Gratitude Monday: The Internet

Pandora.com has become my most favorite place to go for all day music of whatever I'm in the mood for. You can choose artists or bands or songs or genres. It's the bomb and I've gotten to find a whole bunch of music that I wouldn't have otherwise found.

Freecycle.org is probably one of the coolest utilities around these days. It's kind of like a never-ending garage sale that allows you to feel good about being a consumer AND lets you meet new people and learn new towns. And, best part: It's all free.
If you haven't tried it out yet, y'oughta.

The Metra Map online is yet another in a long list of amazing and totally necessary maps that I've found online. Google maps and Map Quest are equally cool, but I had to choose only one image to illustrate this - and, well... The Metra Map was by far the most colorful.

Oh Craigslist - what a fortuitous bucket of luck that I found you. This site has allowed me to see a huge part of America and get to airports and train stations on time (ride-share), Laugh out loud at least once a week (Best Of), find jobs, sell stuff, find stuff and give stuff away.

It was here that my true nature as a voyeur was most completely defined. If you haven't been here yet, you really ought to just go check it out. I'm not going to bore you with the details here that you can find there. But, do go find it there - it's just a good way to start your Sundays.

There was a time when I thought the whole Internet thing was just further evidence that we're destroying our innate ability to interact with humans. I'm glad that time has passed. I'm glad for every "conversation" that I get to have with my kids ... with my extended family and many of my friends. I'm glad I can jump over to Twitter and see just what it is that my people are doing for dinner.

I'm thankful for the pictures of my nephews, children, extended family, all my real-life friends and my grandson. My Space and Facebook aren't really the work of the devil and I don't like one over the other. They have both allowed me to find people I've lost and stay connected with the ones I didn't.

I think this Internet thing might catch on.

Gratitude v.2//Gatherings

I think it has always been and will always be that I am most grateful for gatherings of different people for different reasons. I cherish meals that last too long and end with too many people in the kitchen. My Super Power probably involves creative reasoning for parties. I think we should all just get together and sit down for a spell. These are just a few of the collections I got to be a part of. Except for the boots. I just put that in there because I love it and Hoot did such a good job shooting it.

Gratitude.

As this year draws to a close, I have cause to pause and consider all the things that have been so great about 2008.
Truth be told, I really need to just think happy thoughts, so I'm doing this as an exercise in gratitude.
What follows are just a few of the people and things and memories I'm grateful for this year.
Oh.
And, this could go on Ad Naseum, so just know that much....
This is Lauren Grace Vitiello and Luke Townsend. I'm pretty sure they were sent to me for a reason. They are full of love and acceptance and they are pretty much normal people. Without them I could not fully appreciate my mastery of the Egg Sandwich (Samich) or my ability to be 47.

This would be Justin Thomas and Chelsea Maureen. Halloween in the 80s. I think of this picture a lot and it makes me happy for both Halloween AND Christmas.

These are The Littlest Monkeys. My nephews with a TOTALLY non-soluble ink pad. It makes me remember how dangerous it is to be on the phone, with toddlers in the house, and have it go all quiet. Non-soluble is the key word here. But, they will grow new skin.

Aaahhhhh.... And this would be Felix. My Grandson (aka: The Child Capable of NO Wrong) I think he'll vote Democratic...maybe Libertarian. I can tell from that smile that he's got my back and nothing bad will happen. He won't watch TV and he's going to read Keroac before he's 10.

These are just my TOP 5 REASONS to be grateful for this past year.

My photo files are FAT with more reasons. Stay tuned. Film at eleven.

Fourth Grade Class Rocks the Adler

Yesterday I got to go with Storm's class to the Adler Planetarium in downtown Chicago. It is right on Lake Michigan nestled on this little peninsula that appears to house a few good places (mostly the Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum) and made me appreciate how land-locked Kansas is.
I know that Lake Michigan is just a lake, but...seriously, it's huge. It felt more like being near an ocean.
We got on a big ol school bus with, like, 60 fourth grade students and spent an action-packed 5 hours (or so) burning calories and learning about planetary phenomena.
What follows are my Top Four Favorite Pictures of the Day.

