Amber Alerts, Emergency Weather Alerts and Home Burglary and Dog Bites! How do we get any work done?

Social media is amazing!

I’ve remarked before in another post how back in the day we pretty much lived stress free all day until we got home and watched the news. Then we stressed for a while that evening but then the next day we went back to ignorance and bliss.

Now, thanks to social media, Facebook, Twitter, Amber Alert Cell Phone notifications and Emergency Alerts we are in a constant state of panic! For example, about 16 days ago I received an alert on my cell phone that said:

Screen shot of my phone 

AMBER Alert: Long Beach, CA AMBER Alert: LIC/4AUU679 (CA) 1998 Tan Saturn 4 door

That's great! I think these are awesome! It spreads the word...but, I never got another alert letting me know that the parties involved were caught, so I stressed about them all day. I still don't know if they were caught or who was abducted and if they are ok!

Yesterday I received:

Emergency Alert: Dust Storm Warning in this area til 11:00 PM PDT. Avoid travel. Check local media.

People on Facebook were going nuts wondering about this and going back and forth about whether or not they should pick up their kids from school rather than having them walk or ride the bus! Big panic and turns out it wasn't even really in our area!

Then there was this crazy story yesterday about a woman who was home alone with her baby in a nice part of town and three men came to the door at around 9 in the morning. They knocked on the door, she used the peep hole but did not answer. They kicked the door in! She hid upstairs with the baby and while she was hiding she called her husband and the police on her cell phone.

The husband got there before the police and slashed the tires of the get-a-way car and then confronted the suspects when they fled the residence in the car. Because of the slashed tires the car became disabled a few blocks away and they fled on foot.

The police did show up and in an ironic twist to the story one of the suspects had to be taken to a local hospital for treatment of a dog bite by a police service dog!

Here's a link to the complete story.

What was amazing to me about this whole thing was the myriad of comments posted by other facebookers. I wish I could just paste a screen shot, but facebook posts pictures and names, so here are some of the comments.

"Time to go gun shopping ASAP"

"To bad the mother didn't have a firearm and shot all three of them! She could have saved the judicial system a lot of money!"

"I want to know who pays the medical for the fool's dog bite. Please don't tell me it's on the taxpayers dollar. Hope it's his momma who raised him like that."

"This is why every home should have a gun and people should know how to safely and responsibly use one. I take comfort in knowing that if this happened while my wife was home at least one if not all three burglars would be leaving in a body bag!"

"Husband got there before the police? Another reason to own firearms folks, 911 isn't going to do much!"

"Wish the husband was armed and killed all of the burglars including the teenager!!!! Then we would have eliminated the threat of them doing it to anyone else!"

And last but not least...

"To all husbands, if your wife don't know how to use a gun please show her so they can protect themselves while we are away making them money. My wife can load and shoot a gun that's why I don't piss her off anymore, LOL!"

Now, I'm not anti-gun. I don't have one, but I know how to shoot one and I have pretty good aim. My ex-husband even taught me how to take one apart, clean it and put it back together, but I have no desire to have a gun. My point in posting the comments is that the husband disabled the burglars without a gun! He slashed the tires, he out-smarted them. A gun is not always the answer. It's good to have one and to know how to use one, but taking a human life is not something to take lightly. The viciousness of some of the comments surprised me.

I really don't know how anyone in Bakersfield got any work done yesterday since we were all on Facebook reading and making comments on the various tragedies going on yesterday, but it's a Brave New World!


 

Over-Attachment Syndrome or do I Just Fall in Love Too Easily?

Last week I wrote a post inspired by a book called The Divorce Papers. Loved this book! Was sad to see it end because I loved and admired the characters so much. I wanted to remain “best friends forever” with them and now there is a hole in my heart where they used to be because they were just made up people, no matter how real they became to me.

Well this next book I read for my online book club was on the opposite end of the spectrum! I couldn't wait to finish this book and did not care for the characters at all! In fact I really disliked them!

