Stuff your mama never told you, AKA, things that SEEM to make sense when you first hear them. Add yours if you have them.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience… I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked…. You’re not as fat as you imagine. Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing everyday that scares you Sing Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements. Stretch Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone. Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.. Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room. Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them. Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out. Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth. But trust me on the sunscreen…

Open Thread! Go crazy!

Hopefully, this will be a smaller version of #1 graduating.  Couldn't seem to shrink the image using Photobuckets, so I'm now using Hello from Picasa. Think I mentioned how I was gonna take some time off what I normally do to help #1 heal...physically, mentally, and spiritually. She quit her job and we're working on relaxation, diet changes, and exercise. She's making some extra money this weekend helping a friend with a sale so I can report a bit on what we're doing. I've been a firm believer in the mind and body being ONE since maybe a teen, so we're concentrating on positive imagery for the mind while exercising the body and taking the diet into a more alkaline state. She's suffered for years with Interstitial Cystitis, so I've ordered two books written by Catherine M. Simone for her to read after they arrive. Simone has the same problem and has learned to cope with it. #1 needs to cope with it, too, IMO, so I think those books could help show her HOW. Today, Em and I will go to the library to borrow The Acid-Alkaline Diet by Christopher Vasey. We've spent this week looking at the Alkaline/Acid Theory, but didn't really try hard to incorporate it fully because we don't yet know enough to do that. If this doesn't work, we'll move on to something else, but I'm not ready to dismiss it without a trial of several weeks at least. Got half of the garden weeded and fertilized with #1's help this week. Planted a few more onions and more arugula. Did the walk to Walgreens and back, as well. #1 said that it was the longest walk she'd ever taken intentionally. What else...saw Jack Black in his latest on Monday. If offered the opportunity, skip it. It's definitely NOT his best work. Next week we'll do some swimming in the community pool, more gardening, more walking and work on the mind/body connection. What have y'all been doing lately?

Books, Movies, Movies made from books, Fancy Desserts, Pimples and Pimple Medication.

Em, #1, and I are off to see The DaVinci Code at the local cinema today. Em saw it a week ago this past Monday, right after we'd returned from vacation, but I wasn't interested in a movie that day so suggested that if he REALLY enjoyed it I'd accompany him on his second viewing. He ALWAYS views enjoyable movies multiple times, enjoyed this one, and #1 is available and interested so we're all going together this afternoon...to catch the cheap matinee prices. Em read the book and told me about parts of it; I've been able to keep up with the controversy surrounding Dan Brown's conjecture through the internet. Most of the controversy revolves around: Em says that the movie explains everything as you go along, so I think #1 and I will be okay just walking into the theater with no particular background knowledge. Wanted to have a place to discuss movies, books, fancy desserts, pimples and pimple medication here, though, because Silly-O and #2 are reading and making fancy desserts and we never took the time to discuss the books read or how it came to be that a fancy dessert was made (Please lie and say you made that dessert after seeing how easily I baked things, #2). I have an interesting pimple sitting between my eyebrows like a target on my face, so I thought I'd bring my pimple into the thread just for the hell of it. Isn't every day that an almost 60-year-old woman gets a pimple let alone a pimple THERE, so *I* thought that was interesting. ALSO, I read about how pimple medicine (not sure if brand matters) does a REALLY good job of eliminating itch from mosquito and fire-ant bites... better than anti-itch cream because it tries to suck all the poison out. EW! LOL.

To Whom It May Concern.

The wedding uniting #1 and Mike scheduled for Cinco de Mayo, 2007 is OFF due to irreconcilable differences. Anyone want pie?

We're BACK, and had a GREAT time everywhere.

Trolleys were REALLY neat. I jumped ahead to the San Francisco part of our trip (pic-wise) because we've been to Las Vegas many times. Heh. We'd never been to Reno, though, and Reno was quite the experience for us. First off, I'd booked us at the Reno Regency. 'twas a bit scary to enter the downstairs lobby in that place; it was DARK and homeless people from the street came in and out. Turned out to be a nice-enough place, just old. The shower was great...lots of pressure. We moved on to SF from Reno and availed ourselves of the public transportation. We also spent three nights in our first experience in a US hostel, not to mention our first experience in a COED hostel room. The hostel was on the grounds of Fort Mason in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf area. The first day there was a little weird. I thought Em was gonna bum out the whole vacation over it. The following days were lots of fun, though, as we met people (including our roommates) and then went on to meet up with family members. Good times...good times...Em just told me that he's ready to go again. My garden is overgrown, so I need to tend to that...just not today. The front and back lawns are overgrown, so Em needs to tend to that...just not today. If you've never tried hostelling, I highly encourage the experience. Can't forget: Spent the last night of our vacation in Alamogordo, NM. Stephen Spielberg is working on a new film there...meaning ... the rooms at both sides of ours had been converted into offices. That was okay, but the whole motel in which we stayed was NON-smoking, so all the smokers congregated outside our corner room. There was the 2am group, the 3am group, and the 4am group. These were the late night crowds. Following them was the 5am group of early risers. We drove off about 7am local time and I would have LOVED throwing a rock at the folks sitting in chairs right outside our room just for contributing to the bags under my eyes. We don't even know the name of the Spielberg movie that'll be coming out next year. SHEESH! Consider this another open thread and spill what you've done while we've been away.