I returned from a badly needed vacation to the Smokey Mountains yesterday.  I finally had a chance to watch YouTube videos of the nations reaction to our amazing achievement of demanding a new respectable government.  AMAZING!  I couldn’t help but tear up and jump around my house with joy.

I jumped up and down hollering with excitement when I found out Obama won while I was in a locals bar in Gatlinburg.  Unfortunately, I was the only person celebrating.  It is a moment that I will never forget.  I know that everyone has that sentiment right now.  Doesn’t it feel great?  We did it.  We fucking did it.  Yes, I am a few days late in my reaction to everything, but it just keeps settling in a little bit more every day.  We did it.

I had intentionally disconnected myself from all election news on November 4.  I went hiking in the great Smokey Mountains National Park with Tennessee Tim.  I voted November 3 before we left for the trip.  After my vote everything was out of my hands.  After a long, beautiful day we made our way to Puckers, a local bar full of Mountain folk.  Very nice, overly Southern people.  Mostly men.  We were asked to join a dart tournament so they would have enough people to make the pot worth something.

Midway through the tournament, a man came up to me and said “We have a nigger as our President.”

I was stunned.  Shocked at his use of the N-word.  Then I realized what he meant…Obama won!  I put my beer down and began my celebration.  Dancing and WOOTING and giving high fives to everyone around me.  They thought I was celebrating darts then they realized I was celebrating our new President-elect.  I couldn’t stop!  I was so HAPPY!  My darts partner looked at me with a little fear in his eyes and whispered into my ear “Stop.  There are some close-minded people in this bar.”  I quickly realized that I was indeed the only person excited by the news and quickly shut the hell up in fear of my life.

My silence lasted about 30 seconds.  WOOOOO!  OBAMA!!  WOOOOO!!! My thought was this: I could probably run faster than all of these folks, as long as I can make it out of the bar.  Haha, but seriously.

Suddenly, Obama was on every TV screen in the bar.  I started dancing, jumping, and flailing my arms as if a wonderful dance song had just started playing…

I was quickly brought back to the reality of the situation when people started BOOing and another man yelled, “Turn that nigger off!”

Shit. I was in Tennessee.  Obama was turned off and the music began playing again.  Everyone returned to the dart tournament.  I missed the speech.  But everything was fine with me!  You know why?  Obama WON!

The Lesson Learned: Some people are dumb, aka Call people the N-word, aka Think that hand sanitizer requires water.  But I will love them just the same because I’m not a hater (well, not a huge hater).  I hate haters…but I’m still nice to them.

Photo: This NOTICE SIGN was posted in a restroom in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.