When Co-Workers Attack!!

Good morning! Today I decided to work out because I only lost one pound at this week’s weigh in at my Weight Watchers meeting which isn’t bad but isn’t good either. So far I’ve lost a total of 10 pounds so I need to lose about 6.5 more to meet the Weight Watchers goal and for my own personal goal, I need to push myself a bit harder and hit another 10 pounds. Nothing else new going on this week... Just gearing up for a few trips during the next few months, still struggling to find time to write and still going home every night and doing nothing to help my book progress!

On another note, one of my co-workers/friend is currently pregnant and will be going on leave soon which I’m not looking forward to at all because that means I’m going to be stuck in the office for a month and a half without anyone to talk to because I really don’t get along nor talk to any of my other co-workers. I’m so not looking forward her leaving!!!  Oh that reminds me of a funny story, well not funny but just a random story. One of my “not-so-friendly” co-workers is hell bent on stealing my position and not only is she new to the job whereas I’ve been here for YEARS but she doesn’t know anything and tries to turn everything into a big deal so that it seems like she know something others don’t! Do you know how annoying it is to have someone trying to steal your job who is a MORON and who thinks they know everything but knows NOTHING! Every day I have to come in and hope she has not totally wrecked anything in her futile attempt to feel important!

On and here’s the funny part, she has also some how convinced our boss that she knows what she’s doing, I feel no need to set him straight because I look at it like this, when I leave for good and she has a field day ruining everything that I organized and built over the years, those actions will speak for themselves!






Happy Blogging!

A Day of Firsts...

Yesterday I was so overwhelmed with, well life that I just could not find any time to blog, I’m sure we have all had this happen! Anyways yesterday was my first day of classes, my first day of Weight Watchers Meetings and my first day back to work after a 3-day weekend so as you can see I was a bit preoccupied!

School: went well, fairly easy (first days usually are)

Weight Watchers: very cool! I learned a lot and received a lot of great reading material and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT! I set up my etools minus the app on my blackberry because I’m having some trouble with it downloading properly. After work I went shopping and found some great snacks and Weight Watchers food to kick start this whole new process! I’m super excited and am diving head first into this with all I’ve got! So my next meeting/weigh-in is in a week and my goal for this week is to lose 3 pounds. When I was checking out at the store, the clerk asked me if I had joined the program and how it was going…  Since it was my first day I didn’t want to mislead her but I told her it was AWESOME!! Too misleading??

Returning back to work: well it was atypical day and nothing really news worthy happened… went basically like this: Work, lunch, home… (That’s the short version).

When I got home I had planned to blog but I was so caught up in reading my Weight Watchers material that before I knew it, it was time for bed. 

Keep Reading, 

New Blog!!

Well, I've spent all morning working in it and I finally have a skeleton for my new blog! check it out!
Also I put my button to the right for my new blog so you could grab it if you wanted! (hmm. that sounds a little strange, hehe... )

Anyway, check out my new blog! I'll be updating both sites!!










Keep Reading!

What Dreams May Come...

Happy Tuesday! Its Tasty Tuesday over at FTLOB but I don't have any tasty recipes to share with your so  today I’m taking a little bit of a different route on my blog and posting a response to something I found over on Mallori’s blog, Aiukli. So one of her 30 days of truth exercises was to list something that she wished she had done in her life and this really struck a nerve with me because most people have that one thing that might have changed the path the of their lives forever had they gone ahead with it so without further ado here is mine…

List something you wish you had done in your life:

I got married fairly young in life. I was about 24 when I said those 2 little words that would forever link me to the man I loved so much and looking back over our marriage, I couldn’t have picked a better person to spend forever with! That being said, I often wondered what life would be like for me if I had not gotten married until I accomplished some of my own personal goals? Please don’t get me wrong, I love being married, it's one of the a greatest gifts in my life!  But its worth noting that from time to time thoughts flood my mind causing me to wonder about how life would be had I just waited a few more years. Marriage can be a joyful thing and it’s also a giant comprise to building up your partnership for the better and sometimes what one person wants just might not be all that beneficial to the marriage so we put our dreams on hold always with the intent to come back to them, of course we all know that rarely ever happens.

