Finally! It happened...

Erika is reading The Tail of Emily Windsnap. She read for almost 2 hours tonight and did not want to put the book down! My mom bought the book; she read it herself in one day. Erika is hooked! I feel like she finally understands the thrill and joy of a good book and all of those days of reading to her since infancy have paid off. Hooray!

I played an entire soccer game last Sunday without walking off the field in pain. Of course, it was the spring season's last game. I just didn't believe I would ever survive a game without a sprained muscle or aching joint.

MY NEW KEIRSEY TEMPERMENT: IEGH

I have found a new designation for my personality type: I am the Epitome of Greeting card Humor or IEGH.

The IEGH spends countless hours reading through greeting cards. The IEGH has intimate knowledge with the various categories of greeting and looks for the specific card to express a sentiment be it romantic, sympathetic, funny or heart-felt. Over time, however, the sentiment begins to merge with the IEGH's identity. It becomes difficult to detach the IEGH from the expressions of the greeting card. Some examples follow of the IEGH's profile:

• God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...or grant me enough wine to forget about them.
• If life hands you lemons, stick em in your bra: can't hurt, might help.
• Kiss Me...Do as the candy commands.
• We're such good friends that if a tabloid ever ran an article saying you'd slept with aliens, I'd jump right up and say..."If I know her, they didn't sleep."
• On your birthday, break out of "mom mode" and unleash your inner babe.
• I couldn't love you more if you were chocolate-coated! Which gives me an idea...
• I love my new boots. Anyone gives me trouble, I can kick them in the ass!
• I would like to be known as an intelligent woman, a courageous woman, a loving woman, a woman who teaches by being. - Maya Angelo

The IEGH has a love for wit, puns and play on words. She gives and receives affection, admiration, sympathy and empathy through the expression of heartfelt sentiments. You can depend on her to send the right card to help you cope with life's daily trifles. Since the IEGH cannot wax eloquent on her own, she depends on her loved ones to know that she holds them close "where thoughts of love and gratitude remain forever strong."

The IEGH cares enough to send the very best!

