Updates

* Sunday I saw my middle child -- the one who tells me she loves my hair and that I need to promise her I will never color it.

She didn't notice my highlights.

She sat across from me at Potbelly and never once mentioned my hair.  We spent an hour or so working together on a project and she didn't even acknowledge that I'd had my hair cut, let alone make any comment about the new streaks of color.

Saturday I'm having lunch with a woman who is my oldest adult friend -- the person I've been friends with for the longest time in my adult life (I have several friends who are chronologically older than this woman).  I feel pretty certain that Jill will notice my highlights.  But then again, I said the same thing about my friend Diane.

* I gave up swearing for Lent.  It has been a sacrifice and a struggle.

The two triggers that I predicted would give me the most difficulty have definitely proved to be problematic.

I can't totally stop driving, but a combination of yucky weather and $3.69 per gallon gas have somewhat curbed my excursions.  Unfortunately the few times I have driven, I have slipped once or twice.

Basketball has also sorely tested me.  My favorite teams in the NCAA tournament, Illinois and Purdue, lost in the third round (really the second round, but with the new play-in format it's called the third round).  In an extremely wise move, both from a swearing and personal sanity standpoint, I decided to not watch those last games, and thus avoided countless opportunities to backslide into the profanity cesspool.

Although the tournament is far from over, I probably will not watch any more games.  Well, maybe I'll watch the championship game, depending on who's playing.  However, if Kansas plays for the national championship I will definitely have to find a good book to read -- Bill Self(ish) and the Jayhawks bring out the absolute worst in me.

* Blog posts on the blogs I read continue to be less frequent than they were before the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.  I think people are still reeling from the initial disaster and the overwhelming struggles and new challenges that the Japanese people are facing.

It does seem insensitive to blithely post as if nothing has happened.  I was sad when I found out (after the fact) that March 18 was the Blogger's Day of Silence -- For Japan With Love.  I certainly don't post every day, but I did post that day.  The main purpose of the event was to raise money for relief efforts, but refraining from blogging also seemed a fitting way to show respect for Japan and to acknowledge that there are far more important things happening in the world than whether or not someone's hair color was altered or their team won a basketball game.