When I was younger I dreamed of being an artist, of painting and writing poetry and traveling all over and meeting many different kinds of people. I was never really your traditional girl who dreamed of going to college, meeting the right man, getting married and having a child. Nope I was far from that, in fact I never even thought of marriage until the day my husband asked me… (Seriously)

So we got married and well, with a mortgage, car notes and bills stacking up there was no room to go off exploring my creative side. I needed to work a regular 9-5 job, pay the bills and be a good little housewife and so that's precisely  what I did. I wasn’t angry and I didn’t blame anyone, I just understood that this was what needed to be done. I built a small art studio in one of our closets and would paint from time to time but life was always stepping in and preventing me from spending too much time enjoying my passions so my art studio became a semi-storage room and my life became jam packed with, well life stuff…

So the one thing in my life that I wish I had done was wait to get married until I accomplished some of my own personal life goals, however, I’m so blessed in my marriage and wouldn’t change it for anything!

Keep Reading, 

12 Steps, Withdrawal Is Already In Kicking...

So I had to post again today because I’m 3 days clean on this healthy eating diet and I’m seriously going through some sort of withdrawal and aggression stage in this healthy recovery thing! I don’t know what step withdrawal and aggression come into play but I’m definitely there! Early this evening I decided to run out to the market for some cream to put in my tea tomorrow morning and ended up spending 45 minutes in the ice cream isle.  I looked at almost every carton and flavor and I think at one point I had one in my hand ready to check out!  But my fluffy thoughts of sweet bliss were so rudely interrupted when some random guy in the same isle asked me something. I have no idea what he said and I honestly didn’t care, but I practically ripped his head off mainly because he was bothering me while I was lost in my ice cream fantasy and secondly because he was BOTHERING me! Oh the nerve! Needless to say, I pulled myself together and go out of there (minus the ice cream) as fast as I could.

So some people might criticize me for comparing my food diet to some sort of drug recovering program but think about this for a minute; a lot of the foods we eat have so many foreign chemicals, dyes, artificial flavors and who knows what else in them so take into considerate that after years of eating these kinds of junk-things, our bodies start to depend on them and trying to go cold turkey really isn’t the easiest thing in the world! Have you ever craved something like McDonald's or Wendy’s or some other food from your favorite restaurant, well you're probably craving those chemicals and you don’t even know it!  

 I’m only on day 3 and I’ve been in a foul mood all day. I’m smelling and tasting foods that are not there, I’m thinking of food every second of every minute of every hour (this is no joke) and it’s killing me that I reeaally want pizza, tacos, and Chinese but all I can eat is fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch and a small dinner.  Then I think of how far I’ve come (3 days is a lot, seriously) and of how tired I am of feeling bad about myself every day when I get dressed and I realize that I can get through all this, I just have to take it 1 day at a time.

Keep Reading,

Things To Do Before I'm 30...

With my pending 30^th birthday in the horizon this summer, I checked my schedule and just don’t see any way I’m going to be able to celebrate this year so as much as I hate to have to do this, I’ve decided to postpone my milestone birthday and remain 29 for another 12 to 24 months. Oh, I just hate to disappoint and I was so looking forward to celebrating but I just don’t see any way around this…

That being said I now have some additional time to start working on some things that I want to do before I turn 30. First thing on my list, lose weight. Yes I know this is very cliché but this evening I pulled out the scale and wiped off 2 years worth of dust, breathed a deep sign, closed my eyes and stepped on… I’m not going to divulge the astronomical 3 digits that taunted me from the scale below, I will tell you that I had to reweigh myself and then take off all my clothing items and reweight myself a third time just to make sure I was getting the correct read… Yep… I was and very disappointed to say the least! I have a plan to lose 20 pounds and I know I can do it!

The next thing on my “To-Do Before I Hit 30 List” is to find a better job! Or I guess I should say a more fulfilling job. I’m so fed up with all the drama, nonsense and high school antics that take place by some of my co-workers that I don’t even bother to talk to anyone anymore. Of course there are other issues with the job and maybe I’ve just hit that point where I need something new but either way, I’m so ready to go, therefore this is right up there at number 2.

Next, I plan to revive my face so I have started a facial regimen be combat any early signs of winkles, I don’t have any yet but hey, now’s a better time than any to start the preventative method. Oh by the way, in one of my other posts I briefly mentioned that I wanted to share some of my facial products and this regime was what I was referring to. 

