The Big D

It has been a long time since I have written a post.  I feel like a bear, a blue and orange bear, who went into hibernation for the winter.   Now that it springtime, I am venturing back into the world.  I think Mr. Guy and The Lady have been hibernating at school!  They always seem to be busy.

Last weekend, The Lady had to be in Chicago for a meeting.  Mr. Guy went along and he said that I could go too.  Yay!  It has been a long time since I have been on a trip.  When The Captain was sick, we went on trips a lot.  Now we don’t go as much.  Sometimes I miss it and sometimes I don’t.  Anyway, I was excited to get to go this time.  I thought Mr. Guy and I would have a great time doing stuff while The Lady was stuck in her meeting.  The weekend didn’t go quite as I had hoped.  I learned another one of those “life lessons” as Mr. Guy calls them.  I learned about disappointment.

Big D is not for Dallas, where we live.  It is for Big Disappointment.

Out flight was very early.  We got up at 2:30 am to be at the airport at 4.  Well, Mr. Guy and The Lady got up.  Not me.  They just scooped me out of my bed half awake to leavet.  I didn’t really wake up until it was time to go through security and Mr. Guy had to send me, all by myself, through that dark tunnel where those TSA guys take pictures of my insides.  I have had to do that lots of times, but it is still scary for a little blue and orange monster!  They saw that my insides were empty!  I had had no breakfast.  Mr. Guy said that we would have breakfast on the plane but he would get us some coffee to share while we waited in the airport.

Disappointment #1
At 4am, nothing is open in the Dallas airport.  Not even Starbucks!!  


Mr. Guy and I had to wait until we got on the plane for our coffee.  This made for two grouchy monsters!  Mr. Guy and I grumbled together in our chair until it was time to get on the airplane.  The Lady ignored us both.  She knows that is the best thing to do when we have been awake, well sort of awake, for over an hour and have not had any coffee.  Fortunately, we were not in gym class with the coaches on this flight, we were in the first grade class.  In first grade, you get coffee before the airplane leaves the ground.  Phew!  Mr. Guy and I were happy about that.


I was so not awake when we left my house, that I forgot to put a shirt on.  I was a little embarrassed, but Mr. Guy held me tight so no one would stare at my orange belly fur and he told me that we had some time when we landed in Chicago before we had to head to our hotel; we would find a Chicago shirt for me in the airport.

Disappointment #2
Mr. Guy and The Lady walked all over the terminal, into every store they saw, trying to find a new shirt for me.  There were no shirts sized for little blue and orange monsters anywhere.  This seemed strange to me.  I have gotten lots of my shirts in airport shops.  Oh well, we still had Saturday to find a new shirt somewhere.

Disappointment #3
As it turned out, we did not get to see anything the whole time that we were in Chicago except our hotel.  


The Lady was busy with her meeting, and Mr. Guy found out that he was being given a whole bunch of extra work at school so he had to stay in the hotel room and work, work, work all day long!!  I was sad that I wouldn’t get to see any new places, but I was happy to get to spend the whole day with Mr. Guy.  We got to have breakfast and lunch together and I got to help him make some videos for his monsters at school.  


The day could have been better, but it also could have been worse.  Mr. Guy explained to me that there are times when things don’t go like you want or hope they will.  He told me I just had to look for something positive.  He said that if you look for stuff to make you unhappy, you can always find it.  But, if you look for something to make you happy, you can always find that too.  


I was happy that I got to go with The Lady and Mr. Guy.  I was happy that Mr. Guy and I shared lots of coffee and breakfast and lunch.  And, I was happy that Mr. Guy and The Lady told me that when we went back to the airport to fly home, we could try again to find a new shirt for me.  Oh, and I was happy that I got to nap and watch HGTV while Mr. Guy worked!  


At least I got to look at pictures of Chicago in a book.


Disappointment #4
Still no shirt to be found at the airport.

While we tried again to fins a shirt for me, Mr. Guy found a coloring book for himself and The Lady got a bracelet.  It made me smile that we found something for them. They also got a nice blue bag that I got to ride in.  

I learned that I am just as happy when I help to find a nice surprise for other people as I am when they find them for me!  


While we were waiting for our flight, I saw this strange toy hanging on the wall.  I asked The Lady if we could go play with it.  She said that it was not a toy; it was a pay phone.  


