It looks like I have finally managed to get greymatter functioning on this site. She's limping along a bit and I don't know why, but if it means that I can finally start posting again, then I'll take what I can get.

Most everyone I'm friends with will admit that at some point in their lives, a book they've read has made them cry.

This is a good thing. It's a sign of empathy.

Some quotes:"The only thing that's wrong with me is what's missing. Owen Meany is what's missing."

Like most native Arkansans, I watched yesterday's inauguration of George W. Bush with a mix of relief and sorrow. For at last, it is over!—and sadly, yes, it is over, and we will probably never see the likes of such attention again. That quiet, rural state has been in the limelight for the past eight years, and what an incredible time it was to be living there when Clinton was first elected.

The closing of this man's presidency closes an eventful chapter in my life, as well.

Anyone who has spent more than ten minutes around me in the past six months has heard my phrase, "a nasty thing for…"

It can mean many things. Generally I use it to refer to something that I really like, past the point of reason or comprehension.

As in: "I've got this nasty thing for…"Common endings to that sentence are:

• brunettes (don't ask me why; I've always favored them. maybe I just don't want anything that could be construed as competition to my strawberry blondeness?)
• geekboys (ever since I encountered one at age fifteen they've made my toes curl)
• Jonatha Brooke (because she writes killer lyrics)
• John Cusack (even I can't explain this one…)

Welcome to my rambling mind.

(I can already see Sean settling in for a good laugh with this entry. He apparently gets a kick out of my ramblings when I'm feverish, and I'm betting this one's gonna be a classic.)

Hi. My name is Amy, and I seem to have a major problem staying well this winter.

I appear to have caught the same stomach bug that Heather caught. So much for my promise of a Wednesday night update—I spent most of Wednesday night praying to the porcelain god. It got bad enough (fever of 101, bits of blood coming up) that we got to make an emergency visit to the hospital in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

We got there, and they did some tests on me to determine how dehydrated I was. When lying down, my heart rate was very fast and my blood pressure was around 110/80. When I stood up, my heart rate accelerated even more (to somewhere around 135 bpm?), but my blood pressure dropped to 90/60.The end result: IV time.