I know, I know... I've been slacking in the blog department lately.  But I have been REALLY busy.  I mean, I moved. 

Right now, I am really tired.  I spent a week packing up 11 years of stuff, in 95 degree heat.  Then I spent an entire weekend loading and unloading trucks with big boxes.  And then I started unpacking.  And I am cleaning out the old house, 11 years worth of grime behind the fridge and dressers.  I've never seen so much dust.  And it doesn't end, so it seems.  All of this, in addition to just life in general, is exhausting me. 

I've been busy at work lately, too.  Our golf outing is next Friday, so I've been really busy trying to get things finalized for that.  And I have a new grant coming due in early August.  And the first quarterly report is due this Friday for the first stimulus grant we received in March.  Geez Louis! 

And, of course, my hubby is still gone most of the week, so I am pretend to be a single mother Monday through Friday (sometimes on the weekends too, it seems).  I have to leave about 15 minutes earlier to get to work on time now.  My boss was impressed this morning, I made it on time to work two of three days this week so far.  Last week was not so good. 

I feel like I haven't sat down to relax in weeks.  If I am not at work, I am cleaning something, or unpacking something, or feeding someone, or bathing someone, or driving to swimming lessons, or.... well, I'll stop for now.  You get the idea.  I know, you are all busy too.  I'm just really tired, and you get to listen to me whine for a while. 

Ok, I'll stop now.

On another note, with all the Michael Jackson hub-bub these last  few days, I thought I would share a couple of my favorite MJ memories. 

I grew up with MJ, loved his music and his dancing.  I'm sure many of you can relate. 

I remember in 6th grade, a girl named Jenny drew a poster sized picture of him for her art project.  It was the picture of MJ with his red and gold leather jacket, white beaded glove, black kinky-curly hair, and dark skin.  I can totally remember all the girls in the class swooning over the picture and wanting her to draw us one.  Of course she never did.  I can never remember having a "crush" on MJ, I just thought he was AWESOME! 

And my other favorite MJ memory was watching the Thriller video.  I mean, who didn't love that??  I remember that the making of the video was on MTV, and my parents taped it for us.  I watched that video over and over, probably 1,000 times.  (That video and the Super Bowl Shuffle video were two of my faves at that period in my life.)  I tried and tried to dance like MJ and the zombies.  Never quite could do it, but I tried.  I think I might try to locate that on DVD again.  I showed my girls the Thriller video on You-Tube the day after MJ died, and they loved it.  They walked around the house and everywhere like Zombies for a week.  That makes me smile just thinking about it.
So, whatever you think about MJ, there is no denying that he was a great entertainer, maybe one of the greatest of all time.  And his music and dancing carried over from generation to generation.  I'm a bit disappointed that we don't get to see the next chapter in his life, because I think it would have been a good one.

I think he can finally be who he wants to be now.  He can dance and sing and love himself now, more than ever before.  He has no pressure from society to be whomever we thought he should be.  He will not be scrutinized for every bad decision that he makes.  He is looking down at us, smiling.