Maybe all of today's posts will make up for the day I missed?

As if NaBloPoMo rules my blogging...

So. Today was a surprise in many ways. Good ones, though:

• Got an email from a friend far far away.
• Saw Sally too briefly as I was running late, but boy is Zack huge! He's three, now?
  
• Had a glowing end of the year review from my boss in Children's. And the go-ahead for the secret mission--more on that later...
• Made plans to see Babette's Feast Saturday BEFORE I got the email announcing a huge event at the UP. I need just a quiet night, which the UP event will not be.
• Kelly is still nursing her broken heart (they dated for two years and they still work together--she was not a happy camper.) But we had cheap good food at IKEA (lingonberry juice, YUM) and she had a coupon for buy one get one free at Cold Stone.
  
• My parents (go figure!) sent me a birthday card with a check for thirty five dollars and thirty five cents. The kooks! I don't think I've gotten birthday money from them for a long long time.
  
• Put in the CD-ROM order. If you caught the drama, I thought the money was spent but it was just encumbered--an accounting term I do not understand. Anyways, I spent about $1200 in electronic reasources for the library's juvenile CD-ROM collection, WOO HOO!

And that is all. My bed is calling my name--yes, I've moved from the sofa to the bed, another happy transition.

Julius Lester Blogs!!

Yes, you read right. Julius Lester, author of Sam and the tigers, many re-illustrations of Uncle Remus tales... is now a blogger. And it's not about kid's books. Oh how very cool.

OCLC: Oh, Can Libraries Catalog?

Okay, by now, if you've been reading here awhile, you understand me to be a special kind of geek: the librarian geek.

So I just found the coolest thing that had me mesmerized until I realized I must share it, because surely there is at least one other librarian geek who will think this is the cat's meow or the cat's pajamas, or better than sliced bread...

It's called "Watch Worldcat Grow." OCLC is the largest cataloguing cooperative in the world. They have something called WorldCat, which is online access to their catalog records and often a way for you to find a book in a nearby library through the magic that is Google. (Reserve your anti-Google sentiments for another post--no one's perfect!)

• Worldcat shows you how to search libraries catalogs
• Watch WorldCat Grow: a screen that refreshes every 8 seconds so you can see what's being added right now to libraries worldwide!!

The tale of five friends

Writer's note: This is an example of not writing what you woke up thinking about because you didn't really want to write about it even though you really did.

Pat's tagline for his blog, Urban Saddle, is "An experiment in writing." I like that, because blogging sure is a different medium. I give you, then, the tale of five friends, which is truly an experiment in writing.

***************************************

Don't walk in front of me
I may not follow
Don't walk behind
I may not lead
Walk beside me
And just be my friend.

(Albert Camus)

So...this morning and this evening I'll be seeing two women. I thought our friendships were irreparable, dead, and yet these two women are dearer to me than they were in the first blush of friendship--they are women that I celebrate and that celebrate me. I'm having dinner with Kelly (yes, there are a lot of Kellys) and I'm seeing Sally before work (yes, there are a lot of Sallys, too.)

Writer's note: Sally is a specific alias (all the Sallys have the same root name), Kelly is an alias that applies to most friends with the letter K at the beginning. Assume that most names in my blog are aliases.

Kelly is a woman I met when I was exploring being Catholic. I was a true blue Catholic, confession and Eucharist for about one year. I attended daily mass for about three years, while I was in Virginia, started the RCIA (adult class to become a Catholic) class there, and returned to Pittsburgh, where my Presbyterian church had a new minister. For the year I was in grad school, I floundered. I basically got to church at the tail end of the sermon every week. I was thankfully back with the women at my Tuesday morning Bible Study, women that have sustained me on and off since my sophomore year of college. So I was getting fed on Tuesday but not so much on Sunday. This post is clearly becoming about my spiritual walk, not about my four friends and I, so let's get back on track.

