Here’s an email I got recently:“I wanted to thank you also for your story about "presence" that you told at your talk recently at Open Secret Book Store in San Rafael. I had an important experience of that this weekend. I have been contemplating dating a man I met recently who is a financially successful lobbyist, and we have many other interests aside from politics. The wining and dining is great, but when we're together, it is odd: he is always distracted by his cell, a meeting, not enough time, etc.

As if I was a newbie blogger rather than a seven year veteran, I nearly concluded the title of this post with an exclamation point because I'm so excited about this Olympic figure skating season. This weekend, I resume covering figure skating here at BlogHer, starting with Skate America, culminating with the Olympic Games in February and the World Championships in March.  We have some amazing skaters to watch, so I wanted to give everyone a preview.

When I was a wee one I counted down the days to my birthday and Christmas.  It was great that my birthday feel so close to Christmas on November 19th.  It was like I had a whole gift season.  Not to mention I was the only child in my family (not counting some very istand cousins), can you imagine the gifts?  Thanksgiving was great too, my aunt and uncle would drive up from Pennsylvania and, we'd all spend the days together....those were the good old days.

Richard, the paperboy, from The Red Scarf, July 1944, #18