How long has it been this time?

I'm really no good at this "blogging" thing.

It's not like I haven't done anything in the past week. I've had two articles over on the Mindset, I babysat, I've been on some nice long motorcycle rides with my parents (as a passenger--I don't have my license), my dog had a seizure, the first few family members are trickling into town for a reunion... Yeah, there's been plenty I could have blogged about. It just sort of hasn't happened.

I'd say it comes down to this: If you want something to get done, give it to a busy person to do. I am not even remotely busy, so nothing is getting done. My three loads of laundry took all day yesterday to do. I really need to go pick up my contacts from the eye doctor, but, well... that hasn't happened.

I suppose I could crotchet, but I could also put that off for when I can't sleep or I'm visiting my grandmothers. I've been working on the same blanket for a year and a half now, and it's still not done. In fairness, it's almost done, and it's big enough for a twin-sized bed. (Pity I don't have a twin-sized bed.) For a while now, I've been working on it every time I go to see Grandma, which is every Saturday night when I'm home. (Yes, I'm a college student with such a non-existent social life that I spend my Saturday nights with my grandmother. But I like visiting Grandma on Saturday nights.) When I'm off at school, she apparently asks my parents how I'm doing on my blanket. I think she cares about it more than I do, and I would give it to her without a second thought as soon as I finished it if only the heat in my apartment at school hadn't earned itself a reputation for malfunctioning. Maybe I'll give it to her after I graduate.

We no longer have any Project Linus blankets in the house that I could work on, which is actually good, because in a couple of days my sister will be in town from California, which means we'll have more people than beds in a house where space is already at a premium. It's funny--the house was just the right size when my sisters and I grew up, but then they moved out and my parents spread out a little, and then the oldest and her husband had to move back in, and all of a sudden we're out of bedrooms.

So all that's really left for me to do during the day is write and exercise. But I don't feel like exercising until after I'm put together for the day, and getting put together for the day includes showering, and it just seems silly to shower and then exercise, so that almost never happens.

And that leaves writing. There, at least, I've been making some progress. Not nearly as much as I could, mind you, but it's something.

Counting Blessings

According to the time, it's now tomorrow, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so...

My friend signed in tonight/last night/this morning (?) having just returned from seeing Toy Story 3, which we've been ogling and drooling over and anxiously awaiting for months now. What should have been a rave fest of how incredible the movie is quickly turned into me throwing myself a pity party. I have no money and no job, and don't dare ask my parents for ANYTHING because I know they will answer with a question about my job search, so the chances of me seeing this incredible movie I've been looking forward to all school year are pretty much non-existent... Oh, and it might be more than a small challenge for me to be able to feed myself this coming school year. I know my parents won't let me starve, but I'm sure they'd rather not have to help me, and I'd certainly rather not need their help.

So I could very easily wallow in my misery... Or, I could watch some Muppets, eat some comfort food, and count my blessings so that I'm at least in a good enough mood to potentially sleep tonight.

Today has been a good day. I took the dog for a nice, long walk--granted, a very HOT walk, but a nice long one. I exchanged the yarn Mom didn't want for the yarn she did want, which I wasn't expecting the store to have in stock, since they didn't have it when I went two days ago.

I've finished two blankets for Project Linus, both made from fleece from donated blankets that were too poorly-made to be given to kids as they were. I've never done that before. It felt good to finally feel like I did something for this organization I've helped in smaller ways before, to give something comforting to a child somewhere who needs it, and to take some good intentions that didn't quite work out and turn them into something successful. I've always wanted to actually make a blanket for Project Linus, and I guess now I finally have.

I even got to flex my writing muscles today, not just with the earlier blog post but by helping my mom with her annual "beg letter" for the Ride for Kids fundraiser for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. She had one letter written, but wasn't satisfied with it because it didn't tug at the heartstrings. She was all set to start from scratch, but it just so happens that I specialize in tugging heartstrings, so I stepped up to the computer and edited the heart-wrench in. I usually feel evil (and enjoy feeling evil) for making my readers cry, but this was for a good cause.

I don't think I've quite absorbed that my writing can work towards a greater good, that I could potentially inspire people to get out there and start doing little things to change the world. It won't be one big thing to change the world, you know. It will be millions and millions of tiny things that you wouldn't think count, like smiling and holding doors and picking up litter. A lot of major religions are waiting and praying for the Messiah, for one person to come and set everything right, but one incredible person can't do any good at all if the world isn't full of millions of alright people.

One of the most-quoted Jim Henson quotations is probably this: "When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in this world. My hope still is to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here. It's a wonderful life and I love it."

I've always liked that. From the first time I read it, I've had that same hope--to leave the world a little bit better for my having been here. And I guess the things I did today--the letter-writing and blanket-making--I guess they sort of help with that, don't they?

That isn't so bad. No, that's not a bad thing at all.