Kelly and I followed similar paths: she was raised Catholic, "became" Protestant during college, through Campus Crusade for Christ. After college, she attempted to raise support so that she could go into ministry with CCC and her Catholic friends and family would not support her. They encouraged her to reexamine her Catholic roots, which she did, and she is now a stronger Christian and Catholic as a result. I had a similar, but opposite path: I was raised Protestant and when I went to Virginia to learn how to be a functioning bipolar as opposed to a non-functioning one, I started attending daily Mass at the local Catholic church. I still went to church at the local Baptist church most Sundays, and attended a fellowship for young adults at a nearby Episcopal church (actually, The Falls Church, which is what named the town in which my parents reside.)

When I returned to Pittsburgh, I met a young man in my evening Bible Study who was Catholic and a student at CMU. At the time, there was Sunday evening mass at CMU and since (see above) I was not getting fed Sunday mornings, I decided to attend Mass again. I did not take communion, as I was still Protestant, but I started thinking--if this is where I'm spiritually fed, I should be able to take communion. So, the short story is that I contacted the Newman Center, worked with a nun to prepare for becoming a Catholic on Easter. Which I did. So I broke ties (not completely) with my Protestant church and moved forward, now, as a Catholic. At the time, my therapist was trying to get me to date someone, anyone. So when another client of hers told her how he had met his future wife through Catholic Alumni Club, she recommended it to me. Which is how I met Kelly.

Catholics have wonderful traditions and one of them is that Mass on the first Friday of a month is particularly sacred. So CAC had a tradition of picking a parish, meeting there, and having dinner afterwards. On that fateful Friday, I decided to try this tradition out and hopefully also meet some folks. Kelly and her friends also decided to check out CAC. After Mass, we all went out to an Italian restaurant and Kelly and I sat next to each other and just clicked. She and her friends decided that they would meet me at the CAC dance in a few weeks. Kelly and I started emailing. All of us were disappointed by the dance and became sort of disenchanted with CAC. I went to a few picnics but didn't meet anyone male or female that seemed interested in widening their circle of friends to include me. Kelly and I stayed in touch and I went out to visit her for a weekend. (She lives in Ohio.)

Can you see that I still am not really writing what the title purports, not really?

Anyways, our friendship was pretty strongly based on the fact that we were two Catholic girls. So when I started attending the OD Sunday evenings in addition to Sunday Mass (where, guess what? I wasn't getting fed) and eventually just went back to my Protestant church and did Sunday morning and Sunday evening and eventually just Sunday evening, Kelly was not thrilled. Rather, she felt that I was going back on the entire basis of our friendship. So last year, we met for dinner for my birthday and I wrote about the anticipation here.

We stayed in contact, but it wasn't the same.

Okay, it is almost 8:30 and I still haven't gotten to why I'm writing "the tale of five friends."

Fast forward: Kelly and I are now stronger friends and accepting of each other's denominational differences. We're having dinner at IKEA tonight.

Sally and I went through years of not talking, mostly because of geography (she moved ten blocks away) and children (she now has two.) We have overcome both of those hurdles.

Alleluia, Amen!

But I have two friendships that are frozen. I don't feel like talking to them and it seems it's mutual since we've subsisted to email or text messaging. Yesterday at women's Bible study, Beth Moore talked to us about Joseph and Jacob/Israel and the boyz and reconciling with folks.

After all this writing, I see that I may just need to give up trying to fix my life and these friendships and wait for organic opportunities. (Organic is Babelbabe's word for just let life happen.)

'Cause here's the thing: sometimes you know why you don't seem to have a common ground for conversation and sometimes you do. And sometimes time is all you need. And sometimes you need an intervention. But it ain't gonna happen overnight. And as my hero Jim Collins says about business: inside that black box is another black box. There are no easy formulas.

So that's the tale of five friends. It's 8:30. I'm getting breakfast and getting ready for work.

I was thirty five and my life had just begun.

(Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.)

A walk down mem'ry lane...

It looks like a book--I was about two or so, in Recife, Brazil.

The view from our porch, my tenth birthday, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. You can't see the new watch from Granny in this picture...

One of the proudest days of my life--I taught myself (again for the third time?) to ride a bike. It was a one day field trip that involved biking in the countryside in Austria. The summer I was 19.

