a day off

Has it really been five months since my last entry? Truth be told, I'd almost forgotten I'd started this blog. Then I needed a place to plant my new playlist; my other 2 blogs (which are nearly as lame and neglected as this one) doesn't allow embedded music players without plunking down big bucks for upgrades, so I tracked this one down and installed my Playlist player here. Not that anyone but me will ever get to hear it, since this is my "secret" blog.

*smile* (As if I harbor secrets anyone would be interested in.)

Today is my day off and I am basking in the joyful indulgence of an entire day without responsibility or obligation. Relatively speaking. At the moment my driveway looks like a refuge for juvenile delinquents. My son and his motley assortment of buddies have congregated there in their respective hoopties (aka beat-up cars) to compare woofers and tweeters, rev their engines, and in general wreak what in this neighborhood passes for havoc. Every so often, I open the front door to grimace painfully or shake my head disapprovingly at the noise, ever mindful of my adolescentless neighbors.

I can't believe that tomorrow marks the last day of 2008. How did another year pass so swiftly? It makes my head spin. Last night I told Mike that, despite the financial wreckage that befell so many in 2008, as far as my own family is concerned it wasn't that bad, in that for the first year out of the past five nobody close to us died a tragic death. Somehow that feels like a victory.

Speaking of Mike, I need to start planning in earnest for my trip to the UK to visit him next summer. To prevent its overwheming me, I think I should do it in small bites. For example, next week I can apply for my passport. Then I can start looking seriously at booking flights. I can hardly allow myself to believe that this is really going to happen. I have been longing to visit the British Isles for so long that I am finding it difficult to grasp the idea of actually going.

Oh my gosh! I just had a brilliant idea! I should turn this blog---at the moment so vague and directionless---into a sort of online travel journal. It can be a record of the entire process, from the thinking and planning and making of reservations, to the actual embarking on and execution of my trip!

Woo-hoo!!! England here I come!