…that is the question.

it’s usually around this time every year that i begin looking forward a week or two of vacation. in just a couple of weeks (plus maybe a day or two for wrap up) my busiest time of year will finally come to an end; july 8 marks the day when every bill passed by the legislature with have either become law, or vetoed. my workload shrinks to nil for a short time before we begin gearing up for the next session.

as this is an election year, it’s a little different, as there are campaigns to work on and candidates to support, including my employer, the governor of hawaii. his real battle, as i see it, exists during the primary election, which is in the second week of august. if he wins, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. if he loses, not only do i worry about the next guy, but it also means i’m out of a job. no pressure or anything.

despite all this, i was planning to take my usual vacation to minnesota to spend time with my niece and nephew (and my parents and their parents), but i’m reconsidering. i saw them all just about a month ago at my brother’s wedding. on the one hand, it was good to see them and i did get to play with the kids a bit. on the other hand, we were gathered for a wedding which came with certain obligation of my time. not to mention the whole trip lasted for just a few days.

the wedding event was also an efficient reminder of my own bachelorhood (not to mention a nagging loneliness).

i predict a vacation to visit family will only reinforce these feelings, so i was contemplating a trip to visit friends in ohio, or d.c., or kansas city (where i also have family), until i remembered that i have no money for such trips.

so now, for the first time in years, i’m thinking about skipping a real vacation altogether. maybe i’ll take a day off here and there between now and september, but since i’d likely just spend it lying on the couch, i’m not sure there’d be much point.

you may think i’m wallowing a bit in self-pity (maybe i am a bit). whether i am or not is for another time. for now, all i can say is a proper vacation might not be in the cards this year.

i used to have a handful of people to visited my blog regularly. i used to post regularly, but i found it increasingly difficult to find original topics on which to write and my days have grown full with meetings, events, and the like.

now, it’s been more than six months since my last post and rather than see my blog become another inactive site, i’m making (another?) effort to revive it.

for the last few years, the page has been very slow, which i know may have deterred people from visiting. i’ve updated the blog to the most recent version of wordpress and changed the theme to something a little simpler, newer. with these simple changes, the site loads quickly. hopefully that, coupled with more regular posts, people will start come often to regardingfrost.

be on the lookout for another post in a day or two, but in the meantime, if you haven’t visited in a while, take a look at some posts from the last year.

and, if you feel so inclined, please comment, share your thoughts and ideas on how i might further improve the site.

the state of hawaii stands on the brink of history. barring unforeseen disaster, the legislature will pass same-sex marriage by the end of the week. for those loving couples and their families it will mean for the first time, at least in our state, they will be equal in the eyes of the law. it will be a victory that can never fully be quantified. sure, we talk about tax benefits, health benefits, retirement benefits, and so on, but the word “marriage” in our society means so much more than just these tangible benefits. being able to point to the person they love and say, “this is my husband” or “this is my wife,” to be able to say that, without qualifiers or explanations… well, i can’t even imagine the sense of relief and joy that benefit will bring to so many.

and still, in this day and age, they will still be looked upon by some, by too many in our community as evil, or dirty, or an abomination. despite the passage of this landmark legislation, too many couples, too many individuals will still face discrimination and hatred. you need search no farther than the tens of thousands of pieces of testimony given, in writing and in person, over this past week to find unequivocal evidence of that discrimination and hatred. yes folks, i’m sorry to say, bigotry is alive and well in the aloha state.

of course, those fighting for this victory for nearly 20 years, the couples, their families, their friends, their allies in the search for justice know this all too well. we’ve been witness to it every step along the way, every time we pushed for just a little bit more. religious zealots, bigots who claim theirs to be the side of righteousness because their faith claims to be the only one that counts. and if these people don’t think they’re bigots, i’m sorry, but they’re just fooling themselves.