Thinking Things Over

Back in the day--the day before the proliferation of paper and plastic products, to be exact--a woman's joy was to possess a nice set of china. Thus, through various twists and turns, Fio inherited two sets of really good china of the same pattern (Haviland, to be exact), one from her great-grandmother, the other from Husband's grandmother, and she uses them at Christmas every year. But now she's considering selling both of them off. The times, they are a-changin', and Fiorella doubts that the next generation will value this heritage. besides, there's only so much one can pass on without weighing people down.
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Fiorella has been blessed with good friends. The guys at Mazda take good care of her baby car, Click  Computer Repair provides not only good service, but good advice, and the lady bankers at Chase are helping her through a financial situation she wants to settle. Thank you, one and all.
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Fio has been hearing a lot about meditation lately so she researched it on line--and decided it wasn't for her. Fiorella doesn't want to sit still, doesn't want to clear her mind of everything she has commited to, and doesn't want to hypnotize herself into nothingness. Ever since she was a child, she's had an acute perception of time passing, and she doesn't want to lose that feeling because it is what drives her to do what she must do before she leaves this earth.

Mind Control

Fiorella is not one to jump on bandwagons, especially when someone is trying to control her mind.  Especially when someone is trying to sell her something. Which brings her around to a meeting she attended last week, a meeting in which the speaker talked about meditation and hawked her books.

It was standard con-man technique: talk in a slow, hypnotic voice, smile the whole time, tell a few humorous anecdotes about your initial disbelief in the product, lull people into relaxation, ask for comments or answers, then validate each and every one of them, even if they're contradictory.  Let the suckers sell themselves on your value.

Bxxch that she is, Fio didn't cooperate.  The emperor had no clothes.