Election Day

Two days ago I took part in a historic election. I've finally recuperated from the hoopla to write about this.

The next day I was tired and suffering from a major headache because I was still reeling from the drinking the night before, which I wrote about in the last entry.

My husband and I got to the polls in the morning. There was somewhat of a line but it wasn't nearly as bad as the other polling places that I've heard about (where there were waits as long as 8 hours). We were in and out in about a half an hour.

We both selected Barack Obama. Even though he had been ahead in the polls, we were both worried about a possible last-minute upset.

That afternoon I had a doctor's appointment (just a physical examination in preparation for surgery that I'm having later this month). I was kind of drained afterwards so I went to Border's to browse through some books. Afterwards I walked over to a nearby Starbucks because the entire coffee chain was giving away a free cup of coffee to anyone sporting the "I Voted" sticker that people got after they finished voting. The free coffee was nothing fancy--it was just an eight-ounce cup of black coffee--but it was free. I did add some cream, sugar, and spices in order to make it palatable.

That very night my husband and I went to an election watching party that was held at the home of one of my husband's co-workers. The people there were nice but my stomach became jumpy again. I think my body was still reeling from the hard drinking and eating greasy food the night before so I wasn't in a total party state of mind. I managed to drink only one glass of white wine before my body decided that it had enough drinking. I ate some food as well. It was better food than what I had at The Quarter House in Silver Spring the night before but my stomach was reeling from the eating after a while so I stopped eating as well.

After a while my husband and I headed home where we watched television and learned about the shocking news that America had elected its first African-American president. I had such a hard time thinking that this was a reality that I stayed up late into the wee hours for the second night in a row. I saw footage of a gathering in Chicago where I saw the Rev. Jesse Jackson's face in the crowd and his eyes were brimming with tears. I also saw Oprah Winfrey in the crowd as well.

In the meantime the news coverage cut over to Phoenix where I saw John McCain give his concession speech. In a way, his speech was a pretty class act and it was too bad he didn't make more such classy speeches during his campaign. It wasn't until past midnight when the news coverage went back to Chicago where Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters emerged on the stage and he gave an amazing victory speech.

I didn't go to bed until 1 a.m. that night. When I woke up the next morning, I wasn't sure whether what I saw was a dream or a reality until I saw The Washington Post. Yes, we really did make history. November 4, 2008 will be the most memorable Election Day for me ever.

The Night Before The Elections

I abruptly ended my previous post because of dinner. Now that I'm done with eating dinner, I'm just busy doing some blogging while my husband is watching Countdown With Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. Right now I'm going to focus on recording my own memories of this history-making election. I'm going to begin with the night before the elections.

I am a member of a political discussion forum called Upsize This (which originally started as a forum on film director Michael Moore's site until he shut it down and some of the more active posters decided to start an independent forum not connected with any famous person) that has people mostly from North America, Europe, and Australia.

It was through that forum that I got word from three members living in Australia that they decided to take an extended trip to the United States and they wanted to meet other people from that forum. It turned out that they were headed for the Washington, DC area (where I live) just in time for the upcoming presidential elections.

After much posting back and forth, we finally agreed on a place where we would meet for an evening of drinking and socialization. So my husband and I headed to The Quarter House in Silver Spring where we waited for our Internet friends. First another Upsize This friend who also lives in the Washington, DC area arrived while we waited for the Australians to arrive. When they finally arrived, we started to consume greasy food and booze while we talked about ourselves and the next day's elections.

I tried absinthe for the first time. (I found it tasty but very powerful. I didn't dare drink any more than one absinthe drink.) I then switched to drinking Hoegaarden (Belgian beer). We socialized until well into the evening and by midnight we were all pretty tired. Our new Australian friends suggested that we end the evening by drinking a shot of straight tequila. I drank the shot but then I began to feel totally queasy in my stomach.

As my husband and I left The Quarter House, I was waiting for him to fetch the car when I really felt sick. I threw up on this stone fence that surrounds one of the local businesses near The Quarter House and I even upchucked part of this hot dog that I ate for dinner.

When we got home, I threw up some more and I finally got rid of the rest of the hot dog that I ate. I then crashed on the bed. The good thing about throwing up was that I only suffered a minor headache that I was able to shake off quickly. I would've hated going to the polls with a major hangover.

As for my Australian friends, they decided to spend Election Night in downtown DC because they wanted to be among any spontaneous street parties that would break out in the event of an Obama victory. We DC locals suggested that they check out Ben's Chili Bowl on U Street because it is such a DC institution. I haven't seen any posts from them on the forum yet. I think they are still recovering from two straight nights of late-night partying.