I will leave eloquence to others - I have none - but the spring in my step is real. The smile on my face is huge. The energy is palpable, all around work and the University it feels kind of electric. Yesterday was - and I know I use this word a lot, but seriously, awesome. People were on my porch at 6 am and old, young, white, black, Hispanic, gay, straight - the g-damned RAINBOW came through my house yesterday, working til 5 minutes before the polls closed. Hundreds of people out in the monsoon rains, drying out their canvassing sheets with hairdryers, putting their shirts in my dryer and going out again. And then watching. When it was assured,which I could still hardly believe, we woke the baby and took her downtown to the city square, my town where over 70% of registered voters showed up and over 70% of those voters went for Ob@ma and me and my neighbors celebrated together. Meeting them and working with them was incredible. The Field Director assigned to our house is young and African-American and from Chicago and I know she was bummed not to be in Chicago in person after working so hard and giving up her life these last 6 months. But hopefully she found Durh@m a worthy substitute, at least in spirit. As I write this, it's a possibility NC will go blue by the faintest of margins and I know we don't need it but dang, that would feel good. My co-worker swore up and down that would never happen. And it might. People who had been in our house all weekend came back by our house at 2 am to give us a hug. The patron I've never gotten along with who donated the cheese plate came in this morning and squeezed my hand so hard it still hurts. A congressman dropped by my kitchen yesterday to shake my damn hand (and stump for our votes but whateva). I have real neighbors now.
I wore my crazy ghetto Barak shirt last night, with his mile high face and gold glittery letters and his entire speech on race printed on the back and it was great. But today I find myself completely gripped with the need to peel off my bumper stickers, take down the signs, unpin the buttons, pack away the t-shirts and stop looking at people suspiciously and turning down the radio when I can't take the words anymore. I'm ready to be non-partisan in my everyday life and it feels fantastic. Voters, thank you! My old boss saw me last night and claimed me as "her favourite Canadian". But it's you who made this happen. You have just made me want to stick around in the USA for the next 4 years and see what transpires.