But I guess that’s like life. Throughout the day we run into people that we really like. It could be just a simple little conversation with your local barista or the clerk at the supermarket or a waitress at a restaurant and I find myself wishing I could get to know that person better and wondering about them and how the rest of their lives will turn out.

For example, last week I had dinner with a dear old friend. We were meeting at a local restaurant that we had both heard good things about but neither of us had ever been there, RJ’s Bar and Grill.

I got there before my friend and let me tell you…I am not a fan of sitting alone in a restaurant! That is the one thing I have never been able to do. I know people that go at lunch time to a nice restaurant or a fast food place and just sit there alone and have a meal but I can’t do it! I’m just too self-conscious. That is my one little weird quirk, but I've never been able to get over it! And I have tried!

Anyway, that is a post for another day! So this adorably cute little waitress comes over to see what I would like to drink and I tell her I’m waiting for a friend and not ready to order a drink yet. She says “No worries, I’ll bring you some water with lemon.” And she did and I sat there pretending to be engrossed in my cell phone like everyone else but feeling so uncomfortable!

A bit later she comes over, just to see how I’m doing and I tell her I’m ok and my friend should be there soon. After a bit my friend texts me that she is running late and she apologizes and I tell her it’s ok, take your time, drive safe, no hurry! My cute little waitress comes back again to check on me and to refresh my water.

After another long while my friend calls that she is lost and wants to know if RJ’s is east or west of Gosford! Heck if I know! So my little waitress is running by and I stop her and she’s just as befuddled as I am but she runs over to a table full of people and asks them and they tell her it’s east and she comes running back with this very important info and I tell my friend.

I hang up and she tells me how she is sorry she couldn't tell me right away but she’s not from Bakersfield. So I ask her where she’s from and she tells me she’s from Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach? I ask her what in the world she is doing in Bakersfield. And I said, “Oh wait…you fell in love right?” And she giggles and says “Yes” while holding up her wedding ring finger to show off a pretty nice chunk of diamond!

And I said, “Oh well, that makes sense then, only for love would someone choose to leave the land of milk and honey for Bakersfield!” She thought that was hilarious!

My friend finally finds her way to the restaurant and our waitress comes back and we get to talking about my friend being lost and I tell the story again of how she moved to Bakersfield for love and we all get a glimpse of the wedding ring and we gush and giggle and we’re just girls! It was fun. My friend and I ate, drank, talked and had a wonderful time and at the end of the evening when it was time to go home I felt sad to be leaving my little waitress, she had won a place in my heart! Hmmm, maybe I just love to easily? There’s probably a word for that? Anyone know? Over-attachment Syndrome?

This post was inspired by the novel The Idea of Him by Holly Peterson. Allie thought she had the perfect husband, until she finds him and another woman in a compromising position in their own apartment. Join From Left to Write on April we discuss The Idea of Him. Join us for a live chat with Holly on April 3.  As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

 

The Sadness of Divorce and Losing Friends

I’m losing two very dear friends, Sophie and Mia.

Sophie is an awesome criminal law attorney who is almost 30. She’s unmarried, blond and very intelligent. She’s half French, on her mothers side and Jewish on her dad’s side. She works for a law firm in New York and enjoys her job very much. Recently she was bamboozled into handling a divorce case. She hates divorce and divorce cases and it’s one of the branches of law that she swore she would never do. But unfortunately this one fell into her lap and she had no choice. Sometimes life is like that.

See, Sophie’s parents divorced several years ago and it was a very traumatic time for her and for her other siblings. Sophie felt as though not only did their dad divorce their mom, but he divorced them. She feels that her dad is angry with them because he felt they were on her mothers side. I know from experience how this can feel. You love both parents so much and yet you feel divided when you hear one talk of the other.

