I was recently having a conversation with a long time friend,  this person and I have been friends since Kindergarten,  so to say we have history is a mild understatement.  We were talking about our high school experience and how mine differed from his.  He was a 3 letter “Jock” and I was a brainy shy girl.  Yet we coexisted in the microcosm of a very small high school.  A class of 121 in a school of just over 600.

    Our main discussion revolved around how our generation contains the first women who played high school sports due in part to Title IX. In our parents generation our moms had the choice of being cheerleaders or no sport at all.  We really concluded that in small rural schools like ours high school girls embraced that and chose that rather than to be a “girly girl”.  In effect we went to the opposite extreme of our moms .  No June Cleaver vacuuming in her heels and pearls for us.  We were sneakers and jeans,  hair in ponytails and keeping up with the boys. That didn’t mean that we didn’t have our class couples,  but the power couples were both Jocks of the male and female variety.
      I played field hockey in high school,  a cross between a girly sport and good old hockey.  Dress us in kilts and arm us with sticks,  but there is nothing dangerous about that, lol.

     All in all as I look at my kids and their high school experiences,  they are still as pigeonholed as we were over 30 years ago,  but the girls in 2016 have figured out how to be a little more feminine and athletic all at the same time.  They learned from their moms,  still no vacuuming with the pearls June Cleaver,  but who the hell wants to vacuum with heels and pearls anyway?

    

     For as long as I can remember my family has been full of needles.  NOT that kind,  the crafty kind.  My Nana was a Knitter,  my Jama too,  Aunt Ida would Crochet and mom did Cruel.  I could  barely sew on a button and only if out of sheer desperation can I hem a pair of pants.  My Nana could knit,  watch TV and carry on a comprehensive conversation,  but she was left handed there was no way she was teaching any of us.  A friend of my mom’s finally taught her how to knit,  and my mom has knit more baby and toddler sweaters than I have fingers and toes to keep track of them on.

     More than once Mom has tried to teach me to knit,  it has always ended it needles tossed angrily and tarn tangled in a pile.  About a month ago I got the bright idea that I could learn to crochet.  It was only 1 needle,  and how hard could it be?  Oh let me tell you much harder than it looks.  Mom tried,  my friend Nina tried,  I resigned myself to the fact I was a needle crafting failure.

     On a lark I went to Walmart,  got some cheap knitting needles,  downloaded some YouTube videos and gave it a whirl.  The first time was a disaster,  the next time… Success!!  I can knit.. I am working on a scarf,  I changed yarn colors twice and even successfully picked up a dropped stitch from 2 rows before.  I think I have joined the ranks of the needle crafter’s. Thank you for teaching me the special handshake and letting me in.  #blogging101

Today is day 2 of the silly little snow storm that could.  All in all we probably got 5″ out of this little  bugger,  but he brought with him some intense cold.
This morning was odd,  just truly odd.. Check out the time line to see what I mean.

2:00 am: Hubby gets up to let dog out and back in
3:00 am: Hubby’s alarm goes off (his dad is having eye surgery today).. After 5 minutes I poke him and he realizes that his for him and gets up
3:30 am: Hubby leaves after a shower,  needs to plow silly snow before picking up his Dad and heading to hospital
3:50 am: Dog barks,  waking me from a sound sleep,  to go out.. She comes back in 5 min later.  Ps it is 10* outside,  Brr. ❄❄
4:20 am: Kyle’s alarm starts to go off.. I ignore it for 10 minutes,  cover my head with a pillow,  shut my door, but the beeping is obnoxious. 🎶
5:15 am:. Kyle finally gets up and gets his brother up.
5:30 am: I attempt to doze off and the cat  begins to tap at my nose, like nope you are up. 🐱

By now I have a headache from hell from logging all of maybe 5 hours of sleep all night,  Kyle is starting to hack and cough because Connor has shared the head cold with him.  I give up turn my phone on and check Facebook.

I was scrolling through Facebook this evening and this Meme caught my eye.  It actually made me bust out laughing.  Full flown belly laughs.  The kind where I expected someone in my house to ask me “What is so funny Mom?”  No one did,  which was a good thing.
     In light of today’s events this meme just sums everything up completely.

1.  The snow storm that was forecasted didn’t arrive till late today.
2.  Connor had no school due to aforementioned snow storm
3.  I stayed home from work due to the same storm.
4.  The snow didn’t arrive till at least Noon, instead of 9. What is up with that?
5.  Connor is getting over the “Head Cold”  from hell.  Please join me in hoping he doesn’t share it with me.
6.  Hubby has been in a foul mood for over 24 hrs with no explanation.
7.  The Groundhog completely screwed up the forecast and now Winter is here!!??
8.  Now the snow I stayed home today to avoid driving in.  Is on the ground to drive to work in tomorrow.
9.  Along with snow the Groundhog brought ridiculously cold Temps.
10. Today was Monday.. Grrr.  That explains all of the above craziness

I’m a little late to the party but over a year into this endeavor I am taking an online Blogging Course.  The first assignment is:
Why we blog? 
It sounds an awful lot like.. Why is there air?  I blog because I need to,  I need to express myself through writing,  get all my emotions out.
Why a blog vs a Diary?
I had a diary as a teenage girl,  just like every other girl.  But it was hidden away,  that was part of the mystique.  A blog is public,  elicits comments from my followers and my Facebook friends.  I don’t always like those comments, but that is the nature of the beast.
What topics Do I Want to Cover?
Now this is tricky,  I don’t necessarily have a list of topics.  I write about what strikes me at the moment.  It could be something going on in my life.  The political climate, my job,  my friends, my family, or something that I come across on Facebook or the Internet that I find interesting or disturbing. In short I write about anything and everything that strikes my fancy at the moment.
Who do I want my Blog to Reach?
This one is easy, everyone on the planet that can read.  But I need to be realistic.  Without advertising and marketing help that is unlikely to happen.  So I will have to be content with writing and reaching the ones that I do.
How Long Will I Blog?
My kids have said that eventually my Blog will get me in trouble.  It may have already done that,  I don’t know.  I do know that I will blog until it is no longer cathartic to me.  I would hope that if anything I wrote or write about offends someone they would come to me,  so that I can address it.

