tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12541543193068763262024-03-06T01:53:01.997-05:00View from High HeelsThis is my 'raw' and 'honest' view about life, work, love, and all that's in between...and I'm thankful to have an outlet for it. Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.comBlogger311125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-35430321728988833472018-02-18T13:03:00.005-05:002018-02-18T13:03:55.770-05:00Now Boarding<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I travel, I people watch in the airport, I am well aware of my surroundings for obvious reasons. I watch, I take note, I listen and then while waiting to board after a 40 minute flight delay I write things down. </span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The whistler with Burberry jacket has 2 carry ons, one carry on that is most likely older than I am. He is pacing, he hates lines. He is whistling what sounds to me like a Frank Sinatra song ‘in other words please be true, in other words I love you.’<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpz2ICWqvqbaZRdNEFmsXNyKthD9ZKmg-MlI66ANvczavEJt15b4-nphpQvjjF8kNxT53KJqy2M-I3sl8ck3vu06l066zPcnSqnk3glI7NxS0vQO6_3qT-rTKbP4_tJp_SfLsmnJBVHMyR/s1600/20180209_165324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpz2ICWqvqbaZRdNEFmsXNyKthD9ZKmg-MlI66ANvczavEJt15b4-nphpQvjjF8kNxT53KJqy2M-I3sl8ck3vu06l066zPcnSqnk3glI7NxS0vQO6_3qT-rTKbP4_tJp_SfLsmnJBVHMyR/s200/20180209_165324.jpg" width="150" /></a></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The IT woman, who takes up the entire back row of seats against the window at the restaurant to spread out her items, her laptop, her purse, for a conference call. Yes, I heard everything.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Jersey haters who imported to California</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The woman who is sitting on the airport floor plugged in and on the phone, the same woman who took forever to find her seat on the plane and get her stuff out of her carry on before she sat down.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The phone scroller</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guy in line who wants to make eye contact to complain to someone to join his cause</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guy who starts stretching his calves in line against the windows.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other guy in line who sees this, starts to stretch against his carry on luggage.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The chatty Kathy - the one who needs to talk to someone in line.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m realizing now that its too late to get out of line and get another drink.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The guy who was trying to leave the airport since this morning, how do I know this, he told the story to three different people who were willing to listen.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The conversation I wish I didn’t overhear when the guy said he wore the same underwear on this flight back because it didn’t matter since he was going home.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Richard Dryfus doppleganger</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am beside myself with the twitches, the habits, the need to talk to break complete silence in a line of strangers, the need to make small talk with someone you may not even be sitting next to on the plane. The need to find others to join your cause, the need to take up the space in the waiting time in line. Keep doing it, because I’m the girl with the notepad taking notes, listening to what’s around her and using it on her blog.</span></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-74145033998216185792017-12-22T08:24:00.003-05:002017-12-22T08:24:55.293-05:00Not in a Box, Not From a Can<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not in a box</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not from a can</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I do not like store bought goods, Sam I am.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1EU1S53RSg6uh1NfvtOEfS7DzQSGX2atuEAyuwwmEx2CyEMrgz8FJet3_ScGCPlshox64DyBt52GtSJ9yL2BWY-y5FO3TmTtuVqawBIU5usKsrdOI1hoWZ46Td6UW8mx4wiupPXrzZbI/s1600/samiam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="299" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF1EU1S53RSg6uh1NfvtOEfS7DzQSGX2atuEAyuwwmEx2CyEMrgz8FJet3_ScGCPlshox64DyBt52GtSJ9yL2BWY-y5FO3TmTtuVqawBIU5usKsrdOI1hoWZ46Td6UW8mx4wiupPXrzZbI/s200/samiam.jpg" width="158" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> I do not like them in a box.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> I do not like them from a can.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> I do not like them store bought</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> I do not like them Sam I am.</span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Would you eat them in a box? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Would you eat them from a can? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Would you eat them from a store?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not in a box. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not from a can. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not from a store</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would prefer to use a pan</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Instead of from a box</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">From a can</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">From a store</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I will not eat baked goods from a store</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not eat them here or there. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not eat them anywhere. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not eat it if its store bought.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not eat them, I’d be distraught. </span></div>
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<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You may like them. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">You will see. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Even though they are unhealthy! </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I would not, could not, its not made by me </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Not from a box! You let me be.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> I will not eat them in a box</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I will not eat them from a can</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I will not eat them from a store
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will not eat them that’s for sure.</span></div>
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Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-51342354875747862022016-09-06T19:41:00.001-04:002016-09-06T19:41:10.000-04:00Random Texts from the Ex<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve heard people talk about receiving the ‘random text’
from an ex, or even someone you went on a date with once or twice and never
heard from again. I’ve also received
random texts from the guy I went on a date once, who only text me on holidays
at closing time at the bar. (I haven’t gotten one of those since I moved.) I do think it’s amusing when you receive a
random text, I mean completely random, not sent on a date with symbolic or
historical meaning from the person in that past relationship. Not sent because you were two freight ships
passing by and looking the other way, not sent because he’s Facebook stalking
me (I assume). Completely random on a
Friday night, without any meaning to me at least, not having spoken to each
other in about 3 + years – just random.
So I will use this opportunity to tell you, my readers exactly what
happened. <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
I had just finished playing a co-ed softball game on Friday
night, walking back to my car my phone text message alert goes off, I think
it’s my boyfriend but no…it’s my ex-husband.
Out of the blue, completely random he sends me a text. At first it made no sense to me since we
haven’t spoken in 3+ years AND it wasn’t a symbolic or historic date in our
past relationship. Obviously something
must have triggered a memory or triggered me to his memory, but something
prompted him to send me a random text.
Seems even after all these years he still has no idea what the true
reason for our divorce was or stemmed from.
I wasn’t about to respond back with the list of the series of events
that led us down that path to remind him.
I wasn’t about to start hashing out the past. It’s the past, I’ve moved on and he should
too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
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I can’t say I’ve ever written this way before about what
happened to that relationship, other than I wasn’t number 1 as every wife
thinks they will be once they put a ring on it.
I can’t say I’ve ever felt so angry before either, how this text made me
so mad, mad at the fact that he hasn’t moved on and that he consumed a portion
of my Friday night. Then I laughed, I
laughed pretty hard actually. So I
write, because now I feel better knowing that at least in the virtual world I
have closure to what the dry ink says on paper.
A chunk of my life is gone, it’s in the past, it had its great times and
it had its ending. Knowing that in my
current life, my happiness is what matters, my life is complete now and I’ve
moved on and have grown up from the random texts (but they still make pretty
good stories).<o:p></o:p></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-56812311272666632062016-06-17T16:36:00.001-04:002016-06-17T16:37:08.466-04:00Surviving the Big D: Wedding Photos<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">13 years later I’m going thru my wedding photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve been divorced 8 years, I don’t need all
of these.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I paid for a crazy amount of
photos, photos I thought would mean something, photos to look back on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well those are in the wedding album I had
made, that I never got back from the ex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thankfully the photographer gave us 2 sets of proofs, plus now I have
the negatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’ve had all of these albums plus the video (VHS) I never
wanted done in the first place in a box, taking up space in my storage
area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was time to go thru them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In sorting thru all of the photos I began to
realize how angry they make me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
because I got divorced and all those painful memories are coming back, but
because of things that happened, or things missing from the albums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll start with things that happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First off, if children are part of the
wedding, the mother should speak to the bride to be sure about what attire to
put them in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was left out of that
conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My ex-SIL decided to go
buy a dress for her daughter, and not consult me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly, children should not be at the
reception. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These pictures reminded me of
how angry I was to continually get interrupted on the dancefloor. I’m sorry,
but that was my day, they should have been in bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I love my niece and nephew like crazy and would be happy to pay for a sitter. </span>Thirdly, my parents are divorced, my mom
remarried, I have three families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
albums show 2 ½ families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m missing a
whole side of the banquet hall with that side of the family and friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know they were there but key photos that
could have been taken on that day would have meaning now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Especially now that my father has passed
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have enough photos to remind me
of that day with him, but being the organized, detail oriented person that I
am, I think I had pretty good instructions for the photographer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am grateful for my friends that day who
shared with me their photos, a lot of them are better than what I paid for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Other things that set me back 10 years of flooding emotions,
my bridesmaid pictures, at least I have one good one of just us, and not with
the children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My sister and her new
boyfriend at the time, where are they?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Had it not been for a good friend of mine at the time, I would have
never seen the video recorder tripod set up in the corner, which I did not
want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes I watched the tape once, in
fast forward it is hysterical, and you actually see her telling me about it and
pointing to the set up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t want to
cut the cake, but somehow they wrangled me into it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot of things that went on that day even
though it came out of our pockets, it still had some influence from one side of
the families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of that will not be
repeated if I ever decide to do this again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s the couples’ day, not everyone else’s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">I’m going thru the 2<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">nd</span></sup> book of proofs now, and
I’m still angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m mostly angry on how
much we paid for all this, how many photos show me with a ‘fake’ smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which I now have seen for myself in many
photos that were taken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a
reaction to the amount of photos being taken and the fact that I had to be a
bride and be an organizer at the same time rallying everyone to the main
picture taking area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What a PITA.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was I paying people for?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, the garbage men are going to get an
eye full if they even look at my recycling pile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have no idea who that girl is in the white
dress anymore, she is long gone in a life far far away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The memories I have with my family that day
