Tia left today...

Tia left today and I can't seem to pull myself together. As I type this I'm crying so hard and don't see an end to this feeling I have consuming me! I feel this big hole inside my heart! I imagine my little niece leaving her home and entering a big world where she isn't familiar with the surroundings or the people and I worry about who is protecting her. I know I'm a "Debbie downer" and not looking at the upside of this at all... it's hard though when somebody I love so much is away and I want her home again! :( I'm trying to support my sister and tell her "This is a great move for Tia" or "Sherry, she will be okay, she is a big girl"... I can't help her if I can't even keep myself together.

Now that my sweetie of a niece is in the army I have been on ebay searching for every sort of memorobilia that says Aunt and army in the same sentence! I found a vinyl car decal that says "Proud Army Aunt" that I'm going to bid on before it ends. :) I also joined or "liked" two army facebook pages one being the place she is stationed at for bootcamp. (Fort Jackson). I can read up on posts from family members who talk about their soldiers and even post my own. :) It fills the void...

Hopefully my next post will be more cheery! Have a good evening!

Some people amaze me

Yes, that is right, people f*#king amaze the hell out of me! Today I went in to volunteer for a few hours at the access center to help with an event they were holding. Upon entering, my nurse and I were greeted by a well mannered and well groomed black man who I had never met before. His job at the center is to answer phones and greet people at the door. I'm sure his job details are greater than that, but that's not important. My nurse put her purse down, turned around to get my hair out of my face and put a stick of gum in my mouth, and that is when I see his theiving hand go straight in her purse and steal something!! I was shocked. Do I confront him? Do I tell Stephanie in front of him? What the hell? I told her to get her stuff because were going around the corner. We go around the corner and I say, "What is missing from your purse? He stole from you!" Thankfully it was only $2.00, but that isn't the point. He took something that was not his and I dislike people like him!! He works around people who are disabled everyday and has probably done this shady shit countless times. We reported him and he denied it so its hard telling what will come of it. After he was confronted he was calling every black person in the center whining that he was falsely accused.

I know I sound racist and the truth is maybe I have it in me. I spent 10 years in a nursing home and made friends with some black girls, but also bumped heads with a few others. It had nothing to do with their skin color, but everything to do with their bad attitude.

Animals

Today my nurse assistant and I were discussing her love for cats, my love for dogs which then turned into us sharing our stray animal experiences as we were growing up. We convinced ourselves that stray animals know exactly which door to show up hungry at because these stray animals found us, not people who weren't going to take care of them. Animals aren't dumb, are they? :)

Growing up my parents (mom for the most part, but dad was okay with everything) took in every animal that found us and never turned one away! Our neighbors weren't happy with us at all, but we didn't care! Our first stray was Pepper. He was a white dog with black spots, very wiry hair, had a raspy bark, maybe 60 lbs and not very lovable. Shags was next. She was a curly gray hair schnauzer type dog who was mixed with another breed, but I have no idea which one. Whatever it was, Shags was adorable with her eyes covered with long bangs and her big hairy paws. :) Her arrival was like this. We woke up early one weekend morning to pouring rain and Pepper barking excessively like he was going to attack. Well, my sister and I opened the door to find a disgruntled wet Pepper outside his dog house because Shags was inside his domain keeping dry while he sat outside and got soaked. Well, that was a bold move on her part, but she was a keeper! :) Next (a week or so later) came Midnight. She was also schnauzer like, black and brown in color, but much smaller than Shags. She was a frightened and nervous dog, but sweet none the less. :)

Well, I will continue part 2 of my animal rescue another day. I am going to stand in my standing frame soon while catching up on the Casey Anthony trial. This past week we learned that Lee Anthony is not the father of Caylee (Sorry, no newsflash here!) George Anthony's ex-wife called him a pathological liar (so???) and evidently George had a mistress in 2008 when Caylee first went missing. (Again, so??? this doesn't help with this case.) We also learned Casey has an inmate friend who had a daughter that drowned in a swimming pool awhile back and the grandpa found the baby....now we know where her fabricated story came from. :/

