Randomness.

It is amazing how small things can change my opinion of people. The man at the next table in Starbucks who was loudly (if intelligently and emphatically) correcting a colleague (or more likely a subordinate) just looked over and smiled warmly at me.  Given that I had just discovered myself dancing in my chair to "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" by K.T. Tunstall, I gave him a small, sheepish smile back.

He's kind of cute.  Not that I would ever go over and introduce myself, and besides, he's being loud enough that I have to  listen to music from my iTunes rather than listen to the sound system.

Sometimes lately it seems to me that I have lost my brain.  There are things going on, including continuing volunteer work (hi, please give us money), and job searching, but finding the intellectual energy to be able to say anything intelligent has been difficult.

I read Google News, I read SCOTUSblog (at least occasionally), I read other people's blogs.  I just feel like I have nothing at all to say.

But hey, it worked for Seinfeld, right?  Maybe if I keep saying the nothings that come to mind I will find something substantive in there, hidden under anxiety about my resume, and rumination about my life choices, and worry about my kids.

Speaking of SCOTUSBlog, and the Supreme Court, one of the first cases they heard oral argument on  was the "when is a vessel a vessel case?" -- Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach -- that I blogged about a while back.  The oral argument sounds like it was quite amusing -- at least if you were not a party to the proceedings, or their counsel. As Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSBlog said. the Justices were having "boatloads of fun" with the case. *rimshot*

There's a great takings case out of the Federal Circuit, Arkansas Fish and Game Commission v. United States, involving federal liability for flooding caused by releases from a dam if the flooding is only temporary.  I am really eager to see how the Court rules on this one -- takings cases are such fun.  Usually I am on the side of the government in takings cases, but here it strikes me that the government position --  essentially, "Flooding happens, that's what you get when you live on a river" -- is a bit broad, to say the least.

Twenty years ago I would have felt differently.  I have actually gotten more conservative over the years -- I am now simply a crazy pinko progressive rather than a radical leftist. Actually, I was never either: merely a person with liberal social views whose politics have become more nuanced as she has aged, and who is willing to admit she's changed.

Ah, politics.  I am so tired of them.

The tree across the street is starting to change color.  It won't be long before the first rains, and the ginkgo trees will blaze bright gold.  The crape myrtles, with their lacy flowers and exfoliating bark, are in full bloom; just another reason to love fall.

The days are shorter, and although the weather is quite warm (normal for  early October in the Bay Area), cooler temps will be here soon.  Halloween, bittersweet now that I no longer have anyone to make costumes for (even though I was never really very good at making costumes anyway), will be here before you know it.  The challenge these days is  not to buy too much candy, so that we are not swimming in snack-sized Milky Ways and M&Ms until Thanksgiving.

It is time to buy the ghost pumpkins to make pumpkin-date bread with.

It is time to go home.