Rest areas along the highways are notorious for laughs and the last pit stop of our trip left me with tears streaming down my face.

Getting ready to sit down, I felt something from the next stall tickling my bare legs --- eeek!!! Double eek, I think! Not knowing what to expect when I looked down, it was only both rolls of toilet paper flapping in the breeze from the stall next door. By the time I figure that out, it's made me jump and jumpy.

Then as soon as I sit down the bowl starts flushing. The dang thing wets my bottom and flushes twice more before I finish tinkling! Technology has certainly perfected that little screw-ball motor. I stand up, dry off my freshly washed bum, and straighten my clothing, when a tasty chocolate-covered peanut, we had been eating in the car, tumbles out and onto the floor. Not wanting someone to think it's SOMETHING ELSE, I pick it up, tossing it towards the flushing toilet, when it lands on the white toilet seat!

Laughing hysterically, I consider leaving it for the next poor lady, but instead pick it up and throw it into the swirling water and off to China, never to be seen again. My impish momma would have left it and giggled all the way back to the car!

Hello. I'm Rita B and I'm a hugger.

Huggers are sexual predators? On vacation the newspaper ran a couple of days of Dear Abby columns where readers were venting about people hugging them when they didn't want to be hugged. Since I'm a over-endowed hugger, I found it disturbing that someone might consider my hugs an assault to their person!

I love hugging most people. I can usually tell if someone does not want to be hugged, but the thought of doing it when they might hate it upsets me tremendously. Some people actually say they feel violated! I'm shocked, because I would never think of myself as a sexual harasser.

These people wrote in and were sharing their personal techniques for blocking an unwanted hug!

I never realized that hugging was so distressful to some --- even a violation of their space --- but now I am more aware. It will give me something to think about before I open up my arms from now on. Since I'm a warm person, I will think about hugging before each and every hug and try to be more sensitive.

Streamers, are you a hugger, a hugger hater, or are you somewhere caught in the middle???

1. Wild pigs are thought to have tainted the bagged spinach. Isn't that just the way it is in life --- wild pigs mess up everything!

2. Some companies are changing their dress codes to include regulations on tattoos and body piercings. It's a new high for personal creativity! During the next ten years body art will gain even more acceptance as younger people move up into higher positions in the business world.

3. The recent article on music preferences was not surprising --- complex music lovers have higher IQs and extroverts favor a heavy bass line --- to mention a couple of the revelations. Duh, but interesting nevertheless.

4. As I'm always keeping an eye out for information on body language, now finger lengths are thought to reflect character traits. My ring finger is longer than my index finger so I'm supposed to be more aggressive.  Arrrrrrrrghhhh, mateys!  My husband's fingers are symmetrical in length which means he's more athletic and competitive with a higher IQ. That's funny because beside sports, he's into music and mathematics. Looks like he wins in the finger language!

5. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I've scheduled my mammogram --- have you? Remember, Streamers, even men can get breast cancer so everyone needs to keep a check out for any lumps.

Last night I was with a gang of kids and parents at a fast food restaurant, when a man came in announcing he needed gas money. Everyone looked at each other in that embarrassed way --- not sure what to do --- but no one made a move to give him anything.

As usual, my wallet was almost bare, except a one dollar bill, so I innocently gave it up quickly. The guy came by, took it with a slight grumble, that sounded like he was upset. Out the door he went with just my one measly dollar in hand. (I guess God didn't want me to have that Frosty afterall!)

A lady with us told me that this same man does the same thing all over town, all the time. It was a royal scam!

Okay, so I fell for it ...... again. And I felt a bit of deja vu afterwards. I used to want to give money to those guys with the "homeless" signs standing at intersections, until I read in the newspapers that these guys make thousands of dollars a week from people like me. That's very upsetting, but do we not give because it's a possible scam? I probably will think a little longer about it next time, but give anyway.