Hmmm…it didn’t look like any phone I had ever seen.  Why did someone hang their phone on the wall?  Silly question.  Because that phone was too big to put in their pocket.  And, it had too many cords and buttons and couldn’t even take pictures!  It looked like some kind of science fiction thing to me!  That was the newest thing, at least to me, that I saw all weekend!!

Then it was time to get on the plane and come home.


Even though I tried to smile and be a big blue and orange furry monster, The Lady knew that I was disappointed.  To make me feel better, she told me that during the month of May, she would include me in all of her daily photos.  That means that we will get to do something fun every single day!    The Lady said that we can post her photos to my blog every day too.  Now I am one happy and excited little monster!  I will have to spend all month brushing my fur so that I look my very best.  Oh, and she said that maybe there will be a new shirt somewhere along the way!  

Cars, Trucks, and Airplanes

Hi everyone!   It’s me, and I’m back!  Have you missed me?  Life for Mister Guy, The Lady, and me has been crazy busy since I last posted.  Mr Guy and The Lady spend way too much time teaching and not enough time helping me with my blog.  That’s just my opinion.  But I do love them and they take very good care of me!

Today I was going to write about our Christmas, but I had a very special day today so my Christmas stories, which aren’t very exciting except that I got some new T-shirts, will just have to wait.

Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to end the old year…or is it begin the new year…by buying a new car.  They actually bought it in New Year’s Eve.  Does that make it the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016?  Are beginnings and endings the same thing?  Do they always happen together?  Can you have a beginning without an ending?  2015 had to end for 2016 to begin.  2016 had to begin for 2015 to end.  This is way too complicated for a little blue and orange furry monster to figure out!  Maybe The Lady can explain it to me.  But, not now because right now I am going to tell you about my exciting morning.

Because it was so late on New Year’s eve when Mr. Guy and The Lady finished all the paperwork on their new car, the dealership did not have time to clean it and make it pretty for them before they closed so the salesman very nicely said to bring it back today and they would do all of that stuff.  I’m not sure why Mr. Guy and The Lady decided to take me with them this morning, but they did and I am really, really glad!

When we walked in, I saw a great big blue truck with blue and orange balloons.  I was sure that that was the new car we were getting because I love blue and orange and Mr. Guy and The Lady know that.  

I asked Mr. Guy if this was our new car and he said, “NO!..”  It is way too big.  I would be like I was driving an airplane if we got that truck.”  I have been on lots of airplanes, and it didn’t look THAT big, but since Mr. Guy is the driver, I guess he knows.  If we are going to ride in an airplane, I don’t want Mr. Guy to be driving; I want him to hold me on his lap like he always does so that I can look out the window!

Almost as soon as we walked in the door, a really nice man starting talking to us.  His name was Mr. Edwin.  Mr. Edwin asked Mr. Guy and The Lady all about me.  After hearing our story, he volunteered to have his picture taken with me.  Yay!  It has been awhile since I have added anyone to my 100 People project.  I am going to have to get busy in the next six months to get to 100 before my “birthday.”

Meet Mr. Edwin!

At the car store, he is a salesman, but he did not sell us our new car.  Mr. Edwin has another job too.  He hosts a radio show called, Juicy Talk.  It was exciting enough to meet a radio personality.  But even more exciting than that is that Mr. Edwin said that maybe, just maybe, that we–me, Mr. Guy, and The Lady–someday could come to talk to him and his show and share our story with other people.  That would be so much fun for this little blue and orange furry monster!!!  The Lady gave Mr. Edwin our card and he gave her his information so this could happen if Mr. Edwin doesn’t get too busy selling cars and Mr. Guy and The Lady don’t get too busy teaching.  I hope this works out because I am a very happy and lucky little monster and I would love to share those things with the world.

I don’t watch TV or read the newspaper because I know that a lot of the news is sad and scary.  I am too little to want to know all of the terrible details of many of the things going on in the world.  Fortunately, my family takes good care of me and takes me places where I meet lots of nice people who are very nice and are also willing to be part of my 100 People Project.  Today I am grateful for having met Mr. Edwin!  I hope I get to see him again…or maybe I’ll just get to hear him on the radio.

And back to the now less exciting news…our new car.  We didn’t get the airplane-like big blue truck, but I did take a minute to pretend to be the co-pilot.    

