I managed to get through the blood test without passing out from malnutrition. But I was beginning to wonder if I actually had any blood. The doctor stuck me in both hands, and was unsuccessful each time. I was too cold, and all my veins were constricted. He brought me a warm blanket and made me sit there wrapped up in it for about ten minutes, and he finally managed to get the blood out of my arm.

I guess it was worth it, though. Here are my numbers: Total Cholesterol: 183 (should be below 200); Triglycerides: 62 (should be below 150); HDL: 66 (should be more than 39); LDL: 105 (should be less than 130); Cholesterol/HDL Ratio: 2.8 (should be less than 4.4)

Gotta go for a blood test today, which means no coffee or food until after. I'm starving. How will I ever make it to 10:00 a.m.?

If winter is here, can spring be far behind?

I stayed home from work yesterday. I’m not sure what it was I ate Sunday evening that disagreed with me, chicken hot wings, shrimp, sloppy joes, chips ‘n’ dip, wheat thins and Price’s spread, or the combination of all of the above. Anyway, since my desk at work is about a mile away from the bathrooms, I deemed it prudent to stay home.

My enjoyment of Oprah, who was talking with the author of “What Should I Do With My Life?”, was interrupted by Peter Jennings and a Special Report. I got to listen to Mr. Blix give his report on the UN weapons inspections in Iraq. In general, I got the feeling there was less cooperation than there should have been, but Mr. Blix was tap-dancing around the issue a bit. I guess he didn’t want to be the one to say plainly that the Iraqis are lying and hiding weapons of mass destruction. One must think of one’s place in history.

Speaking of tap-dancing, I think I’ll skip dance class tonight. The weather report calls for rain, sleet, snow, and falling temperatures. It will be a good night to stay home and watch President Bush’s State of the Union Address.

Overheard last week: "Bob says he doesn't read the newspaper. I would be so embarassed to say that."

I knew it was none of my business, but I felt the need to defend myself, as well as Bob, so I turned around and said, "I don't read the paper, either."

Maybe that's not entirely accurate. I sometimes read selected parts of the Chicago Tribune. We used to have the paper delivered seven days a week, until I started to feel guilty about all those dead trees, not to mention my aching back from lifting the heavy bag of recycleable paper high enough to deposit it in the trash bin. I really wasn't reading the paper. I decided to compromise and take the paper three days a week: Wednesday (for the food ads and Good Eating section), Friday (for the movie and theatre listings in case I decide to do something fun on the weekend), and Sunday (for the Arts and Entertainment section, the Book section, the crossword puzzle in the Chicago Tribune Magazine, and just in case I have a truly lazy Sunday and have the leisure to browse other sections).

I'm sure I went way down in the estimation of the woman who made the comment, but I'll just have to live with my shame. To put it into perspective, the woman who said anyone who admitted to not reading the paper should be embarassed does not work and, as far as I know, is not part of any organizations outside of the church choir and The Guild, a group at the church that meets once a month and holds two rummage sales and a Holiday Bazaar each year. She lives with her daughter, who does the work of maintaining her home. She just may have the time to read the newspaper every day.

I work 40 hours per week, sing with Lutheran Choir of Chicago, take a Tap & Jazz class on Tuesday evenings, hold the position of Church Clerk, edit and publish the church newsletter, attend 10 Chicago Symphony concerts per season, perform in one play per year with Trinity Players, and keep the house clean and the laundry done. And, oh, yes.....I blog. Just what gives this woman the right to act so superior? And why does it even matter to me what she or anyone else thinks of me for admitting to not reading the paper? Well, it really doesn't matter, but it did give me something to write about.

Why do I blog? About a year ago I started getting interested in trying to do some creative writing. In hopes of becoming inspired, I started frequenting Soul Food Cafe where I learned about Blogger. One day when I was home from work waiting all day for a new water heater to be installed (with w-a-a-a-y-y-y too much time on my hands), I decided to go to Blogspot and create my own blog. While I can't say I've written any stories or very many poems in the last year, I have managed to post to my weblog on a regular basis. At least I'm writing something, even if it isn't very much. And I've learned a little about html and some other geeky things. And my children, who are now scattered to the four corners of the universe, are able to follow my antics in some semblance of "real time". I don't have a large readership, but there are a few folks who do stop by on a regular basis. Most of them are half a world away, but I'm beginning to feel as though I am a part of their lives, as they are a part of mine. I may have mentioned this before, but I will say again that this is the longest I have maintained a personal journal. That, in itself, is reason enough for me to continue.

