Before you get carried away and let your mind wander down a trail of romantic and erotic intrigue, stop. We’re not talking about that kind of fire. Not today anyway. We’re talking about intellect, entertainment and adventure. I’d like you to take a look at the what makes you happy and brings you joy. Pretend you are talking to a new friend. Answer the questions as enthusiastically as you can and share with your friend what lights your fire. Recommend your favorites, what you’re passionate about – and tell us why. If it’s too hard to choose just one, narrow it down to the best of the best. Everyone who reads your answers will not only get a better sense of who you are but we might be inspired to check it out upon your expert recommendation. I like learning something new everyday. If you open the door of my imagination, I just might step through. Tell me!

1. Which historical figure do you admire the most? Why?

I have to admit that I just have not thought about a historical figure that I admired.  I do have a real life person I admire.  My Grandmother.

She grew up in a time and place where money was always short.  

Although she was not the oldest girl in her house, she was left to take care of her sick mother.  When she was a child it was still unusual for girls to graduate from high school, most got married young.  She not only graduated, she also played on her school’s basketball team.

Every single one of her brothers and her husband, his brothers, and most of the boys in the families she was friends with, went to fight during War World II.  She was left to take care of a small baby and her mother while they were gone.  She stayed strong the whole time people she knew and loved were in the war.  

She worked outside the home when it was still not common to see women doing that.  She made all my mother’s clothes, with no store bought patterns.  She could look at an outfit and figure out in her head how to make a pattern and she would create her own pattern out of newspaper.  She taught me how to make brooms out of broom straw.  

She, even now and she is almost 90, has the best gardens.  Better than professional gardeners most of the time.  She can get the smallest vegetable plant to produce tons of vegetables.  She can stick a stick from a tree in the ground and grow her own trees.  

Her home is always open to her loved ones.  She loves her family deeply and has done so much for everyone.  She remembers how my daughter loves her home made french fries and makes them for her often.  When I was a single parent and she and I shared a house she would get up every morning and cook me breakfast before I left for work.  Or when I was working at night, she would make me home made pimento cheese so I could make myself a sandwich when I got home from work.  

I admire her for her capacity for unconditional love.

2. Name the band or artist you’d like to see live in concert before you leave the planet or tell us about a concert or album that has already rocked your world.


I am not really into music too much….however, I still remember the first ever concert I went to as a teen.  Culture Club with Boy George.  

3. What’s your favorite television show or series of all time?
Why should I care?

ER was my favorite all time television series.  I do not think I missed more than a handful of episodes the whole time it was on TV.  I have no idea why you should care…..but if you are my friend you will care because I care.

4. Movies! I am so behind on the movie scene. What should I watch this weekend? Should I watch it alone or with someone?

Fried Green Tomatoes  Still my favorite movie.  Watch it with a friend.  Movies are always better when you are watching them with a friend.  That way when you say a quote from the movie, it is like a private joke.  

My favorite line from the movie is “Face it girls, I am older and have more insurance”  and I also like the alter ego named “Twanda”

5. You are hopping on a plane tomorrow morning. Where did you choose to go and why?

I am going to Thailand.  Ever since I did a report on Thailand, when I was in fifth grade, I have always been fascinated with Thailand.  I have made it to other places in Asia, but never Thailand. 

6. Who is your favorite author? What about their writing inspires you or simply entertains you? Recommend at least one book that you feel I must read.

Picking one author is so hard.  Depending on my mood, I pick different authors.  If I had to pick, it would be Stephen King.  He is the author that I have stuck with the longest, I have been reading him since I was a teenager.  I would recommend the whole Tower series, and/or Duma Key.

There are so many things I enjoy about his books.  I have also really enjoyed seeing how his writing has changed over the years.  I like how he can make the not real seem real, I like the hidden messages he leaves in his books.  I love how he really seems to appreciate the people who read his book
s. 

