I’m a news & politics junkie. If I didn’t work night shift Saturday, Sunday morning would find me glues to the TV for all the political interview shows, including “Meet the Press”. It will be hard for NBC to fill his considerable shoes. “Meet the Press” won’t be the same without Tim Russert.

Where I work, supervisors have a different schedule than we peons do, so they work with everyone & don’t get attached to the crew on any one shift. Only one really knows what we’re doing, one thinks he knows everything (but is completely delusional), & the other three couldn’t be pried out of their office with dynamite (they’re supposed to make regular tours throughout the different buildings around the plant). Fortunately, I work night shift, so I don’t have to put up with the supervisor’s boss, who is knowledgable, but overwhelmingly arrogant & sexist. I only have thirteen months before I’m eligable fro retirement.

I never had a license. A vision problem kept me from getting one in high school. Once that was fixed, I entered a prolonged period where I had either the time or the money, but never both at once. Then I lost interest. The public transport is still okay in my area (in spite of a county executive who thinks every one should drive), & lately my old, funky, working-class neighborhood has become THE place to live, so most of what I need is within a few blocks. I walk a lot; it’s become a pleasure again since knee-replacement surgery, or I take the bus. My retired Dad is usually willing to take me shopping in exchange for lunch & a chance to whine about my sister, his fellow Legionnaires, rising gas prices, etc. I car pool to work, but it’s less than two miles away, I can walk if I have to.

I come from a long line of converts. Both parents and three grandparents changed religions. I was raised Roman Catholic. I left as a teenager for too many reasons to list here. I went to different churches & briefly considered becoming a member of several. It was when I was invited to a bat mitzvah that I found my religion (or it found me….it’s hard to tell). I felt as if I had gone home. I formally converted in my mid-twenties. My faith is still evolving, however. I have practiced a form of Goddess worship & witch craft, but I am not Wiccan. I am one of many who call themselves Jewitches. Religiously I am moving to the right, but spiritually to the left. I converted into a Reform congregation but didn’t fit in; I am considering undergoing an Orthodox coversion so all Jews will accept me as one of the tribe. I am still studying ancient Paganism, especially Slavic & Israelite/Hebrew.

Like many of you, I’ve had my computer & cell phone less than 10 years & couldn’t think of living without them. But since I have to pick something less than 10 years old, I’ll pick my MP3 player. I have the music I want whenever I want, & I never have to miss a favorite NPR show because I’m going from place to place at work during a 12 hour shift. I like ear buds best but usually waer headphones on the bus. If weirdos & drunks see that you can’t hear them, they leave you alone. I’ll keep my little Zen V Plus, thanks.

When eating at someone else’s home, I couldn’t turn anything down (unless it was a buffet where skipping something personally loathesome wouldn’t be noticed). If it was something I hated, I had to have a “no thank you” helping. Like most you, I had to always wear clean underwear & keep my knees together. My mother warned me not to let men know how smart I was; if I did, I’d never get married (actually, this came true). When I got a traditionally male, blue-collar job, I wasn’t supposed to talk about my salary. My mother insisted it wasn’t polite ( I was making more than my Dad & she didn’t want him to kinow). After I moved out on my own, I was supposed to “eat a little something” before I went on a date so I wouldn’t make a pig of myself (& frighten a potential husband into thinking he could never afford to feed me). When I was shopping for a house, my grandparents were appalled. A lady never buys a house; she trusts her husband to buy one for her. So here I am; single & overweight, but a happy single & overweight homeowner.

“West Wing”, smart & in turn poignant, funny, true. Ted Koppel on “Nightline” (although the present team are very good), Murphy Brown…smart & funny.

Dr. Klein, The simple fact that woman have allowed men to continue to exist is proof that we have a sense of humor & can appreciate their daily antics.

That’s tough. In many ways, I’m still a teenager. I’ve been working at the same place for 29 years, I’ve owned my own house for 25. But I’ve never married, never had kids, & in many ways I’m still the self-centered know-it-all I was at 15 or so. Except that now I have the funds to be more self-indulgent than I was back then, & since I live alone I have no one nagging me to clean my room or do the dishes. I thought 30 was good; I’d taken myself to Europe a couple of times & had just bought my house. The only glitch was that since I was the oldest child, my parents decided I was their grand-child producer & started to plan my wedding each time i dated a man for the second time. Honestly, early 40s. By then my brothers had married & reproduced, so all the pressure was off me. It was before I’d had an ankle rebuilt & a knee replaced; so i was feeling great & got around much better. Yep, early 40s.

