Morosely Menopausal

After 2 bumpy months I'm kinda blinking at the sunlight. As some of you knowlate this summer one of my boys struggled through a mess involving some buddies of his and some, uh, let's just say "hot" merchandise....there was a near miss with the law, angry parents, shame and not a little retribution on John's part. Immediately after that my oldest son, Joe, had an ugly and embarrassing break-up with his finacee, which caused me a few buckets of tears. So I've put off running for Mother-of-the-Year.....again.

On the upside (thank God there's always an upside) we settled John in at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and, though he still lands here on weekends, he is making his way as a freshman. Zach started his sophomore year at Jupiter Christian School, taking honors stuff, including microbiology, (which he is ace-ing, the kid's scary-smart). He splits his time between his web-life, volunteering at a wildlife sanctuary, an independent science project on the effects of household disinfectants on pseudanomas originosa (something that can actually croak you)...I thought Mimi would be amused by that one.

Arnie is toiling away at his job with little relish, wishing that he could retire. But thanks to my spending habits for the last 28 years, that ain't going to happen. He's still good at what he does, but he, like anybody our age, has realized that time is getting a little shorter and there's other stuff he wishes he could do. Go figure. However, we are solvent and the house is paid off, so life is not bleak. But I need to get a grip or at least contribute....neither prospect seems appetizing to an inveterate (i.e, spoiled) homemaker.

Joe is starting to recover from his hall-of-shame breakup with Katie and has thrown himself into his job with Enterprise Rent-a-car (where he was already doing mad hours). As a result he's still the darling of his district, bagged yet another promotion and plans to work himself slap to death through the holidays. After bunking with us for a month he's now sharing a townhouse with two buddies and I think they are exploring their tiki-bar decorating options. After all, girls, this is Florida.

So now there's me, drifting along the pitching currents of menopause (hot flash, anyone?) and a virtually empty nest - a woman without a country and reeealllly tired of rearranging my furniture. I have been hanging out with a relatively new set of girlfriends who have been kicking my ass to do something with myself now that I "have the time" to act on some of my more creative impulses. Evidently they think that I am funny and could do something reasonably professional about it. So I have begun writing small stuff for my christian buddies to see if I can get them to snort with laughter. If not, I hear there are openings al Wal-Mart.

It's taken a long time to get over just being "Doug Kenney's sister". But, armed with a load of prayer and a few hits of caffeine I'm about to stick my toe in the water.