"A Problem Page For All!"

Cat: Did you ever tell us about the Quilters results? What’s the verdict? I hope you got in! Hey, I don’t think I mentioned that HC did that show a couple years ago. I didn’t go to see it, but now I wish I had! It was back in the dark ages when Cherie was living at Purdue and Stevie hadn’t realized what it was like to be a parent, so it’s not surprising that we gave up things for a time, like going to the theatre. Still. I wish I had seen it.

My views after September 11th...they were sickeningly, blindly patriotic, and I remember writing a message to the terrosist in my diary…I'm so ashamed of that. –Cat

Sweetheart, why be ashamed of an opinion you once held? Those words you wrote aren’t wrong. I remember you and I help somewhat different opinions post-September 11, but I daresay neither of us was completely in the right. Cherie was convinced that GWB had planned the whole event; I was convinced that any American flag was an abomination against the world as a unit; you were convinced that patriotic songs would heal our nation. No one was completely right. Don’t feel ashamed of your past self! We only have our pasts; they’re what make us who we are. I adore you as you are! Don’t degrade yourself!

Just the name, liberalism, doesn't it sound great? It stands for freedom, ahh, no restraints, fresh ideas, liberty of thought. In contrast, to me, coservative sounds like an old, itchy tweed coat in a dark closet, afraid to come out. –Cat

Hee hee! I like your imagery. I can’t really decide what to call myself. I mostly just say “Green” if I need to label myself. Much as I like to put things into tidy boxes and categories, I hesitate from slapping too many political labels on myself. I’m “liberal” in the popular definition of the word, but I do believe of conservatism when it comes to the environment (please, please, let’s conserve it!), making conservative decisions about where to spend money (like, let’s not all just go to Wal-Mart like blind idiots), conserving what we have (not buying new clothes when we have perfectly good ones, same for cars and carpet and furniture and buildings, blah blah blah, you get the idea), etc. So, where does that put me? Just…Green, I guess.

What about you?? –Cat

When I started to become a real liberal. Well, gosh. Heck if I know! About the time I popped out of the womb? I’ve always embraced alternatives, but I wasn’t in political activism until after September 11. I guess that’s the short answer. To quote Melissa Etheridge, “Mama, I’m strange.” That’s me. Always strange. I’d like to think I’ve always been liberal. In a half-sleep on a rainy Sunday evening, that’s all the answer I can put down.

Zib, do you have Melissa's latest CD? It's called Lucky, right? –Cat

Sigh. No, I do not. I didn’t even know she had a new one out until I randomly decided to check out her web site a week or so ago and was presented with the news. I should head over to bn.com and listen to clips of the songs. Have you heard any from it? My radio stations aren’t playing any singles, curse them.

Ooh! Ooh!

Hey, this isn’t a reply to anything and doesn’t relate to you all, but I just stumbled across this and wanted to share. Too cool! Is Fiona my favoritest Fiona in the world? Oh, yes, she is! http://www.nbtsc.org/~fiona/eyes.htm

Maartje (you know, one of the girls I went to Zandvoort with) anyway, her boyfriend broke up with her. –Ilona

That’s horrible, especially about her boyfriend dating her sister! That would feel like such a betrayal. I know what it’s like to feel like my sister is my best friend. I can’t imagine trying to work out the anger of finding out she’d kept a secret like that from me. How’s Maartje doing? Have you talked to her recently? I hope she’s all right!

Do you believe any country is free? –Fea

No.

Steve got off his butt and bought on of those 3-in-1 prams, with a pram, car seat and carry cot in one. That's the first thing he's done for the baby. …I think Chloe knows that he's not gonna stick around, because the other day she was telling me how she's gonna move (temporarily) in with dad. –Fea

I’ve never heard of a three-in-one like that. In the US, we call them strollers instead of prams. (When I used to baby-sit the little French-American girls down the street, they had a stroller that was huge and really hard to manage. I’d push Elise in it when Meghan and I walked down to the library for story hour, and it’d bump all over the brick sidewalk. …Eh, just a side note.) I know we don’t say “carry cot” either, but I don’t know what our term would be. Anyway, it’s awful that that’s the extent of Steve’s involvement! So Chloe has decided to move in with your dad, and to stay in Norwich? How does your mom feel about that? Do you think your mom and Charles will miss her? How far is Norwich from Hampshire?