I've always suspected that chocolate was necessary for life. Now it's been clinically proven. Chocolate is good for you.

He and I were born on the same day of the year, January 15, even if his day is being celebrated today. Live the Dream

I remember typewriters. Manual ones that required a good deal of pressure to get a clear letter from each strike. The kind that had a bell signaling five spaces from the right-hand margin and a large silver lever for the carriage return. That’s the kind of typewriter I practiced on when I was learning to type when I was 12 years old. I learned to type by taking a book out of the library and repeating, repeating, repeating the exercises. It really does work, just the way it says it will in the book. I’m not sure what my speed is right now, but it’s always been adequate for any job I’ve had.

I’ve been through white-out, electric typewriters with correction ribbon, word processors, and several generations of computers.

I’m just really thankful right now for my computer. I have a very important letter on which I have had to make some minor changes. It’s only a two page letter, but it’s pretty much solid words for most of it. I am so very happy to be able to have made these changes quickly and easily. I remember all too well the day when I would have had to re-type the entire thing.

I’m really happy to be finally sending this Letter of Call for our church’s new pastor.

Today was the church Annual Meeting, and I'm so glad it's over. I curled up in a ball for about an hour after I got home. It isn't that there was anything really controversial at the meeting. It was all pretty routine. I just hate being up in front of the entire congregation acting official, like I really know what I'm doing. I'm sure I'll be found out someday, but it hasn't happened in the last four years. Maybe everyone else is just as clueless as I am.

My A: drive has ceased to function, which sent me out to CompUSA yesterday to scout out the possibility of purchasing a new computer. When I came home, thoroughly confused, I went the the Compaq website and "built" my dream computer. Only $2,700.00. Of course, if I also get the full Adobe Publishing package that will boost it up by another thousand. If you're going to dream, dream big. I suppose I should take this little laptop back to the store and see if they can replace the A: drive. I'm sure it would be cheaper, but not nearly as much fun.

Scratch that about having to work tomorrow. Business is bad and overtime is a thing of the past. At least until the next crisis. I wonder what will happen when the new system goes up on 2/2?

Happy birthday to me! Today I'm 53. No HUGE fanfare today. Chuck put flowers on the altar at church on Sunday in honor of my birthday, and he got me (actually us) the complete DVD set of Sports Night, all two seasons, a show that fell victim to poor placement and low intelligence on the part of the viewing audience. When it was on, it was the only show I watched, as West Wing is the only one I watch now. I was constantly amazed by the witty banter, and wished I could think half that fast.

Chuck is preparing a delicious "surf 'n' turf" dinner, even as I write. My friend and lunch partner at work, Sue, gave me a lovely butterfly pin (I have more than a dozen), and we're going out to lunch tomorrow. My friend Dawn, another co-worker, will take me out to lunch next week. Hmmm---let's see how long I can stretch this out. Amazingly enough, we don't have any plans for the weekend (other than me working on Saturday and the Congregational Meeting after church on Sunday). I wonder if we could go out to dinner Saturday evening....

I had a dream last night that Will called and said, "Hi, Mom!" That's all. No further conversation. Was he just letting me know he's fine? I hope so. Will, if you get a chance to read this, leave a comment, please. Love you. Mom.

Yesterday in the mail I got a package containing a VHS of the movie Stray Dogs. A few years ago I was in Trinity Players' production of The Secret Garden, and the young man who played the role of Colin in that show is an aspiring actor. He was in a production of the stageplay Stray Dogs, and his mother bought the rights to the stageplay and decided to produce a film of it with Zach as the little boy in the story. I invested in the production at the lowest possible level, fully aware of the fact that I may never again see my principle, let alone any profits. I did, however, get screen credit as one of the investors.

If anyone is interested in this film, or in helping me at least break even on my investment, the film is available here.

Today was a very good day. Our church called a new minister at a congregational meeting today. We met him at a "meet and greet" party last night at Don & Cor's house. I think he'll be a good leader for our church.

After a very busy week, we were finally able to take down our (live) tree today, and guess what? I've been very faithful about watering it, and it hadn't dropped very many needles, and as were were un-decorating it, I noticed that some of the branches had NEW GROWTH!

Ben went to his first school dance this evening. It's the Homecoming Dance. Since the school doesn't have a football team, there was no need to hold Homecoming in the fall. I don't suppose there will be many alumni there, since it's a new school and there's only been one graduating class so far. He called about 11:00 pm to say he'd be later than he originally said, but he spoke to Chuck, and I don't know what time he said he'd be home. I really should go to bed. I'm sure he'll get home fine.

