Monday Memories #19

My life was getting straightened out, I still had no idea where my so called husband was and didn't care, life was good...until I met a man who had been hit over the head, the girls brought him to me to fix him up...

A couple of days later the girls next store came knocking at my door. I was a few years older than they were, they treated me like a big sister. My mother had my daughter over the weekend already.

Looking frantic they told me there was a man that had knocked at their door, his head was cut and bleeding could I help? Of course, I could so I went over to see what was wrong.

He was a pretty good looking guy but his head was cut pretty good so I got my peroxide dabbing at it until it stopped bleeding. He claimed he had been attacked by a couple of strangers, I had no choice but to believe him.

That was the year I was introduced to crystal meth. He would come over to visit, one day leaving a vial of white powder on my kitchen counter where I cleaned up all around it, I didn't even know what it was.

I would watch him snort a line or two when he was over on the weekends I was by myself and one day I got curious and tried it. That's what they do men like that, "here try this", get you liking it until your helping to buy it also.

The biggest seller was the fact I wasn't hungry so not eating I was losing weight. The difference between us was, he wanted it constantly and I could take it or leave it. It was like I had two lives, one as a crystal snorting party girl on the weekends and a normal mother during the week.

That year I learned a lot about the undercurrent of my hometown. The people who did the drug, the people who did the drug and wanted to quit, the dealers, they all were normal everyday people who worked or dealt not working, all with one thing in common...crystal meth.

I now weighed 101lbs. thinking I looked great but this guy was like a slimy booger you couldn't shake off. He was of the type once he had you he used intimidation, manipulating me to doing what he wanted. He would always be sorry after finding some excuse why he had been such a bastard, I'd forgive him until one day I had enough.

   

I went to my mother explaining what had happened, why I had lost so much weight, how I couldn't get this asshole out of my life, she leaped into action calling a shelter in the next town, bringing me there. I was free at last... so I thought...

Continued on next Monday...

Monday Memories #10 How To Enjoy Memorial Day #FixThePlus

For all the Armed Forces, The Fallen,

Men,Women,Families, Wives,
Husbands,
Babies,
Children,
I thank you for your sacrifice  for my freedom.
I have one of my own in the Armed Forces, it's been seven years now.
I love you.









                                 Enjoy this video I thought it was great!

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.

Thursdays Are For Trivia

Hello, everyone, I love trivia coming up with the idea to post a trivia Question with the Answer making Thursdays Are For Trivia. I will see how it does to keep it going or not. I generate my meme's through Recite.com.

So now I have on a regular shedule Monday's Are For Movies Online Entertainment where I watch a lot of movies & T.V. shows I have plenty to share in that category. I also post where you can watch for free which I will gladly share with you.

Thinking Back Tuesdays I am telling the story of my life, the lessons I may or may not have learned. I want to help or show we are not all alone in this journey called life. My story is inspired by my first-born Grandson and a brother is on the way.

                    Welcome to Thursdays Are For Trivia

Have a wonderful day!

Prince Died While I Was Making Pancakes

For breakfast/lunch, I decided to make some blueberry pancakes. I actually made it through standing until I was done with the last pancake. Needless to say, when I sat down to eat my pancakes it was kinda hot from the burner since we have a gas stove eating only a few bites.

My husband announces "Prince has died" they just said so. I asked if it was 'real' with all the hoaxes that come out you have to check and recheck. Evidently it's true.

I'm 57 and I'm here to tell you I told my husband that it doesn't matter how much money you have you can go anytime, "would you like more butter and syrup on your pancakes"?

He agreed so after a few minutes listening to the newscast about Prince dying which is all over the web as of now I say "Maybe when you do have a lot of money it makes things worse"?

I was never a huge Prince fan but my heart does go out to his passing, his friends, fans, and family. News like this makes you take a brief look at your own mortality then you move on.

Farewell Prince, may you rock in peace.

What were you doing when you heard the news of Prince passing?

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

Thinking Back Tuesdays My Story #3

Continued from last Tuesday...
This story was inspired when my first born Grandson was still in his mommy's belly. Now I am writing for two for my second grandson who is on his way. I love you both.

