Flirting?

What do you think about flirting? Is there a proper way to flirt? Is there a proper age to flirt, or to flirt with? Who do you flirt with? How do you feel when someone flirts with you?

Arrrgh!

Here's what I'm currently dealing with:

Tovey (my 4 year old) needs dental surgery that I'm going to have to fight our insurance to pay for. The part they are not yet paying for is over $2000.

Our car has something weird going on with the O2 sensors, which means it has failed inspection, and we have a month to fix it. Our excellent mechanic said yesterday that he thinks we need to find a Mazda dealer, since he doesn't trust the assessments he's getting, and would rather not put $600 in parts in without checking future. Also, there might be a part on our van that's been recalled?

Our student loans are mounting up like mad! I HATE them!

Vincent (my husband) is having stressful work stuff. His boss is a visionary and a good person who totally values and respects Vincent, but she's a lousy boss who has trouble defining priorities, and expects him to just pull off one miracle after another. The fact that he often does is not helping her learn how to communicate effectively about the projects that actually need to be most urgent. She'll regularly say things like "This 100 page report needs to betrouble-shot and ready by Monday, and while you're doing that, can you get this other thing ready for Tuesday?" when she knows full well it'll take a week to trouble-shoot the report, and she's asking with only three days notice. Argh!

Our house needs new siding in the next few years - where are we going to get $20,000 for that?!?!?

My sewing machine is being temperamental, which I cannot deal with At All.

Our oldest son Sebastian is being very 13, which means he's alternately the sweetest, most courteous, helpful boy and the most surly, rude, argumentative unpleasant boy. *sigh*

Yesterday, we got a call from the doctor. Vincent's blood-work came back, and his cholesterol levels are for crap. He's got a family history of heart attacks at age 50, and we were hoping his levels were going down, not holding steady. It makes me really worried/scared, and I can't talk to him about it, because I have to be supportive of him, not needing his support! *weeps*

At least the cats are ok.

Thing-A-Day?

I think of Thing-A-Day as being like NaNoWriMo for crafty people I love TAD, and can't wait for the sign-ups for this year to start. Has anyone else done it? Any plans to do it this year?

Oh, and if you don't know what the heck I'm on about, TAD is a creative community that forms for the month of February each year. The goal is to make *something* every day in that month, and post about it on-line, preferably with pictures! You get to see all kinds of cool stuff, and follow people's updates and so on. Last year a few of my favorite folks to watch were a South African blacksmith, a British painter, and a baker from Australia, along with a slew of fiber artists and paper crafters. Some folks do poems or photography or even code! I'll be posting my quilts, plus maybe try some watercolors?

Dolling projects you wish you oculd do, but can't?

I really, really want to doll all 27 dresses from the movie '27 Dresses', but I'm having a terrible time finding reference pictures!
I want to doll the quarters and cross-quarters of the year, but I'm lazy/busy.
Ditto the various secular 'mythical people', like the Easter Bunny, Mother Nature, Jack Frost, Father Time, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Claus.

First Kisses

How old were you, what was the step-up, and what did you think?

The very first time I kissed a guy was in a game of truth-or-dare, at an over night at church. I was in 7th grade, so probably 12? Maybe 13? The dare was to kiss, and that was ok, just a quick peck on the lips. It was mostly dark, and there were something like six of us in the loft in the preschool room. When CJ and I kissed, I was aware of my lips feeling awful dry, so I sort of discreetly ran my tongue over my lips while we were kissing. Then he did the same thing back!! Whoa! That was new and different! I have to admit, I was curious. Lucky for me, so was he, and we stole several more kisses after church for the next few months.

Which put me in a good place to finally confess my school-girl crush on my best guy friend when I went to visit my grandparents that summer, shortly after I turned 13. We'd been best friends in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades, then I changed school districts and didn't seem him very much except a few times in the summers. I called Joel and we talked about getting together to go swimming and hang out, like we always did, but then he said "You know, I always had kind of a crush on you when we were in school together." "I had a crush on you, too!" So, with that out of the way, we spent the whole afternoon making out, which was great fun! I was shaking, because I'd loved him for so long and it was so nice to be able to kiss someone I really liked. I've often wondered what would have happened if I hadn't lived across the country, or if we'd been a few years older.

Another memorable 'first kiss' was when I was 14, in the summer before 9th grade, and there were two boys in my new apartment complex. Cameron was my age, and his older brother Dylan was probably 16. We were hanging out and messing around in the rec room by the pool, and Cameron was flirting with me. I knew he liked me, but he'd never really said anything. His older brother started giving him grief, saying "Why are you going after her? She's not gonna make out with you. She probably doesn't even know how to kiss." I said "I certainly do!" "Oh yeah? Prove it!" says he. "Alright I will!" says I. He was sitting down, so I leaned down an kissed him full on the lips. He kind of fell over backward, and I followed him. We kissed for a good minute or more, and then I sat up and looked at him like "And?" He was all pink faced, 'cause I did in fact know what I was doing, having watched plenty of movies, read plenty of Glamour and Vouge and Young Miss magazine articles on kissing, as well as the above experience! He shook his head a bit and said "Ok, yeah, you sure can kiss!" I never kissed Dylan again, but I made out with Cameron quite a bit that summer, till he moved away in August.

The story of my first kiss with my husband is a whole 'nother thread