And no, I’m not biased. I’m completely objective.

jonathan, i haven’t seen avatar. but i will totally check it out.

and arden in rainboots?!! cutest puddle jumper pants ever!

Totoro is an absolute favorite in our house. Arden had us calling her Mei for a while there… One of my favorite things about Totoro is that the adults all acknowledge and honor Totoro and the soot sprites just as much as the kids–they aren’t considered just imaginary friends, but rather a part of the greater makeup of their universe. The film just so honors that wonder-joy-awe part of a child’s imagination…plus, Totoro is just awesome. And he makes the trees grow.

My imaginary friend situation was nuts. I thought of the inside of my body as this miniscule village, sort of like the Smurf village, and each part of my body was run by a different imaginary friend. Like, Footy was the shoe store and Leggy was the transportation (of the people inside of me, as well as of me), and Tummy was the restaurant, and Army was the army, b/c what else could I do with that? But Brainy was my favorite, and whatever movies he watched at night dictated my dreams, and I’d get mad at him for watching scary movies (irony?) when I’d have nightmares. And he was the only one who could come out of me and talk to me, and he’d climb down that ridge on the roof of my mouth and jump into my hand….

I sound like a sociopath, don’t I?

last night, i remembered my bathroom cabinet in lafayette, which i *knew* was actually my own personal narnia wardrobe. i would sit on the toilet (is that TMI?) and stare at the cabinet and imagine all of the worlds it could take me to… and in order to get to the worlds, i had to crawl through a tunnel, which would sometimes be a giant slide and other times be more like a rainbow.

wow, my bathroom was totally exciting.

I heard NKOTB were reuniting…I remember telling my dad when I was in LOVE with them, that they were the next Beatles…MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I used to draw my dream housese too. My dad would bring my home drafting tablets from work and I’d spend hours constructing my dream home, only to inevitably leave off something important that I didn’t realize I needed at the time. Like a laundry room.

Second, I never had imaginary friends, but I had what I consider a good imagination, but based on concrete things. Like, I would sit and draw countless house plans for my imaginary house. All of these had a window seat for my room, obviously, and everyone had their own room (the kids shared rooms–me with my sister, and my brothers together), and big kitchens and porches all the way around the house. I’m from the South.

I also, and this is weird/nerdy, thought the letters/words on signs had personalities, and would look at the fonts on signs (I didn’t know the word font yet) and figure out if they were happy or sad words because of how they looked.

I’d also like to note I contributed to my sister’s imaginary life by telling her very scary stories. Like, if she kept getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, an alligator that lived under the floor would bite her feet off. (The alligator wouldn’t do it to me, obviously.) And that her dolls were actually children who had died.

Okay, I was mean. I’m making up by being nice to her now. I shouldn’t admit this stuff, eh?