Killed my hamster to put her out of her misery.

NEXT.

This is one of those questions where the author knew what s/he meant but I don’t.

What do you mean, what do I do?

I feel sad.

Past that, I need way more information about this situation to tell you how I would react to it.

Because of the troubles my family has with alcohol I wouldn’t admit to my parents until I was 33 that I drink alcohol.

And now they know I do and probably always did know that I do but I’m pretty sure they realize that I don’t have a problem with it.

I enjoy beer. I enjoy wine. I enjoy mixed drinks. But I prefer to drink non-alcoholic drinks on a daily basis. I’m just really glad this is my choice. I used to feel like it was everyone else’s choice that I not drink in whatever habitual fashion I chose. Now that I feel fine to admit that I drink I just don’t do it that much. Which is perhaps ironic since many of you who read my blog only see me for social outings that are alcohol-based, so everytime you see me I drink, but… yah, no. I really don’t drink that much. So, really, thanks to whoever sent me the book about me being a lush, but I’m not one.*

I’ve never done illegal drugs, unless you count the stuff that used to be un Sudafed that’s used for crystal meth, but… uh, it used to be legal. Kinda like when Coke contained Cocaine.

Everything in moderation, kids. And if you can’t handle moderation then drink water and eat a carrot.

*Update: I wrote this before my mom and stepdad visited and told me that they sent me that book from my Amazon wish list. I figured that was the likely scenario, but it sure is funny to receive a book entitled Lush with no card. The seller didn’t include my mom’s birthday wishes. And I think I now have zero items left on my Amazon wish list. Suggestions?

Religion and I don’t really mix very well. My mom raised me as a Methodist, but I just tagged along because I had to. I heard some nice stories, I know how to recite back to you some phrases at appropriate moments, but the god I was supposed to accept into my heart from the upbringing didn’t “take”.

Now, talk to me about Buddhism, and Confucianism, and Eastern religions where returning to this world to live your life until you progress to an enlightened state and now you’re talking. One of my favorite books in the entire world is Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. He becomes a cockroach. That’s what happens to you when you live a bad life, you regress in your physical form. Live a meaningful, purposeful life and you progress to something even greater in the next life. And when you are perfectly enlightened you simply disappear from the physical shell of yourself. I couldn’t tell you what physical forms are better or worse to return as, but I have always wanted to come back as a cat, so in my spiritual realm of beliefs cats are a better physical manifestation to inhabit than the human body. And trees are high up there too. Every time I see a dead tree I am a little devastated and get tears in my eyes.

That’s just how I feel. I don’t expect anyone else to think exactly like me on this. Religion and spirituality are very personal.

As for politics: Corrupt.

When I was 7 years old the child of a family friend we were visiting said “that’s gay” about something, no recollection of what. I had no idea what the word “gay” meant, so in the car on the way home I tested out the new phrase on my mom about, again, no recollection of what. It’s the first time I remember my mother being very passionate about correcting my understanding of something. And that’s the day I learned that gay people are “just like everyone else”. (Thanks, Mom.)

There are gay people all around me who have been marrying for years. To me it’s already real. I’ve recognized it and accepted it in my life since I was a teenager and my mom told me she would be attending our friend Lisa’s wedding to her partner Toni. It was called a civil union, but to me, in the way I view the world, it symbolized the same thing as a man and a woman going through a bonding ceremony. Years later states are catching up to legally recognize the unions of gay couples, and I am happy about that.

I wish everyone who chooses to be married the best of luck, because marriage is very hard. It takes a lot of work to keep it happy, on track, and moving in a positive direction.

And I wish for every straight person who fears gay people and their right to do anything that you are legally permitted to do to live your next life* in their shoes. Not because I hate your close-mindedness, but because I think the only way you’ll understand a gay person is to live your life as one.

*A next life? See my next post.

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

That book blew my mind, and totally put anything I’d absorbed about religion on its cliff-hanging side. Since reading that book, everytime I look at The Last Supper I see the V between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. All my life I was taught that was a dude. Can’t look at that photo and not see her now. It makes me happier to think that, no matter who Jesus was to anyone, he had a happy life with a respectable woman who wasn’t actually a prostitute but his wife. That just seems way nicer.

The person I got that photo from didn’t cite her source, so let’s just say I got it from Da Vinci since he did paint it.

PS – See Day 19 for what I think about religion.

I could live without tofu, but I don’t wanna. *chomp*

I don’t seem to be able to live without dairy. I was a Vermonter the first 33 years of my life. I love cows. I love the smell of manure. I love the tang of a 2-year-aged cheddar. And a glass of fat free milk over ice makes my heart sing.

James Frey was a recovering addict who wrote two books that made me slobber all over myself as I read their sorrow and took it on as my own.

And then Oprah said SHAME ON YOU FOR LYING TO US.

And this man I looked up to and even wrote a letter to because he was an inspiration to me was suddenly a liar, just a guy trying to make money.

Disappointing.

I went back through my posts and found a time where I felt he redeemed himself by copping to the elaborations (don’t most writers elaborate?) but time has passed and I can no longer consider him as someone I can look up to. There are many other recovering addicts who inspire me and are my heroes, I don’t even need this guy.

BUSINESS: My newest Buy-Her article is up for your enjoyment: Why I call my Droid X “Wookiee Monster”. Check it out!!!!