Who stole my can of White Rain hairspray?

This probably says something about me. And I'm sure I'd know what that "something" was if I wasn't so busy reading my Sassy magazine, staring longingly at the Johnny Depp poster on the back of my door, and yelling at my mom about how SHE JUST DOESN'T UNDERSTAND!




Who do I think I'm fooling---we all know it's an Alec Baldwin poster.
Pick me up for the dance at 6:45 sharp. Don't be late!

Ped Egg Update

Some of you aren't fully aware of how truly geeky I am. Or maybe you are. Maybe all these years I haven't been hiding it nearly as well as I think I have.

Last night I sat on my bed for probably thirty minutes eating gummy worms, drinking a gin and tonic, watching a Saturday Night Live: Best of Alec Baldwin special, and using my Ped Egg to file the bottoms of my feet until they were the velvety soft texture I craved. (This was, quite possibly, the most exciting Tuesday night of my life.) Beauty Guru was correct---it is awesome. She had told me not to worry about the collected shavings looking like Parmesan cheese and she was right, again. The consistency was finer, more like dust or powder. Plus, even after all my filing my egg wasn't nearly as filled as the one in the advertisement below. Either that woman's pre-Ped Egg foot was similar to the back of an alligator, or she has been saving her foot shavings for quite some time. Whatever the case, I'm happy to say that the actual foot skin dumpage part of the process does not have nearly the gross out factor that the ad implies.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, my feet were looking kinda rough. Now they aren't. It's worth the ten bucks.

No I haven't bought it. Yet

If you know me at all then you know that I am constantly waging a war with the part of me that wants to spend money. Lately, I think I'm winning. I haven't really been buying too many non-necessities. The UPS man hasn't come to see me too much lately. Even the mail man hasn't had to get out of his mail truck to bring the usual armful of purchases that don't fit in the mailbox.

I'm about to concede defeat though because of The Ped Egg:
When I first saw the commercial for The Ped Egg I thought, "Gross." But over time, and through the magic of marketing, I have become desensitized to the idea of having a container full of my used foot skin.

I mentioned the Ped Egg to resident beauty guru, and my best friend, Dawn. The following is a transcript of a conversation that she and I had:

"Have you heard of the Ped Egg?"

" I have it.....it's awesome!"

"Really? You are too cool."

"Yep...it even worked on my husbands feet."

"You are my new idol."

Sooooooo...... I guess the point is that I'm probably going to shell out the ten bucks and purchase the Ped Egg. It is beauty guru approved.(When I empty my foot skin shavings though I have to admit it's going to be hard to stop thinking it looks like the parmesan cheese they sprinkle on your salad at The Olive Garden.)

Ped Egg, you may have kept me from winning this battle with my finances, but I'm still winning the war.

Weekly Update: Earth Week Edition

I wasn't going to do an update this week because I've been posting my heinie off all week and I didn't feel I had too much more left to say but then a few thoughts came to me. This will probably be an abbreviated update though.

Earlier in the week I got my Publix Greenwise flyer in the mail. On the back of the cover was a recipe for a black bean/mango salad that caught my eye right away. Now this is going to sound slightly psychotic and possibly piggy, but I've been thinking about that salad for days now. I guess I wasn't the only one in the family dreaming of it because this morning when I asked Jay if he would run to the store to get the stuff for it, he had his shoes on and was out the door almost before I could get the words, "Get enough stuff to double the recipe!", out of my mouth. Pretty soon he and the boy were in the kitchen slicing and dicing. No, not because they are my kitchen slaves, but because Jay loves all things cooking related and the boy wants to be a chef when he grows up. Here is the fruits (and veggies) of their labor:I knew that Jay and I would like this, but I didn't expect the boy to enjoy it as much as he did. I think the fact that he aided in the preparation really made him appreciate it more. The salad is great on it's own but I chose to stuff mine in some pita bread, not because it really needed anything but because I like to carbo-load as if preparing to run a marathon at any given moment.

