It's just me. Again.

Imitated: My daughter's language has progressed from sounds to single syllable words, from words to comments, and lately her comments have turned into conversations. I can tell she understands a bit more of our adult life as she desperately tries to have lengthy conversations with me. Unfortunately she runs out of things to say before she stops speaking so the last few minutes is made-up jibberish while she imitates hands motions, facial expression, and a "this is important" tone. And it has me wondering... do I do that too? Unnecessary: I'm sure I speak more than I need to ... more than I should. I get reminders from my 3 year old when my tone changes during a heated discussion with Thom. "Be careful, Mom!" she yells from the other room. "Be gentle with each other!" she warns. I'm thankful for her innocent interjections. Precise: The benefit of Twitter is that it really makes you minimalize your thoughts and pinpoint what you want...

By the light of my cell phone I bring you a small glimpse of a mid-thirties crisis. This is the 7th video in a series titled "Lights Out" featuring a sleepy, mascara-smeared, greasy-haired, pajama-wearing me during the last awake moments of my day. To start at the beginning, visit my YouTube channel: justjacqs

"I need to talk to you later." I'm amazed that words can paralyze me, produce fear that seeps out of my heart uncontrollably, and render me useless. It doesn't happen often. But each time it does I'm thoroughly stunned and tend to react like a trapped animal; first I play dead then I freak out. So there I was on Sunday ... paralyzed. As I worked through my mid-morning mummified state I did what I always do and over-analyzed every detail as obsessively as possible. I quickly ruled out the words themselves as the culprit. They were just seven words ... in and of themselves they were not at all damaging. No, those words didn't pierce my heart. It was the brief arm touch, quick exchange, and lack of smile on the sayers face that did most of the damage. Expression and tone are crucial. If there was a smile associated with those words I wouldn't even be here discussing this with you. Unfortunately the expression and tone used were on my "do ...