Up Up and Away

Enough about death already. I would like to blame my last 2 entries on a raging case of PMS. I hope you are buying that. My mind has moved on to other things. I will be traveling soon to a place where I have been many times. I really enjoy going places but what I really get excited about is going some place new. I can't imagine doing all the traveling I want to do in the next 15 years so the other night I proposed to Jay Bee that after all children have gone off to experience higher learning, we take off for a 6 month sabbatical. Off we would go around the world. Here is my list of

18 Places I'd Like To Visit

1) Ireland
2) Alaska
3) Patagonia
4) Greece
5) Chile
6) Germany
7) South Africa
8) Morocco
9) Russia
10) Cuba
11) China
12) India
13) Nepal
14) Australia
15) New Zealand
16) Japan
17) Antarctica
18) The Canadian Rockies

In The Afterlife

Death has been on my mind a lot lately. I think death sucks. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe death isn't as bad as I have made it up to be. What I should really concern myself with is what is on the other side of death. The afterlife has been debated for eons. My guess is that it will be debated until humans cease to exist. Then we'll all get to know who was right. After all, isn't that what is important?


5 Interesting Ideas For The Afterlife

1) Heaven As A Gated Community- I was watching my myspace friend Jim Gaffigan on Comedy Central the other night and he made the joke that Heaven must be in a bad neighborhood to need the Pearly Gates. Thus today's list was born. It got me to thinking about ideas about heaven/hell/afterlife. Some of them are pretty interesting. The idea of The Pearly Gates is interesting. So pretty! And interesting. Did I say interesting enough?

2) Hell As Your Own Worst Nightmare- One theory is that Hell is a personalized experience. Like Starbucks but different. You are punished by whatever you deemed the worst experience. For me that would be standing on line- probably at the post office, complete with Celine Dion playing on the PA. There is something in me that thinks this may be a distint possibility!

3) Reincarnation- What would you come back as? A frog? A mosquito? I think I would come back as a lobster cause I love to swim and I would be delicious!

4) Ceasing To Be- To me, this is the lazy person's afterlife theory. With this line of thought, they don't have to invest in anything. I am not feelin't this. It's just too easy.

5) Pergatory- God's little waiting room! All kinds of images come to mind with this one- waiting at a train station, the doctor's office, ect. What would you be in here for exactly? I am going to need more specifics on this one.

33 And Counting

Today is Jay-Bee's 33rd birthday. It's funny to think when I met him he was a mere boy of 23 who had just moved out of his parents house. Time sure does fly when you are having fun! 33 seems to be a weird birthday. There is a bit of superstition surrounding this particular age. Some people feel that if only the good die young, 33 is usually the age that they go. So for today, here is my list of

7 People Who Died At Age 33

1) John Belushi- overdose
2) Sam Cooke- homicide
3) Eva Peron- cancer
4) Van Gogh- syphilis
5) Chris Farley- overdose
6) Eva Braun- suicide
7) Jesus Christ- crucifixion

Earth Girls Are Pretty

On New Year's Eve of 2003, one of the resolutions I made was to use only all natural beauty products. Exception? Make-up. My only rule was if I was starving, I wanted to be able to turn to my hand lotion for nourishment if ABSOLUTELY necessary. Anyone care to guess how long this lasted? Close. I was able to hold out for about 3 months. All natural hair products suck. Especially if you have curly, dry hair like I do. After ditching my hippie beauty routine, some of the products managed to hang around. It is safe to say that I have become a fan of these earth friendly products. With Earth Day in mind here is my list of

5 Green Beauty Products Loved By LL

1) Burt's Bees Cinnamint Toothpaste- as I have mentioned to Jane, commercial toothpaste has all kinds of weird stuff in it. This brand is almost 100% natural and tastes pretty good. I haven't had a cavity since I started using this a few years ago.

2) Dr. Bronner's Almond Soap- I know you've seen this stuff before. It has the crazy rantings of some nut job written all over the label. It's all organic and you can use it for tons of stuff. I knew a wardrobe woman who used it as detergent and some campers brush their teeth with it. Yikes!

3) Alba Organics Hawaiian Cocoa Butter Hand and Body Lotion- this smells and feels divine. It is what Hawaiian Tropics should smell like. If you are ever wondering what to get me for a gift, a tube of this will do just fine!

4) Burt's Bees Baby line- I've roped the baby into this too. The lotion from them is great and their new baby wash rocks.

5) Tom's of Maine Deodorant- I still get to sweat (which you are supposed to do) but I just don't get that funk. You know what I mean. That smell of the guy who sat next to you on the train the other day. This company is all enviro- friendly and that crap too.

Word Update

For those of you following along on Thud's verbal progress, I have a bit of an update. He is picking up at least one new word a day now. That is the good news. The bad news- he is starting to repeat EVERYTHING we say. I am overdue to clean up my sailor mouth! Here is the list of

11 New Words Thud Can Say

1) Butt
2) Beer
3 ) Boot
4) Remote
5) Thank You
6) Clean Up
7) Poop
8) Bike
9) Mouth
10) Ear
11) Pickle

I Think I Just Wet My Pants

Whatever you do today, make sure you click on the link below. It is my list of funniest thing on the net right now.

1) The Landlord

What Dreams May Come

I never thought I would have bad dreams as an adult. I am not sure why. I guess it seemed the thing that little children suffer from. That isn't the case. The other night I woke up startled and panting. A bad dream. My bad dreams seem to have reoccurring themes. The bad guys are usually the same. Here is my list of

3 Villains From My Nightmares
1) Darth Vader- this is one from my childhood. The mask & scary voice! I get scared just thinking about it. In my head he is the ultimate bad guy. I feel silly that he still shows up in my head at night.

2) Saddam Hussein- he is a new scary guy for me. I just had a horrible dream about him the other night. I never found him particularly frightening on the news or anything so I am confused by his presence. When I told Jay Bee about the dream the next morning he said "LL, he's dead. He can't hurt you anymore."

3) Vampires- they are always chasing me in my dreams. Why? Chasing is a big theme too for my nightmares. Maybe I need to see a therapist.

International Flare

Going to college was a major culture shock to me. It was the whitest place I had EVER been. In high school my particular group of friends looked like the rainbow coalition. Everyone had a different cultural background and we all enjoyed the fact that we were diverse. This has now become one of my favorite features of NYC- all kinds of people from all kinds of places. This has been reinforced by of all places, the playground. I am kind of bummed I only speak English at home. The playground in our neighborhood is filled with little bilingual wonders. It is impressive to hear the smallest of children using the most complex language skillls. This would have never happened in Florida. I am glad to be raising my kid in NYC! Here is a list of

6 Languages Spoken At Our Playground (besides English)
1) Spanish
2) French
3) Serbian
4) Albanian
5) Japanese
6) Italian

The Seven Year Itch

Seven years ago this past Sunday I got married. There was a lot of stress involved for me in planning my wedding. There is for most people. However, the day of the wedding everything was done and I came to the realization that things were going to go the way they were going to go. The wedding day seems to have been a good predictor for the marriage. Things have gone fairly well and I couldn't ask for more from my partner in crime. Here is my list of


7 Things I've Learned From 6 Years of Marriage
1) I am really always right.
2) If given the chance, my husband will be at least 10 minutes late.
3) The mentality of "getting pregnant- bad" to trying to get pregnant is a complete mind fuck.
4) Getting sued isn't the end of the world.
5) A great trip really is worth the debt you wracked up.
6) Babies do change everything- usually for the better.
7) You have to marry someone who loves you in your glasses.