After my pig out I went book buying with my mom. There is a used book store that we found out about a few weeks ago that we've been wanting to go to. It's not your typical book store though. It's located in an industrial park and only open the second and fourth weekends of the month. Before I got there I was expecting it to be not very organized and almost like a warehouse. I was wrong. The building was divided off into little rooms and each room was a specific section. Most sections were even fairly well alphabetized. Because we had the kidlets with us, we weren't able to really spend as much time looking over everything as we would have liked, but I did quickly find "Diet for a Small Planet" in the Health and Nutrition section. I've had this book on my Powells.com wish list for over a year so being able to get it for only fifty cents was pretty exciting. The boy got some comic books and my mom got eight books for $7.00. I really hope to go back again soon, but without a nine year old boy constantly whining, "How much longer are we going to be here?"

One reason I'm excited about finally getting "Diet for a Small Planet" is that Jay and I want to institute one meat free day a week. Probably Meatless Monday---another idea stolen from the Publix Greenwise flyer. This probably isn't going to be too hard because other than relying too much on chicken, we don't eat a lot of meat to begin with. The tricky part is going to be sure that I have enough stuff on hand for a meat free day every Monday. Plus, I only have a few truly meat free meals in my repertoire so I need to do some research---which is where the book is going to come in handy since it's filled with vegetarian recipes. Meatless Monday is going to involve some planning ahead so we don't end up eating a lot of Honey Nut Cheerios and macaroni and cheese.

This update is already much less abbreviated than I had planned so I'm closing it out now. Before I go I want to apologize for using the term "Earth Week" in the title. I've been hearing it overused all week and it's starting to bug even me so I hated falling into the trap of using it myself. But what the hell...it fit.

The warm Florida weather is officially here

A mosquito just landed in my sangria. What does it say about me that I fished the bastard out and kept drinking?

Ongoing Home Improvements

I know what you're thinking. What's with the boring picture of some stupid shutters? And you would be right...it is a boring picture. But let me tell you a little story about those shutters. The space in my home that is in the above picture has been through a lot in the past few days.

On the other side of those shutters is my ugly ass kitchen. The picture was taken from the family room. Everything on the family room side of the shutters is an addition that was added on to the house about ten years ago. Up until about five days ago, there used to be a window where there are now shutters. This window made sense ten years ago, when the kitchen looked out into the backyard. But now that it looks out into my family room, a window just seemed stupid and looked ugly. I've been wanting to do something about that window for a while but there were always more important things to be taken care of. Actually, there are still more important things to be taken care of. We just couldn't stand that window any longer.

Everyone we talked to said that removing a window is a breeze. We even had a fancy schmancy window guy* come out a few months back for an unrelated reason and he said that there are anywhere from 6-10 screws in the window frame, remove them and then out pops your window. Easy enough. Except of course, that the window is in our monster house where nothing is ever easy.

As Jay began the project, he soon learned that when the addition was built, the builder drywalled over the window frame. The frame couldn't just be popped out, because it was now in between two walls of our house. Jay had to remove hunks of our walls to get to the window, which then had to be cut out. Then he had to repair the wall, build a window sill, paint it, and then he could install the shutters.

A project we thought would take maybe a day, ended up taking almost a week to complete. But it was definitely worth it. I keep the shutters closed so that I don't have to look into ugly ass kitchen from the family room. Plus, if the sunlight hits them just right, I can sort of pretend I live in a beach house in the Hamptons. Sort of.

*When fancy schmancy window guy came out we were toying with the idea of replacing all the windows in the house with energy efficient ones. I naively thought this would cost about $1000 at the most. My number was off by about $10,000. Fancy schmancy window guy was sent on his merry way.

Happy Earth Day!

