How was it?  How was Grant Park?  I thought about you as we were watching it.  The excitement could totally be felt through the television, so I can only imagine what it was like at the park.  Please tell us all about it.

I kept looking for your adorable little self on the footage but no luck.  :(

it was a complete blur.

i went to michigan city, indiana early yesterday morning to campaign for barack. indiana was hotly contested and i was pretty terrified they'd stay red. but as we went through the neighborhoods, it was really inspiring. one woman saw us coming up to her house and she rushed out and met us on the front yard. white, lower middle class woman - if you looked at her, you'd guess that she would vote for mccain. she was BEAMING, telling us that it was the first time she's ever voted, that she and her daughter and her husband were all going to the polling place together. that she'd done so much research and that she felt confident - that she was so excited for what barack stands for and for the difference that they (she, her husband and her daughter) could make in the upcoming election. needless to say, i was on the brink of tears nearly all day yesterday.

butterflies in my stomach and near crying, that's pretty much all my day entailed.

about an hour later, as we were walking through another neighborhood letting people know where their polling places were, we started knocking on doors and every single elderly black lady we met had voted the first day of the early voting to make sure they got their vote in. when you think what it must be like to be an 80-year old black woman voting in this election - there was no anger, no entitlement, you could just see the joy in their eyes. they were so proud to say they'd voted at the very first opportunity. again, tears.

then as we turned onto another street in the same neighborhood, we were about to knock on doors, but three guys in the street started to tell us the voting details of each person on their block. not only had THEY all registered and voted, they pretty much knew the date and time of that each of their neighbors voted. it was such a foreign concept and such a united voice. just further proof to me that obama has genuinely inspired people.

the woman that i volunteered with is in the same business as our girl glory - she works with child protective services. she was black and we talked about her fears that people may take their frustration out on her… that obama winning could bring racial tensions to the surface. and while i've been hopeful, but nowhere near confident about obama's chances, she told me not to worry about indiana. she just had faith that he would win. she said not to worry, indiana was going blue. we exchanged numbers and promised to text each other when the results were out.

then i drove home, worked out, made some food, watched some of the coverage, nearly wet myself out of anxiety, cleaned my room, and got on the clark bus to the el. the streets in chicago were empty. wrigley's usually hopping, but the only people out were people heading somewhere to watch the election.

i got on the red line el, which goes underground, under the river and through the loop. at the chicago stop there was some commotion - sounded like two girls in a loud cat fight. the conductor got off and started walking towards the back of the train. nothing. still nothing. three minutes go by. no more yelling, nothing. then the police men start filing in. it's weird because they're all in black attire. (they're usually in white and blue.) and at first there are just about 7 of them, walking. then there come another 15 after them, running. when you've got 20+ police in a subway station, the train isn't going to start running anytime soon. someone said the word gun, and people started abandoning the train.

when we got above ground there must've been 12 police cars jumbled on the corner at chicago & state. i hopped on a state street bus, and some of the girls who were also headed to the rally told me that someone did have a gun and that they were waving it around. (i would be on the el with the wacko on it, just my luck!) they also announced that pennsylvania went blue and the whole bus cheered.

i was meeting my boyfriend who came in from the burbs on the train, even though he's a libertarian/independent. (i think he came because he thought i'd get into some kind of trouble by myself) and he wound up meeting some of his friends so we all walked from union station down to congress avenue (there was only one way to get to grant park. they put up fences all over lake shore drive, and all the rest of the east-west streets were blockaded by chicago police). on the walk over, we found out vermont went blue.

we found the start of the ticket line pretty easily; the end of the line not so much. the line was at least a half a mile long, with people anywhere from 2 to 5 people deep. it took us 20 minutes just to get to the end of the line.

here's a map of the park, the ticketed area where obama spoke is bordered by balbo, columbus, roosevelt and michigan. the train tracks that run through that area are the south shore route, it's underground. obama's stage was on the south west corner (michigan and roosevelt). the jumbotron was playing CNN and it was parked in the middle of roosevelt, facing south towards the crowd. there were a lot more people outside, but it was hard to figure out what was happening because the crowds were so thick at ground level that unless you climbed up on something, it just looked like the person in front of you's back/neck/hair.

