Hi.

I am having to type very quietly because I am at my in-law's house and my mother-in-law will wake up if I type normally. It's very hard to type quietly, y'know?

So, okay, we found out last week that we are going to have to move out of our house. Right after David got home one evening, all the lights went out and then came back on... and then went out again. We went outside to check the breakers, and the breaker box was so hot you could have fried an egg on it. So we called the power co, and they said that everything is going to have to be replaced. After talking with my in-laws (our landlords), who feel that the entire house really needs to be rewired, which is going to be very expensive, we feel like we need to find another place to live.

So Friday morning I came across this lovely little cabin for rent that I will not describe right now because I don't want to jinx it. We're going to put a deposit on it today and Lord willing, will start moving. I'll go into all the details later once I have everything cemented.

My fingers are cramping at all the controlled typing, so I'll sign off till later.

Word up.

I am gearing up for a fabulously fall weekend. The end of daylight savings time... and a cold front to boot... it is going to be absolutely yummy!

I didn't go hiking after all today. It sounded really good in theory last night, but then I woke up and just didn't have it in me. So I did laundry, cleaned house, wrote letters, wrote in my journal, now I'm writing in my blog... in fact, I am startled when I think about all the writing I have done in the past three weeks. It's good, I guess, but I need to put down the pen (and the keyboard) and get some housework done!

But I have these really ugly blisters on my hands from all the digging yesterday, and plunging my hands in the dishwater is, well, painful. So maybe I just need to not do any more housework. Yeah, that's the ticket.

I have absolutely nothing interesting to write about right now. Maybe I'll stumble across something clever later tonight......

And besides, I have to go listen to a very brilliant First Grader read a chapter from "Frog and Toad Are Friends" right now. If that doesn't brighten your day, nothing will! It's so cool to hear my little guy reading these big words he couldn't read even two weeks ago!

Yay!

I buried Bunny today. That was icky. I had to dig a hole about 3 feet deep to accomodate the shoe box I put Bunny in. Digging a 3 foot hole here in the Texas Hill Country is no small task. See, you get about 4 inches down, and you hit caliche, which is basically clay that is as hard as rock. So you have to chip away at the caliche piece by piece until a big chunk breaks, and then you can dig more. I have blisters the size of Montana on my hands, and I'm sure I will be very sore in my arms tomorrow.

You know, I think I feel like hiking tomorrow. The weather has been so nice. I haven't been out there in awhile alone. It would be a good hike. Hmmm... I could be home by noon, and still have time to do my chores. Yep. That's what I'm gonna do.

I feel like an airplane in a holding pattern that has lasted over a year. Circling, circling, thinking about landing, but no, can't... not yet. Have to circle a few more times. For a few more months. Blah.

I am just now having my coffee for the day. I figured since I was working on a migrane I probably needed to get some caffeine in my system... funny how that works.

Pounded the pavement today to try and find a job. I felt very old. Very old. I can only work part time and really don't want anything too permanent... just need to fill in the gaps till the stinking record comes out... so I went over to places like Barnes and Noble and Old Navy and other fine retail establishments, knowing that they will be hiring holiday help soon. Yeah. Old Navy's manager is like 12 years old. And I'm the 31-year-old soccer mom coming in saying, "Hi, will you hire me?" Man. Wow. That sucked.

But anywaaaay... Oh, yeah, so Punky and I were walking last week and found a very frightened, very injured bunny on the side of the road. It was pitiful. Of course, our dog, Skippy, who was with us, immediately pounced on it and tried to eat it. I pulled Skippy off and made Punky take his shirt off, and I carried the bunny home (about a mile) and put it in a box. I called the wildlife rescue people and said, "What the heck do I do with this thing?" They said that they would send someone out to get it, but in the meantime, to keep it really quiet because cottontails can get so spooked that they literally die of fright. Great.

Well, the bunny appeared to have a broken back, and so I put the box in a dark room and put lots of grass and spinach and water in there for her, and every now and then would check on her and love on her a little. She did great all weekend, and Sunday night she really began to eat like crazy... she couldn't get enough spinach. So, thinking that this eating thing was a good sign, I gave her more and was really excited because, hey, bunny just may pull through after all! Yippeee!

Monday morning I woke up and found a dead bunny in the box. Ugh. That really was an ugly feeling. I don't know what happened... I don't know if she ate too much, or if I got overly excited and petted her too much, or if her time was just up. I dunno. I am sad.

But it was a really good object lesson. I have always had a compassionate heart and have been bringing home strays all my life. I brought my mom a dead mouse when I was 2... I held it up and said, "Look mommy! Isn't it cute?" And sometimes my compassion gets the best of me... my lesson this week was this: Mercy without wisdom to back it up is just raw emotion. And raw emotion is dangerous because of its impulsive nature... without wisdom, raw mercy often ends up doing more damage than good. See, I brought home the rabbit immediately because I felt sorry for it. I just wanted to help. But because of my lack of knowledge about rabbits, because I didn't know how to care for it, I wasn't able to sustain it. See? Raw mercy without the wisdom killed the rabbit.

