For the next couple of weeks, I am re-releasing some old comics from a few years ago at the rate of one-a-day until July 1st.

1. Kansas. In 2008, I went to Kansas to visit my husband’s family.
2. The Sunflower State. I didn’t know what to expect. It was everything I had expected and more– including a tornado! Stay tuned.
3. What’s in Kansas? Kansas was a complete unknown to me.
4. Tornado Alley. I knew Kansas was famous for tornados, I just didn’t really expect to be in one.
5. Cawker City: Home to the World’s Largest Ball of Sisal Twine. The day started out, um, normally…
6. Rain Tornado. A rain tornado is one you can’t see, because of rain and darkness, until it hits you.
7. Tornado Shelter. The more doors you can put between yourself and the tornado, the better.
8. Tornado in Manhattan Kansas. It destroyed the True Value Hardware store. The K-State campus nuclear reactor wasn’t damaged.
9. Tornado in Chapman, Kansas. Everything you know can change in a matter of minutes.
10. Kansas Flip-flops. I found people from Kansas to be generous, practical and unpretentious.
11. Prairie Cathedrals. Parts of Kansas are so featureless that one often uses non-geographic landmarks for navigation.
12. Toilet Alley. Everyday life can sometimes seem rather dull.
13. Deja Vu. Everyday life can sometimes seem rather dull, without surprises.
14. Driving and Sex. This is my friend Dani’s favorite Encore Seraphine comic.
15. The Pretty Girl. Losing one’s confidence is a horrible feeling.

For the next couple of weeks, I am re-releasing some old comics from a few years ago at the rate of one-a-day until July 1st.

1. Kansas. In 2008, I went to Kansas to visit my husband’s family.
2. The Sunflower State. I didn’t know what to expect. It was everything I had expected and more– including a tornado! Stay tuned.

Tonight, I’m at the top of the proverbial mountain. I’ve arrived at the pinnacle.
This is it. Ta-da.
Tomorrow is my birthday, the one that changes everything. It’s the big four-oh.
No, I’m not Sisyphus. There is no huge boulder to roll back downhill, allowing me to start over. My punishment reward is to keep going.
Here’s what I’m blessed with: I’m comfortable in my own skin; I have a strong sense of self; Being 40 is 10 times easier than being 20.
I’ll get through this, even if it kills me.

Only good girls keep diaries. Bad girls don’t have time.
Quotation from Tallulah Bankhead

“I was blackballed by seven Pizza joints.” (Sarah Colonna on Youtube)

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.
Quotation from Maya Angelou

I got my cast taken off last week. Actually, I took it off myself. I was tired of wearing it.

When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.
Quotation from Thomas Paine

The economy is stuck in an unvirtuous cycle.
Quotation from Mark Vitner, Wells Fargo Bank economist

I paid my car off in April. Do you know how nice it is not to have car payments? So the Universe blessed my good fortune by hurling a truck at me this week and destroying my little, completely-paid-for, all-mine car. My insurance company gave me a check and said I’m supposed to replace my Honda with a comparable one. The “catch” is nobody takes care of their cars as well as I do. There isn’t a Honda that is “just like mine” for sale anywhere. I bought a newer one that cost me an additional ten thousand dollars. Alas, I’m making car payments again. Thank you Universe– I’m at least blessed that nobody was injured in the wreck.

I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.
Quotation from Jack Handey

Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires! We could buy all kinds of useful things like… love!
Quotation from Homer Simpson

It is permissible to enjoy moments of not understanding? Do we suffer when we understand too much?

The brain is like a muscle. When it is in use we feel very good. Understanding is joyous.
Quotation from Carl Sagan

There is no more lively sensation than that of pain; its impressions are certain and dependable. They never deceive as may those of the pleasure women perpetually feign and almost never experience.
Quotation from Marquis de Sade

Few of us will make any individual mark for mankind to remember. What we can do today is make our lives meaningful in the moment. Future generations will remember none or few of us as individuals; our legacy is the world we leave for our children and their children.

I’m never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don’t do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don’t even do that any more.
Quotation from Dorothy Parker

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.
Quotation from Henry David Thoreau

Not everything is fixable. I don’t now which is worse- knowing something can’t be fixed, or knowing it can be fixed and doing nothing about it. Either way, it translates into feelings of uselessness and inadequacy. And why is it so easy to put off important things until tomorrow, when fixing them today would be much less painless.

“Procrastination” Tales Of Mere Existence (YouTube)

Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.
Quotation from Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.
Quotation from William James

Did life turn out the way you thought it would be when you were a kid? What you expected is probably what you got (unless you were unlucky); and if you didn’t expect much, that is also probably what you got. But no matter how well you planned (or didn’t plan), be honest– your life didn’t turn out exactly like you thought it would happen. For better or worse, one thing is certain: There were surprises and exceptions along the way.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.
Quotation from Dennis Wholey

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.
Quotation from Henry David Thoreau

Here’s my plan: I want to be practical. I want to work in the writing/photography/graphics field, but my background is in banking/economics/finance. I need to be completely honest with myself, but I’m torn. Do I make the risky choice or the safe choice? Tell me– What should I do?

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.
Quotation from Janis Joplin

I have been struggling for many years in pursuit of a career in opera and am finding that it’s the people who have money behind them who are getting places, whether or not they have the best voices… So, yes, I’d marry for money at this point. After all, having the career would make me happy.
Quotation from “pvlstar” on iVillage.com

While $1 million or $2 million may sound like a lot to people making $30,000, it’s hardly enough to transform someone’s life or make them “rich” by contemporary billionaire standards.
Quotation from Robert Frank, Marrying for Love of Money