[YES ] Are you a good problem solver? Yes.  I don't like to leave problems undone and will persevere until I find a solution for it; often using multiple resources and lots of time to do so. [yes ] Can you concentrate for long periods of time? Yeah!  Apparently, once I get stuck into something, I block out everything else and can stay that way for a long, long time.  One day I was home alone and got stuck into studying for finals and before I knew where I was it was 2pm an...

My daughter is 15 now, meaning that she's eligible for a driver's permit from the state we currently reside in.  She's been talking about driving for a while now, even going so far as to tell her dad that she didn't want him to teach her how to drive because he yells too much and he'd freak her out. (he didn't like that much, btw). I decided that today would be the day to end the talking and start the driving.  When we stopped to check the mail at the communal mail box at the end of...

Things came to a head in my house last night.  The argument that had been brewing for months finally came to the fore of our conversation - heh, like it was anything close to a conversation.  We haven't talked in years. Apparently, his love for me is based on my doing what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it.  It's like I'm some kind of pet; like I'm on the same level as Gracie.  As long as I do what he says, it's all good.  If I deviate...well, then there are...

The blues are lessening and I'm feeling better today than I have in many weeks.  I don't know if it's the medication; I think that it's too early for it to be that.  I think that it's more that I was forced to get out of the house on Friday and going to that party and mingling with people renewed my self-confidence.  D isn't exactly a sympathetic or even empathic man - actually, he's neither of those.   Some days remembering and thinking about my dad hurts and it brings ...

It was D's work Christmas shingdig last night.  We had to get there early to set up - Dave had done most of the foot-work and had pretty much set up the whole party. I started drinking at 6pm and didn't stop until 11pm, but for some strange reason lost the wee little buzz that I had going halfway through and didn't manage to regain it.  There was LOTS of brass there last night (that's mil-speak for high ranking officers).  Lots.  Like General kind of brass, and I had t...

I met with the Principal, Vice-Principal and a local Police Officer at Shea's school this morning. Shea told them extent of the harrassment and made a formal written statement.  The school won't tell me what action will be taken aginst the boy who touched her, but they DID tell me that they weren't going to let it go unpunished.  Shea is not the only girl this boy has done this to.  He's also got a Juvenile Detention record for assault.  From what I heard this...

I'm standing by the window, looking down 16 stories to the highway below when he walks in the door.  We introduce ourselves, and he starts asking me questions.  A couple of minutes into our meeting, he hits gold and I answer 'yes' to EVERY question he asks me. He chuckles and tells me I'm falling to pieces, and I laugh and agree with him. He takes my hand.  'We need to get an MRI.  I don't think you have MS; I think that a lot of what you're experiencing is due to...

Well, Jake might lose his right front tooth.  It snapped off so badly that the nerve was just about exposed and, despite Dr Brent's best efforts, it's going to be touch and go whether that nerve dies and Jake keeps that tooth or not.  There wasn't any rebuilding this time, either.  He's done too much damage.  Dr Brent just patched him up the best he could, covering the exposed ends of tooth with composite filling so's that it wouldn't look AS bad.  IF the nerve dies,...

I've lived in a few places in my almost 40 years of life. I started out in Oxford, England.  Then when I was 4 months old, I got moved to a wee little village about 1 miles from the city.  I was there for 17 years before the wanderlust hit me and I came to the US. 4 years and many states later, I came back to the UK and met a southern Indiana boy who decided he wanted to keep me forever and have me make babies with him.   He took me to South Dakota and kept me there for...

After my surgery was over this morning I called the college to see if they had my exam results from yesterday. I passed.  All three parts.  Now I have to get my high school transcript and two letters of recommendation together and send them in with my official application to the nursing program, wait for them to ask me to come in for an interview, hope that they like me enough to offer me a place and hope that my financial aid paperwork goes through and I can finance what I can...

It seems as if I'm only ever writing update articles lately.  That gots to change. It's Sunday night, again.  I have ahead of me a week I've been dreading since all plans came together and I could see it as it really was: busy.  Too busy for my liking. Tomorrow morning my and a classmate are going 30 miles south of here to take an entrance exam at a college there.  If we a) pass this exam, get a copy of our HS and college transcripts attached to c) our completed appli...

It's been a looong week, and it's only Wednesday. I studied Sunday afternoon for my final exam on Monday.  Whilst I was studying Sunday evening, I ate a handful of raw peanuts that I'd bought on the pervious day.  I loves me some peanuts; I ate them raw as a kid and had a hankering for some. Sunday night - actually 1am on Monday - I woke up with a bellyache.  You know how it hurts when you get punched in the stomach; right at the solar plexus?  Yeah, it was like that, b...

There was a job fair at my college today.  For some reason, someone on the faculty decided that it would be a good idea to have a DJ come along and set up a disco in the cafeteria.  When I mosied down there on my lunch break I heard 'you're gonna boogie-oogie-oogie til you just can't boogie no more....' and saw a bunch of people line-dancing over on the dance floor that had been set up. I joined them.  I couldn't resist it; it's been years since I went out dancing and I had hon...