I had banana bread once, but I didn't l;ike it much. Fruit Loaf is popular in the UK. I've never had squash in any way, shape or form, so I don't know if I'd like that. I've never even tried pumpkin! And I've never seen corn bread anywhere either. –Fea

I love banana bread! It’s so soft and succulent. Of course, I’m rather fond of bananas, in bread or out. I don’t like banana flavored stuff usually; just the actual fruit, and bread made of them. I can’t believe you’ve never had squash! It’s yummy…in moderation. We had a lot of it last summer from the CSA program we were part of, and we got so sick of it. We’d fry it in butter and cinnamon, or bake it, or chop it into spaghetti sauce, but too much of anything gets real old real past. Especially squash. Pumpkin bread is even yummier than banana bread. And cornbread is delicious! Can you buy cornmeal at grocery stories in the UK? That’s what cornbread is made out of. Sometimes it’s called “Johnny cake” here in the Midwest. Have you ever heard of it by that name, Cat?

Having Nic and Leah here was wicked. –Fea

I’m glad you had fun! I wish I could meet them. They both sound so cool, especially Nic. I haven’t ever talked to Leah, but Nic and IM sometimes, and of course she’s posted here so I got to know her.

adios mi amigo! (did I say that right C8?) –Fea

I think it would be “amigas.” Amigo is the masculine form, amiga the feminine. Cat can correct me if I’m wrong!

We talked a lot, and came up with the plan to go on a little roadtrip next summer. –Ilona

I’m so jealous of you people who live in Europe! I’m dying, dying, dying to see England, the Netherlands, Ireland, Wales, Denmark, France, Belgium, eh, all of it! Sigh. You’ll have to tell us how it is. Good luck with the logistics [planning]!

Can you bloody believe it? I failed a class because I wrote too much! –Fea

Who the hell’s counting the damn words?! I’d be pissed, too. If you retake the exam, does that mean you don’t have to retake the whole class? If you get an F for a class at HC (and I thought this went for other colleges in the US, too), you have to retake the whole class, not just an exam. 40 words seems like an awfully small amount. I mean, this paragraph is 75 words!

I've always wondered what it's be like to go on a road trip –Fea

Great Scott! You’ve never been on a road trip? That’s the way I always travel (aside from a train trip once when I was two years old). I’ve never traveled by plane or bus. I’ve been all over the USA in a car (well, some of it was in a van, not a car). I love riding for hours, staring out the window, writing, reading, knitting, talking, listening to music, seeing the country rolling away behind us. I think traveling by plane would be very weird. I love the idea of seeing close-up where we’re going through to get to were we want to be. In a place, you get on and get deposited in another location. That’s not travel in the same way that it’s traveling to go through it all, every piece of ground, until you get to where you want to be. (Of course, I’m a fine one to talk…I would like to fly some day. )

Oh and Elizabeth, I'm ENFP on the Myers=Briggs thingy. –Fea

That’s so cool that you are Cat are the same. I’m only one letter removed, being ENFJ. ENFJs and ENFPs have different dominant functions (I’m a dominant Feeler; ENFPs are dominant iNtuitives), but we’re both NFs (“nuffy,” as we say in my family). Rock on.

Funny how under best careers for ISFP people I found 'registered nurse' –Ilona

Hey, that’s cool! Under careers for ENFJs, they say actor, writer, or psychologist, among others. Those are the three that interest me most. Oh, and before I forget, Ilona, I have a letter to you waiting to be mailed! I’m out of postage, but as soon as I get a stamp, it’ll be on its way to you!

We had to switch our internet subscription to Jasper's name, and it's been taking forever –Cat

I hope it hurries up! I miss you here, sweetpea.

Do you think that she'll make time to work off the baby weight after s/he is born? –Cat

Just to be contrary, I hope she doesn’t. I’m on this kick that all women are beautiful with curves. Which is a generalization, I know, and I officially don’t approve of generalizations. I guess it’s part of loving my own body, I guess. Why did I inherit the Dutch thing of having big hips and shoulders?! Oh well. I say, if you can’t change it, learn to love it. Attention, world: I am beautiful! (Sorry, had to say that.)

Anyway, I'm rambling and it's 1:10am here and my insomnia is back again, so I'm gonna do my laundry, check my other e-mails, produce a faux graph coz I'm bored, then re-arrange my wardrobe, wash-up and tidy my room and hopefully that'll tire me out enough so that I';ll sleep! –Fea

You crack me up! I love you, girl.

Hey I finally got round to adding a new poem to my port; the first for ages, so it'd be wicked-coll if you'd read it at some point! –Fea

Will do.



Hey hey hey! I finally got through all the posts! It’s 8:00 and I have to go do chores now, so I’ll scram. All my love to all of you terrific human beings. Ciao!


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