I'm pretty beat, but decided to share a few photos from our evening at the Bridgeport Brewing Company. We went there to participate in the election fever, consume tasty beverages, and have some delicious food. Also, we don't have a TV, so we needed a big screen. And they had a GIANT screen blasting CNN starting at 4pm.
Shortly before leaving for the bar, I had a moral dilemma; my favorite track jacket is red, but I was definitely going for the blue last night. The closest thing I could find to "democrat" blue was my favorite scarf. So I sported it with a neutral white shirt. J donned his red, white, and blue snap shirt that he purchased in the "true America" (Houma, Lousiana). Quite fetching don't you think?
I brought my camera to the bar with the hope of capturing key moments in the race. I got this idea from our good friend, Larson, who loves to take photos of the television screen. We spent most of the night at the bar texting friends and family while cheering on the CNN correspondents as they ushered in the great news. It was difficult to capture the full screen in such dim lighting, but the excitement was there. Trust me. We also relished the moment when the Tuesday night trivia guy packed up his bags and left after the entire bar decided not to play his game. Seriously, I love trivia, but not on such an important night!
Then, 8pm (PST) rolled around and we had enough beer for the night, so we settled our tab and headed back to the apartment to catch the concession/acceptance speeches -- which both turned out to be quite gracious. Jesse decided that we weren't walking fast enough and made me run half way home from the bar. Somehow he also managed to rip a giant hole in his jacket with his thumb. I guess that's a small price to pay for hope...even if the jacket was barely a month old.
In terms of weather, today isn't bad at all. It's beautiful and sunny with a cool breeze. But it's not the weather that has feeling fragile today (even though it poured rain yesterday for no less than 8 hours), it's the election. 
Yesterday, I tried to keep my mind busy with projects around the house. I played around with some fabric and rearranged the bathroom medicine cabinet. I also cut my hair. As you can see it's pretty darn short. Unfortunately, I'm sporting a terrific case of pillow hair -- I forgot to photograph it yesterday while it still looked combed. Also, I haven't seen that part of my neck in a while. Hello neck, welcome to winter. The highlight of my day, however, was dinner with our only friends in Portland, Brian and Anna. We went to this Thai restaurant not far from their house and had a pumpkin curry dish that was out of this world. Then, we went back to their place and sat by the fire with hot cups of tea and watched SNL's Presidential Bash. Which brings me back to the election. I voted last week, but since last Wednesday I have been on the edge of my seat waiting and waiting for today. And now it's here. This is my first time voting in Oregon (and on the West Coast for that matter), so I get to experience the first polls closing over happy hour. Brilliant! Jesse and I are going to head to a local brewery and hang out for a few hours as the East Coast scrambles to count their votes. We'll probably hang out until about 7pm and then head home and stream the election results on our computer. 
We printed out a map of the United States and plan on devising a point system so we can hedge bets on which states will turn blue or red. I'm not sure what the prize will be, but it will make things a little more exciting this evening at the bar. I pulled out the crayons and will color code our decisions this afternoon. Since we both read the same literature, our guesses will probably be pretty similar. To offset this fact, I think we'll have a coin toss and alternate picks. I don't really care who wins our betting game, it's merely another distraction from the bigger voting "game" this evening. ** UPDATE** 3PM PST
We compiled our predictions and have agreed on the rules. Our bets will revolve around three categories: Toss-up States, "Leaning" McCain, and "Leaning" Obama. Any of the "safe" states will not be considered, except for the Wild Card Bonus State (see photo for the detailed rules). For us, the "leaning Obama" category is effectively a wash because we predicted the same outcome across the board. However, the toss-up states could be interesting (and are clear indicators of Jesse's optimism vs. my skeptical nature). The status of the states' standings were based on a CNN Electoral Map Calculator.
Today I felt mostly back to normal after my epic cold, so J and I decided to ride our bikes downtown for our near-weekly trip to the library. J has been burning through music books lately and I have decided to counter the daily inundation of election coverage by reading a few biographies/critiques on our founding fathers. Sure, the reading is a bit dry at times, but after feeling constant disappointment with current political climate, it's refreshing to get back to the basics. Rather than jumping right into a full biography, I decided to whet my appetite with Christopher Hitchens' Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography. I enjoyed it so much that I'm requiring J to read it so that we can discuss. Things I have learned so far? Thomas Paine was pretty awesome. He was a Quaker -- a recurring theme I have noticed in the history of progressive historical figures. Oh, and it kind of sounds like John Adams was an ass (but I'll have to verify that later through additional reading).