What do you think?  Would I make a good co-pilot?  I guess that first I have to find a pilot since Mr. Guy won’t do it.

After all of my pictures, I got to play while the service department finished “detailing” (what a funny word) our car.



Our new car is much smaller than the blue truck.  Mr. Guy showed me pictures and told me all about it.


I guess it is kind of like the little tiny airplanes we flew on between Philadelphia and Salisbury all those times, and the big blue truck is like the jets.   Hmm…no drinks or snacks on those little airplanes. I’m not so sure about this new little car.  The blue truck was so big I bet it had a refrigerator and microwave!!!  I suspect what I’ll get in our car is only my lunchbox.  Oh well, that is better than nothing.

I like our new airplane car.  It is quite comfortable.  Mr. Guy even let me sit in the pilot’s seat before it was time to buckle up and head home.  


Thank you to Mr. Edwin and all of the folks at Freeman Buick GMC in Grapevine, Texas for making my whole family happy!

Mr. Guy, The Lady, and I all wish you and those you love and happy and blessed 2016!

A Quick Trip to Philadelphia

Hi, everyone!  Life has been quite busy around our house.  Mr. Guy and The Lady are both back at work and the animals and I have been at home during the day.  I thought things were going to be calm and quiet for us, but we have been having lots of landscaping done at our house.  The dogs have spent the days watching intently and barking a little, the cat has slept through it all, and I have been trying to stay out of the way.  despite all of this busy-ness, we got to take a short weekend trip to Philadelphia last weekend.

The Lady is part of a group called NOAH, National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation.  Every other year the adults of NOAH get together for a weekend of fun.  NOAH is for people with albinism.  One of the things that that means is most of them have white fur.  Even though I have blue fur and Mr. Guy has no gray fur, they let us go too.  People with albinism also have difficulty seeing so Mr. Guy and I were able to help them find things in this unfamiliar city.

We got to the airport early, but not as early as when we were flying to Salisbury all those times, on Friday morning, September 11.  We sat down to eat a quick breakfast in the airport.


As we were finishing our meal, there was an announcement about a service of remembrance in the airport chapel.  Mr. Guy and The Lady explained to me that fourteen years ago at exactly that time, a terrible thing happened in our country and  lots of people lost their lives.  As I was listening to what had happened, I got very sad.  Mr. Guy held me tightly and we all said a prayer for all the lives lost and changed forever on September 11, 2001.

So that I wouldn’t be quite so sad, Mr. Guy took me to the candy store and bought me a treat to have on the airplane.  I got grapefruit, watermelon, and peach gummy chews.  Yum!


I must have fallen asleep as soon as we got on the airplane, because I don’t remember the flight at all.  I didn’t even eat any of my candy!  When we got to Philadelphia, we met some of The Lady’s NOAH friends in the airport and then we all rode to the hotel together.  While we were in the car, I realized that it has been quite a long time since I have added any new photos to my 100 People Project.  I hoped that while I was in Philadelphia that maybe I would meet a few people who would be willing to support my project.

As usually, Mr. Guy was carrying me when we walked into the hotel.  Several people called out, “Look!  It’s Blueper B!”  I wasn’t sure who any of these people were or how they knew me.  Mr. Guy said that he bet that they read my blog and that’s how they knew who I was.  I felt kind of like a monster star.  I got to talk to people, shake hands with them, and have my picture taken with them!  The first one is with Joni.  She and The Lady are good friends.  They have lots of things in common like this thing they do where they tie string together with two sticks.  Somehow they make the string turn into objects like hats and socks. They call it knitting.  I think it’s some kind of magic trick.  Maybe they could knit me a magic T-shirt.


The NOAH people said that people are fascinated with their white hair and that sometimes people ask if they can touch it…and sometimes they don’t even ask; they just do it.  I don’t think that that is very polite.  Another friend of Mr. Guy and The lady asked if she could give my fur a new style.  Ms. Cindy worked hard to give me a Mohawk.



What do you think of my new fur-do???


I think Mr. Guy might be a little jealous that he can’t have a cool Mohawk like mine.  

Since I let Ms. Cindy practice her hairstyling skills on my fur, she agreed to have her picture taken with me.


