Remember this photo of "the Afghan girl" from the 1985 cover of National Geographic? I remembered they had found her a few years back but this was the first time I've seen the video. Imagine how many women have her same story, my heart breaks for so many Afghan women.

This past Sunday I did something I've never quite done before; I went to a hotel, ate, drank and talked about life... with other adopted people. Oh no, this was something I've never experienced.

Sunday was the official day of the Adoptee Rights Demonstration which was held in Louisville, KY this year. Unforunately, I missed the march, I tried to make it but there was just no way as my car has a personal vendetta against me and is on vacation at the auto repair, so I had to hitch a ride and thankfully, made it in time to finally meet my favorite people.

I can't begin to explain the emotions I was feeling on the drive there. When I started walking toward the restaurant, my stomach was in knots. I got there and immediately saw Claudia Corrigan D'arcy's red hair, there my people were, sitting together in one location. Theresa Hood was the first one I saw and hugged. These fellow adoptees know my life story, my personality, my politics, my religion, or lack thereof, my thoughts, yet to see everyone in person was so, so amazing yet so nerve-wracking at the same time. I couldn't think anything but 'they're going to ask me to leave' and 'they're going to hate me'... I know, how insanely adopted of me. Those thoughts could not have been farther from how I knew they would make me feel. I was seriously home with these amazing people.

I was there for only 19 hours, but it felt triple that amount of time. So in 19 hours, I got to have a real honest conversation with more than one person (which is so rare, isn't it?), drink some "il bastardo" wine, hug Linda Gambino, share a bed with Claudia (whom has to be coolest mom on the planet), and earned the affection of Jeni's adorable dog Gracie.

There were so many I wish I could have spent more time with, but I just want to thank Jeni, Claudia, Theresa and Diane for listening to my story and giving me that validation and kindness that is much appreciated. I cannot thank you guys enough.

I cannot wait to see you all again next year in San Antonio (and we thought the Ohio Valley was hot...).

For those of you who want to learn more about Adoptee Rights, donate and see photos/video from the protest, visit the main page here.

I'm too into the World Cup to blog. I have zero inspiration to write anything about anything. Keeping up with the games are long stretches of boredom and laziness followed by moments of sheer joy and terror. I'll be back if/when USA goes home...

I'm going to attempt the life experiment of... doing the exact opposite of what I would normally do. I don't mean a strawberry margarita instead of a coconut. Or Sarah Palin over a rock in a box.

I mean real life choices.

This should go great.

I will take a coconut margarita though.

Ok -- I just want to dedicate one small post to reclaim my blog's prohibitions in blogworld. I've had this blog for about two months now. Since I am an adoptee, when I signed up, adoption-related issues are what I sought to write about at least some of the time and will continue to.

I will never moderate comments (unless I attract a real wayward fruit from the crazy train) because this is the internet, it's not supposed to be moderated and I'm not afraid of someone else with an opinion. After all, there are plenty of self-righteous crazies who have discovered the perks of blogging while buying children in bulk from third world countries at the same time.

But I just want to clarify because I've been getting some very annoying and not-very-original posts and personal emails from biased readers regarding my, so far, very brief posts about my views of my life as an adoptee and the whole business in general. These posts/emails are coming from people whom are not adopted themselves, but have adopted brothers, sisters, cousins, ex-girlfriends, dogs and neighbors.

I'm all for debate, in fact, I go looking for argumentative debate, it's a personal hobby of mine. But I prefer to argue with people who can form, you know, an actual thought in their head; a thought that's based on fact, research and maybe even personal experience if we're lucky.

So just a heads up to pro-adoption readers -- please, do continue to read my blog, I'd be very happy to hear your opinions and exactly how you formed those opinions... but if you base my life on what you know of your own adopted child's or your friend's aunt's daughter's adopted child, I'll have to kindly rip you a new one.

I will always be in love with Al Pacino.

Growing up as the only adopted member of a predominantly Irish family, my unquestionable Italian-American heritage was more than obvious; my dad used to tell me my face resembled a young, female Al Pacino. Most girls would find this insulting, but I loved it. I'm weird like that.