White Socks/ Black Socks

I just don't get why it's such a big deal what color socks you wear with black shoes. How stupid!
Why do we make up such ridiculous and unimportant rules?
I have black shoes. I don't own any black socks... except maybe some Christmas-themed socks that were a gift. Love me, love my socks!

Homer, Joey and the cold dark night

In college, the kids taking the Leadership course had to take the first year Outdoor Recreation students out for their survival night.

My baby-sitting-in-the-woods night was very cold and the ground was covered with thick snow.
We led the freshmen out to get settled and after a while, walked back in to check on them.
It was dark by the time I made my round. And I smelled marijuana wafting through the trees.
I knew who it was but I didn't confront him right away.

Instead, I went back to where the other young leaders were gathered. It was my choice, "a judgment call, " as one of my fellow students offered. His eyes told me he'd let it go because he smoked dope, too.

I asked for someone to go back with me. Surprisingly, my friend Dawn's visitor from the dorms (who I'll call Homer because I cannot recall his name...but it just might have been Homer) offered to escort me.
This young man had always been quiet and not given me any attention in the past. We walked together back into the woods and I explained to him the potential danger of drugs and the cold and expressed my concern.

I found Joey, the young fellow would been smoking and I asked hi if he'd been smoking. "Yeah, " he said. "I threw it over there."
I told him that his survival experience was over and he should pick up his supplied and go home.

Then Homer and I walked Joey out and went back to the Leadership group.

That night, I shared a tent with another girl and I was so cold that I couldn't sleep. She kept rolling on to me. She was trying to warm me up or at least stop my teeth from chattering, but she should have said "Stay still and get warm." She never did. I had to get up and go into a building to warm up, then go back and try to snooze....
Finally, I had to give up and go inside.

Soon afterward, I saw Dawn and she told me that Homer had been surprised. He had known that I was gay so he thought I was some horrible sinner, but after our walk he told Dawn, "She's real nice!" And Dawn had just looked at him and said, "Yeah, I told you so."

I wish that there were more opportunities to dispel myths like that little walk through the cold Maine woods.

Here's a hint, Sarah Palin.

Russia is NOT our enemy.

Great e-mail forward

A mouse looked through the crack

in the wall to see the farmer

and his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?'

the mouse wondered - - -
he was devastated to discover

it was a mousetrap.


Retreating to the farmyard,

the mouse proclaimed the warning :

There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!




The chicken clucked and scratched,

raised her head and said,

'Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave

concern to you, but it is of no consequence

to me. I cannot be bothered by it.'

The mouse turned to the pig and told him,

'There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!'

The pig sympathized, but said,

'I am so very sorry, Mr.Mouse,

but there is nothing I can do about it

but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.'


The mouse turned to the cow and said,

'There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!'


The cow said, 'Wow, Mr. Mouse.

I'm sorry for you,

but it's no skin off my nose.'

So, the mouse returned to the house,

head down and dejected,

to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . alone.

That very night a sound was heard

throughout the house -- like the sound

of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.


The farmer rushed her to the hospital,

and she returned home with a fever.


Everyone knows you treat a fever

with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer

took his hatchet to the farmyard

for the soup's main ingredient.


But his wife's sickness continued,

so friends and neighbors came to sit

with her around the clock.

To feed them,

the farmer butchered the pig.



The farmer's wife did not get well;

she died.



So many people came for her funeral,

the farmer had the cow slaughtered to

provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his

crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is

facing a problem and think it doesn't

concern you, remember ----

when one of us is threatened,

we are all at risk.



We are all involved in this

journey called life.

We must keep an eye out for

one another and make an extra effort

to encourage one another.


SEND THIS TO EVERYONE WHO

HAS EVER HELPED YOU OUT

AND LET THEM KNOW HOW

IMPORTANT THEY ARE.


REMEMBER. . . . . .


EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY;

OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER

FOR A REASON.



One of the best things to hold onto

in this world is a FRIEND.