Since we were out on bikes, we decided to drop off our ballots instead of putting them in the mail. To make a long story short, I thought the drop box was on Morrison Street in SW Portland, but it was, in fact, on Morrison Street in SE Portland. Our bike ride turned out to be longer than expected and I realized that I am not feeling 100% better from my cold. I kept checking the rear wheel to make sure that somehow I hadn't acquired a couple of lead bricks on the way. I'm sure J wanted to die from my slowness. However, we did it. We voted. Thank god the election will be over in less than a week!
Since we were already out, I decided that our bike ride would not be nearly dramatic enough unless we made a third stop at the grocery store. We picked up apples (to celebrate fall with a pie or crumble), three boxes of tissues, cold medicine (since my ears are still stopped up), some veggies, and a Coke (for the caffeine/sugar boost that I needed to make it home). I took full advantage of the three boxes of tissues and was able to breathe on our way home. By the time we parked our bikes in the basement, I was feeling refreshed and actually was glad that we took the dreaded bike ride. I think I needed a little fresh air.
I picked up a new iron (pretty much the same model) on Friday and was determined to finish and hang the curtains. After hemming and ironing, I decided that they draped like burlap sacks and needed to be washed to remove some of the sizing. That little voice in my head started screaming "No no no no! You'll just have to iron them again later!" But I did it anyway (according to the washing instructions on the tag) and the damn things shrunk almost 10 inches. I'm sure my Mom is rolling her eyeballs at the moment, knowing very well that she always taught me to wash the fabric before you start the project, but the damage was done. Thankfully, I hadn't cut the curtains and had some length to let out. Saturday was spent unhemming, ironing, and hemming again and finally they're up. And growing on me. I don't think I'll ever love them, they wrinkle even if you look at them the wrong way. However, they do make that blank wall a lot more inviting. 
Our friend Ben made really good time driving from Sacramento and arrived a few hours earlier than we expected on Saturday. While we had planned on having our own little Oktoberfest celebration before he arrived, it was great to have dinner with him and chat before he totally crashed from the 10-hour drive. The Oktoberfest meal is on temporary hold (it's totally not vegetarian) until tomorrow afternoon when we will feast at lunchtime. Yesterday, we had a nice lazy morning with pastries from Ken's Artisan Bakery and scrambled eggs (prepared by Jesse). After breakfast we decided to take a walk, which turned out to be more epic than expected. It was nice to get out in the cool air and we saw several trees that are starting to turn colors for the fall. 
We arrived home a little after lunch and stuffed our faces because we were all starving. Jesse crashed for a few minutes and took a nap, but woke up rejuvenated. Around 4pm he and Ben went out for a run and I had the place all to myself. Ben is here in Portland taking a week-long class, so he had reading and homework to do in preparation for his first day. That wasn't a problem at all, since Jesse needed to prepare for an interview today and I was reading the nearly 300-page voter guide for Oregon elections. We have fourteen different measures to vote for/against this election. I'm pretty glad that Oregon votes entirely by mail so I don't have to memorize my answers for each one!
Shortly before leaving for the bar, I had a moral dilemma; my favorite track jacket is red, but I was definitely going for the blue last night. The closest thing I could find to "democrat" blue was my favorite scarf. So I sported it with a neutral white shirt. J donned his red, white, and blue snap shirt that he purchased in the "true America" (Houma, Lousiana). Quite fetching don't you think? 
I brought my camera to the bar with the hope of capturing key moments in the race. I got this idea from our good friend, Larson, who loves to take photos of the television screen. We spent most of the night at the bar texting friends and family while cheering on the CNN correspondents as they ushered in the great news. It was difficult to capture the full screen in such dim lighting, but the excitement was there. Trust me. We also relished the moment when the Tuesday night trivia guy packed up his bags and left after the entire bar decided not to play his game. Seriously, I love trivia, but not on such an important night! 
