Tidbits and TMI about Fireblossom!

Recently, I made a new friend who calls herself Blueroses and Stardust. She came up with this group of what I think are very interesting and fun questions, and as I am a notorious meme whore fan of questionnaires, she graciously gave me permission to blog them along with my answers. Here they are!

1. Would you like to be a mythological creature and if so which?(mermaid, fairy, dragon)

I would like to be a siren. I am not a good singer, though I wish I were, and if I were a siren, I could sing so beautifully that sailors would wreck their ships trying to get closer to me. Did I mention I like a little mischief?

 

2.What’s in your purse right now

Just work stuff. Bare essentials like a tube of lipstick, a mirror, nail file, blah blah, a paperback book, my little notebook full of bus schedules, a couple of hair bands, and two nice pens cos i am fussy about my pens. Just things I would be lost without.

3.Which is your favourite Alice in Wonderland character

Alice herself! It would be just like me to follow down the rabbit hole and have all those odd adventures. 

4.Would you like to be forever kid like Peter Pan

No. If I thought I had to relive my childhood,  I would jump in front of a train right now. But I do think that I have retained the imagination of a child, and it serves me well.

 

5.Next to which nature phenomenon (aurora, lagoon, grand canyon) would you rather live

A woods. I love the woods! I find it restorative and beautiful. 

 

6.Do you like cooking?

I love cooking, though I am nobody's gourmet chef. It relaxes me and I like to do it.

 

7.What is your favorite book

"Keeping You A Secret" by Julie Anne Peters. Close second: "Pages For You" by Sylvia Brownrigg and "Lessons" by Kim Pritekel. Honorable mention: "Madeleine's Ghost" by Robert Girardi.

 

8.Would you paint your house an unusual colour like orange or blue (inside or outside)

Outside, I like earth tones. But inside, I love unusual colors! No beige walls for this girl.

 

9.Do you watch series?If yes what kind (drama, fantasy) and give an example

I have recently been watching "Major Crimes" on TNT because I like Mary McDonnell. 

 

10.Do you play a sport?If so, which?

I don't, but I used to love to play softball. I was one kick-ass hitter! (I was, unfortunately, not so good in the field.) I used to be good at bowling, too. And darts. I threw them wrong, like a baseball, but they went where I wanted!

11.Do you (still) watch anime-cartoons?

No. I don't care for anime at all. Except Derpy Hooves. Does Derpy Hooves count? Save Derpy!

I hope you enjoyed this. Be sure to visit Blueroses and Stardust at her blog! 

7 Things

My friend Buddah Moskowitz tagged me to tell 7 things. I lub me some Mosky, so this is them.

You asked.
You opened your mouth,
opened the door,
opened the cage, and I leapt out--
whatever I do from here is on you.

7 things about me.
Here's one--
I unfold from sky, from clouds.
I sit, I nod, I'm still,
but all the time, the dark could-be spreads across me from the inside;
lightning shocks my heart,
thunder rolls,
wind knocks me open like a wooden gate that's wild to run.

Here's two--
when I raise my head,
I raise it twice;
one is wicked, one is nice
and neither one listens to any damned old men.
I am the double bloom
on a double stem.
Cut me if you like; I'll grow again.

Here's three-
mother, mother's daughter, and me.
The other is the one she thinks I am,
and we all stare at each other
unblinking, unforgiving,
and as unrelated as bird, ghost, and stone.

Here's four--
four legs to take me all directions at once,
and the screaming you'll hear
from the trees at night
is frustration shaking my human form,
breaking its neck
and carrying it back through hell towards surcease.

Here's five--
root, base, stem, leaf, bloom.
I told you that I would grow again.
Reapers, did you forget?
You, lost on the overgrown path of me?

Here's six--
the six women I have loved.
One of them I love still, and without caution.
All dark,
all damaged,
all with an extra ear that the gods sing into.
This is why they are driven mad by the moon,
and why I have needed to be near them,
like stars.

Here's seven--
There is a storm from which I find no shelter.
There is a will within me that nothing can kill.
There is a name that I've given myself--call me by it or expect no answer.
There is a fire I walk through, not because I love the burning, but because I love the promise that it will end.
I am vines. There is really only a way through for one.
There are pieces of God in every woman. This is why we embody so much beauty, and how we endure so much pain.

