Memory seat

I know some cars already have this feature, because I remember reading about it somewhere and scoffing my BUTT off at it… at the time… however, recent events have caused me to… reevaluate my position on the Automatic Memory Seat, or AMS for short…

SHINY!

Because the driver seat in the Silver Flush (my mini-van) has about 45 different directional type buttons, you can buzz yourself up, you can buzz yourself down, you can in it, out it, right it, left it, diagonally SCOOCH it, bring it around the bend, and my personal favorite, the Lopptee-Loooo…

It takes me a conservative 18 minutes to get my seat right where I want it. I work those buttons like a pro, MMMMMEEEP, MRRRRP, ZZZZCCCHHHH, until I find it, IT, the Sweet Spot,   where my lower back feels supported, I can reach the pedals, and hey, what the heck, I might even be able to see over the DASH as an added bonus…. ahhhh the Sweet Spot…

And then you know what happens, here comes my husband, GALOOMP, GALOOMP, taking my car down the hill for the Sunday paper… Here he goes MMMMP,MRRRRRRRRP,KABLMMMMMP!  And there goes the Sweet Spot. grrrrr…

Memory seat… I covet thee…

Hey, you guys don’t know, I recently trained to be a CPS, onaccounta everyone else I know has a 3-letter acronym to follow their name, and I will  not be denied, is why…

Well, that was one of the reasons.,..

What’s a CPS? It stands for Certified Peer Specialist, and the nicey-nice definition is this:

“Peer support is a system of giving and receiving help founded on key principles of respect, shared responsibility, and mutual agreement of what is helpful. Peer support is not based on psychiatric models and diagnostic criteria. It is about understanding another’s situation empathically through the shared experience of emotional and psychological pain. When people find affiliation with others whom they feel are “like” them, they feel a connection. This connection, or affiliation, is a deep, holistic understanding based on mutual experience where people are able to “be” with each other without the constraints of traditional (expert/patient) relationships.” ~Shery Mead

What that translates into, basically, is: “I’m mental, you’re mental, can we talk?!  That’s the working definition.

So I ventured into the beautiful Laurel Highlands for two weeks of training, ya’ll it was GRUELLING, they made us sit in CRUEL CHAIRS

 for 8 hours a day, and eat rich deserts, such as cheesecake and chocolate mouse with oreo crumbles. Coffee was on tap 24/7, which means I pretty much wired myself STUPID the entire time. 

But I learned so much in those 10 very looooong days… Sigh… I really did. I want to take some things away from that experience…

Anita. One of the trainers. I ended up with a giant Girl Crush on Anita. The funny way her shoulders shake when she laughs. Which is often.  I kept thinking, she looks like something straight out of Jim Henson’s workshop. A cute little muppet of a person. The way she hunches down into herself and peers up and over the eyeglasses perched on her nose when she’s listening. The way she has an answer, not matter how meandering and long-winded and oh-help-me, LOST the person on the other end was posing the “question”, it doesn’t matter, Anita seems to take some thread of what they were saying, and come up with a response that just… well it’s probably total bullshit, but it SOUNDS good!  She is an amazing, insightful, diplomatic, and brilliant person, and I wish I could just listen to her stories and watch her speak, oh, I don’t know, maybe once or twice a week… every week…

I told you! GIGANTICAL girl crush!

One thing she said that I wanted to take away was this: she said this work gets IN YOu and ON YOU. She said you start speaking the language, and you start… wearing it…

That’s what I want.

Sigh.

I would also like a job now. As a CPS. Too bad I don’t live in Philly, is all I can say about that. Pittsburgh!!! You got some catching up to do!!! Get with the PA Initiative!!! You know, I’m always bragging about how progressive and how GREEN and how wonderfully LIVEABLE Pittsburgh is, right? Pittsburgh? But Philly is shaming us in this instance! HEll, ALTOONA is shaming us!

Meanwhile, I still have my sub certificate. Back to school for me too. Boo.

Flowere Childe and bf  have moved into the rental, officially! It’s not a perfect situation, because for very very complicated, excrutiating, heart-breaking reasons, it caused a huge rift with Beane…  BUT!!! BUT!!! I am going to focus on the positive, and hope, HOPE, PRAY, and light those candles and blow those bubbles, my friends, because I am not giving up! On either of my daughters. I’m just not. I’m not going anywhere.  Time, right? Time heals… stuff. This is a good place to insert a quote about resentments:

Life is too short to hold a grudge, also too long.  ~Robert Brault

The positive is that she’s right there.  2 miles up the street. The kids can see her too, she stops up the house sometimes, or Franki and Zack visit her little house… I dropped Franki off at the tattoo shop the other day, to hang out with her. Zack plays video games with her BF, and they talk about Star Wars Legos and other nerdy stuff… She has 4 cats in that little house too, which, I’m not wild about that, but they are nice cats and the kids have each picked out a favorite. .. it’s just… well… it’s not perfect, but it’s really nice to see her, and to see her keeping her head above water, going to work, and apprenticing and doing what she needs to do… I’m grateful that she and I were able to ride it out… that terrible break… the pain… I couldn’t have done it if she weren’t sometimes the first to extend a hand…or an apology…  She taught me a few things, that kid…

Now I’m all schmoopey.. boo…

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Time for some Poppy!

This is Pops on vacation, we took her into Waldemeer Park in Erie, but it was a scorcher, and her being black and all, we didn’t want her becoming one with the hot pavement… (have I rationalized the stroller enough?)

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