election

I just remembered something I did at work last night:

Just before closing the store, I was hastily counting money while turning around every 20 seconds to refresh the computer screen behind me. My hands were shaking with anticipation and I was finding it really hard to remember what number I was on- I think I had to start over probably five times for each drawer. By the end of the last drawer Ohio had been announced and something involuntary happened: I was so high from the news that I grabbed the stack of money in front of me and wrote "I voted Obama" in a bubble coming out of Abraham Lincoln's mouth on the top bill.

If you find the bill, let it be a reminder not only of my complete dorkdom, but of the joy and momentum of the situation. I'm not sure why I did it- I wans't trying for great symbolism or anything. I think it really was some spontaneous expression of jubilation. Lincoln looked a bit happier than usual in his five dollar portrait, so I guess I wanted to make a note of it. I just now remembered that I did it while reading that John Lewis, "jumped so high I started shouting. I was at Ebenezer Church. I just embarrassed myself." I was alone while defacing the five, but the accountant surely saw it this morning while making the deposit. Maybe I'll see it again one day.



Now that I think of it, it's probably a good idea to recollect the course of events last night, if only for the sake of our personal histories. I was at work, checking people out and trying not to engage in political conversation without the customer saying something first. My hands were shaking all night and I dropped a lot of change while trying to put it in people's hands. Surprisingly, I didn't break anything or get into a difficult conversation with a cusotmer. Some people wore several Obama buttons or a t-shirt, so I shared hesitantly hopeful remarks with them, but others I just wished well and gave them a truffle. (we might've broken state rules about giving gifts on election day- no one really bothered to check what the law is here, but who cares! everyone that wore an "I voted" sticker got a chocolate truffle. By the end of the night I was pretty much giving them away by the handful.) A lot of people were buying chips and dips and cheeses to take to election watch parties, and a lot of them said little to me because they had their cell phones glued to their heads. We had a computer in the back to check the map and, by about 8 o'clock, were making full use of the intercom to announce news. When New Mexico was announced I bought a $20 bottle of bubbly produced at a vineyard in New Mexico. When I got home I plugged in our little black and white TV at almost the exact time the CBS called the election. The champagne cork popped of it's own accord when we took the wire off and the rest of the night was very blurry. We watched the speeches, I talked to a lot of people on the phone, and I cried. As I was falling asleep a one man parade went down our street yelling through a megaphone, "OBAAAAAAMAAAAAAAA, O-BAMA!"



where were you, what were you doing?