cannot be repeated in photos, they are snapshots in time for only me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photos that could have been taken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I write this as closure to tossing out the
past yet again and knowing the next time, if there is one, this anger will not
exist because I know better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span>Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-59547848038944686042016-03-29T16:53:00.001-04:002016-03-29T16:54:05.650-04:00Happy Easter - The Adult Version<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Easter
cannot compete with Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is one of the most vulgar
holidays of the year at the dinner table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even so I still keep my notebook handy with a pen and take notes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes I take notes at the dinner table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversation = great quotes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can judge all you like but it makes for
good conversation besides politics, cars, gun control and sheep.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Here’s
some snippets from my table to yours:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I’ll
do you</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That’s
head cheese</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">We
had pickled pigs feet in lots of vinegar</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Sniffing
that alone will make you cry</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Split
rear</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What’s
better than make up sex and learning how to drive a stick?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I
should have punched it before I left</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Gotta
let it rise two times til its just above the rim</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">See
the bones and pull them out</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Roll
your fingers</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Roll
your index finger and then your thumb</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">She
uses too much pressure</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">They
are so small, they will fit in my hands</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then
there are the big ones that you need two hands</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Before
you put it out you have to open it up</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Open
it half a turn</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That’s
good eating size</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Taste
like chicken</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If
they’re delicious then look at all those wasted meals</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">There
was a squirrel hanging by his cohones</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Don’t
feed and pet the animals</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Chitty
chitty bang bang</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Who
knew that Julie Andrews was so sexy?</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">-</span><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Imagine
being at a nudest camp while being next to a donkey farm?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">And
there you have it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately I never
saw the “unicorn jumping over a rainbow while farting” nor did the creepy bunny
make an appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All had a good time
followed by homemade desserts, babka and Opici.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-84411448395405738862016-02-16T17:04:00.000-05:002016-02-16T17:04:37.741-05:00Minor Setbacks<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We all have a few of those bad days,
and unfortunately mine turned into weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I had a mystery illness that caused me to gain 6 lbs. in two weeks, have
trouble sleeping but have all this energy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here I was willing to accept the consequences for diving into the French
Onion dip after New Year’s Eve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
wasn’t the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My clothes didn’t fit,
I lived in yoga pants and leggings for weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I refused to buy new clothes, I knew this was temporary whatever it
was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was also frustrating, it was
painful to workout. I was on the brink of losing it, my doctor was
baffled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He put me thru blood work,
pregnancy test, x-rays, and finally an appointment with a specialist. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I eat healthy, I stay away from
processed foods, soda, white flour, fast food.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yes I like my carbs, I like my French fries and the occasional piece of chocolate
cake (as long as I know what it’s made with).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I don’t overdo it with supplements or those over the counter gimmicks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I drink detox tea, water like it’s going to
run out and keep a regimented workout schedule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe my body had enough, it was telling me something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know what the feeling of being ‘burnt out’
is and this wasn’t it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Something was
wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the Specialist I get to hear
those great words people of my age want to hear or don’t want to hear depending
on how you look at it: “</span>You’re too young to be going thru this”, and the
‘this’ was still to be determined. Now the Specialist is thorough, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he asked me a ton of questions to diagnose and
at the end of the appointment I now have another appointment for more testing a
week later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Now I’m a guinea pig, he
has no idea what the problem is.” I think to myself, another $60 co-pay I’ll
never get back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJp0MhxYxfewYXSf7_eOr7j83Fb6ZYam5NeztBRXUjXsKHALy3dRjhpmjoqPT28a-cZAh0JZKzmQPKJQ7aigPdJPNa6u3e81D66THYylTOhIi3UeheuXdG54i-N3a1K3DsyTMlSgy-971/s1600/20160203_193710+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjJp0MhxYxfewYXSf7_eOr7j83Fb6ZYam5NeztBRXUjXsKHALy3dRjhpmjoqPT28a-cZAh0JZKzmQPKJQ7aigPdJPNa6u3e81D66THYylTOhIi3UeheuXdG54i-N3a1K3DsyTMlSgy-971/s200/20160203_193710+%25282%2529.jpg" width="143" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s never been 4 weeks I’ve gone without exercise of
some sort, I was frustrated, angry, actually getting bored since I caught up on
my recorded movies, Netflix and magazines, and getting organized around the
house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things I’ve put off for a rainy
day that would get done eventually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Preparing for the tests was interesting, I had to have my last meal a
day before the test.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chicken, ½ of a sweet
potato and left over Orzo pasta, if I wasn’t going to eat for that long I
better carb up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now three hours later I
have to drink this stuff that tasted like watered down lemon jello, by the
gallon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yum!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I try to sleep in, and since my appointment isn’t until
lunch time I still can’t eat anything or drink anything but water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m cold, I’m freezing at this point, and it
is February but for me to sleep in sweats and walk around in a robe and blanket
during the day is nuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It’s almost
over” I try to remind myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
waiting room I now realize I’m the youngest person in the room. Lovely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I’m counting the hours since I last had
something to eat, I’ve got a slight headache, I’m freezing, just get this over
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was 24 hours since my last
meal, so of course when the nurse calls my name next and asks me how I’m doing,
the first thing out of my mouth is “Feed me!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s not her fault I’m here, but it made her laugh, she said no one has
ever said it that way!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was great, we
actually had a nice chat because somehow in the midst of me answering questions
I brought up I was going to write about this experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a great nurse who made this comforting
and I probably made her Friday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She puts me thru another pregnancy test (this is test #2),
let me just clarify that I’m on a pill that I could get my period or could not
get it so dates are never accurate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
to be sure, yet again, I have to go pee in a cup.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that’s over with again and they put an IV
in my arm and I’m being wheeled into another room where the Specialist is and
so is the anesthesiologist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s the
best part, they tell me I’m going to get Propofol and that my vision is going
to get a little blurry and within seconds I’m out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I wake up, my first words to the nurse
are, “What are you doing in my house?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
guess it sounded like I left the TV on and fell asleep, I have no idea, it was
funny, I still laugh about it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I might
have made her Friday as well, she did say I had an attitude about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Now I wait for results, otherwise I feel great.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 6 lbs. are gone, no more French Onion dip
just in case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have learned a few
things thru the last 5 weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never be
afraid to talk to your friends when something is not right with your
health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are your biggest supporters
(and uplifting card senders, texters).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
your doctor conducts a pregnancy test, at least for my insurance the cost is $45
a pop, $5 of which is not covered by insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Setbacks, are just that, a minor setback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing should get in the way of your goals. Just
keep going, get over that obstacle and continue the routine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be frustrating to start slow, but
every little bit helps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It takes more
motivation for you to get off that couch and get moving than to just sit there
and press the next button on your remote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Results don’t happen overnight, everything is a process we work hard at,
we strive for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I don’t falter easily,
I just felt that something was being taken away from me (like a child whose toy
is being taken away).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So I wait a week to start exercising and on day three I
break my toe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I banged it pretty good,
but that’s not stopping me, I can still do most of my work out until I can run
comfortably.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just another minor setback
that I cannot blame on the French Onion dip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-86134412320243322022015-12-18T08:21:00.005-05:002015-12-18T08:23:01.336-05:00The Power of 'No'<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of you may be offended by what I have to say and I
truly do not care what you think.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is my life, I only have one to live and I’m going to live it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve spent the past few years with regrets, most of which
because I had to be responsible for making a choice and having a double booked
calendar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thinking in the fall my team
would have enough girls, and those girls would remain healthy I registered for
running and cycling events, when later those events I could not participate in
because I had to step in as a coach and play for the injured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Events that were non-refundable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This happened multiple years in a row and
this year, because I turned 40 nothing, besides the weather, was going to stop
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My goal from May thru November was
to run and/or cycle in one or more events per month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I may have missed a graduation party, a
birthday, I may have missed another softball tournament and practically a whole
Sunday season (which I planned ahead for and had someone else manage the
team).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may have said, “No, I’m sorry,
I have an event this weekend”, when you invited me to your bbq, or to go to a
local wine tasting event. Thing is, I said “No” and by saying “No” empowered me
to conquer my goals this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cycled
62 miles, and ran my first 10K and those are two huge accomplishments for me
this year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many others at 40 can say
the same?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put myself first, for the
most part, this year, because honestly the events I was invited to and said
“No” would not reimburse the money I put out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did this for me, for my competitive spirit, because this is who I am,
I compete, I play hard, I still strive to be the best version of myself at 40
years old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hate to brag but I am the
only person from my varsity team still playing softball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Many of you may argue that I have all this time to train,
compete and play because I do not have kids.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is true, but I always vowed if I did, I would never lose sight of
who I was, how I got there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Never again
