Blogging. I started this blog because I felt like a stalker reading the blogs of some of the younger women at church. I wanted to share my life with them as they shared theirs with me. If I had known what I was doing when I first started, I might have chosen WordPress rather than Blogger. I knew I would be posting about my reading but I didn't know that my blog would prove interesting to a different audience than I originally thought. WordPress is a more "academic" choice, I think, but I've found Blogger to be easy to use and I like its Google tie-in. I don't post often enough; once a week would be about right for my blog. I think of things to post; I just don't sit down and do it; I'd rather read. Even my husband of 40 years has discovered things he didn't know about me in my blog. Because it's in some sense a shared journal, I say things that I never mention otherwise. I follow several blogs of people I don't know.
Pandora. When KUHF bought KTRU I was most upset. The Rice radio station had only offered "alternative" programming while refusing to air anything that I might care about (like Rice athletics or programming from the Shepherd School of Music or faculty interviews) so I was not a listener, especially since the weak signal is not well received at my house. KUHF, on the other hand, was my radio station for classical music and their plans to move the classical programming to 91.7 FM was not a happy one for me. So once again my young friends led me by example to Pandora and suggested stations to me. I really appreciate MGB's suggestion of Harold Budd radio and with the add variety button I've got a great shuffle. I think getting some music back into my day has helped with my depression which has been a real trial this year.
Many, many children's literature titles and some wonderful lit crit. and reading lists for the courses I didn't take. For these gifts I am most grateful, to my goddaughter, Sonya Sawyer Fritz, and to my fellow blogger Victoria Ford Smith running with carrots.
The most important thing I've learned from my younger friends is the sheer joy of friendship and ministry. Wedding and baby showers had become for me social obligation and Christian duty. I have relearned what I once knew: life is joyful and celebrations bring us together and let us share joy. The time spent in planning/preparing (which I once thought wasted or "over dosing on Martha Stewart" as I have often thought and sometimes said) is part of the celebration and joy and that time has helped me connect and deepen relationships with some of my younger friends.