                                                   Grandma Rose

I became friends with a pair of sisters who had an older pair of sisters that lived right down the street from where I lived. These girls were younger then I was but had more trust and freedom from their mother than I did from my mother. So I practically lived over there for with all the screaming and arguing at my house it was a wonderful refuge. 

When I finally found my brother, your Uncle Chris, after thirty years he has had contact with at least Jessie who was the youngest of the sisters. Jody was the older girls name. Very pretty like her mother. I remember a fig bush where we would eat our fill of in her back yard after much convincing from Jody. We would lay out a blanket, lay down looking up into the heavens pretending that the airplane lights were aliens. We were so close that we would call each other at the same exact time just picking up the phone, no ring, just both of us saying at the same time.."Hello"??

 I grew up as a single child until I was eight years old. My father and grandpa were carpenters and contracted what was called “The Dream Homes”, paying off the house was $120.00 a month plus utilities. All the houses had two designs and our house was near the Main Road. The whole place was in a circle with the school being right in the middle, grades kindergarten to the sixth grade.

  I remember moving once to San Diego, California but we moved back. I remember a trailer park and a very cold trailer and feeding squirrels peanuts by hand. In my new school, I had made one new friend and went over to her house listening to music and being silly dancing to with a banana peel for a hat on my head. My old school sending me a Valentines Day Card signed with my schoolmates name on it.

My mom was pregnant with my brother at that time and I barely remember a house we had moved into and squishing my finger in a doorway. Funny the stuff you remember. My Aunt Stella and Uncle Dan, my Dad's brother lived in San Diego, but we ended up moving back home to the Desert. I loved and missed San Diego. My Aunt and Uncle had a two story drafty house which us kids trampled through after we traveled the three hours to visit them. 

There are one older brother and two sisters and later to come another boy. My cousin Mark is now in heaven. I remember lots and lots of green foliage. The cool air that warmed up around noon time. Plants and trees everywhere, six blocks down was the beach which I practically lived. I almost drowned once but that’s pretty good after a lifetime of swimming in the ocean. 

I always thought it was so neat to be able to see the ocean from my cousin's house. Getting down to the beach was the ultimate rush tho! My Uncle had taken skateboards and built them into scooters and we all had one. Our shoes were our brakes much to my mother's dismay. I sure wish I had that kind of energy again running up and down that hill and stomping through the neighbor's yards playing the night game of tag. It was non-stop fun. Then we would all go upstairs and blankets were laid out for us all to sleep on in that attic with the slanted walls that I occasionally hit my head on.

 I had my first coffee from my Aunt Stella. Lots of creamer and  sugar and I loved it! My mother was totally against it so it was our little secret. Next would come running in and out and all around the neighborhood until it became the time for homemade ice cream that never failed to give me brain freeze, but it was so good. That and watermelon and after we were done eating we would have watermelon seed spitting contests. Watermelon seeds everywhere which made the critters happy. I love it there.

 My Aunt read Tarot Cards which my mother was totally against, but I'm sorry to say my mother didn't like much of anything. I liked the inside of Aunt Stella's house with the beaded curtains which us kids would go swishing through and brightly colored decorations all over. My mother found it “tacky”. I loved it. I would dream of how this was my real life and thank God for dreams for they are free. 

To be continued next Thinking Back Tuesday

How do you like my story so far?

Thinking Back Tuesdays My Story #2

Continued from last Tuesday...

                                                 Grandma Rose's Story

When I was a little girl I was very calm most of the time. I could be a silly little thing making jokes and giggles laughing so hard at it all. I remember going to bed and this was up until I was eight years old,  dreaming away in full color and remembering every detail as if I was actually there. One of my dreams was I would float higher and higher looking down on the world.

Another dream I used to have on a regular basis was my father, mother and me driving in a jungle at top speed with a dinosaur right be-hide us and it crashing through the window dragging my mother out of the car. Weird.

Another one was about getting lost. I would be shopping and I remember in my dream picking up some pants thinking to myself how real they felt. Then I would be in a horseshoe type apartment complex on the walkway and my mother was gone and I was all alone.

