Lucy, I'm Home! Well, Kinda Sorta, Not Really

Hello, my loyal and lovely readers . . .it's so good to be back! Sorry for my web absence - my family is in the Federal Witness Protection Program, and we suddenly had to relocate....again, but we are pretty much getting settled in after what makes the third move this year.


Ha! Did I getcha for a half a second? One definite fact about my life - it has never played out like a mystery novel, but my whereabouts these last few days have appeared a bit mysterious. Not intentionally - I just have some, to name a couple, really annoying habits: forgetting to communicate effectively, and losing track of time. But I'll get to that in a minute . . .or 30. Truth be told, I lived in the same house until I was eighteen, so when I moved dorm rooms twice within my first year of college, I almost had to ask for directions. So much for my veil of mystery . . .

When I FINALLY was able to log back onto my blogspot and saw that there were comments (Gasp! Comments?!) I had to look back over my shoulder a few times to make sure there wasn't some other blogger there whom you were talking to. You all missed me.....really?! Thank you, thank you! I feel like Sally Field at the Oscars (her first infamous speech, NOT the 2007 infamous speech), only not as blubbery-eyed and not nearly as well-dressed. (Can jeans and a stained T-shirt come anywhere near the definition of well-dressed?! I better call Webster before the next revision comes out. . . we need to talk. Just keep me away from that what-not-to-wear crazy duo, and that Entertainment Tonight - ahem - 'guy', and my wardrobe can continue to live out its peaceful non-existence.)

Now onto where I have been for the last ten days......and where I actually still am. I have never been very adept at making a long story short, and I am also really bad at explaining details of complicated situations, so here's my nutshell attempt:

After what felt like a rather impromptu pow-wow between my husband and myself, the four of us (and the dog) are staying at a cabin in the woods that we purchased several years ago as an investment (it's been a rental all this time). We are now trying to sell it (for one, because we can no longer afford the payment) which is why we are here. Of course we tried the realtor route first, because who has the time to do everything yourself, but after nine months of that NOT working, we decided we had no choice but to try to sell it ourselves. And in case any of you have been living under a rock instead of a residence for the last couple of years, that teenager known as the real estate market has been behaving very badly; and doesn't like to cooperate with desperate sellers. This is as short of a story as I know how to make it, although there are about a million other mundane details jumping up and down in the background, shouting "pick me, pick me!"

So, my husband had to pry my reluctant blogger fingers loose from my computer keyboard (but what will I do, how will I survive?!) and after a painful separation (from my computer, NOT my husband! Miscommunication is one way ugly rumors get started, so just thought I'd clarify) we temporarily relocated to the cabin in the woods. (I know what you may be thinking . . . only an insane person would weigh the options between life at work or life not at work, but this is just me).

I was jittery at first, but I knew I would relax once we were here. And setting aside the huge mound of predictable guilt that I naturally heaped upon myself for taking a break from my 'real' life, I am secretly loving this! (well, secret from anyone who does NOT read my blog, which I guess would be the population of the entire globe minus five. However, it is the quality of my readers that I care about, not the quantity - I love you guys!)

In amongst playing board games with the kids and chew games with the dog; reassuring several of my family members that I have NOT lost my mind nor am I experiencing a mid-life crisis (I've never felt so loved); and washing dishes by hand (a welcome reprieve from my dishwasher addiction); I have been doing a lot of reading. Yes, actual reading, instead of wishful reading. Somewhere in the last decade I misplaced my love of reading, so I am so happy to have found it again! How I will ever read all I intend to catch up on is beside the point.

So yesterday, we had a wonderful, marvelous, miracle of modern technology installed, one of them thar fancy-dancy phone lines with some of that high-speed DSL, and I am now DSL (Dancing Strange Like). Barring an explosion of this ancient laptop, or a power outage (had one of those already today as a result of a freak storm), I will be back to blogging every night, um, early morning. We won't be here too many more days as there is only so much we can do, and then the cabin will sell or it won't sell; that part will be in God's hands. Meanwhile, I could pretend to be a famous author summering at my cabin, but the movie Misery ruined that fantasy years ago. Thanks again, Stephen King; you always know how to scare the crap out of me.