a smattering of things:

- i moved into my new crib o' crib 2 nights ago, and all's well in my little sphere of zion. parking is a total fiasco, there was the distinct odor of regurgitated food particles in the courtyard last night, but hey! it's home! someone should write a country song about it. my apartment is 1 mile from the beach, which i have yet to exploit, my roommates are terrific, and it must be meant to be, because they shower at night, i shower in the morning. and they have their surfboards hanging in the family room, and there are about 40 of them, so it gives the impression that at least one of them has got to be mine, and i'm totally hard core.

- my little brother turned 20 on tuesday. he's been gone on his mission for over 4 months now, and up until recently i've been very proud of him and kept the separation anxiety to a minimum. i think i was just riding high on the wave of relief that he wanted to go of his own fruition. now i'm taking all that mature selflessness and shoving it out the window into the smelly courtyard. who cares if it's his duty? what about ME?! 20 months? 20 months? he's got 20 months left on his mission. father time will not be rushed, and i really would just love to sit and have a chat with my big little brother. now i'm turning all soft and fragile, but ladies and gents, my brother is one of those things in life that are seemingly too good to be true, but cameron is, in fact, "a truth" (in paula abdul terms). when he was 2 he'd come wake me up onsaturday mornings and would be so squishy and snuggly, and elizabean and i would each hold a hand and walk him downstairs, fill up his bottle with some m-i-l-k and wrap him in a blanket like the burrito he would one day scarf in record time, sarah would trail behind, and we'd sink into saturday morning cartoons. his "good egg" factor has been loud and clear from the very first.

now i've gone all soft. i need to regroup.

- last night i made some prop 8 calls. my two favorites:

me: hi, my name's meredith, and i'm calling tonight in support of proposition 8; are you familiar with this proposition?
him: no, but i just watched sarah palin kick joe biden's a_ _!!

that one ended with a very enthusiastic plan to vote Y on 8.

next one...

me: hi, my name's meredith, and i'm calling tonight in support of proposition 8; are you familiar with this proposition?
him: no. (latino accent)
me: well, prop 8, if passed, will preserve the definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman.
him: yeah, but they're all getting married anyway!
me: well, those marriages won't be legalized unless prop 8 doesn't go through. the supreme court doesn't have the final say on it. are you registered to vote?
him: yeah, but i don't vote for nobody.
me: why not?
him: because they're all LIARS!
me: well i don't know about that, but--
him: and my vote doesn't count anyway, with all that electoral basura
*please note: this is the moment when i'm not confident in my political savvy to object to this, so i say,
me: one second.... [i mute it, and yell into the house where there are scattered 1 lawyer, 2 accountants, and an operational engineer...i was pretty sure one of them would be able to answer my question, "IS THIS ELECTORAL OR MAJORITY?" i hear about 3.4 yells back, "MAJORITY!" yes, now in hindsight i realize that was maybe a dumb question, but as denise kaa used to say in high school, "whatevs with THAT sitch!"

in the end, mr. latino said he would go and vote.