Notes on a self improvement project

In the weeks since the election, I have seen a lot of back and forth discussion between people who used to like each other and respect each other. People I like and respect. I have honestly tried to maintain my friendships with people I know who voted for the Donald, and I've tried to give them the benefit of the doubt when they have insisted that they voted for him for other reasons other than his openly and blatantly racist, bigoted, misogynistic, Islamophobic, and not exactly LGBTQ friendly beliefs. I mean, my support of Hillary was lackluster at best, so I can sympathize with people who didn't want to vote for her.  The thing that is hard to swallow about that, though, is that if you didn't want to actually cast a vote for her, there were less vile options. Gary Johnson, Jill Stein. Evan McMullin was actually a pretty decent alternative. I kind of liked him, actually. You didn't HAVE to vote for Trump if you didn't want to vote for Hillary. You really didn...

Dear Hillary,  I can't explain the appeal of Donald Trump or how so many Americans drank his particular brand of Kool-Aid. I wish I could, because right now, I am very saddened by this turn of events. I can, however, tell you some reasons why you didn't appeal to many. I hope that the party in general, and you in particular, listen and learn from this. First and foremost, you dismissed Bernie and his supporters. Hundreds of thousands of people were inspired and excited by this guy, but it seems like nobody in the party even tried to figure out why. It was like you won the candidacy, and those of us who felt the Bern were just patted on the head, told to go to our parents' basements and play video games until November 8, at which time we should emerge and vote for you and never question it. That was an unrealistic thing for you to expect from those of us who supported him, and here are just a few reasons why: 1. Bernie himself inspired us. To us, he isn't a democ...

So, having to choose between two awful people to lead our country is something I hope we never have to do again. Really, truly, both major party candidates are awful people. For me, though, the lesser of the evils is obvious and I made my decision weeks, months, ago. When I cast my vote tomorrow, though, I feel like a small piece of my soul will die. I don't want to vote for her, but I'm going to. But the reasons I don't want to vote for her do not include these reasons, which I see most often given as to why she's not a good candidate. If you aren't going to vote for her for any of these reasons and will instead cast your vote for the other guy, please reconsider while you still can. 1. She's a liar:  Yep. No argument there. But so is the other guy. We missed our chance to have more honest candidates to choose from. Let's do better the next time around during the primaries. If you want to vote for someone more honest this time around, you'll ha...

You know how when you want nothing more than to sleep at midnight and all of a sudden, something clicks in your brain and you can't stop crying instead? I wish I didn't. I don't know about you, but when I cry like this, I can't stop shivering. It doesn't matter what the temperature is, I shiver like I'm camping on a glacier or something. So, here it is. It's like 12:30 in the morning. I've been up since about 8:30 this morning, had a super long day and I'm in a fairly nice hotel with a really nice king size bed. And I'm shivering in pajamas getting all dehydrated from the teary thing with a stuffy nose. Yay, vacation. I never published my last blog post, so in a nutshell...I'm an idiot and fell in love with The Boy again. We'd been sort of almost together since January and then about a month ago, he dumped me. Again. And broke my heart. Again.  So what's up tonight? I spent much of today with psuedostepdaughter #1 (P). Which...

A certain someone announced his engagement to his ex-wife today. Besides the obvious issue of THE EX-WIFE , here are some other issues about this announcement: 1. The announcement was on Facebook...  2. Without talking to his daughters first. 3. The relationship status was changed EIGHT days ago, but made public today (see #2, above, and #5, below). 4. His one remaining parent, who doesn't particularly care for the ex-wife, is currently fighting for her life after a major stroke. 5. This certain someone is well aware that his one remaining parent AND all of the family who is currently worried, upset, and sad about the parent's health, doesn't particularly like the ex-wife. 6. This certain someone is making the announcement about the engagement to Facebook, but has yet to say anything at all about his one remaining parent and her health situation. Awesome.  In the comment chain about the engagement, there is this comment from CS:  I do love her with all my heart...

After I posted my last blog story, I thought a lot about what a soulmate really is. The story of Joe and Marilyn's love story was what triggered this line of thought, but I don't see Joe and Marilyn as soulmates. Why not? The younger me would have seen something in the Joe and Marilyn story. They couldn't or wouldn't let each other go. Joe even thought about Marilyn as he was dying. His last wish was to see her. Isn't that what being soulmates is all about? No, younger me. It isn't. Philip Seymour Hoffman thought about heroin as he was dying. The last thing he did before he died was reunite with heroin. Does that make heroin his soulmate? Joe and Marilyn were not soulmates. At best, they were karma mates (Shepard, 2010) - they were two people with unfinished business who had an intense connection and fulfilled some need in their psyches - not souls - together. At worst, they were each other's heroin. To know what a soulmate is, you have to define wh...