I loved my dreams about flying it was so fun! These dreams were on replay most of my childhood. In fact, when I lived in Waterboro, Maine your Daddy was 2 or 3 years old and he was having bad dreams. He came to me one night and told me he didn't want to go to bed because he was having bad dreams so being the awesome Mommy that I was I did a chant which I repeated as he got a little older.

The chant went something like this. While I was whirling around and around with my arms outstretched I would chant: “Bad dreams bad dreams go away...repeat...Go away to the moon”! Which then I would make a sweeping motion with my arms as if gathering up all the bad dream vibes and tossing them into the air. It got a little tricky me being so clumsy, but I pulled it off.

Our local Elementary School was from Kindergarten to the 6th grade. All I remember about Kindergarten is gram crackers & milk and laying down to rest on a mat.  I remember hanging upside down when I was in 4th  grade falling flat on my back knocking the wind right out of me, playing RingaRoundtheRosie and writing Mike in the sand with the toe of my shoe. Guess I started liking boys at a tender age!

I also started singing in the 6th grade which I took all the way to the 12th grade. I'm telling you nowadays it's a lot better with hot lunches. No soggy tuna sandwiches or warm baloney...gross! And no warm smelly milk jugs. Lunch was not a fun time!

I loved to run and I was fast although I'd fall down hence the scars on my knees. I remember this boy. I was with a bunch of school girls and the boys were across the field and one threw a rock hitting me. I was very angry about that and, later on, that day at next recess I spotted him. That's when my white saddle shoes came in handy which I hated with a passion. Without thinking, I snuck up behind him and kicked him as hard as I could in the ankle almost dropping him to the ground. He never bothered me again.

I have always been a loner as a kid and later as a teenager. Nothing like I am now. I would hook up with one friend and tolerate the others. This one girl I became friends with the friendship started out  in the school yard. I had grabbed her sweater from her and we were racing around the school yard, but I could run circles around her. There was this Volley Board which I loved playing on and as we were running around it I tossed up her sweater and lo and behold it draped right over the top...opps!

 Needless to say, I got in trouble for that one with the janitor having to get a ladder to get her sweater! We became friends after that. The family was Mormons. All the houses in the Dream Homes were one of two models so being in a friend's house was almost like being at home minus the yelling. There were 3 girls and 1 boy and I practically lived over there. I remember sitting down and having one of the sisters brush my hair for hours and talking the night away. As life went on we lost touch only to touch base with each other after 30 years. All because of Facebook.

To be continued next Tuesday....

Thinking Back Tuesdays

Two more days 'till Saint Patrick's Day. That's the only time I tolerate bright green but I love the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Takes me back to those horrible, wonderful childhood memories of wearing something green or you were in danger of being pinched. Which I did not like unless it was the cute boy I currently had a crush on. And the gold coin candies, those were good.

This story I have told over and over again as my kids were growing up for as in all places and times there will be bullies. Or mean kids. Those kids learned to steer clear of my sweet self.

Now this tall boy was celebrating St. Paddy's Day all week at my Jr. High School. He was, at least, six feet tall. I would see him walking down the hall what looked like he was pinching someone, mostly the girls, they would jump and yelp so I thought nothing of it. Turns out he was sticking people with a safety pin. And guess who he stuck...you got it...me.

Now being stuck with a safety pin poses a problem, mainly lots of pain that don't go away too soon. He would also play leap-frog over the girls heads and finally I had enough of this jerk.

My mother was into all kinds of crafts. Needlepoint, Sewing, Latch Hook, are you getting the picture now? In the early school hours, I would get dressed and eat breakfast alone which was fine with me. This particular morning my mother's darning bag was right next to her chair where she had left it the night before.

It was Saint Patrick's Day with the pot of gold being two darning needles. With a half grin and gleaming eyes, I reached in and brought out a huge darning needle.  I put it in my purse and off to school I went.

Sure enough, when I arrived at school getting off the bus I spotted the tall boy. The bell rang and first class began. Class time seemed to slow down finally with the bell ringing. As students poured out into the school's hallway I saw Mr. Bully leapfrogging and sticking the girls, why no one turned him in I have no idea but I was the same liking to handle things myself.

