Ukraine Crush

 I don't think I have mentioned that one of my daughters-in-law is Ukrainian and speaks Russian. I have known her now for about 9 years I guess. She and C got married in 2014, bought a house in 2015 and had their first baby L in 2016. O's mother lives here in Asheville as well and we get together for special occasions. I love that my two granddaughters can understand Russian and the oldest one who is 6 now can understand it fluently, and can probably speak it, but doesn't choose to very much. I hope this will change for her as she becomes more confident. Anyway, Russia decided to do a full on invasion of Ukraine in February of this year (the 24th) after having occupied some areas of Ukraine by force since 2014. I didn't really know anything about Ukraine or its president or people and wasn't really making an effort to other than what I learned at our occasional get togethers, but after this war started I started learning lots more about Ukraine due to a new social app I started using sometime after the pandemic (that's another blog post) started I think. Or maybe slightly before either late 2019 or early 2020.

Tik Tok has been a platform where people from other parts of the world can be heard from within a short time of posting and once I started following Ukrainian war stories the algorithm started sending me more and more. Now I, like many other women and probably men, have a crush on the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Turns out he was a former actor and comedian who cowrote a TV show about a history teacher who got elected president to root out the corruption in his country and then a few years later he ran for president for real and won with over 70% of the vote. Propagandists say he is corrupt, but from what I can tell he is the least corrupt politician I know of. And he is going to go down in history as one of the greatest leaders of all time. A title his enemy Vladimir Putin resents and is envious of I am sure. While the war is causing significant damage to the infrastructure of Ukraine and has caused many casualties of civilians as well as soldiers, the circumstances have caused the countries in the EU to unite and actually the whole free world is supporting Ukraine in this war against an aggressor state that has no business invading and is lying about its intentions and reasons to its own people so they think the war is called for. It is a sad state of affairs and people in our own country even follow or believe the same propaganda because old Donald Trump, former president of the United States supports or endorses Putin and tells lies of his own. They are similar in that they both lie and don't care about anyone other than themselves. 

Maybe starting tomorrow I can start watching the next two seasons of the show Servant of the People that stars Zelenskyy who is one of the writers for the show. There is a great Times article about Zelenskyy that came out May 9 this year 2022....

It's been four years

I just reread my last post where I talked about being criticized for things I said on facebook. I just recently deactivated my account on there again because once again I felt like I couldn't say my true thoughts without being jumped on, attacked or ignored. Maybe they aren't attacking me and merely disagreeing with me, but they don't word it in such a way as to create room for dialogue but more to imply I am stupid or wrong not just that they disagree. I could take some lessons from this and be more mindful of my own comments under people's posts. But instead I just decided I didn't want to even talk anymore. I really don't like to argue, but not because I like to be right, but because I think I have already said my point and then I feel like I have to say it again to explain myself or to add more details or info to support my original comment and it just gets tiring. 

So, this may be more of a diary type entry than a blog post. What is a blog post supposed to be anyway? Commentary on my life? on life in general? a journal? 

offense

One of the worst things I can do is hurt someone else's feelings. When I learn I have done that it devastates me. I have learned that manipulators use that feature in others to control them.  so, what are our options? Become callous and don't worry whether you hurt someone's feelings? Obsess about it secretly and let it ruin your day or week? Recognize that you meant nothing harmful and that sometimes people take offense when none is intended and just go on happily with your life? This is what compels me to write today.

I deactivated my facebook account today. I have done it many times before. I have kept off of it for a week before, but then I go back eventually.

As soon as I forget why I left I go back and then something happens again, someone gets mad at something I say and gives me grief and so I just want to stop talking. Yet, I feel stifled, misunderstood.  so I decided to come here instead for a while again. I don't think anyone is reading this so I should be safe from criticism here.

Two Tickets to Paris-dise!

Sometime in 2012 or early 2013 before my trip to Paris I started this blog and never finished it.:
Two tickets to Paris-dise (Paris prounounced parie like Marie) I want to use that phrase till it gets old and worn out. My friend Damaris coined it after I told her I had purchased our tickets to France!  Here is the reason we are going to France---it has to do with a man named  Simon.  A celebrity who has been to Paris several times (I think he said 8). Being silly I said to Damaris, "I'm going to Paris in May!" (Because that is when he is known to travel there with his family.) She said "Oh great! I'm glad you decided!

Ok, now it is 2017. Four years after our trip to Paris-dise and I just found this draft when entering another post. Long story short, we went for two weeks and visited Paris, Italy and Switzerland in May/June 2013. Paris was not paradise. And we didn't see Simon, but we almost saw Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie at a movie premier. But we didn't want to get stuck in the crowd. And we really didn't know it was going to be  a celebrity sighting, I just deducted based on the set up outside the movie theater. We found out when we got back home that indeed they had been there.

Yep, this is a pretty boring post I guess. 

Best Laid Plans

I haven't gone for a good nature walk in a while. Woke up this morning knowing it was cool outside and decided since it was my day off that instead of starting off with chores and errands right away I would go for a walk in the woods. Decided to try a new place to walk. Googled walking trails nearby and found one called Beaucatcher Overlook Park. It takes the same amount of time to go there as to the other place I have walked before, so I head out at 8:45 am to find the park.

