I Hate Chain E-mails

Of course, every once in a while you get one that just cracks you up:

You are my Friend

When you are sad,

I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry bastard/bitch

who made you sad.

When you are blue,

I'll try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

When you smile,

I'll know you finally got laid.

When you are scared,

I will rag you about it every chance I get.

When you are worried,

I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining.

When you are confused,

I will use little words to explain it to your dumb ass.

When you are sick,

stay away from me until you're well again.

I don't want whatever you have.

When you fall,

I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

This is my oath

I pledge 'till the end.

Why you ask?

Because you're my friend!

Send this poem to ten of your closest friends

(or else you will have bad luck )

and get depressed because you realize

you only have two friends

Friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.


Thank You!

The End of my Rainbow.

My grandmother died in 1996. The mother of the man who is my biological father.

My Grandmother was like Auntie Em. Remember the line, "For twenty-three years I've been dying to tell you what I thought of you! And now, well, being a Christian woman, I can't say it!" She lived the golden rule.

Her favorite Hymn was How Great thou Art. It took me years after she died to be able to hear it and not cry.



I am a pack rat. Worse than that, I am a sentimental pack rat. Put any little dohickey in my hands, and I can tell you who gave it to me, why I got it, where I got it...and unfortunately, the kids follow in my footsteps.



One of the local churches got a tractor trailer this week, and the goal was to fill it with goods to send to LA and Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina relief. One of the things being collected was bed linens. They were to be used in shelters, and to donate to people who could eventually return home.

I went through my linen closet, and pulled out over 15 sets of sheets that we could manage to give away. One of these sets was my Wamsutta Rainbow sheets.

These sheets were special. These were the first set of sheets I bought when we got married. I have to tell you, after 22 years...they still looked good......

We haven't used them in about 7 years, since we got the 16" deep matress. They just didn't fit. I saved them to use on the queen sleeper we used to have, but that was gone too. There really was no reason to keep this particular set anymore. None at all. No reason, except that I couldn't bear to part with them.

As I packed the bags to take to the church, I'd put the rainbows in, and take the rainbows out. All day. At 7PM, I kicked myself senseless, and put the sheets in the bag. Here I was waxing sentimental over a stupid set of sheets, and there are a million people who have lost everything. I headed for the church with the satisfaction that someone in a shelter would hopefully sleep in their high thread count luxury, and maybe sleep more restfully than they have for weeks.


Bear with me, this will all make sense in a minute!

As I walked up to the church, there was an evening service going on. Music filled the parking lot.

I've never heard How Great Thou Art sung with so much joy.

I love you too Gram!

I know, I know....

I know I promised to fill you in with all the exciting details of my life...well, that's why this stupid thing has been empty for a week. That is all the excitement I can handle...

First day of school, first day of school again (stupid Archdiocese teachers without a contract) a happy dance and a cold...that is it.

Kate's English Prof (Comparative religions) is apparently hot (but old) graduated college in 2000.
Maggie's English teacher is AWOL..
TJ's English teacher is pregnant...

Do I sense a pattern here?

Nothing witty to say...except this...

Beware of surfing the internet...you can find some very scary things on there if you are not careful

Imagine for a moment, baking a cake.

Almost every other person you know has baked this kind of cake. Measured the ingredients ever so carefully, agonized over just the right pan and baked...taking care to not let the middle droop or let the edges get too brown.

I baked my cake for 18 years, and yesterday, I left her in the rain.

If anyone had told me that sunny Mother's Day in 1987 that someday, as tenderly as she was handed to me that first time, I would be letting her leave, I couldn't have imagined it. But yesterday, I took my baby girl to college.

Now, I know what you are thinking. Everyone (hopefully) sends their children off to college. It's no big deal. Yeah, Right!

Obviously, you have never done it.

Yesterday morning, I awoke at the same time I have every school day for the last 13 years.

It was the first day of school. We had our normal first day of school breakfast. You know the kind, the kind that you plan to cook all morning. The kind of breakfast that ends up being rushed, and eaten over the sink so that no one misses the bus or gets caught in traffic and misses the first bell.

We drove to the college in total silence, nothing said but a hand, reaching over the back seat to my shoulder, and after a traffic jam (we missed the first bell) we arrived at her hall.

The rooms were smaller and more dismal than I remember my first college day. But those days were different. Our parents dropped us at the door, if they took us to school at all. We brought everything in, and thanks to Space Bags, had more clothing than one college freshman needs in a college career, well enough one semester.

We had lunch, and a trip to the bookstore to buy that sticky stuff you use to hang posters. Then it was time for the moment I have been dreading...time to say goodbye.

Having lived near West Point my entire life, I know about R-day. The day the cadets report for duty and say goodbye to the family they love. Yesterday was my R-day. Without the haircut, and the marching.

Bentley College in Waltham, MA has a highly dignified, convocation ceremony. We were told ahead of time to say our goodbyes before the ceremony started, and I took full advantage of that. She sat near us until the last possible minute, and as The Class of 2009 was seated together, she left with a hug.

Many in her class looked like the "Deer in the Headlights" as they sat there. I didn't see where she went, and at that point was unsure if I wanted to know. It was easier for me to imagine her blending into the crowd of 900, then to look her way one more time. I bonded with the women around me. Almost every one with a tear just under the surface. The rest, the levee had broken.

Part way through the ceremony though, her brother spotted her, and I had to look. Our eyes met, and she signed "I Love You". She rose from her seat, and left the tent, and walked in the rain with the rest of her class, ready to meet the world.

I'd say that I don't know if I can take it,
Cause it took so long to bake it,
And I'll never have that recipe again....

But I have two more cakes slowly baking...and for now they need my attention.