The Po Show

Slam Dunk

So glad that my extremely cautious optimism yesterday did NOT jinx Obama's win :).

I spent the day so nervous. Tessa had the day off from school, and Matthew stayed home because his leg still really hurt from the charley horse and I thought it would help a lot for him to keep it extended with a heat pad under it. So other than going out to vote, I was home all day, without the distraction of errands or shopping. I watched a LOT of CNN, which I never ever do, as I usually avoid the news networks like the plague. So I got to watch a whole lot of talking heads trying to fill the hours till there were actually results to report. It was a long day. I also watched "I Am Legend" on cable by myself in the bedroom, which has the best final line: "Light up the darkness." Yes, please.

Results trickled in exceedingly slowly (CNN made a huge deal about exit poll results coming up at 6:00 or so, and all that was offered was that 62% of people polled said that the economy was their most important issue in voting :p. Wow, REALLY??), Ross was late coming home from work, and I was snappish and irritable from being home all day. We finally got the kids to bed and settled in to watch further returns.

Throughout the day, I had been thinking about 1992, the most memorable election of my lifetime. I will never forget the elation I felt, sitting with Ross and our friend Scott in our apartment in Honolulu, watching the returns come in, thinking that MAYBE this really was going to happen, that Bill Clinton really was going to win. Oh, the thought of a Democrat back in the White House, especially such a brilliant thinker, was absolutely stunning. It was sheer euphoria.

I'm a lot more beaten down by life now (and how in the HELL did it get to be SIXTEEN YEARS later??), and a lot less prone to euphoria. We watched the returns come in, the projections made, and it all looked good, very good. But I didn't feel elated, just a pit of nervousness in my stomach. 2004 had really traumatized me, and I never completely recovered, so I wasn't ready to let myself celebrate.

We switched over to Comedy Central and a welcome diversion in The Daily Show/Colbert Report. Ross kept the laptop and CNN going, and continued to monitor coverage. State by state, wins were called, electoral votes were assigned, the numbers kept climbing.

At 11:00 EST, it was Jon Stewart who announced to us that Barack Obama was the President-Elect of the United States. I wouldn't have had the news given to me in any other way. And still instead of elation, I felt just gut-wrenching relief, a tidal wave of thankfulness that it was over, the long national nightmare of the Bush years was over.

I sobbed and sobbed, soaking a tissue. Then I wadded it up and chucked it across the room at the trash can, and **the sucker spun straight in**. I've been throwing tissues at that trash can for four years now, and I've never once made one in. Ross was STUNNED, and instantly proclaimed that *THAT* was the fucking miracle of the night, completely overshadowing Obama taking Virginia.

I say it was all part of the same miracle, channeled through the television, across the airwaves, across the country, through us all. Swish.