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Monday, November 05, 2007

the paper chase

There comes a point, in my office, where the OSHA hazard reaches such a critical juncture that not only can I not find anything, but even I am distracted by the mess. My office has reached that point and then some, but I am ignoring it until I get through the ignomonious task of sorting all the writing contest entries into their respective piles. I am, these days, my own intern and when people ask me if I have an assistant I give a sad little laugh that sounds very much like a cough.
Yesterday was one of my favorite holidays: FALL BACK DAY! Part of my weird penchance for privacy includes a love of the early morning. It's not enough for me to be alone in my house, I can only really feel alone if I know that the vast majority of people in town are still asleep. FALL BACK DAY is great because I am up even earlier than usual! Unfortunately, by the time it hits 8 am, so are many other folks. The other downside of FALL BACK DAY is the early onset of darkness. I don't actually mind that for my own sake (it could be dark all the time as far as I'm concerned; except when I'm at the pool or the beach) but I do mind it for poor Nero's sake. Yesterday, he seemed to get very frantic, starting at about 4:30 pm. I could almost see him thinking: "Listen, we got less daylight. You need to take me to the dog park EARLY. If go at the normal time, it will be DARK and I won't be able to see what I'm humping." By the time the boy was off work and we were actually at the dog park, Nero had worked himself into quite a state. He ran and ran and ran up to every single dog, wagging his tail so hard, one person remarked that it looked like it was going to break in two. Nero learned how to hump just last year and, while I'm grateful he doesn't hump every dog, he does usually find one dog to jump on, despite my explaining to him, repeatedly: "You have no balls. I was there when they were cut off." (In point of fact, I assisted in the surgery and held up his balls in order for them to be cut).
The great family visit is over, culminating in a nine-person dinner Friday night. Some of you may recall that last year I found out that, via marriage, I have some kind of familial connection to state Supreme Court Judge Patricio Serna. Anyway, the cousins through which that bond exists drove down here from Colorado, and a friend of my mom's flew in from Texas, and Serna and his wife also joined in, thus the 9-person dinner. There was lots of talk, earlier in the evening, of family and traditions. For example, it turns out that it is actually a genetic trait that women on my mother's side of the family are bad housekeepers. And independent, although in my grandmother's generation, this was apparently difficult to pull off because the women tended to put off their careers for their husbands. Case in point: My grandmother only finished two years of law school (I personally find it kind of remarkable she went to law school at all back then). My mother's cousin also pointed out that on my mother's side of the family there are only seven living relatives left (that counts me). I guess we are doing our part to combat population growth. He also wanted to know the reason I have blue eyes, since every other person in my family (on both sides) has brown eyes. According to my mother, this can be traced to my maternal great-grandfather, who was, allegedly, Lithuanian. I say allegedly because it turns out there is actually no information about virtually any of my ancestors, and no trace of them (my mother attempted some kind of geneology search). My cousin had thought my eye color might be related to some long-ago Cossack rape. (The first time I'd heard that theory).
Unsurprisingly, on Saturday, when the family visit came to an end, I took a very long nap. Sat. night, a group of us went to St. Francis where we had abysmal service, although there seemed to be some kind of movie-related drama going on...I couldn't figure out what it was though, I'll have to see if I can do so today. What else? Oh yeah, Tom Udall. Clearly he's the Dems' best bet for that seat and I'm guessing he'll go for it. It's the right thing to do, although I guess it looks like Chavez could take down either Wilson or Pearce too. (My money is on Wilson to win that primary). I sort of wish Udall would stay put, since if he runs it looks like I'll have to conduct endorsement interviews for the third congressional race with every Democrat breathing in northern New Mexico.
Ah the burdens we bear.