Also two short stories in one book by Jane Smiley "Ordinary Love" and "Good Will."  It made me feel a bit l voyeuristic, especially the latter. It was so descriptive of the most mundane aspects of their life and such a surprising twist on how different are some of our offspring.

"The Bluest Eye" by Tony Morrison just shattered me.

Arlene, You can be my role model. If there were more people like you in the world showing us the truest things are the most simple and give us the best memories.

Go away Brad….you bore us gals. Sure you have opinions, but we don’t care. The biggest lie I ever believed was that I wasn’t good enough just the way I was. If I had that as my foundation, instead of trying to be something or someone else, I would be so much farther along on my personal journey.

Yes indeed, why were Bush and Chaney not included in this poll. They are so the most enormous pigs and history will show it to be true. Being a pig does not have to be about infidelity, it goes to the heart of the matter….dishonesty!

I’m with Mamacita, where’s the moisturizer. It goes on so I can smile, otherwise I feel like my face will crack. LOL

When I was in my early 20’s. he cheated so I cheated to get even but the truth is we were a bad match and our marriage was doomed. He is a much better ex-husband.

I am driving to my hometown on Tuesday to visit my late mothers’ last living friend. She will be 99 years old on March 20th and she is still almost ‘all there.’ She hadn’t been feeling well for several months and finally had someone drive her to the emergency room on a day when she could hardly get her breath. They informed her it was her heart and encouraged her to go to a nursing home where she could get better care than she had at home alone in her house in the country (she has a 78 acre farm.) She only agreed after she discovered Medicare would pay for a three month stay at a facility. Well three months is up and she is back home on the farm and you have to admire her spirit. She is determined to live her life her way without her 70 something year old son or her late 60 something year old daughter taking away her autonomy and making decisions for her. She was smart enough to arrange her affairs in such a way that her heirs inherit only upon her death. I love to visit her and hear stories of how she worked at a GM factory with my mother during WWII and was there when my Mom met my Dad. She was a constant in my mothers life for over 60 years and now she is the keeper of the stories of the past. I have the old photographs and she has the oral history. I treasure her for that.

It is so fulfilling to have a scintillating exchange with someone of the opposite sex , I still remember a conversation with a cab driver in Chicago who drove me from the airport to my daughters upon my return from San Diego in 1995. There was nothing of a sexual nature between us that day but I felt him change and open up to me as we drove through the city and I think I fell a little in love with him that day. It is still a pleasant memory after all these years, more, I am sure, than heat between the sheets would have been. There is something about anticipation that is better than the real thing most of the time, at least in my experience.