I re-elected him and then he left me. For 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to work with the President. I couldn’t fault him, only because he called me personally to say that he was leaving and he was glad I voted for him and he was sorry to let me down. Or something like that.

(I still have that message saved on my answering machine. Because clearly, he only called ME.)

Then my fake boyfriend decided to run for Mayor of Chicago! And then he won! And now he’s been on the job for like 6 months. He’s doing a fine job, if I say so myself. (Don’t tell me differently.)

As I mentioned, it is no secret how much I love my fake boyfriend. I even wrote about the time I was in the same room as him, with 3,000 other people.

The funny thing is that I find myself defending him, like he pays me to do it. Which he does not. Not that I would turn that opportunity down.

Chicago is by no means perfect and he has a lot of work to do with a very archaic system in place. The old mayor was here for 27 years. Change isn’t easy to come by after that many years.

But if I’m in a conversation and someone starts saying something about him, I get all amped up to defend him, like someone insulted my nephew. Even my friend Melissa commented the other day that it is OK to disagree with something he does. He’s not perfect. He will make mistakes.

I won’t admit to them. It’s blasphemous! Plus, you have to be careful. He’s always watching.

DOESN’T THAT PHOTO MAKE YOU SWOON??

*Term coined by my friend Julie because of all my Rahmy love.

Don’t try and correct me. There is no use. It’s a Rahm-mendment.

(Now I’m like Henrietta Pussycat from Mr. Rogers who used “meow-meow” as every word in the English language.)

Anyway, since I’ve been out drinking wine all evening with her, and I need to put up a post, I thought I would just share who I saw today! (I bet you’ll NEVER guess!)

SQUEEEEE!

You guys have no idea how much I love this man! And how sexy he is! And also how excited I am for him to be running the city of Chicago! He’s going to do great things! He makes me love my city even more than I already did. Which was A LOT!

Also, can we just mention how much I LOVE my job because I get to go to things like this and see Rahm? GAH! It’s only because there were hundreds of people there that I didn’t rush the stage and bear hug him.

I’ll save that for a later date.

Because tonight, Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States. My Senator, the Senator from my home state, from my hometown, will be the 44th President of the United States.

I don’t like to get political on my blog. It is definitely a very personal thing. And just because you did not vote for Barack Obama in this election does not make me like you any less. It doesn’t mean we can’t get along. We are all AMERICANS. Everyone has free will and the ability to vote for the person that they feel will make the best President or best elected official. We all have our reasons for who we vote for. The best thing about our democracy is that we ALL have the ability to cast a vote. It is an amazing thing.

But tonight history was made. We elected our first African-American President. I will admit, it was a day I wasn’t sure that I would ever be alive to see. But he won. It is more amazing than I have words for. And most of my words contain “fucking” and “awesome” and “holy shit.” What we witnessed tonight is the single greatest thing I have seen in American politics in my life. Over a quarter of a million people stood since dawn in Chicago to witness it, to be a part of history. Amazing doesn’t really cover it.

I voted for Barack Obama because I believe that he is going to make change. I believe him when he speaks. For the first time, I actually believe that this man will do things to make this country a better place, that he will do the things he promised. I believe that this man moves me when he speaks and gives me chills and makes me proud to be an American.

I believe. I am hopeful. YES WE CAN.

I had planned to post the answers to the questions for Bacon today. But then I was out of the house a majority of the afternoon and now am just too tired to do anything. I am so screwed when I go back to work and am expected to be alert and productive for at least eight hours a day. Four hours out of the house doing mostly nothing has made me exhausted. Only four hours.

So today I went to get my eyebrows waxed in preparation for my big trip and for my interviews next week. I figured since I would already be out and showered, I would go and vote. It was the last day of early voting and since I have 2 interviews on Election Day, I figured this was the easiest way to knock it out. Plus, I needed to walk past the polling place on the way to the bus to go pick up my rental car for the weekend.

When I turned the corner by the park, I was shocked at what I saw. I saw a line stretching out the door and around the building. I took my place in line and was so thankful that I put my book in my purse at the last minute before I left the house. As I stood there, I overheard some chatter about the wait. Thinking that the line wasn’t that long and that this place should be prepared, I figured it would be about 30-45 minutes.

I was wrong. I was dead, dead wrong.

I got there around 2:30. Some guy passing out flyers told us he had heard it was about a two hour wait from where we were standing. TWO HOURS! On a Thursday afternoon! Why aren’t any of these people at work? Are all these people unemployed too? If so, then why do they look so put together like they shower every day? I bet they don’t ever forget to brush their teeth!

With a two-hour wait staring me in the face, I didn’t know what to do. I figured I could see how it went and if it seemed that it would really take two hours, I could always jump out of line and go on Tuesday. But my polling place on Election Day is a small site. And if there are this many people here early voting, how many other people haven’t voted?

So I stuck it out. I dove into my book and I shuffled along. It did take two hours. And I know I shouldn’t complain. I mean, women fought for this right so many years ago, the right to stand on their feet for two hours to be able to cast their vote for elected officials. People in Florida have had to wait even longer. And really, how amazing is the turnout? Already, before today, over 300,000 people in Chicago have early voted. That is impressive. They are expecting record turnouts. This is a monumental election!

