szreader

Last updated November 28 2008

Be cool, not lame. -- Rachel Johnson

Happily swapping on Swap-bot since February 24, 2007!

Hello there! I'm married, the mother of two fabulous daughters, 23 and 27, and two darling 'pups,' 9 and 10.

In addition to being addicted to mail, I don't seem to be able to stop buying boxes of teabags and notecards. So, swapping notecards and teabags completes the circle since it brings me MAIL!

I don't really craft, though I did make some bookmarks early on in my swapping career. I also decorated some envelopes, but I think that was about it for the 'handy' things I've done.

I've gotten into some of the postcard swaps, most notably the "I Must Be Crazy!" ones where you send out 20 postcards. Then there was the "Subversive Postcard Swap" - what a riot!

I tend to like things that are just a little odd or unusual. Tee-hee! I love to laugh and my sense of humor is a bit off kilter sometimes. For a middle-aged, married person with two dogs, two daughters and a full-time job, I don't really do normal very much, and I like it that way.

I believe my favorite color is blue, though I do love purple, also. I love laughing more than anything - so bring on the humor, please.

I work full-time in a public library, so I'm constantly surrounded by books . . . and computers, and amazing co-workers, and people with all sorts of questions.

I enjoy the (natural) scents of lavender, jasmine and lilac. My favorite colors are jewel tones. One of my favorite pastimes is going on home tours . . . or even just to Real Estate open houses!

I'm addicted to magazines in general, but especially decorating magazines, and the NYT Thursday 'Home' section is my favorite read every week.

I'm very excited about the Presidential election! [Note on 11/5/2008: I'm even **more** excited at the outcome, now that it's over!] Take a look at the amazing video of American Prayer. I love it!

Check out this cool site: FREE HUGS

(Be sure to watch the video! It's so fun.)

Where is Matt?

(Another very fun video I recommend!)

If you want more fun and love puppies, please take a look. My thanks to babysingsing, as I found this in her profile!

I like many kinds of music: classical, folk, jazz, some country, oldies, alternative and certainly bluegrass! My brother once said he thought I'd like a certain group's music because "it's fairly melodic." (I think he knows me pretty well.) Aaron Neville, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Carrie Newcomer, Jennie Devoe, The Pretenders, Everything But the Girl, Allman Brothers, Creedence Clearwater Revival are some of the artists on my iPod, plus lots, lots more.

11/28/08: Just discovered the Tonos Triad this fall and I love their music.

I saw a great documentary, "A Man Called Pearl," which I highly recommend to you! It's about an amazing, retired gentleman from the Carolinas who has turned his yard into a topiary museum. You can see the TRAILER. If it comes to a theater anywhere near you, go see it! Someday it'll be out on video and you can at least see it then. I was inspired!

Some old favorites are: Moonstruck (Cher! Nicholas Cage!), Enchanted April (Joan Plowright! Polly Walker! Alfred Molina! Jim Broadbent!), Mike Lee's "High Hopes," Hitchcock's "Rear Window," "Amelie," "Jackie Brown." I'm all over the map. Documentaries are special favorites -- one I love is "The Gleaners and I," which is French. Another movie I've seen this year and loved: Michael Moore's SICKO. I want to see it again.

I don't watch much tv. I enjoy Antiques Roadshow, Jeopardy! and, every once in a while, Ellen -- I'm a big Ellen fan!

I love the old Perry Mason show and my favorite cartoon character is Mr. Magoo.

I'm not really crafty - I don't sew, knit, crochet, scrapbook or dotee -- but I do love pretty notecards, cool stickers, using commemorative U.S. postage stamps scraps of fun papers, cancelled postage stamps, ,interesting artsy rubber stamps & stamp pads.

I love pretty canceled stamps, international, too. If you can send my envie or package with stamps rather than a printed label, that would be great.

SAMBOB, HERE'S THE PART ABOUT THE BUTTONS!

A couple of years ago I bought a metal tin to make a sewing box for my daughter. The tin was full (FULL!) of great, old buttons. I had more fun sorting them than was reasonable: woo-hoo! I was just like a kindergartener (embarrassing to say, but oh-so-true . . .).

I am a reader! I read mainly non-fiction.

My screen name comes from my love of reading and is a take-off on Easy Rider. My sister and brothers call me Suze (or is it Sooze?), always abbreviated in writing as sz. The most recent wonderful read was Rick Bragg's Prince of Frogtown. THAT MAN CAN WRITE!! Some of my all-time favorite books are: All Over But the Shoutin' (Rick Bragg), Mama Makes Up Her Mind (Bailey White), A Girl Named Zippy (Haven Kimmel), and She Got Up Off the Couch (Haven Kimmel).

I love Swap-bot most because it reminds me that there are so, so, so many good people out there in the world and that, sure, we're all different and yet, in ways, all the same. It makes me realize how wonderful it feels to give, to share, to communicate with people -- just for the sheer joy of giving, sharing and communicating. To see people continuously coming up with brilliant, creative, positive ideas such as The Birthday Club and You've Got Mail is a very good thing. Through Swap-bot I can share souvenirs from New Orleans with a fellow NOLA-lover in Brazil now on her way to England or talk about bleak no-mail days or jubiliant swap-stuffed mailbox days with my amazing daughter, who originally told me about Swap-bot! I cannot thank Rachel and Travis enough for giving me -- giving us -- this big ol' bus to a happy mailbox . . . called Swap-bot! WOO-HOO!

I believe in doing my best, every day; the power of love; random acts of kindness; sharing; recycling; thinking & questioning; and being grateful, as my Dad used to say, "for small favors."