Consider Yourself Invited

... to Inaguration on Jan. 20! Come to DC, stay at my house, walk to the ceremony, and witness a brilliant moment in history. I'm serious - I have the day off of work, and the day before - so I have a 5 day weekend, and I want to celebrate with you!

Last night I was with a considerable Goshen contingent. We were watching John Stuart and Steven Colbert inbetween (actual) election coverage. When the show ended, we switched back, and there it was on the screen, "NBC predicts Barak Obama winner." I couldn't believe it, because it was only minutes after the West coast voting ended. I know they were assuming the outcome, but I still thought we'd have to wait longer for more official numbers. We were crying and laughing and calling family... then someone suggested we run around the block and I remembered that I said I would run into the streets celebrating when Obama won. So 15 of us let out our excitement, yelling in celebration as we jogged around the block. People came to their doorsteps to cheer. We hugged strangers on the street corners. Cars honked and people hung out the windows, high-fiving us. Earlier that day I had sat glassy-eyed on the Metro, blankly staring past the people around me. The change was drastic. Now every person I saw was united.

After we watched the acceptance speech (so beautiful), we walked to U Street & 14th where the streets were blocked off, there was drumming, and people were out in mass. This is the exact same place where there were riots and looting 40 years ago after the assassination of MLK. What an amazing thing I witnessed! I saw fireworks, people on top of the bus shelter waving a Kenyan flag, cardboard cut-outs of Barak Obama. When I started to make my way back to SE (I was in NW), I walked down the middle of the road, hi-fiving people in cars. For blocks, traffic was stopped. I got to a bus stop and REALLY lucked out. A bus came (all the schedules were messed up), the driver staying past her shift to drive people home. We sang "we shall overcome" on the bus, and one man kept saying "I can die happy now!" You know, I imagined that I would celebrate in the streets, but it didn't occur to me that everyone else would too. But that's what you get when NINETY-FIVE percent of the district votes for one person. My vote went to Iowa, and I'm still waiting to see if Indiana turned blue for the first time (ever?). Thank you for all your hard work, friends who helped out in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Your work paid off!! It was so fun to be with people from Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, and Virginia last night. We were so proud of our states. At work this morning, there is a lot of screaming. I am so proud of my country at this moment.