I wasn't taking a vacation...

I was actually thinking. It didn't work out so very well this time. I missed writing this blog. I missed all of you. I have not heard from many of you, in fact, I have never heard from a single Latvian. You Latvians are among my strongest most dependable readers. Imagine that! Some days I have more Latvians reading this blog than people in my own country. It is hard to explain my feeling of missing you. I don't know you and I have no dialogue with you. But, you are there and I picture you sometimes when I am writing. Hi guys.

I really like telling stories. The stories I know are the things I see and experience. I like thinking about whatever and whomever comes into my orbit. I suppose that is pretty much how we form ourselves. I have met a lot of remarkable people lately. Come to think about it, we are all remarkable. On my walk today, Jane and I met up with a neighbor of hers. Somehow we got talking about where the edge is between "normal" people and really messed up people, the ones you would be smart to circle around giving them wide berth.

The thing that came to mind was the image of a 'cat lady'. My thinking went like this: If one person has twenty cats, say she rescues them and takes care of them, she is a saint. If another person has twenty cats and doesn't meet my bourgeois 21st century standards of a good cat husbandry, I think she is maybe off her rocker. Where is that line in my head? Dirty litter boxes? Bad smell? No shots? Who am I to judge?

And yet judge I do. I was visiting with my son. He has very high standards for himself and others. I admire that. But he pointed to several times when I, Saint Julie, was ignorantly making negative assumptions about people I didn't know. Moi? Made me think. I assume that we all have pretty much given up on any idea of normal these days. It is an archaic concept, proven to be of no use over and over. In fact, I sort of equate 'normal' with 'boring'. But, that is false also. No life is boring to me. All the billions of lives on this planet have great stories going down.

For now, I am going to do a little less thinking and go on telling you the stories I encounter. Life is better than any fiction I could create. Que viva la vida loca!