I am a shopaholic. In fact, it was very dangerous the day I discovered shopping online. It was amazing for me that I could buy anything I wanted at any time of the day. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I realized that if I decided that I needed a new handbag a three in the morning, I could order one at just a click away.

The most glorious thing is when I found the sites that sell wholesale lingerie. I am a firm believer that one should wear lingerie to bed every night. It is something that makes you feel feminine and pretty and even if you are single, it is imperative that you do something that makes you feel pretty.

I never go to bed without putting on something that makes me feel sexy. I feel better about myself and my body image and it is a feeling that I would not want to live without. I love the feeling I get whenever I wear something new, so when I found out I could buy them at a fraction of the price, it was a happy day for me.

My mother’s house has needed replacement windows since … well, let’s just say she recently paid off her 30-year mortgage and the windows needed replacing way back before they bought the house.

When my dad was alive, he would have wanted to do it all himself if he’d been well, but they didn’t have sufficient money to pay to have it done. Supposedly. Turns out Daddy never actually got an estimate. He assumed they couldn’t afford it.

Mother’s continued objection after he died was that she didn’t want to have to move out of her house for a week.. So I called in “the big guns,” aka my little sister. She just flat out said, “We’re doing this and the window company will be done installing shiny, new vinyl replacement windows in one day, guaranteed.” I’d already said the same thing, but alas, like Dicky Smothers, my mom always liked her best. *sigh*

In college I took a class on world religions for which I had to write several papers. I always was looking for the angle no one else would write about. So I wrote about ancient mummification rites and modern death practices. I explored the shades of meaning in “sacred” dance.

When I came across an obscure reference to Islamic occult practices, I was amazed at the amount of information available in a small Ohio college on magick talismans, magick amulets & charms and magick spells & rituals. Then I discovered a tribe in Africa that ritually ate the brains of their dead, and thereby passed on a highly infectious fatal disease called kuru. It’s related to mad cow disease and after writing this paper, it put me off beef for a long time.

My professor’s favorite, however, was about the spread of Pentecostalism in Puerto Rico and why it was eclipsing Catholicism. But then my professor was half Puerto Rican, which just goes to show his personal biases did matter, no matter what he, well, “professed.”

There was a time in Europe when men were just as fashion-conscious as women. Their shirts had lacy cuffs that went beyond the end of their coat sleeves, and at the neck, a lacy jabot draped elegantly overtop a coat that flared well below the hip.

Today we don’t expect quite so much fashion interest from men, but that could be my small town America perspective where dressing up means wearing the clean flannel shirt and overalls. So, okay, I’m exaggerating. Hey, it’s what I do to make you laugh and make a point.

My point? The golfers I’ve run into lately are into fashion, but of a different sort than 100 years ago. We’re talking high-end golf apparel. When they think women aren’t listening, they talk about cargo versus Bermuda shorts. They wouldn’t be caught dead in plaid pants but plaid, single-pleat shorts are acceptable. I’d dish some more on them, but they saw me and started talking about golf clubs, instead. Un-huh…

For the past few years, I have been going to tanning salons to get tanned before summer.  I feel that the transition to the summer goes a lot smoother if I have a tan already before the sun beats down on us – I get a lot less sun burns that way.

But the one problem that I have had over the years is that I seem to pick the tanning salons that are going to close in the next few months.  Without fail, the last four salons that I have picked shut their doors a couple of months after I signed up.

Not only that, I cringe each time I go to a new one when I ask what tanning bed lotions that they suggest.  Most of the time, I have to wonder if the lady behind the counter has any experience – their recommendations are usually wrong.

So, I am still looking to find a good tanning salon – I hope that there is one here in my home town.

Mid-life crises never cease to amaze me. A friend of mine has decided he’s moving to California. He has an online business, so where he works from isn’t all that important — except when it comes to taxes, of course. But he’s following a dream he’s had for a long time to live along the Pacific coast. I would be a pretty poor friend to bring up taxes in the face of a life-long dream.

He’s amazingly organized, so he’s going about this with meticulous precision. Already he has solicited a California health insurance quote from 6 companies, auto and homeowner’s insurance quotes from seven or eight firms and he’s lined up 10 homes to view when he goes out for a visit. I tell you, the man is scary he’s so methodical! He thought of everything, from the best fitness club to the best restaurants. I’m really going to miss him. Who’s going to keep me organized now?

When I became a mother for the first time, it was both wonderful and scary. It was the first time that I felt I had such an enormous responsibility and that I was responsible for this little person. She could not survive without me and I knew that my protection and love was what she needed most of all in her life.

I had always known that I wanted to be a mother and though the responsibility was tremendous, the feeling of contentment and joy that I got whenever I held her was beyond anything I could ever imagine. The first time she smiled at me, I thought I was going to melt and the first time I heard her laugh, I was in love.

I knew that having her was like letting my heart walk out of my body and I knew that I could not be there for her every second if every day. But those moments that I was with her were the ones that I savored most. It was wonderful and scary, but maybe, just a little bit more wonderful.

I was invited to a local event put on by an SEO consulting agency, for a one day, intensive, search engine marketing workshop.  There was a cost involved, but I thought that attending the workshop would be well worth it.

I was right.  There were many different workshops during the day that covered a wide variety of topics including search engine optimization, article marketing, directory submissions and social marketing.

I was even surprised that they had a presentation on the importance of ethical SEO in today’s marketplace.  Up to that point, I had never even considered the ethical implications of marketing a website.

All in all, it was a day well spent, and I was able to come out of it with some good tidbits of information – I think I will make a point to attend the event next year.

I got this email from a friend the other day:

Lately I’ve been looking into UK jobs in sales. There’s this person I need to get away from, and besides, it’s time to make a move.

I love the idea of living overseas again. So sue me. I was an Army brat. I’m used to living all over the place.

After extensive investigating, including an online search for UK sales news, employment projections, and economic forecasts, I’ve come to the conclusion that conditions are pretty much equal between North America and the UK.

What I need to ramp up this research is someplace – in the UK – where I can get useful sales advice. I’ve got a couple of leads and will follow up on them later tonight. This is almost turning into a continuing saga. LOL. I can hear the announcer now: "What will tomorrow’s episode reveal?" One thing’s for sure, I’m ready for a change of venue.

Then again, maybe I’m taking myself way too seriously…

She always did, but I envy her courage and told her I wished her well.

Throughout my life, I have always stared from the sidelines at motorcycles.  You see, back when I was a child, I made a promise to my mother that I would never ride one.  The reasoning behind her request is that she had a boyfriend that was seriously injured riding a bike, and she didn’t want that to happen to me.

A promise is a promise for me, so I decided to do what I had said.  But, I have always wanted to ride a bike – even if I wasn’t the guy driving.

It wasn’t until I met my girlfriend that I was actually in the position to go for a ride.  You see, she sold used motorcycles, and she offered to give me a ride.  The problem was, I still had the promise that I made to my mother, so I had to decline.

I talked to my mother about it, and told her how much I wanted to go for a ride, and she finally let me relinquish my promise – provided I wore a helmet.

As I got on the back of the bike behind my girlfriend, I knew one thing: I would have the ride of my life.