Cohousing-L Mailing List: Celebration last night at Swan's

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

    YES, we celebrated last night at Swan's.  When I left work at 5pm in San 
Francisco the polls had just barely closed on the East Coast and were still 
open in California.  I rode the bus and BART (subway train) home to Oakland and 
as I was walking home from the BART station I passed in front of a large phone 
banking operation for OBAMA that had been booked into the hotel across the 
street from us for the last 36 hours.  They had a big screen TV mounted in the 
lobby and the crowd erupted in cheers as the networks called Ohio for Obama.  
We high fived all around on the sidewalk.  When I got home I went to the Common 
House where we had just installed a High Definition Converter box so we got 
good broadcast reception on the TV (which is normally only used to play movies) 
in the Common House.  I flipped the channels until I got a good one for 
election coverage.  People gradually drifted in (it was a Common Dinner night 
and Phil and Kris were in Pizza making
 mode).  We watched with excitement while the electoral count mounted, and 
munched on hot fresh Pizza and salad.  Then one minute after the polls closed 
in California they called it for Obama.  We watched McCain's gracious 
concession speech and Obama's historic acceptance speech together.  One of the 
original community members who ended up buying a condo across the street 
because it was ready 18 months sooner than Swans came over and joined us with a 
couple of bottles of champagne in his pocket and we celebrated some more.  One 
of the adult sons who was staying with his parents last night went out on the 
sidewalk and waved a big peace flag around as cars drove down our street 
honking and folks celebrated in the streets.  We hung around until our 
neighbors who were poll workers at our local polling place finally made it 
home.  They reported the vote in our polling district was 109 for Obama and 8 
for McCain.  It was a wonderful night . Best election night
 I've ever spent.
                        Bonnie Fergusson
                        Swan's Market Cohousing
                        Oakland, CA