My Weight

Ok, so last December I called myself out and committed to lose 10 pounds. I haven't updated at all but I did want to let you know that I didn't lose 10...I lost 20!!! :) Yay!!!

Divorce

So sorry you were crying and having a hard time Saucy. If it makes you feel any better, at least you aren't in my situation. I'm getting a divorce. My husband has a girlfriend in another town who apparently doesn't know he's married and now he's admitting that he's been seeing other people throughout our marriage and back when we were dating. Nice, huh?

Crying

Life sucks. I have been crying for days. My friends have gotten earfuls. They are probably sick of me. I even cried while talking to a client about my life.

But I think I am done. But now it seems my husband is the one in the dumps now. It is one of us at time THANK GOD for our kids sake.

Praying things get better very soon!

African American Cemetery

Ok, so there is a sad story in the news about a cemetery in Chicago digging up graves and reselling the plots. But what's equally disturbing about this story is the fact that it's an African American cemetery. WHAT??? I'm so sick of the double standards in this country! What if there was a "white" cemetery? OMG...all hell would break loose! There would be lawsuits and you better believe Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be up in arms and all over the news crying racism! It's just ridiculous!

Child Predators

One of the most difficult jobs as a parent is protecting our kids. And protecting them from child predators is ranked #1 in my book.

As the mother of a female elementary school child I am often confronted with the "spending the night" issue. It is NO! A big fat NO! Too young. I talk to her about others touching her and who should and shouldn't and when it is appropriate (like at the doctor for an exam with mommy in the room) and when it isn't. But I am not about to forfeit my daughter's innocence at such a young age. I am not naive enough to believe it won't be lost all too soon anyway by her own choice. . .

UGH! Moving on. The thought makes my stomach turn . . .

So there is this girl in her class whose parent's are divorced. One random Friday her dad calls after school (whom I have never met) and he invite's my daughter over to hang out and have pizza with his daughter and even spend the night!!!! I was so stunned by the bold offer I didn't even know what to say at first. Is this guy serious? I mean, I don't know you and you think I am just going to drop my daughter off to your house for the night just because your daughter is in her class. I THINK NOT MISTER!

So I say, yes, only to the hanging out and invite myself along. I claim my daughter is going through a stage of not wanting me to leave her anywhere - which is actually true. This seems to catch him off guard. He was ok with it, but seemed a bit bothered that I would be accompanying her.

So I ask the time and the directions and get the sense that he doesn't really want us to come now. But he offers up directions and upon arrival we are at his girlfriend's house???? No wonder he was probably not wanting me to show up. I hung out anyway. She seemed nice enough and all. They were gracious and we all ate pizza together. I offered to pay my share and they insisted I not. Ok. Whatever.

At the end of the nighthis daughter started asking if my daughter could sleep over. Of course, I am in no way going to do this but she was egging on my daughter to ask me. Even when I said no. The dad's girlfriend started chiming in and saying that the little girl even had a flat screen tv in her room and how fun will that be? I was getting irritated. Not only were they seeming to try to bribe her but they should have told the girl to stop asking me and putting me on the spot so many times when I already said No. Finally, after about the 20th time the Dad told her to stop asking and then she wanted to know why I wouldn't let my daughter stay over. It was bizarre and I just proceeded to pack up and leave.

Said little girl visits our house twice. Dad has no problem leaving her with us. Fine with me. His perogative. I know I am not a child predator. But he doesn't. Dumb ass.

A few days ago the Dad called to invite my daughter over for another Friday after school visit. He spoke with my husband. Ole' husband turned the conversation around smoothly and got him to bring his daughter over to our house instead. After he hung up he explained to me that the Dad kept asking for us to just drop her off at his place and they would get pizza. Of course my husband is privvy to my weird feelings of the first visit.

When the dad arrives to pick up his daughter after that visit he lingers a bit and chit chats. He asks if my daughter can come over the next day during the day to play. He was just going to be cutting grass and would make the kids hot dogs for lunch. I said, "Sure, give us a call in the morning and I will come over with her. If not me, my husband will." He got uncomfortable again. He said, "You can just drop her off. My girlfriend will be there to watch the girls while I cut the grass." My husband chimed in that our daughter doesn't like to be left alone at other people's houses. His response was "Still?"

