No Google entries - so do I exist?

Actually, to be frank, there are one or two Google results that mention me, and both are about 6 years old. There seems to be another person with my name who lives in Kaiserslautern, and is evidently much more important than I am, of the 210 results that my name pulled up, she had 208 of them...How embarrassing! These days, it seems that your relevance to this life is measured by how many Google entries you have. Of course, the upside to this is that if someone wants to track me down (with evil intent), and all they have is the internet, they'd have a pretty doggone hard time finding me!

I've been watching the news about Hurricane Katrina, and it's just heartbreaking. I saw an interview with this poor man who was devastated about losing his wife in the flood, and I just cried. There are so many people there who have lost everything, and who didn't have a lot to begin with. There isn't much I could do, except pray and donate money, which I did, to the Red Cross online. I would definitely recommend doing that, or giving to some other charity to help.

There isn't much German news here - except that three tenants have moved out of my apartment building this month. That's a bit unsettling...It's actually a nice apartment and building, but it's expensive and a bit noisy - we're on a pretty busy street. I really need to make some decisions about whether to stay or not, but moving house in Germany is an event. You have to give 3 months notice, then you have to renovate your apartment so that it's in perfect condition, in order to get your deposit back. That usually includes re-painting the walls. Then, you have to find a new place, which requires yet another deposit, plus a non-refundable fee that's usually 3 times the base rent. So, it requires a lot of gumption (plus some ready cash) to move - and for me probably isn't worth it until I can buy a place.

Oh yeah, the election is coming up soon - Angie versus Gerhard. God, I hope that the CDU party (Angie) wins. Maybe they'll lower my tax burden! But that's a topic for another blog...