Dear Stewart,

Good morning!

Well, it's the second day in a row where I was awake before 7 a.m. (it's the weekend: I get up at 5 a.m. Monday through Thursdays). Yesterday I was up so early I had to turn a light on in the living room when I came out here to mess around with my computer.

I'm not very happy about this. Sleeping in is a treat.

I'm making my mom an iPod for her birthday, which is in two weeks. I've been uploading all kinds of music I think she'll like (gospel, some country, a tone of Frank Sinatra and Perry Como, etc.) and taking steps to ensure that her music is not mixed in with my music. My boss helped me a lot in this process - she loaned me all her Il Divo CDs, among other selections. The caretaking goes both ways: I would hate for my mom to be scanning the music in her iPod and come across, I don't know, Slayer. I'm pretty sure my mom wouldn't like Patti Smith, either. She has at her house a special collection of "praise and worship" CDs that I need to upload (I found some similar music at the library). I was going to try to do that while I was at her house - but she got suspicious about what I was doing. She really likes her Jimmy Swaggart.

Right now I'm just sitting here, listening to music while watching Beatles videos (sound down) on VH1 Classic. There's a glare on my face from the sun rising over the garage, and it's colder right now at 8:53 a.m. than it was last night coming home from Santa Monica at 10:00 p.m. That little bit of info is fascinating to me this morning but I understand if you're not as interested as I am.

Well, I just wanted to say hello. I hope you're doing well. I watched a video yesterday about Sudan365, and I loved seeing you at about the 2:30 mark. I've been reading about that and what it's all about; so far it seems like a great cause, so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

If today's letter seems boring... I apologize. I think I'm sleepy, and still a little confused about something that happened last night.

Love you,
Irene