Originally, I intended to write my "Daily Rant" at night, before I went to bed...simply because I usually spend the last few hours of the day thinking about what has happened and what I learned from it.  I know, I'm a total geek.  Whatever.  Anyway. It turns out that I actually have more insight first thing in the morning.  Maybe it's because I've slept on it or something.  I don't know.  I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this...I guess I just feel a need to explain myself to someone, even if they don't really care.  So, on with today's Daily Rant.

Have you ever met someone who was one of those "touchy-feely" types?  The kind that is constantly hugging you, touching your arm...a "close talker", if you will.  I have a friend like that.  She's from Jamaica, and I think it's a cultural thing.  I've never been much of a touchy-feely type myself.  Don't get me wrong, I like hugs and kisses and touching and all that fun stuff, but not usually with other women, and definitely not with people I don't know very well.  Anyway, I was just trying to analyze my friend this morning, trying to figure out why she's so clingy, and I've come to the conclusion that she's insecure.  She's also a very loving person, and I wouldn't trade her for anything, but I just didn't realize it bugged me until today. I'll have to let her know.  Yikes!  I'm not looking forward to that conversation.  She'll probably try to give me a hug...

On the same subject, I'd like to talk about my own obsession with the five senses.  I find that I'm also a very tactile woman...every day I wear something that is soft, simply because it feels good next to my skin.  Touch is probably the most important of the 5 senses for me.  When I have a man in my life (whew, I know it's been awhile, but I still remember), there is nothing better than some good old fashioned contact.  Laying there in bed together, just touching.  Nothing else, just letting your hands go and seeing where they end up. It doesn't even necessarily have to be sexual...a good back scratch wins out over lovemaking at least half the time.

And smells...mmmmm, smells.  My favourite smell in the whole world is Vanilla.  Sometimes I just take the bottle out of the cupboard and inhale deeply.  It makes me feel...uh...somethin'.  I wear Vanilla Oil from The Body Shop, and sometimes I wear Satsuma (which is my second favourite smell), and people always tell me I smell like cake.  I like that. Smelling good enough to eat.  Smell is very important to me when it comes to men too.  I think it comes from a very primal place in every human being.  Some people just don't smell good, even if you like the cologne they're wearing on someone else.  Is it just me, or do you get that?  Whenever I meet someone new - a potential partner - one of the first things I notice is his smell.  If a man is drop-dead gorgeous, has a fabulous job, owns 3 houses, 2 cars and a jet...AND he wants me...it doesn't matter a bit if he doesn't smell good.  That's how important it is to me.

Taste.  I am a very fussy eater, I'm afraid.  It's my curse.  I inherited my Mother's English tastebuds - everything's gotta be plain.  I was 9 years old before I would even TRY gravy or relish (not together, of course). I'm just not a saucy kind of girl.  Well, I'm saucy, but I don't like most saucy food. If it's not a hunk of meat, some kind of potato or rice, and a vegetable, I hesitate to try it.  My family teases me relentlessly about my lack of adventure when it comes to food, but I'm 34 years old and I don't think I have the ability to develop a taste for anything I don't already like. It's something I regret, and if and when I have children, I will be sure to force-feed them new foods (even if I don't like them) so that they have a better palate than mine. You see, my biggest problem is that my parents never MADE me try things. If I didn't want it, I didn't have to eat it.  It wasn't because they didn't try to serve me different things, but I was just too damn stubborn.  I could sit at the dinner table until bedtime, refusing to eat whatever was left on my plate...my folks just gave up.

Sight and Hearing.  These two senses must be talked about together.  There's a question in "The Book Of Questions" that asks "Would you rather be blind or deaf?".  I would rather be deaf.  I can't imagine not being able to see colours, or the faces of the people you love.  Some of the people I've asked this question to, have said "yeah, but I couldn't imagine living without music, so I'd rather be blind".  Good point, but if you were deaf from birth, you wouldn't know what you were missing.  Besides, deaf people CAN "hear" music, they just hear it differently.  Before I became a nurse, I was going to be an interpreter for the deaf.  I took sign language courses and infiltrated my way into the deaf community in Calgary for about 6 months.  I met a lot of really great people, and we had lots of parties with loud music (oh my GOD, it was loud!).  We danced, we talked (they read lips, I signed)...they were able to do almost everything a hearing person can do.  The only thing I think I would miss if I were deaf (and this is something you probably never thought of before) is going through a drive through window.  Deaf people can't do that.  But if you were blind from birth, I think you'd still wish you could see the faces of the people you loved, and it would drive me CRAZY to not know what colours looked like. It's not something one can describe very well, and have the blind person go "Ooohhhh! Okay, I get it, I can totally picture what Blue looks like!".  It just can't happen.  I've heard that blind people's brains think differently from sighted people's brains.  I would imagine they think more in words than in pictures, so perhaps I wouldn't miss out on anything if I was blind from birth...but I'd still rather be deaf.  If there are any blind people reading this (he he), perhaps you could offer some insight..pun intended.

Have a great day, y'all!