"Hot flashes start with an aura followed by a feeling of discomfort in the abdominal area." I don't know about my "aura" when I hot flash but I do know about the "discomfort" -- I feel like a worn out piece of rigatoni.

Secure job, a home of my own, health insurance. These things are harder and harder to come by today so it's a good thing I never wanted them. I'm with Helen Keller, security is mostly a superstition, like stepping on a crack in the sidewalk to break one's mother's back.

Can you even imagine 2008 Americans doing anything all at once? In harmony, in agreement, in service to the greater good? I can't. Not in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I suppose it started when my mother decided I had a weight problem. An only daughter, I was supposed to be like her, so since she had a weight problem, I must too.

I've never been way too skinny for anything since the day after I was born! Turns out I would have to be another whole half a me in order to qualify for a medically-mandated operation.