Ra Ra Obama!

It hasn't even been eight hours since the inauguration, and already, I feel better about myself and the country. I feel like I've had a long weekend, with Martin Luther King Day and now today. It'll be back to normal first thing tomorrow, when I go to attend a job interview. I also plan on following up on the interviewees for the DVD.

This morning, I purchased my ticket to see Ra Ra Riot at The Smith Opera House in Geneva. The lady running the box office and I talked about guitarist Milo Bonacci's Geneva connections: his former employer, the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station; how he was in an early line-up of Gym Class Heroes; and how his cousins used to baby-sit me when I was little. To have that conversation must have been a relief for her, since Ani DiFranco tickets went on sale today, and she couldn't keep up with the phones and purchases.

I admit I haven't listened to Ra Ra Riot much, but this type of music doesn't come to Geneva EVER (I usually have to go Cornell's Fanclub shows). I'm looking forward to the show anyway, and stopping in for a cool one at Parker's afterward.

President Elect Obama: Yes, He DID.

If you had asked me four years ago who the next president would be, I would've said without hesitation, "Jeb Bush". At the time, I thought (and to a certain degree, still do) that our country was going down the crapper, and that we'd continue to elect (maybe I should put that in quotation marks) bad leaders. If you had told me four years ago that the next president would be Barack Obama, I would've answered, "Are you kidding me? He hasn't even started his first term, let alone become president."

Tuesday I was proven wrong. Although I sensed he would win, his victory is still a shock to me.

After my appointment with my counselor on Tuesday, I headed down to Ithaca to participate in the Election Night festivities. I went to the Workers' Center Party at the Women's Community Center downtown, and watched the election results. The party flipped between CNN and The Daily Show (and for a moment, Fox News), and the channel flipping was irritating. I left before 11pm, thinking that the election would drag on well into the night. For as long as I've been of voting age, that's how it's been.

I came back to where I was staying and changed into my pajamas. I turned on the TV, and lo and behold, Barack Obama had been elected President of the United States. My first instinct was to put on my sweatshirt and run back to the party, but I stayed put. I watched the McCain and Obama speeches and went to bed. What was incredible to me was that the election was resolved before midnight.

Watching 106 & Park in the Hilton Lobby the next evening was something, to say the least: a drum corp of high school kids from Westchester County; cheerleaders chanting "Yes We Did! Yes We Did!" Then Steve Harvey came on, and told the studio audience that they had no more excuses to put off endeavors, since there was now a black man in the White House.

For the first time in my life, I feel the future of my country is an open book: while I don't think things will change overnight, I don't think things are going to go on as they have, either. I'm wondering if his election has anything to do with this 2012 thing I keep hearing about.

In other Erin news, the interview at the law firm went well, until I had to take some type of test where I had to identify whether or not "seperate" was a correct spelling. Having Googled it, it turns out I was right. Phew. Today, I went to The History Center to do some research for an article on Taughannock Falls that I might write...if I can pitch it.