Hey, I'm doing the big D myself, and this blog and all the comments from everyone else who's been there, has done ME a world of good over the past few months, too.
So thank YOU.

Number one, yesss!

Thank YOU for reminding me that a southern accent is a lot more fun than most others; for sharing your life so I didn't think I was the only one out there who had been through that; for being fun and funny and entertaining all at once -- on a regular basis; and for great pictures with wonderful captions of your cats to remind me that my four are not the only ones with attitude. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you for your great writing and your great sense of humor. There are oh so many of us out here who are 4.5 minutes from crazy.

Ya'll have a wonderful day, too!

And yes, sadly, my brother is still far hotter than I. He is also married and my little bro is now the single studly one. I'll have to post pics one day, give the ol' siblinglings a big head.

And to Dez, who was curious about Middle Of Nowhere, LA... I posted the answer on the bottom of yesterday's thread. hee.

I am now off to eat my weight in food that has gravy on it. Ya'll have an awesome day!!!

You are so welcome! I cannot tell you how much I love to read this blog. Most times, I am laughing out loud and cracking up over all of your trials and tribulations...some of them remind me of my past. The good, bad and the ugly. It is nice to know we are all just living on the edge of sanity most of the time. No, you are not alone. I can relate to your crazy L.A. stories, because I roll in the same hood and it is even nuttier than you make it out to be! Have a great Thanksgiving and pour on the gravy!

Thank you CAP for making me laugh when I needed the most. You are a talented writer & I think you should consider writing a book. Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, Laurie. Hugs to the cat posse...hope it's cooled down in your Encino-adjacent neck of the woods. I hope your nana's feeling better, too.

Wine + turkey = good times! :)

Thank you! Your blog is the best reading on the internets! Really, you are open and honest and funny and caring and a great writer. I look forward to every update, and I feel like you are a friend, even though you don't know me from Adam. Hope you and yours have a great Thanksgiving.

no, thank you! MWAH!

You make me laugh, you make me cry, and you help ME to realise that I'm not alone either. Still in limbo land as I try to sell a house and somebody is in denial that we're breaking up. So looking forward to being the crazy lady living on my own with the cat posse. Thank you for making each step on the way there more bearable.

thanks Laurie, for being here, for making me laugh, for giving me something to read that is fun and entertaining. stop by sometime! Happy Thanksgiving girlie!

Enjoy the gravy.... i'm still cookong. Should be an interesting evening, what with in-laws coming up. YIKES! And THANK YOU!

No, THANK YOU. Thank you for just being Laurie and being honest enough to admit it. I imagine it's pretty much a full time job being you so thank you for sharing your life so generously with us.

Thank you for sharing your wit, wisdom and unique view of life. Your blog makes my days brighter.

Ooh. Gravy. (Our family celebration doesn't happen until tomorrow.) Happy Thanskgiving! Thank you for sharing your life and your cats and your hair and your perspective with us. (4.5 minutes? What does it look like from that far away?)

Much as I have to be thankful for, and much as I am duly thankful, here are three things that would send me into a gratitude meltdown:
1. More cat pictures.
2. The return of the knitting.
3. WRITE THE DAMN BOOK ALREADY.

Thank YOU.

Happy Turkey Day!

I hope you have a great one!

Thanks for your honesty and your good humour! You are hilarious, and heartfelt all rolled into one. Thanks for keeping me entertained, I always enjoy reading your blog.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you, too.

Because as much as we may have helped you, you've helped us. At least me. There are some days that I just feel like shit, and my depression is kicking in, and just when I think it's at it's worst, you post thing like "My Hairstory", which made me laugh so hard I literally had to get up and go to the bathroom every day there were new pictures, or this: http://www.crazyauntpurl.com/archives/2005/11/master_of_the_o_1.php, which lets me know I am not colorful by myself.

And that sometimes, it's okay to have a glass of wine (or 12) before noon.

