This morning I mowed the yard and dabbled in politics.

As I perused The Times this morning, I could not ignore the ad of President Obama in the act of sharing a laugh with two very normal looking people, with some sort of hipster font proclaiming "WE'LL COVER YOUR AIRFARE" and on the other side, "DINNER with BARACK." I have a love-hate relationship with advertising of every kind, and felt the need to ignore the ad. But I am also a big fan of free things, wether that be dinner or airfare. And since the reality of the situation was that I definitely was not ignoring the ad, I went ahead and clicked on it. 

It asked me for my email and zip code. I supplied them.

And then it asked me to make a donation.

I had to laugh at myself for thinking that I really had a chance to meet the president for free. My contribution, at whatever size larger than $5, would either pay for someone else to meet him or for him to campaign into the fall. While I'd appreciate anyone who wanted to pay for me to go see the president, I don't really want to pay for me or anyone else to see him; especially since my bank account is pretty vacío right now. And as far as campaigning goes... Follow your heart, Barack. But I also do not want to pay for it. 

My grasp of American politics is basic, but pretty evenly grounded. I don't love politics, but I don't hate them. I don't really have a lot of any sort of feelings towards Obama. I respect him for trying to better America. I think the only reason I'd ever want to eat dinner with him is to see how he'd try to buy my vote. That would be interesting. I don't think I will vote for him this fall, but I am glad that I got to watch these last four years as a young, liberal-arts-minded student. From the very first day after the 2008 election, he taught me what it meant to be a democrat in the beginning of the twenty-first century. I decided that that's not what I'm looking for. I also got to watch a lot of very staunch Republicans hate Obama, and I also decided that's not what I'm looking for. At the end of the day, I know that I'm not really wanting to pick a team... Which is a problem I have faced my whole life. Mostly because I hated sports, but that's besides the point.

End of Story: The very important message that I have to share today is that I am intrigued by politics more than I ever have been in my life largely because I feel like I'm starting life as a young, promising American over again (or at least on a completely clean slate, after watching a lot of very dramatic and depressing political news shows in Spain and deciding that I'd rather be American than Spanish). Side messages would be that I really enjoyed this article this morning, and I did not make a contribution to Obama-Biden 2012 although they did lure me in with the promise of a free meal.