My room-mates are the two most spoiled cats on this ~or any other~ planet, though most people would say that I live alone. For much of my adult life, cats have been my only room-mates. I have shared my home with others; my sister, friends, a boyfriend. With room0-mates there is an immediacy to their thoughts, problems, etc. that I had trouble dealing with. “No offense, but I need some time to ‘deflate’ after work; I’ll listen to you in a little while. No, not now. Please can I have just a couple of minutes? Please? Well, spit it out & do it fast, or you’ll be talking to the wrong side of my bedroom door. Wait, you jumped on me as if you were drowning & I was a life raft because Lane Bryant doesn’t have the pants you want in your favorite color?!? I should turn you into a toad!” I relish living alone. I can watch what TV I want, when I want, read all day, eat peanut butter on my oatmeal, & no-one is fussing at me for eating weird things, spending most/all of the day in my pajamas, laying on for hours on the sofa hypnotised by a marathon of “Meerkat Manor”, or hearing “Jane Austen? Haven’t you read her like 98 times already? When arre you coming into this century?” or “I want new shoes, so you need to get out.” Living alone is such immense freedom, & as long as I have my cats, I never talk to myself…LOL. For the last 10~12 years, I’ve worked alone, too. I don’t drive, so I get a ride to & from work. I work a 12 hour shift at night, so I get to work & talk to the co-worker I relieve, then I won’t see him until morning. I might see the supervisor, but most likely not, or I might run into another co-worker on his rounds or go see someone who can’t leave his work area, but mostly I’m alone, except for the geese, rabbits, & other critters that hang out around plant grounds. I can get out with family or friends, eat at a favorite neighborhood restaurant where the staff knows my name & vice versa, or interact with neighbors. I am not in danger of turning into a hermit who sits in the dark with my head wrapped in tin foil, or rambles around town mumbling to invisible people. Alone is not lonely. Alone is freedom. For now, I’ll take it by the bucketful, thank you.

When I was growing up my family used to go on camping trips all over the country, & for a couple of years, an uncle & his family came along. One year our trip included Washington D.C. The women & kids were waiting across the street from the Capitol while the men-folk were off hunting (for parking space). Suddenly, my dad sped up to the curb, shouted that Ted Kennedy was across the street, & sped away. My mum ordered me to get a picture of the Senator with the older of my two brothers, shoved her camera into my hands, & pushed us into the street. My mother was not one to be argued with, so my brother & I traipsed across the street (I, of course, was doing the requisite teen-aged grumbling every step of the way). We got close to the Senator, I asked quickly for one picture & my brother hurried to his side. Senator Kennedy put his hand on my brother’s shoulder, I snapped a picture, & by the time I had lowered the camera, the senator was gone & I was saying “Thank You” to the air. My mother was miffed because I only took one; she insisted that I should have taken several “just in case (the first didn’t turn out)” pictures. My protests that the senator was in a hurry to get into chambers (the best fast excuse I could come up with) fell on deaf ears. Fortunately, the picture did turn out. Years later, when my brother took a job that required him moving to the U.K., I wanted to do something special for him. I had my mother dig out that slide of my brother & the senator, had it blown up, & sent it to the senator’s office with a plea to have it autographed. The senator did sign it, & my brother was surprised & pleased.

“The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid” by Bill Bryson. He’s an author I love; I’m especially fond of his travelogues. “Thunderbolt Kid” is the story of his growing up in the 50s & 60s in Iowa, & it is laugh-aloud funny. I think that anyone growing up in that era will appreciate the story, even if they didn’t grow up in the Midwest. “The Clumsiest People in Europe” by Todd Pruzan. The author found a travel book written in the first half of the 19th century by a popular writer & was so fascinated by her accounts that he tracked down her other travelogues & researched her life. Like Prozan, I was both fascinated, amused, & appalled by the Victorian Protestant views of Mrs. Mortimer, who makes sweeping denouncements against adherents of any beliefs & lifestyles that don’t echo hers. Especially fascinating is this woman left her native England only twice to visit Paris & Edinburgh, & based the bulk of her prejudices about Persia, Hindostan, etc. on travelogues written by others. I’m re-reading “Work” by Louisa May Alcott. It’s one of her adult novels. The main character is an orphan who decides not to mooch off relatives any more & sets out to make her own way in the world. IMO, it’s far ahead of it’s time in that the story starts about two decades before the Civil War, when few women went out in the world. It’s been criticized for not depicting really horrible circumstances such as the sweatshops of the times, but it provides a look into Victorian attitudes on women working away from home, insanity, etc. I’m also re-reading my omnibus edition of Austen for the umpteenth time. I looked at the Kindle, but have decided against it (so far). I find something immensely comforting about holding a book & turning the pages. My favorite thing to do is book shopping; the smell of new books, the feeling of untouched pages……. even used book stores are exciting; there’s always the thrill of discovering a previously unknown author or story, or the rediscovery of a childhood favorite. Something like Kindle just can’t compete.

When I was a young adult & just “plowing the road” sexually, the thought of doing it as an “older adult’ grossed me out, to be honest. (A woman who’s 55 still ‘does it’? Ewwwwwwwwwwww!) Now that I am 55 & I’m still ‘doing it’, I’m thinking “Cool!” I am greatful for those men out there who appreciate the experience older women have had & that we’re willing to “bring it to the table”.

I’d put the condom on a plate, serve it to Bart for breakfast, then sit down & wait to see how he’d react.