How to Make A Beautiful Life

Love yourself.

MAKE PEACE with who you are

and where you are

at this moment in time.

Listen to your heart.

If you can't hear what it's saying

in this noisy world,

MAKE TIME for yourself.

Enjoy your own company.

Let your mind wander among the stars.

Try.

Take chances.

MAKE MISTAKES.

Life can be messy

and confusing at times,

but it's also full of surprises.

The next rock in your path

might be a stepping stone.

Be happy.

When you don't have what you want,

want what you have.

MAKE DO.

That's a well-kept secret of contentment.

There aren't any shortcuts to tomorrow.

You have to MAKE YOUR OWN WAY.

To know where you're going

is only part of it.

You need to know where you've been, too.

And if you ever get lost, don't worry.

The people who love you will find you.

Count on it.

Life isn't days and years.

It's what you do with time

and with all the goodness and grace

that's inside you.

MAKE A BEAUTIFUL LIFE...

The kind of life you deserve.

- Author Unknown

The Slime That Men Do

Hello there... well, good news. A story I submitted has been published in a book called The Slime That Men Do, by Humble Howard Glassman. Humble Howard, for those of you who don't know, used to be the morning show host at Mix 99.9 in Toronto. Two of the main reasons I decided to submit a story was because, well, I have had a large number of slimy things happen to me by men and could afford to share at least one, and second, some of the proceeds of the book go to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Although it wasn't Breast Cancer, I have lost both my mother and my step-mother to cancer and felt that I could put myself out there for a good cause. Anyway, below is an email from Humble Howard that he requested we send on to all of you.

Hey Nice People,

For the past year Humble Howard Glassman has collected stories from women for a book called The Slime That Men Do. Now it is available in stores and online.

It's a funny, bizarre and sometimes strange collection of bad first dates, blind dates, awful Valentine's days and many more tales of Slimy Guy behavior.

Best of all for each book sold a contribution will be made to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

This is a great book for all the women in your life. They will laugh. For all the men in your life they should buy it too a) to make sure they're not in it and b) to find out What Not to Do!

Available at Chapters, Indigo, Coles or buy it online at chapters.indigo.ca.
If you have a slime story you want to share, submit it at www.humblehoward.com/slime.html.

Thanks for your help and here's hoping you stay Slime-Free!

All the Best,
Humble Howard Glassman

From the Beginning!

Following the way I feel mesmorizes me

into darkness, deepness, thoughtlessness.

I sometimes wonder if anyone can really

hear my head humming.

Burned out, flipped out, cried out, tapped out.

I know there is someone out there worse.

It's the only thing that makes me feel better.

It's the only thing that makes it okay.

If they can do it, then so can I.

We're getting close to the story, and where it all begins.

Soon I will shed for you a few more tears.

I will plunge back into time and recapture the moments

I fell to my knees.

I will tell you the tale of my deepest sorrow, my saddest sad,

and hopefully, by expelling all of the hate, the need,

the fear, I will regain a little more of myself.

And after I've done that, I'll do it all again.

And then after that, I'll do it again.

Don't get me wrong, reader...

there is love, and admiration, and sappy.

There is tenderness, and thoughtfullness, and caring.

There is the Good Side.

One can not exist without the other.

Life does not balance without the Ying and the Yang.

The Black and the White. The Beer and the Smoke. haha.

Anyway, I'm getting close to doing something I have

wanted to do for a very long time.

And that is to tell my tale from the very beginning.

I think it will help... I think it will help.

~ J.M. Jesseau

11/15/06

8:40PM

Grrrrrrrr.

Boys suck.

1 Bottle, Four Glasses, 8 Hours and a Diamond Ring

I drank a bottle of red, Australian wine today. And I use TODAY heavily, for it took me all day to get through it. So, there was no lushfulness about it. I didn't just sit down and say to myself, "Self, I think I'm going to drink a whole bottle of wine, and, well, lets do it in under an hour, shall we?" ...it wasn't like that.

I had just come from looking at three crap houses located in the east, downtown sector of the Hammer (I'm currently house hunting). I made a pit stop at Victoria's with coffee for her and her husband Rob (and a chocolate tim-bit for Dylon), and was heading home to cook. I had decided that I was in no mood to sweat-it-out at the gym, and wanted to take advantage of the fact that dad wasn't home yet (for those of you who are unaware - I live with my father... a very long and complicated story. Needless to say, I AM looking to buy a house so I will be moving out in the near future).

