Sunday Stealing -- The Meme about Memes & Blogging

How do you feel about being tagged for memes? Usually I like it because it's fun to respond to questions that have no wrong answer.

Do you participate in any regular weekly memes? Which ones? Thursday Thirteen, Tuesday Tunes, Sunday Stealing, Saturday 9 ...

Have you found any bloggers that you began to read regularly after participating in a meme with them? Yes. That's how I've found most of my regulars, or how they have found me.

Do you know of any readers who found you through a meme and became regular readers? See above. (I guess this proves that I don't read these before I start answering.)

Did you find any favorite blogs through comments or blogrolls on others’ blogs? No.

Did you find any favorite blogs from someone else’s recommendation? No.

If you comment on someone’s blog, do you expect a response? If so, do you prefer that response to come through an e-mail, a comment from them on the same post, or a a comment on your blog? While I enjoy them, I don't expect a response. People are busy!

Do you ever struggle with your blogging “voice”? No. I'm a writer by trade and am sometimes more comfortable at the keyboard than away from it.

Are there certain types of blogs that attract you? I love finding I share insights, interests, opinions, etc., with people whose lives don't necessarily resemble mine. I guess ultimately more does unite us than divides us.

Are there certain types of blogs that repel you? Racial/ethnic "humor." Hate talk. And nothing is worse than hate talk disguised as Christianity. (I take my faith seriously, and my Lord is about love.)
What time of day do you usually blog? When I'm bored at work or can't sleep.

Do your family and friends know about your blog? Do they read it? Do they mind if you mention them? Do they suggest posts for it? I try to keep this blog a secret. It began as a journal, and personal journals lose their impact and effectiveness if I pull my punches. But I don't want to hurt anyone, either. So SHHHH!

To play along yourself, or compare your answers to other bloggers', click here.

Grudging fondness for our erstwhile First Lady

After reading American Wife and seeing W, I find myself strangely supportive of a woman I hadn't given much thought to before, Laura Bush.

I find First Ladies fascinating. Like Betty Ford, was this or that First Lady thrust into a spotlight that neither she nor her husband ever anticipated? Or, like Jackie Kennedy, was she given a heads up and just didn't believe it could ever happen? (A Catholic President! Whoever heard of such a thing?) Was she a helpmate to her husband through the painful times, like Lady Bird Johnson, or a distraction, like Mary Lincoln? Did acting as a full partner, like Awesome Abigail Adams, strengthen their marriage or complicate it, like Eleanor Roosevelt? What the hell is going on with the Clintons, anyway, and how would Bill have handled the role of First Gent?

But Laura Bush has always seemed, at best, annoying. Positioned as "the anti-Hillary," she seemed aggressively bland and uninvolved. Proud to have no thoughts of her own, just standing by her man.

The woman who emerges from these current fictionalized depictions of her life is wise, a little sad, tested by life and truly and deeply in love with her husband. While I cannot IMAGINE spending 20 minutes with George W. Bush, much less a lifetime, she can. I respect and admire her for seeming to make her marriage work in the most difficult of circumstances. The part of me that still believes in true love hopes these fictionalized accounts are true.