*The Perfume Addict's Creed*

I want it......I want it all....I want it now. If it is available at any store in my vicinity, or is prohibitively expensive, I want it most of all. I am perfectly willing to forego any necessities of life, such as food for my children in order to have it. I recognize my aromacological dependency. I recognize your aromacological dependency. I will willingly aid and abet your dependency, as you will mine. This makes us infinitely happy. All money saved by virtue of comparison shopping equals found money and therefore it is not counted as spending. If everyone else has it, I must have it too. If I have sniffed everything that I have already purchased, I must immediately buy more scents. **At this point, it is customary to recite your Visa numbers from memory.

*A Scrapbooker's Rights*

A Scrapbooker is entrusted with documenting and safely preserving family photos in an album to be treasured by future generations. Creating a Scrapbook is an honorable and important task. As a Scrapbooker, you are entitled (but not limited) to the following rights:

You have the right to take as long as you want to complete one album page. This may be five minutes or two weeks.

You have the right to purchase a certain scrapbook item for no other reason than because

A) you like it
B) you think it's cute
c) you'll never find it again
D) you know you'll use it someday

You have the right to a workplace of your own. This may be the basement, your college student's old bedroom, or the kitchen table. It's yours whether your project is paper or digital.

You have the right to scrapbook whenever inspiration strikes - whether the dishes are done, the house vacuumed or not.

You have the right to request peaceful, kid-free, stress-less scrap time -guilt free.

You have the right to create pages that reflect and celebrate the spirit of the one person who is usually NOT in the photograph: You.

You have the right to put whatever you want on your album page This includes, but it is not limited to: patterned papers, die-cuts, stickers and punch-outs. You may place as many or as few photos per page as you deem appropriate. It's YOUR creation.

You have the right to do nothing more than snack and socialize at a 6 hour crapping party or a 1 hour online one.

You have the right to value your personal scrapbooking style to be as important as your photographs. You are creating a treasure, and part of that treasure is you.

You have the right to create your own legacy - one page at a time.

ENJOY IT......LIVE IT......SCRAP IT!

*Take Responsibility for Your Decisions, Mr. Bush*

I truly believe that from birth, George Bush has never had to take responsibility for his actions. Some children, especially the privileged do not learn that basic skill. He was raised in a very wealthy family and I doubt that he was ever taught to admit to a mistake. I say this because lately I have been following all the political fire that this administration has caused. It seems to be a trend.......Take his first nomination for the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers. She could have just withdrawn her name as a candidate, she said she was no longer interested in the position. She took the fall, not Mr. Bush. The same thing occured with Mr. Brown, the so-called head of FEMA, once the crapola hit the fan regarding responsibility for hurricane Katrina. Several days ago, I heard the the country of Dubai is no longer interested in the highly coveted ports deal here in the US. I am seeing a trend here where deals and people no longer show interest in something when under fire in the public domain. I think that it is much easier for Mr. Bush to let his cronies take blame than it is for him to admit blame or failure. I would like to tell Barbara Bush that she forgot to instill in her sons the ability to admit to wrongdoing or failure. Maybe they never had to growing up...........................?

*In Memory of My Daughter, Leslie*

Thursday, March 02, 2006

*In Memory of My Daughter, Leslie*
On March 21st, my oldest daughter would have been celebrating her birthday, only she is not here to do so. She passed away on July 5, 2002. Every year on her birthday, my younger daughter and I stand on my balcony and release balloons in the air, watching them fly high in the sky towards heaven. We do this not only to help ourselves, but we miss her and want her to know that we remember. She was cremated per her wishes so there is no grave to visit. I don't have a problem with that at all. I want to be cremated as well. I also have never been fond of funerals and funeral homes. I personally feel that people should be loved and cherished and given flowers and praise while they are alive. I also believe that the spirit that has left the body for whereever it travels to was only the receptacle and is where the spirit lived. I think that maybe funerals give a sense of closure to families. I just don't like remembering that person laying in a casket at a overly- priced funeral home. We as a family arranged for a memorial service for her. For one to say that the service was beautiful might sound funny to the average person, but it wasn't too me and it wasn't to the over 100 people who attended and Leslie would have approved. We had gorgeous lit candles, we played all of her favorite music from a CD my son had recorded. We had her pictures everywhere. Her friends loved looking at all of those pictures, some which they had never seen. Anyone was the allowed to give a thought or a prayer, or a speech, of who Leslie was and I think that was very cleansing to their souls, as well. All in all, it a was touching, loving and thoughtful way to deal with her loss. She would have been amazed at the number of people that came. She used to feel lonely and unloved many times. Every person there spoke of what a wonderful impact she had made on their lives. People need to know this, while they are alive. I would rather have the memories of the memorial service, than one of a funeral home. The only thing it didn't provide me with was my own personal closure, as her mother, and as her friend. So, here I am 4 years later now dealing with my own grief; grief that I postponed for all this time. I don't know why I postponed it for so long, maybe it was because I felt that if I tapped into it and dealt with it, my heart and soul would be critically damaged and I would never return from that dark place of grief and pain. I have heard that delaying grief is not the best thing for one to do, because when you do deal with it, it will be much harder, and it is . Avoidance was my only way of coping, but now I have decided to deal with it. I make scrapbooks for people that I love. Now, I am making a memorial scrapbook for Leslie. I want it to be positive, thoughtful and full of the wonderful person she was, but, I will take my time, I want it to be a tribute to my daughter, to her life and to the wonderful person that she was. I must go now, Les, I have to get started on your tribute.