would I lose who I am for someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I work nine hours a day, I commute about two hours and 10 minutes round
trip on a good day, somehow I make the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve always been a firm believer if you lose who you are, what you
enjoy, you will lose your sense of self.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You will lose what drives you, what makes you tick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to live with no regrets until the
regrets were costing me money, and another year older made me think I may not
have much time left to compete like this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Saying “No” is empowering, it enabled me to have an enjoyable year so
far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not always have to do what is
socially expected, we do not always have to follow the crowd, we do not always
have to do what we’ve done the same time every single year and we do not have
to live a life someone else is dictating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So I choose to say “No” this weekend, and snag another bib number to my
wall of fame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t hate me for saying
“No” because I’m choosing to conquer my goals, support me by wishing me well
and not crossing me off the list of invitees for next time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">People have this FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome, when
in theory the only fear they have is missing out on their own life as it
continues right before their very eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We only have one life to live…so live it as you wish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> </span></o:p></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-70047888293709071012015-11-26T19:44:00.002-05:002015-11-26T19:48:38.188-05:00Thanksgiving 2015 Unfilted and Not Processed<br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Happy Thanksgiving 2015 ‘unfiltered’ and ‘not processed’ –
the only way to be<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf7PeXzJd0T2N3Tb4HTdNLWw9hRhAp908fJODwGBGctw-8CvjHg4Fe5-1Ptd9tGxwBYhZm_FNkTCVUxZSpaR8Bs1cn78sXJCjQrH2PZ2Oe-kSVCehVwQxnBFavT39KWfUcjJ6BCi2uz8L/s1600/20151126_140218.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYf7PeXzJd0T2N3Tb4HTdNLWw9hRhAp908fJODwGBGctw-8CvjHg4Fe5-1Ptd9tGxwBYhZm_FNkTCVUxZSpaR8Bs1cn78sXJCjQrH2PZ2Oe-kSVCehVwQxnBFavT39KWfUcjJ6BCi2uz8L/s200/20151126_140218.jpg" width="112" /></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After a snafu in attempting to make a healthy frosting for
my healthy pumpkin spice cupcakes, and having to forego that and start from
scratch the next day with a real cream cheese frosting recipe from scratch
thanks to the Food Network, to one broken nail (happened after I cooked
everything) and one cut finger (during dishes) I will not disappoint with this
years Thanksgiving terms during dinner that could be construed as inappropriate. Even after drinking "Red Headed Step Child" wine, which could be inappropriate, I am not offended at all. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Disclosure as always: For the ‘rookies’ this is what is said
at our dinner table, uncensored, no filter, and what could be or isn’t normal
at other’s houses for Thanksgiving. *May not be suitable for those under
17 and who may get offended easily. * No children were present at this table.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Q: Do you wanna probe that yet?</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A: No I still have an hour to go.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cajones</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I love the neck, that’s as enticing as sucking face</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can do both</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I got a squirter</span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What plate is this that I’m using for salad? (there were multiple plate settings on the dinner table)</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is real china (after turning over the plate) Its made in Japan</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A little more, I’m a grown ass man</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Light, dark in between</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="mso-special-character: line-break;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Q: What’s the difference between white and dark meat?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A: After laughing so hard they forgot to answer the question</span><br />
<div style="mso-special-character: line-break;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Talking about a Food Network chef..</span></u></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
She can get dirty at my home</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
Chef would ask: How long does this go in the oven?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
The answer: Until you hear the ding<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I took my hands and put it under the skin and massaged it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Q: Did you inject it?</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A: I massaged it.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There’s still a lot of breast left</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Its QVS. No, you mean QVC</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’ll have a neck</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Do you know if this bird had a beard?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You don’t eat the bone</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’m gonna do this neck thing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want that whole carcus on your plate</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The butt is still in there.</span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
I like them when they’re fried and dried
out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
Fried ass is a good ass!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
Mine would have ear muffs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Would you put it in your mouth?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Are you down with the brown?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">T<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">hat knob I can deal with</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A little slippage on the outtake</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I’m glad it didn’t rise<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That should take two swallows. </span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the Godfather it was “slurp, and its gone”.</span><br />
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</div>
</div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-72453084106942922372015-08-11T16:41:00.004-04:002015-08-11T18:33:20.138-04:00Godfathers, Mandanas, Wenches – oh my!<br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We
decided to move up GNO to late June, since the last few times we’ve gone down
in August its been too cold to sit on the beach. The Angels ascended upon
AC in the evening, only to visit a local yocal bar by recommendation from the
hotel receptionist, which was just that. I felt like we walked into a cafeteria
with a juke box. It wasn’t that bad, the bartender did show us that
adding Chambord to a Mike’s Hard Lemonade made it tasty!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then went across the street to the acclaimed
“Bar and Grill” whose parking lot was full. Can’t say either of these
places was our best choices for the night, but they served their food and drink
purpose. At the acclaimed “Bar and Grill” the food was good and the
drinks were cheap, we had prime seats and somehow they forgot to charge us for
the last 2 drinks. Thank you! And thank you for having the security system on
your tvs to pan the parking lot. Unfortunately and unplanned I did not get up
to visit the ladies room on purpose to leave one of the Angels alone on a bar
stool, unsuspecting to the short yocal who needed nothing more than just
someone to listen to his problems besides the bartenders. Whoops! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
amount of bachelor and bachelorette parties continue to grow, but you will be
impressed I only told one group who I will talk about later, not to ‘eat the
cake’. Even after I rode the elevator with a bachelorette party all
decked out in matching tank tops, I still bit my tongue (I guess now a days it
makes it easier to find your drunk entourage). We walked passed the
Godfathers, who I must say got the award for most creativity for a bachelor
party, they were older, and each person had a characters name on the back,
similar to Ho’s Bachelor Party with Best Man #1, etc. Kudos to you guys
for not being tacky. We met Flash Gordon who was babysitting the bachelor
party he was with who honestly just wanted some adult conversation with people
of his own age. ‘Flash’ ‘ AAAHH’. Haha…. Our last group of
unsuspecting boys started with a lie. He came over to the table next to
us and was taking pictures with all of them, then fed us a line that he needed
to take as many pictures as possible, that it was a scavenger hunt because he
was the groom. At least I got to see the new Samsung phone! Anyway,
this poor guy, well, he did ask for it, had no idea what was about to happen
next. He said he was only with his fiancé, so he really never saw another
vajayjay. (I think you can tell where this is going) The amount of
jokes that came from that, well, he asked for it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He admitted to only seeing his moms’ vajayjay,
then said he felt uncomfortable talking about it until he compared himself to
the size of a corona bottle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From then
on it just spiraled into another conversation of “Do you like clams?” until the
rest of his entourage including “Uncle Joey” and the guy with one chest hair
showed up to collect the stray drunkard who was not the groom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did tell them to not let the bride eat the cake, but no one seemed to
care.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6WVB6HeiOHIgVgzO0H4nex7mURmiOoy9WOm-gJQ7nABMi2M19w3KPsvNBZ_1bQ88rk9g4LC1Z3IuWxk6xpNTwlhohr_QL6p8RFwuJhtVKz3gleOmmG_BtTh0XCJXgbFx7oG7y96HNcnb/s1600/FB_IMG_1435440178814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6WVB6HeiOHIgVgzO0H4nex7mURmiOoy9WOm-gJQ7nABMi2M19w3KPsvNBZ_1bQ88rk9g4LC1Z3IuWxk6xpNTwlhohr_QL6p8RFwuJhtVKz3gleOmmG_BtTh0XCJXgbFx7oG7y96HNcnb/s1600/FB_IMG_1435440178814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC6WVB6HeiOHIgVgzO0H4nex7mURmiOoy9WOm-gJQ7nABMi2M19w3KPsvNBZ_1bQ88rk9g4LC1Z3IuWxk6xpNTwlhohr_QL6p8RFwuJhtVKz3gleOmmG_BtTh0XCJXgbFx7oG7y96HNcnb/s200/FB_IMG_1435440178814.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div>
<br />
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<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although we were missing one Angel on this trip, she was in our thoughts. We found a new way to kick off the weekend with
tequila shots, free drinks from Captain Morgan and the wenches, people watching
on the beach and inside the casinos, which led to another fun bought of a A-Z rating
system and giving guys with buns nicknames such as MB (manbun), any guy wearing
a bandana was a mandana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did
however leave us confused as to why guys (obviously who do not exercise) would wear
ladies fitness tank tops that say ‘It’s my cheat day’ because that could mean
many things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Boogie Nights and
Providence rounded out the night for us. Kudos to the 80’s club that never
disappoints and we never get harassed or groped in the process of shaking our
groove thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxweIlCYtKK1ifOwewfyNgGGjzQ5tlN0I039e-MDkgr9u1J50BKdDY4BDxIzUqc8pe02UvJBMdBo4ZID2KUkK5pJHgyQcvNv0qEfv33tFHALeHPn4ocCZ9J5WztOBH9jZFAFXtzygJO4LQ/s1600/20150628_183909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxweIlCYtKK1ifOwewfyNgGGjzQ5tlN0I039e-MDkgr9u1J50BKdDY4BDxIzUqc8pe02UvJBMdBo4ZID2KUkK5pJHgyQcvNv0qEfv33tFHALeHPn4ocCZ9J5WztOBH9jZFAFXtzygJO4LQ/s1600/20150628_183909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxweIlCYtKK1ifOwewfyNgGGjzQ5tlN0I039e-MDkgr9u1J50BKdDY4BDxIzUqc8pe02UvJBMdBo4ZID2KUkK5pJHgyQcvNv0qEfv33tFHALeHPn4ocCZ9J5WztOBH9jZFAFXtzygJO4LQ/s200/20150628_183909.jpg" width="144" /></span></a><br />
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After
the Angels left we still had a day and a half left, being incognito at Bungalow
hiding from the ‘Uncle Joey’ entourage, which you couldn’t miss because one had
on bright Nike sneakers, which seemed to be trending if you wanted to find your
friends the next day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We closed out the
Dueling Piano bar at the Playground, which, as long as they remain open next
year, will be our hot spot to hit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have to retain our ‘girls with the wavy arms in the back’ status!<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOkAmejw74B-I5cUio_TEG2tSjGME1SNpuVCJMIQWziNjyR0E9X8dlW8fscJUFlff8mYI970jyj48tzbe-n3hKkpbyNxD9OE6ec9s3Zot26rFjb43W7-ZHjZslF6-pE1tEMzxt-PfbbgW/s1600/20150629_114557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOkAmejw74B-I5cUio_TEG2tSjGME1SNpuVCJMIQWziNjyR0E9X8dlW8fscJUFlff8mYI970jyj48tzbe-n3hKkpbyNxD9OE6ec9s3Zot26rFjb43W7-ZHjZslF6-pE1tEMzxt-PfbbgW/s1600/20150629_114557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOkAmejw74B-I5cUio_TEG2tSjGME1SNpuVCJMIQWziNjyR0E9X8dlW8fscJUFlff8mYI970jyj48tzbe-n3hKkpbyNxD9OE6ec9s3Zot26rFjb43W7-ZHjZslF6-pE1tEMzxt-PfbbgW/s200/20150629_114557.jpg" width="199" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
always on our last day on the beach we get the old man who sits next to us,
passes out and wears the shorts without a liner….nothing appealing about
lifting your head up to see or not see that!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Maybe next year they will have designated beach areas for ‘family
friendly’ and ‘seniors only’.</span></div>
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Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-60968385020699637912015-03-20T16:28:00.002-04:002015-03-20T16:28:31.453-04:00Country Road Get Me Home
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never in my mind had I ever thought I’d be singing this on a
trip home, more or less hearing it 4 times in 2 and a half days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I did, and I’m home and I haven’t sung
that song since I walked thru my front door.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must say traveling through Philly is awesome, it does not
compare to Newark at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Economy
Parking is convenient and you do not have to drive in circles to check to see
if the lot is open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Check in was a
