Category: family and friends

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Life’s Struggles

I really love listening to the radio in my car.  I’m not talking about music, but about radio talk shows and sermons that come on while driving to and from work.  Don’t get me wrong I love listening to music as well but for some reason I have been pulled in a different direction lately.  Listening to sermons and the news has become more appealing.  The sermons in particular.  They capture my attention and the surrounding traffic congestion just seems to disappear.  I find them to be such a sweet distration.

I’m not sure where it all started but I now love my morning commute because of the 8:00 A.M. sermon.  It is funny how the topic seems to always be about something in particular that I am dealing with.  The topic lately has been about love.  Loving not only friends and family, but loving strangers as well.  Reminding yourself to show kindness at all times and to all people.  Basically the fruits of the spirit including patience, kindness, joy, peace, love, understanding, etc.  The things we need to survive in a harsh world.  I’m struggling with this topic so much and it keeps coming around and hitting me in the face.  I’m failing every test put in front of me which only means I will continue to be tested until I pass.  Life’s stuggles should be a topic I write about more often lord knows I sure have enough of them.

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Asking for What You Want

Today is the first day of my vacation.  I decided I needed a break from work and asked my boss for a few days off.  Why is it so hard to ask for what we need?  I really feel I needed this break since I’ve been suffering with headaches and feeling tired constantly.  Asking my boss was the most difficult part.  It sometimes makes you feel like you can’t handle life or working full-time when you need to ask for a break.

I’m just wondering why we as Americans are like this.  In other cultures and societies they spend a lot of time in leisure activities and far less time at work.  In some European countries their work days are stopped between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. for rest.  When we were in preschool we got a 3 hour nap after lunch.  Why as adults are we so inclined to go nonstop even on weekends?  I wonder how things will change in the upcoming years.  Since things are alwys changing I can only hope that the next generation is not overloaded with long work hours and fewer and fewer fun activities.

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Life is Strange

Life can be so strange at times.  One day you can be on top of the world and then the next thing you know, a news story or an event takes place and then you’re down and out.  I’m  bringing this up because it just happened to me.

Yesterday was a great day, filled with a lot of love and laughter.  Today, when I woke up, I felt that same happiness come over me.  I started driving to work, thinking about all of the things I needed to get done today. These included wishing my sister a Happy Birthday, paying a bill or two, and finishing up a couple of projects at work.

Then around 9:30 a.m. the news came.  A close relative told me that a friend of their’s had died.  This wasn’t just any friend, either.  This friend I had met over the holidays and had been at the same Christmas party with him, sat next to him while we ate dinner, and talked with him. This was a matter of just a couple of months ago.

The sad thing is it was an accident.  A motorcycle accident that killed a thirty year-old man with his whole life ahead of him.  I quickly forgot about my to-do list after reading the email.  Everything seemed different in my world.  The sun wasn’t shining as brightly.  The disbelieve and lack of understanding soon followed.  Such a horrible and strange thing accidents are.  The next time I’m on a motorcycle I will definitely be thinking about you, Fernando.

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New Home

Although the move was tough coming from the South and ending up on the East Coast.  I have to admit I am really loving it here.  Besides the beautiful weather and the amazing garden that I have started, just the peace and quiet of this area I have fallen in love with.  You hear so many things especially before a move.  Such as oh the traffic is going to drive you crazy.  The cost of living is 3 times as much as it is in the south.  You’ll be back.

With so many opinions and so much help even prior to the move I freaked out a little.  I mean a new area means new friends, a new home, new furniture, a whole new lifestyle.  Speaking of furniture I miss my old chair that I use to fall asleep in.  I miss my neighbors as well, but my life on the East Coast has turned out to be more pleasant than I had experccted.  Maybe walking into it terrified from the horror stories have made it so much more beautiful than I had expected.

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Chex Mix

The grocery store had all the flavors of Chex Mix on sale today, so I bought a bag of the original recipe Chex Mix. I used to make this mix myself, back in the day. One of my neighbor from when I used to live in Fredericksburg had a party at her house and invited me. She served homemade Chex Mix at the party and I was hooked! She was sweet enough to give me her recipe for it and I made up a batch for every party or special occasion that came up, like picnics and pot lucks. But  it has been a long time since I made up a batch. I just realized how long it has been since I even had a party here. That needs to be rectified ASAP!

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Name Game

Are you old enough to remember a song from childhood called, “Name Game”? They sing bama bama no-bama, banana fanah no fanah . . . it is a cute little novelty song. I heard them sing a version of this song on a commercial tonight, where a male nurse is giving a little girl a dose of medicine and he has her sing with him during the procedure.

I was thinking about the name game and how my name, Michele, is spelled with just one “l” instead of two, and how my girlfriend April Michele not only spells her name with just one “l” but it is her middle name that she uses as part of her first name. Anyone who knows he,r knows to call her April Michele. Only people like teacher’s and nurses or the clerk at the DMV call her by just April.

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Starting to Freak Out

So here it is the 14th of December and I’m still trying to figure out what to buy some people as gifts. My two brothers are the hardest to buy anything for. They both make really good money and can afford to go buy anything they like on impulse. So how do you buys something for a guy who already has everything? I’m running out of time and ideas, but I have less than 2 weeks left so I need to get this done!

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Cake Decorating Class

The local craft store here has classes at the store for ll kinds of crafts. I went in looking for some Christmas decorating ideas and saw that they have a cake decorating class on the weekends. The classes don’t start until January. I’m sure the Christmas shopping takes precedence over crafts classes in December.

I’m going to see if my girlfriend, Felicia, wants to take the classes with me. She likes to decorate cakes but is self-taught. She always talks about wanting to learn more professional methods – this might be the best chance for her to get thatunder her belt and it will give me someone to ride with.

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New Neighbors

I am really enjoying my new apartment.It is bright and clean and I have a nice view of the downtown skyline from my balcony.

The neighbors are mostly my age and seem really nice. The girl across the hall from me stopped by and brought me a housewarming gift – a loaf of zucchini bread that she made herself. Wasn’t that sweet? And the girl right below me said hello in the parking lot this morning. Her name is Melinda and she works at the hospital, so she has crazy shifts and she says she is almost never home.

I was able to move in early and they gave me the first two weeks free. I don’t have to pay rent until October 1 instead of having it pro-rated like the last place wanted. So I can take my time getting settled and spend a little money that I saved on the rent by putting up new curtains and getting a new bedspread for my bedroom.

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More Than Just Fireworks

grilling

Of course this weekend is all about the Fourth of July fireworks. But it is also about picnics and barbecues. I’m going to firing up the backyard grill and making some potato salad. What are your plans?