It freaking rained today! Finally, some relief from the hellish heat...! I have a great and spacious view of the city from my balcony, especially at night, even if I have to swat away the bats. And bats at night are preferable to pigeons by day, in my opinion, at least. So nice to sit and see and smell and drink it all in, Anne of Green Gables style. (That's a shout out to you, dad.) Funny how much you can miss when you don't take time to smell the roses. Something about not seeing the forest for the trees, or vice versa maybe.

Spent time with friends at their new house tonight. Felt more at home then I have in years. God bless friends.

Lala salama (Swahili for "good night").

So Sunday, eh? Got my own dose of spirituality before 7 a.m. I woke up in a bad mood and late for work as usual. Funny, I set 5 different alarms to go off and I still wake up late. Anyway, I didn't get time to wash my already 4-day-unwashed hair, and felt like crap. I hacked out a bit of lung and stumbled around breathlessly and generally felt crappy. I rolled my ankle yesterday, and that still hurt. My back and feet were so stiff I could hardly walk. Pretty much, I was a little depressed. I knelt down for a quick prayer before I walked out the door--I realized that I needed God's kindness, even when I assuredly didn't deserve it, to get me motivated and through the day. Fired off a quick prayer for Jesus to be with me and rode the elevator downstairs. I ran into an old guy who just had an open heart quadruple bypass and a blind guy who asked if I'd help get a package of hearing aid batteries open--the blind guy is also deaf, and the old guy was tryin' to help open the package of batteries. At first I was slightly annoyed because I was already late, but as I started to help, a young guy came in and was so nice to both other men and said he'd walk the blind guy up to his apartment and I just thought wow, there are really really good people in the world, and I have better health than so many others.I put the batteries in the hearing aids and went on my mery way, and was really really happy to have met these people this morning.

In other news, I read this weekend! I haven't read from a book since the end of last semester! I love to read! I'm working on Stephen King's _Dreamcatchers_. Talented writer, he is. He can a ten page scenario of a morning toothbrushing routine and keep you breathlessly hooked on every word. I wanna be him when I grow up. Or your mom.

So President Bush said Shi+. So what?! I am fed UP with the liberal media. President Clinton gets away with boinking an intern in the oval office, but President Bush gets heat for cussing. I don't understand. This is our world!

I went and got insurance for my apartment. I went to the great and spacious building in Sandy. I arrived in my old Dodge Ram Pickup and parked next to a shiny new Lexus. Hah. The front lobby was immense, the elevator shiny, the agent's office big and clean and well furnished. They can't fool me with their expensive ways and luxorious tendencies. As I sat with John, my agent, and listened to his presentation on policies and procedures, I heard his Razor cell phone buzzing with new text messages. We are the same. Hah, I say!

I had a talk with my older sister last night. Good advice, she gave. I got a homework assignment from her: write.Write, write, and write more. Write about life, the sunset, my feet, the good things I did during the day. *cracking knuckles* :

My back hurts today. Quite a lot, actually. I've been working about 11 hours a day for the past 3 weeks with a day or two off in between. Lifting, hauling, running around like the proverbial headless chicken *equals* me.

Just met a woman on the elevator at my apartment--I forgot my quarters for the laundry so I had to run back upstairs. Her name is Edna. She said she's 97 years old, legally blind, and she loves life. She is always telling people jokes and making them laugh. She shook my hand. I think I'll not wash it for awhile. Take a lesson, eh?