Currently The Perks of Being a Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky see related

I think I am going to let my xanga Premium lapse. I am not out here much anymore.

I tried to figure out how to archive my posts. Anyone have any idea how this is done? Xanga Help is useless (at least it is to me).

Been very busy up until recently. I had surgery on Dec. 15 so I had to get things ready for Christmas before that date. I must say it has made for a peaceful lead-in to the holidays. We are having bad weather here in Kansas City (rain turning to ice then snow yesterday, still snowing today). I was disappointed to not make it to Christmas Eve service last night. It would have been my first trip out. But it was for the best. Our power went out around  8PM (probably due to ice on the lines - ours are buried, but our whole neighborhood went out). We would have been at church and then come home unable to get the garage door open, which would have been a drag. Instead we were home, and sat in candlelight and played word games. Temps were predicted to get down in the teens, and there were high winds, so I was relieved when the lights popped on at 10 PM.

So it has been a white Christmas with everyone one safe at home, no traveling to be done.

Lots of books changed hands in my family today. That pleases me. I LOVE to read, and it appears I have raised two young adults who like to read too. Incidentally, this is a passion that seems to have come on as they got older. Of course, my 22 year old son is an English major, so I guess he'd better like to read!

Yes I am still around -usually for 5 minutes on Facebook. Otherwise, busy, busy.

Tonight I am playing cello with the Oak Park Orchestra on their concert. My private lesson teacher is their director, and he invited me to join them. I went to their two rehearsals this week (thanks to the understanding of the teacher I work with, who let me be gone for 2 hours Tuesday and today).

It's been a busy fall - as usual. I hope everyone is enjoying the season. Thanksgiving will be here before we know it!

Currently The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals By Michael Pollan see related

It seems all I can do to check my email once a day, and maybe Facebook. Writing xanga entries seems  to have fallen way down the priority list. I can't expect much of an exchange of ideas with fellow xangans when I'm never out here!

A couple of updates: My husband has a conference in Columbia, MO, and I am going with him so I can visit with our two children, both students there at the University of Missouri. I am looking forward to it - a lot, especially having an early birthday celebration for our son Patrick, who turns 22 on the 7th. When I first started writing on Xanga, he was still in high school, and rather uncomfortable with my presence out here. Now I'm a friend on Facebook. Times have changed.

Our daughter has supposedly already had Swine Flu (according to her doctor there, though no test was done). She had a rough time for awhile, developing bronchitis and a sinus infection, but is finally on the mend. I got my shot for the seasonal flu - no option yet to get the N1H1 vaccine yet.

Have finished a couple of books: The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter, and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I liked both of them very much. Though I didn't purposely read them back to back, there was a certain symmetry to doing do. The first book was written from a 5 or 6 year old child's point of view, observing his life with his grandparents after his parents died. The second book is from an aged father's viewpoint, who is writing to his 6 year old son, trying to tell him about himself and to tell him some things he wants to pass along, because he knows he will die before the son is much older. It was like two different vantage points on the same story - sort of.

I recommend both books. They aren't long, but they are thought-provoking.

I'm not surprised no one reads my posts. I have become notoriously erratic.

Read something in Time magazine that gave me pause. What will happen to my online accounts after I die? Xanga, and Facebook, and my email, which gets more than its fair share of junk mail. I suspect my techie husband would clean it all up and close things down, but what if he dies first? Is that going to be part of our wills now? Instructions on how to handle that part of our "estate"? Weird.

Just finished reading Riven by Jerry Jenkins, who has said he considers this book his masterpiece. I don't know if it is a masterpiece, but the last 25 pages had me crying, which is my litmus test for a good book or movie. Isn't that ridiculous? If it makes me cry, it at least gets a thumb's up, because that shows it connected with me. I'm such a girl....

But I wasn't always that way. Back in the 70s the tearjerker of all time was Love Story. I was 14 when I saw it, and stared with disdain at the sobbing girls clutching a box of tissues. For me the waterworks began after I had fallen in love seriously. It's like that cracked my heart forever open. Having children only intensified the effect.

When did you start crying at movies/commercials/books? 

I am in West Union, Iowa, here to visit my in-laws for their 60th wedding anniversary. I have not seen them in several years because my back issues have made the 7 hour trip a hurdle. We head back to KC today.

I miss going to church, and if I had a car of my own up here, I'd have tracked down a church to attend. Instead, I've tried to keep my nose in my bible.

I have a Facebook page that I check maybe once a day, if that often. When I created it, I used my legal name, which does not include my maiden name. It occurred to me that if someone from my long ago past were looking for me, my married name might be unknown. So I added an alternate name using my maiden name. I hope that works, though when I did a search on my "old" name, there were over 500 results. Someone will have to look hard!

I am surprised that more and more of my age peers (50 somethings) are getting on Facebook. I doubt most of us use it like our kids do, but it will be interesting to see if we eventaully get sucked in. .Five or six years ago I could not fathom text messaging. If you needed to communicate something, why no just call? But now that I've used it for a few years, I am a fan. I can have multiple conversations going and still continue to do other things. I can casually check in with someone without getting into a 30 minute chat. And best of all, I get texts from my kids about things I'd never hear about if they had to call or write! Maybe I will become a fan of Facebook too?