Homecoming Rice Krispie Treats and Balloons

The first homecoming of my collegiate marked the greatest anticipation I have not felt in a long time. Our separation was three months but with the seasons changing it felt much longer. Aw, who am I kidding, it felt like forever since this was the first time we were apart for this length of time!

I felt the need to ready the house for her arrival. The need or excuse to nest again perhaps? Making sure her room was neat, but as she left it.  I stocked the fridge with 'teen' food I don't eat and fruit which I know she probably never eats. I put more pillows on her bed to make it look comfy and fluffy.  (In looking back on her first moments back in the house-  'the same' was important.  She was looking for things to look the same.  I was glad they did. I think considering all the past years changes and moves the house was more a home because it was the same.)

I cleaned the house like crazy- I don't know why as she's hardly a 'guest' - and put out new towels for her anyway  ( even though no one had used the previous ones on the rack since I first replaced them months ago).  I took the day off to bake those cookies for sensory memory provocation (fresh baked cookie smell), and make the requested chocolate peanut butter butterscotch rice krispie treats she was looking forward to finding in the fridge.  I bought balloons to greet her and drove as fast and as safely as I could to the airport.

For me it was a Hallmark moment.  Its funny how no one else manages to exist the moment your 'person' proceeds toward you on arrival from the gate. I yelled, "Katie!" completely lost in my emotion and moment,  unconcerned that anyone else was in the area. She cried when she saw me and we hugged like we put years of separation behind us and not months. I was glad she was home and she was glad too.

Then I thrust the balloon in her hand. Yes it was a bit embarrassing for her, but she knows how I  like to celebrate her so I hope she is seeing that part over the embarrassing part.  The symbolism a balloon at this moment... It was a welcome home, but also a symbol of a tradition from years ago.  Beginning 13 years ago when she stepped of the school bus for the first time and I greeted her coming home with a bright yellow smiley face balloon.

Every year after the first school year, I celebrated subsequent first days of school for her. Whether coming home on the bus, or picking her up from school, the first day was celebrated. The first year she drove to school on her own as a Junior in high school, because of the divorce, I had gone back to work and would not be home to greet her with the traditional treat.  So during my lunch time, I drove to school and  I left one for her on the front seat of her car while she was in class. The funny thing was when she found the box in her car at the end of the school day, she thought it was left by mistake and meant for someone else, so she turned it in to the office.  However, having never checked the card herself, fearing she would violate the the recipients privacy and surprise, the secretary confirmed for her that the gift was meant for Katie. The tradition was saved even that year. We talked about the first day when I got home from work.

The distance and timing of the first day at college presented other challenges to physically celebrating our reuniting after the first day. I will cherish her phoning me after her first class of college and hearing the century old KU steam whistle signal the end of class in the background during the call. But I missed being with her.

So this homecoming was also a postponed traditional celebration of her first 'day' at school. And the reunion after her first day.... neither time or distance managed to diminish for us. The greatest gift of parenting - celebrating forever firsts.

Your Last Sentence

One of my favorite things about Sunday is sleeping in. The boys know that walks are delayed after the first AM water and backyard visit.... that this is  'sleep in Sunday'.  The second thing I like to do is watch the CSB show Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood.  I love the obscure topics and offbeat interviews they sprinkle in.

In our circle of daily life, we are mindful of the necessities and tend to stay automated in actions and conversations with our daily duties and mingling acquaintances.  I love to learn about the hidden talents, careers, service, and personal inspiration stories we miss in our local personal circles. The world is vast and when people share their stories or uniqueness,  life comes to new light. Like fountain pen collectors, typographical error hunters, the truth about Houdini. I don't know about you, but those are not topics I would randomly think to research. Yet the stories that come from them and topics like them are intriguing.

One story stayed with me last week and got me thinking. The story involved noted writers of obituaries. These are talented writers who write about the dead for a living. OK, I don't want to lose you in your train of thought heading to the morbid light, so I will get to the destination point. What I was particularly drawn to was the professional creative element of a sort of tag line for each decedent's column. In one sentence the reader is given a thought provoking few words about the departed that they are about to reflect about. These writers are breathing new life into an ordinary custom. (Excuse the pun.)

It got me thinking about what one sentence would be used to head up my obituary?

