If Sarah and I are graced with children someday (woah), talking about the presidential election of 2008 will have a special importance.  We had the chance to stand in Grant Park with 250,000 people and follow the election results all night.  Then, as the west coast states closed their polling places, we watched as Wolf Blitzer told us Barack Obama would be the 44th president of the United States.

I can’t write that without getting goosebumps and watery eyes.  The memory of raising my arms in jubilation with about 250,000 people, one of which was my wife of 30 days, is one I will never forget.  It was almost like a combined sigh of relief for a moment most of us probably at at least one time doubted we would ever see.  As much as I supported Obama from before his announcement in Springfield, to believe that he actually was named president-elect?  It’s still a struggle.

I remember talking with Sarah and realizing that she was as excited as I was, and the anticipation on the ride downtown.  I was wearing a button my friend Kelly bought me – it said “Beer Brewers for Obama.”  While beer brewing is still a yet-to-be-achieved dream, it was a fun, eye-catching button to wear.  Sarah and I were in a crowd of supporters as we walked from the station to the park.  It wasn’t long before we hit Michigan Avenue and saw the first real glimpses of the enormity of the crowd.

We were quickly divided into two groups – people with tickets and those without.  As Sarah and I pushed through to the ticket side, mounted police appeared and the hustling crowd slowed to a crawl.  We chatted with people around us as we made it through the first check point.  Lots of people were being turned away and the crowd control staff was visibly overwhelmed.

Once past the first check point, we made lots of ground as we crossed Columbus Drive flanked by mounted police.  We thought we were moments away from finding our place in the park, but we were definitely wrong.  We again slowed, this time to a complete stop.  That’s when it started to happen.  Pennsylvania was called for Obama.  Expected, yes, but incredibly important.  A loss in PA meant this race was a lot closer.  That’s when we pretty much all knew all we had to hear was Ohio or Florida.

We moved in clumps in that crowd as the check point gradually let us move past.  As much as we hated just standing there, it made sense and worked out well.  More people were turned away at this check point, so once we made it through it was another chunk of ground we had to cross.  This time it wasn’t just cops lining the path – the first Secret Service officers and Obama staffers began to appear.  We were told repeatedly not to run, but we were all making that awkward speed walk that kids do when you tell them not to run.

Once we made it to the metal detectors, Secret Service outnumbered the Chicago P.D.  The lines moved quickly as we literally had every ring of keys, cell phone, and camera inspected.  It actually moved really quickly considering the circumstances.  We were the first of our group to make it the entire way in so we found the closest spot  we could.  That’s when we heard it – Ohio.  For someone who bore a little of the blame from my Minnesota friends in 2004, I took great pride in my home state’s decision.  I also knew that this was it.  Any path to victory for McCain went through Ohio, and Obama had blocked it like my friend Geoff and Corey block my longest road in Settlers of Catan.  We would have to wait several hours though until the west coast polls would close and networks could ethically call the race.

The crowd was in high spirits.  Even though the networks weren’t calling it, we were all talking about the importance of the Ohio victory.  They flashed a county map and I saw that my home county was blue.  I literally choked up.  I wondered how my parents had voted.  I wondered if my mom was physically able to vote after her surgery.  Sarah soon made a trip to grab us a couple slices of pizza and some water.  She also brought back some of our best friends.

As we stood there and watched CNN on the giant screen, we cheered the Obama victories and booed the McCain wins – even the obvious ones.  We watched as Obama got closer and closer to 270 and anxiously waited for the polls to close on the west coast.  We counted down the seconds.  And then it happened.  Wolf acted like it was just another projection, but he flashed the words President Barack Obama on the screen.  A wave of disbelief hit the crowd for a half of a second… then an explosion.  We yelled at the top of our lungs and raised our arms in the air.  I turned to Sarah and hugged her with tears in my eyes.  My friends came next.  They just kept showing it over and over.  Jesse Jackson cried.  Oprah was flipping out.  And we were all there together in Grant Park.

The last sound check operator walked ot the podium and said, “Last sound check for the next president of the United States.”  We went crazy again.  They showed McCain’s speech, which garnered a mix of responses.  The mention of Palin was pretty much the only part that drew a widespread negative reaction.  The announcer came over the PA and we cheered as a bishop walked out to give the invocation.  We cheered again for the pledge and national anthem.  Anticipation was at a fever pitch.

Then… music.  Stevie Wonder.  Brooks and Dunn.  Buddy Guy.  More and more music.  The end of each song was a tease.  We stood there in disbelief as Obama’s appearance was delayed.  It was as if it was Christmas morning and your parents were making you wait to open gifts.  And then, as we waited for another song to come on, there he was.  Obama poked his head out and made his walk to the podium.  I was in disbelief.  It was real.

