triple word score

sitting in the library once again searching for a movie's plot summary to make up for not having done work this weekend. why do i procrastinate like i do?

OH

BECAUSE I GOT TO SEE OBAMA SPEAK LAST NIGHT (instead of doing work)

my professor should understand. after all, he cancelled class on me last friday. ha!

film essay found, i would like to take a moment to wax patriotic. not since i sat at my fisher-price play table at the age of two and waved around a small american flag shouting "happy birthday, america" to the amusement of my parents have i felt any sort of ownership or pride for my country. i have lived through two terms of the bush regime, two beautiful terms of the clinton administration and most of one term of bush 41. i appreciated the clinton administration. i defended him as a fourth-grader during his sex scandal and intended to vote for his wife this coming election, but i have never gazed into the stars and stripes and felt genuinely proud to be an american. i did last night. yesterday's road-trip to cincinnati was concluded with a surprising bang when we got to see barack obama speak at the university of cincinnati football stadium. our attendance was a last minute arrangement that led us to stand in a line for over two hours and then make it through security to stand around on a football field for a few more hours. we were surrounded by people of all walks of life - including an adorable older man who gave his obama sign to me while my girlfriend held the camera so i "would have something to do". people filled a large portion of the stadium. shades of blue washed the crowd (that often broke out into a wave). some fans even brought giant foamboard letters that spelled "ohio 4 obama" (and occasionally "oh io 4o bama" :). after a few false alarms, the man himself appeared in front of the podium and the crowds went wild. i know i did. even if his face was bigger on the televised debates, he was only a stone's throw away from me. unreal. his speech was the best i've heard yet. though some of it seemed a little bit dreamy (obama: pro-hope, also pro-dreams) i could pump my fists in the air and cheer in agreement to most everything that left his lips. towards the end, he picked up a momentum that had me hanging on his every word. when he talked about hope, per usual, he spoke about people having hope for their future generations even when they don't have hope for themselves. and though slightly unexpectedly, he had me. i almost started crying as he wrapped up his speech in a glorious finish. i hugged my girlfriend tightly as we watched a candidate that does provide the most hope i've ever seen in a politician. you already had my vote, barack, but now you might just have my heart.