now that everything has calmed down...

news article

It was interesting walking to class last night. I was going down the same way I had 18 hours before, only this time I wasn't screaming my head off with excitement.

Basically, at midnight when everyone started projecting Obama as the winner, nearly every VCU freshman flooded out of the dorms and into the streets. I stood outside of Johnson taking it all in, texting, and screaming. I ended up across the street with Cesley, Laura, Tempest, Jenny, Anna, Angela, Nathan, and Kori. We were chanting and screaming and taking pictures and videos.

Probably around 12:30 the police showed up, but not in any violent way. They ended up shutting down Broad Street from Belvidere to Lombardy for our screaming peaceful rioting. They were just there to make sure we didn't do anything violent or dumb. And we really didn't.

Before long we were running down Laurel to Broad, and down Broad towards Lombardy. It was me, Cesley, Kori, Angela, and Tempest by this point. We were about in the front of the middle, and by the time we were just past the Seigal Center the front had turned around and was flooding back towards us. I have to say, it was pretty scary to have a couple hundred people running toward you. So we turned around and ran back with them.

We stopped in front of the entrance to Seigal and had a massive chanting-drumming-screaming party. According to the news, there were around 2,000 people out at the height. And we were part of it.

The group started to continue back the way we'd come, and there was talk of marching all the way to city hall. We were at the front of the group, and we were indecisive. We took some pics of the mob coming at us, slower this time, and continued when it had caught up to us. When we got to Laurel again, we weren't sure if we wanted to keep going to city hall or not. I was done, but I hung with them as they decided.

While they thought, the entire crowd passed us on their way to city hall. And the choice was made for us. We hung around, watched a guy climb the pole for the traffic lights, and finally made our way back to Johnson.

When we got back, we caught part of McCain's concession speech. I sent all my pictures to my email, since all I brought with me was my phone and ID.

Around 1:30 the crowd had made it back to where it started. We got some pictures out the window of the crowd, still going strong. And we went to bed at 2.

Apparently, once at city hall they attempted to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." And the party didn't stop till probably 5 or so.