No internet-- this is from yesterday :)

I hate to bring up the weather, and I’m sad to admit what an effect it has on my mood (my affect, if you will). But it does—I am much happier when the sun is shining, and I’m also getting over being “above” talking about the weather. I read the book, “The Last Lecture” a few weeks ago. It was written by a Carnegie Mellon professor following his last lecture after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Anyway, here you have a dying man giving advice to his children and whoever else will read his book, and he basically permits using weather as conversation fodder in your dealings with others. As he says, at least you have that much in common. So there you go—permission to blog about the sunshine and 40+ degree temps (pack your shorts, kids…we’re going to indiana!). As far as the book goes—I definitely recommend it. Reading about others’ dying process puts life in perspective and spurs me toward action and living life now. You should youtube it: “the last lecture” should suffice. However, I recommend “Tuesdays with Morrie” even more highly. Great book.



“my” internet (um, actually my neighbor’s) wasn’t working today, so I went to panera for my favorite breakfast of all time (orange scone and hazelnut coffee) and my daily fix of email, facebook, and gap.com. nothing too exciting in cyberspace and I’m trying not to spend money. I did get a piano teaching gig with two little boys, which will bring in some spending money each week...that’s an answer to prayer, but it’d be great to have about 4 or 5 more students. Back at my apartment now with lots of reading and writing to do. Sans internet, so I’m typing this in word and will have to do the awkward copy and paste routine when I wrap this up and the wireless signal comes back. Word auto-corrects most, but not all, of my capitalization sloppiness. Sorry for the lack of consistency



Another good book: “The Prize winner from Defiance Ohio," about a woman raising a family in the 50s—alcoholic husband (was this more common back then?), with lots of kids and little money. She entered prize contests advertised on things like detergent boxes, soup can label, and toothpaste tubes. She’d enter—and often win—jingle-writing contests. Well, gone are those days with paid marketing professionals. However, Trader Joe’s has a raffle you can enter if you bring your own shopping bag. I am so going to win one of these days. It’s the little things that are going to finance my higher education. It could happen



Hey, I’ve won a free facial, a leather garment bag, and a goldfish in the past. Although, I did have to surrender said fish to my brother following a poker game loss. You win some, you lose some.



tasks for the weekend; call beth, call jeff, make spring break plans, watch my two new library dvds, and get lots of paper writing done, medicate my cold/flu-like symptoms, get caught up on my plan to read the bible through this year (it WILL happen this time, people), laugh at hilarious jokes tonight in broad ripple, run on the monon, and bask in all the joys that life brings.