This week was all about the election. I headed down to my local polling place before work on Tuesday to cast my votes. I got a fright when as I walked toward the building that has been my voting place for the last nine years -- with no signs outside or direction of any kind, it looked to no longer be a polling place at all. I watched as two people walked by the doorway, then turned around. Between us, we managed to see the small sign in the doorway, barely visible in the shadow of the eave. (I checked later in the day and they did heed my warning, placing signs in much more visible places.)

There wasn't a line, but I was told there was one earlier in the morning. I passed through sign-in without a hitch and entered the voting booth. I'm an intelligent person. And I'm a pretty good visual learner, meaning I learn easily through seeing. Nevertheless, this picture always totally confuses me. Do I vote across, or down? How come so many names are repeated? And in different places? Hang on, I think I've got it. What? Oh, no! A red X.  Doesn't that mean wrong answer? In school, red X's mean you gave the wrong answer. Yes, it's an automatic association, but one that most of us have associated with our entire schooling lives. On the other hand, maybe this worked by process of elimination. Maybe you pulled down the lever on everyone you didn't want to win. It's not a farfetched idea considering we live in a society in which common sense is now considered genius. Or where they tell us what times we can't park somewhere, but not when we can. As this vote was very important to me, I decided to ask.

The voting booth's "lovely assistant" led me through the process by way of a demo. I let her go through the whole spiel just in case it was the only time today that she'd be able to demonstrate her knowledge. Oddly, the big red X in this circumstance means right answer. Blimey.

I got my little "I Voted Today" sticker and was on my way.

My next stop was Method Machine. It was having an Election Day marathon (opening and closing with the polls), and I felt it the perfect time to check out its "Bushwacked" political art exhibit. Inside, I found Director David Henderson and a dazed Clarke Conde. So focused on the election, he said he couldn't do anything else but wander about. David told me that the election was so important to people that he'd heard people were videoing their votes with cell phones and uploading them to the internet. I checked out the exhibit, filled out my "IVOTE08" ballot -- I vote for accepting differences -- and left with a bunch of posters. (Thanks, David! One's been added to CITY's Poster Walls in the kitchen.)

Around 8 p.m. I went to Abilene's Obama Victory Party. Is that presumptuous or simply positive thinking? Barack Victory Specials were champagne splits for $6 and bottles for $20. The nibbles were great; nice tender shrimp, subs, and the usual chips and veggies and dips. There were about 60 to 70 people there between the bar, the patio, and the upstairs lounge, which had been opened for the occasion, complete with a large-screen TV broadcasting the election results. It was such a nice night for November that the band played out on the patio. Sometimes global warming rocks.

At 9 p.m. the place began to really fill up. Maybe they knew pizza was coming. Everyone was in a festive mood, watching the results as they came in and getting more and more excited about the coming Obama victory.

My eyelids started sinking so I headed home around 10:45 p.m. Just 15 minutes later Obama was declared president-elect. And although it may have been fun to celebrate with friends, it was somehow more poignant to be comfortably at home. Home. In my home country, a place I feel will finally feel comfortable to be in again.

When President-Elect Obama repeated those words of so long ago, "a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, [has] not perish[ed] from the earth," it gave me chills. To hear them spoken by a black man -- a black President of the United States of America! -- I felt Lincoln's words had finally become deed. For the first time in a very long time, I'm proud to be an American.