I’ll be honest with you, its been a rough couple of weeks. First I got this crazy crick in my neck. (Even saying that makes me think the next thing I am bound to say is, “my rheumatism is actin’ up.” What the heck are either of those things anyway?). I’m thinking if I look them up on Wikipedia, the definition won’t do justice either to what I am feeling or what those terms have encompassed for the generations of Southern women before me, who each had cricks in their neck and bouts of random rheumatism. (I’m still trying to figure out where exactly do you get rheumatism? Clearly, I have the location of cricks identified.)
Then there was this website. I have spent way more time on this than I should have. And I am scared to death you are going to take a little meander around and say to yourself, “THIS is what she has been talking about for three weeks? I know you might say that, because, well, my mother has said just that. There would be a very unhappy little smiley face at the end of that sentence if I had any clue which widget did that… Just so you know, widgets… or is it plugins, I CAN’T GET THEM STRAIGHT!!!…are like MAJOR components to this here new website. When I say major, I mean major, as in they are all over the place and require efforts to make sure they are compatible and happy in the places they are placed on your blog. Otherwise you have to email complete strangers from all over the world who create these things and who have forums for questions about widget compatibility and bugginess, and beg them to help you, among the hundreds of other questions they are getting from other complete strangers who all seem slightly less ignorant of widgets than you.
Look up wordpress widget and see what you get. I dare you.
Then I got asked by one of my best friends, Buddy, to give a few talks at one of our local parochial schools. I was more than happy, nee eager, to do this. Somehow I forgot to remember that I pretty much suck at school teaching. Let’s just not go there and suffice it to say that if I thought educators weren’t making enough money nor do they get the much deserved respect and admiration that they deserve, then let me reiterate just how strongly I believe all of that. I very strongly believe that and admire them. I had even the best students yawning in their seats.
Then there was the turkeys. You remember them, don’t you? I raised them up from chicks, they think I am their mother. They love me. They have gotten really ugly. From something so cute, I haven’t a clue what happened. The bad thing is I have sort of taken it personally and I can’t help myself when someone comes by to visit out at the turkey pen and states the obvious. “Their just going through their ugly ducking stage,” I retort, short tempered. Lately they developed these weird, especially ugly little… places.. on their necks. “They look like ingrown feathers”, Neil says when I pointed them out to him this weekend. “Maybe its sort of turkey acne. You know, teenager stuff.’ I’m pretty sure I am not going to look that up on Wikipedia, I so don’t really want to know, but I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying I am not supposed to intervene, medically you know, with some sort of turkey dermatology orchestrated housecall. Geez. Turkey acne.
Strangely enough, that’s sort of how some of these last two weeks since I got to wish you a Happy Monday have felt. When I look back on it as I write this to you, anxious to make contact, I think about how easy it is to make life so self centered that you lose sight of the diamond days all around you. Something has to remind you. I could say that it’s the days of stone that make you appreciate the good ones, but, as clear and compelling as that comparison should be for us to make, that’s not what we always do.
Let me just say this to you. I’ve missed thinking about each of you and writing to you. Something about these Happy Monday’s keeps me centered, in God and you, His children. I’m glad to be back and pretty much through with widget exploration. The nuts and bolts, hammers and blogging tools are done with now and put away and what I want most is to just, say Howdy and hope I hear back from you.
Happy Monday.
