Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

It's a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for this year.

First of all, I'm thankful to be alive.

Second, I'm thankful for all the love and support I've gotten from my family these past 8 months -- my husband, my mother, my siblings, and my in-laws. Thank you, all.

And I'm thankful for the unconditional love of my four dogs and two cats. There's nothing like the unconditional love of an animal.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Joy and Relief

He did it! Barack Obama is our President-Elect. Whew! Yesterday my face hurt from smiling so much. Of course the smiling started on Tuesday evening. It didn't look promising at first; McCain's electoral numbers were edging up and I was afraid another election had been stolen. Then Obama's numbers started to rise rapidly. I watched CNN mostly, and as soon as some states' polls closed, CNN immediately called those states for a particular candidate, based on exit polls and early voting results. This happened with New Mexico; at 8:05, they "projected" (their word) that Obama had won. I cheered and shared the news with Ron when he walked in the door about 5 minutes later.

A few minutes before 9:00 our time (11:00 on the east coast) they finally projected that Obama would win Virginia. Of course that was one of the states we had been watching closely. We both cheered and gave each other high fives. It was only moments later, when the news about Virginia was still sinking in, that the polls in California closed and CNN projected that Obama had won California, and therefore had more than the required 270 electoral votes, and therefore had won the election. It was a historic moment, and so many emotions were swirling around, I can't even name them all. Joy and relief are the top two.

Here is a picture of Obama that Ron took when we saw him at the rally in Espanola.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day Jitters

I'm writing this in the early afternoon on Election Day (though it won't be posted until later in the afternoon). The results aren't in yet, of course, but I'm hopeful. Then again, I was hopeful four years ago and eight years ago. I'm trying to not let my hopes get up too high. You can't always believe the polls.

New Mexico has early voting; in fact they strongly encourage it. We got at least two "robocalls" from Governor Richardson encouraging us to vote early. By the time early voting ended on Saturday, 40 percent of eligible voters in Taos County had voted! I voted last Tuesday and only had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes.

Ron likes to vote on Election Day. Part of it is the social aspect. In such a small precinct, he always sees people he knows. The other part he likes is feeling like a link in a long chain of history. Our regular polling place (not for early voting) is a very old building, at least 100 years old; knowing Taos, it could be 200 or 300 years old! It's a Community Center now; I forget what it was originally, probably a school. It has wooden floors that give off his old, dry wood smell that only really old buildings have. Standing in line inside, you think of all the people who have voted before you over the years and the people who will vote there years from now.

Ron has been very excited about this election in particular. He did some volunteer work for Obama early on, before he got the nomination, and of course he volunteered at the convention in Denver. We both went to see Obama when he came to Espanola, a town about 45 minutes from here. That experience was GREAT, even though it involved standing in the hot sun for 5 or 6 hours, between waiting and the rally itself. It was worth it, though. We were so close to the front!

But even knowing how excited he is about the whole thing, I was still surprised by his actions this morning. His regular shift at work is 4 pm to midnight; then he comes home and winds down for awhile before going to bed about 1:30 or 2:00. This morning, I woke up about 5:00 or 5:30. He hadn't come to bed yet and I could dimly hear the TV in the living room. At least he waited until 6:00 before he came bounding into the bedroom, full of energy. He said he was too excited to sleep and he was going to vote at 7:00 as soon as the polls opened and then go to sleep. He's working slightly different hours today, from 2:00 to 8:00 instead of 4:00 to midnight. He wanted to get off early so he can come home and watch the returns.

We'll see what happens tonight.