Friends
I have this great friend. She is a Radiology Technician and she is also a mom, a wife, an employee and a person. She and I are the best of pals and when we have troubles, we 'vent' to each other. I have another great friend...same bio - she and I also have a great relationship. I never knew I could have friends who were also female - being that I female too and when I was growing up the friends I wanted were very self-involved and shallow (the "in crowd"). The friends I had were like me (or they were guys), until high school. Then they went their separate ways - one took all the business courses, one join that 'in crowd', another moved away. The guys slowly disappeared as I realized their main goal. I took the education route until my dad divorced my step mom - then I traveled the path of least resistance - ditched class, ran away, etc. Now my friends are mature (not too mature), employed, responsible people. I really like the friends I have attracted.

The Long, Long Week
Husband is out of town, building a putting green in Yuma, Arizona. I have never had trouble sleeping when he's been gone before - so I am quite unhappy to report that I can't sleep - it's been three days and I have logged 12 total hours (okay, maybe 15 hours) of sleep. I am exhausted. Yesterday I skipped school and focused on son and his homework. He did his math assignment while I read my math book. We discovered that he and I are doing exactly the same math - basic algebra. He is grasping the concepts much better than I - he hasn't learned a different way - and he does not seem to have the 'control' issues I have acquired over the years. He is very willing to believe what the teacher tells him, while I challenge the rules of math. I learned that I can learn something new.

Our Love Is Strong
I spent a very nice weekend remembering why I married the second husband. Especially when he was helping me with my Basic Algebra homework. Basic my ass! I don't know how he puts up with me sometimes and every night I am glad he does. He is so wonderful and loving. 11 years and I love him more than ever. In a real way - I love that when I think of him I still smile hugely.

We spent Saturday afternoon together. Saw the "Dare Devil" movie, had dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, rented movies and spent the evening just holding hands and eating popcorn in bed.

He loves me in the most fundamental ways - like when I am the least loveable.

I remember every day that it's not how many years two people spend together that's most important, but HOW those years are spent.

I love you...Always.

You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
Friend's spouse moved out last weekend (prior to the Heart Holiday). Friend confided that feelings not expected arrived ten-fold. Numbness, guilt, a feeling of 'letting down' offspring, and having to admit to self that it was actually over. I can't imagine as I left my first spouse WAY before fifteen years of marriage had passed. But I CAN relate to the feeling of having let the child down. I was in it for the long haul. It got difficult (I was twenty) and I bailed - with child. Today I still feel (even after making another go of that first marriage when child was two) like I let the child down by not trying harder, putting up with the unhappiness...etc. I KNOW I did a better thing for my child by leaving, but I know what Friend is going through when it comes to the kids.

Friend has a new love, a current love and Friend is blossoming into someone Friend would not have been if Friend tried to 'put up with the unhappiness' - still hurts like hell though.

Love and Peace to you Friend.

Respect Yourself.
I am pondering why one person would allow another person to speak rudely to them on a daily basis.

My Coworker routinely speaks to the Boss with condesending, badgering tones. The way the Boss is spoken to would be unacceptable to me - IS unacceptable to me. I wouldn't put up with it from anyone. Why a Boss would put up with it from an employee is beyond me.

I want to step in, make a scene, make an example, but ya know...it ain't my issue...I think. I DO have to listen to the disrespect and undermining of Bosses reputation. Coworker sits in the cubicle next to mine and everyone in the department is subject to Coworkers outburst's. Coworker offers many excuses (endless excuses to explain the actions of this Coworker - sick, too much stress, not enought hours in the day, Boss is on diet, Husband is unreasonable slob...I mean endless and it never comes back around to the Coworker maybe owning some part of it), and false apologies are made from Coworker to the Boss as if saying 'Sorry" eleven times a day makes acting like a bitch okay. The ONE time Coworker spoke to me in such a manner, I respected myself and told Coworker I would not be spoken to as if I was less than human. Never happened again.

Grow a backbone Boss....