat our steal your vote, but you have to VOTE.  Get out there and do it for your country.  Because I still have faith in our country to heal itself.  After all, isn’t it when we’re down that we show the depths of our strength?

I don’t know if I can stand the waiting today.  Tonight, Kile and I plan to put away our laptops and cell phones and turn on a mindless movie of some sort.  Anything to keep us distracted.  Then, about midnight, we’ll dare to turn on the news.  And see if we have a leader.  And hopefully, it’ll be the guy we voted for.  We have plenty of alcohol, either way.  We’ll either be celebrating or mourning.  But there WILL be booze.

Now that’s looking on the bright side!

I’m writing some of this at 9:25pm, Pacific Time, on the 4th.  I’m sporting a fine champagne buzz and a feeling of disorientation.  Is this a movie?  Is this real?  It’s real.  I just watched The Speech.  It was marvelous.  It was stirring.  I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve teared up tonight.  It started when, at 8pm, when I was nursing Evie to sleep and Kile and I broke our “no news” rule for the night to turn on MSNBC and see some returns.  We gaped at the TV as some returns came in and theories were made about the remaining states.  Really?  Could it happen?  And then, at 8pm, it came.  The west coast projections were in.  Obama was our President-Elect.  And without even a warming, the tears flowed down my cheeks.  I stroked my baby girl’s back and murmured in her ear.  At last.

We went downstairs shortly thereafter, our laptops and phones back in hand (they were locked up in the guest bedroom), to tell Harry the good news.  We let him stay up to watch Obama speak at Grant Park.  This is history, after all.  He needs to be able to tell his children someday that he remembers the night Barack Obama became our president.

Even McCain’s speech was good.  The best speech I’ve heard him make so far this year, in fact.  Because FINALLY, I was hearing the John McCain that I used to admire.  He was gracious and dignified and commanding and GOOD.  It can’t have been an easy speech to make.  And Sarah Palin definitely looked verklempt.  But he owned it.  And he made it good.   Good on him.

I’m so proud of our country.  For eight LONG years, I felt weighted down.  I didn’t want to have “nostalgic” pride for my country, I wanted to be proud of my country in the present.  And I don’t want to make it sound like I haven’t been proud of my country at all the entire 8 years.  But there has been this weight on my shoulders.  It’s been on a lot of people’s shoulders.  And now?  Now, I feel like we can FINALLY move forward as a nation.  We can indeed come together after this election, and heal ourselves.

And that’s a lot of it.  This election is finally OVER.  No more speculation.   No more politics.  We can all go back to being friends, right?  We can all come together and unite again, right?

Right now, I’m just humbled and awed and excited and happy and tired and incredulous.

Wow.  Just… WOW.