Ever play the "six degrees of kevin bacon?" - well, i think i just played the online version, cuz i just spent the past half hour browsing through people's blogs that were linked from one friend to another to another...and i've come away with two revelations:
1. I suck at programming. Man! I gotta learn how to get those cool pictures and gadgets like quotations or pretty fonts or weird design stuff on my blog!

2. You can find out a lot about a person by reading what they write.

That's what i love about the written word so much. Because where the spoken word is often merely rhetoric, a show put on for others - you often get this introspective window into a person's inner being when you read their thoughts. I almost feel bad reading people's blogs, because it's like when I was a kid and used to sneak into my sister's room to read her diary! But wow. Sometimes i think people have such high fences up in their lives, that unless you invest huge amounts of time and love into a person, we rarely get exposed to the COOLEST things about people. Their quirks, dreams and aspirations, etc. Most of the time it's because there are so many distractions and obligations on our lives that we just CAN'T spend the time to get to know people on that level. But you know what? I think that if everyone got to see who a person really is inside, there isn't a single person on this earth who isn't completely lovable. (i mean, except for people who are psychotic, malicious, evil, or some combination of all three)

As we get older, the fences we erect around ourselves get higher. I think that's the greatest tragedy that comes with age and why everyone hates it. I've decided there's a difference between our definition of "getting old" and what middle-aged people are afraid of. I don't think anyone my age is afraid of beer bellies, love handles, hip replacements, fake teeth, or sagging *anythings* quite yet......i think when people are less than thrilled to celebrate another birthday, they're really dreading getting MIDDLE-AGED. It sucks being middle-aged!! But the thing is, being middle-aged doesn't really come with a physical age...i think it's a frame of mind. You can be middle-aged when you're 15 sometimes. Or avoid being middle-aged your entire life, and then just POP to being a senior! (that's my plan)