There are your seven things.
Destroy the cage.
Close the door again, softly.
Shut your mouth, at last, at last.
Whatever I do from here is on me, like rain on a cat's coat.
She can't find home,
and yet, always, she hurries on.
_____

Everybody Loves The Sun

Everybody loves the sun.
You live your life in it, wear it like honeyskin,
But it is your darkness I have always adored.

I will wait
Until your life lets you go, to me,
In the interstice between clock beats--
Baby, I have
One boot heel on the ground,
And the other up against the wall;
All of me is in shadow...
The gates here are beautiful but hard.

You'll come, won't you?
I am your girl with the astigmatic soul,
Waiting, depending upon tactile sense and white witchcraft;
I am the Other One, who nests your name.
Everybody loves the sun,
But I love only you.
_______
photograph by Isadora Gruye, for Real Toads Sunday Challenge.
________

And now a special bonus meme. Sioux has gave me a right special blog award:

Seven Things I Love Beyond All Reason (in no particular order)

1. Bolthouse Farms mocha capuccino
2. Bosco the Wonder Dog
3. the big fat moist brownies they sell at the 7-11 next to where I work.
4. really well written poetry
5. Emmylou Harris, who does not know that I exist.
6. Mama Zen and Hedgewitch, who do know that I exist, and even admit it!
7. vintage mechanical toys
_________

And Now, The Fabtabulous Truth (and one lie) Revealed!!!

Petlets, it's time to reveal the truth (and one lie) about Fireblossom! You'll recall that in my post Fete Me Baby I listed five statements about myself as part of Sioux's Memetastic Meme. Four were true and one was a big whopping doozy of a lie. Did you guess which one was not true?

1. I said I sleep with a night light. True. I didn't until about the age of thirty. Then I started having trouble with something called night terrors, which differ from nightmares. They usually happen to children (I always have to be different, as my mother has been known to bitterly complain), and they usually happen within an hour of falling asleep. They don't have a storyline...just a shadow or some other vague threatening presence takes the mortal terror from zero to 90 in about three seconds. They involve physical thrashing and screaming and all sorts of neat stuff like that. Anyway, I discovered that a little bit of light where I sleep prevents them. So, let there be light. A night light.

2. I said I can't sleep in a silent environment, either. True. I use a white noise machine. I prefer the "waterfall" setting. I lurv my little white noise machine! It's either that or run the dryer all night every night. The noise machine is cheaper! As a child, my parents took me with them to the Great Smoky Mountains one year. We stayed at a place in Gatlinburg that was right on a rocky stream. I never slept better in my life. All night long, it seemed to go shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I need something like that to stop my brain from thinking and keeping me awake.

3. I claimed that I lived in San Antonio, Texas, for six years and never owned a car. True. I used public transportation. I was your friendly neighborhood stone-broke artistic type. I spent most of my twenties doing two things...drinking and studying, though never at the same time. I self-educated. I worked part time to keep body and soul together, and used all that extra time to read everything I felt a young wannabe writer should read. I read Kerouac, Brautigan, Burroughs, Dreiser, Hardy, Lawrence, Amy Lowell, Christina Rossetti, Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, Kesey, Vonnegut, everything I thought I might learn something from. And guess what? I couldn't have spent my time in a better way. I learned how the masterful use words, how the brilliant think about things, and how the greatest hearts express themselves. And I learned a great honking wealth of wildly diverse trivia. 

4. I said that, the summer I was eleven, my middle brother got married. True. And that the best man stayed at our house. Also true. I said that I didn't like the girl my brother was marrying. True true true. I went on to say that I hid the best man's shoes, thinking that then the ceremony would have to be postponed. Did you pick that out as the lie? Because, if you did, you were right.  I never hid his shoes.

5. And finally, I said 

I don't care if I'm stange, I ain't gonna change

And I don't give a damn about my bad reputation!

True!

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Oh Noes! Riot Ketteh Tag!

My Twin, Riot Kitty, has tagged me (Remember? You DID! You freaking did. You so did.) for this 20 Questions Meme! Okay, so look. I'm not waiting for that one blogger to finally show up. Let's get started! (...and if my evil scheme has worked, half of you are thinking, "is it me? does she mean me??? Bwahaha)

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing that you thought?

