Car-free Sunday.

These "Car-free Sunday's" are getting easier to take, now that the price of unleaded regular (is there a leaded regular?) is close to $3.30 a gallon here in the Garden State. It helps that (a) we had a nice weather day and (b) I had no particular place to go. That'll save money all around.

Yesterday's wedding took its toll on me emotionally. For a while, I can keep up the facade, but eventually the idea that I'm at a social event alone wears on me. It seemed like I was there for a lifetime, but I found myself out the door and in my car by 9:15 - shortly after finishing dinner and watching the dance floor fill.

I'm not a dancer and don't understand the need to do it, so at a function like that I'm left in the chair looking a little like a potted plant. It doesn't take long for that to wear me down and I find myself quietly slinking out the door, figuring that the alternative is being a drag on the event and (more importantly) on myself. A wedding of people a generation younger than me is no place for a 50-year old single person, and I find that the realization comes down on me quickly. It probably left a few people wondering "What happened to Anthony?", but at the time, that wasn't a priority for me. I just wanted to get out of there.

By the way, the official count of "cell phone rings" during the church ceremony was three. Three times I heard cellular phones ring during the church service. Really, why do people need to bring their cell phones to the church during a wedding ceremony? Unless they're working for NORAD or a member of the Secret Service, they can live without the phone for an hour. It's Re-Goddamned-diculous.

Danica Patrick won a car race. That was the big sports story over the weekend. To hear the big media tell the story, it was a big deal. I wonder how much they would care if she looked like Laura Davies or Hillary Clinton. We make a big deal out of looks when it comes to accomplishments, especially where women are concerned.

I lost track of how many cable TV stations carried the Pope's speech at Yankee Stadium today. I think it was at least 7, including Fox News, who is used to making a big deal out of men who are supposed to be above the rest of us.

With just days to go before the Pennsylvania primary, Senator Barack Obama Friday night appeared before thousands of roaring supporters in Independence Mall, and pledged to "declare independence" from Washington politics. "In four days, you get the chance to help bring about the change that we need right now, Philadelphia," Obama said. "Here in the city and the state that gave birth to our democracy, we can declare our independence from the politics that has shut us out, let us down, and told us to settle."

We'll see how much Americans want a change from politics. Something tells me that regardless of a victory in Pennsylvania, Obama faces an uphill battle against "tell them what they want to hear" John McCain and his Bush was right politics.

"I'm not running to fit in Washington. I'm running to change Washington."

Change is easier said than done. The biggest enemy Obama has is the fact that he is running against an administration that could be replaced by a chimpanzee, so a McCain administration (as lowly and disgusting as it appears) would be a marked improvement over the worthless protoplasm in office now. Perhaps that is the best case the Republicans can make. "Hey - it's better than Bush" could be their 2008 slogan. Of course, the SPCA could run a candidate on the same logic.