7. Hobbies and passions. What brings you joy in your spare time? How did you get into it?

Cross stitching is something I have done since I was a teenager.  I got into because it looked hard and I like challenges.  I taught myself how to crochet a few years ago for the same reason.  When my mind is healthy, I am passionate about volunteering.  


I will be honest though, at this time in my life I get more joy, satisfaction I call it, from being able to do normal every day things.  Until a short time ago, being able to do normal every day things was an impossibility for me, because of my depression.


Oh, I do get a lot out of my blog.  I enjoy messing around with it all the time.

On February 19th, 1970, in Paducah, Kentucky, the second cutest baby girl in the world (my daughter holds the first place position) was born.  There is some debate about the time of birth, one of my parental units says it happened at night, the other parental unit says it was in the morning.  I have no opinion either way, as I have no memory of it.


As I was growing up, I enjoyed birthdays.  One of my favorite birthday memories is when we lived in Spain.  My mother learned how to make pinatas.  These were not the simple little pinatas you see in the stores around here.  My mother’s were art pieces.  Very detailed, and if my memory is correct, they were fairly large.  She made a pinata for my birthday, and filled it with candy and toys.  

Our apartment building was on a hill and we were on the second or third floor.  When it came time to beat on the pinata, my mother just hung it over our balcony, while the kids were gathered in the road below.  The best part of this whole birthday,was when the pinata was broken and all the toys and candy fell out.  My mother had put a bunch of those super bouncy balls inside the pinata.  Since we lived on a hill, some of those super bouncy balls started bouncing down the hill with kids running behind them.  That memory still makes me smile.  

Another birthday memory that makes me smile is the year I got to go the Ringling Brothers, and Barnum and Baily Circus on my birthday.  To this day, that circus comes to Atlanta right around my birthday, the commercials for it always bring back memories.  That was the year that Coca-Cola shirts were very popular.  I was given one of those for that birthday.  I think that may have also been around the time that I discovered cookie cakes.  They were not everywhere like they are now.  There was one place that I knew that had them and it was in Town Center mall.  So for my family to get me a cookie cake was a huge deal for me.  

By the time I was a seventeen or eighteen, I believe that I was already experiencing my first round of depression.  I was a sad and lonely teen, who really did not care about birthdays anymore.  I was already having a few suicidal thoughts at that time, and I truly thought that one way or another my life would be over by the time I was twenty.



On my twentieth birthday, I was pregnant with my son, who was to be born two days later.  I felt so old on that birthday.  It was a very difficult time.  My husband (we divorced a long time ago) was not in the same state I was in, he was not sending any money to me.  I felt abandoned and alone.  I was very sad.  I believe that if it were not for my pregnancy and my son, I probably would have attempted suicide at that time.

Every birthday after that seemed to sneak up on me.  I was not thrilled about them, nor was I upset.  I was more surprised than anything else.  Surprised that I had even made it to another birthday.  Looking back I was probably depressed on and off for most of my twenties and thirties. 


Even when I was not having suicidal thoughts, I was still taken by surprise when each birthday rolled around.  It always seemed, to me at least, that I had already passed that age at which I thought I would die, so I always felt like I was living on borrowed time.  As my depression grew worse and I was having suicidal thoughts all the time, I would often tell myself that I would not be alive on my fortieth birthday.  


Here I am though, three weeks until my fortieth birthday, thinking about how that makes me feel.  I did everything to prevent this birthday from taking place.  I truly wished to die.  Yet, here I am.  I am alive.  What an odd feeling, with everything I did to prevent it.


 My fortieth birthday is actually the first birthday I have looked forward to since I was a young teenager.  I am not looking forward to it for presents, or for a party.  I am looking forward to it because to me it represents  a “New Life” celebration. I can start from there forward with liking and loving myself in a way I never thought possible.



My fortieth birthday and the word hope seem to go hand in hand. I have a feeling of genuine hope and satisfaction, for the first time in my life.  I will be starting off a new “birth year” with hope.  I will be starting off a new “birth year” with an excitement that I cannot ever remember having.  I am looking forward to this new life of mine.