The letter S

My friend Jan tagged me with what I like to think of as "The Alphabet Game." I gave her permission to do so, and I even (helpfully) let her know the letters I would not appreciate being given.

Fortunately she didn't have to look any further than my name. That's right, she smacked me with the letter S.

Now the letter S and I share a somewhat troubled history.

You see, through no fault of my own, I have a little bit of a lisp. My lisp first got noticed (officially at least) when I entered 5th grade. That was the year we had moved to a new house, and my sisters and I attended a new Elementary school.

I finished up my elementary career at Des Moines Elementary.

Des Moines Elementary, would be located, in that little suburb of Seattle, known as Des Moines.

A pretty nice place to spend the rest of my childhood. I guess.

Anyway to make a long story short, the powers that be at D.M.E., figured that I would benefit from a bit of speech training. So, with very little input from me, I was suddenly faced with two hours a week, of speech therapy.

I was cool with it actually. It got me out of two hours of P.E. every week.

I never enjoyed P.E.

I'm not the most athletically gifted person to ever walk the earth and the last thing I needed was two hours every week to remind me (and everyone else in my fifth grade class) of that fact.

I really can't say that speech therapy helped me in any way. Well, other than allowing me to dodge P.E. of course. But it was different and kind of fun, so I decided that I would see it as a good thing.

The one thing it didn't do though, was to help me get rid of my lisp.

So here I am saddled with the first name of, Susan. If anyone out there has any bit of a lisp at all, I'm sure you can see the problem. When I was younger, apparently, I could not say Susan without it coming out Sthusthan.

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

And then to make matters far, far worse, I end up falling in love with and marrying a guy with the last name of Sorenson. I love Don and I don't think I could have had a successful marriage with anyone but him, but sometimes I have to admit to how much I don't enjoy being handicapped with the name Susan Sorenson.

No matter how hard I try to make the S in Sorenson actually sound like an S, (such as at Fred Meyer, when picking up prescriptions) it invariably happens that the pharmacy person will ask, did you say Thorenson.

Aaaaauuuuggghhhhhh!

"No, it's Sorenson, with an S, as in S(th)am.

Not that any of this has anything to do with the purpose of this post. I just thought it might be interesting to point out my history with the letter S.

So here I go. I will list 10 things I like that start with the letter S.

1. I think my most favorite thing to start with an S would have to be Sweets. I am a bit of a sugar junkie. I never crave chips, or anything salty like that, but man, if the first ingredient on the label is sugar, I most likely will find it irresistible. I love candy. I love cookies and cake. And Brownies. And Ice Cream. What can I say? I'm a hopeless case.

2. Sunshine. As far as I'm concerned, it could be 20 below outside (well maybe not quite that cold) and if it is sunny, I am happy. That would include a nice blue sky as well. But then aren't sunshine and blue skies pretty much a package deal?

3. & 4. Spring and Summer. I just plain like a nice warm sunny day.

5. Sweaters. If it has to be cold, then I will try to make the best of it. And by that I mean, I will be wearing a sweater. I like sweaters. They always look a little bit dressy. (By my standards at least) And they have the bonus of being warm. So sweaters. Definitely.

6. Sea Food. This isn't entirely true any more. Since lately I don't enjoy any kind of meat. And yes, sea food is meat. I have to include this because until maybe a year and a half ago, I had always loved sea food. Shrimp, Salmon, Crab, Fish and Chips, I loved it all. And sometimes I still can enjoy those delicacy's. I certainly can't wipe out 49 years of a food passion just because at the moment I don't enjoy it.

7. Sleeping Pills. I like these mostly in theory. That's because I have a very conservative Doctor, who won't give them to me because they will just become ineffective and then I will keep needing higher and higher doses. I see her logic. Really I do. But some nights it would be so lovely to simply swallow a pill and then, voila, instant sleep. Oh and I guess this brings us up quite smartly to number. . . .

8. Sleep. Oh I love sleep. When I can get it, that is. Sometimes I do go through periods of sleeping well. I think I'm my own worse enemy at times though. I'll have a few weeks of actually falling asleep and then miraculously staying asleep. And then I always have to go and spoil it by realizing it, and thinking, this can't last forever. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of course it almost always becomes a self fulfilling prophesy, and I'm back to having sleep problems. Sigh.

9. Seattle. I guess I should include it since it's the place I was born and raised. It's a fun place to visit, but I'm so glad i don't live there anymore. And this brings me to . . . . .

10. Surrounded by my family. I love my family. From my husband and my children (this includes my son and daughter-in-law) to my sweet, beautiful little grandaughters. I include as well, my siblings, my nieces and nephews, and my tons of aunts, uncles and cousins. And last but not least, my Grandparents. I have been blessed with a wonderful family and spending time with them is even better than eating sweets. So I guess I should switch my number 1 with my number 10. Because as much as I do love those cookies, Birthday cakes, cinnamon rolls, chocolate and jujyfruits, I would give them all up if I had to choose between those or my family.

There, ten things I like, that start with the letter S.

I thought about following Jan's example and also stating 10 things that start with the letter S, that I don't like. But I have two people waiting for me to go get something to eat. And those two just happen to be family members.

And you know what a sucker for my family I am.