2017... Almost A Done Deal

It's taken me a year but finally becoming accustomed to living somewhere other than Georgia.

I'll have to say it's nice living thirty minutes from the beach and can still go there to enjoy a warm and sunny day, even in December.

It boggles my mind (not a hard thing to do) that this year will be over in less than thirty three days.

Last year we threw our crap into a moving van and moved to another state to start over.

And we did.

I found a new job and a new work family. They have been incredibly wonderful to me and only took me seven months to get the job down.

The rental house is a tight fit and over half our belongings are still in storage here in Orlando with more still in our old house back in Georgia.

In four months we'll be moving one last time...into a home of our own and can hardly wait to spread out a bit. I've missed my yard work and our dogs have missed their big yard. The still go to the back of the yard to poop but for now is only about thirty feet away.

Good thing two of them are thirteen...that's ninety one in dog years. They probably appreciate not having to go far to take a dump.

Ziggy is only five and still has plenty of pep left in his step. He needs a bigger yard to run and gallivant.


In four more months he'll have one...and a pool to swim in as well.

The thing I'm most probably grateful for is that my family and friends back home in Georgia didn't forget about or write me off when we moved here. I was so desperately lonely when we first moved here. Of course I write to about thirty or forty people back home on a regular basis but is simply because I enjoy writing so much, especially in longhand.

I've received texts, emails, voicemail, cards and phone calls on a weekly basis. The people I left behind haven't left my life and makes me even more grateful... for them all to still think of and stay in contact with me.

The same goes for Massey. She has friends who visit her here on a regular basis. Our spare bedroom in our tiny temp rental has been put to good use.


She has a friend here staying with us now. Short three day stay but three days speak volumes when you've moved from your home of twenty one years.

I dropped my phone a while back...oops, my bad.

  #tilefloorskillacellphone

I have a terrible crack across the screen which drives me nuts. This young friend of Massey's bought me a new screen protector today and put it on my phone.

It's like the crack isn't even there anymore!

Then I come home from work tonight. The girls were gone to dinner. I walked into my bedroom to blog and there sat a new 'silent' keyboard and new wireless mouse. Another gift.

I'm thinking Tim will benefit more from the silent keyboard but is a win/win for us both.

It's a wonderful feeling to be loved...the past year has proven that to be especially true.

I've had family members come stay for a visit, friends from high school, former co workers and former managers as well. Massey has had about five or six different friends come stay for a visit


So as I approach leaving 2017 and charging ahead into 2018,  realize even more how truly lucky I am.

Love comes at me from many directions. From up above, from beside me, from around me and from far away.


As this world continues to spin and more often than not spit out hate and ignorance, I've been lucky enough to receive nothing but love, acceptance and remembrance of friendships past.


All said and done, is about what you have in your heart.
There are two choices in life.
You choose to be a lover or a hater.
You choose to be a good person or a bad person.

Life is an experience.

Webster's defines Experience as:

"Active participation in events or activities, leading to the accumulation of knowledge and skill."


I may not be smarter but am certainly wiser for my experiences.




Hug someone.

Call someone.

Text someone.

Email someone.

Write someone.

Open a door for someone. 

Let someone else go first in line or merge ahead of you in their car.

If someone looks like they really need a hug, they most probably do.

I'm not a fan of our President...but at least capitalized 'President'. We (not me) elected him. I support him as our leader but often laugh at some (a lot) of his comments and views on things.

I'm still baffled as to how we could elect him after his "Grab them by their pu*sy" comment.

But he was elected, so as an American I hope for the best...for all of us and the world.

Sometimes you simply have to move along in life...

But that comment he made will always bother me.




I'm a woman.

I've worked in the restaurant industry for almost forty years as a server and witnessed it happen time and time and time again.

Harass is usually always two words in my line of work.

Lucky for me, am too old for any of them to want to hit on.

I'm the one they rely on instead.

I consider it a badge of honor.

Hold on to  your values...and hold them tight.

Been there, done that. That's why and how I've survived.

I'm old, I'm skinny and as a flat stick but an excellent worker and have always proved myself to be just that.

I rule my world...and every person, male or female should rule their own.

Simply said, be a good person.