How To Be Spiritually Green

This is my little buddy, Auron Alfons Lorenz.
I know the picture is fuzzy, but he had just satisfied the physical need to touch the lens.
The hat was new.
It was cold.
The day after we got the hat he got sicker than a dog. Made me wish I'd been paying closer attention.
As we speak (as they say) - he is sound asleep on the couch to my left in my room.
Auron may be the guy who is in charge of teaching me to follow my heart... go with the flow... Chillax.
When he's hungry: He eats. He eats a wide variety of things and very rarely craves crap food. He likes his milk at a pretty set time every day...always about the same amount. He hates broccoli. He is a three year old who can be tricked into eating cauliflower in a wide range of ways and enjoys being a carnivore.
He wants to play with blocks almost every day at about the same time. He's pretty insistant that we re-do whatever it is that we did the day before, and that we add a little sumptin sumptin new every so often (to keep it fresh for the kid).
He wants to read either A) The Cat in the Hat Comes Home (NOT the original Cat in the Hat, mind you - rather some hybrid that doesn't have the perfect cadence ifound n the original. *Jeeeesh*) or B) Elmo's Gigantic Freakin Book of Pop Uppiness. I don't know what it's called, but Auron has memorized it and it's had a huge part in helping him with colors, numbers and the alphabet. He's amazing. The book grows old on about the 75th read, but it's one of those "Don't fix it if it isn't broke" things.
He naps when he's tired. He has to be really tired, sure. But, eventually... he will almost always fall asleep in the late afternoon. Then he will sleep like a rock and be a TOTAL 3-year-old about waking up. But, he obviously needs the nap and he will always take one when left to his own devices.
I've come to think that there is an intrinsic value in choosing to live this way and that we're denyed that opportunity by virtue of actually having a life (being a grown-up). But, I think there's got to be some way to restore a little more attention to these details. There's got to be a way to pay the bills, have fun, be true to yourself but STILL have a nap and eat blueberries for dinner sometimes.
I think I'm sleepy.
And a little hungry.
For chicken nuggets.
and Ranch dressing.
and red cherries.

Every Once In A While

... You meet somebody, or a grouping of somebodies, who makes you just have hope for the future.....
It's a perfectly fine blend of philosophy and politics and androgyny and optimism. And, dimples and youth and beauty and hope.
All rosy-cheeked and passionate and hell-bent on this one point of view.
Just for tonight I'm going to sleep completely peacefully knowing that the seed has been planted and the future is, seriously, bright.
I'm just glad you are here.
XOXO

Have You Ever Just Ached To Kiss Somebody?

I can hardly believe how badly I want to just hug this little Felix and kiss him till he giggles. I'm a total sucker for a baby in a sweater, and when he's my grandson...I'm weak and ready to jump on a plane tonight. Autumn does this to me, but this is the first time in ages I've actually ached.

Am I a Babysitter, An Au Pair or A Nanny?

Sometimes I just can't sleep. I think my people are hard-wired that way. I hear my daughter talk about it some. I dreamed of a huge river boat run aground then woke to discover I was worried. Ivan's got a report that is due on Friday and I have to get a physical for Auron, like, yesterday. And, now for reasons that completely escape me: Storm is the one who won't go to bed. Well, actually none of them will go to bed, but she used to at least pretend like she was.
Life is good in Chicago.
Everyone seems to be adapting well.
We haven't been asked to leave any public places this week.
And, yet... here I am... wide awake.
Awesome.

God Lives In The Attic

I chose this image only because I was looking for something a little vintage in an illustration, it's only coincidence that I happen to line up with it politically.
Today's sermon, boys and girls, is all about God.
I've taken this job, y'know, where I've been trusted with the well-being of three young and beautiful children. They are good kids who have done a pretty great job of raising themselves (insofar as any kid can). Their parents have had broken hearts and little time to oversee many of the things that typical parents take for granted.
Not long after I arrived, the 7-year old boy asked me if we could pray that night. He wanted the candles in my room lit, the lights turned off and he wanted us all to kneel Hallmark-card style on the bed with the palms of our hands pressed together and our eyes turned upwards. He'd seen it on a card once and that's the sum total of what he knew about praying.
So, I taught them the "God Blesses" portion of prayer....God bless mommy and God bless daddy...and all the way down the line till God had properly blessed Pikachu.
Then we moved on to formal requests, "God, please help me be a good boy tomorrow and tell no lies and not hit my brother..." Those were shorter than the "God Blesses" and stopped short of "God, please let me eat as much candy tomorrow as I want."
And, we were almost done, and my trusty 7-year old companion said, "Does God live in the attic?" And, I kind of crooked my head to the side, in that "I'm not sure what you mean" kinda way. And he held his pose and pointed to his up-turned eyes. He shrugged his shoulders and explained that every picture he'd ever seen of somebody praying, they were always looking up. And, up is the attic, ergo: God lives in the attic.
This was the precise moment where I decided that I was raised as a Christian, and to stay true to my (albeit, loosely woven) beliefs, I had to start some kind of God and heaven and angels dialog with these kids.
Today they attended their first church service. It was actually their first church ever for anything, I think. And it went well. And there was this amazing African-American woman preacher who was ALL over it. The net out of her sermon today was to follow your heart.
I cried.
Yea. I'm a total emotional bomb. Ask anybody who's ever married me or been raised by me.
But, I think I'm doing the right thing here, and I'm more sure than ever that God probably does live in the attic....

