It's 1/2 Full, Said the Optimist.

Do y'all love the Disney cartoon Alice in Wonderland? I totally dig it...a singing walrus, a hookah pipe-smoking catepillar, playing cards painting the roses red, and the eerily exciting Tulgey Wood. What's not to love? One of the more famed scenes from this adaptation of Lewis Caroll's original story is the unbirthday party thrown by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse.

Today is my unbirthday, to be precise (and Alice was always precise!), but it is also a day of minor significance. June 4 is my 1/2 birthday. 33.5 cheers for Lula, please! I did say it was a minor day, peeps.

While driving home from Libbey's dance recital dress rehearsal (say that one 3 times fast) I starting thinking about Debbie and how she blogs constantly, in her mind, all day long. Thoughts on blogging seem to come to me most often while driving the MomVan. And thus my latest post--some of the "half" stuff in my life:

*All those half-read books piled on hearth of our bedroom fireplace. As a lover of the printed word and always wanting to know how the story ends, I never leave a book unfinished, even if it turns out to be a not-so-great read. But since discovering the wonder that is great Sci-Fi television, also known as Battlestar Galactica, I have used every minute of spare time (read: when my girls are in bed) to watch an episode or two before calling it a night. And this is why I haven't finished The Host yet. (Love you, Tiffany.) Even though I've promised it to Kat. I have started and paused about 5 novels in the past month. I'll get to them. Just as soon as I finsh Season 3 of Galactica.

*Speaking of books, to be fair and to help me feel better about my very rare and recent bout of lack o' reading, I am saving half a dozen "beach reads" for our trip to Myrtle Beach in a couple of weeks. My most favorite not-at-all guilty pleasure in the entire world is to plop my beach chair down in the surf and read for hours upon hours at a time. Half the time I don't get to do this--being the mother of small children and all--or rather, I don't get to do it as long as I'd like. God has blessed me, though, with an older child happily occupied by her father and uncle in the pool, while the younger naps her regular 3-hour stretch (God is good). During these golden hours last summer, I could be found on the beach in Hilton Head Island, SC, chair sinking in the sand, head covered by a fabulously wide-brimmed hat, reading the entire Twilight series in less than a week. Perfection! If I get to do this even half the time we're in Myrtle Beach I'll be a happy gal...and I'll be devouring all these books I've saved.

*I have a growing pile of socks without mates. (There's a mysterious force living inside my washer that eats socks. For real!) I'm certain these socks won't intermingle and mate with other loners, thereby producing the perfect match to complete the pair. Therefore I am stuck with all these half pairs of socks. Or is there such a thing as a "half pair?" Oh, I can't even go there...my head's still recovering from almost-pneumonia.

*When it comes to tunes, I have MADD. That's Musical Attention Defecit Disorder. Yeah, I made it up. Stick with me here, y'all. I just checked my iTunes account and as of now there are 5623 songs in this virtual jukebox that is cleverly disguised as my Miss Pretty Pink laptop. I have playlists for working out, fine dining, favorite songs of praise, 80's hair bands, and yes,"mood music." Even though I hand-pick each song I can never make it through even half a playlist without skipping, stopping and/or starting over with something new. A while back though, while making my blog rounds and cooking supper, I realized there are a few albums on iTunes that I'll enjoy from start to finish, each and every time. The soundtracks to "The Last Kiss" and "Gardenstate." (Zach Braff--I adore you!) A Pottery Barn compilation entitled "RSVP," full of jazz and smooth classics. Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head." Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits. And "The Purest Place" by Watermark--the most brilliant offering of praise ever put to music, I'm convinced. (Listening to it even now..."Be blessed, be loved, be lifted high, be treasured here, be glorified...I owe my life to You, oh Lord..." They're singing my life here.) None of these albums can be done halfway, I'm telling you.

*Because I'm a make-up/smelly goods whore, I have half full bottles and pots and tubes and jars of varying creams, lotions, potions and colors guaranteed to make this pasty face & body over. My true struggle is with smelly goods of the body cream type. Like a fickle child with an abundance of birthday money in FAO Schwartz, I can't make up my mind! Lately Ginger-Mint has been showing the love (read post below), but there's always my fallback choice, Nivea. Or do I want to use that new Dove creamy body oil-type stuff I found at Target last month? And there sits the 4 tubes of heavily-scented creams of the Bath & Body Works variety, given as birthday (the real one, not the un or 1/2 one!) and Christmas gifts last December. To quote Natalie Sands, in one of the greatest films of all time, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, "Decisions are the worst!" If any of y'all are in the southwesternest (is that even a word?) corner of Virgina, come on by for some free smelly goods...half-used. I have plenty to share. If you just want half, that is.

*At any given time of any given day in any given room of this house you will find half-filled water bottles. Yes, I buy water--the Sam's Choice kind, aka cheap--because we drink it constantly and are more apt to reach for H2O instead of a Coke, especially when it's presented chilled and in its very own container. For some reason none of us have ascertained, we never seem to finish an entire bottle. And since I'm paying precious gas money for a mostly free element, I preserve each and every drop. There's half a bottle on my nightstand...always. I see one on the coffee table in the living room--that one belongs to my Dad. Oh, Scott's left one on his desk...wait, it's half-filled with dip spit. (Yes--he's a redneck--he chews and spits, y'all.) And here, next to my laptop, is the one from which Libbey drank half while playing video games with Mamaw Pinky. This house is a breeding ground for unfinished bottles of water. Hey...maybe I can put them together with the socks and get something special going. Lemme find my mood music playlist...

I could go on, but half of you are probably already asleep due to my mindless ramblings. This is the way my mind works, people. It's my half birthday. I'll ramble if I want to.

And to my dear husband, who is presently reading over my shoulder, still encouraging me to write "the next great American novel," (um, thanks for the enormous vote of confidence, but unless it's tampons, tingly tooties or endless rambling, I don't have it in me!) I make this vow: I promise to take ALL the antibiotic you prescribed for my almost-pneumonia. The container won't remain half full, as per usual. Physicians the world over are now rejoicing.

Sister love--nothing "half" about it.

*THIS JUST IN: Today, June 5, at 12:30 pm (east coast time), our newest family member will be making her appearance. My sister-in-law is being prepped for surgery now, to deliver her 2nd daughter. We are so stinkin' excited. Being in this house is like the frenzy of mating meerkats at the zoo, I tell y'all. In a few hours there will be FOUR Litton grandgirls. And then the fun really begins. But the one thing that bothers me about baby Helen arriving today is that it's now June 5. Not June 4th. Not my 1/2 birthday. Like the good Aunt Lula I am, I will hold this over the child's head until I'm old and feeble. She will never live it down. Poor thing...just over an hour from being born and she already has a a burden to carry. World's Best Aunt--that's ME! Pictures will be posted later this evening, so check back & let me brag on her, please.