NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

I haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions in years, because I know I won’t keep them. But I got a scare yesterday and this year I WILL make and KEEP one. I ended up in the emergency room, after experiencing some confusion and memory loss. As a senior citizen, I feared a mini-stroke. And so I called 911. I assumed I might face a few days stay in the hospital. Thus, I grabbed a small suitcase and quickly filled it with a bathrobe, toothbrush, and a few other essentials including my portable computer –no sense wasting time at the hospital as I had work to do on www.FunnyPhotosContest.com
for cute or funny photos and photo captions. But after a few hours they sent me home. They couldn’t find anything and simply advised me to make a follow-up appointment in three months.

So what’s my resolution? The hospital visit frightened me. As a result, I will take better care of myself. I will STOP staying up until 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning playing FreeCell on my computer. If I slept late in the day, I could continue this foolish pastime. But when the sun rises I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. Perhaps there’s no connection but certainly a lack of sleep is not doing my health any good.

THE PRESIDENCY

In 2002 when my condominium faced some frustrating problems, the President called a special meeting. And as soon as he brought the meeting to order, he announced that he and the vice president were resigning. I hadn’t attended any meetings for quite a few years and had I know I might not have attended this one either. The members immediately had an election and I became Vice President. Oh well… I could handle that. But two months later, the new President quit!

In February, we will hold our annual meeting and since no one else ever volunteers to accept the position as President, I’ll reluctantly continue my responsibility. Fortunately, we have a small Association of only 19 members and one of the first things I did was to get everyone “on-line”. Now, when there’s a problem, I send out an email informing the members of the situation and then wait a few days. As usual, no one responds and so that is the end of the problem – makes my job easy.

I also don’t mind being President as I’m retired and have the time for it. Between the presidency and working on www.FunnyPhotosContest.com for cute or funny photos and photo captions, I keep busy and enjoy being retired.

FIFTY YEARS AGO

This past summer I celebrated another milestone in my life – my 50-year high school class reunion. As I looked around the room I felt sad for those classmates who had died, but at the same time happy for those of us who could still enjoy this wonderful celebration. We laughed, we joked, we reminisced, and we talked about our lives.

I talked about my new hobby, www.FunnyPhotosContest.com
for cute or funny photos and photo captions, and others talked about their travels around the world, their recent careers, and their successes, etc. etc. Of course, we talked about our grandchildren. And to my surprise, one of my classmates, Tom, not only had two grandchildren the same ages as mine, but our four grandchildren lived in the same nearby small town.

Lo and behold the next day when I talked to my grandsons they confirmed that they knew my classmate’s grandchildren very well. In addition, the four children live within a block of each other!!!

FAMILY STRIFE

As a child my Father repeatedly told my sister and me that we should always love and be good to each other. He said, “After Mom and I are gone, all you will have left is one another.” Little did he ever dream he would be right. My sister never married and my ex-husband and I divorced many years ago. Although I have children and grandchildren, they have lives of their own. So, as Dad said, it is just my sister and I.

Unfortunately, like many other discordant familes, my sister and I now have a very poor relationship. Neither of us is faultless -- we have both wronged each other. And what a shame as I remember so many good things about my sister. Most recently she helped me launch a caption contest on my website www.FunnyPhotosContest.com a photo contest for cute or funny photos and photo captions and I greatly appreciate all she did.

And though I wish we could reverse the damage we’ve done and the pain we’ve inflicted on one another, I don’t know how.

COMPUTER REVOLUTION

In 100 years from now, history books will probably refer to these days as the “Computer Revolution” just as they refer to the 1800’s as the “Industrial Revolution.” Certainly the computer has drastically affected and changed our lives.

For me, the computer has given me a wonderful hobby, www.FunnyPhotosContest.com
for cute or funny photos and photo captions. In addition it has made it possible for my Mom to stay connected to her family. A year ago she moved to Las Vegas and despaired that she would miss her great grandsons. Thank goodness for computers. I bought my daughter a web cam so that my Mom and grandsons could not only send instant messages, but she could view them on her computer as if she were watching her television set. What a miracle.

HOBBIES

All my life I enjoyed reading and always wished I had more time to read. And now that I’m retired and can read to my heart’s content, I have found a new way to devour even more books than I ever dreamed I could. I discovered books on tape. Instead of reading only while I sit in a comfortable chair or lie in bed, I can listen to books while I’m taking a shower, washing dishes, eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, etc., etc., etc. It's great. In addition, I am never lonely, I always feel like someone is with me and reading me an interesting story.

It’s a wonderful hobby and since I live alone, I can listen whenever I want and as often as I want. As a result I finish about three or four books a week for a total of almost 200 books a year. And the best part is that I can turn on my computer, open the library’s website, select all the books I want to read, and then just pick them up at the library. What could be better?

Thus, I thoroughly enjoy my retirement with my two favorite hobbies – reading many, many books and working on www.FunnyPhotosContest.com for cute or funny photos and photo captions.

UNPREDICTABLE

I can only guess if they will or won’t arrive at my house this evening at 5:00 to eat Chinese food for dinner and then play bridge. It will all depend on the weather. It started snowing at 3:00 last night, will continue until 4:00 this afternoon, and will probably result in a snowfall of 4 to 6 inches and that is on top of the 30 inches we have already received for the month of Dec.

So, should I make preparations for company, not knowing if they will appear on my doorstep? Since, I don’t know, I guess I better. Of course, I’ll be disappointed if they don’t make it, but I can always spend the evening working on www.FunnyPhotosContest.com
for cute or funny photos and photo captions. There’s always something I need to do and I always have fun working on the site.