Happy and Boring

No new disaster dating scenarios: I'm done with dating for a while. I don't have the time or energy. Most guys seem to require a fair amount of effort and I just don't have that to give.

No new health crises. It looks like I'll get through 2010 without requiring surgery, joints being reassembled, or other health interventions. TG has braces and is getting more, but that's about it. I'm donating platelets again, which feels really good. Not the actual donation -- that's a bit uncomfortable -- but the feeling of contributing. And I know that in some way, I'm actually helping others, which is not something I get to do a lot right now. Everything is pretty inward-focusing on my daughters and me.

Still teaching Sunday school and enjoying it, much to my amazement. And agnostic/almost atheist me is still enjoying church. Of course, there are many other atheists and agnostics in my church, and no one seems bothered by the fact that I teach all the Bible stories as literature and myth and add commentary like this regarding the Abraham/Isaac story: "You think this is the action of a loving god? A god who asks its subjects to prepare to sacrifice children? Yeah, didn't carry through, but the whole scenario reeks of sadism to me. Can anyone define an abusive relationship using Bible or Twilight characters?"*

TG started middle school and DG started kindergarten. My memories of middle school are of unrelenting hell, so it's with great pleasure that I observe TG continuing to love school, be surrounded by friends, and generally love life, with some sports and some academic activities (Mathletes!) that she enjoys. DG views kindergarten as her own personal triumphal march, clearly designed to give her pleasure. Someone has told her she's a good artist (she is) and she shows me her work, explaining "This is a very talented flower" (it is).

And DG can ride a bike without training wheels, so we all can bike together on the many bike paths in this area. Yee-haw!

Last night, two neighbors invited me over to dinner, and I realized that I've never known and liked so many of my neighbors, or their dogs. I know all the dogs in the area, from the pit-bull/lab/St. Bernard mix in my old apartment (with the young dudes) named Flower who is such a wuss that when it rains the dude downstairs lifts his 180 pound tender Flower up over the big puddle that forms on our building's stoop because Flower doesn't like to get her paws wet in big puddles to the ferocious King Charles Cavalier spaniel named Thor who tries to intimidate Flower, but is cuddly with DG and TG. And yes, I know the dog's names, but not those of the cute young dudes who walk them. Plus a Boxer puppy, a Boston Terrier, and several Bichon Frisees who leap with pleasure and delight when they see kids to play with.

So again, my life is boring to write about now, but truly pleasurable. Oh, and I'm knitting a 1930s glam-dress pattern that will probably keep me busy for the next year or two with size 0 needles.

Nothing to see here. Move it along.

*Actually, I'm exaggerating there, but only slightly.