ChiCricket

Gah! Thanks for making me look. 😳

This was interesting reading. There are so many different conditions and diseases in the world, it's no wonder doctors miss some of them. Can they do anything for your pain? (and did you at least get the unusually soft or velvety skin they mentioned?)

Exactly. I'm having a problem talking to anyone in my family (even my husband of almost 51 years) about my depression, because they always try to bring up how God or going to Church has helped THEM in their lives. Welp....nice for them..I can't pretend to believe in something I don't. I do have an appointment with my therapist tomorrow morning..but even she talks about people needing to believe in a "higher power" which....no.

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This is the app I downloaded from Google Play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shoozhoo.imageresizer You open up the photo you want to use in this app, and then save it as a smaller size. Then you can share it here.

I hope I get over this feeling of resentment soon. I usually talk to my kids every day (except the one in Germany) and I have had zero interest in talking to any of them right now. Two of them tried getting in touch with me (finally) but only because they each needed something from me (picking up grandkids from various places as I usually do). It just pissed me off even more. No apologies for how I was treated...just "mom, can you?" No.mom.can.NOT I uninstalled Facebook and messenger from my tablet, and have kept my phone off since I can never say no to them. I'm tired of getting guilt trips from them, and I know I'm a pushover, so I am just not being available by any usual possible way. They actually finally called my husband to try and get a hold of me. Nope..don't hand me your phone..YOU talk to them. So he did, and then he went and did all the running around for them for a change. Sounds petty but I was (AM) really upset. Sick of it, sick of myself. Ugh, I'm such a mess.

I have been feeling really down since my PR trip. Lots of nightmares . They have been been about all my family getting together and having loads of fun together, while I frantically try to unsuccessfully join them (I'm always locked out of the building, get continuously lost while trying to find where they all are, etc..) So Freudian. But on a lighter note....I FORCED myself to go to the movies with my cousin, and had a great time! I was feeling so down, so I got up my courage and called her ( I'm ashamed to say how scared I was to do it.) We haven't seen each other in more than three years, and it was SO relaxing..And we talked and talked. We both said we need to do it again sooner. She's the closet person I've ever had as a best friend, even if we are related. We both are very shy introverts. It's hard for us to get out of the house and meet up, but it's so good for us to do it. We saw Little Women and both really enjoyed it.

I had to Google, so I'll share: What are tasbih beads used for? The misbaha is a bracelet made of 99 beads, each meant to represent the 99 names of Allah. People who follow Islam commonly use them during Dhikr and as a totem to ease worrying (hence the colloquial name “worry beads”). I have learned so much on all of these forums! (not being snarky) 😊

I think when Angela jumped in with her advice on health and nutrition was just awesome...wait...she stayed quiet for once? I wonder why?🤔

I feel you. When I went to the first appointment of my new psychiatrist, I blurted out "do you mind telling me how old you are/and or when you plan on retiring? Because I don't want to have to search for anther psychiatrist ever again!!" (I then turned beet-red.) But he just laughed and said "well I just had a checkup and my heath is good...and I don't ever plan on retiring, so you'll be ok for awhile!" (I really like him)😊

Mine lost his license about a year ago...I found out he had gotten in trouble for over prescribing controlled substances (like Xanax.) The only way I found out the reason is that my SIL is a doctor, and "knows people who were in the know" 😜 They must be cracking down on that. It really was a major pita to find a new one who actually took my insurance, wasn't a really far distance away, and had decent online reviews. (I hate having to go to new doctors of any kind.) I don't even use controlled substances...I just take anti-depression meds, but my regular GP didn't want to give me refills when my doctor lost his license.😕

I was thinking that I probably made my trip sound like all sunshine and lollipops, but I want to be honest..most of it was a choatic nightmare. 😭 right now I haven't talked to my husband and one of my daughters for the last few days (outside of necessary conversation), because I am SO mad at how they treated me on this trip. ::::Here I had a HUGE, off the rails rant..be glad I deleted it:::: 😜 Now to close out my complaining with a picture of my granddaughter Ziva at her Bat Mitzvah..and remind myself I have a LOT to be very thankful for. (That is the actual ocean, and not a backdrop..drop dead beautiful) (thanks for letting me vent)

