I have always loved the Wizard of Oz. When I was a child, it would come on the television every year, and my mom and I would plant ourselves in front of the tube and fantasize 2 hours away. Then came the VCR, and VHS tapes. I think the first movie we ever played through ours was probably The Wizard of Oz. I still have that tape 30 years later. I found it when I was clearing out my library last week. Although you would think that a little sweet faced brunette child would relate to Dorothy, I never did. Even at 6 years old, I found her whiny and a serial victim. She seemed to enjoy the trouble she found, thrive on it, and never really did solve her own problems. But the Wicked Witch of the West...Now there was a 'can do' gal! She knew how to get things done! She could FLY! If someone landed a house on my sister, I'd have been angry also. I didn't understand how her vendetta made her wicked. And when that whiny over sized child blasted her with the scrub water and fizzled her off the planet...I cried. Later, when I was in high school, and the Gregory McGuire book series began with Wicked, I became a fan right away. He gave the witch all the depth that I had known was there. I gobbled up his books and passed them to my mother. SHE always knew that I was not a Regular.

Over the course of my 40+ years, I have collected several green witches. I know that they were meant as Halloween décor, and most people would store them for the better part of the year. Not me. I have proudly displayed them throughout my home year round. Now that I'm moving, I need to deal with my witch collection. Last night I was bon voyage partying with my Regulars, my Dorothy(s). I was reminded that they ALWAYS follow the yellow brick road and I tend to straddle my broom and fly! They tried to melt me with their tears and fears. But they are not MY fears...not MY tears. I did not dissolve my resolve.

After the Regulars were spent, my Reals and I returned to my place and CRUSHED a bottle of Parrot Bay. (I am not near as sick as I thought I would be...might be my new drug of choice...but that's another blog.) I gathered my witches and we split them among ourselves. I had to keep the first one. She's cheap and she came out of a crane machine when I was just a child. But she was the start of this correlative collection, and she'll get to move to Belize also. My Reals each have a Melly doll!

I said yesterday that my Reals and I will see one another again...but I learned last night that one of my Reals can not get a passport! WOW! Who knew? I guess as a youngster, she did some crazy stuff with a stolen prescription pad...WOW! Again. So, I'll have to visit her in the states....SIGH...