Y'all. I have a headache. I mean I am on the verge of a migraine. I am burning up hot and depressed and oppressed and unpressed. I am wrinkled. On the other hand, we have a woman in town who has facelifts just whenever she's bored and she looks like a burn victim.

My boss has three boys. The oldest, 17, is the best looking kid in town. Tall, muscled, lean, beautiful shinny hair, great complexion, shy smile, and gorgeous face. He has been taught by his dad how to fix things and he is very confident in that area. He worked the last two summers and has been working with us after school so he has money saved. He has a nice truck that they gave him.

Now, in 11th grade, he has left home. He no longer works with us. I don't think he dropped out of school but I don't know where he is. The only person in the office, besides him, who might know won't say. It is driving me crazy.

I know he was rebellious and girls were chasing him (bad bad girls ... one girl who I knew when she was in grammar school and her mom was bragging she had a boy friend). Having a boy about the same age and caring about this boy, my boss' boy, myself, I reallllly want to know where he is, how he's supporting himself, what went wrong. But I have no way to find out. This isn't fair, is it?

But I have this philosphy. These people, while they are church members, do not attend church. I believe that kids who are dragged to church are far less likely to go this way. I want to drag DS to church and you know what ??? I don't like church. Well, I don't like most churches. I llike the one in the next town a lot, but it's so far. I don't like Sunday School. To me, Sunday School is self-commitment to an hour of being trapped with somebody (always at least one) personwho has insane ideas about something and who won't shut up. The last time I went to Sunday School, for example, the nice lady next to me explained that she won't have a cell phone because that's how they're going to find you after the Rapture. This kind of stuff scares me and makes me migrainey.

Cherry, help me with my novel. Here is my question of the day: I write sparsely, tightly, skimpily. This does not produce many words. How many words does a novel have to have? I'm guessing I'm headed to 20,000 and I already want to take one chapter out.

I just read an interview with Terry McMillan. She was sued by an ex boyfriend because, he claimed, she used him in a novel. She won. She says, "The bottom line is I have a right. I have a right to do what I want to do with information and my life experiences. I have a right, and I'm not going to be bullied."

My next novel, "Life with the cows" will be hard to cast in Hollywood. Not enough plump stars. I will be played by Julia Roberts with a thick band of foam rubber tied around her butt.

write a novella.

Cowie:
Allegedly the average mystery novel is between 50,000 & 65,000 words. So maybe you can ditch your first chapter!

I've been a church attender and a church not-attender. I think that if you develop your own moral/ethical beliefs and practice them (without hypocracy) and teach them to your children (without hypocracy) that will take care of most pitfalls... but children are independent critters and sometimes they have the "right" to go off and learn from their own mistakes.

Can you trump up some more handyman jobs and inquire into the whereabouts of nice-young man boss's son? (When being direct doesn't work, be sneaky is what my father taught ME!!! And His g.father was a quaker hotshot... (Can you even HAVE quaker hotshots? Anyway, he travelled back and forth from England to NY promoting the FAITH)

OK all, lets have a fantasy discussion... who would you want to play YOU in Cowpernia's novel made into a movie??

They'd probably want to cast Shelley Winters for me... (pretty when young, but let herself go.... and she's dead, isn't she?) Maybe Drew Barrymore or Reese Witherspoon... I'd like to be brave enough to let people know that inside my size 20+ body is a perky smart girl with attitude! Candace Bergen?

It isn't because parents take their kids to church, per se. It is because they take them SOMEWHERE. If they took the kid skiing on Sunday morning, or to play tennis the result would be the same. You never know what goes on in other people's houses. Lots of kids who look very well tended are ignored.

Conversely, many people who look ignored are very well cared for.

Kiwi, I always enjoy Dubya humor...except it isn't very funny anymore, is it? I feel about this the way you feel in church(except that one time behind the alter). It infuriates me so much that I have a hard time talking about it casually. He's going to be re-elected and there is nothing I can do.

We're supposed to have off from school tomorrow. Four to six inches.....I hate to count on it but I've just had a cup of coffee and plan to stay up and do wash tonight. This is my last week of working. Can't wait to return to my TV/computer/reading schedule.

Peaches, DD got Breakfast at Tiffany's, a novella, for Christmas. It was short but it did ok for itself. It is better to write a good short book than it is to write a long boring book. Maybe you could put going to Tiffany's with MOI in your cow novel. I will sue, of course, but it will be nice to be included.


Painty, I have to think of who would play me. What does " let yourself go" mean? I don't think there is that much choice in all of this. Five or six years ago, my cousin and her husband came to visit. I hadn't seen them for 25 years. I was quite a babe at 20 and, obviously, the object of some creepy thoughts in his head. When he saw me he was outwardly shocked and disappointed that I had gotten older. He said it about 10 times that night.

