TGIF

I never realized how hard selling something as simple as sno-cones would be! I volunteered at my son's school today trying to raise money for the end of the year bash for them. We thought we would try selling sno-cones and see how that went over with the students. We posted no signs, and told no students or teachers in advance. We sold the sno-cones for $.50 each, with the hopes of maybe making $20- $30. We wound up making $92!! This was done in two intervals of about 15-20 minutes each, with the majority of it during the second interval. We were amazed, and totally overwhelmed. I am sure that the 95 plus degree heat helped a lot - can't wait till next week to see what happens, I am thinking it was a good idea.
After watching Jay Leno last night, I have to admit I was impressed with Donald Trump. Here is a big business tycoon speaking the truth about the oil companies. He said that they were using Hurricane Katrina as an excuse to raise the prices of gas, that there is no shortage, and never was. I felt like I was listening to myself talk to my older son about 2 weeks ago when he was in search of gas in Tallahassee.
On a lighter subject, I rented two movies last week, but have yet to have time to watch them. I rented "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Hostage". I will let you know how they are when I finally get to them. In the last few weeks I did watch a few good ones - "Million Dollar Baby" was excellent, and I highly recommend it to anyone. I thought, oh gee, another boxing movie, great, but boy was I wrong! I also watched "Ladder 49" which again was excellent, and a pleasant surprise as John Travolta is not one of my favorites. For comedy, "Beauty Shop" is good for a laugh, and the male hair dresser is easy on the eyes!
Have a good Friday night all and I will post again later this weekend. Till then.....

Hey there loyal readers

Hey there loyal readers, all 3 of you!!  It’s been an interesting week at school, and I am glad it is over (no classes on Fridays for me).  This weekend will be spent catching up on homework and reading for my classes.  It is amazing how easy it is to get behind, but I am determined to stick with it and catch up.  I am really not that far behind, but do need to get on it.  
My brother and fellow blogger is moving to NY soon.  I am happy for him!  I know he has been wanting to do this for a very long time.  NY is filled with opportunity, nothing to say of history.  I know he will not only succeed there, but have a good time doing it.  Not only that, but it will save me hotel money when I go to visit!  
Isn’t it nice of our president to start the first phase of the relief effort for hurricane Katrina victims 3 WEEKS AFTER THE FACT!?!  I know I said in a previous post that you should follow your hopes and dreams, but I think the Prez is not just dreaming, but hallucinating.  He thinks this one speech, telling all those who lost everything they ever had, that things will be just fine, will make everything better.  It is easy for him to say.  After his speech, I am sure he went home to a nice stiff drink, in a nice comfy chair, in an air conditioned room, and will sleep in a comfortable bed tonight.  Meanwhile, back in reality, these evacuees are sleeping on cots if they are lucky, in shelters, far from home with nothing!  The way the government handled this situation just goes to show that we are a nation in trouble.  Everyone ran around in circles, talking a mean game about what they were GOING to do, but little has been done.  Entertainers, sports figures, and just the general population has done more for the hurricane relief then our government – sad! Ok, I guess I am ranting….
Don’t forget to check out my brother’s blog at http://www.mqablog.com !!  

Hopes and Dreams

Everyone has hopes and dreams, without them existence would be worthless.  About a year and a half ago I decided to go after one of my dreams, to have a real career.  In order to do this, I had to go back to school to finish (or should I say basically start) my degree.  As you can see in my profile, I am a single mother, and I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to handle work, school, and the responsibilities that come with being a single parent.    The first semester, I struggled through two classes while working and caring for my then 10 year old son.  Soon it became obvious to me that I was going somewhere, but not very quickly, and if I was serious, I needed to make a drastic change, so I quit my job and went back to school full time – that was a year ago.  I thought it was the best decision I ever made, well, one other major decision I made in my life was even better, but that is for another time.  Anyway, recently I began questioning if I made the right decision.  I was down on myself, and my confidence level dropped.  I was quickly getting the “I don’t care” attitude about school.  I was telling a good friend about this, and he gave me the boost of confidence I needed.  He said,” I have confidence in you, I love to see people achieve their goals and for you to do that at such a later time in your life is an outstanding effort and one you can be proud of.  Not that you didn't achieve goals at (your past job), but what you are doing now in life is admirable because most people would be looking for a way to stop at this point and be happy with where they are at - not you, I can see you want better and are doing it the right way.  I am proud of you, keep it up and don't stop until you really achieve what your goal is - then, you get to establish new goals.  I was always told to have a long term goal but in order to reach it you must have short term goals to get there.  These short term goals build into stepping stones and self motivators.” The reason I am posting this, is to let anyone else that may be thinking twice about decisions made, that usually your first instinct is the best.  GO FOR IT!  Never give up, I’m not… Thanks David for your confidence in me and your inspiration!  Now I have to go do my Calculus homework!

