Last night on my way home, as I often do, I became disoriented about which direction I was supposed to be going. I lack sense of direction and no matter how hard I try I never seem to be able to navigate if I venture off my known paths of this city. Completely disoriented and befuddled I wondered around bits of a neighborhood determined to figure out which way to go to get home on my own. I could have called a number of people for directions or even for a ride but wanted to walk alone to clear my head. The neighborhod reminded me of my birthplace and the neighborhoods that I grew up in. Throughout my wandering I kept hearing the same voice being projected from what I assumed was a park or a bar. I wondered why they would be hosting something outdoors on a chilly October night in Minnesota. It sounded like the same quality of sound that the movies in the park have. No matter what block I turned down, I could hear it but couldn’t discern the words or the speaker. Having misplaced my glasses it was even more of a challenge to navigate because the street signs were blurs and not well lit. Eventually, I found a dark park with no one in it and decided that the voice was probably being amplified from a different location.

I continued towards the voice thinking I could at least ask someone for the general direction of Snelling Avenue (a main road in Saint Paul) to get home. Minnesotans are generally helpful but I felt more comfortable asking someone at a gathering rather than a stranger on a dark street for directions. At this point I had ventured far enough from the main road that I couldn't place which direction I needed to go in to find it. Since I live on Snelling I knew that it would just be a matter of getting on the bus once I found it. When I first moved here it made me laugh out loud to say the street name aloud because it sounded silly. Not in the way that 'Lois Lane' or 'That Road' in Bloomington, IND makes me laugh but because it sounded like a made up word. As I walked I continued to hear the voice in whatever direction I went. After about 20 minutes I realized that the voice was not directing me to people at all and it didn’t seem to be coming from a central location, it seemed everywhere and I wondered briefly if I was going insane. Maybe I was going down the path of Joan of Arc and had finally snapped.

I had forgotten that the debates were on and that what I was hearing on every block was Barack Obama’s voice booming out of the televisions of houses on every block. It literally sounded like he was speaking to the entire neighborhood.

It made me proud to be part of the twin cities. I’ve never experienced anything like it. I have know idea why i couldn't hear John McCain...selective hearing?