It was OK where I was for the Bat Mitzvah, because that was held in Rincón, which is a beach town, and tourists go there, and so they get repaired first, I guess. But when we went up in the mountains where my husband's family lives, there are still (lesser) roads washed out (like,only down to one lane wide, so one or two cars could only go through from one direction, and then a couple of cars would come through from the opposite direction.) These roads are on the side of a mountain, and there is no way to ' just go around it' on a different road...there is no other road. I closed my eyes a LOT. I'm so glad I wasn't the one driving (or even worse, my old geezer husband!) 😆 It made for very slow going. Even some bigger streets have way more and much BIGGER potholes than I've ever seen there in all the years I've gone there. Along the main highways, all of the electricity seems to be repaired and all looks new. (Of course I didn't travel EVERY road.) Just what I personally saw. BUT when you get into the little barrios (neighborhoods) out in the country where my husband grew up, a lot of stuff still seems to be jerry-rigged (shoot..now I'm not sure if that's an outdated or offensive term, if so, I'm sorry..I don't know how else to describe it? Is it?) Do youngens (😂) even know the term jerry-rigged? (Going to look it up now, I'll be back to edit, maybe) But, on the highways, there are HUGE, TALL substantial looking concrete poles holding up the power lines, but once you get farther in, you see all the old rickety wooden poles, or really beat up, pock-marked cement(?) poles, that look like the next big wind will knock them over (again.) They look like Columbus brought them over. THOSE poles still have crazy amounts of weird differing sizes and types of wires on them going in all directions, some of them all bunched up. I know for a fact that one of my brothers-in-law got tired of waiting for electricity (for maybe almost a year? I have a BAD memory) and finally just got some friends to help him hook up his house to the main power pole. (they're lucky they weren't electrocuted.) It's all so hard to describe...it's just..not anywhere near normal yet..kwim? I do think the tourist areas are getting fixed up faster. (I mean...I can see WHY..they depend on tourism, but at the same time, everything else needs fixing too.) I did ask my sister in law, Minerva "where are all the kids?!" It was unusually quiet. Usually you heard kids, and chickens and dogs all over the place. Now it's TOO quiet (the coqui 's still sing at night though)😊 She said almost everyone with kids (in their neighborhood) moved to the mainland after the double whammies of the tornado and the earthquakes. Plus, people used to have huge families (my husband was one of thirteen) and now none of us know anyone who has had more than three (most of his siblings have only two..we are the weirdos of the family now with five (wouldn't trade a one.) They have closed down the school my husband went to, because it was so damaged, and there weren't enough kids still around to make repairing it feasible. Now the kids remaining have a long bus ride into town on twisty mountain roads. Coupled with that hardship, and the fact that the coffee crop was so damaged (and employed so many people) and people just went where there are jobs and accessible schools. I'm sure they're planning to go back to Puerto Rico someday (just like my husband did, 50 years ago, now he couldn't wait to come back to Illinois.) Ugh, I'm rambling! Please bear with me, it takes me awhile to get over a trip... I'm a boomer😂 PS I was nowhere near where the earthquakes occurred, so I don't know anything about THAT damage. My husband's family did say they felt them all the way up in Lares, and it was creepy, and unsettling. PPS (to make my post even LONGER)😜 "Jury-rigged means something was assembled quickly with the materials on hand. Jerry-built means it was cheaply or poorly built. Jerry-rigged is a variant of jury-rigged, and it may have been influenced by jerry-built. While some people consider it to be an incorrect version of jury-rigged, it’s widely used, especially in everyday speech." "Is the jerry in jerry-built or jerry-rigged offensive? It’s sometimes thought that the jerry in jerry-built or jerry-rigged comes from Jerry as used as British slur against Germans during Word War I and II. This disparaging term is real, a pun on the name Jerry and the pronunciation of the first part of German. This insult, however, is found by 1915, which is sometime after we first find evidence for jerry-built and jerry-rigged in the 19th century." ::::whew:::::: I'm German, so I guess I can use it 😁

Wait until you're old and creaky. I used to hate baths too when I was younger... The one thing I was looking forward to was getting back to my bathtub and soaking my aching bones in a hot bath. 😁 PS I have never seen a bathtub in Puerto Rico anywhere in all the years I've visited there....AND you are lucky if you get warmish water, much less HOT. (yes, I am spoiled rotten)

