You know, I like to be happy here most of the time, so in my last post, I *did not* mention the two items about myself that are most distressing right now. First, I have gained 10 pounds since January. Gross, right? Remember the dog? I am expecting him to help with that. Second, I have acne again. Actually, I have it for the first time, because I didn’t have many zits as a teen. I don’t know if it’s stress, or poor diet, or the fact that I read with my hand on my face, but it is awful. I keep looking at different acne soaps, but so far I haven’t found a soap that combats acne and wrinkles, so I’m still looking. Any tips?

So, yeah. Been busy. But some folks report they miss the little ol’ bloggity blog, so….Hi. Nice to see ya. I can’t even remember all the stuff I have done since I last posted. Let me think…

I got a new-to-me van.

I took up fishing.

I read some books.

I studied.

I earned 2 more A’s.

I got a dog.

I signed up for several of those store loyalty cards. I like them because I get stuff for free just for buying stuff I need. Kinda like the dropdowndeals promo codes, except it takes gas.

And I decided to try blogging again. Yeah.

So…as you can see (or not see), I have been a little busy and blogging has pretty much blipped right off my radar screen. I’m going to try climbing back into the saddle or falling back into the rut or some other cliches and see what happens. I had an awesome first semester: really enjoyed myself, learned a lot and made straight A’s. I started the summer semester yesterday, and so far, so good. I did absolutely nothing on my break except play Frontierville, hang out with my best bud and read. I read several things, but the one I want to talk about today is Journals of the Big Mouth Bass by Debbie Sue Bass Williamson.

This book was a short read for me, being intended for the youth market, but it was….fun is not the right word. It’s a good book, and I will end up reading it to my kids, I am sure, but…if you, like me, are in your forties and vaguely remember being ten-ish with no great desire to re-capture those days, then you may understand what I mean by “fun” not being quite the right word.

Here’s the premise: Debbie gets a journal for her birthday. She uses it to write letters to God, with whom she has a pretty casual relationship. Not casual as in don’t care, but casual as in intimate enough to really talk to Him about what is going on in her life. She talks about her family and her brother and school and the lady down the street and whatever happens in her life. She expects that He listens and cares, and that alone makes the book worth reading. I was reminded of the need for a child-like faith as I read. There are no big theological discussions in the book, but that underlying message of faith s there all through it.

And, no it’s not all child’s play, either. I don’t know what your ten year old life was like, but some pretty stressful things happen to this girl. Not the kinds of horror stories that end up on the news, but some coming to terms with life. She has to learn some lessons the hard way. The author deals with this very realistically and draws a very believable character for us.

Lord help me! I sound like I am writing an essay here! It’s a good book. Get it, read it. If you don’t have kids, buy it for your niece or nephew. Make one up if you have to, because I think you will enjoy the story, and it’s a nice break from “grown-up” books and particle physics.

First, the uh, thingie in the toilet that tells the tank it needs to fill…the float? It gets stuck in the full position, and I have to jiggle it every third time we flush. We flush a lot. The tank cover has now been sitting in the bathroom floor for a couple of months. It’s a very small bathroom and I am sick of seeing the tank cover every time I go pee. I am a sittee, not a standee, and we do not have to look at the tank cover.

Second, my car is sitting in the driveway, useless, because the starter is in the trunk. I can’t go anywhere. Not that I actually *want* to go anywhere today, that is not the point. The point is that I can’t.

Third, the NaNo manuscript. Will the typing never end? Yes, it will. Three pages a day will see that little chore taken care of by months end.

Fourth, the kitchen sink. The unilever lever is malfunctioning. Turning off the water has become a sport, a game pitting the wit of the plumbing against the determination of the user. It shall be replaced by a two faucet system shortly, if I have to do it myself, which I plan to try to avoid with pleading eyes and a winsome smile. I will go with a decent set, preferably high rise, but I am not planning to lay out for Moen kitchen faucets. That would be too much gild on the lily, given the rest of my kitchen.

