DAY 2 -- August 08 Happiness Challenge

Today's choice is easy and obvious … "Go, Cubs, go! Hey, Chicago, what do you say? Cubs are gonna win today." So they did! 5-1 vs. the Pirates.

For me, Cubs baseball is more than just a spectator sport. Two of the most passionate Cub fans I've ever known, my dad and my grandmother, would have loved this team. This manager, too. Lou Pinella reminds me of Leo the Lip from my long-ago girlhood. The Cubs are my continuity, the thread that runs from summer to summer and generation to generation, and I feel privileged that I was able to take my nephew to his first game last month. I hope it helps him feel connected to the family Cub fans he'll never get to meet.

Saturday 9 -- The Lazy Days of Summer

1. What is your favorite summer drink? Coke. Always a favorite.

2. What is the best summer sport to play? Bike riding. Don't know if it counts as a sport, really, more an "activity."

3. What’s the best summer sport to watch? Baseball. Specifically Chicago Cubs baseball!

4. Do you like the ocean, the pool or the lake? My favorite thing is to watch the shore go by from a boat, so I prefer oceans and lakes to pools.

5. Some folks drink whiskey in the winter and gin, tequila (margaritas) or rum drinks in the summer. Does you alcohol of choice change? Nope. I believe Jimmy Buffett has the right idea about ordering Boat Drinks all year around.

6. What is your favorite summer song? God, I'm old. "Silly Love Songs." (1976)

7. What was your best summer growing up? How old were you and why was it best? 8th grade. I was 13. I had more freedom than ever before and more money (due to my gradeschool graduation) and felt quite womanly.

8. Have you ever had a summer romance that you knew would end? Yes. He was much younger than I so I knew we had no long-term prospects. But, oh, my, it was glorious fun for a time. We started wonderfully in May and limped to an end in April, so it lasted longer than I thought it would.

9. How old were you when you first went skinny-dipping? Who were you with? To this day I've never skinny-dipped. And I won't, at least not in daylight. There are places on this fair old bod that I DO NOT want to be sun burned … ever!

To play along yourself, or to check out other bloggers' answers, click here.

I wish I knew how I felt

I am in the midst of what may very well be my last period. I thought this would be a big deal. Maybe it is, but I have been preoccupied by the migraines I have gotten Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. The one Wednesday night/Thursday dawn was debilitating, causing me to miss a half day of work and a meeting. I'm trying to be smart and to remember everything my doctor told me about when to dose to minimize the impact.

There's a certain symmetry to this. I can still recall my long-ago first period. It was summertime, too. We were on vacation at that lake we went to every year. I really didn't feel well at all. Part of it was the stomach problems that accompanied the stress of being trapped in the car for hours with my family, part of it was the excitement of being on vacation, and part of it was new and unknown to me -- my first-ever menstrual cramps.

At the beginning of the process, I was emotionally distracted from the enormity of what was happening to me by tummy trouble. Now at the end of Fertility Road, I am preoccupied with migraines. Maybe Mother Nature was protecting me then and is protecting me now. Maybe I'm not supposed to ruminate on the changes that are taking place.