A week of historic memories....

This posting comes, immediately after I was just outbid on eBay for a copy of Newsweek with Obama on the cover- talk about a bummer. If anyone has a newspaper, or magazine from the day after the election and does not want it- please send it my way!!

So, this past week has been absolutely nonstop starting with last Sunday afternoon. After church on Sunday, my friend Courtney gave me the contact info for a lady she works for who was in desperate need of a nanny. On a whim, I called expecting to leave a message saying that I was interested. Not only did I talk to her in person, but she had me come over to her house as soon as we hung up to meet her husband, and two kids. When I first got there the mom, Joni shared how they were looking for a nanny to start asap as her husband just got a job that starts the next day. She said how they had hoped to interview a few people over the next few days and then make a decision. Very much to my surprise, Joni and her husband Jim felt that I was right for the job. They hired me on the spot, and I started the following day (Monday). The family lives about 20 minutes away out at the lake, and I just spend the time greeting the kids as they get off the school bus, giving them their snack, starting homework and depending on the day driving the kids to martial arts or ballet. Can you say soccer mom anyone? My roommates won't stop teasing me after I had the ultimate "soccer mom" moment when I was driving them to martial arts and caught my self looking in the rear view mirror and witnessing Jonanthon pulling his little sister, Dana's hair, all the while she is holding his hat out of his reach. Without missing a beat I found myself saying: "Dana give Jonathon his hat back, and Jonathon stop pulling Dana's hair". I was quite pleased with myself when the kids instantly did as I said- can you say most well behaved kids ever? Overall, it isn't a rough gig considering I spend majority of the time sitting and waiting at their practices- at which I am encouraged to bring a book, and just study. Wow, getting paid $10 an hour to study- I guess I can't complain....

Beyond the jobfront, campus was alive with political outcries on Monday as the election neared. Between the "Western Votes" tables stationed dead center in read square, endless reminders from Professors to get out and vote (My Psych professor even jokingly offered use of her Lexus if you needed transportation to drop off a ballot). Although from what I heard, the day was complete with Christine Gregoire and Patty Murray speaking to a standing-room only crowd on campus. I was planning on skipping class to go to the speeches but was unable to because of a stupid Psych test- darn academics!

Tuesday was a pretty crazy and anticipated day, as both the general election was occurring, as well as The INN was announcing mission trips that night. In regards to the election, my house was quite excited. Mary went home to be with her Dad, and plan how they would move to Canada and/or Scotland if McCain won- needless to say I am glad the results were in her favor- I woulda missed her. When I left for class at 9 Liz was camped out on the couch watching CNN... 5 hours later I returned to get ready for work and found her in the same position. After work, I returned home to find that Liz eating dinner on the couch and still watching CNN only the room was spotless. Apparently, Brittany (the lone Republican in the house) had cleaned the whole downstairs as a result of nervousness and anxiety over the polls... Around 7:30 a few kids from my host team came over with the intentions of playing some pre-hosting card games. However, we sat down in the TV room and couldn't bring our attention away from the constant updates. The next thing I knew, they announced Obama had exceeded the 270 mark and we couldn't believe it. Sarah and I were cheering- Ben sat silently disappointed and Liz was just sitting back and soaking it all in. We proceeded to call our friends and share in the excitement (or in Sarah's case, call our friend Tim and remind him that he now owes her ice cream from a lost bet). Then, we watched McCain's speech- which I might add, was a pretty good speech- I even felt a little sorry for him and Palin...

After McCain's speech, Sarah, myself and the rest of our host team was supposed to go down to the INN and start hosting. We were definitely late as we tried to hold out for Obama's speech but decided that we would just have to watch it on youtube later...

The INN was abuzz with excitement both inside, and throughout the surrounding streets as we watched the crowd of people cheering down Holly street towards downtown. Beyond the election, the INN kids were excited for the long anticipated mission trips video. The announcement of spring mission trips is a big deal, and tends to set the tone for the rest of the year. This year, the INN will be sending groups to Mexico, Jamaica, Boston, New Orleans, and Billings, Montana. I turned in paperwork for Boston, which will be a great challenge in itself in raising the trip cost of $950. I should be finding out within the next few weeks about whether I made of the 18 available spots for the trip....

After the INN, Sarah and I came back to watch Obama's acceptance speech, then we got a call from one of Sarah's friends. He wanted to go down and join the crowd that had gathered. So Sarah drove, and we got downtown to discover around 300 people (which apparently shrunk from the originally estimated 3,000 people that walked down from campus) cheering, hugging, and giving speeches of what they thought the future holds. It was a night I don't think I will be forgetting any time soon.

The rest of the week, campus was relatively quite. That is, with the exception of my professor's noting the importance and significance of this election and what Barack Obama has to offer the country as well as making us watch his acceptance speech. Somehow both times this happened I managed to be sandwhiched inbetween, or sitting next to the only Republican friends I had in each class- ohhh man, good times.....



Anyways, that is all I can come up with for now- hopefully I didn't bore you all to tears. I know you would all like to see pictures of me, but of course you have probably figured by now- I am slacking in that department. So instead, I will leave you with Obama's acceptance speech. A must see if you haven't already- I have seen it three times and still think it is potentially one of the best speeches I have ever seen/heard.