Clambers to her seat, with the ash of last night's party...

So the party last night was pretty awesome. There were less people than originally planned, but we still had 7 people nonetheless. We feasted on pizza and wings, we drank soda and beer and wine. And we sat and talked, and joked and laughed, and watched the returns come in.

Ghostie was there, and he was worried from the start that something bad was going to happen. The fact that they couldn't call ruby red Indiana right after it closed (and wouldn't in fact until about 9 hours after the polls closed there), was a very good sign for me. When Virginia closed, and they didn't call it for Obama right away well that worried me. I thought Obama was supposed to be up by 8 points or so, and they couldn't call it. I too grew a bit worried, but didn't let it show.

And then, 8:00 hit and immediately, they called Pennsylvania for Obama. We were all surprised, I was stunned. I mean, the polls had Obama up by lik 8-10 points, but McCain and Palin were practically living here over the last few weeks. I thought hte McCain people were seeing something that the rest of the polls were missing. I certainly didn't think they'd be able to call it so soon. I mean, at that time, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana and Ohio still hadn't been called. I was SURE it would take time to call Pennsylvania. But no, they called it right away! I got on the phone and called mom, who was working at the polls, well, they had closed, but she was still there, and told her they had called Pennsylvania for Obama. She too was surprised.

After Pennsylvania (which Obama took by 11 points!), I felt pretty confident, because that meant McCain would have to win EVERY other swing vote to win. And then suddenly, about 10:15, I think, they called Ohio, giving Obama 207 electoral votes. We knew that Obama had 77 votes waiting for him when California, Oregon, and Washinton closed their polls at 11:00, and so we knew at that point, Obama had won! Also, at that point, I called Dave S. in Columbus. I told him he did it, he brought Ohio in! We laughed.

We got the huge bottle of Asti and the cups ready. The excitement grew until, finally, 11:00 hit, and right away the whole of the west coast of the United States started flashing and they declared Obama the winner!

We shouted, we yelled, we clapped, we slapped hands. I think a few of us even 'fist bumped'. I opened the Asti, filled the cups, and following a toast, we drank it down. Some of them left because they had to work the next day. But Ghostie, Michelle (she who hosted the party) and I stayed longer. After McCain conceded, I got a call from Johnnie in Philadelphia. I could barely hear him. He was outside in the street. He said people were pouring out of the buildings, blocking the streets. Cars were stuck and couldn't move, but they didn't care. The cars were stopped with their radios playing and broadcasting the results. He said it was crazy, like New Years or something. But he loved it.

The three remaining of us stayed through Obama's speech. A great speech, may I add. But how awesome it was for me personally to hear a President-Elect, just a few minutes into his first speech after winning, mention out loud, on world-wide TV, gay people. All three of us in the room, me and two straight people, spontaneously clapped at that point.

After the speech, Ghostie and I left, since Michelle had to go to work today. but when I got home, I stayed up until about 3:00 am watching TV. I wanted to see how Indiana, Missouri, and North Carolina ended up.

I saw video of huge crowds cheering and celebrating in Grant Park, Chicago, in New York City, outside the White House in DC, in Los Angeles, in addition to what Johnnie was experiencing in Philadelphia. But also, I saw crowds in Australia, Japan, Indonesia, London, Berlin, the whole world over.

I don't recall seeing such celebrations all over the country and the world either time when Bushie won. Yeah, there were protests, but not celebrations. Maybe this time we actually, for real, got a 'uniter, not a divider'.

POLT Listening to "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2

I wasn't born with enough fingers. - Marilyn Manson