This routine gets emotionally exhausting, and from time to time I suggest to the family members that are venting to me that going to a professional counselor would help the entire family to learn better ways to communicate with each other. With the proper communication tools, I believe that most of the conflicts could be avoided or defused completely. But these suggestions are always met with excuses to not have the time or energy or money to go. Even when I offer to pay for the sessions and drive them there, the suggestions are not followed. I used to get frustrated by this, but lately I’ve decided to not waste any more of my energy being frustrated. Obviously there is nothing I can do about it, so I guess I’m just going to have to laugh it off and shake it off and just try to stay out of the line of fire!

Four years have passed since the car accident happened that ruined my life. I was on my way home from work when I was rear ended by a car whose driver was too busy talking on the phone to realize that the cars in front of her had stopped for a red traffic signal.

She rear-ended the vehicle in front of me, pushing that vehicle into the rear of my truck. At the time of impace I was in the process of changing the CD in the CD player, since I had already stopped for the traffic light. I was badly injured as a result of the accident, and we had to hire a lawyer to help us to recover the costs of the accident. I wish that we had been able to find a claim calculator on the Internet back then to help us figure out what type of award we might be able to expect from the accident. As it is we still have not yet settled from the accident, and I am thinking that we never will see any money from it.

Gosh, I don’t really know what else to do to save my marriage. It’s harder to be a couple living together than I imagined it would be and I’m finding out things about my husband that I just didn’t know until we moved in together. I just can’t imagine a time when I’m going to be used to all his stubble in the sink and the way he snores at night…ugh! The worst thing is that he’s just really inconsiderate – I know that it comes from years of living alone and not having to share a space with anyone but hey, I’m his wife and I know there’s something he’s got to give to be a better partner. I asked him to go to SatelliteTVFamily.com to look into cable for the house the other day, for example, and he said he didn’t have time. Then he got all pouty a week later when we didn’t have the TV channel that carried the football game he wanted! We’ve both got a lot to learn.

I’ve decided to do some research myself on the Internet so I Googled “Rent Calgary” and I have to admit that it sounds like a wonderful place, but I have realized that I know nothing about Canada. I don’t even know if they speak English or French in that particular area. That shouldn’t be a problem with her though since she was one of the rare ones that took French in school while the majority of us took Spanish which we could never figure out why. Maybe she knew something back then that she might one day end up living some where that she could use it, although I’m sure she has forgotten a lot of it by now.

Where ever she ends up I hope that she will be happy and feel good about where she lands. Looks like I’ll have to be saving my money to go and see her instead of saving up for a new TV or a car or a beach get-a-way or any thing like that.

I try not to call her too much, so I have been communicating with her mainly through emails and texting. It has been so long since we have talked on the phone or seen each other face to face that I all most forget what her voice sounds like for heaven’s sake! So I am so happy to accept an invite from her to join her to watch the fireworks tomorrow night in celebrating the 4th of July. This is something that we have done dozens of times through out the years of our friendship and from many, many vantage points all over the country, depending where we are living at the time. And I’m so grateful that we are both at least in the same state for right now anyway, but after she graduates, who knows where she will end up, it all depends where the best money is to help pay for all the education that was required for her to get into her new field of bettering the environment. Her favorite color has always been green!

I have no interest in going to shows at the arena or stadium. I don’t like the big stadiums, the music quality is horrible, the crowds are horrible, you can never get front row tickets and only see specks on a stage with a big screen (big deal!) and the seats are not comfortable.

I’ll stick with smaller venues and support the songwriters and emerging artists in the bars and little clubs. The big names already have enough money – they don’t need mine.

I’ve decided that it would make more sense to simply put two bags in the can to begin with. Do you think that went over well with the boss? No….. he said that it was a waste of bags. Because MAYBE, just MAYBE one day in two hundred might be a day when the bag doesn’t rip. Can you believe that guy?

Why does it matter to me? Because people put real garbage in these things, and I don’t want to have to clean up the spilled coffee grounds, leftover spilled Chinese food, and the liquids from the cups that lazy people don’t empty out before throwing them in the cans.  What a pain in the neck!

I figured that would generate more income for the Post Office, and maybe the junk mail would end up being recycled by the companies that get them back. At least they’re not filling up my trash bin!