So, I just turned 46. One of the many, many things I've set-out to do this next year is to start writing. I'm quite frightened about what might actually be tranported from my brain through my torso and out of my fingers. I don't suppose it can be much worse than what travels the same route and spurts out of my mouth, instead.
I've been calling myself the "Caroline Ingalls of the World Wide Web" pretty much since home computers came along. (I guess they call them PC's or Mac's, or something similar. I can't say I know the difference.) Anyway, I assumed I'd have to give up that title once my family went online, but I was wrong! I'm so glad. Not only did I like Caroline's patient nature, but I so admired her work ethic (did she have a choice?) . She also had that great bun of hair which was a long braid wound around in a circle in the back of her head. At night, when she "let her hair down" for Charles, we never got to see it cascade--we only got to see the braid, pretty as it was, hanging down over her shoulder. And that nightgown. I can't stand anything tight around my neck at night (I have friends who wear turtle-neck shirts under sweatshirts every night of the year! I'm sure I'd suffocate or strangle), but this woman would never reveal skin that covered any part of her body that wasn't working all day. Personally, I don't recall ever seeing her feet, but I'm guessing she wore slippers.
My point is, Caroline and I are worlds apart in almost every way. She was modest, I am not. She was hard-working, again, I am not. She could sleep with a tight thing binding her throat. Me, I need to breathe. I want to be like her, though. Somehow, I feel like I've set before myself a quest: to, somehow, take the best of myself, and Caroline and make them work together.
Join me on this adventure. I've no idea where we'll go. Sometimes we'll go by covered wagon, sometimes by minivan. Sometimes, and I'm looking forward to this, we'll sneak out into the barn while the husband and children are asleep, and we'll saddle-up the most laid-back of the team and take off on a moonlight ride. That prairie will never be the same. And, maybe someday soon ( after I get my daily chores done, of course and feel that satisfaction), we'll take that moonlight ride bareback!
