Ok, here goes. Try to keep up. This is my typical day:

• Wake up at 4:30am
• Grab coffee
• Exercise for 30 on Wii Fit. Don’t judge. It’s better than nothing.
• Check my blood sugar and take insulin. 
• Eat breakfast. 2 servings of egg whites and 1 piece of buttered toast.
• Watch local news while consuming 1/2 pot of coffee.
• 6:30am take shower and get ready for work. 
• 7am do household chores. Today was pay bills
• 7:45am go to work with remaining pot of coffee.
• 8am arrive at work and make 2nd pot of coffee.
• 8am to noon: Pull out remaining brown hairs leaving nothing but gray hair.
• Noon – Lunch today was grab a lunch down the street at the local Italian Pizza joint and take it back to my desk. Check blood sugars and take insulin
• 1pm make third pot of coffee so I can stay awake and sane until 5pm
• 5pm picture Fred Flintstone yelling YABBA DABBA DOO and punching out
• 5:15pm walk into my house say hi to the kiddo and change into my workout clothes 
• 5:30pm Monday is Subway night on the way to the YMCA. Check blood sugars and take insulin 
• 6:30pm Yoga – for the body, the mind and the spirit. Oh and it’s cheaper than bail and a lawyer.
• 7:30pm head home 
• 8pm Shower and climb into pjs
• 8:15pm to 10pm – Sit on couch and watch mind numbing tv and play in iPhone. Check blood sugars, eat a light snack and take insulin.
• 10pm Nighty night
• 4:30am repeat

1. Being Late – this is my biggest pet peeve! When I was growing up we were a split house. My mom and I were always on time and my dad and brother were always late. I have to be at least 15 minutes early to everything or it drives me crazy.
2. Stacking Dirty Dishes – this makes me cringe. Do not being all the dishes from the table and stack them next to the sink. I will go grab a few at a time, clean them and then put them in the dishwasher. When you stack, I then have to clean two sides.
3. Squeezing the toothpaste in the middle of the tube – this is why I have had my own tube of toothpaste since I could afford to pay for it on my own. 

This is another tough one. My life in 7 years…

I will be 52 years old. My daughters will be 30 and 23. My grandchildren will be 10 and 8. Wow!

Since my youngest will be 23, I am assuming my house will be empty, except for the times that I want it full. 

I will hopefully still be working at my current job. As much as I complain about it, I love what I do. 

I see myself as still blowing and going. Kayaking, enjoying the great outdoors and listening to good music. 

God willing, I will be able to update this post in 7 years.

My commute to and from work is horrid. Horrid, I tell you!

I leave my house at 7:45am and arrive at my office at 7:50am. I get to work just early enough to make a pot of coffee.

I leave the office at 5pm and arrive home at 5:10pm. 5 o’clock rush hour is a bear and adds 5 whole minutes to my commute.

I told you my commute was horrid!

This is hard because I will pretty much laugh at anything. 

Didley Squat – this will always get me. When I was a teen, a long, long time ago,  I actually named a cat Didley Squat.

Butthole – just because.

I am happily single. After having been married for 13 years to a very controlling person, I am enjoying my freedom. In the past 4 years I have been divorced, I have started to like myself again. I am enjoying my life.

Now, this does not mean I want to be alone forever. But I am not looking at this point. Wait, that’s a lie. I look all the time. 

For today’s writing challenge I am supposed to write about a fruit I dislike. This is a really hard challenge for me as I really don’t have a fruit I dislike. Yes, I’m serious. Now, watermelon doesn’t really like me, but I love it.

Oh wait, I just remembered one! Dingleberries. I really dislike dingleberies because they are just plain nasty. Enough said. 

Ageism (also spelled “agism”) is stereotyping and discriminating against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. This may be casual or systematic. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism.

I don’t think anyone should be discriminated against for any reason, be that age, race, sex, or religion. With that being said there does come a time when some elderly people are no longer capable to perform certain tasks in the workforce. In my honest opinion, this should not be a reason to fire them. Instead, I think they should be placed in a position to teach the up and coming workforce.

I know the above is a pipe dream and sadly Ageism is a real problem.

I’m not a big reader but a few years ago I read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger.  

 
As for I book I didn’t love… That would be anything I was forced to read in High School. I think that’s why I hate reading, because I was forced to do it. Now if they had made a recommendation, maybe it would be different. 

