Things my mother told me

-"Never let a man up in your bedroom."

-"Don't pull at a loose thread."

-"Watch the scissor tips when you cut, so you'll cut straight."

-"What's the big deal about bagels, they're just bread."

-"I don't like Chinese food."

-"So take your shirt off - you don't have any boobs yet (when I complained of the Maryland heat as a fledgling adolescent)."

-"Wow, you're easy (when we picked out my prom dress in about 5 minutes)."

-"You kind of hit the inside of the tennis ball (to serve it up the middle)."

-"Why did you have a comb in your pocket?" (after I almost died in a sledding accident)

-"You were as good a player as Suzette Guffey. Bob Pass said so." (Suzette went onto a college tennis scholarship at UVA and dated the quarterback. She was beautiful and tall and slim. A gorgeous Steffi Graf).

-"I knew you could get down." (after I screamed for what seemed like an hour in a neighbor's willow tree - in need of some attention)

-"Men get re-married because they want someone to cook and clean for them." (when a friend's widowed father announced his pending nuptials)

Things other people said

- "Sometimes an apple is just an apple." (uttered by her co-workers when a friend was probably overanalyzing a situation)

-"Guess someone got killed here too." (as we waited at a LONG traffic light at URI. This was after explaining to Daniel that a woman had been killed at a light in Wakefield - hence it's extra long crossing times)

-"These college students are such a pain . . . "(Daniel said this at the same traffic light).

-"Mom I'm just a kid." (When I was sorting thru all the crap in his room wondering where it all came from).