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2004-11-06 - 10:39 a.m.
the incumbent
On Tuesday, Mat & Emily had an election night potluck party at their house in Takoma Park. I'd been looking forward to it for a while, as an opportunity to see some friends but also because it meant finally getting this nerve racking election year over with. The suspense was killing me, I just wanted to know what our future would be for the next 4 years already. Since I waited until the last possible day to mail out my Maryland voter registration, I was anxious that I wouldn't get my registration card in the mail in time, but it came a few days before the election and I was so excited to have it. Even though MD isn't a swing state and Kerry pretty much had a lock on it, I was still excited to participate in democracy, especially this year. After I got out of class in the afternoon, I went to vote at the high school near my apartment. There were no lines to wait in, compared to a lot of stories I heard about long lines at polling places that day. Mike was going to the potluck too, so we carpooled again in his rockstar BMW. Mike made Rice Krispies Treats (with M&M's in them!). I was really too busy this week to make anything, so I just bought a couple 6 packs to bring. Like Mat & Emily's housewarming back in September, we were again the first guests to get there. But it filled up quick, and they had quite a spread. A lot of people made some really tasty stuff. We also got to meet Mat's new dog, Frankie. A week or two ago, he got a beagle, and she is cute as all get out. It's really funny to watch Frankie interact with Emily's cats Lulu and Mulligan. She's about the same size as the cats, and she doesn't really given them any trouble, she just kind of walks around and looks at them, and sometimes Lulu gets territorial and hisses. One of the things that hadn't occurred to me before I got there was that Mat & Emily don't have cable. They don't even have a TV in the living room, they had to bring down a little one from upstairs. So our choices for election coverage were limited to the broadcast networks. I was a little bummed that we couldn't watch the Daily Show. But we were still able to keep up on the developing news. It was a very liberal crowd at the party, but we had our one token Republican, Emily's friend Lance. But for the most part we were all pulling for Kerry and cheering on every state that turned blue. Mike is from Pennsylvania, so he went up there to vote earlier in the day, and when Kerry won PA we all cheered Mike. And we cheered my brother, who voted out in Wisconsin. Those states turning blue were rare promising moments as our hopes got dimmer and dimmer. By the time we left the party around midnight, it still wasn't official, but it was looking like there was no hope for Kerry. And you know the rest of what happened. I'm glad I could be among friends that night and share in our anxiety and disappointment, though. -al
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