When the farce is over.

When this farce of a presidency is over, there are a few things I NEVER want to hear or read again.

"double down"
"the president tweeted"
"make America great again"
"special advisor to the president"
"Kellyanne Conway"
"Mar-a-Lago"
"disgrace"
"failing New York Times"
any combination of "best" "great" "very best" or "greatest" when spoken by the 45th president when referring to himself, his staff or something they have done.
"repeal and replace"
"the Trump administration"
"fake news"
"Fox News"
"the wall", "build the wall", "Mexico is going to pay for the wall"...Pink Floyd's The Wall is OK.
the chart showing how much time has been wasted golfing by the tweeter in chief
photos of Ivanka Trump playing world leader with zero qualifications; she's not even a great fashion designer
photos of Steve Bannon, Michael Cohen, Stephen Miller, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Stormy Daniels, any of the others of the legion of 45's dalliances
"grab them by the..."

The one thing I will miss when this farce of a presidency is over.

SNL parodies

Will It Come Back for Me?

I found out today a friend passed away.  Not anything new as you get older but this friend died of cancer.

She had cancer several years ago and beat it.

When it returned, it was everywhere. 

I swear I hate cancer with the fire of a thousand suns. 

Almost immediately, my irrational brain started to race...wondering if someday cancer is going to come back for me.  For a split second the fear is paralyzing.  Then a mini panic attack.

Breathe in, breathe out. 

My heart slows to a normal rhythm, the rational brain regains control.  I have no control over my lymphoma returning.  I am 4.5 years from diagnosis and a little over 4 years from learning I had gone into remission.  After 5 years, the chances of a re-occurrence become minuscule.   Tick tock.  I don't like to wish my life away, but...

Will it come back for me??








Not today.

My brain on Prednisone

Lay down, pull the covers up...settle my head on the pillow and there it goes...

did I send that email?
where are my keys"
did I lock the garage?
is the kitchen window open?
did I feed the dog?
did I send that report?
why is my calf cramping?
it's warm in here.
warm summer nights at the beach
bonfires
did someone bring the bug spray?
where are the marshmallows?
is that meeting Tuesday or Wednesday?
am I ever going to sleep?

When I was going through chemo, part of the regimen included prednisone.  Anyone reading this who has taking prednisone knows that it makes you a little crazy.  It gave me so much energy.  BUT, it also made my brain spin in overdrive.  Often, when trying to drift off to sleep, it was as if 20 people were all trying to talk to me at once. 

I have a recollection of a night that I decided to sleep on the couch in the family room to give Chris half a chance to sleep because while my brain spun wildly, I also had a difficult time staying comfortable and I was constantly flipping my pillow to the cooler side.  I found that I often fell asleep better if I had something to distract my brain so I left the TV on.  The Food Network was always a reasonable choice.

Ace of Cakes was on many nights during the overnight hours. 

roll the fondant.
modeling chocolate bugs?
pharmaceutical commercials
edible palm trees
is Bobby Flay on every show on the Food Network?

Eventually my brain would settle down and I would get some sleep...often with Duff Goldman appearing in my dreams.

There were usually 5 days around my infusion when my brain on prednisone would be completely crazy.  Ironically, cancer makes you tired, and often your chemo regimen makes you tired.  I remember being bone tired and yet completely unable to sleep.  After one treatment, I cleaned the cabinets in my kitchen because I had that much nervous energy.

My mantra became, "Relax, Rest, Recover" and some nights I literally said those words over and over until I fell asleep.

is the dog in or out?
did I turn off the oven?
check the clock
what was the deadline on the budgets?
is that appointment Wednesday?
who is coming with me?
when does baseball start?
is that a draft on my bald head?
i have a taste for mushroom risotto
last day for this batch of prednisone is tomorrow.

Maybe Sunday night I'll sleep.

I Hope You Never...

I hope you never have to make the decision that Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez had to make last weekend.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/06/26/father-daughter-who-drowned-border-dove-into-river-desperation/?fbclid=IwAR2nLzXXw82HumCOR4NG65vB1aXO6UMDyptGRjU9LjSoGHUqyLOChKFyUec&utm_term=.a509922a875e

I hope you never have to leave the place you live and move to a foreign country to escape poverty, violence, or both.

I hope you never have to walk thousands of miles in search of a better life for your family. 

I hope you never have to make a decision to swim to safety and asylum.

I hope you're never in a situation when you are separated from your children needlessly.

For those of you still saying migrants shouldn't come, I hope you are never in the situations chronicled above.  If you aren't, you're lucky.  Lucky that you were born in the USA.

These migrants aren't coming here to take your jobs.  To those of you claiming this, do you pick produce for a living?  Do you clean hotel rooms?  Do you bus tables in a diner?  I am guessing not.  The vast majority of the migrants aren't criminals.  They are people wanting a better life than what their country affords them.  They don't want their children kidnapped...or worse.  They don't want to pay protection money to the local gangs in their country.

To those Americans protesting the loudest over the crisis at the border...what does your god say about those in need?  I know he DOESN'T say, "Just help those who are white, or rich or whatever".  Those in this country who revere our idiot president and his gang of criminals and claim to be Christians:  You're frauds, every last one of you.  I would rather have 20 Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirezes than any ONE of you.

I am not suggesting opening the borders; that is absurd. But what is happening at our southern border is criminal.  The United States is a first world country and we are treating human beings like garbage.  Where is the outrage from pro-lifers?  Where is the outrage from anyone who has a family and a heart?