while we were walking the line into the park, we found out ohio went blue too.

there were 4 security points. the first point was pretty much non existent, probably just to slow things down the second made you show them that your cell phone was properly functioning. the third security point searched any bags. and the fourth checked your ticket and your guest.

we made it into the park, probably the last few rows of people standing. everyone there looked different, weighed different, dressed different. there was one older guy - probably late 60s, early 70s - he was sort of walking around within a ten foot diameter of us, urging people to cheer.

we were just trying to read the numbers at the bottom of the jumbotron a football field away (the ticker from CNN). about 10 minutes passed and they announced we won virginia. there was probably a one second delay and then everyone went ape shit.

like 30 seconds later (before we'd stopped cheering about VA), CNN flipped this giant logo up, it was blue, i think, and it just came out of nowhere and it said something like Barack Obama President Elect. But Cooper Anderson SAID, "Barack Obama is the next president of the United States"

and you could FEEL the shock in the crowd. it was clear that we were all there, but we hadn't been able to watch all of the coverage unfolding. the numbers sounded good and people with iphones and pda's kept saying he was in a nice, solid lead… but we didn't know if the numbers were true, and the only huge contested states we'd heard about were penn and ohio - then virginia hit like a bomb and we hardly got the chance to compute. it was probably more like 30 seconds between the va announcement and the presidential announcement but it felt like time stopped because we all looked at each other. and you could see, everyone sort of raise one eyebrow, like the news people must've had it wrong - we weren't counting on virginia. and then there were a few moments of being ecstatic like sort of a tiny wave of relief that obama probably couldn't lose - probably didn't need florida. and he was up by then. i don't remember the point spread. maybe obama 210 to mcain 90? something like that?

and even once it was announced it was only a crazy screaming mob for about a minute. then, and maybe i'm making this up - but it felt to me, like this calm just took over. like all of the things that we were afraid we'd lose - that someone would steal. that the fear we had about this great silent majority of conservatives would force the shit to hit the fan… we were all expecting to be there til 1am… and some people cried and some people made jokes and the older guy hugged us all - starting with Ken, the libertarian, which was kind of funny.

and then we almost didn't know what to do with ourselves so we stood there. and about two minutes later i realized that palin wouldn't be the next vice president of the united states and i yelled "sarah palin will not be vice president!!!!" and pretty much tackle-hugged three of the people i was with - people all around us laughed.

mccain went on to do his speech. the crowd was very, very considerate. the only time they booed was when he thanked sarah palin. her first dude look like he was being forced to hold a giant turd in his mouth. mccain gave a great speech - a speech that he needed to give. i know, deep down, that mccain is honorable, and i think we can mostly blame his campaign people and his vp pick for taking him out of the race. well, and the economy. i watched him give a rally speech in the morning and thought, so that's what john mccain sounds like when he's passionate. he just didn't bring it on until it was waaaay to late.

after mccain, one of the sound guys did a mic check and he said, "this is the last mic check before president elect Barack Obama" he said that like three times and counted to 8 about 12 times.

then a bishop came on (we were seeing it on the jumbo tron, the stage was so far away and angled in a unique position - plus the lights on the stage made it almost impossible to see where anyone was) and said a prayer, and then a woman sang the star spangled banner - and got at least one word wrong. 'perilous night' instead of 'perilous fight', i think? and then we thought obama was next, but played "Signed Sealed Delivered" then they played this country song that he uses at all his rallies - I think it's Alan Jackson, but I'm not sure, then I think they played one more before "Sweet Home Chicago".

Then finally (it seemed like forever), Obama took the stage. And the cameras panned all over the crowd and Oprah was there, so was Ice-T and it was still this mix of "WHAT THE FUCK? WE DID IT? WE REALLY DID IT???"

And after he spoke, we left. When you leave the park, you exit over this bridge (that the South Shore traiin line runs under) and it's higher up than the rest of the streets, so you could see the crowd in front of you. And the streets were just body to body. It was like Crocodile Dundee except no one proposed to anyone. And people were excited, but they weren't crazy. It was almost too monumental for people to even know how to react. You'd just be hit sort of in waves… either by relief or fear, or both. I remember distinctly thinking 'we're forgiven' and 'we're safe.'

