The year end is here... YAY!!!! Good bye 2011. Let's do a review shall we... I will go month by month... see if you can keep up... to the one person that reads this...
Jan- Not too much happening- Still didn't have a job and blessed with friends who let me live with them... Thank goodness for friends and unemployment. Celebrated my 43rd birthday quietly... with good friends. Started on a journey to change my life for good.
February... this is where it gets BAD- went to SC in the middle of the month to see dad who was in a nursing home/physical therapy center, due to a fall late in Dec. of 2010. He cracked his right hip and couldn't walk at all, and they wouldn't do surgery due to age. It was the beginning of the end for him, I could see that coming. While there, had a huge fight with family members and have just about severed all ties with that. Things were said and done, that shouldn't have ever come out of anyone's mouth, and relationships were damaged.
March- came home first of the month from SC. thought that I might have a job... not... but continued looking to no avail, but didn't give up hope. Continued events at the ISC.
April- Still no work, and not able to get hired anywhere. Kept trying and getting no response. Dad was going down hill slowly. He was moved from the original physical therapy unit to another one, and then back to the hospital to another physical therapy/nursing home to continue "recovery" always wanting to go home. He would never be able to walk again. Sad...
May- At the prompting of a very good friend, I contacted the Richmond, VA, social services department while I was in SC regarding my adoption, to get the details regarding my adoption. I had always known I was adopted, and was told as a kid, that the person, who gave me birth, loved me but couldn't take care of me, I had accepted that, but was told later in life, that the circumstances were not that way.... the situation was, really bad, and the person, that gave birth to me really didn't want me, and that she had mental issues, and had abused me, and tried to kill me..., but in a moment of sanity... only one moment this woman had, she decided to go with what the social workers had said, and to give me up.. wow... to read all of this was just devastating.... it ripped me to the core of who I was... no one except one person has read all of these papers, I cried for about 4 or 5 hours... poor teenage son in the next bedroom... he had to listen through the walls and here me sobbing... haven't completely dealt with all of this yet... still working through this... lots of tears and more tears, for the months of April and May....
June- July. Took a temp job that was only supposed to last four weeks, ended up lasting 3 months... Yay... I had work... I was so glad for that. Was working 7 days a week for a company driving around the bay area checking bus stops... went from Richmond to Fremont and all places in between. Long days... 6 days a week, but I enjoyed the money...
August- Was working when I got a call that dad was going down hill, and that they were putting him in the hospital, probably for the last time, this was the middle of August... Sent messages to a couple of good friends, and got the call from a family friend, at 3:00am that dad had passed away at 5:30 am August 15, 2011. Left CA with the help of good friends, and went to SC for his funeral. Spent 10 days there, going through stuff, and cleaning out some of the house and had to return so I could go back to work... and got a message from a friend that she had a position, to fill for a month of work... in Mississippi.
September - Went to work in Mississippi the first week of September and ended up staying there for a full month and returned home the 16th of October, met a lot of people and made some good friends, enjoyed the work but was VERY glad to get home... Mississippi was not a place that I want to live permanently... or even some of the time... Hot and Humid... while there, the head of the temp agency that I was with in June and July, talked with me about a position, that they had open, that he thought I would be a great fit for, and when I returned home, I needed to contact them and set up a time to talk and review the job and see if it was going to be something that I would be interested in... called in while I was in Mississippi and worked it out so that when I returned home, I would have a pt job in the corporate office in PH, CA. I was excited and nervous...
October- Got home and went to work, and also started working at the ISC frantically trying to get Christmas going, around a lot of work being done in construction at the ISC. I was so far behind... but figured it would happen, and luckily it came together all at the last minute...
November- Worked and worked on Christmas all around the construction going on and gave up hoping that the auditorium would come together, due to lack of help, and me killing myself between work and decorating. I received a blessing in disguise in the form of a new "techie" that was willing to also "kill" himself helping me get the trees and decorating done in a way that i completely unexpected. At 5:00pm on the 26th of Nov. the decorating was done... I have never ever been that LATE decorating. Hopefully, I won't be that late ever again...
December- Worked, plus worked all of the events at the ISC. Developed my lovely cough again, and am working through that...

Hopefully 2012 will bring a much better time and a much needed rest and catch up...

