Brought to You by the Letter...

Updated below!!

Evil Twin's Wife had a good meme last week. I said I'd do it too, so she assigned me the letter "M".

Microscope: There was a time when microscopes played a large role in my life . After college, I trained to be a Cytotechnologist; a word that simply means a cell technician. We looked through microscopes at slides prepared by doctors to determine the presence or absence of cancer cells. Most of them were Pap smears, but occasionally we would have slides of other bodily fluids to check. I did this for about 2 years, and quit when I was pregnant with my first child. I do not miss that job, but I found microscopes fascinating and I wanted to look at everything under one.

Mail: Who doesn't love a letter? I always enjoy getting them, but since the advent of email, real letters are hard to come by. I am just as guilty as the next person of not writing much anymore. My mom taught me the importance of thank you notes, and I always write them, but letters are pretty much a thing of the past. I hope that changes, since getting a letter always raises my spirits - and I suspect it does yours, too. Maybe we should make it a habit to write one nice letter a week. Who knows what would happen if we did.

Male: I've always liked them - at least most of them - and I'm glad that I have some in my life. To mr. kenju, our son, my grandsons and our many male friends, neighbors, relatives, bloggers and business associates - I say thanks for being there. Whatever would we do without you?!

Massage: "A method of treating the body for remedial or hygienic purposes, consisting in rubbing, stroking, kneading or tapping, etc., with the hand or an instrument. "

Now THIS is my favorite thing to get, so if you ever want to get a present for me - a gift card to a local masseuse is the ticket! I would be forever in your debt! Facials are nice too.

Mother: Everybody has at least one, but I have had two. My adoptive mother, who raised me to be the person I am today, and my birth mother, who is now in my life.

I am the mother of three wonderful people; who constantly amaze me and give me pause to wonder how I got so lucky to have them in my life. I am the grand-mother of six beautiful, smart, terrific kids and also three step-grandkids, who are just as handsome, smart and terrific as the bio-kids. There must be some good karma here somewhere.

Matrimony: I have done this once; 44 1/2 years ago, in Virginia. The scene was the Norfolk Naval Base Catholic Chapel. I wrote about it here.

Metronome: "An instrument for marking exact time, especially in music." Taking piano lessons as a youngster was something that I did not appreciate at the time, but I do now. My teacher would often make me practice with the metronome clacking back and forth and I would set the metronome to go faster than the music called for, which was a huge pain in her butt, as she let me know. I foolishly sold my metronome at a garage sale years ago for a pittance. I bet now it would bring a pretty price on eb*y!

Math: I hated it in school and I still do. Thank God for calculators!

Mistakes: I've made a few: quitting piano lessons when I was 9 and not old enough to make a good decision about it, not pursuing my first love - architecture and choosing to date a few losers (prior to mr. kenju, of course). There are a few others I wouldn't dare to post here, but you know what? I have finally forgiven myself for my mistakes. Being mired in regret keeps you from moving forward with your life. I have asked God to forgive me, too, and I have no reason to think He hasn't.

Money: Do we have enough? Yes, most of the time, although I may not appear to believe that . All we really need is to have our basic needs met (food, clothing, shelter) and to be able to pay the bills. Being disciplined enough to spend only what you have available is something for which we all need to strive. Had big business followed that credo, we might not be in the financial crisis we are in now.


I'd love to see YOU do this one. If you want to do it, ask me for a letter, okay?

How you do it: Either ask me for a letter, or choose one for yourself. What I did was go through the dictionary to find words that had meaning in my life and I picked ten of them, since that what Evil Twin's Wife did. You are free to choose more or fewer words, as you wish.