I thought, "Hello, Gorgeous!" This is not always the case, but it was today.

You see, sometimes I look in the mirror and see this.

And then just other times, I look in the mirror and see this. I think there is something the matter with my mirror.

2. Do you miss anyone right now?

Yes. Jennifer Beals. I dreamt last night that....well just you never mind, all you horrid little nosey parkers! Suffice to say that when I woke up, it took me a minute to realize it was just a dream, and I felt kinda gypped about that. 

3. If you could move anyplace else, would you?

Canada, man. I loov it up der. I wanna meet a lady Mountie. We can watch da National and eat donuts.  Then go check the traps. Fookin paradise, yanno? I hoop she like hockey, too.

4. If you could choose, what would your last meal be?

A big, messy, out of control seafood platter! I'm really a Selkie, you know. 

5. What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to have lunch with?

Well, she wasn't famous, so I guess I can't choose my paternal grandmother. (because I'm all about strict adherence to rules, as most of you know.) She died when I was two, so I don't remember her, but from everything I've heard, in her prime she was some gal. I expect that a bit of her may have come down to me, shy lil Fireblossom that I yam. Olive Thomas, the silent movie queen referenced in the picture, will have to stand in, as I have no photographs of my grandmother. Oh but, what about the rules, you'll say! Okay okay. I'd have lunch with Joan Jett. I mean DUH. LOL.

6. What was the last book you read?

"Life, In Spite Of Me" by Kristen Anderson. It was a gift from my friend Tab of  Through My Eyes.  At seventeen, Kristen had been rocked by several things that happened in her life, and she lay down on a railroad track to end her life. God had other plans for her, though, and she survived. This book is her remarkable story.

7. What was the last movie you watched?

It was a double feature dvd I got from Netflix. It starred Mabel Normand in two silent films: "The Extra Girl" (1923) and "The Gusher" (1913). In "The Extra Girl" Mabel goes to Hollywood to try to make good and is given odd jobs instead. There is a star who is afraid of lions, so they have to dress up a dog as a lion for the big action scene. Our Mabel goes to fetch the "lion", not realizing that the docile pooch has been replaced with a real lion. She goes walking through the lot with this King of Beasts trailing behind her on a rope. Everyone scatters, of course, and she can't figure it out, though eventually she does. It's pretty hysterical. Mabel was the original movie funnywoman, and it is said that it was she who argued Mack Sennett into keeping Charlie Chaplin and giving him another chance, after Charlie had early difficulties adjusting from stage to film. 

8. What was the last song you heard?

I've been listening to Rachael Yamagata's "Happenstance." I'm not sure if the last song I heard was "Letter Read" or "Wore Me Down." Let my future biographer worry about it. ;-)

9.What's your dream vacation?

You suck, little meme, making me divulge my cherished little dream to everybody. You're a hard one, yes you are. I would like nothing better than to spend a week back where I used to live, San Antonio, Texas. I would like to go there with someone I love (applicants sign the sheet). We would stay a night at the haunted Menger (pictured above), then switch to the most expensive hotel on the River Walk, and just laze and eat at all the restaurants, hang out in the sun and buy lots of touristy junk. People do this, I know. Maybe me, one day.

10. What is the next trip you'll take?

Probably to the grocery store or the coin laundry. My life is really not that interesting!

11. Did you ever go to camp?

No. There would have been bugs. Bugs. As if. Be serious.

12. Have you ever been in love? 

Yes.

13. What do you want to know about the future?

Nothing. Let it unfold.

14. Where is your best friend?

Passed out on the floor, next to the bed. Those of you who know my long-ago drunken history will say, "What, again???" But it is only sweet wonderful Bosco, my doggy. I love him so.

15. How is your best friend? 

He is addicted to Purina Beggin' treats. Especially Canadian Cuts. What is it with us and things Canadian? Bosco is a herder, and will nudge me up the hallway toward the kitchen as if I were a rather dim, Beggin' treat bearing sheep. Wait a minute....

