A Rainy Fall Day

Today I heard....a light soft rain falling against my window. It is not particularly cold for being the end of October, but the leaves are changing and when the sky is clear, it is the amazing blue that tells me that summer is gone and the world is changing from green to the many colors of fall.

Yes I am aware that I write about fall several times a year. It is because the beauty and the feel of the season are hard to compete with. Just about anywhere you travel this time of year, you will see fall putting on one heck of a fashion show. All that was green and lush starts changing with the cooling of the temperature. We see the vibrant greens transform into gorgeous reds, yellows and oranges for the last hurrah of the season.

As I listen to the rain it takes me back to being a little girl and loving days like this with my whole heart. I couldn't wait to have to put on rain boots (which I actually hated because they were a pain to put on and off) and open my umbrella in order to walk the half mile to school. Mornings like this I was invariably late because I would find myself even back then, lost in the headiness of fall. I could smell the fireplaces burning and hear the rain pattering against the umbrella. If there was a puddle along the way....then of course I just had to jump in it. The days were cool enough to need a jacket but not yet cold enough to require any speed in getting to my destination.  It is one of the perfect moments in my childhood and on days like this, I appreciate those moments more now then I likely even did back then.

As an adult, I am almost as bad about fall as I was as a child. I do confess that rainy fall days don't give me much in the way of ambition. They make me want to curl up in my chair and write all day or read all day.....but definitely not work all day. Unfortunately I hear my laundry, the dishes and various other domestic chores calling my name. LOUDLY! So I compromise. A few more minutes cuddled in my chair enjoying this fall morning........and then I work!

Happy Fall!

The Blogs

No...I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Just been dealing with life's little speed bumps. All is well now and onward we go.

So I choose to like today. I am moving in some new yet old directions with my life and over the last week I have had a lot of time to mull some things over. One thing I am devoting myself more to is my blogS! Yes, that is blog with a Capital S on the end meaning more than one blog. I know that I have mentioned before that I have more than one but I have few that follow all three. So today I like all three of my blogs and am going to give you a synopsis and a link to the other two.

My blog From Beginning to End and Back Again....is very much about my writing and also about my kids, family, friends, politics and pretty much whatever pops into my head. It is a little about everything. It was my first blog and for me will always be close to my heart. I thank all my readers who have followed along all this time and for all of you who comment, critique and even criticize at times what I have to say. Thanks to all of you....I have grown as both a person and a writer and as my readers you mean the world to me.

My second blog is Life With the Incredible Mr. David. This blog is all about my son David who was born with cerebral palsy. It is his journey from seizures to surgeries. When David has one of his speed bumps...both family and friends look to this blog to keep them up to date and informed on his health. When out of speed bump mode, this blog is about life with a special needs child both the joys and the frustrations and my current struggle as insurance is beginning to change with Obamacare. I try to be both educational and informative with a few smiles thrown in here and there for good measure.

Finally I have my blog Do I Look Like a Celery Kind of Girl? This blog was started shortly after the David blog and this blog is ALL about me. Well sort of. It is about the wagon I have jumped on and fallen off and jumped back on again and again over health, weight loss and exercise. It is about a middle aged woman looking to find herself, her body and her health in the uphill struggle of life. I have started a 365 day journal that will encompass the ups and downs of this journey. Hopefully there will be some humor thrown in with the cold hard facts of complete change....and in the end.....a butterfly will emerge from what is currently this pudgy cocoon. At the very least....it should be an interesting ride!

So there you have it. These blogs are my likes for this week. Actually, they are my loves. They hold my heart, my soul and most days....the best of who I am. I invite you all to follow me on my blogs if you don't already and if you are on facebook, I invite you to "like" my blogs facebook page The Lisa Blogs. Here you can follow new blog postings and keep up with what is going on in Lisaland via my blogs.

And as always.......thank you for reading, following and commenting!

Come Follow Us

Not everyone is familiar with my other blogs, but today I blogged at the Life With the Incredible Mr. David blog. It is dedicated to my journey with my son David who was born with cerebral palsy. I invite you to read today's blog The Next Leg of the Journey..... and to also follow Davids adventures.

They Say its Your Birthday.....

Today I heard......someone was turning another year older! In my head as I opened my eyes this morning I could almost hear the Beatles singing...."They say its your birthday....." Tis true. It is. I am another year older and hopefully a little wiser.

