Dear Friends,

I'm writing to let you know I'm not dead.

I have had a few days lately when I've been remembering when I wished I was. Suffice it to say, it involved a cattleprod, an hour of paralysis, a lot of fear and a lot of grief -- over something that happened nearly 20 years ago that I'd nearly forgotten. I'm doing okay, though, on this side of it and I've been praying for God to keep me safe and hold me in the light. He's great at doing that. Funny thing. And I'm healing from it just fine -- diabetes doesn't affect healing of the heart, thankfully.

I am not going to be here much for the next few weeks because I am filling out all my stuff for graduate school, scholarships, and the like, in addition to homework. I have a lot of it, too, I might add. It's astounding all in all.

I had my new professor essentially offer to write me a letter of recommendation for my application, which was kind of odd and cool. I said,"But you hardly know me." She said, "All I have to do is see how you write and I should be able to come back with a reasonable sense of how qualified you are to be a graduate student and write you a letter." I told her I think my letters will be enough alongside of my essay. And my son is going to write me a letter of recommendation. She thought that was cool.

What's neat about this is that for the first time in a eight months, I feel really qualified for something and totally on top of my game. I'm exercising again, too, and starting to take off the winter poundage. I feel good like a shiny-faced grad student should.

Pray for me and my aspirations, wouldja? Thanks. Talk to you all soon.

Love,
Ruby