Chick and Chatty, thank you so much. I ask you all to just be patient with me. I think I'm learning to trust somewhat through this forum of women. It's easier if we can't see each other or "hang out" because then whatever it is that just annoys the heck out of prospective friends can't be detected long distance.

I don't really know what it is about me that annoys or scares off prospective friends. Maybe I should be like that Wadsworth poem about the power to see ourselves as others see us. I'd like to be a mouse in someone's pocket for a few days and observe myself unobjectively.

No one could care more than me, but I'm too much a child. I jump and run and play and cavort and play video games and hum and fidget and sing and fish and swing and play on playground equipment with the kids, and get excited by things other people take for granted and take in strays (people and animals). My house is full of plants and all of them have names and personalities, my guenia pigs, fish, and I want a dog and a cat. My home is always filled with kids who adore me.

I'm always planning the next fun thing and always looking for something new to learn and conquer.

That turns a lot of people off because they don't understand why a woman who is about to turn 58 would ride with all the windows down and hip hop music blaring with the bass vibrating the very walls and windows of my black Nissan.

I love it! Sometimes its classical music, sometimes jazz or zydeco or swing or Stevie Nicks.

I'm just as apt to call from Missouri or Texas and say I just had a whim to see someone and had the time and money.

Yet I am a homebody. Rearrange the furniture at least once a month just for the variety. Love to cook and entertain and decorate and set moods for people and make happy memories.

Honestly, would a person like that be like a cuckleburr under your saddle? I really want to know.