We've all been one or got one in the house, right?

I have two at the moment, my 19 year old son -- who is away at college and sans car -- and my 18 year old daughter, who's working on her driver's permit.

Personally, I didn't think she'd ever want to drive, or she'd end up like me and not learn until she was in her early 20s. She seemed totally unmotivated about the whole thing. She didn't get her 30 hours classroom certificate because she missed 3 or 4 days during that marking period and the teacher refused to issue it. She didn't try to make up the hours or to retake the class. That was in 2005.

After she graduated in 2006, she procrastinated about contacting any driving school. This was even after she bought her own car, a used station wagon from her step grandmother. I guess she finally felt embarrassed into doing it and finished up 6 hours behind the wheel a couple of weeks ago. Her test is scheduled for the end of March and I've been having her drive my car for practice.

All of a sudden she developed fahrvergnügen...remember that word from the old Volkswagen commercials? It means something like the joy of driving. She wanted to drive everywhere and I am getting gray hair all over my head. She's not a bad driver, just inexperienced.

Today we both made a dumb mistake. She drove her younger sister and me around town on some errands. We were in a strip mall, center of the lot, and I needed to pick up my husband's prescription. I elected to walk. Younger daughter wanted to wait in the car which was fine. The new driver goes, "hey, how about if I pick you up as you come out?"

And without thinking, I said yes. I go inside, pick up the prescription and head out. I see my younger daughter running across the lot toward me and it hit me like a ton of bricks: new driver is not supposed to use the car without the presence of a licensed driver, 21 or older. Ohhhhhhhh my God......

Yes, my newly driving daughter scraped a truck as she was trying to back out. There was a eensy weensy little scratch on the bottom bumper of this gigantic truck; my car was missing its headlight. My daughter was totally freaking out. "Maybe I shouldn't drive at all!"

I calmed her down. I told her it was my fault too, I should have remembered she wasn't supposed to drive without me being there. I told her I'd had minor dings in parking lots before. I reminded her how many times I go over the curb.

We couldn't find te owner of the truck so I left a note. It was such a negligible scratch I might have just driven off but didn't want to give that kind of message to the girls. My daughter is sure that the truck driver is going to run right out and cause more damage to the vehicle just so he can rip us off. I told her not all people are dishonest like that. At least, I'm hoping not.

Sorry George Lucas ...

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away ...

It was in 1954, the last month of the year in a little village near the Great South Bay, Long Island, New York. My hero/guardian/protector was my grandmother, my mother's mother. She was a lady, taught me what I know about manners, place settings and baking.

My parents are deaf. I have a younger brother. All three of them have/had a drinking problem. My brother joined AA and I think he's stopped. Not sure about my parents, I don't stay in touch much.

I married my first true love, Rich, in 1985. We'd been engaged a year, met in 1983. We moved to MD (job opportunity) in 1985, had a kid, bought a car ... it was the original American dream. Then Rich had congestive heart failure and we learned he had Marfan syndrome. He fought with cardiomyopathy even after emergency surgery. He beat the doctor's prediction that he'd last about 5 years. By then, we were on our 3rd child. Rich hung in there until May, 2001. Then my world really did turn upside down and inside out.

In the summer of 2002, I married my second true love, TeddyBear (TB). Sometimes he and Rich are so much alike I feel like this is "Quantum Leap" and Rich is Scott Bakula leaping into TB's body. But there are plenty of differences...TB is physically much stronger, more powerfully built. Rich was very tall with long fingers. TB is 6 feet and has very large rough hands. Rich was touch-and-go spiritual; TB lives it. There's other differences, too, but so many similarities it's scary.

Other things about me:

I have a great sense of humor, sometimes silly, sometimes downright profound.

I love to read books and write stories.

I love my cats.

I try to be a good mom.

I try to be a good stepmom.

I love my husband and kids.

I absolutely adore our 5 grandchildren!

I still miss my first husband.

I enjoy being in the sticks of New Jersey. I had no idea NJ had this many sticks!! At the same time...I miss Long Island, my friends and the beach terribly!

I can be really lazy, a real procrastinater. Being disorganized doesn't help much either.

I need to lose weight for my health and peace of mind. I already have Type II diabetes. The good news is that I've lost 35 lbs since Sept. 2005. I used to "joke" that after Rich died, the kids and I gained him back in a year. My therapist thought that was quite profound...not sure why.

Anyway, more boring preliminary stuff later!