Keeping It 100

Last year this time I COULD NOT WAIT to get up to go vote. This WAS the most important election of my lifetime and I was excited. I must also say that it was something I still did not think would happen.

I’m optimistic about most things, but when it came to America electing a black president I felt like a Public Enemy song “Can’t Truss It”. I thought “they” would find him in bed with a dead hooker and a live boy or something. The history of this country just couldn’t be ignored and I just didn’t want to get my “hopes up”.

I got up early, voted and went to work. After work I had somewhere to go and when I got home the election results were too early to clarify a winner. I went to sleep with the election results on. When I woke up I decided to record it. My DVR says I started recording November 4, 2008 9:57 PM (NBC coverage). It wasn’t until 11pm that they announced the news that Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States :-D. After that it was no sleep until THE MAN came on to give his acceptance speech. In the meantime John McCain gave one of the most eloquent concession speeches I ever heard. Major props to him for that.

By my DVR “the next first family of the United States” came out in Grant Park in Chicago (pictured above) at 11:56 PM. Even though I wasn’t there I could feel the energy! Riveted to the screen would be a major understatement. I stayed up and recorded more coverage about an hour after his speech and then I finally got a few hours of sleep before work. I also received several text messages that night and the next morning.

November 5th 2008 was no walk in the park at work because I was so sleepy (what I called a “non alcoholic election night hangover”), but so proud. “Proud” too is an understatement. One word cannot capture what I felt that night and to this day.

And now, a word from the man himself.

*You can read more about what I did last year on November 4, 2008 in 100 Minutes

100 Minutes

100 Minutes is about how long it took me to vote today. For the mathematically challenged that’s 1 hour and 40 min. There were forecast of lines lasting three hours or more. Thank goodness it wasn’t like that in my area. Truthfully I was more than prepared to wait the three hours or more. Today was SO important I would have done it. I was even hyped to do it. Today was like Christmas morning I couldn’t wait to get up and cast my vote. As excited as I was, there were people there more excited than I.

There was shouting as people left the polling place, several people were taking pictures with cell phone cameras; there were even some video cameras. As a filmmaker I thought about taping the event, but I KNEW there would be many others taping and I predict that by this time tomorrow they will be like a zillion of ‘em on YouTube. The people were excited though and several even honked their horn at the line as they were leaving. One woman even had her music turned up and played a tambourine in one hand while she drove with the other, I kid you not. You can’t make stuff like that up.

Even though I didn’t videotape the event I did document it in my own way.

This is my ballot before my vote















After my vote














Right before I cast my final ballot.














Today was history in the making and I was SO GLAD to be part of it.