So I started using Oil of Olay Pore Redefining Scrub, Oil Of Olay Deep Cleansing Clay Mask, Oil Of Olay Active Hydrating Cream and Oil Of Olay Night Firming Cream. I use the clay mask about twice a week, the scrub once or twice a week and the other two products daily and I just started this facial treatment and have already noticed a glow on my face and my skin looks so much fresher and vibrant!

So there’s my short list and there will be more to come so stay tuned! 

Keep Reading, 

Just Another Day...

Happy Tuesday everyone! It’s Tasty Tuesday over at FTLOB and what a perfect way to start my morning! I’ve just arrived at work, barely because I was dozing off in the car driving to work! UGGHH... That could have been tragic! Anywhoo I’m here and ready to rock and roll…

Abortion Rally in DC -Monday evening

Yesterday ended on a somewhat interesting note, my evening drive home always takes me right through the heart of DC and little did I know there was some sort of abortion rally going on but believe me, I knew when I got there! Everywhere I looked I saw signs, people, police, tour buses and more people. Traffic was RIDICULES and at a standstill so I used this opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons and took a few shots of the rally for my blog post this morning. I have to say the saddest thing I saw was this sign that read, "I regret my abortion" which was being carried by this older woman. I didn’t want to take her photo because well, I just felt it would be rude but none the less it was sad.

When I got home I remembered that Coco had a vet appointment for her boarding shots so we headed out. While there she decided to bite the veterinary and I didn’t really feel too bad because my vet pretty pushy anyways and always trying to get me to do tons of tests and shots and a whole bunch of junk that usually costs about $500.00 which I don't feel Coco needs right now. Each time I refuse my vet treats me as if I’m the worst pet owner in the world, though I know better!

When I got home I decided to have a cup of tea while making dinner for my hubby and me (chicken fettuccine with a homemade white sauce, very yum-yum). Later I watched Bad Girls Club which seems to be getting more and more, well for lack of a better word, stupider as each episode goes along. Isn’t the point of the show that these girls come there to learn something and change their ways because all I see is partying, fighting and random sex with outsider guys who look pretty disgusting and a whole lot of unnecessary drunk-grinding on each other. I mean they could do all this back home! I want some Bad Girl intervention here!

Anyway, in honor of Tasty Tuesday, here is my yummy recipe for Chicken Enchiladas. I don’t eat pork or beef so I make everything with turkey, chicken or seafood, I love these chicken enchiladas but it’s good to know that they can be very heavy and if you’re on diet, you’ll want to use low fat cheese and lean meat.

• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies (optional)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 chicken breast meat (or however much you desire)
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
• 6 (12 inch) flour tortillas
• Enchilada sauce

Directions

1. Preheat oven to about 350 degrees F. Use non stick spray on a large casserole dish to lightly grease it.
2. In a skillet lightly drizzly olive oil and began to sauté the chicken, ad your own seasonings for taste.
3. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and sauté the green onion until tender (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the garlic powder, and then stir in the green chilies, sour cream.
4. Then pour in with finished chicken and simmer for a few minutes.
5. Fill each flour tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll up. Place tortilla seam side down in the prepared baking dish.
6. When all tortillas are filled and rolled, pour enchilada sauce over the entire dish and then sprinkle a nice amount of cheese over the top and back for 35 minutes with foil covering the dish. For the last 10 minutes remove foil and bake to get cheese lightly toasted and bubbly.
7. Eat and enjoy!

Keep Reading, 

Catch You On The Fly...

The weekend flew by and I hardly had time to write let alone participate in any of the Weekend Wander blog hops. I had a paper to finish up for school and then found out that my husband is headed back overseas again so we decided to spend a bit of quality time together and went to see the new Vince Vaughn film, Dilemma starring Wynona Ryder, who I suspect has not been in any major films since her shopping lifting stunt. The film itself was pretty funny and I’m glad we got to spend some time together before he leaves.  

Tomorrows we are going for dinner and then he’s off for a few weeks. I’m back at work and just like any Monday, I’ve got my head barely above water and am struggling to find any time to even write this blog, but I just hate looking at the same post over and over again! I have tons of things going on and decided to just throw caution to the wind for an hour and update my blog! I know today is Magical Monday but I’m having trouble finding anything magical about my day. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’d know that today was the day I was suppose to hear back about the job interview and its going on 2:00pm here and I have yet to have received any sort of news. Though I’m not taking this as negative but yet maintaining that it’s just taking the hiring manager a bit longer to realize what a great candidate I am and when he comes around, I’ll get the call that I have been waiting so patiently for! That being said, I’m forging ahead with my work in my current position just to make sure all my T’s are crosses and I’s are dotted when I do leave, I wouldn’t want to burden anyone.  

