The same here. The wife and I were in Grant Park when they called VA & immediately called it for Obama. My wife moved here from Virginia and her family is still back there (most of who voted for Obama) so it was a pretty cool moment for us.
I was scanning the news networks, too. Wolf Blitzer was on CNN a little before 11:00 PM showing the map as it stands (the map looked real close to an Obama win) and then I switched to ABC where Charles Gibson was about to call California… and the election! I’ll never forget sitting there with the remote control in my hand.
I was on the Butler Field side of Grant Park and watching CNN on a jumbotron. I got there around 8:30 so I must have just missed the Ohio stuff and wasn’t up to speed on the math. Obama was at 207 EVs by then, but over the next hour and a half they kept calling states for McCain. So while I was reasonably confident, I wasn’t yet allowing myself to think in terms of “in the bag.”
Then the West Coast polls closed at 10pm, and folks around me were counting down like it was New Years Eve (CNN even had a countdown clock). I thought we’d have to wait for a bit (you know, like five minutes or something!) to get return projections from the west, but CNN called it approximately .0012 seconds after 10.
“Bedlam” is an appropriate word, yes.
What really struck me was that walking out of the park and through downtown afterward, all of the cops were smiling, too. Not a stern face to be found.
I woke up at about 3:30 in the morning (so about 9:30pm EST), and realized there was no way I was going to fall asleep again without checking how the election was going. At that time most of the states weren’t reporting yet, so neither candidate had reached the required 270 electoral votes. I think Obama had 200. But then I remembered that California has 55 EVs, and then started counting the outstanding EVs of other states that were reasonably certain to go for Obama… and went back to bed with a smile on my face.
We got up early to take our daughter to school, and flipped on MSNBC (carried in the Middle East via Orbit) and saw that Obama had taken PA, FL, OH, and NM. Up until that point, I thought Obama might lose (I’m not the chicken-counting type). We were glued to the screen then. I remember the countdown clock at the upper right-hand corner of the television screen ticking down the minutes and seconds until the West Coast polls closed, and precisely at 7AM local time they called the election for Obama. We were so excited and emotional we stayed glued to the TV for the concession and acceptance speeches, and by that time it was too late to take the little one to school. That’s all right; she missed school for a historic occasion (though at 4, she doesn’t really appreciate that fact).
oh. Televisions.
Different kind of bar, then. Never mind.
… When the guy sitting next to me said, “I think we did it.”
So I turned to him and said, “Barack, ya think?”
When I “knew”:
At 8:03 PM (eastern) I got a text message from MsNito that read, “PA Obama.”
When I knew, fer sure:
When the NBC anchor announced that the polls on the West Coast would close in ten seconds, I raced to the kitchen and got the champagne.
Kek
I’m currently incomunicado at home (no TV, no radio, and the ***** phone company has given the wrong contact number to the engineer twice so no internet either, third attempt is tomorrow). I got in the car, keyed it on at 7:59, so the news came on before I’d left my parking spot.
Watching CNN on a big projection screen at a college-sponsored ‘election party’.
CNN, at the end, ran a 60-second, New Year’s Eve-style countdown until the polls closed in the west coast, and I think half of us were still praying that nothing totally insane was going to happen, a la 2000. Then the clock hit zero, they called those states for Obama, and we all went a little bit crazy.
I was playing an online game (Team Fortress 2) when people started yelling and typing “Obama won!!!”
I was gonna find out eventually.
I was talking to a couple of friends of mine on IM. A few minutes beforehand, I’d said, “they’re going to call the election as soon as the polls close on the west coast; you’re just going to have to wait a few more minutes.” She said, “I thought none of the states were in 100% yet.” So I explained how states are called based on common sense, exit polls, and partial counts.
Then I was in an IM window with a different friend, bitching about having to explain to Friend #1 about this, since Friend #1 is an otherwise very intelligent person. I was halfway through typing when CNN–which is what I had on–called it. So I just stopped what I was typing and typed “kickass!”
Then, afterwards, I said something similar to, “if you weren’t many miles away, and didn’t have a girlfriend, and if it wouldn’t be incredibly weird and awkward and wrong, I would so kiss you right now. Take that in the spirit in which it’s intended. :-P”
Seriously. I know this sounds so trite, but. . .I was 17 in 2000. Almost all of my politically aware life has been dominated by the Bush administration. And I’m one of the people who didn’t want him in the first time. Who shouted at the TV during the mount-up to Iraq. This is a complete paradigm shift for me; it feels immense. So the spirit was the same as that of the sailor who kissed the woman in Times Square in August, 1945. Delirious relief and joy.
I waited until I was in work and checked bbc.co.uk.
I went to bed before the results were announced, got into work and found he had won. It all seemed like a bit of an anti-climax to be honest, but then he isn’t my leader-elect 
I had my girlfriend and some other friends over at my place watching the results. We were all very much in “perfect game” mode, nobody wanting to say it until it was for sure. Then McCain conceded, and I poured the wine.
Watching net.coverage at work, with CNN up on one monitor, NYTimes in another, and kibitzing with people in the middle.
Found out pretty much as soon as MSNBC/CNN/etc called it.
A (caucasian) friend of mine who knew I was working at the polls and was not watching news coverage texted me at 7pm (PST) with the message: “Shit. A new era where the man keeps ME down!”
Since we obviously aren’t allowed to discuss politics while working at a polling location, I couldn’t explain to anyone why I was laughing myself into tears…
Us, too. It seemed right, since we get all of our news from Jon Stewart.
I was watching The Daily Show when Jon Stewart announced it. That was a pretty good way to get the news!
I was at Dovre Club in the Mission District. There’s a big screen in the other half of the bar set to MSNBC, and two in this room switching between CNN and TDS. We we waiting until the West Coast closed, and watched NBC call it. I, pessimist that I am, didn’t cheer until I looked over at CNN to make sure they called it, too. After a minute, I yelled for them to switch to Fox, who had also called it, leading to another round of cheers. Then I yelled, “OK, turn it back!”
We hung out there and listened to McCain and Obama’s speeches. After that, we were getting word that there was likely to be some bitter joining the sweetness, so we walked through the Mission to enjoy the night 100% while we could. It was amazing outside; people honking and whooping the whole way, and then we came across a huge street party at 19th. I don’t remember ever being in a crowd like that without ever sensing the slightest bit of tension. Cab drivers were dancing on their hoods. It was pure joy.