Profile addy is good, Deb.

And Connie, I get it. My kids are always agog when they hear I an 33 and don't have kids. But that's nothing compared to how they react when they learn I don't WANT kids -- "Don't you LIKE kids?" It's hard for them to wrap their heads around the fact that you can like kids, but not want to have children. And it makes me kinda nuts to have 15 and 16 year olds tell me, "Oh, you'll change your mind when you get married! You'll be a good mom!"

And then watch their eyes spin when I say I'm not too into marriage either. Which leads to the whole "Are you gay?" look, and the whole FREAKY CRAZY idea that a woman can like kids, like men and still not really want to marry or procreate.

I just smile and grit my teeth and console myself that I am providing an fabulous role model for girls who maybe want to think that there are other options in life than the traditional.

Note bene: Just to be crystal, not dissing anyone else's choice, just stating that they aren't for me...and it's hard to convince many people that it's OK to think otherwise. And no, my choices are not fucking sour grapes, either, which is a Knowing Look I have gotten all too often and had to restrain myself from smacking off of people's faces before.

Er, no one here. Just...people.

And it makes me kinda nuts to have 15 and 16 year olds tell me, "Oh, you'll change your mind when you get married! You'll be a good mom!"

Gah, I hate that, "you'll change your mind" or "you'll love them once you have them." I thought I had the perfect capper with, "Well, I'm in my 40s, so it's not a question anymore," but then I got the perky, "Oh, you can still have kids!"

Fortunately, I don't have many of those conversations anymore. The kind of people who want to tell me these things generally pick up on the "I'm a baby bird and she's a cobra" vibe and leave me alone.

And no, my choices are not fucking sour grapes, either, which is a Knowing Look I have gotten all too often and had to restrain myself from smacking off of people's faces before.

God yes. I hate this.

I'm having writer's block on this drabble. Too many ideas; not usually my problem.

Linden Wood

Velvet maroon lined linden box contains one wooden hammer, four wooden stakes, prayer book, crucifix, garlic, knife, holy soil, holy water, holy incense, holy oil, serums and potions.

You, oh fearless vampire hunter, brave the tuberculosis-ridden village. You tell them a vampire is behind their suffering, pick a grave. Drive a stake into the unearthed corpse’s heart, garlic and incense giving you some protection from the stink. You are long gone, pay in hand, by the time the villagers notice the deaths have not stopped.

In a time - like our own - when superstition blended with science , did you know you made a living from a cruel hoax? Or were you the first person you deceived?

Gar, add a hyphen to "tuberculosis ridden".

Other than that?

Damned near a perfect drabble. Evokes the line Harker thinks near the beginning of Dracula (mangled German coming up): Vor der toten reiten schnell - for the dead travel fast.

If I remember my German correctly (I took it in high school, eee), what that actually means is "ride fast in front of the dead." Vor is "in front of," fur (pretend there's an umlaut over the u) is "for," or "seit" could be used in the sense of "since" the dead travel... However, reiten is the verb "to ride," as a horse. In this case, reiten is used in the imperative case to the reader. Travel is a different verb, which I've totally forgotten, now.

So, still pertinent to the drabble and the line in Dracula, just a slightly different spin.

Sail, tell Bram Stoker, not me. I lifted from the novel itself, not from my German primer. (edit: as well as the translation - it's how Jonathan Harker translated it, not me)

Yo, Bram, you putz!

Nah, I figured you wouldn't be making the mistake if you knew the language, Deb. You have a rep for precision in language. Also, I figured that you remembered what was in the book verbatim, you've got the eye/brain for that or maybe ear. I just thought it was interesting that either translation works, just in a slightly different way.

Aha1 Found it. And Stoker was actually quoting - and, I believe, slightly mistranslating - from Burger's "Lenore". As written:

"Denn die Todten reiten schnell" ("For the dead travel fast")."

So I screwed up on the plural of "dead" - why is that feminine, damn it? Why isn't it "das" for neutral? - but he messed up on "reiten".

And, there you go.

Thanks Deborah. I added the hyphen, and also a comma after "pay in hand".