I had a nice one earlier this year with my sister. We spent two weeks in NYC, shopping, going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, walking around the city and just browsing around in all the little shops and stores that caught our fancy. New York is a walker's paradise! All the little restaurants and cafes, Central Park... the weather was perfect and we had a lovely time! I only wish I could have squeezed in a ride at a stable somewhere. :(

My second choice would be to go back to London. I haven't been there in a long time, so I have no idea if it's as beautiful as I remember it. But I want to go back there very much. 

Wash my hands, wash my hands, WASH MY HANDS!!!

Seriously people, unless you're very old or very young or have a SEVERELY compromised immune system (active HIV, etc.), this isn't anything to get into a tizzy about. You could get sick as hell and THINK you're gonna die, but probably you won't. We have public health protocols, which they didn't have in 1918, and we have antivirals, which they didn't have in subsequent flu epidemics.

Honestly. The best way to avoid infections of ALL KINDS is to wash your hands thoroughly.

REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT!!!! More money to libraries--my God, I knew the economy was in bad, bad trouble about three years ago when the public library budgets got drastic cuts. Why? Public libraries are ALWAYS the first places to get cut in local governments and it's the trickle-down effect--Federal funding was cut as Shrub funneled that money into the useless war.

Cut the benefits to the fat cats. Ease the burden on the average person. Why should you and I carry the big guys on OUR backs? That "trickle-down" ain't trickling down, believe me!

Health care. It's obscene that the richest country in the world doesn't have health care for its people. Health care for ALL. Full stop.

Environment. Don't even TALK to me about how Shrub refused to sign the Kyoto treaty. *burn*

Let us hope, instead, that he'll soon be forgotten by the rest of the world, and fade quietly into oblivion. I think it's too much to hope for, given the huge amount of damage he's done, but we can hope and pray that one day people will say, "George W. Bush? Who's HE?"

Woolworth's, definitely. I have many fond memories of shopping at Woolworth's as a child (usually where I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping), having a hamburger or a grilled cheese sandwich at the lunch counter, browsing the toy department, looking at the hamsters in the pet department and so on. They always had a great bulk candy counter, too. I vividly remember the sound of the candy counter--the rattle of something--jelly beans? peanuts?--pouring into the metal scale for a customer. I bought my first makeup at Woolworth's when I was about twelve. They had this brand that was two for a dollar. I remember a nail polish that was LAVENDER; I thought it was gorgeous. My mom sort of shuddered when I showed it to her, but I, of course, thought I was beauty personified when I wore it.

Just walking around that store was fun. I still miss it!

I also miss Marshall Field's. Macy's just can't compare. Marshall Field's was elegant, upscale, quality, gracious. I loved shopping there. The sales staff were always lovely, or so it seemed. And whenever I went to Chicago, a trip to the flagship store on State Street was a must, especially at Christmastime. Now, I feel I've wandered into Walmart sometimes when I go into the Mayfair store. I'm not joking, sadly.

HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT, NOT A PRIVILEGE, PERIOD, FULL STOP.