Facie’s Ramblings

A handful of years ago, my attention span was greater. I looked forward to blogging regularly as well as reading blog posts of various people. But then at some point, FB took over that space in my brain, and because I had so many posts to keep up with, blogging and reading others' blogs took a back seat. I eventually started to tweet, but I mostly reserve that for commenting on or about sporting events, which I don't do with any sort of regularity. Mostly because Twitter is so in the moment; I can never keep up. But my lack of blogging means my writing skills have languished. When you type only a few sentences at a time, you can't expect greatness. And when you realize you don't have much to say beyond 6-10 sentences, but when you know that whatever can be said will take you double or triple the words necessary, well, that, folks is why I hardly blog. That and that my life is pretty boring. (Unless semi-regular Phipps flower and my dog and cat posts on Instagram excit...

At this very moment in my life, I feel okay. Overall, I am a pretty positive, optimistic person. When I get down, it rarely last more than a couple of hours. Even when someone does me wrong, depending on the person, I am usually over it within an hour (my kid) or a few hours or a half a day (the hubby) or a day or so (coworker or friend). I used to hold grudges much longer. But life is short, and I have learned to let things go. But lately, I have these days, sometimes fortunately only half days, where I feel overcome. This usually happens to me as I am lying awake at night, fretting about something. Mostly it is my kid and various things around that, not the least of which is her going to high school in the fall a bit of a distance from our house. I fret about my job, which is not stable. I fret about the husband's unemployment. After more than a half year without work, he finally starts a job in two weeks, but that brings with it some different anxieties. I fret about my variou...

Life just keeps zooming by. Not sure how it happens. Would love to slow it down (except during an awful workday or a painful conversation). But, alas, on we go. And speaking of living life, I have found a way to spend even more time on my phone (the hubby did not think that was possible). I finally replaced my iPhone 4 with an iPhone SE. It is nice to be on an operating system that came out in the current year (My 4 was still on OS 6, which was updated in 2013, just not by me). And to have actual memory on the phone (I went from 8 to 64 GB). I can have more than 12 apps! My desktop computer (on which I am typing this post) is older than a lot of grade schoolers, and I keep clinging to XP, but at least I have made technical progress somewhere! So what else? Hockey season is back. Yeah! Please just no one else hurt Sid (including Sid). The Steelers' football season kind of hit a skid with Big Ben's injury, but it ain't over yet. And Penn State beat then #2 OSU in a specta...

So I see it has been over a month since I last blogged. As per usual, I wrote a couple of posts in my head. I am pretty sure I did not write a post after having a mini panic attack a few weeks ago. I woke up early a few Mondays ago and just started to fret about so many things. I was alternating between sobbing and something else. At one point, I was not even sure I could breath. I was quite upset. But strangely that feels like a lifetime ago, fortunately (you can't keep an optimistic down for too long, I guess). I blame part of my blogging absence on the state of the world. There is just so much bad news. So many sad, frustrating, and/or anger-inducing stories out there. Particularly, there is too much violence and hatred. Sometimes within miles of where I live (see Monroeville Mall shooting). But I wanted to share something that caused me to smile. Something that gives me hope. A couple of weeks ago, a woman I went to grade school with posted on Facebook that she received a...

Let me start off by saying I have much to be thankful and grateful for. And I am mostly positive and optimistic, so that helps.  Some days (mostly, fortunately, just hours or even shorter periods), I feel frustrated. Angry. Sad. Other things. I might yell. I most likely will cuss. Sometimes I even cry. I wonder how things got that way. Why this happened to me. When things will get better.  I like things to make sense. I believe people should treat others as well as animals and nature with kindness and/or respect. To this day, I just don't understand why people do otherwise unless they have been badly provoked (for the record, I am pretty sure the empty McDonald's bag you just threw on the street did not provoke you, but I could be mistaken). I don't get it when people are always negative and can't see the upside to anything. I get annoyed when people complain about things and do nothing to try to change the situation. I don't understand why it is so hard for people ...

As I do most Lents, I gave up sweets this year. As also happens most Lents, I have failed a few times. One of the few exceptions was Lent of 2002, when I was super workout girl, spending six and sometimes seven evenings a week at the gym doing various forms of cardio and lifting weights. I was in fantastic shape. I had low body fat. I could do 25 pushups (I just checked and I can do almost seven now). And I was eating pretty well. As hard as it was to put nothing sweet in my mouth for about 46 days (or however long Lent lasts when you count Sundays), the thought of keeping my newly lost weight off was a great motivator. This year I did pretty well until this past Tuesday, when I was at the funeral luncheon for my little brother's MIL. Once I screwed up there, I continued down the bad path and had "dirt" two days later at the after-school program where I volunteer. I followed that up two days later with a Twix candy bar, which I practically inhaled during the intermissio...

While on Facebook this morning, I noticed that WTAE-TV Pittsburgh posted a video reporting about a massive brawl that occurred among local high school students and some parents/adults near a school bus stop after school yesterday. At one point there were as many as five different fights going on. Naturally, someone took the video and posted it to You Tube, because that seems to be a requirement anymore anytime something violent happens. Apparently, there were two different videos posted; a brawl actually happened two days in a row. WTAE posted a few snippets of the fights, blurring out the people since some are minors. If you want to view the video, you can find it on the station's website or Facebook page. I am guessing the complete videos, with full-on fighting are still on You Tube. I, however, have little interest in watching the savagery of people anymore than what I already witnessed. And, quite frankly, it is stretch for me to call these fighters "people." As I...

I swear that whenever I think my car will need new brakes or something else, it almost always ends up being fine as is. Just this past fall, the Saturn was fighting me almost every time I tried to turn the key in the ignition . I was fulling expecting to pay a lot of money to replace my lock cylinder, but my great mechanic tried graphite, and my key has failed to turn only one time in the past four months. Sure, the Vue is living on borrowed time, but I am happy to put that off as long as I can. Yesterday, I said to the hubby as well as to my mom that I really cannot think of what repairs my car would need during today's inspection. I am very hard on my brakes, but since I had those replaced less than two years ago, I figured I was fine. And after my tire debacle about a year ago, I was quite sure my just-under-one-year-old tires were going to be good at least until the end of this year (even though, of course, they are warranted for 80,000 miles). So what was left? Yes, there a...

I don't typically do resolutions. Not exactly, anyway. I try to use the end of one year/beginning of the next to think of ways I can do things better or differently (or eliminate or add some things). But coming up with a list of (lofty) things almost always leads to some disappointment or failure. Last year (in late January, in fact), I decided to write two thank-you notes per month . Unfortunately, I did not quite achieve that goal, but I did send out notes of appreciation in instances when I might not have normally. And times when, for whatever reason, I did not put pen to paper, I at least made sure I thanked people via the phone or email. Back in December, I called my aunt to thank her for the birthday card she sent me. She said she was touched that I would take the time to say thanks for a card when most people would not think to do that. I told her at my age, I hardly get any cards, so I was appreciative. I also sent that same aunt a thank-you note a few weeks later for ope...