I've been meaning to update, and haven't gotten to for a while. However, when you start receiving emails (OK, really, only one) asking you to update, it's probably time.

***

I've been a little busy lately, and of course, due to attorney-client confidentiality, I can't tell you what I've been up to. I have to say it is frustrating; not that I want to go blabbing client secrets, but it can even be difficult to explain what is going on in a generic sense to try to advocate for change in the system as a result of this.

I think, however, I can say this. As anyone who's been reading this blog for very long knows, I am interested in representing victims of domestic abuse, especially with regard to how this plays out in the custody arena. I have blogged previously on issues in the court system that are perceived and how they are perceived to impact victims of domestic abuse.

I find it absolutely stunning how watching them play out in real life has, in many ways, been very similar to what I have written about.

There is much work to be done.

***

I hope everyone got a chance to commemorate Memorial Day in some small way yesterday. I did what I've been doing for the past eighteen years, which was go to the Oak Harbor Memorial Day services with my grandparents. (I've actually missed three in that time -- one in 1995, when I got sick; one in 2000, when I was in Washington, DC for summer classes; and last year, when I was spending my last day in our house.)

Yesterday it was hot -- around 90 -- but, to paraphrase my grandmother, this is what some servicemen in Iraq right now are calling a light day at the office.

***

Memorial Day also marks the start of the tourist season. For you out-of-staters, the northcoast of Lake Erie is the place everyone wants to be. (Years ago, we were the #2 destination; now, we may well be the #1.) As a frame of reference, I live about twenty minutes away from Cedar Point, which everyone seems to be familiar with. Port Clinton is right on Lake Erie, and our population, usually 5,000 in the winter, can swell to a quarter of a million on July 4.

As you might imagine, this leads to a little congestion, and occasionally, friction between locals and tourists. I, personally, am delighted to see the tourists come; they are unquestionably good for the local economy. (And, full disclosure, my family owns a 60,000 square foot grocery store that is a leading beneficiary of same!)

But there are some people who are not as excited to see the tourists come. They don't like the traffic problems it creates, the crowding, or the increase on property taxes it's led to.

I hear them, although I disagree. Something struck me this weekend about this. The complex I live in has a pool. About the best way for me to find relaxation is to sit by a pool on a pleasant day with good reading material and my iPod nearby. Over the weekend, I didn't venture out there (or out much at all, despite the beautiful weather), because the pool was so crowded.

Could I get irritated and argue it was because of the tourists? Sure, I could. But, in the end, I get the last laugh. Because yesterday, about 4:00, they all packed up and made a three hour drive home. I, meanwhile, put on my suit and grabbed my towel and went down to the pool, where there were just a scattering of people, and hung out for about three hours.

See, I get the last laugh. Others spend lots of money to have a second home here, and will drive great distances to come here. I have one home, and wake up here. They get to enjoy it on the weekends; I get it all week.

***

Every time I read it, I want to suggest to the editors of the magazine "Vanity Fair" that they change the name of their publication. Anything with "Vanity" in it is destined to sound like a lightweight publication, and it is so completely the opposite, it's not even funny.

***