Writing Reality

  March 27 th , 1998 The date marks the Friday 27 years ago when my running friend Tommy B. and I set off on a running goal together. He was getting off from his midnight shift job with the water company and my first two morning clients had cancelled, and I still had an eight-hour day of work ahead of me, so I was relieved as such. The day before Tommy B. and I decided to meet at the Ridgewood Duck Pond. We’d been discussing—that someday we would like to run forty miles. Both of us had never ran more than 36 miles all in one run. Funny enough, Tommy B. and I had only met two years prior via having a mutual acquaintance, Nancy. One day Nancy said to me, “There’s this guy you could run your long runs with. He’s like the male version of you Jody.” I almost fell over laughing as we’d ran together that day. I figured, no one could possibly be as quirky and scientific minded in their running as I had been—for it was not normal. Yet, Nancy was correct. Tommy B. was the male running ve...

  “Lions, and Tigers and Bears. Oh my!” Many of us are aware of that famous line from a movie made during The Great Depression and produced in 1939. It was called “The Wizard of Oz”. I thought about that line this morning as I had a day off both jobs, only to turn to my laptop for my writing business. Every day there are always multiple things to write about. Working in two different fields outside of the home gives me tons to consider and to write about. I’ll start with comedy. Yes, comedy is what I see at the marketplace I work at. Tons of it. I quite often have to contain myself. However, every once in a while, I’ll start to giggle to myself while stocking shelves, or something to that nature. When I could be most in my thoughts as those thoughts begin to merge as I check dates, pull stock, do freezer and cooler work and so forth. One of my high school friends from the 1970s, a brilliant woman, a lawyer I’d just gotten reacquainted with through social media—I’d wondered if s...

  In speaking with a dear friend I’d say as of the end of December 2024, we would know each other for 26.2 years—that’s marathoner-talk for you that don’t know. But we’ve been ultrarunners. So, I cannot not claim a friendship until it’s 26.3 years or so. For those hardcore ultrarunners it’s 50 kilometers or equal to about 31 years, that’s in ultra years. However, I digress into such subject matter currently on the docket. Speaking of dockets, I treat most conversations with friends and acquaintances as if they were clients in business. I apply a form of HIPPA regulations to most of our conversations. For the most part they remain confidential. That being said, it seems that many get the vibe that I won’t repeat any personal information, even if it were considered innocuous. Including turning off my phone, or not having it around me at all as we speak. Yes, that is the paranoia of how I usually operate. I sense most things that are said to me are sensitive in nature. Even if I r...

  Last night as I worked late at a market, something rare occurred. There were four of us left in the then closed market cleaning up. I’d finished cleaning the bathrooms, as our manager had worked on collecting all the recyclables, and compostables along with other items, some to be taken out to containers outside of the marketplace. We had one person facing and helping the manager get items ready for shipments and stocking in the morning. Another person after assisting the manager with the other closing operations for the night, she then began to check food bank and waste items in. Eventually, there were two of us in the same location of the store. As I was then working on cleaning up the help desk area, washing dishes, cleaning coffee items and such. This other person was a well-educated woman, who was a physical therapist. And as some may know I’m a licensed massage therapist for medical purposes. Currently she isn’t practicing, and I just got back six weeks ago to my therapy ...

I don't think any civilian who hasn't served this country feels the level of rage I feel. I'll tell you what it's equal to. My rage could murder the entire Russian Army and Putin 3x over. Yes. Can you feel that? However #47 and his spineless GOP and supporters want me to be stifled. I won't be. I'm patient. When you've witnessed suffering as a child from men. When your victim's rights were violated by the state's parole board because of the money and whiteness of men....  Neither would anyone from the NOW organization support me... which I found out later they could've. Yet, they convinced me that no lawyer did I need to protect my victim's rights. Only later to find out via the "Elizabeth Smart" case that I had the right to have a lawyer, one of course I couldn't afford; however,  the NOW organization could've help me there, even if only for an hour. Yes, it was about money. Too, the prosecutor assigned was a misogynist, a...