STAY IN BED or Learn THIS!!!

There is nothing that will pump you up more than getting paid for something you created. I need you to try writing an article for some of the online magazine sites. I just got paid a measly $13 for an article, but I got the biggest high on that. It was fabulous! And you would do great at that. You are nicely opinionated, just what they like.
ps--For any others reading this, I can use a phrase such as "I need you to", because I am her aunt and I love her.

Dear Kate,

I'm so glad to find someone who watches the same shows I do (from Jeeves & Wooster right through "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off"). AND I have a chemical imbalance, AND I have insomnia. I'm just gonna start coming over to your house at 2:00 a.m. each morning so that I don't have to watch reruns of "Keeping Up Appearances" and "The Look For Less" by myself.
Then, if any shows that may prove to be less-than-wise viewing for 4:00 a.m. come up, maybe ONE of us will have the presence of mind to TURN OFF THE BLASTED T.V.!!

I still contend that ANY guilt is bad. Sympathy, empathy, even remorse can all be good, but guilt has never and will never do any good for anyone. Besides, what's to feel guilty about? Did you ever cross yourself at the sight of a wolf boy? Are you somehow the cause of hypersuperhairy or whatever it is?

The trick, as I see it, is to let these stories remind you about who you want to be (i.e. someone who might hire someone regardless of hair growth patterns, or someone who doesn't neglect children and let them grow up wild- nieces notwithstanding), and then recomit to being that person.

The people in these shows go through some rough times. You, however, are not any of these people. You don't even know these people. Why borrow their misfortunes? Their drama is not your drama. Unless, that is, you choose to make it so. It's all a choice.

I know that there are people suffering terribly in this world. That, however, in no way affects my desire to be happy.

And I don't feel the least bit guilty about that!

THE END.

Mary Ellen, I am IMPRESSED. If I am not mistaken, the last monetary figure you mentioned was less than a dollar. You are on your WAY. And I HAVE saved your emails with the links for the magazines because I want to try it. "Wanting" and "Doing" are certainly different, but it's a start. Many, many thanks for the encouragemen; it means a lot.

And Jenny, you are ON.

In fairness, I must warn you that I have more than once (okay - MANY TIMES) watched The Lost World at 4:00 a.m. In fact, I've seen if often enough to know which shows are PRE-Veronica-boob-job and POST-Veronica-boob-job. I've also seen many re-runs of the X-files which I don't feel a need to defend as vociferously. Watching lots of Angel, on the other hand...

And here is a question for you: WHAT CHANEL PLAYS RE-RUNS OF KEEPING UP APPEARANCES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT??? Thatâ??s how gay organists from small towns in Montreal learn English, you know (a story for another time, obviously). Here's the ultimate irony - I went back to bed and then I COULD NOT sleep (even with my SLEEPING MEDICATION).

OOOOH -I like watching The History Chanel (when they aren't running infomercials) and sometimes when they are running World War II shows and you fall asleep with the shows ON, you may have really weird dreams with all sorts of airplanes in them.

BBC America has several episodes of "Keeping Up Appearances" on sometime after midnight on Sunday nights/Monday mornings.

It's perhaps not the best show to use as an English-language learning tool, however. You'd get lots of, "Any more crisps, Daise? Smokey Bacon." And some "Coffee in 8 minutes, Elizabeth!"; but not alot of the really meaty, important stuff like "Where are the toilets?" and "How much does this cost?"

Dear "Me,"

Don't forget to read the wee details (yes, I pepper everything with so many). I did say:

The thing is, if you, yourself, are in too dark a place, knowing how lucky you are can just riddle you with an extra-large helping of guilt. Too much guilt is BAD. I am now going back to bed. I promise I will acknowledge how lucky I am another time (and I assure you I do know it at heart).

As I've said before, I do believe that guilt has a place in life (albeit a small place). Not POINTLESS guilt, mind you, but guilt that serves as a reminder of something. For instance, you have a niggling, lingering guilt because you've treated someone badly, I think that can serve as a reminder to remedy what you've done. Also, knowing that we are blessed people can assist us in staying away from being big ungrateful, selfish snobs. Hopefully all of it can make us more generous. Blah blah blah.

Thank you for your thoughts - sincerely. I believe we will have to end up "agreeing to disagree" about the extent of the usefulness of guilt. I still maintain that you skate the edge rather dangerously towards Ayn Rand's "Objectivism," which in my opinion, is just a little too much. But, as I said, that's just my opinion. :-)

I'm gonna have to try the History Channel method of dream-causality, however. I have too many dreams about being held hostage somewhere in the Middle East (usually Cairo), where I have to do lots of running and kicking and hiding. By morning I'm plumb worn out. But I must say, my Arabic gets better each night I use it!

Jenny, At least those dreams make some sense because you DID live in Egypt. I'm sorry that you must run and kick and hide. Perhaps we can insert a big fat weapon (like you can choose in video games?) into your dreams and you can escape very quickly.

I get airsick, so all the airplane dreams are decidedly ODD. Not to mention the whole traveling back and forth in time from World War II...

I found the Feral children story to be fascinating. My So Called Life reruns at 4am on Noggin. Great show.

Yes, the feral children story is fascinating, but I don't advise it for anyone insufficiently medicated.

I'll have to see if we have Noggin...If not, I need to come to KANSAS! And if we do, I need to come to KANSAS!!!

Um, guys (Kate and Jenny), you may have listed some of my favorite TLC shows ever... The Boy Whose Skin Fell off leaves me in tears every time, and I am willing to adopt a feral and/or wolf child if the opportunity should ever arise. I have to see if I have Noggin, now, too, since My So Called Life is another favorite.

I admit, I'm a little old to have seen much at all of My So Called Life, but I know it was critically-acclaimed. I need to try and find it.

In the meantime, I think we all need to get together and watch The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off. We'll laugh and cry (and it is definitely much better than cats). It's probably for sale on DVD or video, yes?

A few weekends ago I tortured myself in a very similar way. Only they were movies rented through Netflix, so I justified it by saying that I had to hurry and watch them and send them back so I could get the "happy" ones in my queue. For almost nine hours straight I watched one million Tutsis get slaughtered in Hotel Rwanda; prejudice, lies, human nature and horrific mistakes tear people's lives apart in Crash; and men, women and children in a tiny impoverished village in Africa being used as human guinea pigs in The Constant Gardener. All movies I highly recommend, but for the love of PETE, not ALL IN A ROW! And if you do, be prepared to open up your pocketbook. Both Oxfam and The Paul Rusesebagina Fund received checks from me that weekend. Which, I believe, is further proof that SOME guilt CAN be good. Most charities would never survive without it.

P.S.
A few days later I made up for it by watching the 40 Year Old Virgin and The Wedding Crashers back to back. hehe

SOMEBODY needs to re-organize their Netflix queue...

I've seen Hotel Rwanda - completely devastating - and a number of years back I actually met some Tutsis from Rwanda who'd lost almost the entireties of their families to the genocides or to AIDS; you could never imagine how beautiful and hopeful they still were. I happened to watch that film with my parents, and just as soon as the credits started rolling my Father started WEEPING uncontrollably. I've never seen him react quite that way to a movie.

The other two movies, both which I'd like to see, I will space apart with appropriately light and trivial fare (and make sure that I'm adequately medicated). The Forty Year-Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers sound like excellent choices...