Thanks Laurie. I love you like I've never loved a virtual person before.

sorry that i never left a comment before because i was thinking it makes no difference one less or one more. now i see that it does make a difference. so thank you.

Longtime reader, first time commenting. You're the best, Laurie, and thank you for you and your blog. Truly.

I am thankful for Crazy Aunt Purl. I only wish she lived close enough to come to my weekly knitting group.

Happy Thanksgiving, Laurie!

Thank you for letting us peek into your life. Thanks for all the fun I have reading you.
Hope your Thanksgiving is wonderful!
:)

Thank you for the honesty, the laughter and the tears. You make us feel like we aren't the only ones on the path to Broke and Crazy, N.W. (No Where).

Ditto

It is only the great and overpowering fear of the Sobakawa that compels me to come back to your site day after day!!! Hope you have a great T-Day, Laurie, you make me laugh and cry in equal measure and I'm thankful you're so open and funny and willing to post pictures of your hairstory. I am also in love with Bob.

Exactly what Dorothy B. said. She's put it so eloquently I can't compete. I'd just like to add, thanks for giving me the inspiration and bravery to share more of myself with others.

I hope you have an absolutely fabulous Thanksgiving!

A big THANK YOU back!!! Your stories and pictures are pure joy in my daily life. You and your forehead are extra special and it is nice that you share the kitties too!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

thank you for sharing your life. hope you're having a fantabulous yarnificent thanksgiving.

Thank you for the wonderful writing, the bank robber boyfriend, the hairstory...for being Southern! Happy Thanksgiving!

...the best kind of southern, the kind that makes me proud to live here...

Laurie;
Your blog is read by many more people than you realize, some of whom (like me!) are both male and non-knitters.

You're doing far more good here than you know. My one wish is that you will finally decide to write a book of short stories. Heck, even if you compiled your columns and sent them off to a publisher, I bet you'd get a book offer. I know, for one, that I would buy a copy! Heck, I'd buy several copies, and then try and teach my cats to read, rather than simply lay down on my books, as they are doing right now.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Thank you, Laurie. Thank you for your honesty and humor, but thank you the most for your courage. Thank you for--unintentionally--giving me the strength to get out of bed on a Sunday last February, and try to face the day (and the rest of my life) knowing for the first time, that I could. Thank you for setting a fine example of what women should be, thank you for giving me the strength to pick up sticks and move across the country to a new life. Thank you for being my salvation this year (WWLD?), thank you for letting me--and hundreds, likely thousands--of Internets people know that "all we can be is what we are, failures and all" and that that is enough.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing and making us laugh. You may not realize how many people you make smile just by posting. You're a bright star!

(And the kitties...mustn't forget them, they make us smile too!)

Thank YOU for the wonderful, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking writing. It makes me feel so much better when you talk about how you feel so alone sometimes, and the ways that you find to get through times that are not-so-fun. It's good to know that I'm not alone.

And the cat pictures are great, too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, sweetie. I hope you have a wonderful day. XOXOX

To everyone else reading this, I hope y'all have a Happy Thanksgiving too!

:) the days you are the funniest are usually right on schedule with the days i'm needing a laugh..thank you!

Thank you for sharing your life stories with us -- you've made me laugh and cry, and your courage has really been an inspiration! Also, as another relocated Southerner in the Los Angeles area, thank you for bringing "y'all" back into my vocabulary.

Thank YOU for being so damn funny, even when I know you are feeling anything but.
And for reminding me that I am NOT insane, it's just my Southern coming out from time to time (like, when I'm awake).
And making me feel validated because of the way I mouth off to people on the bus (get UP when an old lady with a cane gets on, you punkasses!!!).
And reminding me where I have been (ie End of Messed-Up Relationship Hell), and that I am now through it all and I lived and survived and figured out how to be really, honestly happy.
And for all the kitty pr0n, since I cannot have a cat at the moment.
And for being you, all the time, Out Loud. The world needs more women like that.

