After all the ballyhoo about “getting out of Boston to escape the DNC,” it turned out that escaping the DNC did not require any extra effort or prior thinking on my part whatsoever. I escaped the DNC very easily on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, in fact, through the very simple means of paying no attention to it whatsoever.*

Then I felt rather ashamed of myself — even though I am FATNETVITU (Foreign-And-Therefore-Not-Entitled-To-Vote-In-The-USA) and put on the news yesterday afternoon just in time to watch a rather embarrassed reporter describe how things got “crazy” for “a few minutes” in the caged up demonstration area near the Fleet Center where some anarchists were burning the flag and a two-faced effigy (Bush on one side, Kerry on the other). The video showed pushing, shoving, someone falling on the floor, several very pissed off policemen, and a protester (who sounded about 19) urgently repeating “Calm down. Calm down!” As I understand it, two people were arrested, one for carrying a (papier mache) Molotov cocktail, and one for assualt and battery of a police officer. Then a Bl(A)ack Tea member commented, rather wryly, that if the police were going to position themselves so that they were surrounded by protesters, and then start using their batons to shove protesters, this kind of thing was bound to happen. “I told them,” she said.

Anyway, it soon became apparent that nothing interesting was going to happen until later at night, so I took a break from my exhausting attempt to be politically informed and drove (yes!) to Davis Square where Ross and I staked out a spot at the Someday Cafe for a bit and where I also bought a really beautiful edition of The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger, in library binding, for 8 dollars.

On the way home we were able to listen to the radio, because Ross was driving (I am not yet a Nightrider). We had heard Max Cleland wax lyrical about Kerry being his brother and his friend, and the man himself had gotten about two seconds into his acceptance speech when Ross turned off the engine and we went upstairs to watch the rest of the speech on the television.

My verdict? It was a good, solid speech, surprisingly substantial, even a little inspiring, and only somewhat impaired by the fact that it was delivered by John Kerry. The poor man is terribly stiff; he doesn’t let himself smile nearly enough and he just isn’t exciting. But I thought he came across as intelligent and confident, and heck, I’d vote for him if I wasn’t FATNETVITU.

After the balloons fell (Salon reports that “the post-speech analysis got off to a comical start on CNN, when the news channel inadvertently broadcast frantic comments from a Democratic producer in a rage that more balloons were not dropping from the ceiling of the Fleet Center: “”More balloons! We need all of them coming down! All balloons! Balloons? What’s happening, balloons? There’s not enough coming down. All balloons! Where the hell — there’s nothing falling! What the fuck are you guys doing up there?”) I also spent some time watching videos of various speechifying events on the official DNC website. I can now join the throngs saying “Obama 2012? Hell yeah!” What a smart, charismatic, beautiful man.

I’m still holding out for a Black, female, Muslim presidential candidate who’s gay, though.

*The strict truth is I paid some attention. Just not very much.