President Obama!

Truly a momentous evening.

I started to check returns at 3:30 (pacific) this afternoon, in earnest at 4:01. At 5:20 I was at home and had to stop checking to go teach my yoga class. At that time Obama had 77 electoral votes.

When I got home at 7:30PM, after teaching a class where I felt a little bit distracted, Obama had 207 electoral votes.

Sat watching returns steaming from CNN, checking NYTimes, CNN, and local news websites. AM and I just sat watching, forgetting to make dinner for a while. Getting up at one point to put a bottle of champagne in the freeze to get cold, fast.

When Obama gave his speech AM, DW and I opened the champagne out on the front porch. Around the neighborhood we could hear fireworks, champagne, and honking horns! Later I would read reports that over 150 people were in Pioneer Courthouse Square celebrating returns and the same number had taken over SE 39th and Hawthorne, banging pots and pans! The city is in celebration mode and is likely to remain so for days.

The champagne turned out to be a terrible. Wretched really. It required the addition of some frozen mango to get even near drinkable. I believe now that the bottle arrived in a floral arrangement that was a housewarming gift from my Mother.

The senate race is too close to call and I am too tired to keep checking results. I'll check first thing in the morning and see where we are at. It may take a day to really sort through all of the ballots.

I'm very saddened to see Proposition 8 passing in California. Not to mention other ballot measures passing to limit marriage and, in the case of Arkansas, adoption because of sexual orientation. Obama's win gives me hope that an administration that promotes tolerance, not to mention the Supreme Court appointments, will really change things in this country.