As he got closer he spotted me. I could tell what was on his mind as he drew closer I whipped out my mother's huge darning needle telling him go ahead and try jerk. The kids around me starting laughing as he backed away muttering I don't want any trouble man. I was the hero for the morning, he never stuck anyone again.

Bullies come in all shapes and forms. I was lucky that day this one backed off. I don't know why for I was such an angel but that day he saw my horns.

Were you ever bullied as a child?



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#38 Heuristic: learning through trial-and-error or problem-solving

In a sentence: Doubtless what we have been in the main a reflex of the heuristic character of Aristotle's own work as a pioneer.

Memories Of A Valentine's Past

I am going to try my hand at writing a story at the encouragement of my friendly blogger 'tribe'. I read that somewhere deciding I love that feeling same as 'village'. I'm making up my own quote. "It takes a village to raise a blogger". I like that. I hope you enjoy.

                                                  Memories Of A Valentine's Past

Wendy sat dreamily gazing out the window. It was the day after Valentines. In her mind's eye, she was that young girl of fifteen sitting at the edge of the local pool sunbathing. Tanning was very important to her loving the golden brown color she had been working on for the last month. The Californian sky was a vivid dark blue, a slight breeze was gently moving her long brown, sunbleached hair.
As she tilted her face towards the sun closing her eyes through the gate came a couple of boys armed with a big black plastic inner tube throwing it into the pool making the water shift slightly, a loud  noise of plastic hitting the water rang out. One boy was dark-skinned, the other she recognized lived in her neighborhood. She went to school with his sister.
Taking a running jump, they both cannon-balled into the pool making a huge splash jostling each other for the innertube. Meanwhile, she would glance over when the boys were submerged then looking away as they came up shouting, continuing to nonchalantly sunbath.
After a few more minutes of horseplay, the boy Matt from her neighborhood came swimming over to the side where she was sitting telling her as she blushed slightly, his friend would like to meet. Thus began Wendy's 'first love' affair.
They dated for the rest of the summer meeting at the pool. Wendy was in love with this handsome, dark-skinned, slanted green eyed boy.
But alas circumstances changed making it so difficult to see each other they had to break up. Wendy was heartbroken, crying at every sad song that came on the radio.
Days, months, then years passed as time does, Wendy's pain faded into the past. She never forgot about her green-eyed, dark-skinned boy at the local swimming pool.
One day in January Wendy went to visit some old friends she had gone to school with. They were two sisters having been married living side by side in an Apartment complex.
They all had to go to work leaving Wendy with instructions to turn off the oven when the timer went off. Wendy was sitting waiting when the door opened and in came Dale, her first love was right here in front of her!
They started to see each other again, January turned to Febuary turning into Valentine's Day. Wendy stared at the phone deciding to give Dale a call at his place of employment to wish him a Happy Valentine's day.
"Hello, I'd like to speak to Dale if he's available please"? Her heart sped up with excitement as she anticipated the sound of his voice. She never knew what that saying, "time stopped" truly meant until she heard what came out of the phone's receiver, "I'm sorry, he died".
Wendy hung up in disbelief and after that, valentines day was never quite the same.

                                                       The End

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

Who Stopped The rain...#FixThePlus *

I woke up to rain. I love that. The smell. The sound. Rain makes me feel cozy and warm. Like being wrapped up in Mother Nature's blanket.
I have a lot of good memories from the rain. From my childhood sitting in a pool with bubbles in it that the downpour was making. I must have been two or three.
Lightning and thunder with a good downpour are my favorite. I could have happily been a storm chaser. Now that would have been ideal.
I remember this one-time camping. It starting pouring and by pouring I mean we gotta build an ark! Everyone was scrambling around taking down their tents. I had a summer dress that quickly was soaked so having a bathing suit on underneath I took that heavy dress off. Weighed a ton!

More recently I got soaked to the bone walking over from seeing my
Doctor, it started to pour buckets of water. By the time, I slogged my way over to the hospital which only was a five min. walk, I needed a towel. Talk about soggy. The rough part was keeping my soaked clothes on.

So let it rain little raindrops...

Where do you like listening to the rain?