"The stars at night are big and bright..."

I have always loved stargazing.

My dad used to point out the constellations in the night sky, especially on winter nights.

There's something about a winter night, the lack of humidity allowing cloudless clarity and bringing brilliance to the stars. When I got home from work tonight, I walked to the mailbox and noticed the stars seeming to hover above me. I wanted to stay outside and search for my favorites, but it is crazy cold out there!

Last week, I managed to stay out for about 10 minutes, finding the dippers, Orion...known best by his bedazzled belt and his dog star, Caseopia, Scorpio. At least I think that's what I was looking at. I mean, I was pretty young when Dad taught me about the stars.

As a teenager, my friends and I used to go camping whenever we could. Now that I'm thinking about it, we spent more time drinking around the campfire (and some of them making out in the woods) than looking at the stars.

At summer camp I used to sneak out to see the Northern Lights. The counselors knew I wasn't interested in anything else and let me lie in the grass with whomever I convinced to come with me. I was such an innocent. Still am half the time.

I love the simple things, or, like the stars, complex things that seem simple.

One of my favorite classes in college was astronomy. Stars became something more to me than pretty twinkling lights in the sky then. White dwarfs and black holes, red giants and supergiants. They sounds like characters in Chaucer.

Of course, after college, I learned about "Red Dwarf," which is about space, but that's about as close as it gets to being about stars.

I may not be dripping with jewels, but I will always have bling in my life...every night that the stars shine for me.