BULLET FOR LIFE

image found at www.weaheartit.com

You know what I haven't done in a long time?  A bullet point post.  Those are excellent for times like now when I don't have a singular topic that I really want to blog on, but I have MANY thoughts rolling around in the noggin'.

• I am still working on the novel, for all of you have been DYING OF CURIOSITY regarding this matter.  I can't say that the progress is particularly fast, but I am still working at it.  I find it interesting how much time I spend just thinking about the characters and where the story will go.  Does anyone else who writes do this?
• On my way home tonight, I nearly had a car accident in the round about.  It is a pretty low traffic area.  There are only three lanes of traffic going into and out of the round about.  (In other words the road T's out on one end.)  If you unfamiliar with a roundabout, each car going into the roundabout has a yield sign.  Ergo, if there is another vehicle in the roundabout, you wait until they have passed before entering.  I was behind another car approaching from the bottom part of the T, if you can visualize that, and would ultimately be making a left turn.  While I was in the roundabout, a minivan, who was approaching from the right side of the T,  waited for the car in front me, and then decided to just come on out.  I kept on going, but I really thought they were going to just plunge into my side.  
• Do you think that they didn't understand Yield?  Maybe they thought it meant you take turns.  I am not sure, but it sure took my breath away. 
• Still going to my tapping therapy approximately once a week.  We are now really getting into what I would consider the really traumatic issues.  I have learned a lot.  For instance...
• Every bad thing that has happened to me relates back in some way to Boundaries.  All of my life, my Boundaries have been Terrible.  Some of the worst things that I have allowed to happen to me simply stem from a belief system of not wanting to hurt someone else's feelings... even if it has meant doing horrible damage to myself.  
• I don't know how we can teach ourselves, and our kids better younger, that we have value, but this needs to happen.  Yes, being kind to others is very important, but kindness to others at the expense of yourself isn't actually a kindness.  It's a Boundary Issue.  It's actually telling someone that you don't have any.  And people who have Reverse Boundary Issues (they don't respect other people's boundaries) will be drawn to someone with Boundary Issues like a magnet.  I know this to be true.  It is the pattern that I lived repeatedly.  
• In order to break a pattern, you have to see the pattern.  That is freeing information right there.
• In addition to my not wanting to hurt anyone else's feelings, I have a Rescuer Complex.  This is actually another Boundary Issue.  The Rules of Life indicate that you will reap what you sow.... unless someone alters the natural order of things.  That someone would be a Rescuer.  
• Rescuers disallow people with other Boundary Issues from feeling the pains of their habits.  For instance, if someone is bad with money, the only way they will get better is if they suffer from their poor budgeting.  If they have a Rescuer in their life, that person will never feel the pain of their mismanagement.  However, the Rescuer will.  There is a Law and someone will feel the pain.
• Let's just say that 20+ years of Rescuing and being in close relationships with people who have Reverse Boundary Issues have taken their toll.  
• The Rules of Life still apply and it says that everyone will always reap what they have sown.  I am reaping what I have sown.  I am reaping 20+ years of acceptance that other people's wants were more important than my needs, as well as all of that Rescuing.  For my trouble, I got a ten year migraine and a host of autoimmune issues.
• So, what I know is this: the spirit rejects these things and transforms this bad thinking into illness.
• Conversely, I must believe as the thinking improves, the manifestations in the body will follow.
• Understanding Boundary Issues has given me a whole new perspective on my life.  I can now see that things didn't "just happen" to me.  I can also own my part in the things that did happen.  Grasping that makes all the difference because getting that means not allowing those things to happen again.  
• It feels like I was asleep for all of my life and I just woke up.  I didn't know any of the Rules of Life and that was why it was so hard.  Life will never be "easy" but it can make sense.

And that is pretty much the news in the Land of Robin.  Please leave a comment and tell me what is going on in the Land of You!

THIS IS HOW YOU REMIND ME

Before we actually get to today's post, I want to just touch on a couple of things.

1) Thank you for all of the really awesome comments from everyone who commented. You know who you are. Bath, your comment accidentally got eaten by Blogger. I saw it happening and could do nothing to stop it. I also didn't get to read it. Blogger is mean sometimes. Try again, please.


2) Today, I woke up feeling so much lighter than yesterday. Apparently, this BlogTherapy actually does work if you go all the way with it. You can't just stop when you're all opened up and bleeding. I did that and I felt lousy. It was only when I kept going and figured out my patterns in my choices that it made sense. It made it possible to take my control back. That doesn't change my past, but I can let go of it now, and it will change my future. It feels amazing to drop something so heavy and painful, and to know that my future just pivoted in a new direction, because something clicked in my head. (A better direction)

3) I recently found a very cool blog, I don't remember how, but I am sure it was by accident, and I realize that I jumped into an ongoing story on this blog. So, I decided to go back to the start and figure it out. Today was day one and I am going to read a little at a time. As it turns out, the last blog I read today was on letting people go who suck your energy. I linked to it because I think it is worth taking the time to read. You can judge that for yourself.


So what am I going to blog about today? Well, I wasn't really sure until I read Simon's blog over at Constant Revision. His posting was about how as writers we need to grab the reader in the first couple pages of our novel. He illustrated that point by using a song from a Nickelback CD. You might be wondering what one has to do with the other. The song was the first song on the CD. I think it was their first CD. So, it was important. It was likely the first song someone who bought the CD was going to hear, aside from what they'd heard on the radio. It was going to say this band is kickass, or it was going to scream one-hit wonder. Nickelback is still here and that song never got radio play. So, what was this kickass song that grabbed everyone who bought the CD, and made everyone hold their breath? Well, you have to listen to it. Don't sigh at me. Just turn off my idiot box music player at the bottom of this page and roll with this blog. I would do it for you.



Physical Abuse. We all get it. We see it. No one disputes it. No one would have the nerve to say, "Well she obviously deserved it. She pissed him off. She got what was coming to her. She probably didn't cook his dinner right. She knows he likes his steak medium rare and she made it medium. That deserves a fist to the face." Furthermore, it is tough to hide physical abuse. You get too many broken bones and it shows up on x-rays at the hospital. Even if you go to different hospitals each time, the evidence is there. Physical Abuse. No.One.Argues.If.It.Is.Real.Deserved.Or.Justified. Except the one doing the abusing.

