Wiped out, but happy

Still recovering from 2 days at the courthouse counting ballots. Left there just before midnight last night. We finished counting by 9:30 but I stayed to help check in all the poll workers coming in from the various wards.

Here's the main room we worked in, all cleaned up:


Here are most of the bags from the wards all full of ballots and sealed for storage. They have to be kept for 22 months.


It's still hitting me, how happy I am that Obama won. It's kind of a culture shock too, because all during the counting everyone was pretty careful to remain pretty neutral, although there were a few minor comments about how Ru's are weird, nothing really horrible but that I don't think would have been made if they thought I was one, and then afterwards there seemed to be a few disgruntled Republicans around checking in their ballot bags. It was kind of too bad to have that little tinge to the night, because other than that the whole two days were a really inspirational time of people working together to get what needed to happen done that made me feel so proud.

So it wasn't till I got home, and read the transcripts of the speeches by both McCain and Obama that I was able to have it sink in. and I cried because I was so relieved, and do inspired. It feels like for the most part the country has started breathing again, when many of us didn't know we were holding our breath.

In other news I signed up for a Lyrics Writing course through Berklee Online. I'm taking their music theory 101 right now and it's kicking my butt, so I figured I better do something a bit more creative for my next class. It doesn't start until January but I got a discount for signing up early, which is why I had to do it now. At least I can ask for the textbooks for Christmas.