I left Minneapolis on Wednesday mid day and was supposed to return to CA that evening... yeah right... a friend had told me to be prepared that you always get bumped on flights out of Minneapolis and that if I could take advantage of it because it is usually good deals. I was hoping that they could bump me if that were the case.. because to be honest... I didn't want to go back to work... I hated the job with comcast... so I had a sick day and didn't care. I asked if they needed to bump anyone and they said there was a good possibility.. so I put my name down on the list... and eventually did get bumped... for this I received a $400 voucher where ever US Air flew good for one year. I will probably use this with in the next couple of months... which works for me... another vacation... YIPEE...!!! go me... more on that later... I got out of Minneapolis later than even the bumped flight was for due to weather and plane issues... really folks... I don't want to be on a plane that has issues... not a good thing... so by the time I got to Phoenix, it was 6:00 and I was tired and I just wanted to stay in a hotel and "take care of me" because we all know in the long run.. it is all about me... hehehehehe.. the flight that they had booked me on to go back to CA was going to leave in just a little while and it was going to put me back in Oakland around 10:00pm and it was raining and nasty in Oakland and I just wasn't up to dealing with that.. .so I asked a very nice ticket agent, how much it would cost me to go out on the first plane in the morning... and that started ANOTHER battle... that I easily won. I came to customer service desk of US Airways and asked them to please price for me a ticket to leave in the morning... and the agent was working on this, and a co-worker of hers, miss nosy busy body.. as I will describe her, decided to take it upon herself and "butt in" where she wasn't wanted... she left her chair and went behind the closed door and called the front desk to tell the agent that I was working with, that what I wanted was not allowed... excuse me... I am the customer... correct?? I asked the agent who was working with me, what that "other" agent's name was and I resolved that issue, in a second, I will describe what I did... the agent, that was working with me, gave me a price and I had to think about it for a couple of minutes... in the meantime, I came to the original agent and asked to speak to a supervisor... I found one in about two minutes or less, explained the situation at the customer service desk, and reported the nosy agent and what she did, and the supervisor was more than happy to give me what I wanted... in addition, they also gave me a 60% off voucher for a hotel and I had some cash for food... for all of my "trouble". What a nice way to end a long day... I got a room at the Hilton airport in Phoenix, and relaxed and left in the morning.. slept rather well. Neiner Neiner to the nasty airline agent with US Air. blehhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

On to Minneapolis... I left Mass on January 18th from Boston. Carrie had a shuttle pick me up at 4:00 am and she was up long enough to get me out the door and then I am sure she collapsed... but she did have her work that morning, but her kids didn't have school... arrived at the airport at 5:00am and was ready to go onto the next leg of the trip... I flew from Boston to Milwakee, WI then on to Minneapolis to see Steve and his girl friend, Brenda... very nice lady... I met Steve and Brenda at the airport and off we went to their house in a town just outside of the Twin Cities... stopped for lunch on the way... home and had a very good lunch... arrived at the house and unpacked a little and on to the fun... Steve took a few days off from work so that he could spend time with me... it was cold and snowy and lots of fun... Monday night, we went into Minneapolis to the mall so that Steve could buy new computers for him, Brenda and her daughter and we walked around the mall. When we got back to his house, he gave me his old laptop.. which I am writing this blog from... yeah for me... I received as a early birthday present, this lovely HP laptop that is just fabulous... and lots of CASH!!!! yeah... I love cash... it is a good thing... as Martha Stewart says...
Tuesday, went shopping and sledding and fun stuff like this... story time with John.. this ought to be fun... the sledding story..... hehehehe... It all started back in 1968.... oops.. wrong story... sorry I digressed.. bad me... I wanted to go play in the snow... from the moment, I started planning this trip... I miss SNOW lots.. granted I only live 2 hours at the most from snow... but .. I still wanted to PLAY in the snow... while on this trip... so I was talking to my brother and he asked me what I wanted to do while in town and I said that I wanted to go sledding... sounded fun at the time... but picture this.. a heavier than normal, at least what I call normal... 42 yr old man and his older brother... going into Target to buy sleds and then driving around the area to find hills to go ride said sleds... down the hills at a fast rate of speed... now then... let me just update people here in saying that the area had not had snow for a few days... so any snow that was on the ground... was melted and then re-froze at night... what do you get with this?? funny you should ask... ICE!!!!! Yipee... for me.. we finally found a great place to go sledding out where Brenda use to work... and this hill was PERFECT... or so we thought... there were people out there sledding.. well Steve decided he was going to be first down the hill... and he gets on the sled.. and starts riding and takes off like a bat out of HE--... laughing and hooping and hollering all the way down... he hits a few bumps and gets thrown off the sled... and he finally stopped at the bottom and starts up the hill... now I watched this and was debating whether to go down said hill or go to a little lower starting point and take off. Steve goes down for one more trip, and get bumped up and bruised and is done... I in the meantime have found my "happy place" and was having a blast.. I would go a little farther each time... and I was getting bumped and bruised and thrown off but it was fun.... I met a little girl who tried to tell me that I needed to go down face first... I was going down on my back... and I liked that... I thought that I could control it a little better so that was how I was comfortable.. I went down the said hill... or "ice slide" three or four more times... it was a blast.. we finally ended the day with a lovely dinner at a great restaurant in the area.. The next day... was going home day...

