1. Jade: I have several pieces of jade – mala beads, earrings, etc – I love the way it always feels cool against my skin, and I like the tranquil green color.
2. Jaguar: Both the car and the cat – the former because I like speed and style, and this marque is known for both, the latter because they’re just so sinuous and sensuous and lethal.
3. Jalopy: I first encountered this word in a Hardy Boys novel when I was six or seven years old, and I loved the way it rolls off the tongue. Now, I also love the romantic vision of piling in an old car for a beachward road trip.
4. Jazz: There’s freedom to play in jazz that other forms of music just don’t have, and there’s also such a rich history of this uniquely American musical form. And my love of it has nothing to do with my secret celebrity crush on Harry Connick, Jr, either. Really.
5. Jellyfish: I used to be afraid of them, when I was a little girl swimming at Ocean Grove or Sandy Hook and my mother would sweep her arm in the water and send them adrift, without ever touching them, but then I saw the jellies exhibit at the Montery Bay Aquarium, and I realized how very magical they are. Alien, but beautiful.
6. Jetes: When I was very young, and enrolled in ballet classes, I learned that the most fun in the world, dance wise, is the jete. Those giant deer-like leaps across the stage are so much like flying.
7. Jetty: At many of the beaches I spent time on as a kid there were long jetties of slate colored rock, slimy with algae and partly covered in sand and seagulls, and often smelling as much of tar as anything else…I always wanted to go the end and feel the spray of the breakers in my face, but of course I was never allowed.
8. Jewelry: I’ve always liked dangly earrings, but it’s only in the past few years that I’ve really started to collect jewelry. A lot of what I have now comes from designers like she who goes by EvilAri on LiveJournal, and by Lucia whose work I fell in love with at a renaissance faire a few years ago. I like funky, original pieces more than shiny nice-lady stuff.
9. Jolan tru: It’s no secret I’m a Trekkie. Or Trekker. Whatever. This phrase is essentially the Romulan equivalent of the Italian ciao or the Hawaiian aloha, and is defined as meaning “Good day” or “Good night” in the Romulan dictionary.
10. Journal: I like blank notebooks themselves, as well as the act of keeping a personal journal. I prefer journals to diaries, as journals imply more adventure, exploration, and narrative. I also like reading published journals. Madeleine L’Engle’s Crosswicks quartet is a personal favorite.
11. Juggling: I don’t know how to juggle – I’ve tried, but never very seriously – but it’s a skill that fascinates me to know end. I have great admiration for jugglers and jesters.
12. Jukeboxes: Pop in a few quarters (nickels in the old old ones) and push a few buttons, and out comes music. When my college friends and I used to visit Mel’s Drive-in on weekends, we had a regular set-list of oldies we used to try and play in order.
13. Jump-ropes: My grandfather used to make mine out of nylon cording, and he’d melt the ends on the gas stove so they wouldn’t fray. I loved them, and would spend hours on the front porch, or skipping rope up and down the driveway, often with my friends. Innocent fun. A fellow blogger mentioned jumping rope recently, and I’m keen to have one again.

We spent most of the day in bed, sleeping and cuddling the dogs, alternately reading and chatting. It’s the way we often spend Sundays, and today was much like another Sunday.

Eventually we decided we ought to do something fun, and thought to check out the new Studio Movie Grill in Arlington, but, alas, everything we wanted to see was sold out at the time we went there, so we trekked over to Cedar Hill because we don’t like the movie theaters in our immediate neighborhood, and saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which was fun enough for a summer movie. I was, I confess, far more intrigued by the trailer for The Golden Compass that ran ahead of it. Well, first we went to dinner, and then we saw the movie, but dinner’s dinner, you know?

On the way home, as twilight blended into full darkness, we enjoyed seeing fireworks over the lake and over the hills in all directions, and playing “spot the fireworks” amused us slightly.

We stopped at Starbucks, and Blockbuster, and I came home with The Mistress of Spices and A Good Year, as well as some werewolf movie Fuzzy liked the sound of.

I fed the dogs while Fuzzy went to Taco Bell, because by this time we were hungry again, and we got home in time to catch the last 90 minutes or so of 1776. Fuzzy had never seen it before, I love it, and for some reason, I’d never connected that the infamous Ben Franklin “essential liberty” quotation is used in the movie before tonight.

I am now doing laundry and watching season one of West Wing, which seems an appropriate ending to Independence Day, even if it is now technically the fifth.