I usually have a difficult time thinking of what to write in my blog on a daily basis. Victoria mentioned a Yahoo! Group called DailyWritingPrompt and they send out a topic daily. I decided to join and see what I can come up with for writing.


My mother once told me ….

When you grow up related to half the population of a small town, you have no fear of strangers – they are just your relatives. Our street, a dead end street, had about a dozen houses. One house was ours and four others were relatives. Two of these houses were my grandparents, Memere & Pepere lived at the bottom of the hill, Grammy & Grampy lived across the street at the top of the hill. At less than 5 years of age, I would frequently “visit” my relatives, of course, never telling Mom I was leaving the yard. Mom managed to solve the problem by creating a harness/leash and tying me to the fence in the yard.

The leash worked great at keeping me in the yard, while at home. The problems came in when we would visit my grandparents. When we visited Memere, I would run to the top of the hill and visit Grammy. While visiting Grammy, I ran to the bottom of the hill to visit Memere. Stubborn child that I was, I insisted on visiting where ever my Mom was not visiting.

After several weeks my Mom finally caught me running up the hill to visit Grammy and proceeded to lecture me about the dangers of the world. Her very understandable instructions were “When I’m at the top of the hill, you are not to run to the bottom of the hill. When I’m at the bottom of the hill, you are not to run to the top of the hill.” Wanting to be certain I understood exactly what she was saying, she asked me to repeat her instruction, which I did. She then asked “What are you going to do the next time.” With a very straight-laced face, I told her I would walk. Even at that tender age, I was a smart-ass. After all, she didn’t mention walking, just that I couldn’t run up and down the hill.

Mom, chuckled the whole time she told me of this incident. When I came out with my reply, all she could do at that time, was turn around and laugh. That was when she realized, I was going to take after her side of the family – a family of quick-witted practical jokers.

My Bloginality is INFJ!!!

The Interview Game

My questions came from Subversity


The rules of the Interview Game ...

- Leave a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
- I'll reply and give you five questions to answer.
- You'll update your web-log with the five questions answered.
- You'll include this explanation.
- You ask other people five questions when they want to be interviewed. And it just keeps going, and going, and going.

Here are your five questions ...

1. What's the best gift you've ever received?
I sit here pondering this question simply because I’ve received many excellent gifts over the years. Now that I’ve mentally inventoried all the gifts I have been given, one gift stands out as the best anyone could ever give or receive but is not sold in any store – the gift of life.

2. What's your favorite book of all time?
This one is easy – The Stand by Stephen King. I’ve read the original twice and
the unabridged version once. Until the good vs. evil came into the story line, the book was too close to what can happen in reality!

3. Name something you've always wanted to do but didn't have time for.
I can’t say I didn’t have “time” for anything I have wanted to do. If there is something I really want to do, I’ll make the time. It’s usually needing funds that will keep me from doing things. I would love to travel more frequently, go to school for culinary arts, learn to pilot a plane. While I have the time for these things, they also require money.

4. If you could change something about yourself what would it be?
My shoe size! I have BIG feet!!! Of course, if my feet were smaller, they would look out of proportion and probably not support my large bone structure. However, it would be so nice to be able to walk into any shoe department and find shoes in my size. To date, there are only two stores where I can buy shoes. One has a small selection of inexpensive shoes. The other is a specialty shoe store, with a large selection and high prices to match.

5. Tell us something about you that would surprise us.
I read these questions Friday morning before leaving for Ohio. This was the one question that stayed in my mind all weekend! There are things that would surprise some people but not all people. Probably the only thing that would surprise everyone is knowing I have gone into a bar and ordered a glass of milk!! As I recall it, this even surprised the bartender!!!! What can I say, I just didn’t feel like drinking that night. Now has everyone recovered from that shock? Well if not, prepare yourself for the next shock, in high school I was know as “sweet and innocent”. My first look at a Playgirl magazine was with my hands over my eyes.

