Chicago: home of the President of the United fucking States

i cried in Grant Park, too. weirdly, i cried the most right after cnn called it and that white republican pundit dude put on his reading glasses and read the MLK quote, "i may not get there with you, but i want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the promised land." i think that was the only moment of the night where it sunk in even a little for me what has happened. the rest of the night was a daze. best daze ever.

OMG YOU GUYS

Prop 8 is fucking breaking my heart, though. Cripes.

yeah. :(

:( seconded.

only shows that there is a lot of work still to do /cliche sry

but it's true

As Sister Maria would say, whenever the Lord closes a door, somewhere he always bans gay marraige.

No, it's totally true, and I am looking forward to applying the required pressure to this new administration to keep the momentum going. I think I'm going to take tonight off from doing things, though. My knees hurt from standing so much yesterday.

Dammit, Kenan, you made me laugh with your gallows humor.

I am so happy today, you guys.

Also, I'm bossless.

Prop 1 passed in MI, we can be happy about that (maaaan)

Oh was that the medical maryjane measure? Sweet, dude.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2008-11/43203613.jpg

That's our new administration!

LOVE MICHELLE'S DRESS! LOVE!

We need to heal the divide on that issue.

I think she looks like she was wearing a fine black dress, slaughtered an animal, then put a belt on.

horseshoe, I am with you. Michelle looked smoking. I need to add one to the Crying Count:

5a. When the First Family Elect (is that right?) took the stage for the first time and it really hit me that THERE IS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHAT?????!?!?!?!?!??

Also, this is a hopeful take on Prop 8: http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/11/words-of-hope-from-middle-aged-queer.html

Ha. True, but it's still a great dress. xp

I owe some props to chicago: left my ipod (a swanky touchpad one, btw) on the El on the way to the airport. Realized it at the security gate and promptly freaked out, ran all the way back to the train (already gone), asked a bunch of the maintenance staff (nothin'), barely made last call for boarding the flight. ("maybe the person who grabbed it is here in the airport and I can spot them. oh wait, every person here has an ipod.")

so I sit on the plane ipodless and defeated, thinking the only chance I have is if someone is 1) incredibly nice enough that when they find it they try to return it and 2) is smart enough to access my email address inside of it. riiiiiight, that'll happen.

Aaaand it did. Guy dropped it off at my brother's office yesterday.

xp - And to be fair, Michelle Obama actually could have worn a fine black dress, slaughtered an animal in it, and then put on a belt and I would still be all "OMG Michelle Obama is smoking I love her so much woooooooooooooo!"

Holy shit, bnw, that's an awesome story! My heart just grew ten sizes this day.

I credit the new administration for the return of your iPod.

I need to really take full advantage of all the goodwill that is out there today (esp. Jenny's).

Jenny, thanks for the blog link.
Despite the seriousness of Prop 8, every time I read it I think of Prop Joe from the Wire.

I loved the bit about the puppy.

And for some reason I also love that Michelle and Jill are holding hands. Do you think Laura Bush and Lynne Cheney ever hold hands? Did Cindy McCain and Todd Palin ever hold hands? Maybe, but Lynne and Cindy probably were palming thumbtacks.

When the First Family Elect (is that right?) took the stage for the first time and it really hit me that THERE IS AN AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILY IN THE WHITE HOUSE WHAT?????!?!?!?!?!??

I know. Sometimes throughout this campaign I have thought "OK, Obama is really only half-black, and his ancestors were not slaves, so racial barriers have not completely fallen" but then I think about his whole family, Michelle and the girls, and the idea of all of them in the White House is pretty momentous and awesome.

My first misty moment was when I heard that they called the election, and I heard it from Jon Stewart. Only the second time I have even gotten misty during Jon Stewart, the first time being after 9/11, when it was more than just misty.

My second time getting misty was after Obama's speech, when Michelle hugged him and said "I love you" in his ear. That still kinda gets me, just thinking about it. Especially after reading his last book (there will be more, you betcha), where he was talking about his family, and the insane schedule he had to keep just to get the Senate seat, and the strain that it put on his family. And the way he said during the campaign (probably truthfully) that Michelle put her foot down: he can only run this once. But goddamnit HE DID IT. That's what stuck in my throat. The sense of pride and relief and HOPE has to got to be 100x for that woman than for any of us.

Is there a cabinet speculation thread? I'm really interested to see who he picks for various positions.

Have I put this video on here? I <3 the White Sox fan.

Also, how about that Anita Alvarez, huh?

I haven't even looked to see how my local races went since everybody in my district except for Water Reclamation Commissioner ran as an unopposed democrat.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/05
/bts.chicago.mos.reax.cnn?iref=videosearch

grrr

oh they better put the daily show election coverage on hulu

Jenny: Your 2008 Obama Cabinet/Appointments Speculation Thread

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/05/bts.chicago.mos.reax.cnn?iref=videosearch

chicago, y'all done good last night.

god that was an amazing scene.

: )

I got misty on about every crowd shot. Still get some chills thinking about his speech.

Oooo thanks John!

i am watching the daily show coverage again right now!

Hey! Great lunchtime activity.

The nerd in me was analyzing the positioning of the stage, seemed a little strange at first that it was turned to one side, but I figured it was probably intended to give a better TV picture and nothing more.

what were your other ideas?

They just called Indiana for O. Awesome.

I felt something like patriotism last night. It felt funny and kind of good. I'm sort of feeling proud to be an American.

But when the crowd started chanting "USA" I tried and quickly realized that I wasn't quite ready for that jelly.

I've been feeling a good bit of patriotism lately. Having friends in foreign countries helps.

It's possible to be a patriot without buying into the stupid side of it imo

I meant to say "other countries" but it's hard to shake my non-flat-world thinking

Local shopping: today everyone wanted to chat about the result, especially the Bangladeshi guys who run the off-license/overpriced awful food shop where I bought the full set of newspapers not owned by Rupert Murdoch.

xp The dress would have looked much better if that red fadey bit didn't go all geometric fake belt/weirdo bad seamcraft at the waistline (that kind of thing can look cheap). Better for there to be a straight red fade interrupted by an actual wide cinch belt. We know she rocked the Alaïa belt and it would look good with last night's dress. She is so cool and so toned, wrong clothes appear to wear her and this is one of them.

You guys, you know what this is?

It's more than a feeling.

I feel like I have some peace of mind.

It's been such a long time.

I was just thinking about the voter turnout and that made me smile. Good fucking job, USAers!