Hump Day Happy

You know those moments in your life that you look back on and remember exactly what you were doing when you heard about [fill in the blank]. I’ve got a few of those in both happy and sad columns But Tuesday night…

I did try hard to stay away from the news. Tim even made appointments for us to get our hair cut with Larry, because that’s always a happy couple of hours with someone whose company we enjoy.

Tim, during the process… 

Pile o’ Tim hair.

Yeah, I know you want “after” photos, but I can’t give you all the good stuff at once.

I did some errands and drove by several polling places hoping to get photos of voters in long lines. However, that early voting thing really works out for Houston, because there were no lines. Later, Tim and I went back out with the dogs, and as we drove down West Gray, I got this shot of some people who caught me in the act and seemed okay with it.

I read and enjoyed your comments about your voting experiences on my last post, then I started cooking dinner to stay away from the TV. I began having all kinds of computer issues, so obsessively checking for news online wasn’t an option. I also had my news-avoiding movie selection at the ready: My Best Friend’s Wedding, because I haven’t watched it for a while and Julia and the so-hot Dermot Mulroney are always a good diversion.

We ate. We watched our soap, a little CNN, a little Fox, a little MSNBC. I took some phone calls. I couldn’t forget the last two presidential campaigns, so I refused to be lured into anything like confidence and especially not complacency. I was more than willing to watch the one-hour Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert special, because I figured it would be at least a couple of hours before we were anywhere near hearing an outcome.

Then arrived that moment, the one I’ll always remember, when after goofing around and trading barbs, Jon Stewart quietly said: “At eleven o’clock at night Eastern standard time, the president of the United States is Barack Obama.” It took me a minute to realize he wasn’t kidding, and I immediately started crying, and it was quite some time before I could stop. I’ve never felt such a profound sense of history. I know many of my friends are skeptical and don’t feel the way I feel, but this is a day I didn’t think would come in my lifetime, a moment when everything seems to move forward and stop looking back, and I wish my parents could share it with me.

Both my phones were ringing, I knocked my can of Dr. Pepper over, the dogs were crazy, and Tim arrived to say that John McCain was expected to give his concession speech within minutes. And when he did concede, I was so proud of him. It was exactly the kind of moving and gracious speech we hope for from a statesman. I looked at that crowd of disappointed McCain supporters, and I understood exactly how they felt. However, in my heart, I truly believe what President-Elect Obama promised in his speech. He will be a president for ALL of us, he will listen to ALL of us, particularly those with differing opinions. This will be such a dramatic change from the last eight years.

Thank you to everyone who called and commented and sent e-mails–from all over the world! We have a lot of work ahead of us, and if there’s anything I could wish for, it would be that instead of divisiveness, we’d all start acting like friends and neighbors again. The following is my best attempt to use what I had on hand to represent a spirit of unity and to show that happiness is NOT a partisan issue. We can always use more happiness and more than a little silliness, so please comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and the elephant and donkey will work together to find your answer.