But I’m a selfish cow, so yeah, I’m going to complain. Because my feet are still killing me. It was 100 degrees in that little building. Want to know why internet? Because the park district building turned their heat on earlier in the week, instead of holding out until November. And guess what? It was like in the 60s today and is supposed to be near 70 tomorrow. See why I don’t turn the heat on until it gets really cold? Losing toes to frostbite be damned!

I also want to complain because of how poorly the process was executed in the polling place. This location was all touch screen voting booths. There were about 6-8 actual booths. Filling out the ballot didn’t take too long, minus all the county judges that were up for re-election. Why isn’t there a “Yes To All” button?

Well, they would bring five people in at a time. The longest part wasn’t the actual voting, it was having the people find your information in the computer and activate your card for the touch screen. There were only TWO people doing that in the room. I’m pretty sure, Chicago Board of Elections, we don’t need five people telling us how to fill out a form. Maybe we need more people doing the time-consuming part. Things would have moved a lot faster.

Obviously, I’m glad I voted and it is over and I don’t have to worry about fitting it in on election day. But standing on my feet for two hours really took all of my energy. And when I left, about 30 minutes before the cut off, there was a line even longer. Those people at the end of that line were excited about voting. They had the chipper look in their eyes of having not been beat down by line-standing all day. Little did they know they had about a three-hour wait ahead of them. (Because, in case you didn’t know, as long as you are in line before the polls close, you are allowed to cast your vote. Do not let anyone tell you different. And don’t let a line close to closing time deter you from doing your civic duty!)

There were even news cameras there to document all the waiting we all did. Thankfully they didn’t interview me and then post the news clip on the internet so people could comment and tell me how much I suck for voting and how lame I am for waiting in line. (No. That isn’t going to get old any time soon.)

So let this be a lesson to all of you – if my lazy ass can wait patiently in line for two hours to do my civic duty, none of you have any excuses. All of you, remember to get out there and vote on November 4th. Have any voting questions? Go here to find out all the information you need to be prepared when you vote. But whatever you do, just vote. Be a part of history. Help make a change for the future. VOTE.

Barack has since come out to say that he regretted granting the interview and exposing his kids and the attention it received on all the major news outlets. He wants to shield them as much as he can, since they are young (10 and 7), which is completely understandable. I have absolutely no idea what that kind of media attention is like.

This is a similar debate that went on in the blog world a few months ago, with several popular bloggers being called out for exploiting their children on their websites.

First off, I don’t feel that writing about and/or posting photos of your children or your friends children or your nieces or nephews online (with permission) is exploiting them at all. A lot of bloggers start their blogs when they are pregnant as a way to not only keep track of their pregnancy for friends and family, but also as an online scrapbook that all these kids of bloggers are going to grow up and cherish. I know if I’m ever pregnant, I will do the same thing. I’m a middle child, I think my mom gave up with my baby book when I was a few months old. These Children of Bloggers will have so much more to read about their lives.

On the same page, I don’t feel that Barack and Michelle Obama were exploiting their kids in this media interview. For one, it was Access Hollywood, not an interview on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. Second, the questions were about their family and very tame things.

I am a Barack Obama fan. People can say he doesn’t have the experience or he’s too wet behind the ears, but he has been my choice since the beginning. I am not an overly political person. I should pay more attention. I vote Democratic every time. My beliefs lean to the left. I don’t follow a lot of the issues, which I know makes me a bad American, but I also learned an important lesson in Political Science in college that stuck with me – vote for the party, not the person. Because, even as much as we’d like to think differently, one person does not make a difference in our political system. If you’re a Democrat, you want a Democratic President and a Democratic House and Senate. It’s the best way to get things done. And vice versa for Republicans.

One of the biggest reasons I am a Barack follower is because he represents change. He’s different than any other political figure I have ever seen in my lifetime. He moves and motivates people. My half-sister Kelsey and I had a discussion about the election back in the winter. She turned 18 in May. And she was EXCITED to vote in the election this November. She had been reading a lot about Obama and was EXCITED to vote for him. EXCITED. Now, honestly, how many of us were really all that moved and EXCITED to vote in our first elections? I wasn’t. I did my duty, but I wasn’t overly excited about any of the candidates.

Which leads me to this interview with the Obama family. To me, this might have been one of the smartest things he could have done. Not only is his wife amazing, but his girls are so cute and so normal. He’s a normal family guy. They like to go out to get ice cream as a family, they go to church, they like to spend time together. Totally normal.

I have never been able to really relate to a candidate before. And I know this all seems so silly because it is his political persona that we need to be concerned about, but I feel like Barack Obama is a man of the people. Which means for the first time in a long time, we may have a man leading this country who actually listens and makes decisions for the masses and actually leads the country.

So what do you all think? Was the interview with his children too much and too exploitative? Or just a new insight into a man running for the office of the President and the leader of the free world?