Let me lead off with saying that I am blessed with some very good friends. I have a core group of people who I know are always there...will always be there...no matter what. That means the world to me because I used to think I KNEW what friends were...until things got tough. Then I discovered WHO my REAL friends were and it was almost embarrassing. People that I had not thought were more than acquaintances stepped in, and people that I thought were closer to me than my F@#%$D up family turned out to be thinner than 800-year-old parchment. Recently I stumbled upon something, and I wish I had the chops to pull it off, but let me just say that I FEEL a lot of what this guys is throwing down. Maybe you know somebody who has a situation that mirrors a few of the samples I will be sharing (and yes...some of these are my version of a "Kasey Kasem Long Distance Dedication"--remember those?!), so maybe you will share these with friends...or not-so-friends.
Every so often, it seems that I get a steady stream of hate mail. I have reached a place in my life that seems to open myself up for that sort of thing. I had a long uphill climb to reach where I am, and that brings out people who would like nothing better than to see me "die and rot in a gotter <sp>!" (Yep, that is a direct quote.)
Every so often, it seems that I get a steady stream of hate mail. I have reached a place in my life that seems to open myself up for that sort of thing. I had a long uphill climb to reach where I am, and that brings out people who would like nothing better than to see me "die and rot in a gotter <sp>!" (Yep, that is a direct quote.)
This did not happen overnight, and I would put my work ethic up against anybody who thinks that, just because I stay at home and write, that I do not put in a full day. Sure, I may not be a mechanic, welder or ditch digger...but I would love to see some of these people try to hang with my schedule for just a day or two.
I am blessed to do what I love, but I was also out there delivering the paper and then heading to the warehouse to pick up stacks of phone books so heavy that it damn near wore out the suspension of my pickup truck, and then walking 7-10 miles a day (according to my steps counter) to deliver those phone books door-to-door. I had hands so cold and curled that I could not hold my keys to start my car and had to wait for my breath to defrost them enough so the fingers would move. So...yeah, I paid my dues.
And last but not least, for Jenifer...the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent.
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