Yikes.  It seems such a long time ago since 2008 arrived like a winter blast one very cold January ago.  *Sniff*   And now...*more sniffs* I am not sure what makes me more sad, him  preparing to leave me just when I decided to accept  him for his unusual ways or the fact that although he writes brilliant chapters, he somehow didn't have the art to end the last chapter with a happy blast.  Sigh.  I have to admit the former situation makes me sadder.   I am going to miss him, yes him.  2008.  Sniff.  I can't stop crying...and if I don't stop soon, I'll be up to my third eye in tissues...

Oh well...maybe I should write it all down, talk about those "exciting, adventuresome, heart-stopping" and sometimes "scary" wild romps...er...adventures  I had with 2008.  Yep.  I really ought to recount all the challenges I overcame, all the challenges that overcame me...........let him know he rocked at times....sucked at times...and how I managed to stay balanced on the tight rope between his heaven and earth...

I pull out a piece of paper and begins to write...(shut up, I'm feeling archaic, okay!!!)  when suddenly the pen slips and falls to the floor.  *%$#%*%$#@   I fear my earphones will follow too so I ignore the pen and opt for my keyboard instead...

"Dear 2008. I'm going to miss you-"

"Boo!" Someone says loudly behind my back.

What the-I spun around in amazement and there he is...2008, all packed as if he's going someplace sunny and watery...there are suitcases on his head, an inflatable boat in one arm, a super size beach ball in the other... and sun-tan lotion poking  out of his tea-shirt's pocket.

I gulp.  "Hey! Don't sneak up on me like that! Yikes! You scared away what little bliss I had left inside of me!!!!"

He smiles.  The nerves.  2008 smiles at me.  "Why are you crying?" and "Oh, there's no need to shout."

I scowl, my left fingers tugging at my earphones while my mouse fingers exit off YouTube.  I gulped in a huge breath of air before glancing up at 2008.  "I was listening to a song. You've a problem with that?"

2008 stares at me.  "No wonder you're crying.  For Simon's sake, "I'm a rock" is a terribly sad song.  And why are you listening to it?"

I stare back at 2008.  *Sniff* "As if you don't know!!!"  I roll my mental eyes.

He's still staring at me in genuine confusion. "Let's get this straight.  So someone you know is going through a break-up, but why is it affecting you so...why are you letting it affect you at all?"

I roll my eyes, my physical ones.  "Because, dear Knockout Year of mine, you of all years should know that I lost my shield....and it feels as if all the plagues of the universe is bombarding me........it's like having no immune system, no protective gear against the negative force of nature....everyone's pain becomes my pain......"

2008 made a face. "Yeah, yeah...I know all about it because everything is all about you...I have known this since January."

I scowl darkly. "Sarcasm suits you."

"I wasn't being sarcastic." 2008 denies sheepishly. 

(As if it matters to me!!!   Years can believe the heck what they wanna believe.)

2008 tries again.  "Well, I'm sure you know that this ‘disappearing shield' biz of yours have a positive side too.  If you're being bombarded with other people's pain, then you should also be feeling their happiness."

I let that bit rumble through my mind before tossing it out.   I don't want to dwell on happiness right now but I know I'm going to be swamped by it soon.  So I change the subject.    "Oh!  Before I forget, I need to go over the most memorable dates I had with you." I smile as the good times begin to roll across my inner vision and then it stopped.  My smile stops too.  "Yikes." I screech.  "The bad stuff outweighs the good!!!  Bloody!!!  Hell!!!!   What the OLD YEAR is up with that!!!!!"  

It was 2008 turn to roll his eyes. "Not true.  You had equal amounts of everything this year...however, it would seem the opposite because your ‘happiness' came in at a slow drip-drop rate."

I frown.  "Not good...not good enough..."  Come to think of it, it was like receiving a drop of sugar every other second.  Trust me!!!  Japanese Water Torture sounds less parching!!!

