Friday September 26th

Whew,
Here I sit in my hotel room in Providence, RI watching the debate.

I had a really long day yesterday. I was up at 3am to get ready for my early ass flight from Tucson to Providence. I never left the plane that I was on but we took off and landed 3 times. Jeez, it kind-a hurt a-lot, it really did. I have to say that the flight crew from Tucson was AWESOME! We played a really great game to pass some time.

Try this by ONLY using you brainpower. Try not to sneak a peek at a map.
There are 9 states in our union that use only 4 letters of the alphabet to spell them out. Ohio is NOT one of the answers; Ohio only uses 3 letters. Name all 9 states. It took my about 15 minutes to figure out the nine states. It was nice to have to stretch my brain for a few minutes while. The last one was the hard one. I forgot about the middle of our nation for a few minutes.

I am rooming with the fantastic Susan Nestor and it is good to spend some time with her again. After the show today we had dinner with Steve from Pacific Silverworks and had some serious comfort food of Fish and Chips with a nice pint of Ale to wash it down with. Yummy!!!!!!

So today was WET! The Tropical Storm Kyle, is churning up the weather around here and it has rained since late last night and I am feeling a bit soggy.

Now, I am sorry to say that I could not be more offended than I was when I listened to portions of the Palin/Couric interview. The entire response about travel abroad was the epitome of self-righteous Reverse Elitism that I have ever heard. There is nothing humorous, or endearing about someone who thinks that seeing and understanding how the world works is only available to those whose parents “give” them a passport and backpack. I have been fortunate in the fact that my profession has paid for me to travel this country, travel in Europe and the Mediterranean, paid for me to live in Brazil for 4 months and to work in China for 7 days.

(Now, to be honest, I did not get to see any of China. I only knew I was in China because I looked out my hotel room the first morning I was in Hong Kong and saw a Junk floating by. I could have been in any major harbor city but by god, I have a work permit for China pasted in my passport.)

I did not have to accept any of those jobs and the majority of them did not pay all that great, but I realized that by working my ass of for a few weeks I would get the opportunity to see the pyramids of Giza, walk among the ruins of the Parthenon and in Pompeii. My desire to know more about the world ad my thirst to experience other cultures far outweighed my thought the financial gain. Nothing could have ever made me turn away from that responsibility.

I despise the lowering of our expectations, I do not want to have a beer with my president, I want the person that I elect to have a higher level of education that a "C" average. I do not want an average person in charge; I want an above average person to lead us back to a place where we were looked up to and were held to a higher standard than average. It is imperative!