Verbal and Emotional Abuse is a totally different story. There are no scars. Bruises. Broken bones. In the end, what you have is a broken spirit. Most of the time, physical abusers start with verbal and emotional abuse until they get to the broken spirit. Once they get to that point, they know that they have you, and that is when the other abuse begins. Someone with a broken spirit isn't going to leave no matter what. And that is why people stay. If you ever wanted to know. If the question ever crossed your mind when you looked at people all beaten and bruised by a "loved" one. That's your answer.

And that is why we are here again. Verbal and emotional abuse. It's important to know what the signs are so that you know what you are looking at when you see it.
*Being called names by your spouse
*Using words to shame
*Yelling, swearing, and screaming
*Using threats to intimidate
*Blaming the victim
*Your feelings are dismissed
If you want more information on any of these go to this site.





I wrote a blog months ago because I was watching my soap opera (yeah, I do that) and they had a storyline on there about a teenager who was being verbally abused by her boyfriend. It eventually escalated to physical abuse. It was horrifying to watch. What was even more distressing was the PSA that came on after the show went off the air. It said that ONE in THREE teenagers were being abused or knew other teens who were. My brain exploded on the spot. WTF??? I posted a blog about this and got a meh response to it. The only thing I could think of was that you dear sweet folks didn't believe the PSA. While I was scrolling for my Thursday footage recently, I put in verbal abuse, teen abuse, etc. to see what I would get. My mind boggled. The following is a 1+ minute clip that does not embed. Please take the one plus minute to watch it.

It's the choices we make today that just might save a life.

Someone said something recently that reminded me that verbal and emotional abuse in marital relationships is usually the man abusing the woman, but not always. When the abuse is verbal and emotional it can go the other way. If there are children involved it can be the mother inflicting verbal, emotional, and even physical abuse on them. It is all about breaking people down. This is a simple task with a child. They are already small, trusting, and easy prey.

You may be asking yourself,"Who is her audience for this blog?" My answer is EVERYONE. I want you to have an idea what abuse looks like, so that your internal alarm starts to go off when you see it. There is help out there for people in trouble. Websites are one click away with information on where to go, what to do, and how to start again. There are organizations in your community for exactly this sort of thing. Where will you see abuse? I have no idea. But it is out there. It is even prevalent. It might be happening to one your children's friends. One of your friends. Someone in your family. It might be happening to you.

all images found at www.weheartit.com

THE LIST, THE RULES, THE PASSING OF THE TORCH

This is the week in review. On Monday, I rolled out The Plastic Joy Award, which was awarded to me by Linda over at Bar Mitzvahzilla. I feel fairly certain that it is the first and last award that I shall be receiving from her. However, I have enjoyed this award so much more than one person should, and, therefore I thank her from the bottom of my...heart. If you still haven't checked out Linda's blog, you really should take a moment and do so because she is a wonderful writer. She is very funny and I enjoy all of her blogs enormously. I also need to follow through and bestow this honor on to five other people. I will do that at the end of the list. I need to think on it.

Okay, I rolled out a bunch of crushes along with description and (almost always) video footage. I discerned 14 characteristics that kept repeating among my crushes. Actually, Phoenix. over at Res Ipsa Loquitur, is getting an award for picking out one characteristic that I missed. She picked up on it fairly quickly and I included it in the 14. Savvy girl. And Chris. over at A Deliberate Life, caught three! She found one right away (like Phoenix) and two more yesterday. Do I even know my own crush patterns??? So, now we are up to 16 things to look for peeps. If it helps, only two characteristics are physical. The rest are all personality traits. Of course, not every crush has them all, but if you see it at least four times there is a pattern. I have one special case where there are only three of these fellows who share the same trait, but I still see the pattern. If I had more space, I would have had to include another crush with the same quality. So, it's a pattern. If you identify something I missed, I will make you a special button for your observational skills. As I pointed out in an earlier blog, I am looking for one word descriptions or short phrases (like "jerk" or "out of work loser"). Obviously, both of those traits are not correct answers, but you get the idea. I am going to list them all with the date of their footage, so that you can go back and watch any that you are scratching your heads on. Isn't this fun?

Email me your responses at rarichards68@gmail.com. I have kept track of the answers you have sent me thus far. However, if you want to repeat yourself, that is okay by me. I have been known to do that very thing. It's a pattern.

Monday, June 21
1) Larry Paul, played by Robert Downey, Jr, on Ally McBeal
2) Richard Castle, played by Nathan Fillion, on Castle
3) Michael Guerin, played by Brendan Fehr, on Roswell
4) Lloyd Dobler, played by John Cusack, in Say Anything
5) Jack, played by Matthew Fox, on Lost
6) Sawyer, played by Josh Holloway, on Lost
(They were my primary Lost crushes.)

Tuesday, June 22
1) Danny Zuko, played by John Travolta, in Grease
2) Angel, played by David Boreanz, on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
3) Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, on 24
4) Logan Echolls, played by Jason Dohring, on Veronica Mars
5) Gerry Kennedy, played by Gerard Butler, in P.S. I Love You
6) Luke Danes, played by Scott Patterson, on The Gilmore Girls
7) Zack Mayo, played by Richard Gere, in An Officer and a Gentleman
8) Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda, on M*A*S*H

Wednesday, June 23

1) Lucky Spencer, played by Jonathan Jackson, on General Hospital
2) Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, on Firefly and Serenity
3) Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe), played by Daniel Day Lewis, in The Last of the Mohicans
4) Paul Buckman, played by Paul Reiser, on Mad About You
5) Clark Kent/The Red-Blue Blur, played by Tom Welling, on Smallville
6) Oliver Queen/The Green Arrow, played by Justin Hartley, on Smallville
7) Carlos Ricardo Manoso, aka Ranger, in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
8) Mick St. John, played by Alex O'Loughlin, on Moonlight
9) Dr. Pete Wilder, played by Tim Daly, on Private Practice
10) Alex Wyler, played by Keanu Reeves, in The Lake House

Friday, June 25

1) Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, in Walk the Line
2) Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, on Jericho
3) Frank Sullivan, played by Dennis Quaid, in Frequency
4) Sealy Booth, played by David Boreanz, on Bones
5) Seth Cohen, played by Adam Brody, on The O.C.
6) David Addison, played by Bruce Willis, on Moonlighting
7) Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew Macfayden, in Pride and Prejudice
8) Jason Morgan, played by Steve Burton, on General Hospital
9) Batman/Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, in Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
10) Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Sommerholder, on The Vampire Diaries