The new breed obit writer is resurrecting what would seem like a dead-end job. (Oops sorry again...) The writer contacts the departed's family and interview them. From the interview they 'learn' about the ingredients that contributed to the life they are about to reflect on and share with those who knew him. From all the data, they come up with a one line tag to open the obit. Then the obit is full of anecdotes, compliments, and a summary worthy of a Pulitzer. Jim Sheeler even went so far as to pen a book called Obit:  Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Led Extraordinary Lives, filled with some of his best obituaries. I guess that sums up another point. All of us think we lead ordinary lives, but in the end I bet we are each extraordinary.

What would your sentence be?

There is a Society of Professional Obituary Writers. They highlight members and some of their work. Examples included: Herbert "Herbie" Speach, a man who cashed in without the world owing him a dime. And, Sarah Hanton, a woman of mystery and magic and God.

You know the song that has the lyric, "Live like you were dieing?" Well, while you are 'living' remember someone will write your last sentence or give a writer the summary to create one. The last sentence.... the thing that ties it all together.

I hope I can leave enough positive irony in life for a good read. I don't want a boring last sentence. I hope my daughter is proud of me especially. I want people to smile when they read it.

Yikes, I don't want this post to be my irony! So off I go to be extraordinary or doing something worthy of earning a good last sentence.

Olfactory Spirits

I have been feeling reminiscent the past few days. Childhood events are revisiting me. Several of my senses are the messengers of these events.

Have you ever had one of those moments when a smell reminds you of a person or a place. The smell of Juicy Fruit gum always reminds me of standing in my grandma's kitchen in Chicago. Whenever she opened her purse, you could smell the gum. I can remember the room and where she kept her purse and standing on her squeaky apartment floors. I always revisit the apartment when I smell that gum. I like that it reminds me of my grandma.

Then there are the strange instances when from out of nowhere a smell will fill your senses from some unknown origin. The smell of a perfume, or a baked good. Neither of these things are actually in the vicinity, but somehow you are picking up the memory of the smell and maybe even the accompanying event. Maybe its a co-mingling of scents actual? Usually its like I am just remembering a smell. Cake is a smell that spiritually visits me. I don't remember the event that goes with the olfactory memory, but the smell is familiar and comforting.

Warm days remind me of lunching in our backyard. On occasion my mom would set the cushions outside and my dad would bring home hot dogs or hamburgers and root beer and we would have patio lunch on Saturday afternoon. These were the days when bringing fast food home was a treat. The memory invoked a desire to relive the event with my daughter one day this summer. I said. "Its so beautiful out. I am going to get Wendy's and we are going to have a patio lunch like I remember having when I was a kid." "Why?" she asks. "Because it was so fun when I was little." So my "no-cute-face-eating-vegetarian" gives me her salad order and I head out to purchase the edible ingredients to recreate my childhood memory.

Yes, comfort is what these memories are bringing. I am not going back to stressful moments but pleasing ones. It also makes me long for those simpler times...... I need a break from decisions, planning, cleaning, bill paying, and working. I miss riding my bike up to the Colonial Restaurant on Algonquin Road and buying $1.50 plated french fries and splitting a slice of Coconut Cream pie with my friend and then going two doors down to the pharmacy to read all the funny cards. Or picking fresh tomatoes off the vine and eating them like apples.... picking apples from the trees in the neighbor's yard behind our house. Catching lightening bugs in jars. Playing flashlight tag. kick the can, and street softball with all the kids in the neighborhood. Are you remembering some childhood simplicities now too?

I miss finding personal mail in my mailbox. A envelope containing a handwritten address in the mailbox outside of a holiday is mysterious. Too old to really get wedding invites from friends, and everyone uses email now. Mail that is greeting card size in the mix of junk mail, grocery coupons, and credit card offers is exciting. Even my bills come in my email now. Remember those little party invitations you would hand deliver? My birthday is in winter so I remember walking through cold and crisp snow to my neighbor's mailboxes. Remember getting valentines? I saved some of them. The elementary signatures on them is again comforting. I also saved letters from childhood pen pals and boy friends. We wrote about the most trivial things. Even the simplest things were a big deal to worry about then. I saved the notes we passed in class- one is a pretend love note  a friend and I wrote to each other during chemistry. He was paralyzed after a post prom accident in high school so finding the letter was particularly meaningful. Email memories are void of that physical application of someone sharing and saving their signature on a paper thought.

I like the convenience of technology- but I miss the comforts of simplicity. My daughter's generation will not have these memories. She is growing up enveloped in technology. Will there be sensory memories for a generation of technology children? I wonder if she is ever visited by olfactory spirits. I will be baking cookies for her return home from college next month. A house smelling of cookies would be a nice spirit to visit her later in life when she is reminiscing.

