Friday, December 28, 2012

Following Christmas

traditional Christmas Eve supper in Poland - d...

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. I sure did. the whole family was here on Christmas eve. I cooked a ton of food, everyone ate and opened presents. After all that has been going on, it was nice to relax and enjoy everyone. My daughter seemed to have fun. It's hard to tell because all teenagers are aliens and no one can understand them. I had a little trouble with her being ungrateful, especially the awful look on her face when she opened the ipod shuffle my brother bought her. Apparently it wasn't good enough, she was upset that it wasn't the $200.00 video ipod. She also complained that the presents from her Aunt would be "stupid" anyway. I am shocked everyday at the sense of entitlement she possesses  I am also suffering embarrassment because of the things she says, not really caring who can hear her. She has hurt quite a few family members feelings, and I am left apologizing for her rude behavior. My dad drove in from Kansas City, bought her nice things, and she spent his whole visit sitting on the computer chatting with her friends. My friends tell me it's all typical teenage behavior, but how can I allow her to be rude and get away with it? On the other hand, she did seem happy at dinner and was very nice to her young cousins. I even got help from her in the kitchen, she made dessert for everyone and it was great. She definitely has many sides to her.

So, I have looked back at many of my past posts and they seem like incessant rambling. It seems I just let my brain flow, letting out all thoughts at once and letting emotions get involved in the writing. The posts read like I am one sided and have nothing to do but complain about my ex husband and the nightmare I feel every day. There is so much more to me. In an effort to show that I am more than just wrapped up in drama, I'm going to post a few essays I have written that my professors seem to like. The first one is about some of the Muslim women I work for. They are wonderful women and very kind to me. When I come to work for them I also leave feeling appreciated. I hope these essays are interesting to you, maybe give you pause to think about the subject and enrich your life. When I wrote this one I was taking a World Literature course and was given a chance to write something from personal experience. Enjoy.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Car Troubles

General Motors automobile mural

Well, things are down for me again. The car broke down, and I'm having a fit. How do I get to work? How do I get to school? It's tough without a car and no money to repair it. My family, as usual, will try to help. I'm tired of needing help. I could get another car, but I have no down payment.
On a lighter note, I did go out to eat last night in one of my favorite neighborhoods here in St. Louis. I went to Cicero's last night and had a great burger. A friend of mine plays there in a band that does Grateful Dead music. They have been together 20 years and are fantastic. The neighborhood itself is awesome. They have several blocks of stores, restaurants and theatres. The area is extremely diverse, with all kinds of cultures, ages, races, etc. We love one of the restaurants in particular, Riddles Penultimate. They get all of their food from local farmers, lots of organic stuff, great steaks, great veggies and more. They have music, which is jazz and blues usually. The bar is casual and we love the bartenders. They also have the largest wine list in St. Louis with over 500 wines, all at great prices. Boyfriend and I walked around because the weather was great. The streets were packed with people and street performers. He was wonderful, trying to cheer me up because of all that is going wrong for me right now. It was a nice night.

There are only two weeks of classes left, I will be done with school for awhile. I don't go back until September. I plan on working myself to death this summer and making as much as I can. It's easy for me to find new work, someone always needs their house cleaned. My teacher asked for my number to do some cleaning for her, and I found out she lives so close I could ride my bike there if I wanted to. Things will look up for me, they always do. It's a constant roller coaster of ups and downs, and things always manage to work out, although barely.