"A" little help from my friend

I've had blogger's block for the past day and a half, so when I read Courtney's post, I asked for a letter. She gave me: A.

Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter. Write ten words beginning with that letter, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why.

1. Aunt Annie's Alligator, A, A, A - Yeah, I know that's more than one word, but coming up with A-words that mean anything to me is really turning out to be hard! As anyone who has a child and reads Dr. Seuss books to them will know, this is "what begins with A". And what does it mean to me? It means that I have two wonderful children to love.

2. Straight A Student - bit of a stretch, but I'm telling you, I really have blogger's block, OK?! I was a Straight A Student in high school. I was Valedictorian, even. However, I can't say that without laughing because I still vividly remember when I was in 8th grade, leaving my brother's high school graduation ceremony, I told my parents that I wanted to be "Baccalaureate". "You mean, Valedictorian?" Uh, right!

3. Authority - Question it!! I had this button in high school (during the age of wearing slogan buttons) that said, "Question Authority". I still believe in that. Just because a rule is a rule, doesn't mean it's a good one.

4. Actually - I just say and write this word a lot. Thought I should actually include it in the list.

5. Accepting - I try to be open-minded and accepting of other people's ideas and beliefs. I think I rarely accomplish the task, especially when it comes to ultra-conservative people, but I'm trying to get better.

6. Accompanist - I started playing the piano when I was in 2nd grade and stuck it out through high school. I had the great honor of accompanying my elementary school choir when I was in 5th and 6th grade. I thought it was sooooo cool.

7. Apathetic - Ugh. I'm pretty apathetic about my job these days.

8. Alone - something I rarely get to be! However, the husband is currently out of town, so the past couple of nights, I've found myself alone in the house after the kids go to bed. Wanna know something pathetic? I've spent my alone-time cleaning the house and doing laundry. And I enjoyed it. Holy crap.

9. Ashtray - this word doesn't really mean that much to me - but in Spanish, the word is "cenicera" and it's the first Spanish word I learned. A group of us were out celebrating someone's birthday about 10 years ago, and I pestered the Spanish-speaker of the group to tell me the Spanish word for everything. (I should add "annoying" to this one.) I have always been obsessed with the idea of knowing another language. Now, actually taking the time and effort to really learn another language is another thing.

10. All done. Thank God. This has nearly killed me, as evidenced by the lame A-words that I squeezed out of my feeble head. Lord have mercy on your soul if you request a letter from me. It's a rather difficult task!