So we ended with him saying he would call in the morning and we promised one of us would stop by with our daughter.

Guess what? He never called.

Just me or does this story seem weird?

Columbine

I remember where I was when the masacre at Columbine took place 10 years ago today. What an awful tragedy that changed so many lives forever. My thoughts are with the students and teachers who were killed and injured that day. My thoughts are with the students and teachers who luckily stayed safe that day but will forever be affected by the emotional scars. My thoughts are with the parents and families of everyone in that building on that day who also have to live with their memories of the debilitating fear they must have experienced. And also, my thoughts are with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's parents and families today.

Unbelievable

Ok...I am beyond irritated and I'm going to use this blog to vent before I drive my husband crazy! :-)

My father-in-law and his new wife are going to be in for a rude awakening when it's time for them to receive gifts from us again!

Let me start by saying that for some reason, a few years ago, my in-laws (when they were still married) stopped sending my husband, their only child, a gift for his birthday. I'm not a greedy person but I just don't get that. They have money so that wasn't the issue. They just all of a sudden decided to stop sending him a gift. Let me say that as long as I'm alive, my kids will never have a birthday that they don't receive a gift from their parents. But of course that changed and they started sending gifts again when we forgot my father-in-law's birthday a couple of years ago. Needless to say, he let us have it and chewed us out! Well I did genuinely feel bad and apologized but I also made it clear that he set the precedence that birthdays weren't that important seeing as he couldn't be bothered to send his son a small gift for his. So this year my husband got a $50 Best Buy gift card from his dad for his birthday. That's very generous of him and my husband appreciated it. I only get cards from him on my birthday which is fine by me but I sure hope he doesn't expect us to send his new wife anything other than a card for her birthday. But here is where I'm pissed...he and his wife, who both have plenty of money, just sent our almost 5 year old a macrame friendship bracelet kit that has ugly shells and dark, earth-tone colored wooden beads. It's HIDEOUS!!! It's not even remotely cute or girly and it's completely inappropriate for a 5 year old! There's no way she would be able to make these things! Oh, and that's not all! They didn't bother to wrap it and included a simple little card that would have been appropriate to give to a neighbor for their birthday. They couldn't even be bothered to get her a "granddaughter" birthday card! And not wrapping a 5 year old's gift??? WTF???

I'm sorry, I may sound like the worst, most ungrateful person on the face of the earth but I just can't help it. And trust me, other gifts they've sent my kids have been equally cheap pieces of crap but this one just takes the cake. I think the no wrapping and the BS card just pushed me over the edge. And this comes after they sent my husband and me a bird feeder for Christmas. You're probably thinking a bird feeder doesn't sound so bad. It's not, except for the fact that we have to go out and buy something to hang it on so essentially it was half a gift! The real kicker is the fact that I seriously doubt that her three daughters and their husbands got a damn bird feeder for Christmas!

And just so you know that I'm not someone who just expects a lot, my mother-in-law was vacationing with us at Disney the week before Christmas last year. She asked for Christmas gift ideas and said her budget was $100 for each of us...we're a family of four. I told her that my hubby and I didn't need anything and she should just get the kids something small while we were at Disney. So you see, I don't need gifts, much less expensive ones but by God, don't bother if you're just going to be flat out thoughtless about it! I would have been very happy had they gotten my daughter a $10 dvd and WRAPPED it. Just wait until my father-in-law's birthday comes around and instead of receiving his usual $100 gift card from us, he gets a cheap set of windchimes in a box, unwrapped. We'll see just how special that makes him feel!

Drug Testing

OMG...it's a miracle! I just read an article on Yahoo titled "States consider drug tests for welfare recipients". Well it's about darn time!!!

If I have to take a drug test to get a job and contribute to welfare, then by God, the recipients of that welfare need to take drug tests too! I'm sorry, but this deserves a big fat...DUH!!!

Dems some edumacated voters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm1KOBMg1Y8&eurl=http://howobamagotelected.com/

nuff said.