Dell Computers

Kids, Get comfy: tonight's diatribe is all about Dell.

Dell computers are the modern-day Samsonite.
I swear. Seriously.
This little Dell Lattitude (not so much the one in that picture, mine is old enough to show up in sepia tone) that I work with now has been passed through 2 whole other humans before it reached me. I've called it "My little dinosaur" and plenty of other less nice things. But, the bottom line is that it has been a work horse.
On one of my first nights with it, I carefully took it out of it's bag, plugged it in, went to just move it a little to the right and promptly dropped it on it's head from about 3 feet up. Yep. Hardwood floors. I think I screamed like a pink-panty-wearing girl.
It immediately fired right back up and has subsequently taken me anywhere and everywhere I want to go.
Kudos, Dell.
While that, all by it's self, is plenty cool.... Today I saw a re-enactment of that commercial Samsonite ran during the 70s. An extremely determined and hefty 3-year-old (not terribly unlike that gorilla they used for their commercials) slammed it closed (I know that sound from, like, a mile away) then threw it on the ground and jumped up and down on it.
For real. I'm going against all my natural instincts and NOT exaggerating here.
He had all of about 45 seconds to do with it what he would/could, before I could drop the pot of hot soup I was serving up for dinner and make it the 20 feet to my room.
My little (smack-talked) dinosaur was disconnected and upside down on the floor and Auron (the afore mentioned 3-year old) was in mid-air just above it. I think I screamed something like, "Heeeeey! What are you doing?!?!" and he lost his stride and fell on the computer (with all of his 46 frenzied pounds). All of this happened in slow motion, like one of those Kneau Reeves movies.
He did, indeed get something of a butt swat. Immediately followed up with some serious Time Out. But, less than 10 words from point A to point B (because I've heard that's the most words you get at that moment in time.)
I didn't cry even though it seemed like the most prudent reaction.
I finished serving dinner.
He wailed like an eviscerated racoon.
Dinner was great.
And, the computer is just fine.
So, Dell - Good job, dude! You'd'man.
If you're ever looking for some marketing ideas on your product's amazing fortitude, just call me.
I'm in the market for a new computer (as I was way before tonight's fun) and I can just about guarantee you I'll be buying a new Dell.

Elections and Arguments.

With a little less than a month till the election I am officially done trying to match wits with the witless. If somebody chooses to believe that we will be well-served by electing someone based on one small part of their platform, then so be it.
If those same people aren't invested enough to do their research, then I will be the girl with no opinion. I am left to wonder, however, if perhaps a little less time with reality TV and a little more time with factual research wouldn't be a better way to plant hope in the future.
Democracy is only as valuable as the people who help shape it. I know we are at a crossroads in the country and all I can do now is hope and believe.
Research could well be the one useful tool to bring about significant change. So, do your research and, I promise not to say "I told you so" if things don't work out like they ought to.

Still Being Hopeful

As election day draws nearer and nearer I find myself logging some long hours talking politics with people I never expected to talk politics with (the girl at the grocery, that Middle-East guy at the 7-11 and friends I have known for years who never gave any indication that they even cared.)
I could be an alarmist and launch an all-out attack on the misinformation that we are presented with but I have chosen to adopt a more personal approach and just try to persuade anybody I can that now is (seriously) the time for change.
We have to vote.
We cannot afford another moment of the same choices that we've seen for the last 8 years.
To ability to vote is one of the only super-human powers that we have left.
And, as always, it falls to us to use our powers for good - not evil.
Think about it.

Things I Never Thought I'd See

It is a chilly Tuesday night in Chicago and it's got me all contemplative.

