The last several mornings the princess has greeted me with ‘thank god you didn’t die last night’ followed by ‘I hope dad is still alive.’

She’s a little worried that I might die and she’s terribly worried that her dad might die. But I think she’s projecting her unhappiness with her dad living away from us to this whole dieing issue. I think she is really afraid he might just somehow slip away from her.

But what I’ve told her so far is that it is unlikely her dad or I will die soon. We’re fairly young and healthy and odds of something happening to us are slim. It is not a guarantee though and really, who knows what could happen.

The trick, I’m trying to teach her, is not to live your life in a constant state of worry about something you can’t control (unlike her mother who knows the advice but can’t even follow it herself). She initially thought that if we didn’t die until we were in our 80’s and she would be in her 40’s that she wouldn’t feel sad then. So I told her she would feel sad then (hopefully) and that is why there was no sense in being sad now otherwise she’d be sad for 40 years and then still be even sadder when it happened. She seemed to grasp that concept because we’ve recently had a similar discussion regarding her dad’s trips home on the weekend. He was home for four days over new years and she cried the entire four days in anticipation of his leaving again. And the following weekend she did the same thing…so I’d already been talking about this don’t be sad until it is time because all you do is make yourself miserable for a longer period (and drive your mother crazy).

She’ll get there. She’s just so emotional and dramatic that it wears me out.

In other exciting news, yes Sunnflower, I was really on Romper Room. And I’m still upset that Miss Mary Ann NEVER said my name at the end of the show even while I was on it and after I was on it. Apparently Tricia was an uncommon name because plenty of Patty’s and Patricia’s got their names read. Anyhow, after I read your entry, I googled Romper Room thinking I could find out if it was possible to buy old episodes. Alas, no and now I’m bummed. Seems they would erase and tape over the next day. So my week on Romper Room is lost forever.

But thanks for the memory.

And in less exciting news, I managed to read a book. From start to finish. I find it very sad to be excited about this since I’m a voracious reader from way back, emphasizing the way back. Seems I had (have?) a horrible case of readers block for the past year or so and was completely unable to read an entire book. Some I couldn’t even start…it was bizarre. Anyhow, a friend dumped Mystic River on me at Christmas time and a week or so ago I was bored enough to pick it up. And I finished it. I was amazed. So I went right online to my library and got on the waiting list for some popular books right now and then picked up some less popular ones. I’m now reading Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister by Gregory Maguire. I loved Wicked, The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West and kick myself that I didn’t see the theater show when it premiered in San Francisco before it went to Broadway. ACK!!!!!! Anyhow, I like his style and twist of a familiar story. As luck would have it, when I was checking out Confessions I found Mirror Mirror so that is next. Whoo hoo.

Ta ta…