So, back to cooking... yes, I was heading home to cook. I wanted to cook a great recipe that Angela gave me that includes rice and shrimp and scallops and other yummy stuff AND white wine. I am currently broke this week but remembered that I still had $18.46 left on a gift certificate for the LCBO that I had received for my birthday back in August from my Uncle Neil. So... I bought TWO bottles of wine. One white, for the recipe. One red, for me.

I enjoy cooking and find it very relaxing to have music playing, food cooking and wine waiting to be sipped. So, the current time is now 10:05 PM and I am officially drinking water. I finished my last glass of red wine, that is to say, the last of the red wine, at approximately 9:30 PM while soaking in a hot bath with Ylang Ylang essential oil and a little book called The Tao of Pooh (yes, it has to do with Pooh Bear and yes, you should look it up - it's way to complicated to explain). So, with that being said, the bottle of wine, now empty, was a nice relaxing way to spend the afternoon and evening. However, on that note, I have six weeks until I go to BC for Christmas and I would really like to get back into shape. I've done it before in six weeks... can I do it again??? (note to self: must not drink four glasses of red wine in one day if you plan on getting into shape).

Oh ya... One last thing: something VERY COOL happened to me on the weekend. Well, actually, something VERY COOL happened to one of my close friends, I was just there to watch... It was Kathleen's 30th birthday on Saturday and we were all there, her family included, and her long-time boyfriend, and the father of their beautiful daughter, proposed to her in front of everyone!!! It was so beautiful to see and I felt very special to be a part of such an important moment. Congratulations Kathleen and Aaron :)

Thirtygirl

So, I'm thirty. And I have to say that finally getting out of my twenties (spelling?) was the nicest feeling in the world. It's amazing how much "stuff" goes on in ten years... good and bad.

Life experience is not always as pleasant as we want it to be. Although we'd all love to have a happy-go-lucky, kick-your-heels-in-the-air kind of life, the cards are not always dealt that way. Sometimes, but very rarely there is the odd person who manages to slip through the side-walk cracks and not get stepped on. Have you ever met someone like this?

I'm trying to figure out if any one of my friends has been without some sort of traggically, hurtful experience, and I can't seem to think of one. However, for the most part, these beautiful people in my life are still happy. They get up every morning and make the best out of most situations.

Thank God for good friends. They keep me smiling, keep my spirits up and are always there for me. They are my sisters-in-spirit and the past ten years with them has been a blessing. Thank you for being such a constant part of my life.

With all the tragedy we go through - the dips in the roller-coaster ride through life, they have always been there... :) I love you.

Sleepless in the Sewer

You'd think that any one person could sleep soundly in the corner of a dark and soundless room located in the corner of a renovated basement. There are no outside lights, or noise. No cold and wet-golden-retriever-noses pushing against my arm that hangs off the side of my bed... no warm, cuddly kitty kneading my absent breasts like there would actually be milk in them, purring like a fire-truck in my face.

You'd think that with the absence of all outside factors, one could sleep.

I had a fitful night... the kind where you wake up every hour on the hour and stare at the alarm clock in disbelief, thinking that the red numbers are lying to you and that you've really slept in. At some point in the night would it have been possible to have adjusted the numbers on the clock? Not likely. I've got two alarm clocks and confirmed at three-oh-four this morning that alarm clock number two matched alarm clock number one.

The part that really bugs me is the simple fact that eventually I fall back asleep... a deep and restful, wonderfully comfortable sleep. The alarm clocks go off (yes, two of them, one fifteen minutes before the other and then every nine and four miutes respectively after the alarm has initially gone off) and I struggle to drag my ass out of bed. How does this work? How is it I could jump out of bed the other twenty times I woke up in the middle of the night, but now that morning has called, I curse the waking hour?

It's a love/hate relationship I guess. I'm stressed out and hate the idea of lying down by myself with my thoughts in a dark room. I hate the idea of then waking up; sleeping fitfully. And then I really hate the thought of having to wake up and face the day... I'd rather stay in bed under the covers and wish it all away.

Yes, I'm having a rough "go" right now. I'm not always like this, I swear. But today was just one of those days. The kind of day you wished was over before you even got out of bed. Do you want to know why?

Stick around... maybe I'll tell you one day.