Getting Ready

Friday at 5:30 p.m. my vacation started. Whoopie! And on Monday, around noon, I'll leave for quilt camp. Double whoopie squared!

In the meantime, I've started getting ready for the Buggy Barn class I teach next Saturday, the day after I get back from camp. By now, you know how I am--I DO STUFF for my students, so that's what I'm doing--DOING STUFF. Can't tell you what, but I'll show you later. I think I have things well in hand now, though. Tomorrow I'll need to run to the grocery store and get a few things and then I'll be nearly ready for class.

Physically, I'm feeling better--all the stomach stuff seems to have resolved. Mentally and emotionally, I still have my ups and downs. Depression is hard to explain--it's not just a feeling of sadness. It makes no sense, and it seems to sneak up on me when I least expect it--like it did this afternoon. Now it's gone away again, thank goodness, and I hope getting away to quilt camp for some much needed R&R and the company of friends will do me a lot of good.

I haven't been very good this summer about keeping up my reading list in my sidebar. I know that some of you have read and recommended The Help--I'm packing that book to take to camp with me. I just finished reading THIS book--

I started reading it last night, and I picked it back up this afternoon. And despite the fact that I had a lot of other things I should have been doing, I didn't want to put it down again until I reached the end. It was a good book--happy, sad, and made me cry a lot.

This evening, I thought I'd spend a little time with my Blogland friends and visit some folks I hadn't visited for awhile. I was quite surprised to find several bloggers seemed to be about as down I was, many hadn't posted a blog entry in several weeks, and a few had announced they intended to take a break from blogging. It seemed that reading blogs wasn't going to do much to improve my mood! After awhile though, as I continued reading and got to the blogs of many of my newer Blogland friends, I found my mood lightening and I felt much more positive.

Blogging on a regular basis takes a certain amount of "work," but it gives so much back that it seems worth the time and effort--visiting blogs tonight reminded me of that. I won't be able to blog while I'm away at quilt camp, but I hope to come home with photos and stories to tell. Before I leave, though, I have to finish getting everything ready and I have one more blog post to write. See you tomorrow!