I figured it might be helpful to expound on this term since I’ll most likely be using it often. I realize that what I am about to express is not the least bit PC, and for that, I hope you’ll excuse me. If we are being honest with each other though (which I hope we can be), then we can all own up to the fact that not everyone you meet, or see on TV, or read about is someone you’d want to hang out with. The fact of life is that we’re not all compatible … and in my book, that’s okay. It certainly doesn’t mean that I wish anybody harm, it just means that there are those from which I’d like to keep my distance. Think of it this way: if you visit one of those internet sites that maps out your neighborhood and displays a red dot on the nearby home of a child molester, you’re not going to bake a batch of cookies and ask your kid to deliver them to Mr. Peepshow down the street right? You most likely wouldn’t throw eggs at the house, or spray paint an ugly slur on their front door (at least I hope not). No. You’d just be extra vigilant.

Granted, there is a significant difference between child molesters and those who I don’t view as high quality. I’m just trying to drive home the point that we have to make choices every day about who we do and do not want to befriend and invite into our lives. I choose the passive route with low quality people. You know, smile and say hello at the grocery store but don’t invite them over for game night.

On the other hand, there are people out there who I just click with immediately. In some instances it may be that a person possesses a quality that I recognize in myself, or better yet, one that I aspire to have. Other times I may be attracted to that person’s sense of humor, or moral compass, or compassion for others. Here’s the tricky part though: one admirable quality doesn’t a high-quality person make, in my book at least. I view a high-quality person as someone who encompasses a wide spectrum of likeable characteristics. Oh, and high quality people are not unblemished by any means. I view myself as a high quality person (surprise surprise) and I am the first to admit that I am so far from perfect that it would take me light years to get there even if I did have a super sonic rocket on loan from NASA. My husband is a high quality person too, and believe me, you don’t even want to get me started on his faults. ; )

You might be saying to yourself, “Well, who does she think she is? The Queen of Sheba or something” Well, if you happen to be saying that to yourself let me first off assure you that I’m not psychic. And secondly: no. I don’t think I am the Queen of Sheba. I do wonder though if she was a high quality person.

Here’s the thing. We each have individual tastes and quirks and expectations. What I view as a great quality in someone, you may view as a character flaw. To each his own. Ya know, yin yang and all. Anyway, my point (which I swear I had a much better grasp of when I sat down to write this) is that when I refer to someone as high quality, it should be taken with a grain of salt. Most often, it comes up when my husband and I (the ultimate reality TV junkies) come across a high quality person on one of our shows. It sounds like this:

Husband: Oh my gosh. Did you hear what he just said? That was awesome. That guy is funny.

Me: Hilarious. Oh, and I read on the internet that he doesn’t like Hillary Clinton either.

Husband: Really?

Me: Yep. And last week on Oprah he donated a million dollars to help fight AIDS in Africa.

Husband: Yeah, I heard about that. You know, there was a profile of him in my Best Life magazine a couple of months ago. He didn’t stop gushing about how cute his kids were and how his wife was the most amazing cook on the planet.

Me: How sweet.

Husband: Very sweet. I think he’s a high quality person.

Me: Yeah, totally high quality person. We could totally have him over for a BBQ.

Husband: Yeah. We totally could.

As you can see, our running list of high quality people has a very scientific basis and it’s formula is closely guarded. Sorry. You’ll have to come up with your own.

When my daughter saw the heading on my blog that read, “People who smell bad”, she repeated it aloud half giggling, half incredulous. She fully doubted I was really going to include such a thing on my site. After all, I’ve always taught her that if she doesn’t have anything nice to say she should refrain from saying anything at all. With that lesson firmly implanted in her soul, how could I justify disparaging scent-challenged people in such a public format? I know it sounds bad. But before you scold me for poor parenting, read on.

“I want to click there,” she said.

“I haven’t written the stinky people part yet. You’re just seeing the link that will eventually lead to that page,” I answered.

“Oh,” she replied. Not satisfied in the least. “Well, do you know who’s going to be on the list yet?”

You gotta love that kid; her one-liners are hilarious.

If, like Kennedy, you were hoping to visit this page to see who tops my list of stinky people, I am sorry to disappoint you. What I can do is offer an explanation. So, without further ado:

My husband and I have developed our own terminology relating to topics of frequent conversation between the two of us. If you’ve not checked out my musings on high quality people, you should; it’s a thoroughly entertaining (and maybe a tad controversial) read. Back to stinky people though.

