Yesterday a comment by a reader of Blogging for Bitter Women made me remember the day I wanted to do cartwheels in the parking lot. The reader (another Linda!) commented that if she had superpowers one of them would be to cartwheel down the street. I’m with her. In fact there was one day when that is exactly what I wanted to do!

My daughter’s first day of nursery school. My son was safely tucked away in first grade which meant, after I dropped my daughter off at nursery school, I had three whole hours to myself. I had to get something at K-Mart. I don’t remember what because I didn’t buy a thing that day. When I stepped out of my car, I suddenly realized that for the first time in six years I had no car seat to unbuckle and no sweaty little palm clinging to mine… or more to the point, no reason for my sweaty big palm to latch on to a sweaty little one.

There was more than spring to my step. I could actually visualize myself doing cartwheels in the parking lot, but I didn’t. I was worried that my post-partem physique would land flat on its face if I tried. So instead I went into K-Mart and browsed. I spent an hour looking at the latest magazines and best sellers. Then, with no little-bull-in-a-china-shop in tow, I headed over to the gift section and delighted myself with the intricacies of K-Mart knick-knacks for another hour. Next I went over and looked at clothes for me! However, time ran short. Nursery school was soon over for the day and I had to pick up my daughter and be a mom again.

These days I look back on that day and the memory still refreshes me. Yet, sometimes I miss those sweaty little palms.

I’ve always been amazed that the side effects of many advertised prescription drugs are worse than the original condition. For instance, one of the side effects of a drug prescribed for indigestion is diarrhea. Oh yeah! I’d rather spend the day on the throne or in an adult diaper than contend with a little heartburn! Puh-lease!

Some drugs advertise even worse side-effects… lately I’ve seen more than one drug-hawking commercial that adds the quiet disclaimer that “in rare cases” the drug may cause heart attack, stroke or death. That’s the time I wouldn’t choose to take a one in a million chance.

These days Americans are pummeled with advertisement after advertisement that tells us to ask our family doctors about this drug or that one. However, this CNN.com report suggests that even our doctors may not be fully aware of the safety of the drugs they prescribe.

Apparently, all a drug needs to be released is a ten-digit FDA number and these numbers are issued before the drugs are FDA approved.

But don’t take it from me… read the CNN Report “Many drugs slip through regulatory ‘black hole’”

• When the full moon smiles down on me,
• Don’t tell me it’s just a bunch of craters on a lifeless clump of dust.
• Let me have the man in the moon.
• Don’t take away the magic.

• When fireflies zig and zag through the night
• Don’t tell me they are just phosphorescent insects.
• Let me have the stardust.
• Don’t take away the magic.

• When the rainbow stretches gloriously across the storm ravaged sky
• Don’t tell me its colors come from sunlight refracted through moisture
• Let me have the bluebird on the other side
• Don’t take away the magic.

• I know that it’s right to be practical
• But you know it isn’t always practical to be right.
• Let me have the whimsy.
• Don’t take away the magic.

• Mind races towards tomorrow.
• Though when it becomes today
• It remains for only hours
• Then slips into yesterday.

• Living in today
• I stumble
• Like a drunk on a tightrope
• In new shoes.
• The slip inevitable.
• Falling, failing,
• All the same.

• I fall and fail and flail at air.
• Arms reach out.
• Unfeathered wings
• Fingers grasping at the string
• Elastic gossamer
• Fragile stretching
• Thread unraveling
• I look down to see
• The net of yesterday’s memory.