Today - Housecleaning

Well, sometimes a person has to take a break from the computer and clean up the house. Did some vacuuming and some dusting and threw out the garbage. Will get to the dishes soon. Feels good to get things cleaned up here and there. Now listening to the news and I realize I really don't have as many problems in my life as I thought. Grateful that my problems consist of perhaps a floor needing to be sweeped or a rug vacuumed. Well, at least for today anyhow.

Before The Pope, Before Winning

From Talent Show to the Pope - Amazing

Love This Song

Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships

Found somewhere on the web-

In a healthy relationship, you:

• Treat each other with respect
• Feel secure and comfortable
• Are not violent with each other
• Can resolve conflicts satisfactorily
• Enjoy the time you spend together
• Support one another
• Take interest in one another's lives: health, family, work, etc.
• Have privacy in the relationship
• Can trust each other
• Are each sexual by choice
• Communicate clearly and openly
• Have letters, phone calls, and e-mail that are your own
• Make healthy decisions about alcohol or other drugs
• Encourage other friendships
• Are honest about your past and present sexual activity if the relationship is intimate
• Know that most people in your life are happy about the relationship
• Have more good times in the relationship than bad

In an unhealthy relationship, one or both of you:

• Try to control or manipulate the other
• Make the other feel bad about her-/himself
• Ridicule or call names
• Dictate how the other dresses
• Do not make time for each other
• Criticize the other's friends
• Are afraid of the other's temper
• Discourage the other from being close with anyone else
• Ignore each other when one is speaking
• Are overly possessive or get jealous about ordinary behavior
• Criticize or support others in criticizing people with your gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or other personal attribute
• Control the other's money or other resources (e.g., car)
• Harm or threaten to harm children, family, pets, or objects of personal value
• Push, grab, hit, punch, or throw objects
• Use physical force or threats to prevent the other from leaving

Believe In Yourself - Cute Video

Smiling Dancing Flowers Photo by Me

I just had to put little faces on these flowers. They really did look like little ballerinas.

Being A Night Person

I have always liked staying up really late ever since I was a little kid. Now that my kids are older I can stay up late again since I don't have to get up so early. It is nice at these late hours because you have so much time to yourself. I guess I had so many years getting up early with the kids it is nice I don't have to do that anymore. I remember that old song from years back called "I love the nightlife". That is me now accept I don't go out dancing at late night like I did in my younger years. Now I just love the quietness at night and how you don't have to answer the phone or deal with anyone at this late hour. One time I did look outside at around 2:00 a.m and there was a little raccoon standing up and looking at me. He just stared and then went on his way. I wouldn't have seen that if I wasn't up so late. So there are cute benefits to being a night person. And with that said I am off to read some more interesting things on the web. This late night post seems a bit boring, but this is just me filling up some more space on my blog. I want to at least get in the habit of writing daily, so maybe stuff I write will be a bit droll, but it is at least a start.

Inspiring

Good Friends

I was happy to go on a walk with a good friend today. It is nice to have friends in your life who you know are not hurtful and you can trust. In the past I used to try to bend over backwards for people just so they would be my friend. Lots of those friends were not good to have in my life. They were just takers and not very giving. I am grateful that I have friends now who are giving and I am giving back. It is nice that after many years of being a people pleaser I have chosen to give that trait up. Today I can be more of who I am and if people like me for me they do and if they don't they don't. But I just wanted to mention about how nice it is to have good friends who accept you for you. It is best to settle for nothing less.

Another Reason It Pays To Go For Walks

I stumbled upon these beautiful flowers today and just had to get a photo of them. They were outside our local nursery just begging for me to take their photo. I love all the pretty colors here. I used to have to pick flowers I saw when I was little and when I got older too. Now I feel happy just letting them be. They last longer growing outdoors anyhow. I am not sure where my fascination with flowers came in. I think it started the moment I took my first close up digital photo of a flower. It looked so great and it was instant gratification. I remember when I would have to limit myself to the number of photos I would take. Now it is wonderful to have a camera that takes over 300 before the card is full. Just a small Kodak Easy Share camera, but it does the job well.

Making A Difference

We can't always make a difference in the huge scheme of things, but we can make a difference in the little scheme of things. A kind word to a stranger. A gesture of help to someone who you know needs it. Making a difference in our little corners of the world, if we were all to do this, then it would make a huge difference.

Intense Reality In This Song

Denial

Humans Are Not The Only Smart Ones Around

View From The Breakfast Table

It pays to open the curtains. Flowers are blooming away out there. I love this time of the year. It really cheers me. Will have to get out on another flower walk to get this years new blooms. I just go for a neighborhood walk and take photos of pretty flowers in peoples yards. No one has yelled at me yet for doing this. I just try to not be intrusive when I do this. I try to get the flowers close to the edge of their yards so they don't get nervous and can see clearly I am only taking photos of a flower and nothing more. I sometimes feel like I am a "flower paparazzo". This little amateur hobby of capturing other peoples flowers makes for some nice flower note cards to give to friends. :-)

Some Memories

When I stumbled upon these lawn ornaments I thought back to the days in Miami Beach when I was a little kid back in the sixties. There were all these houses and buildings in bright pink colors. I even saw a real flamingo or two back then. Pink was my favorite color and I remember getting a bright pink colored bike for Christmas. I had fun riding it around that Christmas morning. I went into get a drink of water with my brothers. We had left our bikes out on the lawn while we did this. We were in the house for about 5 minutes. When we came back out there were all our brand new bikes missing. Talk about the crying that went on that Christmas. It seemed to just be standard for all of our stuff to get stolen on a regular basis. First all my moms expensive jewelry. Then it was her car being stolen almost daily. She would have to call the police and sure enough they would find it somewhere on the other side of town. Someone took it for a joy ride or some unknown ride. After a year of this, plus the big hurricane we were in, my mom packed us all up in the car and off to California we drove. Los Angeles was our destination. Plenty of crime there, but at the time of my childhood we weren't affected by it because we were only there a short while. We wound up moving to the suburbs and lived in some nice rental homes there. My brother wound up getting some used bikes at yard sales and fixed them all for all of us. He wound up opening up a bike shop out of the garage and fixed all the neighborhood kids bikes for them or got kids bikes who didn't have any. Out of adversity good things can happen. That same brother has been a great businessman all his life since.