My other dear friend is Mia aka Maria Meiklejohn Durkheim. She is the woman that Sophie is working for, she's the client Sophie is representing in this divorce that she doesn't want to do! Sophie likes Mia and Mia likes Sophie. They feel a kinship right away and the friendship and mutual respect develops from there. Mia is a really great mother and in my estimation of how divorcing couples can be she seems very fair and except for a few moments in the beginning of the divorce proceeding she is not being led by her emotions but instead of what is going to be best for her daughter.

The sad thing about losing these two woman that have become my friends and that I've invested time and energy and emotion on is that they are characters in a book that I've read for my online book club, From Left to Write!

Yes...you may say, "Oh wow Alicia, they aren't even real friends, or real people!" But they are! Characters in a book become real to me and Sophie and Mia are now people that I will miss! I won't get to hear how the rest of their lives turn out. Or how Mia's daughter grows up having to share her life with both her mother and father. Will Sophie find true love with Matt, will she marry him, will she have children? How will she balance motherhood and her career?

I will never know any of these things, unless there's a sequel!

How I hope there is a sequel!

Do you become invested in books like this? Do you hate to see a book end because you feel like the characters have become friends and you are going to miss them? I have to admit this has happened to me more than once!

This post was inspired by the novel The Divorce Papers by Susan Rieger. Young lawyer Sophie unwillingly takes her first divorce case with an entertaining and volatile client in this novel told mostly through letters and legal missives. Join From Left to Write on March 18th as we discuss The Divorce Papers through inspired posts. As a member I received a copy of the book for review purposes. I give it 5 Stars and 2 thumbs up!

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The Opposite of Maybe

Just started reading the book The Opposite of Maybe. I'm on page 19 and already it's pissed me off like hell!

I'm not a man hater, I'm not against relationships, I'm not against marriage, but I am against women modeling themselves to be whatever a man wants them to be, or whatever they THINK a man wants them to be.

I'm against women following blindly like sheep to fulfill the dreams of a man, no matter what they have to give up.

I'm against women giving up their own identity for a man.

In the book this woman Rosie is asking her mate Jonathan to go with her to visit her 88 year old grandmother, the woman who raised her. She has no one but her grandmother as her mother died when she was three and her grandmother raised her. She has to go and tell her grandmother that she believes it's time to have a home health aide come in to take care of her and she is dreading telling her grandmother this. She needs Jonathan's support and love and she asks him to please come with her. He makes faces, tells her he's a busy man and he's got things to do.

She knows he has nothing to do, nothing as important as what she is going to do so she starts to try to convince him and he tells her "No, no, no. This is not going to be a negotiation, where I say what I'm doing and then you say it's not important."

Then his cell phone rings and he picks it up and then mouths to her "this is important" and heads outside to take the call. She watches him through the window of the restaurant where they are having breakfast.

He finishes his call, comes back in and she says "Well?" He tells her the call was from a man in California (Rosie and Jonathan live in New York) who is starting up a museum and called to offer him the opportunity to move to California to be a partner in starting up this museum.

Rosie is stunned, she can't believe it, she tells him "You're just going to move to California and leave everything behind?" He instantly starts bashing their current life, that they are stagnating and they need something new, that he can't get it together there anymore, he needs a new beginning, he's getting old, he feels like he's falling in a hole, he needs something big and important to happen.

Rosie instantly thinks of her grandmother, her job, her friends and he tells her, "Oh, now don't go invoking you grandmother on me. If your grandmother thought you were even thinking of giving up one single opportunity because of her, she'd run you down with her convertible. And as for your friends--there's' e-mail and Facebook and cell phones."

This man...who 5 minutes ago could not take time out of his precious day to accompany Rosie to see her grandmother and support her in giving her grandmother bad news, expects Rosie at the drop of a hat and after one 5 minute phone call to CHANGE HER WHOLE LIFE because he wants to do something he wants to do!

