"U hav the wrong number im a 11 year old girl and my dad is a police man so stop texting me!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ~the text message Ryen Slegr received after sending a couple of text messages one night to a number that used to belong to his friend

"I've spent money on many questionable things in my little life; A book on angel guides, Greyhound Bus tickets, chemo, cheeseburgers, pale nail polish, cheap tires, movie tickets to "W." and countless dresses that 'remind me of flappers.'" ~KayeKillA

"It's better to be an inspiration than a consolation."
~Rosalee Toews (aka my brilliant mother)

"But most of all, above everything else, who in the Bible besides Jesus knew--knew--that we're carrying the Kingdom of Heaven around with us, inside, where we're all too goddam stupid and sentimental and unimaginative to look?"
~J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
~Dr. Seuss

"All my life I have had a choice of hate and love. I chose love and I am here."
~A.R. Rahman, upon winning his second Academy Award

"I did a lot of soft-shoe in women's clothing growing up."
~Jimmy George Francis

"Dine at Philly Steak, Live Healthy & Efficient."
~on a take-out menu for Philly Steak Depot

"When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life, he has no right to keep it to himself." ~Jacques Cousteau (thanks Heather)

"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next."
~Gilda Radner, (thanks Sara)

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and one for helping others." ~Audrey Hepburn and her "beauty tips", forwarded to me from my dad (thanks Dad)

"It is never too late to be what you might have become." ~George Eliot

"It's snowing big slow lazy flakes and the sun is making a pale attempt at shining through the wintery gray sky. 34 degrees. Dad says the weather's confused."
~Rosalee Toews, aka Mom, via text

"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say 'Why not?'" ~George Bernard Shaw

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within." ~James Arthur Baldwin

"Chicks on one side, men on the other=lame. I want my music all-in." ~Neko Case, Paste Magazine's 50th Issue

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” ~Charles Darwin, born 200 years ago today (thanks Sara)

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer." ~Albert Einstein

"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
~Henry J. Kaiser

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong." ~Ella Fitzgerald

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear."
~Ambrose Redmoon

"Your love storm is coming. It's going to be beautiful and it's going to shake keepsakes off of the shelf and it's going to split the tree in your front yard and it's going to flood your basement and you're going to love every scary moment of it because you are no longer afraid of yourself and all the love you have inside to give." ~me to a friend, via email

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."
~Benjamin Disraeli (thanks Sara)

"There is no security on this earth, there is only opportunity." ~General Douglas MacArthur (thanks Sara)

~James Barnes, aka Kimberly's grandfather, and the sign he made for her grandmother

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." ~Paul Valery

"All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." ~T.E. Lawrence

"If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy." ~Dale Carnegie