Exhale…

I’ve been pretty quiet about the presidential election on here. Partly because I want to keep it sort of, kind of gardening-related-ish here, but I would say mostly because I have been a huge ball of nerves worrying that Obama wouldn’t win. After being disappointed with the last two elections, I was just too afraid to let myself get excited or hopeful again. This knot has been resting in my stomach, growing, the closer and closer we got to the election.

We gathered with friends and started watching the coverage at 4:00 pm Pacific Time, since the polls began to close at 7:00 EST. When Pennsylvania was announced I began to get hopeful, but restrained still. When they called Ohio, I finally let myself get excited – and there was no turning back from that point. The toasting began. The tears were streaming down my face through his whole speech. I thought McCain was very dignified with his concession speech, despite the crowd’s booing. Really didn’t hear any booing from Obama’s crowd when he spoke kindly of McCain… ahem.

The evening completely ran away from there. We decided going out to karaoke for Obama would be a really good way to celebrate. It pains me a little to recall my awful singing, but at the same time most of us were wasted enough to not really recall a whole lot of anything. Other than jubilation and hope.

I can’t wait for tomorrow when I wake up, not hungover, and let it all sink in: this is real. I know Obama is human and I won’t agree with every choice he makes. But this is the first time in too long I have felt hope in America and the direction we are going. And I truly believe we made the right choice in a leader to take guide us there. I am so proud of our country today.