Down on the Creek

Cold water streaming down my face
Warm breezes flowing across the water
The smell of leaves and dirt fill the air


Fish swimming beneath my feet
Dragonflies landing on the water
Frogs croaking at the waters edge


Splashing fins barely below the surface
Colorful rocks covered with sand resin
Water marks of time in the sandstone walls


Clouds of gnats swirling high and low
teasing the fish and frogs
Sunlight streaming through the trees


Wet hair floating in the essence of the stream
An undertow pulls at my body
Leaves, sand and twigs float by


Calmness of nature takes over
All stress is gone down river
Water washes my cares away

Where I come from...

   

I have always felt disengaged from my parents. I was a child of divorce before I was born. When mom's second marriage ended she felt she could not support four children on her own. So it was easy for my mother to give my older sister and me to my father when I was four years old.

My dad couldn't take us because he had moved on and remarried. My step mother, had her own two little girls and one on the way. She didn't want five daughters so we were sent away; therefore, my sister and I went to live with our grandparents, Maude and Elmer. They are gone now and I still miss them and the farm.

We were well loved and taken care of we rarely saw our father as he had another family to take care of. We didn't see mom again until I was in fifth grade. Mom came and got us for a visit and my sister wanted to stay. By then mom had remarried for a third time. She also acquired five step children and had given birth to another son. We stayed with mom for two years.

Our step father was very abusive and my sister asked to go visit dad and we ended up staying because she made me stay.  I stuck it out for a year and four months. I hated our step mother. She was always rude to me and refused to buy me anything girly. She also destroyed all my personal belongings in a fiery trash can.  We had to live in a dump and I hated it. My grandmother and mother never lived that nasty.

I called mom and told her to come get me. She overheard me and called dad who was in Dallas visiting my aunt. I had no idea he was not in town. I talked to him over the phone and told him he could stick her up his ass. I was ready to kick her ass. I was fourteen by then. I moved back to mom's mid-summer. 

In eighth grade I went to three different schools; because mom decided leave her third husband. Then moved my younger brother, sister and me to Oklahoma City where I attended Capitol Hill Middle School.  I was never so scared in all my life. I had never been around gangs, drugs or crime.  I was a full on country bumpkin. No city kid in this girl. 

Two months later mom got back with her third husband. We moved to the Pickwick Apartments on May Ave. I hated that place too because he was there. We attended Jefferson Middle School.  I hated it too but at least it wasn't dangerous to walk in the front door. When school let out we went back to Davenport.

There I married my first husband at seventeen and graduated high school. We had one son and then divorced a little more than three years later. I remarried less than two years later and had another son. After five more years I gave birth to my youngest son but, then when he was eight, that marriage too ended.

I am resolved to stay single the rest of my life. I have a wonderful man who lives fifty miles away and he brings me roses. We have both been married and divorced twice. We also have three grown children and a grandson. We have decided to only date and have fun. 

After nearly eleven years of being divorced, I think I finally like where I am at inside myself. I am still a country girl at heart, barefoot in the mud walking through the peanut fields and cow pastures.

 

Drumming Up Some Business

I finally joined my first gym. They have classes for yoga and weight training and Zumba. I am really excited except for the personal trainer on intake. He wanted me to pay him to help me lose weight. I do have a considerable amount of weight I need to lose and a lot of muscle that can be built.

My goal is to lose 65 pounds and I feel I can accomplish that if I set my mind to it. However, if I have a dude leaning on me to start paying his ass as my personal trainer then that stress is going to soar. 

Suddenly I realized my 1 hour training session was not about me but about him needing to make money to pay his bills. I really wasn’t that worried about it until he started showing me pictures of other clients. 

Ok folks, I have to draw the line here. There ain’t No damn body gona take a fat picture of me on his damn phone and start showing and sharing it with other people!  I don’t want my damn picture with all my fat hanging out in the wind shared with everyone! These were not just people in gym clothes; one chick had a bra and panties on. Oh hell no! 

