Thank you everyone for all of your thoughts, prayers, comments, text messages, emails for my mom. Looks like she had a mild heart attack, but her stress tests this morning turned out fine. For someone who hates taking medicine, my mom now has to take aspirin daily. She’s going in tomorrow for an echocardiogram. Hopefully that will turn out fine as well.

I had her review her family history with me and it looks like three family members (her brother, a nephew, and a niece) all died from heart attacks. I promptly scheduled the next available appointment for a physical and I want Dean to get himself checked out as soon as he’s back from NYC.

Scary stuff, but especially grateful this Thanksgiving for family, friends, health, and happiness. Thank you!

It’s that time of year when you start thinking about gifts. I classify people into two groups—those who are easy to get presents for, and those who present a challenge when it comes to picking something they’d like.

The more I grappled with this classification, the more I realized that if it’s hard for people to get you a present (i.e, you tend to get candles or chocolate or a bottle of wine), then you’ve got to start working on your new year’s resolutions and becoming more interesting! Or at least more vocal.

The other day, Dean was on the phone with a friend who told him at the very end of their conversation that it was his birthday. He was clearly feeling sorry for himself and a little bummed that Dean didn’t remember. Ummm, how old are you? Take control of your own destiny. If you want to go out with the guys on your birthday, then plan the damn social event yourself! Don’t wait around and hope that someone will do something nice for you. Don’t you owe that to yourself? Making yourself feel good? It’s shocking how many people rely on others to pick them up.

Here it comes, the baby conversation. Yes I admit, I’m adverse to the baby talk. Why? Because I cannot stand women who wax on and on about their babies. The baby’s first step, the baby’s first tooth, the baby’s blah blah blah. What can you tell me about YOU?! What is interesting about you? Not your friggin baby. Your baby is not my friend. You are!

God, strike me down if I become one of those mothers, but I can’t imagine I would. I still plan on checking out the latest restaurants. Why wouldn’t I? I still plan on running races occasionally, going to the ballet, mapping out Litcrawl, going to wine country. Who said that when you become a mother that a new life begins and yours ends? Moms, stop the madness. Get your head out of the baby blogs and go to a bar. Yeah, a bar!

Which brings me back to people who lack passion in life. Do your friends know what your interests are? Do you speak about them to the world? Love your life so much that you can’t stop talking about all your great experiences. Gift yourself that.

And if it’s not abundantly clear by the way I lead my life, I covet award-winning fiction. I break out into song every time I see fur. I love vintage which means you can stop by the nearest Crossroads or Buffalo Exchange, pick up something that fits me, and 9 times out of 10, I’m going to love it. I collect colorful notebooks and bright scarves and handkerchiefs. And if all the above are too inconvenient, I’m a fan of any kind of pink flower. Oh and insects, I still love insects.