Horatio

[*gives - Kat - "one this"*]

Try and enjoy your senior year. Look forward to the thought that you will be heading off to college, make new friends and have new adventures. When you look back, you will have fond memories of your years here. Please don't let the stress get to you. Your health is too important! Have a great first day of an even better year!

Sitting at the airport, getting ready to go fly from Laredo, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee.

Jesusfreak, you are an amazing person with the patience of a saint. There are no words to express how frustrating it must be with Phil in such a state of uncertainty. I am sorry to have you go through all this. Perhaps this year you will let yourself be open to others should the opportunity present itself. Phil is the love of your life, but maybe someone else will step into your life, brighten your days and make you feel like you are the only person who exists in the universe. You certainly deserve this.

Great news that band camp and the gas stove didn't kill you. You always do a great job and I knew that you would get through this as well. Just happy to hear that band camp is over. As for the stove... you knew exactly what to do and that was ventilate the place. Now that your father has shown you the details, you are one step ahead and will keep yourself from getting hurt. Nice to know that you are pleased with your place. It is two miles off campus, but I am very certain you will have lots of friends visiting. This is going to be an exciting year for you and I am sure that you will be pleased with your ability to study and have friends over. You will love your new place. It will just take a little time for people to settle in and then you will have lots of visitors. As Jesusfreak asked... driving yet?

[ *waits* ]

How wonderful that you have stopped back in. We have missed you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please take only a couple minutes a week to keep us posted on your life. After all, we are your friends and always want to hear how you are doing. Being a vet nurse must be so exciting. Glad life is treating you so well. Not much new to talk about. I am trying to get to Paris but the bid keeps getting delayed. Perhaps I will be in Sydney for a layover. Please do stop back in. At least for a quick post or two, it only takes a minute.

Gluck? Don't know that one. As for the ice cream... Friendly's Butter Crunch with chocolate jimmies. I was in the shower. It's complicated...kind of like multi-player solitaire. Very fast-paced and competitive, but fun! Making s'mores. ~Liz Gluck sounds like a great game. I would like to try that one. S'mores... good! I just made a pot of Butter Rum coffee.

*grabs Toto and gives her a big hug* Sooooo... did the guy you were friends with move to Utah or California? If not, what's happening with all that? Are you still playing in the band? How's your brother?

[ Exactly what I was thinking!!! ]

The passage of time... terrific. How I wish I could put more hours into one day and find more time for those I love, friends I care about and time just to goof off in the company of terrific people. More time to slow down, enjoy the beauty of nature and find peace in the simple things of life.

I am certain you will get comments. It is very direct and should touch some people all the way through to their core. lol still no comments. People only tend to read things that they are tagged in, or things that show up in their news feed. Ugh. Another thought is that when the written word touches a spot in the heart where you feel a twinge... sometimes you don't have the words to respond. Your poem did just that. I'm thinking that may have been the case, since this wasn't exactly a happy poem. Chances are anyone who felt that this poem was talking to them didn't want to respond. Exactly.

I get so mad when people think they can multi-task while pretending to drive a car. No... you shouldn't be texting, putting on your make-up, shaving or reading the newspaper while attempting to drive a car. Driving is a task that needs to be focused on and all other 'stuff' that you are trying to accomplish in your car should be left for when the car is parked. I almost T-boned a lady today who turned right in front of me. When I looked at her, she didn't even see me, but was looking at her cell phone in her left hand. It was my opinion that she was texting while she was attempting to drive and almost caused a three plus car accident. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Gluck? Don't know that one. As for the ice cream... Friendly's Butter Crunch with chocolate jimmies. I was in the shower.

*tosses a tumbleweed into Jesusfreak's topic and decides to make this Tumbleweed Thursday*

Such a true statement.

Welcome back. You were missed. *joins in the hug with Jesusfreak* Love... what a rollercoaster ride. Doesn't make the heart hurt any less, but hopefully you find the man of your dreams and he is madly in love with you. As for your mum... on top of everything else, you don't need more stress. I'm so sorry that you are going through all this. We are here for you. And... where are the pictures from your holiday? We are waiting for those South African action shots! Even Leguan has posted some pictures of his weekend bike ride. Check out his topic. Great photographs.

