Family-wise, I've been able to spend considerable quality time with them. It's been great to be so close and especially wonderful to spend so much time with my niece. She left to return to Los Angeles yesterday, but I think I should be able to see her again late next month.

But I must say I am looking forward to leaving the midwest. As much as I feel at home here with my family and friends, I also feel incredibly oppressed-- not only as a gay person but also as a free-thinking individual. Everything everywhere is so right-wing, so us-vs-them, so fundamentalist. It hurts me to look at the paper or watch the news because it's so slanted. I'm not saying that the news is not slanted back home in SF-- it is. But at least it's slanted towards more of my own thinking. It's hard to continually be galled by what I see here.

Well, the laundry is done, I must go. I'll write more later.