My nephews are perfect....

... and we're doing our best to corrupt them.

My 5-month old nephew is the closest to perfection. He loves being naked (yeah, that's his butt), and all he wants to do is eat and giggle. That's perfect. Sometimes he pees on himself, but he doesn't care nearly as much as we do. His only blemish seems to be that he has trouble sleeping - and that's probably the fault of the adults (myself included) who surround him during his waking hours, showering him with love, affection, and all sorts of niceties that are conspicuously absent during his attempted slumber.

My 3-year-old nephew is also pretty darn near perfect, but we've had more time to corrupt him. He's irrationally obsessed with vacuum cleaners; an infatuation that we fueled on this trip by bringing him a table-top crumb vac that looks like an elephant. He makes unneccesarily loud exclamations ("I don't want to go outside, I want to go inside and play with the blender!!"), but it's so freakin' loud around here during the holidays that I'm pretty sure he's just trying to fit in. And his last blemish is the way in which he refers to his guitar by using the word "cuntar," which sounds awful, but makes us laugh. I'm pretty sure that's our fault, too, but I'm fuzzy on the details.

That's it. Other than that, they're perfect. As their uncle, it's my job to corrupt them, and no matter how hard I try, they still seem perfect to me. I guess I'd better try a little harder.

I have Southern blood, I guess?

It's snowing in Chicago, and I'm freezing my ass off. I might as well
be in Alaska.

Flight leaves in a few hours... I'm ready to get back to balmy
Nashville, have some grits, and thaw out.

Overheard: Nashville airport

"If country music were a baseball team, I'd want Kenny Chesney batting leadoff."

"No doubt."

"And George Straight batting cleanup."

"Yeah, he's a cleanup sorta guy."

"Oh, and don't forget the catcher. Toby Keith. He's your catcher, no doubt."

"Oh, you bet. Toby Keith. No doubt."

My final reflection on attending the Obama rally

I've been to a lot of powerful events. The World Series. The 2002 gold medal Olympic hockey match in Salt Lake City. The 2002 World Cup semifinal between England and Brazil in Shizuoka, Japan.

You may not be surprised to hear that none of those events can hold a candle to last night's rally. Seeing Barack Obama win the election, while surrounded by 100,000... fans? supporters? followers? I'm not sure what to call us. It doesn't matter. It was simply awesome.

Throughout the event, I struggled with how best to capture the experience. My camera - no camera, in fact - seemed big enough, or powerful enough, to capture what I was seeing. And yet, even in the joyful moment when Obama's victory was announced, I didn't know whether to throw my arms in the air in celebration, or to reach for my camera. It's a futile habit.

I suppose this is the age that we live in. It's not enough to simply experience something. We have to digitize it. Twitter it. Or commemorate it on a grammatically incorrect t-shirt.

But, unlike some of the big sporting events I've been to, this rally was impossible to bottle. It was impossible to capture on film. Impossible to put into words. Impossible to capture by updating one's Facebook status.

I've been pondering the indescribable nature of the event as I've faced the same question from friends and family today: "What was it like?" A fair question, but tough to answer. What was it like to see grown African-American men crying in the streets? What was it like to see thousands of teenagers screaming and shouting and celebrating.. politics? What was it like to be just a stone's throw from the nation's next President as he spoke not only to us, and not only to America, but to a captive audience in every country on Earth about how a new dawn is rising?

And was it really possible to capture any of that with the camera on my iPhone?

There's no shortage of people writing far more eloquently about their election experience than I can. Maybe I'm not talented enough as a writer, or maybe - moreso than any other event I've ever attended - you just had to be there.

I'm so glad I was.

Where we were...

I've been getting a lot of questions about where we were standing last night...

So I found two pictures on the Chicago Tribune, and I've marked where we were... more or less.

When we arrived, it felt like we were farther from the stage than we wanted to be. But, in hindsight, and seeing these (and other) photographs, I realize just how lucky we were.

Also, I found a really great timelapse video of the entire rally - in three minutes. If you look really closely, you can see us running in.

(Just kidding.)

Enjoy.

Simply awesome

Internet is spotty...

