So I had this cool thing happen that I want to share with you. I have another thing that is going on that I will put in the Fatastic Journal before long, but this one is different and goes here. I have a lovely woman with whom I am acquainted whose husband is a chiropractor. Before last Friday, I had not met her husband and had not particularly formed an opinion about him based on my interaction with her. You know how sometimes, when you meet a lady friend, you kind of get an idea that you don’t like her husband even before you meet him? Is that just me? Anyway, that didn’t happen and he was just “her husband” in my mind with no preconceived ideas. I have often been leery about chiropractors in general because while a General Practitioner will listen to your complaint and say something like, “Hmm, take Motrin,” a chiropractor gets right in there and monkeys with business that makes you walk (or not) and move comfortably (or not). I know there are good chiropractors and bad chiropractors out there and I have heard about a thousand stories from each side of the fence. Since I know this woman to be capable and smart and fun and open-minded and interesting, I didn’t think her husband was one of the bad ones by any means. I just couldn’t imagine why I would ever really need a chiropractor. Anyway, a mutual friend of ours mentioned the chiropractor [...]
First, we should watch this for a while: And we should do that because it makes us feel happy and vibrant and alive and like we want Jeff Bridges all to ourselves for about 4 hours. OK, enough of that. Wait… just a little more. OK, now I’m done. I was thinking about the book The Red Tent by Anita Diamant and how the women in that book found their own strength even in the face of tremendous patriarchal adversity. Women are just wonderfully diabolical in their abilities to keep the light of inner strength burning; that flame that cannot be touched or stifled without their permission. We persevere. We endure… until we don’t. Another book – or series of books – that I read last year was the “Outlander” series by Diana Gabaldon. Several of my friends recommended it and so I finally got around to reading it a few years after I first heard about it. The first book was interesting and likable and combined several elements I enjoy, chief of which are time travel, magic, and kilts. Something (BIG) bothered me about the first book, but I found the story intriguing enough to continue and got barely into the 4th book before I just couldn’t do it anymore. There was fierce romance, devout love, sacrifice…all the things you want. That thing in the first book would not let me go no matter how much they tried to ignore it or justify it. Our romantic hero brutally beat the female [...]
I hate that game. A lot of other people must as well because it isn’t nearly as popular as it was 40 years or so ago. You know the drill. You’re standing around, minding your own business, when some jackass walks up behind you and covers your eyes and says, “Guess who?” You’re left with a voice that is likely disguised that you have to put through a mental roll-a-dex (google it) of how many people would have the nerve to do such a thing, plus the added bonuses of the smell of their hands and a rapidly deteriorating font of patience. Each year around this time, I get to revisit all of my greatest weaknesses and decide which one(s) I will tackle for the coming year. It’s sort of like when the kings used to have one day when they would hear the petitions of their subjects and render their judgments. All of my inadequacies get gussied up and prepare their convincing arguments for why they should be the focus of the year for attention and repair. It’s exhausting on a lot of levels. I knew early in the year that this time when I did my planting on Spring Equinox, I would be working on my weight. This is an issue that has plagued me to a serious degree since the early 1990s, but was in my head as a problem since I was around 10. It was one of those things were I was a healthy size [...]
A happy 2013 to all of you! It has been a long time since I last updated this journal. I have felt rather private about my life lately and so I have mostly kept to myself other than Facebook posts. Dark of the Year has been tough for me this time, I won’t lie to you. I guess because the past few years were relatively easy in terms of deeper introspection and awareness, I got used to cruising and then this one just knocked me on my ass. It has been a struggle to take my own advice, the suggestions I give to my Life Coach clients about staying rooted in the present, focusing on one problem at a time, counting the things that are going right, and actively working to let my emotions be like “water over rocks.” This leaves me so grateful for the years of relative calm I have enjoyed and eager to get everything put in its rightful brain place so I can get back to a happier place. There is a relatively new saying that asserts, “Depression lies.” While I can see the value in that sentiment, I would also say that some of your deepest truths are found in depression if you know where to look. I have deleted this column easily 20 times or more. I keep writing and erasing as I further refine the lessons I have gathered from the past few months. The more I write it, the more I [...]
You know, until I took a class in Adobe Illustrator this semester, I had no idea that this thing “~” had a name. It’s called a “tilde.” I know my friend, Karen, knew that. She knows all kinds of interesting, incidental things like that. I was clueless. Higher education served me well this semester by telling me about the tilde. Eric dangled quite a carrot in front of my nose recently (that is not a metaphor for things best left out of online journals). He suggested that I take a semester off from college in the Spring. I sat with that idea for a while and heavily considered it, but then decided that I would rather take one more semester, then re-evaluate. I no longer take the Summer semester and if situations have not changed considerably for the worst by the time Fall rolls around, I may well follow through with the idea of a break. The catch is that after this semester, I am really not up for any tough classes, so the final decision will be based on the course catalog for Spring. I recognize even as I type it how puss that sounds, but this semester is just kicking my complete butt. I am finally getting the hang of Dreamweaver, although I am not a fan of it overall. I took the class because I enjoy how the instructor teaches and because I’d heard of Dreamweaver my entire web-designing life (something like 12 years) and never checked [...]
