On Thursday, I went to hear Barack Obama at a Town Hall meeting.

On Friday, I tried to early vote but the lines were too long and I had somewhere to be.

On Saturday, I received 6 (6 I tell you!) recorded phone calls from various local, state and national campaigns.

In case you’ve missed it, Texas and Ohio are holding primaries on Tuesday, which may (or may not) determine the democratic nominee for president of the United States. These are days charged with import and I tell you, I’ve been feeling the weight of choice hanging heavy over me. (At least it’s a decent excuse for not sleeping well…)

So needless to say, I totally embraced the comic relief of my younger daughter’s classroom last week.

When I went in to help out on Friday morning, they were awash with all things patriotic.
Because, not only is the presidential race electrifying everyone, but just barely in our rearview mirrors (objects may be closer than they appear to be) are President’s Day and Martin Luther King’s birthday. 
So, on that last, extra day of February, the teacher asked her first graders to make lists of the things they knew about the United States of America — facts they’ve absorbed these last few weeks of winter.

Here are just a few of my favorites. 
I prefer many of the them to the clips we’re hearing replayed again and again on NPR…

Washington was the 1 president of United States of Texas and all.

(Public service announcement: 
The USA will be even nicer if we all exercise the right to vote. See you ’round the ballot box on Tuesday…)