100 Things You Might Not Know About Me

1. I believe my daughters are more beautiful than most children.
2. Erika and I looked exactly alike as babies.
3. Emily is God's way of telling me, "No, I didn't give you more than you can handle."
4. Parenting makes me feel inadequate.
5. I spend a lot of time thinking about if I died who would miss me.
6. I wonder what they would miss about me.
7. I think about who would speak at my funeral and what he/she would say.
8. I seriously considered dedicating my life to studying Shakespeare.
9. I want to get my law degree.
10. I am writing a novel.
11. My father always made me feel that I was a better soccer player than I know I am.
12. At 16 I spoke to the entire congregation about having faith; I spoke after a 70 year-old
man who left the podium and walked out of the church without saying a word.
13. California Brittle is my favorite Sees candy.
14. Flowers are a waste of money.
15. I secretly hope my novel is a success, so I can go on Oprah with my Grandmother.
16. I'd sell everything and live in an apartment or condo if it was with someone who I knew
loved me.
17. Animals frighten me.
18. I kiss better than I cook.
19. People who think in black-n-white drive me nuts.
20. Christians have been the most judgmental people I have ever known.
21. One day I want to swim with the dolphins at Sea World.
22. Traveling is one of my passions.
23. The Bible verse that states, "Thou shalt stay at home when you have children," I haven't
found.
24. Men in suits turn me on.
25. Most likely, in 20 years my home will have the same furniture and decorations.
26. My goal is to take a semester off and ski.
27. One day I hope to ski down the fingers at Bridger in Montana.
28. More women have offerred to do my hair and make-up in my lifetime than I care to count.
29. My foot is the perfect size to be a shoe model.
30. INXS is still one of my favorite bands.
31. When I was a freshman in high school I listened to Oliva Newton John.
32. Skiing exhilerates me.
33. Parties energize me.
34. Gardening is impossible for me; I kill everything.
35. Unlike, most women I know, I enjoy sex.
36. Social etiquette is important; I tend to look down on those who don't know the social rules.
37. I enjoy wearing professional attire.
38. Spelling is very difficult for me.
39. One regret: I should have had more sex outdoors.
40. I enjoy making jokes or comments that have sexual innuendos especially if it surprises the person that I said it.
41. I collect things: stamps, stickers, and the U.S. quarters.
42. I like to collect McDonald's toys, too.
43. Princess Diana is one of the people I admire most.
44. My grandmother pressed her pants by lying them flat under the couch cushions before company came. I used to think she was just lazy, now I believe its ingenious.
44. People who use large vocabulary words impress me.
45. I have a difficult time remembering the meaning of words.
46. I have many friends whom I have known since I was born or was very little.
47. I did not get a passing score on the SAT.
48. I did not get a passing score on the GRE.
49. I hid my GRE scores from my parents for three months.
50. I swore I would never scrapbook.
51. I still have the stuffed kitten I had as a child. It is no longer recognizable.
52. I play the piano.
53. I admire my brother because he pursues things he is passionate about.
54. My mother made me make an entire turkey dinner from scratch, including the cranberry sauce before she would allow me to get married. It was my rite of passage.
55. I have never cooked a turkey dinner since.
56. For two years in college, I considered being a pastor.
57. When I ditched school for the first time, I was a senior. We went to the beach, but got lost coming home.
58. My house will never be very clean.
59. I want to work with Habitat for Humanity.
60. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
62. Hallmark holidays make me nuts.
63. Reading Hallmark cards is a favorite pasttime.
64. Telling jokes is not my strong suit.
65. Chocolate is my favorite food.
66. When I am old, I want to read books, eat chocolate and drink wine like my Grandmother.
67. I own a pair of sexy slippers; every woman should.
68. I don't shave my legs very often.
69. I'm convinced I will die young.
70. I like buying cute address labels and cards.
71. If you ask me a direct questions, I will tell the truth; sometimes I hate it that I cannot lie.
72. I have learned, the hard way, not to care what other people think of me.
73. My parents hired 3 tutors to get me through trigonometry in high school; I passed with a C.
74. My favorite quote: "It is sheer good fortune to miss someone long before they leave you." Toni Morrison.
75. Asking for help is difficult for me; however, I have become better at it.
76. My embarassing moment stories have become my favorite ones to tell.
77. New York and Washington D.C. are two places I want to travel to in the next two years.
78. My goal is to teach abroad.
79. If I won the lottery, I would plan a trip for all my friends and family every year.
80. I want to learn how to do a good striptease.
81. I find Notting Hill an endearing film because of the friendships portrayed.
82. I want to die knowing I have lived life.
83. Elderly people and I have an unusual affinity for one another.
84. A fond childhood memory is of our camping trip to Crater Lake: my brother, Dad and I could get the camper set up in under 3 minutes from start to finish.
85. I wrote 53 people letters during the first month I went away to college.
86. I love getting mail.
87. I do not read the newspaper or listen to the news.
88. The smell of coffee makes me physically gag.
89. I am questioning everything I believe at least to find out why.
90. I cry at Hallmark commercials.
91. As a kid we made homemade bratwurst in the basement at my Grandmothers. My favorite part was taking the pig intestine and threading it over the nozzle where the meat came out of the grinder.
92. I think about things way too much.
93. I was born with black curly hair that turned white blond when I was 3. Now my hair is light brown.
94. I dressed up like Little Red Riding Hood to deliver a birthday basket to a guy turning 21; it was my friend's idea of a creative blind date.
95. A not-too-famous author dedicated a book to me.
96. Playing cards is a greatly missed pasttime.
97. With little thought or effort, I could become a workaholic or alcoholic.
98. Mental rehersals of how I would protect myself and/or children in case of a threatening intruder or rapist are commonplace among my inner thoughts.
99. When I die, I want my organs donated to science and to be cremated.
100. To this day, I still have trouble remembering if the earth revolves around the sun or the moon or the other way around...does the earth revolve?

One for Michelle and Mary...6 Degrees of Booking

Two Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks relates his life story and how experiences both planned and unplanned shape our lives and ourselves.

Like the men of Alpha Company in Vietnam – who Tim O’Brien writes of their burden in The Things They Carried and the “silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried.”

An awe experienced by Jing-Mei when her mother Suyuan Mei in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club reveals her secret – she left her twin daughters on a roadside hoping to create a better future for them and save them from the certain fate of death.

Yet, Shakespeare's Othello determines his own fate because he betrayed Desdemona and “like a base Indian, threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe.”

Realizations come at death like Mrs. Mallard’s discovery of freedom in Kate Chopin’s “A Story of an Hour.” Mrs. Mallard relishes her freedom upon her husband’s death after suffering silently in an unhappy marriage.

Similarly, Offred, in A Handmaid’s Tale, suffers in a pseudo marriage and gains freedom when she escapes from the dystopia, Gilead after enduring sexual violence. Margaret Atwood’s warning to all women not to become complacent for our choices shape who we become.

About This Site

In Shakespeare's day, the title of his much-loved comedy, Much Ado About Nothing would be pronounced "noting." Noting meaning observing and writing. I thought this was appropriate.
The play is a story of deception with events exacting betrayal, hatred, grief and despair much like a good episode of Desperate Housewives, and a mirror of my life. However, my life, like a good soap opera, has drama and excitement, but if you miss a week not all that much has really transpired. I created this blog for me, Beatrice, to engage in a "merry war" of wits with whomever would engage in such banter. Perhaps, like Shakespeare's play, this may become a record of some serious meditations on honor, shame and politics or perhaps just a great fuss over life's nothingness.