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Election night ended two days ago but the presidential race is still dragging on, and some Austinites are starting to get antsy.
With hundreds of thousands of votes yet to be counted in five key battleground states—Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania—this election is a nail-biter.
Nervous feelings are being shared among many on social media; the waiting game is testing people's patience.
logging in from beneath my blanket fort to check the election results https://t.co/ZyOJI8cBB6— the sleepytime owl 😴🧙♀️ (@the sleepytime owl 😴🧙♀️)1604458197.0
Watching this election is like swimming a no breath 400 IM with jeans on in the Atlantic Ocean.— Kyle Sockwell (@Kyle Sockwell)1604450937.0
Andrei Matei, who has been living in Austin for more than 20 years now, said he is shocked by the closeness of the presidential race.
"I'm very surprised that the race is as tight as it is at the national level right now," Matei said. "I've never seen our country more divided than it is now."
Austinites are reminding each other to remain calm, knowing the results would not be in anytime soon.
A reminder to all, we will not know who won the election tonight. Likely not for several days or more. Don't stay u… https://t.co/I151d7nCeV— Jeremy Dooley (@Jeremy Dooley)1604466306.0
Others, like Austinite Rachel Wilson, are awaiting results calmly, with the attitude that whatever happens, happens.
"The presidential election is close as expected," Wilson said. "Regardless of the outcome we will all be OK. In life, and in politics, no defeat or victory is permanent."
Some locals are choosing to laugh the election nerves away, poking fun at the states the country is waiting on.
In this election Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin showed up like https://t.co/lu6qY5Psd5— Joe Vargas (@Joe Vargas)1604537974.0
Above all else, distraction via hanging with your pup, getting outside or grabbing a bite are popular choices for this election.
Texas has already had a tense election cycle. In the midst of COVID-19, this election was destined to be different than years prior. With six extra days of early voting in Texas, residents did their part by casting their vote.
In the months leading up to the election, Texas appeared to be a swing state with Republicans and Democrats neck and neck, keeping residents on the edge of their seats into election night.
Though Texas' 38 Electoral College votes will go to President Donald Trump, the election is still undecided. According to the Associated Press, Biden currently has 264 electoral votes and Trump at 214 electoral votes of the 270 needed to win office. With at least five states yet to confirm a lead, the race is still not over.
More on waiting:
As the presidential election hangs in the balance, Austin progressive groups look to council runoffs and 2021 legislative session
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Popular
Cat Osterman is retiring from softball after a 17-year Olympic career and three Olympic medals. (USA Softball/Twitter)
Osterman, a three-time Olympian who has been called the "Michael Jordan of softball," will officially retire from the international realm at 38 after a decorated career that included Olympic golds, years of retirement and plenty of adversity—from a worldwide pandemic to dashed gold-medal dreams.
Osterman and her crew left Tokyo on a bittersweet note on Tuesday with a silver medal in hand.
Osterman with Team USA in 2008. (Antoni Majewski/Twitter)
Osterman in the final in 2021. (Antoni Majewski/Twitter)
After a year of sparse in-person training and over a decadelong hiatus, Team USA and Osterman flew to the finals. In five games, the team beat Italy (2-0), Canada (1-0), Mexico (2-0), Australia (2-1), and Japan (2-1).
Deja vu struck in the final match. On one side, Osterman and fellow 2008 Olympic teammate Monica Abbott took the mound; on the other was the 39-year-old Yukiko Ueno, a familiar foe who helped the team beat Team USA last go-round.
"Just like 13 years ago," Ueno said in a press conference, "we were facing each other in the final."
Ueno, who had lost hopes at gold to Osterman in '04, outpitched her longtime opponent with six scoreless innings as Team USA was held to just three hits. The same team that squandered their gold-medal hopes 13 years before had done it once again.
"There's a little bit of disappointment in not bringing home the gold since that's the eye on the prize when you go over there and you know you have a shot at it," Osterman told Austonia. "But more than anything, I'm very proud of the way our team handled everything that was part of this journey and not just the six games."
It's that very loss at the 2008 Olympics that partially motivated Osterman to get back on the mound. She officially put down the glove in 2015 after six seasons with the USSSA Pride, took time with family and began coaching at Texas State University.
Osterman helped ace Randi Rupp to greatness while a coach at Texas State University. (Active Voice Health/Twitter)
She thought her Olympic endeavors were well over—until talks of reinstating softball into the Games reentered the conversation.
"It wasn't until 2016 or 2017, that it ever crossed my mind to possibly put the USA uniform on again," Osterman said. "After the World Championships in 2010, I walked away, and I thought that my career on the international stage was done. So this was a pleasant kind of new opportunity."
Three years after facing any competition, Osterman was on the field once more with world-class athletes. Some, like Osterman and Abbott, had been playing together long enough to form a formidable "Fire and Ice" duo on the mound. Others had just graduated college.
Osterman said playing with a younger generation of athletes was one of the most rewarding aspects of this year's Games.
"It can be very different when you have 24- and 38-year-olds on the same field," Osterman said. "The adversity put us in some challenging positions and we came through with flying colors. And this group will forever be special just because what we had to go through is so different."
While on the mound, Osterman's job was to give the team a calm start. Off of the field, she felt her role had much of the same effect: she knew that new Olympic feeling, and she served as a deep breath to her first-time teammates.
"There's no words to explain how nervous and excited you get knowing that the whole world can be watching," Osterman. "I think using those emotions and figuring out how to get all our butterflies lined up and going in the right direction, so that way we were all moving together, was kind of my role outside of pitching."
We've heard her retire once before, but this time Osterman said she's gone for good—even from coaching. After her final time with Team USA on Sept. 27, she plans on returning to Austin, where she'll look to work for a nonprofit.
A gold and two silvers will have to do for one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. softball history.
"To be able to say you're a three-time Olympic medalist is a pretty special deal, right?" Osterman. "I played for a long time. But those are the pinnacle, in my mind, and kind of what elicits the dream to keep playing."
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