 

I’ll be headed home very soon and will be making my famous Chicken fettuccine for dinner and I can hardly wait! I have some pictures to post from last night’s dinner (BBQ Chicken wings) but it will have to wait until I get home since I left my camera/memory card sitting on my desk at home in my mad rush to leave the house this morning. Also I purchased some new facial products which I just have to share with everyone but that’s “Coming Soon” to a blog near you.

Well back to work! 

Keep Reading

City Girl

Week Updates

My week started out pretty good, I had a four day weekend because I was off last Friday and had MLK Day  offon Monday, then Tuesday we had a 2 hour delay at work because of a crazy ice storm that hit.  I arrived at work safely and later that day I had a job interview which, well…

I’m still waiting to hear back but being the Christian that I am, I have faith that God will bless me with this job no matter how much I may have bombed the interview! I'm competing with about 20 other applicants and am a nervous wreck!

Wednesday rolled around and nothing out of the ordinary happened except one of my department directors gave me some tips on what I should do in the event that I make it to the second round of interviews so I took her advice and am keeping an open mind…

Thursday I was feeling pretty bummed out and realized that I had lost a few pounds because I had been cutting out a lot of calories from my impromptu diet so that cheered me up until I noticed that the Art House Projects that I had already paid for had not yet arrived at my house and the date to get the project postmarked and mailed in already passed! What a waste of $25, good thing I still have one more project to participate in! UGGH!! BTW: I emailed Art House to complain and still have not heard back, figures!

Then I woke up this morning with a bad case of the blues and I have no idea why.  I barely made it into work and didn't feel like doing anything so I decided to check out my blog when I noticed that I had a few comments congratulating me on being featured on FTLOB. WWWHHAATT....I almost peed with excitement! Lol, maybe that was TMI but, hey it cheered me up after a somewhat horrible week! 

So Thank you For The Love of Blogs!!!

Greeks The Word!

When I got home from work I had been thinking about Greece and the fact that its on my Bucket List to one day visit the Acropolis in Athens. So I decided why not start practicing how to cook Greek food now to get in the Greek spirit! 

 

 

 

 

Another reason I decided to make Greek for dinner is because my husband and I really love to eat kabob from this little restaurant our home and I really wanted to learn how to make it so we didn’t always have to order out.

So with Coco in tow, we headed to the kitchen to get the stove all warmed up. I’m not going to actually post the recipe (yet) but will just post the photos along with my collection of cookbooks and of course my cutie Coco.











And my assistant chef: Coco

The School of Life...

Life has a way of teaching us things that organized educational systems (A.K.A. school) just doesn’t fully prepare us for and in my opinion; The School of Life tends to be a bit more successful. Though I personally have nothing against organized educational systems and in fact love to learn, I do remember thinking many, many times as a sat in class after class “When am I ever going to use this in the real world”? To date I have never had to recall much of what I learned in history class, nor had to conduct science experiments using beakers and Petri dishes and with spell-check and calculators what good were all those math and spelling tests I had to take in elementary school, man what a waste of time!
As is painfully apparent, I am a fan and life-time student of The School of Life mainly because it has actually prepared me for the difficult things that I have encountered in my life and the things I have learned to love and cherish so much.
                                       
In organized educational systems I was always told that I should try to find a job that would bring in the most money but never really given the idea that I should do something that I loved. Remember those test we took in high school that were suppose to help determine what professional field we should go into such as business, medicine or teaching, the thing is I don’t remember any of my friends cheerfully running down the hall with the good news that their test suggested they become an artist, why because our world doesn’t really see being as artist as an actual career but more as a past time.  

