WISH IT WAS FRIDAY . . .

What is your favorite...
1. ...color? Dark red, the kind that makes a nice splash of accent color, enough to lend some excitement and pizzazz to khaki-colored furniture, or that adds that extra jolt of energy when revealed from underneath a long black coat, or that draws your eyes up and stirs your heart when slapped on a wall.

2. ...day of the week? Thursday. The day of anticipating the last workday of the week, when a weekend brimming with possibilities of fun and relaxation looms just over the horizon, and you know that "CSI:" and "Without a Trace" are just a click of the remote control away.

3. ...ice cream? Coffee. Which I can't have until Easter. Or homemade ginger-snap, which I can have if only someone would make it for me.

4. ...actor and/or actress? Colin Firth, because he is brooding and British. Julia Roberts, because she just seems like a nice lady with whom I could kick back and have a brewskie. When she's done breast-feeding, of course.

5. ...sound? The chirp-chirping of wee little birds early on a sunny spring or summer morning. That alone makes me get out of bed -- to see what they are so happy about, to look outside the window and feel the same sun's warmth that they feel, to flit about the same vast world as they, to be active with my friends and family just as they are. There is no happier sound, no signal to me that morning has broken and a new day has been created.