Ok well my 30 min workout consisted of riding a stationary bicycle for 11 minutes. Pushing a kickboxing bag by sitting on it with my back against the stand using my legs pushing it from one end of the room to the other,  He then had me performing two different standing leg lift exercises using a step with 10 pound weights in each hand at 12 repetitions each. Then he had me lie on the floor with my legs in the air doing crunches using a 10 pound weight to touch my legs for 30 seconds. The last exercise was using the same weight held straight out above my head with my head raised so if I dropped it, it should land just past my head while doing the bicycle motions for 30 seconds.

He also tried to tell me my eating habits need to change and I looked at him and said. I don’t think you understood why I am here. My eating habits are fine. I work in a sedentary job every day and rarely move around. Without movement I am not going to lose weight. I also reminded him I honestly joined to get the workout classes not a trainer. But my crazy ass asked him what he charged just because I figured it was the obvious question he wanted me to ask.

This guy said he charged $60-480 a month! I looked at him and laughed. I told him that was my car payment. Then he tried to tell me hiring him was more important than making my car payment. I was shocked! I said “No!” you are not more important than my car payment. Because if I can’t make it to work I have no paycheck, right then I knew he had just lost his ever lovin mind. Then he proceeded to tell me I only had 45 minutes to eat after my work out.

To make matters worse I kept trying to ask him other questions not related to him but working out. He was focused on telling me about his parents who refused to pay his $800 a month rent so he could live in a nice apartment near UCO campus while his folks lived in Seminole. I laughed at him and said, “Yea I would cut your ass off too.” Then he turned it around like it was a hardship on him to have to drive from Seminole to Edmond every day and then to work in Midwest City.  The most amazing thing he told me was that he turned down a job in his career field to work with Family Planning in OKC because he wanted to be a personal trainer at 10 Gym. I then understood why he needed the business.

Exhausted, I asked him if we were done and he said yes. I excused myself and went to the locker room and got my purse and bag and skedaddled out the front door as fast as I could.  I will go back but I think I will ask my son to come with me and get me started on a training program so I know what to do next time. My son James is a weight lifter and will be able to go back to working out in another month.  He is like me and would love to tell this worthless trainer what he thinks. I also have two other sons who work out so I don’t see a problem figuring out a plan for me to lose my 65 pounds, I am definitely tired of being a fat girl.

 

Home for sale and my crazy Neighbors.

Home for sale

Offering a beautiful 3/2/2 home.
Perfect neighborhood to raise kids.

Also comes with very colorful neighbors.
Directly across the street is a mom of two who is not sure she likes men anymore.
Her unruley children envade my drive way with bicycles, remote control cars and fireworks.
Her ex-husband, girl-friend and a boy-friend take turns visiting daily.
I'm not sure she even has a job but ok.

Next to her on the south side is the sweetest elderly lady you could ever ask for.
Across the street south is a county cop and his son. His buddy comes over on his matching Twinkie truck.  But next door to the cop is the Horder with the big dog who needs a saddle.

Then we have a very nice 50 something father of two.
Across the street  from him are a pair of young nurses who are selling their house too, right next door to my house. They took care of my son when he went to the ER early this summer.

My neighbor behind me is a stalker and she monitors cuss words. No small children there but she peaks through the fence because she has absolutely no life.
My two neighbors to the North are always traveling for work. But the single mom in the third house is raising hell yens.  Across the street from those are two nice couples who mind their own business.

Now a few more facts;  don't be late getting home early on Halloween and you better have enough candy for about 400 ghosts an goblins.  Beware of the bratt across the street, he pops fireworks in your yard while you are away on the forth of July.

There are probably 6-7 police officers who live in this neighborhood so it is a very safe place to live.
Best of all the Mystery Machine lives three blocks in.  I can't confirm if Scooby lives there or not.

 

What's in a name?

Picking a name for your newborn is very important.
I hated my name for years but now I tolerate it.
What was my mom thinking adding La to my name?
Ok she claimed it was her friends name, then it was French.
So whatever, can you believe my aunt did the same damn thing?
She named her daughter Latawnya.
Ok I really want to know what these two sisters were smokin?

Then I look around at other peoples names.
I guess we could have done worse.
I could have been named Youlanda, glad my sister got that one.