Blowing the candles out on my 21st birthday party, Rye, NY. This was the only college birthday I spent with my siblings and parents (as they were in Warsaw, Poland for my 18th, 19th, and 20th birthdays--I only saw them at Christmas and in the summers.)

I am very excited to embark upon this next year. I hope yins tag along.

The story about the time stamp--I was born around 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday. The Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills while I was coming into this world at Columbia Women's Hospital, Washington, D.C. There was much rejoicing...

Happy Birthday to me! (updated, with more links!)

My mama loves me! I was in that "I had a bad dream I don't want to get up" place, forgetting completely what today is (today is the one day I'm not having lunch with anyone) and the phone rings. My mama loves me so much that even though she hates people using the phone when they're driving, she did, so that she could wish me a happy day. (Smile.)

I also got e-cards from BJ and Lauren. Lauren's had a hippo and two frogs singing, which is appropriate, since in our family a full birthday sing is in three languages (at least): English, Portuguese and Polish.

Sto Lat, Sto Lat... (It means 100 years in Polish and is sung at any happy occasion--like when they brought Lech Walesa in as president.)

8:11 am--my father just emailed me (so typical!) a link to the wikipedia entry for today. Apparently November 28, 1959 is a pretty big day for the town in Argentina named Veintiocho de Noviembre.

2:16 pm--The entire SL clan has now wished me a happy day. Also, instead of Thursday, Sally and I went to lunch TODAY at Mad Mex. At work, I've gotten all kinds of cards. And a mystery: I Inter-Library-Loaned a book that is a Junior League Cookbook from Atlanta? I have no recollection of requesting this book...

Also, Happy Birthday to Jon Stewart, Nancy Reagan, and Gary Hart, among others.

Enjoy the pics.

Bah humbug!

There will be no posts concerning the birth of Jesus until AFTER my own birthday, thank you very much.

That is all.

The day that...

I had such plans for today. My list was a mile long. I got a lot done, and most of it before noon, even! But then I got to Chili's and my favorite waitress's section was full. I did get to say hi, though. I went to Oakland on a secret mission and foiled, the place was CLOSED! I mean, I realize it's huntin' season, but...

Then I went over to Bellefield and chatted with my favorite church secretary, Jenny. She and I go WAY back. We caught up, but I overshot the time on my parking ticket for the garage and ended up paying $5.00 instead of $4.00 because I went three minutes over!!

I went to the new Borders, WOO HOO, looking for a Page-a-day calendar, but instead found lovely magazines. I went to Goodwill, and found some inspiration. I decided that $1.49 was too much for a quart of skim milk and left Walgreens emptyhanded, but ran into a neighbor who goes to Bellefield and a co-worker from Fox Books whose name I forgot. Of course he remembered mine, and introduced me to his daughter, who looked to be five!

So I drove to the new Trader Joes--you walk in and it smells delicious!! and paid $1.49 for a half gallon of skim milk. I didn't buy anything else because it was sensory overload. I came home and there was a message that I need to return, but I need to shore my courage back up. What better way than with leftovers from lunch and Frasier? Catch ya later. Oh--it is exactly six and I can hear the bells faintly from the seminary bell tower.

bing. bing. bing. bing. bing. bing.

oh help!

DaysGoBy did this (yes, it's a Talking Heads reference) and I just had to. I have been up since 6:44 (when you wake up from a dream that your car was towed, you tend to not want to snuggle back in...) Today is one of those days with a to do list a mile long...yikes!

Get Your Cyborg Name

...it's always ourselves we find in the sea

(e.e. cummings, "maggie and milly and molly and may")


My dad called this a three bit dollar. I've as of yet not found a whole dollar on the beach, though my aunt has.



"She's his lobster..." (my sister will maybe be the only person that understands this inside joke)

The ocean at sunrise, near Pawley's Island, South Carolina.

I'm still learning how to use different settings on this camera, but small you can't see how out of focus it is (I hope.) Waves.

Another sunrise picture.