Wall Street & $18 Billion Bonuses

There are so many things that are disturbing to me right now but this is downright unbelievable.

There are suicides and murder-suicides happening at an increased rate in our country simply because people cannot afford to exist. And at the same time our government is giving financial institutions billions upon billions of dollars in a bailout, the big-wigs of those corporations are getting paid huge bonuses? WTF?! Why on earth wasn't this covered when the bailout was proposed? Um, hello...if your company is getting money from the government then there should be NO BONUSES! The taxpayers are bailing their asses out and they are shoving it into their pockets. The people receiving these bonuses do not even need them. Their salaries are so high to begin with that the bonuses mearly pad their retirement savings. This is going on while there are so many people in this country struggling to feed and house their families, nevermind trying to save for retirement. Nice! The government even had to step in and keep Citigroup from taking possession of a new $50 million business jet while they were receiving their bailout. Have you ever heard of flying coach you pompous asses???

I for one would love to know where the hell all the common sense went!

A little weird

Recently I wrote "Taking One's Life" . Today I found out how he killed himself. It was raw. Shocking. I won't share. They think there may have been some drug use involved that lead to him taking his life. In addition to a history of depression. It has been on my mind all day.

I have been working today and keep seeing his name all over the projects I am working on. Notes he wrote in the system. His name in pulldown menus within the project mgmt system as an assignee or project manager. Maybe my boss is not ready to delete him as a user . . .

I am taking over his work now. It is hard to believe he is gone. I keep refering to his notes he gave me the first day about his projects in case I ever needed to work on them. Well, the time has come. I am pretty sure back then he did not give me the notes for this reason. In my line of business people can come and go. So it was probably for when he wasn't with the company anymore or in an emergency if he was on vacation or something.

It is all a little weird and it makes me sad.

My thoughts on the Inauguration

So I am listening to the Bob Greene/Oprah webcast and she keeps talking about January 20th and drinking. I am not easily catching on to what she is refering to. She said it many times but never said the event. She assumed everyone listening knew what she was talking about. I eventually figured it out after some thought and especially after she said she expected all her viewers to raise a glass with her. But at first I was sorta thinking she had some personal event or something that she mentioned already and I missed it.

I started to think, yes, I have always known the president was sworn into office the January following the election but I don't recall ever actually watching it. In fact, I don't recall my parents ever watching it when I was a kid. Maybe recaps on the news but not the actual live event. Probably because they were working . . .

So then I am listening to Martha Stewart's radio show "Living Today" and a caller asks what she should make for her Inauguration dinner she is hosting. A dinner? Who has a dinner for an inauguration? Then, Martha proceeded to explain her plans to serve her guests the same meal Abraham Lincoln had at his inaugural dinner. Seriously? I mean, I was questioning having a dinner let alone following a specific meal from another historical inauguration . . .

So I mention this to my husband. He explains that Barack actually took the train from Chicago to DC like Lincoln did and madeall the same stops like Lincoln. He is also getting sworn in with Lincoln's bible. So I ask, "What is with the whole Lincoln thing?"

Well, Saucy, my husband explains. "He freed the slaves, remember?"

DING! Fries are done. I get it.

Here is what I want to know. The whole black and liberal population are doing a jig over Barack taking office but I want to know where the hell all the Lincoln dinners were when other people of color took some very important roles in our government. Like, oh, say SUPREME COURT JUSTICE!

I am proud our country can elect a person of color. But it is not like there weren't people before him that acheived great positions. I know, I know. They paved the way. But if I were them I would be mad as hell that no one paid as much attention to their accomplisments. In fact, I think it a disgrace that black people discredit Condelezza Rice and Colin Powell in saying they are too "white" and don't count. The hell they don't!

I also want to know who the hell is paying for this massive celebration? Like I said before I have never watched an inauguration. Even for someone I voted for. Since when do we have a rock concert with multiple famous artists? Is this where my tax dollars are going? I thought we were in a recession? Just in case, I inquired with my husband if he remembers such elaborate doings and he says "not that I can recall."

I only hope that Barack delivers during his presidency. I wish him luck. Because he is going to need it. There are a lot of people expecting big things from him.

