Hello ladies and happy every Holiday I missed. To those of you who do know me, I am back and mentally back on track (I think). To those of you who don't, well I was I am a member, love everyone here. Went away to do some great mission work and had some very tragic things happen. Many hours of therapy later, and actually returning to the Dominican I think I have healed, I am not bitter, sad, or frightened to leave my house any more. I am able to talk about it and I feel that I can share with postive feelings now. But enough of that. Am I to late for April? Please tell me that I can play in April? Max is 4 and we just looked at Co-op preschool. HE is a mama's boy and didn't want to go to big boy school yet. Maryanne~ I have a box for you that I need to send, but um lost your address.. So Merry Christmas when it comes. Ahh. I just don't know what to say or who to say it to because I am scared I will leave someone out. I tried to read as many posts as my brain can handle, but I am sure that I will need some help. Babies and ornaments, tornados and ahhh.. I am not in Kansas anymore. Please feel free to email me with any personals that you'd love to share. I apologize for being gone so long. If there is anything that you want to know email me. If I need to re-join let me know if there is room. Mayanne_ my big sis.. I hope all is well, miss you and thanks for all your support thru this, even though I was a bad lil sis and became an introvert. But guess what? I am back and better. Missed you all Laura.... beans

HAPPY PART... Okay, the votes are in, and the judges have made their final decision! The winner of the picture contest is Joan, with her pictorial contribution of "LEGS"...lol!!! It was a tough decision, and all the pictures were great, but what really won it for Joan was our fear of what she was holding behind her back in the picture, and whether or not she'd use it on us! LOL!!! Joan, put the chainsaw down!!! Now all I need is Joan's address (can't find it anywhere here on this computer... Bump's been "organizing" files again!) and her prize will be on it's way! Thanks to Everyone who participated and came through with their trade! You all made this swap a great one! -Dan =========================================================== UNHAPPY PART, BUT SADLY NECESSARY We unfortunately had one person fail to follow through on her end of a trade, and yes, I'm talking about Leah/dancingrabbit. The last time she posted she said she'd be mailing out her boxes (she's in two RRs that I know of) this past week, so, I'm giving her this coming week to either post delivery confirmation numbers (so the boxes can be tracked) or for these two boxes to actually be delivered. If no proof of these boxes has surfaced at the end of this coming week, Leah will be banned from further trades within the MNF group, other groups will be alerted to her actions, and a VERY unsavory rating will be left for her in the rate and review forum, hopefully warning anyone else from including her in any trades or swaps. Leah, if you are reading this, and you wish to save your reputation, post the delivery confirmation numbers of those boxes, AND e-mail me right away.

That's how I roll, probably about 80% anyway. I've often thoughts it's odd that I care so much more about how my house looks than myself when so few people see my house. Illogical. Mind you my moment of true freedom will be when I wear caftans 24/7--haven't gotten that liberated yet. something I enjoy and think is pretty and comfortable physically but is a little too far out out of the norm to be truly comfortable psyche-cally. I will say that many tattoos and piercings aren't meant to be seen, or not by many. I guess I wanted to point out that amongst the many varied motivations for body mods, among which certainly is outward appearance (whether aiming for beauty, personal expression, signalling conformity to a group or supposed nonconformity to 'the man'), I think there really are other true motivations that are more inward. And of course one might say one wants to look good to or for oneself rather than to or for those around one - not sure if that's truly achievable or not. Among the people I know personally these days with tons of visible tattoos, well of course I met them through my own social circle so they have similarities - but I wouldn't call them boring or bland. they're typically musicians, artists, longtime alt music fans or otherwise a little less staid, they're still getting tattoos well past the first blush of youth, they seem to enjoy getting more, and I think they know by now that tattoos are common enough not to signal nonconformity but they seem to plan out and enjoy the artistic and self-expression aspects. The people I know seem to pick the artists carefully. I find the art interesting to look at and the people tend to lead kinda fun lives, or at least it seems to me. You know, road trips, scooters, punk rock, bluegrass, drag, deep end dining, geekdom, film, burlesque - they seem to have pretty neat interests and are fun to talk to at dinner parties. Maybe a common thread among the people I know is that they tend to be a little intense, like REALLY into their interests. But then again it seems everybody gets intense around here in the winter, it's just way too drab not to.

'bloviate'?!? and, i don't think you need to 'have something' to have an opinion or an interest or a desire to discuss!! i think it's safe to say that all of us know people with tattoos/piercings, like people with tattoos and piercings, and many of us have loved ones with tattoos and piercings!! i personally do not know anyone very well close to my age with large, very visible tattoos- i think of small little ankle/wrist tattoos in a different way- much less of a 'commitment', more like 'pierced ears'... the friends and relatives i have who have a small dolphin, hearts, flowers, or initials, etc on their ankle or wrist or hip usually don't have much of a story or decision making process to go with it and they would not get sleeves, full leg or back tats, etc... it's a totally different commitment! the people i know with more unusual piercings or tats are much younger than me!! we know that lots of things are discussed/thought about in depth here- whether it be paint colors, toaster or mixer colors, health issues, parenting decisions, the bible, the financial crisis, etc! and we all have things that interest us more than others! there are always some who have a higher tolerance for discussing things at length(to death)! it's unfortunate that some experience hard or hurt feelings when not everyone agrees or understands.