Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Election Day

It's the afternoon here in California, and I wanted to let you know what it's like on this Voting Day. The headlines of the Los Angeles Times shows a photo of both candidates with a caption that reads: The End of The Trail, and right next to this an article titled "Voters' nerves raw on last day."



Amen. Everybody seems to be anxious, exhausted and emotional. It's been a loooooog presidential campaign. It's time for it to be over. Almost.



Our phone started ringing first thing, there is still work to be done. My daughter was organizing carpools to get all the volunteers out to the polls, and voter guides are still being placed on doors this morning. The volunteers will be available to answer any questions, make sure people are aware of their rights, even give rides to those that can't make it on their own to the polling place. Then my phone rang at 7 am, it was my son's girlfriend, my "daughter-in-love", calling to tell me she was on her way up to vote. She had registered in our town and didn't realize that her polling place was here, it was too late to change it! So she's driving all the way up from L.A., almost 2 hours away, to get her vote in. On my way to work I saw 2 different polling places with people queued up already. I stopped to get a latte and at the counter there was a little hand printed sign that read "counseling 25 cents". The young coffee barista smiled at me and said, "we figured people needed to talk!"

Then I got to work and found an email from my friend Anja in Germany... it said, in giant letters,

YEAH - YOU CAN!! HAPPY VOTING!







For the past three days we've had rain, the first of the season. I don't know how much we got but it came down pretty steadily. This morning I woke to the sound of dripping, the sound you hear at the tail end of a storm. And the sun was shining. I went outside to find the most gorgeous day I've seen in a long time. Everything was bright and clean, raindrops hung on every leaf and resembled tiny crystals reflecting all the colors of the garden. It was a morning photoshopped by mother earth. I wondered if this was a sign...for change...for hope.







xx lori

11 comments:

  1. YES YOU COULD! Lori, well done! YOU made a difference with your enthusiasm, that`s what I keep saying. Your post was lovely, as usual. I adore your expression "my daughter-in-love", and also your description of the beautiful day! No have a good rest!

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  2. And now you know it was!!
    What a great day to be a Democrat... enjoy
    x

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  3. Well done to you, Lori and all the other like-minded Americans who voted for change. Yes you can!
    Celebrate and enjoy - there's a long road ahead - a steep climb - but you guys can do it.

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  4. ahh Angela! can you believe it? Its only the morning but it feels different here already, there is change in the air. And of course, in the White House! someone used that expression for me many eons ago and I loved it then and now, I'm glad you did too!

    fire byrd, yes, its true. Now there is this feeling of unity, because so many Republicans voted as Democrats, today we are one.

    absolute vanilla, thank you. I feel everything worthwhile takes effort. I believe real change will happen now, people are ready and willing it seems.Celebrate? YES!!

    Thank you for the lovely comments
    xxx lori

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  5. Dear Lori,I saw that you have become my "follower", haha, thank you! I read your post about your visit in Münster to see the Dalai Lama and also your German friends. Isn`t it wonderful how we all get connected? I think that Obama has the ability to reconcile, though it`s up to each one of us (America, Europe, Africa...) to add our share. Did you read how Tammy said that in Kenya now everyone thinks they will get a flock of goats from him...THAT won`t happen. But I`m glad that America voted the way it did. In 1964 there was not one black student in my school in PA!! And now one (coloured)boy made it to the top. Fantastic.

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  6. Angela, of course! yes,yes,yes, to everything you said...too much to write here, I'm off to email you now!

    xxx

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  7. Lori, what a wonderful day - Lurch stayed up all night and I woke up at 2.30am to see what was happening. It was so moving, Jesse Jackson's tears, the hope, the faith, the speech, brilliant! Your blog really brought it closer. Thank you!

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  8. btm,thanks! so glad you could see it! really amazing you mentioned Jesse Jackson,after reading all the papers this morning, one of my favorite quotes was from him: "His (Obama) winning means America's getting better. We are more mature. We are less anxious around each other".

    xx lori

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  9. Must feel really good waking up to the news, eh? Nice time to be American (again)!

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  10. yes dotterel, it is good. For everyone, everywhere I would imagine...thanks so much!

    xx

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xoxo lori