Seasonal changes have a way of doing that to me.
Last weekend I saw an older lady in Union Square, pushing one of those wheelie-grocrey-cart things that you often see older people in urban areas pushing (or pulling).
In her cart she had a sleeping bag, a whole bunch of aluminum cans, the requisite boom box, a piece of firewood, what I could only assume was a backgammon board (or her briefcase) and a single ski. She had on flip-flops and mismatched socks, some way-wicked "I Love Kitty" capri pants, a hooded sweatshirt (that made "sweat" an integral part of the description) and she was wearing goggles that I thought only welders wear.
I don't think her hair had visited a brush or comb since Reagan was in office. And, I couldn't take a picture for fear that I'd capture her soul.
There's just no way, even with my wildest imagination, that I could have ever thought I'd see that.
And then there's my life. There are so many (Seriously, I'm talking sooo freakin' many) things I never thought I'd see....
Meet JT (my son, aka: Justin Thomas) and his son Felix Oliver.
I'm old enough to be a grandmother.
Never thought I'd see that.
Wow. Rock on.

Dream Big Dreams....

When I was way too young to almost remember I believed I would grow up to be Mary Poppins. Christmas of 1964 Santa brought me her hat, her umbrella, her bag, a tea set and a table and chairs.
When my daughter was 4 she announced (repeatedly and to anyone who would listen) that she was going to be a doctor. She's scant moments away from making that real. I'm completely in the moment and way more Mary Poppins that not.
It's only been very recently that I've remembered that all I wanted to do (when I was 4) was to be that person who could show up with flashlights and monkeys and socket sets and duct tape and oatmeal and hot chocolate in my purse. And, here it is.... today...and I am that person.
I am a nazi... I expect everybody to use their manners. I believe that we all wake up... every morning, and we do the best we can... and, every once in a while...somebody will show up with all the tools we need to do our job right...or have our backs tickled....or we'll spoon and laugh and sing the songs our mom taught us.
I'm just amazed at how everything you wish for will come to you.
You just have to remember what it is that you wished for.

Meagan Has A Birthday

My Sister turns 40 Today
Meagan is my little sister. She was born 7 years behind me and we share very limited memories of living in the same house...growing up together.
Over the course of the last year I've gotten to know her more than I could have ever hoped. And, she is one amazing person.
She lives in Colorado (as she has for the past 17 years) and she has 4 amazing boys. She has perfect nails and unbelievably enviable hair. She can sing like a lark and either doesn't know it or hasn't realized it yet.
When she laughs it's like a perfect wind ripping through a strand of evergreens.
She has some serious back bone.
She will sometimes tell me things I don't want to hear and other times tell me things that nobody has ever told me about myself. I value her for both of these.... Her candor is so precious.
Once, when she was very little I told her that my best friend had a tail. She believed me. Another time I told her that all those little utility stations along the turnpike were UFO tracking stations. I think she believed that till she was in college. And, once Meagan believes something it IS the truth. You've really got to work overtime to make her believe otherwise.
She still sends my brother money in prison.
She has hope.
I am so blessed to have her in my life...as are my children...and her children...and her great big ol' Irish Catholic family.
She is amazing.
And, it's her birthday.
So...Good vibe Meagan today.
Life is short...good vibes are forever.

Things I Remembered

To be fair, I may have known a lot of this stuff at some point in my life, but apparently that information got squeezed out and replaced with (what I can only fiugre is) random stuff that doesn't matter all that much.
1. You have to have the right tool for the job.
2. Even though something may look like it works and it's all good, it could be tragically and dangerously broken.
3. You really can't believe most anything you hear or read and it's probably best to hedge your bets.
4. You simply can't go back.
5. If you do lots of dishes by hand all your callouses will magically disappear. And, not in a good way.
6. Warm and clean clothes can turn a day around.
7. There really are no bad kids, just sadly misinformed and/or lazy parents.
8. Holding people to the same standards you hold yourself to will only lead to heart ache.
9. Expectations may, indeed, only be premeditated resentments, but there's no real way to live a full life without them.
10. There seriously is NO gain with NO pain.

So, there y'have it. Perhaps I just needed to leave this here so I can come back and find out what it is that I think I know.

Eight IS Enough!!!!

YES WE CAN!!!!!

For the first time in my adult life I am full of hope... hope for the future....hope for our children and parents...hope for the legacy I believe we can and will leave behind. GO OBAMA GO!!!! The DNC is taking place about a half an hour away from where I sit, but I can feel the energy clear out here on the plains near the western slope.