Saturday, June 26

1) Ben Covington, played by Scott Speedman, on Felicity
2) Noel Crane, played by Scott Foley, on Felicity
3) Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan, on Alias
4) Tristan, played by Brad Pitt, in Legends of the Fall
5) James Barrie, played by Johnny Depp, in Finding Neverland
6) Adam Rove, played by Christopher Marquette, on Joan of Arcadia
7) Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, on Sex and the City
8) Robert McCallister, played by Rob Lowe, on Brothers & Sisters
9) Logan Huntzberger, played by Matt Czuchry, on The Gilmore Girls
10) Sonny Corinthos, played by Maurice Benard, on General Hospital

Sunday, June 27

1) Dr. Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, on Grey's Anatomy
2) Dr. Alex Karev, played by Justin Chambers, on Grey's Anatomy
3) Dr. Mark Sloane, played by Eric Dane, on Grey's Anatomy
4) Henry DeTamble, played by Eric Bana, in The Time Traveler's Wife
5) Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, on Supernatural
6) John Bender, played by Judd Nelson, in The Breakfast Club
7) Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, in Footloose
8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, played by Hugh Jackman, in Kate & Leopold
9) Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, on The Mentalist
10) Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, in The Notebook


Okay, well I have had some time to think while I was doing all of that typing. Keep in mind that the proper way to do this award is to list five fictional crushes and be done with it. You can insert photos, but no video footage is required. I just twisted this award around to suit me. And you don't have to hand out any prizes or anything like that. You do have to pass it along to five other people. 'Nuff said. These are the people that I will most enjoy reading for various reasons of my own....

Chris over at A Deliberate Life ~ I love this blog. It is always inspirational and makes me think. I really missed her while she was on vacation. She does the Saturday Snark, but that is as close to fluff as she usually goes. I am looking forward to some whimsy from her.

Phoenix at Res Ipsa Loquitur ~ I love this blog and she hasn't been writing. She is fabuloso about commenting and I have discovered that we share similar tastes in everything from fictional men to books/quotes to picking bad husbands the first go-round. I am curious to see what men I forgot. She can pick up my slack:-)

Mitzi at Southern Style ~ I am fairly new to her blog and she to mine. Mitzi's blog always has a genteel feel to me. So, I know that however she does this award (and it won't be the way that I did it), it will somehow be classy. And that will be a feat because she still has to work with that awful picture, but I know that she will pull it off!

Yenta Mary the Food Floozie ~ I am giving her this award simply because she is being pelted by awards of late. Nah, that isn't why I am doing it, though she is being awarded nearly daily. Actually, I am curious to see what she will do with an award that doesn't have anything to do with food or if she will somehow work food into this award. In other words, my curiousity is totally piqued.

Kate at The Cow Jumped Over The Moon ~ I am giving her this award simply because she said she wasn't sure she could think of five fictional crushes. Say what? My mind runneth over and you aren't sure??? So, I am challenging you to do it, and I pass this to you with the certainty that you can do it if you put your mind to it.

THROW A BUCKET OF WATER ON ME...

Okay, this is the last day of crushes. I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I decided to list no more than 10 (and wished that I had started out like that) because I had more crushes than I had room at the end. I know that you are scratching your head on that. How can this be? Yes, it is true. I had to painstakingly make a list for these last ten and it hurt. Part of me wanted to cheat with my men from Grey's Anatomy, like I did with my men from Lost, and just use one video that picked them all up. I even found one, but I realized that the problem with that was that it didn't really show which men were my primary crushes and why. In other words, it was a cop-out. However, as I had to hatchet out some of my favorites, it became really tempting.

Tomorrow, I will post a list of all the crushes with the dates of their videos. Again, I am still at 14 traits. I am still flexible with your button or buttons for your sidebar to reflect the accuracy of your ability to track my patterns of crushing. I think that everyone who is going to respond to this will have their emails in by Thursday at midnight, Eastern time. I will post the results on Friday's blog and you can let me know how you want your prize(s).

Remember to turn off my music player. It's the last day to ogle my friends. Let's enjoy it.

1) Dr. Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, was the first doctor on Grey's Anatomy to steal my heart. Of course, he was the first to break it, too. And then put it back together. Love hurts sometimes. When Derek moved to Seattle he was still married (he sorta forgot to mention that) and was in some emotional pain (an excuse, but not a good one) and was really a train wreck. The thing was that he appeared all put together and emotionally healthy. Looks can be deceiving. Anyway, it became this emotional roller coaster when his wife, Addison, showed up because he had to own up and face himself. He did what he thought was the right thing (reconciling), but it wasn't, because his heart wasn't in it, and it was a lie. So, he and Addison got a divorce and then he got to find out who he really was. And so did we. And it was love...




2) Dr. Alex Karev, played by Justin Chambers, is a tough cookie, doesn't let people in, isn't an easy guy to like, let alone love. Alex Karev is an onion. It is an ordeal loving him. You have to constantly peel layers. Just when you think you are making progress, guess what you get? More layers. The guy is determined not to be hurt. Very few people make it past that outer core. He let Izzie in just a little and she left him for Denny. He let Rebecca in and she left. He thought about letting Addison in and she left. Denny died, Rebecca came back, went crazy, then Izzy finally let him in, got cancer, went crazy, and left. People leave. Right now, he is tangled up with Lexie, but that spells disaster, because her heart is with Mark Sloane, whether she will admit it or not. I can see the door slamming. I feel a tear coming on. Oh yeah, it's love...




3) Dr. Mark Sloane, aka McSteamy, played by Eric Dane, spent his first year (at least) at Seattle Grace (on Grey's Anatomy) mostly pissing people off. He slept with anything female that moved and they were more than willing (and happy) until he moved on, which he always did. It created an "unhappy" working environment. There was one really hilarious scene when Dr. Miranda Bailey called all of the nurses together and told them to knock it off. They knew he was a whore and they should get over it. She defended him by calling him a whore. Hilarious. Well, it all turned around when he actually started dating "Little Grey." Once he and Lexie got into a relationship everything changed. It was love...




4) Henry DeTamble, played by Eric Bana, is a character from the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven't actually seen the movie, so that makes showing the youtube footage a bit odd, I know. I wanted to see the film, but never got round to it. I think I was afraid it would disappoint. The book was very fresh and it was so good. It was one of those books that I cried my way through. For me, that is the highest of accolades. As the title suggests, Henry time traveled. He had no control over it, though he was pulled toward the people that he loved. That meant that he often time traveled to see his wife when she was only a child. She knew him all her life, but it always meant she was waiting. Of course, the same could be said for him. He was always waiting to whisked away without warning. Just thinking about this book is making me cry all over again. It was love...




5) Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, is a hunter on the show Supernatural with his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki). They don't hunt wild game or go fishing. It isn't one of those kind of shows. They hunt demons and other supernatural bad stuff. It's a family occupation. Their mother was killed by a demon and their dad became a hunter. Dean in the earlier seasons was a bit more light hearted. He smiled, joked, and flirted occasionally. However, he is all about the job. because if he and Sam mess up people die. In fact, Sam did die and Dean traded his soul for Sam's life. That meant that Dean literally went to hell for Sam. You don't make that deal lightly. An angel, Castiel, pulled Dean out, but a person isn't the same after spending what feels like an eternity in hell. On top of that, Lucifer has been set free from hell and Dean is the only person who can save the world from the Apocalypse. In this video, Dean and Sam, along with two other hunters, Jo and her mom, are in a town where they know Lucifer will be. They have a weapon that they hope will kill him. Jo saves Dean's life when he gets taken down by the (invisible) hell hounds, but she is mortally injured in the process. The explosion at the end is Jo and her mom blowing the building (with themselves and the hellhounds inside) so that Dean and Sam can finish the mission. It was love...



6) John Bender, played by Judd Nelson, was the bad boy in The Breakfast Club. He acted rough, talked tough, and made it clear that he didn't care what anyone thought. At least, at first. When the group took their "field trip" into the school and they were all going to get caught, John Bender took the fall for them all. What kind of "bad guy" does that? The truth be told, The Breakfast Club was my coming of age movie. It was the movie that I saw in high school that allowed me to actually see things the way that they really are. I loved all of those characters, because they walked in looking at themselves, and everyone else one way, and walked out seeing each other a totally different way. I actually had crushes on all of them just for having the courage to be real and honest and true. It was love...




7) Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, brought dancing and chaos to a small town in Footloose. My friend, Shelle, saw the movie before I did and she said, "I knew that I was going to love it before the movie started. As soon as the parade of shoes started across the screen, I was hooked." Yep. That is how high schoolers think. I know I am showing my age, but that movie came out the summer before my junior year of high school and I loved it. Ren was gorgeous (obviously) but he was more than that. He believed in music, dancing, the right to read, that censorship is wrong and was strong enough to stand up and say so in a town that didn't want to hear it. That took guts, particularly when you're the new kid. I admired the crap out him. It was love...




8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, played by Hugh Jackman, accidentally time travels to present day New York in Kate & Leopold. I am a sucker for all movies Hugh Jackman and all things time travel, so this was a no brainer. Naturally, he didn't fit in well. It wasn't just the technology that set him apart, but manners and the way people treat people. I suppose that there are jackasses in all time periods, but there are gentlemen and then there are "gentlemen." And Leopold was the latter. *sigh* He does all of those things that women love, not because he knows that we expect it, and will get mad if we don't get it, but because he thinks it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I think he may be the only man on my list who actually embraces this trait. However, he is also smart, funny, charming, honorable, loyal, and all around good person. It was love...




9) Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, is wary of all things psychic because he pretended to be one for his entire life. However, he is wicked observant and uses his powers for good on The Mentalist. Patrick is charming, funny, cunning, sly (is that the same as cunning?), deeply hurt, cares more about others than he would like to admit, wary of attachments, and extremely handsome. Right from the start I knew it was love...

You can click here to watch the video.


10) Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, is another one of my favorite books come to life on the big screen. I read The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, shortly after he wrote it and I cried through the last half of the book. It is very difficult to read and cry at the same time. I saw the movie many years later. I know that they tinkered with the ending to give it some flair, but they didn't alter the integrity of the story, so I can live with that. What also helped me was that there was enough distance between when I read the book and when I saw the film that my "vision" of what the characters looked like wasn't fresh anymore. So, it was love...

You have to click here to watch the clip.


I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I was left holding the bag on several crushes that didn't make the list. One of the most significant, was the book The Outsiders. For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you are aware that this book made an enormous impression on me. I gave a Sunrise Sermon on The Outsiders. (I just found the sermon intact. It was worse than I remembered.) Part of the problem was the youtube footage and the other part was I couldn't define my crush. I liked them all. Another biggie was Duncan MacCloud from the Highlander TV series. And Gary Hobson from Early Edition, played by Kyle Chandler. I even had the footage from youtube, but not the space. Oh well, they won't be included on the final list, but you will know that it was a tough call.

JUST LET ME PUT MY EYE BACK IN...

Before I get started with all of the hotties, I have to tell you the oddest thing. When I woke up this morning, or perhaps I should say waking up, I could not figure out where I was. I spent a good fifteen minutes attempting to get my bearings and was not able to figure it out. I looked around my room and nada. I kept thinking I was in Ohio. People, I have not lived in Ohio since I was in high school. And I was really upset about it because I was convinced that so many people that I once knew and loved weren't there anymore. As it turns out, some were and some weren't. But, that isn't the point. When I finally nailed down where I was (fifteen minutes later), I mentally walked the house and the backyard, front yard, etc. I had to establish just what pets we now had. That was a happy/unhappy moment. In my mind, because I was in high school, my beloved Hershey was still alive. Then I realized she wasn't. On the plus side of crazy, my beloved Shelby is still very here. I get that I was stuck somewhere between waking and sleeping; I would wake up just enough to see my room and then go out enough to not have it make sense at all. Is that what Alzheimer's feels like, I wonder? If so, it is awful.

Okay, well I can't stay stuck on that. It made me cry. Again. And that is not a good mix with my migraine.

Turn off your music player, so we can move on to something fun.

To recap: you are looking for patterns within my crushes. You can email them to me at rarichards68@gmail.com when this is over or whenever you feel the urge. I have found 14 thus far and you get a special button if you find one that I missed. I am looking for one word responses (like a**hole), which would not be one of my patterns. Or possibly a phrase (like out of work loser), which is again not a correct answer. When this is all over, I am going to post a complete list with the day that their video is posted. That way you can go over the list as a whole and go back and watch any video on someone that you don't know. Or just read the preface to get a sense of the character. Again this is supposed to be FUN.

