I am suffering from a surplus of nervous energy, and it's driving me nuts. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I feel like I can't sit still. I don't want to watch tv, I don't want to read, I don't want to stitch, I don't want to play on the internet... That doesn't leave me a whole lot of options.

If I didn't have to take Grace with me (she's asleep), I'd go down to my local foo-foo grocery store. Or even Walmart. It's now open 24 hours.

Anything to work off this nervous energy.

I just bought a plane ticket to Arizona to see my in-laws at the end of August. For some, this would not be a good thing. But my in-laws love me, especially now that I have provided them with a grandchild. I am going to spend a week and a half there, which should be plenty of time. I have to make it at least a week to justify the two-hour drive to the airport on this side, the three-hour flight (I was lucky enough to get non-stops), and the two-hour drive from the airport in Arizona. Seven hours of traveling isn't bad when you consider I'll be going 1600 miles. The scary thing is it'll take me almost as long to get to and from the airport (about 100 miles to and from both airports) as it will to make the 1600-mile flight.

Ain't air travel grand?!

I'll just have to bite my tongue while I'm there. I have this really bad habit of speaking my mind sometimes, and most of the time it just isn't worth it with my in-laws. I just have to remember to pick my battles. It's just hard to do, though, because I shoot off my mouth so quickly.

I met a new friend today. I'd met her once before, and we sort of hit it off, but not enough to get together again. We're neighbors, and we met when a tree fell on the house across the street from her. We all got nosy and went to investigate. I was eight months pregnant at the time. A month ago or so I saw her get the trash can from the end of her driveway with a baby in a sling, so I assumed she'd had a kid too. Today I confirmed that assumption when I met her and her son E. R, my new friend, is very much like me, in that we both use cloth diapers (and she fastens them just like I do!!!) and slings, yet we're not so hard-core that we will never use disposables. She's still nursing, since her son is only three months, but she's looking forward to giving it up. So we're both really middle-of-the-road folks.

I'm hoping that R and I really do hit it off. We seem to have lots in common. But I do have to give her space and not overwhelm her. I'll either overwhelm a new friend or give her so much space that I'll never see her again, and it's hard to know what to do. Plus it's been so long since I met anyone knew; it's not like there are people lining up to meet you when you stay at home all day. So hopefully she calls me again and says, "Hey, let's go get coffee!" or something. It'd be nice just to have a friend to do that with.