I thought I was re-tired and then it turned out I was just tired, as in the regular kind. I can’t believe it has now been more than a month since Aiden came to stay with us (August 10th). The original idea was that he would be with us for the school week and then his dad (my son, Josh) would take him on the weekend. Since then, Dad’s job shifted so that he now has to work from 1:00-9:00pm on both Saturday and Sunday. He is off on Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday of each week. That changed things up considerably since Aiden has to go to school on Monday and Tuesday. For now, we bring Josh up on the days he is off so he can spend time with Aiden and help offset his care. Aiden has adapted in very well with only a few meltdowns. He misses his mom. He misses his dad. All of that is completely understandable. He’s been to three different schools in the past year, leaving friends behind twice. He doesn’t own hardly anything. The plan, of course, is to get him back to his dad’s to live as soon as possible, which will happen as soon as Josh gets his hours changed and a vehicle. Meanwhile, we continue on as we are now. I’d forgotten how time consuming it is to take care of a little one. He just turned 8 last month, so he’s not tiny, but he is [...]
So this started out as an homage to my hero, Dorothy Parker, or maybe it was to Jacob from “LOST.” If I could watch my life as if it happened in a science experiment, I believe I would find it very interesting. It would be wonderful to objectify the crazy turns that have shown up on my life path lately. I say “lately” as though it’s some new occurrence. I have to laugh even at myself. By the way, if you look up the words “Memaw” or “Mammaw” (the preferred nomenclature of my grandchildren when they are referring to me) in Google Images, you get some really odd results. One is of the “Unicorn Memaw” or something like that with a horn growing out of her head. You get photos of food. You get lots of photos of grandmothers, which isn’t really odd except for some of their facial expressions. Apparently biscuits are popular. Mine should be. I make incredible biscuits, so maybe it’s true. When I considered the notion of grandchildren, I knew that I did not want to be called “Mammaw” or “Memaw,” both of which are common in the South where I am from originally. Mind you, technically Kentucky was neutral in the War (which is what the true dividing line between the North and the South really is), but if you listen to any of us speak, you won’t likely imagine we could call ourselves Northerners with a straight face. I interviewed other names. ”Nan-Nan, Nan, [...]
Yesterday, I was depressed, but I worked through it more quickly than I ever have. It was fairly unexpected since most of my depressions are triggered by external influences rather than internal shifts and nothing was really going horribly wrong. There were a few inconveniences and concerns that were just life things, but nothing that would warrant the feelings I had of just feeling defeated, frustrated and picked on. I went with it and played country music turned up loud and sang at the top of my voice and in a few hours, I felt better. I courted my depression and asked it what it had to tell me and it was silent. It was just there. There have been tree cutters (a company called “Davey”) in my area and their equipment makes a very high pitched whine, something that sounds a couple of octaves over the old test pattern. For those who are too young to know what that is, it’s this: Back in the olden days when the earth was cooling and dinosaurs were lords of land, sea and air, TV was not on 24 hours a day. It went off around 11-12midnight and came back on again around 5-6am. They might as well have put up a pattern that said, “Go to SLEEP! We are but HUMANS!” So this is what you would see if you turned on the TV before the networks woke up. Also, before this came on and before the TV shows came back, [...]
I took a Trazodone about an hour ago, so there’s no telling what is going to come out of here and I likely should not be allowed near an internet connection after 10pm or so because all kinds of weird things have been known to happen. I think that elephant just blinked at me. Sigh. I am swollen up like one of those Macy’s day balloons. I had to take off my rings because they were about to break my fingers in two. I feel like I am going to asplode (as Delena used to say). It’s all from going up and down the mountain over and over again. For some reason, the altitude change just puffs me right up. Sorry to disappear on you, but I actually wrote two books in two months and I am as fried as fried can be. One of the books had been trying to get out for almost fifteen years and I am grateful to have it finalized. The other was relatively new and it was very cathartic and healing to write. I have two more to go, a Tarot book and the Energy Magic book. The Energy Magic book is about the properties of bio-universal energies (our energy and God’s energy) – what speeds it up, what slows it down and how to amplify the connection and create better focus. Those two will be done by mid-September, but for this week and likely next, I intend to rest and keep my own [...]
Yep! Sooo excited! Sorry to be absent lately, but I have been busy working on my new book that was released for sale today! It is only available in e-book format at this time (.pdf – can be read on most computers and electronic reading devices). I feel like Nemo with his “lucky fin” because I am going out on a limb by self-publishing. Taking the big leap of faith at a seeming disadvantage. You can find out more at www.rasboldink.com. This particular book is an autobiography from the time I was born until I left Kentucky. It is called Leaving Kentucky in the Broad Daylight.