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Well the time has come again to leave America...

Linda and I promised each other that we would leave no matter what after two years... and it's been almost two years. Two good years in Seattle, my favorite city in the country of my birth.

What's not to like about Seattle? There is the ocean, the snow capped mountains, the volcanoes, the restaurants, the bars, the friends, the book stores, the coffee shops, the BC green buds, the thick flavorful micro brews, the pattering rain, the skiing, the tennis courts. It's easily the best city in the USA. Easily. What about Manhattan? Well as McCutcheon rightly points out that's not really America. Like London is not England. Like Johnny Cash is not Country Music. It's the exception that makes the rule. And the rule is that America is the land of ignorant hicks who shoot first and ask questions later. America is strip malls and chain restaurants with bad food. America is the Red States. And George Bush is the rightful King.

Wait... I haven't even left yet. One more month to go. I am not even in Seattle right now. This is what you call the pre-game warm up. I am in South Florida in Boca Raton visiting my brother for his 30th birthday bash and especially to see my 3 beautiful nieces again. Linda isn't here. She is at home working and entertaining her lovely, delightfully moody sister Pia who is visiting from London.

My parents are down here as well. It seems like a weird act of Fate that brought us all here together at the same time. I only made plans to come here last week. Got a cheap flight on Orbitz. Last night after I flew in, we all went out to dinners at some posh French place in town called Vielle Maison. I had the jumbo shrimp and crab cocktail, 12 oz filet mignon chateaubriand, and numerous drinks until I spilled my rum cappuccino all over myself while I was trying to make some dumb point about how evil Bush is and how America is doomed whether we win the war or not.

My parents, who are Bush voting, bourgeois, Christians, thankfully put up with me and paid for the dinner without reminding me I am a failure at everything seen as important in my society.