Dinner at Kamal's tonight was fantastic. The food was excellent (homemade Indian), the company was lovely and the conversation was, as usual, stimulating and satisfying. As we sat in Kamal's living room discusison everything from sexual harrassment lawsuits to hair salons to the ridiculous California recall, it occurred to me, as it usually does in this group of people, how lucky I am that these people love me. I am sure they, too, feel lucky to know me...but I most definitely am grateful for the gift of their friendship.

We did discuss the recall election - how can you not? - but none of us could stomach the conversation for too long. I could only hope, as the eight of us sat in the living room vigorously agreeing with each other on the inanity of the recall and the embarassment that would be Arnold as our governor - though disagreeing on some of the finer points, like should Davis be allowed to be a candidate and should you get to vote for a candidate if you vote against the recall - I could only hope that our group is representative of voting Californians around the state and that this recall will not succeed. Sure, if it succeeds, I want Bustamante to win. But mostly I don't want it to succeed. Not because I especially love Gray Davis - I think he sucks. But because in principle, I don't believe in a recall, just like I don't believe in term limits...we have a recall built into the system...it's called elections. If an elected official does something illegal, use the law to get rid of him or her. But you don't just get a do-over on an election. The voters spoke, we got what we asked for. If we don't like it we get to say so at the next election. That's the American way. Unless, of course, you live in California, where the person with the most money decides what we vote on...whether it's a recall campaign or a racist ballot initiative or some shortsighted tax reducing effort that only serves to worsen our already poor state school system.

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I am very proud of my run today. A personal best for a half marathon...9:30 miles the whole way (on average...I actually had one 9:10 in there and a couple of 10s)...If I can find the time to get in all the training and the studying and work and, oh yeah, socializing, I think the marathon will be a blast.

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I want one of my SF friends to get pregnant! I can hardly wait to be an aunty!