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April 14, 2004 Hello friends! It seems like such a long time since I was last able to sit here and write to you. [Hate to do an aside so early on in the column, but I'm watching an old episode of ER right now and you know, I have to admit it, Sally Field is really, really good in the role of Maggie. I have watched the back series at least 5-6 times as it has aired and re-aired on TNT, but I have never seen anything past Mark Greene's death. As I'm watching Sally, I'm finding that I'm getting a little lost in the story and forgetting that she's an actor playing a part. No matter how good a show is, there is usually, I'd say 99.something% of the time, a part of me that still has that "It's just a show" thing going on, but she took me to "the other place" for a few seconds and I always appreciate that level of talent. I think the last time I felt it was watching the movie JFK in the scene with Kevin Costner and Donald Sutherland sitting on the park bench in Washington, DC. For the record, that was a LONG time ago.] I am still trudging through house set up, two weeks and two days after landing here. I'm down to setting out the plants (Eric ended up digging up some of the big, original lilies... I hope they survive) before the frost hits this weekend, unpacking the bathroom and hanging the pictures. I have to wait for Eric to help me with the pictures for the most part because I have absolutely no sense of taste or style or color or proportion. My first husband used to hang clothes together in my closet that went together. It's also the reason why I wear so much black. People take it as a Witchy thing, which is fine, but overall, it's because it's slenderizing and goes with anything. I HAVE TV!!! Mr. Dan the Satellite Man showed up at lunchtime on Monday and got me all hooked up with Dish Network in a hefty 3 hours of the poor guy going up ladders and into closets and basically climbing the house like a monkey running cables everywhere. Reception is perfect and guess what? There *is* Nickelodeon!! I'm not sure if they brought it back due to protest or if only some people got it dropped or what. Regardless, I've got Blues Clues! I've also got (drum roll please) SOAPNET!! I wanted yesterday's episodes of GH, OLTL and AMC four times, not because they were particularly good (they weren't, except for one GH scene), but just because I can. The Dish Network program we have included a DVR (TiVo knock off) and it's just amazing. I haven't played with it much, mostly because I have to process through the technology that to my mind, just should not be possible, like pausing a live TV feed in progress. Joe will have a blast with it when he's visiting. He and Sandra are driving down from Canada next month for a visit. They'll be here for a few days, then go down to LA for a week or so, then back up again for a couple days then on back home. It will be so wonderful to see them and share our wonderful new home with them. My god. Lisa Rinna is even more annoying than I ever dreamed possible from the snippets I'd seen. I couldn't even finish watching the episode. It didn't help that the episode I was watching featured a prior love of mine, Rick Springfield, who now looks like an alley cat. Of course, I looked a bit better back then too, so I really shouldn't talk. Slowly, but surely, something that smells subtly like routine is emerging in my life. The kids started school on Monday and they both seem very happy. Dylan is a little quieter about it than Delena. I think he's really missing Martin and Xavier, his best friends from his old school. Delena is over the moon. She has things she doesn't like, such as having PE every day instead of once a week and a technology class that teaches basic typing (jjj kkk lll ;;; fff ddd sss aaa fdsa jkl;) when she can type about 70 words per minute from her computer use. Other than that, she's really happy. She made friends right away and doesn't mind the 40 minute bus ride in lieu of walking two blocks down the street. They're gone a good bit longer than they were before, an hour and forty five minutes longer, but they seem none the worse for wear. Nathan is settling in to being on his own for so long and seems happy. It's going to be great after today when everything is finally done. As much as I hate housework, having housework on top of all of this unpacking and box moving and storage determining and such is a real pain. I'm just glad it's almost done. :) I'm almost at a point that I could have Carolyn, The Diva of Clean, come visit and not be shaking in my boots the whole time. Isn't it wonderful when you know someone for a while and then see something in them that makes you appreciate them all over again? My friend Linda, who came to visit me a week ago tomorrow for the day, really moved me yesterday. She took my admiration of her to a whole new level and really showed me what a classy, honorable person she is and I love her even more for it. It was like I was seeing her for the first time all over again. I am so fortunate to know such cool people. If all goes well, Eric is going to pick up Josh and the little girls tomorrow afternoon and then take them back on Friday sometime. That will give me some time with Josh, plus some much needed Gramma time with the girls. A funny thing happened yesterday. My friend, Kathy Hardeman (who writes for EOS), called and told me she'd dreamed that I made a sign and put it in my old yard saying, "Whoever stole my belongings from this house, SHAME ON YOU!" What was funny is that just the night before as I was going to sleep, it had occurred to me that I should put a sign in the front yard of the old house saying, "Whosoever stole my property from this yard and home is FOREVER CURSED!!!" Kathy is so good about cleaning up after me and keeping me honest. :) She's the good fairy who follows me around and makes the people I curse only sleep for 100 years instead of dying. So pictures will be coming soon! I just need to get decorations on the wall and time to snap some good ones for you. I hope I can catch a pic of the two gay blue jays who rule this area. They are forever in the pines or manzanita, bitching and griping at one another all through the day. They let me know early on that this was their territory and that I was a visitor. Feels like it's time for a drowsy nap, then unpacking the bathroom! Life is getting so much better now that the end of the unpacking is in sight! I'm ready to bloom where I've been planted! (Lord knows it was a hell of a time getting through that topsoil to sunlight!) Much Love,
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