Peanut  Allergy  Warning!!!

Two brands of rolled wafer cookies.

Both come in an attractive/reusable tin.

Both come in a Chocolate Hazelnut flavor.

Both Delicious and have very similar packaging and are found in the same isle of my local grocery store.

ONE is made with Peanut Oil!!

The Pirouline cookies are made with peanut oil.

The Pirouette cookies are peanut-free.    

I was rushing through the store not too long ago. I picked up some hot apple cider and chai tea K-cups while making a mental note that I had plenty of Hot Cocoa at home. It was a cold snowy day and I thought that a nice hot drink with some special fancy cookies would be a great treat for the kids. I set out to find “those yummy chocolate filled sticks,” not being able to remember the name I thought, “They start with a P. Pir…something.” It had been quite a while since we had them but I remember the kids liking them and since one of them has a peanut allergy it is always easier to stick with treats we know. In the cookie isle of the store I saw the familiar tin, Pirouline it said, I grabbed it and brought it home. Out of habit, I glanced at the ingredients on the back as I was opening them for the kids and was shocked to see PEANUT OIL as an ingredient! The Pepperidge Farm brand of the same cookie is called a Pirouette. That brand is safe and peanut-free! The packaging was so similar that I didn't even realize I had grabbed something other than what I had previously got. 

Safe peanut free 

contains peanut oil

LA shrinks, Clitty Litter, WTF

Okay Hold The Phone!!! I just have to say bravo to +Bravo  for managing to out-WTF and out-OMG all my expectations with their new show LA Shrinks. I enjoy watching a train wreck as much as the next person but I cant help but wonder what type of release was signed by the patients of these shrinks and how legally binding it may be. I mean, if someone is seeking out therapy then they are, in other words, seeking out help from a therapist, they become a patient of the therapist which by definition is a doctor. It is a doctor/patient relationship, which in itself, implies that one is seeing the other for the insight they may have based on the education they experienced, and knowledge they have. One is an authority figure of sorts over the other, who is trusting them with their most guarded secrets... so... When a doctor says to a patient "Hey I have this great idea, you should totally let cable TV record our sessions, I'm gonna be a star, you will have a few guest appearances, the world will get to see the private conversations we have and then I will talk about you behind your back! Trust me! It wont be embarrassing at all... Sign here!" is that really fair!?
Either way, I watch, cringing at times!  On the last episode, one of the patients, who is trying to deal with her anger, had to pee while stuck in LA traffic, with her therapist int the car. This is a the Clitty Litter Video...
BRAVO I'm gonna keep watching to see just how bad this train wreck gets!!


And if anyone would like some clitty litter of their own... I braved the search engines, afraid of what I might find, but alas it looks to me like the product she had was the Travel John



#traveljohn   #LAshrinks   #bravotv

One More Tear

I was thinking about the idea of 'one more' while I was writing my last blog post. One more can be such a good thing, without that one last try we could be crawling around to this day, never have learned to walk. Falling down and getting back up for one more try is an important part of what makes us human. Trial and error begets great new things. We make mistakes.  We fall down. We try again. We lend others a hand up when they have fallen. We forgive others for the mistakes they make because we know that we have our own faults. To forgive others who have wronged you is a part of growing and healing. People can change. 

But what happens when the same person wrongs you again? 

When you forgive some one again?

When you give them another chance? 

When they haven't changed? 

When they don't deserve your kindness? 

When you need to walk away, 

When you never should've gave them One More Chance?

 One more beer or glass of wine,

 “Just one more bottle and I swear I’ll quit this time!”

 One more promise, just one more chance,

 one more fight was all it took,

 just enough force to knock her down,

 just one blow,

 felt all across town.

 One more tear, one last goodbye,

 a single rose,

 she didn't have to die. 

One celebration among family and friends

 to give thanks for the life 

the departed once led.

 One day of sharing their stories and love,

just one week too late

for her to have heard what they said. 