For other news... another bid was released today. 100 B.777 Captain positions are available. Perhaps I would be lucky and get a slot on this airplane. Paris does not look like a possibility, but this would be a great opportunity to see the Far East. Of course, the bid is open for a few weeks, and there are a couple practice bids, but let's not get excited. There are 1300 pilots senior to me that could take the 100 slots. Of course, not everyone wants to be locked into an airplane for 20 hours at a time, but I could do this. Will keep you posted.

Not missing... just using some junk computer that is NOT a Mac and is something that I would toss into the trash. This computer in the hotel would be best served to be a boat anchor. The 7th will be here before you know it. Ah okay, I was starting to get a bit worried there lol. And yeah, I know it's gonna come up fast. Dunno if that's good or not. I can read the posts on my iPhone, but when I try to reply to posts that have lots of quotes, it doesn't want to reply in the correct place. Probably operator error. And fast is good because maybe Phil will get back to being his 'old self' once he is back at school. I can't hold out hope for that one. Phil's classes tend to be hard, and he doesn't even have his schedule completed yet because somewhere someone messed up his transcript or something when they switched over the course formatting. Also, he was having financial aid problems where the company messed up the numbers, and everything is just a mess. And to make things even more stressful, I think he's going to be rooming with someone he doesn't know. Phil sounds like he has a black cloud hanging over his head. I'm sorry that he has all these problems to deal with. You're right... I don't think things look good for him at the moment. Way too much stress. Yeah. >_ Still have my paws crossed for Phil. He is in my prayers to get his life de-stressed. Who knows if this can happen, but if it could, there is lots of hope for the two of you. Good roomies are a plus. Hope they have some influence in the Phil department and get him to relax and smell the roses.

SWEEEEEEEEEEETTTT!!!!!!!! I want to go with you in 2010!!!! It looks like you had such an awesome weekend! Thanks for the terrific pictures. I love seeing ride pictures. Country roads are much more fun and scenic than the autobahn. Your bike is stellar! Looks like it's fantastic to ride. The green is a great colour. When I finally get over there, we will have to go riding together. Congratulations on the new career move. An internship is a great way to explore new opportunities and meet lots of people. The commute is no fun as you are spending an enormous amount of time traveling, but at least you can catch up on your reading. (Sorry... bad joke.) It sounds like life is going well for you. Ornamental plant breeding project... I must say this was one area I think might be quite interesting. Let us know what you think of it after you are there for a bit. Glad to hear from you again. Thanks again for the pictures!

*tosses a tumbleweed into the topic*

I am certain you will get comments. It is very direct and should touch some people all the way through to their core. lol still no comments. People only tend to read things that they are tagged in, or things that show up in their news feed. Ugh. Another thought is that when the written word touches a spot in the heart where you feel a twinge... sometimes you don't have the words to respond. Your poem did just that.

I will let HampsterKing know. Hopefully he will get it fixed quickly.

Whoa... I can believe you are starting college this week either! How time has escaped me! Good luck this year. You are going to love it. As for your poem, you need to have a book where you keep a collection of all your written works. This is another great poem!

You are taking the appropriate steps by researching the history for your book. Writer's block is serious and it has no limits. Can be short or can be long. You can't force the story to flow. Have you read any of Barbara Tuchman's books? She has a fabulous book on the Middle Ages and it might help you with your research as well as give you some ideas. All of her books are wonderful, but the book "A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous Fourteeth Century" might be one you are interested in. At the moment, I am reading her book "The March of Folly, from Troy to Vietnam" and it is superb. As for this your situation with this friend... he needs to grow up a bit and realize that the internet is not the place to be a jerk. It is sad that this is not your project alone. You have immense talent and could do this on your own. He needs to back off a little and not be posting his bad side where everyone can see. My advice to you is not to respond to this attacks. When I say, not respond, you could make a statement on your site that you state that you will not respond to his post. I know this is hard, but he can provoke you to write from emotion, not your brain, and when you put it up for the world to see, it is there forever and may not be what you want to read years later when you are a famous author and someone digs up a copy of this from the archives.