A good question

Goodbye Mirror asked me the following question within her reply to my previous blog post:

"...Since you asked a question on my blog, I think I am going to return the favor. :)
How do you blog about something personal (such as weight loss or religion), and try to keep your emotions in check?"


And here is my response (since I thought it was long enough to be used as a new post, even though I still have it as a comment on the previous post but here I corrected my typo - LOL!).

OK and now for the good question...

How do I blog about anything personal and try to keep my emotions in check?

Well, that's a tough one.

Truly.

I realize that putting my thoughts and feelings out here mean that I could get comments or replies that I don't care for or that may well be hurtful.

I try to find the spirit within which the comments or remarks are intended, and if they are meant to be helpful and out of a place of kindness, love and genuine concern, I try to respond in kind and moderate my response and literary "tone" for internet consumption.

Does that make sense?

Whereas, when it is meant in a hurtful way or is indicative of a manner that a person always uses - I equate it to rudeness, a superiority complex, or just someone being (or trying to be) a bully and in that circumstance - I don't care what someone like that thinks because that is not the sort of person/blog/energy that I want around me.

If the words come from someone I cannot respect, then why should those words have meaning to me?

I find it easier to make that separation or distinction when it comes to the internet and find it far more difficult when dealing with people in "the real world" - but does that help explain it?

Thoughts on individual choices

OK, I haven't been awake for very long so we'll see if I can make the thought in my head unfurl itself and grow into a post on my blog.

I know many people, at this time of year, can clash about their spiritual and/or religious beliefs just as I've seen people throughout my weight loss journey (thus far) clash about their method or ideology of weight loss, on whether the best approach is tough love or forgiveness or something in the middle...

I really think the comparable thing about weight loss and religion and/or spirituality (for some people - like myself, consider spirituality and religion to be separate and some see them as the same thing) is that we are ALL each on our own individual journey.

How we perceive and personalize our weight loss methodology can be compared to how we perceive and personalize our relationships with the Powers that Be (however you may choose to name them, He, She, It, Science, Nature, nothingness etc...

I am not here to rail on others about how they choose to lose, though I will respectfully comment out of concern in some cases.

And I am not here to try and enforce my own beliefs, be they about weight loss, Xmas, paganism, or the freakin' Tooth Fairy on others.

I am expressing thoughts and feelings about my own personal journey and on other things that I think and feel.

Some bloggers are very pro something and anti something else, some are blogging about keeping Christ in Christmas, some are blogging about not being into any sort of "holiday spirit", some are participating in various weight loss challenges from various sources, some are doing WW or Atkin's or are like me and just trying to do what seems to fit them best.

Why is there so much strife in the blogging world right now?

Why do sometimes people feel that using the internet gives them the right to be needlessly cruel or superior or just plain bossy?

I link blogs and bloggers and individual posts that make me think.

And I like to think that when I am linked, it happens in the same way.

I do not link blogs, bloggers or individual blog posts for people to mock or judge or humiliate.

Once, fairly early on in the life of this blog (if I recall correctly) I did comment specifically on an issue where a blogger I was reading had pulled things from the blog of a real life friend and made fun of that person.

I then commented on the blog post (where my reply was not posted) and then I also made a blog post here without naming or linking to my friend and without naming or linking to the person who mocked my friend.

So if you are following me or I am following you or both -- know that, that is not how this blogger works and know that I am not judging your religion, your faith, or your method of weight loss.

If I make a comment out of genuine concern or just confusion because I need to learn more about your choices - it will be respectful.

So, in the spirit of this post... I wish all of you the happiest of holiday seasons, no matter what you believe/worship/or abstain from participating in and I wish you all healthy choices and healthy weight changes going forward into the coming year.

Thanks for listening.

TMI Tuesdays! (This time it might actually be TMI)

This was fun last time so I'm doing it again.

(See how much blogging I can do when Hubs is out and about?)

13 things about me (last time I did 13 things that make me me)

1.  I weighed 3 lbs and 11 oz when I was born and dropped to 3 lbs and 4 oz shortly thereafter.  I then had surgery when I was 2 weeks old because I had patent ductus arteriosus.  This was a big deal back in 1972. And I am extremely thankful for Toronto's SickKids Hospital  since that's where the surgery was performed.

I still have the scars and here's the proof (the pic was taken a long time ago to go with a poem I wrote).

2 a).   I have 1 half-sister via my birth Mom.  She and I are close and she went to school with my oldest niece (re: my adoptive side of the family) so they would tell people they were cousins.

 (I was 22 in this pic and my sis was 14)



2 b).  I have two half-brothers via my birth Dad who I have not had any direct contact with since like 1992 though one or two Christmases ago he told my half-brother who I am in sporadic touch with to tell me he (birth Dad asshat) said, "Hey."

I have only seen my other half-brother ONCE in his adulthood.

Both my half-brothers have addiction issues.

