Friday, No Meat, Day 21 I Wish I Could Forget

It is Friday!!! Let me tell you.....I am literally so happy.....I could cry. I am so ready for this week to be over. It seems that it has been a bit of a struggle for me to get through this week. Maybe it was the starting of Lent or possibly David's seizure episode or maybe the fact that I haven't had a diet pop and I am going broke because I am trying to quit my potty mouth ways. I am not sure what it is....but it just seems as if this week has gone on forever and I have really had to up my game just to make it to Friday. All is well though. We are here and blessedly...tomorrow is Saturday.

I just happened to wake up at 5 a.m. this morning (after finally going to sleep at 11:30 last night) and realized that I had not set my alarm for this morning. That could have had disastrous results. Guess my guardian angel had my back. Thank you GA! Once awake though....and having to engage my brain to do something like turn on my alarm......well that was all she wrote.....I was awake. Five and a half hours is just not quite enough sleep for me. Not sure how pretty I am going to be today (looks or attitude wise). I see a lot of whining in my future as I have a circuit work out in just a couple of hours and all I want to do is go back to bed. My inner child is very spoiled and very tired and trying like heck (did you see heck and no potty mouth words???) to rebel against anything not sleep related. Guess I will have to reign her in and get her focused....which is hard when actually I tend to be leaning towards her way of thinking. This all serves me right though....I should have been in bed long before 11:30 last night and I can't even blame it on The Nanny this time. Well humph is all I have to say on the subject!

And while we are on the subject of Friday.....today is not just Friday. It is the first Friday of Lent....which means no meat. This is going to take some getting used to as I had tonight's menu mentally planned and yep......you guessed it.....meat was on the menu. Now I have to go back and rethink the whole food thing. I also was about to prepare my lunch time salad with the usually deli turkey too. Oops....not gonna happen today. And let us not forget the fact that I had Canadian bacon in hand ready to fix my favorite morning breakfast (toast, egg, peanut butter and Canadian Bacon) and then I realized again....not today! It is just lucky in my sleep deprived state that I remembered. Guess I just need to post big signs for myself for at least a couple of weeks until I get into the swing of things again. Now I just have to figure out what I am going to eat TODAY!

Well....it looks as if today is going to be up in the 70's and sunny. Not a bad way to end the work week. The forecast says we are also suppose to have a little wind (in KS meteorology terms this means....women wear pants, no hats, and batten down small animals and children). That is okay though....I'll take the wind if it means warmth and sunshine!

Oh....and before I forget. For anyone in the area who is wanting to learn about blogging, creative writing or if you just want to hang with me for an hour on a Saturday.....I am going to be teaching my usual Free University Class Day Class at BCCC again this year. The date is Saturday April 2nd and I have several class times available. If you are interested contact me and I can give you all the details. I always enjoy it and  I would love to see any of you interested there!

Well....you know what time it is. It  is 30 Day Challenge time!


Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.






I found this one particularly interesting. While my life has been a pretty good one....there have been those days that I have literally marked on the calendar that I wish I could forget. We all have them. They are personal....and honestly......many of them I have already either written about or at least hinted at. However....in my lifetime......there have been certain things happen throughout our country and even close to home that the news media has picked up and embedded a picture of the incident(s) in our brains so that we can never forget, but wish we could.  They quickly become mental pictures that stay with us....apparently forever. Here are some of those pictures I wish I could forget.

On a cold January day in 1974...Wichita, KS became afraid....really afraid for the very first time as news reports of a family (mother, father and children) being murdered in their home early one morning....hit the air waves. It became the first in a 30 year reign of terror by an individual calling himself BTK. This one individual held a quiet midwest city in fear for many years and caused people to lock their doors, no longer let their children play outdoors unsupervised and look at their neighbors with fear and suspicion. In 2005 the fear and murder ended as Dennis Rader (BTK) was arrested, tried and ultimately convicted for the 30 year string of murders. The constant pictures broadcast every time a new victim was found or the broadcasting each time the anniversary of a murder came around would bring on new fear of the unknown and the what ifs. They are pictures and memories I would just as soon forget.

In April 1995, on a warm spring morning....my phone rang. A friend from Edmond, OK was at work and she said that she had just heard something that sounded like a "bomb" go off. It was strong enough that it shook her office building. As I was talking to her.....the program I was watching on tv was immediately interrupted with breaking news. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, OK had just been blown up. I,  like everyone watching  stood stunned. It was 9 a.m. and the busy work day had begun and the building was full of people.........and children. The building housed a daycare for it's employees children. A young man

named Timothy McVeigh.....angry at the government.....was behind this massacre. In the end....168 innocent lives were lost that day 19 of them were children. The pictures flashed across the tv all day and for days to come. Pictures of people bleeding, stunned almost expressionless faces. People looking for loved ones, tears, children crying.....babies dying. I cried for days knowing that home grown terrorists existed in my world and could do that to anyone.....let alone the most innocent of all......children. That is definitely a picture I would like to forget.

Finally I think the picture most embedded in my mind is Sept. 11, 2001. I will remember everything about that day until the day my memory no longer allows it. I remember taking my mom to get her nails done and waiting in the car with the kids. I had KFDI our local radio station on and suddenly they started talking about a plane crashing into one of the World Trade Centers Twin Towers in NY. Then it happened again. My mom came out looking ashen and saying that they had a tv on in the salon and she just saw the Twin Towers hit by planes. We rushed home and turned on the news. News reports were choppy and unsure and the voices of those reporting were uncharacteristically emotional and shaken. Our country was under attack and no one knew why. Watching....we alternated between tears and hugging those we loved. We hit our knees in prayer and asked why would someone do such a horrific thing. In all.....2,996 people died that day and all but 19 (those who had carried out the plane crashes that hit the Towers and the Pentagon) were innocent victims. The pictures came for days, weeks, even months after that day and we were all made aware that there were terrorists out there who truly hated us and obviously......wanted to see us die. Again.....pictures I would just as soon forget.