I'm impulsive by nature. Sometimes I let my heart get ahead of my head. Sometimes I have to remember to look before I leap.

So there's the philosophical lesson for the day. Thank you very much.

I'm making tortilla soup tonight. I'm very hungry.

I went shopping today... alone. My shopping buddy is out of town... she's been gone for 3 weeks and will be gone for an undetermined amount of time, and I am missing her desperately! Not just because of the shopping... but today I especially felt her absence. And while I was looking for jeans and going through all of the normal jeans-shopping angst (girls, you understand, right?) -- and feeling more angst because my shopping buddy wasn't there to talk me off the proverbial ledge (I get near suicidal when I am trying on jeans) -- while all this is going on, I hear a cell phone across the store that sounds exactly like said shopping buddy's phone. And I have NEVER heard anyone else with that particular ringtone. And whoever answered that phone sounded just like my shopping buddy. I think I melted into a pool of tears and mush right there in the jeans section. I'm such a pitiful loser. Waaaaaaaaah. All my friends are far, far away! Waaaaaah!

So since I am lonely and bored and can't find a job, I'm going to dye my hair blonde this week, just for fun. That should be interesting. I haven't been blonde since high school. Um, yah!

Okay... gotta go check on my soup.

Hi. Hello. Thank you. Bye.

It's cold! It's cold! My thermometer this morning read 44! That's so happy! All I wanted for my birthday was a cold front... I got it! Yay!

Okay, for all you music junkies, I've discovered a column by a guy named Bob Lefsetz who publishes, via email, a weekly letter in which he gives a riveting commentary on music and issues surrounding the state of the music industry today. It's very, very insightful and thought-provoking. His articles are so encouraging to me as an artist... inspiring because they help realign my perspective. Check them out here.

My brain and fingers aren't exactly working right now... I'm still really groggy, so I'll blog more later. I have much house cleaning and such to do!

Talk in a bit...

Golly ned! Has it really been since the 27th of September? I cannot believe it's been this long. You can beat me with an eyebrow.

I apologize for my absence. I have had an excruciating, devastatingly emotional couple of weeks and I haven't really had the heart to even get online, let alone blog. Everything is cool with us and the family... but there are other circumstances, about which I can't go into detail, that have taken up a lot of emotional, mental, and spiritual energy. I'm just now stabilizing and feeling like it's time to get back into my groove.

So tomorrow is my birthday. My parents came down for a 24-hour visit to celebrate. Then tonight I went out with the in-laws. That was nice. It's been a weird birthday this year... in the midst of all the craziness, I haven't given it much thought. Literally all my friends are gone... out of town, etc.... so no friends to celebrate with. I didn't even have a cake! Although, I guess maybe the pumpkin pound cake at Starbucks counts. So there ya go. My actual birthday will be spent on a field trip with Punky's class at the Institute of Texan Cultures tomorrow... that should be (yawn) fun! Really, I don't mind... I'm going because Punky wants me to go, and it's cute to see him with his class.

Umm.... so what have we been doing? Let's see... we finished the 24 DVD set, and now I'm suffering withdrawal. I want more. I don't particularly like how it ended this year... the whole stinkin' season ended with a cliffhanger! And the new season starts this month, but we don't want to watch it on TV because we don't think we can stand the commercial breaks and the week's wait between eps. So, excruciating as it may be, we're going to have to wait a year for season 3 to come out on DVD. Ugh. Stupid, addictive, amazingly good show.

Finally got my car back... two weeks later. It's nice to be mobile again. Went to Lost Maples for the first time in months with David... he hated the first half. It rained on us the whole first leg, and then once we got up the big hill, the sun came out and it was humid as a bog. It was awful. David isn't too keen on going back... I think that place is officially mine and Flo's to conquer. Both of our husbands have been invited, included, and have decided they hate it.

Oh, by the way, can someone explain to me why Hispanic Heritage Month is from Sept. 15- Oct. 15? Since when does a celebratory month span two different months? That's weird. Anyway, happy Hispanic Heritage Month. I'm Irish. I'm not Hispanic. Even though David thought I was when he met me. I am a Hispanic Asian Irish girl. Yesssss.....

Oh, and happy Columbus Day. Who the heck celebrates Columbus Day? They have a parade in New York. But they have a parade in New York for everything, so that doesn't count. Who the heck else celebrates Columbus Day? I'm just mad because I don't get any mail today. So no birthday fun in the mail for me today. Waaaaah.

I am the elderly.