And a good thing, too. Because I've got lots of postponed and delayed projects waiting to slip into those spaces. Heck, I even have time to see my friends again! I'm lucky they remember me at all.

Here's how much I couldn't believe what was happening last night: when I woke up 5:30, I jumped up and ran to the computer to make sure nothing had changed in the previous four hours. To make sure Pensylvania and Ohio and Virginia and Florida hadn't all been un-done.

And then today. Hungover. Tired. Dazed. Feel like I'm living in a fantasy, and any minute now I'll wake up and someone will be talking about VP-elect Palin.

But that's not what's happened at all. I'm not dreaming, or hallucinating, or aything. That one is our next President. Barack Obama. A brilliant man, an inspiring man. The skinny kid with a funny name -- who isn't a kid anymore. That man. He's our next President.

(And yes, I also teared up.)

I grew up in California with parents who seemed to be constantly advocating for one progression cause or another -- for Beyond War in the eighties to organizing the California Green Party in the early nineties. So while I was aware, from an early age, of the idea of political activism, it never occured to me that I could be a part of something that had more than a marginal influence.

Jump ahead to 2004. For some reason -- and I can't remember why -- I happened to have the TV on during the Democratic National Convention, and I watched Barack Obama's address. Never before had I listened to a politician so well able to articulate my most closely held values: pragmatism and equitability. When Obama announced his candidacy, I made the first political donation I'd ever made. When he won the primary -- the primary, mind you, of a party I wasn't a member of and therefore couldn't vote in -- I couldn't believe it. Oh, I believed in what Barack Obama was capable of organizing; but I didn't quite believe that the Democratic Party, on balance, would agree with me. Then, another first. I decided it was time be become involved in the campaign with more than just my enthusiasm and wallet, so I high-tailed it to Nevada to walk door-to-door. That experience was amazing and eye-opening on many levels, and I want to write more about it once the election is over. For now, let it suffice to say that I have seen, first hand, what the grass roots organization of the Obama campaign looks like.

And so for me, after all that journey, and on top of the graceful intelligence and pragmatism, what a President Obama means to me renewed (or perhaps new) pride of ownership in my community and in my government. And when I reflect on the organizations that Obama has built and his call for service, and I'm convinced that he can make that as effective a structure as this one -- to make it just as easy to figure out what you need to do and get to work.