 When I was in high school and even in the first few years of college, I had no idea of what I wanted to do but I did know I wanted to do something that allowed me to express my creativity but I couldn’t seem to figure out just how to tie them all up into one profession so instead I studied various subjects such as Art, Photography, Journalism, Teaching, then finally and really now that I think about it, I’m not sure why but I ended up settling on Criminal Justice… This, as you can see is so far off the Richter scale from the areas I studied in my early educational yeas.  I have always been an artist (studied art in high school, was in the art club, wrote for my school and college newspaper…) but in the organized educational system or what many life to call school, people told me that getting an Art degree would get me nowhere in life and I was pushed to do something more “substantial” with myself even if I had no passion for what I was “gently nudged” to do. But now I know where my passions lie and with this knowledge I was able to understand that my previous search for something creative would come out in the form of writing and of course I still paint in my free time but a lot of my visual creativity now goes into what I cook. So folks there you have it, what I have learned from The School of Life is that I am a writer who loves to cook! And what have I learned from the organized educational system (A.K.A. school), is that you can spend a lot of money and time to get a piece of paper and never really use it.

New Years Resolutions

I have been meaning to write this blog all week and with it getting closer to the end of the first week of the New Year, I felt I’d better get it done sooner than later!  A couple of days ago I posted my Bucket List under the Writers Block section and I was planning to leave it at that until I found myself chatting with Alaina, a friend of mine from work when she randomly asked me about my New Year’s resolutions and before I knew it I had come up with a few that I thought would go along well with my Bucket List. Turns out this year I plan to:
·        Attempt to do something new at least once amonth
·        Read more, watch less T.V.
 So by chance this past Monday I came across a few art projects from Art House and decided to sign up for one or two not really thinking they would fall into any my first resolutions but just because it looked really cool and interesting!
I decided to register for The Sketch Book Project which is described as similar to a concert tour but with sketch books! So far 28,835 artists from 94 different countries have registered (including me)!   What will happen is that we will send in our sketch books and they will go on exhibit in many different galleries and museums across the county. The cost to enter was only $25.00 and when the tour comes here (The Transformer Gallery in DC, April 11-30) I plan to go see my work on display and then I will truly feel like an artist!  By the way you have to choose a theme for your sketch book and I decided to go with Below the Surface.
The second project I have decided to register for is call A Million Little Photographs which is described as a way that viewers can experience the myriad ways that a single story can be captured in an image. You also have to pick a theme (mine is The Great Adventures Of…). It will also go on cross-country exhibit starting in September 2011 and a book will be made into print in December 2011 which I plan to purchase as proof that I am a publish artist! ;)
So I think I am thus far off to a good start on my New Year’sresolution! Check out our Links section to see the story that CNN did and to view the Art House Website, also  see our Video section and watch the "I joined The Project" video for more info as well!

Keep Reading,
CG Chronicles Editor in Chief
Faith M. Steward

Bucket List

Last year I was having one of my regular over the phone chats with my older sister Ava when she casually mentioned to me that her son Christian had created a “bucket list”. Unbeknownst to me, she had planted the very beginnings of a seed that was about to blossom into a giant flower! If my 13 year old nephew had already created goals for his life, why hadn’t I? it wasn’t like I didn’t have things that I wanted to do, it was just that I hadn’t organized them into an actual cross-off list nor had I set out to actually take the steps to achieve them, instead as I did something in my life I would say or think “wow, I’ve always wanted to do that” and that was basically it, no crossing off, no celebration, or journaling about it. Then as New Year’s approached a few days ago I did my traditional reflecting over the past year and planning of my New Year’s resolutions (which as we all know rarely last longer than a few months) and as I was thinking of what I would add to my resolution list this year I decided to make a few changes and instead create a bucket list of things that I can achieve over a lifetime, why limit myself to only a year? Some of the things on my list I have already accomplished, others will come with time and will give me something to do with my free time or something to look forward to as I get older so drum roll please…

Faith’s Bucket List:
1.)     Visit Europe (Done)
2.)     Write a book
3.)     Have one of my articles featured in a magazine/website 
4.)     Work for myself one day
5.)     Visit the Acropolis in Greece
6.)     Visit Stonehenge
7.)     Stand under The Eiffel Tower (Done)
8.)     Appreciate the simple things in life
9.)     Finish the Bible cover to cover(work in progress)
10.)    Take life one day at a time
11.)    Create my own Happiness Project (will start this soon)
12.)    Help others
13.)    Create a website and keep it going!(work in progress)

So this is my current list but it will not end here, as my life changes each day so will the things that I want to do and I’m sure that I have left off a few things anyways. I read somewhere today that you should attempt to do something everyday instead of every other day or just a few days a week because the more you do it the easier they will becomes and the more it becomes a part of your daily. 
“So if there’s something that you wish you did more regularly, try doing it every day; if you do something every day, revel in it”.
First things first, update m y website every day with new content also start on some other daily tasks like reading the Bible cover to cover if only a page at time, start taking life one day at a time and begin creating my own happiness project.