So what does she do? She thinks in her head that this man "has said no to absolutely everything imaginable for so long now--to sex, to parties, to pieces of pie after dinner, to creativity, even to the little girl at their table this morning. He walks through life with a big chilly NO on his lips, and now, by God, he has said yes to something, and he needs her to say it too!"

So she says Yes.

That's as far as I've gotten and as I said, I'm pissed as hell.

This post was inspired by the novel The Opposite of Maybe by Maddie Dawson. At the age of 44 Rosie finds herself suddenly single and pregnant. She tries to hide in her grandmother's home, but meets two men that will change her life forever. Join From Left to Write on April 8 as we discuss The Opposite of Maybe. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.

UPDATE - I finished the book and luckily I was able to finish reading it and ended up liking it, although it was very predictable.


 

More Low Carb Deliciousness and a Yummy Low Carb Valentine Day Delight!

Yes...I'm still living the Low Carb Lifestyle, although the last few days I have been suffering from either allergies or a cold but I've been miserable and my mom has been taking care of me. My mom's idea of taking care of me is feeding me nothing but carbs!!! I did gain a few pounds but I'm back on the straight and narrow and hoping I don't get sick again. Moms...gotta love them!

First a dish you can do as an appetizer or like me you can just make it and call it dinner. It certainly fit the bill for a light dinner last week. A Pepper-Jack, Avocado Quesadilla on a Low Carb Tortilla! Mmmm, makes me want one right now!

Super easy to make too, just heat a skillet, take a tortilla and on one half put whatever kind of sliced cheese you want, I used Pepper Jack but Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese would work just as well. Slice a ripe avocado and layer on the cheese then heat it in the skillet until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is browned!

A couple of weeks ago I made Turkey Burgers sans Bun! All of the deliciousness of a regular burger without the carb-laden bread.

The Turkey Burger itself is seasoned with a bit of Taco Seasoning and Salt Free Seasoning and just fried in a pan with a bit of oil. Then I placed the patty on a plate and melted a slice of American Cheese on it. I made an easy dressing with some mayonnaise, sugar free ketchup and a spoonful of Dill Pickle Relish which I mixed up and spread on top and then lettuce! I wish I had added some diced onion, but I forgot. This was so filling and satisfying! Not bad right? Definitely not diet food!

Yesterday I remembered I had two packages of cream cheese in the fridge that I had to do something with. I remembered reading in one of the low-carb groups I belong to on Facebook that you could make muffins by mixing 2-8 ounce packages of cream cheese with a 1/2 cup of Splenda, a 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla and 2 eggs together then put into a lined muffin/cupcake pan and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Serves 12.

This is what you end up with...

For the photo I added a spoonful of sugar free strawberry jam, but you can eat it plain, it's sweet enough for that. I wouldn't say this is a muffin, more like a mini cheesecake and I think they would be perfect for a Valentines Day treat, don't you? It was delicious, I know because I always eat the props!

Looking forward to trying out more new recipes!

Humans of New York - Can I just say WOW!

It's Saturday morning. I'm not feeling too great so I've decided to spend the day in bed, reading, watching movies, blogging and checking up with facebook. Am I glad I did! I ran into one of the most entertaining, interesting, amazing, uplifting...wow, I just can't come up with enough adjectives to describe the facebook page/blog called Humans of New York!

I am obsessed by the photos and the stories! This guy named Brandon in 2010 decided he was going to take 10,000 photos of random people in New York to post on a blog. Here's a short video describing why he decided to do this and where it took him. He tells the story much better than I could, because it's his story.



What a laugh this guy Brandon has! Right? I would love to meet him, he seems like such an amazing person and I love what he's done and his facebook page. 

I haven't seen all of his photos yet, but this one truly touched my soul and reminded me of my dad who passed away last year in July. 

Photo Credit - Humans of New York - facebook

Next to each photo Brandon types a snippet of the conversation he has with these people. What struck him as most important about his conversation with this man was this:

"I came from Mexico."

