Randomness...

What happens when you have children in daycare, even a "good" one? 453 colds a season, that's what. We're professional cold experts at this point. Both boys automatically open their mouth when I approach with a syringe and lean back when I grab a Kleenex. I think I may be on some DEA list due to the copious amounts of Sudafed I've bought the past few months. I bought some expensive immune system vitamins at Feelin' Great for babies...here's to hope!

There's a 62 year old retired schoolteacher in NY who says her cable was pirated and has supposedly ordered almost $1,000 worth of porn from her cable provider. I suppose schoolteachers probably get crazy just like anyone, but I seriously doubt she actually did this, mainly because she said the only other person in the house is her 81 year old mother. Nobody would order that much porn with Mom around. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1904517

This poor darling was just too enamored of her favorite writer. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=1899496&page=1
"Author Kaavya Viswanathan, a Harvard University sophomore, had acknowledged that numerous passages in "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" were lifted from another writer. Viswanathan, 19, has apologized repeatedly for lifting material from Megan McCafferty, whose books include "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," saying she had read McCafferty's books voraciously in high school and unintentionally mimicked them."
I can sorta see how that happens. You read someone long enough, repeatedly, and you sort of see things through their eyes. You admire their style of writing and you sometimes put events in your own life in "their" terms. Especially if you have a writers soul...only most people don't actually WRITE a book and then also not notice the similarities. Of course, her publisher could have caught it before press, so she's not solely to blame. I think it's their responsibility to know what is out there and, especially in books of the same genre, be able to see if works are plagiarized. Oh well.
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What a tangled web it is....the interweb, I mean. You think it's a big giant world out there, but the internet certainly shortens the gap considerably.
I was hanging out in Sandy's Scrapbook Corner one day a few months ago, and Sandy was talking to a woman named Joanna with two really adorable kids. She seemed vaguely familiar, but it's a small town. Everyone is familiar. After she left, Sandy began singing this woman's praises, telling me how great she was at scrapping and how she'd been published...and finally I knew. She was Joanna, my good friend Brandy's neighbor that she talked about extensively, and whose blog I'd been reading! How strange to meet someone from the 'net in real life! I only wish now I wouldn't have been so slow and had been able to talk to her more then!
Then, my cousin Missy linked from my blog to my friend Brandy's blog on to Joanna's blog and even emailed her about her pictures. She mentioned this to me, so of course, Nosy Nelly that I am, had to check out Joanna's latest pictures. When I clicked to comment, I almost fell out of my chair. There was a comment from a long lost friend from high school, Kimber-Leigh! It even had her picture on it so I was sure it was her. I babbled like an idiot to Reed about it, who thinks I'm a giant dork as it is for hanging on blogs so much, but look what happened! I really hope she emails me and we can catch up a bit. It was one of those weird things that, while we spent a ton of time together senior year and made wonderful plans to keep in touch, life just got in the way. I'd often wondered what happened to my sweet friend and how she was doing, particularly when I moved back up to NC. Right after Reed and I married our old friend Ty (whom I'd just re-met) showed me a marriage announcement for Kimber-Leigh, so I knew she was married. I figured she'd be teaching English or writing, so it looks like I was right there. I'm so excited to learn more!
Kimber-Leigh, Hello! A picture from the past...
You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes. ~Winnie the pooh