Meet suffrage!

When I woke up this morning to both my phone alarm going off and NPR blaring from my clock radio at 5 a.m., the first thing I remember hearing was the announcer saying "It's here! The election is finally here!" I had the same feeling. I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited to vote - I haven't been this excited about anything in a long time, including starting grad school. How grand to be present on a great day in our country's history.

Because my mother said she is always one of the first in line at her polling place, I made it my goal to do the same. I was the first official voter in my precinct and cast the second officially tallied ballot. Below are some (pretty terrible) photographs of my voting experience, from seeing some fellow grad students groggily stroll in through getting my free "thanks for voting" coffee at Starbucks. I am guarding my "I Voted" sticker with my life.


Me, Vivian and Wendy, pumped that the day has finally arrived.

Up before dawn, making my voice heard.

I voted and you should too!

Meet Barack Obama (and about 40,000 Missourians)

I won the battle over fatigue and tromped around the Obama rally, taking pictures, hearing his voice for real-real and admiring how many different people turned out to show their support.

I left my apartment a little after 9 p.m. for the 9:30 speech but my friend Clint (he's the beleaguered but joyous one toward the end) got in line at 1:45 p.m. - he's just better at caring about stuff like this. It really paid off for him, though - he shook the senator's hand.

It was nice to just wander around, taking nice little pictures for myself, listening to Obama and the fans as I relaxed from one of the toughest weeks I've had in school.


Watching the speech on one of the screens.

I don't care if this was done for a photo-op backdrop, I liked it a whole lot.

Sorry for the quick & dirty toning on this...perhaps one day I'll come back and clean it up...

He's in this shot, I swear! Go to the shorter lightpost to the right of "CHANGE" and go down to the big black box. That's his lectern. Woo.

Hooray for arts & crafts.

This is deliciously Midwestern and Obama thanked the crowd for it. He even said "Mi-zur-uh."

Because no one has ever seen the Lectern of Change...

Clint is such a trooper.

Can't have politics without a protest.

...or campaign buttons.