Your girlfriend sounds a lot like me at her age ... I was busting my ass working and going to college ... I didn't have time or the inclination for a "serious relationship" ... so I had "boyfriends" ... but, pardon me, hell no, would I have considered "getting serious" about marrying any of them ...

Like you, they were "between things" or "getting their act together" or working low wage jobs (usually short lived) so they were free to pursue their whatever ... Eventually, awful to admit, as my professional work life became more engrossing and fulfilling, they bored me ... no fault/no foul.

as Dylan wrote, "sooner or later one of us will know who's been left and who's been left behind" ...

If, like many men in my family, you have ALWAYS had a girlfriend, consider going solo for a while and exploring NOT being part of a couple and learning to "be alone." Both my brothers have gotten into numerous pointless relationships with women they eventually hurt because they were looking for company when the women involved were looking for "love" ... (the reverse happens too, of course).

It takes little imagination to populate voter registration drives with either the opportunistic (and lazy and morally lax) and/or the for-real, I dreamed I saw David Sirrica last night, right-wing monkey-wrench crowd ... and, in turn, their agent provocateurs able and willing to show well-meaning but naive wannabe registrars how to earn "big money" by engaging in "nobody really gets hurt..." registration fraud ... (which, as has been noted, has been dutifully reported by ACORN when discovered)

It is, imho, fuck of a lot harder to imagine armies of private citizens willing -- individually -- to commit felonies -- by voting twice (or three times)...

The number of "frauds" detected by the ID laws will be miniscule -- the number of voters, unable to produce "satifactory" identification or to counter republican "challanges", their vote defleted will be many.

Shades of the "poll taxes" and "literacy tests" of yore...

in the last decade or so that he's been running for president ...

It's one thing to let your name be used on the letterhead ... another to actually attend meetings and contribute ...

Yes, Obama's youth and "inexperience" give him a better resume in this regard, but it may well highlight McCain's essential rich-old-white-guy, throw-money-at-the-problem (I gave at the office), out-of-touchness.

When you interact on a community (rather than a board of directors or board of trustees) level, you meet and have to "play well with others" ... Despite McCain's senate record of doing that quite well there, that's a pretty elite and small pond

and about as "meaningful."

... it's kinda like that brief "everything is going to be okay" mellow that a junkie experiences after scoring and before shooting up ...

the world is my oyster... iow, irrational exuberance ... this too shall pass.

Imagine the stress and shame of "debt" multiplied by factors of selfish, reckless, wasteful behavior, all of the addictive compulsiveness and shame, including often deliberate manipulation and dishonesty in concealing the activity (sorta like porn except it costs more and isn't nearly as "private" what with bookies and loan sharks wanting payment).

Gambling for some people (men and women) becomes a TERRIBLE downward spiral ... a no-exit fire trap ... Seriously, if you owed 5 years' wages, wouldn't you consider suicide?

Gambler's Anonymous exists as do inpatient treatment facilities ... from what I've read it's an extremely difficult addiction to beat (given how socially acceptable it has become between sports betting and state lotteries and the like).

You might share your concerns with your acquaintance ... acknowledging that "for some people it simply gets out of hand" ... as with alcohol, people who gamble for recreation (like people who drink for recreation) often have to find a whole other group of friends and activities to fill their off-work time. It's tougher than it sounds -- particularly if your genuine interests are largely macho things like sports and "getting together with the guys."

Good luck. Check your yellow pages or local AA headquarters to find out if there are groups in your area.

I knew nothing about this aspect of gambling until a neighbor killed himself ...

living well is the best revenge ... life is uncertain, eat dessert first .... why rob banks? raid the treasury? because that's where the money is.

I'm constantly reminded of a sweet young thing who was baffled by the offense I took at Bush regime as well as local cronyism and nepotism and general graft/payback schemes -- he couldn't understand the point to trying to get elected to public office EXCEPT to help yourself and/or your friends and family ... I mean, why else would anyone bother ???

Voter suppression, when not election day confusion tactics (phone calls and scare techniques) is usually aided and abetted by those in power ... often via exaggerated claims of voter fraud. It's much more efficient to simply not count "provisional ballots" issued at the polls when voters discover they have been dropped from the rolls... for instance... or those voting by mail-in ballots "challenged" by the republican party mass-mailing apparatus ...

lots of info at: http://www.gregpalast.com/

and get him discredited and out of their hair forever ...

I'm willing to suspect that the nomination of Palin as VP candidate was part of this "shut him (McCain) up permanently" drive ...

I've been saying for more than just last year that who ever wins this election is likely -- like Jimmy Carter before them -- to be one-term president as the "gathering storm" of not-so-proverbial "shit hitting the fan", like those fabled chicken coming home to roost -- a scenario in which the president and "ruling party" becomes the scapegoat.

Yeah, bipartisanship and "getting to yes" will lead us to a "Peaceable Kingom" (graphic on my sig) -- or, cough, not.