  

  The morning after the Iowa Caucuses has dawned and now there is regrouping to be done.
Here is how the front runners finished:

GOP:
Ted Cruz              27.6%
Donald Trump     24.3%
Marco Rubio        23.1%

DEMOCRATS :
Hillary Clinton     49.9%
Bernie Sanders   49.6%

     Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul have dropped out of the 2016 Presidential Race on the GOP side along with Martin O’Malley for the Democrats. Ben Carson has gone home to Florida to spend time with his family and get some new clothes before continuing on.  Ted Cruz has won the Republican Caucus against Trump, but not by much.  Clinton and Sanders are literally neck and neck. Although statistically Clinton has won Iowa,  it was really a dead heat.   The next stop on the caucus trail being New Hampshire.  Being much closer to Senator Sanders home stomping grounds of Vermont the assumption is that he will do well there,  I tend to agree with that assumption.

     I am a political devotee and have unknowingly created one in my likeness in my household.  To that end the conversations get a bit wild and heated where the politics are concerned.  The hubby just rolls his eyes and walks away,  while the political reverie flies. That being said when November 2016 arrives and we are down to the final candidates I will be happy.  I am tired of watching Donald Trump and his bad hair waltz across the screen and say increasingly stupid things.  It makes me embarrassed to be an American.

   

      I was scrolling thru my Facebook friends list last weekend, while doing on-line invites for a party.  I was having problems finding someone,  a relative, a cousin that I have been friends with forever.  She was a bridesmaid in my wedding, she is my oldest son’s Godmother, we have been close since childhood.  After  hunting around Facebook for her to no avail,  I checked with some other family members.

     No she hadn’t deleted her account, she had BLOCKED ME.  Blocked me because of a family feud that has nothing to do with us.  A feud that has torn our extended family apart, I never thought that our generation was going to take sides.  I thought that we would watch the craziness from the sidelines.  It seems that I was wrong. 

“I believe I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage,
I’ve found that just surviving was a noble fight
I once believed in causes too, had my pointless point of view
Life went on no matter who was wrong or right”.. Billy Joel Continue reading “Noble Fight” →

     On most Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays you will find me at the YMCA.  Either doing yoga,  a new favorite is a Wednesday night Zumba class or just riding 5 miles on the recombinant bike and doing a trip around the weight circuit.  It my time to “do me”.  I spend time thinking and with the exception of the Zumba class it is very self reflective.  There honestly isn’t much time for self reflection while trying to not trip over my feet for 65 minutes to Latin music.

    Since January 1st the Y is packed with new people as per usual at this time of year.  I am looking at faces I have never seen  before while I am pedaling away tonight.  All trying to stick to their resolutions of working out and eating healthy. 

     By March the newcomers full of their fancy clothes and brand new gadgets and shoes will b gone.  Leaving all of us who just want to be healthy.  Regardless of whether our workout gear matches our water bottles.  One thing will remain,  us with our tunes,  our water bottles and our devotion.

     As I write this one,  I am not sure I will ever hit the publish button,  or even share it to my Facebook Wall.  I have written a lot about addiction,  the way that it destroys lives and tears families apart.  One of my HS friends has been struggling with this monkey on her back in some way shape or form since we were in school. 
    I thought after the devastating car accident  that almost took her life  as well as the life of the other driver she was getting her life together.  Months of physical and alcohol and drug rehab seemed to not have worked.  I don’t know why I am surprised.  More fractured and permanently destroyed relationships caused by addiction and her refusal to accept the consequences of those actions.
     The constant roller coaster of her life continued,  jobs got and lost,  apartments got and lost.  Finally getting her license back after the accident,  then adding a string of unreliable cars to the mix. My radar was on high alert,  but she always had an excuse for why she was moving or why she had changed jobs,  or what was wrong with her pile of a car this time.
       I knew she was using,  I didn’t know what it was this time, but I knew that she was headed back down that slope.
      Then came the text messages that confirmed it without the words.  “My car died,  can I borrow $200.00 till next week” ,  and when I said no she got mad.  The next one was “My laptop won’t work and I need to get it fixed to do my resume” .  I still said no.  I knew those things weren’t broken.  What was broken was her,  and me loaning her money wasn’t gonna fix it.  It wud just buy her a fix,  crack,  cocaine, heroin, or the bottle.  Whatever was her drug of choice at the moment.
     She missed our class reunion,  something that she was looking forward to.  She had talked endlessly about catching up with people.    No text messages,  no calls,  no Facebook Messages as to where she was,  and all of those things from us to her went un answered.    I was worried as were others, but we also silently resigned as to what happened.
     I finally heard from her the next week saying she lost her phone,  she got a new one,  all was good now, but I  I knew it wasn’t the truth.   I really knew what the deal was.  She was in deep this time.

     In October I found out how deep.  She was in jail that weekend.  In October she was arrested for larceny,   stolen license plates,  uninsured vehicle,  un registered vehicle and the list goes on.  She has  a laundry list of charges,  is sitting in the woman’s prison,  with a hefty bond.  I am hoping she gets the help she needs and that it sticks this time.  I have already lost her to drugs,  but I am not ready to lose her to a gravestone yet.