Election Day Hangover

So, it's all over now.

I'm sorry I never managed to post yesterday, but it was a long day. Election day began nice and early when I went in to the poll to vote. It continued with me writing some skeleton stories to be ready for the tight deadlines. Then I went out for a bike ride, came home, showered, and got ready for the evening's work.

Around 8:30, I went to the posh Gideon Putnam Hotel, where area Democrats were encamped to watch the returns. In our pre-election strategizing sessions, we decided that of the two races I'd be covering on election night, the race for the NY 20th Congressional District was the most important, and with Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand looking like the likely winner, the powers that be sent me off to her party at the Gideon Putnam.

It was a very fun place to be after about 9:30 p.m. when the returns started coming in it was looking likely to swing toward an Obama victory.

In the moment's ebulance, it was hard not to get caught up in the moment's excitement. But, of course, I remembered my place, held my applause and refrained from allowing myself even so much as a smile when Obama won Florida and Ohio. The leader of the local Obama chapter whipped the crowd into a frenzy, shortly before Kirsten Gillibrand took the stage to offer a victory speach.

Following her speach, a bevy of reporters, myself included, swarmed around her, pelting her with questions, which she happily answered. With the crowd thunderous in the background, fueled by liquor and flush with victory, just being in the room produced something like a contact high. There was a positive energy in the room, the likes of which I've hardly ever experienced.

This was a stark contrast to what my colleagues who spent the night at the GOP camp reported. Somber was the word of the evening.

Fortunately for me, there was no such thing as somber at the Gideon. It was an extremely exciting place to be on election night. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the real party. At quarter to 11, I jumped in the car and flew as quick as traffic would allow back to the office.

I pounded out two stories: one on Gillibrand, and another on a local judicial race, and then sat around in the office, stressing over whether or not my stories were OK, and whether or not they would fit into the spaces alloted for them.

Eventually, when all the pages were sent and the computers were shut down, sometime around midnight, we all walked over to one of our local watering holes. Maybe it was a celebration. Maybe it was the marking of a milestone. Maybe it was mourning another election come and gone. Who knows, but we shut down the bar.

A couple of my younger colleagues (like, my age), and I came back my place to continue to revel in the day's fading excitement, and wound up talking late into the night. For so many reasons, it was a night I won't soon forget.

Unfortunately, work was rough today on not nearly enough sleep. And now I have to go to sleep to compensate.