I will always have the words of his speech, but the experience of standing in Grant Park on that night will be one I have to hold on to in only a few pictures and my memory.  Here is hoping the next four (or eight) years prove to be worthy of that night.

Dear Senator John McCain,

You probably don’t remember me.  Eight years ago as you mounted the Straight Talk Express during the Republican Primary, I sent you a couple bucks because I thought you were poised to be a great leader.  Clinton was wrapping up his time in office and I felt you were the best candidate to follow him.  Times were good, weren’t they?  I was a college student at the time – just a blank slate of a freshman excited to vote in my first presidential primary. (more…)

Dear Comcast,

Here’s an idea.  Don’t stand up your customers.  Don’t send out technicians that have no idea what to do.  Don’t send out technicians without the proper equipment.

If you tell a customer that you will be at their residence on a specific date in a specific time frame, show up.  If your technician is delayed, don’t wait for your customer to call you.  Call your customer and let them know that the technician is running late.

Oh, and here’s a great one – if your customer’s land line is part of the reason the technician is needed, use the alternate number to reach your customer.  It’s on the account.  It’s been given to your phone operators several times.  SEVERAL times.  Call the alternate number.

A quick breakdown of the past couple of months:

- In August, I called to set up moving my account to my new apartment.  An appointment was set up in early September for a technician to come to the new apartment and make sure everything was working.  I gave the reprasentative on the phone my cell phone number and made sure to be at home during the scheduled time.  That technician never showed and never contacted me.  Luckily enough, the cable and internet worked perfectly fine when I hooked up my old equipment at the new address.

- A few days later, both the internet and cable stopped working.  The signal was shut off.  I called and was told a technician would need to come out.  The phone rep verified my cell phone as the contact number.  I sat patiently during the scheduled time only to be stood up again.  I called and was told I would need to reschedule.  The phone rep gave me a new date, time window, and verified my contact number as my cell phone number.  The phone rep also transferred me to a cable rep who sent a signal to my cable box and reactivated it.  Sadly, that helpful rep was not able to do the same with my cable modem.

- On the day of the rescheduled appointment, I sat in my apartment and waited.  After the first 2.5 hours of the 3 hour window went by with no technician, I called Comcast.  They told me they had to talk to dispatch and found out that there was some issue that delayed the technician.  Again, I had to reschedule.  The phone rep again confirmed my cell phone was the best contact number.

- It was my fourth scheduled appointment with a Comcast technician.  I was not going to wait 2.5 hours to call.  I called at the start of the window to verify that the technician would make it during the alotted time window.  I was assured that the technician would make it.  When the window had passed, I called again to ask the whereabouts of the technician.  The phone rep contacted dispatch and passed along that a technician was running late but would make it that day.  The technician arrived over an hour after the scheduled window and set to work.  I tried to explain the situation (I moved and I needed my cable modem set up), but he insisted he was here for a trouble call.  He checked all of the signals and told me I had a bad modem.  He brought in a new modem and said that would fix the problem.  He hooked it up to his hand-held tester and said it worked.  I hooked it up to my laptop and it worked.  The technician left and I set to work hooking up my wireless router.  The signal was gone.  I tried restarting everything and soon the lights on my cable modem began blinking.  I knew this was a problem.

- I called Comcast immediately and was told another technician would have to come out.  We set up the time and I again verified my cell phone as the contact info.  Why do I keep mentioning my cell phone?  Because I had still had yet to receive a reminder call (Comcast S.O.P.) or a call from a technician.  They all had been calling the land line number that did not work.  This was late September – a month after setting up the original move appointment – and we still did not have internet or a working land line.  The technician showed up during the scheduled time window, but did not call.  I just happened to notice the Comcast truck and had to meet the technician outside.  Apparently the number he was given was the land line.  He checked all of the signals and decided it was another bad cable modem.  He hooked up a brand new modem and still had blinking lights.  He said a line technician would have to check the wiring within 48 hours.  We were supposed to have everything working when we returned from our honeymoon.  Shockingly, it did not.  We returned from our honeymoon and had no internet or land line.

- I call Comcast one more time and explain everything.  The original move, the missed appointments, the first technician that replaced the working modem, the second techinician that replaced the modem again and set up a wire technician, and what am I told to do?  Restart my modem.  That’s the answer.  I told the phone rep that the second technician had not connected the new modem to my account, but the phone rep ignored me and angrily told me to again restart the modem.  I complied and tried to explain the situation again, only to be told that I was wrong.  Another technician would have to come out.