Sometimes letting go of what you know is hard but if you have the courage, you can give yourself One More Chance instead!

One More

A 2 year old - A puddle - An analogy on life. 

            The other day I experienced the most comprehensive visualization of the irony in life. Right before my eyes it was laid out, how things work, and why so often we end up landing right smack on our faces. Through the actions of my 2yr old I inevitably had a little chuckle and thought to myself “ Isn't that just the way it always works out?”
            After a quick sibling goodbye at the morning bus-stop, we walked up the  driveway towards our house. My 2 year old was stretching her wings and insisted on making the walk up the hill all by herself. She was laughing and running, and as steep as the hill is, she made it to the top all on her own, and with a smile on her face. She had finished the hard part! It was all level ground from here on in, not even 100 ft left to reach the finish line. To achieve her goal of this completely independent journey, she only had to continue doing exactly what she had already been so successful at. Stay focused, put one foot in front of the other, and continue enjoying what she was doing.
            I spotted it before she did. A distraction, the distraction of all distractions! It was the one thing that no toddler can resist… A puddle, a giant puddle! Waiting in anticipation to see just how she would react, I watched silently. How would this tiny little human handle temptation. It was like watching an old black and white movie in slow motion. She paused for just a moment, her eyes widened as she lifted her head slightly and smiled. Now mesmerized by the glistening surface of the water she steered her little feet in that direction. I called for her but the cunning little girl tipped her head down and looked back through the corner of her eye, as if to assess the situation. She kept her head down and acted like she couldn't hear any of the warnings being called her way. One, two, three steps into the puddle and she looked up with a smile on her face, so pleased with herself. She slowly walked through the puddle savoring every moment she was in contact with the liquid gold. I let go a small sigh of relief when she made it out of the mucky water without issue. She was going to have her cake and eat it too. Not only did she enjoy the intoxication of wading through the water but she was still able to complete her mission. But then she stopped. She turned to face the puddle and took a long look at it, turned, raised her chubby little index finger, and said “One More!”

      One and More…

 two words in the English dictionary that independently are quite innocent, 

but together end up being the undoing of many.

 Just one more!

            I watched as this beautiful little girl walked around to the front of the puddle, unaware of the abrupt ending that her blissful adventure was about to endure. She stepped into the water, one step, two step, JUMP! Jump, smile, splash! She jumped again, and again, loving the effect she was having on the seductive brown liquid as it sprang up to her knees with each bound she took. Jump… splash… wobble… and then she fell. You could see as the joy was ejected from her face only to be replaced by a dumbfounded expression as her once friendly fluid turned into an icy, abrasive, collection of melted snow. Her hands hurt and she was no longer sprinkled with droplets of water at her knees. She was now soaked, clothes saturated and cold, with no hope of completing her independent journey to the house. What feels like crisp, nipping, New England air in the early days of March, can quickly be transformed to piercing, bone-chilling, mid-January temperatures with the addition of wet clothes. She was brushed off, scooped up, and carried inside to warm up with dry clothes. One more time through the puddle was one time too many.