I think that's mostly what I felt that night, was that I would be safe. That our country would be safe. That we had someone to ground us. Someone who wants to make a difference. And someone who I believe CAN make a difference.

I don't know, it was crazy. So many people. Police everywhere. People were so calm. You wanted to hug people, but they're all midwesterners, so you have to practice a certain amount of reserve so you don't freak them out.

And I was afraid the el would be a mob. No one got on the el. Apparently, Ken and I are the only people who left downtown, but because every form of public transporation was available and nearly empty. I think people just stayed and reveled in it. We had to go because Ken had to get up really early. But it seemed so calm when we left.

I guess that's all. If I remember anything else, I'll let you know. :) 

Moxie, thanks so much for sharing that experience with us.  It moved me to tears to read your account! 

wow mox…I was thinking of you all night when they were showing Grant Park.

20 years from now you'll be able to tell your children you helped shape history.

At home, I was watching the big states go blue and knew that it was over…except they had to wait until the polls closed out west to declare him the winner.

I got texts from all three of my forward thinking children dancing with glee.

I agree with Peggy… thanks for taking the time to recount all of that.  How incredible.

>>i know, deep down, that mccain is honorable, and i think we can mostly blame his campaign people and his vp pick for taking him out of the race.

I feel exactly the same way, and actually felt a small wave of disappointment that he never got a chance to be president. It was a classy, classy concession speech and just proves that he really does have the love of country at the heart of what he does.  It was not only well written, but sincerely delivered and I've never seen a candidate go out with so much finesse. 

Here are the photos and a map of Grant Park, we were basically in the bottom left quad of the park, with Obama's stage in the right bottom corner. kk

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl;=en&geocode;=&q;=grant+park,+chicago,+il+&sll;=41.927314,-87.637253&sspn;=0.126182,0.22007&ie;=UTF8≪=41.873236,-87.620988&spn;=0.015019,0.027509&z;=15
(You can type in "Grant Park, Chicago, IL" into Google Maps and it will show you the same thing)

Here's what the ticketed part of the park looks like as you're coming in from the hill. The white tent is where Obama gave his acceptance speech.

Here's the pastor doing (I think?) the invocation.

Obama acceptance speech on the jumbo tron (we really zoomed in)

My outrageously hot libertarian date. (I'm not THAT white, the flash was a little jacked.)

Hubba hubba.  And you look adorable too, Mox.

I thought you were posting the hubba hubba about Mox.

She's dang cute!

No. I don't want to scare her.  Sheesh.

That's such an awesome story, Mox.  I know when I went to vote, the ladies working the polls were commenting on how they've never filled up so many signature books before.  If anything, Obama definitely lit a fire and made the American people passionate about the voting process.

i know, deep down, that mccain is honorable, and i think we can mostly blame his campaign people and his vp pick for taking him out of the race.

Ditto on Jen's ditto.  I'd like to think he's still the man he was in previous elections and his campaign just tried to paint him as someone else this time around.

Wow that is one hell of a story Mox…I thought about you while watching the speech.

I'm totally in agreement with ya'll about McCain being honorable.

Thanks guys, I'm glad I got to be there. It will be interesting to see how his how his presidency goes. He's set to either be one of the most most amazing and influential presidencies, or one of the worst.

As for Hubba Hubba - he's hot as hell, right? But he's smarter than he is hot. And he's nicer than he is smart. All my luck is catching up to me at once. 

Yes, Moxie, hot as hell.  And if the smart and nice beats out on the hot, then hold on to him chickie…. wow.

Don't tell me he's funny too.  Otherwise I may have to start believing in the Easter Bunny again.

He's really funny. I asked him what he was going for as Halloween and he said, "Wet."

Maybe that's not the best example, but it still cracks me up.

Tell the Easter bunny I said hello. :)

You deserve every bit of him, Mox.

*points at Richard*  I agree.

I recorded the Grant Park thingie in case they flashed Moxie's face.  I was going to put it on the Internet with a link so everyone could see.

What a thrill to be a part of such a historical moment!

Richard you took the words right out of my mouth.

Seriously tho… what an amazing experience.

Wow, that dude is kinda good lookin'. And I'm not talking about the President-elect.

Nice job, Mox. ;)