1997
J and I had been married for 9 years, our daughter was 6 years old, and we had been living in Florida for 4 years. I worked at the library and J worked for a small company installing telephone and alarm systems. I thought we were happy, we never fought, the sex was great, we owned a lovely house. But J began to get restless, and when he gets like that he drinks too much. Then one night he got a DUI while driving his work van and his boss had a fit. So he quit his job and decided to open his own company.

Meanwhile, one of the librarians at work told me about a group that she belonged to, the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization that recreates the middle ages. For more information go here http://www.sca.org/ I thought it would be a good way to keep J busy and out of the bars, and we had fun dressing up and going to the events. Well we met this very eccentric couple who were so into this thing that they even lived in a castle. The woman was this crazy heiress with more money then she knew what to do with. Her boyfriend was planning a sci-fi convention and they needed someone to set up and maintain their website. So J started working for them, and was paid very well. Then she had a fight with her boyfriend and threw him out.

I bet you can guess what happened next. This woman called my husband constantly, she became very demanding and even called in the middle of the night. I wanted J to stop working for her, but he insisted we needed the money. We started arguing about her and then finally he left me and moved in with her.

Thhis is from Red's blog at http://bipolarrollarcoaster.blogstream.com/

Nick Name: Gina
Birthday: March 9th
Birth State: New York
Current Location: Living Room
Eye Color: Dark Brown
Hair Color: Black
Height: 5'5”
Righty or Lefty: Righty
Your Heritage: Italian, Puerto Rican
The Shoes You Wore Today: Lime green sandals
Your Weakness: Health problems
Your Fears: Being sick and unable to care for myself
Your Perfect Pizza: Extra cheese and veggies
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: Get my daughter safely through another year of high school
Thoughts First Waking Up: I made it through another night
Your Best Physical Feature: My smile
Your Bedtime: 10 pm
Your Most Missed Memory: When my kids were little
Pepsi or Coke: Iced Tea
McDonalds or Burger King: Neither, don’t really do fast food
Shoes or Bare feet: My pink fuzzy slippers
Favorite Place on Earth: The Beach
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate.
Cappuccino or Coffee: Cappuccino
Do you Smoke: Never have
Do you Swear: Not anymore
Do you Sing: Sometimes
Shower or Bath: Shower
Have you ever Been in Love: Yes... many times.
Do you want to go to College: I have a BA
I love taking classes
Have you ever been Married: Married now! I Love being married
Do you believe in yourself: Yes
Do you get Motion Sickness:' No
Are you a Health Freak: No, I enjoy sweets too much!
Do you get along with your Parents: Only because my mom lives in a different state
Do you like Thunderstorms: Yes
Do you play an Instrument: No
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: I think its been just over a month
How many times in the past month have you been Intimate: I’ll never tell
In the past month have you been on Drugs: Just what the doctor orders
In the past month have you gone on a Date: No
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: No
In the past month have you eaten a bag of Oreos: No, but I love them
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: No, but I like most Sushi
In the past month have you been on Stage: No

In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: No, but I love to.

In the past month have you Stolen Anything: No
Have you ever been Drunk: Yes
Have you ever Shoplifted,What did you steal, and Why Did you do it: Yes when I was a kid, all my friends were doing it, we stole candy and gum.
How do you want to Die: At home with my family.
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: A Doctor or a teacher
What country would you most like to Visit: I’d like to go on an African safari

What I like in In a Man/Woman...
Favourite Eye Color: Doesn’t matter
Favourite Hair Color: Doesn’t matter
Short or Long Hair: Longish
Height: Tall.... must be taller than me!
Weight: 200+ I like my men big

Fave past time or activity: Blogging, reading, eating
Number of Drugs I have taken in the past: Way too many
Number of CDs I own: Only about 50, I used to have 100’s of albums though
Number of Piercings: 1 in each ear
Number of Tattoos: 2 so far
Number of things in my Past I Regret: Too many to count.

Today I went to the beach with my son, and had a great time. Things are so different now, I used to just need a towel, and loved to lie in the sun and bake, now I sit in a lounge chair covered up under an umbrella.

The water didn’t look too rough today, so I decided to go in. You would think that a woman who can barely get up out of a lounge chair would have enough sense to just stay put, but I am quite adventurous, somewhat brave, and a little stupid.

Well today I managed to get past the breaking waves without getting knocked over and was happily floating around when a huge black cloud floated overhead. The sky turned dark and it started to rain. The drops were really big and made a ping sound as they hit the water. It was an awesome experience being in the ocean in the rain, the sky and the ocean were both gray, and the huge drops seemed to be dancing on top of the water.

After awhile, it stopped raining and the sun came back out.

This post is a comparison bettween livng in a small town and living in the big city.

Back in New York - 1991

It was a Jan., I was waiting for my mom to come pick me up for a checkup because I was eight months pregnant. Since it was cold outside, I was waiting inside, watching for her from my second story window.

There was a woman walking across the street. Then a van stopped in the middle of the street. A guy jumped out and grabbed the woman's purse, then he jumped back in and took off. The woman just stood there for a few seconds, and then she continued walking in the same direction.

I was so glad that I hadn't been waiting outside, and that my mother hadn't been there to get mugged. At the time I didn't really think about the woman, but now I wonder. Did she call the police? Were was she going now that she didn't have any money? Is there anything I could have done?

Here in Florida - 1994

I had been here less than a year and was working in the library. They had these study rooms for people to use where they could close the door and have total quiet. These rooms were in the back of the building, and they had big glass windows. Well this woman came up to the desk and told us that someone had stolen her purse. She had left it on the table in the study room and had gone to smoke outside.

One of the other workers called the police, and they came about 5 minutes later.
I was in total shock. I couldn't believe that this was considered a crime. In NY we live by the finder's keeper's rule, if you see someting just sitting there and no one else is around its yours, you just tell people it fell off a truck.

In NY the polcie would have laughed, and told the woman to refer to the above law. But here not only did they show up, they actually filled out a report. If they did that in NY they would have to start shipping the files out west for storage.
And they showed up so quickly, one time when I was a kid, a guy got shot and lay in the street dead for two hours before the cops came.

Did you know that the finder's keeper's law also applies in the ocean? It does for real.

Once I was out on a boat and this guy was swiiming trying to get to port. His boat had broken down so he was trying to get help. We picked him up and took him out to his boat, which had already been picked up by a salvage boat. Apparently if you leave your boat in the ocean anyone could come along and claim it Anyway, he grabbed a knife, put it between his teeth, jumped into the water cut the line and got in his boat. Then he threw us the line so we could tow him in. The whole time the salvage guy was shouting obsenities and threating us.

1. I am concerned about the environment and believe we should all try to reduce, reuse and recycle.

2. Although I am not a vegetarian, I don't like eating meat. I love seafood though, and am hoping to go out to the coast and have some oysters this weekend.

3. As far as my taste in music goes, I am stuck in the 60's and 70's.

4. I like tie dye and bell bottoms.

5. My daughter calls me an old hippie, I guess she's right