I don’t remember for certain where I heard this, but I want to say that it was a tidbit Dr. Oz ( a high quality person) passed along during one of his segments on Oprah. Anyway, you’ve all heard of pheromones right? Wikipedia describes pheromones as, “chemicals that trigger a natural behavioral response in another member of the same species.” Surely you’re familiar with the concept. Blame that initial attraction to your spouse on a case of those darn flared up pheromones. Three kids and 15 pounds later and wouldn’t you know it? Suddenly those little guys have settled down. Figures.

Anyway, according to the unmemorable source that I sited earlier, pheromones work in the opposite way too. I know, crazy huh? Apparently, pheromones are also to blame when you meet a perfectly average human being (man or woman by the way, pheromones evidently aren’t choosey about sex in this case) who, for reasons you really can’t explain, you don’t care for. Surely you’ve experienced this. I know I have. There are just those people that you meet, or worse yet that you have to deal with frequently, that are like the kryptonite to your Superman. Nails on a blackboard. Water dripping in the middle of the night. You get my drift; some people just smell bad. So bad that your nose can’t even pick up the scent. Rather, your hormones and the chemicals inside take over in a defensive effort to keep you far, far away from the smelly culprit. And when you try to come up with a logical explanation for the utter distaste certain people leave in your mouth: nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. That’s when you know. It’s not that he or she is a bad person. Heck, neither are you for keeping your distance.

Don’t feel guilty. Sometimes our bodies know better than our minds. Some people just smell bad and there isn’t a darn thing we can do about it. Except maybe make a list and publish it online. ; )

With these words I am making history. Admittedly, not the kind of history that really matters, but history nonetheless. Welcome to the very first post of my blog! Until recently I didn’t really know what a blog was all about. It’s not like I’ve been hiding under a rock and hadn’t heard the term before. In fact, I’d heard of the concept and, quite frankly, any desire to start my own eluded me. But of course that was before I was invited to Walt Disney World to mix and mingle with some of Disney’s picks for the grooviest blogging mamas in cyberspace. Needless to say, I accepted the invitation before they had the chance to think twice. In no time at all reservations were made and as of today I’m left with a mere 21 days to agonize over what I should bring along in my suitcase. Like any good participant would do, I felt compelled to research the whole blogging thing in advance of the trip if for no other reason but to avoid showing up and feeling like a worthless bump on a log, or blog as the case may be.

It didn’t take much googling to discover that there was far more to the blogging culture than I ever imagined. I mean, what I found weren’t the gallery-gazing, spacey, absolutely-no-grip-on-reality bloggers that I expected to find, though I did come across one or two of those as well. You see, not long ago, I was under the impression that, generally, a blog was a MySpace or Facebook alternative for artsy people who’ve “outgrown” that sort of thing. Boy was I wrong. There are blogs out there on just about any subject by just about every type of person in existence today. Of course, over the last few weeks I’ve focused on the ones by the moms who’ve been invited to the Disney World mixer. After reading what these women have to say from day to day, I must admit that I’m impressed. So much so, in fact, that I’ve not only become hooked on their blogs, but that I’ve been inspired to start my own.

So, there you have it: yet another way Disney has influenced my life.

Truth be told I’m pretty excited about this little endeavor of mine. I guess it would be more accurate to say this little endeavor of ours. My husband, Jeff, the technological genius he is, has been quite instrumental in getting this site up and running. And for his dedication to coding and designing so that my page appears exactly as I hoped it would, I am grateful. Thanks hero.

In case you’re wondering what I plan to do on these pages, here are a couple of hints:

*Share thoughts and ideas in a straight shooter sort of way (never mind that I’ve gotten myself into a bit of trouble a time or two by doing just that).

*Ramble shamelessly about my unfathomably adorable children and all the unfathomably adorable things they say and do.

*Occasionally vent about the not so cute aspects of aforementioned unfathomably adorable children and then vehemently deny that my children harbor an ounce of anything but cuteness.

*Share the rare gems I come across in cyberspace (laugh-out-loud funny stuff, or shockingly interesting stuff only I swear! I am so not a forwarder!)

*Offer recipes that no self-respecting cook/baker should be without.

* Leave room to change as I see fit! : )

Through my research of all things blogging I learned that keeping posts short and sweet so as to hold the reader’s attention is a good thing. Oops. There’s always next time.