The only next thing worse...

...than being rejected is writing a post on rejection and not getting any comments! "Hmm, don't sit there in that tone of voice like that ain't never happened to you!"

A little lesson in commenting.

Acceptable comments:

Wow, that sucks.

Gosh, I don't know what to say (yes! you can say it!)

That happened to me once, and it sucks.

I like your pictures, SL.

I realize that what I'm looking for is a little bit of group therapy, but c'mon, isn't that what these non-political blogs are?

Don't mind me, I'm having a bad day and it's only 9:15--wouldn't you be crabby if you had a dream where you'd been accused of a crime (probably murder) and the only evidence was that you had purchased 600 pairs of nylons (in a bulk pack) and now you only had twenty? Oh, and I wasn't Sarah Louise in the dream, I was some guy.

In scenarios like this (when I'm having a nasty day--today is the last "big clean" before the party) (which means, it's inevitable, the world is going to find out, one way or another, that I'm turning 35 on November 28) I resort to a trick I learned from Paul Zindel. If you know which book, let me know. It's the I hate/I love list. You start out with all the things you hate...well, it goes like this:

1. I hate no comments
2. I hate waking up with my arm behind my back (sore!)
3. I hate not having the courage at 7 am to get up and take my morning walk.
4. I hate that all I got done with my extra two hours yesterday was picking up a prescription and my beach plane tickets.
5. I hate the mess of my apartment
6. I hate that I don't know anyone else that is 35 and that I won't be getting a birthday call from Susan. Seventeen years is a hard habit to break...
7. I hate hating.

So...

1. I love getting calls on my birthday.
   
2. I love going out for dinner on my birthday which means I get calls on my answering machine and I can play them over and over again.
3. I love flowers.
4. I love comments, even the ones that say, "just to let you know I'm still reading."
5. I love my Mary Kay consultant. She is great. More on this tomorrow...
6. I love all the silly quotes that are taped on my desk so I can see them whilst blogging.
7. I love ice skating.
8. I love the Book of Isaiah and especially this verse: "I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight." (45:2)
9. I love people calling me on my cell phone even though it's a long distance call.
10. I love hats. Remember I thought I lost my perfect Target hat? Um, I slept on it Sunday night, it was inside the sleeve of my jacket. So now I have TWO perfect Target hats.
11. I love taking pictures. Here's one...
12. 
    It's at Washington's Landing, where my friend Kelly got baptised. I went cloud watching there one Monday back in the early fall.