New Year

Happy New Year!! I have not made any updates to my site in over a month because with the holidays, work and all the other stuff going on in my life, I have been super busy and have not had any time to write. I was so mad at myself because I kept coming up with some great topic ideas and kept thinking “okay, tomorrow I’ll write”, about that but then tomorrow came and went and before I knew it, it was a month later and I had nothing!!

Well it’s a new year and the holidays are over at least for a while (valentine’s day is quickly approaching)  so my life should be settling down which means I’ll be back to my regular posting, blogging and adding photos and videos and bombarding your minds with all my gibberish and random opinions on different subjects!

Recap of my year, I am so happy I started my site and to be honest it has opened a lot more doors that I never thought it would and has allowed me a creatively expression to all the things that I have been wanting to share with others for so long, not only that but through my site I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some great writers and some all around great girls who to this day still keep in touch with me even though they no longer write for my site. I also heard from one or two recently who have started their own site and found out that by writing for my site, they finally got that little push they needed to start their own site and I couldn’t be happier for them! I have checked out some of their site and they are wonderful! Ladies, keep up the great work!

I’ve very excited for this new year and have great hopes, ideas and dreams for not only myself but also for the site but as we all know, sometimes our plans don’t always go as we’d like so I won’t post any of my plans or dreams here but will keep everyone updated as things progress and unfold! Take care all and happy New Year to all of you! 

http://citygirlchronicles.webs.com/apps/blog/

The 12 Days of Christmas

The theme of the past few days for me has without a doubt been seasonal! Not only is it cold outside but everywhere I go I see holiday items out on display, commercials for gifts, cooking shows for holiday recipes and foods, Christmas trees in our neighbors windows, my co-workers asking me if I’ve finished my holiday shopping, FYI: I have not even started and all the other little details that remind me so much of the holiday season!

Yesterday I went to Starbucks for my daily Grande peppermint hot chocolate with whip and chocolate shavings, yes I did just say that! This delightful concoction is my all time favorite winter drink because both the hot coco and the peppermint remind me of my childhood so just imagine them combined together to create a hot, sweet, savory mouthful of wintertime bliss! While I there the barista offered me this cute coffee mug for 40% off as part of their 12 Days of Christmas sale. For a split second I almost purchased it but instead resisted and said “My husband would kill me if I came home with one more coffee cup.” But since this sale is going on for the next 12 days, I feel confident that I will get to purchase something from this holiday sale.

Since I’m a big fan of the Food Network channel I watch it very regularly, mainly to get ideas for new meals and to pick up on some additional cooking and kitchen tips. I’ve notices that they have been airing many Christmas themed shows with some great ideas for Christmas dishes to get viewers in the seasonal mood and believe me I have been diligently talking notes on many of those recipes for our Christmas dinner.

At work, we put up all our Christmas decorations and really got into the holiday feel with a gift exchange and potluck lunch as well as an evening holiday reception (none of which I will be attending). Also every year we do a holiday food drive for the homeless shelters to help those who don’t have the money to make their own Christmas dinner so I decided to raid our kitchen cupboards and make a donation. 

Last night I called my mom and seems that some of my family members have caught some sort of winter flu, of course what’s the holiday season without someone getting sick!

So with all this Christmas cheer going on around me, I’m hoping that this year will bring a wonderful holiday! Fa La La…

What Could Be Worse?

Have you ever known someone who irks you to your very core and no matter what you do, you can’t seem to figure out why you remain friends with this person? I have, in fact I have someone in my life right now that fits this very profile. The trouble is I have no idea how to change the relationship with this person so that it works to benefit both of us, believe me I have tried all avenues to no avail. What I mean by “benefit” is keeping the relationship on happy grounds at all times, or most times.  For my part, this requires a lot of compromising and holding back my opinions and to be honest it’s exhausting to say the least. On the occasions that I do speak out it irrupts into heated arguments where no doubt I’m painted out to be the worst person who has ever walked the plant so to avoid this I try to keep my thoughts to myself and attempt to just get along with this particular individual.