I won't blog until after Obama's speech... Internet service is spotty
here since everyone is on the phone.

Classy speech McCain. But we still booed Sarah Palin.

Final sound check for the next President

That's what the sound guy said. 70,000 people exploded.

VICTORY

Lost in the crowd

There are 10,000 people in front of me. And 60,000 behind me.
And I'm hearing word that the streets around here are packed for
blocks in any direction. The nearest beverage is a block away. Yikes.

Barack wins in a landslide...

... 20 minutes. Can you FEEL it??

Ready...?

They're sound checking his podium mic... Getting ready for an
acceptance speech... Can you feel it??

If you're watching CNN, I'm right next to suzanne malvo.. Spelling? I
dunno. She's in the crowd right next to me.

The sound check guy is playing with us. He says "Obama" we say
"Obama".. It's actually fun. Weird.

We're ready.

The media tent...

It's packed. And we're singing and dancing and watching Cnn on giant
screens. Simply awesome.

Were on CNN

Through the metal detectors...

And were in.

Security is tight

We just passed our third security checkpoint and we're still not in
yet... People are being very cool. Excited, eager, but chill. Mostly.
It's warm, clear skies... A perfect night. So far, so good.

That would be.. me.

Just perfect.

Coming home

Chicago will always feel like home. There are few more beautiful
sights than the Chicago skyline at sunset from a plane. I'm lucky to
be here.

Ok, next train stop is mine. More soon from inside the rally.

Next step: Get to Chicago

The rally gates open at 8:30, just six hours from now. People are
lined up already in Chicago. I'm still hundreds of miles away in
Nashville, waiting to board my plane, anxious about pulling this off...

But hey, an hour ago I was teaching middle schoolers about the
Electoral College system. On some level, my day can only get easier..

We're waiting in line to vote. Polls don't open here until 7am. Seems
a little late to me. I guess here in The Volunteer State, the
volunteers get to sleep in.

I'm live-blogging from inside the Obama Election Night Rally in Chicago

Look out Chicago. Here I come.

Thanks to the thoughtful invite of a friend in Chicago, I will be attending the Barack Obama Election Night rally in Chicago. I'm flying up from Nashville with nothing but a toothbrush in my pocket. Oh, and my iPhone. I'll be live-blogging the festivities right here - with pictures and updates of the whole affair. Stay tuned.

Oh, one more funny tidbit. Tickets to the rally are hard to come by. The Obama campaign only gave out a few thousand to the public, and each ticket requires a photo ID matching the bearer's name. So scalping is impossible. But each ticket allows the bearer to bring one guest, and the emerging meat market for this "plus-one" ticket is something to behold... Check out some of the postings on Craigslist, where democracy, capitalism and sleaze find harmonious balance.

Ok, that's it. More tomorrow from Chicago. Now... GET OUT THERE AND VOTE!

November 4 is Black Tuesday. Grab your tent!

We Americans love November. It's the month when we change the clocks and gain an hour of sleep. It's the month when we stuff ourselves with Turkey one night, and rush out of the house hours later to address our gluttonous guilt by standing in line for the Must-Have Toy of the Year. And, of course, November is the month when we vote.

Maybe you couldn't wait for November. Maybe you're one of the 13 million eager voters who braved cold weather, lines as long as a quarter mile, and the incredulous stares of those with common sense, just for the opportunity to vote early. Like those shoppers waiting in tents for Circuit City to open at 2AM on Thanksgiving night, some Americans just can't wait for election day.

While its heartening that so many people are voting, the fact that they're doing so early seems entirely un-American. Voting late? That's American. Not voting at all? As American as apple pie. But voting early? It's just not right.

Maybe people think that they'll avoid even longer lines on election day. Or, maybe this country has become so passionate about politics, and the state of the union, that it simply can't wait to exercise its democracy. Heck, even in Tennessee, over 1.5 million people have already cast their vote knowing full well that "that one" doesn't stand a chance here. Maybe America is changing.

Most likely, however, we're just hungover from 8 years of bad turkey, and, like the throngs of people that will race to the mall on Thanksgiving night, we simply can't wait to over-compensate for the bad choices we've made.

And that's as American as it gets.