This year I really gave little thought to my birthaversery. While last year I dreaded it for nearly a year prior, this year too much else was going on to really give it much attention. This year too, I am just grateful to achieve another birthday. Funny how much life can change in a year.

Am I really wiser this year? Possibly in some ways but in others I am probably still just as naive as ever. I do think some of my priorities have changed a bit and aspects of both my home and my life have been blown up, torn apart and now the pieces are falling back into place.

After reading the obituary of my late uncle yesterday, I realized that I have a great deal to put in the next 50 years to even come close to living up to family legacy. Yes I said the next 50 years because any less and it just ain't gonna happen!

I still struggle with being comfortable in my own skin from time to time....but with only a small twerk here and there (no.....not the Miley kind) I am good with who I am. I also still occasionally wonder What I am going to be when I grow up, which I am afraid speaks volumes about both my maturity and my lack of self placement in this world. However, being a mom has been an amazing albeit poorly paying with no retirement career for many years....still the benefits have far exceeded the income flaws. I have had time with my kids watching them grow and that has been more fulfilling than any six figure income could have ever been.

So as I sit here on this cool fall morning contemplating, my day, my week and my life.....I am pretty okay. Grateful in fact....to be a mom, to be here and to be blogging about the fact that I am a mom, here and blogging. Yes folks.....today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

It's Here!!!!

It's finally here and I couldn't be happier. Yes folks.....it is fall! This morning I woke up to cool temps and a gloriously cloudy, drizzly day. While I try to find something I like about every season with winter being my least favorite and the hardest to find anything good about.....fall is by far my favorite with spring being second in line.

Today smells like fireplace smoke coming out of chimneys, rain and the mustiness of leaves as they crunch under foot in a final concerto of the season. It feels like jackets, brisk air and a pot of chili simmering on the stove.

It is the winding down of the year which will soon turn into a mad dash towards the holidays. Now though, there is the excitement and expectation of Halloween complete with pumpkin patches, hay rides and haunted houses. All which the stores have been pushing since the 4th of July. 

In essence.....fall is the last hurrah for a year. If the year was good then it is a bittersweet goodbye and if the year was less than stellar.....then it is a good riddance of out with the bad and onto the good.

So I am saying good bye to shorts, flip flops and lawn mowers and welcoming jeans, boots and my leaf rake. I am saying good bye to back yard bbq's, swimming and 105 degree days and saying hello to crock pots full of soups and stews, long walks under a perfect autumn sky and open windows during the day and snugly blankets at night.

Truly there is no more perfect time of year in my book and I guess I have to say that as seasons go.....I love fall!

Dr. Ray

When I was growing up my aunts and uncles on my mothers side were very special to me. The funny thing was that with the exception of one aunt, I barely knew them. They were special to me because they were larger than life characters that I grew up hearing my mother tell amazing stories about. Mom was the youngest of 11 kids and there was 20 years difference between her and her oldest sibling. There was literally a generational difference there and due to this, Mom really wasn't that close to nor did she know well the older kids, as they were all leaving home or had left by the time she was born. Still she was obviously enamored with her older siblings and the memories that she did have of them growing up.....because my brother and I heard stories about them over and over again.

The Dougherty kids stories, were each amazing in their own right as they came from poor farmers growing up during the Depression, two world wars and the Dust Bowl days of Oklahoma. Each of the 11 kids went on to become educated and prominent in their respective paths in life. Quite a feat coming from such humble beginnings. Perhaps this is part of what captured me and held me in awe each time Mom told and retold her stories of the past.

As I grew up.....Hinton, OK and the family farm was the place where we all called home whether we grew up there or not..... and this was the place that once or twice a year I got to be in the midst of these aunts and uncles who the rest of the year only lived in my imagination.  Each of my mom's siblings obviously knew who I was and would always greet me with a hug and kiss but each also had their own broods to contend with and it was expected that the kids would play outside while the adults visited. These visits were not about us kids, but about them and their time with each other. Us kids just reaped the benefits as those of us from towns and cities got to experience farm life with some of our more farm savvy cousins while our parents attention was otherwise occupied.

One of my mom's siblings was my Uncle Ray. He was the oldest of the Dougherty boys....being about 16 years older than my mother and the one my mother and all rest seemed to hold in the highest regard. Uncle Ray was named after my grandfather and after graduating from Hinton High School he went on to serve in the military and then go to medical school. Somewhere along the line he met a beauty named Eileen and the two married and began raising a family. After spending some years living in North Carolina, eventually they moved back to Oklahoma and resided in the city. Uncle Ray was one of the top Pulmonoligists in the country. While us kids called him Uncle Ray....his siblings always referred to him as Dr. Ray.

