Hello, Neglected Blog

So much for writing daily.  In my defense, the last couple of weeks have kicked the crap out of me.  I should have taken a vacation after the mission trip, but I didn't.  So, instead of being a sane, reasonably rested, healthy person, I am a sleep-deprived crazy person with a decimated immune system.  I have a cold that I can't kick.  I also have a water heater that hasn't worked in four days.  One ice-cold shower that left me shivering all day was quite enough, so I've been getting creative with the bathing.  This morning I heated water on my stove and dumped it over my head into the kitchen sink to wash my hair.  It was all very Little House on the Prairie.  As is this winter, which goes on and on and continues to dump massive amounts of snow on us and reminds me of when I read those books as a child and thought, "Good grief, I live in Minnesota and even we don't have winters that crazy."

I've had several major writing projects that require long stretches of uninterrupted time.  I've also had back-to-back meetings for 10-14 hours a day almost every day.  How these two things are supposed to go together is a mystery.  Meanwhile, the whole world seems to be going into crisis, and apparently I am the only person who can possibly help.  Never mind that I am about to fall off the deep end myself.  These people are not particularly interested in my state of being.  It's during times like these that I realize that I have an awful lot of friends who are one-way communicators.  They tell me things, I ask questions and give feedback.  They tell me more things, and I converse with them about those things.  At some point I tell them something, and they act like I haven't said anything at all.  "Back to me!"  Apparently, this actually happens all the time, but I don't generally notice when I'm in a healthy and stable mental state.  Right now I am tired and frazzled and in pain and cold and my nose is running and I have a pile of work that makes me want to hide under my desk and never talk to anyone again, so I'm kind of sick of listening to other people babble on about their issues, most of which are minor, and almost all of which I've heard about before.

Whew, I feel better now.