The Pope
Circle I Limbo

Greens
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind

Bill Clinton
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow

Libertarians
Circle IV Rolling Weights

Democrats
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled

River Styx

Republicans, Uday Hussein, Qusay Hussein
Circle VI Buried for Eternity

River Phlegyas

Saddam Hussein
Circle VII Burning Sands

Osama bin Laden
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement

George Bush
Circle IX Frozen in Ice

Design your own hell

Bush needs a reality check! Unemployment in CT is NOT down!!! Check out this news story on unemployment in CT from CTNOW.COM I was laid off 8/30/02 and I am still searching for a job. Of course, when I was searching out of state, unemployment was a problem nationwide and no one was hiring. Now I have a new apartment with a 1-yr. lease and it appears CT's economic recovery is going in the opposite direction.

Loving someone hurts too much to ever fall for it again! Someone always gets hurts and I'm tired of being the one crying.

Pledge of Allegiance Rant!

Recently my mailbox was inundated with e-mails insisting the Pledge of Allegiance wording "under God" should remain and boycotting companies that refuse recognize this wording. Since I refuse to inflict my beliefs upon friends and family, I thought a response in my Blog would be a more appropriate venue for voicing my opinions.

While listening to the news one day, I heard the ORIGINAL, Pledge of Allegiance. What we recite today is not the original pledge. I searched and found a history of the Pledge of Allegiance . The words "under God" were added to the pledge in 1954 when the Knights of Columbus (a Roman Catholic organization) campaigned to create a combination pledge AND public prayer.

I was raised in a devout Roman Catholic home, complete with enrollment in Roman Catholic schools. As a non-practicing Roman Catholic, I do not believe the words "under God" belong in ANY government documents. Whatever happened to the separation of Church and State? Then again, as a Roman Catholic we are taught our allegiance is to God. So why are we pledging to a flag? In my opinion that is no different than worshiping a golden calf.

One reason settlers came to the “new world” was religious persecution. What right do we have to force others to pray to a God they may not believe exists? Not everyone believes in the same God, or even in a God. This is a case where “majority” does not rule but the premise for which this country was founded DOES rule. That premise is RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. I, for one, will not force others into adhering to MY religious beliefs!

As for the flood of e-mails, I will not respond to each. However, I will respond with a link to my Blog. If friends and family do not care for my opinions, then they should not force theirs upon anyone else.

I'm finally all moved into the new apartment and very slowly getting things unpacked. Saturday, I went shopping for a new bed. Now I'm waiting for it to be delivered and set up today.

While out and about saturday, I was looking for matching shower and window curtains. I have come to the conclusion they are a figment of my imagination! At Walmart, I decided to settle on a pleated shade with a burgundy valance that will match my current shower curtain. Now Walmart is not on my list of favorite stores, I shop there ONLY as a last resort! Saturday's experience reminded me why I hate this store!! First, there were no shopping carts available. The store was crowded but the employees had atleast 50 carts tied up with merchandise they were moving around. My philosphy is, if you want me to buy items, provide a cart so I can carry them! Second, were the screaming kids running rampant in the store. Parents, watch your kids, not everyone thinks they are adorable. Third, inconsiderate shoppers blocking aisles, cutting you off without so much as an "excuse me". Fourth, when I went into the store, my patience was almost non-existent. By the time I reached the checkout lines, waited for 10 minutes and the line still had not moved, my patience left completely. I threw my hands up, said "Fuck it", leaving my cart, in line, I walked out of the store - empty handed! I could understand if this was the first time I had this experience at Walmart, but it's not! Every time I have gone into this store, I have the same problems. Are all Walmarts like this?!?!?! This particular store is located next to Buckland Hills Mall. The area department stores (Ames, KMart, Bradlees) have all closed because of losing business to Walmart. The only deparment store left is a KMart in a neighboring town. Yes, I went to that KMart and from the looks of their shelves, they won't be around much longer.