2008 looks all bent out of shape.  "Well, at least I tried ...at least I did a better job than 2007!!! "

I gape.  "You did?"  I close my mouth only to open it to sputter. " You did not!!  If I'm correct, 2007 was a more productive companion!  Heck, I wrote a whole book in 2007 and what did I do in 2008?" I brought my fist down hard unto my keyboard *ow*  "All I did in 2008 was probably to edit and re-edit and you know what else?  It's the last day of your year and I am still bloody polishing manuscripts!!!     In fact, I'm so obsessed with polishing, I've become a hopeless addict in this field and unable to stop myself from editing everything in sight...yes, even-

"Don't forget you had a computer crash."  2008 interrupts me.  (He's looking more flustered than ever.  And he should be!  Bloody incompetent Bastard Year!!!     What a loser year he has proven to be.   

"And whose fault is that?  Whose fault that I had a computer crash!" I roll my eyes again for disgruntled effect.  "You could have waited until I did my back-up but oh no, you had to accomplish the impossible before your time was out!!!"

2008 shrugs.  "'Sides, you were able to salvage most of your data."

I shrug too.  "Yes, but it cost me time and money.  And talking about money, I lost my diamond solitaire as well...and I wasn't sure whether it got snapped off its base in some shopping mall fitting rooms or whether it fell off while I was cleaning."  (So I blew it a goodbye kiss wherever it was and thought about having it replaced...only thing was that it was going to cost me over 4,500.00 Canadian dollars and the way I saw that scenario was that it was a simple waste of money.........money I could give to the starving children of the world, installment for my children's extra-education and so much more.)

2008 looks suddenly enlightened but I ignore him.

Sigh.  "Who really needs to wear a solitaire anyway?"   Certainly not me................and ‘sides, the thing is this...I truly believe that whatever a person earns by their own sweat, no one could take away, and if lost, would always be found in same form or another.........but I concluded that ‘stupidity' and 'carelessness' were probably an unsolvable glitch in my ‘keep-forever-if-earned-by-your own-sweat' program.   

Sigh.  So many things have happened this year to cause my heart strings to come undone and make my heart bleed non-stop.

"Yes, but you found the diamond from your ring this morning, didn't you now?"  2008 is looking at me in a triumphant manner.

"Yes." I am unable to hold back my smile.  "I found it in a corner of the house...which is really weird....the entire house was vacuumed so many times since I lost the damn thing...and when I found it, I wasn't even looking for it...actually I was swiffering dust off the floor and I heard a clink and there it was...right at my feet!!!" 

"That ought to make you smile for the next few of my remaining hours." 2008 said smugly.

"I know." I say.  "And 2008, thanks. "  I let out a grateful breath.  "I also want to tell you that although you brought cancer to one of my relative (though you should have left that to year 2050 or something) what the heck, at least she's fully recovered...in total remission..."

"You're welcome.  What else brought you pain?" He asks gently.

I bit my lips, my mind working furiously but I can't come up with anything of substantial value.  "Umm...what else has brought me pain?" I mumble in my mind.  " Why, the least thing...every single thing in this universe...including bloody sirens...really...it tells me the road Nazis are getting nearer.....ya know...trust me, if they saved lives by scaring the heck out of Shumackers wannabe, well, they do the opposite for me because now instead of paying attention to the bloody road, I am on the full lookout for traffic lords!  (I have become an accident waiting to happen)   Hai Bhagwan, I can't even drive in peace!!!!"

2008 smiles indulgently.  "I'm sure you will get over it. "

"I doubt it.  I highly doubt it." I sniff.  " I am starting to become a paranoid freak.  Take today for instance.   A simple word ‘melt' motivated me to panic big time.  You see...the last time I was at the gym, one of the trainers handed me a packet of sample products......and normally I don't remember to use the damn stuff until they expired but today I spotted it on the bathroom floor and I decided to try the one called ‘instant melting hair masque'.  It promised the moon, the sun and stuff like "hair is repaired for a silky weightless feel" and what is more...this could be achieved in an instant...........and if you know me, you would know I love instant stuff.........only thing, once I got into the bath.....washed my hair like the instructions said...toweled dry like the instructions said........i applied the entire contents on my hair....from tips to crown like the instruction demanded....and lo....suddenly it assailed me....this horrible smell that could be found nowhere in nature...but only in depilatory creams..............and suddenly I saw my hair melting off my head in rapid succession...I saw me unable to go to work, ashamed to face anyone, me unable to find a wig.............oh god...my hair...my precious hair...(you know...I am planning to grow it Rapunzel long....for the first time of my life and oh god...now I was going to have to start from scratch....oh god....my hair is currently the length of three (okay...four when wet) standard bath tiles.......yikes....and here I was carelessly ‘melting' it off with some Garnier product.......oh god...it smelled like Neet....what if Garnier made a huge mistake and stuffed the wrong product into the right packet????"

