All I could think about, in my clearly advanced eight-year-old brain, was my best friend. We had the same name (both first AND middle) the same long, dirty-blond hair, the same color eyes, the same favorite color. We both were in love with Ponch from CHiPS and our birthdays were exactly one month apart. The only difference between us was that my best friend celebrated TWO birthdays, the lucky dog. She had her regular birthday, like mine, but she also had a SECOND birthday because her parents got her... more

I came home from school one day to find that my mother had prepared my very favorite meal: Shake-n-Bake Pork Chops, baked potatoes, some sort of vegetable, and homemade angel food cake with FRESH strawberries for dessert. The vegetable, more than likely provided by the ever-so-delightful Jolly Green Giant and his pals (hence the reason FRESH deserves capital letters,) must have been my mother's own addition as there was no vegetable that was my favorite, except maybe corn-on-the-cob, living as we did in the rural north country of New York... more