Penguin or Wicked Witch of the West?

This is how I feel lately... we have had approximately 9 to 10 days with temperatures over 100 degrees. I live in a gorgeous duplex with beautiful flowers and grass and two bedrooms, decorated to my frilly pinky girlish taste. My bedroom theme is roses with burgundy carpet, fake roses draped over the window, fake roses everywhere including a wreath on the door. My bedroom is yellow ducky themed. My spare bedroom has blue carpet and my livingroom is decorated with lots of collectible plates that caught my fancy and blue everywhere. My large, great kitchen is periwinkle blue which I adore. It's a 1960's duplex with character, charm and fits me perfectly. But, alas, it was built when insulation had never been considered for California houses and I have a swamp cooler vented in the hallway which I don't use in favor of ceiling fans and a tower fan in the bedroom. Being a New England girl, I like fans better. Unfortunately, it means I still get really, really hot in the summer. Hence the Wicked Witch... "I'm melting, you fool!"

I was going to go to a movie tonight but the power on our side of town seems to have been kicked out. I am hoping when I get home that it will be back on. I am posting this from work because I needed to be somewhere where there was power, cold water to drink and a computer. OK, lights to knit by. :)

"If it's that bad, why do you live there?" people ask me. Because of the gorgeous affordable housing I have added to a job I love which pays me enough I can pay all the bills alone AND a very, very special group of loving, caring, supportive friends. I would be lost without Jolene, Julie, Linda, Roni, Brooke, Susan, Kathy, Vicky, Victoria, Merry, Lisa, Nanette and David. And you know, because this is where God meant me to be. I was lead here. For some reason. Maybe it was to help a grieving family get through the probate process as painlessly as possible. Maybe it was because there were these wonderful knitting women to teach me not just knitting but how to be more flexible. Maybe it was because, most of all, that one of these wonderful people (yes, Jo, you) was meant to show me I *could* make it on my own.

So maybe I *am* melting. But at the moment I don't really care. I have a lot of people to love who love me. They may not be biological family (I am lucky and have some great biological family, too!) but they're family and they make me a better person. I can only hope that someday I add as much to their lives as they do to mine.

Yeah, I'm melting. But I'm happy.