breeze, maybe because I flew US Air Express, you know the jet the corporate
types fly to short distances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Security
at Philly was easy too, again, it may have just been the time I was at the
airport and maybe people knew what they were doing to keep the line
moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the quickest under 30
minutes of arriving at any airport in my life. Except for the very nice woman
at the check in counter who complimented me on my hair then asked if I ever saw
the Dove commercial with the children with curly hair. I still need to look
that one up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My lunch was interesting, every seat had an IPad in which to
ordered food and beverages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched
two women enter and exit because of the new technology way of ordering and
paying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t even carded for my
large Yards Pale Ale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also met two
ladies traveling from Nepal, and learned that Nepal has 1 runway which after
being stuck there another three days, they were happy to be in the US, even if
it was to connect on their way home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My flight was ok, I actually flew sober, which means I
didn’t order any beverages in flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After the two and half at lunch, I had enough, plus I wanted to save
room for real bourbon later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
haven’t figured it out yet I went to Tennessee for work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I flew into Nashville, which is like any
other airport except for the country music posters everywhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had a car service to my hotel and a nice conversation with
the driver about softball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In some ways
made me jealous they get to play year round (almost), it would have been a
great experience if I was younger.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MdbcDQ-0UzImb6o2d-kAyCTP1rXWLv7grghwDhHroLt5qLiGIOJUfq-8GCSkqbYV3VpGMCnT_gnRyJ2ANahXeTPkKi0hpzwtNgHfvdLjD61MbmYs3fkwTQBoOD6Hg8XALl30_4pbBMv1/s1600/TN315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-MdbcDQ-0UzImb6o2d-kAyCTP1rXWLv7grghwDhHroLt5qLiGIOJUfq-8GCSkqbYV3VpGMCnT_gnRyJ2ANahXeTPkKi0hpzwtNgHfvdLjD61MbmYs3fkwTQBoOD6Hg8XALl30_4pbBMv1/s1600/TN315.jpg" height="200" width="112" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My cab from the hotel to the place for dinner actually steered
me away from the overpriced, small plate fare and dropped me off at Fast
Jacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The food was great, but I did get
carded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me set the stage, the
bartender, who was a much younger version of Yosemite Sam (minus the hat) asked
me for my ID after I ordered the drink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was off the menu, because like any martini, drink connoisseur if you
ask a real bartender what they recommend, they will tell you its not on the
menu and its one of their signature drinks that they are trying to
implement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that’s exactly what I did
and I ended up with a Bourbon martini which tasted similar to an Old Fashioned
with George Dickel Bourbon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now the bartender
says to me, “I know you have to be close to my age, because no 21 year old
would order a bourbon drink, the owner doesn’t believe me, can I see your ID?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As usual I laugh, smile and hand it over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The owner, who was a woman in her late 50’s (I’m
guessing) across the bar says in her best accent, “Man, you look so young you
sure make me feel old.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bar itself was cozy, picture walking into a country
store, playing today’s hits and watching “The Voice” on the big screens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had the one drink, plus another one on the
house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Props to Trent the bartender, who
not only made killer drinks, but topped them both off with fancy ice cubes with
limes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I met some very nice people at that office, a woman even
complimenting me on my hair in the bathroom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was beginning to think not only did I stand out with my northerner
accent but my hair was attracting attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thankfully no one thought I was Reba’s daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The best compliment which I still laugh about
is the woman with whom I’ve spoken to a lot on the phone, “I thought you were
taller, you’re an itty bitty thing!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess
sometimes in pictures even if its just a head shot it makes you look
taller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The location I was in Tennessee didn’t have much of a nightlife,
nor a variety to eat, and you had to make sure they were open that day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact the closest Barnes and Noble, Best
Buy was 35 minutes away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The group suggested
we eat at “Tuesdays” for our last group dinner, which by my surprise was a
decent place except for the strange group of older ladies sitting at another
table all wearing different hats. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
thought maybe that night that group of ladies had a ‘hat’ meeting or something,
turns out it was someone’s birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My trip was successful and I am glad I had the opportunity
to go, network and taste some real bourbon, not to mention absorb the southern
accent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All in a days work! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the bar waiting for my flight to leave, in a bar where
there is a country singer strumming his guitar playing “Mamma’s don’t let your
babies grow up to be cowboys”, while enjoying another large beer, I receive a
message my flight has been delayed an hour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I continue to sing along while yet again another message for a flight
delay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I order food and another beer,
that’s going to be another 2 hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m
halfway done with my beer and now the flight is cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I must have said WTF outloud because the
two guys on either side asked if my flight was cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I drink up, pay my bill and head out to the
cancellation desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In line I overhear
the guy behind me on the phone trying to get on another airline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was while I was trying to get a group of
people to share a rental car and split the drive home (sometimes I just think
on the fly).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s successful in getting
the last flight out, and so quick thinking I did the same with some help from
my sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also didn’t want to lose my
place in line because I wanted my luggage back!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fast forward to me back at the bar after getting my luggage,
checking in again at a new airline and going through security again (by now I’m
an expert), this guy is there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I
have a buddy to hang out with for another 3+ hours, and he’s from Middlesex
County, he knows people who went to my high school, so killing 3 hours was
easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plus I wasn’t by myself, singing
to the same country music guy, who I tipped after his last song “I’m on Fire”
was a great nod to Springsteen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had to
give the singer props.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Again, many of you will be shocked that I did not drink
during the flight home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By that point I
had 4 beers at the airport in about 5 hours time, I was done and I had to drive
back home at midnight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like to fly
Southwest, they are no joke, except we didn’t play any games on this
flight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We boarded and off we went,
hauling ass more like it on the runway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we landed we hauled ass to the terminal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess at that time the airport isn’t really
that busy, I didn’t mind, I just wanted to get home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve learned a few things on this trip: 1) Do not travel
during Daylight Savings change into a time zone change and back.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had to recover twice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>2) Plan out your dinner plans for the first
night in advance, that may have saved me time from having to ask the Hotel for
recommendations. 3) Make friends at the airport, you never know if you’re
flight is going to be delayed or cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>4) Have a backup plan if the flight is cancelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m going to do research next time I fly so I
know what flights leave on other airlines around that time. 5) John Denver isn’t
so bad, but hearing “Take me home, country road” twice in one day was my
breaking point.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-17161744621603054182014-12-18T10:30:00.002-05:002014-12-18T10:30:28.460-05:00Celebrating 10 Years of Cookies<div class="MsoNormal">
This year marks the 10<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> year my sister, my mom
and I have been baking cookies for the holidays. For those of you who do not
know the story, we decided to take over for Grandma who couldn’t bake like she
used to anymore because of her arthritis. Its become an event we plan ahead
for, we have an inventory spreadsheet, we even have a list of all the cookies
we’ve ever made since 2004. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year we had two little helpers, my 8 month old niece and
2 year old nephew, who played with mixing bowls and a whisk. My nephew helped
bring us our ingredients too. We were very thankful that we all could be
together this year in Albany, NY, unlike last year when we were separated by a
snowstorm and had to do this in two different locations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After 4 days – 20 hours and 40 minutes of baking (including
naptime, storytime, lunch, dinner and babysitting so my sister and her husband
could finish Christmas shopping) here are the Top 10 Cookies we made this year
plus the new ones* (and any extras made with the ingredients we had
left):<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anisette</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Washboards</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spritz – Happy Little Trees</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spritz – Red Bells</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peppermint Meltaways</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Orange Creamsicles</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Double Mint Chocolate Chip</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Snickerdoodles</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chocolate Almond Biscotti</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cinnamon Chocolate Drops</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sugar Cookie Mint</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
White Chocolate Cranberry </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Minty Pretzels</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Chocolate Krinkles</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Whole Grain Cherry Almond Cookies</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Holiday Eggnog Snickerdoodles</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Kitchen Sink Cookies</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
*Chocolate Cappuchino Cookies</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 9pt;">(recipes available by request
only)<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<o:p> </o:p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Key Phrases during the cookie baking:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul>
<li>
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>Italians like them hard and dry – American’s like them buttery</li>
<li><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Let me wash my hands, then I’ll roll my balls</li>
<li>Balls aren’t sticking</li>
<li><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span>I can’t hold a pen</li>
<li>What if we make denture friendly cookies?</li>
<li><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span>Roll roll roll your balls</li>
<li><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span>Let’s make some Italian dressing for the Italian cookies<o:p> </o:p></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Phrases from the little helpers<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul>
<li>
<span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span></span>“The deer are all gone”</li>
<li><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"></span></span>“The turkey are all gone”<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
Our cookies are baked with friendship and love and we look
forward to continuing this family tradition once a year in December to bake our
hearts out and create new memories to pass on to the little ones.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New
Year.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-78778531456346886962014-12-09T11:37:00.001-05:002014-12-09T11:37:15.610-05:00Christmas Cards – To Send or Not To Send
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-family: inherit;">SEND<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Why
not? I always sent out Christmas cards, I can’t tell you when it started,
probably after college sometime and definitely after I got married. You take
your wedding list and send out cards to who attended. The next year I
took it one step further, I added columns to that excel sheet I call an address
list (which was originally an Access database), and added columns with
years. I began tracking who I sent to and who sent one back. It
wasn’t a game, it was courtesy. I take the time to write something in the
card, rather than stick a family photo printed from Shutterfly and leave the
personalization to the printer. I WRITE something in the card, I may even
say ‘Hey wanna meet for lunch in January?’ Unfortunately anyone who
doesn’t send one back gets dropped from the listing for the next year.
