Rambling return from hiatus?

Well, I'm considering it. I miss writing. And being read. But the summer is almost over, our collective schedule will rev up, and my spare time will shrivel up smaller than Bush's brain in a nonce. Harumph.

Much has happened since I last posted, and yet nothing much has changed. Funny how that works out. All of our life events seem so big, so all-encompassing as they occur, but fade into smears on the windows, barely seen or even noticed. J is in his second year of college at the local community college. A is a sophomore at the local high school. CJ is still on the local radio and still subbing as choir director at Grace Lutheran.

And me? I'm still highly local, too. Centrally located right here in Oak Park, Illinois. Busy, busy running in place yet getting nowhere in particular. Which should be fine as I'm a Be Here Now Ram Dass kind of meditating independent Lutheran. But I'm having trouble with it at the moment. I'd like to be there instead.

There would be, what? I'm not sure. Finishing the book I started writing 6 months ago? "Finishing it" makes it sound somewhat progressed, which I don't think is a terribly accurate depiction of 20 pages. Practicing law in some socially relevant save the world kind of way? But only 5 hours a week, since that's about the time I feel I have to devote to stuff outside the home, with CJ working two or three jobs, plus lots of other outside gigs. And, oh? Could I earn about $15,000 a year doing so, so that I can start paying for J's college tuition next year?

Isn't it annoying to hear upper middle class people who don't have to be employed whine about what to do with their lives?

Politically speaking, nothing new has much happened since last we spoke, really. Bush is still in office. His administration continues to flout the law at every turn. Democrats ineffectually squawk and flap their wings, accomplishing little. People keep dying while Bush keeps lying. Trite but heartbreakingly true.

I've been watching the various Democratic debates. Am sometimes heartened by what I hear. But I'm tired of the posturing--and there's such a long way to go before it's all over. I like Obama. I like Clinton (though a bit hawkish for my tastes). I like Edwards. If I could vote for anyone at all--meaning I didn't care if it was a "wasted" vote and was purely voting on the issues, what a novel idea--I'd probably vote Kucinich.

On the Republican side? Honestly, there's not a candidate on the horizon who doesn't make me want to regurgitate. Did I ever mention that, as a child, we used to wile away the hours at swim meets coming up with all the synonyms for "vomit"? There are a lot, you know. Way more than that old wive's tale about there being a million Inuit words for snow.

We also used to eat dry Jello packets for "energy". :-) I'd have to say that's as good an energy policy as any I've seen the Republicans come up with!

Off to make the doughnuts . . . er, brownies. Sorry. Doughnuts were the last church. Need brownies for the staff dinner tonight at Grace.

Liz