Friday Five: Lifesaver Division

KathrynNZ writes:

"In honor of BE Three I thought I'd offer up a Friday Five of lifesavers. I'm going on our cruise (are you?) because I am excited about meeting up with my blogging buddies again, I am interested in the speaker and because when I went on the first one my life was saved (okay, that may be a little over-dramatized but if you saw me getting on the boat and then the difference when getting off the boat you would know of what I speak).

I don't expect - or need - another life saving moment but I want to support the conference.Of course lifesavers can come in all sizes and with far less drama. I would readily admit that I have considered a person (children's sermon substitute), the location of a bathroom, and a beverage (the last diet coke in the back of the fridge - score!) all to be lifesavers at one point or another.

And so today I ask you - dramatic or fairly common - what have been/are your lifesavers:"

1) Your lifesaving food/beverage.

Chocolate, of most any kind, but esp. that in Leonidas' Belgian Pralines. Drink? Gosling's Black Seal Dark Rum (as in Dark'n'Stormys). But also pasta, the go-to comfort food, and a crisp glass of Sancerre on a hot day.

2) Your lifesaving article of clothing.

Spanx. Enough said.

3) Your lifesaving movie/book/tv show/music.

I do love "Truly, Madly, Deeply"/Ron Hansen's "Mariette in Ecstasy"/"Glee", with "House" running a close second, and "Mystery!" on PBS a close third/Music by Phillip Glass or John Taverner or Arvo Part or Bach or Mozart or Brahms...well, that list is way too long.

4) Your lifesaving friend.

Two: she who will tell it to me like it is, give me a hug or a glass of wine when I need it, applaud me...and PH, who truly saved my life when I didn't even know how much it needed saving.

5) Your lifesaving moment.

When the ex told me he was leaving me for another, and my mother said "don't ever let anyone be able to say that he got the better of you." Never p!ss off a mother who served in the Army in WWII...she gave me some steel in my spine when I most desperately needed it. She knew the pain I was experiencing viscerally and also knew she couldn't protect me from it; all she could do was be my buckler and shield.