So the race has been declared: Joe Biden is our president elect and Kamala Harris is the vice president-elect.

Honestly, I’d been cautiously optimistic about this outcome since I first thought through the vote counting trend lines mid-Wednesday. Of course, I had no desire to jinx anything, which is why I didn’t say anything here about that prediction/expectation.

I did, however, share that assessment with a few select friends and co-workers—basically as a way of explaining why I was able to focus on work Wednesday and Thursday and wasn’t feeling undue stress about things.

(Ah the hubris!)

Once the call was finally made late this morning, a friend of mine asked on Facebook,

Did everyone else just unclench muscles they didn’t realize they were tensing?

Yup. #ItMe

This afternoon, I crashed hard. Just lay on the couch and napped.

Guess I’d been a wee bit more stressed than I was admitting to myself, eh? (Or admitting to anyone else.)* And even though I am feeling immense relief, I am also aware of how important it is to keep doing the work. Because there are all kinds of obstacles ahead: including and especially the fact that we are living in a toddler state.

But I’ll dig into those realities tomorrow. For the time being, I am so thrilled and so relieved that the voters spoke in this direction.

And I love how my adopted hometown, Philly, was right in the thick of these final hours. The shade! The memes! The general “Fuck with us and see what happens!” attitude. *chef’s kiss*

Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE Boston and it’s my realest home. But I love Philly too.

So tonight, we ordered out for cheesesteaks—or, to be precise, the “steak & cheese sub” we’ve found that comes closet to the authentic cheesesteak experience. And I ate my dinner and toasted the CNN crew with my Sauvignon Blanc while waiting for Kamala and Joe to speak.

Now if you’re a political wonk like me, you might know that I’m giving Philly a tiny bit too much credit, here. The wave of mail-in/early votes that took PA over to blue had more to do with shifting trends in the adjoining suburbs: Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester counties.

Nevertheless, cheesesteak is a regional delicacy, and one of my favorite cheesesteak places was down in DelCo. And the “We eat wannabe tyrants for breakfast” energy is ALLLLLL Philly.

So this casual dinner celebration felt 100% appropriate.

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* Admittedly, we’ve also had some middle-of the night interruptions by various smoke alarms telling us they are close to the end of their life cycle and need replacing. Because OF COURSE the best time to beep that signal to your humans is at 3 in the morning.

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Image credits:

• Sparkler: Pxhere, Public Domain.
• Overwhelmed: Giphy.