It's been 15 minutes since the end of Obama's acceptance speech in Denver, and I'm feeling a bit wrung out. It was a great speech--I wasn't worried about that--though I was anxious all day about how the event would go, especially given the huge venue.
As someone who grew up in Denver, I just *ached* to be there tonight. Looking at the nighttime sky over the stadium, I could almost feel the cool evening air (please, I don't want to be set straight about the air temperature and quality by anyone who was actually there....leave me to my dreams, OK?). I didn't cry until the last minute or so; then the floodgates opened.
Elliot sat between Terry and me as we watched the speech on PBS. He was popping his bubblegum and jiggling his legs around, trying to do origami and getting dirty looks from me every time he folded his paper too loudly. On the one hand, he distracted the heck out of me (imagine what it would have been like if Astrid was awake and among us!). On the other hand, having him there with us brought both Terry and me back to another very happy evening: the night we and a bunch of our grad school friends in New Jersey watched the 1992 election returns. As a family, we've gone through many wonderful changes since Bush/Cheney took over--especially, of course, the arrivals of Astrid and her cousins Lilly and Imogen--but there's been very little to cheer about, and so much to mourn, on the national and international scenes. So tonight we felt hope and optimism that we certainly haven't felt since late 2000--but we also feel tired and, with Elliot there to remind us of the years that have past, a lot older. (But probably not wiser--I feel very optimistic tonight!)
On a not entirely different note, Astrid realized last night that the war in Iraq is just about as old as she is (it started when she was about three weeks old). She's been pretty aware of the war since she was three, but she's really starting to ask questions now.
(Hey, I forgot to mention that she just completed DAY THREE of KINDERGARTEN. No wonder she's asking all these questions....)
2 comments:
We got pretty hard core in our house; Carrie and I watched the speech online in the study while Imogen was set up in the living room watching Calliou or the Berenstain Bears or something. We weren't missing that speech for anything.
I remember that night in 1992 as well, and I still have a photo somewhere of Lora toasting the camera with a wine cooler. Michele was there with me, and I think we had a good time together, even though I had been a jerk to her over the preceding weeks...I gave her a rough time for being a Ross Perot supporter.
Michele was supporting Ross Perot? I don't think I knew that....
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