We went kayaking. I did not take my camera along. I ended up in the reeds, a lot!

The Marsh. I asked two guys at church last night if they'd seen Dawson's Creek, ever, and they both said, never! (Not sure I believe them...) Anyways, if you've seen that show, that's what my aunt's marsh looks like. I like the houses in the distance--I do not like being in the middle of nowhere. But for my mother, nature lover, it took awhile to get over the houses in the distance.

We love sea turtles in the SL household. Someday I'll tell you the story about why.

Happy Online Shopping Monday! (click on the link--you won't be disappointed!)

Pictures, more and more pictures... (updated)

At last, the birthday pictures. I didn't take any at the party, but these were taken the day after.

The vase from Kristen. Isn't it gorgeous? The flowers are from another guest.

More flowers.

A close-up on the gerbera daisies, one of my favorite flowers.

The cards!

Ribbons, I love ribbons!

The cake. My piece fell off my plate and onto my beautiful green nylons...giggle! And yes, there was no icing for a "Happy Birthday Sarah Louise" so my ingenious guests used magnetic letters (courtesy Babs and her boys) to spell out my name on the cake.

So, this is so that tomorrow I can give you the beach pix. NaBloPoMo is almost over...I missed one day, but hey, it's been fun!

Think about it. If you are single, after graduation there isn't one occasion where people celebrate you ...

... Hallmark doesn't make a "congratulations, you didn't marry the wrong guy" card. And where's the flatware for going on vacation alone? (Sarah Jessica Parker, as Carrie Bradshaw, Sex and the City)

My mother announced at lunch yesterday (the second lunch we were having in my birthday's honor) that she doesn't know another person that milks their birthday more than I do. Well, hey. I believe in having fun, what's wrong with that? I haven't had a wedding, or a shower. I haven't had a baby, or a shower. It's just me. I haven't had a Valentine from someone besides a girlfriend or my dad for many years. I'm not complaining--just stating the facts. So if folks are going to humor me with celebration when I turn the years, I'll let them!

So this week: Tuesday is the day. Wednesday I have dinner with Kelly at IKEA (she lives in Steubenville, Ohio, so Robinson is half way for both of us.) Thursday, Sally and I will take my Mad Mex coupon (free entree for the birthday person!) for lunch. Friday, the Tech Serv dept at work will join me for lunch at Chili's.

This will be the first birthday without Susan. Our birthdays are five days apart, so she'd call me on my day and I'd call her on hers.

Amy Grant turned 46 yesterday--Happy Birthday!

What day is it?? (and other vacation thoughts)

Even my aunt can't keep straight that yesterday was Friday, not Thursday. I walked the beach twice today--once at sunrise with my dad, and a second time around 11 a.m. with my sister. I picked up some shells--mostly shards.

I'm at Litchfield Lattes, enjoying a small decaf. (And Internet access.)

We had lunch at a sweet place on the marsh. Yesterday I had crab cakes and today, fried grouper.

Yesterday after lunch Sis and I went to a used bookstore appropriately called (when you go with your sister) "My Sister's Bookstore."

Today after lunch, the rest of the SL clan started the long drive back to Northern Virginia. I leave tomorrow, early. One of the great things about church in the evening is that I won't miss it tomorrow!! I'll be back in da Burgh noonish.

I got birthday presents: two turtlenecks from Eddie Bauer, yay!, a calendar featuring verses from the Psalms, and hair stuff from my sister. Ralph and Sylvia, my aunt's neighbors from Eastern PA, who are down for a few days, gave me a crocheted and starched Christmas ornament (you'd be surprised how many ornaments I've gotten for my birthday over the years), and my aunt gave me a check which covered the books I bought at "My Sister's Bookstore": Blue Like Jazz, Pushing 30, and a few others.

