It feels like forever since I’ve posted. Even though I sat down to write several times in the last week or so, I couldn’t seem to generate anything worthy of a reader’s time. Now suddenly, I’m ready to write again- was it an attack of short-term ADD? Who knows?

I’ve spent the last 10 days watching basketball, in person and on TV. Between games, I’ve finished one of my household projects and started another. (Of course, not the dreaded chair cushion.) I’ve been working more hours at my part time job, and starting to get a handle on that. I’ve been walking the trail with my neighbor and getting to my literacy sessions. (Let me say that BR and I are killing it on the multi-syllable words!) Things around here are in bloom, including my forsythia and azaleas. TMIM and I are plotting our yard strategy. The Kid and I enjoyed an evening together in Raleigh, which included a pedicab ride through downtown at twilight, a concert by Ben Folds and the NC Symphony, and hours of talk after. I’m infatuated with a loopy little spaniel mix foster dog who will be meeting the rest of my family soon. I have a coffee date with a new friend from work today and a phone date with a dear friend of longstanding (I dare not call her old!) tomorrow night. I spent part of one late night crying for my mom. Unavoidably, I’ve spent other bits of time contemplating the imponderable behavior of my brother and his family, and trying to accept that some situations simply do not offer the hope of a good outcome.

The family thing is too big not to acknowledge, but it is nebulous and oddly remote. I prefer to concentrate on the dozens of small and tangible gifts I have experienced recently, and the dozens of small and tangible tasks before me.