Dear Diary,
1. I was excited when I got carded buying wine at Target. The cashier explained that she “had” to put in a date to over ride the computer. She has to do the same thing for cough syrup. It wasn’t that I didn’t look old enough; it was just a rule. Severe buzz kill. 2. I just learned that most birds migrate at night when the atmosphere is quiet. 3. I was with my college roommate on Saturday and we got into a debate about how old we are. She spent this entire year thinking she was 43. She is 42. 4. In Sunday School, my 9-year-old daughter wrote a letter to God. She wouldn’t let me read it. I am worried that the letter is incriminating me for something. I casually mentioned to Ryann that I would be happy to buy the stamp and mail the letter. She rolled her eyes and told me that letters to God don’t require postage and that she would rather mail it from school because she knew I would read it or … get this, I would try to write in MY side of the story. 5. The Nobel Peace Prize to Obama is in a word: weird. How does he possibly win in accepting or rejecting? Maybe writing a letter to God would help. 6. I ran a trail race this weekend. It rained. It was exhilarating being in the woods, seeing the leaves begin to turn, hopping over puddles and tree limbs. It made me feel free to move through the woods with a little mud on my tires. 7. My 14-year-old daughter had spirit week at school. On Tuesday, they had “flashback” day. Most of the students dressed from the 70’s or 80’s. I guess it is the same way my parents felt when my high school had 50’s day. 8. I held my cousin’s baby last week. I was getting all sucked into the sweet-snuggly-babies-smell-so-good-wouldn’t-I-like-another-child-irrational-kind-of-nostalgic-psycho-thinking. Then he peed on my gray lace dress, the one from Anthropologie. Good reminder of reality. 9. I heard an interview with Roseanne Cash on the radio. Her dad, Johnny Cash, made a list for her when she was 18. He titled that list … “100 Important Songs.” She recently recorded 12 of those songs, one of which is a duet with Bruce Springsteen. Dude, it is righteous. 10. I am constantly balancing the boundaries of trying to teach my children to be assertive, yet not talk back. My new term for kids today is that many of them are “sass-holes.” 11. September brings my birthday, my Mom’s birthday, the anniversary of September 11th, and the anniversary of my Mom’s death. The whole month puts me in a funk. Still. Miss. Her. 12. On a whim, I made oatmeal raisin cookies from scratch, the kind with Quaker Oats and real butter. I didn’t even have to go to the store because I had exactly one teaspoon of vanilla extract. My daughter took some warm out of the oven across the road to our neighbors. We love our neighbors. It is good to live among friends. 13. We bought pumpkins this weekend. How can you not be happy when you are carving a jack-o-lantern? I wish people gave out rice crispy treats and candy apples for Halloween like when I was a kid. Those were the days. 14. Someone at the gym said it was just 70-something days until Christmas. Americans are always looking for what’s next. Crazy. 15. I sent my friend, Lisa, a birthday card today. We talk a couple times a year, but we always exchange birthday cards. I love people who are always your friends no matter how much time you have to give them. Sometimes life is just meeting people where they are … resting in whatever you have to give is by grace, just enough.