Now it's time to play catch-up.

Saturday was the church choir party at our house. We had Cheryl from our church cater it, and there were about 30 people there, I think. I always say I'll take a count at the next party, and then I never do. I'm glad the house was in decent shape, because I really didn't have time to clean. I was busy working on The Echo (church newsletter). I decided I wanted a color picture on the first page, so I was printing 225 copies when guests started arriving. I was printing them 25 at a time until I ran out of ink in the black cartridge at about number 175. So after everybody left I ran out to WalMart and bought one. I was able to drop the newsletter off in the church office on Sunday for Joanie to duplicate the rest of the pages, collate, and mail. I'm always so glad when that job is done.

Sunday I avoided a Ways & Means Committee budget meeting because I took Ben to Navy Pier to the Shakespeare Theater to see Julius Ceasar. (He needs to see some live plays for his drama class. Oh, the sacrifices I make! LOL). I had never seen that play performed, and I had never been in that theatre. The theatre is patterned after The Globe (what's that? asked my daughter. Oh the joys of a small town high school education), with three levels and a stage that comes out pretty far into the audience. They used modern costume for the play, and it translated very well. A few of the male characters (senators) were cast as women. I liked that. I guess people haven't changed much in all these years.

I spent Monday evening while Chuck was at a board meeting for LCC (he's Treasurer this year) writing the minutes from last year's Annual Meeting of the church. (How do you spell procrastinator?) The meeting this year will be on Jan. 19. Fortunately, I took pretty good notes at last year's meeting, because I brought my notebook computer with and just typed my little heart out during the meeting. Kept me out of trouble. I just had to sort of get the words into some sort of into shape that looked like minutes.

But, of course, I wasn't finished. I still had to do the Church Clerk's Report and re-type some handwritten reports other folks had given me, and do the minutes from the December Cabinet meeting, because we had a meeting to approve the budget on Wednesday. (I ended up going home at lunch to finish the minutes and copied them at work) Oh, and let's not forget about the hour I spent being a klutz at dance class on Tuesday evening. I can't believe this isn't still December. It sure feels like it. And there's more to come. I really MUST take down the Christmas decorations on Saturday in those few unscheduled minutes.

Oh, no! I just heard that Bob K., one of the programmers here at work broke his leg yesterday. Of course, I feel bad for him, but there seems to be a lot of concern here for the work he's involved in as well as for him personally. He is one of the key people in the "one system" project, a computer system conversion which is due to go live in about 20 working days. Someone said, "Well, we'll just have to hire a limo to pick him up and drive him to work."

In my opinion, no one person in an organization should be so important that they can't take time off for an emergency. That is why I feel that Loraine did a disservice to the church by being Church Clerk for 55 years, as well as organist, publisher of The Echo, budget developer, and so many other things. I took the Church Clerk job from her in 1999 a few months before her death, and other jobs that she did have been slowly finding their proper homes in various committees or boards, simply because I said no to doing those jobs, that according to the church constitution, that was not part of the Clerk's job. I also told the nominating committe that I would accept the job for this year and next, but then they would have to find someone else to do it. I hope that with the new minister we will have some real leadership.

I've been very busy lately, and it doesn't look like it'll let up for awhile. We picked Ben up from work Wednesday evening and went to Rick and Lynn's in Itasca for a New Year's party. Chuck made hot wings, and we also brought herring (a Norwegian custom -- eat herring at midnight on New Year's Eve for good luck in the coming year). I was a good girl and didn't have TOO much of the delicious fruit punch which had "just enough" rum in it.

I spent New Year's Day working on The Echo (church newsletter) and other church business. I mailed out a letter to the congregation informing them that Rev. Ralph Cook, the Pastoral Succession Committee's candidate will be preaching on Jan. 12, followed by a meeting to vote to call him as our full time minister. This has been such a long process.

Tonight I'll finish (hopefully) The Echo. I really wish we had a church secretary who was computer literate and who would do this as part of her (paid) job, which is the case in most other churches I know. I'm getting really tired of trying to do this for free and work full time, plus all my other activities. The Annual Meeting is fast approaching, too, and I'll have to get the minutes and reports ready.

Tomorrow morning I go to get my hair cut and highlighted, and tomorrow afternoon we're hosting the choir party at our house. I won't have time to do any heavy cleaning, so what they see is what they get. We'll make sure there's plenty of booze and nobody will care.

In case I don't get a chance to talk to you, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILL. How can my little baby boy be 25 already?