Bundles and Party Lines

Today is finance day. I am spending the day with my least favorite companion....numbers. Factors, multipliers, denominators, percents all make me sweat. Somehow I know I am engaging myself in those processes while I pour over insurance renewal quotes, home warranties, my t-mobile plans, my cable bill, and new tires. I know that because when those darn math classes were required from First grade though college, my counselors assured me I would use these mathematical ingredients in life. Although, I have yet to get on a bus at one location and get off 5 times and have to calculate the distance between the stops and divide them by the change left in my pocket get back to start. Hello...... credit cards?

Addition and subtraction seem to still win out as the most utilized math processes in daily life. Robert Fulghum was right, all I really needed to learn, I learned in kindergarten. My daughter was mortified when she had to take her college math placement exam without a calculator! "Its stupid, we used calculators for the ACT test, why can't we use them for this test?" "Because they want to see if you can factor without a calculator, " I replied.
She placed in the lowest math class without a calculator. She got my genes.

I taped quarters to a greeting card today too. Its laundry money for my daughter. Primitive, I know , but the machines take 'em and I thought it would be cute and quaint  to get quarters from home.

Don't you remember the feeling of having to find and use quarters to do laundry?? I want her to be able to experience being on her own.

Yes,  I sent dollars too for other stuff.... I didn't want the whole thing to be kitschy. And yes, I could put cash on her Beak'em bucks card account, but that would be TOO easy!  You're missing the point over the quarters.... I used simple math to determine how many to send. Sharing simplicity to help my daughter survive.... or at least have clean jeans.

Detecting some testy tone? Its the cable company's fault. Well, first let me tell you about T-mobile.

I realize I seldom use the land line anymore. I even don't have a land line long distance plan. Since my daughter is in Kansas and the dorms there have no land lines either (hummm, they must know something.....) I noticed a peak in cell minutes and decided to evaluate my current plan. I could get a cheaper plan, no contract, triple the minutes with unlimited texting for what I am paying now??! What was the point of the contract? To keep me  inked at a higher rate while they created more options over the last year laughing at the dopes with contract plans? So I ask the guy what's the point of the contract if you lock me into a higher rate and give the the better rates to those without a contract? Phone purchase discounts. Oh... and did you know once you go to a non- contract plan, you can't go back on a contract? So if I find another better rate with another company, T-mobile would rather lose my business to a cheaper contract with another provider than take me back under contract later? The sales guy stammered and then said technically yes.

I am an hourly employee....not a high level executive... even I can see that makes ridiculous business sense. I have two phones still under the 'contract' even though I will be 'migrating' off the contract plan with one phone. Completely inane. I am not under contract for phone discounts now, but I can't shop around for another supplier until my other two phone's contract's expire next July.
I should have written something like that in the divorce decree.

I then bit the bullet and called the cable company to cancel the land line. Remember party-lines??? Economical and entertaining! I was in Kindergarten so I don't remember much besides what my mother told me about her experience with them. So simple then....

Sorry reminiscing....

Bundles. TV, Phone, Internet. Such a cute word should be banned in marketing. Its is not synonymous with free or buy-one-get-one. Its a way to make you pay for stuff you don't need... until you feel the stick of the economy... and relieve yourself of the bundle...you get stabbed with 'the savings'. I dumped the phone and then the bundle terminated adding $10 to my bill. I know, inane again!

This is the funny part though.... I called on the land line to do the transaction, not realizing it would be effective immediately, so of course she told me to hold for 3-4 minutes and when she didn't come back after 5 minutes I realized the line was dead. Heck, when you sign up for service its not immediate!!

So I called back on the cell phone to finalize the transaction and clarify why I now increased my bill. "Oh," said the agent, "Let me put you in a bundle". Darn it, I thought, they are tucking me back in some crap marketing I thought I just got out of.

Wait hold the phone!

Her bundle is going to save me the $30 I thought I was supposed to save in canceling the land line in the first place. No add-ons you say? None.  I am now snuggling the bundle but with one eye open!

My other financial fun of insurance renewal  and home warranty comparisons....Please hold, my brain hurts over contracts and bundles so I will save that for another day. Good Bye.

Teen Beach Ball Effect

We survived our first week of college life!

If you did not already know this, kids are remarkably resilient. (I was reminded of this fact during the college moving experience.) Even as early adults they still maintain that imaginary expansive and pliable substance that makes them respond to bumps in the road with remarkable rebound.