I've recently discovered your blog via Lemon Gloria. You are so damn funny - I look forward to my daily visits. Keep writing!

Thanks for all the giggles, chuckles, chortles, guffaws and laugh-'til-I-cry moments you've given me this past year since I started reading you. You definitely have a gift for humor writing. May each year just get better and better for you. (I have no doubt that will happen). I look forward to seeing what 2007 holds for you -- I know great things are in store. And no matter what happens, I just hope you'll keep telling us all about it!

May you have a blessed day, no matter how you spend it. Here's hoping you get a chance to see your granny this weekend. :-)

Right back at ya, sister.

I've just started reading here, and you've had me in tears, falling off my chair with laughter and forwarding quotes to my friends and family over the past few days as I catch up with your life.

Hairstory gets my vote for Funniest Blog Entry of the year - from someone who's been there and totally done some of that too - what a nostalgia trip!

Keep your (totally not gigantic fore)head up - you're reminding more people than you know that life is short, but it is wide.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hilary x

Happy Thanksgiving. Wishing you joy, peace and happines. Wishing the cats a barrel-load of turkey :)

Oh, you know us. We just <3 your forehead! ;-) Have a great Thanksgiving! *hugz*

Laurie, Doll!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! Thanks for all of the witticisms during the year. You're the best!

Hugs!
L.A. Ell

Are you kidding? Thank YOU!! And Happy Thanksgiving.

I'm a little lurker (short and stout... blah blah!) and everyday when I come into work, I check your site as soon as I sit at the puter. I always get a laugh from your entries, and occasionally a tear too. Thanks for getting my work-days off to a great start! (Ooh - and I love that Brangelina hat - made a variation of it for my hubby - that was the day I figured out that I didn't know how to purl)

Thanks for making me laugh on a daily basis!

You're so welcome...and thank you for sharing your humor and your fantastic writing and your fabulous self with us innernet crazies. :) Oh, and your kitties. And they thank you for SHARING THE TURKEY HINT HINT.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Laurie! I'm thankful for having such a wonderful blog to read every day. Your humor and stories have saved me from many a night where I felt I was around three minutes from - to borrow from you - directing traffic in my nightgown with my bra on my head.

Don't let the cats steal all the turkey!

Right back atcha Laurie!! So totally enjoy your blog, even my dh will ask me how you are doing! He LOVED your Hairstory. And give all those kitties some turkey. Or tuna. Whichever they prefer.

THANK YOU, Laurie, for keeping me entertained. (And my condolences on the hairstory... but thanks for making me feel less alone in the dark chapters of really bad hair from growing up in the 80s).

You might want to slip Soba some turkey or something -- she seems a might testier than usual.

Thanks for all the smiles -- hope you had a great Turkey Day. (I'm trying to digest!)

THANK YOU, Laurie, for keeping me entertained. (And my condolences on the hairstory... but thanks for making me feel less alone in the dark chapters of really bad hair from growing up in the 80s).

You might want to slip Soba some turkey or something -- she seems a might testier than usual.

Thanks for all the smiles -- hope you had a great Turkey Day. (I'm trying to digest!)

Ummm... doesn't every blogger check their comments 50-60 times per... hour?

Thank you for being there for all of us who read. If there are that many of us CCLs, maybe we aren't the crazy ones! Happy turkey day to you and yours.

Thank you Laurie. I truly enjoy reading your blog every day. You have such a fantastic way of writing, and you have been so incredibly honest and open to share your life with the rest of us. Thank you so much for just being your beautiful, insightful, courageous, caring, and nutty self.

Thank you, Laurie, for living out loud to us internets people. And for introducing the phrase "a hoot and a holler" into my vocabulary. And thank you for the fried okra recipe - yummmm!

Thankyou Laurie, keep it up and know that there are a whole lot of aussies who read you and enjoy every word.

Happy Thanksgiving, girl....read your blog and have to say that I relate to a lot of what you write. Look forward to your next post and yes, thank you, cause more than once you've saved me from that 4.5 minutes from crazy.

