My life one blog at a time

Planting A Garden

hivgal — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:41:02 +0000

After picking myself off the floor of my local No Frills this week due to the price of potatoes l got to thinking.Always dangerous when l think l know but l digress.Why not have my own balcony garden?i have been googling like mad and have a few books coming from the library on the subject.Now l am not going to pretend l have some great green thumb l don’t.But what l do have is a passion and will to find cheaper veggies to eat.

I don’t live in a rich area at all.Most of the people l live among are working poor or on some sort of welfare.A lot of people here use food banks the one thing l have not done.Their is one community garden with eight spots and those spots are given each year by a lottery system.Meaning good luck on getting a place.Now l know some of my neighbours have had gardens on their balcony’s for years.I have talked to a few and some good tips given to me along with seeds and dirt and pots.

Someone over heard my neighbour and l talking and was asking why bother?By the time your tomatoes are grown they will be cheap in the supermarket.Okay most likely they might be.But l want to feel the dirt on my hands and watch my plants grow this summer.To be out in the sun and semi fresh city air.

I want most of all to do this for me.

All thanks to a six dollar price tag for a ten pound bag of potatoes.At that price they can stay in the store.

And if any one has recipes for green tomatoes?Send them my way.

Spring Ahead

hivgal — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:27:34 +0000

I have to admit l never do well with these time changes.For me it would be nice if we just took one time and stuck with it,Might have to do with the loosing of a hours sleep tonight.

That aside l have to say spring is my favorite season of them all.Every thing is coming back to life the world seems endless in what you can with it.

The birds return speaking of which l have a pair of robins making a home on my balcony.Now l am not on a lower floor and they seem to be okay with my cats staring at them through the window.I become aware of them the other morning when they were talking LOUDLY at five am outside my bedroom window.I think she was telling him how she wanted the nest built and he was having none of it.But build it they are and l see now they are fixing it up.Smart birds they built it in the quiet area of the balcony and l am hoping they stay and have babies.

The days are getting longer and l hope warmer.time to take the dog out for some long runs after a winter of walks.My knee does not ache as much any more making it easier to walk longer and faster.

Spring is coming and l am so happy.

A picture is worth a thousand words

hivgal — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:16:21 +0000

I know that one of the biggest things about all these social sites is have a picture up.Everyone wants to see what you look like and feel better about themselves when laughing at someones clothes or bad hair day.

Let’s face it everyone has posted pictures they,much rather have had not.Or had a friend do it you know the one of you leaning over a toilet bowl and throwing up from a night of bar hopping.

So this week the whole picture thing was brought up again for me.I am a site some of my friends are on and well l write on there too.Much more here.And someone a male wrote me a email saying l like what you wrote and we started to chat.

Until he asked for a picture and l was sorry don’t do pics l just get laughed at.Well he thought that was really sad of me to be down on my self.

The thing is l am not down on myself for once.The truth is when my picture was up before not person left a comment took it down put up a picture of my cat?And all of sudden people were leaving comments.

And you ask how does that make me feel?

Sad.

I have been doing okay as of late with the self esteem thing but this week has set me back a bit.

But as l said to him unless you have had the kind of teasing,comments,and rejection l have lived through you will never understand why my shell is so thick.

Sands Of Daytime Running Out

hivgal — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:45:10 +0000

The death keel for tv soaps is ringing louder each day.As financial crisis is hurting daytime soaps more than other shows, and may well doom them. Not so long ago, there were 16 soaps. Today, there are eight — with more cancellations seemingly imminent in the face of TiVo, D.V.R.’s, decreased market share, declining ratings, and the loss of financially pressed auto dealers as local advertisers.

When l was a kid my mothers favorite soap was Another World.She would watch it when she could and l remember being home from school sick and watching with her.Another World was taken off the air a few years ago making a little sad at the time.Now soaps have gotten a bad rap for actors that could not act yet some big name stars started on them.But soaps over the years tackled some pretty heavy social issues wife beating,child abuse,gay children,drug abuse,rape to name a few.Okay so they were also out there on the ailen visitors,how many times can one person get married on the show,affairs that would be endless and so on.