16. Who is the biggest gossiper you know?

This woman on my mail route. She is always out front messing with her lawn or washing her car, but her real purpose is to engage anyone who passes by in conversation, trying to pump them for tidbits. She once stood on her porch and told me she couldn't "condone" my rainbow jewelry. Talk to the hand, cos the queer mail lady ain't listenin'. 

17. What does your last text message say?

Text message? I don't own a cell phone or crackberry or iphone or portable world domination device. My last email told me I was wonderful, and like that. Cool, right? :-)

18. What are three things you've always wanted to do, and still plan to accomplish?

Publish a book or books. Win a major literary award. Meet the guy from Travel Channel's "Man Vs. Food" and tell him he's da bomb. 

19. What is one thing you've learned from your parents?

From my father I learned that simple things--a funny movie, a ball game, a good meal--will bring you more pleasure than any degree of professional accomplishment ever will. 

From my mother, I learned that no one can crush my spirit, though they try and try. "My house is made of bricks and I will not let you in!" For the record, there is no hair on my chinny chin chin, though. This is why Goddess, in Her wisdom, invented tweezers. 

20. What is the one thing you hope to teach your own children?

My son is 25, so I bloody well better have taught him it already. But I would say, if i had to choose just one thing, it would be that love matters the most. And after that, to get his happy little butt out here and get his bike out of the driveway so that I can pull my car in. He has confessed to me in later years, that he sometimes did this intentionally to get my goat. Cute kid! But he really was. And I am so proud of the man he has become. 

TAG! You're it. :-)

_________           

Honest Scrap

It's true. I'm one of Senorita's bitches. She has given me this Honest Scrap meme to do. This is a good thing, even though I have done it twice before. There is a rumor that I am a meme whore. The rumor is true.

As many of you know, I am all about rules. The rules are, I must list ten confessions. Here they are:

1. As a schoolchild, I killed Jimmy Hoffa and stuffed the body in my locker. I told the hall monitor the smell was yesterday's pastrami sandwich, which I hadn't eaten. What? You say these have to be true confessions? All right then, spoil my fun. I didn't kill Jimmy Hoffa. I never had pastrami until I was past thirty. Now I love the stuff.

2. I have only ever accidentally broken one bone, a tiny fracture in my thumb. It happened when I took my bedding to the coin laundry and caught my thumb in the door when I closed it.  I had to miss the WPBA tour. Not that I would have, you know, been part of it anyway. I don't own any Izod shirts.

3. Post Bosco music review, I persist in listening to the late Rosemary Clooney. LOTS of Rosemary Clooney. I knew about her when I was little because someone left an LP around the house with "Come-On-A-My-House" on it. I loved that song. Still do. Also, she used to do ads for some chain supermarket on channel 9, the CBC outlet from Windsor, Ontario. Then I forgot about her until she appeared on "ER" as a guest star. (She was George's aunt). I discovered that she has a whole body of marvelous recordings, and can sing a standard like nobody's business. Neat lady.

4. I love soup, and like most of the western world, I was raised on Campbell's. Now I find it unbearably bland and would rather serve dishwater. (ok ok, I still like tomato, but that's all). I like Progresso, especially the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. I also like Bear Creek, which comes as a mix. The potato soup is especially tasty, especially on a cold raw day. 

5. I think Maria Bello is hot stuff. 

6. I saw a program last night on Nat Geo about Fatal Familial Insomnia. It is an inherited disease. In midlife, those stricken lose the ability to fall asleep! Within months, they die. I love sleep. It's delicious. I am glad I do not have FFI. (I confess, though, that such bizarre stuff fascinates me.)

7. I have some questions I would like to ask Goddess when I arrive on the Other Side. Reviewing my life, I would like to ask Her, wtf? WTF? What the fuck?!? I'll probably get reincarnated as a dung beetle after that. 

8. I love Mulberry trees. They have three different kinds of leaves on the same tree!

9. There are four tv shows I love. On Monday there is "CSI:Miami", and if that's a rerun, there is "Law & Order." On Tuesday there is "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." I love Jeff Goldblum as Detective Nichols, and his new partner is hot. Yes, she seems about two shakes away from jumping off a ledge, but hot just the same.  On Wednesday there is "Mercy." Veronica makes me faint with....viewership. She's hot, charismatic and fucked up. What pattern? I don't know what you mean. And on Friday, there is "Miami Medical", which is basically "CSI:Miami" but in a hospital.

