My first Tuesday Too, which I did mainly because of the first question.

1.) What's your opinion on age ranges and intimate relationships? Does it matter? Is it okay for the man to be older, but not the woman? How much older is too old?
I don't think age matters. If two people are in love, they're in love. Nick is 13 years younger than I am so, naturally, I think it's perfectly fine for the woman to be older than the man. It's funny, though. Before I told Nick how old I was (remember, we met on the 'net) I was really freaked out about him thinking I was too old. I knew he was 27 and I thought that would be too much of a difference. But when we got into the conversation that lead to me telling him my age, his guess was pretty close. He said 37 or 38. I had just turned 40. So, here I was all nervous and stuff, and it really made no difference to him at all.

2.) Should stem cell researchers be given the green light?
I go back and forth a lot on this. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see the advantages.

3.)Googleclimbing, (similar to a googlewhacking) but now your job is to make your site come up as the first result, or at least on the first page of google's results. Ideally you want your site to be #1 of thousands, tens of thousands or if you really want to impress us #1 of millions of results! You may use up to four words, but they may not be in quotation marks.
california blog = #3 of 2260

nine things you wear daily:
~glasses
~shirt
~shorts or pants
~underwear
~wedding ring
~engagement ring
~deodorant
~nail polish
~on Nick's nerves *s*

eight movies you'd watch over and over:
~The Sound of Music
~Apollo 13
~You've Got Mail
~When Harry Met Sally
~Hope Floats (or just about anything with Sandra Bullock in it)
~Armageddon
~The Wizard of Oz
~Some Like it Hot

seven albums that matter:

The Stranger -- Billy Joel
Born to Run -- Springsteen
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road -- Elton John
Rumors -- Fleetwood Mac
Tuesday Night Music Club -- Sheryl Crow
Timepieces -- Eric Clapton
No Nukes -- various artists
(yes, I know this list dates me -- bad!)

six objects you touch everyday:

~computer and its various components
~coffee cup
~lighter
~water bottle
~toilet paper
~refrigerator

five things you do everyday
~kiss Nick
~tell Nick I love him
~hug Nick
~smoke
~drink coffee

four bands/singers that you couldn't live without:
~Eric Clapton
~Bruce Springsteen
~Elton John
~John Lennon

three of your favorite songs at this moment:
~Drops Of Jupiter -- Train
~My Sacrifice -- Creed
~Wherever You Will Go -- The Calling


two people that have influenced your life the most:
~Nick
~my mother

one thing you could spend the rest of your life with:
~Nick's love

(via -- everyone)

Big hugs, kisses and thanks to Nick for fixing my archives!

The Monday Mission

1. When was the last time your computer crashed? What happened? 2 summers ago. This is going to sound lame, but I wasn't paying enough attention to the tech guy to remember what happened. I just wanted my computer back.

2. Recommend a movie (new or old) for us to watch. "Training Day" is awesome if you don't mind a lot of violence and bad language. If you're more of a wholesome type, try "The Sound of Music." That's my favorite movie.

3. When was the last time someone told you that you were attractive (and you actually believed them)? I don't remember exactly when it was because Nick tells me pretty often. Sometimes I believe him.

4. Do you like to sleep in or wake up with the chickens? Sleep, sleep, sleep. Sleep is on the list of my top five favorite things to do.

5. Are you gay, straight or bi? Ever been tempted to go the other way? I almost didn't do the Monday Mission this week because of this question. I'm a little bit afraid of the reaction I'll get from some of the people who may happen to wander across this blog. But, hey, it's who I am, right? I'm bi. I didn't even realize it until fairly recently. It never occured to me until then that most of the females I was in contact with didn't feel the same way I do about Sandra Bullock movies. *w* In fact, I remember a workplace conversation in which one woman said there's no such thing as bisexuality. Bisexuals are just people who can't decide if they're gay or straight. Grrrrrr. I didn't even buy that before I realized I'm bi. What I believe is that people whoo are bi have a huge capacity for love. If you love someone, you love them. It doesn't matter what body they're in. I think I needed to grow up a little and start equating sex with love before I could form that belief. When I was younger, sex was sex. Now, I can't see having sex with someone I don't love.