Fifth, I want to write again. I realized this morning that I miss the intensity of NaNo. The pressure to produce, produce, produce was actually a freedom to sit and concentrate on doing what I love. I plan to give myself permission to spend most of this weekend just writing. As soon as I finish my homework.

Sixth, oh wait, I said the short list. Never mind.

Oh ya’ll. If you have looked at the Life List lately, you might have noticed that my movie watching has picked up a bit. That’s because I recently switched from Blockbuster to Netflix. Netflix allows me to stream movies as part of my monthly rate plan, as opposed to Blockbuster, which charges extra for that privilege. That means that when I discover time to watch a movie, the movie is ready to go. I’m loving it.

The only downside to streaming is that sometimes the movie pauses to buffer. For some reason that I do not comprehend, I have traced the problem to my Linksys router. If I remember to push the reset button before I start the movie, it runs right along smooth as silk.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to start my homework. I’m trying to squeeze in The Taking of Pelham 123 today!

Yesterday would have been Grandmother’s 100th birthday. I’ve thought about her a lot the past several days. And, along with her, Granny, Papa and Grandma. Those losses are just stacked together for me, coming as they did one right after the other. It’s…overwhelming to have an entire generation of your family wiped away in such a short time. The move from “grandchild” to “child” is a major thing. No longer is there a two generation buffer between me and “next”, but now only one. Each generation takes care of the one before it and after it, and that means I am now the one in the middle. Its on me. That’s a little bit scary, yk? Can I handle that? Do I have what it takes? Can I balance everything I now need to do, or am I going to drop a plate? Especially now that I am trying to balance school along with all my other responsibilities.

(I’m not including Grand-dad here, he died so long ago, and though I still miss him, his death was not part of that overwhelming time.)

But yesterday was also a major day for me. For the first time, I was able to smile at the thought of those Grandparents having gained their reward, knowing joy forevermore. Should I tell you that I cried myself to sleep Sunday night thinking about them, still selfishly grieving? I think so, it’s part of the story.

All of that brings me to the title of this post: Legacies. You know, we each have two of those; the one we receive and the one we leave. I’m not talking about material goods here, because those are unimportant. I’m talking about life perspectives, how we handle bumps in the road, the things that go into the major decisions we make. Do we operate from a position of love and trust? Or from a place of hate and suspicion? We pick up those mindsets from our role models, but they become self-fulfilling prophecies. If we expect that the world is always out to get us, then it surely will. If we expect good things to come, then that’s what we end up with. Our own actions cause that, and what do we base our actions on? Mindset.

It’s a big enough thought that we ought to be mindful of the legacy we are leaving even as we deal with the one we have received.

Man, I like early morning. I think I said that yesterday, but each day, I like it more. It’s a few minutes after 8, my “morning mess” is almost done, and then I plan to sit on my contemporary sofa and watch a (historical) movie before I tackle my homework. Yes, I’m loving it! Life that is. My sofa, will by contemporary, I mean 10ish years old, but whatever.

This morning, I walked out to the bus stop to see this:

This picture is blurry and doesn’t do it justice, but the ones I took with the flash show the sky as dark. In fact, is was light and there was that big fat moon just sitting there. It was awesome.

Time for the daily school report! Just kidding, it won’t happen everyday, LOL! My car is still not running right, so Mama gave me a ride to school, and I had my first experience with the shuttle service. I like it, and it’s reasonably convenient, with buses running around campus every 10 minutes. I was also p-leased to discover that the campus is smaller internally that externally. I can actually walk between my classes in 10 or 15 minutes if I need to, and I still will for one class.

One of my classes was canceled today, and I used my time wisely. Not by reading about the best diet pills, but by getting a head start on my reading for next week. Since I’ll be working one day next week, I thought that was a good use of my time.

In other news, I’ve been getting up even earlier the past couple of days. at 5:30 instead of 6:15, and the pay off has been being able to complete my morning routine before my school or blogging/studying day begins. This morning, I was tempted to snooze longer, but when I remembered how smooth the early day was yesterday, and how much I enjoyed collecting my thoughts before the kids got up, I dragged myself out of bed. I never thought I’d be one to get up before I absolutely had to, but I am going to keep trying it.