USA: A Long Stay

This visit to the US lasted forever. OK, it lasted five months. I just couldn't decide where I wanted to go, probably because I got so caught up in the presidential race. This race was the most fascinating of my life, and I remember Kennedy/Nixon. It was a drama, a soap opera, a drinking game (one shot for every 'my friend' or 'Joe the Plumber'),or maybe an episode of the Amazing Race. Who would have thought that presidential candidates would be talking about tire inflation and suspending campaigns? That CNN's Wolf Blitzer would interupt a substantive answer to one of his own questions to discuss Sarah Palin's wardrobe? That the Republican candidate would make a celebrity and, to some extent a joke, of someone who attended an Obama rally? And of the governor of Alaska? Who? Sarah Palin?

The media went wild with more than 24/7 coverage, and I was hooked. I knew the swing states and the latest polls and analyzed every ad and statement. I watched Saturday Night Live for the first time in ages, and had opinions about the opinions of all the opinionated pundits on TV.

I also visited friends, spent a lot of time with my brother watching and discussing that 24/7+ coverage, dealt (poorly) with my rapidly deteriorating car, visited doctors, and drove a lot. I loved watching TV, hitting my favorite fast food places (ah, Taco Bell, Popeye's, and Arby's, the ones I can't find overseas), and eating Cheerios. American stuff.

I gained weight, and probably lost all muscle tone. When you haven't watched more than ten hours of TV in five months, it really is a treat to visit a brother with a big flat screen TV and seemingly all the channels in the world. Maverick reruns, Penn State football, The Closer, and Primeval - it was great. Yes, Virginia, I was a couch potato.

My road trip took me up and down the coast, finally getting me to Florida just before the election. I picked up my absentee ballot and delivered it to the election board office, avoiding the early voting lines. Ten days later it was over, I was a traveler again. I was in Mexico.