I have two nephews and one niece from my half-brother who I am in sporadic touch with and one of those nephews has autism to the same degree as Son.

2 c).  In my adoptive family, I have an older brother and two older sisters.

 This pic is of my brother's wedding.

In it (from L to R) are my brother-in-law and his wife, aka my oldest sister, my late father, my sister-in-law and her husband, aka my brother, me (down in front in the same dress I was baptized in), my late mother and my other sister (who is now married to her 2nd husband).


I have 4 nieces and 2 nephews, a nephew-in-law, a niece-in-law and an ex-nephew-in-law.
Here is an old pic of  my nieces and nephews.

I also have 2 great nephews and 1 great-niece. This pic was taken in July... it's Son, great-nephew #1, great-niece and Baby Girl.

My youngest great-nephew was just born on Nov 21st (no photos of him yet).



3.  Sometimes I dream things that come true, even if some of the details of the dreams are off-kilter.  I have predicted pregnancies, moves, accidents, deaths and then more mundane things like home improvements or furniture purchases.

4.  I am very excited that Hubs goes in for his vasectomy on Friday morning!!!  He (finally) has his consultation this morning and was lucky to be scheduled so soon since there has been NO intercourse since shortly before I had Baby Girl on March 24th.

I miss "adult fun time."

5.  I can't sleep if the closet door is open even a crack.  That sucker needs to be fully closed!!

6.  I was baptized twice as a child.  Once before my heart surgery (I was baptized Catholic) and once again after I was legally adopted, when I was 6 years old, and that baptism happened at a United Church.

This is me with my late Godparents on the day of my (2nd) baptism...

7.  On the church theme, I was confirmed at the same United Church when I was about 15 years old and the only reason I went through with it was because I had a MASSIVE crush on one of the boys who was in my confirmation class and he also attended my high school.

He never paid any attention to me.

8.  Both of my Moms had breast cancer.  One died from it.  (the pic is of me with my Moms when I married Son's father in May 2001).

My Mom had two of those mint green outfits.  She was buried in one of them.



9.  **NO PICS FOR THIS ONE***    I often blog naked (or naked under my housecoat) because I hate wearing clothes.  This is not a weight-related thing, I started spending most of my time nude once I lived on my own with no roommates.

I also breast-feed Baby Girl while blogging - hence why I often edit my posts - LOL!

10.  I think Vick's Vapour Rub is awesome!  Seriously!  I put it on my forehead and temples for migraines, my back, neck and chest for coughs and colds, and I even put it on the bottoms of my feet and then cover my feet with cotton socks to help with the coughs, colds or migraines.

11.  I have a lot of ex-lovers.  Sometimes I'm ashamed of it, sometimes I'm almost proud of it but usually I'm rather matter-of-fact about it.

Hubs knows my number and he knows the most important thing about the number (which is not the fact that it is more than 8 times of his single digit number of lovers) -- he knows that the most important thing is he is the last number.

12.  I used to be obsessed with New Kids On The Block.

13.  I still worry that I look like a boy and it drives me nuts when people say that Son looks like a girl and Baby Girl looks like a boy!

TMI Tuesdays! (OK, not really TMI but I see a lot of blogs with cutesy titles)

Anyway,

As I soaked in a tub of eucalyptus scented Epsom salts last night I thought this might be a fun post.

If you read it, feel free to post a similar list in your blog and link back in the comments so I can come look.

13 things that make me-- ME!

1.  Bursting into real or made-up on the spot songs at random moments (sometimes to sing along with mall music and sometimes to sing about the dead skunk on the road).

2.  Being honest.  The people closest to me will attest to the fact that I am a lousy liar (though I rarely even attempt to lie).

3.  My unabashed love for TV shows where I am likely outside the target demographic (Vampire Diaries, the new 90210, the long-gone The O.C., pretty much a lot of the stuff on CW which used to be the WB).

4.  Tangents.  I have a lifetime pass on the Tangent Train.  Sometimes I share the tangents aloud and sometimes I go through them in my head and will often reply to something Hubs had asked or said an hour ago right after talking about something completely unrelated.

5.  I will ALWAYS ask, "Do you know this song?" when I have maybe a sentence or less of the lyrics and a minimal grasp on the music and will expect Hubs or one of my BFFs (Son's godmother) to know what the hell I am talking about.

6.  I am spiritual but do not consider myself religious.

7.  I have deodorant/anti-perspirant in various places in the house because I can never remember if I've put it on.

8.  I hate using any form of instant messaging.

9.  When I get bill collectors calling for people who previously had my phone number, I look the name of the person up on Canada411.com and tell them that the person's new number is ___________.

10. I like to eat dessert before supper, but Hubs usually guilts me into waiting.

11. I hate amusement park and carnival rides.  A ferris wheel can make me vomit.

12. I like graveyards.  I find them peaceful.  Even when I was in grade school, I enjoyed going to graveyards.

13. I like to groove to music, even if it's just in my own living room.