Strange Little Collecting Project

*Disclaimer: This is by no means intended to offend my beautiful and regular friends who eat Activia on a daily basis. If you work for Activia's marketing/advertising department, feel free to be offended. Jamie Lee Curtis and Linsday Lohan could probably be offended, too.* I hate the Activia commercials. I hate them with a fiery, red, constipated passion. Sorry Jamie Lee; it’s not necessarily your fault. Although I do wonder how desperate you were for Freak Friday 2 or Another Freaky Friday, or TGIFreaky-Friday, etc. to come out. (I bet Lindsay Lohan would LOVE to magically switch places with somebody, anybody right now—sorry, too much daytime TV is making me meaner). I hate Activia commercials because I think they focus on the wrong thing. It’s the basic argument of form over function. Activia’s marketing team has obviously decided to focus all their attention on the function of Activia rather than the form (taste). Focusing on the function of a product isn’t a problem with me!...

It’s been a year since Anthony passed away. I feel like I say this every year on some milestone date but this really has been the quickest year I can remember. It’s weird how your perception of time changes the older you get. It’s also weird how certain images and memories stick with you from particular days. 1 year ago, I remember standing in the front yard of Anthony’s house. It was the 2nd time that week I had stood in that yard, but it was for 2 very different occasions. The first time was for a good friend’s beautiful and bittersweet wedding ceremony; the second time was for his funeral. I remember looking down by my feet and seeing one of the Carolina blue ribbons that had been tied around the programs for his wedding just days before. And I remember the exact words that went through my mind at that moment: Life is so unfair. The last time I really talked to Anthony was less than a week before he died. I stopped by to visit him, worried that I would be in the way, or encroaching ...