I actually had little tears of joy. The last time I cried about anything political was the 2000 election, and those tears came from a place of absolutely hopeless disillusionment and disbelief.

I sincerely believe we are on the brink of a change in America and I believe even more strongly that Obama is going to lead us to that change.

I wonder if this is how our parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy.

Now, I gotta go sign up to volunteer... You ought to do the same. Be the change you can be and do NOT let your dreams be deferred for one more moment.

There Are Never Bad Kids....

This is Riley, one of my nephews and king of my fan club.This morning, just as soon as he brought his naked little self down the stairs, this beautiul blue-eyed boy walked right up to me and acted like he was going to hug me.
He got to where I could almost wrap my arms around him and he smiled and spit in my face and said "I hate you Aunt Moses." Then he laughed and ran away singing something that I couldn't understand.
It's another bright and joyful day in the neighborhood.
Nothing but love love love and good times.
At least I always know what to expect.

Sometimes You Just Have To Stay Up All Night

Sometimes you just have to stay up all night.
or something just like it...
I'm pretty sure you have to experience hunger and exhaustion and a little fear and just a smidgon of hope.
I'm pretty sure, after tonight, that it's the hope that carries us forward....
Mighty powerful claim to fame for such a small agent.
I'm back in the land of no humidity.
Consequently, my hair looks like a million bucks.
Go figure.

OK, I guess I'll Run For President

So, my main complaint about politicians is that they invariably have some miserable skeletons in their closets if they've achieved the kind of success necessary to run for the highest office in the land.
I've threatened to do this for years now, and it's clearly time to either dive in or take off my suit. Nobody wants me to take off my suit, so I'm diving in.
I believe it's completely unproductive to claim any kind of affiliation (like Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or Independent) and am therefore going to run, most specifically, without affiliation.
I'm banking on a fresh and clever platform to grab the attention of big time sponsors (like Tang and Oreos) to help me sell my new and much greatly improved political ambition to the largely uninformed and scary-simple masses.
I know I will probably have to acquiesce to some of the conventions that Americans embrace when being aggressively marketed to, and to that end I will recruit Sponge Bob or Flavor Flav to speak favorably about me in strategically placed medias and I vow to post hundreds of thousands of promo stickers above urinals and in bathroom stalls in all the bars from coast to coast.
My platform will consist of just a couple important elements.
1. In order to procreate (make new babies) all persons involved will have to pass a series of intelligence and personality tests. Failure to comply will result in mandatory sterilization. Failure to pass said tests will result in one of several different consequences that I will develop with my crack team of cabinet members.
2. All methamphetamine production will completely disappear and meth addicts (who make up, like, 70 percent of all incarcerated humans here in America) will have some sort of meaningful rehabilitation and be returned to society as useful and productive members of our culture.
So, there's my top two reasons for tonight.
One last thing: Respect. Just like Aretha said... Show it to me show it to me show it to me. Respect your families, respect your mad-expensive "stuff" that you can't stop acquiring... Respect the fact that everybody you do meet, for real, is fighting some kind of battle. We just need to see, feel, teach and be: Respect.

