Avon Quotes

I took the following quotes from a 2009 Avon calendar I had. The authors to the quotes were not listed...

* The world is a rose; smell it and pass it on to your friends.

* Delight in the beauty that surrounds you.

* All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.

* When the world says give up, hope whispers one more time.

* Courage is not the towering oak, but the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

* Pleasure is the flower, remembrance the lasting perfume.

* Happiness never decreases by being shared.

* In wildness is the preservation of the world.

* Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

* Make today so beautiful it will be worth remembering.

* I wake expectant, hoping to see a new thing.

* There is not tonic so powerful as the expectation of tomorrow.

PT Dates for me to remember

Physical Therapy dates...

4/2, 4/11, 4/14, 4/23 (TOTAL = 4) - 4/5/09

6/1, 6/3, 6/8, 6/18, 6/23, 6/25 (TOTAL = 6) - 6/9/09

7/6, 7/8, 7/12, 7/13, 7/18, 7/19, 7,22, 7/27/ (TOTAL = 8) - 7/8/09

8/14, 8/19, 8/24 (TOTAL = 3) - 8/4/09

9/1, 9/10/09, (TOTAL = 2) - 9/2/09

Pablo Neruda

This poem was recited by Stan (the security guard who works nights & eats lunch at MacLaren's every day) in an episode of How I Met Your Mother....

***************************************************************

Just knowing you're out there thining about me,
caring about me makes me feel safe.
So all my fears, all my yesterdays, wash away
& only hope remains in the promise of your embrace.

You make me thank God for every mistake I ever made
Because each one led me down the path that brought me to you.

And when we finally come together I want you to hold me all night.
Stroke my hair, tell me I'm a woman & show me you're a man.
Until there was only now, you & I, and now.

I do not ask of the night explanations, I wait for it, & it envelops me.
And so you and bread, and light, and shadow are.

I'll be back when the wind & fates & chance bring me back.

Rude People at Church Family Pool Party

Ok, so the Christian church in our community had an event today, right? It was a family pool party at the community church. So we get our kids ready & head out to the pool, we're circling the parking lot because of course it's full! So there's this car in front of me waiting for this cute little lady to get out of her spot, at least, that's what I thought! His car didn't have the right or left blinker on, it was completely stopped on the left side of the parking, right behind the little lady who was putting her stuff in the trunk & then walked to her car to leave.

By this time I see that another car on the right side of the parking is getting ready to leave, so I pass the car that was stopped in front of me & start backing up into the spot of the car that just left. Then, the man in the car that I just passed honks at me. So I look out my window & say, "I thought you were going to park in that one." But he says no & points at the one where I was about to park. By this time the cute little old lady is leaving already, ok? So, why doesn't he just park in that one? What's the difference between the spot on the right or the left? And why didn't he have his blinker on to begin with? That way people would've known where he was going to park right from the beginning!!!

So, anyways, I just start going back on reverse so he could park there & I thought, "No big deal, I'll just park in the other one then." Boy, was I wrong!!!!! The other car behind me starts honking like crazy, so I turn back & there's this big, huge, African American lady hanging halfway out of her car window screaming something like, "Na-ah! He's going to park there & I'm going to park on that one!" I saw how huge she was & how one parking space can make someone go from "Mrs. Church going Christian family mom" to "Mrs. Evil" in 5 seconds, so I was like, "This is not even worth it!" and I just went to look for another parking space.

My husband said, "Church people for you!" It was hard to get him to even go to a church event & now Christians behaving like this??? Seriously, what is wrong with them? My husband even said, "Nice to see that this is the way adults behave at a family event!" But honestly, the African American lady just made me laugh cause it was so funny to see her barely being able to hang out her window! The thing that was pretty messed up was the sadness in our kids eyes cause not only did they have to see & hear what went on, but we didn't end up finding a spot anywhere & had to go back home.

The whole experience just made me think of how people of every religion are always saying that their religion is the real one, the only one, that only people of their religion will go to heaven & things like that. But, do they really think that just because they call themselves a "Christian" they're going to heaven? So, let me get this right? I can go out there & be a total jerk to people & get away with my rude behavior, but I can call myself a "Christian" & get away with it & go straight to Heaven, right? Wow!!!!! I'd rather be a nice person, who's considerate & respectful of others, than a Christian like that.