Ms Cindy and I had some interesting conversations.  She lives in Canada and invited us to come visit her some time.  That would be fun; I have never been to another country before.  

On Saturday, we went on a walking tour to see some of the historic buildings in Philadelphia.  Well, I went on a carrying tour; everyone else walked.  We had to take a short ride on a train to get to the starting point of the tour.

We saw lots of old buildings that are important to the history of our country.  Since I don’t go to school, I don’t know very much about history, American or an other kind.  We had an entertaining tour guide whose name was Mr. Jim.  He knew lots of things about all of the historical places in Philadelphia.  Though there is much more that I need to learn, he gave me a good start on learning a few things about my country.

We saw Carpenters’ Hall where the First Continental Congress met.


Independence Hall where the U. S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution were debated.

The U. S. Mint.


We saw the Liberty Bell, but only through a window.  The lines to get into all of these buildings were long.  Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we will go back sometime when we can spend longer looking around.

We saw this interesting sculpture.  The Lady was taking pictures of it when Mr. Guy said that she should take a picture of the reflection so that all of us would be in the picture.  I don’t have many pictures with The Lady because she is always behind the camera.  


I am grateful that Mr. Jim was willing to show us his city.  And, that he was willing to be photographed with me!

Even though it was a quick weekend trip, I had lots of fun in Philadelphia.  Mr. Guy and The Lady have some great friends in NOAH.  One of them in particular made me laugh all the time.  Her name is Becca.  She is very silly and lots of fun!  Becca and I ate donuts together and we had our very first Slurpees together.   I think that will make us friends for life! And her blue eyes make my blue fur really stand out! We also had a Philly Cheesesteak together in the airport.  She said that she might come visit us in Texas sometime.  I hope so! 

Thank you everyone for letting me share in the NOAH weekend even though I have blue and orange fur instead of white fur!  You all are lots of fun!!  The Lady just told me that I will get to see you all again next summer in Pittsburgh.  Yay!


I Met A Star!

Tonight I got to go to the theater.  This time yesterday I had no idea what that meant, but now I do!  The Lady explained to me that we were going to her school to watch a musical.  I thought that you are supposed to listen to music, not watch it.  Then I realized that The Lady said musical.  She explained that a musical is when there are people called actors that are on a big thing called a stage and they tell a story through words and songs.  People, and little blue and orange furry monsters, sit in chairs and listen and watch.



Mr. Guy and The Lady took me to this particular show because it has puppets and monsters just like me in it.  It was called Avenue Q and was performed by the Brookhaven College Theater Department. 


The Lady teaches at Brookhaven College, but she teaches music, not theater.

There were lots of things in Avenue Q that I did not understand – things like finding your purpose, and wanting someone to date, and schadenfreude, and porn, but that was OK.   I did understand the parts about the two boys who love each other, those about monsters being teased and having their fur pulled, and the part about a special school for monsters.  Well, I sort of understand that last part.  I know about monsters and since I have spent so much time lately with teachers, I am beginning to understand what schools are all about.  I think that I might like to go to a Monstersori school like the one that Kate Monster started in Avenue Q.

Like I said, I went to this musical especially to see the puppets.  They were just like me!  It made me think that some day when I am a bigger monster that maybe I could be in a musical too.  Of course, I will first have to learn how to sing.  I don’t think that I want to be like Trekki Monster, though.  The characters in the show called him a pervert.  I asked Mr. Guy what that meant and he said that it was not a good thing.  I want to be a good monster.

While I was watching the show, I thought that it would be exciting to get to meet one of the puppets in person.  The Lady asked the director of Avenue Q if that might be possible.  She said “yes” and even said that I could have my picture taken with one of them!  I was one excited monster!

At the end of the show, I waited for the actor people to come out to the lobby where we were.  They have a special place called backstage where the audience people can’t go so we had to wait for them in the place where we were allowed to be.


And then it happened!  Nicky said that I could have my picture taken with him!  And not only that, I could have it taken on the stage!  


In the story, Nicky loves Rob, but it takes almost the whole show for Rob to realize that he loves Nicky.  By the end of the story, Rod and Nicky are both happy!  I think it is neat that Nicky and I both have blue fur!  He doesn’t have orange horns like me, but he does have an orange nose.  I think that those things make us a lot a like.

