I shall list each excuse clearly and succinctly

So I hopped right on www.barackobama.com as soon as the visit to Eugene was announced. I was there RIGHT THERE and I put in the RSVP and then saw ... "this does not guarantee entrance" and the balloon up and deflated. No tickets. It's first come, first seated.

Friends, I'm all for Barack. I'm waiting only for the coffee mugs to be added to the the Bobama store before I place my order, because I want everything at once, and the water bottle isn't going to cut it. I want real stoneware before I start harassing others to vote like me. VOTE LIKE ME. I've got a brand new bumper on Rudy just waiting for the sticker (did I get rear-ended because of Kerry? .... .... this is going to take some investigation).

But, you know, if Econ has taught me nothing else, it's taught me how to do a cost-benefit analysis.

Cost:

• riding to school in the cold (it's 42 now) and coming back at midnight (when it's supposed to drop to 31 degrees)
• jockeying for position among Eugene's finest, most of whom don't cotton to washin'
• and ending up thrust into the EMU with the overflow anyway because I didn't get off work until 5:00 and people were lining up at Mac Court as early as 2:00
  
• leaving the cousin/roommate home with a bad case of trotskys (I told him we shouldn't have eaten at that Taco Bell)

Benefit:

• yeah, okay, sure, it would be great to say "I saw the President when..."

The cost -- including opportunity cost -- is just too high. Students were already crowding the doors before I'd even had a lunch break at work. So I picked up some pretzels and Squirt for the cousin/roommate and we watched a pretty weak episode of Taggart (I know, weird, but they can't all be great), and now I'm going to bed to sleep the sleep of the wimpy. I had a chance to see the President when ... and I didn't go.

This is my story. This is my song.