"Why'd you come?"

"Everybody comes for the money."

"Were you scared?"

"Everybody's scared."

I think of the stories that my dad would share with us about his struggles in coming to the United States from Mexico. How scared he was and how he many times had to sleep on trains, like a Hobo and how cold it was and how many times immigration captured him and sent him back to Mexico and he had to struggle to come back to the United States. I remember him telling us of nights he spent sleeping on the desert floor and hearing the sound of the coyotes in the dark and how they frightened him. 

And he did it all for love. Love of his mother and brothers and sisters still in Mexico. He wanted to make their lives better and send them money so they could survive.

Love for his future wife and children, so he could build a life in the United States where he knew that because of him they would have a better life than the one he had and struggled to leave behind in Mexico.

What Brandon is doing by putting these photos out there to move and touch us, to remind us of the humanity and innate goodness of people is just so inspirational. People like Brandon should be celebrated, he should have an Olympic Gold Medal for his excellence in his chosen sport! 

 

Being a Jack of All Trades Can Amount to a Hill of Beans!

It is kind of great being a “Jack of All Trades and Master of None”! 

Photo Credit - Hello Beautiful 

Photo Credit - The Political Carnival

I know all kinds of little things that probably don’t amount to a whole “hill of beans”, but when I do need to use that one little bean it sure can be helpful to one or some people. 




One of those Jack of All Trades things that I know and store in my mind are quote. Quotes, I know quotes! They just stick in my head, like lyrics to songs, not leaving room for important things like Math and Engineering and Medicine! I know quotes, but not who quoted them, I know lyrics but not who sang or wrote them. 

But the true purpose of my story today is my knowledge of “How to Tie a Scarf”. 

 In November of 2011 I found this super cool video “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes”. I shared it as a blog post for Iwanna Wednesday, you can find that post HERE. 

I stored the information that I saw on that video in my mind. I didn't know it was there and I very seldom use that knowledge, unless I’m tying a scarf. 

Today in the ladies room I ran into a lady that works in this building. We always say hi and how are you but the other day I mentioned to her that I liked her scarf and she went into a long conversation on where she bought it. 

Today she had a different one on and again I commented on it and she told me she really liked the one I had on as well. Then she said that the one she had on today was too long and kept getting in the way and she wasn't sure she liked it. I then started showing her “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf in 4.5 Minutes”! She was amazed and tried a couple of different ways and found one she really liked and she thanked me and said “You’re so smart!” 

Being a Jack of All Trades paid off in a nice compliment! Plus it feels good to help someone find peace with their scarf!


 

Mariachi Olympian and a Prince to Boot?

Football season is over!

The only thing keeping me from jumping off a bridge in utter despair is the fact that American Idol has started and that the Winter Olympics will be starting on February 6th! 

Yay! I love the Olympics! I love the Olympics for the same reason I love American Idol, I love to see talented, hard-working people working hard towards goals and achieving them! I admire them and live vicariously through them! 

There will be so many great things to see during these winter games, and we will meet new athletes as well as say good bye to older athletes that will be competing possibly for the last time. One athlete that I am going to be watching in particular is my age!!! Can you believe that? Wow!

Not that I'm old...definitely not. But normally people my age are on the sidelines coaching, not actually "living the dream"!

But one man is! One man is living the dream at the ripe old age of 55! He reminds me of the man that makes the commercials for Dos Equis, the Most Interesting Man in the World. 

This man is one of the Most Interesting Olympians in the world and I had never even heard of him. But...he's not only an Olympic Athlete, he's also a Prince! A German Prince! 

He is Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe Langenburg! He's a very colorful fellow. From what I've read of him he's the son of a Prince and a Princess and was born in Mexico while his father worked at a Volkswagen plant. He has Mexican citizenship which makes him eligible to compete for Mexico. 

He is many things besides an Olympic athlete. He's a photographer and businessman as well as a pop singer!