But the point is the soaps have always been there.you can leave for a day or a month hell even a year and pick up the story lines fairly quickly.People have gotten attached to favorite characters over the years.I followed the Robin and Stone love story on General Hospital for a year.He was HIV postive in time where gay men were dying and no one thought straight people could get it.Umm can you say wrong?Her heartbreak when she told him she too had it as he was dying.Little did l know that years later l would be dealing with some of the issues they acted out in my own life.And yes not all of it was cheesy or over the top.

It seems the death keel has really become a loud bang due to the fact of who is watching the soaps.Unfortunately for the networks, viewers say they tune in to see the old standbys. Unfortunately for advertisers, network-commissioned surveys have found that a large segment of the soap audience is poor, middle-aged African-American women. “That’s definitely not the demo sponsors are targeting,” says a network exec.

Some how l have a feeling that teens and some stay at home moms were missed in these surveys.And a lot of people hate to admit they watch Y and R like my four white male cousins…Sorry guys your secret is out.

The world will continue to turn, but soaps may not be slippery enough to escape the current crunch.

Sort of a sad thing after all where was the one place you could watch a show and learn about emotions and why people do what they do for love?

No Time For Anything

hivgal — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:54:14 +0000

l vowed to write more here starting in the new year.But l went back to work part time and that has changed my life yet again.I am really lucky to be working l know even part time when so many people are being laid off.And because of the lay off fears if they need me to work late or extra l just say yes.

I also have started swimming again twice a week.One thing l am doing is taking better care of me and l have so far stuck to it.With of that my writing class and chores who has time to blog?

And yet l sit in bed and blog subjects pop in my head.I need to find time to do this even if no one is reading.I need to find time do it even if it is just for me.

Now if we can only add more hours to the day….

Christmas one year later

hivgal — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:08:33 +0000

Last Christmas was the worst one l had in years.I missed my kids,money was tight very tight and it was really for the first time just another day.My roommate and l had saved 300 bucks last year for Christmas but three days before the big day his computer crashed.The cost to fix it? 300 bucks so that was the end of our holiday.It was a very long day to say the least.

This year though…..

Holy crap is all l can say.

The roommate has a great job and the clients went over board with gifts thanking for his hard work.We have enough (really good chocolate) to open a shop,enough wine to open yet another shop and my freezer is half full with baked goods.It has been unreal to say the least.

We were able to go out and buy a dvd player for one of our neighbours whom we both like and has no one for Christmas.That and some books and yes chocolates she liked and we made her Christmas.It was to say the least a really nice feeling.

And yes Santa was really good to me and the roommate.

lt was one of my best Christmas’s yet…..

A Favorite Christmas Song

hivgal — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:21:09 +0000

It’s been over twenty years since this song was first recorded and it remains a favorite for me to this day.

Brings me back to my misspent youth.

And the thought we all could make a change for the better.

Maybe we still are in our own small ways.

A online suicide

hivgal — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 02:53:20 +0000

Call me jaded and you would be correct l am.I have seen to much of what we call human behaviour to be anything but jaded.But this news story took it to a whole new higher level.A young man comes online with his webcam on and is going to kill himself.People watched as he took the pills and sat there and chatted?Laid down on his bed in his room to die?Read the comments people were making?What was going through his mind as people debated if he took a strong enough dose of pills to die?

Did he really want to die?Or was it a online cry for help that wrong? Very wrong?

We will never know the answers to that l suspect and it bothers me to no end.Only a few people got the mods and reported a problem.

Has a life become worth so little that watching someone killing themself/s become a new form of online entertainment? This is not the first time it has happened their are two other cases of men killing themselves online.

What bothers me is one he was blogging 12 hours before he killed himself about wanting to kill himself.

Two he said he wanted to do this before and so some or a lot of people did not take it seriously this time either.

In my mind anytime anyone tells you they want to kill themselves it’s serious cry for help.They may not do it but that the person saying it has gotten to a point of emotional pain they cannot no longer cope.I have thought about it and l have talked to friends who have thought about it.All very strong people who at one point or another thought suicide was the answer.Some of my friends over the years that have told me they thought of it shocked me l never would of thought of it of them.And that is just it no one thought this young man would do it either.

I just feel a bit more jaded…..

And l guess with the net anything goes now days…

Sad indeed.

A Christmas Family Swap

hivgal — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:28:49 +0000

Every year people who normally cannot stand each other get together so they can have the family Christmas.Your cousin that is always is bragging about her perfect kids in one chair,your aunt with her pro life views in other.The uncles that tell the same stories year and out making you want to scream loudly.That is just the mild stuff.What happens as a friend put it “The in laws and your family cannot play in the same sandbox nicely?”