Idea For Opposite Reward Notes

I think there ought to be little notes you leave behind for aggravating people that say things like:

Congratulations on being the rudeness cashier I have met to date.
You have just won todays award for being the person most people love to hate.
The way you are acting so totally sickening right now I am glad you can't read my thoughts.
"Stuck up" is putting it mildly for how you act.
Since you think you know it all here is a little note to say you don't.

Dedicated To All Who Have Suffered Abuses

She Says It The Way It Is

Now This Is Dancing

Can't Help But Laugh At This

Comedy Relief

Surviving abuse

Today I feel more like the front part of this photo - beautiful. In the past I felt like the back part of the photo - like dirt all due to abuses upon me. This morning I spent time reading some stories about women who overcame adversity. It is amazing to hear how they got themselves out of these situations. Ironically the book was written by a man, but he allows the women to tell their stories. It is called "Women: American Women In Their Own Words" by Mark Baker. It was copyrighted in 1990 so it is a bit dated, but I liked reading some of the stories in it. The women are very candid about their lives. Some of them were not so lucky and they just stayed with their husbands who were abusive, just settling. Others got the courage to get out of abusive relationships. I could relate to some of them just being stuck. It happens to lots of women. I am grateful there is not an abusive man in my life. I do hope to meet a nice man around my age someday though. In the meantime I want to stay more like the flowers feeling happy and free to enjoy the day regardless of my background being dark.

Why I Like Summer Here

Pretty sunflower growing a block away from me last summer.
Hope these neighbors grow some more this year.
This is my favorite photo to make photo note cards out of.

Why I Like To Get Outdoors

Pretty place where I rode my bike to today on the Northern California coast. You can see the ocean and all the great trees in the background.

Beach Dweller

Here is a friendly little beach squirrel looking for handouts. Most of the squirrels by the beach cliffs are not scared of people at all because of all the treats they get from them.

Weight Loss

If there is anything to say for the 1,200 calorie a day eating plan it is that it works! I was so happy to see weight loss on the scale today. Plus this plan helps you get back to smaller portions. And you focus on eating healthy things, too. So I will stick to this. Only a few more pounds to my "normal weight" for my age and height. Whatever "normal" is anyway. Just happy to know my former dietitian gave me lots of good pointers to help me stay in good health. It feels much better at a healthy weight. Not that your weight factor has anything to do with the price of beans, but it just feels good when you feel good about yourself. Then you can go on to do all the other stuff you want to do because you have the energy to it. When I was younger it was more of a vanity thing to be thin. Now it is more for health reasons. And I don't starve out either anymore, so I am glad for that. I just eat healthy, but currently am eating less. Not that any of this really matters to anyone else, but just thought I would comment on the weight loss thing because it does matter to me. I want to stick around and see how my kids do in life. So if I did an entry on weight loss and it is just so totally boring, don't read it. Oh, if you got this far you already read it. Well, like my mom used to say "just let it go in one ear and out the other then."

Saturdays

I love Saturdays. No businesses bugging me about anything on Saturdays. It is such a free day. No one makes business meetings with me on Saturdays. I love this day. This day is mine. I can do whatever I want today. To top it off it happens to be a sunny Saturday. Great day for that bike ride. Breakfast is over with. Had some cereal and soy milk. Now time to take off. I love bike riding too. It reminds me so much of when I was a little kid. I loved riding my bike back then and I still love it now. Luckily we have a nice road along the beach where you can ride your bike. Not that many people are on it and it is like you have the whole area to yourself. You can see little squirrels scattering, red tail hawks hovering over the cliff areas, turkey vultures soaring along with the seagulls and deer peeking out from brush areas. Yes, I love Saturdays.

My Town

I live in a small town on the coast of Northern California. I moved here from Southern California in 1994. I like it here. I am used to it. You seem to run into someone you know everyday no matter where you are at in my town. That is a good feeling unless you are wanting to hide and not talk to anyone. That is when you have to just pretend you don't see people you know so you can isolate in your own little world. But good luck with doing that. Because pretty soon you here "Hey, how are you doing?" and a long conversation ensues. You find out the latest gossip in someones life plus they will add in some gossip about other peoples lives. Yes, that is the life in a small town. Well, that is not all there is to it, that is why I started this blog. I hope to add daily about what is going on with my life in this small town.

This is My New Blog Spot

Okay, this is my first day here. I am going to just write on this blog daily or whenever. Not sure if anyone will even read any of it. I think it is a good idea to just get my random thoughts out there. Better than keeping them all in my head.

Random thought one: Wish I had a cat door, but that my cat wouldn't bring mice she catches outside into my house with her. Also, would have to watch out for my other cat bringing in the rats he catches. Not that I live in a slum, but we do live out in the middle of nowhere with the woods not far away, so no wonder the cats leave those rodents on the porch. Okay, I don't wish I had a cat door now.

Random thought two: I don't like being on a diet, but must do it after being stuck inside for winter. Happy I only have about ten pounds to lose, but of course would always want to lose more. Never can be too thin or too rich my mom used to say. She did have some good sayings in her.

Random thought three: Hope it is nice outside tomorrow so I can go bike riding along the beach. Want to see the baby ducks by a pond near there.

That's it for now. Tomorrow is another day.