i followed the news all day long, soaking up all that post-obama victory coverage on television as well as online. i couldn't get enough of it, from snippets of last night's acceptance speech, to footage of spontaneous acts of celebration out on the street. what touched me the most were photos of people all over the world applauding the victory as well, like for a moment at least the world was unified.

i went to the dollar store to pick up some household supplies (kleenex, floss, ziploc bags). the woman ahead of me in line didn't have enough change to buy a coke so she left the store to get more money. "how much did she need?" i asked, "because i'll just pay for it." she was short 15 cents, while i fished through my pocket for change. the guy behind me put down a quarter. the other (male) cashier got out some coins too despite a broken arm. i've never seen such outpouring of generosity. it wasn't even like the woman was attractive (although the cashier was kind of cute). finally the woman returned to the store while we were still debating who would pay for her. she ended up paying for herself, didn't want our money.

my father dropped by in the afternoon with some fried rice and a carton of asian cookbooks from the 70's he dug up from the cafe basement. i browsed through some briefly, most of them were text-heavy volumes with americanized ingredients. julie dropped by in the evening, where i made some reuben sandwiches and then later some oatmeal raisin cookies.