Way to go....!!

WAY TO GO, RUTGERS!!!!!

WOOOOO HOOOOO!

So much has happened...some good, some bad..

Where to start...

I guess we'll start with the "good". Last Saturday night I was able to catch up with my girlfriend Diana. Diana and I were best friends throughout high school. We shared many an adventure! Diana moved to CA when she was 17. Last time I saw her was about 12 or so years ago. (My kids were really young.) So, what did we do? I met Diana, her daughter Jesse, Jesse's friend Ashley, Diana's sister Vera, and Vera's daughter Dana at Penn Station around 7pm on Saturday night. It was too funny. Diana and Vera both looked at me and exclaimed "Oh my God! You look EXACTLY the same!!" (Is this good or bad?!LOL!) I cannot tell you how happy I was to see Diana again! She and I were tighter than sisters at one point of our lives.  So...anyway...We proceeded to Chinatown for dinner. Dinner was good. I had chicken in curry sauce. We all kind of shared what we ordered (pork fried rice, sweet and sour pork, pork lo mein, beef and green peas, etc...) It was all pretty good. (Just some hole-in-the-wall place we found walking down Canal Street.) From there the younger girls wanted to do some shopping so we obliged them. Finally we wound up in the Lower East Village at Coyote Ugly! WHAT A BLAST! We had a great time! The younger girls danced on the bar in true Coyote Ugly fashion! They earned the shirts that they either received as gifts form male patrons or bought themselves. (Please, search "Coyote Ugly" to see what this place is all about!) Ok..the place was a tiny hole-in-the-wall but what alot of fun we had! Herman drove into the city to pick me up, as taking the train home at 130am by myself was totally UNAPPEALING. I was the 1st to leave. (Side note: Vera was soooo f'n pissy that night...but she's always been this way. I told her daughter (Dana) that Id go to the city with her anytime she wanted to go.) I had hoped to see Diana before she left (earlier today) but it never worked out that way. I'm hoping to take a road trip out to CA ( Martinez, 30 miles northwest of San Francisco) in the next year. This way I can spend time with Diana, no distractions!

Ok...now on to bad news. I recently received an email from my mom that totally BLASTED me for being a terrible mother to Jackie. I received this email about a week ago and have yet to get over it. This email was totally inappropriate and completely uncalled for. Prior to this email, my mother had IMd (didn't call, didn't have Jackie call)  me to ask me to pay for Jackie's medication yet again. I signed off before I had to answer, as I was taken off guard. The next day my mom emailed me to say that she was waiting for my response. My response was, 

Hi Mom,

    I'm sorry but I cannot afford to pay for Jackie's medications. Jackie should be checking into programs that the drug companies offer for people who cannot afford medication. It's unfortunate that she waits until she is completely out of her medication before she worries about where the next prescription is coming from. This is something that Jackie needs to take care of. As long as she knows that someone is going to pay her way, she won't be forced to take care of herself and her needs.

Love, Sharon

 

The next day I received such a scathing email from my mother that I was unable to read the email in it's entirety. I deleted the email before I was able to read it through. It was so awful. Such accusations. Calling me a bad mother. Telling me that Jackie was a "victim". You know what? I don't like anyone who plays the "victim" card. In any case, this email has caused me such grief that I am not planning on spending the holidays with my mother and sister. They have turned this into a situation that makes people choose "sides"...There are no sides to this. This has nothing to do with us loving or not loving Jackie. My mother is doing Jackie such a disservice by enabling her. In my mind, my mother is helping Jackie kill herslf. You provide for her so that she has money to stick a needle in her arm?! How are you saving her?!! I have never told my mother that she cannot help Jackie...that's up to her. Then tonight Becky received an IM from Jackie, who told her that she had totalled her car yesterday. She said that something fell behind and got stuck behind her brake and she plowed thru a red light. I suppose this means that the cars she crashed into will be seeking compensation since the accident was clearly her fault. She's supposedly in a methadone treatment program. Should she be driving? She's "under the influence", because it is a drug. When will she ever learn? All we want is for her to be back in a program that makes her become responsible for herself. When she was in AZ, she was atotally different person. She was self reliant, responsible..in charge of her life. We offered to send her back but my mother (interfered) talked her out of it. And yet, my mother claims that we don't care about Jackie. All we want is for Jackie to be healthy and happy. And we feel that this is NOT going to happen back here in NJ. She has too many people (my mom and my sister) who will allow her to lay around the house and watch tv all day long...in other words, enable her.. When does this all end? I can tell you that we have no hope for her as long as she stays near my family. They think that they are helping when in actuality they are really only helping to speed the process of her killing herself. They just don't get it. There's just so much going on with Jackie that I cannot even begin to explain...