I pause for breath.   "In a flash I saw untold horrors of this universe...like people with perfectly good hair laughing at my orange wig...(I mean where would I find a brunette wig during holiday season?  And even if I found one online who would deliver during at a time like this???)"

Sigh.

"After I washed off the stuff in lightning speed....(damn weak water wouldn't pour out fast enough) I read the description on the packet once again.  And I breathed a sigh of relief.   Okay...the result for all the stress....well..........I now have shiny, sweet smelling hair (I used suave orchid petal conditioner afterwards)  and here I am smiling away....my hair smells like an orchid walk...."

"Mmmm........ I think in another couple of years (6 inches per year) I will have rapunzel long hair and no witch better not try to climb up that........."  I laugh out loud.   "Or I'll  have to use ‘Neet' after all...."

"2008 laughs out loud too. " Now tell me this.  Why the heck were you listening to sad songs on Youtube a little while ago?"

I sigh dramatically.  "Someone I know is going through a break-up and all because his girlfriend of ten months suddenly realizes he's too un-punjabi, too un-rich, too much meat eating going on in his stomach...and some etcetera...and oh...get this....he's never going to fit in no matter if he gets initiated into the clan because he's ‘black'.   I roll my eyes.  "In this day and age...what the heck 2008?  Scenes like these are so friggin last century!  What were you thinking when you brought it into play in this era? "

2008 sighs.  "It's not my fault.  It's all the 1960's and beyond fault.  And Nature too.  But at least you understand her, know how to get into her mind, decode her programming..."

"Yea." I agree.  "Nature thinks I'm a rebel without a cause but at least now she knows why I try so hard to figure her out.  Why I have this need to outsmart her."

2008 blinks.   "Yes I did observe that and I really thought u were suicidal....it was like someone cutting off their head to spite their neck!"

I chuckle at his expression.  "Yes, it means the end of all we know and the beginning of new things once all humankind figure out nature." 

"You'll miss me?" 2008 asks suddenly.

"Yeah." I sniff.   " I am going to miss you becuz...becuz...you made me stronger....you brought me down on my knees to kiss my bent out world back into shape, you made me hold hands and give out courage, you showed me how to keep everything in balance ...."  I sniff again.  "Everything turned out okay except for one little broken heart!"

"Perhaps 2009 will correct all imbalances." 2008 says with a hopeful glint in his eyes.  Sounds like he is really regretting he didn't make a happy ending to his December chapter he wrote for me.

"I hope so too."   Sigh.  I am so stomping mad...so mad, I could eat my own stew, drink my own steam!!!!  Choke on my own venom!!!    

God!!!!  Why is my own race viewing me and my generation as a disease because my forefathers sailed away from their land so many friggin eggplants ago???  What the Whitby??   *%$#@% .  I really need to kick some ignoramus's butt!!!!  I mean what the Hesperus!!!    Hai Bhagwan!   Are people really this short-sighted?  How come I don't have any racial bones--

"Whoa there."  2008 says with a chuckle.  "Keep in mind that you understand why people say and think the things they do.    It's all inside their programming."

I sigh.  "I know.  And just so you know, I'm already over that bit..."  I took a calming breath.   "I'm going to miss you." I added.  I give 2008 a warm hug and felt butterflies churning away in my stomach as his shadow drifted further away.    I blow him a warm kiss.  I am really, really gonna miss him.

Sigh.

PS:  Amy is off to rock around the clock till 2009. 

Psst.  Here's a deep, dark secret.                                     That was exactly what I, Reflect Contemplation Ramdass was doing a few weeks ago when I made a dangerous turn on a green light.............................You see, I was heading home and what better place to chew over a recent accident made by the mother of one of my friends?            Yep. In traffic, of course...music blaring, me feeling level headed and smart...because I, Reflect had learned a great lesson from this 60 year old woman................and all for free..................Apparently, this chatterbox wasn't paying attention to the road and she ended up not only wrecking her car but herself and her friend as well.  I shook my head.  Gee, what a terrible driver!!! I mulled it over some more as I blazed a zig-zag path through traffic.       What a moron!  No, not me, her!!!...                     I mean who would slide through left on a green light without waiting for the intersection to clear itself of traffic?           Idiot, that's who!!!   

