all your erika are belonging to me!

Look, I don't really have time for the who has prettier eyes game, right now, ladies.

Pretty, pretty ladies! erika's got such a lovely smile. And Cashmere's hair rawks.

Jen! Jeeeeeennnn!

Hi!

ETA that I just sent you and vw an email.

And I just responded!

damn -- it is the luminous eye people... what a great photo!

So, nurselady, whatcha doing?

It's a beautiful, 75-degree, no-humidity, sunny day out there, and I am inside working on 2 freelance projects. I just finished one (the newsletter for the convent, featuring a sweet article -- with photos! -- about the nuns' pets), and now I start on the other (a thrill-a-minute handbook for people who own/manage self-storage facilities on how to effectively deal with the media if catastrophe strikes, like a fire at the facility, or a tornado, etc.). So very exciting.

They're quick, small projects, though, and so what they're paying me actually works out to a high hourly rate. But a small paycheck in actuality, because I charge per project, and small project = small paycheck.

And yet? Money is money, and we likes the money. We likes to pay down the debt, yesssss, we do.

I need to go take a long walk, though, soon. Because it's so gorgeous out, and I woke up sore and stiff for some reason, and I'm also muzzy-headed with sleeping too long, and maybe a walk will clear the cobwebs.

The Bat Mitzvah last night was really interesting. My co-worker's family isn't really even Reform Jewish; they don't keep kosher, and they don't even go to temple on the high holy days. But they wanted their daughter to get a good Hebraic education, so the Hebrew school they sent her to is Chabad (which, for people who know basically nothing about Judaism, like me, is a rather Orthodox sect).

I was dressed appropriately, yay. (At least, they didn't chase me out of the building.) Having never attended any kind of Jewish service, I was fascinated. The men and women sat on opposite sides, and then a moveable divider -- a solid wooden wall, basically, on wheels -- was brought out and put between the men and the women. The whole Shabbat service was in Hebrew, but we had prayer books that had the Hebrew and the English, and the rabbi would tell us what page to turn to, so we could at least follow along and read what prayers they were saying/singing.

Some of my co-workers who were there are also Jewish, but Reform, and they explained to me how the different sects can get into a very I'm-more-religious-than-you-are competition. And I admit, I thought that was pretty much Christian territory, but, my co-workers said, Jews can be just as bad.

It was all very interesting, and I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

Oh yeah. It's my three-month blood draw for my diabetes meds. No big. I just hate needles.

Okay, good. Yeah, I hate needles, too. I have to lie down when they draw my blood, and inside my head, I repeat, "LALALALALA this isn't happening LALALA."

Two weeks ago when I got my A1c, it took them 11 attempts to draw my blood.

Y'all can swoon now.