- The night before the appointment I received my first reminder call.  I had hope.  We also had a new problem – our cable box was freezing up.  The picture was still working, but we couldn’t change the channel or get anything on the remote or on the box to work.  We had to unplug the cable box every 5 to 10 minutes just to change the channel.  I called Comcast to report the new problem and was told the technician could also address the cable box issue.  A half hour into the scheduled time window, the technician called and said he was on his way.  I was ecstatic.  He showed up and told me he was here to replace my cable modem.  I told him the modem wasn’t broken and he did some investigating.  He realized – surprisingly – that I was right.  The last technician that came out hooked up the new box but didn’t associate it with my account.  The lineman fixed the line issue, but my modem wasn’t activated.  He activated the modem and the signal came through.  Success!  With a new sense of hope, I asked him about the additional cable box problem.  He had nothing on his trouble ticket about a cable box problem.  Did the phone rep simply lie to me?  Interesting.

- We drove to the Comcast office and exchanged our cable box in person and it looks like we are officially operating effectively – almost two months after setting up the original move appointment.  I’m keeping my eye on the new AT&T coverage area because as soon as their cable service is available, I think it will be time for a change.  There’s just no sense in the Comcast approach to customer service.

I’m losing the battle of balance right now.  Work is completely overwhelming at times, which means the few moments I have in the evening are spent decompressing and reviewing the massive list of to-do’s before the wedding.  It’s not a good way to build up to a fun wedding day.

Holy crap… the wedding.  It’s like it somehow went undetected for the past few months only to decide that now is the moment to reappear and remind me that is it less than two weeks away.  There’s so much that has been accomplished (mostly by my wife-to-be and her mom), but the remaining list is frustrating.  I think we just need a solid 4 hour chunk of time to sit down and pick out gifts for our friends in the wedding and finalize the list of cheesy dance favorites for our DJ, but that is only a scratch on the surface.

Finding those four hours is quickly turning into a wild goose chase.  An elusive white whale comprised of ties that need to be picked out, seating charts that need to be assigned, and table centerpieces that have to be finished.  Oh, and tracking down a huge list of people that still haven’t submitted an RSVP either way.

…and I need to find a shiny new pair of black shoes… for my gigantic feet… that don’t require me to take out a loan.

Fun times, my friends.

But soon… soon, Sarah and I will be here:

(why is the “Business Time” song by Flight of the Conchords playing in my head…)

When listening and reading Kennedy’s nomination acceptance speech at the 1960 Democrtic National Convention, it is actually somewhat freaky how relevant his words are today.  I think Obama could take the speech and swap “terrorist” for “communist” and “McCain” for “Nixon” and almost read it word for word.

Well, except for the part where he calls his opponent young.

This part gives me chills.

Perhaps he could carry on the party policies, the policies of Nixon and Benson and Dirksen and Goldwater. But this Nation cannot afford such a luxury. Perhaps we could afford a Coolidge following Harding. And perhaps we could afford a Pierce following Fillmore. But after Buchanan this nation needed Lincoln; after Taft we needed Wilson; and after Hoover we needed Franklin Roosevelt.

But we’re not merely running against Mr. Nixon. Our task is not merely one of itemizing Republican failures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced from the farm do not need to tell us of their plight. The unemployed miners and textile workers know that the decision is before them in November. The old people without medical care, the families without a decent home, the parents of children without a decent school: They all know that it’s time for a change.

We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.

Give it a listen.

Preparing for marriage is hard.

There… I said it.  Step one, right?

I’m not just talking about figuring out reception seating arrangements and hoping for clear skies for our outdoor ceremony.  I’m also talking about the actual preparation going on between me and my bride-to-be.  I struggle with treating her like some kind of object that I need to fulfill my needs.  I’ve struggled with that for as long as I can remember.

I can easily recall my single days and the constant voice in the back of my head that kept reminding me that if I were to find someone, I would be completely happy and fulfilled.  Instead of digging deeper into that feeling of incompleteness, I could go on with my day and feel like I had figured out the answer.  All I needed was another person.  It doesn’t take too much probing to realize that I was not looking for a future wife… I was looking for an object.  A product that could magically take care of all of my needs.

I still struggle with that approach to life – both with my fiance and pretty much everything else.  My friends, my job, my possessions – pretty much everything in my life that at one time or another I have appreciated solely for the fulfillment that they bring me.  Specifically with me, this objectifying manifests itself within my relationships with women.

It’s hard for me to come to grips with the fact that I so easily have objectified women in the past, and I’m sure that it is a struggle I will continue to have.  It’s a struggle that I have to acknowledge and steadfastly work against.  When I look at marriages that are ripped apart by infidelity, I wonder if it is because the marriage itself was created to fill a need.  I wonder if the marriage stopped providing that fulfillment – even temporarily.  It makes it so easy to justify searching elsewhere.

So the question is, what else could fill that emptiness?  What else could erase that void?

