At last.

I cried last night.

Actually, I teared up a lot yesterday.

When I stood in a voting booth, surrounded by all the enthusiastic bustle of a whole town's worth of people, and marked the space next to a candidate I REALLY want to be my President.

When I was knocking on doors for Obama, and I had a long talk with a lovely 82-year-old lady in a housecoat about how voting for Obama reminds her of things her father, an immigrant from Ireland, told her were important. How excited she was that he might actually win.

When I was holding Child in my lap and watching election results, and she was keeping track for me, cheering as the states came pouring in.

But mostly when the results were announced, and I realized I could stop holding my breath in dread that something-would-go-wrong, that it would all be a dream, that it really couldn't happen. That I really could allow all that pent-up hope to come out, at last.

HOPE.

And then I saw his speech, and I blubbered my way through it. All those emotions that I'd been keeping in, free at last. (and no, I didn't type that accidentally)

More hope. Joy. Optimism. Gratitude. Pride.

Thank you, Americans, for giving hope a shot this time. And for those who didn't, I hope you're pleasantly surprised. I've got lots of hope to share, now.