Vacation #1 2010.
I recently went on a little mini vacation to Massachusetts and Minnesota to visit friends and family. I decided that I needed a good break from my life in Berkeley. I am now living on my brother's couch because they were supposed to move to SC, but of course, they have NOT!!! I made the (wrong) decision to try and help my brother to move to SC by living on his couch... he told me they were leaving within one month... well here we are 8 months later, with no RESOLUTION!! So to relax a little, I decided to go on a little get away and go see friends and family. I decided to go to Mass first because I hadn't seen my friend Carrie and her family in almost 20 years... so I purchased one way flights from SFO to Providence, RI and then to Minneapolis, then to Oakland. I left on January 16 and returned to Oakland on Jan. 21. I was supposed to be home on the 20th but things got shuffled and I came home one day later.. will explain that in a second... I NEEDED to see people that I hadn't seen in years... and it was FANTASTIC... my BFF Carrie, met me at the Providence, RI airport and we went to her house where I stayed for two nights and one and one half days... I got to see my old home in Mansfield, Mass and her house... in Foxboro, Mass which by the way is GORGEOUS... she and her husband Jeff, have done an excellent job of fixing this house up and adding a great addition to the house... I was in heaven.. just let me tell you... it was fabulous... we were going the entire time... but it was SO WORTH IT.... Sunday, I got to see her family... which I hadn't seen in almost 30 years... the last time I was in Mass was 1987 just after my mom passed away... I definitely needed to go "home". Her kids are great... her house is gorgeous and her family was great... my families old place was almost the same... as it was in the late 1970's. We tried to get into the house, but the new owners, wouldn't let us in... which I understood that... but he said we could walk around the house and look all over the place... I was extatic over that... because it brought back to sooooooooooooo many good memories... I walked in the drive way and could remember being 7 years old and running down that drive way chasing my brother Steve in the snow and ice... and the Christmas that I "discovered" Santa... the garden that was in the back yard and was STILL there... people whom have lived that house over the last 30+ years... have used the same spot that my parents started growing a garden... unfortunately, the pool that was right outside the back door was taken down YEARS ago... but the fish pond, that had my gold fish, Barney and Fred from the Flinstones.. yes, I was a huge Flintstones, fan... was partially there.. they had filled it in... but the original outline and rocks are still there... the fence that was in the back yard.. still there... it has been updated... when I glanced into the garage... boy did I go down memory lane... the garage was EXACTLY the same... no big changes... it had a older stair case... up to a kind of apartment, or just a extra room that was still there... the stairs and all. I didn't take the chance to run up the stairs... but oh the memories.. The back yard fence... was mostly gone... at least the side from the corner of the house to the garage... they have painted the house.. a blue... and it looked fabulous... we also went by my old elementary school, Park Row, which is now the town hall, and the library is now the school administration building, they are both a stone's throw from the house.. Carrie's old house is still next door and looks just the same... I got to see so much stuff... and in Foxboro, I got to see the new England Patriots stadium... and a huge outdoor bass shop and my old church on Main St. I didn't get to attend, but will again.. when I return.

End of Vacation Part 6
After about 14 days of arguments and fighting and seeing friends that I wanted too, it was time to go home. I was never SOOOOOOOOOOOO happy to be going home. We had so many arguments about stuff to do with this house, and things in the house and "waiting for Roxie" which by the way, we STILL are, I was sooo done with this "vacation". I love my brother, and yes... my father, but this was RIDICULOUS at this point. I wanted to work on the back porch and get the porch closed off again, and to trim the hedges and things like that... but because of arguments and fights, NOTHING got completed... I started trimming the azalea's and other things, and then Glenn came out and yelled at me that I shouldn't be trimming the bushes... it wasn't that time of year... but it was ok... so I continued... but that and getting the leaves out of the dog pen were the ONLY things that I accomplished. Yipee for me... so the night before we got ready to leave, we were all sitting in the house and discussing when Glenn would leave... and his wife and dad wanted him to fly back and leave his car there in SC. I told him that if we left early, I would drive back with him... but he figured that since he was "going back" in less than 3 months, he would just fly back... so off we go to find him, a airline ticket to get him home to CA.
We looked on travelocity and found him a good ticket back to CA. Off to the airport we went the next morning, to get back to CA. We left for the airport in Charlotte, and then flew home, and then the "fun" began. Stay tuned!!!!