Just try grabbing MY p*ssy and you'd be slapped like a jack hammer hit you upside your stupid effing head. I may be scrawny but am mighty strong....just saying.






My life has turned out great and have been lucky so far but can't, for the life of me forget about all the women who have experienced or were treated as trashy throw away one hit wonders or simply just another notch on the headboard, without any of those men ever thinking or worrying about being exposed for the predators they are.

Dudes... come on!!!

As the year comes to a close in less than thirty three days, I'm kinda feeling like

I know many people don't necessarily agree with my views and why I started my own blog, but certainly been catharsis for my own well being and soul.


If you find something... anything in life which makes you feel better about yourself as a person, do it if possible.

It's always feels good to feel better than worse about yourself, especially in these troubling and tumultuous times.

A good way to start is simply keeping a journal.

All that requires is a pad and a pen or even a pencil.

You'd be amazed what you can discover about yourself when you write down things, dreams, feelings or even random happenings or observations. I have journals going back to when I was nine years old. I'm now almost fifty eight.

The journals I keep and even my blog, are the true and telling story of my life, my soul and my existence.

It will always be a personal best seller to and for me.

I urge you to begin and tell your own story in 2018.

Till next time...COTTON

Christmas Isn't About Getting...It's About Giving

If you want to get all factual about it...

It's simply been twisted over the centuries for the masses...and sadly as of late, the retailers.

I remember how devastated I was to learn there wasn't a real Santa Claus. Sadly enough, was also when I was about ten or eleven years old. #slowlearner

Our parents did a great job fooling us. We never saw empty packing boxes or signs that anyone other than Santa had delivered all those 'oh so wanted' gifts to us. He also ate the cookies we left for him and drank that glass of milk too.

Really, Kelly?!

Could one man actually stop at, deliver gifts and eat cookies and drink glasses of milk at every single house in a world, filled with billions of people?

Not to mention... being delivered from a sleigh which he flew through the air, driven by a team of reindeer and the front one had a red nose to light their way.

Seriously?

I listened to each and every thing my parents taught or told me, growing up as a tween.

                                      No wonder I remained a virgin until I was twenty.

Last year I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. Moving here was a harder transisition than I thought it would be.We didn't even get a tree. I just put lights on the plant in my living room.

Back in Georgia, we went all out...every year. Huge tree, pulled out all the decorations and usually kept them all up longer than we should have.

I can't remember one single year we didn't have a tree. Even when we were broke, a dear friend and co worker of mine simply bought us a tree and dropped it on our front porch. The kids were younger then and didn't even know who he was. Zach simply said "A bald headed man brought us a Christmas tree."

Last year we had enough money to have a tree, I just didn't feel in the mood.

It's hard to feel like Christmas when is eighty five degrees outside and you're laying on Cocoa Beach with your daughter the day before Christmas Eve getting a sun burn.

This year is a whole new ball game. We have our house back in Georgia paid off, free and clear. I have a job I really love and so does my husband.

Us old two kids are making an amazing comeback...which is ridiculously hard to do in your late fifties, in this new age of technology.


When we moved here last year, I sank into depression...pretty much off the bat. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to overcome, besides my own parents'  quick 'exit stage left' from life.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Losses should make you determined to show those ones who raised you right, they did okay and you were listening.

Life is an extremely fragile gift and more often than not underestimated, undervalued and put on the back burner of our minds... thinking life is simple when it's not.

You live and you die.

How you live your own life determines what your life will, and can be.

I've started over in Orlando. I lived in Georgia for over half a century. I still miss it...every single day.

If you live your life always look behind instead of looking forward, you'll never find your future.


Who knows how much time I have left on this earth?


That would be none of us.

Make the most of your moment. Make the most of your life. Make your mark in this world and help others make their own way as well. We all get by with a little help.

This Christmas, this time of year, this reason for the season...

Whatever you believe about, or in... whatever political views you have or may not have...know they're are people who can, and want to help.

I am one of them and pretty sure are literally millions of  others as well.


One last thought.

Not afraid, simply feeling grateful.

I'll stand by you.

Each and every time.

You get what you give.

If you don't give something to this world we all live in, how can you expect to get something back?

