Into every girl's life, must come at least one great bag

Typically, I'm not a huge accessory person - jewelry, shoes or bags. While I used to buy lots of purses just for the hell of it, for the last few years, it usually takes me months and months to find a bag I like, so once I do, I just use it for an inordinate amount of time.

And when it comes to a great bag, I have never been able to bring myself to spend more than $80 on one, so this excludes Coach, etc. from my repertoire. So it was with enormously great joy last year that I found Sassy Sacks exhibiting at last summer's Akron Arts Expo at Hardesty Park.

It took me very little time to decide to purchase a great black tote with colorful circles on it. It was the perfect size to serve the unrewarding role of my work bag. It fits my file folders and laptop perfectly. And most importantly, it stood up to being tossed around and beat up going in and out of my office, car and home. Oh...and did I mention it only cost me the very reasonable price of $65!!!

Besides hanging out with my sister and friends, pretty much my sole reason for hitting this year's Akron Arts Expo was to acquire another Sassy Sack. Besides who doesn't just love and crave the idea of carrying something "sassy?"

Here is this year's addition to my Sassy Sack collection of two. It also only cost me - or perhaps more accurately, the SO - $65.


Oh, and did I mention you can order off the website, including custom bags at no extra cost. You can't beat that!

My two favorite munchkins

I'm pretty positive I have the two most adorable nieces on the face of the planet, so being the proud aunt that I am, here are a couple of photos to prove it...you can't beat blonde-haired, blue-eyed, nearly-two-year-old twins!

Here's Cassandra Elizabeth - most often called "Cass" - wandering around in my Crop flip flops.

I'd say she's trying to fill my shoes, but I'm not sure that's a feat to which anyone would aspire.

Cass and her sister will turn two in August at their to-be fabulously orchestrated Elmo birthday party!

And posing and smiling perfectly for the camera is Olivia Josephine - better known as "Livie."

She's modeling her favorite and signature color, pink. Her twin prefers to wear purple for day out at the park.

So last weekend, we were playing on the porch when I realized one of their favorite meals is dirt - hey, I guess you can't beat the protein. Everyone needs their daily dose of protein, right? Who needs eggs when you can eat dirt?

And I couldn't resist including this photo of "Diva Cassie." She's working on her runway look.

Smack down

Some days I seriously feel like this:


"I meditate, I do yoga, I chant...and I still want to smack someone!"

Found this friendly photo while waiting to pick up my food at Brown Bag Burgers.

Sucky, irrelevant Facebook lists

I’m not quite sure why, but when I actually paid attention to my MySpace account and was an active participant (what now seems like years ago), I didn’t mind completing and posting lists. I thought it was so amusing and novel that I went online searching out different lists that would allow me to bear my inner soul and share my oddities with those lucky enough to call themselves my “friends.”

Fast forward to today when Facebook has left MySpace eating its dust. I’m not sure if it’s because they seem so more intrusive, but I am not really a fan of Facebook lists in an individual's notes section – “How many states have you been to/lived in,” “39 million things you didn’t know about me,” “50,000 things about me you never wanted to know and were afraid to ask,” etc., etc., etc. Though as I’m sitting on my porch on this random evening with the color from the sunset nearly a memory below the horizon, I thought…what the heck…I’ll participate in one Facebook-type list – the “put your iPod on shuffle and write down the first X songs that appear and don’t skip any songs and don’t cheat” list.

So since 10 or 20 songs didn’t seem like enough to shine the light on my inner music aficionado, I thought I’d try 30.

Let’s see what this list says about me.

1. County Line – Sugarland
2. Pump Ya Brakes – Will Smith featuring Snoop Dog
3. Seduction – Usher
4. Trouble & Care – John Gorka
5. Eileen – Kelly Fleming
6. Each Day Gets Better – John Legend
7. Smoke Rings in the Dark – Gary Allan
8. You Make It Seem So Easy – The Kinleys
9. Today – Joshua Radin
10. Smoke – Tristan Prettyman
11. No Sunlight – Death Cab for Cutie
12. April Showers – Sugarland
13. Better Than Me – Hinder
14. More Love – Dixie Chicks
15. Scream Double R – Eve
16. You Are – Jimmy Wayne
17. Detroit Waves – Matt Nathanson
18. Dogs & Thunder – John Gorka
19. Whatever Happens – O.A.R.
20. Kick My Ass – Big & Rich
21. If I Was Your Girlfriend – Prince
22. Planets of the Universe – Stevie Nicks
23. Snow in July – Garth Brooks
24. I Will Possess Your Heart – Death Cab for Cutie
25. Lifetime – Usher
26. Getcha Groove On – Limp Bizkit
27. Pretty Little Adriana – Vince Gill
28. While I Still Got the Time – Darius Rucker
29. Reality Used to be a Friend – P.M. Dawn
30. Breathe – Tristan Prettyman

The first, peripheral thought that enters my mind is that my iPod’s shuffle function doesn’t seem to shuffley or random. In 30 entries, I have five doubles: Sugarland, John Gorka, Death Cab for Cutie, Usher and Tristan Prettyman. So that’s 10 of my 30 songs dominated by just five artists. That leaves five poor artists that inhabit my iPod from appearing on this illustrious list that any artist would be honored and blessed to be cataloged upon.

Other irrelevant observations:

• Nine songs are country – Sugarland, The Kinleys, Dixie Chicks, Jimmy Wayne, Big & Rich, Garth Brooks and Vince Gill – thought the ninth is by Darius Rucker, former lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish, from his debut country album.
• Four artists are what, for me, would equal coffee house fare: Tristan Prettyman, John Gorka, Kelly Fleming, Matt Nathanson.
• I’ve only seen one of these artists in concert – though once in Cleveland and once in Philly. That would be the one and only Garth Brooks. Awesome both times, by the way.
• A couple are what I’d consider alternative coffee shop rock: O.A.R. and Death Cab for Cutie.
• My 90s faves: Prince and P.M. Dawn

I don’t have enough brain power available to me at the end of this taxing day to even begin to psychoanalyze, investigate or scrutinize what this random sampling from my iPod means. Maybe it’s just a small snapshot of my schizophrenic music tastes…or maybe a more politically correct term is “eclectic.”

P.S. I put my iPod on shuffle; I wrote down the first 30 songs that appeared; I didn't skip any songs; and I didn't cheat.