Last night I attended a "Night of Denim & Diamonds" at the new Epic Center in downtown Minneapolis.  It was a wonderful evening to support breast cancer survivors and to raise money for all the good works that the Hope Chest for Breast cancer is doing in our community. 

I have to say, the Founder Barbara Hensley is one of the most gracious, intelligent and supportive women I've ever met.  Her vision and ability to bring people together is awe inspiring!  And besides, who doesn't love a woman that encourages a party you can attend in jeans, cowboy boots and a few beautiful diamonds.  They even had a mechanical horse you could ride at the event, along with these marvelous Pinktini drinks :)

The Hope Chest is doing everything right in serving the needs of women and their families with breast cancer.  Through their passion for fashion, upscale furnishings and luxury items,  a major fundraising tool are their consignment shops in the Twin Cities.   I thought I'd put a link to their site so you could read about all the good they're doing - not to mention ways in which you can receive services or volunteer yourself to a great cause!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone. 

http://www.hopechest.us - Hope Chest for Breast Cancer website link

Bizarre, yet hysterically funny!   Who makes this stuff? 
Get your cats ready and let it in!

Have you ever poured your heart and soul into a letter to your lover?  Declared your undying love and poetically revealed your heart?  Have you ever receiveda love letter?  Well, love letters are incredible parts of our past and moments in time forever captured in words.  Let's get going because it's

My favorite picture I took in Napa last week ~  Joseph Phelps Vineyards

Their 2004 Backus Cabernet Sauvignon was outstanding!  Its got a 94 rating in Wine Specatator and its truly worth every penny.  Try some!

LOVE LETTERS

As I continue to clean out my parents home, getting it ready for my friends to move in, I'm now  tackling jobs that were too emotional last year.  Cleaning out my parents bedroom, packing up their personals for donation, it's a bit overwhelming.  So imagine my surprise when I found a neatly stacked group of letters, tied with a simple shoestring, in the bottom of my Mom's dresser drawer.  The lettering on the envelopes gave away the sender's identity immediately.   Bold blocky words, the letters were without a doubt written by my father.  The postage stamp revealed a date of 1959; Dad's baseball years.  These were letters written to my Mom while he was on the road. 

Like a child that's happened on a secret while snooping, I felt guilty reading the words of a man that nowhere near resembled my father.  He was a man's man, 6"4 and robust.  He was a hunter & fisherman, a business executive and a man of few words unless they meant something.  I cherished my father's praise and always took his criticism to heart.  So who was this person using my father's script on these pages?  I sat on the hardwood floor, propped up by an old pillow against a box intended for Savers, and I read all 15 letters.  They made me feel uneasy - and with reflection, I  think it's because I saw a young man in love, professing his feelings and showing something I never saw in my Dad; vulnerability.

One letter went something like this: "My Darling, soon we will be together and we will be married.  I yearn for you to be near me and I cannot wait to make you my bride. I know our love is meant for a lifetime".  Dear God!  Who was this man?  Clearly it was my Dad but what a sap!  They were separated by hundreds of miles and he wanted her to wait for him.  Back in the 1950's, if you were a baseball player that meant your home was a smelly bus and your entertainment was dive bars in towns all across America.  It was clear by these letters that once he met my Mom, Dad was ready to put the road behind him and settle down.

Now, nearly 50 years later,  I wondered if my Mom ever took these letters out and read them.  Did she ever show them to my Dad in a moment of nostalgia?  Thinking he would be outwardly mortified, he probably was secretly tickled that she kept them throughout the years.   Dad died of a major heart attack while watching a Vikings game (yea, it's fodder for jokes now) but at the time, I instinctively was protective, yelling for my Mom to stay upstairs and call 911 while I tried in vain to administer CPR.  He died after 28 years of marriage, 20 years ago this October.  Were the letters comforting after he was gone?  Then I had another thought: did she take out those letters and re-read them as she was dying slowly and painfully with breast cancer?  Did they help her capture a time that seems so full of promise and love?  That thought haunts me more now than anything.  I hope she remembered where they were and even though we shared so much in her final days, I understand her keeping them hidden.  They were her moments in time, wrapped in emotion, treasuring the love they felt between eachother.

Finding those letters is a special gift.  It gives me a glimpse into the thoughts of my parents even before they could ever imagine me.  It shows the innocence of love, the faith and hope of a lifetime together, and the ability to commit yourself to the written word.  It was a vulnerable leap of faith for my Dad and those letters were her treasures that she kept to herself.

The art of the handwritten love letter is all but extinct.  Emails and Hallmark have made it easy to send a card (for any occasion) without  the need of anything but a signature.  But where would we be without all the famous love letters of the past?  Napolean, Alexander Hamilton or Beethoven.  Heck, even Mr. Big and Carrie Bradshaw acknowledged the wildly romantic endearments of a good love letter.  If a picture speaks a thousand words, a love letter speaks a thousand more.  A collection of timeless moments, from the ones we were lucky to have known.

My parents; they continue to reveal who they were to me.  And it warms my heart that they had such a passionate courtship  before we came along and created family chaos!  In closing, I've found a new appreciation for the written word.  And for those of you that have recently sent me cards with handwritten notes, I love you even more!  It shows thoughtful time and effort.  In turn, I'm going to try and put the same effort out to the people that I love and care for.  And who knows, maybe 50 years from now I will be continuing to reveal myself to someone else.  It's a romantic and unexpected Pay if Forward!