Growing up, his MD didn't really carry a lot of weight with us kids. To us he was just one of 10 other Doughterys who we called aunt or uncle. However Uncle Rays family held some special mental ties for me. For one thing....growing up I was always told I looked nothing like my family. It gave me sort of a complex as I could see resemblances to family in all my cousins but not in my self. It was not until I met two of Uncle Rays kids...Margaret and Michael that I finally felt a part of things. If I was told once that first reunion that we were all together, I was told a hundred times that I could easily pass for their little sister I looked so much like them. Happy sigh.....I finally looked like someone in my family. 

My next real memory of  Uncle Ray was when my grandfather was ill and staying at St. Anthony's Hospital in OKC. It was pretty touch and go at the time and Mom dropped everything, pulled us out of school and we went and stayed in the city so that Mom could go to the hospital everyday.  It was at this time that I got to visit Uncle Ray and Aunt Eileen at their home and found out what an amazing artist Aunt Eileen was. I was mesmerized by her in-home art studio and all the pieces of art she was working on. This was also the first time that I saw how much Ray loved Eileen. Even as a kid I could see it in his eyes every time they were in the same room together. Although I might not have known what I was seeing then.....I did know I was seeing something very special. I was also privileged  to see this love between them later in life at a much more poignant time. I will never forget that love! It was this time in the city that I got better acquainted with my Oklahoma aunts and uncles and that they ceased being just family acquaintances and started being real family members to me. I was starting to see the real strength of the sibling bond that was there for my mom and all of them. It was a defining moment in my life learning about these people I called family.

As time went on and I grew up.....I developed adult relationships with some of my aunts and uncles but some still stayed elusive to me (time and distance will do that to you). Also....some of moms siblings were beginning to leave this earth. Funny that out of eleven kids.....five died way too young....all in their 60's I believe, but the others lived well into their 80's and beyond. Four are still alive today. It was at this point in my life (my adult years) that I began to learn more about my Uncle Ray.

As I said earlier, his siblings always called him Dr. Ray and as they grew older and would be faced with health issues, there were times they would call him to get his opinion on whatever was plaguing them. During the time he had his own practice he would always say to them, "That is a question you might ask your own doctor." It was not that he was putting anyone off or that he didn't want to help them, it was simply that he was not their doctor and he was not treating them and therefore he didn't want them going to their own doctor saying "Well my brother the doctor said....." He felt interjecting his opinion might ultimately affect their care. Instead he would encourage them to see their doctor if the issue was severe or if they didn't have a doctor or specialist.....he would encourage them to get one. I always thought this was such a classy way to handle what you know must have been very hard for him. Especially when he had to watch five of his brothers and sisters die before him.

It was this classiness that started to give me an adult perspective of this man. Both my perspective and respect grew as he took care of his beloved wife Eileen until the very end of her life, while still running his medical practice. After Eileens death.....Uncle Ray eventually retired and after a time moved back to NC where some of his kids were. I am told he loved both his new home and his retirement and with his new found free time he began to write. It was at this time I truly was given a chance to know this revered uncle as the man he was.

Uncle Rays stories were always amazing. He was a phenomenal writer who told stories of growing up in a devout Catholic family with hardworking parents, lean times and a houseful of brothers and sisters. His stories were his own as they showed the world his point of view as the eldest boy of the Doughtery clan. He also wrote of his great love for Eileen and his fear of her almost dying in childbirth and his gratefulness to God when she survived. Every word of these stories stripped back this man and his life of accomplishments and laid bare a heart that still after all these years beat only for his one true love....Eileen. It was these stories that showed me who this man really was and more than once left me in tears.

My Uncle Pat....the youngest of the Dougherty brothers was always the recipient of Uncle Ray's stories and he then would pass them along to the rest of the family. The stories were amazing and in fact I read one about the young boy Ray (not divulging the writer of course) to one of the creative writing classes I taught. The story.... one of both humor and sadness left the entire class in tears. Yes....he was just that good.

Yesterday I got the call that Uncle Ray had died. He was 90 years old and although he had been in relatively good health and had stayed very active all these years..... a bought of pneumonia (at least they think that is what it was) took him. There was no long drawn out dying, just a few days in the hospital.......and then he was gone. True to the man that he was.....when the doctors told him yesterday morning that they could do nothing else for him.....he thanked them and let them know he was ready to go. He was ready to meet up with his beloved Eileen. By early afternoon they were once again together.

