JJWild, Wow. Why would you EVER wish something like that on someone. It is not their fault for running or walking, it happens. If they don't do it all the time why stress about it? I'm sure you have rushed somewhere in your apartment. Bottom tenants don't have to worry about their footsteps and noise, but top tenants do, and that's not fair. Everyone should be able to walk normally without worry some of these complaints are just plain silly. Most of you guys seem miserable, I pray for peace to calm your thoughts and worries. Think of it as blessing to have the opportunity to live close to other families, instead of treating it as a curse. We're all just people after all, try to be happy and enjoy life.

Jaybird, I would have loved to go to the Estate sale with you, sounds like a wonderful day of browsing! And the white dishes you got look like they will be very versatile, going with any other colour and looking great. And I'm glad to hear, I'm not the only one who goes back more than once to sales! Too bad, you didn't find a dig camera for sale there! Karen - love your depiction of a "senior blonde moment" LOL! I am sure us dishnuts are much the same as the GJers. DD

Hey guys... just reading that poem makes me cry again. I still cry every day. It's really hard when you're by yourself at night. I miss Danny. I made a shrine to him in my room. It's been a few months now and though the pain isn't... as consuming, it's still with me all the time. The time we had together, his youthful eyes and laughter, they haunt me, you know. It's still not right that we are here "enjoying" life and it is over for him, so young, so full of potential. I keep wondering why it has to be this way. And why he couldn't have been pulled out of the water, why those boys who were with him don't care about us, because they never call. I keep wishing I was old enough to start a family, that my ex boyfriend was a good man so I could give into his pressure to go home. But my path is set.... it's so strange but in the aftermath I see clear evidence that we (mom and I) are doing as God intends, that he has plans for us and taking my brothers away are part of the plan. For my mother at least, no clearer evidence could have been presented that God is here and He does care. My mom was devastated to be here, after her head cleared. She quit her well paying corporate job to slave away for my vengeful, tyrannical father. Things were not looking good - on top of the grief she had to suffer his abuse to pay the bills. She was depressed and felt she made a huge mistake in the wake of the grief. I felt bad b/c I insisted that God wanted us here, to help my Dad (before he betrayed us) to be where Dan was, to be in this small town away from the city, away from my ex bf. I prayed and I really thought we were doing the right thing. Even at the worst I encouraged her that somehow, God would come through - I could feel it. And He did. Out of a pool of 462 applicants in a town of 50,000, *my mother* was chosen to be the business manager/instructor for the only scuba diving school in the entire area. Her new job is about as awesome as they come. She not only gets paid to learn a new career, scuba instruction, but will be taking 10 paid vacations a year to take clients to places like Australia, the South Pacific, Hawaii and Florida. That we moved here after Dan drowned, and now she has a new career in *underwater life support* is not lost on me. Praise God - if that isn't direct evidence of his Love than I don't know what is. My beautiful mother has suffered so - this bit of security, adventure and hope for quality of life was exactly what she needed. The owner is so nice he won't ever make her dive in the huge brown river that took my brother, though it is the local attraction for his business. We also got to meet the diver who pulled my brother out of the water (bless him, if his body hadn't been recovered or recovered quickly it would have been even more tormenting) and my mom will get to be a volunteer search and rescue diver herself. I don't know what I'm doing. I was supposed to go back to school to finish 8 credits but I blew it off - until January. For some reason I lost my motivation to go to law school. I want to do something else. I don't know what. I will keep praying and maybe God will show me the path. I'd endure just about anything if I could have him back. Death is so unforgiving. A few minutes of being underwater, unconscious, and you can't come back. I've been re-reading "The Lovely Bones" and I really like the way that novel describes Heaven. The little murdered girl wonders why her dearly beloved grandparents aren't in her heaven. It's because she can't let go of watching people on Earth - her family, the investigation, her school. I like to think that Dan is here sometimes, I can almost feel him. But when he is not, he must be enjoying hot rods, powdered mountains and babes in bikinis. There must be babes in his heaven. I am waiting to find the perfect landscape tattoo artist, and then I will get a memorial tattoo in Dan's honor. It will be a silhouette of a snowboarder popping off an impossible cliff, with a burning, brilliant variegated sunset in the background. Dan Krueger, 1986 - 2004, it will say. He was such a good brother. I'm so grateful God has shown himself to me in the blessings and messages, so I know Dan continues on and I will see him again. I just wish he could "enjoy" life. Maybe heaven has all the good parts of life and none of the bad. But you can still feel things. I mourn the loss of his feeling - he loved to feel. We all do. That Dan's opportunity was taken away makes me feel like I should make the most out of life - but I don't know what to do. I'm just saving all the money I'm earning, and being here for mom. Thanks for caring, Lu, and I hope you all are holding up okay. Oh man, now I'm looking at the pictures to post the link. Pictures hurt so bad. These basic ones I've seen, I can hardly bear to look at them, and trying to look at the hundreds of family photos we have in the closet is like trying to breathe underwater. I just can't do it yet. CRY CRY CRY CRY CRY Man, it hurts.

I've heard that old saw for years, too. Leno makes cracks about British teeth so much that I wonder about his obsession - maybe he's been surrounded by American celebrities for too long. I took the OP to mean that we Americans are, in general, overly concerned about superficial appearances. If the media and online forums are truly representative of our thinking, then I'd have to say Oakleyok is correct and I agree that it would be nicer if folks could just overlook imperfections and not judge so harshly. For two years I suffered with painful braces in high school, only to have my upper front teeth shift together after the braces were removed. It's not very obvious, but I've thought about trying to correct them. Every time I look into braces, I find something far more pressing on which to spend the money. As for whitening, my teeth are already sensitive and wearing those white strips makes them more so. My (adult) dd wanted to have her teeth whitened at the dentist's office, since hers were discolored from too much fluouride and antibiotics during childhood. Afterwards, they looked nice but she said, "Never again!" I do wish that some people (not on this forum - referring to IRL or other sites) would not be so very harsh about other's appearances. I do not recall my grandmother, or her contemporaries, being at all worried about wearing sleeveless dresses in the summer even though they'd all developed soft, comfy laps and arms for cuddling. These days, even women who are fit and healthy feel anxious about exposing their arms if they're not completely taut. After years of limited mobility brought about by many (sometimes botched) surgeries and a few accidents, I am most definitely plus size. It's astonishing the comments that some people have made, often pretending to be "helpful." I'd love to be more at home in my own skin, and I envy that trait in others. Instead, I compare my aging, fluffy self to my younger self (thin enough that I worked as a model for local stores in my teens) and often feel as if I shouldn't leave the house for fear of disgusting someone with my orthopedic shoes, avoirdupois and ivory (not white) teeth.