Anything goes

After we got home from Target, I checked my messages. I had a friend request for Facebook--the kid's father wanted to be my virtual friend.

We are a thoroughly modern split couple. Separated for four years (Valentine's Day 2005, if you want to know) we have no intention of getting back together. Through years of isolation, alienation, grief and some anger, we have now found some stasis, friendship, commitment to our children. The coup de foudre sparked by them underlies everything else, giving us a foundation even when we are driving each other mad.

As we did this week, when he went to visit his older son in Argentina, leaving me with a broken tailbone that makes it almost impossible to sit for very long. Driving home early Monday against doctors orders with Mr C asleep in the back, I was definitely not his friend.

But my Facebook friend? Yikes. What will he think of my friend list? Will he suspect I have (which I don't) a lover on there? Will he know half the folks on it? Somehow I doubt it.

We move in different circles socially. And yet I sent him (or I sent them, I'm not sure) a list of suggestions for Facebooks friends to get him launched. Because I'm still a bit pissed, I added a few people whose names he won't recognize.

Actually, I admire him for signing up. The old boy has spunk in him yet.

What if....

There was once a man who was down on love. He had a good job, saw his kids regularly, stayed fit, had friends. Even he and his ex wife were on good terms, after years of strife.

But he couldn't seem to find "Ms. Right." The women he met were, he said, a bit self-centered, slightly prone to drama, not committed to the active life he enjoyed.

So he decided to lay low for a while, spend time with his children, hang with his pals.

But he started chatting with this woman, and they developed an easy, comfortable serve and volley style of communicating. She hadn't had lots of relationships, but she'd met lots of guys--and learned a lot about some of the shadows in the male soul. Better to be fussy at first--better to be single-than to be heartbroken, she said. For when she commits her heart, whether to a lover or a friend (for friends deserve this, too), she brings whatever gifts she has.

What would have come of this virtual friendship? Sadly, we will probably never know. For these two battered souls, who had both learned from some mistakes, were so cautious that when the time seemed right, they walked away--rather than risk a friendship that might entail being hurt once more.

Follow up to the morning post

I heard today that the woman Obama chose to make sure the government was functioning well has also withdrawn. Apparently she didn't want her taxes to be an issue.

Wow--anyone seeing a thread here?

A couple of possibilities:

The vetting process for these people was inept.
A lot of people making a lot of money think that they can cheat on taxes and no one will notice.

Most of us struggle to get by on what we receive from our employers. Some of us might dodge on taxes if we thought we could. A lot of us meekly pay our taxes (unless we are Amish or have reasons of conscience for not doing so) because we trust that this is part of what keeps our society going.

We are part of the social compact--aren't they?

Change we did believe in

Tom Daschle--128,000 in back taxes. Daschle also made a lot of money advising health care industry clientele.

Timothy Geithner-forgot to pay his self-employment taxes and was a little shaky on the legal status of a household employee.

Let's not forget Bill Richardson, who was smart enough to take his name out when it became evident he was the subject of investigation.

Less than a few weeks into his term as President, Barack Obama has already shown a distressing ability to go for politics as usual. If he'd campagined as the icon of compromise, pragmatism, and warped principles, that would be one thing.

But he promised to be the cleansing agent that help us forge the tortured (literally) policies of the Bush administration. And a lot of folks believed him.

Anyone who wants to be President, let alone is elected, has to have a streak of arrogance. Let's hope that his sense of self-esteem doesn't blind our new President to the need to strive, at least, to keep his promises.

A sad tail

The foot didn't give me trouble--there actually was a Saskawatch on the top of the ski resort, but I stayed away from him.

But I couldn't stay away from myself. I'm very lucky that the chair lift accident (most people don't step in front of one while its coming around to pick up someone else), fractured nothing but my tailbone.

I'm very grateful I didn't hurt my neck or my back or my head when I got walloped. But six hours immobilized in a neck brace at a hospital in Allentown gave me plenty of time to think about what a lovely day it had been...until I chose to get to know the ski patrol so well.

Yes, there are all sorts of dumb jokes I could make, but I think I'll leave that tale of woe for another time. There's a lesson here, but maybe it's just one for me.

And you know what? They gave Mr C and me free tickets...for our next visit. I think I need to sit on that for a while.

Ice Babe

Yesterday I did something really stupid---tripped over the cat, or the bathroom scale, and hit my foot against a wall. Naturally, I thought nothing of it. I figured the pain would subside (which it did) enough for me and a friend to take our kids to the mall for a small anime gathering. But when we returned, it looked like Saschewatch had stepped all over it. My son and I were supposed to ski today--what on earth should we do? I called my orthopod, who has always been right there when I needed him ( we were in the same church) and he told me--go skiing! It will be good for your foot to be in proximity to all the cold. Jack's a very athletic person, and I expect he applies the same standard to us, his clientele. I will report back on whether the ski cure actually works tonight.