I'm trying to listen to Jim Lehrer, Tom Oliphant, and David Brooks discuss the return of Congress and the upcoming budget fights. But it's too difficult to concentrate on both writing and listening. (I'm going to miss Paul Gigot's commentary on The NewsHour and his WSJ column, even though I don't always agree with him.) Now there's a piece about whether or not to offer amnesty to illegal immigrants.

September. J. and H. from work are lamenting the back-to-school chore of making lunches every night for their families (they have three and four children, respectively). The LA Times predicts a 12% increase in traffic as students and teachers return to school. The new school year is not supposed to make much difference to me at this point; I should be a self-motivated writer of papers, regardless of the season. I did hear today, though, that I have a new assignment as a teacher's assistant for a class starting tomorrow. I'm grateful for another line on my (rather short at this point) C.V., but am a bit nervous since I will be working for my adviser/mentor. All-in-all, I'm glad for the opportunity.

Sunday was my first of three Sunday's substituting for Rudolf, the church's pianist/organist. The English service went OK. But I tripped up TWICE in the Spanish service. The short version is that the regular pastor was on vacation, and I mixed up "Cantad al Señor" with "Cantemos al Señor" and picked the wrong "Aleluya." I've recovered (almost) by now but am very glad Pastor Pablo will be back next week. It was a good lesson that I need to learn Spanish much better.