Later

I was surprised to notice that it's been three days since I wrote anything here. Where has the time gone, I wondered. And then I thought Oh, take Saturday when you spent the whole day seeing your daughter's color guard performance...or the days when you spent two or three hours practicing French (you'd think by now I would be able to do a passable French accent, but when I did one for my French teacher, she burst out laughing)...or the time you took to read Six Frigates (I promised myself I will finish at least one real book before going to the library again, even though my list of That looks like it'd be interesting to read books is up to about 31).... or the time you spent cleaning out a small portion of what had been my mother's living room (you know, three months until its supposed to be a bedroom, and it still looks like junk yard Valhalla).

I did spend some time in an impromptu conversation with a teenage girl who lives in southern France, but that didn't count as French practice because she prefers to talk in English. That was pleasant. We'd met on the Forvo language site -- she'd responded to my request for some pronunciations - and we've kept in occasional contact since then. We touched on several things, including her plan to have her just-barely-18 year old boyfriend fly to France to meet her for the very first time (they met online, 8 months ago). She asked if I thought it was impossible, and I told her, truthfully, that I didn't think so. Difficult, yes; impossible, no . I added that she needed to keep her head straight, and be willing to compromise on occasion. I'm a little apprehensive for her -- that's a big step to take -- but I am also impressed by her willingness to pursue something that she wants, and I told her so. In fact, after I complimented her at one point about something she'd said -- she's obviously smart - she amazed me by saying that she doesn't actually get compliments all that often. I guess the guys who know her are singularly unobservant. To me, from what I can see, she's a class act -- and I tried to let her know that. Without sounding creepy. Not sure I succeeded, there.

But that's where my time has gone. So, um, yeah. To the few readers I have: Sorry. (I could say it in French, if that'd help.)