'You are being extraordinarily kind,' I tell her.
Suddenly, Nicole started into a made-up story -- the kind I tell my 9-year-old before bed -- filled with comical details and imagery that slowly lifted me out of my bad mood.
When they're like that, sometimes you can still steer 'em into an alley, make 'em settle for a soot-arse, but sometimes they just shakes you off 'alfway, really wild, and says "Why don't you solicit from your own kind?" I tell you, Shush, it really takes it out of you when they do that.
I told her I had one and she asked what kind and I told her.
The White House also used the event as a kind of "I told you so" about the threat of terrorism, a large theme of Mr. Bush's earlier speech.
The kind I'm told don't know what a Facebook is.
On the last night of my visit to Sudan, a fundraising event - the first of its kind, I am told - was held for the radiology department at the university hospital.
"I think I forgot something kind of essential," I told him.
"I really can't enjoy your kind of music," I told her. "But if I hear Brahms or Beethoven, there are times when it is so emotionally moving that it brings tears to my eyes".
I took a long look at his face and those kind eyes, and I told myself never to forget it, because this man is the heart of Burkina Faso.