Dr. Raymond Joseph Dougherty Jr. if you asked him of his life I am sure would not particularly call it remarkable, but for those who knew him and those of us who were lucky enough to be related to him.....he was amazing. He grew up a poor farm boy who became both the protagonist and the hero of many of his baby sisters stories. He served his country proudly and he went to medical school and became an outstanding lung specialist. Along the way though he willing served the poorest areas regardless of who they were, where they came from or if they could pay. He took both his Hippocratic Oath and his Catholic faith to heart. He loved a woman with a love that we all should be so lucky to have and he raised amazing kids....each wildly successful in their own right. He suffered great loss in his life and he found great peace at the end of his life with his writing. He was an amazing son, brother, husband, father, grandfather and yes.....uncle, so I think that it was only fitting that his death the final chapter of his life, was as poignant and beautiful as any story he ever wrote.

So Uncle Ray, please give Mom a kiss for me and hug Aunt Eileen. You like the rest, will be sorely missed.

Eternal rest grant unto him oh Lord and may Your perpetual light shine upon him. 

RIP Uncle Ray.

From Ambiguously Shallow to Down This Road

Most writers will tell you that before they ever started writing, they read. I had a love of books from a very young age thanks to my mother and to this day.....reading is one of my favorite pass times. In my lifetime I have read literally thousands of books, from the classics to trashy romance novels. It is from these books that my love of writing came. Putting words into sentences so that I can transfer what is in my head into someone elses emotions is amazing. Anyone who says that words don't have power has obviously never read a book.

When I found blogs it was the best of both worlds for me. I could read other peoples thoughts, ideas, emotions and stories and also tell my own. Blogs connect you to people in so many ways and give you an audience far beyond what you could ever believe. In the blogosphere...there is absolutely every kind of blog out there from "how to" blogs on cooking, crafting, photography to blogs like mine where it just tells the story of "me." I love a variety of blogs but I have to admit that my favorites are reading about real peoples real lives.

In the beginning when I first started out on Blogger....there was only me in my blogger world. I didn't really know any other bloggers and so I was kind of at a loss on how to proceed. Then I found that there was a nifty little button that you could press that would take you randomly to other peoples blogs. I literally spent days reading blogs from all over the world and from every walk of life. It was almost blog overload. From that experience though I found a few favorites that I still read today. Since then....I also have some favorites of people that I know personally....who like me, found blogging and were hooked.

One blog that I found in my search several years ago was one called Ambiguously Shallow. The name got my attention immediately and at the time the blogger Kelli, had just moved into her dream home with her new husband. On the norm....you might think such a blog would be pretty boring stuff, but after jumping into the middle of her life and reading the first blog post that I happened on, I knew I had to read more. This girl was irreverent bordering on hysterical and her post was laced with well placed expletives which while not my usual reading taste, made me laugh until I had tears running down my face. Her blog has since become my go to on a bad day!

Kelli likes to come off as the shallow mean girl at times with an insatiable taste for fashion and shoes. She is often the butt of her own jokes and fully aware of both her shoe addiction and the mental Olympics she goes through to justify her spending habits. Under it all though you see the real Kelli who is thoughtful, generous, loves her husband, is maybe a little insecure....and who pulls it altogether with a tremendous dry wit that can literally leave her readers both laughing until it hurts and wanting more. It is this talent that she possess that bloggers like myself would kill for.

A while back (maybe a year or two ago), Kelli let her blog readers in on a little secret. She was writing a book. The minute I heard this I knew it would be amazing. It seems that others had read her blog and like me, saw what an amazing talent for the written word that she had. I was excited for her because I knew what a once in a lifetime chance she had been presented with and I also was excited for me getting to read more of someone who was fast becoming my favorite modern day writer.

The day that her book Down This Road came out I was so proud of her and I immediately downloaded it. Of course having the book and having time to read it were two different things. Then with all my doctors appointments of late and lots of waiting room time, I decided there was no better time to start reading it than the present. I was not disappointed.