My boyfriend used his sons name, when asked.
Especially after the show, "My name is Earl" came out.
Yea, we go out to dinner and they ask what his name is.
He gives his last name or my first name.
If they ask me I just proudly say Earl and give him a teasing wink.

My oldest son caries the name of Joshua, because he was my first born.
However, I did give him Waite, as a middle name.
Yea he was named for an 80's rock singer John Waite.

My second son was named after his daddy and carries "III" at the end.
Yea, he hates it. He said he would like to drop those Roman numerals.

I gave my youngest son the name of my great grand dad six generations before him.
When Taylor Swift became famous, Taylor asked me why I didn't name him Tyler instead?
I could only chuckle and reply, that Taylor was Grandpa's name.

If you look at celebrities children's names, I guess mine is not so bad.
After all the Jason Lee who played in "My name is Earl"  named his son Pilot Inspektor.
Courteney Cox and David Arquette named their daughter Coco.

And that is only the tip of the ice burg.

Please think carefully about your child's name. It will affect them their whole life. 

Sexual Harassment

She said No!

Jim enters the bar, orders a drink and checks out the local stock.

His mind is churning; he is looking for sex and determined to get laid.

To him it doesn’t matter who she is or what she looks like.

To him it doesn’t matter as long as he gets laid.

 

 Then he spots his victim.

She is setting at a table with some friends.

He buys her a drink and the bartender takes it to her.

Bartender points him out to her and she mouths thank you.

Jim strolls over and asks for her name. Her name is Sally.

Sally’s friends get up to give her privacy.

To him it doesn’t matter as long as he gets laid

 

He begins his smooth talking performance.  He has to intrigue her.

After a few more drinks he’s already making moves on her.

Jim puts his arm around her and it drops off her shoulder under her arm.

Feeling the softness of her breast, Sally pretends not to notice. 

Jim’s other hand pats her leg and eventually moves up her skirt.

To him it doesn’t matter as long as he gets laid

 

He is trying to get her all worked up and finally Jim says, let’s get some air.

As they walk outside, he knows he has her alone away from her friends and he begins to walk.

Jim lives near so he steers their walk toward his apartment.  

Sally realized she is alone with him and far from her friends and insists he walk her back.

He suggests they retreat to his place just down the block and she can call her friends.

He kisses her sweetly and she agrees.

To him it doesn’t matter as long as he gets laid

 

Jim is really working this girl because he really only wants to get laid.

Inside Jim’s apartment he is all over her, it’s too late Sally can’t get away.

Sally begs him to stop but Jim says, come ‘on baby you know you want this too.

She begins to cry softly as she continues to fight and he gets rough.

Sally has no choice but to go limp and let him have her.

To him it doesn’t matter as long as he gets laid

 

When he is done he calls her a cab to take her home.

Sally was raped…..Jim got laid.

Jim is still out there and Sally needs help.

To him it didn’t matter as long as he got laid…..

I never really thought about how prevalent sexual harassment can be.  Sexual Harassment not only happens to women but, also to men. It saddens me to hear the statics and how many go unreported.

It is also amazing how many people turn their head and refuse to get involved. A dirty joke and you just laugh it off and then they rub your thigh and work their way up and buy you another drink.

I have seen men and women do this to someone already intoxicated. Yes women do this to men too. And it doesn’t stop there. Think of it this way, would you want your son or daughter, mother or father, best friend or siblings go through this?  Not me, Sorry I am definitely a big mouth when I see something like this. Be a wingman to your friends and family. They should not have to suffer because you don’t want to deal with it.

What if you saw a stranger who you knew was in trouble? What would you do for them?

Speak up and watch the world around you and don’t let people get away with it. Besides you could be next.  Wouldn’t you want someone to help you? I would.

Frustrations

I was trying to get to this blog using the wrong email address.
my frustration was building quickly and I was ready to give up.
so glad I didn't  or I may have missed out on something else. 
Ok now that I have my I's dotted and T's crossed (I hope) I can proceed.


Patience is not a virtue, its a learned habit. Especially for me.