That was like New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July times ten.

November 5th, 2008 1:43pm by rusty-halo | 10 Comments »

That was just… incredible. It was like New Year’s Eve and the Fourth of July times ten.

I went to the SuperVegan party at Red Bamboo Brooklyn last night. It was packed, so I skipped the dining room and went to the bar upstairs, where I found my friends and ordered snack foods. We all huddled around the TVs nervously, cheering for each blue state as it was called–but no one really quite believed it, even as it looked more and more like Obama would win.

We switched to the Daily Show/Colbert Report Indecision ‘08 at 10pm, and then right at the end, the person in charge switched it over to CNN, who had just announced that Barack Obama had been elected. The room went INSANE. Everyone was screaming, jumping up and down, crying–like five minutes straight of pure squee. I think I must’ve hugged half the people in there, and I hugged all of my friends at least twice.

Then someone said that people were on the streets outside, so we went out on the balcony and watched as cars zoomed down the street, horns honking and drivers waving, and people ran by cheering. They’d cheer up at us and we’d cheer back–I’ve nearly lost my voice from screaming. Here and there, fireworks would go off, and someone got lots of cheers by carrying a life size Barack Obama standup down the street. I’ve never seen anything like it, people taking to the streets in joy. I watched as two black men walked past each other on the street below–I don’t even think they knew each other, but they grabbed each other in a huge epic hug, and one guy screamed “He looks like you!” and the other screamed “He looks like you!” back, and they clapped each other on the backs and continued in their opposite ways.

We went back inside to watch McCain’s concession–there was some jeering, but most people seemed to appreciate how gracious he was. We went outside to just… I don’t know… scream and watch in awe until Obama spoke. People were calling their families and crying; I called my parents, but couldn’t hear anything because of all the yelling. It took a while to get through–the phone system was overwhelmed, like it was New Year’s Eve.

Everyone was awaiting Obama’s acceptance; when he finally came on, we stormed back inside to watch. People were cheering so loudly I missed parts of it; when he starting listing different sexualities and races the room completely erupted. Once he finished, of course, there was a new wave of screaming–can you tell why I’ve nearly lost my voice? And lots more hugging. I was so glad to be there with so many of my friends–pretty much the entire SuperVegan crew and everyone connected. And then jaydk and queenofthorns showed up, and we squeed more!

I’d had two very strong vegan White Russians at this point, so the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. I think I left around 1:00am and got home around 2:30am, but I’m not really sure. The trains took forever, but people were so happy that I hardly minded. Everyone was coming from Obama parties; I remember a blur of t-shirts, campaign signs, and a girl with huge Obama earrings.

I think it’s finally starting to sink in that this is actually real. Barack Obama won!!!!

Current Mood: giddy