Needless to say, that was the evening the entire universe conspired to prove that I was the Queen of ‘em all...er...half-wits.  Yep, and as if proof wasn't enough, the bloody universe had to corner me with flashing lights, a devil mobile and sirens!!!

Anyway, on further contemplation, I've decided to tell the judge the truth and making a point of saying how grateful I am to the traffic cop who made me aware of the dangers of driving dangerously.     NOT!!!!     I mean I am an idiot, the whole universe knows this but do I have to actually admit to the courts that I am one too?               And ‘sides, come on, which of you have not committed a heinous traffic crime while in deep contemplation mode?       So there, those of you who are without sin shall cast the first stones.   And 'sides, I've learned my lesson.  So why make me pay unnecessarily?  One would only put themselves in debt to persue my downfall....   Trust me!

You know, times like these, I want to stand up proud and say it loud, "THANK GOD FOR JESUS." 

"DID SOMEONE CALL MY NAME?" 

Yikes, who was that?  I look around but I see no one...anyway back to sweet reflections.   Back to Jesus...I mean, if he hadn't uttered such a truth, I would have been stoned to death ages ago because you see, most of my deepest sins...er...errors occurred during my deepest reflections....        The last one was committed while I was housecleaning in pondering mode and yank!  The diamond fell off my ring leaving me blissfully unaware of an ugly gaping hole in my ring.   

Okay...so I found the pesky stone back...but could that really compensate for the stress of proving to the world that I was a moron yet again?  Hmm...actually...that's a good question...because come to think of it, which person in history...er...herstory in my case... has ever found a needle in a haystack?  Reflect Ramdass, Empress of the Idiots, that's who.  Wow!  My name and title shall go down in the HERSTORY whole new bible series books.  Hoorah! 

So there, my universe, too bad you're always waiting around for my unguarded moments to stab me in the back!!!      Too bad you wait around like a vulture for me to trip over my shoe laces.     Always conspiring to show me how idiotic I can be.  Well, guess what, my resolution this year is to stay alert at all times, even during-

"HELLO THERE!!!"

I am rolling my eyes in irritation.  Trust someone to interrupt me in deep reflection mode.  See what I mean about the universe always conspiring against me??? !!!!!  And I'm not even a conspiracy theorist!!!  Okay...I was...but...I'm retarded now, okay!!!

"Hello there!" I say as I spun around to greet my interrupter.  "And you want what?" 

My mouth immediately falls open for guess who is sitting peacefully on a rock beside me?  Okay...it's not my rock so I breathe a sigh of relief only to tense all over again...Why is HE here?...The Pandora inside me stares at him. Is He not supposed to be dead?  Dead people are spooky!!!

But sigh...he's the epitome of masculine perfection and he even looks exactly the way the majority describes him. Well...er...almost. Oh God...I love his rock star hair! It cascades like pure silk on his shoulders. And his face...mm...it's wearing the most serene expression ever and what is more, I could see a whole world of wisdom shining gloriously in his eyes.

I could hardly believe my eyes.  Squeak.  This Man, son of man, Sun God, God Sun, whatever...HE...Him...Christ...Lord...the prince of heaven is here beside me.  Yikes!  He's more than 2000 years older than me and yet he looks so youthful...mmm....like a punk prince....whatever he is and whatever he is not...just know this........he's always been the prince of my whole heart....

But too bad!!!!!

"Listen up, young man!" I attack him crossly without any greeting.  "What the heck was all that about, you crucifying yourself for my sins on some cross?"

His mouth falls open.  He's obviously not used to this line of questioning.

Too bad!!!

"Do I look like some sapling who can't fetch her own sins?  Huh? Huh?"

Okay, it appears he's ready for my second outburst for he smiles.  It starts off slowly at first and then it spreads all over his face. "I'm not "the" Jesus but a counterpart of his from a nearby universe."

"I knew it!"  I say in triumph. "I knew it!" I pause breathlessly.  "But..."   Oh baby, I can't stop looking at Jesus'...er...Jesus' counterpart's eyes.  It spells out "reflection" and "contemplation" and come to think of it, tis just in, his eyes are made of serenity.  I try to squelch the Pandora in me but she won.  My curiosity is fully aroused.  He looks very self-assured and in charge of things.  How come Jesus is so calm and collected in such a chaotic world? 