Nicky has a person to hold him and take care of him like Mr. Guy does me.  His name is Mr. Tony.


Mr. Tony is a friend of Mr. Guy and The Lady.

Even though there were lots of things in Avenue Q that I did not understand, I had a great time tonight.  It was fun to see monsters sing and dance on the stage.  I feel honored to have met my first star.  And, it is fascinating to think about the idea of one day being an actor just like Nicky.

The Blue Ridge Parkway

I did not get anything written yesterday because we had a big day and I was tired when we got back to our cabin. Now that I am nice and rested,  I want to tell you about my adventure yesterday. The Lady’s friend, Mr. Rusty came to visit. They went to college together at East Carolina University. Blue and orange furry monsters don’t go to school, so I was not sure what college really meant. The Lady said when humans are growing they go to school to learn stuff. I know The Lady and Mr. Guy both still go to school but now they teach school instead of learn stuff. So do Ms. Linda and Ms. Linda’s Guy! Mr. Rusty is a school librarian so he works in a school too!  He takes care of all the books and teaches the children to love those books! Wow, I guess I don’t need to go to school. I have all these teacher people around me to help me learn about all kinds of new things! 

Mr. Rusty said he would take us for a ride to see part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I didn’t know what that was, but since it was called the “Blue” Ridge Parkway, I was sure that I would like it.. He told me that it is a very long road that goes through North Carolina and into another state called Virginia. We were only going to see a little of it. Mr. Rusty promised me that I  would see real mountains! They are the Blue Ridge Mountains. That seemed like a good name to me. I had already seen some mountains from far away, but Mr. Rusty said we would go up into the mountains and maybe I would get to stand on a mountain!

We left in the morning after breakfast. Mr. Rusty drove. He has lived in North Carolina his whole life, so that seemed like a good idea since he probably knew where he was going. We went a little way from our cabin and then got on the parkway. At first there were lots of trees. I have never seen so many trees in one place! Mr. Rusty said as we went further, there would be places along the way where we could look at the mountains as well as the trees.

We drove a little more and then stopped.  Then I saw them! Great big mountains.  


Wow!  I was confused about one thing though.  There were signs everywhere that talked about how many feet the mountains had.  


Mountains have feet??  The Lady explained that these were not feet to walk on, but were a way to tell how tall the mountains are.  She told me that we could figure out how many feet tall I am too, but we need something to measure me.  That will have to wait until we get home to Dallas.

Anyway, the further we went, the more feet the mountains grew.  It is a good thing that they don’t need socks and shoes for all of their feet!  



The mountain with the most number of feet was Mt. Mitchell. It has 6684 feet and is the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River.  We drove as far as we could…


…and then we walked the rest of the way to the very top.  Mr. Rusty and The Lady went all the way to the very top.  Mr. Guy stopped and said he could not make it that far. The Lady and Mr. Rusty took me to the top and took pictures.   Since Mr. Rusty is my new friend,  I figured the picture of us at the summit would be a good picture of him for my project.  


They were headed back down when Mr. Guy suddenly appeared.  

I also had my picture taken with Mr. Guy because, well, I always have my picture taken with Mr. Guy.  


He always carries me and holds me tight.  He makes me feel safe.




After all the walking, we were very hungry.  On the way down the mountain, we stopped at a place for lunch! The folks there were really nice. Greg took our order and brought us our food.  He had a great smile and seemed like such a happy person.  It makes me happy to see happy people.  He wanted to know all about me.  I then asked him if he would have his picture taken with me and become part of my 100 People Project.  He was excited about that!  


The Lady took my picture with him and then his friend Emily came over too.  She also wanted to be in the picture.  


She has a pretty smile too.  Greg and Emily look like they have fun working together and feeding all of the hungry people. So, I added two people to my project at lunch!

After we ate, Mr. Guy took me outside for a different look at the mountains, but all I saw was clouds.  We were sitting in the clouds!!


I also got another new shirt, one from Mt. Mitchell! YAY!!!  I was a very happy blue and orange furry monster.

After lunch we drove some more and saw some more mountains, but they didn’t have as many feet.  





