The Obamanomenon

It's no secret where Nate and I stand as far as politics are concerned. We've always been big supporters of Barack Obama and agree with him most of the time politically. Needless to say, we were ecstatic that he won from a purely political standpoint. But this isn't meant to be about politics. Whether you agree with him or not, Tuesday was an amazingly historic day in our country. And in our city. How often do you live in the place where a president-elect is holding his victory rally? And how often is it the first black president in our history? So of course, we had to go and be part of the Obamanomenon:




Unfortunately, we have a one year old who needs to be in bed early so we couldn't go to the actual rally (why, oh why, can't Sophie's grandparents live close??). But we thought it was important to be a part of it somehow. So we were brave enough to take Sophie downtown (and on her first El ride since the city was basically shut down for security) and check out the rally at Grant Park. We couldn't get very close to it as the entire park was closed and there was tight security and even if we could have gotten closer there wouldn't have been much to see since it was like 4:00 and the rally wouldn't be until later that night. But still, this was important. There were already tons of people there, waiting in line to try to get into the park. People were selling T-shirts and buttons and towels and all kinds of things with Obama's face on it (who says he's a socialist? Looked like pure capitalism to me!). There were people in funny outfits, people with funny banners, people playing music, stuff written on the sidewalk, etc., etc.



And we were there, which was unbelievably amazing. The feeling in the air, the expressions on people's faces - it was indescribable. I kept choking up, thinking that we were about to elect the first black president. I kept trying to imagine what it felt like to the other people there, especially the older, black people - the ones who could remember what it was like 50 years ago. If I was this emotional about it (honky, young white girl from Utah), what were they going through?

We stayed for a couple hours and Sophie loved it. She is always happy to be around people (as long as they don't come near her, try to engage her, or, god forbid, make eye contact). We watched the election results from home (Nate, with his laptop on his lap - this is bigger than Christmas to him) and actually found out it was official from, appropriately enough, Jon Stewart. I started crying again, Nate was giddy and Sophie slept: