Amaryllis sillyramA

This poor little once-wordless post got bumped — twice! — by matters more pressing. Sorry about any confusion which may have resulted from my poor planning.

Yesterday I woke up earlier than usual, filled with anticipation and excitement. Then proceeded to avoid any person or place that might give me any hints about what was happening in the election — wanted to keep myself in suspense as long as possible. It wasn’t too hard since we had a busy day.

On the first of our errands — but I can’t really call it an errand! it was more a very tiny vacation! — I brought little M. with me to the polls to turn in my ballot. I’ve always mailed my ballot since we moved to this neighborhood, so visiting the polling place here was a first for me. And I love going to the polls. I used to vote in a large church when I lived in the U District, and believe me, this atheist-raised-as-a-Presbyterian always got a huge kick out of that.

So we went, and even though it wasn’t in a church, it was great. The place was swarming with happy volunteers. There were like two hundred decorated cupcakes by the door (damn, wish I’d thought to take a picture, they were quite a sight). There was no line for people just turning in their envelopes. I put mine in the slot, then made my way back through the crowd, thanking the volunteers for being there. After we left the building I told the little one about why it was such an important day, and found myself getting all choked up. Which, mind you, I am definitely a cryer, but I wasn’t expecting to be crying just then.

It wasn’t until hours later that I realized I should have invited little M. to help me put the envelope into the slot. At 23 months, putting things in other things is her specialty. Ah well, at least she was there with me, even if I was too hopped up on hope to think of doing that at the time. I did mention to big M. that I wished I’d thought of it in time, and later he sent me a link to this great little story.

So I stayed in suspense until fairly late in the day, and when I finally checked google news around 6:00 PST, I got all choked up again.

Then. I’m standing at the kitchen sink washing some toddler forks we picked up at the store today, and big M. turns on the radio so we can hear McCain’s concession speech. Some of it was surprisingly gracious. Later we went upstairs to watch Obama’s speech on the big TV.

Other highlights: hearing Chris Gregoire’s victory speech; I’d been worried about that one. And reading about the spectacular failure of Tim Eyman’s latest spunkwad was Totally Fucking Awesome.

At this point, the only results that really suck — that come to mind right now — are the passing of Prop 8 and the defeat of Al Franken. I do heart Al Franken.

Happy sigh. Seriously, better than Christmas.

This awesome design is by Ray Noland.

…yes, folks, it’s another very special palindrome. But how could it be more special than the Lisa and Nick palindrome? Well calm down, I didn’t say it was more special. It does make me happy though.

Amabo? OBAMA!

So in this case, special means part of it is a made up word. I decided that was okay, one more time, because I am all excited about this election. Tomorrow I am going to fill out my ballot, and then on Tuesday I am taking the little one with me to turn in the ballot at the polling place.

It is going to be a great day.