The Most Influential Novel For Me Was - What? New Topic? Crap.

Here I was all ready to post this week, and right before I started typing I got an emergency e-mail alerting me to change the topic to the election. So I'm just going to wing it.

Did you know Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th president last night? Apparently he was!

The second I got out of class on Tuesday, I raced home and kept CNN on all day. My roommates and I tried to do our homework, but mostly focused on that damn magic wall Wolf Blitzer is so fond of. We anxiously glanced back and forth from the clock to the TV, awaiting the minute the first polls would close.

But first, CNN had to BLOW OUR MINDS when they started conducting interviews via hologram. Holy crap. I swear, our reaction to the futuristic interview was almost bigger than Obama's victory.

Holograms or not, the instant the polls in the east closed, our homework was pushed aside and we spent the rest of the night glued to the TV as Anderson, Wolf, and their enormous room of 6 million people with computers tried to make sense of the sheer volume of numbers and "CNN Projection" graphics being thrown at us.

Of course, it quickly became apparent who would win, and before even half the states had been called, CNN already played out a hypothetical situation in which McCain would win every single remaining state, excluding California, Washington, and Oregon, and he still would not have enough to win. We were ecstatic, so we felt free to turn over to Comedy Central to watch Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart interpret the results, clearly enjoying themselves and the way the election was going.

In fact, the first time we heard the phrase, "Barack Obama has been elected president," was from Jon Stewart's mouth. Which is a perfect indication of the way the political culture has been transformed, I have to say. The Daily Show team then performed some antics about what they were going to do with their lives now that the election was over, but we were too thrilled to care.

I then spent the rest of the night celebrating while attempting to contact my sister, who was in Grant Park in Chicago watching the next president speak LIVE (a futile attempt, since everyone in Grant Park was trying to use their cell phones at the same time so no one could get service).

Overall, it was a great night, and I rewarded myself by skipping all my classes today.