I never understood where "blog" came from. I'm sure there's a reason, but it's just so random to me.

As this stage in my life seems to be another beginning, I think I will start to write my own little miniblog here. What a great idea! Too convenient, really. I have friends who have huge blogs out in cyberspace with pics and clever little titles to every day's events. That's just not gonna happen for me, and if I wait for it to happen, then I'll never write anything down.

This is a beginning in that Mac just started his intern year, and Kate just started middle school. It's so scary to think that I have a middle schooler. Especially since I still think of myself as a teenager. Am I quite as stuck on the high school era as many pathetic ones who sit around recalling the last great touchdown 20-odd years previously? No, I'm not. But in my mind, somewhere, sometimes, I still feel like a high schooler.

Kate is doing very well. I admire her bravery. She is starting a brand new middle school where she knew only 2 people (out of over 1200). And these aren't all sweet, midwest kids. This is a magnet school, so it is in a rougher part of town. They've had all sorts of problems. But she just walks in there, looking slightly intimidating, and joins the fray. Yesterday she said she had made 3 friends, and today she added one more. "I'm pretty sure that I'll have at least 10 by the end of the week," she says with determination. She is also, curiously, deciding not to hang with the neighborhood girl who was always a bit of a PITA. She would put Kate down for who knows what reason. Just because, I guess. She is a very lonely girl, though. Her parents work all the time, and buy her loads of crap to compensate.

Mac is enjoying surgery, but I can tell he's conflicted. Especially since Luke, who absolutely idolizes him, is doing so well. The world doesn't fall apart when Dad's not around. We knew this, but I guess it still rubs.

I am spending way too much time on my computer. No Carpel-Tunnel (sp??) yet, but there it is. I suppose that is what I need right now.

I am also finishing the wonderful Alexander McCall Smith books- the Isabel Dalhousie series... I love books by this author and save them as a special treat. Isabel is struggling with the philosophical implications of getting into a romantic relationship with a younger man. He is 14 years younger than she, and she's in her early 40s. It is a fascinating debate. Initially I did think that it was wrong, but why? I dont' know. I guess I'm very well programmed by social expectations (becasue a 20-something man with a 40-something woman would mean no children, unless adoption was an option; vs. the other way around, where children would no doubt work there way into the equation...).

I love these books!

Off to read some more![/QUOTE]