6. What will be the next computer-related purchase you will make? I'm not sure. We'll have to wait til we get everything set up in the new house before we decide, I think.

What is your role when you are in relationships? A giver, a taker, or is it an equal balance? I think I'm mostly the taker but I'm trying to be better and make it more of an equal balance.

BONUS: Would I lie to you? Now would I say something that wasn't true? I'm asking you sugar, would I lie to you?



participation positives ... a way to start monday

*Nick
*a family who loves me
*my sister actually sent me pictures of her kids. It's almost a miracle!
*I'm still hanging in there on the cutting down on smoking thing
*I'm getting a lot done to get ready for the move
*The house is awesome -- and it's almost done!
*The weather has been more bearable. (I'm not ready for another Bakersfield summer yet.)
*I smelled real, live orange blossoms for the first time on Saturday.
*Nick and I had an awesome night on Friday
*Over the weekend we went to a breakfast buffet that's great
*I've been spending more time with Shell lateley
*We rented three good movies over the weekend (Training Day, Riding in Cars with Boys and K-PAX)
*We splurged and got donuts Saturday
*I got to sleep 'til I woke up today -- no alarm clock
*We remembered to set our clocks ahead
*participation positives still make me smile
*Nick

Thanks Jess!

Before I moved here, I very often used to dream about being in restrooms. They were always big restrooms, with dozens of stalls. Very often I'd lose my way or not know exactly where I was. Other times, there would be other people there and I felt weird about using the restroom with other people around because either there were no doors on the stalls or the doors were only about waist high and I thought people would be staring me. I'd always meant to look up the meaning of those dreams, but I never got around to it. But I had a restroom dream just the other night and promised myself I would look it up this time. Who knew these are actually common dreams? So, here's what I found at Dream Moods:

To dream that you are in the bathroom, relates to your instinctual urges. You may be experiencing some burdens/feelings and need to relieve yourself. Alternatively, it may symbolize purification and self-renewal. You need to cleanse yourself, both emotionally and psychologically.

Using the toilet represents letting out your emotions, fears, and worries. And the notion that you are exposed from the waist up highlights your need to get something off your chest. You need to let your feelings show! You go to the bathroom in a stall where there is little space. To some degree, you are trying to keep your feelings and emotions to yourself. What you need to do is share them with others, as the waist-high door demonstrates. Get over your fear that you might be judged or criticized.

The part about being lost suggests that I'm lost or confused in my own sea of emotions.


All I could say was "wow" when I read these. It all makes sense because of the situation(s) I was in before Nick saved me.

In lieu of actual content, here's something I borrowed from mikey, who borrowed it from Candi, who borrowed it from Suzy.

Guys who I think are cute (in no particular order, and excluding Nick because that's a given):

*Matthew McConaughey
*John Travolta
*Tom Cruise (oh, just be quiet)
*Ashton Kutcher
*Seann William Scott
*Denzel Washington
*Ben Affleck
*Keanu Reeves
*Rob Lowe
*Emilio Estevez

Find out which Moulin Rouge song you are.

Thursday Threesome

Onesome. Love. Ever felt that "unconditional love"? Tell us about it....
Yes. Nick loves me no matter what. Some days I'm a real bitch not that easy to love but he doesn't get discouraged. He's always there for me. I can't even describe the feeling. It's just so awesome. This may seem like kind of a weird transistion, but I can't ever think of the phrase "unconditional love" without thinking about my dog, Beebe. When she died two years ago I had her buried in my back yard. I was crying and my heart was breaking because I had to say good-bye to my little girl who I'd had for 13 years. But just before it was time to say good-bye for the last time, the man who buried her said "I believe God put dogs on Earth to teach us the meaning of unconditional love." In the case of me and Beebe, I don't think that could be more true.