As I sit here this morning, listening to CNN and watching our American standard of living in free-fall, I'm aghast at the lack of *any* conversation on this site regarding our country's economic CRISIS.  Literally, as I begin to type this, the 4 previous blogs I see are on entertainment, kissing dogs and what your favorite shape says about you.  I feel sick about that fact.  I know the people on this site are smarter than this.

***hold on, ItsJill is about to blog implode**

Perhaps most people use this site for a little escapism.  Fair enough.  But when reality hits our essential standard of living across America, we need to start paying attention and taking action.  Maybe we should talk about what favorite thing we need to give up to rectify what Washington and Wall Street have eff'd up so bad.  We better start talking about it before it's not just your Starbucks and favorite restaurant you frequent less, but now it's your house in foreclosure and you don't know how you're going to pay for food and gas (let alone saving for cars & college).  Just ask anyone this morning from Sun Country Airlines.  That's enough to sober all of us up.  Tom Petters & his hedge fund cronies should be F'ing ashamed of themselves!  As far as I'm concerned, we should do away with federal prisons and put them in with the general population.  Let them try and survive that reality. 

I hate to be the Debbie Downer of today, but as I watched my stocks lose tens of thousands of dollars before yesterday and God knows how much I've lost 24 hours ago, my senses have started to go into survival mode and I wonder if we can rouse the rest of the nation's people out of this consumer crazed slumber.

Put down your People magazines people!  Come out from behind the flat screened TV's and start to discuss how we can create a better future for our children.  Even if you don't have children - the countries youth and their future directly correlates to your retirement.  For those of us who had grandparents live through the Great Depression, did you hear their stories on how they survived?  My dad ate lard sandwiches for almost a year to keep his belly full when my grandparents could afford food.  My 93 year old Grandma spoke yesterday with a bone-chilling warning.  The loss of economic stability means we're at greater risk than ever before.  Now that the majority of our country's land is owned by other countries (namely the Chinese, ****.anese and much of the Middle East) just who do you think is going to bail us out  of this mess?  And at what price?

We have no debt except our mortgage.  We own our cars, a second home and we haven't paid a finance charge in the 20 years of marriage.  Nobody is 'bailing me' out of economic hard times because we've always been conservative with our money and never bought something we couldn't afford.  Yet I'm being asked to assume part of the 700 Billion dollars of debt this country has ac****ulated - and strangely, I would gladly assume some of it if it meant my children would benefit.  In late January, didn't the President passed a 150 BILLION dollar rebate bill, giving each and every person of tax paying age (but not necessarily tax payers) roughly $600.00?  I disagreed with it then and I'm sick about it now.   What was he thinking?  Hasn't  he looked at the economic indicators, seeing trends of consumer spending centered around excess and entitlement?  Didn't the people on the Hill realize they were throwing economic meth at a country of consumer addicts? Our leadership in this country just sucks. I'm not afraid of terrorists - because as far as I can see, the real terrorists dragging our country down are in our boardrooms, our government and in ca-hoots for personal gain with those hoping our country is about to take a serious fall.

Don't get me wrong.  We live a good life, but it's not been a big, extravagent life.  My children often ask why we couldn't live in a house like their friends, 5000 sq ft with home theatres, new cars and club memberships.  I'm quick to remind them that our family values are to own what we have and save for *their* futures.  I'm sick of people asking for help after they've clearly lived above their own means.  I've even caught people on this site accepting hand-outs, only to find out they didn't truly need it.  It's happening at all levels in our society and we owe it to ourselves to re-direct our priorities.  Today it sunk in squarely, as I heard the Republican party vote down this bail-out bill, that the children of this country are possibly living today at the highest standard of living they will ever experience.  I'm not an alarmist, but I am a realist.  I think we all had better put a mirror up to ourselves.  And this isn't a Democrat vs. Republican thing - it's an AMERICAN thing.

The one thing I'm going to give up:  Buying anything at full price for a year.  That means grocery stores (except for milk) and department stores.

The one thing I'm going to do to help: Friends of mine who just sold their house (at a loss) and need to regroup are going to move into my second home.  Rather than throw money at rent, I'm hoping they can use some much needed time to regroup their finances and help them buy a new home with a greater down payment.  Why not?  This is a wonderful friend that through hard economic times and a layoff, suffered through no fault of their own.  They deserve a break and I'm going to try to help.

Okay - I'm blogged out.  I think I need to go garden for awhile.  If I think about this any more, my head is going to explode.   If you made it this far, then congratulations.  What I see in that is HOPE.

I received this in my regular Email tonight - and thought it was fun food for thought.  So what else...I thought I'd pass it along.

What do you think?
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Subject: We Deserve It Dividend

I'm against the $85,000,000,000 bailout of AIG.  Instead, I'm in favor of giving 85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.  To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.  Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up.   So divide 200 million adults 18+  into $85 billon that equals $425,000.   My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.  So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.     Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500 in taxes.  That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.  But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500 in their pocket.  A husband and wife have $595,000.  What would you do with $297,500 to $595,000 in your family?

* Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved. 
* Repay college loans - what a great boost to new grads.  
* Put away money for college - it'll be there. 
* Save in a bank - create money to loan to entrepreneurs. 
* Buy a new car - create jobs.
* Invest in the market - capital drives growth. 
* Pay for your parents' medical insurance - health care improves. 
* Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or else. 

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+  including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. 

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it.   Let American General go back to being American General.  Sell off the real estate.  Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale.  We deserve it and20AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."  But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 billion We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

And remember, The Family plan only really costs $59.5 billion because $25.5 billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards, 
A Creative Citizen                                                                    

P .S.:   Feel free to pass this along to your pal as it's either good for a laugh or a tear or a very sobering thought on how to best use $85 billion!