Sophie's Story

   Today is my birthday. At 12:31 (Yes, I know the actual time of my birth. My mother told me that I interrupted the lunch break of a doctor and a nurse.) I will by 47 years old. I was going to write about the fact that I'm starting to get a little squeamish about my age. I really like being in my 40s. I don't want to think about the fact that I'm now sort of in my late 40s and that I can see the big 5--0 coming up.   This is unusual for me because I try very hard not to care about my age. I've made a point for being grateful for the privilege of growing older because not everyone is allowed so many years. This fussing about age is not like me.   I mentally gave myself a shake and told myself that I'll ruin three more years of a perfectly good decade by worrying about this now. I'm still in my 40s and I can, if I choose invoke the feminine privilege of staying in my 40s. (What I'm really hoping for is to be timeless like Sophia Loren, Katharine Hepburn ...

   C and I didn't know what we were going to do today. Our anniversary was last weekend, but we went to a wedding and I worked on Sunday. We decided that we would do something today. The question was, what would we do?    C wanted to go on a boat cruise on the Mississippi, but the cruise he wanted to take was booked. The weather report was not looking very good. Neither of us had any idea. We knew what we would be doing in the morning. We would go to the Temple. After that was anyone's guess.    This morning we got up and went to the Temple. We saw some friends there. It was good to see them.   After that we went to breakfast. We like to go to a local IHOP on Saturday morning. While we were waiting for our food. We looked outside. It was raining a little bit. We decided to go to the farmer's market. The best sweet corn comes to the market right about now. We decided that we would watch the weather and decide later.   We walked around the mar...

   I bought C an anniversary present last week. I got him a Fitbit. I'd been wanting to get him one for a long time, but there are many different ones. I didn't know which one he would want.   He chose one in the middle of the line. It tracks what he wants to track and lets him know if someone is calling him. (as long as his phone is close by.)   I thought it would be an excellent tool to help him get into better shape. I have heard from reading that being able to track things can help.   I didn't realize that it would also get him involved in competition with others. If I'd known that I might not have bought it.   Competition is something that C and I disagree about. He thinks it's a good thing and spurs people on to do better. I disagree. I've seen more people behave badly in competitive situations and feel that it brings out the worst in people most of the time.   Every time I hear things like, "Winning isn't everything,it's the only thing...

  Last evening C and I attended a wedding. Usually when I see people get married I wonder if the bride and groom have any idea what they are getting themselves into. I especially wonder this if the bride and groom look very young.   For the record the couple that married last evening do know. They are older and have known each other nearly half their lives. They moved away from their families to Chicago to go to school and moved to another part of the state to take a job. This is one marriage I feel confident will last.   I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks ago. She mentioned that C and I have a strong relationship. I smiled at the compliment. I have heard variations on it over the 12 years as of today that we have been married. Then I explained to her that the reason our marriage is this way is because we did a little planning. Let me explain.   When C and I decided to get married we were engaged for almost a year and a half. Part of this w...

  A week or so ago I was feeling fat and ugly. Unlike some people I don't freak out when this happens. It's impossible to feel fabulous and confident all the time. It's difficult for some people to feel this way even most of the time. I don't think there is anything wrong for feeling this way for short periods of time. Obviously feeling this way most of the time is called depression and those who have it should seek help.   The first thing I allow myself to do when I feel this way is to let myself feel this way. I know that sounds weird, but to me it makes sense. It's all right to feel down once in awhile. I know I'm not going to feel this way forever. Feeling down, at least to me, helps me to appreciate those times when I don't feel down.   Eventually I decide that I don't want to feel this way anymore. I've listed some things that cheer me up and a few things that don't work.   M&Ms do help many a tough situation, I've found, but t...

  Hi. This is Colby. I told Sophie that I would write today to give her a break. It's not really a break though, I have trouble typing so she still has to type for me. I suppose I could get Scamp to do it, but he isn't about to miss one minute of his beauty sleep. I don't understand how he can type anyway. His paws are much bigger than mine.   That's not what I wanted to write about. Last week I went to the vet. I hate going to the vet. This is partly because I get flashbacks of when I was a kitten and had to go to adoption days in hope of finding a family. All those people looking at me scared me. I don't like being confined to a carrier. I'm a cat. Cats are supposed to roam around. The other reason is that I get a little car sick. Even though I ride in the back, it's still not fun.  We had to wait a few minutes before we were shown to a room. I don't understand why Sophie didn't let me out of my carrier. There were no other cats in the waiting ...

   There are lots of complaints out there about customer service. Those who work in the field are often accused of being rude, inattentive, disinterested and unintelligent. Rude and not helpful are the two things I have seen most often. I can understand. You often wait on hold for five to ten minutes to get someone that doesn't know how to help and couldn't care less.   However, customer service workers, and I would include those who work in retail in the category, have to deal all kinds of people. Some of those people are not very nice. Years spent with people who are constantly angry and sometimes abusive can be wearing. If you wonder why customer service workers tend to dislike people, I'll give you a few examples.   I started my career in the southern part of the state. I had two handicaps going into the profession. The first is that I am a woman in what was at that time a male dominated field. Yes, I know that women have been pharmacists for a...

  The two girls who were charged with stabbing a friend in Waukesha two years ago will be tried as adults. This news came out within this last week.   This has naturally generated some strongly worded comments both pro and con. There are some that feel that this is a gross injustice as their girls were children and didn't really know what they were doing. There are concerns about mental health issues and how these issues will not be addressed should the girls be found guilty and wind up in adult prison. They write about how the girls could still have a good future and that they are not dangerous.   Then there are those who favor them being tried as adults. They write about how this murder was planned. The girls were going to do it once and then didn't. These commenters talk about how children at 12 years old do know right from wrong and can distinguish between fact and fiction. They also note that this was a very violent crime and that the consequences should be equal...