And a good new year to you too

I'm lazy. Or at least I'm unmoved by the spirit. That's about the best reason I can offer for failing to write more often. Lazy, and often preoccupied. Are these traits going to change in the New Year? We shall see.

The holidays were wonderful. Of course my family loved Jen. And Jen got along splendidly with my folks and sister. The day after Christmas, I got to be with my sister, Mark, Stacy, Jen and my parents. It certainly didn't feel as though it was the last of those gatherings.Jen made me these truly spiffy mittens. They match my coat, and are fleece lined.

My car (the Saturn) has failed yet again. The engine is not working. On the drive back from Ikea, we failed to make it home. The car began to sputter and died. Jen fortunately had AAA and it was the last day of the year, and the last day of her membership. So that worked out in favor of Team Katz/Leavy. Hopefully this will be a cheap fix...you know...all those inexpensive engine problems. Fuckin' hell.

New Year's was uneventful. Jen and I went to the apartment of an Oberlin alum whom we both knew, but we were primarily invited by that alum's brother's girlfriend, who is a friend of Jen's back from Minnesota the week. Serena (the MN friend) is getting her Ph.d in politics at the U. Lots of talk about politics, and about Minnesota and grad school. Life was good.

I slept unevenly, and found myself up early with a lot of nervous energy. Largely related to car and work concerns. If we don't start to raise some serious money soon I'm going to have to look for another job. It's frustrating to worry about the solvency of my place of employment, and in this case, to know that my performance is hardly related to our success or failure. It does however convince me that I'd make a lousy entrepreneur or small business owner.

Upon arriving at work, I found on the floor a letter forced through our mail slot. We generally get two kinds of letters at the office, donations from people who've lost their remitance envelope (the remit evelope goes to a PO Box not our office), and people asking to be taken off out mailing list. This was a new type, the "Everything is fucked up, why bother" letter.

Dear Tom:

I appreciate your call of last week, and your prompt follow- up with your letter of December 15.

I won't be contributing to your activity this year, and I am uncertain about whether I might do so in the future.

All of us are aware of the consistent history of civilization. Governments of the people consistently turn to the right as the civilization reaches its peak, and then the rich and powerful take total control and the civilization implodes. The re-election of President Bush is an exact sign of this as our country makes its way downhill along this well-worn trail.

A dedicated person like you can keep the good things going only for a brief time, and then the consistent course of history reasserts itself.

Kind Regards,
XXXXX XXXXXX

Take that, optimism. "A dedicated person like you can keep the good things going only for a brief time, and then the consistent course of history reassersts itself." A cheerful fellow to be certain.