I heard a guy say last night that true happiness is found by looking within yourself.  I was not amused.  Yourself?  That is the exact kind of thinking that leads right back to objectifying your friends, your significant other, your job, or whatever else might provide the temporary satisfaction you need to function.  I don’t understand at all the thinking behind believing that if you think about and want fulfillment enough, it will magically happen.

But maybe I’m the crazy one.  Maybe I’m the only one that struggles with finding it easier to plug others into my life to give me the fulfillment I need.  Maybe it means I should be a politician.

This whole wedding planning thing has gone a lot smoother than I think Sarah and I anticipated. Sarah has bought her dress, picked out bridesmaid dresses, booked the ceremony and reception sites (including food and drinks), ordered cakes, secured a DJ, and remained relatively calm and lighthearted about it all. Me? Well, I’ve started working on a wedding website… oh, and I registered for tools and camping stuff at Sears. I also called about chair prices for the outdoor ceremony.  Yep, I’m pretty much useless.

(more…)

I don’t remember the first “truth about Obama” e-mail that was forwarded on to me, but the hate-filled crap still seems to be flying around the internet.  Almost daily I hear some type of reference to Obama linked to Islam, playing on the xenophobia of fearful Americans that equate Islam with every societal ill from high gas prices to gay marriage.  Instead of making educated decisions in the voting booth, too many turn to opinionated “news” reporters and hate mongerers with keyboards.  A public fist pound between a husband and wife is called a “terrorist jab” on a “fair and balanced” “news” network and a scarf gets a donut commercial pulled from the air.

Oh, and somewhere there are people who heard from “high ranking” folks that somebody saw a video of Michelle Obama using the term “whitey.”  Oh, and conveniently enough, it happened at Trinity.  Nobody actually can produce anything remotely related to this, but it’s enough fodder to keep the focus off of real policy long enough to maybe convince a few more voters that we aren’t ready for a biracial president.

Right.  Having a non-white president would be the worst of our problems.  The last 7.5 years have been so successful, why not have more of the same?

I’m glad that people are talking about the recent decision by Dunkin Donuts to pull an ad featuring Rachel Ray in a scarf that some random nut with a blog deemed too similar to a keffiyeh.

This xenophobic hate mongerer wasted no time in linking the scarf, which apparently was a floral print available at a major US retail chain, to terrorism. You see, to the blogger, the keffiyeh is not worn because it protects the wearer from the sun in an arid climate and can quickly be adjusted to protect the face from wind. No, the keffiyeh apparently identifies the wearer as a terrorist. Seriously, only a terrorist could consistently whip up tasty looking meals in 30 minutes and still look like… actually, I better not post the picture I found when I googled Rachel Ray.

Regardless of the appearance of Rachel’s scarf, what is more concerning to me is the implied idea that xenophobia can completely control what we are exposed to. If you are sitting there, watching tv, and Rachel’s commercial comes on and you say to yourself, “Man, the scarf looks like a keffiyeh! I refuse to support a business with a commercial featuring a keffiyeh!” that’s your decision. It’s ridiculous, but if you and a bunch of other folks decide not to go to Dunkin Donuts because of it, well, have fun with that.

But because some blogger calls attention to it, the corporation decides to pull it? There is something deeply troubling about that. You want to talk about the degradation of our society? Look no farther than power-obsessed fake celebrities that somehow gain notoriety for being a valuable contributer to political discussions that use their perceived soapbox to tear down the very fabric of our society.

Yes, all of this over a commercial for a donut company. I hope said blogger continues to be exposed until her credibility is destroyed beyond recognition. Unfortunately, I feel the enemies of the great society we could become will continue to support the nuts with keyboards that decide being drunk on their own power is more important than common sense.

So here’s how I’m starting to understand this country…

1) Pastors are only allowed to mention the work of the government if they are asking God to bless America or somehow supporting the efforts of the current administration

2) Any effort to curtail the proliferation of guns in our society is reckless work of a bloated government, but using the legislatures and courts to define marriage is acceptable

3) Do not, under any circumstances, take part in anything that remotely resembles the Middle East. If you do, you are supporting terrorists that could and will strike at any moment.

Thank goodness we got that cleared up!

Work is crazy busy and Sarah and I are spending pretty much every possible second traveling and planning this shindig. Looks like it will probably be in late September or October. Everybody keeps saying that seems quick, but it seems about right to me. Plus, an outdoor fall wedding will be awesome… especially if our latest idea pans out. When I talk to my married friends and say we’ll probably have a 6 month engagement, they all seem to think it’s plenty of time and a really good plan. More details to come…

In the meantime, check this out. It is consistently one of the most expensive gas stations in the city, but still, this is getting crazy. I was telling folks in Ohio over the weekend that we hit this price in Chicago and some didn’t believe it. I’d expect to see most stations at this price in about a week or two. It’s about time to sell a kidney… possibly a lung.