she terrified me once...

"hey rio! do jews keep pets?"

"yeahhhh...just not pigs."

"really? even the really orthodox ones?"

"yep."

"oh. i didn't know that."

that, darlings, is why i love my trini co-worker. because she asks those questions that most of us wouldn't (out of fear of the pc police) bluntly, honestly, and without a trace of malice.

she is direct to a fault and i think it's wonderful. in her lifetime, she's been through hell and back and pulled herself up and out by the bootstraps...and is now hard as nails and strong as hell. she speaks her mind even if social convention frowns on what she has to say because by god it's her valid opinion, and quite possibly the truth, and she has every right to shout it from the mountaintops.

in many ways, she's my hero and my role model. while i don't want to tread the path she's taken exactly, i can only hope that if life throws me the kind of curveballs it's thrown her, i will come out as she has: standing, fighting, and impeccably dressed.