Standing on the sand as if it were stone

Here's my version of the debates tonight. For your information, i did not cry with anger and/or despair:

Kerry: Bush did this.
Bush: I did not.
Kerry: Bush did this.
Bush: I did not. Freedom.
Kerry: Bush did this.
Bush: I did not. Freedom, enemy.
Kerry: Bush did this.
Bush: I did not, and if'n I done that is no matter. You change your mind all the time
Kerry: Bush did this.
Bush: I did not, freedom, enemy, alliances, Sept. 10th, what kind of message.
Kerry: You sleazy lying sonofabitch, why don't you just go back to Texas and shove a fencepost up your butt. (okay, that was just wishful thinking).

But on a happier note. My dreams have now come true. Do you remember hearing those stories about the make-a-wish foundations where terminally ill children got to meet celebrities? Well, I always knew that if I were ever terminally ill and got any wish in the world, it would be to meet barbara kingsolver. Okay, so really I didn't meet her. I saw John Sayles too, and although I love his work and his spirit, it was nothing like seeing Barbara. Afterwards, I stood not three feet from her. our hands might have even touched. She signed my Small Wonder. I also gave her a letter that I spent the better part of two days writing (when I should have been writing my paper). it's a good thing I had the letter, because I forgot how to speak English when a actually went to talk to her. I think the words "this" "note" and "thank you" came out sounding a bit like my native tongue. She smile and said thank you back, and then she waved as I packed up all my stuff and headed out the door.
The talk itself was fine, but not really informative in that anything new was expressed that had not been expressed in their work. I just couldn't take my eyes off her. She glowed. Don't get me for blasphemy here: But imagine Jesus walking across a stage and sitting down in a chair and staying there for two hours, it wouldn't really matter what he was saying...it's jesus, and he's sitting in a chair ten feet away. Barbara Kingsolver isn't jesus (although i do count her as one of my own personal deities in my scewed version of Pagan-Christianity where you can have a big God and smaller earthly ones), but you can imagine my reaction.
And also I feel very proud of myself having mastered the city enough to be able to find my way from Lexington and 42nd to Park on 34th all on my very own...and at night too. Plus I didn't get mugged, and I didn't get murdered, and that is always a good thing. Cities confuse me, and they make irritable, and they scare me, and they give me a headache, but other than that, I really like going to NY. If I were more confident I might could function better and be happier in NY. I would never want to live there though, or at least I can't see myself living there. I've been thinking of places to settle down one day, if I decide to remain an American. And I like the northeast, but something still doesn't feel right to me. The west doesn't feel right, although perhaps if I live in a city center and not in suburbia it would feel different, and more an more, I see myself moving back down south, and for the first time the idea doesn't repulse me. I read this article in Glamour or somthing called "Where's my village?" and I want my children to have a village. I want my children to know their grandparents and really truly consider them second parents. I want them to grow up around trees and mountains and unpolluted water. You can't swim in any of the lakes or streams around here because they are polluted, and they make you feel greasy. More and more, I keep thinking about Asheville.
Must go catch the shuttle more later....