My first post of 2010

Oh I am so fired from blogging. I am a bad blogger. Bad....  not that the entire cyber-world is hanging on my every word but I like to think that one or two people have missed my musings.   Um, yeah....awkward silence.

Now that the holiday craziness is over and life is settling to the normal level of chaos which we keep, I thought I'd catch up on my reading and writing.  I have tons of other stuff to do, like clean the house, fold the clothes that have sat in the dryer for two - oh wait, no THREE days now.  Nothin' like a good fluff before folding, I always say!

I've had a very interesting start to 2010.  As I sit back and watch the world unfold, I find that I am exhausted by every one else's drama.  When did everyone else's baggage have to become my baggage?  So I've decided no more.  I am not going to find myself sucked in to all of this unneccessary drama. My life is good. My husband loves me, my kids are healthy, my cat is a bit crazy (but we love him anyway...).

And yet...
My good friend's daughter is just out of prison and living in a halfway house, counting down the days until she is out on probation.

Oooh, I must make her a magnetic calendar to keep track of her days until she gets out.

My other friends are maintaining a schedule only matched by speed freaks, their only child seeing one parent at a time for weeks on end.

Ooooh, I should offer to babysit so that he has some fun times and the parents can have a night out together.

My oldest's BFF is going through some serious family issues; being the product of divorced parents who despise each other does not do well for a young person's emotional development.  But I don't need the drama.

Yet I let her keep us on the phone for hours at a time asking if she can come live with us because she knows both her parents are nuts.  But I can't help her because I DO NOT NEED THE DRAMA.

I answer the phone at work a few days ago.  "Hello Elizabeth, how are you?"
Elizabeth is crying on the other end of the phone.  She needs to know if she has coverage under her auto policy for cleaning up her car because her husband committed suicide in it the night before.

I spend the next thirty minutes just letting her cry and offering to find a service to handle trauma clean-up.

Then I hang up the phone and go into a room by myself.  I cry.

I'll take my little dramas anyday. Those are just little reminders that I'm alive.  It's the big ones that I don't need. Or want.

BTW - I went home and hugged my family just a little bit longer that night.  Make sure you do too.