When I was 42 I was hospitalized for a month with Acute Pancreatitis & I was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic. This little life changing event made me change me outlook on life. 

One of those outlooks was of tattoos. I decided if I could keep my diabetes in line that I would get one on my birthday. But it had to be something good, something meaningful and something me. So on my 43rd birthday I got this:  

The Gnome is for my quirky love of gnomes. He is holding a lantern to always brighten my path. Peace, Love & Faith. The 3 stars represents the 3 most important people in my life who are now shining brightly down on me from heaven, my aunt/Godmother, my mom and my dad. This was supposed to be my one and only. 

Ya right! On my 44th birthday I added these:  

 The cat is for my mom. She said she would return to earth as a black cat and after she passed I have had a black cat around my house, no matter where I live. The owl is for my dad. His submarine mascot was an owl and every Christmas I gave him an owl figurine of some sort. When he passed I found I now have an owl that hangs around my house, again no matter where I live. 

And then I turned 45. This is my newest tattoo:  

 I have always loved John Lennon. When I visited NYC a few years ago I had to go see the mosaic in Central Park. I fell in love with that park for several reasons, one being Strawberry Fields and the other was that my mom had grown up in NYC. I grew up hearing all sorts of grand stories of NYC in the 30’s & 40’s. Red Roses were her favorite flowers so I thought it fitting to add that to the mosaic. Peace, Love & Music. Imagine.

46th birthday present is already in my thought process….

This is actually vey easy. My granddaughter, Big Bird, absolutely fascinates me. Each and every time I see her she has somehow changed. She has either grown or learned something new. At 3 1/2 she has already been through more than most people go through in their lifetime and it doesn’t phase her. She still has a huge heart, a great sense of humor and loves to just play. 

Honestly, my answer came very quick to me. A place I would live but have never visited would be Seattle, Washington. I have known several people over the years that have spent time in that area and I have never heard one complaint. The pictures I have seen are beautiful. There is a major city and there is plenty of water around. All I ask for in life is a place to hear live music and a place to launch my kayak. 

1. I do a great Elmo impersonation.  
2. I had to teach myself how to drive a standard car. I walked to the library, checked out a book on how cars work, walked home, got in the car, read the directions and I was off.
3. In 3rd grade I was the only girl in our Baseball League. They asked me if I meant Softball when I signed up and I told them,”No, I want to play real ball.”
4. I started getting tattoos when I was 43. My goal is to get one every birthday.
5. I became a Type 1 Diabetic at the age of 42. I’m a late bloomer.
6. I love music and I live going to concerts. My taste runs from the Symphony to Asking Alexanderia.
7. I love the beach.
8. I am a recovering alcoholic.
9. I love to cook.
10. I am a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Your earliest memory… Hmm this is a grad writing assignment.

I think my earliest memory is of myself sitting in my high chair in the kitchen of my parents restaurant that they owned at the time. My high chair was next to the white chest freezer and the head cook was a black gentleman who would always try to make me laugh. I believe I was about a year old at the time.

I’m not going to lie, I love Social Media. I am going to have to dig deep here to find 5 problems with it, but here goes!

1. Kids – for a 40 something woman nearing “The Change,” the amount of cute baby/kid pictures are brutal on the ovaries. My cure for this is to take my granddaughter for a weekend. Then I can post my own pictures and then take her home once I’ve had my fill.
2. Pets – again, for a 40 something woman nearing “The Change,” the amount of cute puppy/kitten pictures are brutal on the ovaries. My cure was to take in 2 cats in the past year. I had to stop at 2, because when you hit 3 you become known as the Cat Lady and that can’t happen until I’m at least 50!
3. Relationships – are you single, engaged, married, divorced or it’s complicated? And how often are you supposed to update this? Maybe I need to change me status to It’s Complicated since I’ve been divorced for almost 4 years and I haven’t been back in the dating game. Maybe that’s what that status is for.
4.  Vacation Envy – before Social Media I never knew about all the wonderful vacations my friends took. One day, I swear, I am going to find that house surrounded by crystal clear water that you can only get to by boat! And yes, I’ll post pictures!
5. Food Porn – I think I have gained 50 pounds since being on Social Media. I think we need to ban the easy bake cakes & muffins. Let’s bring sexy back to celery. You know have a naked piece of celery just edging itself into a bowl of low-fat Ranch dressing. 

This just might be the thing I need to get the writing juices flowing again.