Vacation Part 5


Hi all here is the next part of my blog the trip.... we were in SC for two weeks, and for the most part it was a disaster, there were many fights and arguments, like usual. Our family doesn't always get along... we can hanhad dle about five days of each other... and then we are done... and that was the way this was. I was done after about four days here... because it was so STRESSFUL. People who know me know that I don't deal well w/stress.. My family stresses me out. Well, we had our ups and downs, and we worked on things that we needed too. I tried to do yard work, but as we did I got yelled at not to cut any of the green shrubs or bushes or weeds as I called it... but I did what I was told and visited friends and had a pretty good time... Glad it is over... while working in the yard... on the first Saturday that I was there, I was out trimming and cleaning the yard, and it was the March of Dimes "Walk America" day and there were thousands of people coming and going in front of my dad's house... while they were walking they kept looking at me and looking at the yard, and looking back at me, well, I wondered what was wrong and what I had done to make people stare at me... well I FINALLY asked someone what was so interesting at the end of the driveway and they told me that it was a 6 ft black SNAKE... I will preface this by saying I HATE SNAKES!!!!! HATE, DESPISE, LOATHE... do you understand, I HATE SNAKES.... I was petrified... I just said ok and left it at that... everybody thought that the snake was dead... which is perfectly FINE w. me.. a dead snake is a good thing... so after everyone had walked by, I finally "meandered" down to the bottom of the driveway and saw the tail of this thing and FREAKED and ran away... later when dad showed up, I told him and he went to look at it and thought that it was dead also.. but a couple of days later, it was GONE!!! YEAH!!! I later asked dad if he had gotten rid of the snake and he said no.. so whomever did.. THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!. Snakes and me NOT A GOOD THING!!!!

Vacation Part 4

Here we are again... time to continue the trip to "Hell" otherwise known as SC. Let's see... we made it to Oklahoma and now it is on to SC. and the adventure begins again... we leave Oklahoma on Tuesday morning... after a WONDERFUL nights sleep in the hotel... and a WONDERFULLY HOT shower... yes I know it is a hotel... and a trivial thing to some people, but after two days in a car and not having access to a comfortable bed... or running water... I was excited to say the least to be well rested and CLEAN!!! Isn't hot water a WONDERFUL thing.... We left Oklahoma and came through Arkansas and we made a gas stop along the way in Arkansas and this is a state that is... how do I put this... BASSACKWARDS... they are so...weird.. we saw a billboard on the side of the road... that as my brother put it... basically stated to "spare the rod and beat your child..." now I will be honest here... I wasn't able to read the entire bill board while we were driving... so I didn't see all of it... now this is a billboard that was hand made... so I don't think that any major groups were responsible for this... but still it was creepy... and we continued on to Tennessee and North Carolina.. nothing exciting happening here... we stopped about two in the morning... and slept for about 4 hours and then came into the WNC.. mountains and arrived in SC on Wednesday morning... about 9:00am... we stopped and got "breakfast" if you want to call it that in NC at McDonalds... yipee...
When we arrived in SC almost everyone was heading to work... I needed a shower and to get the car unloaded... so I could get "going"... I wasn't hanging around all that long... there is A LOT of work that is needed at Dad's house...
Dad showed up and the first word's out of his mouth..weren't how are you or good to see you... it was "Johnny Fuller... how could you let yourself get so fat or heavy"... I was like... nice to see you too. ** side note here... I will be the first to admit that I have put on some weight since I was a kid... but you know what... I might be fatter than I was back then... but I can lose weight and dad is OLD... so ... no I'm not 'BITTER' at all not bitter at all.... I thought at that point... "this is going to be so "fun"... yipee. My goodness... so we continued to unload the car and get re-acquainted w/ good ole Spartanburg... and this nasty house... and the things that dad needed done while we were there...