I Am Amused...

I am sitting on my balcony. It has been hot and dry for far too long. A few rainy days over the winter and spring, no snow in Albuquerque. But this evening is different. I came out because there was a good breeze, though it was blazing hot this afternoon. I sat on my laptop and looked for jobs and played Scrabble, just amusing myself. The breeze was blowing around the cotton that the cottonwood trees a few blocks from my balcony, along the Rio Grande, were swirling all around me, and it was as if I were living in a hot, dry snow globe. And then you feel just the slightest change, the humidity rises and the breeze turns cool. It isn't raining here, but you can see the outer bands of thunderheads building. I got an alert about severe storms to our south, not too far away, and I looked at the forecast and we have afternoon thunderstorms expected every day now. I have been watching closely for 10 years and almost every year monsoons have started July 1. I have heard that it is predict

I know, I have said it before. I just haven't been ready. I am ready now. Written word is too important to sacrifice out of fear. We must be, at all times, aware of the need to document the events of the day. Further, we must be committed to provide context for those events, so that we can understand why these things happened, who they affected and how, how we reacted and why. This is no mean feat, given that the President of the United States is prone to say and do things that demand our constant attention. Who can keep up? So, I am back. A lot has changed for me personally and professionally since I last looked earnestly into the glowing screen of the laptop and wrote. I went to law school. I ran for office. My mom died. I flunked the bar exam. Twice. My dog died. My marriage died. My career died. But I didn't. I am not sure how, or why, because there were days when I hurt so much that I didn't think that a living being could survive it. There were times when I

I support Bernie Sanders for President, and I want you to know why... I am almost 48, married for nearly 20 years. I have four children. I have a BA in Political Science and my Juris Doctorate. I have studied politics since I was a little kid. It is more than a hobby of mine. I was taught by my parents the importance of being an aware and active citizen. I have worked in politics since 1988, in field, finance, and management. I have even run for office. I am passionate about good government and electing the right person to office. All my life I have made compromises. I have voted for the lesser of two evils. Hell, I have worked for the lesser of two evils. Not this time. When I got married in 1996 we were living in New Mexico. Anyone who knows NM knows that we have been at the bottom of every good list and the top of every bad list since lists ranking the plight of citizens by state have been kept. New Mexico is the canary in the coal mine, in my opinion. We are the fir

Where to begin? I guess I will start with why I started this blog. It's a long story. A long time ago I blogged all the time. I was a mom, working part time, with four young children at home. I was living out in the wilderness, isolated and frustrated, and my blogs were my connection to the adult world. I loved it. Then I went back to school, in January 2009. I had this dream, from the time I was four years old, to become a lawyer. I still had a couple of years to finish my BA, which I did. Then I went to law school. Graduated in 2014. I stopped writing and reading for pleasure. I felt all bottled up. My journey to the bar exam was rough. I postponed it because I had to deal with my mom's death during my 3L year, emotionally and financially. This is a strictly bare boned accounting, shit got real. I took the bar a year after graduating, last July, and flunked it. I took it again this week. I feel pretty good about it, but who knows, right? I made a decision