yes we did.

you've heard, right? that the phillies won the world series? well, it was incredible and of course, true to philly style, about as crazy and dramatic as it could have been. a few of us gathered at colleen m's place for part TWO (see? crazy!) of game five for the most tense, exciting and joyous three and a half innings of baseball i may ever get to experience in my life. somewhere in the 7th or 8th, colleen embraced me and excitedly said, "we're gonna win, stell!" and i started crying a little. by the bottom of the ninth, i was pacing back and forth, driving her dog crazy and making others worry slightly because i was SO quiet. when lidge threw that last strike and dropped to his knees with his arms raised in triumph, i dropped right to the floor and the tears came for real. we hugged and cursed and cried (ok, that was just me) and it was just amazing.


adam and i went to the parade on friday and it was one of those experiences that you just never forget. at one point, the crowd started rushing into the street as if the rope barricades weren't even there. i looked back at adam like, "are we really doing this?" and we went with the crowd. the cops didn't push us back and when the trucks with the players came down the street, i could have given them high fives if i was tall enough - we were that close. i took a ton of photos and the (nearly 60) best ones are here.

before we could even recover from all that excitement, the obama happened. the president effing elect obama!


i made obama logo cupcakes the night before the election. let me tell you - it's really tedious and hard on the back to bend over a table decorating 24 cupcakes with colored sugar. i went to bed with purplish fingers, but a HUGE smile on my face. i felt like a domestic goddess and i knew deep down, under all the nerves and fears, that we were totally going to pull this one off the next day.

i went to a conference on election day and voted on my way home. there were no lines, they didn't have those awesome little "i voted" stickers and we had to fill in ovals with pens on our ballots, as if we were taking standardized tests. (seriously, chester county? what year is this?) when i went to put my ballot through the scanner, the woman told me that it didn't matter which way it went in and i was sort of seized with this instant, "oh my god, my vote isn't going to be counted correctly" paranoia.

(though, it turns out that pennsylvania did alright, eh?)

i spent the rest of the night knitting, pacing and eating some of the obama cupcakes i had left after taking some to work and giving a few others to my landlords. when they called pa, i jumped out of my chair and started walking around my living room, pumping my fist into the air and shouting, "yeah, pennsylvania!" when they called florida, i started crying and promptly opened a beer. when they called ohio, i started shaking. and when they called the election? oh, i was a mess.

i cried trough his entire speech, wrapped up in my favorite thermal blanket. i went to bed filled with hope and so excited for our future. two nights later, i was sitting at a table with five other politically like-minded friends at world cafe live. girlyman came out on stage and opened their show with their special obama song (brilliantly set to the tune of richie valens' "donna"), except this time, instead of singing, "ever since i saw him speak" they sang, "ever since he became president" and we all cheered like crazy. it was just one of those magical little moments that again, you never forget. throughout their entire set, i just felt so good inside. it's hard to explain, but i read in someone else's blog this week that they have never felt this connected to or optimistic about government before and it's so true.

at one point in the show, ty was commenting on our world series win and then our election win and she said, "aren't you guys TIRED? shouldn't you try to spread your joy and happiness our a little bit more?"

seriously, man. i keep telling people i feel like i haven't slept for the entire past month.

i slept for twelve hours last night. since i woke up, i've had coffee & breakfast brunch, added way too many blogs to my bloglines subscriptions, watched a whole lot of 30rock and worked on this post. my only other plans (until i have to leave for joe's big turkish party tonight!) are to knit, watch more 30rock and take a very long bath. tomorrow, i am meeting colleen d for a proper tea at the simpson room and that's about as much excitement as i can handle this weekend.

well done, america.