*WHY DO WE BLOG?*

After sitting and reading several blogs this morning, I began to wonder to myself, why do we blog? About a year ago, I had no idea what a blog even was. When I was a young girl, I kept a diary, but hid it so no one could read it. But a blog, you write online for the whole world to see! There have to be reasons why people blog. Blogging to me is an art form. I love to surf the net and see the different styles, colors, methods, thoughts that people blog about. It's not something that you are forced into, like writing a book or an article, most people blog because they want to. Sometimes, when I can't sleep at night, or if I feel creative and talkative, I blog. Blogging is an investment to me as well, of my time and my various interests. It never even occurred to me that the world could read it if they wanted to. I have so many different interests and I post about most of them. I never had the literary gift of being a writer, although reading is my passion. Words can literally take one somewhere else, they can be someone else, or they can be informed or entertained by books. I also have strong, firmly entrenched political beliefs and when I vent them online it makes me feel better. So not only is blogging an interest for me, it is therapy as well. My first blog read was one by Rosie O'Donnell after she left television. She blogs about 'everything'! Now, for anyone reading this, let me know the different reasons why you blog? What does blogging do for you? When you initially began blogging, what was your motivation? Has this changed in any way, and if so, why and how? I welcome your comments...............

*OUR COUNTRIES' CURRENT ADMINISTRATION*

I guess I should not have been surprised when I heard about the incident involving Dick Cheney's shooting of his hunting partner on a ranch in Texas. What amazed me was that the incident was not reported immediately and was also listed as "accidental" even though there was NO investigation. Minor accident? The man shot ended up having a heart attack due to buckshot traveling to his heart and was subsequently admitted to a private room in the Intensive Care Unit!!

Late night comedians had a great time with this topic, and rightfully so! Here was just another link in the chain of misfortunes that have plagued the Bush/Cheney administration. I like to think of this particular chapter as "Qualgate". I am really glad that the man shot did not suffer any lingering problems though, and was released from the hospital to indeed, hunt again. If one closely analyzes this most recent misfortune, it was not a funny thing! How did Mr. Cheney go for over 24 hours without even reporting the incident? And without even obtaining a hunting license? He wasn't even charged with any minor crime, just a little slap on the wrist.

Mr Cheney only appeared publicly several days later when he was, most likely, advised to even voice his views on the issue or even an apology. The aloofness, lack of accountability and arrogance of this administration is just mind-boggling when you think about it. It seems that this is just another area wherein thoughts of self-absorbtion and the feeling that they are "above the law" and the sense of entitlement and arrogance just amaze me! Remember, during the hurricane Katrina, just six months ago, NO ONE had a clue where Mr. Cheney was for over a week? Thousands of people were either killed, hurt, never found and no one knows where our VP even is and the big guy GWB doesn't even show up for 5 days!! Unbelievable. Don't even want to get started on the current planned takeover by a mideastern company of our sea ports, nor the justification for spying. Why do we, as Americans, keep allowing this type of behavior from the current administration?

Since I am currently on yet another political rant............Are we really at war?
Bush says we are currently at war, hopefully justifying many activities, from the original invasion (alone as a country) to remaining there where it was supposedly "over", to the wiretapping, the slaughter of over 2000 American soldiers, a country ready for a civil war, not really wanting us there. I am also wondering how many people have noticed how tapes from Bin Laden, himself, are released when Mr. Bush's numbers are dipping?

But, doesn't being at war, mean that our country is being currently attacked or at risk of being attacked? Our borders and ports could conceivably be taken over by an Arab company, if Mr. Busn has his way. Having lived through WWII, Vietnam, etc. I I don't feel that the country is clearly at risk of actual harm from acts of foreign governments, who, on a daily basis make threats or engage in acts in an attempt to obliterate it's existence. This current administration explains everything as a justification because "we are at war"!