Cue the imagery..... I see my daughter as a colorful plastic KU beach ball bouncing along the curb, on and off as she proceeds through each day of campus discovery.

You probably noticed this in its early form, protecting your child as they were growing up. That invisible coating  that surrounded a her, that made you remark, "Geez, how did she miss cracking her head open on that fall!". Besides the invisible physical coating, our kids were graced with coping mechanisms. That mechanism was deployed this past week. Its the physical one we hope is still intact as we can no long precede our kids removing obstacles like boulders, flames, bodies of water, and things with points.

Our kids are also good subconscious emotional manipulators. Yikes, to paraphrase my daughter, in this sense I'm not pointing out a negativity here. Merely a fact that when you lose your heart to your child, you are susceptible to the expressions of the emotions they are slinging with dual meaning.  (We already know they are masters at the 'conscious' manipulators... but the subconscious ones they have not yet mastered, I am learning, require armor and an owners manual).

Fear can manifest as indignation toward anything within a 1 mile radius prior to departure toward a major change. Fear can also manifest as crying over all kinds of spilled milk, or worse crying that you don't know how to get on the bus to find some milk. Surprise can manifest as exasperated defiance in suggesting the smallest things like not hanging your towel on the only remaining lowest rack in the water closet next to the toilet - well, you all already know why... having clocked many years of bathroom cleaning behind your child.


However, thankfully by the second day in fact, the beach ball  gracefully deployed this week calmed everything. She has found the diet coke and coffee she needs to sustain her along her campus treks. She diligently rides the bus, opposing the time and energy she could burn walking (manually) to and from class. But I don't disparage over the choice of convenience as I am proud she has found ways to replace the comforts of home.



One of her suite-mates was bequeathed her sister's 'alumni beach ball' upon move in. She embraced the ball immediately and was excited at how high it bounced. I think my child found some comforting example in the use of that ball in the first few days. So I believe the two are bouncing along the sidewalks of KU in tandem on many occasions conquering the newness together. Or at least until one borrows a personal without asking or takes the last cold diet coke out of the fridge. I hope the resilience of those balls can withstand kicking by others and hitting a few walls. Beach balls can easily deflate. I hope they bounce with eyes open- safely.


I cry less in the past week. I am enjoying the calls after each class from her first two days. Its like the old days when I would pick her up from school and she would retort her day. God Bless cell phones and Skype. So even though I am missing her physical presence every day, its comforting I am still needed, even if it is not for laundry and sustenance. Its better..... she is keeping our school day habit of sharing alive and keeping me in her day. Its comforting she is still thinking of me.

My Baby Bird Took Flight

I found the nest photo on the Internet. I saved it for the post I would write when I returned home. This is how it feels now.....

I am still missing- I am sure once the change settles in it will feel new and exciting to not have to complain about messy bedroom and bath and leaving lights on. But right now I miss the communication. I never realized how nagging fills time and quiet!

As soon as I came home yesterday (after greeting the boys...) I cleaned her room...... dusted, vacuumed, and removed socks from under the bed. I respected her space but I wanted it clean for those moments I would walk though and reminisce. I always kept the door closed because the boys would eat anything that was not nailed down (especially socks which is why  I was so anxious to rid the carpet of them). However, when I got ready for bed I really missed her.... so I put a nightlight in her room and shut the door.... the light under the door made me feel like she was home.

So how was the move? Emotional!! Its stressful because you are trying to shop for supplies and she is ranting about not wanting to 'do this'. You have to half block it out and focus and half encourage. You shop, you guide, you laugh, you make yourself very text accessible for the first night. (The texting was for me.... I still needed some connection.)

The "this"  she doesn't want to do -means going to college. "This" later translates to... "I am afraid to be left here, this is all different than what I am used to, I am pretty sure I don't like this, I have to do all of this myself, and seriously they don't even give you the toilet paper?"

We are now both alone.

The remarkable irony of this event is she is experiencing the reality of being alone in a dorm with 3 other girls on a campus 18 hours from home. She is on the road to adulthood. Alone for her means 'without my mom'.

I am experiencing the loss of the daughter I  have nurtured as an only child for 18 years and come home to her empty room. My mommyhood has a limited purpose now. My Labs are good companions, but 'without the verbal communication'- I still feel alone.

