[Side note: the painfully slow counting of Oregon ballots led to a county-by-county snail-paced horse race that, due to the closeness of the Senate battle here, meant we didn’t know the outcome until almost 24 hours after the “polls” closed (we vote by mail here in Oregon, so we don’t actually have polls, hence the quotes). Democrat Jeff Merkley, who had been lagging behind incumbant Republican Gordon Smith as the initial ballots were counted, didn’t take the lead until late in the afternoon of November 5. The Oregonian finally declared him the winner by the evening.

The point of this side note is this: If November 4 was filled with the excitement and joy of Christmas, then Nov. 5 was like finding an unopened present under the tree that somehow got buried under all of the wrapping paper. A second, small burst of euphoria for those of us left feeling empty and without direction now that we were out of reasons to obsessively check our favorite news sites.]

Anyway. I’m stalling. And the reason I am stalling is this: I know that I owe you Part II. Thing is, I haven’t had time to write it. I also need to recap the rest of my trip to New York, my cousin’s wedding in Cincinnati, and why my mother had a near panic attack over a pork chop. Longtime readers know that I often make promises of storytelling that never come to fruition, and the last thing I’d want to do is provide false hope of change you can’t believe in. So I’m not here to tell you that you can definitely expect a detailed account of those particular episodes. I’m just here to tell you that perhaps, maybe, if the mood strikes me, yes, at sometime in the forseeable future, barring another economic crisis that results in the destruction of civilization as we know it and the end of the Internet, you may or may not get to read a story about pork chops.

Until then, you can stop hitting refresh. Or, you can refresh your mind by re-reading Part I.

“It’s up to you to change the world. You don’t think that’s possible? That one man or woman can change the world? Well, I know it’s possible. And if you doubt that for a second, just take a look at the man in the Oval Office. He changed the world all by himself. It’s up to you to change it back.”

Yes, it is possible. And I know Barack Obama can do it.

(We gave Mr. Schlosser a standing ovation. My mother, ever the critic, later complained that the speech was dreary and downbeat. I contended that actually, it was just the opposite.)

But we need to remind him. We need to remind him that change, in order for us to believe in it, means making real progress towards reclaiming this country from corporate America. It means rejecting the dominate trade policies of the last two decades. It means understanding that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, should have the right to marry. That undocumented migrants work hard to make a better life for themselves and their children, and that their only crime is breaking ill-informed and misguided immigration laws that need to be revisited.

For now, though, let us celebrate and rejoice this incredible moment. Because one man has changed the world.

I honestly don’t know what I’ll do if Obama doesn’t win. I haven’t yet been able to swallow that possibility. Let’s just not go there.

Here’s my Obam-a-Lantern, which my friend Greg and I carved last week. For whatever reason, yeswecarve.com didn’t post it. So I’ll post it myself:

Here’s to hoping tomorrow brings us some good news. I think we all could really use it.

In equally important news…

I am famous! My Barack Obama cake made it to yeswecake.com! Check it out!!!

Politics aside, this is the most absurd, shockingly stupid set of interview questions I have ever seen. I would hope that even McCain supporters will view this for what it is: an example of laughably bad journalism.