I read Goodbye Nobody on Wednesday: I bought it at one of TWO Border's Books at that airport and by the time we had hit ground in Myrtle Beach all I had left was to finish the interview with Jennifer Weiner in the back of the book. I highly recommend Weiner's latest, which is a murder-mystery. The cover says "Hilarious, begs to be read in one sitting" and while I agree with the begs to be read...part, I wouldn't call the book hilarious. It is very good, though, and I think there will be a sequel. Unlike most of Weiner's books, which are set in or near Philadephia, this novel takes place in suburban Connecticut, one of those New York bedroom towns where all the women have given up their careers to raise their perfect 2.5 children.

This morning I finished I feel bad about my neck and other thoughts on being a woman by Nora Ephron (the lady who wrote When Harry Met Sally and co-wrote You've Got Mail.) It was a little bizarre reading the chapter about parenting while my aunt and parents were preparing breakfast. There were a ton of read aloud moments, but it was the wrong audience...One chapter is about her love affair with a particular apartment. Now she lives elsewhere, and she likes it, but it is where she lives--she does not have nightmares about losing it (as she did about the previous domicile.) This is a book I'll probably buy in paperback. The back cover is an author photo showing Nora pulling a turtleck up her neck (the title, the title!).

This morning my dad and I were talking about a friend of his who went to Collegiate and I thought, who do I know that went there? It took awhile to realize that it was one of the school choices for Grove, the four year old in The Nanny Diaries.

I'm a little subdued--I've been taking naps every day and having bad dreams--this too shall pass!! It's bizarre to label it as depression as I am fairly happy right now, but depression is not necessarily just the emotion of sadness but also the symptoms. Luckily, I am able to regulate my meds a little and so this morning I increased my Zoloft by 50 mg.

Tonight dinner is leftovers: last night we had Chinese carryout with candles on the pumpkin pie. Tonight I think we'll only be four at dinner--my aunt, myself, and my two not by blood cousins (they are my cousin's cousins on their dad's side) who have been working on their grandmother's beach house, tearing out baseboard heating, leaky skylights, and myriad of other items...their aunt Lilly died a few months ago.

Well, I think I'll go see if yins have posted anything of note...tomorrow I'll be back in the garret!

Internet link established!

Thankful doesn't begin to describe this oasis of time and place. Yesterday's meal was the best I'd eaten. This morning we went kayaking, with myself in the reeds more than five times. As Sis recounted it to the neighbors, "You'd just hear laughing, and you'd know she was stuck again."

I have pix (of course) but they'll have to wait til I return to da Burgh.

Last night Sis and I watched Pretty in Pink. She was the one who figured out the DVD player...

Today we're doing seafood for lunch and Chinese takeout for dinner--with candles on the punkin pie, as my birthday is approaching...

It is gorgeous out here. I don't think I'll want to leave...my aunt's house backs up on a gorgeous salt water marsh. If you've ever seen Dawson's Creek, it's like that. We've seen merganzers, egrets, kingfishers...

Tomorrow I hope to join my dad at the beach for the sunrise--and get some seashells!!

Oh, and this is being written from the "internet cafe" at the Egg Place. We walked--it's less than half a mile but you know, no one walks anywhere here...it's all highway...

Cheers!

Are there actually people awake?

Well, internets, this is it. In 20 minutes, I'll be off to the airport. What's that Peter Paul and Mary song? Leaving, on a jet plane....but I do know--I'll be back Sunday noonish!

Since I asked her to not vacuum after 9pm my neighbor has stopped talking to me--so I'm leaving her a Thanksgiving card and some of my birthday flowers. I can't believe they're still good!

I may be able to blog at the beach--my dad just bought an Mac laptop.

Yawn...okay, gotta go!

Just because I feel I need to be positive to offset the last post....

So, it's that time again. I've added two new links to the right.

(Poppy is sure to remember when I posted and said they were on the left--I still use my left hand to make the L and "the other left" would be a common phrase in the SL household if I didn't live by myself, n'at.)

I added Katy and Sandy to my "church shoes" section. I hope they don't mind...since my blogroll is set up for me to navigate to my favorite blogs easily, that's where I put them, since they do go to church. Katy lives in Chicago, though.

Badger and Behind the Stove are smart to be in the B's, you see, as they are also blogs I visit too often.

