That would be me. As many of you are already aware (Kids? You have kids?), I'm not the world's most attentive friend.

My brain isn't always on this planet and even when it is, it's frequently in a different time zone, or a different historical era. It might be busy pondering the impact of Cartesian dualism on 17th century philosophical thought, or musing bitterly on the absence of the jet-packs we were promised by the science fiction of my youth.

I might be inventing "after the book" lives for some fictional characters that have attracted my attention, or I might be engaged in a serious mental debate over the shades of different lipsticks, but the one thing I rarely am is thinking of anyone besides myself.

Anyhow. I just discovered that someone dear to me had a major heart attack in January. I was so wrapped up in my unemployment woes (and in whining about the weirdness of the temp work I was doing), that I hadn't actually talked with her in several months, so I had no idea this was going on.

I feel as badly as I always do when I make these discoveries. (How long have you had kids? Have I met them?)

I love my friends. I do. There aren't many of you, but you're all very important to me.

I swear, I'm going to start paying attention. Really. I am. (Although, you couldn't tell it by this entry since I notice that the word "I" appears more often than any other.)

So, how are the kids?