I really had no idea what kind of book this would be. Would it be her humorous off the cuff style or something completely different? It was something completely different with hints of her humor tossed in here and there. Down This Road is both a coming of age story and a love story. Its characters (although not the story) are based on people in Kelli's real life and are very three dimensional and relatable. Much like her blog, her book caught my attention from the beginning and held it until the end. Her story covers three states, a variety of characters from different walks of life and a woman in search of both her own identity and love. In the hands of another writer this might have been overkill and a bit hard to follow, but Kelli made it all mesh seamlessly all the while telling a beautiful story. I was very impressed as Kelli did what all great writers do.....when I was done.....she left me wanting more. I am sure you can imagine my happiness when Kelli blogged that there are two more books in the works.

It has been a wonderful journey to see a young writer go from blogger to published author right before my very eyes. Watching the process has been amazing as I have seen her grow personally and professionally through her blog and I see a very bright and prolific future ahead for this young woman.

So today I like author Kelli Dawn and I encourage you to go to her blog Ambiguously Shallow and just start reading. You won't be disappointed and also if you are a reader like me, be sure and pick up Kelli's book Down This Road. You can purchase either the book or ebook on Amazon. I wish Kelli nothing but amazing success. Oh and.....Happy Reading everyone!!!!!!

In Search of Roses

There is a lot going on in the world currently and for most of us, there is little that we can do about it. Some of us have to resort to turning off our tv's and putting our attention on the things we can control....and of course there is always the whole praying thing. That gives us a whole lot more control than we even know. However, if we all spent a little less time worrying about the big picture and a little more time paying attention to our own little piece of the world.....this might start a domino effect for the better.

Yesterday was the feast day of Saint Therese of Lisieux. In Catholic terms a feast day for a saint either honors the day of their death or it is the day of remembrance assigned to that particular saint by the church. The reason I bring her up is because a friend of mine shared a picture of her on facebook yesterday. He was comparing a picture of his late daughter (one of the most beautiful souls I have ever known) to St. Therese's picture. I had always thought the two looked very similar and the picture was proof.

St. Therese was known for her "little ways" as she found a way to honor our Lord in the smallest of acts. She felt a smile, a kind word or some small selfless act were all simple ways to serve God and make Him happy and she spent her life on earth loving God and living to bring others to Him. She promised on her death to continue doing good for others in heaven as she had done one earth (i.e. praying). An interesting side note is that St. Therese is often pictured with roses. The reason for this is that many miracles have been attributed to her intercession and often after someone has prayed for her intercession and their request has been answered......the smell of the most fragrant roses will fill the air or out of the blue they will receive roses or inexplicably come in contact with roses. There are hundreds of documented cases of this and both my mother and my aunt have been blessed with St. Therese's roses in their lifetime.

Thinking of St. Therese though and all the unsettling and for me....uncontrollable things going on in the world, I decided to try for the rest of this week to emulate the little saint. I will smile at all I come in contact with. Maybe just one of the smiles will be a needed smile and turn someones day around. I will do my best to only let kind words pass my lips and if my thoughts head down an unkind path.......I will send up a quick and silent prayer that my thoughts are as generous as I am trying to make my words. I will do my best to listen instead of talk and to give God more thank you's instead of requests. I am going to look for the beauty in my day and search through the thorns for......the roses. I will try to give without taking and go through my day without complaint and if I change one persons day, help one person out or offer just one act solely to God...then I have been responsible for a change that could possibly ripple through other lives for the better.

I may not have the power to change the world, but I do have the ability to change myself and how I view the world and my place in it. Perhaps if each of us took the time to do the little things, the small acts of kindness or even just smile more we might be well on our way to a very different world. So for the rest of the week....I am in search of roses!

I Am Angry

Today I heard...... that the government was shutting down. I have to say that I am so sick of Obama, Reid, Boehner and all the rest that I could scream. This is all over Obamacare, plain and simple and all of you who voted for these idiots that voted for this bill PLEASE remember my words here.....Obamacare if fully implemented will break Americans and those it doesn't break....it will likely end up killing. It is going to also kill both small and big business in this country. The writing is on the wall and denial will not change the end result.

Now quite truthfully I am just as disgusted with those who call themselves Republicans as I am with those who are Democrats. I think both sides have hit an all time low in representing this country. I also think the American people have hit an all time low in who they voted for and how they voted. I am hearing so many people now admitting to the fact they didn't vote for Obama originally based on track record but instead the majority voted for him based on his "charisma" (which he lost long ago trying to take down the Constitution) and the number one reason that many Americans voted for Obama was the color of his skin! Now if you had voted against him based on skin color it would have been called racism but voting for him because of skin color is called.....stupid! I don't care what color your skin is or your ethnicity....if you are to be president of the United States I think you need to have a little more going for you than the color of your skin and a little charm.