I know a number of women who live their lives as an apology to the world because they had the audacity to age. What is the alternative? I'll bet that no one who knows you would be surprised that you are perky and smart. You just aren't a girl anymore. That's the way it's supposed to be. For myself, it's my daughter's turn. It doesn't mean I wouldn't like to lose 20 lbs...but I'm under no illusion that thin=young. That's gone.

Enough...got to go put this coffee to use. L

One of the things that angers me really really fast is parents ignoring their children. And then they wonder why counselors and teachers, and--for that matter, creepy perverts -- get so much response from their kids. KIDS JUST WANT TO BE APPRECIATED... and don't always have the judgment to understand another's motives.

Lohani-- I did NOT mean aging.... I think aging is appropriate (not to mention unavoidable.... You've made me think. Streep and Curtis are aging rather well, and the Barbara Walters and the Queen Mum, RIP, bless her heart....

but only a few weeks ago I saw some ancient movie in which Shelley Winters had a starring role... and she was a slender knockout.... What I meant is that SHE GOT FAT. Katherine Hepburn didn't get fat....

Damn. I wish I hadn't "gotten fat..." even if it did happen 30 years ago....

Happy laundry and snow days for those who get them. We'll have a norther blow in tomorros around noon... but it will only get to the 40's.... :o

Very true. But what do you do if you feel like your environment is stifling your creativity and it's not in your power to change that environment?

That's disturbing about that boy, Peachy. There must be some way to find out where he's at.

I've had teachers tell me they know which kids are being ignored at home because those kids either want to be hugged all the time, by anyone, or they talk *non-stop*. I'm talking little kids here, not teenagers. Stll three years away from having a teenager.

Hmm. Who should play me? Need to think more. Doris Day comes to mind. She could wear my yellow stretch pants.

I hate to be on topic, but I exercised this morning. Can you believe it? I also ate a healthy breakfast. I felt like it. Do you think I'm sick?

I did have off today. I haven't accomplished anything, yet. But last night I was a wonder. I've been scouring the internet to find a duplicate of the clock SIL got me for Christmas. It crashed onto the kitchen floor this morning. She spent more than I spent on her. But she owes me because she comes with those other 7 SILs who are greater PITAs than she.

Sugar, I don't think teenagers are any different than little kids. They show it when they are neglected. It has been pretty predictible who has gone off track among DD's friends. We'll see if that is true of the boys, too.

Peaches, what I meant by my remark was that time is what is important. People who take their kids to church spend all of Sunday morning together. I'm Catholic so we don't really have the experience of having anyone in a youth group etc. Remember? This religion doesn't encourage enthusiastic participation. All you need is the body and the envelope. I would like to add that I think it means that they will turn out ok....not that they won't give us a hard time. Having difficult teenagers doesn't mean they aren't going to turn out fine.

It was very hard to deal with my mom during her illness. But I had the advantage of a whole pack of cousins and aunts whose mothers had gone the same way. It made it easier to set boundaries. Eeyore probably entered the scene thinking that YOU were the ungrateful neglectful child. These efforts to draw you back in are an admission that it isn't as easy as he originally thought. Wouldn't it be nice if instead of freezing up on you, he could admit to you that it is too much for him?

Painty, I see what you mean about Shelly Winters. But I think there is a real danger in judging any woman by her weight. It leads us to judge ourselves by our weight. Don't you know lots of women who are heavier than you but have no shame about it?

Can you imagine...no shame where weight and food is concerned??????

Ok, babes. I'm going to go be productive. bye

Eeyore is a girl cousin. I feel sick. I feel rundown. I eat well. I do stretching exercises. I came early. I, I, I.

home. I came home early.

Poor Peaches.

Computer is making weird couging noises. We thought it was about to bit the dust. May still be. If you don't hear from me for a while you'll know I've crashed and burned.

Just to throw everyone for a loop: I exercised yesterday. Pilates and weights. I have a cold.

Way to go those of you who exercised...... I don't know anybody heavier than me without shame. hanging around the wrong people? Lohani, you are right, though. You caught me being harsh towards myself! (Usually I notice first....)
Ach. I gotta go back to the office. Hope I can be helpful to someone, I sure haven't been helpful to myself today. :-(

Whoa! It's so deep around here lately.

I'm from the camp who thinks time spent with your kids counts the most. It can be time taking them to church, or time spent working on a car, or time eating together or whatever. The most important thing they need is your interest in their lives. Nothing is more painful to a kid than being ignored.

Gotta go. DD is coming by the office to talk. This breaking up is hard to do is even hard for the mother of the break up girl.