I'd link this up n'at but this is the moment where if I don't get moving, I won't get a walk. And since tomorrow morning will be spent with those charming TSA guys, I think I'll catch yins later.

This is a public service announcement...

I hate stuff like this. But as women, we all have probably done this at one time or another and thought we were completely safe.

Have you ever gone on a walk (in Pittsburgh, we go to the Reservoir a lot) and put your purse in the trunk?

Well, here in Highland Park, there are guys that hide in the woods, waiting for you to do just that, and then they steal your purse. So far the police can't figure out how they got into the trunks, there are no signs of entry except, of course, that your purse is gone. The one woman who reported it to our neighborhood list serv didn't check her purse until she was in Monroeville (10 miles away) and at the mall, where she'd hoped to return some stuff. Instead, she found that thieves had racked up her credit cards on gas and groceries.

This stuff happens every day, but as we get closer to the holidays, it gets worse.

My dear internets, be safe!

Pretty soon, you'll have to get by on the archives....

...cuz I got no clue if I'll have internet at the beach. So I probably won't be winning any "I finished NaBloPoMo successfully" awards. And frankly, I probably won't care.

But if I leave you with one thing (I'll post at least once tomorrow...) it's this book: I feel bad about my neck and other thoughts about being a woman. Nora Ephron is the writer of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. She is a funny lady. And while I sat on the sofa, emptying out purses and finding all kinds of crap, I also came across this book, which had been hiding in my second bag (you know I'm stressed when I'm carrying a purse AND a bag.) Ephron's second essay is about how she hates purses, because they inevitably become littered with loose change and tic tacs and tissues that look used even if they never have been.

If I didn't need to sleep tonight, or check the laundry's progress, or finish packing, I'd finish this book right now, in a huge bite. So instead I'll spend four minutes telling you to read it.

Oh, and take your Vitamin C. You don't want to have a cold for Thanksgiving. So far the zinc and staying on the sofa most of today probably means I'll be okay for the duration, but be careful out there! I can't afford to lose any of my good and faithful readers and lurkers to airborne germs.

Goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

(If they do, hit them with a shoe.)

This is what passes for a post...I think I'm getting a cold...

These are the rules. You bold everything you've done. I just through the NaBloPo randomizer found someone who added comments for each one she'd done. Which I thought was interesting, but I'm not going to do that. I might comment at the end.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

I think that was 44, if I counted correctly. I might take a few of these and use them as post topics. If you're interested in a particular one, comment and maybe I'll write about it! If I highlighted the number as opposed to the item, it means I did something similar or I know someone who did or I just want to remember it for some reason.

Off to do something about this burgeoning cold...

If you don't want what you want, then you're not going to get it.

(Madonna)

Went to the Sharp Edge after church. (Yes, you gotta love a church who considers a bar the best place to hang out afterwards.) At one end of the table, a guy was pouring his heart out to two other women about this girl he's not sure if he's interested in. "But what if I spend more time with her and she likes me but as I spend more time with her I become less interested? I don't want to hurt her."

I was not a part of this conversation but my advice would have been, "you'll never know until you try, and eventually if she's smart, she'll figure out when you're not into her."

You know, a date is a date. And it accomplishes something--you learn more about that person. And more, you learn how that person acts with you, something you will not get if you only spend time in group settings with that person--people tend to show different colors in the one on one situation. I think it's much kinder to go on a date and discover you have nothing in common and just don't go on more dates with that person!! than to "hang out" and create a false sense of security. It's cowardly, actually. Believe me, it hurts more.

And a lot women won't outright ask for a date. They may ask you to "hang out" but as far as a meal or a movie, they'll leave that to your department.

So, for all my male readers, (all three?) go for it. Just ask her out. Even if you have a disastrous first date and discover you have nothing in common, you will be able to move on. All this analyzing with your female friends will get you nowhere. Except that you'll order more beers.

I've been on a lot of first dates. And by the end of the evening, one or both of us realized there would probably not be a second one. Totally fine. If you want a second date, go for it. If not, move on. Believe me, you'll be happier in the end.