Sophie's Story

   This week was a momentous week for me. After a confrontational interview with my district manager and two very stressful weeks at work, I quit my job.    It's not the first time that I have resigned from a job, but I always had another job lined up. This time I don't. I hadn't really planned on resigning, although it's been a tough few years at my store. I felt a responsibility to my customers. It was my job to take care of them the best that I can. I also felt a responsibility to be a good, solid, reliable employee for my company.   Sometimes things happen and it becomes clear that a change must be made.    I'll be honest. I don't handle change very well. When it comes to my job, I like to have things in order. I like being able to work in the same place with a set schedule and knowing who I will be working with. I've always admired those who do relief work who seem to be able to flit effortlessly from one store to the next. I like to be able to do

   In an effort to keep the cats' weight down and to force them to use their hunting instincts, we put their dry food in a treat ball. The is a plastic ball with adjustable holes in the sides. The cat rolls the ball around and food comes out. We have a blue one and a green one.   When we left for South Carolina, I filled both balls with treats and put them out. I told the cat sitter to refill them once a day. When we came home from our trip, I found the blue ball, but not the green one.   I did a half heated search for it, but was too busy unpacking. I thought it would show up sooner or later. A few weeks went by and the ball was nowhere to be found. C and I looked around for it. We could not find it.   I went to the vet clinic where I bought the first one, thinking that I could get another. That's what usually happens to me. I lose something, buy the replacement and then the thing I lost just seems to pop up out of nowhere. The vet clinic was no longer selling them. I co

  I have been accused of being a "daddy's girl" more than once over my lifetime. I've never been a big fan of the title. It is true that I am closer to my Dad than I am to my Mom. It is also true that I get along much better with my Dad than with my Mom. (Mother and I have had a rocky relationship all my life.)  If that is your definition of daddy's girl then I am guilty as charged. I have seen the definition of daddy's girl include someone who is indulged or spoiled by her father. That part is not true. (C will back me up on this.)    He taught me a lot. He taught me to find a career that I like and to make sure that it pays well enough to feed, clothe and house myself with some left over for savings. He taught me to buy the best that I could afford and to take care of it so it lasts a long time. He taught me about household finances. He also taught me how to put gas in my car and to check the oil. I draw the line at changing oil myself. I would rather pay

   The intersection by our house is one of the most dangerous intersections in the county. A few years ago there was a decision to put a roundabout in. The thought is that this will lessen the number of accidents that happen at this intersection. Work started on this a week ago.   The first thing that went up were the "road closed" signs. This happened last Saturday. It didn't faze anyone. Cars kept coming, they simply drove around the signs. The police came out and put up a larger barrier. It stopped a few cars, but there were some that still drove past.   This week the entire road is completely torn up. There is no road. There is a strip of dirt and some large piles of dirt where the road used to be.   You would think that this would discourage people from driving on the road. Wrong. People are toodling through like one one's business. There are signs that say "no through traffic" and "road closed". Apparently this means nothing.   I am a

   A couple of months ago C and I decided to refinance our house. We wanted to take advantage of a lower interest rate and to get rid of some extra charges. The goal is to pay off the house as soon as possible.    When I bought the house, I was the one who carried the mortgage as I had the best credit. We decided it was best that way so legally the house belonged to me.    With the refinance we decided to put C's name on the title and also have him as a coborrower on the loan. This allows him to take care of things relating to the mortgage without me having to give permission to talk to the bank.    We closed on the refinance this morning. We were both excited about this. Part of it was due to the fact that there was a lot of paperwork and other things that needed to be done. We both wanted it to be finished. I was excited because for the first time in his life, C would be a homeowner.    It wasn't like C had never lived in a house as an adult. He has. Most of the time he

   Lately, when I've had a little free time, I've been watching royal weddings on You Tube. When I was researching Princess Elizabeth's 21st birthday speech, I found out that there was a video on You Tube I could watch. This led to me finding videos of the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (parents of the current queen), the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Investiture of Prince Charles as the Prince of Wales and even (really) a silent video of the funeral of Queen Victoria. (I didn't watch too much of this one because obviously there is no sound and is mostly of parades of men on horses.)   This led to videos of various royal weddings. I had no idea how many monarchies there were in Europe.   The first one I watched was the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and Daniel Westling. This was an usual one because normally it is a prince marrying a woman who is a commoner (meaning she does not belong to any rank of nobility). In this case,