I had never heard of this park and when I got to the spot where the GPS told me it was I realized why I had never heard of it. I don't think it exists. I was on a very narrow street and climbing ever higher and seeing houses being constructed on the sides of the road. Stilt houses because the mountain slopes off right there on the side of the road. Seems precarious to build a house in that type of location. But anyway, I turned around to go back the way I came and found a couple of people to ask directions from. Since I asked more than one you know the first one was no help. The second one had not heard of it either, but coincidentally this construction worker was somebody I knew through a friend. The brother-in-law of a friend. Ragga (sp?) is Greta's BIL. While he didn't know where I was talking about either, he did give me some suggestions for where he likes to walk, but I didn't go to them today. Instead I decided to stop in and visit a friend I know in the neighborhood (Deanne).

I realized when I got to her old house that I didn't know which was her new house (in the area) and I didn't have her number with me to call her so I kept on driving.

I stopped in to the Harvest House which is a Parks and Rec facility mostly for senior citizens to ask about rental options for some of our Baha'i meetings possibly. A woman offered to show me around and stated she hadn't heard about Baha'i before and unfortunately I did not have with me the Tiny Introduction to the Bahai Faith book that my friend Libba had given me the previous night. While she was showing me around I saw another person I know, a Baha'i named Mel, who comes to the Senior Center every Tuesday morning. The place was starting to get busy so I went on my way and decided that while I was halfway to Target already from my home I would go there and pick up some frozen meals. One thing I bought, though, that I cannot eat, is the second season on Blu-Ray of one of my favorite TV shows, Outlander.  Impulse buy.....sort of....

Since I had a box of stuff to take to the thrift store in my car I opted to stop and drop it off on my way home from Target. But Tuesday is senior discount day there, so even though this stop had been crossed off my list as not a priority I went in anyway to see what good bargains I could find at an additional 20% off for being old. I got three t-Shirts for $1.50 ($1.20 after the senior discount) not $1.20 each but all three for $1.20. That's .40 cents a shirt!   Did I need t-shirts? You can guess the answer to that. I also bought a few other miscellaneous things and had spent over $30 by the time I left.....

Since I was already in the car and had my bank deposit ready I decided to go and deposit my Head to Toe check before going home and I decided to take the rest of the package of cookies I had bought at Target in with me to give to the teller ladies so I wouldn't eat the whole bag before the day was over. I'm glad I did that.

Anyway, it is now almost noon and I didn't get to walk and I have only crossed off one thing from my to do list. This blog entry not being on the list.  I have 8 things left to do before the day is done. Two of which are to visit a couple of people: my neighbor who is in a physical rehab place after breaking both of her feet in a fall and a client of mine who has a new puppy I want to see.

Phew! I am tired already!

Part 2: I did not get to see the puppy. Things came up that I needed to do that I had forgotten abut (sounds like I am from Cnada, but really I am a bad typist and so I also left the Canada typo in there on purpose) and weren't on my list. Went to another store and bought more cookies (that wasn't the thing that came up. I did that on my way back from the rehabilitation Center--Wow that word has 14 letters!). I also did not get to see my friend with the broken feet. She had gone to a doctor's appt and was not there when I got there. Turns out she will have surgery on her left foot on Friday.

While in the "health food" store (I mainly went to refill my water jugs) I did find it ironic and unpleasant to see so much paleo stuff and dead cut up animals and so much other artery clogging foods like cheese and eggs (not to mention thinking of the poor animals who suffered to provide those products), plus all the sugar, salt, refined flour and fat laden foods claiming to be healthy because the oil is from avocados (It is still a refined product when separated from the rest of the avocado) and the sugar is from organic evaporated cane juice! Woohoo!

Did I buy vegetables and fruit to go with my water? No I bought cookies, fake cheese made from oil, and jelly made with fruit juice. A true health food store would not have anything but fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts seeds and legumes in my opinion and definitely not any fried foods. I know there are many levels to what people think is healthy. Some would say there should not be any cooked foods in the store and some would say there should only be cooked and fermented foods. And of course, there are those who disagree with me on the healthiness of animal products. I know that side. I don't need to hear that argument anymore because I believe it to be fraught with untruths and misleading statistics and studies.

And what about the health of the planet. That is another notion a health food store should be known for. It should be known for selling things that are the least harmful to the health of the planet. Animal products are one of the WORST things for the health of the planet. You can see for yourself if you watch the movie Cowspiracy. OK, I guess I'm done for the day. With blogging, eating, reading emails, shopping, etc.....good night!

1st grandbaby

On February 16 of this year, 2016, I became Nana to Laila Polina, born to Chase and Olya. My first grandchildren are 10 and 14 and I haven't known them since birth so this is a new experience. I happen to be babysitting today while Olya and Chase work. I was going to write about it, but she just woke up after sleeping for 45 minutes...no long naps today I guess.

Goals: My Peak Challenge

My goodness. It is January 30, 2016.
Goals.
 Hard to set. I hesitate to set them because I feel like I can't meet them. That is not really the purpose of goals. So, I will adopt a new attitude. I will become a new person, yet still be me.
I have signed up to do a thing called My Peak Challenge 2016  http://mypeakchallenge.co.uk/about/ , which was begun by an actor named Sam Heughan who plays a character named Jamie Fraser in the Outlander series of books made into a TV series. He invites people to challenge themselves, which is something I really need to do. It is an interesting, but not new, concept. The challenge can be anything, but he focuses on physical fitness which includes eating healthfully. I know what I need to do, I am just not good at making myself do it. This might be the thing that helps me stay focused because I won't be doing it alone. There are many regular people signed up to do this and we are supporting each other on Facebook and other social media sites, but I don't do twitter.
This is my challenge: to decide on a challenge or two. Tomorrow I will walk/run around the block which is about a mile and time myself. Each time I do this I will time myself and hopefully I will see improvement each time.I will hopefully keep this blog posted!