Thank goodness it's FRIDAY!!!!!!

And here are my replies to Friday's Feast. Join me? Add your comments here, or post them on your own blog if you have one.


Appetizer
If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?--Yellow, because I'm chicken? Uh, I really don't know...pink is my favorite color, but I never thought about actually being the color pink.

Soup
When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?--Oh, goodness. It wasn't that long ago. I was plagued with sinus infections until a couple months ago. I think late April or early May was the last time I actually went to the doctor's office.

Salad
What do you collect?--Well, I collect Coca-Cola stuff, although I'm not a particularly avid collector. I never buy expensive Coca-Cola stuff. Many of the items I have were given to me by friends and family or even radio listeners who've heard me talk about it. One listener gave me an awesome Coca-Cola radio that looks like a cooler. It works great; in fact, it's my kitchen radio.

My long-range goal is to give our basement the feel of a nostalgic diner, and put all my Coke stuff down there. I would absolutely LOVE to have a real, old, working Coke machine...the kind that you used to get glass bottles of icy Coke from. (Those of you that are old enough will remember how it used to taste, coming out of an ice-cold bottle...so cold there were actual little slivers of frosty ice in the drink. You just can't get Cokes that cold anymore!) However...the Coke machine desire is kind of a pipe dream, unless someone just gives me one (wouldn't THAT be awesome!?) With one child still in college and one yet to begin, my budget doesn't exactly include trivial "wants" like that.

Main Course
What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days. (If you're still there, imagine how you'll remember it in the future.)--I guess I was viewed as kind of an intellectual. There were two kinds of popular at my school--athletic/cheerleader popular, and smart/funny popular. I think I was pretty much in the second group. I miss some of the people I went to high school with, especially a remarkable girl named Mary Durusau. She was the editor of the school newspaper when I was the managing editor. She was brilliant, talented, and so funny that I still quote her to this day.

For example, once we were talking about a local Catholic high school which was noted for male students who were, more often than not, remarkably handsome. Mary once said that one of the questions on the application for Jesuit High School was "Can you be goodlooking?"

I miss the pep rallies and the football games. They were incredibly fun and exciting. I miss some of my teachers. I guess most of all I miss the innocence of youth...and yet I wouldn't want to live it all over again, absolutely not.

Sadly, I've heard that my alma mater--Woodlawn High School in Shreveport, Louisiana--may be closed down soon. I really do have a lot of wonderful memories from my years there.

Dessert
Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?--The house belonging to our neighbor across the street (we live on a double dead-end.) Our neighborhood is very modest, but most of the residents take a fair amount of pride in their homes and yards. Our neighbor is a grouchy old Polish man. It's useless to try to be friendly to him, because there is no way he is going to reciprocate...he seems to be in a perennial bad mood.

However, his brick duplex is trim and neat, his yard immaculate, and he has something that we don't have...some gorgeous leaf-bearing trees in his front yard (we only have two evergreens.) Those trees are an ever-changing painting outside my livingroom's front window, depicting the current season. In summer and autumn, they are breathtaking. I'll sit on my livingroom sofa reading, and a flash of scarlet will catch my eye. It's the male half of a cardinal couple that frequents those trees. Lovely.

Have an awesome weekend, everyone!