MQAblog.com

Well, I am not sure how I did on my first Calculus test. As I was waiting to pick up my son from school, I did realize I complicated one of the problems when I shouldn’t have. I guess I will have to wait and see on the rest.
It seems FEMA is not wanting to give us residents in South Florida any individual aid after Katrina. They are blaming last years storms, and those “bad apples” that ripped them off because FEMA wasn’t competent enough to figure out who was lying to them and who wasn’t. So now those who don’t have homeowners insurance because of the skyrocketing prices, and companies that have been canceling home owners left and right, are stuck with no roofs, flooded out rooms, mold, and who knows what else. Amazing!
When you get a chance, check out my favorite brother’s blog at http:www.mqablog.com It is always interesting to see what he has to say, and he is a lot more skilled at this blog stuff than I am, but I’ll get there!!

Katrina

My neighborhood in Miami after Katrina as a category 1

So they are saying that the death toll in New Orleans isn’t as high as expected. I guess we should be happy for small miracles. I am sure there are many who are criticizing those who didn’t evacuate despite the warnings from authorities. As a survivor of Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, whose neighborhood was destroyed, whose parent’s house was destroyed, as a person who was told to evacuate, and didn’t, I can understand why some didn’t leave the Louisiana area. “It’ll never happen to me”. I can tell you, going through that hurricane was the scariest thing I have ever been through. It is something that will stay with me forever, and I have come to realize how much it affected me after seeing the devastation in Louisiana and Mississippi. Seeing it brought memories back to the forefront that I had long since buried. It is memories that you don’t want to rehash. Going through the actual storm was only half the battle, the recovery was just as bad if not worse. What these people are going through is much worse than what we went through in South Florida. At least we could leave the area even if it was just temporarily to go to work, to visit family and friends, at least we could get away before having to face the reality of it again. These people have no where to go. They have now been evacuated from the one place they called home, often time to places they have never been, with no friends, no family, no memories. Imagine being plucked from your home and dropped in the middle of an unknown town with nothing but the clothes on your back. It’s not an experience I care to have anytime soon!
Hurricane Katrina came knocking on my door just days before it hit the Gulf Coast. It was a baby hurricane, just a category 1, but it flooded my street, with the water coming right up to the bottom of my door and luckily stopping there. We in South Florida have gotten complacent about hurricanes again, and I think Katrina served as a warning to us (not because of what it did here, but on the Gulf Coast) to heed the warnings the hurricane center puts out. These storms have a mind of their own, so yea, we need to think ahead, and take no chances – it’s not worth it.
Ok, I have to finish studying for a Calculus test……wish me luck!

9/11

Good afternoon! I guess the obvious choice of discussion today is the anniversary of September 11, 2001. It is one of those days that everyone will remember, and always know "where they were". I remember being at home, getting ready to go to work when I turned on the TV and couldn't believe my eyes. I immediately called my Dad, and told him to turn on the television, and then began calling other family members and friends. It is amazing that everyone began calling loved ones, even though we are miles from "ground zero". No one knew exactly how to handle it, and wanted to make sure others were safe. I had the opportunity to visit NYC about 6 months after 9/11, and got to see Ground Zero before a lot of it was cleared away. NYC is not a quiet city by any means, but around Ground Zero is was eerily calm and quiet, with tons of people milling around in a daze even 6 months after the event. It is an experience I will never forget. That day, 9/11, forever changed how I feel about being safe in my own country, whether or not I feel safe flying, how I look at others on a plane. My family flew across the country about 10 days after 9/11, and as the plane took off, a tear came to my eye thinking about all those people who were going either home to loved ones, on vacation, on business trips, never thinking that it would be their flight. There were so many brave people that day, amongst the confusion, everyone came together as best they could to help one another. It is a shame that it takes a tragedy to make the United States united!