1) Ben Covington, played by Scott Speedman, didn't win my heart as easily as he did Felicity's. In fact, I spent a lot of time being torn between him and Noel (Scott Foley). To be fair, Felicity had the same problem. It took me watching that series four times to understand what Felicity saw in Ben and why she chose him over Noel. You must be wondering why we aren't watching a Noel clip right now. Me too. I loved them both. Oh crap. *sigh* It was love...



2) Noel Crane, played by Scott Foley, was my other love on the television show Felicity. He was the RA on Felicity's floor her freshman year and there should have been no fraternization. That didn't work out so well. He was the guy you hoped you'd meet when you go to college... Well, I met several when I went to college; they just all had girlfriends. So, naturally, it was love...



3) Michael Vaughn, played by Michael Vartan, had me from "go." He was Sidney Bristow's handler at the CIA. She was a double agent inside SD6 until they took it down. I like to think that we fell for him together, Sidney and I. At first, it was a lot of stolen glances and brushes of the hand. It was fraught with meaning. He was the only person who knew me. I mean her. Eventually, we started going on missions together and he literally had my back. I mean her. That first kiss was amazing. Unfortunately, that isn't what you're going to see. I am going to show you the subtler side of Vaughn. You will have no doubt that it was love....




4) Tristan, played by Brad Pitt, became "legend" in Legends of the Fall. The best quote came at the end. "Those who loved him most died young. He was a rock they broke themselves against." Of course, what made you love the character was the big love that he had for his family and the people that he loved. His intentions were always good and the results always went to crap, through no fault of his own. He didn't create the war or the need that his younger brother had to fight in it. He didn't cause his brother's death or any of the events that dominoed after. It was heartbreaking, tragic, glorious, epic. It was love...



(As an aside, I am so thankful this movie came out before the soap opera of Brad's life. I wouldn't have been able to watch this movie in quite the same way had I thought about the man the way that I do now. At the time, he was just a guy who had played a supporting role in Thelma and Louise. He was just a guy.)


5) James Barrie, played by Johnny Depp, is another case of a true story come to life in Finding Neverland. James was looking for inspiration and found it in a family whose father had passed, mother was ill, and the young boys were looking for something or someone to give them some faith or hope. It turned out to be a reciprocal arrangement. The youngest boy was Peter, and so came alive the story of Peter Pan and Neverland. But how do you get there? All you have to do is believe.
It was love....




6) Adam Rove, played by Christopher Marquette, on Joan of Arcadia is so real. He wants to be an artist, doesn't know how to handle the relationships in his life, and tries hard to do the right thing. He doesn't always succeed. He calls Joan Jane, which I think is awesome. In this scene he is struggling with how to get out of a situation that he created. He was very angry with Joan (for good reason) and started dating Iris. The anger has worn away and it is love...




7) Aidan Shaw, played by John Corbett, on Sex and the City, stole my heart twice. Check that. He stole it once. He stole Carrie's heart twice. I never would have screwed up with Mr. Big. I posted the first part of this scene once before (the forgive me part) and Chris over at A Deliberate Life posted in the comments "No, he doesn't." I laughed so hard. The thing is that he did. He has this huge heart and he did forgive her. He took her back and she blew it. Granted, he was probably moving that relationship along a bit too fast for her, but if it had been Mr. Big doing the pushing, she would have gone with it. Bottom line was that he wasn't the right guy for her. However, he was totally the right guy for ME. It was love...




8) Robert McCallister, played by Rob Lowe, on Brothers and Sisters is a U.S. Senator. A Republican Senator. The fireworks began when he hired Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) to work for him. She is about as liberal as they come. I thought that it might mean a lot of shoe throwing. Instead, it was witty repartee followed by some meeting in the middle. They challenged each other. It was fun, exciting, and it was definitely love...




9) Logan Huntzberger, played by Matt Czuchry, met Rory Gilmore when she went to Yale. The Gilmore Girls got a shot in the arm with his arrival. He was something that all of Rory's previous boyfriends were not: fun, witty, daring, challenging, smart, and loyal. In my opinion, Rory is the one that blew this one. Logan made mistakes, but he was always honest about them. It was love...




10) Sonny Corinthos, played by Maurice Benard, is seriously intense and got a double shot of handsome. General Hospital never intended to keep him on for more than a few episodes, but he impressed them so much that they kept him on. He is now a force on that show. Sonny is one of those characters that it takes years to figure out and you will still get surprises. He had a painful childhood, is loyal to the people he cares about, but still hurts the people he loves most. It was love...

GET YOUR SEXY ON...

I was hoping that prizes, and the goal of searching for clues would make this fun for you people. Well, some of you are having fun. Most of you have been eerily quiet. I keep telling myself that it's my blog and if no one reads it but me, that's fine. I started out with no followers and if that's where I land again, the world is not over. The truth is, this is not going to last much longer. Oh, I shall miss it, but I think I am in a very small minority. This has been a blessing for me this week. It has been migraine city these last few days, so I couldn't have written a cohesive piece on anything worth reading anyway. This I could do.

As an aside, I did discover that when I started thinking about my movie crushes, Dennis Quaid just kept showing up. It reminded me of a vacation that I went on. I brought half a dozen movies and he was in four of them. My friends were like, "What's up with that?" I didn't even realize what I had done until it was pointed out. So, to pare this down, I am not going to show you a multiple movies with the same guy even though the idea is a fictional crush. I am just going to have to decide which fictional character I like best, I crushed on first, or has the best youtube footage. All three of these things come into play. Sad, but true.

Again, you are still looking for patterns. I have decided that I will make a list of all of the characters when this is over. You can go back through the footage and look at anyone you are uncertain about. Right now, I can think of 14 patterns. If you come up with a pattern I can't see, you get an extra-special button. Right now, keep your own list. Email me at the end. I will include my email address. Don't tell me the patterns in the comments.

Turn off my music player at the bottom.

1) Johnny Cash, played by Joaquin Phoenix, known the world over as the Man In Black was someone that I thought I knew. Walk The Line showed me that I didn't know him at all. I grew up listening to his music because my dad liked country music, and Johnny Cash, and I thought that gave me some insight. Johnny Cash was as flawed as a person can be, made every mistake a person can make, and loved as much as a person can love. He lived his life full throttle. June Carter saved his life. One of the best scenes in the movie is when she yells at him in front of his band, "Johnny Cash, you don't know how to walk no line!" And a song was born. What came behind it was an attitude and a way of life. Yes, he could. For her, he could walk the line. It was love...




2) Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, starred in Jericho. Very likely you are scratching your head and thinking what is that? *sigh* That was one of the best TV shows ever and it was yanked after one season. CBS brought it back after a huge fan outcry to wrap it up in 7 episodes. Uggh. This video unfortunately won't help you with the plot, but will help you with the crush. In a nutshell on the show, the US is hit with atomic bombs across the US. Power goes out everywhere. Communication shuts down. Every town has to become self sufficient. Interstates become dangerous. Money no longer has value. No one knows who or why. The Unites States ceases to exist. When they finally venture to a trading post, they discover that there are four or five "Presidents" vying for control It is chaos. The entire country has been thrown back to "caveman" times. You fight for your life, your family, and your town. When times became tough, Jake stepped up. It was love...




3) Frank Sullivan, played by Dennis Quaid (you knew it was coming), in Frequency embodied my crush. He loved his kid, job, and wife, and not in that order. He believed in the impossible. He went against his instincts because his son (from the future) said that if he did, he would not die in that fire. He lived. And it changed everything. This was my kind of movie. I love this sh*t: movies that alter the past and mess with future. Only bad thing about this movie is that the best line in it was not delivered by my crush: "You're going down. You went down thirty years ago. You just don't know it yet." His son got to deliver that line. However, that's okay, because parents instill those kinds of values in their kids. "Spirit and guts." It was love...




4) Sealy Booth, played by David Boreanz, is an FBI agent who works with Temperance Brennan to solve cases. Theirs is an unusual working relationship. She is a scientist who works with bones at The Jeffersonian, so their styles of solving cases are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. What show am I talking about? Bones, of course. Who is Bones? Dr. Brennan. It is the nickname Booth gave her. Their relationship started out rocky and has become... rockier, but in a different way. That is what sexual tension does to a working relationship when both people live in the land of denial. Me? I don't live in the land of denial. It was love...




5) Seth Cohen, played by Adam Brody, was not meant to be the one winning hearts on The O.C. There was a lot hunkiness on that show. However, his appeal is subtler and, therefore, more appealing. He is that guy who is more likely not to get noticed in high school. And it is a crying shame because he is hilarious once you draw him out of his shell. Once he feels confident he is the king of the comeback line, so cute when he rambles, and loyal to a fault. He may never be the best looking man at the beach, but who cares? He is definitely the most entertaining. Did I mention smart? I think I forgot that one. He is also extremely smart. I want a man that I can TALK to, and actually has something to say. It was love...




6) David Addison, played by Bruce Willis, kept me tuned into Moonlighting each week with his antics. He and Maddie (Cybil Shepherd) found new ways to dial up the torture and solve cases. Meanwhile, we all were waiting for them to admit it was love. He was smart, funny, ingenious, clever, put up with a lot of grief from her, very sexy, and had that hero complex going (at least some of the time). So, unlike Maddie, I didn't have anything to work out in my head. I knew it was love....



7) Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew Macfayden, is one of the beloved fictional characters of all-time. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a book that I can read repeatedly. In truth, this is a case of a book that I adore. The movie is an adequate representation of that which I actually love. In my opinion, no film can live up to what I see in my head when I read a novel. However, I did enjoy this film and part of this Mr. Darcy's appeal, for me, was that I hadn't seen him in anything else (sorry Colin Firth), which made it easier for me to believe that he really was the Mr. Darcy. I had a tougher time with Elizabeth, but then she wasn't the object of my affection. It was love...




8) Jason Morgan, formerly Quartermaine, played by Steve Burton, jumped into the car with his brother AJ knowing full well he was drunk (he was an alcoholic) in an effort to stop him from killing himself. They got into an accident. AJ walked away fine, but Jason suffered from a severe brain injury to his frontal lobe. All was not well at General Hospital. He lost his memory. He didn't lose the ability to speak or the "book learning," but all of the memories of the people he knew and his former personality traits were gone. He was, more or less, a blank slate. He got a do-over. Everything was new, including falling in love. Robin (Kimberly McCullough) thought she would always grieve the death of Stone; Jason was bringing her back to life. It was love...




9) Batman, played by Christian Bale, put a new spin on the series that was dark and I liked it. Some of my friends saw the movie before I. Their review: "It was so good that it made me want to go out and buy a cape." Now, that was a movie that I had to see. If you liked Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, you should check out Equilibrium (if you haven't already seen it and are a Christian Bale fan). This was one of those fictional characters that was a tough call. In the end, it's your actions that define you. It was love...




10) Damon Salvatore, played by Ian Sommerholder, is one of the vampire brothers on The Vampire Diaries. He is not the good vampire. He probably isn't the one I should be rooting for at the end of the day. His brother, Stefan, is the one who has consistently done the right thing and lands on the good side of the balance scale. Damon... not so much. Damon needs a reason to be a better vampire and he hasn't found one until Elena. Unfortunately, that is the same girl that his brother loves and she loves his brother. He is stuck in a forbidden love scenario. If that isn't enough, she is a dead ringer for Katherine, the vampire that turned him and his brother into vampires in the first place. Katherine was the person he loved and now he hates her. Everything he thought was right turned out to be wrong. He is discovering that he isn't who he thought he was. Maybe he is the good guy after all. I knew it all along. It was love...

You have to click here to watch a whole bunch of gorgeousness. And I don't just mean eye candy, but there is that, too. I mean some hit you in the heart stuff.

I KNOW THERE IS A PATTERN HERE SOMEWHERE

I have had a couple of you send me your guesses about my patterns in the comments. I was thrilled that you are actually putting on your thinking caps and looking for them. However, I would prefer that you send them to me in email. If I could figure out how to put my email addy in my sidebar, I would do that. Since I am not that techy, it is rarichards68@gmail.com and I will try to remember to include it in each post. I have it in all of the HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY posts. By the way, that will go off the same as always, in case you were worried. I will be setting my crushes aside and focusing on you and your blogs. Also, I promise that this will wrap up no later than Sunday. One week. If I can't finish this in one week... well, God help us all.

Since you have begun to float me some of your guesses, it has forced me to actually write down my patterns. So far, I have found 14. Many of my crushes have more than one of those attributes. Some have only one. Hope that helps. You can let me know how you want your awards. If you want the individual ones or a single award indicating how many of the patterns you found. I am so flexible it is scary.

Don't forget to turn off the music at the bottom of the page.

