I reject your relaity and substatute my own

So I was listening to Democracy Now on Friday and guess what? America has allowed 5,000 Iraqis into our country. Great. Sweden has taken 18,000, which, when you consider the size of the place is a lot. A lot more than 5,000. All of those are people who worked for the American or Iraq government in some way, and have had their lives threaten. Oh, and they all have to pay their own way and have people from the state department cut through a lot of red tape! Thank you George W. and all you have done to help spread the wonders of Democracy through out the Arab world! So what have I done? I wrote my congressman and Senators and told them I thought we needed to do something, at least have some sort of something that gives people applying for asylum from Iraq and Afghanistan some sort of priority and assistance. Those guys have been hearing from me a lot lately.


So anyway, Alex.
Alex is in Hawaii with her father for another 2 weeks. As of Saturday she is tired of the place and wants to come home. "Its not that I don't love my dad. I do, and I want to see him, but he's not here all the time and I don't like watching TV that much. Well, I do, but its not Disney Channel." I understand her frustration. Half of me is thinking "HA! I knew you liked me better." The other, more rational half, is trying to be a grown up. I have to keep a strong front and talk up how great Hawaii is. I have to remind her how incredibly dull life is in Texas. I have to quite talking about all the stuff we are going to do when she gets back. No more talk of museums or swimming pools.
Well, I'm not sure how much that matters because as of Monday she is planing her "Welcome back Alex party"

Alex: Mom! I'm glad you called. I need to talk to you about something.
(Alex goes up to her room. I can hear her 3 year old half sister behind her.)
You can't come in my room Lalaith, it's not allowed!
(Door slams)
Okay, now that we are in private I need to talk about my coming back party. I was thinking. We need to make a cake, vanilla, the kind with sprinkles in them. Oh, and vanilla icing. Can we make the icing pink? With sprinkles? How about putting "Welcome Back Alex" on there too. In green. No, blue. And can we go swimming? In a POOL? Because when you swim at the beach you get sand in your hair. Even when you don't play in the sand part! It's disgusting!

Me: I never knew the beaches in Hawaii were disgusting. They look so pretty in the pictures.

(Alex sighs. I can hear her roll her eyes.)
Alex: They don't LOOK disgusting. They look good. Its just that they ARE disgusting.