Now, don't get me wrong... I'm not saying all Christians are the same, I know that there are very good, real Christians out there. People who truly have a personal relationship with God & do deserve to go to heaven in the end! But these so called Christians I came across today, made me be thankful that I have not become a member of that church! I in no way want to be associated with those kinds of people. - Amen!!! -

Ugliness

So, I'm like a very ugly girl & because of that I'm very insecure. Let's start at the beginning...

As a young girl I was the girl who never got the second glance. I did have a cute shape with a little waist & a big behind with curvaceous hips, so when guys would see me from behind it would catch their attention, but the moment they saw my face they would just turn around.

When I was in high school & started noticing guys I thought I could go to my mother & tell her about it. Once I told her about a guy I liked & she said, "Don't even get your hopes up, he probably won't even like you." Another time I told her about someone else & she said, "He probably doesn't even know you're alive." Another time she just told me out of nowhere, "You're not a pretty girl, but you can at least get some attention cause you have sex appeal." What the hell??? Who cares if I have sex appeal when my mom just told me how ugly I am? The other thing I remember is when I cut my waist-length hair to shoulder-length. I came home & she let out a loud sigh & said, "Oh no! You cut off the only cute thing you had, the only thing that drew attention to you!" Ok, so I don't expect my mother to bull shit me & tell me that I am pretty when I am not, but did she really have to say all those awful things to her teenage daughter? I felt bad enough for being an ugly girl, but did I have to hear it from my mom too? I thought a mom was supposed to be the person you could run to with your problems, the one who was supposed to make everything better. The one to say, "One of these days you are going to meet a wonderful man who's going to love you just the way you are... someone who is going to appreciate the person you are... see the beauty that comes from within." You know? Anything to give me self-esteem & the confidence I needed to go through with life. Insted, because of her telling me how ugly I was, I used to cry myself to sleep every night.

One time I was at a carnival with some friends & family. This guy kept looking at me & smiling, it turned out that he knew one of my cousins. Later my cousin told me, "My friend said that he saw you from behind & he thought you were fine, but then you turned around & he saw your face." Can you believe that? I mean, obviously, nothing can be done about an ugly face. It's there, I know I'm ugly & I can't do anything about it. But what hurt me was... Did my cousin really have to tell me that? I mean, the guy told him that, ok cool, but it was between them guys... did he really need to make me feel like shit by coming to me & telling me how ugly his friend thought I was?

Once, when I was in 9th or 10th grade, a guy yelled at me, "From the neck down!" I don't even know who yelled it but my best friend got so mad, she was screaming & walking around in circles, like she was so upset she didn't even know what to do. You could just tell she wanted to go to that group of guys & strangle them all. Me on the other hand was like, "It's cool, just let it go." She couldn't understand how I was so calm & unaffected by it, but I guess that I was so used to being the ugly girl, it just didn't phase me anymore at that point.

All that pain brings tears to my eyes. People can be so cruel. The sad thing is that one little thing can totally affect your life in such a negative way! Society does such a good job of telling girls what beautiful is supposed to be.

The truth is that I am so much more than an ugly face! I am a caring, loving, strong woman. In high school I took care of my niece instead of hanging out with my friends because her mom was such a drug addict that I knew she would leave her alone at home. I took care of my goddaughter when I was a teenager because her father was abusive. In middle school I gave up summer school so that I could stay home with my baby cousin after his mom was killed in a car accident & his dad had to be at work. I am the girl who sits there & prays quietly for a child I don't even know when they get abducted & can cry just imagining the pain the mother is feeling while waiting for her child & praying that he/she will come back alive. I am the granddaughter who held her granddaddy's hand when he was in a coma, who can't sing, but recited a song to him in the hospital bed that made a tear come rolling down his beautiful wrinkled face. I am the granddaughter who would be waiting by the door for her grandma to be coming back from the store with a cold glass of water. Such a simple story, but one that she would always tell everybody. I am the granddaughter who baptized her child a catholic, even though I'm a Christian, because I know how much the Catholic religion meant to her grandmother. I am the aunt who took in her two nieces when their mom didn't want them & their dad was too immature to take care of them & disappeared for days at a time. There's so much good & love in my heart that I refuse for this "ugly" pain to keep controlling the way I feel!

Ugly girls deserve to be loved too! I am not your typical beauty, but I have a beautiful soul. God made me & to him I am a princess... His work is not "ugly."

I shouldn't hate hot girls because of the cockroaches in my head, they work hard to look good & I shouldn't be hating on them!

My mother's words should not have that power over me.

So what if there's hot girls everywhere? That doesn't make me any less of a woman!

There are men out there who do find me hot as well. No one has to be the only hot woman. Everyone can be hot!