O is for...

what is this Wordplay thing? well, wordplay is this cool personal alphabet/dictionary doodah that Laume is hosting. hosting? i don't know what to call what she's doing, but she's doing it. if you want to know more about it click here. i'm still way behind everyone, but it's fun. c'mon! you ca join in if you'd like. all the cool kids are doing it :)

open – I try hard to be an open person. I try to share of myself and hope that people will be open and share back. I also try hard to be open-minded. I know I’m not always as open minded as I should be. for instance, I really can’t listen to Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh. I just can’t. it’s quite possible that they could tell me the sky is blue and I’d be trying to find some way to show the lie in it. so, I work on it.

“o is very useful. you use it when you say “oscar’s only ostritch oiled and orange owl today” thank you dr. seuss

oodles – I think this is a fun word.

ogle – do you say this ohgul or ooooogle or awgul? my girlfriend and I had a discussion about this at one point.

organic – we try hard to buy mostly organic products. when the farmer’s market starts again, we’ll buy more from them this year. not everything is strictly organic (it can take several years to be certified as organic), but they are local and most of them are producing veggies and fruit w/o pesticides. buying local is very important. think of the gas that it takes to get something organic from chili – or china, or many other places. I was a bit distressed to find out that many of the yummmmmmy organic things at trader joe’s are from far far away. but they are good, and many of those things that I can’t get elsewhere, I will continue to buy from them. but I’m trying to be mindful of where my food and meat is coming from. I miss Pat and Bob having their lambs. we knew exactly what went into them and exactly what we were eating when it came time to eat them. they were yummy.

ogre – sometimes I am a bit of an ogre. it just comes out of me. then I feel badly.

oggie ben doggie – mentor to Fluke Starbucker, friend to Ham Salad and Princess Anne-Droid

oak – oak trees are majestic and beautiful and many are perfect for climbing. there are many of them in the bay area. oak is also wonderful when it is a cask and permeates the flavor of red wine. yummmmmm.

osmosis – I would sometimes study by osmosis...you know, fall asleep while cramming w/the book either under my head or on my chest?

oatmeal – did you know that oatmeal is a galactagogue? well it is! so is brown rice. rhys loves oatmeal with raisins and yogurt (banilla, thank you very much). I like yogurt too – w/brown sugar or raw local honey a wee bit of salt and milk.

ocean – I love the ocean. I can remember when we used to go to newport beach when I was little. we had to get there really early (like 8:00? maybe I’m misremembering, but I know we were there early) so that we could get a good spot. I would get tumbled and jumbled in the waves. there were those scary times when I couldn’t quite figure out which way was up, but I loved it too. body surfing was such fun. I was better at that than I was at surfing w/a boogie board (which didn’t come around until later). I wonder how mom survived that – I don’t know that I could sit on the beach with irene and rhys tumbling around in the surf. yes yes, overprotective....in fact...

OVERPROTECTIVE – yes. that’s me. it seems that every time I try to take a bit more of a step back, something awful happens in the world and makes me bring my kids closer to me. yes, when I grew up I got to go outdoors and play until the sun was setting. yes, I did that w/o parental supervision (at least not the parents outside). I have a very hard time doing this. there are too damned many scary things happening out there. too many child molesters out there. too many crazies with guns. too many scary things. so, yes. I’m overprotective. but I also try to give the kids space to do things and work things out. I try to give them positive experiences, but we’ve also talked (briefly and mostly to irene) about the fact that there are scary things out there.

October 28, 1995 – our anniversary *beam*

orangatan – what beautiful animals. very smart. and the color of their hair is often an auburn color that I’d love to have.

off-center – sometimes I feel this way. more recently I think than previously. it could have to do with having such a differing opinion from those of many of my neighbors.

Office Space – if you’ve ever wondered what it was like to work in a cubicular world or if you’ve worked in that world yourself, this is the movie for you. oh MAN is it funny. there is a whole scene about a printer and the error “PC LOAD LETTER” which I have gotten before when I worked in cubicle land and it was DEAD ON what I felt like (just type that into the YouTube search and you'll find it. the language is definitely R rated, so just know that). there are so many funny parts to this movie. it’s a gem.

outdoors – this is such a funny thing. I DO love being outdoors, and I reallllly love camping (even if I AM the mosquito beacon to end all mosquito beacons), but truly, I could be happy being in my house for days on end as well. I love the smell of the outdoors. I love setting up a tent and reading by the firelight. I love looking at the stars and the moon and the sky. my favorite smell? the smell of earth (and even of asphalt) after it rains. it’s like that right now, in fact. it’s a smell that makes me deliciously happy.

olives – I’m not so much a fan of black olives. the kind that you put on your fingers. I like the kalamata olives, spanish olives, most of the specialty kind – very salty, very yummy.

oops – yep, I say this a whole heck of a lot.

orange – the fruit and the color – I like them both very much.

ouija – I haven’t played with one since I was in junior high at a slumber party. my friend Kristin and I were playing with it. she was starting to ask some of those questions you’re not supposed to ask a ouija board. the triangular thing went to goodbye so quickly it truly flew out of our hands. that was it for me.

and so, this finishes the Os :)

oh no! I can’t finish it yet.....(family members can leave now so I don’t blush so much!)

orgasm! a very lovely O word. sometimes there are foods that I refer to as orgasmic – like the orgasmic cheesecake from the Olema Inn. our wonderful friend, Bob, used to work there. he introduced me to their cheesecake. oh my doggie but they were yummy. in fact, he was so wonderful to me that at our rehearsal dinner, he brought an entire one for me :) I shared it with my bridesmaids. we had a fun time that night – lovely spa in the room, big ginormous bed, pullout sofa bed and a cot. truly a wonderful way to spend the night before my wedding. we probably had some red wine as well.