Another day.....another 50 cents. Inflation ya know.

Good morning Stephen...

I realize that, even though it's currently 11:35 a.m. in Pittsburgh, you're probably just waking up at 8:35 a.m. in L.A., which gives me a warm fuzzy whenever I think about you waking up in the morning. Do you sleep naked?! Woo hoo!!   Let's say you do, just for the sake of argument, and because it makes me happy. Is your hair all messed up, sticking out all over the place?  Mine looks like Don King.  Do you wear a face mask like I do, to keep out the light so you can sleep deeper in the a.m.?  Do you have blankets, or just silk sheets?  I have a comforter that I sleep ON, and a comforter that I sleep with OVER me...I get cold at night...I even wear my socks along with my pj's.  Do you keep a glass of water nearby, in case you wake up with cotton mouth?  I do.  With diabetes, you tend to have dry mouth all the time, so I drink a lot of water.  I also keep a box of kleenex nearby.

I imagine you in a large master suite with a huge bathroom adjacent, nice windows to bring in plenty of light, maybe even a fireplace...do they even HAVE fireplaces in LA??....maybe you live in a loft-style place, rather industrial...modern...

I have to go, unfortunately, so hold that thought...time for the chiropractor....I'll be back later.

Love, Rebecca ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello again, it's now late afternoon, and I'm finally able to sit down and finish this letter to you.

Ah well, my imagination goes wild when I try to think about your home life and daily world.  I am not the type of fan who follows web site information about you---most of it is rumor anyway---even though I used to do that more when I was younger and you were still in Journey.  So, I just make up my own ideas and it makes me happy.  Nobody gets hurt, it keeps me outta jail, and best of all, it's REALLY FRIGGIN' COOL.  I love having an imagination.  They are rare nowadays, especially in kids.  Damned public schools suck the brains and the creativity out of 'em every day.  It's really quite sad.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be in the last generation that was actually ALLOWED to have an imagination, and I'm SUPER creative with everything I do.  Sometimes I am too creative for my own good.  When that creative juice starts flowing in my body and soul, look out world, there's no stopping it. Just get the hell out of the way, and pray nobody gets hurt.  I become this whirlwind of activity, hot gluing stuff to other things, scrapbooking photos, putting together BOARD GAMES (yes, I still want to do that dammit), and all sorts of wild whimsical stuff.  Whatever pops into my head, I want to go create it.  I could spend every one of Pete's paychecks at the local craft store.  Seriously.  It's quite an addiction.

Lemme tell ya about one of my most awesome creations from college....I was enrolled as a graduate student in 2003 I think, in Michigan, and one of my classes was "Women in Literature."  Now, as an English major, this was right up my alley.  An easy "A."  The teacher was a lesbian, (she made sure we all KNEW that), and at the end of the semester, she told us that we had to create a presentation project and we could be as creative as possible---AND she added, "Nothing shocks me, so be bold."  DING DING DING!!! Suddenly my challenge was to SHOCK THE SHIT OUTTA THIS LADY.  Of course, it helps to be in your 30's when everybody else in the class is in their early 20's.  Muuuhahahaha! The only "rule" was that it had to be centered around the literature we read, somehow.

So, I set off in a direction that no one else had ever gone in this lady's class, and it was full speed ahead. I got one of those 3-sided presentation boards (the 2 outside pieces fold outward from the middle section). Then I began to draw my vision. At the top, I drew a woman in a wedding dress looking in a mirror at a Domme dressed in leather, holding a whip.  I bought a Nerf ball, cut it in half, painted it black, with some black construction paper "chains," and put that on the top too.  The theme of my project was, "Women's Changing Roles in History and Literature."  So, I drew a little girl, morphing into a young woman, morphing into a married woman (slash) sexy leather-clad minx, and then into an older woman.  I added various poem stanza's to go with each stage of a woman's life that we had read in class too.

Then, on the bottom half, I drew a leg on the left side of the cardboard...and I drew another leg on the right side of the cardboard.  In the center, was a large "hole," that I hot glued some doll hair around, like pubic hair...are you getting the idea??  I attached a medium sized box on the back where the hole was, and inside, I added "trinkets," that symbolized various roles in a woman's life. For instance, I put a lipstick, a baby bib, nail polish, a ceramic miniature shoe, a bride and groom ceramic figure from the dollar store, a condom, a vibrator, a pregnancy test, a mother and child ceramic figure, a Barbie doll, all kinds of stuff, and finally, a ceramic CRAB, just to be funny.

Then, I split up the items into "teams," where everybody in the class would play the TWAT GAME!! Each team had to reach in to the "twat," and pull out the 5 specified items on their list, and whomever did it first, won the game!!  BUT, if someone pulled out the CRAB, they were disqualified and had to drop out of the game. hehehe

I also brought in a boom box and played the song "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks, which was popular at the time on the radio, so everybody knew the words to it by then.  I figured that was the PERFECT song that sums up the roles of women, so it would work GREAT.  Then I put a curtain all around my project, so nobody could peek at it, I brought miniature Snickers bars as the prize for the winning team, and I sat in the class with a huge grin on my face like you wouldn't believe.  If I had had a penis, I would have had a boner the entire time, waiting in anticipation for my turn!!

As a matter of fact, my best friend Laurie just HAD to go with me, just to see the look on the teacher's face!!  "You're gonna get your ass in so much TROUBLE, I have GOT to see this," she said. I just said, "Well, I hope you'll bail me outta jail then." So, I brought her in, and explained that she was there for moral support and to help me set up.  (Side note: The college has a somewhat religious undertone, though it's not an officially religious school...it's just that a bunch of churchy people go there).

The other students had drawings or paintings of trees (phallic symbols in poetry don'tchaknow), and hills (symbolic of women's curves and boobs in poetry), and other things that we discussed about the literature, but none of them were really awesome, like I knew mine was.  I just kept grinning, and giggling with Laurie.  I was either going to be expelled, (which I didn't care one way or the other), or I'd be embraced as the most imaginative human on earth.  It really was a crap shoot.  I took a risk.

It was finally my turn, so I set up the huge cardboard project with curtain, I drew on the chalk board "Team 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5" (there were 5 rows of students), and I wrote a list of the objects each team had to reach in and find inside the symbolic "box."  Then, I turned around, pushed "Play" on the boombox, and removed the curtain.

GASPS of SHOCK ensued, and all of their eyeballs bulged out of their heads, and some people were in hysterics.  The teacher's face was PRICELESS.  I said, "It is now time to discuss women's changing roles throughout history, by playing the TWAT GAME."  Oh my GAWD, you'd've thought I shot somebody in the head---everybody's jaw DROPPED to the floor in disbelief, panic-stricken, looking at the teacher, shaking their heads, unsure of how to react around their other churchy buddies.  It was the most awesome moment I can remember from college!!

First I calmly explained the song lyrics, and how it sums up the fact that most women are expected to be a little bit good, a little bit bad, sexy, motherly, wifely, career-minded, hard-headed, determined, bold, Dominant, submissive, timid, quiet, seen and not heard, emotional, etc., at all times.  Then I explained the game rules.  The students were finally over their initial God-induced shock, and were now laughing their heads off.  The teacher was silent and emotionless, but her eyes gave away the fact that she was lovin' it. hehehehe

So, the students came up one by one, reached their hands into the "twat box," and pulled out an object. I checked them off one at a time on the chalk board as they did it.  One guy stood up, grabbed a plastic bag out of his back pack, put his arm inside it, and said, "I'm a safety guy," and stuck his arm into the "twat." It was hilarious!  Then one of the teams pulled out the CRAB and they all just fell all over the place laughing their heads off...another team finally won the game, and then everybody got a Snickers bar.  It was SUPERB, and Laurie was crying, she had been laughing so hard.

I wanted to yell TAH DAHHHH!!! But I refrained.  I just dead-panned it, serious, stoic, and calm. That's what made it all so damned funny I guess.

The teacher stood up after it was all finished, and said, "You HAVE TO ENTER THIS PROJECT in the contest at the end of the semester for most creative project of all the university's classes!!"  I got an A+ for it, but I didn't enter it in that contest.  I just wanted to shock the hell out of the lesbian teacher, and she was absolutely floored. hehehehehe  Everybody in the class moaned, "How the hell can I follow THAT?!" hehehehe Laurie was rolling, the students were absolutely blown away, some were still gasping in horror, but most of them were just beside themselves in hysterics.

It was a CLASSIC moment in my creative life.  Soooooo, I have a strange sense of humor I suppose, but when somebody says, "I cannot be shocked by anything," Ohhhhhhh holy hannah, you'd better RUN because I'm gonna bust my ASS to shock the hell out of that person, if it takes the rest of my life, every dime I own, and everything I've got.  Same reaction when somebody says, "Oh you'd never do THAT!" (Wanna bet?!)  I'll try just about anything once.  Twice if I like it.  It's only "kinky" the first time, you know.  After that, it's a lifestyle.

Anyway, so I do have quite an imagination, I must say.  I like to push the envelope, I'm a rebel, I'm a rabble rousing minx....and yes, I do enjoy it, without any guilt or remorse!!

Well, that's all for now. I just wanted to entertain you with a true story from my creative world.  It may not be the same as being in a rock-and-roll band, but what the hell, it's still pretty funny. Hope I made you smile...that's all I need, you know.  Just smile and have a great day!!

Love, Rebecca