Anyone who doesn’t respond to my attempts at meeting up I no longer waste
efforts to try. But I still send Christmas cards, signed sealed
delivered. At least this year the list is down to 30 people, 30 of my
closest friends and family (imagine if I got remarried, wow my budget would
love me). I do think any glitter cards should be disbarred, I’m sure the
CDC or NIIH will find something wrong with glitter eventually, inhaling it
could be hazardous to your health besides making a god-awful mess.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">On
the annual cookie note….my cookie goodie bag list has diminished too. I no longer just
hand them out to the usual suspects, especially if they don’t talk to me all
year. I consider that list a list of VIPs, not the occasional
acquaintances. No apology here, treat me the way I treat you and perhaps
you’ll get a card and a bag of treats.</span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-40121346247020198512014-11-21T08:22:00.000-05:002014-11-21T08:22:01.417-05:00The Last Time I Made Pancakes
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have put a lot of thought into what I’d actually call this
one, and this title stuck with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today
November 21<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>st</sup> it will be 10 years my father has passed, he’s never
far from my mind and I miss him more this year than ever.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was a Sunday morning in November, I had just started
making pancakes for breakfast when the phone rang.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My now ex-husband answered the phone, and he
walked into the kitchen with this solemn look on his face and told me I needed
to sit down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of this is still a
blur, I do not remember what time it was, or speaking to anyone on that phone
call, but he told me it was my dad’s girlfriend calling to tell us that he had
died that morning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I honestly do not remember what happened next except tears
and tissues and composing myself enough to gather a list of numbers I had to
call, and trust me those phone calls are very difficult to make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I aged a few years that morning, taking deep
breaths, trying to be the strong one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How do I tell my grandfather, his father? How do I tell his
brothers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More importantly how do I tell
my sister?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things you aren’t prepared
for at 29, things no one can prepare you for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Phone calls you never thought you’d have to make – ever.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I could go on and tell you how the rest of the day went, how
it felt as if the day went on forever and how the next three days is somewhat a
blur.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Family coming, flooding of
sympathy, picking out the flowers, the casket, the service – those were
decisions I had to make along with my sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I did lean on my ex a lot for this, and I must thank him for being
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My father’s cousins, along with his
friends and mine, were a huge support too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was then I realized who some of my true friends are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wake seemed to blend into both sessions,
the line was endless, it was out the door on a chilly November night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think I ever sat down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The support I had from family and friends
really helped me through this.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">While everything else was going on, I had also been
blindsided by my dad’s girlfriend who tried to say she was the ‘fiance’ so her
name would mean something in the obituary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She also produced a ring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If my Dad
was engaged he would have told us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
was just the beginning of a very long drawn out legal battle my sister and I
went through with her for almost two years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I never want to see her again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Had I been a stronger person as I am now when this happened I would have
shut her out completely.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was made Executor of my Dad’s estate, along with that came
responsibility. In hindsight I should have taken the time off from work to do
this properly and not run myself to the ground like I did, although it did keep
me busy and kept my mind occupied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
should have not included my dad’s girlfriend with me at all during this process
before it got ‘legal’, I should have never trusted her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decisions some of us should not have to make
at 29, yet I did with the help of my sister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We became each other’s rock during this and we still are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the longest weeks of my life, one of the saddest
Thanksgivings and Christmas’ I’ve ever spent, not a day goes by when I don’t think
about him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For months I would sit on the
couch in the living room and just cry, I wanted to know why he was taken from
us so young, without warning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still
want to know why.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of
unanswered questions, some timelines that do not add up, conversations best
left to be had with the Scibetta family around the dinner table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every month I went to the cemetery, it made
me feel better to visit him and my grandmother and my Uncle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent some time there, I talked and cried
and said ‘goodbye’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a way for me
to cope and now I go twice a year on his birthday and the day he passed away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There were months afterwards he would appear to me in
dreams, as if he was trying to tell me something.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not sure when those stopped but
occasionally he’ll make an appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I didn’t quite come to terms with everything until after I
was separated and started counseling (yes I went to counseling) and I learned a
lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I actually got some closure with a
few things but never an answer to ‘why’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While we were separated my now ex husband said he should have sent me to
counseling earlier to deal with losing my father, had that have helped me then,
probably not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was so consumed with
work, finishing my second degree, then the legal battle, I didn’t have time to
think about anything else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not everyone
reacts the same way, we all don’t suffer at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will eventually deal with it at our own
pace except when it starts to affect our health, our work and our life and
those around us, at that time you need to seek professional help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was not crazy for going to counseling, I needed to talk to
someone other than my now ex-husband, my sister, my friends who have lost a
parent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I need to talk to someone from
the outside, without judgment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m glad
I did that, and yes maybe I should have gone sooner than 3 years after the
fact, but I went.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Four years later, I made pancakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the time they were plain pancakes, only
now when I make them they have added ingredients (chocolate chips, bananas,
pureed apple, pumpkin spice).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t
think about the phone ringing on a Sunday morning while I’m making breakfast
anymore.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For those of you who have ever lost a parent I know its not
easy but we do get stronger and we have to lean on those close to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually your fb posts aren’t going to get
you the closure you need, go seek professional help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You do not need to sign up for a year, just a
session, just talk it out with someone else, you’ll learn an awful lot about
yourself and the situation and how to deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d much rather see my friends go talk to a professional than to hit the
bottle, that’s one coping mechanism I never went to.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4uQO9_bFXi-i2fYBZSXkRQUQUf-qvIS0-1BkGZ1zWcsyTeq5OYOGXhT68ZU8EN2LLSMrkjDlzWsndlVDs1yLCWwjSd7d_yEOL1cqVNBJbWEZ5efxfYWKgZ7mZg5lrFNnS8PrDJqkAXo8/s1600/NJ+Ocean.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ4uQO9_bFXi-i2fYBZSXkRQUQUf-qvIS0-1BkGZ1zWcsyTeq5OYOGXhT68ZU8EN2LLSMrkjDlzWsndlVDs1yLCWwjSd7d_yEOL1cqVNBJbWEZ5efxfYWKgZ7mZg5lrFNnS8PrDJqkAXo8/s1600/NJ+Ocean.jpg" height="138" width="200" /></span></a></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So today Dad I visit your grave with Grandpa, and call my
sister who will Skype with your two grandkids, Matthew and Madeleine with their
Great Grandpa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know you’re proud of
us, you’re always watching over us and your memory lives on in each of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Matthew’s a lefty just like you!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-71940440208123977182014-09-02T17:25:00.000-04:002014-09-02T17:25:28.374-04:00Surviving the Big D: My Photo Albums
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Yes this
deserves a mention, because had I known I would have taken them with me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the midst of the separation, his parents
moved into the Dream House while their new retirement residence was being built,
and also sometime that year or the year after (since it took over a year to
finally get divorced) he was storing his friends things at the Dream
House.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somehow my photoalbums went
missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Years of my childhood, pictures
of friends at the beach, softball, pool parties at my house in Carteret,
parties at the apartment in Edison, my head in the trash can after a New Years
Eve party, pictures of my sister and I at Halloween, how my mom dressed us in
similar outfits at the holidays, pictures of my Great Aunts and Uncle Mickey,
my Grandmothers and my Grandfathers left behind and now are missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the last pictures taken with my
father before he passed away are somewhere in that Dream House, especially a
picture of him that I recall from my wedding where he just looked so GQ, my Dad
all dressed up in a tux.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are albums
in a brown box, probably with the word ‘PHOTOS’ on all four sides somewhere in
that house unless he tossed them or his parents took them with them OR his
friend accidentally moved it out with his things.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m still
angry, I still don’t know why someone would want to hold onto my photos, photos
from before his time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photos that he
wasn’t apart of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Photos that mean something
to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve stopped calling and texting
for them back, at the time the refinance was more important (even that took 5
years after the D), but now I’m still angry, I think I always will be
angry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I’m angry
that I lost part of time in photos, that I can never show my niece and nephew
pictures of their Grandfather, their Great Grandmother and Great Great Aunts
and Uncle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t show them what it was
like back then, I can only tell stories of the past.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m angry that they were never returned to
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Yet I learn
now that when I leave a relationship even if its for a temporary ‘break’ take
everything with me, leave nothing behind because the person you once trusted for
all those years is mostlikely not trusting with your things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></o:p></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-46313587108007252202014-07-10T13:04:00.001-04:002014-07-10T13:08:30.617-04:0030 Day + Challenge<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After completing T25(plus Gamma) and Jillian Michael’s Body
Revolution (my way – 1 dvd per day) I decided to try something else to keep in
top form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time I’m going to try to
keep up with blogging about it, the exercises I did, the food I ate, maybe not
tell you exactly what was on my plate every night, but at least give you a
sense of what I ate that week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can
do abs, arms, legs and cardio till you’re sweating but unless you combine
healthy meals with that you are wasting your time.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t buy into the 30 Day Calendar Challenges where you
are repeating the same exercises over and over again and just increasing the
reps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That doesn’t work, especially if
you are using it as your main workout and not as an extra added workout
bonus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this round of workouts I decided to try Melissa Bender’s
<a href="http://www.benderfitness.com/2014/05/30-day-sculpted-abs-challenge.html" target="_blank">30 Day Ab Challenge</a> combined with her <a href="http://www.benderfitness.com/p/bikini-competition-workouts.html" target="_blank">Bikini Competition</a> Workout (3 months).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her first day of abs she first explains
the moves and then does 1 minute intervals of each. (Had I thought this through
properly I would not have done my own set of 210 abs last night).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She does this move called Down Dog/Up Dog
which not only works your core, but it also works your shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the interval I was felt it (I will be
doing this again)!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So far the Bikini Competition Workouts are good (I have
three months of different workouts to do), I have been doing two rounds of them
(she says you can do 2-3 rounds of them depending on how your body feels).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do them depending on what else is going on
that week – do I have a game? A 5K? Am I training on the bike?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How am I doing this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I can stream Youtube from my TV (thankfully) and there are a ton of
workouts from everyone under the sun. I’ve even done a few kettlebell workouts
and the free TapOut one with Mike Dolce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 2 is in the books, although its been rough this week
with working later hours, recovering from riding 35 miles and softball.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will say I got in a great workout
today:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bikini workout + abs + T25<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speed 2.0 + batting cages which might have contributed to
all the pent up frustration of people ‘accepting’ work related meeting invites
for 8 pm EST and then not showing up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Example of what I ate in Week 2:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Breakfast: 1 egg white + 1 egg, multi grain toast with
almond butter or Kashi Go-Lean Crunch cereal with FF Milk, plus 1 cup of coffee
w/almond milk</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snack: Apple</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lunch: Homemade Turkey Burger with brown rice and garden
ground string beans + H2O</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snack: Celery sticks with hummus</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dinner: Baked Salmon with low sodium soy sauce and steamed
veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) + H20</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snack: Arugula, baby spinach with almonds, black olives and
carrots w/homemade dressing (Grapeseed oil, white vinegar and garlic pesto
spices)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">**Protein Shakes w/ FF milk or Almond Milk w/ cinnamon, flax
seed on workout days only or if I have a sweet craving.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheat Day - Saturdays: which really isn't a cheat day for me except that I have alcohol and maybe dessert!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is my neverending journey to continue to be fit and
healthy, not everything I do may work for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If you want to be fit and healthy you have to start somewhere and
continue the lifestyle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be
challenging at first, but with the support from those around you, and perhaps
if they embark on that journey with you will make it rewarding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-41280691667607463282014-07-03T12:35:00.000-04:002014-07-03T12:36:41.702-04:00#LikeMyself<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">After watching the “Like a Girl”
campaign by Always twice, almost three times I’ve finalized realized why it’s
bothersome. When I was growing up the ‘like a girl’ phrase didn’t
exist. I was picked on in grammar school, not because I was a girl, but
because I had different shoes, I had a bad haircut, I had braces, all the
things one would get picked on for. When I started learning how to play
softball at 7 years old I wasn’t told that I ‘throw like a girl’, or ‘run like
a girl’ in fact, you’ll find all the awards from those days at Field Day where
I beat out boys in sprints and long jump. My parents always encouraged me
to be myself, they didn’t segregate me from playing with the boys or encourage
the now infamous appreciation for doing things ‘like a girl’ and to be proud of
it. So I’m a little lost as to where Always is coming from. If we
are a society where ‘all men are created equal’ then why segregate the way
young people (and those adults) do things ‘like a girl’ or ‘like a boy’.
