Want to Learn More About Writing??

If you have any interest in writing, blogging, etc and want to know how to start, you need to check this out!  I've taken several of Carol Tice's workshops and am a member of her Freelance Writer's Den. This is one of the very best values out there and has been a huge help to me over the years. As I'm still a blogging "baby," I'm reading everything on her site I can about blogging. I did the J-School audit earlier and printed out the PDF's. Worth every penny, so check it out!!

Great Quote from Lana Turner on Men

A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend. A successful woman is one who can find such a man. 

                                         Lana Turner


This is so true! Until I met my wonderful man a couple of years ago, I went more for the fixer-uppers...you know, like buying an old home for the challenge of remodeling. Now that I'm older, I no longer cut the grass, do yard work, paint the trim or clean the leaves out of the gutter. And I sure as hell don't want to tackle a total do-over! I'm also not your momma, your shrink, or your ATM machine. If I want to do a crafts project, I'll get out my sewing machine and some of the fabric that is dry-rotting, anxious to be put to a useful purpose.

 

 

What Fresh Hell is it Now?

Does everyone else live like a page out of a bad soap opera? My soap would be called "As the Stomach Churns." What fresh hell is on the end of that ringing phone? I keep threatening to write country music songs. This week's tune could be called "My Mama's Gone Blind in One Eye, and my Step Granny is Sick, Too." I think my family tree has a giant crack down the middle where bad lightning or karma must have hit. My mom is really legally blind in one eye now, my step grandmother just found out she has leukemia, my stepfather's foot is about to fall off from a wound that won't heal, my stepmother's liver is acting up (transplant, anyone?) and the only good news is that my stepbrother and his wife are expecting their first child.

Oh, and I got bit by a tick about a month ago, so I'm keeping an eye out for Lyme disease. My boyfriend just didn't know what he got himself into when he accepted me and my crazy, and not-too-healthy family. Oh well, laughter is the best medicine. Of course, my great-grandmother died of TB, but that's another story for another day.

Better go take some extra vitamins. I think I may need them!

I Survived the Grocery Store Today

I'm home after buying groceries....oh, my God!!  The prices!! I bought a few frozen dinners for work, bacon (on sale), ice cream bars (on sale), some bagged salad (on sale), and some yogurt (not on sale), and spent over $75!!! It's just me, and I spend about that every week. I call it my "going to buy $75 worth of nothing to eat" day.

Really, by the end of the week, there won't be much left of this. About the only thing that will last are the hot dogs and buns....why do weenies come in packs of 10 or 12, but buns come in 8's??? You do the math and see how many you would have to buy until you have a 1:1 ratio of weenies to buns. Another marketing ploy designed to separate us from our hard-earned money. You will either throw out stale, moldy buns or expired weenies, only to repeat the process next month.

When I was a kid, my mom would spend about $40 a week on groceries for our family of 3. The buggy would be mounded over and barely fit in the trunk. We had tons of meat, cereal, produce, snacks.....all kinds of things to make 3 meals a day, plus snacks. And we weren't standing in front of the pantry door scratching our heads thinking 'gee, I wish there was something to eat in here.' Bear in mind, this was when there were no microwaves, and frozen dinners consisted of nasty faux-fried chicken with English peas and carrots in tinfoil trays that you baked in the oven for about 45 minutes before you could eat them.

Now we have entire aisles of the grocery store devoted to 10,000 different kinds of cereal, most of which are laden with sugar and tie in to either a cartoon character or a children's TV show or some other scheme to sell us processed trash and wonder why we are so fat and becoming diabetic at younger ages. I'm working on my New Year's resolution to eat healthier, one meal at a time. Tonight I'll be nibbling watermelon and cantaloupe while I work on my Ebook on budgeting. It's a work-in-progress I hope to release in the next couple of months. I'm working hard to follow my own advice.

Now, go make something semi-healthy to eat, and take a walk around the block. And if you go to the grocery store tomorrow, practice taking just one item out of your buggy before you check out. You will not miss that bag of chips or box of crackers, I promise you. And with what food costs now, you'll also be $5 richer, so you can go buy yourself a teaspoon of gas.

Marilyn Monroe Quote

"I've been on a calendar, but never on time."

This is one of my many favorite quotes by divas who are neither southern or related to me. Poor Marilyn really got the short end of the stick. She was much smarter than the ditzy blond movie star she channeled. I find the story of her life fascinating and have read dozens of books on her. My opinion: it was not suicide.

I'll be bringing more Words of Wisdom from some of my favorite divas in the future.

New Year's Resolutions 2012

So I've written mine down.....two full, nicely typed pages, categorized with numbered bullet points. I showed it to a friend of mine who said, "Oh my God, you look like someone with OCD." Well, hopefully not that bad, but since organization was on the list, I thought it only prudent that my list be organized.

My Aunt Rene never made resolutions. She would say every year that if you were doing what you were supposed to do, you wouldn't need to write it down. That might be true, but I tend to be very forgetful. Anyway, if they're written down and I haven't accomplished anything by the end of the month, there they are in black and white, ready to make me feel guilty and try to play "catch up."

So far, I haven't broken any. I have resisted the magnetic pull of the hot-off-the-press glazed donuts at the Krispy Kreme just right down the street. I nearly cried when they built it last summer. I could eat my weight in those things. But I have not had a single one pass my lips since it was built. I joked to my other friend who is also a KK addict that I almost wished it would burn down, thereby removing the temptation. The  next closest one to me is a good 30-minute drive and just not worth the effort.

Must go now and meditate upon this year's goals. What are your goals for this year?