"Go on. Ask me anything." He encourages me.  "I listen with my eyes." He adds with significance twinkling in them. 

I frown.  It was almost as if he told the world that very same thing two thousand years ago but we forgot all about it. "Um...so what's the difference between Jesus and you, his counterpart?"

His listening eyes brim over with amusement. "He's dead. I'm alive."

"That's the only difference?" I squeak.  Oh God, oh god...this means...O God...that means he IS not only Jesus, why he can universe hop as well!

I pursed my lips.  Well, in that case, I'm going to treat him like that very same Jesus.  And the fact is Jesus listens with his eyes.  Mmm.  That's so sweetly delicious.  Mmm. What a guy.

"Yes. That's the only difference." He smiles again.

"But...you look like John Lennon." I blurt out.  Stupid! Retarded! That's not even true. John Lennon did not have listening eyes, he had speaking ones and ‘sides why do I want to get my butt kicked by Yoko for admiring her dead guy for no reason? 

"Do you listen with your eyes, too?" He asks me now.

"Me?"  Damn. My voice sounds squeaky to my own ears.  "No. I don't think so."  Maybe I let them speak for me...its better than biting your tongue...I always have to do that when one of my aunts is around.   If only she didn't irritate me so, I wouldn't have the need to use my eyes.   I feel so yoko without the john lennon deal and I'm not even Japanese.  So not fair!!!

"Yes, you do speak with your eyes," Jesus smiles.  "I can see a whole dictionary in there." 

I gape.  Wow! He can read minds?  Of course!  If he can universe hop, then eyes were probably easy-peasy to read.

"I've speaking fingers too."  I say with pride, the same pride that took a bruising a while ago.  I blamed my speaking finger for this humbug bummer.    It was during my demonstration to another driver about what I thought of her driving courtesy...okay...I was the one who cut her off but it was for a very important reason...but the road rat couldn't see that, so she comes charging along to give me a taste of my own medicine but not before shouting out "do you even have a brain inside your big head?" 

&%$#*^

So what was I to do?  Let her get away with murder?  No siree.  Quick as a wink, I gave her the finger...but alas she managed to escape thorough the amber portal...leaving me stuck at the red door which had sealed tight...(yes...the universe conspiring against me yet again!) with my finger still in the air...frozen to the spot as  a car pulls up alongside me and said something that sounded like..."yeah darling, use yours, mine might do a lot of damage."

Of course, that was the fastest record any window got zipped up and as for the bloody red light or that could have been my face, it took far too long to change color....while the car...er...passenger and his driver buddy laughed their heads off...and that was the day my speaking finger containing the ‘f' word backfired on me big time....so now I speak the alphabet with my eyes instead.  Arrogant, bitch, cow, donkey, eggplant, f...yike.  zoo booger.

"So, does thou still speaketh with thy finger?" Jesus is studying my face with an amused expression.

I'm amused too. And why not?  Thou still speaketh Bible!!!!  "Nope." I say.  "I happen to know how the universe works now."

He laughs out loud and glances pointedly at my riff-raff shoelaces.  "Are you sure about that? It's much tougher than tying shoe-laces, you know."

I stare at him.  Is it any wonder this chap was nailed to a cross?     He annoys people with his truth.         I plaster a you-don't-irritate-me smile on my face.  "Actually, I can tie shoelaces to save other people's lives but....(I remembered going on my knees once to retie this old grandfatherly figure untied shoelaces...and if anyone is unsure as to whether I saved his life that day, all you have to do to prove it is to go check other universes...I bet he's dead in at least one for tripping over his untied laces)              .......but I don't see the necessity in wasting time when one can slip their feet into comfy zippered or velcroed boots."           ‘Sides, .  I know this brilliant guy who can solve a rubic cube puzzle with just three twists but he still doesn't have a clue on how to make a pot of tea.           And what is more, my own father could build boats and grow crops but end up burning every dinner black. (Actually, I inherited this particular blasphemous gene...needless to say I'm still being snubbed in every cooking conversation :(  and as for braiding hair, ha, every child at school with perfectly braided hair laughed at my ‘funny plait' produced by my father whenever my mother was away to give birth to some new siblings or the other....so really now, one could be dense in one area but brilliant in another........

