Constant Commentary

Sean had a timeline project a couple weeks ago and he and I went through my blog together ( my old blog and this new one) to gather photos to add to the timeline and to refresh our memories about exact dates of events.  It was quite an afternoon of reminiscing, the good stuff (vacations, shooting his first deer, new puppies!), and the not-so-good stuff (deaths, divorce, moves).  One thing I have mixed feelings about is my never-ending weight loss struggle.  One the one hand, it's YAY FOR ME...I never give up!!  But on the other hand, I am the basically the same as I was when I started blogging in 2006, so all the diets, exercise, etc. really did.... well... nothing?  Thaaaaat's kind of depressing. BUT..... My body and my mind just feel so much better when I am sticking to a low carb diet.  I feel in control of things.  I don't ever feel bloaty.  I feel lighter.  I don't binge.  I eat when I am hungry... and am more cognizant of w...

SO WHITE I BURN JUST THINKING ABOUT THE SUN  LOL I have the best of intentions with zero follow through.  I'm not sure if this is good or bad.  It could be good because at least I care and take the time to think about and talk about things, but it could be worse that I think and talk about things, but never bother to do anything about well.... anything.  This weeks examples are sweat shop clothing, homelessness, and racism.  I really wanted to get into the sweat shop thing, but then I started typing about racism and could not stop.  So....... Racism drives me crazy.  When I see people use air quotes on facebook when using the word racism or the term race war , I want to crawl through the screen and strangle them.  To suggest that racism is not a huge issue that bazillions of people have to face every day of their lives is asinine. Let's take this one, miniscule example.... http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/story/investigation-uncove...

Last night Lonnie took the dogs out to do their business and when he came in, he brought me a quarter and exclaimed, "I found a quarter in the driveway!!" As you might expect, I looked at him like he was crazy as I opened my hand to accept his gift and said, "Um..... thank you.....?" And then he explained that he always looks for quarters, and whenever he finds them or gets them back as change, he puts them in my car's cup holder because he knows I like to get 75 cent fountain sodas.  But I had locked my car last night, so he couldn't put it in there. I had NO IDEA he has always done this.  Yes... I use the quarters, and a time or two thought for a split second, "Did I put those there?" before my ever-thought-racing brain moved on to the next random thought.  It never occurred to me that I had a quarter-knight-in-shining-armor.  (Quarter Fairy sounded wrong...lol) It really is the little things.

While the view from my window today is still bleak, Spring is definitely knocking on the door! Holy crap, I haven't been a very regular blogger!  Hate that! I am going to take the chicken-shit way out here and blame my blog-slacking on my "WINTER BLUES."  I wouldn't say I have seasonal-affective disorder, but I would say I am about as close to saying that as I can be. Wintertime is tough.  I spend a LOT of time (which also seems to always translate to a lot of money) trying to find ways to cheer myself up and feel like there is reason to jump out of my warm, cozy bed into my frigid apartment every morning.  This years 'cheeruppers' included a personal trainer, a fishtank, talk of another puppy (not happening), lots of indoor building projects, and not one, but TWO trips to Mexico.  ....and quite a few extra work shifts picked up to afford them all ;-) I am very grateful for a partner who is so supportive and more-than-willing to join me in...

When I was fifteen years old, I lived in a car with two guys.  I spent my days sleeping in the backseat and visiting my friends in the high school parking lot rather that going to school.  I was suspended,  and then expelled. I shoplifted a package of Twinkies from the Broadway Shop n' Save because I was hungry.  I was arrested for inciting a riot.  Then I was arrested again because I didn't return two movies and the store charged me with theft.  Then I broke into house of an ex-boyfriend to retrieve said movies (that he had refused to give back to me) and return them.  And... oh yeah, I was also a cutter.   .............................blah blah blah this all led me to want to pursue a career in social work as I feel that I can not only relate to those who are struggling, but I also feel like I am a pretty good example of the fact that one CAN come out on the other side of a bad place. The past few months I had been pondering going to grad scho...

Every morning we had established a ritual of walking from our resort over to starbucks for iced coffee and unlimited internet.  The Starbucks is located in a little plaza that also houses several shops and carts and stands.  That morning, we had decided that instead of our plan to stick around the resort pool and swim-up bar, we wanted to find an adventure.  So before our Starbucks visit, we talked with some guys at one of the stands that had been calling out to us all week to buy tours from him.  All of their tours had already left for the day, but they had a tour that sounded fun the next day to visit some Cenotes and swim and snorkle with sea turtles.  While Lonnie sorted out the details with the guy at the stand, I headed over to Starbucks.   When Lonnie came back, not only had he booked our turtle tour, but he had also met a gentleman that worked for a travel agency in the plaza who had come out to caution Lonnie not to book tours with that...

It all started with a Cinnabon at the Charlotte Airport. I couldn’t resist.  I hadn’t had one in probably 15 years, and the novelty of it got the best of me.  As I ate my ooey, gooey pile of cinnamon, frosting, and barely cooked dough, I offered Lonnie a bite, which he accepted, and then immediately regretted and said, “You are going to regret eating that thing.  That is disgusting.  You are going to be a mess and be whining to me any minute that you don’t feel well.”  I rolled my eyes. After our snack, we headed to the gate to wait for our plane.  Panic ensued as we realized that our phones were still on Mexico time and had our flight not been delayed, we would have missed it.  Even with the delay, we just made it in before they shut the doors.  I think the panic and adrenaline from that was the next nail in my coffin.  Next nail… we sat idling on the tarmac for a loooooong time.  As I sat there feeling the plane rumble and idle,...