A Phoenix Will Rise

#Amwriting not a word about Covid 19 today

I have jumped out of bed at the crack of 13:37 HRS. This is the time that I told Google Home to wake me up from my nap. I’m racing. I’m writing. I’m fighting a demon. Today I’m going to win. It will be back tomorrow, the demon, but today I’m going to win.

Months have passed as I’ve worried about this blog. Worried, and not written.

Has it been years? I’m not going to stop writing now to…

Anger Management Tip #1: It’s Bad To Get Shanked at Walgreens

Emotional infant. From all the Frazier episodes I laughed through, that is my favourite phrase. Frazier – grand master of all emotional infants – used this once as a his own brand of expletive, and I’ve kept it in my back pocket ever since.  I pull it out and silently tack it onto others, sit back smugly, and enjoy feeling awesome next to them.  Don’t judge me.  That’s just the opening.  There’s…

5 New Year’s resolutions I would make – if I made New Year’s resolutions

Happy New Year! May 2018 be full of challenges that ultimately move you forward. I never make New Year’s resolutions because I think that they have to come from the heart and soul – not exclusively from a calendar date. But that’s me. I think New Year’s is a good time to soul search, though. Sometimes, resolutions come from the gems we observe.

So here are some observations I’ve made in the last…

B-b-b “B” Word: Bully

Why? I don’t know, exactly.

I am a bully. I. AM. A. BULLY. I amabully. I was a bully. I have been a bully. I bullied. Do I bully?

I’m not sure what verb tense to use. I’m not sure what label to use. I definitely have a temper to fit the stereotype of my red hair. But am I still a bully?

Social media is a wonderful thing. This weekend, I inadvertently reconnected with a former victim of my (I…

At the turn of the 20th century, Russian peasants rose and made a simple enough request:

Bread and land.

The ruling aristocracy thought that was pretty cheeky. A revolution began. The world changed.

In December of 2015, I also made a simple request:

Bread and, perhaps, a jug of milk.

I ended up in the psych ward for a month (But I’m an empowered woman. I drove there myself).

Bread is a powerful…

It’s Sunday night – one week to the day since my proclamation of becoming a writer, seriously (no, I mean seriously). I have scribbled blog post ideas in my notebook and stared at a blank screen for a week. Tonight is my self imposed deadline for a new post.

Nothing.

Nothing will come of nothing, as King Lear pointed out (although his advice is suspect).

I decided to read other blogs for…

I’ve been offered a job back in my beloved field of funeral services. It’s a good opportunity, with a company that is willing to invest in me. It feels perfect. That’s why it has been so difficult to decide to turn it down.

I’m unemployable. And it’s okay.

Tomorrow I will have to summon the courage to contact my would-be manager and say, “No thank you.” He has gone out of his way to accommodate…

If a Heart Breaks Online, Does Anybody Care?

A heart broken online feels real enough to me.

Generally, I think it’s good that online dating has become a “thing.” The world has changed so much; why shouldn’t dating change? I wonder, though, if it changes our expectations of how we should experience romance, love and “all that stuff.”

Does “meeting” someone online feel any less “real” than meeting in person? Should it?

According to the Pew…

I have a story to tell.

I have a story to tell, but I am not going to tell it.

It is about a $10,000 cat. She was just a barn cat. Old, arthritic and grouchy. She used to be a fluffy little cutie, who stole my heart, and caused debates about cat ownership through phone calls to far away places like India, from my humble little home, long ago (it seems), in Saskatchewan. She cuddled with me all…

What we don’t know about domestic violence hurts everyone: a letter to my friend

What we don’t know about domestic violence, hurts everyone: a letter to my friend

I have a beautiful, well-educated, friend. She is a driven professional, and a mom of three great kids. She recently remarried. To me, she has been an inspiration. I have thought, “She’s been through so much, and she is standing strong. Her life looks like she’s got everything worked out”.

I wasn’t mistaken. Not…

QUIZ: Are you a BUM

So, a lot has happened since my last post. Now that I’m a single woman, a friend and I were talking about the world of dating. We couldn’t agree about whether or not he’s a bum.Odd topic, I know. I fancy myself a bit of an expert at identifying ‘bums’, so I thought I’d compose a little quiz for our mutual enlightenment. NOTE: All answers are excerpts from my extended research based on…

Orion’s Belt

Well I did it. I fell. Into the abyss I’d been fighting. Leapt, actually. Free fell. Fell freely. Checked myself into the hospital on December 8, 2014 for a month.

And I needed it.

Still may lose my house. May go bankrupt. May whatever. I going in the right direction now. Phoenix again.

Tonight I stood on the cold and looked up at the stars. The moon. And I wasn’t alone. Across the Atlantic,…

Friday night. Forty seven year old single mom sitting at the bar drinking wheat beer.

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking it’s about time I blogged again, right?

I used to wake up with fully formed ideas in mind. Middle of the night – you name it. I’d jump up and run to my computer to blog my latest gem of observation about my life. Lately, not so much. But here I am. Sad woman alone…

One more year on the planet.

It’s my birthday. I have hung on to this planet as it has hurtled through space, around the sun, whilst spinning on its axis at breakneck speeds, forty-seven times.

It’s exhausting.

I hang on, still, and wait for my insides to stop churning. Sometimes, it’s exhilarating, or awesome (as in, full of awe, or inspiring awe – not as in I went to the mall today and found a twenty dollar bill in the…