Monday Memories #15

...continued from last Monday #14

We, my husband and I decided to move back to San Deigo ending up in Chula Vista moving into a huge complex that was filled with Navy personnel. My husband was supposed to be looking for a job ending up working at the harbor again.

I stayed home with Amy becoming great friends with a man named Tom who lived right across the stairway. I would put Amy down to sleep leaving both doors open so I could visit and still hear her. Bill was in the Navy getting hurt by steam hitting his leg and was waiting for his settlement.

My husband seemed to have trouble getting a job and after a week or two of this, I decided I was going to go out to look for work. I started down the Main Avenue going in and out of each store until I went into Bob's Big Boy, applied being hired on the spot as a Hostess.

I was overjoyed for I have always enjoyed working especially with people taking to the job seating guests as tables emptied. I had a sitter for baby Amy who was around nine months old, who knows what my husband was doing.

Then one day he didn't come home. No big deal I had Tom to keep me company. The day stretched into two weeks with my paycheck keeping all the bills paid. I didn't eat during the day saving what little I had extra after bills to feed Amy so the cooks would bring me 'mistakes', meals that were made wrong you could eat them. I knew they were doing it on purpose.

One day I was working, one of the waitresses told me I had a visitor. As I went up to the lobby it was my old Captain that I had worked for the summer before. He had tracked me down to let me know that my husband was found playing captain and had been caught. I just stood there a little shocked. I thanked him and when I got home I called my parents.

I talked to my manager who let me transfer to the Bob's Big Boy back home waiting for my parents to come get me and Amy, we were going home...

I will continue my story next Monday Memories...

Monday Memories # 14 (My Marriage By Rebound)

Thank-you all so kindly for welcoming me back, also being patient and understanding. I'm realizing that before I moved I was getting myself frazzled by fretting too much on all the wrong subjects. It's like I always do, try and cram all the knowledge into my brain until it explodes! Now I'm a lot calmer and plan on just getting my posts out there, whatever happens, will just have to happen at its own pace.

I was now six days overdue from my due date. My mother took matters into her own hands taking me for a very bumpy ride in our Volkswagon which I laughed the whole time. 

Later on, after she dropped me off at home I felt that first cramp go searing through my body. My water didn't break instead my mucus plug came out,(sorry to gross you out) so I called my mom telling her it was 'that time.' When my mother arrived I had taken a shower and she was like, "You could have had that baby in the shower" which I replied but I didn't and off we sped to the hospital.

It was important to me to have my baby natural, no drugs. Eighteen hours later I was exhausted, my husband couldn't take the pain I was in and had left the birthing room, I had dilated to a four and stayed there. You're supposed to dilate to  a ten. The last thing I heard was my doctor saying she needs a C-section.

I was woken by my nurse telling me I had a baby girl to which I replied, "No I didn't" I was so groggy until my brand new baby girl was laid on my chest. My love for this tiny being totally consumed me as I gazed into her little face. I was a mother.

Little did I know I would only have four years with her. 

I'm going to end with that for my heart hurts a lot at the moment. I will pick up the story next Monday. Until then stay safe where ever you are.

Thinking Back Tuesdays Story #7 FixThePlus

Update: With my husband's suggestion I had told him we have a very good Movie reviewest called Nik's Pics at Facebook and also has a blog called  Lavender Inspirations where you can find +Nikki DeMc .

 She is very thoughtful of all her reviews of movies so I decided I would leave those to her and I am sticking to T.V. shows where you can find them and watch for free on the internet. I'm switching up Mondays Movies and Thinking Back Tuesdays to Monday's Memories and Television Tuesdays. 

Thursdays I have started Thursdays Are For Trivia and I will start Frugal Fridays for saving, renewing old stuff into new stuff is a big interest for me.

Continued from last Tuesday...I did have two escapes, my love of art and music...

Junior High...images are flashing by for I had some very good times despite the fact I was still a loner belonging to no group of kids but trying to fit in. Nothing like I am now that’s for sure! It is said you never forget your first love. 

Now we are getting to one of many “Happy Places” in my life. I will write what I see in my minds eye for to this day which I am now 57 years old I can still see that part of my life as clearly as if it was just yesterday.

It was the normal hot sunny day in Palm Springs, California at the pool. I was now in High School. The pool water was a nice clear blue, nice and cool. I had on my first bikini that my father had given the OK for me to wear which had flowers and ties on the top and sides. These were promptly tied tight the min. I left sight of home.

I close my eyes and I can see and almost feel the warm tile beneath me which I had splashed with pool water to cool it down so I could sit. I would sit next to the lifeguard tower which I thought was the perfect job in the whole world to get a good tan going.

