What are you doing this evening?

Next week. The hubby just picked up our tickets to see The Cult. Finally a band that we both like is coming to town! Also I’m getting a reline on my lower denture. And I’m having a face and neck treatment done.

Plus, tonight I will be watching Kamala Harris wipe the floor with an orange and blonde mop. It should be fun 😁.

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

I’ve dealt with this kind of man for decades. The kind who’s ‘always right ‘. The kind who has to have control over every aspect of your life. Ironically, this type is thin-skinned. Their ego is a house of cards that always needs to be propped up. They rule over you with the threat of violence. This type lies and cheats and manipulates and thinks himself a puppet master. They are generally charming, which is what makes them dangerous, because everyone will like them even in the face of their wrong doings.

The republican nominee for President of the United States is this type of man. So was my father. I know whereof I speak. Thankfully, my father never held a position of any real power, only the power given to him by his family. Both of his children cut ties with him for many years for reasons of our own. That was his accountability. When I was strong enough within myself, I resumed a relationship with him, mostly because I missed my mother.

The one thing that I know for sure about this type of man is that they crave power, but they only have the power you give them. The more you give, the more they crave. If you give them the power of the presidency, they will become addicted to it and will do anything to get it back once they lose it.

Describe your ideal week.

Waking up to find that I could walk, that I have the energy to walk around the block and farther and without anything helping me. No ankle brace, no cane,no handrails, etc.

I would walk to the grocery store. I would walk to the hotel at which I used to work and shock everyone there. And I would get the hubby to drive me out to Mom’s place and take her for a walk around the golf course and then lunch.

My ideal week would end with the realization that I was only getting started.

That’s the thing about ideals, sometimes they’re only fantasy.

Name the professional athletes you respect the most and why.

Ballet dancers. They give their lives over to their discipline and focus and, in many cases, their freedom as much, if not more than other athletes, and for very little money or fame. Even the prima ballerinas aren’t household names and aren’t known at all outside of their own countries or even outside of their own ballet companies. For ballet dancers, it really is about the love of the ballet. They don’t get endorsements or their faces on cereal boxes or multi-million dollar deals . Most of them are paid barely enough on which to live.

Think about it. Can you name me 2 ballet dancers, one female and one male who are currently performing? As a matter of fact, I doubt that you can name one. You might know the name of Melanie Hamrick, but not because she was a ballerina, but because she’s Mick Jagger’s current girlfriend.

What about the men? You’d have to go back to Baryshnikov, and he’s 76 years old and hasn’t performed in 2 decades or more.  And the likely reason you could come up with his name is because he was in movies or that he was in season 6 of Sex and the City, playing Carrie’s Russian love interest.

Unless you are a fan of ballet and you follow it, you won’t know anyone who is currently performing.  Yet I can name current baseball, football, and basketball players and even a couple of current soccer or European football players, and I don’t follow sports at all, with the exception of heavy weight boxing.

I’m going to include some videos of some current ballet dancers to prove the point that these people are athletes who can jump higher and longer than Olympians and balance better than gymnasts.

Men

Women

How do you relax?

Sleeping as much as I need to whenever I want to, because I’m retired and paralyzed, which is the perfect excuse for sleep 😴 💤.

Are you holding a grudge? About?

There are people that I prefer to keep a distance from. There are people that I prefer not to talk to. But I don’t hold a grudge against anyone.

A couple of years ago I decided that it was better for my mental health not to keep people in my life who make me feel bad about my life, whether they mean to or not and this action has been a very healthy thing for me, personally. I’m focusing on the positive and not the opinions of others. When you’re in long-term recovery, it’s too easy to get distracted by negativity in any form, so it’s been better to just cut it out of my life. I don’t have the luxury to worry about the feelings or the problems of others, I have only my own issues with which I have to think about. So if you don’t have something positive to offer you should keep your offers to yourself. I have more than enough negativity in my own brain, along with a piece of myxoma tumor and several aneurysms. Thank you.

Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

When I was 11 years old, my family went on a bus tour of Europe, and it was on that tour that I would travel the farthest away from home I’d ever been or would go. 9073 miles or 14,601.58 kilometers away from home, to be exact.

We started the trip by flying to London, England from Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada ,where we spent a few days sightseeing before we boarded the bus that would take us to mainland Europe. We woke up at 4 am. to have breakfast at 430,and board the bus by 5 a.m.,and we were off on our way . The bus was half full of Canadian passengers and half full of American passengers. By the time we got to Rome, Italy, I was already tired of traveling by a bus that was half full of loud Americans who were complaining at every turn .I was thrilled to finally get off the bus and spend a few hours sightseeing with my family. I didn’t expect the old Italian men pinching my 11 year old bottom black and blue, nor did I expect to aquire a lifelong phobia.

We were in a famous square, I can’t recall the name, and my father had his video camera with him. In 1976, video cameras were big, bulky, and heavy. He noticed that there were birds perched on the many statues of the square and had the bright idea to send his daughter to the middle of the square with a handful of birdseed and instruct her to throw the birdseed into the air so he could get a shot on video of the birds all flying to get the seeds. At this point, it should be noted that I wore thick glasses and was not athletic in the least. So I threw the birdseed into the air. Unfortunately, I threw it straight up, and as it rained down on top of me, so did all of the apparently ravenous pigeons . It was like a scene from Hitchcock himself. And that is my story about the farthest away from home I’ve ever traveled.

What is the phobia ,you ask.  From that moment on, I’ve had  ornithaphobia or a deathly fear of birds.

What does your ideal home look like?

Scroll through my past posts to see the pictures of our condo refresh because we’re getting to our ideal home.

What brings a tear of joy to your eye?

The waterworks started. I was in hospital on the stroke recovery floor when my brother and his family visited me for the first time. I immediately started crying, actually sobbing, and I couldn’t stop for about 45 minutes. My stroke caused my emotions to be very strong and uncontrollable, and I was so happy to see them that I just started to sob. My nephew and niece were quite young at the time and couldn’t understand why I was so sad. Through my tears, all I could say was joy . Thankfully, my brother understood and was able to explain it to his kids. When I finally did stop crying and was actually able to speak, we had a lovely visit 💗. It took several years for me to be able to control my emotions again, but I’m now more comfortable and confident when I let them out. That was the best and likely the most cathartic cry I’ve ever experienced.