10. I'm not doing a ten. The rules say ten, but you know how I get. 

Thanks, Senorita, for nominating me. I am nominating anyone who wants to do the meme. And before you go, wait....

11. I like rainy days. Today is one. Yay!     

If I Were

Do you know Gillian at the Dreaming Press? She is one of the neatest gals I know. She has done this meme, "If I Were" and I am copycatting her here. Try and stop me, bitches. ;-)

Here goes!

If I were a month, I would be November. After the trick or treaters go home, the real witches walk the earth. Under a yellow moon, you'll see us pass by with our black cat familiars.

If I were a day, I would be the winter solstice. I know I was probably supposed to say a day of the week, but you know how I get.

If I were a time of day, I would be early morning. I almost said sunset, because I love that, too, but early morning is so full of promise. It's quiet and fresh and I love it.

If I were a font, I would be Helvetica. It's a little different, slightly goth-y, and the word sounds other-worldly and feminine. 

If I were a sea animal, I would be a mermaid. I would be ridiculously beautiful and impossible to catch. Hey, sailor....*laffin*

If I were a direction, I would be true north. That way, my love could always find me.

If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a baby grand piano. Shiny and black and in perfect tune, I would bring joy by both sight and sound. I would belong to some soft rocker chick and she would find so many songs in my smooth and eager keys.

If I were a liquid, I would be mango juice, in a tall glass on a table outside. 

If I were a gemstone, I would be onyx. Some of my layers would be constant, others ever changing.

If I were a tree, I would be an apple tree with beautiful white blossoms. Lovers would kiss beneath my sheltering branches.

If I were a tool, I would be an axe held in a sure and accurate hand.

If I were a flower, I would be a white lily. I would know love by brides and mystery by death.

If I were an element of weather, I would be a summer storm. The dark sky would be my hair, the lightning my eyes, the thunder my passion and the rain my love.

If I were a musical instrument, other than the baby grand I already wrote about, I would be a black electric guitar. I would belong to a young woman who had been told she could never play me well enough. Together, we would prove them all wrong.

If I were a color, I would be red, baby. Bold, beautiful, sexy red.

If I were emotion, I would be passion. 

If I were a fruit, I would be an apple. I would be temptation for the weak, poison for the cruel, nourishment for the hungry and a gift for teachers. 

If I were a sound, I would be the sound of the wind through the trees, reminding everyone that the unseen is real and the world around them is a living, moving entity.

If I were an element, I would be air. I would be filled with birds.

If I were a car, I would be a classic Detroit muscle car. I would belong to a girl, and I would be her body when she needed to be bigger, stronger, faster, bolder.

If I were food, I would be lasagna. I would be served on a bright white china plate and set upon a clean checkered table cloth in a cozy restaurant. I would be created especially for the joy of a dark haired woman in a white dress whose lover will propose before I am gone. 

If I were a place, I would be a bakery. I would smell wonderful. I would offer joy.

If I were a material, I would be silk. I would come all the way from China, just to please someone's skin.

If I were a taste, I would be the intimate taste of the woman I love.

If I were a scent, I would be the scent of night blooming jasmine, simply because it is my favorite.

If I were a body part, I would be a woman's vulva, and I would be smug about it. 

If I were a song, I would be a ballad, sung in Spanish, in a garden, on a summer night. 

If I were a bird, I would be a white dove. I would belong to a black-haired woman. She would tell me why she is crying, and my beauty would make her less sad.

If I were a gift, I would be made of silver.

If I were a city, I would be San Antonio, Texas. A river would flow through my heart.

If I were a door, I would be the door to home, my handle held by a weary and grateful hand.

If I were a pair of shoes, I would be a pair of Curves sneakers. Someone would go walking in me. 

If I were a poem, I would be one of my own poems. I would give myself to someone I love; to light her heart, and also my own. 

