Selenay's Ramblings

Normally I love to watch election coverage, even when the election concerned ends up going in the wrong direction for me. All the analysis and excitement just makes me feeling so connected and excited about the entire process.

Why yes, I am one of those voting evangelists.

Last night, after such a weird and subdued day at work, I was just too drained to even consider it. Instead I made myself finish the first draft of my C/C exchange fic and then I curled up with some books and a large cup of tea for the evening.

I was completely thrilled to wake up this morning and check my news feeds, emails and Twitter over breakfast. With the race being so tight, I'd assumed that we'd still be waiting on results through most of today. Instead I got to read the excitement as state after state called for Obama and eventually Romney conceded and it was just wonderful.

Now if Canada can just wise up and throw out Harper next time...

The atmosphere at work has been much happier today. I think it's the combination of time to reflect and most of us celebrating the Obama win. We're back to being a chatty, gossipy group and hopefully over the next few weeks the overall effect of yesterday's events will be to make our team an even closer one.

Tonight I'm going out with my knitters for highly calorific coffee drinks and treats. I really need that after the last day or so.

I'm starting to get a handle on the software that I'm using for my new job,
although I still have to ask silly questions a couple of times day. The good
thing is that one teeny tiny change I've made is into testing in
pre-production and I'm actually getting somewhere with the new change
request that I was given on Monday. It feels like I'm actually starting to
settle into this job.

It's still slightly unreal and wonderful to see everyone talking about
President-Elect Obama. He really did it! Reading my f-list has been
wonderful, from the short, jubilant posts through to loneraven's
account of her election night party. It's not often that we all agree on
something and this an amazing thing to agree on. The next few months are
going to be so interesting.

Been taking a look at my poll. Journey's End Fix-It? Really? Hmm, well it is
shorter than Donna the Time Lord so possibly more doable in the time
limit...
I had thoughts that I was going to relate. Insightful thoughts. There was
fandom in them. Er, my brain isn't working too well. Roll on Friday 4.30pm!

I should have thoughts about last night, but mostly I'm just stuck at "He
actually did it?"

Even yesterday morning, there was a part of me expecting to be disappointed
because it still seemed impossible for a black guy with great ideas and a
huge amount of hope to actually win. In politics it's usually the white guy
with tired old ideas that wins because he's familiar and safe. People don't
like to take chances when they vote no matter what they tell the pollsters
because that's scary and if they make a poor choice then they're stuck with
it. Who you vote for can have a huge influence in your life because
politicians have the power to make those big changes.

So a large part of me was expecting to be disappointed and praying that I
was wrong.

I am so glad that I'm wrong.

Time will tell whether Obama is a good president, but I have hope that he
will be and right now that's such a strange feeling. The leader of one of
the most powerful nations on Earth is someone that I can respect and feel
good about for the first time in eight years. I can't wait to see what
happens next.

In other news...

It's the first Thursday in the month so it must be eat out with the knitters
tomorrow night! Apparently we're going for Mexican at a place across the
harbour and the menu looks rather nice. I'm going to meet one of the girls
at the bus terminal so that she can shepherd me on and off the right buses
and I'm actually quite excited about this. Great food plus knitting plus
knitting friends seems like a fantastic night out to me!

Also, I have taken defensive action against the chiller cabinet that is my
office. I brought a big fleece jacket with me to huddle in when the cold
gets too much. Today I am determined that I will not leave this place
chilled to the bone. It takes hours to warm up from that kind of abuse
*sigh*

I was out at a party for one of the girls that I've met through Ravelry on Friday night. I fully intended to get home to see the first presidential debate but it was suddenly quarter to midnight and...well...that wasn't quite the way I planned things :-)

So instead I sat down and watched it today through the glories of teh Internets. It's still amazing to me that I can do that.

It was definitely an interesting debate, but I didn't feel like one came out the clear winner from the exchanges. My sympathies are firmly with Obama and the debate backed up the reasons for that, but I'm not sure that either one came out really far ahead.

Just checked the wires and it appears that polls over the weekend have declared Obama the winner including getting a lead with the undecideds. So that's good :-)

Friday night I had one minor triumph - I turned my first heel on a sock :-) Hooray! The rest should be pretty simple and I'm feeling very good about it. Lesley at the Ravelry group was the key, showing me how the pattern's vague instructions actually worked on the yarn, so I owe her a debt.

My little kittens have already grown, I think. They're not looking quite so tiny as they did, although other cats still look huge compared to them. Annie is turning out to be the snuggler, but both of them seem to feel that me sitting at the computer is the signal for nap time. They'll sleep on my lap for hours if I let them! It's totally adorable.

I am downloading Merlin to see what they do with the second episode when they don't have to introduce the world and all the characters.

I'm trying to decide whether I sign up for muskratjamboree in April. The sign-ups are in a month so I'll have a better idea on whether I can afford it (both tickets and time). It's very tempting, but can I really afford to jet off to a con when I'm going back to England in Feb for one already?

Discussion of the primaries and politics in general has become essential at every meal time in my house now (as I shall be shortly sharing a border) and a question came up today that none of us could answer.

Does the President of the USA receive a salary while he is in office?

If anyone on my lovely knowledgeable flist could point me in the right direction, you'd have the gratitude of the entire Sel clan :-)