That's the feeling I have from losing my hard drive, with the last month and a half of work on it. Except for what's on this blog, alhamdulilleh. It's been confirmed as irretrievable by the best data recovery people in the country. They literally retrieved Data's data. Okay, I know Brent Spiner played a fictional character, but it gave me such hope. There are so many things happening now that I should be writing about, and they should be thrilling to me, but I lost so much more than a month and a half of work on that damned disk. I just want my time back. I haven't had a single day of rest since some time last summer, and I don't think I can do this life anymore. I'm ready to move to a cabin in the woods and spend my time writing creepy anonymous letters to academics.

I know, you didn't click this to hear me complain. And that's not what this blog is about. I will try to refocus. This morning I had a great time at a community meeting of Latina health promoters. Nestor invited me last night, and I arrived without knowing what I was going to lecture about. I got to give a short talk on single payer health care in Spanish. It was fun—I've missed it more than I'd thought—but the best part was that I didn't have to worry for a second about the kind of xenophobic reaction that is so common among other audiences. No one in that room was blaming the immigrants for the collapse of U.S. healthcare. And they all understood privatization, neoliberalism, and corporate control right off the bat. It took 20 minutes to give a lecture that usually takes me 4 hours in English. And they all signed the cards. What a joy. If I ever go back to non-academic organizing, that's what it's gonna be. Okay, not really. I guess if I have any talent at all, I should be going for the 4s and 5s. No, that doesn't make sense either. I'm just going for solidarity. That's what I want. And that means I get the 1s and 2s too. And I wouldn't have my life destroyed by a hard disk, either.

Right, not going to focus on that. So, Nestor has done a wonderful job of getting the word out about our event at CARECEN tomorrow- he's one of the best organizers I know; he just believes so deeply and doesn't quit. And then there's his irrepressible charm. He's arranged for Miss AGUA (the Asociación Guatemalteca Americana beauty queen) to be the MC. I'm totally psyched. He helped us to get an interview on KPFK, Centroamerica Sin Censura. They wanted to talk to Oscar, not me, which I was delighted about since he gives such good interviews ("soy muy bueno para hablar paja," he says, although there was nothing paja about it) and I was too depressed to market myself.

And I think I didn't mention the CNA event Monday. It was small, but a lot of fun for me, and I really enjoyed seeing the folks who came out. I spoke mostly about my interview with the nurses union in Honduras. I'd love to see more international solidarity there, and that's what the Honduran nurses wanted too. I hope to see lots and lots of people tomorrow, Friday, and next week. I promise I won't go on about my hard drive. Please tell all your friends and of course bring yourselves.