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September 25, 2006

Stories of Interest (probably to noone but me...)

They may not all be hard news, but these are still some pretty interesting articles--at least for me they are! Check them out:

Posted by L.C. at 03:19 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: News/Media/Studies

September 19, 2006

How Much is Your Life Worth?

Here are the results from my How Much is Your Life Worth? quiz:

Your Life Is Worth...
$554,000
How Much Is Your Life Worth?

Posted by L.C. at 11:25 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: Meaningless Gab

September 16, 2006

Thoughts on Dying

Over dinner yesterday evening, my son and I were talking about dying. I was talking about my mother, who is 78, has Alzheimer's Disease (final stages), a heart condition, and has had three strokes. She is unable to communicate or take care of any of her own needs. She resides in a wonderful nursing home and is in hospice care. We're not sure when she will die, of course, but her doctors suspect it will be sometime in the next six months or so.

So, anyway, my son and I were talking about dying. He's nearly 12, and he understands that Grandma is dying and that although we may be sad when it happens, she's lived a long, good life. We have all been prepared for her to die for a while now. Then we talked about my Dad--a fairly healthy, 80-year-old man who still lives alone and drives and has some, but not any major, medical issues. He's two years older than my mother, yet, if he were to die I'd be pretty shocked and upset, although he has already lived past the average life expectancy for a male in the U.S. I think it comes down to what you expect. Life experience tells us that your grandparents die first, then your parents, then you and your siblings die. But of course, life isn't so predictable sometimes. And when people die out of the order in which we expect, it can throw us for quite the emotional loop.

I was twelve years old the first time someone in my life died. She was the younger sister of my close friend, and she was killed in a car accident when she was ten. We all cried at school, and it felt so strange to have her just not there. It was as if she just disappeared. I didn't think about the accident, I didn't think about her dying. She was just gone one day. I was 22 the next time a friend died. Another accident. I cried and screamed and pounded my fists on the ground and yelled at God. Then I wiped it from my mind a few weeks later, and tried not to think about it. It just hurt too much to remember him, and my mind just wouldn't let me go there for a long time. When I finally thought about it, a few years later, I allowed myself to truly grieve. I wept for weeks.

I always thought I wanted to die when I was old--really old, like 100. Now, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. As I watch my mother deteriorate, life and death take on new meanings. I'm still just trying to decipher what those meanings are to me.

Posted by L.C. at 08:44 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Filed under: Aging Parents | Health | Meaningless Gab

September 13, 2006

Five Wishes

Last night, my daughter's friend asked us this question: "What are five things you would like to do before you die?" And this was my list:

  • Find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease
  • Write the great American novel
  • Visit Paris
  • End hunger and see unconditional world peace
  • Find the perfect hairstyle.

A girl can dream big, can't she? (Especially the hair thing--yeah, like that will ever happen...)

Posted by L.C. at 09:23 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: General 40ish | Meaningless Gab

September 08, 2006

B-U-S-T-E-D

Lately, some of the teenagers I know have been having a hard time. But, I'd also like to think of it as an important time--a time when they are learning some valuable lessons, even if they seem difficult to get through.

Remember when you were a teen, and sometimes you made some bad choices, but really believed that your plan for covering up those choices was so brilliant that you'd never get caught? Yeah, I remember that too. And sometimes, you'd get away with all that dumb teenage stuff. And other times you wouldn't. In the last few weeks, some teens in my life have haven't had the best of luck when it comes to trying to get away with stuff. And to put it bluntly, they've gotten busted.

As parents, we're lucky for those moments when a teen's story falls apart, and we catch them in the middle of making those bad choices teens often make. Not lucky in the "Aha! We caught you!" sense, but lucky that intuition or luck or whatever came into play, and we learned about something our kids were doing that we know could get them into trouble, maybe even hurt them. But you know something? I recall being a teen and learning much more from my mistakes than my successes. I don't expect my kids, or anyone else's kids, to be perfect. I'm just glad that from time to time, the universe interferes, taps us on the shoulder and says "You might want to check little Susie's story out," and we step in before bad choices lead to some very very bad consequences. So thanks universe, for helping us out. Because this parenting stuff sure isn't easy.

Posted by L.C. at 10:32 AM | | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Filed under: Parenting

September 04, 2006

Homecoming Dress Stress

gownDear daughter (a.k.a. DD) and I spent several days last week looking for a homecoming dance dress. Well, not just a homecoming dress. No, that simply won't do. We had to find the homecoming dress.

DD wanted to stick to some rules, if possible, in our quest for formal gown perfection. They were:

1. It must be short (not super short, but no longer than at the knee).
2. It should be red. If not red, then it definitely must not be black, because too many people wear black dresses to the dance, and she wore black two years ago.
3. It should be different (so no one else is in the same dress) but not too different (so she would not feel awkward).

So of course, we did not end up finding a short, red dress. We did however purchase a long, strapless, black gown with a slight pattern (gray swirls), made from a glittery, stretchy fabric. A long, strapless, purple sequined gown was a close second.

Lessons learned this week:

1. You must take along a friend (your daughter's best friend, preferrably) because mom's opinion means absolutely nothing when it comes to dress shopping.
2. Very few dresses will fit perfectly. When figuring your budget, make sure to budget for alterations as well (unless you can do those yourself).
3. Salewomen will tell your daugher everything looks great. Especially the more expensive gowns.
4. Once you find your gown, check the Internet before you buy. I found the purple gown (a.k.a., our second runner-up) online for $100 less than it was at the formal dress shop. But be careful--some online stores, especially those selling with formalwear, do not take returns.
5. All the arguments, exhaustion, and disappointment will melt away, when your darling daughter steps out of the fitting room looking like a beautiful, elegant woman, and you both realize and say in unison: "Oh my gosh. This is it. This it the one."

Posted by L.C. at 01:23 PM | | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Filed under: Beauty/Fashion | Parenting | Shopping