There were a few teenagers and smaller children splashing and playing just your average day at the pool. There's a commotion and looking up I see Paul G. kid brother of Ann G. but since my mother had to butt in, like mothers can do, into every part of my life I couldn't be friends with Ann because her mother had “too many Uncles” which much, later on, I figured out what that meant!

With him is a green eyed totally tanned boy who I fell for pretty much right away but stuck my teenage snotty nose up in the air and proceeded to ignore, ignore, ignore. It was kinda hard to ignore them two with all the yelling, splashing and diving off that huge black inner tube they were using to play with! 

They were showing off for me! To make a long story short Paul started up a conversation which I discovered that his friend liked me and I got introduced to his friend's cousins and Paul's sister who was the Ann I was supposed to stay away from. 

I love full circles when they come around and it's a good thing! We became the best of friends and I miss them all dearly. I have tried to find them on Facebook with no success. I suppose I could try harder but would not be sure of the meeting so I don't.

There was Karen, Diane, (sisters) Ann and later on Rita. We became tight, I slept over ever chance I got, the parents were like my parents and they were Italian. Well, half Josie the mother was. 

I remember big tall shining pots of bubbling homemade spaghetti sauce with homemade bread dipping a piece into the pot and being scolded told to stay out of it; a smokey kitchen at night while the adults played cards and smoked. 

Trips to Cherry valley to their relatives who were 100% Italian to the point of stone wall oven with the delicious smells of baking bread coming out. I loved it. I often regret the path that took me away from them but all the memories are priceless.  

Do you have childhood memories that you love?

100 Exquisite Adjectives by Mark Nichol

I love learning new words or being reintroduced to one. I ran across a list of them and will add a word a day.

Word#57 Meretricious: whorish, superficially appealing, pretentious

In a sentence: If my friend didn’t decorate her house with so many meretricious knickknacks, it would be a more comfortable place to visit.

Thinking Back Tuesdays Story #6 FixThePlus

Continued from last Tuesday...Before you get the wrong idea let me explain... 

My earliest memory’s I have is when I was very young, I'd say two or three years old. It was night and no seat belt laws back then so I was standing next to my mother in the front seat while she was yelling at my father to get in the car and me crying out “daddy” which then he got in the car.


I remember laying in the back seat at night and watching the street lights whiz by which later on figured out mom was out getting dad from the whatever bar he was at. He later stopped going.

There was non-stop screaming and yelling; doors slamming and windows rattling. It took me forever to not be a 'yeller' learning how to talk things out without violence or screaming.

Being grounded was like a death sentence to me so I became very skilled at hiding the fact that this butterfly was coming out of her cocoon no matter what my poor mother did to smother it. I think because she had gotten pregnant with me, I would have a 'surprise' as she recalled my birth.

Junior High...images are flashing by for I had some very good times despite the fact I was still a loner belonging to no group of kids but trying to fit in. Nothing like I am now that’s for sure!

Having to wear (yes my mother kept on buying my clothing) what she picked out was horribly embarrassing. We would go to Sears and/or J.C. Pennys armed with mother's credit card. For some reason, my father came along and it's he that I went to with my 'clothing issues'.

I would make my argument over whatever I was being forced to wear, he would issue his verdict. I would win. It usually was about wearing outdated stuff which made going to Jr. High I knew you had to change in front of other girls in Physical Education.  No way was I going to wear cotton brief panties with little flowers on them! We settled on cotton crouch solid print bikinis.

I am part Irish, Dutch and Cherokee Indian. In the winters I was bone white while sunbathing in the California sunshine I would turn a nice bronze color. I wanted to shave. I had very hairy legs which of course made me feel very self-conscious so I sneaked into my parent's master bathroom borrowing my father's very sharp razor which I had been warned never to touch.

I brought the razor into my bathroom excited, I was going to have beautifully smooth shaved legs. I sure could have used Google back then for at least I knew to lather up my legs first. I start at the top of my foot and draw the razor along the top of my leg to my knee.

You ever cut yourself with a very sharp razor? If you have then you know at first you don't feel anything at all but you know there's something wrong. Next is this awful stinging sensation with blood flowing out of five or six little chunks of shin skin up the length of my poor leg.

I managed to finish shaving only much more carefully around the little holes in my leg. I got better at shaving after learning the hard way which was mostly the only way I learned about life. I wore pants for a week. Now I know where the phrase growing up can painfull come from. Junior High wasn't all about embarrassments, I did have two escapes, my love of art and music...

To be continued next Tuesday...What did you like to do in Jr. High?

