What's the best present you gave this year?
I gave my mother a year's service on her Tracfone so she wouldn't have to buy more minutes every three months for a year. She only rarely uses her phone, and doesn't need to pay for minutes she won't use just to keep service.
My daughter, on the other hand, uses hers constantly, so I gave her the "double minutes" for a year deal. She got 600 minutes to start with, and every new card she buys after that is automatically doubled, so she gets more for her money. She's a happy little yapper now!
My daughter does it. Many of her friends do it. I had never done it until recently, except via the internet. Some young folks can do it fast, but I'm old and have to go slow. A little money changes hands, but it's definitely worth it! If I do it for too long at a stretch, I'm sore afterward.
Now that all your little minds have crawled into the gutter...you can crawl right out again.
"It" is.....TEXT MESSAGES! Gotcha!
I had never sent a text message from my cellphone, preferring to use websites like Twitter . It's faster for me to type on a QWERTY keyboard than pecking out the letters on my cellphone which, woefully, has only the usual telephone number/letter setup, requiring three presses for a "c", four for an "s", and so on.
I have recently discovered though, even as slow as the process is, it does come in handy occasionally. Like Friday morning, for example. We woke up to a lovely area-wide cable internet outage, which meant I couldn't Twitter unless I used my cellphone. I kept my messages brief, but got my point across and, thanks be to the Internet Gods, I was able to receive messages as well (Twitter and I had previously had some issues with the receive part of the process, via cellphone). By the time the technicians had fixed the internet, I was all happy again, but even happier to get back to QWERTYing.
Then something else came up, unrelated to Twitterati. My daughter and I needed to exchange some information, but I couldn't call her because she was in CNA class at the time. So, I sent her a text message in the usual way, using her phone number, and she replied after she turned her phone on when class was over. We did this back and forth thing until she was able to call me and finish up what we were doing. She sometimes prefers to get texts anyway, because they only use a half unit of talk time each, and anyone who owns a Tracfone knows how quickly those minutes disappear.
I'll probably never use texting "just because I can", but it's nice to know it's there.
How do you take your tea or coffee?
Submitted by Vasquez.
Powdered creamer and one pack of Equal. Tried it black and just couldn't handle it. I'm a wuss.
I often find myself using my real name in places where a nickname would probably be more appropriate. This was originally a simple mistake on my part; when it asked for a "name" I assumed it meant the one that the government knows me by. After I realized what I had done, I suppose I should have changed it and used an alias instead, but...I started thinking, a dangerous occupation for a blonde, but nonetheless... :)
I decided that I'd leave my name just as it was, in Twitter, in certain blogs I comment on, etc, for the simple reason that I don't like having to hide. I was driven underground many years ago by a friend of my ex-husband's. This evildoer got her grubby hands on my email password and caused unbelieveable havoc, the worst of which was causing my then-fiance to break up with me by sending him excerpts of emails I'd written to a male friend, and making it appear that I was being unfaithful. Many months later, we managed to get past all the misunderstandings, but he'd moved from Belgium to Brazil and found someone else by then, so we didn't get back together.
There were threatening emails and I was contacted in IM by various "people" who spun tales that even Mark Twain wouldn't believe. I found out that I'd been signed up in online dating places like Match.com, and the profiles weren't at all flattering. I got quite a few emails from men who thought I was a "working girl", "white single mom trailer trash", and the list goes on. I tried assuming different nicknames, to no avail; they found me wherever I went, whoever I claimed to be. I finally hit upon the idea of creating not just a new nickname, but a whole new person, complete with street address, occupation, age, and a rather interesting background. I made sure that the new "me" and the "real" me had absolutely no details in common. Actually, I wish I were this other person, but I am who I am.
I used this identity for several months, confiding in only a handful of people who I knew for certain wouldn't betray me. I still, to this day, keep an email account for that other "person". Why? Perhaps I'm afraid I might be forced to lie low once again, although I really don't see this happening. Perhaps it's simply sentimental value; I almost came to think of this "other me" as real, and she helped me maintain my sanity by enabling me to be a part of a world I'd come to love, i.e., the internet.
Much time has passed since all that happened, and I finally feel I can just be me. I still use nicknames sometimes, but not because I'm hiding. It's just part of the internet culture. I'm pretty much an open book for anyone who wants to take the time to read it.
As those of you who know me are aware, I am a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica. Last night's episode, while fascinating as always, gave me an added bonus: something to think about.
I'll give a generic description of the scene in question, so as not to bore those readers who are not familiar with the show or the characters therein. An admiral was sitting at the deathbed of one of his senior officers, talking to her, comforting her, praising her for her superior leadership. He told her that she had made the people under her feel "safe enough to be brave", because of her talents of command. She died before getting a chance to enjoy the promotion that the admiral had come to bestow upon her, but she died knowing that she did well.