 "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

THIS is what America is all about.  THIS is what makes America great. 

America was great before the idiot in the white house had red hats made (by people in a Chinese factory, no less) Wonder if those hats are affected by his tariffs?

When this joke of a presidency is over and the history books are written, I would venture to say that there will not be kind words for the 45th president of the United States.  I am sure he will find it unfair, even if it is 100% accurate.

I hope we never have another presidency like this one, in my lifetime.

Read the whole article in the link above.  This is bigger and so much more important than kneeling for the anthem.

You Don’t Know What It’s Like

Take a look at the video below.

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oLht/facebook-groups-her-first-baseball-game-song-by-bee-gees

This commercial has been on TV for a while.  The first thing that caught my attention was the song.  It’s one of my favorite BeeGees songs.  It was probably the 3rd or 4th time I heard the commithat I actually stopped and watched it.

I was immediately taken to Sunday afternoons at Sox Park with my Dad in the 70s.  Back when Sunday double headers were scheduled.  Our school had a program where you earned tickets through good grades or perfect attendance.  I chose the Sunday double headers.  The sun splashed Sundays, the railings with 34567 coats of paint in that old ball park, parking by the railroad tracks, the scent of hot dogs, onions, cotton candy, the taste of Cracker Jack and wishing the toy in the box to be tattoos.

The commercial made me miss those days.  My Dad took me to ball games before FACEBOOK made a group about it.

On this Father’s Day, I have many friends, like myself who are missing their Dads today.  For those of you who still have your Dads...if you haven’t already, call them.  Tell them you love them.  Reminisce about when you were a kid.

You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know what it’s like, to love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you.

Happy Father’s Day

Maybe you're not as Pro Life as you think...

So before I go off on a rant for a Wednesday, I want to start by saying I consider myself to be pro life...in sense that I am NOT pro abortion.  However, more importantly, I am PRO CHOICE because quite frankly what another woman (any woman) does with her body is NONE OF MY BUSINESS and it's NONE OF YOURS.

Does that make me less of a Christian than someone who wants to defund Planned Parenthood or who votes under the cover of darkness to take women's rights away?  On the contrary.  A lot of these so called "Christians" have no plans to take care of the fetuses they are saving when they become actual impoverished children; especially if they aren't white.  A lot of them also balk when there is talk of gun control after another school shooting.

So here's what I think...you're not truly pro-life, if you're only concerned about life at conception.  It's kind of like adopting a dog or cat; it's a lifetime commitment.  You're not truly pro-life if you're not concerned about the children living in poverty in your own town, or the children living in a  migrant detention camp; with our without their parents.You're not truly pro-life if you are more concerned about your guns than you are about a child gunned down in their classroom.  You don't get to be a pick and choose Christian; you're either all in or you're not.  I am not asking pro-life "Christians" to stop believing what they believe; just be cognizant and accepting of the people in the world that don't think like you do.

Your god is.

A Disgrace

So I was walking outside on a lovely spring afternoon recently.  For those that don't know, I live in the shadow of the second largest (at least I think it's still second) airport. I have always been fascinated by aviation.  It astounds me that something as heavy as a fully loaded airplane soars like a beautiful shiny bird.

When I was a kid, I could tell you what kind of plane was flying overhead and knew the logos of many many airlines.

I have seen Air Force One arrive and depart O'Hare on multiple occasions...with several different Presidents on board and it always made me stand a little taller and be a little prouder to be an American; regardless of who was President.  It literally had nothing  to do with whether or not I agreed with the political leanings of the person on the plane.

It was because of what the office of the President stood for.

I can honestly say, I would not feel the same way if I saw Air Force One during the current presidency and again it has very little to do with the political leanings of POTUS45.

You see, I don't identify as Democrat or Republican.  I find some current members of both parties to be repugnant and others I like just fine. I think some that have been around forever should probably retire and I think some who are brand new should maybe learn the ropes a little bit and not rely on their "rockstar" status.

POTUS45 is...well, let me state it in a word he will understand...a disgrace.

A disgrace as a human, a husband, a businessman, a father, a president, how much time do you have?  He's not a good example of any of those things.  He is currently profiting on the backs of the people he is sworn to serve as he trots off to golf just about every other week. He lies; remember he swore he wasn't going to vacation as much as the previous President...I call BULLSHIT. He lies about stupid things that can easily be proven to be lies.  I am fairly certain he thinks his followers are stupid. They’d have to be to believe what comes out of his mouth.

He has tarnished the office of the president; he is a laughingstock worldwide.  He doesn't speak in coherent sentences; let me repeat that, the man who possesses the nuclear codes CANNOT SPEAK IN A COMPLETE COHERENT SENTENCE.

People that I consider to be sane and logical turn a blind eye while this pathetic excuse for a commander in chief fumbles his way through life...regularly attempting obstruction of justice, hiring his daughter whose company was sued repeatedly for knocking off patented products with her “company” as a “senior advisor”.  The White House is a freaking circus.  POTUS45 tweets petty insults, shirks responsibility, and acts like a 12 year old (my sincerest apologies to the 12 year olds I have insulted). Then he blames mainstream media.  Grow thicker skin old man.  Mainstream media roasted Barack Obama for wearing a brown suit.  You’re going to get roasted and ridiculed and mocked for your daily antics.

I tried having an open mind...I didn’t want the pilot to crash the plane.  POTUS45 has been far worse than I feared

So, no, I won’t stand a little taller if I see Air Force One in the next 21 months...the office of the president is currently a sham and not deserving of respect.