Got My Ten So Now I Can Say Hi
I've never been much on labels but I suppose you could call me a Green Liberal as per the Wikipedia definition, ever hopeful there will be SOME sort of viable biosphere on the planet to hand down undamaged to coming generations. I hug trees at every available opportunity and am careful to capture house spiders to relocate outdoors unharmed. 
As a Planned Parenthood Office Manager in a conservative fundamentalist area of southern Oregon in the early Eighties, I never felt so proud in all of my career choices as I did then, standing up to hatred, bigotry, and intolerance of basic reproductive freedoms -- especially on the picket line, escorting frightened minors who were victims of rape and incest past screaming "good Christian" women damning my charges and me to hell. It was the closest maternal experience I encountered before I married at the ripe old age of 31, and I often wonder if what I saw and heard contributed to my decision not to have children.
I've been married 34 years now to my best friend and count myself very lucky. And I'm glad I decided to graduate from lurking on DU for so long, to registering and joining in with such an intelligent, informed, and erudite group. 
= new reply since forum marked as read
I'm a tree hugger, and the only sort of spiders I take outside are the kinds that bite -- if the resident Pholcidae don't eat them first.
Pholcus phalangioides "Cellar Spider:"
I forgot to add the abundance of wit, humor, and great puns on DU to my reasons for wanting to participate.
I get to smile or laugh every time I refresh the page and see what's new. 
