The Obama Rally

I was at the rally on Election Night, as I said in my last post.. (I got tickets, woooo!) I am still trying to put it all into words, and it is hard. It was a very emotional night, and I am so very glad I was there. There with hundreds of thousands of people, all together for one purpose. It was incredible. But you know, when I try to capture it in words, it is so very difficult. They float away, leaving images and feelings that words seem inadequate to describe. Is this what it is, to be part of history, to see it right before you?

The crowd was huge, so that you could not take it in with one glance, not if you were on the ground. Maybe from the air, but seeing from there isn't quite like being there. A sea of people, it was kind of like being on a canoe in the lake, and the waves bob you up and down, so that you can't much see save for brief, awe-inspiring flashes. There were no seats, and my friend Becka and I found a place on a hill to sit. She kept her little Fig Newton crisps; our subs we ate while waiting in line, because you weren't supposed to bring food or drink in. Hooray for cookie leniency! So we sat, and we made "hill buddies" of some of the people around us, talking with them throughout the night. There was a Jumbo-tron where CNN was being broadcast, and so we got those results. I also have web access on my phone, and was calling out election results courtesy of the New York Times.

Every time a new state was called we would roar, cheer, applaud. It was like the tide changing,k rushing, growing. Each state was like a wave, more water, a bigger roar. Then California. Just a little after 10pm, Central Time. And when the race was called, a prelude. Then, the announcement: McCain had conceded, and Obama would become the 44th President.

It was a wall of sound you could feel as much as hear. It shook through you.

We danced, we cheered. People hugged total strangers, screamed, sobbed. There was so much emotion that it was overwhelming. It was like the wall of sound, the rushing of it.

Then Obama gave his speech, and the crowd grew quiet. "Yes we can" was a chanted refrain, like a holy benediction. Tears flowed like quiet brooks. Maybe it's cliche, but it is the image that comes to my mind. And then, when Obama was done speaking, we went our ways, a reverent hush over us, that led only to cheers when we had begun to absorb what had happened.

I was there. Yes we did.

If you would like to see the pictures I took at the rally, with my cell phone, here is the link.

Obama Rally Photos

Getting the Tickets to the Rally

Last week... (hold on while I check, yes, still last week)... last week I got an invitation to sign up for tickets to Barack Obama's Election Night rally down in Grant Park. I've never been to an election night rally, but then, the candidates I normally support never make it past the primaries. I decided that I would go ahead and sign up, and I got a message confirming I would get tickets. I was admittedly excited, moreso when I heard about how many people signed up and were on the waiting list. Wow.

Monday, 3 November rolled around. I had received an email stating that my ticket would be emailed on the 3rd, between 5pm and 6pm. I hoped they meant Eastern Time, but no such luck. So I went home, and there was the email, but right now my home printer wasn't working. I forwarded the email to my work address, and to my gmail account too. I figured I could print from work.

Wow. The Democratic Party was serious in not copying the ticket. Somehow it never got through to my work email, and the image was stripped from my gmail account. Also, as I use Thunderbird and not web mail, I could not access the original email except through my home computer. It seemed like any attempt to forward the email would not work. So I emailed the sender to let them know about my problem.

I got an email back saying I could pick up tickets downtown at the Hyatt, which is, alas, a 2-hour round trip from where I work using public transportation. As I could only pick them up between 10am and 3pm, and no one else could get them for me, and I only have an hour for lunch, this would not work. I was rather upset, as I really wanted to go to the rally.

Then I thought about maybe saving the email as a file, and printing it at the UPS store, as there is no Kinko's near me. No luck, they do not have the program to open emails. Now I was even more upset.

I called my friend Becka, who I was going to take to the rally, and she suggested I bring the file to her at work, and print it there. Then I thought, maybe I can email the file and that will work...

I rushed home as much as you can on the CTA, and sent her the file, and waited, chanting, "Please work, please work, please work..." It worked. The file printed, there was a ticket; we were good to go. So I told Becka I would meet her outside the Harold Washington Library, and we were on our way!