For the most part, today was a day of great joy in my workplace. All my co-workers that I deal with on a daily basis were for Obama, and we shared our stories of how we spent yesterday evening watching returns, talking about how ridiculous the networks' special effects were. We felt that someone should remind them that this is a federal election, not a "Star Wars" movie.

Unfortunately, our joy on the outcome of the big race was tempered by the outcomes of some smaller ones. Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and specifies that no other union is to be recognized in the state. This not only affects gay people, but straight individuals, too, including senior citizens who live together, but don't marry because of the potential loss of benefits (for example, those from a deceased spouse).

We also didn't pass an amendment that would give community colleges the opportunity to appeal to their local communities to vote for a special sales tax that would go directly to the colleges. In these tough times, local community colleges have had to cut programs, but enrollment keeps rising. That this didn't pass doesn't make sense to me at all. I guess people see the word "tax" and automatically freak out. There was nothing that said we'd be taxed. It just said that the community colleges would be able to ask us to vote on if we would agree to a tax at some point in the future. Should the tax pass, it would be for five years, with reauthorization necessary for continuation of the tax. Oh, well. I guess all those community college students are going to have to start teaching themselves.

Aside from the election, it was just a really long Wednesday. Since the time change, I haven't been able to deal with the fact that I leave work in total darkness. Sure, it's easier to get up in the morning. But, I don't like the evenings anymore. It makes me tired. Goodnight.