 

Sorry to vent..I just needed an outlet. I just want to scream at the top of my lungs. And it doesn't matter, because my family still won't get it. They won't get it. They'll blame me for the rest of Jackie's life.

 

Can't write anymore.

Peace.

Yeah, it's been a long time..I know..

Ok...where do I begin?

Been doing really well at the gym. I curled 25 pounds with my left arm tonight!! (Ok..I could BARELY curl 10 pounds when I started so 25 lbs. is a miracle! Also, I couldn't curl it with my right arm becasue my right arm isn't as strong as my left arm.) So, yes...progress is being made daily. I've been averaging 3 days a week for the past few weeks. My weight is up but I think it's because I'm getting more muscle mass. ( I love flexing my biceps! LOL) Elisa has been keeping up with me, even passing me up in the upright bench press.

I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. Oh, I caught a damn head cold that kept me down for a few days. I hate head colds! Give me the flu any ol' day! Lay in bed, sip soup, have people take care of you, call out of work for 4 days!! A cold, well...no sympathy, no soup, no calling out of work. ::ugh:: 

TSPR news: We are getting new shirts and a new jacket this week! We (me, Ali and Sue) went back to do a follow up investigation last night. One of our ranks resigned today. This saddened me. I hate to see this person go. On Wednesday night we are going to see John Zaffis (a demonologist) at a local college. Can;t wait! We (me and Ali) were very fortunate to meet John at a paranormal conference in CT 1 year ago. He's fascinating!

Jon: Maybe you know Jon, maybe you don't. He's a good friend of Brian and Kathleen's. A week or so ago he lost his dad to a massive heart attack. Jon's entries are heartbreaking , to say the least. Please hold Jon and his family in your thoughts and prayers. If you read thru Jon's journal a bit, you'll see that a friend of his is missing and has presumably committed suicided. (He left a carefully placed note.) How much can a person endure? You can feel Jon's pain when you read his blog. (Side note: Jon is an incredibly talented and witty guy. Read his journal. I think you'll agree that he has a way with words. And he's as sarcastic as the day is long...and I like that in a person!)

John: My son broke his wrist 2 weeks ago today. He was skateboarding and when he fell, he smacked his wrist against the wood and broke it. He's in a cast for 1 more week and then a wrist splint for another 3 weeks. When I originally took him to the ER, they said that it wasn't broke and that it was sprained. An hour after we got home, they called back and said that the radiologist saw a break in his wrist. So we had to go back to the ER and get it splinted. Then we had to go to an orthopedic dr and get it casted the next day. Aghhhhh...

Ok...I guess that's it for now.

Peace.....

What I did this weekend

Me, Ali and Sue (all from TSPR) attended UNIV-CON in State College, PA this past weekend. It was a gathering of all different sorts of people who are interested in the paranormal. I think I speak for all of us when I say that a great time was had by all! We attended a few really great lectures/presentations and a few really awful ones, too. (I feigned an asthma attack to get out of one particularly bad presentation. I'm sure that I'm going to hell for that one!)

We were pleasantly surprised when we met Jason from Ghost Hunters. He was a nice guy, down to earth. We had a nice time chatting with him. Several of the guest speakers were very nice. Patrick Burns from Court TV's Haunting Evidence was one of the nicest guys I've yet to meet. He did a presentation on EVP work that was wonderful. Ali and I learned a great deal from him. Ryan Buell, a Penn State student (or graduate, not sure) was there. A&E gave him a show of his own titled Paranormal U. It airs in 2007. He was a doll, too. Most everyone there was very nice. There were some exceptions to this, but I'm not naming names.