1) Lucky Spencer, played by Jonathan Jackson, is indeed the son of the infamous Luke and Laura Spencer, who graced the cover of Time Magazine (at least I think it was Time, maybe it was Newsweek). Whatever, it was a BIG DEAL. The Spencers rolled back into Part Charles when Lucky was ten or so, but it was in 1996 (when this clip was taken) that Cupid pulled back that bow and shot his arrow. For those of you who know the story; it hurt quite a bit, but it definitely was love...




2) Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, was in another wonderful Joss Whedon television series, Firefly. It lasted all of one season. There was a huge fan outcry. Unfortunately, it was not enough for the network to revive the series. However, the storyline wrapped with the blockbuster movie Serenity. This particular clip is taken from Firefly. It was love...




3) Hawkeye (Nathaniel Poe), played by Daniel Day Lewis, in The Last of the Mohicans was another case of instant crush. It didn't help that I was reading books by Lucia St. Clair Robson at the time on various native american tribes. She is a librarian and writes very detailed accounts of how the tribes lived. I could very well understand how these two way of lives were not coming together. Furthermore, I was siding with the indians (at least most of them). It wasn't even remotely a black and white situation. If not for the women, Hawkeye and his brother and father would have stayed out of it. Wherever you go, just stay alive. I will find you. It was love...



4) Paul Buckman, played by Paul Reiser, on Mad About You, made me laugh for so many years. He and Jamie (Helen Hunt) had marital woes, but they laughed a lot. Of course they did, it was a sitcom. It was supposed to be funny. However, they often showed the underbelly of married life, which isn't all that funny, and worked their way through it. I really was mad about him because it was love...




5) Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, is a long-standing crush. My obsession with Smallville is not a well kept secret. In fact, as I was mentally writing this particular post in bed, I realized I'd rambled on for about 20 minutes. Eeeks. I guess what I love about Smallville is that the writers got to fill in the backstory. Everyone knows Superman and (probably) loves him. This guy isn't Superman. He's Clark Kent. Superman doesn't exist yet. It will make you think twice about Superman in the future. People always think of him as Superman wearing the disguise of Clark Kent. He's actually Clark Kent wearing the disguise of Superman.
6) Oliver Queen, played by Justin Hartley, is now in residence is Smallville. He is one of the members of what is becoming The Justice League. Other members come and go. If you aren't up to date on your comics, Oliver Queen is Green Arrow. While Clark Kent has yet to fully embrace his other identity, Oliver is just the opposite. He challenges Clark's thinking about what his responsibility is with this gift that he has and how he will use it. Oliver provides the balance (in a good way) for Clark, at least most of the time. You can call me twisted, but I don't care. In both of these cases, it was love...


7) Carlos Ricardo Manoso, AKA Ranger, can be found in the Stephanie Plum series written by Janet Evanovich. They are numbered to keep you on track. I can't say that I fell in love with him in her first book, ONE FOR THE MONEY. I think that it was in THREE TO GET DEADLY that my crush really began to heat up. Fortunately, I found some of my Stephanie Plum books and felt like sorting through them to get you some juicy Ranger references. Here is what Stephanie Plum has to say about Ranger:

"Ranger had been my mentor when I'd started in the business and was one very badass bounty hunter. In this case, bad meaning ultracool. He'd been one of those army guys who went around disguised as the night, eating tree bark and beetles, scaring the bejeezus out of emerging third-world insurgents. He was a civilian now, of sorts, sometimes working for Vinnie as an apprehension agent. He supposedly lived in the 'hood among his Cuban relatives, and he knew things I'd never, ever know."

"He wore his black hair slicked back into a ponytail, dressed in black and khaki, had a washboard belly, castiron biceps and the reflexes of a rattler."

"... the only time Ranger wouldn't look out of place would be standing in a lineup between Rambo and Batman."

"Ricardo Carlos Manoso. Master of the two-syllable sentence. Superhero at large."

"I picked my way around pots and examined my door. The two Yale locks were intact, the bolt was thrown, the chain was attached. My conclusion was that Ranger had knocked the pots over when he slid under the doorjamb."

"No one knew where Ranger lived. I had Norma run a check on him once at the DMV and his address turned out to be an empty lot."

"Ranger. No point in asking how he'd gotten in when the windows and doors were closed and locked. Ranger had ways."

And there you have it. I need a fan. It was definitely love...


8. Mick St. John, played by Alex O'Loughlin, played the sexy vampire detective in Moonlight. Given all of the vampire interest, I was shocked that it lasted only one season. There was so much talent, good storytelling, it wasn't a Buffy/Angel rehash, yet had merit all of its own. It was short-lived, but it was love...




9)Dr. Pete Wilder, played by Tim Daly, hit a homerun with me right away. Addison hadn't even officially moved to LA and Private Practice; this was from the episodes stuck into Grey's Anatomy's as a teaser. Boy, did it ever! Turns out that he's the doctor who thinks outside the box. He is into non-traditional medicine and things like acupuncture. That doesn't mean that he isn't a surgeon or jump through those hoops. It only means that he sees a bigger picture. As soon as I saw his bigger picture, he had me hook, line, and sinker. You did notice that he was gorgeous, right? It was love...




10) Alex Wyler, played by Keanu Reeves, started a "long distance" relationship with Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) in the movie The Lake House. She moved out of the lake house and he moved in. She left a letter in the mail box and he got it. The glitch was that she left it in 2006 and he got it in 2004. And, thus, began a love affair by mail that transcends the experience. One of my favorite scenes of the movie was when they spent the day together on a walking tour. He left her a letter with specific destinations that they would walk together that day. Granted, he was doing it in 2004, and she in 2006. At the end of the walk, he had spray painted on a brick building "Thank you for taking this walk with me today" or something like that. Other people had graffiti painted over it in places and around it, etc. However, you could still see it. When someone defaces a building for you, then you know it was love...

You have to click here to watch the video.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON...

I love you, my commenters. I really do. Linda over at Bar Mitzvahzilla felt the need to remind me that for each one of these characters that I chose, I had to want to "get vertical with them." Well, duh. Ah, but of course. I knew that. That harrowing picture of Barbie and Ken said it all. Again, it is with the character and not the actual person. It is all in your head stuff. It's fantasy, not reality.

Let me remind you again of "Robin's rules." You are looking for PATTERNS among my crushes. Some are fairly obvious and some are a bit more hidden. And I have buttons or awards for your sidebar to acknowledge your cleverness. Since I don't have a blog topic today, we are just going to get down to it (that being the hot fictional deliciousness that has kept me awake nights). Don't forget to turn off my music player....