Twosome. Labors. What was your first paying job (not counting baby-sitting)?
I worked as a peon kitchen aide in a nursing home. The building was an old mansion that had marble floors and tiles, solid brass fixtures, crystal chandeliers, a ballroom. It was massive and gorgeous! The residents of the home were treated more like guests than patients. They'd eat their meals in the huge dining room and they were served on real plates, etc., not hospital-type stuff. One of my jobs when I first started was to pour the guests' coffee and tea after dinner. I really got to know and grow very fond of some of them. One woman was the sister-in-law of Sorrell Booke, the man who played Boss Hogg on "The Dukes of Hazzard." He came to visit her quite often and was a very nice man.

Threesome. Lost. Have a knack for losing things? Is there something you lose "all the time"?
I used to lose my car keys all the time. Most of the time I'd find them in my purse but I had so much junk in it I couldn't find them in there. I used to lose pens and pencils a lot, too, but only at work. Actually, I think the low-life idiots who came in after I left stole them because they're too cheap to buy their own people borrowed them and forgot to return them. Now, I think the only thing I lose is socks.

Christy's Chaos - HumpDay Hump

1) What has been the best day/experience of your life thus far? Don't cop out and put "my wedding day" or "the day my kids were born" unless you truly mean it! Can I name an entire week? It was March 25-31, 2001 -- the day I met Nick for the first time in person and the week we spent together. Actually, I didn't leave until April 1. There were some wonderful things that happened that day, too, but the end was so terribly sad that I'm not going to include it. I'd really like to give details about best sex of my life but it might be a little too pornographic for younger viewers. *s*

2) Do you like your name? Have you ever considered changing it? Is there a story behind your name (ie. did it come from a relative, a beloved storyline, etc.)? I hate my name, but I never considered changing it. There's interesting story about my middle name (Louise, which I hate even more than Anne). My grandmother secretly prayed that my mom would name me Louise because there was a statue of Saint Louise in the middle of the town where she grew up in Italy. My grandmother thought Saint Louise was so beautiful and she wanted one of her granddaughters to have that name. But she never told my mother that because she didn't want my mother to feel pressured. My mom was stuck on the name Anne (There's a story behind that but I can't remember it right now.) but couldn't come up with a good, unique middle name. She still didn't have one the first time my grandmother saw me. But I guess as soon as my grandmother held me for the first time the name Louise popped into my mom's head. I've since learned that Saint Louise was named the patron saint of social workers in the year I was born; she helped establish the St. Vincent DePaul Society; and founded the Sisters of Charity order of nuns. Her feast day is March 15, which happens to be the birthday of a very dear and special friend of mine.

3) If you had to choose to be an animal right at this very moment, which one would you choose? Why did you pick that one? Whichever animal would be best and fastest at getting boxes packed and laundry done.

I haven't posted for a few days because I've been really busy getting ready for the big move. There's lots of packing, laundry and other stuff to do. But we're getting there. It's been a little bit more difficult the last couple of days because it's been so hot here. H-O-T -- like almost into the 90s. This will be my second summer in Bakersfield and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for it yet. Well, I guess I'm more prepared than I was last year. Just a tip: It's not good to be dehydrated when you move into the desert. I wasn't a very good water drinker before I moved here. One of the reasons is -- and this is kind of stupid now that I look back on it -- with the job I had it wasn't always convenient to use the restroom -- if there was even a restroom available to me. So, I really didn't drink as much as I should have during work hours or the couple of hours before work. After work, I didn't drink that much because I didn't want to be up all night running to the bathroom. Which leads me to how I got really dehydrated before I stepped off the bus into the 104 degree heat of Bakersfield last June. I took a train from Pennsylvania (actually, I got on the train in Buffalo, NY) to Los Angeles, then took a bus from LA to Bakersfield. The trip took four days. I get motion sickness really bad and I was afraid to move around on the train too much because I didn't want to end up puking my guts out. So, during the entire trip I drank 3 small bottles of water and 3 sodas -- in four days! How stupid was that?!? So, naturally, I was dehydrated. When the temperature is in the 100s, it's very difficult to recover from dehydration. But now I'm a good water drinker so I'm better prepared for the heat. I hope!

Wake up! I'm finished with that post. *s*