100 Exquisite Adjectives by Mark Nichol

I love learning new words or being reintroduced to one. I ran across a list of them and will add a word a day.

Word#56 Mendacious: deceptive

In a sentence: I wish I hadn't had to be so mendacious growing up.

Thinking Back Tuesdays My Story #4

So we would stay the weekend and then the dreaded 3-hour drive home with my parents bickering and arguing all the way with my father driving like a maniac passing cars on hills that I would have a nice upset stomach by the time we got home.
Looking back I remember long summer days and my favorite time was just as the sun was disappearing over the mountain. That's when I started sunbathing my tan looked the darkest.
I was such a prankster and still am.

This one Easter I blew out eggs to painstakingly fill up with confetti and smashing them over someone's head, getting on the roof of our house and dropping a water balloon on my dad's head; jumping down out of our front yard tree and scaring the crap out of someone.

 Spending time with my friends up the street was so nice. We would take a blanket and lay down on our backs and look up at the stars and try to see a UFO which we would see an airplane and say there's one! The big fig bush that we would pick figs right there and eat them until we were stuffed.

 Standing next to my friend's mom while she was cooking and getting me to take a taste, which I promptly spit out. Surprise it was an octopus! Yuck! We had fun going downtown which my mother wouldn't of let me go but my friend's mom worked at one of the places and we would go into those fancy dress shops talking back and forth about “mother giving us her Visa card” and trying on $100 dresses. Palm Springs has a lot of fancy shops that I loved to go into.

Growing up in the Dream Homes I should have had more friends than I did. But my mother seemed to know about people although thinking about it now seems a little puzzling because she didn't make friends easily. I remember one of her friends going to her house was an adventure. It was as messy as my house was squeaky clean. I don't remember much but throwing frogs as high as you could in the air and letting them splat I seem to remember. Her kids were animals. But I liked going over there...

To be continued next Thinking Back Tuesday My Story

Read Ronald Munson

 I did it. I spent the time it took to finish off  Nothing Human. I had forgotten how captivating books and  stories can be and to tell you the truth, it was kinda nice getting off the internet for a while.

Nothing Human is a nice short story. This particular novel is the hardcover version with a nice picture on the front.

The story is drawn from the diary of John Haack-a.k.a.-the Jaguar who is a cold merciless, violent sexual sadist.

In this story, he pursues Jill Brenner and even though she has cop Lieutenant Eric Firecaster protecting her The Jaguar catches up to her and now it's a battle of wits to stay alive for Miss. Benner.

This story I would fully recommend if you like this sort of reading.

Read any good books lately?

100 Exquisite Adjectives by Mark Nichol

I love learning new words or being reintroduced to one. I ran across a list of them and will add a word a day.

Word#44 Intransigent: uncompromising

In a sentence: I knew the killer would be intransigent to the victims begging.

Time Of My Life #FixThePlus *

I have been reading up on the net basically how to build a nice blog. I feel like I'm all over the place and I need to focus on one subject at a time but what subjects?

I know deep down I want to use my experiences and adventures to help others that run across my blog and know you are not alone and using myself to show that despite life dragging you along like a fast moving river, you can survive it.

My blog will be like my life has been. Trial and error, plus a whole lot of reading and reflection. I got this quote out of a novel I read,

“Writing is a wonderful and terrible thing. It opens deep wells of memories that were previously capped”.

I had the hardest time going backward and reliving the worse parts of my life. But the more I write and reflect, the better I'm dealing with it. I think the hardest emotion I had to deal with was feeling guilty.

 Going to bed and emotionally flogging myself for "bad" choices sending myself into deep despair and depression. I would lay there and think about the "what ifs" and if it would have changed anything at all?

I watch a lot of television or rather I have the Internet and watch my shows and movies on my laptop. The shows I like fuels my imagination. One concept from the Si-Fi shows is parallel worlds.

I would try and imagine where I would have ended up taking another road than the one I took. But then again I've always been a dreamer which got me in a lot of troubles when I was in school. I must be part angel cos I'm always sitting on a cloud.

So now I know what I'm going to do as far as my blogging. My journey may of had speed bumps and wrong turns but one thing I am sure about is my inner core. I'd rather do good rather than evil although you get on my wrong side there's no telling what will happen! Funny thing. There was no right thing or wrong thing only my thing and the person I am today.

How do you enjoy your life?

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

Song by Green Day

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road

Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go

So make the best of this test and don't ask why

It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable but in the end is right

I hope you had the time of your life

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind

Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time

Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial

For what it's worth, it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable but in the end is right

I hope you had the time of your life