Dear Poems,

If I promise to let you out more often, do you think you'd be willing to have all your pieces when you show up?  I love what you've given me, but usually I think that a beginning and an ending always bring out the best in the middle parts.  All together.  All three parts.

Either way, I guess I'll still be letting you out more often.   I want you to get some more fresh air.

Cordially,
Josie

a little warm, but not at all astonished

I love Rudyard Kippling.  My dad used to read The Elephant's Child to my siblings and I before bed.  Consequently, we still quote it. For example: 'a little warm, but not at all astonished'.

'Insatiable Curiosity' is another phrase I love.  Especially when Papá says it.

I don't have a Dad.  I have a Papá.  For third person usage, I have a dad, but no Dad.  I'm proud of that fact.  Not that it gives me anything special.  (Besides a magic genie, and ownership of several islands.)
... No.
I don't get anything.  Except my Papá.  But that's cooler than a genie or islands, so I'm content.

Anyway.  Mr. Kippling, I wish I could write a little more like you did.  If is one of my favorite poems.

We drove my sister to her husband and new home in North Carolina.  Summers may be short there, but they are compensatingly humid.  Compensatingly should be a word.

I think that if someone took all the discomfort available during the long, dry summer out in this desert and compressed it so that it took up as little time as possible, the result would be summer out by the Atlantic Ocean.  Hot; Humid; No cooling off at night.  (I think the absence of actual mountains contributes to the absence of cooler evenings.)

Anyway, besides the instant-stickiness, North Carolina has very little worth complaining about.  I loved it there.  I want to go back soon.  (My desire to return is probably heavily influenced by family,  but scenery plays a significant roll too.)

So.  Driving, trees, restaurants, beach, museum, cameras, Knudsens, refrigerator, Target.  Those are words that came to mind as far as "NC Highlights" goes.

Other trip highlights include (but are not limited to): Lizzie, dark chocolate, Hampton Inn in New Albany, Indiana, driving home through the canyon.

But I'm back now.  A little warm, but not at all astonished.

Yep.
The end.
Josie

oainaflkae

Smacking the keyboard with my fingers can sometimes solve a problem.  [see this post's title]


Right now, I'm sitting on Sean's bed.  He's sitting at his macasaurus with his new computer game.  Ashton is here too.

This was a few minutes ago:

Sean was playing his game.  

He'd been explaining things to Ashton as he played, 

but had been silent for a short while.  

Both were fixedly staring at the screen like it was a professor teaching them a lecture.

I wasn't paying much attention to them.  

I was reading on the bed behind them.  

But then Ashton moved, and the corner-of-my-eye noticed.  So I turned to watch him.

He maintained his trance-stare as he slid off the stool.  

He snuck his legs in front of Sean's, 

whose trance was also left unbroken.  

Ashton tiptoed as Sean lifted.  

Fluidly, 

mundanely, 

colorlessly, 

Ashton sat on Sean's lap.  

And nothing happened. 

 The game kept going.

              But it was great!  I'm still smiling from it!
I like brothers.
:)
Ya todo.
Jo

well, i can't say that i met him, but...

(this all happened last friday at my cousin's wedding:)

The first time I saw him, he was giving a bottle of water to the homeless woman standing at the corner, showing her cardboard sign to tourists and temple-goers.  I looked away to check that my sisters and brothers were with me, and when I looked back, he was walking away, back to where he'd come from.

I led my sisters and brother onto the temple grounds, where we met up with my dad and older sister.  After a while, the heat and things had us all feeling impatient, so we decided to wait for my mother inside the visitor's center.  As we walked around the outside wall ('cause you can't go straight from the temple grounds to the visitor's center.  You have to go out and around) we clung to the bit of shade that the wall provided.  This made it harder to walk side by side.  I ended up behind most of my family by the time we got to the visitor's entrance for Temple Square.  It was right outside that entrance where I saw the man from before.  The one who'd given that woman a bottle of water.

I looked at him and smiled.  He smiled back and said, "Spare something for someone in need?" as he held his cardboard sign.
I apologetically replied, "I'm sorry, I don't have anything,"  which was true, unless he needed a fine-tip pen, or a blank black book full of words a stranger had written.
He continued to smile with a new understanding look, and then said in the same friendly tone he'd used before, "Pray for me then." 
My smile got even bigger.  It did.  I felt it.  I didn't control it, it did it all by itself!
I said "I will!" and continued trying to keep up with my family.

I had to take a few long strides to walk next to my younger sister's again.  They both have longer legs than I do, darn it.

It was a while before my smile returned to a normal size.

I mean, that guy is COOL.  He has nothing, but he's incredibly generous.  (He gave half of the water he'd obtained to that other woman!)  He sees plenty of faces every day that belong to people with much more than he has, but he's still so friendly!  I couldn't offer him anything tangible.  But whether or not I happened to be the praying sort, he asked me to pray for him.  He understood that I couldn't give him something that day, but he knew of another way I could help him.  He asked, without hesitation.

That guy is COOL!

I really respect him.  And admire him.  He seemed to have so much happiness in him, and he just wanted it to be spread around.  Generous!

Man, that guy is cool.
That's that.
Josie

i don't do anything on the computer these days

It's not like there are a shortage of computers in my house. 

It's not like I don't write.  (LOTS.)

It's not like I have nothing to do on the computer.

I just don't.  

Olivia has been using my computer while she's staying here....  

Ummmm, That's all I've got.

As far as saying stuff goes, I officially have nothing.

... That doesn't happen very often.  

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, five minutes later, that still hasn't changed.  So I'll just click publish.  Yup.

That's all.

jos