Many tears while we parted- many guarantees the 'newness' would feel better- she would have to reach out to meet people, a bit of uncomfortable waters for her. Constant reminders that she can do this.

Those same words are echoing in my head. I hope I heed them too.

I might leave a nightlight on a few more nights..... 18 years was a long time.

P.S. I called her tonight - 'things are getting better' she said. Is she eating? (OK, so I can't give up the job overnight!) Yes and she sounded happy. My heart felt better.

Vindication and Priority

Vindication today! Well, sort of- my, teen admitted to me when I arrived home from work today, that she has a lot to pack. In the scheme of things this does warrant heralding.

Yes, I did have to reply in the proverbial 'told you so' manner because I will soon graduate from the luxury of using the phrase. "That's why I was prodding you all last week to get going",  I retorted.  "I didn't realize I have sooo much stuff I needed to take", she replied. How do you explain the essence of priority? Oh, and the letting go philosophy.....happens after they are settled at college.....not when you are prodding for weeks to purge and pack. Still parental learning after 18 years. Who was in charge of the delivery of that precious memo?


The various "I'm going to take-isms...." she is spewing, are quickly sliced in mid-air as I grab her verbal list in arm waving response:  the photo frames, the Grey's Anatomy Calendar, and her NDP High School photo collage are whisked off the wall and dropped in a pile. "Planning was last week, packing is today." She knows me. I would apologize for responding to her abruptly, but she knows me. Really!! We have to organize her "daily space" into 4 suitcases before Friday!

Sunday I had taken all of her clothes from the laundry (we unpacked from the cruise) and her closet drawers, floors, and cubbies, and folded them in neat 'like' piles on a banquet table. So she could sort through them like Urban Outfitters. The instructions were to pick the clothes and other items she couldn't live without for the next several weeks to pack in 4 suitcases and put other items and clothes in a pile to be shipped later. Did I mention she is going to college 1200 miles away? Suddenly every outfit owned, cannot be lived without. We are talking  about outfits I haven't seen her wear in 3 years!!

Note: Provisions for storage, one unpleasant reminder of college days.... half a closet and 3 small dresser drawers with a roommate in a 11 X13 room. I insisted on vinyl under bed storage bins to unfolded and assemble upon arrival as a trade for the loft bed offered via mail for rental for the year. I might eat crow on this arrangement. Where is she going to put it all....doesn't matter as long as the security of having it all there prevails.

The immediate plan was to purchase accessories in Lawrence when we arrived there Saturday  so we wouldn't have to ship the entire kitchen sink....however, we had a successful shopping day purchasing elements of pink to decorate her room and outfit her bed. Comforts she is now looking forward to having. So we are now sans one suitcase... down to 3. (P.S. we are flying Southwest air.... God Bless them for two free bags per flier!). AND, so far,  three boxes to ship with pillows and lamp and other stuff to arrive Monday.

Crap! I forgot about the shoes......HONESTLY! Do you think it is too late to hire a truck?

College Countdown

So the official countdown begins. One week from today my teen embarks on her new journey as a college student miles from home. Have I prepared her? I think she is wondering the same thing... I am a list maker- she is spontaneous. It seems like every time I ask her if she is packing, she tells me 'she's got it'. But there are no piles or boxes or suitcases filling. I don't feel like you can pack for this kind of transition in one week.

I worry about everything. She is not one to ask questions or get directions....I hope she can manage without a car, and ask where the eating halls are..she told me she could live on coffee and diet Coke... I asked her if she wanted me to write down the directions to cold medicines and stuff. She said, "Geez, mom, no, I'll just call you". Ok, I realize she is not going to Timbuktu but when you have wiped her nose for 18 years, college feels like Timbuktu!

I know she's apprehensive too. I know it wont be easy to share a room with a stranger when you have been an only child. I am sure her spontaneity is really the byproduct of her procrastination of the change. So we are shopping today for suitcase sized things she can bring to decorate her new space. I think making things feel like your own, helps create a possession of the newness. Having moved 11 times in 24 years, you would think I am tenured in managing transition. But hiding Beanie Babies in a new home we are moving to in efforts to encourage whimsy in the newness and distraction at leaving the past, is not as simple to construct for a teen.

Any advice? For two transitioning beings? One to part from her mom to a strange land and strange peoples to fend for herself on a meager budget. One to be left behind adapting to reduced job capacity as a mother. I just realized in the divorce I was 'downsized' and now my current mommy job is going through a 'restructuring'. I loved being a stay-at-home- mom. I lived vicariously through my kid sometimes. She was my roommate-my movie buddy-...(Kleenex break)

Situation wanted: Downsized, restructured single mom seeks social and work life to distract her from the past and rev up her future. Willing to relocate. Quick and eager learner. All offers considered. Especially the fun kind.

