Good morning!

Happy thought for today -- this weather is perfect! It's sunny but cool, warm enough inside for me to keep the heat off (thank heavens!), but cool enough outside that I need a wrap when I go out. Really my favorite time of year.

The cats are quiet this morning, but they had a big spat last night. Moose was feeling feisty -- perhaps he likes the weather, too? Anyway, he kept jumping on Miss Kitty, who loudly told Moose that his behavior was unacceptable in polite company. She ran away, he chased her and did it all over again. This went on a few times until I threatened to lock both of them in the family room. I never do it, but they don't know that. They did settle down eventually, but it was a very loud few minutes!  Kind of a buzz-kill, after a very nice dinner with my aunt and uncle from Manhattan. I love getting together with them. They come up every few months -- they really love the Cape -- and we always meet for dinner. They are so sweet, and so interesting to talk with. Just this trip, they started entertaining the idea of possibly moving up here. Maybe. Possibly. I hope they do. It would be great to have more family around. I miss the days when we were all only 2 hours away from each other. Facebook connections are great and all, but it's really not the same as connecting in person on a regular basis.

Ok, off to have coffee, get ready for church, then spend the day watching football and outlining Administrative Law! I know, how can I stand the excitement. It's tough, I tell you. I try not to get overwhelmed by all the rowdy fun. Heh.

September 11

This is always a hard day for me. On the one hand, I hate that so many people make it into a glurge-y kind of thing, complete with saccarine-filled schmaltz. On the other hand, it's hard not to. There is so much sadness surrounding the events of this day. I lost 3 high school friends when the towers went down. I was lucky enough to have all my family and friends stay safe. Some of them live in Manhattan, and my step-daughter was stationed at Fort Belvoir, VA and frequently attended meetings at the Pentagon. I remember being terrified all day, until I heard that my family were ok. Then I felt guilty because I was so grateful, when so many people lost so many of their loved ones.

Everything changed for me that day. I appreciate my family more, or at least I try to. After that day, I started to examine my life, and to ask myself if I was where I wanted to be, and if not, what I had to do to get there.

I started to think about going to law school again.

Of course, 4 years later, my personal world stood on its head again, but I always think of 9/11 as starting the examination process.

2001 was a watershed year for me in other ways, too. My son graduated high school in the beginning of June. My step-son was incarcerated at the end of June. My grandmother died in July. While I was at her funeral, my old, beloved cat started sliding into her final illness. We put her down a week after I got home from Gram's funeral. I got another cat, Miss Kitty (aka Kit-Kat. Just can't bring myself to call her that). My husband and I started to go through a rough patch that year.

Watershed. Big-time.

Some things got better, some got worse. Steve and I got better, then he got sick. Miss Kitty is now my forever friend, although it was a tough adjustment for me -- she's not like Loco, my old cat, in any way. My step-son gets out sometime in the next few weeks, we hope. My son is all grown up, working at a very good job that he loves, and is getting married in about a month.

Life happens all the time, whether we're ready or not. And I just keep swimming.

I know, everyone says this, but hey, it's been a while!

And in the almost six months since I last wrote, a lot has happened, of course. My son got engaged to the wonderful woman he's been dating, Justin has moved in with his girlfriend, my dog went through a rough medical stretch and passed away on April 9, and I've completed my first year of law school. Lots of ups and downs, as usual.

Now, the all-good news. My mom has sold her house and moved into a condo, I really like my internship, and summer is here. I really love summer. The privet hedge is flowering, which gives the house a beautiful scent. The lilies have started to bloom (the picture is one my son took when he and his fiancee came to visit for my birthday), and the front yard grass is looking great. I really, really love summer.

School and other complaints...

So, this has been a weird week. I got my grades for my first semester of law school on Friday evening, and it was a mixed bag. A couple were good, a couple were so-so, and one was a hell of a shock. I've spent my week thinking about how to change/ improve my strategy, and talking to school friends about their strategies. I got some excellent suggestions, and some reminders of strategies that I learned about this summer, before I started school. I'm going to implement those this week, and see what happens. I am not, however, giving up, under any circumstances. I know I am learning new ways of thinking and writing, and I know it's a process, so I'm going to stick with it.

In other news, I had fender-bender a couple of weeks ago, and my car is in getting fixed this week. Of course, a part is back-ordered, so the car won't be done until about Monday. Maybe. Or Tuesday. Maybe. This means I'm spending next week in Cambridge again, which is not a bad thing -- it's certainly easier for me to go back and forth to school from there -- but I do miss my home during the week. I also miss my knitting group on Tuesdays! I need them to make me laugh, keep me grounded, and to generally be non-law-students, i.e. NORMAL people! Well, sort of. You guys know you're only semi-normal. I love you anyway. :-D

My son is in NJ, getting his head straight and his meds adjusted - I'm glad he's on top of his issues. He's needed to for a while. One more way his girlfriend is just the perfect person for him -- she is pushing him to become the best person he can be. I absolutely love this girl.

My other roommate, Justin, finally got his car on the road this week, so he's been able to job-hunt, finally. I'm glad for him. He can also go see his girlfriend when he wants to, which is where he is now. He's been very helpful this week, doing the running around to help me get my car fixed. I really would have had a stressful week without his help.

Meanwhile, my BF has been in Redmond, at Microsoft's annual "Frat Party", or Quarterly Business Report, depending on who's describing it. I call it the Frat Party because they all spend every night going out to dinner, clubs, dancing, playing pool, then they get up and do meetings all day long. Nuts, all of them. BF had trouble getting out there on Monday -- took him a total of 25 hours from door to door!!! Now, he just called me -- he's at SeaTac and the airline can't find his reservation. He has a confirmation number for Northwest, but it's a flight-share with Alaska Air, who is now operated by Delta. In short, he's got a receipt, someone paid a lot of money for the flight, but he can't get on a plane. He just wants to get home. I'm sure it will work out -- it always does -- but what a pain in the tuckus in the meantime. It seems that every time he's on his way home, he runs into some sort of problem. It's not usually this bad, but it seems like it's always something. Now, MS wants him to start traveling again, so he'll be running into this all over again. He's going to need some serious de-stress techiniques to deal with the travel.

On the plus side of life, my cleaner comes today, and the boys are out of the house! The house will stay clean for more than 10 minutes after she's gone! Hooray! I plan to enjoy it by just looking and sighing deeply. The cats have also started fighting less. I can't say they're exactly getting along, but they are sharing the couch occasionally without hissing. This is a good thing.