We were headed to Linville Falls.   This is a place where water falls out of the rocks.  We had to hike to the place to see this falling water.  Mr. Guy went part of the way and then he waited while Mr. Rusty and The Lady went to the top of the falls.  It was kind of scary being up so high.  I found out that Mr. Rusty and The Lady were kind of scared up there too!    The Lady carried me and tried to take a picture of me and the falls.  It didn’t work so well.  I was smiling, but she was nervous.


We were all getting tired by the time we left the falls.  We took a different road, a faster one back to our cabin.  Mr. Rusty grilled some steaks for dinner and The Lady made some vegetables.  And then we all went to bed.  Well, I went to bed; I don’t really know what all of the grown-ups did.  I did get to sleep in my new shirt!


That’s all!

Blueper B and The Paint Bug

Most days in the life of my family are about me seeing or learning something new, but today, it was about Mr. Guy trying something new.  It was fun for me to watch him try something he had never done before.  He has done lots of lots of things in his life, but he has never painted a picture before.

The Lady likes to do all kinds of creative things.  She plays and writes music; she knits; she writes; and of course, she takes pictures.  The Mr. Guy hasn’t ever found anything creative that he likes to do.  He says that he is not a creative person.  The Lady and I have tried to tell him that everybody is a creative person; he just has to find his means of expression.  I was surprised when Mr. Guy and The Lady said that we were going to go paint today.  Of all the creative things that Mr. Guy might have chosen to explore, painting is not the one that I thought that he would have chosen.  What do I know?  I’m just a little blue and orange furry monster.

After lunch, off we went to a place called the Bier Garden.  Mixing beer and painting didn’t sound like a good thing to me, but again, what do I know?  Mr. Guy said that the beer might help to get his creative juices flowing.

A nice girl named Abbi was the teacher for the class.  I don’t think she knew what she was getting into having Mr. Guy in her class.  She gave Mr. Guy and The Lady some paint and an empty piece of white board.

She said it was called a canvas and was made especially for artists to paint on.  Mr. Guy kind of stared at it like he was really scared.

I told him it would be OK.  He was a grown up and he could paint a pretty picture if he tried and if he didn’t drink too much beer.  (I have never had beer because I am too little, but The Lady says that if you have too much that it can make you feel funny and maybe say or do silly things.)

Before they started, Mr. Guy kept looking at his phone.

 I think maybe he was going to call 911 to come rescue him.  I did not get to paint a picture.  That was OK.  I didn’t want to get paint in my fur.  But, I did get to do something new today too.  The Lady let me use her camera to take pictures of them painting.  Unfortunately, I only took pictures of Mr. Guy because without photos, no one would ever believe that he painted.

Finally they got started working on their paintings.  Mr. Guy seemed to relax a little.  He did a great job painting the background of his picture.  Then it came time to paint a background layer of trees.  Mr. Guy didn’t like that part too much.  He kept saying that what he was painting did not look like trees.  The Lady told him that they were not really supposed to look like trees; they were just kind of texture in the background.  They would give his painting depth.  That was the wrong thing to say because Mr. Guy says that he can’t see depth in pictures.  He still had 911 ready to push on his phone, but he didn’t.  He kept painting…and drinking his beer.

He finished both.  The Lady and I were proud of him for finishing his painting.  He didn’t cry or say any bad words.  This was thanks to his teacher, Abbi.  She did a great job of talking everyone through how to paint a pretty picture.  Abbi was kind, cheerful, and patient.  She is very good at her job!  She is The Paint Bug. 

She does classes like the one we went to today at different places, but not in Texas so if Mr. Guy wants to keep painting, he will have to find a new teacher. Abi also paints custom “critter portraits,” paintings of people’s furry monsters pets.  Maybe Mr. Guy would like her to paint a picture of me; I am not a pet, but I am a critter. 🙂  You can see all the cool stuff that Abbi does by visiting her website: www.paint-bug.com.

The coolest thing that Abbi did, though, was to have her picture taken with me!  I am posting it here, but her friend also took one of us and posted it on her website!  That is exciting!  Abbi is 9 of 100 in my project

I am happy that we all got to try something new today.  I think that I may have played with too many of the buttons on The Lady’s camera.   I hope that she will teach me how to take some pretty photos rather than blurry ones.  Oh well…

Oh, and one more thing…

My friend Stobbsie from Scotland asked to see a picture of my new T-shirt from the Biltmore; you know, the pink one.  Here I am proudly wearing pink!