Top Ten Things That Make Me Happy

In the course of the last 20 years or so I've seen lots of stuff on My Little World Wild Web.
Both my parents, at some point called me and said, "My web is broken"... that always cracked me up because (one) it's not really "their" web and (two) it's most unlikely that it's broken.
It also made me remember that when our famliy started depending on the Internet -- we paid by the minute. Yep, for all you kids out there: It's true. When it all began, you had to pay by the minute, just like long distance. Aaaahhh, I'm getting all misty just thinking about our humble beginnings here...
But, most recently I've had cause to consider the "Vibe Content" of any and every thing I put out here. For that matter, I've had cause to pause regarding EVERYthing that ANYbody puts out there.... You know, the Easterners among us (I don't mean Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard. Ferrreal, I'm thinking about the Chinese... Japanese... Zens and Taoists) belive that everything you think or say releases that "vibe" (energy, Qi...) into the universe
At this point, I can't help but believe that is true. Life is so very delicate and short.
And, then I find myself thinking about all the bonafide trash that's passed through my fingertips. The zillions of surveys that are so.... they just demonstrate a complete disregard for critical thinking... Stuff like "What do you think Brittany Should Do With Her Kids That She Refuses to Pay Any Attention To?" kinda surveys...
Things that just so don't matter.
So, Now it's a Wednesday night in Denver and I'm all wrapped up in thinking about Things That Mke Me Smile...
So, tell me... tell me do...
What makes you smile.
Ten whole things.
Here's mine:
1. The sound of kids laughing. Primarily mine, but a really close second would be any of my relatives kids. God it makes me happy to hear kids laugh.
2. The "Hello" from someone I love on the other end of a phone.
3. Songs that make me dance in the kitchen. There's just really nothing like Kitchen Dancing.
4. The sound of bacon sizzling on a stove top.... preferably mine. Yea, I know it will probably kill me, but... damn.... it's bacon.
5. Watching snow fall. Any where, any time. It makes everything so quiet and clean and ... quiet.
6. The smell of Chlorine.... A good, well-maintained pool...jumping a fence when you're all hot and sweaty... not getting caught.
7. A dumpster full of brand new Levis and Doc Marten shoes ... at the end of a semester... in a town where little rich kids are supported by their parents and they haven't learned the value of a dollar yet.
8. Any documentary that illustrates the ultimate battle between the "haves" and the "have nots" in any way.
9. Love letters.
10. The smell of Moon Flowers, Lilacs, compost, Lavendar and patchouli.

(and, an addendum to my Top TEN list: The smell of hippies at a bluegrass festival....Mmmm mmmmm mmm)

Ok. So tell me. I'm serious.
What's your Top Ten?

Most Relevant Cliches For Today

With great privilege comes great responsibility.
and
What you allow you teach.
yeaaaaa... there's that.
Relative only in that the longer I live the more secure I become in my belief that people with the most privilege have the least common sense and respect. Respect for others, respect for crazy expensive stuff... It just never ceases to blow me away.
And, I've seen this world where people allow other people to treat them with the greatest abuse or lack of kindness and empathy... and subsequently are creating these humans that are taught that these things are of no value. So, go ahead and allow whatever you're too tired or lazy or scared to change and guarantee that it will live on forever.

Privledge and Poverty

John Scalzi's post on "Being Poor" has initiated a whole world of thought in my already short-circuited melon. There is another post making the rounds right now about privilege. It was developed by a group of students at the University of Indiana and asks a series of questions regarding what you do and/or don't have, how you're treated, your exposure to critical thinking and a number of other questions designed to illustrate privilege or lack there-of.
I can't help but think this consideration is so relative on a number of different levels, and so revealing on a bunch more.
Relative in that some people today are quite literally raised by televisions and video games and have TVs in every room, but they've never been taken to a doctor or dentist. Relative in that so many have so much but couldn't squeeze a hug out if they had to.
Relative in that we're nurturing a whole new generation of our future leaders to believe that there really is no value in saying, "God bless you" or giving of themselves in the form of community service.... Relative in that, our parents' generation took it for granted that we had family and we stayed connected with said family and helped love, nurture and look-after them when and if the need arose. It shames me to know that our children don't have any of that nature left in them. So, yea - it's all relative.
And, at exactly the same time: This is all so revealing. The things that we as a culture have placed importance on are really of so little consequence. This revelation does make me wonder what will become of us as we evolve even further...

10 Things I Know About Me

My daughter, Chelsea, tagged me with this blog-i-ness... the object is to post 10 things about yourself and forward this on to, ooooohhh I dunno, like, 5 friends and have them post 10 things about themselves... and send it back to the person who sent to you as well. Since I simply don't know even 5 people who maintain a blog, I'm just doing this to be doing this and get more familiar with the whole blogging process.

1. I have a half-sister in Japan that I just found out about.
2. I've gotten to experience the thrill of a 10 minute Standing Ovation.
3. I hate to go shopping and really prefer the fashions that went out of style years ago.
4. I can be a collassal pain and way too dramatic.
5. I love traveling on a train more than any other mode of travel ever.
6 When our family beagle died some years ago it broke my heart in two and I'll never have another dog for just that reason.
7. I measure my self-worth by the successes and failures of my children...
8. I used to surround myself with more stuff than you could fill an antique store with - now I've apparently gone all minimal... and I really like white... white everything.
9. Even though I know it's bad for me, I really feel good when I've laid out in the sun.
10. The only recurring bad dream I have is one where my teeth keep falling out at bad times.

Go fiugre.
tag. You're it.