Elise Sereni Patkotak

After six weeks of making excuses for why I didn’t have time to go shopping for some clothes that wouldn’t cause my sister to blanch when she saw me, I finally ran out of excuses today and went shopping. And I actually went into two different stores, which I think is some kind of personal record for me shopping alone.  And although a second glance at what I bought indicates to me that my sister may still blanch when she sees them, they aren’t sweatshirts…ok, one is…and they are as close as I care to get to what other people

Yes, of course I’m talking about the Current Occupier.  I open th paper a few days ago to read that he is signing executive orders deregulating some industry that uses our national lands. And I think to myself, “Yep. That makes me feel good. Because deregulation has been such a booming success so far. Food isn’t safe. Water is iffy.  Banks are failing.  Investment houses collapsing while their CEO’s make off with millions…yep, what this country needs is more deregulation.” Seriously, does this man have even one brain cell firing?

That was just me exhaling finally after receiving word that my Mac will live with just the infusion of a new power board and that all data has been recovered. I know, I know. I should back up every day. I should also lost another fifty pounds and learn how to ski. None of that is likely to happen either.

As for my Mac…well, I’m beginning to think that working out of my home is causing me to experience what some might consider an unnatural relationship with my Mac.  I miss it like I would miss a spouse, only my

My godchild sends me pictures of her two sons, both babies, both beautiful. The older one, about 18 months old, stares out at me from a vaguely familiar face. It’s definitely an amalgamation of mom and dad but the mom part is what I see. Every time I look at his picture I see a beautiful little girl with a smile that lit her face up every time it appeared, a little girl who thought I was her fairy godmother, a little girl who took my hand and helped me learn all over again about the sheer fun of twirling

I put my two dogs out every night right before I go to bed. On some nights, something will catch Blue’s attention as she goes out the door and she will shift gears from reluctantly waking up from her evening nap to full alert and barking as she races across the yard. Then she comes back to the porch, sits down and looks at me expectantly, waiting for me to open the door to let her back in. Since she has not performed the task to which she was assigned, I stand there using every word and gesture I know

Stevens finally gets his win and goes back to DC. He gets there and the Senate immediately opens an ethics investigation into statements his wife made under oath about using his staff as personal errand people. His wife gets to chose between saying that she lied under oath (which opens up a whole new can of worms for her) or saying that it’s true, which opens up a whole new can of worms for him and probably gets him either kicked out of the Senate or….he becomes so toxic he can’t get toilet paper for his executive bathroom, let alone

Remember the shots of Jessie Jackson crying in Chicago on election night. Raise your hand if, for only a second, the thought flitted through your mind that he was crying because he thought it should have been him.

Hmmmm, yes, I thought so. I wasn’t the only one.

Listen. Do you hear that? That silence is the absence of obnoxious political ads. Enjoy it while it lasts. The next race for the White House starts in a week.

There seems to be a competition starting in the comments section of this blog over which state, county or city can really lay claim to the most politically corrupt in America. I would like to throw my hat in the ring again with the fact that every mayor of Atlantic City from the 1960s though to almost 2000 went directly from office to jail.