From as long as I remember I have been told and encouraged to be myself – not
to do things ‘like a girl’. Don’t be like everyone else, be
yourself. I guess society is slowly getting more sensitive in a world where
today some of us all still compete on the same playing field (with the
boys). <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now this is where I get mad about “Like
a Girl” because I don’t throw like a girl, I don’t cycle like a girl, I do not
run like a girl. I do not care if I break a nail, if my leg gets cut up
from sliding into 2<sup>nd</sup>, I’ve played thru stitches in my hand from a
line drive, I’ve continued to ride another 10 miles with blood running down my
leg from one of my first falls on my bike when learning to clip in (my
wolverine attack as I like to call it). I play, run, cycle like
Natalie. Not like anyone else. So if I say that you run, cycle, or
throw ‘like a girl’ its only because you won’t go the extra mile, you want to
participate so I’ll give you that, but you won’t play hard to win, you want
that towel after getting dirty because the ball you just picked up was
wet, you walk your bike up that hill instead of seeing if you can push thru it,
you don’t want to get your hair wet if it rains on the field. I think
that is where the line is drawn with this campaign and why many of us women
athletes are upset about the overall message. When my niece is old enough
to throw a ball, ride a bike, run to the mailbox, I’m going to encourage her to
play like herself, not like anyone else. We are all unique, we are all
individuals and in the end there is no comparison. Make the world like
and respect you for what you do and your accomplishments, not because you did
it ‘like a girl’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></o:p> </span> </span> </span>Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-34594745004567791932014-05-21T12:28:00.001-04:002014-05-21T12:28:58.190-04:002 Dings = Hey Bartender
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For those few who have had the
privilege of flying the friendly skies with me trust me it is a privilege to
bear witness to how I handle those next couple of hours. I am not a good
flyer, which doesn’t necessarily mean I panic, I need pills to calm the
anxiety, I throw a hissy fit. What that means is I have learned how to
remedy my stress of the entire flight experience. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I sleep well the night before, I
usually don’t start panicking until we’re in the air as I patiently await the
two dings. If its an early flight I do not have caffeine of any kind,
trust me the calmer I am the better passenger I am. I eat
breakfast, I buy a snack, I bring things to keep me occupied. Whether
that means my trusty notebook for jotting down things that are said in flight
like “amazing what you can fit between your toes”, my Kindle (Kudos to renting
movies this trip), or my mp3 player (which I neglected on my trip to San
Diego). I’m sure everyone has their peeves, their flight preparedness
activity package ready to go. This sounds like a cakewalk right?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I thought I was a bad flyer until this
trip to the DR when one of the people in our group, whose name will not be
mentioned, met the takeoff and landing in throws of what I could assume to be
close to hyperventilation. In the air this person was fine with. I
love taking off and landing for some strange reason, even after the Miami
incident when we were seconds from landing the pilot pulled the plane up
sharply and we had to increase altitude to avoid hitting another plane taking
off. (The guy next to me got a free thigh grab for that one)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The in-between is what I dread, the
unforeseen turbulence. I patiently wait for the 2 dings, the cart to roll
by and its “Hey bartender, a bottle of red please.” With that I down the
bottle of red in seconds, others would say “you drank it like it was a shot”.
Depending on the length of the flight I’ll have two bottles. My trip to
London I drank the entire way there (including the 3 glasses before boarding),
I was awake the entire time watching the sunrise over what I thought was
Ireland. (Its always a bonus when the drinks are free!) I’ve tried vodka
sodas but the sugar increases the chances of having a headache the rest of the
day. The best part of this is I’m completely sober when we land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Drinking in flight numbs me, it puts me
in a ‘buzzed’ state where turbulence doesn’t matter. I’m less aware of my
surroundings. Some may say that’s a bad thing, but considering I’d tried muscle
relaxers, sleep aids at least alcohol is something I can control and know works
for me. If we hit turbulence I won’t be white knuckled in my seat,
I’ll just be like “la-de-da” and continue watching my movie or writing down
what hideous shirt the guy in front of me is wearing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Now if it’s a later flight and the bar
is open I’ll be there, drinking away. The Pasadena trip was fun and
better yet when the bartender gave us a free round. The Angel I was
traveling with didn’t remember getting on the plane! She has since told
me flying has never been the same. I have learned that drinking before a
flight can be hit or miss especially if your flight has been delayed – there
goes your buzz. I rather not drink before boarding though because the
amount of time it takes to board the plane, taxi the runway and get in the air
is just about the amount of time it takes to lose a buzz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">At least this trip everyone was
drinking with me, I got to clink glasses (bottles), hold my bottle up high in
the air like a shot and say “Salute”! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-39613081265980661242014-04-10T19:05:00.002-04:002014-04-10T19:05:49.414-04:00Surviving the Big D: Letting Go of the Dream House<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are some things I will never
forget about my first house, my ‘dream house’ (at the time). It was 5
bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, in ground pool, garage, privacy, deck off the
kitchen. I never thought I could afford a place like that, and even still
as difficult as it was to negotiate the purchase, it was just as easy to walk
away from it during the separation and then the divorce. The house was
just an item, it didn’t have sentimental value other than my negotiating skills
hard at work but some memories still linger of a place I only spent a few short
months in.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<ul>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Never use the sellers agent as your own – they can’t help you negotiate or give you an idea of a ‘best and final’ ball park figure.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The day of the walk thru (which is usually the day or night before the closing), a bird crapped on my shoe, I figured it was a sign that my dad approved.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the day we got the keys, my now ex-MIL was waiting in the driveway (and we hadn’t even used the keys yet) Not Cool!</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I moved us in, met with Pest Control to get rid of any present and future insects (as much as my phobia of spiders and bees I did this from the driveway while the guy took care of business)</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the gesture was very thoughtful, people should ask the homeowner what if anything they need first before they buy or offer to buy outdoor patio furniture (don’t just show up with one that’s not even their taste with a “Surprise, we got you a patio set from Shop Rite”)</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the day of the first family bbq…my ex inlaws were giving tours of the house as if it was their own (sorry you don’t pay the bills you will not give the tour)</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I held my first family Christmas from all sides (trying to bring back childhood memories when both sides of the family met at one house – no toting us around door to door). This does not include Christmas morning because that too was at someone else’s house (which I promised I wouldn’t bitch about anymore in a few past postings) </span><span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">J</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ll always pay extra when replacing the windows to make sure the contractor also completes it with trim and painting the trim.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will not miss finding frogs from the creek behind the house in the pool filter</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The round trip commute from Rt.80 to 206N was a bitch - my commute now is 10x better.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where I live now I think I’ve stayed
the longest in (not including my childhood), and I’ve unpacked all the boxes.
There isn’t a ‘staging’ area like I once had in one of the spare guest rooms in
my ‘dream house’. I guess that was another sign it wasn’t my ‘dream
house’ after all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-53081175840287588712014-03-20T12:13:00.000-04:002014-03-20T12:13:15.461-04:00Insanity vs T25: My Reviews
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve decided to do a little QA on two do-it-yourself home
DVD workouts both by Shaun T. First I tried Insanity (30-45 minute
workouts), which I must say I must have been insane to spend that amount of
money to continually jump around in my living room. Most of the circuits
involved plyometrics (high impact jumping), the rest in my opinion was ok, nothing
I didn’t do before. The DVDs consisted of multiple exercises done in a
slow interval, fast interval, then super fast interval (without a modifier).
I found the super fast interval completely insane even for myself who considers
herself an athlete (others may view playing softball in 104 degrees as insane
but not to me). Anyway, I took a liking to 2 of the Dvds that didn’t
involve plyometrics, other than that I felt I wasted my money. Thankfully
I was able to resell it on Amazon.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mind you, I am not a gym rat, I prefer the flexibility of
working out at home (and I have the discipline and accountability).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a treadmill, total gym, stationary
bike, mats and free weights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I keep a daily workout journal to keep myself
on track.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m a huge fan of Jillian
Michaels, Bob Harper, Jackie Warner, Tony Horton (P90x shoulders and abs dvd)
etc. none of which have easy workouts. I run, cycle and play
softball so doing these calendar based circuit exercises wasn’t something new,
I’ve always exercised but the cardio I was doing was getting boring. I
thought by giving Insanity a chance it would make things more interesting and
tighten things up a bit. I was wrong, my knees hurt, my back hurt and
most of all I wasn’t enjoying the exercises. So I went back to basics,
and started speed intervals on the treadmill and stationary bike. This
fall I decided to give his latest and greatest set Focus T25 a chance (25 min
workouts). I checked out the circuits on Youtube first so I wouldn’t be
wasting my money on exercises that weren’t fun and would cause me a lot of pain
(e.g. too many plyos). I decided to follow the calendar this time which I
didn’t do in Insanity because again I wasn’t having any fun. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Week 1 I completed without a problem, although the weeks
after became difficult to do consecutively (never start a program during the
holidays and if you do always continue the calendar the next day). In a
way I felt pressured to get all 6 workouts in (2 on Fridays) yet with my work
schedule and other responsibilities I found that doing whatever I could that
week, and doubling the exercises when I could, even if I had to move it to the
following week to continue was worth it. I was having fun doing Alpha but
by week 4 I wanted to use weights. The cardio was definitely intense,
even with the modifier (thank goodness for the modifier). When I started
Beta I was hoping to use more weights, by week 4 I was bored. I didn’t
like one of the Core dvds so I swapped it out for one I liked in Alpha.
