California Bound

I am really anticipating going to California for a week during Spring Break. My Father lives in Anaheim, and his invitation is thrilling. I am secretly nervous not knowing what kind of world is out of my Kentucky home. I wonder what type of people I will encounter on the streets. Will they be all dressed up in themed apparel, rugged tattered clothes, or even in a Hollywood Style. The possibilities are endless in my mind. I have never been on a plane before either, so I also wonder what the flight attendants are like, and if the peanuts are safe to eat. Not to mention, gosh forbid the plane were to malfunction.

My Father is a Stunt man, so I will get to go on set for movies. Maybe, I can meet someone famous, perhaps the Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's a long shot, but anything is bound to happen. Our next stop will be to Disney Land. I know it's typically for little children, but I believe I am as giddy to meet Mickey and all of his friends, as a 10 year old would be. As silly as it seems I want to go to the princess's castle as well.

I've never even been to the beach, or seen the ocean. I've heard it's phenomenal and you can see for miles, I'm looking forward to that, as well as the surfers and beach babes. Since the weather is so much nicer than our 4 seasons, I can finally wear my sexy sailor costume while I go out on the boat. Hopefully, people don't see me as another tourist and shun me, otherwise take me to paint the town for a night I'll never forget.

The Saturday before I leave to come back home to the bluegrass, we are attending a hot movie party. I have been debating on weather to bring a costume to dress up, or go casual. I could always get the experience of the fast life, and go shopping in the stores around the area. I usually do all of my shopping on line, but I believe that it will be a good time.

As my mind keeps wondering to all of the possible opportunities I may come across, I just get even more excited. I hope to gain respect for the faster life, and have lots of memories and stories to share.

Put on Your Happy Pants

Collecting things has always been a popular pastime. My own life has been cluttered with boxes of comic books, shelves of tiny china animals, rooms full of penguin figurines, and a small town worth of men. My sister, however, collected panties. Lace, silk, cotton, from giant granny pants to the whispiest bit of fluff, her dresser always had one drawer completely filled to overflowing with her collection.

She had some of the most unusual underwear. She had denim underwear, complete with pockets and belt loops. She had hand tatted lace underwear. It didn't look particularly comfortable, but it was lovely.

Her collection was divided into 3 categories. There were the sexy panties that were beautiful, or funny, but were not actually wearable. There were the set of panties that were perfect and comfortable. The third group were the well-worn panties. This is the group that tended to be faded, holey and/or stretched out. These were the comfortable, everyday panties.

When my sister was about 18, we discovered that you could tell her mood by which panties she chose for the day. What's more, we discovered that her mood changed according to what panties she chose. She tended to be more laid back, procrastinated more often, and was more often depressed, when she wore the old, holey underwear. However, when she wore her good undies, she tended to be cheerful and outgoing. Even when she became aware of it, herself, she knew that if she needed to get out of a bad mood, her good underwear was the first step. It might have been a psychological boost to her morale to know that "underneath it all" she was looking good. Whatever the reason, this pattern of behavior followed through to her married years, when, her husband would coax her to "put on her happy pants" if he found her to be down in the dumps.

According to Judie Taggart and Jackie Walker, authors of "I Don't Have A Thing To Wear: The Psychology of Your Closet", dressing is a form of expression, and therefore, what we wear, from the skin, outward, makes a statement about our past, how we see ourselves now, and what we want to become. They theorize that my sister's underwear drawer contains some painful memories, and that, when she wears those old panties that she associates, even on a subconscious level, with something unpleasant, affecting her mood. Similarly, some items in the drawer, remind her of her happy past, her cheerleading days, the days she felt she had reached the apex of her attractiveness. These panties could have either a bolstering effect on her mood, remembering her former successes, or, could cause her to reflect on how much she has changed from those days, which could bring her mood down. The "happy pants" drawer, however, says a great deal about who she wants to be or how she wants to be perceived. There are elements, in that drawer, of the Classic Beauty, the Vamp, and of the Artist. All of these have positive effects on the wearer's mood.

If we take the psychology of the underwear drawer a step further and examine our whole closet, we may learn a great deal about who we are, how we got this far, and where we are heading. What's more, we can learn to fill our underwear drawer, or our closet, with clothing that projects an image that we want to share with the world.

My only question now is: "What do my ruffly rhumba panties say about me?"

Our Hopes for Our Children

I often sit here wondering what my children are doing in school. Knowing that things are much different than when I was in school. Kids in middle school and high school have to deal with a lot more peer pressure now particularly with the temptation of drugs. Add in the fact that in many public schools, policemen watch over the kids and walk the halls. This puts even more stress on our kids in school. It is hard for kids to feel like kids.

When I was in school our mothers were stay at home moms. They didn't have to work. When we got home from school our mom’s would be home with us. We played outside and road our bikes. Nowadays the generation of both parents have to work. Things certainly have changed since I was in school. For example, today it's all about computers but when I was in school the best we had was typewriters. My kids do not even know what a typewriter looks like. I showed them a picture of a typewriter and they thought it was so weird!

Back in my day we were allowed to have parties and dress up in school for Halloween. It was it was so much fun! We dressed up as Minnie mouse, Holly Hobbie, Strawberry Shortcake and much more. The kids today are not allowed to have party’s in school or even call it a party because of the many different religions beliefs.

My hope for my daughter is that she will grow up and be a smart beautiful young lady! She has high expectation of herself as of right now. She wants to go to college to study to be a forensic investigator. She is only in the 8th grade now so this is likely to change.

My son is in the third grade and he is B to A student. He loves baseball and he is playing basketball for his first time and really loves it. He says he would like to become a veterinarian someday. He loves animals like he loves his mom.

I think I can speak for all parents that we all want the best for our kids when they grow up!

Costume Lamps

Okay, I know this sounds weird but it's not. In my daily roadtrip down the information highway, I came across a novel and fun idea that I think could be adapted to fit everyone's resources. If you have not yet seen them, look for lingerie lamps. Buy an inexpensive piece of lingerie, something pretty and semi-sheer, and turn it into a decorative lighting piece for the bedroom. It is accomplished rather simply. Buy an inexpensive woman's torso form. Ebay is full of them. Find a pretty piece of lingerie; a teddy or camisole would work wonderfully. Soak the lingerie in a stiffening solution. These are available at most fabric stores. Allow it to dry on the form, so that it retains the shape of the body. The lingerie then becomes your lamp shade! Add embellishments like fringe at the bottom, jewel accents, ribbons, etc. For a hanging lamp, suspend the lingerie from a decorative clothes hanger that you attach the lighting kit to. Voila! You have created a useful conversation piece for far less than you would pay for a boring, ready-made light!

It occurred to me that, if you can do this with lingerie with such delightful results, why not take that idea and use it with other pieces of clothing. Every year we buy our children Halloween costumes that they wear once. When we buy those costumes, we are already choosing something that our child is interested in. Why not use it in their room decor by making a lamp or sculpture out of it? I can see lovely little fairy or angel costumes as nightlights or even as hanging sculptures swaying ever so gently above a sleepy little girl. What about the boys? How much fun would it be to have a knight standing guard at the door of his room, or a ninja lamp to light the dark corners?

Some creative thinking on forms to use to shape the stiffening costumes might be in order, but in all, I think the effort will be well worth it. My thought is, we all have the costumes packed away somewhere, anyway. Why not pull one out and give it a try?