            We see this happen time and time again in our adult lives. We insist on staying out just one more hour after an already late night. We go for that extra cocktail. The snooze button gets hit just one more time. We eat another helping of food, we gain one more pound. Our goal of fitting into that bikini can be swept away one cupcake at a time. People have the tendency to indulge, surround themselves with these indulgences, and wonder why they haven’t been able to stop indulging. We want to have it all. We hoard ‘til we can’t sit, we eat ‘til we can’t move, we party like rock stars and we shop ‘til we drop. Not being able to say enough is enough can leave us, much like my daughter, distracted, fallen flat on our faces, and completely off-track from completing our goals. We’re left sitting in our own hypothetical puddle of mucky water with our heads spinning wondering what just happened.
             The real problem is, we never know when that “ONE MORE” is the one too many. Hindsight is 20/20, and barring the obvious self-destructive behaviors, like, I don’t know, walking off a cliff, is it even possible to know when you've reached the edge? Waking up with a hangover is a clear sign of over doing it the night before, but by how much? Did you really just have one too many? Would you still have woken up with a hangover if you only had a couple of drinks? Do you know your own limits? How far over the speed limit does it take to get a ticket? At what point does enjoying your favorite treat, after a long day in the office, turn into a glycemic balancing act for the rest of your life?
            I don’t have the answers. Even if I did, my answers wouldn't apply to anyone else. I can only hope to learn from my own blunders. I can’t see the future, but I can choose to live without blinders on because, sometimes, if we’re paying attention, we’ll notice the caution signs. We all need the occasional distraction or the occasional treat, or sometimes the occasional bump on the head to get us motivated again. The trick is knowing when something is a distraction or a priority, a dead end road or an uphill battle worth fighting. We all fall down it’s a matter of dusting ourselves off and getting back on track.
            All I know for sure is that the next time I’m outside with my daughter, I’ll smile and watch her, and if she sees a puddle to jump in I’ll tell her, “go ahead, one more time!” She might fall down again but she’ll keep learning to get back up! Sorting out priorities from distractions is a long way out for her. Right now, all that matters is… PUDDLES ARE FUN!

Almost There... Barely Here

Life as I know it, Life as I knew it, Life as I see it 

 -through different lenses-

     As a woman of 2013 one must don many different hats. She will answer to multiple titles, and wear appropriate attire to fit the many personalities shining through while conforming to the different roles in life. With each personality, or dominant characteristic there of, comes a new perspective on things.

     Lets be real... there are times in life where we all feel like we are suffering from the exhaustion of having multiple personalities. I know it may sound politically incorrect, and you'd be right if I were talking about what the movies refer to as Multiple Personality Disorder, known now as DID or Dissociative Identity Disorder, but I'm not. I'm talking about the result of the overpowering feelings placed upon ourselves and society to be perfect. You must be a successful, responsible and driven member of the workforce, focused and cold. You must be an excellent wife or partner, warm and caring. Being a mother by age X and flawlessly avoiding any hiccups after the 9 months you have to prepare to become supermom is an absolute must. Being a mom should come naturally, it's only the most important role of your life. It will bring you the greatest joy you have ever dared dream of, and all you must do is be a homemaker/housekeeper, a bread winner, a nutritionist, a therapist, a baker, crafter, teacher and coach, a disciplinarian, one who nurtures and heals, vanquishes monsters and creates elaborate fairytales... and does it all without breaking a sweat. If you cant successfully juggle like an octopus and transition seamlessly from the lioness career woman to mamma bear and and then sex kitten while finding time to also be the social butterfly you friends expect to see, then somethings wrong. We all have multiple personalities and are lucky to have a select few we share them all with, and even let them see the real, ever so faulted a quirky real you!

      Looking through the lenses of my different personalities I gain new opinions, let go of old ideas, may face contradicting thoughts in my own head. I struggle to cope, find new hope and face reality checks on a regular basis. All of my experiences get stuffed into a blender, mixed up, pureed, and poured into a tall glass where I drink it up, and soak it in. There are times it all leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, leaving me nauseated and jaded swearing to never leave my bed again. There are other times it's so sweet I feel like I'll never get my fill. Either way it gets absorbed, sometimes filtered, sifted and sorted, but in one way or another it becomes a part of me, who I am, and who I'll be. I'm finding my way, I'm almost there but sometimes it really feels like I'm barely here. 

     This blog will be a platform for the thoughts and ideas of my many different personalities. A place for discussions and arguments, rants and raves. A place to share my experiences. I'll let you know when there's a new exciting something I've discovered and tell you about my struggles to maintain the bandages on old wounds, painful as it may be. My thoughts may be controversial at times and may also jive well with popular opinion. I'll share tricks and tools I've picked up on my journey and if I'm really lucky maybe I'll make a few friends that can offer me unbiased advise when I need it.