Monday, January 2, 2012

My Hunger Preservation Project

A few years ago I was watching my nephew and one of his friends. We were swimming in the pool and Sis called us in for lunch. I told Tyler, "come on, it's time for Sis's hunger prevention project". He looked at me quizzically and asked me what I was talking about.

I told him, "well, if we go eat lunch, then we will prevent hunger. I believe in preventing hunger whenever possible." He smiled at me and we went into lunch.

The next day I saw Tyler's dad. He said, "I asked Tyler who in the world he had been hanging out with last night."

"Really," I said, "why?"

"Well, I called him into dinner and he thanked me for participating in his hunger preservation project. So, I asked him what in the world he was talking about and he told me about YOUR hunger preservation project?"

I had to laugh.

"I told Tyler that we were going to participate in Sis's hunger prevention project. NOT PRESERVATION. There's a big difference between the two."


He started to laugth. "Well, now it all makes sense. I couldn't figure out what in the world he was talking about last night.

Have you ever heard of this New Year's Superstition?

I HAVE TO TAKE MY COMPUTER BACK

Yesterday I had trouble turning it on. I chalked it up to my inexperience. Especially since it turned on when my computer nerd friend told me to press the on button and hold it down twice - and it worked. I had already tried that but if just happened to work when he was standing there with me. So I chalked it up to operator inexperience.

Then I couldn't turn it on this morning. So I called tech support. After following his instructions to the letter it still didn't work. He told me to box it up and send it in for repair. I have only had it for 2 days. I have 14 days to return it.

I'm going to mess with it a few days and use it for a learning experience. Then take it back. Afterall I can't mess things up too bad. It's already had a problem. By the way, the power lights show that it is on. Just the screen stays black. I just got lucky and it started working again.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

I haven't had a beer since I was 19 years old...

...now I'm not saying I haven't been drunk. I've been more than my fair share of drunk. But I spent a good year trying to get past the gawd awful smell of beer and then I decided that there were better ways to get the job done..in other words "get drunk."

I blame my pepaw brennan for my aversion to beer and whiskey. He was a raging alcoholic. When I say raging I mean down right mean. I remember him holding me down and breathing his fetid beer breath into my mouth until I believe I passed out at the time. We also learned how to handle a drunk. We would stand just at arm's length and make fun of him in his tirades being careful all the while to avoid his pinching fingers and biting teeth with his penchant for popping toes in a particularly painful way.

The phrase I liked to use in college was "nicely pickled." Back then it was legal to drink in WV when you were 18. Now when kids ask me why it isn't legal anymore I tell them it's because people like me were around when it was. It was only legal to drink beer before 21 when I went to Ohio State, so every time I went home my friends would give me money to buy their liqueur. I would come back with $100's of dollars worth of booze in my trunk. I'm lucky I never got caught. I could have probably gone to jail for that. Oh, the things we do when we are young...

I do remember my brother finding my stash in the trunk. I took off for Ohio State immediately. He told my parents but he had no proof - so I got out of that one! We had a banner hanging in our suite that proclaimed we were "perpetually high." Probably another good indicator that the alcoholic gene that I inherited from my pepaw brennan was in full swing.

I remember getting carded going into bars before there were pictures on ID's. I learned to recite my driver's license and SS number no matter how inebriated I was. (yes, SS numbers were on driver's licenses back in the day) That memory skill served me well over the years with various law enforcement officers and other VIP's when I was high and somewhere I shouldn't have been.

I really didn't start smoking pot or popping pills until I met my husband. We were both hard core party people. The difference was I was able to stop to work or do what needed done. He wasn't. The first couple of years were filled with pot and tea and acid and pills. It was so much of a roller coaster that I realized I had to do something to get off the merry go round. That is why we moved to Huntington so I could go to beauty school. The change of venue worked. After that we basically smoked pot...dropping just about every other vice for the most part.

We spent years smoking basically everything we ever wanted. That is until he finally went bonkers from it and spent 3 days trying to kill me back in '98. I left him. I gave him 2 years to straighten up. During that 3 years I was making him take random drug tests and he passed them all. Finally I told him that if he was going to "do it" just "do it". Within 3 months he was as messed up as he ever was.

I came home to find him at my 100 acres one night. He had come up without telling me he was coming. I asked him to leave and he wouldn't. I divorced him. It was finally obvious to me what everybody else already knew...He would never change. So my happy marriage of 15 years was over. I lost my best friend and I really never got over it.

Now I don't party anymore. I have plenty of drugs like heart medicine and such that have warning labels about dizziness and not driving. I don't need to get high. A lack of oxygen feels a lot like getting high anyway. What few times I have smoked a joint here and there have been decidedly uncomfortable because getting high feels a lot like dying. Trust me, I have been close enough to dying that I do know what it's like. The detached feeling is much the same when I compare the two experiences.

My 2011 in Review

It was much the same as my 2010. I seem to have settled into a routine and I am completely thrown off kilter when it is disrupted. That is certainly new for me. I never had a routine in my life until I got sick. Of course, that's probably why I got sick in the first place. I was always too busy to have a routine. There were never enough hours in the day. Now I spend my days looking for ways to spend the time. It gets old, but I do my best.

I did have one noteworthy episode with my heart back in September, I think. It took me months to get back to my normal. Now it is time once again to try to improve my endurance. We'll see what happens.

I finally got that computer. I think it will save me a fortune in gas as I won't be going to the library as much. Also I won't be paying netflix or blockbuster so there's a few more bucks in my pocket.

The federal government has seen fit to raise social security this year. I'll be getting $32 more a month. There was no increase for the past two years. Personally I think they should just freeze it at current levels. Of course I always need more money but when I went on disability that was a given. I am still better off with it. In fact, I am alive because of it.

My friendship with Eddie has certainly been a rollercoaster. I put up with it for several reasons.

1. I am hard to get along with.

2. I am sick and really can't pursue friendships. We both know in a different reality we probably wouldn't even be friends but things are what they are so we continue to hang out.

3. The emotional ups and downs are kind of fun. I spent a few years spending all my time trying to get better so I was shut down emotionally. I just didn't have the energy for feelings.

4. He is fun and he really does do alot for me.

I had another story published in the Charleston Gazette for Christmas. Now that I have a computer maybe I can do something with my stories to make money. I know people do but I have yet to figure out how in the world they do it.