One More Writer

The wind is clawing for attention outside my door. My beautiful pumpkin Spike is rotting. And I'm very happy with life at the moment. Welcome to November, land of Thanksgiving, rainy weather and law school exams. My first exam takes place five days after T-day, so I'm using the remainder of the evening to wash dishes, play guitar and contemplate the idea of studying. My laptop broke two weeks ago. This seemed like a tragedy initially, but it seems that I take better notes by hand when the Internet isn't at my fingertips. As a result, I'm pretty much caught up on my daily reading, so I should be able to carve out 2 to 3 hours a day for reviewing for finals. That's the goal this week anyway. I'll be shocked if I can net eight hours of review before the weekend.

A brief political digression: Tuesday's election could be nuts. The national mood is poisonous for Republicans right now. Iraq doesn't look too pretty, the Congressman-preying-on-pages antics of Republican Mark Foley didn't help much, and the admissions these last few days by Megachurch pastor Ted Haggard that he solicited a male prostitute and bought meth can only make matters worse. The Haggard matter might cause a fair number of Evangelicals to stay home on election day, according to the pundits.

My stance on all this: I want everyone to vote. I don't like the idea of people staying home because they're pissed about the national climate. Now, a disclaimer: I'd really like to see an end to the Republican stranglehold on the legislative branch, as its combination with a Republican executive produces a frightening lack of checks and balances. My base issue: I'm afraid of overly-effective federal or state government. Chaos is good, and governing is best done at the local level. These last six years I've drifted from far right, to center, to slight left. I'm not impressed with Democrats. I think their basic platform sucks, and their political machine is a joke. But I feel Republicans have held power too long, and it's starting to corrupt them. I still agree with most the basic tenents of the Republican party, but I can't stand the people who run under the GOP banner. Give me candidates I can trust and I'll switch back to Republicans. Until then, I'll be voting in an uninspiring (but sincere) pack of Democrats into office every other year.

So anyway, if you haven't voted yet, make sure to get that done. In Oregon, it's too late to mail in your ballot, so drop it off at a polling site before 8 p.m. Tuesday.

In other random news: I had a great time in Eugene this weekend. I went to Gerlinger for the first time since the end of June and entered a veritable twilight zone. Lillian was there, of course, with Rob in tow. I danced with Lilly and it was fine. I honestly didn't feel hurt or jealous by the way things have turned out. In fact, I feel like I'm the fortunate one.

It was a full moon Friday night so things were bound to turn out wacky. I ran into Jenni Hoffman, of all people, at the dance. Jenni, sister of Ruth, my first girlfriend. Seeing her brought back memories of that trainwreck at Gerlinger at the end of February 2001, when I made an ugly mess of an already ugly breakup. Jenni told me Friday was the first time she'd been to Gerlinger since that dance more than five years ago. The last time I saw Ruth she looked like she still hated me. I wonder if Jenni feels the same way.

I had a great date Saturday with a girl whom I've been building a friendship with for some time. Dinner, miniature golf and a shared pint of ice cream in the car as the rain came pattering down overhead. Saturday was a welcome slice of innocence and beauty in what has become something of a cynical exercise for me. I'm going to resist the urge to ramble about this, as I want to be patient and let things develop as they will.

Stumbled into church at Springfield Faith Center today before making my way back to Salem. The sermon was solid and just what I needed to hear: the paradox that the only way to get control over your life is to give it up completely for God. I hope to blog about this more during the week.

Oh, almost forgot to mention: Saturday I had the chance to go to the Duck game with my best friends. We won 34-14. It was a rough day to be a Husky, that's for sure, but I don't think Oregon can beat USC and Oregon State without finding ways to stop throwing interceptions.