Wish you were here

This post is for my favorite South Korean transplant. Warning: emotional, dramatic gushtasticness is about to commence. But dammit, this is our country and our people and it deserves dramatics.

It's hard to describe in words what last night was like in Grant Park. How every time a state was called for Obama, the place went up. How impromptu cheers if "O-ba-ma" and "Yes we can" turned into screams of "USA" and "Yes we did." How everyone in attendance, all 225,000, was so happy and friendly, chatting with one another, all smiles and hugs.

It took a long time to find out whether Obama would get the necessary 215 electoral votes, when they could officially call it for Obama because California would undoubtedly follow suit, bringing the count up past 270. I spent much of the time making new friends and texting back and forth with my brother, who due to his crazy connections, was in the main VIP tent schmoozing with Brad Pitt and standing by Oprah and Jesse Jackson (I am so not kidding). Thousands of us counted down those last seconds like it was New Year's Eve as the West coast polls closed. When the clock reached zero on the jumbro-tron, instead of CNN giving us a projection, the breaking news graphic went up and his photo came up, and that was it. Chicagoans collectively lost their minds, screaming and jumping up and down and clapping and crying. It was like a massive joy-bubble exploded. It wasn't about defeating something evil (because McCain has never been evil), but about believing in a vision and change so much and seeing that vision arrive at a moment where it can finally be carried out.

After singing and dancing and watching McCain's concession speech, Obama delivered his already-historic speech, which was pretty amazing to be a part of in-person. When he started taking us through American history and repeating "Yes we can", people in the crowd would say it with him. After, everyone started leaving the park. All the major streets around the park were shut down so people flooded the streets, making it a big slow-moving parade of people taking pictures and high-fiving one another. When we got to a street with traffic, all the cabs were honking their guts out. Someone would scream out "Obama!" from time to time and people would cheer for thirty seconds. Everyone was just so damn happy and hopeful. And while seeing Obama deliver that speech was so cool, I think what I'll ultimately remember is the unity I felt with that crowd of different people from all walks of life.

But like I said, it is hard to describe what it was like last night. But this is how it felt...



And just because:



Another tidbit. I received an email this morning from Dave: "When the night was winding down and we were getting ready to leave I crossed paths with Obama as he walked between tents during a rare quiet moment. He had nobody immediately around him and we made eye contact, shook hands and I said "congratulations" and he replied "thank you" back. Pretty awesome."

Pretty awesome, indeed.