Happy Thanksgiving, Laurie. I made gumbo (and ate it) in your honor and in thanks for the reading pleasure you give me each day.

Happy Thanksgiving, Laurie, you are just the BEST. Your ability to tap our emotions, funny bone and cat loving hearts is uncanny.
I do hope that Soba was appeased and that Roy got some turkey wrapped in bacon today....and special treats for Bob and Frankie, too.
Thank you, thank you and wishing all good things.

Since Finding your blog I read it all the time.. I cant thank you enough for all the laughs and giggles and the almost falling off the furniture from laughing so hard.. You are definatley not alone.. ( I am still not sure if I am spelling definatley right..and guess what .. dont care ) I tell everyone about your blog because You are too funny to not be read.. to insiteful to honest and well too obsessed with Traffic..haha.. Hope you have or had a great Thanksgiving.

I know we haven't acutally seen each other for quite some time, but I feel like I see you every day by reading your blog. I guess I feel a little priviledged to know you personally 'cause I can see your smile, hear your voice and envision your GIANT forehead everytime I check your site. You are an amzing woman with a hell of a gift for sharing her most intimate self. Thank you for sharing. And thank you for being exactly who you are. Have your forhead call my forhead and we'll do lunch sometime.

xxoojustin

Thank you, for every word your type. For every picture of your cats, or forhead. You feel like a close friend to me, and I have never met you let alone talked to you...

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for everthing. Keep typing -- even if you think/feel you are alone. We will be here to catch you.

Isn't it funny that no matter how wired and "connected" our world gets. we are still all like prisoners in seperate cells tapping on the walls of the internet and hoping to find someone who understands? Thanks Laurie, for tapping out your story every day, being yourself and sharing so much. It takes courage to be yourself out loud - and we're all so grateful for you!

Thank you for always telling it like it is and showing us that TRULY that which does not kill us makes us stronger...pass the red wine...:)

And in turn, thank YOU for a year of laughs, a year of introspection and reflections on life's absurdities, atrocities and amazing moments. The year wouldn't have been the same without you!

THANK YOU, Laurie, for writing this online journal for all of us to share with you. I love reading about someone who's life is so different from mine, (you're in LA, I'm in podunk So. Illinois) yet I have so many things in common with (went through the big D, knitting). You're funny, cynical, and optimistic all at the same time, and we love you for it. Thanks!

As a new reader of your blog, I want to say thank you for revealing so much of yourself. I assure you that your words are going out to a caring and listening group of discerning readers (who love you AND your terrific cats.

Know this...you are not alone.

Love to you,

Deven

Delurking to add my thanks and admiration for the enormous difference you make and the ways you touch your readers.

I had a horrible marital break up, too, almost 20 years ago now, and the experiences and lessons are still surprisingly accessible. I'm surprised sometimes how I can call the shame, fear, anxiety, the tiny victories, the re-learning to love my life and myself....The way humor and pain are inseparable...The driving need to be completely honest because nothing less is worth it. Every time you say exactly what you feel, you reclaim another piece of yourself. It is hard and it is so worth it.

WWLD?

*snort*

THANK YOU Laurie for your wonderful blog which makes me laugh out loud every day, and for being a brave Cajun girl in the wilds of L.A., and for being such a good cat-mom, and for telling us about it. We are all about four inches from crazy all the time (right now my ruler says closer to three). People like you keep the crazies away.

I didn't see this post till tonight but I hope you had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving and ate WAY too much and had too much wine and gave the cats a heapin' plate of turkey leftovers.

I also hope one more thing: I hope Mr. X spent his Thanksgiving alone and miserable with a cold can of Campbell's Chunky Soup and the utilities turned off because he didn't pay his bill on time ... wait, no!

