Many excitments
ORhands
Originally uploaded by wobbly_head_jonesThis past Monday, I got another year older. And after a relatively uneventful day of trying not to dwell on the difficult times of this past year, I received the best birthday present ever, thanks to Mo and Jon.
At 10:30 pm I got a phone call from Mo, saying that she had an extra ticket to the Obama Rally in Chicago, and asking if I'd like to come. After some hemming and hawing, I decided to embrace the impetuousness of my lost youth, and managed to find a cheap ticket on Megabus.com.
At 7am the next morning, I got on the bus, and by mid afternoon I was in Chicago!
That night, we attended the Grant Park rally with a couple of Mo's friends, and about 125,000 other people. It was a beautiful night, in more ways than one. The crowd was excited and upbeat and generally relatively pleasant. They had CNN running on the jumbotron at the end of the field, and each state that was called brought more cheers and dancing. When the election was called the whole crowd was electric, and as President Elect Obama spoke, there was not a dry eye to be seen.
After experiencing the collective sigh of relief breathed by so many, and hearing everyone's personal stories of hope for the future, all I can keep thinking is... I hope, I truly hope, that this man can live up to half of the expectations that people have. So many people were crying for change, for progress, for help with their finacially situations, for help with the broken healthcare system, for hope of equality and justice. It was intense, it was moving, and at the same time it makes me scared that nothing that can happen in the next four to eight years can live up to the expectations that people have for an Obama presidency.
In lighter news, I have a few pictures to prove I was there. =P
I didn't take all that many, and only a few of those turned out, but I'm not a good photographer, and there are only so many types of pictures that one can take packed on to a field surrounded by people.
This one is from immediately after the election was called. There are a few more on my newly created flickr stream. I'm finally catching up with these fancy internet things.