The 44th President of the United States of America!

Ladies and Gentlemen, here he is:

http://www.senate.gov

I woke to the shrill ringing of my cell phone this morning and the lyrics “at first I was afraid, I was petrified” rushed through my head (that’s “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor by the way).  I knew it was an election call, but what was the news? I picked up the phone to hear my friend Lynn screaming “He’s winning! He’s winning!”

It was so hard to process and I refused to believe it was really happening until I saw the words flash across the TV screen “Barack Obama has won the US presidential election”.  OH MY GOD!!! I was so shocked.

This, my friends, is democracy American style… they said America could never do it, they said America would never do it. Well guess what? We can and we did! I am tremendously proud of my country.  I know it sounds hokey, but it’s true.

I think a lot of pundits have tried to make race a central character in this election and given how great the politicization of race has been in our history it was an easy route to take.  Yes, his win as a black candidate is historic (boy is it ever historic), BUT, as my colleague Claudia eloquently put it “He was great candidate who just happened to be black”. I couldn’t have said it better. Yes, race may have been a factor for some, but this was a resounding expression of the American will and we should be given credit for that.  Obama was “judged not by the color of his skin, but the content of his character”.  Yes, America, we can!

I thought McCain’s concession speech was excellent. He was gracious and sincere… good job Senator McCain! I loved the tribute President Obama paid to his wife and he’d better deliver on that promise of a puppy because his kids have a whole nation of witnesses to that promise!

As a person of color I am privileged to have borne witness to this historical moment. As an American living in a foreign country, I have been humbled by how much interest people have taken in our election and our democratic process.  I hold my head up high and say “Yes we can!”

President Obama has a very difficult job ahead of him and the expectations of millions to manage. I don’t envy him at all, but I wish him all the success in the world.

The Day Before…

OMG, it’s Election Day in the United States!  The time difference means that much of the voting will take place while we sleep. I hope that this doesn’t turn into the drawn out counting process that it was in the last two elections. I want to wake up in the morning and know for sure who the 44th President of the United States is.  I don’t think I can take waiting any longer.  Although, my state’s (California) results won’t be out until about 11 am our time, so if it’s a close call, we’ll have to wait for California’s results to be announced.

I’m so excited! I am, of course, streaming both KCRW and WNYC to keep on top of what’s going on.  I love NPR!

I had an interesting conversation with one of my non-American colleagues this afternoon.  She has just returned from her first trip to the United States and was giddy over the election process. It was nice to get her perspective. She said in Washington, DC where she was, the air was electric with anticipation. She said she wished she could vote too and was a little bummed to have missed the actual voting day.

There was sad news on the Obama front today; his grandmother passed away from cancer and Obama’s campaign director in Nevada died of a heart attack last night.

Quick change of topic, but my colleague told me one of the things she really loved in the States was the Fall foliage. She said she didn’t know nature could produce such pretty colors. It evoked fond memories of a trip my brother and I took to Princeton, NJ in 2001.  It was about a month after 9/11, we drove down the Garden State Parkway from Northern NJ to Princeton and the Fall colors were at their finest, the leaves vibrant, the sky really blue, and the air so beautifully crisp (perfect knitting weather!)  I highly recommend that everyone take a Mid-Atlantic/New England Fall road trip.  It’s so pretty.

Happy Halloween!

I’m semi-recovering from Halloween.  The office held a small Halloween party for the staff’s children on Thursday.  Somehow I got volunteered to escort the kids around the office as they went trick-or-treating from department to department.  Fortunately, I ended up with a small handful of children under 5. My initial worry was that I’d have to escort all the kids and quite honestly the idea of a bunch of elementary school kids in a confined space and high on sugar filled me with horror.  I was relieved when I was asked to pick an age group and I quickly picked the little kids; they were absolutely adorable! Their parents came along too of course since some of the kids haven’t started walking yet.  It was fun but utter madness.

I was also asked to judge the office decorating contest. Each department decorated their space. Human Resources won.  They recreated Hogwarts from Harry Potter.  Who knew we had such talented people in our office? I wish I’d remembered to bring my camera with me.

Last night, proper Halloween, my apartment complex was swarmed by armies of kids running wild knocking on doors trick-or-treating.  To be honest, I was a little worn out with Halloween having gone through the office version the night before.  Most of the kids in my building are older too so they are much more demanding and not as cute as the little ones.  In any event, I was happy to escape from the madness of my building and go to a friend’s birthday party. I had a really good night, got home around midnight, read more of the Southern Vampire Series (hello it’s Halloween) and then slept until noon today.  Now that’s living!

I can’t believe our elections are just around the corner.  I’m so excited I can’t stand it. I love the whole build up to the elections, the interest that so many people take in our process and just watching how groups who do not usually vote have registered this year.  No matter what the final result is on Wednesday morning, and it will be Wednesday in Abu Dhabi when the results come in, this has been a historic election: first truly viable black candidate, first truly viable female presidential and vice presidential candidates, oldest candidate, most expensive election, etc, etc.  This has been so exciting; I bet movies are made about this election.