Estoy Nueces

I need to get up and dressed and gone, but I am hardly awake. I hope this getting up early gets easier eventually. I went to bed by midnight last night, I think, but I know I'm really an 8-hour-a-night girl and I'd better start finding a way to make that happen, I'm afraid.

Housecleaning today. Hooray. I changed the sheets already, though. Couldn't stand that another day.

We did get the taxes paid, but had to borrow from the bank of Mom and use all of our savings. We are solvent again, but I'm afraid we'll be slow to rebuild what we had accumulated. I will work hard at it though. At least I am working.

I am writing another article for the music magazine. I had decided I was either going to tell them I wasn't going to write for a while or I was going to turn down the next offer (which usually is a month or more after I turn something in). Then they immediately offered me the task of writing about my good friend Walt and his band. That is a whole lot different from writing about some up-and-coming nincompoop I don't care about at all or some long-established artist I don't care about at all. I hope I can do him justice. Yes, I accepted, but already feel the knots in my stomach as I prepare to see them Wednesday.

And I accepted another writing task as well. This one about my family for a little magazine. They asked for pictures and information and then said I could write it. That deadline is next week so I need to get busy on it right away. Actually, I have started writing it already and I just need to get a few facts and quotes to make it better. It is stuff I know already so I don't have to learn everything in an interview.

I haven't written about the big volcano in Iceland erupting last week and disrupting the world. I wonder if I'll look back on it and go "Oh yeah, I remember that, that was weird," or if I'll look back and see that that was the beginning of ...? What? More global weather weirdness? Another big crack in our earth's surface like the recent earthquakes in Haiti, Chili, Mexico, and China? Planes all over Europe have been grounded for days. I have a cousin stuck in Ethiopia, a friend stuck in South Africa, and a friend that did not get to go to Norway (at least he is stuck at home).

We had huge rainstorms on Saturday. Poor Mark was working in it at the Old Settlers Music Festival and he was truly miserable. I drove home from the north side of town in it and it was slow going the whole way. The main avenue to our house was the worst because of the water along the gutters splashing all over the car. Relieved to be home and get dry that night.

I worked in the yard yesterday, though everything was still wet. I got all my plants into the ground finally, and put tomato cages on everything. I raked and put out a lot of stuff for the trashmen, and dug up that big stump of the yucca. I swept up a lot of the oak catkins, but there are plenty more.

Mark played yesterday at the Irie Bean. I went and enjoyed the music for a little bit and heard some artists I hadn't heard before. He has a lot of insecurity about that gig, worrying that he is out of his league. I think he sounds great and the guy keeps asking him to drum instead of some of the bigger names in town.

If I hurry and get ready, I can still be to work by 9. That's sort of what I consider "on time" so I'll try to go get dressed and make it.