If you would like to do this little meme, consider yourself invited. :-)

______   

I like wut I like and I doan like wut i doan, babycakes

My Twin the Riot Kitty has tagged me--sort of, it was a mass, voluntary tag--for a meme. I haven't felt so singled out for special attention since I was eight and Mister Menguser screamed, "All you kids, off my lawn! NOW!" I knew in that moment that I wanted to be a mail lady and walk on everybody's lawn. Contrary to the bone, I am.

What I must do, according to the ruuuu... the rooooo...the things I'm supposed to do, is I'm spozed ta list five things I dislike, and then five things I like.

So, without further ado:

(woman imitating a man doing a big important announcer voice) FIVE THINGS I DISLIKE!

1. Cell phone zombies. You know the ones. Oblivious to everything except the half-witted conversation they are having as they let the door slam in your face, or stand there blocking the grocery aisle, or force you to listen to them as you try to enjoy a meal in a restaurant. I hate them even more if they SHOUT and SCREAM into the phone, because they can't hear themselves like on a land line. Extra hate, too, for cell zombies who utterly fail to interact with the person right in front of them because they are busy yammering with someone who is miles away.

2. Peeps. I'm talking about those nausea-inducing Easter edibles. They are the very definition of "too sweet", in taste, texture and appearance. Yick.

3. People who use incredibly annoying too-long catchphrases. Like, "at this point in time" instead of "now." Or who say "myself" when they mean "me." Or who refer to a "fan base" when "fans" says the same thing. Their mouths should be taped shut.

4. Reality TV. I don't give a monkey's butt about loggers, repo men, ice road truckers, Gene Simmons, Real Housewives Of Pompano Beach, or ghost hunters with their green night vision and phony "did you hear that?!? What WAS that?!?" manufactured hooey. Science experiments for you all.

5. Golf and golfers. When I say I don't care for the game, that does NOT mean try even harder to get me to take it up. I don't want to hear about your swing. I don't want to hear about your score. I don't want to look at you standing there wearing that. I don't care about Tiger Woods, or who he slept with, or when he is coming back. Any grown man going by the name "Tiger" should be sent to a re-education camp in Siberia and his paperwork lost. 

Oh dear. Do I sound harsh? Let me slip a flower into my hair and proceed with my Likes List:

1. I love hippy-trippy acid rock from the late 60s. Big Brother. The Airplane. Inna Gadda Da Vida, bay beh. LOL. Incense and Peppermints. White Bird must fly. Are You Experienced? Have another HIT...of sweet California sunshine. Groovy baby!

2. Mexican food. I didn't know a thing about Mexican food until I moved to San Antonio Texas, where there is--or at least was, when I lived there--a mom and pop Mexican place on every street corner, or so it seemed. When I went back to visit, in 2001, I wondered all the way down if it was really as yummy as I recalled it being. It was. Oh...it was. :-)

3. Femaleness. Is there something more interesting than all of the sweet, nurturing, bitchy, catty, perplexing, consistently inconsistent, brilliant, underappreciated, irreplaceable, beautiful, uncategorizable, creative, clever, maddening, holy, sensual, funny, unstoppable sweet mess that is women? No, there isn't. 

4. Animals. I can't imagine my life without animals. My pets have repeatedly saved my life, my sanity and my sense of humor. It is my great privelege to take care of them, love them, laugh at their silly moments, and share my life with them. They have much to teach and much to give. All they ask is company and kindness. Bosco agrees with my #4.

5. My friends. That would be you, reading this, now. Thank you. I am so glad you are here!

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Happy 101. The Blue Edition

Joanna, at The Fifty Factor posted this little meme and left it in the "free, take one" pile, so I swiped it and ran like hell. Oh all right, my running days are over. I looked around, slipped one into my shoulder bag and walked quickly away with my chin up and my dark glasses on. Now here I am, at home with the door locked, toying with it, deciding what to do with it now that I've got it.

There are rools. I do about as well with rools as Linda Blair does with holy water. I am supposed to post the little icon, list ten things that make me happy, and then pass it on to ten bloggers. I'm getting a little tremor in my pinky finger just from thinking about rools. And some of the bloggers I might pass it on to, did the thing already and didn't pass it on to me. I could be mature and rational, and simply realize that they don't have to pass it on to me if they don't choose to, and that, after all, it is only a meme. Nah. I am sharpening my labrys. *smile*

As you may have intuited already, Fireblossom isn't happy today. In fact, she is blue, blue as the ocean deep. (omg...hackneyed!). I feel about as chipper as a snail in a salt mine. As light-hearted as a homophobe on an Olivia cruise. Okay, let's do this happiness thing.

