My own little time away

I am in Houston on the 8th floor of a lovely hotel, plopped upon a cushy bed, surrounded by fluffy pillows and a pure white down comforter with the thermostat set at 72 and the bussle of cars passing by on the 610 loop near the Galleria. I am ALL ALONE with time to do whatever I want--and that includes having cable tv in the background and checking out the latest in the blogosphere. I could walk the few bocks to the 2nd largest mall in America, but I'm truly not interested in the shopping...just don't feel like spending money and if I look, I'll want to. I did, however, spend $18 on a breakfast buffet this morning, and I made sure I got my money's worth (lots and lots of bacon, croissants, fresh pineapple, and my own little mini syrup bottle). After all, that $$$ spent is pretty much the only $$$ coming out of our pocket this weekend. While I sat at the table all alone, I read my new book given to me by Linda, The Kite Runner. I used to think it was sad to see someone eating alone with or without a book. Over the years, it started to look inviting, and I got to test that out today--it was highly enjoyable. I just ate and read, ate and read. I am typing away on my mom's apple laptop, and I unfortunately had to have the hotel add to our bill $10 for unlimited use for 24 hours, which was very annoying. Don't all hotels have free wi-fi? Especially the nicer ones? I don't have a laptop, so I've never had to test it out, but I know McDonalds has wi-fi now and I'm pretty sure they aren't charging their customers for it. I am annoyed that this apple is confused about the "delete" button, too. I had "part 3" of AJ's bday all set to post, but I was arranging some things and accidentally deleted a few picts when I pushed delete and it backspaced instead. I'm good with the comfort of my PC.

Ok, so I'm here because Michael is attending a Sports Medicine Conference in the downstairs ballroom. His boss is footing the bill for the hotel, so naturally I thought I'd come along. My kids are just down the road (about 45 minutes) at my mom's house...playing with my 2 brothers and their wives and my mom. I'll see them tomorrow when we meet for church. Michael had the conference on Friday and I played at my mom's and met him for dinner last night.

In my blog hopping, besides catching up with friends, I've become acquainted with strangers and felt a twinge of sadness that strangers can't become acquainted with me. I'll get over it..it happens from time to time, but I'm not going to change anything. I love the ease of staying in touch with people on blogs, to get insights into the lives of my friends that I wouldn't normally get. To learn about the siblings of my friends, and to see who my friends are friends with. Isn't it odd to feel like you know someone so well, then to find there are others out there (who comment on your friends blogs) who also know this friend of yours, maybe even better than you do. It's kindof a weird reality. When I was discussing with Michael my blog insights at his lunch break, he said, "Blogging is many things you love in life...keeping in touch with your friends and making new friends." It's true, before blogs, it literally pained me that I didn't know what was going on in the lives of my friends and family. There is only so much a 1 hour phone call can reveal every once in a while. AND I LOVE meeting new people! I have an insanely weird interest in details. I love to hear stories about the lives of others, I often ask questions that most people think are weird. Why do I care so much about having new people over for dinner and asking them questions about how many siblings they have or where they've lived or how they met? Because it often leads to more interesting conversation where I fixate on a word or phrase they share in the process and then branch off with my next question. Plus its so much more interesting than surface conversation. And, I think, the more random stories I hear in my lifetime, the higher the likelihood is that I will run into a similar circumstance later in my life, or in the life of others and I can relate that original story...it happens all the time. Blogging is all the stories without the questions.

Listen to this blogger (a friend of mine's sister's friend I don't even know):

I share a back fence with my neighbor Ashli, but we didn't start sharing our hearts until we read each other's blogs. We dropped all pretensions and became best friends.
and
I was reading about their hopes, their fears, their crafts and vacations and day at the park. On the other side of the country I've watched my friend's babies grow and felt our friendships deepen.

Now doesn't that just warm your heart??? Alright. Enough. Thanks for listening to my purging thoughts, and thanks for caring what I have to say and for letting me peek into all of your lives. I'm gonn go find myself a chilled snickers bar in the mini fridge in my room.