I first heard of Earth Day from one of my middle school teachers. Her name was Charlotte Garrigan and she was, in my eyes anyway, a hippie. She wore little makeup and she just seemed.....earthy. At that time, in the late 1980's, the cause was saving the whales. Miss Garrigan knew a lot about whales and sea life. Actually she knew a lot about environmental causes in general---before it was cool. I think that's why I liked her so much. She wasn't all talk and she wasn't full of shit. She knew her stuff and she lived it. I'm not naive enough to think that one person can clean up what we've done to this planet, but I think there is something to be said for just doing your part, however small it may be.


Our family has spent the last few days thinking of ways to do our small part. Last night we had tofu stir fry for dinner. Surprisingly, the kids liked it. Today's dinner will be a meat free pasta dish.

Jay rode his bike to work today and yesterday. Considering this is about ten miles round trip, I think he deserves a bit of applause.

I had planned on reducing the families carbon footprint a bit by not doing laundry today, but the chihuahua did something very bad and disgusting to the boy's comforter last night so unfortunately I have to do some laundry. And it will be in water that is extremely heated.

I honestly don't know if all my planet saving habits really make a difference. But I don't think there is anything wrong with having, and teaching your children to have, respect for the world around you.
Jay and I bought the above pint glasses at Urban Outfitters last year. Okay, the message is a little different than the one Miss Garrigan preached, but I still think of her every time I use one.

When all else fails, resort to flattery

Every Monday my son brings home a folder with all his school work in it from the previous week. Every Monday I anxiously open the folder never really knowing what to expect. It could be great. It could be ugly. This Monday it was very, very ugly.

Out of the seven assignments, only one had an "A" at the top. This assignment was at the back of the stack. I really wish it had been at the beginning because maybe it would have diffused the blow of the assignments that had 40% and 55% scrawled in red. The worst part of this was that they were open book assignments! There is really no logical reason to get an "F" on anything that you can use your book on. You're not required to know anything other than how to turn the page until you find the correct answer. It takes a special kind of lazy to get an "F" on an open book assignment.

After the long discussion about how getting good grades is important, we sat down to work on his spelling practice test. All the words this week are contractions. He, like probably most kids his age, has problems with contractions. Out of twenty words on the test he misspelled ten of them. The rules of the practice test are that for every word you misspell you have to re-write it on the back five times. For each word I put an X by, his jaw dropped a little lower and I could tell he was not happy with having to write so many words. Pretty soon he began to fan his face with his hand and then said, "Wow. Is it getting hot in here...or is it just my mom?"

I really don't know where he thought this was going to get him but I had to laugh. But this kind of garbage doesn't work on me. Just ask my husband.

Farm to Family Music Festival

As most know, the Family and I drove out to Alachua yesterday to attend the Farm to Family music festival. The farmers have been having this festival for three years but I had never heard of it until my mom's favorite band, The String Kings, notified her that they'd be playing there. I'm so glad they did because we had a blast and it was something I probably wouldn't have heard of otherwise.

This woman worked the ticket booth and was super nice. She got quite a workout twirling and lifting her arms heavenward. It takes me three glasses of wine to be this free spirited

There was about half a dozen or so vendors selling snacks, baked goods, organic dishes, handmade clothes, and various other odds and ends. But there was no pressure or obligation to buy anything. We brought our own cooler and snacks, but my son still helped the vendors rake in a hefty profit by using the festival as a reason to eat non stop for the better part of six hours. He's a growing boy I guess.

Boy Eating

The musical acts were varied but all equally awesome. I've mentioned The String Kings before but never in great detail. They have a huge list of songs they play (see their website for full list). It's mostly classic rock but they throw in a lot of songs by more recent artists as well, like Jack Johnson. Vocally these guys are superb and the music is flawless. Plus they always look like they are having the best time. I can't say enough nice things about them. (And no my mom didn't pay me to say that.)

The String Kings (I have to apologize for not getting all the
band members in the picture. All photos were
taken from the spot I kept warm on the grass.)

Another standout for me was Heather Mullins, who I believe is only sixteen. She accompanied performer Gary Noland for a while and then sang some songs on her own. This is certainly not a slam against all the great male musicians, but I have always been partial to a strong, female singing voice and this gal has one. She sang songs by Jewel and KT Tunstall, two artists I'm not overly fond of. But her voice was so pure and beautiful that I ended up loving her versions of the songs.

My dancing hippie girl

Our whole family really had a wonderful time. The atmosphere at the festival was so relaxed and positive that it was difficult to do anything but have a good time. I found myself doing things I don't normally do, like chatting with strangers or letting my kids run around without me following six inches behind them. I definitely do plan on going back, and I highly recommend anyone here locally to please check it out. The tickets were $10 for adults, kids get in free and it is well worth the price. Plus, you know that the money is going to a great cause---helping farmers and supporting local or unsigned musical acts. What could be a more worthy cause?

The girl and her new friend.

Weekly Update

The boy is back in school and things have settled down to the usual level of crazy. A controllable level.

The garage sale went well. We got rid of most of what we wanted to sell. Everything else went back in the shed to await the next garage sale. All the books were unloaded. There were about a hundred books and for a while it looked like we were going to be stuck schlepping them all back into the house. We were saved from having to do so though by the arrival of a man who has a book store where he sells books by the pound. He bought the majority them.

The human incarnation of Comic Book Guy paid a visit to our garage sale. He bought nothing. Jay said he probably left our driveway thinking, "Worst........Garage Sale............Ever!" (Maybe our family watches too much television.)

My reading is going well. I'm up to seventeen books for the year and I continue to move forward at a fairly steady pace. Right now I'm reading Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. It's a great book about a family of circus freaks. The parents in the family have intentionally tampered with all of the Mom's pregnancies to insure that she gives birth to children with abnormalities. It's a book that's simultaneously intriguing and disgusting. Even though it's only about 350 pages, it has taken me longer than usual to get through it because at times it can be a chore to pick up. It isn't a lighthearted read by any means. But once I do pick it up, I hate to put it down.

Earth Day is coming up on April 22!! I've been trying to think of things to do in celebration of Earth Day, but most of what comes to mind, we already do around here. We recycle, compost, and regularly use a clothesline. We eat a lot of vegetarian dishes. And although my electric bill seems to prove me a liar month after month, I really, truly do my best to conserve electricity, gas, and water. ( I must admit though that my effort to conserve energy comes more from a severe hatred of writing out large checks to Gainesville Regional Utilities, than an actual love for the environment.)

This Saturday we are going to a Food and Music festival in Alachua. I'm really looking forward to this. It's sponsored by a local organic co-op that my mom and I sometimes buy food from. There is going to be a lot of food and some local musicians. At first I was worried this was going to be an event filled with a bunch of banjo pickin' hillbillies, but I looked at the website and it looks like a lot of hippies. And I consider hippies to be my people. Actually I like banjo pickers too, as long as the tune they are picking isn't the one from Deliverance. I guess it's just scary hillbillies that bother me. Anyway, it should be a good time. My mom's favorite local band, The String Kings (formerly The Stringfield Band), will be performing and we've even convinced Jay to go. Hopefully I can get some pictures up. I've added a link to the Farm to Family Music website to the list at the right in case anyone is interested.

With that, I suppose that's all that is worth mentioning in this update.

" Worst.........Blog.......Ever."

Missing Persons

When I was preschool age I had an imaginary friend. Probably not surprising considering my active imagination. He was short but dapper, always wore a suit and tie, and looked like a gangster. A friendly gangster. His name was Fugsy Megaton. I can still clearly picture him in my head. He looks the same. The only difference is that now I'm taller than he is.

All these years I've never been certain if I created Fugsy on my own or if he is just a little-known cartoon character that for some reason made an impression on me. It's hard for me to believe that I made up the name Fugsy Megaton on my own. Plus, I was also friendly with The Great Gazoo from the Flintstones, so the possibility of me attaching myself to a cartoon character is completely within reason.

Over the years I've done numerous Internet searches of the name Fugsy Megaton and nothing comes up at all. It's sort of sad really. I would love to know how he is doing.

When my son was younger he also had an imaginary friend. (Lucky boy inheriting moms weirdness.) At the time, his favorite show was a hopelessly stupid cartoon called "Ed, Edd, and Eddy." One of the characters was a weird little kid named Johnny that carried around a piece of wood with a drawn on face. His name was Plank. When Jay installed wood floors in our house, it occurred to the boy that he could have his own Plank. For about a year, Plank went everywhere with us. We are probably the only homeowners to ever get compliments on our floor from people who had never been in our house. Eventually the boy began to prefer the company of real people and Plank got discarded.

My daughter has yet to show any signs of having an imaginary friend. Or maybe she has had some but scared them off. She can be mean. A few months back Jay and I were listening to a conversation her dolls were having. It went something like this:

Doll One (who appears to be in some sort of peril): "Help me! Help me!"

Doll Two: "No thank you."

I guess I should be thankful she was polite about it.

Ultimately, I really don't think there is anything abnormal or unhealthy about having imaginary friends. I'm still going to do the occasional Google search for Fugsy. If anyone finds him, please send him my way. I still love a man in a suit and tie.

Why?

There is an article on the Yahoo page today that featured a list of wacky kitchen gadgets. I admit I didn't read the article. I started to read it. But then I saw the above picture and could no longer continue. I decided that if the Octodog, a gadget that will make your wiener into an octopus, is first on the list then I no longer need to keep reading as this isn't the list for me.

But of course, being the person that I am (a gal with apparently too much time on her hands), I went to the website. The people at Octodog claim that their product is "a new, unique way to make your hot dog" and that "The kids will love them." Well there is a reason to buy it right there!! Because I was having all this trouble getting my kids to eat their hot dogs. They are over here gobbling up asparagus and broccoli left and right but leaving these greasy hot dogs completely untouched. I'm getting worried because their nitrate levels are getting dangerously low.

Oh, and it's $16.95. Seriously, I couldn't justify this purchase in a million years. Lets just say I were to buy it, how many times would I possibly use it? Maybe twice. Maybe. On the rare occasion that hot dogs are in our house, I serve them because they are quick and easy. I can nuke it in the microwave for 30 seconds and poof! lunch. If I'm having the kind of day where I choose to work in a thirty second lunch, do you really think I am then going to take the time to fashion said lunch into a sea critter? Probably not.

Answer: Seventeen

Question: How many asses could I kick in a brawl? That is, of course, if those asses were on the bodies of people only five years old.
17Jay could only take 15. He insists my number is higher because I have no qualms about resorting to fighting dirty--hair pulling, eye gouging, nut kicking, etc.. He is correct because fighting dirty would probably be my first line of defense, even against a five year old. I gotta do what I gotta do.

These are a few of my Favorite things.....

I'm a negative person. Or at least that's what I've been told. Various times. By numerous people. I see myself as more of a realist. I don't look on the bright side and I don't expect the outcome of any given situation is going to turn out right or as I planned. Anytime I'm facing anything at all, I try to think of the worst that could possibly happen and then prepare for it. Sometimes this works in my favor and my predictions are correct. There are other times that not even an expert worrier such as myself could have prepared for. Mostly though, I just do all that negative thinking and worrying for nothing. Which makes it incredibly hard to enjoy life. I'm not a happy-go-lucky, bubbly, full of life kinda gal. I rarely like anything or anyone immediately. Most of the time I have to work at liking things.

I thought I would challenge myself though to see if I could come up with a list of things that I genuinely like, as of this moment. Sort of like Oprah, except I'm not an annoying egomaniac and I'm not going to send out my favorite things to everyone in my audience. So here is the list, in no particular order.

1. Stok coffee shots. I have to give credit to Jay for discovering these. He found these when on a reconnaissance mission to a grocery store that isn't our usual one. Knowing I have a love for all things heavily caffeinated, he picked up a box for me. Little shots of espresso to add to your coffee or whatever else you choose. Or you could just rip the top off and pour it down your throat. Whatever works for you.

2. Philosophy's Microdelivery Exfoliating Face wash.

This is the first exfoliator I've used that doesn't make my face red, blotchy, or peel. It's amazing. Kinda pricey but I eat cheaply for the sole purpose of being able to regularly afford this. It's that good.

3. Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Mr. Clean is a God among men and I regularly tell him so every time I'm using these lovely sponge type things to wipe my children's grubby prints from walls. I honestly don't know what I did before these were invented. I must have lived in squalor.

4. Pure Ayre Odor Eliminator. I have a cat that likes to pee in places she shouldn't. This makes it seem

like I don't. This is the only product I've ever used that actually eliminates that cat pee smell. There are a couple versions of Pure Ayre. The "Pet" version can even be sprayed directly on your animal.

5. Alec Baldwin. Duh.
(Note: Sarah Michelle Gellar not included in list of things I love, but to be fair she doesn't piss me off that much.)

6. J. Crew Favorite Fit Everyday Chino. These have been on my list of favorite things almost as long as Number 5 has.(Number 5 and I have reached long term relationship status. In my head.) At $59.50 they are a bit too expensive for my purposes (being with grubby children, yard work, etc...), so I usually wait until the end of season for them to go down in price. The rise is low so I don't feel as if I look too Mom-like in them. I get them a size bigger than usual, which makes me think I look like Annie Hall. I realize in reality I probably don't, but whatever. Another plus, they come in colors other than the usual six shades of khaki.

7. The graphic novel. I was introduced late in the game to the beauty of the graphic novel. Which is a shame because I'm just now realizing how indispensable they are, especially when it comes to my goal of reading fifty books in a year. My first graphic novels were the Persepolis series and since then I am always on the lookout for more and more. They are easy to read, even when the reading is constantly being interrupted by children.

8. Powells.com. Based in Portland Oregon, the Powells stores are my favorite place to shop for books. I love them because you can order used books as well as new. I love it when I go to the website thinking I'm going to have to spend $16.95 for a book and whoop! whoop! a used copy is available for $8.95. Saving money is fun.

9. Stinky cheese. Really. The stinkier the better. I try to be classy and cut pieces neatly off. I'm not fooling anyone though. If I knew I was alone with this slab of yumminess I'd be gnawing in it like a rat.

10.Spanikopita (spinach pie).

Spanikopita is basically a dish made from phyllo dough, butter, spinach and feta cheese. I love, in particular, the way my husband makes it. Jay makes the best spinach pie

I have ever had in my life. It is not for someone worried about the hardening of their arteries. He uses an entire pound of butter. Considering each pan he makes is about six servings, um.....that's a lot of butter calories. But it's oh so worth it. When Jay made this dish for me when we were dating, I knew I had to marry this man.

(Note: The picture to above is not of Jay's pie. His looks way better but never lasts long enough to be photographed.)

There. I made it to ten. I honestly didn't think I could come up with ten. I had a little help though. It's kinda sad that I had to ask others if they knew of things that I liked. Also, I know that the fact that the last two in a row are foods sort of implies that I'm a pig. I am a pig. I think you all know that already.

Weekly Update

I feel as if I've gotten lazy with this blog. I haven't been posting nearly as much as I would like to. There are a variety of reasons for this, one being that there is not much going on right now. Another being that anything that is going on, really isn't worth writing about. I have no desire to devote an entire blog to my daughter's potty training. (Although it is AWESOME! My mommy friends know how long I've looked forward to this.) So instead of having blogs devoted to one interesting topic, I am forced to relegate all these ever so mildly interesting things that occur to the weekly update. Believe me, the fact that it's sort of half-assed isn't lost on me. That isn't going to stop me from doing it though. Let the update begin.

Weather permitting, we are having another garage sale this weekend. I used to be such a pack rat but, as I've mentioned before, I cannot save anything anymore. I hate clutter. It's almost to the point where it seems as if I have some type of anti-clutter mental illness. I constantly want to throw stuff away. If I'm given a gift with no real purpose, I begin to mentally calculate how long I have to keep it before it can be trashed without me seeming unappreciative. When I go over to peoples homes it takes all the willpower I have to keep from sorting all their useless junk into piles of things they want to keep, throw away, or sell. Then I find myself arguing with them in my head over the junk I want them to throw away. "I don't care if this was your Grandma's fine China...It's covered with six layers of dust. You don't need it!"

One of the reasons we are having a garage sale is that a few months back we acquired about a dozen or so boxes of books. The book store next to Jay's store was throwing out a lot of their clearance books that didn't sell. I don't understand this. I would assume they could have had some type of sidewalk sale and sold them for 25 cents a piece or something. Anything would be better than trashing them, but what do I know? Plus, I thought that when a bookseller threw a book away it had to be "stripped" (have the cover torn off). All these still have covers. Whatever. It was my gain because Jay brought them all home and I sorted through them like a kid in a candy store. Most of them were nothing I was interested in. (Such as Thong on Fire: An Urban Erotic Tale.....hmm, why did this one NOT SELL?) I did get a few I had been wanting to read, like The Glass Castle, but I have to get the rest out of here now. Thong on Fire has been taking up valuable space in my home now for far too long. Hopefully it will sell better in my driveway than it did in the bookstore. Keep your fingers crossed.

I took a personality/temperament test the other day on Keirsey.com. Normally I don't get real excited about these because I don't ever find them to be on target, but this one was so spot on it was scary. My personality type is that of a "Counselor." Which is described as, "The Counselor Idealists are abstract in thought and speech, cooperative in reaching their goals, and enterprising and attentive in their interpersonal roles. Counselors focus on human potentials, think in terms of ethical values, and come easily to decisions. The small number of this type (little more than 2 percent) is regrettable, since Counselors have an unusually strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others and genuinely enjoy helping their companions. Although Counselors tend to be private, sensitive people, and are not generally visible leaders, they nevertheless work quite intensely with those close to them, quietly exerting their influence behind the scenes with their families, friends, and colleagues. This type has great depth of personality; they are themselves complicated, and can understand and deal with complex issues and people." Interesting enough.....but what really caught my eye was the next paragraph, which began: "Counselors can be hard to get to know. They have an unusually rich inner life, but they are reserved and tend not to share their reactions except with those they trust. That's what really hit home, especially the part about having a "rich inner life."

This is something I've only admitted to a few people, but I have a whole other life going on in my head that the rest of you people don't know about and are not invited to. I have no desire to give away all the details of my fantasy life, but I'll tell you what it doesn't include. There are rarely children in this world, and if they are there, they are quiet and with someone else. There are no bills. I have an endless supply of money, can do whatever I want and come and go as I please without having to worry about how others are effected. Sometimes there is even no husband there. Usually the cast of characters is completely different than the ones that show up in my day to day life. I'm sure this sounds crazy and that I probably appear psychotic, but on the contrary I think this is what keeps me sane. As my friend Dawn said, "It breaks up the monotony." I guess problems could occur if I only wanted to live in the world in my head. But, for now anyway, reality has certain advantages. (And before anyone calls me crazy, I can think of a few people who regularly read this who probably fall into the same category---you know who you are. We are more common than you would think. :)

Well I should probably go. It's Spring Break here so I need to go make some half hearted attempt at spending time with the children. I'm sure I will be in another world while doing so.

Oh, before I do go I would like to do some promo for an only-known-through-the-web friend. Chez is releasing his memoir through his website today. Click the deusexmalcontent link to the right if you are interested.