Nicotine Fiend

Smoking is harmful to your health. Yet I continue to do it. It is expensive. A waste of hard-earned money. Puffing away as I type this. We, smokers, are the new social lepers. The signs are everywhere, the No Smoking ban is accepted without much fuss. I never thought I would see the day when you couldn't saunter into the local tavern and not light up. Oh, the times they are a changin'. The pharmaceutical companies are now pushing Chantix. It does have a rather decent success ratio. Just like all the other drugs, there is quite a long list of side-effects. I used to pay good money to be constipated and dizzy/lightheaded. Glad I don't have to worry about erectile dysfunction. It used to be suave to smoke. Now you are a pariah. Imagine James Dean with a nice patch on his shoulder. Not! Please go easy on the judgment when you see the clusters of people huddled in the rain, the smoke swirling around their exiled beings. Say a prayer, and remember, there was a time when that was the circle everyone wanted to be part of. Trendy. Fashionable. I'm in with the in crowd. We've come a long way baby! I think self-destruction is a personal issue. Depends on your method. Free will is a gift we all possess. What we do with that blessing is what makes each of us unique. Nicotine cravings call like the heroin monkey. The opiate demon and I made peace quite a few blue moons ago. Tobacco? When the automatic drip of the coffeemaker starts and I smell the aroma of the toasty roast, my hand start groping for that pack. Where the hell are my cigarettes? Dammit. "What? You ran out of yours in the middle of the night and smoked mine?" Great, fucking great! Sorry, I have to get dressed and go out now. I need a cigarette.

You've got a friend

How do you define a friend? I have spent many years amongst many folks. The older I have become, the less I use the word friend. I realized there are many people you associate with, or converse with, but that doesn't give them the title of "your friend"..Try going to jail and see how many people accept your collect call..you will find out quickly. I am going to be 42 next month and I can say I probably have two real friends. It is not the quantity, quality is what is important. The two aforementioned friends know me, the good, the bad and the ugly. They are still here. Through all the bullshit and insanity. We have all evolved during the years. Seen each others kids grow up, our husbands get wider, instead of hitting the gym we swap great recipes. My one friend was around when we both wore the trendy Jordache Jeans and yes, we fit into a size 5. That was a long time ago. I doubt those jeans could button anymore. I value the few friends I have. I treasure them. I know who held my hand when they were pumping my stomach because I was positive I wanted to die. Nowadays I listen. Everyone seems to use the term friendship rather loosely. I don't. It is too special to toss around like a basketball. I am blessed in my relationships. I am glad to have people who love me and I make a point of giving myself freely in my friendships. Ok, getting rather sappy here..I do have my moments of sugary sweetness. Must sign off..getting nauseous, lol...Be a good friend...

Greed, oh lovely greed..

I found this story amidst this mornings news and thought this was interesting. Ironically if the two people originally involved could have been mature and not involved lawyers, they both would have wound up with a nice sum of money and everyone would have been happy. Didn't work out that way...


Cash found in Ohio house's walls becomes nightmare
news-general-20081108-House.Hidden.Money

In this undated handout photo released by Bob Kitts, contractor Kitts, left,...
Sun Nov 9, 6:20 AM EST
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CLEVELAND — A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.

The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.

It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties.

And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne — the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness — will each get a mere fraction of the find.

"If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it," said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who represents the Dunne estate. "Because they were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way, they both lost."

Kitts was tearing the bathroom walls out of an 83-year-old home near Lake Erie in 2006 when he discovered two green metal lockboxes suspended inside a wall below the medicine chest, hanging from a wire. Inside were white envelopes with the return address for "P. Dunne News Agency."

"I ripped the corner off of one," Kitts said during a deposition in a lawsuit filed by Dunne's estate. "I saw a 50 and got a little dizzy."

He called Reece, a former high school classmate who had hired him for a remodeling project.

They counted the cash and posed for photographs, both grinning like lottery jackpot winners.

But how to share? She offered 10 percent. He wanted 40 percent. From there things went sour.

A month after The Plain Dealer reported on the case in December 2007, Dunne's estate got involved, suing for the right to the money.

By then there was little left to claim.

Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.

Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and began leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.

Reece's phone number has been disconnected, and her attorney Robert Lazzaro did not return a call seeking comment. There were no court records showing that Reece had filed for bankruptcy.

Kitts said he lost a lot of business because media reports on the case portrayed him as greedy, but he feels vindicated by the court's decision to give him a share.

"I was not the bad guy that everybody made me out to be," Kitts said. "I didn't do anything wrong."

He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He says he wasn't raised that way.

"It was a neat experience, something that won't happen again," Kitts said. "In that regard, it was pretty fascinating; seeing that amount of money in front of you was breathtaking. In that regard, I don't regret it.

"The threats and all — that's the part that makes you wish it never happened."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Dirt Free Zone

Just got home from work.. I am a scrubbing and vacuuming mama nowadays til I move. Thank God my friend is also my boss and new landlord. Bet your boss doesn't pack you a lunch! It's funny, but when you are in someone else's home, (one that you know you will never afford) it is rather intimate in a way. When you are polishing pictures in a frame, you see their memories, their history. Some homes are fabulous but have no warmth, no soul or personal imprint. Today's lady has a lovely house, but what really makes it nice is it isn't imposing, but showcases who she is. I dusted quite a few porcelain cats..she is the owner of a lame cat. Refuses to put it down and cares for it just like a mother with a child. She is a widow. According to my friend it was her one and only love, and there will never be another. How often can anyone have the peace inside of knowing they had their one true love? Monogamy and family don't seem to be popular these days. How special for her. I handle the possessions with care. They are her treasures that I am cleaning. When we left, the house smelled fresh and gleamed. Hmmm..now if only I had the energy to give my own abode the same attention..Have a great evening!

That scowl will break your face!

I consider myself to be a pleasant person under most circumstances. It does require effort at times, but I try. These days I am noticing many do not try anymore. The bitterness is etched in their faces, from years of disappointments and yearnings that never came to fruition. Trying is pointless, they have already written their selves off. Bankruptcies, bad credit, foreclosures at 50. What's the point? My employer is 58, and currently in the middle of Chapter 7. Busts her ass everyday. Bad choices in men, now she works 6 days a week, from sunup to sundown. She is not bitter. I asked her how she stays so pleasant and upbeat. She replied that if she let the hurts come thru to the surface she would be broke AND lonely. When the work day is over we might only have some extra money to go to the dollar store and piss around but we laugh and have fun. I get it. Others don't. Why be miserable over things you cannot change? I am happy that I have 99cents to get my coffee refilled at 7-11 in the early am. I hold the door for people. I say good morning. I mean it. I watch others hunched over, scowling, never making eye contact with another person around them. Life dealt them a shitty hand. Me too pal...but I know in my heart that if the cards are crap I can always keep my fingers crossed that there will be another deal...

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Yawn, stretch get the coffee it is Sunday! Was supposed to work today, but the lady canceled so I guess I can clean my own house instead of someone else's. Ah, I hope their is a good waitressing job awaiting me in Georgia.. Housecleaning is a good paying cash gig, but it's not the same vibe as the bar/restaurant. I supposed there are worse things I could be doing to make a living. The packing is mostly done and now it amounts to counting days. Making me crazy dammit. I am ready to go. Sitting here watching the beginning episodes of The Sopranos. The writing was phenomenal back then. Like everything else in life, it starts out so sweet and enticing and than gets you hooked. Well so goes my day today. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend..