Hodgepodge and a quick look back.

Greetings! Just a quick visit to wish all a happy new year! I think that this next year may find me posting even less than I have been. Only time will tell. I've gotten lax on posting, but even more lax on my in person relationships! I must take care to not let those slide, or blogging will have to go entirely. I will put up some fight to not let it get to that point, though, as I enjoy visiting so many of you, and have learned so darn much from you all!

I had my youngest niece with me for the weekend. She'll be 11 in 5 days. (gulp . . . I think I'm feeling my age!) My oldest is 13 (14 in March) and has officially reached the point of being too cool for Aunt Mandy's house! (That is pronounced Awnt Mandy- because as I have so adamantly been corrected early on in life- I am not a six legged insect! It is weird to hear people call me Ant Amanda, which gets quite stuck on the tongue, doesn't it?) She had other stuff to do on her Christmas break, and it didn't involve me or her sister. I loved having my pre-teen cuddlebug, even though the elder was missed. We drank gas station cappuccino and went out to Pizza Hut with some friends last night. She is totally in to myspace, and it was interesting to be a part of the pre-teen drama that inevitably follows the messaging from one to another. It was good though to be able to talk to her about the drama and how it's so much easier to hurt people when it's simply leaving a quick comment instead of face to face! I also know her password and have been inside and out of her account. It's a good thing. I'm pretty sure she won't change it again for a while, so I'll have an up close view of her goings on. I feel better about that.

One more thing, has anyone else seen this list of famous people who died in 2007? I am surprised at how many I don't remember hearing about (besides those that I've never even hear of!). I try to catch the news fairly regularly and have a personalized google page with top news stories that pop up every time I open the internet, but some of these seemed to have flown right past my radar! Besides the cool fact that one of the guys was 109(December)! There was also one who was 105(October)! Pair this with the Anna Nicole Smith's, and I think the average age is still right up there. Have I mentioned before that I have this perhaps-bizarre urge to check obituaries? Seriously- I really noticed it after attending 8 or so funerals in a row of people younger than 23 years old. When I see a day with all of the ages above 70 or so, a cheer erupts from some part of my little brain. Not out of insensitivity, but a cheer that they all made it so far. The week before last showed the majority of people less than 40 or 50 and my heart broke for them. A man one year to the day older than me, a mother and her newborn child, an infant, probably a few with very young grandkids or young children(or young adult children). Is that weird? My mother checks obituaries in her local paper, too. Perhaps some is genetic? I'm sure her dad did it and her mom always knows that kind of news. I simply click the link and check the surrounding papers as often as I check my blogging buddies. (I check for other news, too!) Jeez- is that really as morbid as it sounds? I'm really not a stalker or anything. Please, share some of you weirder stalker stories so I don't feel quite so odd! Someone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I'm off to bed now. Or maybe to work on the puzzle gracing the card table in my living room. Or maybe just to bed. Thanks for letting me share my oddities!

Best wishes for a fantastic new year! Safe celebrations to all!

A

Footnote: I always forget to spell check these things before posting them. I then frantically grasp my mouse, hoping to somehow pull it back from cyberspace before my spelling stupidity is out for all to see! I then pull it back to finish the editing I should have remembered to do in the first place, but alas- it's too late. Faithful reader programs all over the globe have snapped it up, instantly notifying friends near and far that I have updated my poor, neglected blog, and delivering my spelling ineptitudes right to their inbox! I then correct the spelling for the rest of you, who opt for the "I'll check back when I get around to it!" mentality, and you are none the wiser! To those who get 2 notifications of my one new post? To you I'm sorry. Discard the first one, mmmmkay?