Serendipity

I have gotten up these past few mornings, realizing that I am doing the same things day after day after day. Especially in the morning. I  get up, make coffee, set the coffee cups up to have coffee added to them. I split the English muffins and put two (whole ones) in the 4-slice toaster.  Then I get out a small yogurt-sized cup for my boyfriend's applesauce, which he takes his pills with. I warm up the small fry pan, spray with generic butter spray. Two eggs go in and the yoke is broke for the home style egg and cheese english muffin.  When I open the 3 pieces cheese, Luna, our Great Pyrenees, comes running for her daily slice of cheese. Next, coffee gets poured, toaster buttons go down and muffin halves get buttered before putting the sandwiches together.  At the table, I take my boyfriend's blood glucose, dish out his pills, then turn to my insulin that I have to give to myself. Two different kinds: Basaglar and Fiasp...long term and short term insulin...

Eric Kelly EOD This blog is focused on finding this individual. His name is Eric Kelly and he was stationed in Germany up until the past week or two, when he was retiring from the service and coming home to the states. Age is about 41. Seperated from his wife or girlfriend and has a little girl. He home territory is around the San Diego area or suburbs in California. His status in the army was EOD. This is the story... I met him on Instagram back in June this past Summer. He struck up a conversation with me and as we talked over the next several weeks, we grew fond of each other. Next thing I know he is asking me to marry him. I was being "groomed" so he could get information from me, I guess. And I fell for it like a fool. Next thing I know...I am giving him information that we should never give anyone, because he was teaching me how to buy and sell bitcoin. Five bank accounts were opened in my name, places that received monies to be invested in bitcoin...bas...

Does this look familiar? I realize this topic has seen a lot of play over the recent years, yet nothing seems to be getting done to change things. Why?  I admit, I am totally baffled. Yet I'm not. Exactly when did parenting skills start falling apart? Isn't that really what's going on? Parenting has changed, we as adults have changed. I found this on Facebook, believe it or not. Talk about perfect timing! But it says it all for the most part. Do you agree? My parents, especially my mother was pretty strict. When I had kids, I was fairly strict. My daughter is fairly strict. My sons not so much. The difference being that I was harder on my daughter because she was a girl. I didn't want her to make the mistakes I did. Now I'm not saying my sons are super lenient, they are not. But they give more leeway with their children than my daughter does. I will tell you that her children are well behaved and know respect and common sense is no stranger to them...

Four years and 8 months ago, I moved from my brother's home into my own apartment with my then boyfriend. It was great! We had no kids, we could come and go as we pleased, and do as we pleased. Life was good. Until I learned different things about this man who I had gone to school with back in junior high and senior high. Red flags popped up here and there, but I thought we were still in the getting-to-know-you faze.  Time passed. I learned that this man had a temper, a rotten attitude and a foul mouth that as time passed only got worse. And worse. And every time we argued, it was MY fault. Something I did...or did not do...made him mad. VERY mad.  I would cry. A lot. He would taunt me, calling me a "baby". Name calling would bring the tears and he'd say "they are only words". But I have to tell you that in all my years on this planet, I never cried as much as I did with him. Words hurt. They aren't the minute things we were taught in scho...

Nothing more can be said... The very word gets my blood boiling...and with good reason: I was raped when I was 18 and 7 months pregnant for my first child. The offender: a guy I knew from school and from my first husband. I did not report it. When you tell the man that is supposed to love and protect you that another man has raped you, and he laughs and replies: "Friends share with friends," how do you tell anyone else? Would THEY believe you? Here are some interesting and frightening statistics from RTS--rape trauma services : Only 16% of rapes are ever reported to the police. In a survey of victims who did not report rape or attempted rape to the police, the following was found as to why no report was made: 43% thought nothing could be done, 27% felt it was a private matter, 12% were afraid of police response, and 12% felt it was not important enough. Rape is the most underreported violent crime in the United States. I am one of the 43%. How ma...

Sadness often overwhelms me When I had my three kids, one of the things that I always hoped for was that we would be a very close family. And we were for the most part, even as my kids grew up and got out on their own. Between them, the kids weren't as close as I wished...but I was content with the way things were overall. But as things do, that changed...with the biggest change coming just recently...on my return from Wisconsin.   The biggest blow to our family unit was the arrest of my oldest son for murder. That was the crack that set the foundation of our family crumbling. The next rift was that of religion...my oldest two had turned to Christ in the last couple of years and began the push to covert my youngest and I. But we would not budge in our own beliefs.  When I returned from Wisconsin, the final nudge that has made this family fall even further--and maybe even irreparably--apart...is me. Not because I won't give in and become reborn again as a Christian, but...

Well folks...I am still here in NY ...my plans fell through at least for the moment.   I am frustrated, hurt, angry...but I can't say whether it's more at the Uhaul company or myself for not following my gut feelings. When I reserved the truck back in the first week of August, I was told that all I would need is a $100 deposit and the balance would be due when I returned the truck at my destination.  In all honesty, it seemed TOO simple...and between then and the time that I was supposed to pick up the truck, I called several times to verify and re-verify that the information was correct...talking to a different woman every single time.  Each time I called...I got the same answer...$100 deposit and the balance when I got to Wisconsin and returned the truck. As scheduled, I went to get the truck, and low and behold...my gut feelings were confirmed...the whole balance was due BEFORE I even took the truck!  I was devastated (to say the least) because I did not hav...

[[**I received this as an email months ago, and although I do share 'some' of the same feelings and thoughts, make no mistake that these are someone else's words...not mine.  Thanks for reading!**]] I'm 63 .    Except for one semester in college when jobs were scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but job-hunting every day, I've worked, hard,   since I was 18. Despite some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.        I'm tired  of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy to e...

Writing is the most powerful way I know of to sort through all the inner voices. ~ Rebecca Maddox As a teen, I did what most teens did by keeping a small diary of my days at school, my crushes and frustrations with school mates, but it wasn't until my second marriage that I started journaling again...because I felt so lost, so miserable inside, and needed a place where I could find some small piece of sanity.  A place where I felt at peace. For the duration of that marriage, some 11 years, I filled literally dozens upon dozens of spiral single, three and five subject notebooks, and as each one was finished, I placed them on my book shelf.  I had no fear of being spied upon by my husband or step-children because they had no interest in what I was writing.  I had learned a tip from reading about journal-keeping: what's obvious isn't interesting to others.  Hide a diary, then others will want to know what it is you are writing about....

"When encountering emotional vampires, see what you can learn. It's your choice. You can simply feel tortured, resentful, impotent. Or, as I try to do, ask yourself, "How can this interaction help me grow?" — Judith Orloff Over the last several years, there has been a lot of talk about Emotional Vampires  and although I never knew the terminology, I knew the signs and the results of being around such people.  It's not only not pleasant, but very draining on anyone's mental, emotional and physical well-being. I've lived with people who were extremely pessimistic and negative in their outlooks on life, literally sucking dry anyone who stayed around them for any length of time.  But what of people who are so deeply and religiously convicted to the point that they have a completely different demeanor that instead of being joyous because of their belief and love of God they have become doom-sayers and very unhappy...even to the point that they are angry? ...