25 minutes a day goes by very fast if you are having fun. The exercises
get easier as you work at it, you’ll notice changes in the way your clothes fit
(as long as you have a nutrition plan to follow). I took a ‘before’
picture because I was working on the ‘bikini body’ for vacation. I
definitely see a difference in areas where normal cardio (running and cycling)
does not help. T25 was mostly core exercises, not just targeting one
area. The combination of cardio plus strength, agility and speed, all
works your core. You’ll notice definition (again, as long as you are
eating right). Since I measured when I started end of October I’m down 1
inch on my hips and 2 on my waist (I didn’t have much to lose anyway just to
tighten up).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I borrowed the Gamma dvds
from a friend of mine and decided not to follow a calendar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overall the three I did I liked (Weights –
YAY!), the Pyramid one I liked the best because it combines pyramid workouts
with cardio intervals in between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Speed
3.0 is crazy but doable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now that I’m
done, I have my own weekly calendar of T25 workouts including getting back on
the treadmill and my other dvds.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Overall, I would recommend this to a friend (and I did), and
for anyone who needs a kickstart to their workout who is short on time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do not feel pressured to complete everything
scheduled for that week, it is fine if you skip a day or two because of
responsibilities and continue with what’s next the following week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When your workouts start to feel like work
that is when you lose interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
are fun, and you will not hurt yourself either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is definitely worth the money and if you follow the meal plans (clean
eating, no processed food, 1 cheat day) and do your homework you’ll see the
results!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-78344043264838465322014-03-01T12:26:00.002-05:002014-03-01T12:26:51.459-05:00No Parking and Plenty of Looney Tunes<div class="MsoNormal">
An overdue girls night out on an extremely cold night led to
an unexpected evening of sorts and a parking nightmare. Let’s
just say that the overall ratio of guys to girls more than decent including the variety of age
groups. It wasn’t like the bars in
Morristown, the trust fund babies, those home from college who show up at 11 pm
already hammered, there were people older than us at the bar and closing the
place out when we left. I’m so thankful
to have friends who will drive to hang out for a few hours, who value a
friendship, who will put up with the bar-babies even when we’re not looking for
any. But in our typical Angel fashion we
met some interesting Looney Tunes that night.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><b>Sean</b> – “See those older guys over there, the one with the
Irish ‘turban’, they double dog dared me to come over here and buy you ladies
some drinks” >> it was actually his father and for once a guy didn’t believe
an Angel’s real name</li>
<li><b>Dougie Houser</b> – “I go to Med School” >>He ordered a
Long Island Ice Tea</li>
<li><b>Metro</b> – “How old are you? You don’t have a ring on you must
not be married?” >> He asked all the wrong questions and admitted to
waxing his eye brows and manicures once every 3 months</li>
<li><b>Egghead Jr</b>. – “I just wanted to come over and say you ladies
are beautiful, just let me order a drink and I’ll get outta here because your
husbands and boyfriends are around here somewhere who will kick my ass”
>> He ordered Fireball on ice and gets the nod for best conversation of
the night.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YuK72XCFSZkVKzLpq92cxfWGslIe_5PKe5Y9GkQsPlS-mqSPmBLBhybebR2dAZGIOYALmPQx50BsLPdno0WzABTGGgVXFQpPOlF81AbBvrvGNxmaVPLCeqU6tbjocVxbFpp8tCBYMBsf/s1600/EggheadJR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-YuK72XCFSZkVKzLpq92cxfWGslIe_5PKe5Y9GkQsPlS-mqSPmBLBhybebR2dAZGIOYALmPQx50BsLPdno0WzABTGGgVXFQpPOlF81AbBvrvGNxmaVPLCeqU6tbjocVxbFpp8tCBYMBsf/s1600/EggheadJR.jpg" /></a></div>
</li>
<li><b>Jesse</b> – “You gonna pay my tab too?” then he paid his tab at the bar with the
blond bartender and ended it with “By the way my name is Jesse” >>Thank you Tony
Siragusa for making an appearance</li>
<li><b>Justin</b> – >> he left that much of an impression we don’t
even remember what he said</li>
<li><b>Prick </b>– “OH! OH! You wanna dance?” >> “No thank
you”. I’ve never seen a guy drink from a
straw that still had the wrapper on it.</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prick ended the night…the nice bartender came by and asked
if he was bothering us. Apparently he
was the trouble token for the night making his rounds.
So the next time he swung around and wouldn’t go away after I deflected his drink from being spilt on us we got ‘security’. At least I wasn’t given the sign to get my
dukes up….this is why we go out with bulky rings on <span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-36594783938869938612014-02-21T09:15:00.001-05:002014-02-21T09:15:18.353-05:00Surviving the Big D: Lesson’s Learned<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now that
you’ve ‘survived’ here’s your “Lessons Learned” – it’s not easy and it’s
another painful experience to go thru but you will survive – hey hey! It will
also make you a wiser, stronger person in the long run.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
**Disclosure:
The following is an excerpt of my experience with my ex, my friends, my family
as I went through the divorce. This does
not have any reflection on your current situation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Do not expect:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ex to be civil, easy to deal with, able to get things
done. Do not expect phone calls to be answered or returned, certified
letters to be received/accepted either. Sometimes the most important
things are never on their priority list.<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For your divorce do not go thru a Mediator – he or she will
want you both to work it out yourself, this takes longer (took me almost 2
years). Get a good lawyer, it will all pay out in the long run and there
will be less frustration on getting things done on time since you have legal
assistance (and the ultimate threat of ‘going to court’).<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Make sure you incorporate due dates into the Property
Settlement (it took 5 years for him to refi because I neglected to add ‘due
dates’…hence why you should not use a mediator, it also took a letter from a really
good Lawyer to push the issue)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>What to Expect:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ol>
<li>Expect your family not to understand. Expect them to offer unsolicited advice such
as “Have a baby it will fix things”. No
it won’t, it would have made things a lot worse and more difficult. </li>
<li>Expect friends to disappear and take sides. The ones
that stick around were you true friends in the long run.</li>
<li>Expect to be abandoned by your married with children
friends. You were once part of their network because you like many others
were married and expecting to have children. Now you are single and
without children, they may not want to hang with you or be a part of your new
life. **I do not know how it is when you have children, I can only speak from
my experience. This hurts at first, but it is okay, you will again realize
who your true friends are, you will also make new ones.</li>
<li>Expect to feel like an outcast for a little while. I
hid from co-workers and some friends for a very long time, I did not want them
to know my business, what was going on. You’ll feel like you’ve done
something wrong and this is ok. What you’ve done was try to make it work,
it didn’t so you moved on to find your happiness. Life is too short.</li>
<li>Expect to feel like this at holiday events – don’t worry
you’ll get used to it and they’ll get over it.</li>
<li>Expect to be the poster child for a “Plan B”. Expect your
unhappily married friends to ask you ‘how did you do it?’ what process was
needed, the pain, pitfalls, emotional stress, etc. It’s okay, everyone
needs support and its best to get it from those who already went through that
experience. You may even get a referral to use their lawyer.</li>
<li>Expect changing your name back to be a PITA. See what I wrote back in 2010 <a href="http://natcatdiaries.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-women-should-not-change-their-name.html" target="_blank">here</a>. Note to future self: if I cannot write my future next
husband’s last name in one fluid motion (not breaking it up into multiple parts
just to dot ‘i’s’) then I know it won’t work out.</li>
<li>Expect men from your past (who you may not have dated) to
come out of the woodwork and profess their undying love for you. Stalkers included.</li>
<li>Expect your parents, grandparents, other family members to
take more time to get over it than you.
They may not understand the situation, they may ask you if the two of
you still talk. Be patient with them,
they will eventually get over it and accept the new love in your life.</li>
<li>Expect to be bitter (for a while) until you seek your
happiness/closure. Question newly engaged couples, putting bets on
relationships, telling ‘bachelor’ and ‘bachelorette’ parties to make sure ‘she
doesn’t eat the cake’. (Yes I still do this, I’m a true believer that
eating the cake is evil)</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b>and now that you’ve got your own place:</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<ul>
<li>Expect men from your past to come out of the woodwork now
that you are single and own a place, especially those who are renting, living
at home or have roommates.</li>
<li>If you do not get the closure you are looking for – write
him a letter. I did, but I never sent it.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And most of all, when you are comfortable talking about it,
when all the signatures are dry, due dates are met, papers are filed, tell your
story to help others. For me, its closure, its telling my side of the
story to help myself, to get it off my chest, to help others who may be going
thru this even if I went thru this 7 years ago.