My Bountiful Life

We had Thanksgiving at my brother's house this year here in Orlando. My sister drove down from Georgia with her son and his wife on Wednesday and her other son drove down with his wife early Thursday. Unfortunately Cin's husband was sick and decided to stay home and recuperate. Zach stayed in Georgia as well with work obligations and our other son remained in Charlotte with his little fam for Thanksgiving. They were all sorely missed.

But carry on we did!

My brother lives in a true paradise of nature. Unbelieveable views from sun up to sun down.

The icing on the proverbial cake is that my awesome brother also happens to be a most excellent host.

He always says to us, "Mi casa es Su casa."

I got over there shortly after noon on Wednesday to start cooking and pretty much lived there until Saturday night. I made the ten minute drive back to our house twice to check on our pups but pretty much otherwise lived at the lake with my sibs for four days. Massey stayed there too except for leaving for work twice and Tim spent Thanksgiving and the day after with us as well.

                                                      It was awesome...and then some.




My sister and I once again cooked way too much food but once all was cooked for Thursday, we could all eat until Sunday with a  quick reheat from the NuclearWave.

My brother recently rescued two Dobe's and the entire family fell in love with them both. They put up with all of us barging into their previously quiet and peaceful existence amazingly well.

My brother's next door neighbor joined us along with his fiancee' and we threw down like bosses.

We drank like fish, played cards and watched football and videos on demand. We played corn hole into the wee morning...woke up and started it all over again.

And again.

Chris took us for a boat ride this afternoon. It was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Lake levels were up after all the recent rain and hurricanes. We meandered over to the canal which connects Lake Mary Jane to Lake Hart.

We approached the bridge underpass which has always been a pretty snug fit. As we started towards it I thought to myself "We ain't gonna fit."

I kid you not, even Chris had to lean back while driving the boat under with literally three inches to spare above the windshield of his boat.

Yikes!

Chris ain't never scared, which kinda scares me sometimes.



The thing which also scares me most about boats is they don't have brakes. If I'm driving something, it's gotta have brakes.

I watched Gilligan's Island enough to know  how boat trips can turn out.

We all made it back in one piece and once again NuclearWaved leftovers and continued watching football or surfing the net.

I got approved to join the Jefferson Park FB page and was all excited. That is the neighborhood where I grew up. It was a wonderful community which went through some downward spiraling but has revitalized much to the thanks of an influx of conscientious gaybors.

I cracked up when coming across a post from a homeowner. He was ticked about candidates putting fliers on his mail box before local elections. He posted the code, section and number of the violation offense prohibiting candidates for doing this.

Then he added this meme.

Yes!!

I grew up in a great neighborhood...and is still a great neighborhood, fifty plus years later.

I got to laugh with my sister and brother for four days. I got to share with them all the crazy posts I find so humorous on social media ...which actually are. We drank into the night together, playing cards, attempting to solve the world's problems and looking through old family photos together, realizing obviously no one knew how to center a photo in the fifties or sixties.

For all that has happened to me or gone wrong for me in my life, there are and have been... two things which have always been right in my life, and right beside me the entire step of the way.

The sun set on the last day I had with my sibs here in Orlando. It was a beautiful sunset. It reminded me our short visit was also coming to an end.

My sis was heading out early on Sunday for the road back to home, in Georgia.



I couldn't stay there again tonight. If I had to watch them all pack up and pull away tomorrow, I'd be devastated.

When you have a family as close as Chris, Cindy and I have...parting is always hard. We're all that's left of us and when one of those parts leave, is hard to take.


Families who don't choose to remain close to each other, obviously don't realize what they are missing...and it's a lot.

I came home to our tiny rental house feeling kinda blue.

Then as I was writing this very blog post, my sister hit me up on Facetime, with all of them in the background. We shared more laughs and jokes.

It almost makes me feel spoiled that I'm lucky enough to be a Leach, but think we all three feel that way.

When you are brought into this world and raised by wonderful parents...

                                           Odds are you'll be okay if you listened  to them.




               You don't need a miracle in your life if you come from a family like mine, all you need is them.

                                                               



                                                                 

Till next time... COTTON