Jesus is obviously reading my thoughts again but it is hard to detect this in his eyes this time...remember, he has listening eyes....(duh, come on ppl, ppl, the man actually turned water into wine and breathed life into dead ppl, so really now, reading minds could be as easy as tying shoelaces) 

"It's easier." Jesus smiles. "I could see into every chamber of your mind."

"Show-off." I hissed under my breath. "Hmm...but not because you can do it means that you should."

He frowns.  "What do you mean?"

Uh huh.  I got him right where I want him.  Now who's the wise guy!!!   Sure, he can read minds but I bet he can't tell what I am going to 'think' next.    No one knows the future, trust me...and if God claims he knows it, then free will does not exist...(and as we should know by now, determinism cannot exist without free will) yes, if God knows the future then that would would mean everything already exists...and if god doesn't know the future, then thou is not as omnipotent as he makes out.  And sides, I've got a theory to consolidate all this mess into harmony. I smile smugly.   No, not the grand unification theory...more like the grand chaotic theory with some harmony tossed in for balance....

" I mean not because one can build atom bombs to obliterate half of the globe it means they should.  Not because you can breathe life into the body of another, it means you should.  I mean what if I killed a dangerous fly that could obliterate the whole world and then some wise guy decides to bring it back to life without questioning why the fly is dead in the first place, huh, huh?  I would be stomping mad if someone overrides my-"

"Ah." He interrupts me. "I know exactly what you're saying and I'll show you another side to those thougths but I'm afraid I've to send you back to your universe before Gaia finds out they are reading stuff written by Reflect and not Amy Ramdass."

"Huh?" I gape at him.  "I thought you were the one who hopped over to my universe!  And I am Amy Ramdass."

Jesus smiles.  "No.  You're not.  Amy is over there curled up in her winter blanket, totally lost in a disney movie."

"Yikes!" I say.  "I can see her.  Yikes!  I hijacked her computer?"

"Yep. You did.  Now let's get you back home to your world."

"Do you live in my world?" I ask him hopefully.

"No. I'm neither from your world nor Amy's." Jesus says sadly. "But I'll be visiting you and Amy sometime again soon."

"Okay. That would be irie!"  I can hardly believe I'm "Reflect" when the whole time I thought I was someone else!  Yikes.     Thank goodness for Jesus.     Prince of  our Heaven....       he will always sit on a pedestal...er...it looks like a rock from my side of things.......         and I'll always look up at him and not because he brought the dead to life or walked on water or turned ice into wine but ...but...because of that life saving wisdom of his..."Those of you who are without sin shall cast the first stone..."  I love it!  Like I said, so absolutely life saving...........but I better get moving before Amy finds me 'reflecting' in her blog or there would be no saving of my life.....

Yep.  Money. The Mr. Money!!!  "Mr. John Jacob Jingleheimer Money!"  Yep, his surname is my name too. Whenever we go out,  the people always shout, is that really you, Mrs. John Jacob Jingleheimer Money?"

Someone once said that Diamonds are a girl's best friend.  Ha. That's because she never met Money.  Money is my best bud, the star in my eyes, the prince of my heart, the crown on my head, the jewel in my belly button.           When Money is around, the sky is the limit, dreams come true, the starving gets fed and clothed and sheltered and people like me get to sleep-in or put my feet up...mmm....the impossible becomes possible with my Money...

Okay.  Now let's clear up another thing.  Money is not the root of all evils.  The Mind is the root of all evils...sort of like an Aladdin's lamp.  Whether you rub it the wrong way or right, Genie...(in this case, Money) appears and he will follow you around, be your slave, fulfill your every wish...whether it's evil or good and trust me, wishes come in endless supplies once you have earned Money.  However, even this guy has his limits. 

Okay, back to me and Money.  We have a great relationship so far.  (Psst...but even though I'm married to him, I could never get enough of this guy... "Oh baby, do that to me one more time..." just doesn't work in his case.   He never gives me enough of him, always leave me wanting more, thirsting for more... Like what do I have to do to have all of him????  Yikes!!!      But don't feel too sorry for me, I  intend to earn Money all by myself.  Make him come crawling to me...and by that time I'll have no use for him and then who will feel rejected?  Exactly. Sweet revenge.

