Posts

First Loves

Image
       Do you remember your first love? Not necessarily your first kiss. But the first person you felt was the one? Most people do. I have had many people I have thought were the"one". But the problem we face is that people are so busy being what they thought the other person wanted, that finding out who they really are is impossible.  At one point in history, the use of makeup was grounds for divorce. Men would marry a woman, take her home and find the hag that actually resided under the war paint. It was very deceptive. And with the advent of transsexuals becoming so prevalent in today's society, things really haven't changed much. You just never can tell anything by appearances any longer.  Appearances are a part of every relationship. Without some attraction, people would never connect. Attraction is a very individual thing. I have a twin. We were raised in a Christian conservative home. Very fortunate to have two loving supportive parents. But we have very differ

Is WeightLloss Hard for Somebody with Learning Disabilities?

Image
I think almost everyone struggles with their weight at some point in their life.  I have learning disabilities.  When I was in school in the 70's and 80's there were few accepted diagnoses for children to help them with their struggles in learning.  However, those of us with ADD, ADHD, Autism, dyslexia, and other forms of learning challenges, have one thing in common.  Once we are focused on a task or goal, there is little that will stop us from attaining it.  Sometimes those goals are difficult for others to follow or understand.  But to us, they make perfect sense.   Weight loss is a challenge for nearly everyone.  One of the things that you have to accept is that for most of your day you are going to be hungry.  Once you accept the fact that in order to lose weight you have to feel a little hungry, and establish within your own mind, that you are going to distract yourself from that hunger and accept it as the price for reaching your goal, hitting your goal weight becomes at

Preventing Divorce Through the Single Life

Image
Weird way to see the problem, right? Perhaps not. One of the biggest problems in any relationship is communication. Or perhaps it would be better explained as a lack of proper communication. As mentioned in previous posts, I have been married and divorced three times. Looking back, the fundamental problem in my opinion, revolved around simple communication. Communication is different for everyone. Some people get the majority of information they are looking for from body language and facial expression. Having been divorced three times I can honestly say that the majority of miscommunication or misinformation that I received from my ex-wives was 100% verbal. I've never understood saying one thing while meaning another. It's very deceptive. We all know the old cliches. If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. If she asked you if that's your final answer, she's actually giving you the opportunity to change your answer because she already knows the correct answer ac

Dating in School

Image
Dating is a real challenge for people with learning challenges of any age.  I had my first "girlfriend" in elementary school. With today's political heretics attempting to expose sex to elementary school age children, it is a very different arena compared to what I faced. We really didn't know anything about sex, and that is exactly as it should be. Kids should be innocent of sex. We understood a little about gender. Boys and Girls just had different parts. But we liked each other. So we played together on the playground. Sat with each other at lunch. And talked to each other when we could. I can't remember what all we talked about. But I imagine Transformers, princesses, Thundercats, Disney movies, cartoons, and coloring were popular. I mentioned my twin earlier. We did try to support each other as much as we could. But at times our relationship was strained due to my behaviors at home. This young lady was the first non teacher who I felt paid more attention to w

Learning to Love Real Music

Image
Do you have a favorite song? I have one for every situation. Our likes and dislikes change over time. But I think the music that we were exposed to during our formative years is the genre which follows us throughout life the most. I am sure there is some science that verifies this thought. As a RN, you would think I could quote some growth and development aspect of this phenomenon. But we haven't gotten to my adult disability. I have Hashimotos encephalopathy. Not thyroiditis. It affects memory, among many other things. I have had two strokes. So, much of what I learned in my nursing career and education is not readily accessible. It is still there, but sometimes it is hard to find.  But music was, and is, always there for me. In every Good or bad situation. My title today was about real music. I joined the school band in Middle School. With the dyslexia, learning to read music was nearly impossible. I would have to hear my instruments part before anything on the music sheet made a

Reading, Dyslexia, and the fine art that is Dungeons & Dragons

Image
  Up until 2011 reading has been an integral part of life for me. Even today I still struggle with reading. There are a combination of different reasons for today's issues concerning my current status. But I had found in reading a way to escape the aggravations of my education shortcomings. There are things in life that we do because we have to, and this was my biggest conflict with the modern American education system. Learning wasn't about what we wanted to do, or what we wanted to know. The entire system is designed so that everyone has the same level of Education once they exit High School. As far as mass education goes this may be a good thing, but what is happening to our artists, our musicians, our writers of great literature? Most of these people throughout history have flourished because of the latitude they had in their lives to express their innate ability to learn and grow through whatever craft they chose. Todays world is centered on everyone fitting into the box o

Boy Scouts

Image
My brother and I were both in the Boy Scouts.  While today there is much controversy concerning the scouts, in the 80's it was a great time to be a scout.  There was a handy group of us who were friends at school.  There are a multitude of reasons for our friend group to have been established.  One factor was brothers.  Two of the boys in our class had brothers two grades ahead of us.  It was a very different time.  The cold war with Russia recently ended.  The Wall in Germany had just fell.  and the Original Red Dawn movie had been released.  It was also a time when people had real civic and national pride in the US.  Nothing like the turmoil of today.  The "progressive screamers" were there, but as a nation, we were still adjusting to the new world organization with our main enemy since WWII falling apart.  Here are a couple of books about that time, the wall, and Russia breaking up. The Berlin Wall in Germany The Fall of the Soviet Union Everything 80's Big hair ba