So many ideas for posts have been rolling around in my head, and I just haven’t had time to get to them. I miss having time. Do y’all ever feel like you are meeting yourself coming and going? How do you make things slow down??

Right now, I should be getting ready to go to work, but decided I had to write something for Thursday Thirteen. Here are thirteen things I wish I had time to write about:

1. On my nearly seven hour road trip down here to Beaumont, Texas to work I was playing a very eclectic mix of music! One minute it was big band music, then it was country. I went from rocking out to music from Queen to whining along with Patsy Cline. I crooned with Frank Sinatra and wept at Johnny Cash ballads. There was Celtic music followed by polka and then the blues. There were at least 13 different musicians, and some of them might have been new to you. I wanted to put YouTube videos in a post, but when I got to the hotel and started trying to find videos of my favorites, I found that the videos played on my computer in a very wonky fashion. You deserve better than that. I don’t know if they were playing so poorly because of the internet connection here, YouTube, Safari, or just the quality of the videos, but I wasn’t pleased with the results. Darn. I really wanted to play some music for you. It’s on the back burner.
2. Yesterday I had only one performance in the day and got to explore Beaumont a little. I did some vintage shopping and thought I might tell you about it. But, I had to work on my plans for a writing workshop I have to give to 3rd graders here this week, so I didn’t get the pictures taken. Beaumont deserves better treatment than I give it, so I will have to get around to it.
3.

I’ve got this gas mask hanging in my bathroom as a joke (actually, I tell Mr. Tucker it’s a joke, because I don’t want to hurt his feelings). I’ve been trying to come up with something to tell you about it, but it’s evading me.
4. Sherry at Yellow Rose’s Garden and Barbara at Knitting Passions have graciously agreed to work an a special project for Share A Square. Y’all may be aware that some folks are putting together 140 crocheted afghans for children with cancer at Camp Sanguinity. Each square of the afghans has a tag on it indicating who made that particular square. We had given an afghan to Matty’s grandson, and he was fascinated by them. We thought it might be special to create some cloth drawstring bags to hold them. Maybe you don’t know how to crochet, but know how to sew? Maybe you are a weaver? If you’d like to make a bag, check with these ladies to have them tell you more.
5. Dear Dora has her own webspace now, and I’ve been meaning to have a contest to get y’all to write letters to her.

She is confused about whether she writes a “Dear Abby” type of column or a “Heloise’s Hints” type of column. Go ahead and write to me if you have some idiotic question and you want a smart aleck answer. She’s coming soon to a computer near you.
6. My sweet blogging friend Vixen had a post a long time back called “Pay It Forward.” She offered to send a handmade gift to the first three people who commented and said they wanted one. The only stipulation is that they had to “pay it forward.” Do you remember the movie? I commented, and I’ve been meaning to pay it forward. So, here it is:

I will send a handmade gift (sometime during the next 365 days) to the first three people who say they want one. I don’t know what it will be. You must make the same offer on your own blog and pay it forward.

7. Shoot. I’m out of time!

I have to leave in the next thirty minutes to get to a school. So, I’ll end with an apology. I really am sorry that I don’t get to visit and read much. There was a time, before Share A Square came into my life, that I was able to visit blogs for hours a day. I was proud that my blog seemed to almost be a “meeting place” for people, and I know that some of the folks on my blogroll gained regular readers when I mentioned them in posts and linked to them. I don’t get to do that much anymore. I don’t even get to answer comments much these days. I keep hoping that will change soon.

I keep hoping.

Occasionally, people make comments that make me feel as if I am being chastised for not visiting. I would ask that you please don’t take my lack of visiting personally. I have quite a few things going on in my world (as we all do). The choices are hard to make sometimes. If I have a spare moment, I can work on coordinating an effort to get 140 afghans made for children with cancer, I can make time to write a post for my own blog, I can do the real work that pays me the money to have a computer, I can attempt to have a life with my family(without which all else is meaningless)—–or I can visit blogs.

Which should I choose?

I’m really trying hard. I want to visit everyone. All I ask is that if you want to chastise me, please do it in a personal e-mail instead of a comment.

Y’all go make it a good Thursday.