Back to review the packing list....

Single Life

I have never been content with social limitations. I better clarify- I like to talk. Its great to be in groups of people where you can enjoy their opinions and banter witlessly. Yes, I was one of those kids who always got letters sent home from school about paying better attention in class and less to my 'neighbors'. My neighbors were interesting and fun though! I could read at home- but there was too much positive distraction in socializing that words on a page or academic rhetoric could not match.

I like to be around people. My mom used to say I was known as the smiling baby in the neighborhood. I would sit in the floor of our tri-level home in suburban Chicago, perched at the base of a large picture window smiling and waving at neighbors walking by. Socializing. Interacting. Performing.

There is limited fun in solidarity. There is no volley of banter. Well, on some occasions I will serve a comment into mid-air and it resonates long enough to impart reflection, but no wise reply comes back. No sport in solidarity either.

There is no emotional embrace in solidarity. I think this one speaks for itself.

So being a single takes some getting used to. I'm not a natural at it.

Ideas in the Shower

I love to think about stuff in the shower; I do my best thinking in there. Don't know if it is the water, or the steam or the sound of the splashing, the feeling that you are consumed in privacy. I get so many random thoughts in the shower. Like this morning, I was thinking about my blog. I feel like I my brain is a colander of thoughts pouring out. This blog is like a bowl to catch all those random thoughts. I was literally making bullet points of my topics. Colander, shower, Alaska....so I wouldn't forget what I wanted to write about.

Then the moment I towel off and step out- my bullet points have left me.

Do you think if I turned on the water and got back in, the thoughts would take up where they left off? Like the way you can pause a DVD....

Geez, the words were so much more fluid in the shower- fluid? Maybe toweling off dried up my thoughts. I will have to try air drying next time I get a shower of random thoughts. Maybe while I evaporate I can still catch those random thoughts as they leave me, instead of brushing them off with a towel.

The Inside Passage

Just came back from a remarkable vacation, the last with my daughter. It was a splurge we wont see the likes of for many years, if ever again. We took a cruise to Alaska. I am so glad I got to share this adventure with my best friend.

This trip should be on your list. And be sure to take a helicopter to a glacier field. I cannot even come up with the words to describe this experience. I had never been in a helicopter so that alone in and of itself was an adrenaline rush. Your visual area is open from peripheral edge to edge with windows and the pilot maneuvers in the air so that you can come very close to your scenic target. I kept leaning forward to get closer. This felt like flying. It felt like a bee must feel as he hovers over those landscape details, moving in and out in graceful drives until he lightly rests on the perch of choice.

The topography is flat to mountain to smooth and crevasse peaked to green to black to blue to white. There is so much to see from up there; you cant take it all in on one flight. And I kept saying I wished I had a video camera in my head recording what I saw. None of the photos came close to capturing the color or awesomeness of the scenery.

How fitting that we would mark the nearing of my teen's departure to college with a memorable adventure. The implied incentive, you see, is for her to relish future trips- only to be taken via the salary of success. Study well, focus on a plan, and then put the diploma to task and your earnings will give you lift again.

Taku Ice Fields- Juneau Alaska

Why I am blogging?

Where did the idea to 'blog' come from? Fortune cookie? Bazooka gum wrapper? Internet Ad? The monotony of the work week was begging for something with substance. Maybe some creative repose?

One of my passions growing up was creative writing. I dream of being a published writer still today (its on my bucket list)- so this is a good way to get my brain engaged again. Maybe one step closer to that novel...

I guess the blog is in some respects a modern day diary too- only the kind you don't put your thoughts in and hide under the bed. Society is a very open forum today and 'reality TV' is proof that Big Brother is millions of viewers, not one nosy neighbor.

....Sorry I digressed. The monotony and the genius of a girl I work with are the reason for this blog. That and the fact that 1,700 feet of living space is going to seem strangely quiet and lonely in a few weeks when my teen goes off to college. A blog seemed to be the perfect place to address my coming life change and find a healing way to deal with it. And maybe other moms feeling the impeding gloom of an empty nest could find a place to share their thoughts with me. Maybe I can fill some of the nest's emptiness with the wisdom from friends. Birds of a feather flocking together.