…I would dress up like this. I watched The Queen this weekend, and I loved it.

I am known in my family for calling myself the Queen of the World. This is because I am bossy and have fabulous ideas – always. After watching The Queen, I may change my mind about wanting this role for myself. This “based on true events” story is the kind of speculative non-fiction I really enjoy. I know it might be totally untrue, but the fact that it might be a little true – or even possibly true – is enough for me. This movie gives an inside peek at what might have been going on in the secret emotions of Her Royal Highness (that’s HRH to you!) Queen Elizabeth II. Subtle, funny, and touching. Again, I loved it.

The Queen highlights one of my favorite qualities: compassion for those who are different from ourselves. Our world is so segmented, fragmented even. We distance ourselves from each other because we don’t understand each other. This happens to Queen Elizabeth after Princess Diana’s unexpected death. The country moves into this wild public sorow, and the Queen does not know how to handle it. She says (my paraphrase), “In this country, we have always mourned privately.” We see her as a very real person (my favorite is when she drives her old SUV all over the gorgeous English countryside) who comes to terms with her own failure. I felt sorry for her but also saw her strength. It really was beautiful.

So, this is the costume I would wear and I would wear it with humbleness. For tonight, you may call me HRH Queen Elizabeth…We’ll go back to Queen of the World tomorrow!

This article on Radiantmag.com is so great! You know how I love a good analogy. This one relates one man’s fight aganst the raging California fires to our need to be vigilant over our own spiritual lives. Loved it.

The other reason today is Facebook. I’ve had my doubts about the reliablitly of online social networks. I mean, are they a truly reliable form of authentic relationship? But today when my inbox said I had a message from an old friend in Sweden, I was giddy with excitement! I heart Facebook today!

This one is just for fun.

The Good Girl Lit blog is running a Tag theme today about your favorite item of clothing. This one is mine: a long, tunic-style brown sweatshirt with a cute little drawstring at the waist. I got it on a clearance rack at Gap last year (apparently not everyone thought it was that cool). That’s one of the things I love – it is name brand but I got it cheap. The best part is that it is soooo comfy and still looks like I belong in this decade.

A jacket is one of my favorite items of clothing in general. I’ve heard (check out the After Eve clothing swap) that women wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. This is definitely true for me. So, when I get stuck on something, it is nice if that something can be worn legitimately everyday without outing me for a total lack of fashion awareness. The jacket is perfect.

So, that is a picture of me in my fave. I made it silly because today my kids were practicing their Picture Day smiles in my bed before school. I remember the stress of tilting my chin a thousand different directions and moving every part of my body to point toward something else and feeling extremely tense. How can you get a good picture like that? That’s why I made my picture today fun. I was photographer and subject so I did it the way I wanted!

Smile! (And could you move your head a little bit this way, good, now just move your shoulders to the right a little, good, now, up, good, and ….)