My brother 12 of 12 proposed to his girlfriend of 3 years. Her folks are modestly well off, and she is their only child, so I'm expecting a decent sized wedding a year from now in Cleveland. 12 of 12 is a PhD student at Ohio State U in Columbus and is 29. He got his Masters Degree writing a thesis on the music of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. His future wife is five years younger than he is and is a music teacher.

I just woke from a bad dream. There have been phases in my life where I have suffered from bouts of severe depression, and I was remembering one from law school. I really blew an internship I had because of it. (Strangely enough, I just checked my messages and discovered that I need to interview an intern tomorrow morning because my boss' house is flooded.) I probably should have gone hiking yesterday, but I used the rain as an excuse. Guilt over that and a few other things I've procrastinated on this weekend probably brought on the bad mood and memories.

In other news though, I've signed up to join a local grass roots political organization. The county I live in is divided into one city, eight villages, and fourteen towns. The group I've joined is going to try organize support to consolidate these separately elected units into one centrally elected body. It's something that has been done in the west and south of the U.S., and it makes sense. The cities, villages, and towns were set up in the 1800s when there was a greater need for localized autonomy. Now it is more reasonable to have one organization consolidating local road maintanence, justice, and planning functions. So, I just signed up, and we'll have to see.