1) I am not posting youtube footage (again) for this one. I have already dedicated footage to this character on behalf of Linda and her crush. She named Danny Zuko of Grease, as played by John Travolta, as one of her five crushes, when she did this award. In turn, on HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY, I dedicated to her some footage. That was my first crush. I saw the movie at the theatre three times (and I wasn't even ten years old). It turns out, that it lives on to this day (the crush). I blow kisses to you, Danny. And it was love...

You can click here if you missed this footage from last week.


2) Angel first showed up in Sunnydale on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He was played by David Boreanz. After three years, it became clear that this vampire was a champion and needed his own show, appropriately called Angel. He moved to Los Angeles and put down roots there. Eventually, he picked up his own crew to help him ward off everything sinister and evil going down in that town. Angel, the vampire with a soul, is determined to save the world, can never know love, and is convinced that no matter how many lives he saves it will never make up for the number he took away (when he was Angelus and without his soul). Oh yeah, it was love...




3) Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, has stopped my heart so many times I am surprised I haven't gone into cardiac arrest watching 24. Fearless, dedicated, devoted, loyal, dangerous, smart, capable, strong, and brave, are only a few of the words I would use to describe the man. Each show has been about a terrorist attack of some variety coming down on this country; Jack Bauer does what needs to be done to stop it. It often gets really ugly and the body count has been high. His personal losses have been extremely painful. Youtube footage on this show is really tough to find. You either got a bunch of action that is a lot of stuff blowing up and gunfire or something like this. I cried when I saw it in real time. I cried when I saw it again. It was love...




4) Logan Echolls, played by Jason Dohring, on Veronica Mars, didn't steal my heart right away. In fact, he was something of a jerk at the beginning of our relationship. It turns out that all of that stuff I didn't like was covering up this amazing guy. Who knew? That didn't mean that he didn't act like an asshat every now and again, but he was in high school and then college, so there you go. However, I have to admit that I provoked him most of the time. I'm not the easiest person to get along with, either. Our story was "epic." It was love...




5) Gerry Kennedy, played by Gerard Butler, in the movie P.S. I Love You is the husband that every girl/woman wishes she has. And then he dies of cancer. I hope that I am not spoiling this for anyone. But he leaves his wife "surprises" by way of letters that keep coming for a year with instructions to keep her moving forward, so that she keeps going on. He knew her well enough to know that she would get "stuck" and just want to like down and not move. Grief can do that to a person. That is freaking love. If you haven't seen the movie, and I'm telling you that he dies in the beginning, I bet you're wondering how I even know the character of Gerry well enough to love him. She remembers him A LOT. It was love...




6) Luke Danes, played by Scott Patterson, on the oft-mentioned Gilmore Girls has it all going on. He cooks. He's funny. He's willing to go that extra mile. He knows how to do home maintenance. He has a romantic streak. He gives you things like coffee even when he thinks its bad for you. He takes an interest in the little things. It was love...




7) Zack Mayo, played by Richard Gere, stopped hearts everywhere in the movie An Officer and a Gentlemen. I know that I will never forget the first time I saw it. I wanted to stand up and clap at the end, except that I couldn't see anything because I was crying too hard. That was also the day I learned to appreciate a man in uniform. Dress uniform. Whew. I am giving you two clips. The first one is short and is dialogue. It is one of the "meat" scenes of the film. However, the other is a montage and gives you a sense of what the film was all about, with the added bonus of the ending. It was love...






8) Hawkeye Pierce, played by Alan Alda, on M*A*S*H was a regular fixture in my living room growing up. It was one of the only shows that my dad and I enjoyed equally. Hawkeye was the kind of guy that I always wanted to marry. He was funny, smart, extremely loyal (if he made a commitment), honest, empathetic, and able to make the best out a bad situation. I think I forgot handsome. He was also very good looking. Hawkeye was the person I wanted to have my back. That isn't to say he never fell down or messed up. Why am I explaining this one? Who has never watched this show and doesn't know who this character is???? It was love...

SINGING OUT LOUD

I was thinking today about patterns. When I was kid (elementary school age) and I would get into a blue funk I would pop one of my favorite records onto the turntable and dance around my room singing into a hairbrush. Back then, that meant it was Cher's Greatest Hits, Shawn Cassidy's Greatest Hits, or it might have been this record that I ordered off of the TV. It was purple and it had a big clunky shoes on the cover. The name of it is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite pull it up. My mother says that I composed quite the letter to place my order. Apparently, it was $7.99, or something like that, and I told them I was sending them $8.00, and I gave them my address so they could send me back the penny. She thought that was hysterical. She sent a check and kept my letter.


As I got older, and moved into junior high and high school, the groups changed and cassettes became more the thing, although records did hang on for a while. And we had an eight track player that still got some use. I discovered that I liked singing into a curling iron better because it had a cord, and that lent a certain panache to the singing experience that the hairbrush lacked. Of course, it had a danger factor, too. Tripping was problematic if you got caught up in the song and weren't paying attention. That did happen on a number of occasions. The 80s lent themselves really well to the curling iron. Who didn't love to croon "Bette Davis Eyes" into the curling iron? "I'm Still Standing" always made me feel better after a lousy day at school. Barbra Streisand released "THE BROADWAY ALBUM" and I thought I died and went to heaven. For a curling iron want-to-be singing diva this was manna from heaven. It just didn't get any better. Here's to the ladies who lunch!


I lost my love for music in college when I majored in it. That was a very blue period that did get better after I dropped music as my major after freshman year. Fortunately, I would still go to parties, and there would be music, and I would sing along, and it would satisfy this elemental craving that I still didn't know I had. After college, I went back to singing along with the radio and my tapes. I wasn't CD techno yet. Alas, I was too mature to sing into my hairbrush or curling iron or dance around my room like a primadonna.

It was only in my singledom that I rediscovered the power of dancing and singing it out. It works with or without the hairbrush/curling iron. Anytime I start to feel blue, I just have to crank up something with a beat. Now, this doesn't work so hot if I have a migraine. But, any other time, it is a surefire home run. The funny thing is my dog. As soon as the music comes on, she comes running. She wants to dance, too. And she barks at me until I pick up her front feet and dance with her, or pick her up and hold her while I dance. Who can stay depressed with all that going on?

So, have you ever sung into your hairbrush or curling iron or danced with one of your pets? What crazy thing do you do to kick a blue mood?