The admiral's choice of words bounced around in my brain for quite a while.
I was raised by a verbally abusive father and an ineffectual mother. My father seemed to delight in destroying what little self-esteem I managed to form, probably because he had low self-esteem himself. If I tried to do something and failed, that was it. I was stupid, blind, retarded, etc. I remember one incident in particular: I had been given a Royal manual typewriter (which was a big deal back then) by the father of a close friend of mine. The ribbon needed changing, and I had a new one to put in it. I tried to do the job myself, and couldn't figure out how to finish it. Of course, I ended up having to ask my father for help, which was a mistake. I'll never, as long as I live, forget his words: "If you don't know what you're doing, leave the damn thing alone." That, unfortunately, stuck like glue. It must have been at that point in my life that I became terrified of failure. To this very day, I'm timid about trying new things, especially anything mechanical, but over the years, this fear has generalized to include any new experience or task I'm unfamiliar with, whether it be a new kitchen appliance or casting a fishing line.
I wish I felt "safe enough to be brave", but even now, with Boss's encouragement, I'm still scared witless of not getting it right the first time I try. He probably doesn't mean to, but in his own way, he sends out negative signals sometimes too. He accuses me of "not doing what he told me" when in point of fact, I simply don't understand whatever it is he's trying to convey. So, with him, like with my father, I've learned to fake it, or just not ask, or go someplace else, to try to figure things out. I cannot stand to be scolded or yelled at, and will do anything to avoid it. I'm not saying that Boss is like my father; if he were, I would have left already. But the fear and shame of disappointing, is just as strong now, as it was back when I was a kid, maybe because I know that Boss does love me, and makes it even harder to take when I disappoint him.
I wish I could do a "selective memory wipe" like in sci-fi movies, but reality, unfortunately, doesn't work that way.
Yet.
Until then, I'll just have to try my best to get out of my own way.
I went to the grocery store a short while ago, checkbook in hand, prepared to do a fair amount of shopping. I rounded up all my goodies, headed for my favorite cashier's register, and got quite a shock. Carol asked me if I was going to sign Boss's name to the check, which I had done before with the Manager du Jour's (Josh's) approval (had done this several times in fact). I said that yes, I had to sign his name instead of my own, because we don't have a joint checking account, nor is my name an "approved user" because I have to appear broke to the TN gov't. She called the Manager du Jour (Joyce) over, and she vetoed it! Not because of anything Boss and I had done, no bounced checks or anything such as that...it seems that some woman had been in there earlier, signed her husband's name to a check, and the store got in trouble over it. So, one bad apple spoiled the whole barrel. If I knew who it was, I'd hunt her down and kick her all the way to Trinity County. It took me all day to get up the nerve to go down there to shop, and then had to go through all that song and dance. Not only was I embarrassed, but I didn't even get the rest of what I needed to fix supper!
I called Boss and told him what happened, and said I might, if he got home early enough, go back down there with "real money" and buy what I originally planned to. But the way I feel right now, I just want to find a nice safe corner and stay there.
So much for the "everybody knows your name" mentality of a small town.
What's the most klutzy thing you've ever done?
Submitted by Jecka.
Fell down the iced-over back steps, which were concrete blocks, at the trailer I lived in back in TN. I was pregnant at the time too, but I had a heavy coat on and it must have absorbed more of the impact than I realized, because it didn't cause any problems. I somehow managed not to break anything either. I was just really, really sore for awhile.
Finish this sentence: "What in the world was I thinking when I...?"
Submitted by jammin15.
Got drunk and played strip poker with a bunch of guys I didn't even know?? This was wayyyy back in college, folks :)
A friend of mine from TN called this morning, got me out of bed (it was time I got up anyway). We had talked for about 15 minutes when I realized I needed to get off the phone so Boss could start making calls, but I had just one more thing I needed to ask Josie before I let her go:
How are the kids? (They're all adults, but to us mamas...)
She told me that her son Chris had been diagnosed with diabetes, just like her other two children, which is bad enough, but it went to his eyes. He's now legally blind, but still tries to drive. I can certainly sympathize with that, since I'm blind as a bat myself, but I no longer get behind the wheel (Boss would kill me, if I didn't end up doing it myself). Chris just started a new treatment for his condition; Josie was sketchy with details so I don't know any more than this. All I could do, was tell her to tell him I know how he feels, and I'm sure I do.
I've had this on my mind all day, but kept busy so I wouldn't think about it. It's nighttime now, I'm tired, I'm sick, and I couldn't run from it anymore.
So there it is. Sorry to be a downer on my first "real" post in forever, but it took me this long to actually have something to say that I felt like posting. I have plenty going on in my head, but for now...that's where it will stay, except for a select few, and you know who you are, God help you :)