Some would rather stay together and be miserable but life is too short
to be anything but happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This ends my ‘Surviving the Big “D” Series’, a story of how I survived, what
I experienced, learned, and am now talking about. I moved out
of the apartment, bought a house (mortgage is cheaper than rent), bought the right car (I bought a 4 door
pre-divorce which sooo wasn’t me), am in the best shape of my life, have my
head screwed on straight and am back to doing what I love, what
makes me happy and that includes spending time with my friends doing what we do
best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope this brings those who
have gone thru a divorce and are currently going thru a divorce some comfort in
knowing ‘you are not alone’, ‘you will get thru this’ and most importantly ‘you
will have a happier life’.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
To read the entire series visit the links on the right hand
side under “Surviving the Big “D” Series”</div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-41493584130461236772014-01-28T19:39:00.001-05:002014-01-28T19:39:04.691-05:00"How's your commute" Guy Makes the Blog<div class="MsoNormal">
For those of you who I don’t talk to on a social basis, there’s an
older gent at who had been inquiring about my commute to and from work on
a frequent basis. Just to give you an idea of what he looks like he does occasionally die his "I'm in my 60's white hair". More or less every
time he saw me in the halls he’d ask, “How’s your commute?” At one
point he insisted he was moving out this way so that was the reason for the
inquisition. Honestly three years of the
same question was getting old. Now
today, he was in the neighborhood and actually stopped by my desk to not ask me about my
commute, but this time, it was about the time it takes. I politely told him, “With
my foot, about (insert estimated time) minutes.” “Oh but you get here really early.” “Um yeah
I do. Trust me, not sitting in traffic does wonders for your attitude.” I know to those of your reading this it
sounds boring, but to me, he was invading my ‘dance’ space. You know, he was the fruit fly you couldn’t
find to kill, although every time you go in the kitchen you see it. He continues to tell me he was dating someone
in the town that I presently live in (how did that even enter into the
non-existent conversation), how interesting the people are, how he frequents
this one restaurant (so now I know never to go there on the weekends). I tried to acknowledge him politely as I put
my coat on because it was my quitting time “Good for you, “ “You mean the
amount of people that have teeth and those that don’t, “ “I really hang out in
NJ more than I do in PA but thanks for the recommendation.” I couldn’t get away fast enough. To top it off he weaseled his way in scoping
out the pictures on my desk and asked, “Is that your son?” as he pointed to the
one picture of my nephew and myself (hence why I only post and display pictures
of him with me in public). Now I was
ready to leave and my sarcastic response scale was getting up there, “No, that’s
my nephew.” “Oh he’s cute, he looks like he could be yours.” “Thanks, I can
always borrow him if I ever need to show up to a party with a child.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unfortunately I forgot how I got out of this inquisition,
you know how did it end, how did I sneak out? But fortunately I thought about writing
this the entire time on my ride home because I haven’t written anything about annoying-hows-your-commute
guy who will never see this anyway.
Perhaps at the next bbq I’ll show up with my ‘son’ and just confuse
everyone! </div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-53869843393264663202014-01-16T18:22:00.000-05:002014-01-16T18:22:57.801-05:00Surviving the Big D: Dating<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
They say the
only way to get over someone is to get involved with someone else. Yes, okay maybe when my head is screwed on
straight and I know what end is up, then ask yourself “What do I want/don’t
want in a relationship this time?”
Usually the ink is dry by now or at least in the process of. Many potential ‘dates’ do not want to get
involved with you seriously (for more than just a date-date) if they think
there’s a slight chance you could get back with the ex if all the T’s aren’t
crossed and papers aren’t filed. There
should be no loose ends when you get back into the dating world. You should not be dependent on the ex for
anything – cut all ties and most of all you should be over him/her. “Getting back together” at this point is not
an option – no matter how much your family liked him/her. </div>
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Now I’m not
against dating right away, you can venture out with your friends and meet people. The rules haven’t changed (just technology),
but they will seem foreign to you, again it’s just like riding a bike. You did it before, you can do it again. This time there’s the online dating universe
which you really have to weed through, it’s also best to do it with a good friend
as a screener. This way if someone is
really trying to scam you by posting their picture from 10 years ago and your
friend happens to meet them before you at least you have a warning. Yes that actually happened (I may have
written something similar in the “<a href="http://natcatdiaries.blogspot.com/2007/06/starting-fires.html" target="_blank">Starting Fires</a>” blog with my Shrek reference
and continued into “<a href="http://natcatdiaries.blogspot.com/2008/03/another-saturday-morning-cartoon.html" target="_blank">Another Saturday Morning Cartoon</a>”). Dive right in, fill your calendar, practice,
learn and you will find someone. You may
even find someone while you are waiting for someone else to show up at the
restaurant. You can’t think of the
dating world right out of a divorce as hoping to find Mr./Mrs. Right Again
right away, it’s not realistic. It
should be the furthest thing from your mind until your head is screwed on
straight and you have direction in your life.
I’ve known too many people who jump right to #2, or #3 right out of a
divorce, amazing how many have gotten remarried within a year or 2 of a divorce
and some divorced again. I’m not saying they didn’t find Mr./Mrs. Right Again
but you do need to figure things out for yourself..at least I did. </div>
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I dove into
the online dating scene after my divorce on three different sites, when one
wasn’t working for me, I signed up for another one. Dates that never got past the 2<sup>nd</sup>
date-no sparks. Dates that didn’t last 2
months. Dates that got weird – doesn’t
matter which site you use, they are almost all the same. You do have to kiss a lot of frogs (again)
and yes they are all out there, I’m sure a few of those ‘winners’ made it on
the blog at one point. Once you’re out
in the scene and things aren’t going as planned notice your dating patterns –
are you still attracting the wrong guys?
Are you sending out the wrong signals? Are you wearing the wrong clothes
(i.e. too conservative/too much cleavage)?
Chances are it could be you. If
you keep buying the same cereal you’ll never discover the next one on the
shelf. Learn from your mistakes, write
down your requirements. Did you have a
bad divorce? What do you want now? (You
can refer back to the beginning of the ‘Surviving’ series and read the
“<a href="http://natcatdiaries.blogspot.com/2013/07/surviving-big-d-requirements.html" target="_blank">Requirements</a>” for hints.) You weren’t
put here on this earth to settle if it doesn’t make you happy.</div>
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Those dating
stories that you bring back to your friends (single/married etc) are the ones
you share over drinks and laugh about.
We all have learned from each other’s mistakes in the dating world,
there are plenty of books and online blogs out there to help you too. I’m a total advocate that if you meet Mr. M
and he asks you out there’s no reason why you can’t accept a date for the next
night with Mr. Y. Right? Why not? You are weeding through what’s out there,
even if it’s online dating or getting fixed up by friends until you meet one
who you only want to spend your days and nights with. If you’ve been out there recently with single
friends there are slim pickins to what you find out at a bar (at our age) so
you have to find other means. So date
online, fill your calendar with every flavor possible, go to dinner, have
coffee, meet people, let your friends fix you up, take notes from Steve Harvey
(yes the grocery store after 8 pm does have single men food shopping on certain
days of the week) - when you’re ready for Mr./Mrs. Right Again it will happen. </div>
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I can’t
pinpoint the exact point when my head was screwed on straight to get back out
there, but it all fell into place as it should have (after the ink was dry and
the T’s finally crossed) and my heart is where it belongs. ;-) </div>
Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-3588005971003922252014-01-06T15:24:00.000-05:002014-01-06T15:24:30.945-05:00The 'Cost' of Friendship<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Throughout
the years I’ve lost friends, or they wrote me off because our lives were not
going in the same direction and vice versa. Many of my
good friends got married, had children and I too was married at one point without
kids, now divorced without kids. How
were we going to get along? Very easy, how did we become friends in the first
place? Yes this is something the girls
talk about when we’re together, the married, the single, the divorced,
separated ones we talk about it. We talk
about the friends we have lost because they refuse to leave their town to go
out and have a good time. We talk about
the friends we have lost because we’re the only ones not talking about our
children at their bbq. We talk about the
friends we all can’t hang out with at the same time because someone doesn’t
like the other one or whatever gripe it may be.
We talk about them because we can’t figure out why they wouldn’t want to
go out with their friends. But we get
together to talk, to chat, to catch up.
Yet I find it funny that once their children get older, they all of a
sudden have time for you, years have passed by and they think its okay now to
catch up. I’m still not sure how I feel
about that because so much time has gone by and no effort was ever made on
their part (no Christmas cards, no text conversations, no emails). If they truly wanted to catch up, there’s 9
digits to dial, an email or a text to send, a halfway between houses to meet up
where the husband watches the child for a few hours. It all comes down to how important is that
friendship. I’m not saying that all
parents are like this, just using it as an example.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
too have had a schedule full of softball games or other hobbies I am interested
in, and I may live an hour from most of my friends, but at least I put it out
there, even if that means meeting up after work. For example, three weeks ago,
because I know scheduling things with friends with children have to be done
ahead of time, I text a good friend of mine about today for lunch. I heard nothing back. I’ve extended the same olive branch in a few
Christmas cards to others with no response either.
Nice huh? When do I stop putting
in the effort? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
can say the same for some of my single/separated/divorced friends (with and
without kids). Try a month in advance, a
few weeks to days in advance to plan something, come up with a date that’s set
in stone, find a place to go, then day of I get the cancellation. Yes this can happen to anyone and everyone
who has heard all the excuses in the book.
Yes you can try to appease the situation and hope for next time, but
when next time this happens again, then again and again ‘when do I stop putting
in the effort?’ At what point do I end the friendship?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I’ve
made efforts to drive to my friends’ houses, meet them halfway, but some of
them (not all) won’t pay it back. I
shouldn’t always have to be driving to your house to go out or better yet, pick
the place to go out by you when I don’t even live there. I shouldn’t have to pick you up and drop you
off when you don’t make the effort to do the same. There are no excuses and I’ve realized that
real friends compromise and make the effort no matter where you are in life,
what state you’re in, how far you have to drive, even if it means rescheduling
until you meet up. Chances are if you
get a ‘reschedule’ request, most of the time you end up going out anyway and
making new friends (maybe next time I’ll send the ‘rescheduler’ a bill).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Nataliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15658572053497962195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1254154319306876326.post-5397543728778814132014-01-02T12:23:00.000-05:002014-01-02T12:27:40.406-05:00Happy New Year 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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As always we ended the year with a bang and a Fireball and
topped it off with some fun quotes during the ‘longest game of beer pong ever’.</div>
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<br /></div>
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You pull it like this.</div>
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Nice jugs</div>
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It’ll squirt all over the place</div>
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Good balls</div>
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Its not a party without a pickle</div>
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You want to spray this again?</div>
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I’ve never been accused of hitting the wrong button.</div>
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If you tap it gently it’ll work</div>
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Destroy the pork</div>
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Reverse cowgirl involves a horse</div>
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When I want chocolate I just go to Bobs</div>
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This pickle is the perfect size for a _________ virgin!</div>
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…four point restraints</div>
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I wet myself again</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It gets expensive – so I pay a chick to do it.</div>
<br />
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12-year old douche pipe </div>
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