That is why cops hate this time of year domestic abuse goes up all over the place.The long simmering fights over money,your crazy parent/s, in laws all come to the fore.Toss in some alcohol and you have the light to the fire.I used to be in dread of Christmas the pressure from my family to buy them the right presents.Trying to get along along with my mother for a few hours cost me a week in bed every year.I no longer have Christmas with my family partly by choice and partly because the message your not wanted here is loud and clear.Yes it hurts at times l am not kidding anyone or myself by saying it does it not.But l much rather deal with the hurt of not going alone then the feeling of being on edge and waiting for my mother to pick to a fight.

One of my ex boyfriends said something once that made a lot of sense.”You see your family once maybe twice a year your friends all the time.”

When he said that it came to me l don’t have to be with blood family on Christmas to be happy.I can be with my friends the people that are my family more so than the ones l was born with.Now l know for a lot of people it won’t be this way for them this year.They will put up with the bs from the in laws in order for the kids to be happy.Which yes is the adult thing to do …..But let’s face it being a grown up sucks sometimes.

So instead of a gift change at work this year l purpose a family change.Everyone puts the in laws from hell, the cousin that makes you tear your hair out,the cranky aunts etc in a hat.Everyone picks a new family for to spend Christmas with.OK you might have to talk the families into it (cash bribes always works).

But think of the fun you can find out about your co-worker,new family stories to be told.The best part?At the end of the day they will leave and you can know for sure next year you WON”T be seeing them again.

Virgin Waxing One Trend Our Daughters Don’t Need

hivgal — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:59:55 +0000

When l first read about a mother wanting her nine old daughter to get waxed for pubic hair l thought it was a one off thing.Okay so l was a little wrong with that thought.The Today show had a aestheician on saying “That is the new trend.”

WTF?

This a trend parents want thier young daughters going through something like this?

As a female that has had a Brazilian done let me tell it’s not childbirth but it’s not shaving your legs either.Now the eight and nine year old set is supposed to be the extreme,but the new new norm is the ten to twelve years to have a bikini wax.Now this is just insane.why would any mother want her daughter going through this sort of treatment before she was 16 is beyond me.Maybe l am missing something here in the reasoning but l don’t think l am.

I think it’s bad enough that 20,30,40,year old women have been taught that pubic hair is dirty and we have to be bare for a man to find us sexually pleasing let alone the rest of the world.It seems now a days women feel they have to get the wax job done when they have the yearly pap done.My female family doctor and we were talking about it after l told her about the article l had read.She thinks the idea of having a wax job done for your doctor is insane.

Now l know some kids are going to have darker growing thier legs and some parents worry about the child fitting in and being teased.But to go the route of waxing where rubbing hot wax over a area and ripping the hair out by it’s roots?

But then there are extreme parents. One aesthetician claimed she was waxing an eight-year-old’s brows with the mother standing over her, shouting, “No! Not like that — like a supermodel’s. I want them arched.” 15-year-olds are asking for Brazilian waxes, claiming that’s the “in thing.” (A Brazilian wax is when ALL the hair is removed from the bikini area.) One doctor specializing in adolescent health complains that so few 12-year-olds have pubic hair these days, it is making her job difficult. At one time it was used as an indicator of proper development. Now it’s all been shaved or waxed off.

But wait! It gets worse. Wanda’s European Skin Care Center in New York offers “virgin waxing” for children eight years of age and up who have never been waxed before. “Virgin hair can be waxed so successfully that growth can be permanently stopped in just 2 to 6 sessions,” the site announces. “Save your child a lifetime of waxing… and put the money in the bank for her college education instead!”

So…if you wax it all off to keep it from ever growing in, won’t this technically keep her like a little girl forever? Or is it still making her grow up too fast?

And it makes me sad to think that young girls are all ready getting the message “No Hair” is the best thing.So what happens to the girls whose parents don’t believe in this?Are they the ones going to be picked on in school for not having had a “wax”?

Yes l know spa parties for girls has been around a long time for birthday’s and such but what is next?Come join me for my birthday and be waxed too?

Makes me wonder have we taken the Cosmo Girl thing one step to far?