Since he wanted his "freedom," I hope he has a psycho-slut girlfriend who screamed at him for the entire two-hour ride to her family's house for Thanksgiving, and they are all die-hard Rush Limbaugh fans who were very drunk, upset about the elections AND also off their medications, and that he got in the middle of a food fight and got gravy and cranberry sauce all over his good jacket, and then got screamed at for the entire two-hour ride back. Serves him right.

Thank you Laurie, for showing that even bad 80's hair and a painful divorce can't get a good woman down.

I admire you for being able to laugh at yourself and your situation, dust yourself off and keep on going.

Here's to you!

With that being said, dear Laurie, thank you for so often giving me the first real laugh of my day with your funny antics and view of the world. You and your blog are a blessing to me!

You rock, girlfriend!! This has become a very cool community that you have created, and it IS amazing to know that we're not alone in our journey in the handbasket. Have a great holiday season, you deserve it! Give Roy some bacon, why don't you!

I hardly ever comment on your blog, but I wanted to say "thank you, as well". I really appreciate you and your wonderful humor. You have helped me get through some long, long days.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for everything, Laurie. You are so funny and so poignant. Happy Thanksgiving!

Laurie,

I've been reading you for a while now and it's such a pleasure to see how you have come through some really difficult times and how you have triumphed. Congratulations - you are awesome.

Seems I'm a little late to the party! But better late than never, right? I know it probably seems like all the thank-you's are blurring into one gigantic mush but here's another one for you! Yours is my favorite blog - not only for your keen perception on your own life and life in general (I went thru a bad divorce and later another bad breakup) but for everything else that is icing on the cake - your kindness, your fun, your crazy humor which I love, your loveable kitties (I have one), your knitting (I have yet to learn, will try after the holidays) and your Texas connections (I'm from Texas). Love ya, girl!

Thanks back atcha.... I'm sad and lonely. Ironically, I'm surrounded by people here at the office but I feel so alone. Blagh. Boo-EFFING-Hoo... Anyway, you made me smile.

Wait a second! You mean you aren't running a porno site out of the garage? 'Cos I think my husband's interest in your blog is because he's waiting for the secret password to the garage porn blog. That and he thinks that you are a near perfect woman what with all the cats and the true appreciation for how much life there is to be learned from Gilligan. And I just like you so much I can only nod and agree.

Thank YOU. I wanted to comment on your "excerpt" post, but that wasn't an option. I don't comment often -- I've been reading you long enough now that I'm no longer sure how I found you, but I'm glad I did. You have the ability to make me laugh until I hurt with one post, then cry until I don't in a second. Above all, you have the ability to make me think.

Thank you, Laurie! Were you a little further North (Portland, OR), you'd *so* be hanging out at my house, drinking wine and kvetching! Happy Holidaze, hon! ;)

Laurie,
I too want to say "thank you." You don't know how much needed laughter you bring to other people. Whenever I am laughing (honestly, you are the ONLY person that makes me laugh)my teenagers say "Crazy Aunt Purl" again? There have been times when they read even before I do. I have never written a comment before, but a thank you is definitely the way to begin. You are the ONLY blog I read, and I am going to keep it that way. Like others have said, by reading your writings we know we are not alone in this crazy world.
Blessings and Happiness to you and the Kitties!!!
Love, a fellow knitter, cat lover and wino!!

awwwwwwwww
<3 from nyc

No, thank YOU, for being our inspiration, for showing us how to get through even the most horrible things, for letting us into your life, for sharing your knitting, and for cracking us the hell up.

No, thank YOU, for being our inspiration, for showing us how to get through even the most horrible things, for letting us into your life, for sharing your knitting, and for cracking us the hell up.

THANK YOU!

For your courage, and your humor, your eccentricities, how you honor your grief and us by letting us share it. I don't knit, and I don't (currently) own a cat either but I read you every week. PostSecret, too.

Bank Robber Boyfriend is ... bust-a-gut funny. Write the book!!! I'll buy one for everyone in my family. Looking forward to your Holiday Adventures.

A Faithful Fan