Well, my Wednesday was as interesting as everyone else's (I hope). I guess I was taking the whole idea of the debates pretty lightly, until we opened our store Wed. morning and were greeted by a nice cop from Gilbert. (My store is the College Store at Rural and Lemon, and it's full of charming textbook employees like me (cheap plug).) The cop informed us that they were shutting down Rural at 10 a.m. for the President's motorcade, and I think that's when it hit me that this was a BIG DEAL for Tempe. I mean, tthey were borrowing cops from Gilbert. So with the parking lot blocked off and the whole street shut down, we had noting to do but stand out front like eveyone else and wait for the President to drive by. A bunch of young Republicans in red t-shirts lined up across the street with supporting placards and flags. Then the motorcycles came, a long line of them, followed by at least six scary, black SUVs, and just like in the movies, the President's limo came cruising behind them, the flag and the Presidential seal flapping from the front bumpers. As it passed I saw Bush waving from the back seat (with the windows up, but still, I saw the President). It was almost as cool as the time I saw the Queen of England from her carriage during the annual birthday parade. But the Queen gets extra points because she was preceeded by a bunch of guys in those tall, furry hats instead of scary SUVs.

About an hour later, they closed Rural again for Kerry's motorcade, and we watched that one go by, too. I got a good laugh out of the fact that while the reps. had had matching shirts and an organized chant ("Four more years!"), the Kerry people were as mismatched as any bunch of liberal hippies and couldn't agree on a slogan. It almost makes me sad to be a registered democrat.

So in the space of two hours I saw both of the candidates waving from cars, and I'd have to say it was the highlight of my week. The chaos on campus meant a lot more to me when I got to Hayden lawn at 4:30, because I could really feel that it was these two men, and what they were standing for, that got everyone so riled up. But I still liked the Queen best.