And I will close with my prediction: A woman of color will deliver a baby during the inauguration tomorrow and name it Barack.

Oprah/Bob Greene Webcast

So I listened to the webcast that Oprah and Bob Greene held the other night. I took notes and thought i would share them with you.

1. Rate yourself in the following areas to see where you life is not going so hot and that may be what is causing your weight gain. Give each area a + or -. Once you rate each area, focus on making each area a +.

Health
Career
Family
Finance
Fitness
Friendships/Relationships
Intimacy/Romance
Fun/Recreation

2. Eat Breakfast! And make it healthy. Suggested a Smoothie using 1% milk. Egg white omelet with veggies or cereal with no added sugar.

3. The reason you may be overweight just may be because you are not committing to yourself. You feel and make yourself worthy to others, but not to yourself. As they say on an airplane, "Put your own oxygen mask on first." Bob Greene suggests taking care of yourself first!

4. Another reason you may be overweight is you have a deficit of pleasure in your life. Not just sexual pleasure but also just pleasure in life. Do you and your partner simply do things together that are practical - like grocery shopping, taking care of the kids and running errands? Or do you make time to have fun, enjoy life, relax, talk, etc.

5. For women to experience long term results and change their metabolism, they MUST exercise 30 mins. a day 5 days a week. Work at a level where it is difficult to hold a conversation with someone but not so hard you can't speak.

6. Make a daily appointment to exercise and keep that appt. like you would for anything else. Consider it as important as picking your kids up at school.

7. 6 foods to avoid for 1st month of getting back on track to weight loss and being healthy. Gradually add one in at a time after first month.

a. Alcohol - will slow your metabolism

b. Soda - regular and diet - diet sodas and artifical sweetners can lead to metabolic syndrome

c. Fried foods and trans fat - read labels for trans fats.

d. White bread - eat wheat or whole grain.

e. 2% milk and yogurt - 1% milk ok.

8. You can subscribe to Bob Greene's Best Life website for 30 days free by going to BestLifePromo.com

GOOD LUCK!

A facebook high school reunion

Well, I joined Facebook and hooked up with some old high school girls. I won't even say women because they don't deserve such a title.

They have not changed one iota! They are still high school girls stuck in 10th grade.

They are acting catty, cutting up each other, saying, "Hey Bitches" as a greeting and so on. The part that gets me is I somehow got included in an email conversation on FB about someone else we went to school with. It was between 4 girls who were in a click back in high school and very snotty and rude. Why I got included was a fluke and I have sat back and watched a continuing conversation about this other person that is very childish and mean. It reminds me of the all the movies and talk of "Mean Girls". We are talking people who are in their mid-thirties doing this!

And then, they have continued this conversation making fun of someone who is not on Facebook but somehow came up in the conversation. Someone who used to be part of their group that they have since come to dislike.

It is sad, pathetic and sickening. Grow up "bitches"!

Fireworks

I absolutely LOVE fireworks...the real ones. The personal version that you can buy at some roadside tent or some warehouse with an obnoxious "Fireworks" sign bigger than my house...yeah, don't like those so much. You see, I am from the north and personal fireworks were illegal where I lived and in my opinion, for very good reason. Now I live in the south and it's a whole different story. I don't mind them at all when they are used on the actual holiday. I expect them to keep my small children awake or even wake them from a restful sleep if it's a holiday. But here we are, 10 days into the new year and my hillbilly neighbors still see the need to set them off. For some reason, they are under the impression that we live out in the stix even though that is so not the case. We live in an actual subdivion with a pool, tennis courts and hefty HOA dues. I mean, COME ON...even though it's fun for you to be standing out in your driveway setting them off, it's NOT FUN for your neighbors who are having to listen to it. And if you have neighbors with small children, at least have the sense to realize that they take naps and have early bed times. Both of my children are sick and have been woken up either during their naps or after they've gone to bed by these same hillbillies three different times since the new year. Oh how fun it is to live near them!

Wiley Willis

Wow.

