Yes, We Did

America has just elected President-Elect Obama. If I hadn't been working at the poll precinct for over 13 hours, I'd be jumping for joy, and running around the streets screaming at the top of my lungs. Just kidding, maybe not that, but I was happy to see history in the making with my family on our cozy sofa.

I saw so many different people vote today. Our precinct holds about 1079 votes, and we ended up having 703 of them come in a vote. That's more or less close to 70 percent. 70 percent, in some places more, of people came in yesterday to vote because they believe they have a stake in this election. Whether they believed in their guy, or voted simply because they didn't believe in the other guy, history was made.

Last night I couldn't stop alternating between tears and smiles. I didn't think the election of our first African-American president would happen this early in my lifetime. I also keep thinking about Colin Powell's elegant and thought-provoking endorsement. He attacked the xenophobic attitudes about Obama's otherness, and in doing so, he helped other Americans who might not necessarily have the last name Smith or Jones, or even Polanski.

This is amazing. I am sooooo proud to be an American, and I can already feel that the next four DAYS, will be better than the previous eight years.

Women's health? What kind of liberal nonsense is that?

Samantha Bee gives an amazing response to McCain's awful and arrogant position on abortion.

CiteZEN

This year marks my 10 year anniversary of being an American Citizen. It's pretty exciting. I remember being giddilly excited when Bill Clinton defeated Bush the Elder in 1992, and when Paul Wellstone was re-elected in 1996, and seeing a wave of hope and optimism rise in my family and in our neighborhoods. I remember being in 4th grade, telling my classmates that it was only a matter of time when people will be begging democrats or left-leaning leaders to regain control, after losing it in 1994. So it didn't happen in the 1996 election, but it happened eventually.

A lot has happened since then. Hope and optimism seemed to take a backseat to dread and cynicism. I guess we have plenty to be cynical of, regardless of our political affiliation. However, I won't let the fact that I'm fearful about my professional future, or about my ability to pay whatever few bills come my way, or the fact that I'm practically broke stop me from doing my part as a citizen of the U.S.

I'm voting,and I'm serving as a provisional election judge. For a number of reasons, whether it's a change in address, or one's name is not on the registration roster, sometimes a person has to fill out a provisional ballot. The most common reason for voting provisionally involves a person voting outside his or her voting district. It becomes my job on election day to help administer the provisional ballot process. I can't help a person vote, I just give that person the forms they need, give them a smile and a sticker and send them on their way. :)

We had a 3 hour training session a few weeks back, and I took a look around to see who else does this kind of "volunteerism" (we actually get compensated, just a little). The room was filled with older African-American women, one middle-aged White man, and I was the only person under the age of 35, as well as the only minority that wasn't African-American. I think it'll be interesting to see the changing demographics of city officials, public servants or involved community members change with the passage of time and the naturalization of current immigrants. It'll be interesting to see everything that changes within the next few monthes, years or decades. It's been 21 years since my family came to the U.S., quite a bit has changed....

Ummmm

**Jaw gaping**

Putting Country First, Really

I'm amused with the McCain-Palin motto "Country first". For any other candidate, for any other era, for any other time when we haven't witnessed or been affected by the failed policies of one of the worst administrations ever, that motto would have stuck.

Unfortunately, the actions of some of his supporters and policy advisors seem to scream out loud, "Country first! Don't you DARE question the red-white and blue, get out you foreigners, and accept Jesus because if you don't you can be DAMN sure you'll never get a seat in any office"

It sounds like "Country first" Even if you're a soldier or sargeant in the army whose wife is forced to use food stamps to feed herself and her children while you are deployed for extended times for a war that isn't all that legit"

"Country first," even if you are a working mom who gets no respect and no paid leave when your kids are sick, and your wages are going to pay for daycare just so you can barely afford the roof over you head, and your husband's wages are covering car payments, groceries and the bills.

"Country first," even if that means your supporting an administration that doesn't care to see 20 million children extended under a health care system.

"Country first," even if that means you as a woman never see your wages equal that of a mans, even when you do the same work and are equally qualified.


What does it mean to put country first?

I'm looking at the rabid supporters at the McCain rallies, and wondering, which country they are really putting first? Why is the Obama campaign, which is one of the most inclusive, hopeful, and forward-thinking campaigns I've seen, viewed as being "anti-american"?

What is so American about treating education like a joke, heck even a stain on one's background?

What's so American about supporting candidates that support corporations that don't support you?

Does it make you a better American to denegrate Arabs in public?


This isn't the country my parents immigrated to back in 1987, and it's hardly the same country I recognize from my hopeful childhood.

I apologize to any reader for any lapses in grammer or disconnection between ideas. I am, like you, just a really tired, overworked, underpaid, disappointed American who can't figure out what's going on.

Pepto-Dismal

Without going into too much detail, I find myself having to verbalize my experience with pepto-bismol.

This weekend, my sister and I have had the most erratic rollercoaster ride of chills, hot flashes, malaise and stomach oddity. Today, for the first time in our lives, we tried pepto-bismol. The stuff smells like spearmint gum, and looks like a bubblegum lassi or milkshake. If after rinsing out the cup several times still leaves the dosing cup with a strange pink film, I don't want to know what it did to my insides. That stuff is brutal!

Meanwhile, my brother in law in taunting us to just "chug the thing, and toughen up"

"The lawyers wrote the dosing, you can take more than that!"

We don't know if it's psychosomatic, or if the experience of gulping down that stuff has actually tricked our bodies into thinking there is something worse out there than a fever.

The Trouble With Atkins

I'm not sure if anyone really remembers the atkins diet or if they were ever on it, but the concept and the practice of that restriction completely wierded me out.

I was in high school when the popularity of the Atkins diet was at its peak. I remember working at my dad's job and meeting some really nice people at the hospital. One of the nurses was on Atkins, and on top of being an avid vintage label collector, Patty (not her name) was a somewhat larger woman. Patty was two weeks into her Atkins regimen when I started working at the hospital. Excited about her weight loss, Patty continued eating her meats and fats, as long as she avoided all carbs. Unfortunately, her giant economy size bag of FRIED PORK RINDS was fit for the menu. When the department took me out to lunch on my last day, we went to my favourite tapas resteraunt. Patty ordered the saganaki (a large brick of Greek cheese that is covered with butter, liquour and herbs. It was CARB FREE!

I just think it's funny when we find ourselves following trends that we rationalize as good or in this case, healthy for us. Patty did lose 20 or so pounds, but ended up smelling like ammonia, like most Atkins dieters do. Trade offs...