Tia

Saturday was my niece's going away party and it turned out to be a big success! She leaves Sunday to go to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for basic training, where she will be for 10 weeks. She won't go directly to South Carolina, she will be in Columbus first for a night and be on her way Monday. Regardless my niece is leaving and I didn't think it would effect me like it is. I feel nervous and nautious when I think about her leaving. She is excited and seeing how happy she is gets me through my wimpy sad moments. :)

Steve and I bought her a sterling silver charm bracelet with a silver heart as her going away gift. I'm taking it to the mall this week to get her name engraved in the heart and buying another charm with the army logo engraved in it. Each holiday we will buy another charm to add to it until the links are all filled up. Her bracelet will be like a book and each charm will be like a chapter in her life.

Yellow Springs Street Fair

Yesterday my friend and I braved the heat and found our way through the tye dye wearing crowd by going to the Yellow Springs Street Fair! :) I always enjoy going to Yellow Springs because the people are great! They are a friendly, unique, expressive and radical species all balled up in one! :) I have met a few hipsters since the boyfriend joined a grateful dead tribute band and they are truly great people to be around! One offered me a white molly at a festival one time and stupid me said, "what is that?" He responds in his hippy slang, "Dude, It's the purest form of ecstacy you will ever find. It's $50 for one, but for you it's free" I said, "Oh god no, but thank you anyway" Anyway, I digress....street fair was uber fun and the funnel cake was great, too. :)

I saw two girls that I met while living in the nursing home, which was a very special treat. The first lady I ran in to was a nurse and the second girl was a nurse assistant who used to date my brother for a short while. :)

After the fair I went to my besties house for a cook out and a movie. Her hubster hooked me up with a kickin hamburger which was better than steak. Thank you Kevin. Kevin and I got on a rant about Casey Anthony, the tot mom from Florida. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside knowing somebody was more obsessed than myself with seing this crazy loon go down!! :)

Need a job!

I try to stay upbeat and play suzy sunshine, but today I can't even pretend to put on a happy face. I need a job and it's not happening quick enough. Every place I have applied to requires a typing test and a speed of more words per minute than I am able to type. I miss typing with my fingers!! Anyway..I applied to another company today and the typing speed they require is a little lower, so we shall see.

I appreciate all the people who come in and work for me, but sometimes it takes a toll on me as well. We all have our unique personalities and I'm finding myself losing patience with some of my aides because our personalities clash. It's very frustrating to have people in my home constantly and more frustrating when I have to watch what I say or do because it can get repeated to other clients or their family members. I have learned to not trust anybody who works for me and its sad. I want my nurse assistants to enjoy coming here and working for me, but wish it could be done without them crossing boundaries and taking advantage of the situation.

Strawberry festival

This weekend was the strawberry festival and the weather couldn't have been better. It was hot, okay very hot, but it didn't storm and that is a huge factor at any outdoor festival obviously. :) I hadn't been since 1991, the year before I became injured, but went because Steve wanted strawberry donuts... I passed up Frickers with my buds to go get strawberry donuts for my bf. The things we do to make our significant others happy. :)

Early last spring I was at the park with my dogs walking them around the bike path. At the corner of the trail an older man walked around us and nonchalantly looked down at them and kept on going. The next day this same man came up to me at Krogers and said he saw me at the park the day before. I smiled and said something like, yes I was there with my dogs and that was it. The following week I saw him at Goodwill. I smiled at him and he acted as if he never saw me before, which was odd. I saw him again the following week at Krogers. By this time I'm thinking is this more than a coincidence? We live in the same city, we frequent the same stores, big deal, right? Well, in the upcoming weeks I saw him again at Goodwill and again at Kroger. Now, I'm getting paranoid. On two occasions I attempted to get his plate number, but he always seems to park in a spot far away where we couldn't even see the car he drove. A few weeks ago I saw him at Walmart and today at Krogers. I saw him in the produce and again in the parking lot before I left. Ugh!! I'm creeped out by this person and definitely more aware of my surroundings now.