but it seems like the memory is often in much better condition than the toys actually were. This is so true! I nearly "lost" a wonderful memory because of this. When I was a little girl, I helped with a skit as an ending to a performance by a barbershop quarter of high school boys (my dad as a drama coach, and helped them with it--I was the "love interest" at the end of "What Ain't We Got, We Ain't Got Dames"--not something you'd make jokes about now, though. I was a little bit in love with all of them, but especially curt. (I was, oh, 6.) After the contest was over, the boys got together and bought me a purple bunny with yellow satin lining in his ears, and Curt (swoon!) brought it for me. I LOVED that bunny. Loved it. Slept with it, carried it everywhere. Kept it around as I got older. At some point he ended up in a box in the attic. And when I was a young adult, out on my own, my mom & dad sent me all my stuff from the attic, including my stuffed animals. They were really in a sorry state--misshapen, coarse, and dirty. Their present-day reality pretty much overwrote my wonderful memories of them from when they were lovely (or, loved and their misshapenness completely invisible because of it). I have a few things I treasure: -the license plate w/ my unusual first name that my grandparents had custom-made for me -the cloth doll that "my little old lady down the block" gave to me, and I used to create a room design that won a red ribbon at the Iowa State Fair. -the "Night Before Christmas" book that I was given as a kid, and read from every Christmas -the printed velvet vest that my mom made for me (part of a set, but I accidentally ruined the skirt); I could wear it up until relatively recently.

In my new home, I have a housekeeper come every other week. I like clean homes. I do NOT like the actual job of cleaning them. I'd rather work in the garden, or do some cooking, or deal with the chickens, or keep up with physical maintenance and house painting/staining, or do graphic arts or anything else. I'm fine with doing laundry, too. I clean up after myself in the kitchen, but the housekeeper does floors, bathrooms and general dusting/windows and such. And I now have a robot vacuum who is pretty decent at what he does. He even has a name: Sharkey. I'm not crazy about cleaning his filter, but it comes with the territory and lasts five minutes... I didn't have a housekeeper back at my old CT home. One reason my getting out of there and getting the place on the market is taking so long... especially since I then had a full time job that lasted well over the standard 40 hour work week. THIS one will be clean! But it doesn't need to be anally-House Beautiful clean. Simply lived in and tidy. My reasons for not wanting a fully white kitchen or other rooms are not about appearing clean, but about my just only wanting white as an accent. Aesthetically. That's what works for my sense of eye appeal.

Nope, no professional nail treatments for me, either. Way back, when I was young, I often wore polish on my fingernails, and occasionally on my toes if I was wearing sandals. I've worn only athletic style shoes for almost 40 years now, so nothing but necessary clipping of toenails. And fingernails I trim as needed while watching TV. Have any of y'all tried a glass emery board? They are great for leaving a smooth edge on your nails, it's all I use now. When I was young (and slim) I always wanted long fingernails. I have no idea why, it was just sort of 'the thing to have', I guess. But no way my nails would grow, they chipped, split, broke, anything but grow long. Probably because I did so much with my hands. But now that I am older, and have no desire for long nails, they grow long, strong and fast! But I keep them just a tad longer than the tips of my fingers. Anything longer is just a nuisance! Rusty

Career wise, I was nearly always fine with being told what to do. I can think of one major exception when I was told to write up a report from a conference trip I went on with my supervisor. I asked if I could write it from home as at that time I had severe carpal tunnel issues and was told NO, you can't do it from home and take the time out of office to do this (it was mid-90s.). My home computer had an ergonomic keyboard which was not compatible with the work computer workstation. So... yes, I wrote the report up from home anyway and didn't take the time out of my in-office/lab work time. I brought my report in for my supervisor's review. Mind you, he was at the same conference. I wrote up 10-12 meetings I'd been to. On my own time, over a weekend. Because my wrist would not stand me doing that on company time. He changed ONE sentence I'd written, signed the report with his name first, then mine, and sent it off. He didn't write ANYTHING of his own. I had a severe problem with that, and I really wish in retrospect I'd spoken up. But whose word against whose? **** In other circumstances - I do listen to people when they tell me what I should do, but a lot of this depends on the apparent attitude of the person doing the telling. A lot depends also on how well people realize that some requests for "improvement" are in the eye of the beholder, or not, for instance, understanding what depression, anxiety, and those sort of things manifest. Like their way can get you through everything, because it worked for them!