1. CHOCOLATE. Duh. My very favorites are Girardelli brownies with chocolate chips in them. Better than sex. Better than drugs. Better than anything.

2. CSI: Miami. Okay, about one episode in ten is too gory/weird for me and I can't watch it. I am really such a cupcake sometimes. BUT, Eva Larue is on this show, as CSI Natalia Boa Vista, and she is just so so sooooooo, omfg. Erudite, aren't I? I also like Horatio (Ho-ray-shee-o, Scarlet. LOL) Cane. David Caruso plays him. I love the way some bozo will run away through thirteen buildings, jump in a speedboat, crash onto the beach thinking he's gotten away, and there will be Horatio, standing there with his hands on his hips and his sunglasses on, saying, "Mister X. We meet again." How cool is that man? Very cool, class. I also like Eric. Yep, it's true, I do. And ya just GOT to like Calliegh Duquesne. She's one southern belle who will take you down, clown. Oh yeah!

3. Bosco, my dog. The handsomest, smartest, most loyal, bravest, best companion the world has ever known. Mama may be the tiniest bit biased. But still!

4. Music. I just this very day received a Leonard Cohen tribute cd from the incomparable Daryl. Thank you, Ma'am! I have loved music from the time I was a tiny child. I drove my family insane. I would pluck out 78s from my father's old collection (which he never played in my lifetime), and when I found one I liked, I would play the living bejesus out of it, until someone removed me bodily from the vicinity of the record player. I still have some of my own first LPs: Mary Hopkin, Rita Coolidge, Sarah Kernochan, Tim Buckley, Janis Joplin, It's A Beautiful Day. My late father (do ya know how much i love ya, Daddy? Do ya?) refused to buy me "that sort of music" when I asked for a Beatles album at age eleven, but he would bring me home classical stuff and New Orleans jazz. I still like all that stuff. I like everything from Vivaldi to Ultravox. And, you know, the Beatles. *grin*

5. Books. Double duh. Poet, hello. I can still remember my favorite corner of the grade school library. I was partial to Dr. Seuss. And later, biographies. Teddy Roosevelt, Black Hawk, Lafayette. Blame my father again. He used to read American history to me as a bedtime story. The house I grew up in was just filled with books. Occasionally, I would go on scouting expeditions, and I especially liked finding those old "Strange But True" paperbacks. Can you tell? LOL. These days I mostly read fiction written by female authors. Currently I am midway through "Blood Sisters: Lesbian Vampire Tales." What were you expecting? Danielle Steele?

6. Cooking (and eating). I love to cook. It's creative, it's relaxing, it generates wonderful smells and anticipations. Very sensual stuff, food. I love it!

7. Women. I love to be around other women. I love the feminine energy, the way women express themselves, the way we look at the world, the devil in a great many of us, too. All of my life, women have made sense to me. Men, not so much. There is one woman who completely loses me, though, and I think it's mutual. We love each other, but warily, from across a great chasm. Hi Mom.

8. Nature. So beautiful she is. Some of you, like Talon, capture her so well with a camera, that it takes my breath away. And, of course, the best thing is to take a walk with the Lady herself. I love to lose myself on a nature trail, or to sit by moving water. I love to hear the birds or watch different creatures go about their business. Living in Michigan, where we have four distinct seasons, Mama Nature can be quite the show off. Strut, woman! At the risk of sounding repetitious, my father was a great lover of nature, too. I hope they have cabins in Heaven.

9. Snark. (see #7). Witty women with an edge rule. I don't even mind if it's aimed at me. But, you know, the misfortunes of others are always the most amusing, dahling.

10. Scents. Agreeable scents are one of life's great joys, to me. Candles, food, clean laundry, little ones you love, flowers, spices. Sniffffffffffffff.

11. Breaking rools. Breaking rools makes me soooooooooo happyyyyyyy! But still. I'm blue today. Everything sucks. No one likes me. Where's the chocolate?

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