Hi everyone, I just got back from sunny Puerto Rico, and it just started snowing here in illinois. I want to go back! (not really! home sweet home.)😁 Four of my five kids were there, and 10 of my grandkids! It was glorious CHAOS, and I am exhausted and way beyond jet-lagged. But Ziva got Bat Mitzvahed (IS a Bat Mitzvah?) And she was beautiful and confident, and all of his family said she said everything flawlessly. She could have messed up every word, and I would have been none the wiser, I don't understand any of it. All sounded very impressive to me. I'm so shy that if I had grown up Jewish, there is NO way I could ever stand up and do all that in front of all those people!! I would have joined the circus or hopped a freight train first (seriously.) I *did* remember that the prayer book's pages turn backward from my granddaughter Ahava's Bat Mitzvah, so I didn't get quite so lost. But it was LONG, because it was in English, Hebrew, AND Spanish . Ok..enough blabbing..for now 😁 Ps here's a picture of my granddoggy Nala on my husband's family farm, with a coconut from their tree. (She travels everywhere with them, has even lived with them on their boats)

Good point. If it gets poisoned and hides inside a wall or something before it dies , you are going to have the most horrible, sickening stench to contend with. BTDT 🤢

Was just about to post this picture here with the caption: Ahhhhhh..alone at last after almost THREE days!!!! And as I was about to hit the send button... before I could send it...knock knock knock... "Hey mom? Could we leave (5yo) Samuel here with you while we all go to la parguera?" (a bioluminescent bay I've already been to.) What's a grammie to do? (I really just wanted some time to go to bathroom and not be hurried(!) if you know what I mean...TMI?!😜😁 I said "NO f'ing way! I'm need some alone time!!!!!.... OF COURSE I didn't say that (I THOUGHT that, and way worse)🙄 But he's happily sitting right here next to me playing minecraft. 😁😂 It's a beautiful room, that I paid way too much for, on the understanding that it would be for me and my husband ALONE. Yeah right..I'm now sharing it with my oldest daughter and her two daughters while my husband bunks with his family.😂😁 He's happy as a clam to be with his family, and if I have to share with anyone else, they are the most compatible with me (biological-clockwise), so it's all good. the end for now (sorry I chewed all your ears off) 😊

I second this emotion. 💗 (I just finally made it to PR after 2 days of pass-riding, so I haven't read anything else yet so far.)

I *think* I agree..if his own daughter doesn't think he would want to know, then who am I to tell him otherwise? I think it would only hurt him. I just don't KNOW. Even she was joking around at first in the new DNA group chat we made (which is basically just everyone who knows the results, so...all the cousins, and me.) But then, she asked for an invite to be able to view my DNA profile online (and at the same time sent me an invite to view her dad's.) She has the password to that, and has only shared with him what she wanted to, btw. He just thinks she did it for health reasons (as she did,originally) so he didn't ask any more questions. So. All light and fluffy and teasing in the group chat UNTIL she signed into MY chart, and it popped up that I was her "half-aunt"... She then typed "HALF-AUNT?!WTH!!" and then it must have really hit her because she posted 😭😭😭😭😭 (I'm her favorite aunt) Of course, an oblivious cousin, with no dang empathy, typed "oh! So does that make you our HALF-COUSIN then!?" OMGosh, I wanted to reach through the screen and throttle her!😠 Of course everyone else (especially me) said NO WAY..you'll ALWAYS be a FULL {family surname} to US..are you crazy???!!!..You're not getting away from us that easily! (And now I'm crying reliving this..my poor niece.)😢 I need to stop. I have to go pack because I have to go to Puerto Rico tomorrow. Maybe some time away from home will help give me some clarity on this. PS my husband had his DNA done too (I'll post about that another day..maybe)

Yeah, this is the part that's been keeping me up at night. We are very close. But out of all the remaining siblings (our oldest sister has passed away) I'm the ONLY one who "does" the internet in any significant way. So, all the cousins got together and decided that out of everyone, I could be trusted not to spill the beans to him if it turned out my dad wasn't his bio dad (lucky me.) On one hand, I'm very honored they all trusted me (they've all been talking this over for more than a year.) I didn't know all this before, because it's a cousin only private group they were talking in. Their curiosity was killing them and they wanted to get an aunt or uncle tested "while they still could do it" (I get it...we're all SO old to them!)💀 😂 But on the other hand.... ::::::sigh:::::: I now am keeping this huge secret from my 2 brothers and 3 remaining sisters, and I can't go back to not knowing it..kwim? (I know I'm going on and on but I need to "talk" this out (feel free to scroll on by)😁 Thanks for being here to vent to.