So what happens when you vote for someone based on their skin color instead of their credentials? You get the highest degree of racism this country has seen since the 1960's because if you speak ill of the president....you are deemed racist. You get a divided congress and a divided country. You get the highest federal spending EVER and you get a lowered US credit rating. You get to be the laughing stock of the world and you get continued federal government infighting with no hope for a compromise. And finally......you get a healthcare bill which was sold as a bill of goods to the American people as FREE healthcare for those who could not afford healthcare. You get a healthcare bill that was voted for without those voting even knowing what the bill said and you get a healthcare bill which as it is being unveiled is starting to sky rocket premiums for those with health insurance. You get a change to what insurance is currently covering and in some cases not cover at all the poorest of our nation. In essence....no one gets FREE anything, you are paying more for less, much is no longer covered and if you are a business you either cover your full time employees at astronomical fees or you get rid of your full time employees. If you are an employee.....be prepared to have your hours cut and pay for your own insurance. And the hits just keep on coming. Perhaps in the next election we might decide to vote for a president based on skills and track record instead of the color of his/her skin. Just a thought.

I am tired of president who throws tantrums and points fingers at former presidents, the tea party and the Constitution when he doesn't get to bulldoze his way through whatever he wants. I have been alive for a president or too and I have never seen a president act like this. I am tired of a president who divides instead of unites. Every president up until now has had the ability to pull together congress and the people at least part of the time. Part of a presidents skill set should be the ability to compromise, not stomp his feet and say my way or the highway. Obama does not have the ability or the skills apparently to do this. I am tired of a president who deliberately causes race issues (Trayvon Martin) and name calls Americans who don't agree with him. And finally.....I am tired and disgusted by a president who feels that he has the right to supersede the Constitution and bypass congress if he really wants something. Last I knew we voted for a president not a dictator.

Up to now I have always tried to look at both sides of the issue and tried to see how those who voted for him might view his actions. After six years I can no longer do this. This presidents actions are starting to affect my children's life and ultimately their health and safety. His actions are affecting my town and my friends who are starting to lose hours on their jobs, more layoffs and are going to be stuck between  a rock and hard place with either paying the high cost of insurance or a fine for not having insurance. Slowly we are being put into a financial jail that we can't get out of and there are still those who say "Oh you are just believing the hype," or "You don't understand." To that I call a great big bunch of BS. I take the fact that you voted for this man and are watching him kill this country and still stand by him as a personal threat to my family and myself and to me that is pretty unforgivable. In the end we all are going to end up reaping what you sowed and by then it will be too late!

I am angry that the government shut down. I am angry at both sides but all of you who sit back and say "Bad Republicans," need to remember that it takes two sides to fight and two sides to compromise. When one side says this is the way it is going to be and there is no compromise then the fault lies with both sides....not just the one. People need to remember that. You also need to remember that Republicans were not elected to agree with everything the Dems throw at them and want. If they were....then there wouldn't be two distinctively different sides now would there? The two are suppose to even each other out and make compromises that are fair to both sides, not act like a playground full of bratty children (I am sorry bratty children everywhere for comparing them to you.) What is wrong with the Republicans asking for all those who envisioned the healthcare bill, wrote the bill and voted for the bill to also be subject to the bill....meaning they too take their insurance from Obamacare? If it is good enough for the people should it not also be good enough for those who wanted it so terribly bad? Why would this be an uncompromisable issue? You really need to ask yourself what they know about this bill that we don't.

In case you can't tell, I am angry right now. I am angry that we are no longer a free, proud and strong country. I am angry that we are ruled by someone who is trying to stomp on the Constitution and who seems to delight in causing conflict, race issues and division among the people every chance he gets.  I am especially angry at those who continue to stand by this man and make excuses for his bad behavior. Your bad choices and mislaid loyalty are not just affecting you.....they are affecting us all and most of all they are affecting the future of my children. Those of you whom I have stood by because I felt that you were intelligent and would eventually see through this sham of a president I am now realizing......I sorely misjudged.

So yes, I am angry. I am very angry and  to the point that I can no longer respect those who see this man as anything but an egotistical little maniac hell bent on seeing this country broke, weak and unable to comeback from his 8 year reign. If this offends you....then consider yourself offended without apology.