Um.. Hi?…. Hello?…. Is This Thing On??

Is anyone even still here?? (I don’t deserve for anyone to still be here.)

It feels presumptuous of me to expect any sort of response.

SiteMeter doesn’t lie, y’all.

I guess I’ll go ahead and have a conversation with me, myself and Irene…..

“Why, Soliloquy, there’s been a shocking absence in the blogosphere for the last few weeks. Where have you been, darling?” (I’m talking to myself y’all. I can say what I want.)

“What a dear you are for noticing! You know, I vacated my life for an extended week and decided to go live it instead of write about it for a change. It was a delightful change of pace.”

“Well, on behalf of the entire internet, we really are so delighted to have you back.  It just hasn’t been the same without you.”

(snort)

Sounds more like a vacation from reality, right??

I am glad to report that I was not at BlogHer.  My sources tell me it was a disastrous disappointment.  I have documentation even…. but let’s not go there…. we don’t want to upset anyone’s sponsors.

Gah, I’m glad I wasn’t at BlogHer.

Instead, I was gladly in SoCal – San Diego and Catalina Island to be exact, for nine glorious days.

It was loverly.

The change in climate made Atlanta feel like the Middle East. I did not miss the humidity here.  I have a new appreciation for the term “dirty south”…. 10 minutes outside has you itching for a change of panties in these parts.

Eeew.

California is really something special.  We made some great memories at Coronado beach, the zoo, Catalina Island, a Padres game, Vanity and Chopper’s place…. and a day with this dear reader.

Actually, she’s less of a reader than she is a bff after seeing her three times in the last 9 months. Although by the number of comments she leaves here, you’d wonder….

Marcy finagled an overnight stay at our hotel in exchange for a blog review just to be with me.

This is the only photo I got of her!! Dang it all, we didn’t get one of us together! Isn’t that just how it goes?  I rarely end up in front of the camera…

Fortunately, we got a few of our kids, who hit it off famously. As for her husband, we’re still trying to determine if he actually exists….I personally think she made him up as an excuse not to get a matching key tattoo.

So, yeah.  California…. what a ride. There’s really so much to tell, it feels almost too overwhelming to try to rechannel. There were many times I wished I’d brought my laptop…. so many lost posts, like the meat-head single dad or the loudmouth Italian mafia-wanna-be family from Catalina…. (My apologies to meat-heads and mafia family wannabe’s. I’m sure with enough alcohol, I’d find you delightful.) I guess that’s the point of vacation.  I certainly vacated my every day life for 9 days – which happened to include blogging.

The end of vacation also means the end of…. summer. (gulp)

It’s been a nutty week of eye, ortho and dental exams and uniform and school supply shopping. Hair cuts are next week…..

…. and then they’re off.

I’m beginning to feel a little emotional about it, actually.

I’ve been brainwashed under the loose belief that because I was sacrificing so much to home school, it was the best way to educate children.

That’s a lie.

But still, I think that after eight years of having such a huge responsibility, I’m going to feel perhaps a wee bit….. lazy? Now don’t get all upset…. I’m not calling anyone who doesn’t home school lazy.

I told you I know it’s a lie.

But it will be an adjustment…. just today someone asked me if I’m going to go back to work.

Yeah no.

Hail no.

But what in the world am I going to do with myself?