I'm not even going to go into all the details about this. All you have to do is Google Wiley Willis and you can read all about it. The bottom line is he arrested a woman, Angela Garbarino, for drunk driving, she was uncooperative during booking, and he beat the hell out of her. You can see him roughing her up on the police video, he turns off the camera and when he turns it back on she's lying in a pool of her own blood in the middle of the room. He claims she fell down while trying to leave the room. Um, yeah...she's nowhere near the door...nice try though. Oh, and she was handcuffed the whole time he beat her.

Mr. Willis, didn't anyone ever teach you not to hit a woman? Especially one who is handcuffed??? You need some serious anger management classes. It's ok to beat the hell out of someone because they won't sit down? Because they want to make a phone call? Because they try to leave the room? Why wasn't a female police officer present during all of this?

You know what Mr. Willis got for doing what he did? Fired. Yep, that's it...fired. No charges have been brought against him. He assaulted her! It sure as hell looked like it could be considered attempted murder. And this sorry excuse for a human being has the head of his union, Michael Carter, defending his actions. And his attorney, Eron Brainard, defending his actions. Chief Henry Whitehorn is basically blowing it off. DA Paul Carmouche needs to get his head out of his ass and prosecute him.

"What we find to be unreasonable was the behavior of the suspect from the point she came in the room" is what Shreveport police union president Michael Carter had to say. Well no kidding...she was DRUNK!!! Show me someone who is drunk that behaves reasonably. Give me a break! The whole damn point is that a drunk can't drive a car, can't walk in a straight line, can't touch their nose, can't recite the alphabet...and you expect them to be reasonable and do what they're told? Newsflash moron...they are not physically capable of following directions when they're drunk!

"There was not enough (evidence) to pursue criminal charges" is what Chief Whitehorn had to say. Oh really??? That is a complete load of BS and you know it!!! If I were alone in a room with a man and came out looking like that, the hell you wouldn't arrest him! If he weren't a cop, he would have been arrested immediately.

By no means am I defending this woman. In fact...Angela Garbarino is an idiot. You're an adult, if you want to get that wasted, keep your pathetic self at home. And DON'T DRIVE DRUNK!!! You may have been beaten to a pulp by a cop but at least you didn't kill anyone with your MAJOR LAPSE IN JUDGEMENT. You have that to be thankful for.

Mr. Willis, Mr. Carter, Mr. Brainard, Mr. Whitehorn and Mr. Carmouche, I hope that your mothers, your wives, your daughters and your grand-daughters never, ever look at you the same again. A couple of you still have the opportunity to do the right thing. Shame on you Mr. Willis. You sir, should be rotting in prison. You are a disgrace. And something equally disturbing about you is the fact that you have no conscience...you're actually contesting your dismissal! You aren't even being a man and owning up to your actions. You are a very sad human being.

I know, this is all over the blogs but I had to comment about it anyway. It's just that OUTRAGEOUS to me! And this just reiterates what you were saying about unions Saucy!

Taking one's life

The other day my boss called me at home. He had been trying to track me down for a few days. We played phone tag. I kept thinking why doesn't he just email me or leave a message about what he wants. I mean we rarely talk on the phone unless it is important info about a project I am working on.

When he finally reached me he said, "You may have heard or read about this already, but J passed away last week." I was in shock. I asked how and did he have health issue? There was a long pause and then a deep sigh. He said, "I am not sure you want to know." I guessed.

He committed suicide.

I am still trying to get my head around this news. J was not someone I knew very well. I have known him about a year. We work for the same company, but not in the same office. I visited his office to be trained by him. After that our only interaction was via email or telephone. He was such a upbeat, cheerful person. I enjoyed our conversations which usually would drag on and surpass their original intent. What little I know about him I find this news disturbing and shocking. Why?

I didn't ask how he did it or why. Not even sure my boss knows the answers to those questions.

Was he depressed?
Did his girlfriend break up with him?
Did he do it accidentally?
Was he on drugs?
Did he do something severly bad and knew he would get caught and be in big trouble?

Suicide is something I can't grasp. I guess my mind would never let me get to that point.

I can count on one hand how many people I personally know or have met that have committed suicide. A lot less than the Clintons . . .