Ok, you both twisted my arm (I'm actually dying to talk about it)😊 I am one of 7 children. There were ALWAYS arguments between my mother and father. Nothing physical, ever, but man oh man was there verbal abuse (especially when they drank to excess) My mom would get very loud, my dad could kill you with disdain and sarcasm. Divorce was so frowned on back then (especially by their strict Lutheran parents) Otherwise I think they would have (should have) gotten divorced. So. I was very much a daddy's girl...but it was very heavily implied that he had a roaming eye and a way with the ladies (I was shy and quiet and sneaky and listened to adult conversations all the time.) So in my mind before I did the test (at my kids urging) I figured , OK, prepare yourself to have at least one ½ sibling out there. BINGO. I have a half sibling. But. It's MY older brother , who is four years older than me and has always been raised WITH ME as a FULL brother, who is IN REALITY a HALF brother..MY dad is NOT his bio dad!! So..my MOM had an affair! I am beyond shocked. I'm still having trouble processing it. He'll always just be my brother for gosh sakes. I'm 67 and he's 71. His daughter, who according to 23andMe is my half niece😭 doesn't want anyone to tell her dad, and we're respecting her wishes. But I'm not sure..what do you all think?! My niece started this whole thing by doing a 23 and me DNA test, (because her young son got diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and she wanted to know if it was genetic.) She saw on the results that she was ½ ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, so she shared that with our (closed)family group on facebook, and said " it is genetic, it does run in the family." Everyone was sad to hear that it ran in the family, but everyone was also intrigued about the Jewish connection. My daughter said "see? I'm just going back to my roots! " (she converted) BUT. Then my nephew finally saw the post.... Turns out he, who is my other brother's son (is your head spinning yet?😂) had also done the SAME 23andMe test, and said " WAIT a minute! How can that be? We're first cousins and I got 0% Jewish on mine!" Dun dun DUN! Fast forward to this December when I was "gifted" the DNA test and got the results that I did...and now I'm side-eyeing the rest of my siblings....kidding! (Not really)😂 PS it only shows people who have submitted 23and ME DNA though...so my dad could have been really playing around too for all I know. PPS I have SO many questions!!

My husband went to Puerto Rico ahead of me (I'll go in a couple of days) He just called me from PR.... him: wow! What a game! me: {coming up from a really good book} game? what game? him: the Super Bowl! me: oh that's right, they played the football thing today, right? him: proceeds to tell me what felt like every last detail of it 🙄 me: .... 😂PS I'm glad he was with people who also enjoy watching it for a change

The only thing I regretted about getting carpal tunnel surgery was that I didn't do it years sooner! What a relief it was. Best of luck to you.

I wonder if it was as shocking as what I found out from a 23 and Me DNA test I was gifted for the holidays? I just got the results back this week.

I'm very leery of opening the door to strangers too. But just three days ago, the weirdest thing happened. Someone knocked (loudly) on my door around 9pm. My yappy little chihuahua immediately went into shrieking hysterics. We recently got a new front door (that doesn't have a peephole, but it will have, soon) and so I yelled "who is it?" Dog immediately intensifies her barking and shrieking so I can't hear the person on the other side. Then I put dog in bathroom and asked again (dog still hysterical in the background.) Person said NiCor Gas here, mam. I then looked out the window, and there was a full sized Nicor gas truck with flashing caution lights and the person on the front step was wearing a Nicor gas uniform. (was a woman, btw) She encouraged me to call Nicor, and she was legit, and WAS called out to my house...BUT. it was WEIRD. Someone had called about a gas leak at MY address (but not with my phone number.) They didn't leave a name. She asked if she could check the gas meter just to be safe, and I said, yes please, go ahead (it's outside now since a year ago.) I just can't figure out why someone would do that. (She said she'd put a false incident report in.) The end 😂