Yep, currently, we have a "he loves me, he loves me not" relationship.  It has never been rocky, stormy or moody but fiercely passionate.  However, like any relationship, we have our ups and downs...down when I'm overindulgent and up when I want to sleep...he loves me most when I'm sleeping...as long as I don't have shopping sprees' thoughts dancing in my head like sugarplums...

And as for whether our relationship will stay the same this year or improve, I don't know...so why don't we ask him?

"Hello there, elusive prince of my dreams."  I say with a smile.

"Hey there, Mrs. Money."  He subjects me to a suspicious stare.  "What do you want now?" He grumbles.

See?  He's full of attitude.  "I want...I want you...to tell me whether our relationship will improve this year.  Will I get closer to you?"

"Are you prepared to work really, really hard for me?" He snarls.

"Hmm. I suppose so." Yikes, why do I sound so unsure?

"Good. Then I'm yours. You'll have lots of me but until you earn me on your own you will have to depend on other people's Money.  Now, bye, bye, bye."

"Wait!" I say in desperation.  "I don't want other people's Money.  I want my own Money.  My very own Money.  Samajhana? Comprehende?  Understand?

No answer...

 Great!

Oh well, well, well

Hell...

Money doesn't like it when I'm lazing around.  Take for instance, whenever I'm shopping, he dwindles...becomes scarce and practically disappears in plain sight.....AND no use putting on a busy face, if there's one guy you can't fool, it's Money.

So I have decided I don't want Money for free...I intend to earn him with my own effort and sweat and sheer hard work...(okay...charm doesn't work for him where I'm concerned...that would be too easy...and plus Money will not only taste cheap..., easy come easy go...)  So that said...I intend to earn my own Money and actually I love the challenge...so there, Money. So there.

See ya soon...

Hmm...  Why is this question hurting my head?   Please, you don't have to roll your eyes...I've already done it for you.  You are welcome.

Okay.  I got one.  Why is this question so hot?  Dang. The answer is already here.  It's only hot becuz it's been boiling on the Gaia stove top for two days now.   Trust me, I'm sure I saw it here yesterday!!!!

Okay.  Lemme think some more.  I think I have got it.   Why did Adam settled for an apple?  What???   Did he never heard of persimmons????

Why does the caged bird sings?  I thought I knew the answer to that one but doesn't  all birds in the wild sing too?  And if they don't, why the hell not?  Goat bit them?????

Okay, those are not universal questions!!!!  Are they?

Hmm!!!!    Wait, don't go!!!!!   Wait!!!!!    I got it!!!!!!   By golly, I got it!!!!!   I hope!!!!  

Wait for it...here it comes!!!!!       Drum rolls please.

Okay.

If you have a God, does He answers prayers and if He does, could Thou prove it by answering an impossible prayer?  (this is my number one prayer)  Say...can he bring Jesus back to life???   That would be so irie!!!!  

Oh wow...cool.....now that I have gotten that one out of my mind....my head is a lot lighter to fetch...........   and I can breathe easier or can I???

Okay, at least I know the answer to that one.  So thanks for the question to be answered by a question.

Pagli goes on.... :-)

 How much fun is that?  (((( I mean, even virtual Gaia seems to change its face as often as my visits here so it must be enjoying 'change' in a big way!!!!  Then why am I so reluctant to change forms?  What am I?  Goat liver??? )))

Sure, I don't want to be the unmoving object in a flowing stream but being the movement in a stagnant pond doesn't sound like water of dreams either...

Okay now, let's be realistic here!!!  Who, in their right mind...okay wrong one too... would want to be stuck in an archaic body while others are coming back looking like space aliens....

I mean, yikes, what if these ET (they were once my buddies in other bodies so I ought to "forgive them for they know not what they do") demand that I take them to my leader and if I refuse to obey (and why not??? Stevie-wonder-boy-harper would be long gone by that time, right????) yikes, wouldn't these ET be tempted to force me to become their slave?????

Yikes!  Help!  Get me out of this stupid, outdated costume!!!     Oh wait, make sure my entire memory of it is backed up on portable drives in every universe!!!  Very important, becuz I'd hate to wake up in some high-tech universe and find out I can't remember all the embarrassing moments I had in this body.  That would be a tragedy, trust me!!!