Yes We Can

It started at

That's 5:57 in case you can't read it. AM. Actually, it started months before - when I heard his speech and saw a video of him working the campaign trail. It started back last year when I finally decided I could pay attention to the campaign (I refused for a while - didn't they know the election wasn't until Nov. 2008?!). It started when I stood for Obama in my state caucus. It started when I went to campaign parties, was inspired by the convention, and had people over to watch the debates.

And on Nov. 4 it started at 5:57. Well, actually it started at 5:30 when I heard the Vanessa B. ringtone coming from somewhere in the house (her ringtone is the Backstreet Boys, in case you're wondering). I ignored it and tried to sleep for another 15 minutes, but that didn't last long. Finally I committed to getting up and decided to document the day. Be forewarned, the picutres aren't that exciting. But it was fun to take them.

I was pretty excited about the prospect of voting. I'll admit it. I coudln't wait.

At 6:00 am, I was still excited about voting.

I finally made it out of the house - after a breakfast of oatmeal w/craisins. With daylight savings time recently having changed the morning sun/dark ratio, I could see light when I left the house and headed for the coffee shop.

I don't really dilly-dally around in the morning. Made it to the coffee shop in good time.

I was trying not to be toooo geeky and be the first person in line at my voting precinct place, so I thought I'd get a warm beverage for me and my carpool partner. Here I am standing in line for the first time that day. Nice Alaska fall ensemble self portrait.

One tall skinny mocha and one decaf tan.
Finally made it to the Juneau Artsa and Culture Center, my new polling place.

Stood in line. Not for 4 hours like some people. More like 4 minutes (or actually maybe 1 minute).

Got my ballot. This is my view of the voting booth. Almost left my id sitting there in all the excitement.Finally made it to work where the kids were also voting.

Spent the rest of the daylight hours in media blackout and in seclusion at school. Had 2 classes of reading _The Crucible_. One of my classes posed for you. Notice the tshirt of the student in front.

Reading about witches in Salem, attending meetings, having student intervention discussions all took up the bulk of the day. Good diversions. I am my father's daughter and was afraid of being too optimistics about the election results - and didn't want to see early returns too early. Eventually I made it back dowtown with an hour break in my schedule. Since my evening was booked with other activities, I hadn't made any plans to watch any returns with people, and I didn't want to go home (tends to make it harder to leave again!), I crashed Jenny and Flor's place to check in on the voting returns.
After an hour with these two, it was on the the next event. I still can't believe I had to go to rehearsal from 6 - 11 that night, but alas, I had made a commitment! So, I made it to Douglas where I sat in a big black box for 5 hours.

At least it's an interesting black box! As our opening night was only days away, the set was well on it's way to completion. We're putting on the play Doubt, which I'll share more about later. For now, just know the set it interesting. It's set in the office and garden of a Catholic school.
Here's what I was doing when John McCain conceeded that Ms. Palin will be heading back to Alaska:
Here's what was happening when President-elect Obama reminded us that our nation has made great strides and that Yes, We Can overcome difficulties as we work together to make American strong:
At 11:00, I went home. I'd been up burning both ends of the candle for days and the excitement of the day finally tuckered me out. I slept.

In the days since the election, I've found that it's been a little anti-climactic for me. The campaign was so long, that now that it's over it doesn't really seem real! Then I went to watch the movie W. yesterday, which made me a little angry and sad. But today I finally watched Obama's speech on election night and I feel pretty good.

Sister Vanessa is trying pretty hard to convince me to go to DC in January. I haven't made up my mind about that yet, but it could happen! That would be worth blogging about!