My mom is coming up here tomorrow. This is a great thing for her, because she never gets a full day away from caretaking for my dad. It's great for me, too, because I will get to show her some amazing things on this island. We'll also be talking about the Great Inevitable Move North, and I hope we can make a plan that works. I'm not experienced in this shift from child to caregiver, though I've upended my life more than a few times. My only worry is that I have a job to go to. That, and that I'm not going to have to live in my parents' house with them. It would just not work, knowwhatImean?

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I have been packing things in my car so I can take some things back to my apartment. Not knowing exactly what I needed, I brought a bit too much stuff up here. It's cool, and I'm consolidating errands: move this stuff, see the doctor, get a software upgrade, and see my dad, brother and sis-in-law.

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Best of all I am going to get to PLAY WITH MY CATS. I hate being away from them this long, and though they always seem to know me when I get home, I worry that one day they won't. It would break my heart.

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I've been working on the same letter to my friend Maurice for days now. I can't just sit down and write it, because my squirrels are fighting each other in the front of my brain and they just won't take a chill. Maybe I'm overthinking it; it doesn't need to be perfect and lyrical, just from the heart. I get a little caught up sometimes. As if you didn't notice.

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I worked on my new website today. I hope it all comes together. If nothing else, I am learning about how iWeb works, so eventually I can make a bitchin' website for my brother's airbrushing portfolio. He has to face it; people like his work. I gave out 6 or 7 cards in the last month to people admiring my paint job. Anyway, I am learning to modify the templates and twist iWeb to my own evil purposes. I'll start with a template provided, then branch out into my own sick designs.

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I went trolling on classmates.com the other day, and realized that they have made serious improvements to the site for those of us who don't want to pay them money. It's a lot more like a social networking site, more like MySpace, than in the past. The profile I posted had a comment space, and I put in my contact information using the words "at" and "dot" when spelling out my email address. That way their bots don't flag and remove it, and my friends can email me off the site. I've already started catching up with two old girlfriends. One of them and I will be getting together for drinks after my summer job is done. Should be fun - I haven't seen her since I sang at her first wedding in the early 90s, and she's married now for the third time! I guess that is more and more common. I mean, if I were to marry again (smack me if I do), it would be the third one for me, too.

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Had my best invoice so far this summer - 4-digit payment, the first time that has happened. Of course, it's partly because the front desk staff scheduled me for 5 NINETY MINUTE massages. They won't be doing that again. The assistant GM couldn't believe I actually made it through that day. I almost didn't, and boy was I a wreck when it was over. There is no planet on which 7.5 hours of massage in one day is considered acceptable or even do-able. Oy vey!

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The sun
has gone
to bed, and so must I.
Goodbye,
goodbye,
goodbye.

(goodbye!)

I think I heard the patriotic Austrians echoing from the audience. Good job, Austrians.