President Barack Obama and way too much champagne

More than 130 million Americans voted in yesterday's election, the most in our history! Folks rose to the occasion!

I wrote about this momentous occasion in my column this week. And then I ran out of the office like I was being chased.  My rationale for not working election night, the most important day for journalists was this:  when I look back I want to remember that I witnessed this election surrounded by people for whom the moment held the same magnificent meaning. 

We used the fine crystal for our bubbly and settled down to an evening of election returns punctuated by whooping, fist bumping and dancing around our living room. I knew I would have a headache the next day, and I do. But the most important election in my life time, and that of my parents and grandparents was no time to pretend to be unmoved. 

My neighbor, a stay-at-home mom who home schools her three children and believes in homeopathic remedies, baked an "Obama" cake, a chocolate-covered ring adorned with M&Ms added throughout the night to match the number of electoral votes won by Obama.

Surprises for me, included the large swaths of Latino voters in Florida who normally break Republican but voted this time for Obama. He pulled the young vote and his technologically efficient campaign ought to be a model for anyone planning to seek public office. 

Throughout the night and today, people have sent me anecdotes that tell me I'm not alone in my euphoria. There was the hard-bitten corporate lawyer happily ensconced in his fifties and his suburban McMansion breaking down in tears when Obama reached the winning number of electoral votes.  There was my home-schooling neighbor who spent the day making "get out the vote" calls for Obama and related the elderly Minnesota woman she talked to who was half-blind and in her 90s but was awaiting a ride to the polls so she could vote. No one wanted to let history pass them by. 

The Wall Street Journal attributed Obama's win to angst over the economy. But it was about so much more. In the Seattle area where I live, voters overwhelmingly approved tax increases for everything from parks and roads to fire stations. Angst doesn't send 130 million to the polls; hope does.

I'll leave off  with a sweet letter to our new president from the writer Alice Walker. Her charge to Obama: cultivate happiness, responsibility and good will in his own life and it will be a model the rest of America will follow.  Words to live by. Et tu?

Kidney stones, middle fingers and 2nd grade angst

Is it just me or does the news publish a threat to our children every day. Today, it was this story in the New York Times about the growing number of children diagnosed with kidney stones. Typically the province of the elderly, kidney stones are a pain not to be wished on anyone. Hold your thoughts while I get up for a glass of water.

Back. Unlike a growing number of people, I can't ignore the news. It would be like ignoring the elephant trampling through my living room. I try to pick and choose but nothing creates a magnetic pull on my eyes like stories about children. Whether its awful things happening to some poor child, like actress Jennifer Hudson's family, including a 7-year-old nephew, found shot to death. And don't let me turn to the international section where stories on Darfur and other horrors await. ..

Lighter moment: racing into the city this am to get my son to school on time (always an iffy proposition for us) and myself to work, I noticed a friendly-looking burgundy Toyota Prius race by in the slower lane, jet over just a hair ahead of the car in front of me and take the next few miles of curves like it was the Indy 500. Now we're off the highway and in the city and the same car zooms up behind me, swerves into the next lane, passes me and other cars and zooms back in our lane narrowly missing behind rear-ended. The drivers' response to the honking horns was a middle finger stuck out of the window, raised high. Here's the funny part: I get to my son's school and guess what car was parked crookedly in front: the Prius! A kindly but hurried looking man opened the door for one of my son's classmates, pushed him toward the building, suddenly grabbed him back, shoved a lunch bag into his hand and then pushed him forward again. No words were exchanged btwn the two. Some days I guess we're too busy to use our words, or give our kids the drop off they deserve.

Lastly, second grade angst. I'm desperate to hear how you're dealing with heightened academic expectations in school and a child that just wants to chill. Homework in second grade is just plain wicked. It also seems our teacher puts a lot more emphasis on student's behavior than their intellectual abilities. When asked how a student's day was, she's more apt to talk about behavior than classwork. Yes, children must learn how to behave in school, a place much different than home. But it is a process, not something they instinctively know when they arrive for kindergarten, right? Behavioral ups and downs that fall within the norm should be expected. I'm more interested in academic ups and downs which could be signs of serious problems. Looking for perspective here.