This is one of the best days of my life; I feel such a joy!

I enjoyed this past weekend and had a chance to relax for the first time in awhile. Friday night I had dinner with some friends then went back to my dorm and fell asleep around 10:30 and slept till noon the next day. One of my buddies called me and woke me up to invite me to go to Austin with him and some other friends. I joined in, of course.

We travelled down South Congress enjoying the sites on the way to the the Drag in West Campus. We strolled up and down, enjoying the beautiful day, and made our way into Barnes & Nobles, where a large sale was underway. I came out with a book or two and some interesting magazines to add to my literature collection. Next we got some pizza at the new Slices and Ices, a NY-style pizza parlor. Out back they had a live band putting on a free concert. The band was great and we enjoyed much pizza and music.

That evening I hooked up with some old friends from high school for dinner. We at at this crazy Mexican place then rented a bunch of movies. Unfortunately, one of our cars was towed (illegally!) so we had to deal with that before we could get to the movie-watching. We had a good time anyway, though.

I hate Monday’s..

You know when you call the cable company and they say that they’ll send out a rep “sometime between 12 and 6?” Well, today the people who I’ve got my truck warrenty with said they’ll send out a claim inspector within the next 48 hours. That’s ridiculous!

In post-election news, turns out that the youth vote was much larger than previously reported:

Now that some of the smoke has cleared and the data has been crunched, it’s clear that 2004 was, in fact, an amazing year for young voter participation. Whereas only 42 percent of 18-29 year-olds had voted in 2000, a whopping 51 percent showed up at the polls this year, making for a 9-point increase. The catch? Everyone else came out in record numbers too.

Check the GNN article for the full story.

Last night we held a beautiful candlelight vigil for Doug outside of the dorm. The turnout was amazing, with almost 300 of the people he had met or influenced here at college in attendance. We started with a prayer and then shared stories, memories, emotions, and tears. At one point, a guy stould on a bench and sang the most wonderous song for us all (I can’t recall the name of it for the life of me). It was a sad, yet hopeful step towards closure.

Sen. Kerry publicly conceded the presidential election to President Bush today in a speech before supporters in Boston. Kerry said he has decided to drop all challenges in Ohio. CNN now projects Bush the winner of Ohio’s 20 electoral votes, giving the president four more than the 270 needed for re-election.
CNN.com

Bush did much better in this election than he did in 2000; not only did he clearly beat Kerry in the electorial college, but he capture the popular vote as well, a feat he had not done before. All in all, I’m happy with the results as the Republican party also capture more seats in the Senate and House.

Memorial service for Doug is tonight at 9:30.