He's been in the news lately for his fashion sense. He may just win the best dressed Olympian for his very original Mariachi motif racing suit! I have to say...I love it! And I can't wait to watch him, what a character!

So I may not be leaping off that bridge just yet. I may just stick around and watch this very handsome and very interesting Prince be the only competitor to come from Mexico! Viva Mexico!

Would you leave Comfort for Dirt Floors? - From Left to Write

I'm trying to start 2014 off by reading more since I did not meet my goals for the number of books to be read in 2013, see that post HERE.

I just finished a book for my online book club, From Left to Write. As a member of this book club I don't actually do a review of the book but instead write a post inspired by the book itself. The book is A Well-Tempered Heart, a sequel to a book I read in 2012 called The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. 

Most of the story in this book takes place in Burma, a country that I know very little about, which reminded me of a family vacation my mom and dad took us on when we were small children to Mexico, another country that I knew very little about even though it was the country of my dad's birth.

Here's a picture of my sister and I during that trip. As you can see, we were just little girls. The older one is me of course.

What I remember most about this trip was learning about how my dad grew up and where he lived and how he suffered and how hard he worked to make himself a success and to make a better life for us, his wife and children.

I saw where he grew up in a small two room house with a dirt floor. I remember his Tia Luz asking me to sweep the floor and handing me a broom and how I almost dug a hole to China trying to get all the dirt off of a dirt floor! The harder I swept, the dirtier it got!

I saw the well where my dad would go to get water and had opportunity to drink that water out of pottery called Botellon or Jarro. 

The water was so sweet and cool and had the underlying flavor of dirt. I know that doesn't sound good, but for some reason it was and I remember that taste to this day!


I remember using an out-house and squatting to urinate. That was one of the things that I really couldn't get used to. I've always been very finicky and don't like to be dirty and I never did figure out how to squat to pee without getting it all over my shoes!

I remember my dad taking us to go watch a cow being slaughtered, in the street...right there in front of our eyes! I don't know that my dad would have let his grandchildren see that, but at that time it still wasn't such a shock to him. 

I remember them leading the cow down the street and cutting it's throat and the blood flowing and women with pots and pans fighting to catch some of the blood. It was something that I will never forget, the sound of the poor cow as it was dying! And it took a long time for it to die!

I remember my dad taking us to a nearby river to bathe and watching the local women do their laundry in buckets at the edge of the river, some with washboards and some using the rocks!

This book inspired these memories because in the book the main character actually chooses to leave her high powered life as an attorney in a big law firm in New York City and all the amenities that come with the money she was making, to stay in Burma because of true love!?! I don't know that I could do that, could you? 

It made me really appreciate my dad so much more remembering how humble and poor he was growing up and how lucky I was to have born his daughter. He struggled so hard to make sure his children had a better life. Judging from the picture of my sister and me above you can tell that we were cherished and happy!

This post was inspired by the novel, A Well-Tempered Heart. Feeling lost and burned out, Julia drops her well paying job at a NYC law firm. After hearing a strangers voice in her head, she travels to Burma to find the voice's story and hopefully herself as well. Join From Left to Write on February 4th as we discuss the book, A Well-Tempered Heart. As a member I received a copy for review purposes. 

 

Books Read in 2013

I think in the coming year I'm going to have to sleep a whole lot less! I had set a goal of 30 books to read this year!

30 books and I only managed to read 18! What happened to me in 2013? In 2009 and 2010 I read 24 books each year. In 2011 I read 29 books. 2012 I had set a goal of 30 but only read 26...but 18? Wow! What a slacker!

I guess other things were more important in 2013.

So I will set a new goal for 2014 and see if I can't do better. It's not that I've lost my love of reading, just life getting in the way. So maybe I will set a more realistic goal of 20 this year.

Here's a list of the books I read this year...

Ok, off to read a book! Are you reading any good books lately? Or do you have a recommendation?