who are you? (think Breakfast Club)

i LOVED that movie growing up. that was from the scene where the nerd is trying to write his essay and he has his pen in his mouth and is clicking it with his lips. my friend Brandi and i could recite every single line from that movie. we were dedicated to the breakfast club. we practiced it. daily. too bad i am not picking that as my passion. but i guess i have already done that, and it didn't stick. i grew out of it, i suppose.

so, this post is not really meant to be about great eighties movies. it is to give a little background to that question that Brian was asking himself. i think you all should know that one of the things about this list making...is that dina and i are so different.

i have traveled the country hitchhiking and spare-changing when i had to back in my twenties. i have a degree in herbal medicine...not very common, also not very lucrative. my husband is a musician that paints houses to pay the bills. i have three kids, who attend a local waldorf school in seattle. we live in an apartment building in the city. i have studied astrology and have gone to appointments where someone talk to my spirit guides. (and admittedly, i am a bit skeptical, but go cause i think if it is true, i want to know what they have to say!) i grew up in a very small town in ohio, steel mills supported most families, and in the late early eighties everyone lost their jobs and the people and economy were depressed. i was born in california and as i grew up landlocked, but along the ohio river, i longed to be back west...near the pacific. and so here i am. close. not quite as sunny, but beautiful.

dina (my interpretation...please feel free to correct me, dina) grew up outside DC and when i met her i knew her to be from a very wealthy area. her family had a live-in nanny person, and i thought...wow! these people are loaded! after college (we all went to WVU...go Mountaineers!) she moved around a bit...WV, MD CA, VA...and now lives here in issaquah, WA. the thing about dina is that she always has stayed on track. always with a goal in hand, dedicated, determined...and she got everything she set out for. a successful career in speech pathology. a loving husband (also successful!), two sweet daughters and a big, cute dog. i am truly amazed at the follow through. i can lack that, or maybe i just do it differently. dina lives in the suburbs in a nice house with a big yard. and i don't think she would be caught dead talking to her spirit guides :) ok, maybe if she were dead...she could. but that's just my opinion cause i think that maybe there is life after death.

anyway...my point is...i just wanted you all to get a glimpse of where we come from, as we are choosing our lists. they could be worlds apart, or we could be surprised to find we have more in common than we think. i mean, actually...i have been getting a lot closer to dina lately, and we do have more in common that i used to think. we have known each other for, what...like 12 years? and really just in the last handful of months have we become a lot closer. i am looking forward to learning more about each other through this process, and bonding. i grew up with a brother...and i love you so much, Ian...but i did always wonder what it would be like to have a sister. here's my chance to find out!

thanks dina...for doing this with me! love you!

xoxoxmelissa

oh...and one last thing. it is so beautiful here. we walked to school today, through volunteer park...and it was just so nice. the air was mile and clear enough to see the space needle and the sound, the olympic mountains were covered by clouds, but you know they are out there, behind it all. i didn't want to walk cause i woke up late and had to make the kids lunches and didn't think there would be time. and then as we were leaving the koi ponds, i turned and thanks the kids for "making" me walk...it just felt so good to be outside this morning. now, should something on my list make it so that i am forced to be outside more? maybe :)