1. Something little you are loving right now?
Soccer season! Even though Dakota’s team isn’t great, it’s fun. The boys’ team is so competitive and the games are incredibly fun to watch. I like all the kids and their “want to win” attitude. I also love how team sports brings us all together and going out to the fields reminds us that things are normal here, in Florida, where things are open and we are all ok. Reminds me that the plague is not lurking right outside our doors.
2. Red roses or pink peonies? Red wine or pink lemonade? Red lipstick or pink polish? A cotton candy colored sky or a fiery red sunset? A book-movie-song you love with the word red or pink in it’s title?
Red Roses; Red Wine; Sorry – black polish for me but sometimes I do, like, a mauve; fiery red sunset. And finally, Batman: Under the Red Hood. Good read if you’re a Jason Todd fan (second Robin.)
3. What’s something you currently have your heart set on doing-going-seeing-or experiencing?
Immediately, there’s a sideshow/freakshow type thing coming here in March and I think I will go ahead and buy tickets. They were actually featured in the music video for one of my favorite bands, Avatar, years ago so it seems like something I should do. Long-term, we have tickets to Def Leppard/Poison/Motley Crue in August and I have pretty high hopes that it’ll happen, as it is an outdoor concert and here in open Florida. So yeah, that’s it for now.
4. Who would you most like to have a heart to heart with right now? Is that possible?
I think maybe my oldest son. But I have talked about that before and his problem is temporary, as he is a teenager. Sometimes I think I’d like to have a sit down with my old friend and bridesmaid, Annie. I have detailed it here before but she unfriended me, called me a Nazi, on Facebook. The part that really hurt – the proverbial knife in the back – was when, after I was blocked but could still see the post, she said to the other people on the thread that she didn’t know what happened to me, where I went wrong, except for having gotten married and having kids. This is shocking! (The post, if you must know, was a mutual friend of ours saying that there are no good Republicans anywhere. That it wasn’t possible for them to be good at heart ever. And I replied very neutrally by saying that we cannot possibly know the hearts of all people and it was not right to just apply voting choice to peoples’ daily lives and acts. So, henceforth, I was dubbed a Nazi.)
So if she would ever talk to me, I’d certainly like to have a conversation. She basically goes against many principals I believe in but I still liked her. I mean, she is probably about 44, 45 now, still lives with her mom, doesn’t have a job, and is dependent on drugs. And she was SUCH a talented writer; I thought out of all of us in the program that year at FSU, she might actually publish. But Big Daddy Government allowed her to squander her time and talent. Sadly.
5. Write an acrostic for the word L-O-V-E.
L – Life is better with it
O – Our family has its own special kind
V – Virtually all things are won by it
E – Each and every day is a reason to feel it
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I apologize for my #4 answer; I know that was heavy but I think about her every so often. You know these articles that talk about cutting toxic people from your life? Sometimes you have to. And I guess she was so afflicted by Trump Derangement Syndrome that she felt I was toxic and had to cut me out. I suppose we must all come to terms with that stuff. Not everyone will like you! I tell my kids this all the time, you know. Anyway, this week has been on and off rainy and it’s starting to get to me. Actually, it’s been like that for weeks now. We get one beautiful sunny day then two or three rainy ones. What gives, winter? I think I am ready for Spring. Our walk in the woods on Monday reminded me that soon, we will enter into North Florida’s most beautiful time: many sunny days with temps in the 60s and 70s. I am really looking forward to that! Then we will open the pool and get it ready for summer!
incognitusscriptor.com 
Reading about your friendship gone awry made me think of people in my life who are no longer there for various reasons. It is hard to think that at one time someone can be one of your very best friends and then they are gone but it does happen. Is everything open in Florida? No mask mandate? No size limitations? We are still under a mask mandate in Alabama and many meetings are still via zoom.
Oh no, we have “mask mandates” but they aren’t really legal. I see most people following them. But restaurants, etc are all operating at almost full capacity, at least where I am.
It’s a shame how divided our politics has become, how it’s ruining friendships. In my parent’s generation you did not discuss religion or politics with your friends.
But here’s hint: Don’t’ call it Trump Derangement Syndrome. If you used that phrase in your conversations with her, there’s no wonder she used the language she did.
Actually, the conversation was not even between her and I. I never said anything incendiary in the post because I wanted to have an open discussion. It was our mutual friend and his friends who attacked me and she later made that comment to them. That is why it’s even crazier.
Interestingly, you are not responsible for how people respond to you and make accusations to fit their comfort zone. In the spirit of a free country, everyone can believe whatever they want. We don’t have to agree, but respecting other people’s position leads to mature dialogue. Unfortunately, this is hardly where we live in 2021.