I realize I don’t blog as much as I should. I’m sitting here right now while Long-Suffering Spouse, WonderBoy, and La Princessa are recovering from a walk with the buttercup (which temporarily ended my daily Dora the Explorer purgatory), thinking about stress. They say confession is good for the soul. You know why? It relieves stress. You’ve admitted your secrets, someone has reacted – either better than you imagined or worse than you feared – and they’re no longer knocking around inside you, making you crazy with guilt, shame, and dread of someone finding out. So here are my confessions, and with any luck my stress will become yours be much relieved.

Confession #1: We went to a new disbursement system for student aid at work. After twelve years of doing what I do as efficiently as I possibly can, I no longer know how to do a good portion of my job. This has the potential to make me crazy, but when I feel the tension amping me up, I close my office door and find my zen (usually my Daily Sanity playlist or a Harry Potter audiobook). My door is closed all the time now…

Confession #2: I’m way, way, way far behind in my writing. I had thought to have the next Harper & Lyttle book done by now – or the next Devil’s Mansion book – but it’s looking like I won’t have either done until the end of the year. Time-sucks abound in my abode. This has the potential to make me more than crazy; I hate when I want to write but can’t squeeze it in because of someone else’s demands on my time, and there are demands here that I can’t refuse. When I find myself feeling super-resentful a little frustrated, I remind myself that I can only do what is within my power to do, which is drink a couple fingers of scotch. Or four.

Confession #3: I love the Fourth of July, but I hate going anywhere. I shouldn’t be allowed out in crowds don’t do well in crowds (it’s that lack of patience thing). Thankfully, BFF & fam may be coming over if the BFF is feeling better by tomorrow, and we’ll burn the neighborhood down grill to our hearts’ content and drink beer & coolers & generally do nothing but eat and gain back the weight I lost doing Zumba. Yeah, about those Zumba DVDs…

Confession #4: No, really, about those Zumba DVDs… I did Zumba faithfully for a couple of months. Started seeing a difference in my curves. Got distracted (oh look, a squirrel!). Haven’t touched them since April March. Again, started seeing a difference in my curves, but it’s a backwards decline. I really will get back to them. Honest.

Confession #5: I wasn’t paying attention to the stove tonight and cooked the potatoes too long, and now they are useless for anything potato salad. All ten pounds of them. So now La Princessa has gone to the store for the second fourth time today for holiday dinner fixings.

Confession #6: I’m really not as organized as you I think I am. I may put things in a place I’m sure I’ll remember and where I think they will be safe, never to see them again. Apparently, black holes aren’t great places to store important things…

Confession #7:  I don’t do drugs, never had much use for them. It’s a stretch to get me to take even antibiotics through their full course. But I love that movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. That has nothing to do with anything else in this totally pointless blog post. I just thought I would be upfront about that before you scratch your head and wonder if you should point out that that has nothing to do with anything about this blog post. I’m random like that. Squirrel!

Aside from all that, Happy Independence Day! I’m so grateful for the freedoms we’ve been given that allow me to bore you to death entertain you with these totally pointless blog posts, and look forward to torturing entertaining you in the future, should you not axe me from the list of blogs you follow. And I promise to pull my crap together and stop drinking remove all the distractions and finish those books.