So how do you deal with a person like this? What if this person is your family member, your spouse or parent … What then? I don’t have any real suggestions because I’m still trying to figure it out myself. I can say that sometimes, even with loved ones we have to take what they say as a grain of salt, let them say what they want and even if it hurts let it go, like dust in the wind… I have learned that people like this will never change, they will never consider themselves as being wrong and even if you attempt to prove to them that they are, they are so delusional that they won’t get it. 

In communicating with this kind of personality what I try to keep in mind that I’m dealing with someone who for the most part is egotistical, delusional and possibly lacking certain emotions that normal people have.  Knowing this can help get me through these situations and if that doesn’t work, sometimes I just hum a little song in my head while they talk, tone them out and let them ramble on, believe me they will have no clue because they are not really focused on you but on what they are saying.

Uggh the people we deal with on a daily basis!

Keep Reading
CG Chronicles Editor In Chief
Faith M. Steward

The Three R's of My "Staycation"

If I had to give a theme to the past few days, I’d have to say that it has been all about the 3-R’s: Reorganization, Reconnecting and a Redirection of my life.

Reorganization: 

I once read that to simplify your life you need to get rid of all the excess items that are holding you down. That being said, over this past Thanksgiving break I had plenty of time to myself to do just that.  Each morning I woke up bright and early ready to sweep through one room at a time trashing things that I hadn’t used in a while. I’m normally a person who struggles with getting rid of things because I never know when I might use it again but I decided that if I hadn’t used it, wore it, read it or even looked at it within the past year it was time to let go of it.   I was able to go though a lot of areas of my home, get rid of a lot of things that I no longer used. I reorganized things that for so long I have been meaning to do but for one reason or another just kept putting off.

So what was the final verdict: I now have room to walk in my walk-in closet which before I couldn’t even do, I have extra space in my home office, an area in my laundry room to actually sit my laundry basket and space in my kitchen that was once cluttered with things that I had collected over the years but never used.

I donated about 65% of my clothes to Goodwill along with some books and kitchen items and the rest went into the trash! It was shocking but I actually felt as if a weight was removed. I guess you never really pay attention to how “stuff” can add excess weight to your life and hold you down.

The lesson I learned here: If you don’t need it, let it go and this doesn’t just apply to stuff but to every aspect of your life.

Reconnecting:

One thing that people tend to do at the beginning of every year is say I’m going to start doing this or doing that and maybe we do for a few months but then life seems to always get in the way and those little things that we hoped to keep doing fade away until eventually we no longer remember why we wanted to do them in the first place. In the time I had to myself I was able to sit and think about different areas of my life that wanted to spend more time in or that I was already spending time on but not as much as I’d like. What I realized is that happiness is loosing site of the things you love to do but making time to do them.  Should we really put off today what we could do tomorrow when we aren’t even promised a tomorrow? It amazing the in 5 short days I was able to reconnect with myself, my soul and with the things that I missed and loved. Reconnecting with yourself is a lot like rediscovering who you are and then understanding why you let yourself go in a different direction.  Most people lose their selves in the daily demands of life and other commitments that caused them to push what they really want aside. How many times have you read or heard about those few people who just quit their job and go off to do what really makes them happy and to be honest, don’t those people seem happier, less stressed and more focused on what life is really about. No, I’m not going off to explore the world but I am taking it one step at a time and I’m so excited to see where my new reconnection is going to take me!

Redirection:

I have found that redirection is a lot like reconnection though for me; my redirection is with my faith and relationship with God. For a large portion of my life I have had a fairly good relationship with God.  However, I have been reading a book titled Crazy Love and the first few pages of this book completely took what I thought I was doing and tore it to shreds, all the times I felt I was close with God, nope I wasn’t even a flicker in His shadow. Because I put so much stock in my relationship with Christ, to me these realizations were so horrifying and I immediately knew where I needed to make the redirection to my focus in my life.

So these are the 3-R’s that I was able to journey through in what I call a 5-day “staycation” and to be honest I loved every minute of it. At times it was a lot of quiet contemplation and thoughtfulness while other times it was running around, cleaning and staying up late to get things done but no matter what, it was what I needed!

I know a lot of people are going to shy away from reading my site now because of my open expression to my love for Christ but that’s okay because where 10 leave, 30 more will join and even if that doesn’t happen, what really matters to me is that I’m giving glory to God, which to be honest is the whole point of what life is all about.

So that being said, you have probably noticed a few small changes to my site and a lot of them have to do with these 3-R’s, a word of caution: there will be more to come and believe me, it will all be surrounding these 3 topics!