Well, I like to write. I'm not usually all that thrilled with the stuff that comes out of the pen (as it were) but I have had others say that they enjoy reading it. So I figured I could put some of it on here. I began a web log (aka "blog") not too long ago which can be found at http://dpenguin.blogspot.com/ if you're at all interested.

On my 'old' site, I had a page entitled "Winning," of which I will reproduce some here on this site for your perusal.

"Winning has a joy and discrete purity to it that cannot be replaced by anything else." -A. Barlett Giamatti

I do not have a history of winning things. Perhaps that is why the few things I have won mean so much to me.

The first thing I can remember winning was when I was in third grade. I won a blue ribbon in gym class for climbing a rope the fastest (see picture at right). I was often called a little monkey by my mom and friends, because I liked to climb anything that would hold me (and a few things that wouldn't, as I found out when I tried!).

Well, that was in third grade, as I said, and there was a LONG dry spell after that. I guess the next thing I won would have to be the contest between me and a boy in my church in Fulton, NY. He boasted that he could make better peanut butter cookies than I could. So we each made a batch and took them to church on a Wednesday night. After church, we took them around and had everyone try one of each and choose their favorite. His got two votes; mine won by a landslide =) I was pleased, naturally.

Hmm... Perhaps this has some bearing on the same boy's statement several months later, when he and another boy were talking about an upcoming banquet to which they were supposed to take a date. There were only two of us (girls) who went to church regularly, and there was one who rode the bus now and then. I was in the car when this boy said, "Well, [name removed for privacy] is the only girl in the church." I was shocked. I said, "Excuse me?!?" and he said, obviously not thinking, but also obviously not joking, "Oh, well, I meant worth looking at!" Needless to say, this greatly undermined my sense of self-esteem. I was 15 at the time.