It was a long ride...4 hours from here. But what a gorgeous ride! The leaves were spectacular on the way home. Too bad I was driving. I would've taken pictures for ya! I didnt bring my new camera with me as it is bulkier than my old one and wayyyyy more expensive. I wasn't comfortable leaving it in the room, either.

Well...I have to get back to cleaning up the mess that awaited my return.

Peace!

Oh c'mon...get over it!

Hey! Life has been busy for me! Sor-ry! (LOL)

Herman has taken the past few Mondays off. Last week we took a hike in the beautiful Bushkill Falls in PA. Yesterday we took a ride to Horsham PA ( a suburban area of Philadelphia) to see where we lived for 2 1/2 years. Then we went to NYC to walk around and grab a bite to eat. (PA and NYC in one day??!! Don't I live in the BEST PLACE ever?!) We've spent a great deal of "quality time" together recently...and you don't see me complaining!

The kids are all back to school. (Can I get a "hallelujah" everyone?!) Rachel has already had strep throat, Becky has had oral surgery resulting in an infected lymph gland and John has had to make an emergency trip to the dentist for a root canal gone bad. They have ALL been on antibiotics for the past week or so. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

Herman bought me a new camera! I got a Sony DSLR 10.2 mb camera a few weeks ago. I'll post photos when I can figure out how to take a great pictures. Give me a couple of weeks. I took the camera on a recent TSPR investigation. Again, I still have to figure out all the settings. It DOES take beautiful pictures, tho...

Speakimg of TSPR: My good friend Gary recently joined our ranks. He'll be a great contributor to our group as he is an audio editor for a national women's cable channel. (I'm not namin' names.) TSPR recently did an investigation in northern NJ. We'll update our site when we have everyone's report. Our website is currently undergoing MAJOR renovations so not everything is current. We're re-grouping and overhauling the website...which is exactly why I'm not linking to our site right now. I'll let you know when it's ready to be unveiled....

I received a phone call today from an old friend from church. I haven't seen John in a very long time...going on a year or so. Considering that I live in a very small town (pop. just above 13,000) it's quite odd that we haven't run into each other. Anyway, he sprung some unsurprising news upon me today: he's getting divorced. I say unsurprising because, as awful as it sounds, I saw it coming. Still, it's very sad as there are young impressionable children involved. Divorce rarely, if ever, has a positive effect on children. (I say this from my own experience...and I've been both a child of divorce and a divorcee. But...this is just my opinion.) I wish John well...he sounds a  bit , hmmm...happier and less stressed than before.

Well...that's about it on my end.

Peace!

Opinions, please!

Whaddaya think of the new color scheme? Anything I should change? Are the links too white? All opinions thoughtfully considered!

Thanks!

Pictures

I'm sitting here listening to the winds of what remains of Tropical Storm Ernesto, praying that my front tree won't be felled by the heavy winds. What a sucky day! It's been pouring since last night.

Herman and I celebrated our 19 year wedding anniversary on August 30th! I can't believe that the time has flown by so quickly! We went to dinner at the Barge, where, as usual, I had the "Special Shore Dinner" that consisted of a shrimp cocktail, a dozen steamers, a cup of chowder, salad, potato and a 1 1/4 pound lobster! I ate every last bite! Instead of the rice pudding that came with my dinner, I had creme brulee. When we came home we shared some champagne and strawberries. All in all, a very nice way to celebrate our anniversary. I'm hoping to be drinking pina coladas on some deserted beach in the caribbean for our 20th, though. (Keep dreaming, Sharon.)

The gym is going well. I made it there 4 times this week. Elisa and I have stopped the circuit training. We are doing some cardio (to warm up) for about 10-15 minutes and then we lift weights. We do 2 body parts (legs, back, shoulders, chest, arms, etc) 3 times a week. Today we did 30 minutes of cardio. I'm going to see if I can get to the gym every day and do cardio. I'll let ya know how THAT goes..LOL!

Well, that's about it for now. I hope that everyone has a great holiday weekend, in spite of the sucky weather!

Peace!