I woke up today to a gorgeous fall morning. The leaves in our neighborhood are as pretty as they've been all year and the breeze manages to be warm yet crisp at the same time. Overall, it just feels different today.

I've shied away from writing anything about Tuesday because... well there's plenty of stuff out there for you to read about the election and it'll be more well-thought-out and eloquent than any crap I can throw up against the wall today.

The Dormouse is extremely disappointed because, despite her unnatural affection toward Barack Obama, she had decided in the past two weeks that she liked Sarah Palin more (probably because of her $150,000 wardrobe and hair style - also she has an unnatural affection toward the name Sarah and still holds it against us because we didn't name The Caterpillar Sara) and wanted her to win the presidency. Yes, we tried to explain. No, it didn't do any good.

It's not like I have an Obama sign in my front yard or anything (sorry Monica, I was too lazy to put it up... I know you'd have put it out there for me but you're too lazy to drive over here). When it comes right down to it, I am at heart a cynicist and find myself wondering, "Just how will he break our hearts? Oooooo, I hope it will be a sex scandal!" But I will say this, he's the first person, president or presidential hopeful, going back as long as I can remember who says things and they make sense to me. For the first time in my political memory, someone speaks and I come away inspired. I feel like Fox Mulder... I want to believe. He's a politician and a human and given that I'm sure he'll screw up somehow. But for right now, there seems to be a whole world of possibility and that is nice for a change.

Whatever your thoughts on the election; whoever you voted for and however successful the fear mongers were in convincing you that the "other guy" was just "too scary" to be president -- which, by the way, just drives me batty; it's not like either guy wants the country to go down the drain. Each one has served America honorably in different ways and each wants only the best for the country they love, they just have different ideas about how to accomplish that (not to mention different definitions of "middle class"). Whatever your opinion, I hope you cannot help but feel emotional about a country that has come full circle from slavery and pre-suffrage to this:

Because finally we have demonstrated what we've always said, that America is a country where anyone can become the President.

And that is the country I love.