Posts tagged better life

“Please, dear, I need your support. I need you to help me to control myself. When I reach for a cookie, will you, please stop me?”

Dateline: Jail.

He loosened the shackles, which has helped with the pain. He cuffed me in front, even used those cuffs that are fuzzy inside like you buy at XXX novelty stores, both kindnesses I particularly appreciated since my captivity will continue for two more weeks and a day. He even gave me menus for take out food.

Most people see him as a kind man. I did, too. Once.

Not anymore. Not since he More >

The Self-Inflicted Pizza Bomb Incident. Stress, Get a Grip, Part 2

The Self-Inflicted Pizza Bomb Incident. Stress. Get a Grip, Part 2

Dateline: North Austin Medical Center. Not my second home yet. But close to being my second DFW Airport.

Set-up: To bring you up to speed, check the Banquet of Consequences.

So, I’m in the office of the gastro-enterologist. He’s showing me pictures of the ulcers in my esophagus and stomach. (Professional driver. Do not try this at home.) I lean in and brightly ask, “Didn’t you mean to say that a very tiny percentage of people end up with a fatal self-inflicted pizza bomb?”

That’s when he started thumbing through medical books to provide me More >

Stress. The Woman Who Couldn’t Stop Giving Her Opinion

Dateline: San Antonio Riverwalk La Mansion Hotel, Las Canarias Restaurant, International Branch Office. I once shared breakfast here with Jerry Seinfeld. Well, not exactly shared. It wasn’t like we were at the same table or anything. But he was eating from the buffet, I was eating from the buffet . . .

Setup: Do You Take Your Duty to Point Out What’s Wrong with World Seriously Enough?

Before continuing, please read the following out loud.

“I am as big a pain in the behind as every other person on the planet, if not worse. I More >

On a High, Part Two of Love, Money, and Stress

Dateline: Main Location, Austin, Texas. Suzi and Sammie Davis, Jr. at the ready. To accurately keep up with these wild hearts in Vegas, read Episode One first.

Set-up. Fusion…When one person is so merged with another person that he or she cannot make decisions or moves if these moves or decisions might their partner anxious. Usually, along with experiencing great anxiety when the other is displeased, we are afraid that if we continue in our path the relationship will change, or fall apart completely.

Remember, no judgment as we return to Mr. and Mrs.Travis in Las Vegas. When we slip into being judgmental, we see More >

How Much MONEY Are You Willing to THROW Away Chasing SELF-Esteem? “The Hotbox Incident, Pt.2”

Featured content: IF ONLY I WERE RICH…I WOULDN’T HAVE ALL THIS ANXIETY…

Dateline: American Airlines flight…Austin to Los Angeles

I remember a study in graduate school measuring how much effort the average person will put out to fit in with a group… The study showed that we humans are most likely to sacrifice our ideals and spend money in order to be or try to be part of a group that is slightly out of our league. Usually, we maintain a delusion that the people in the group we wish we were a part of ….possess certain superior qualities. Or, sillier still, we More >

Mexico City: Maturity Proving Ground

Dateline: Mexico City Hilton Branch World Headquarters.

Let’s put it this way. The teenage police officers wear bullet-proof vests.

Mexico City provides an excellent ground zero for testing one’s ability to base decisions on facts or emotions. Make an emotion-driven mistake here and…well, you’ve seen the news.

No way I’m going to miss all my favorite places, which just happen to include Federal Police Headquarters and the Congressional Building where, at the moment, the president is calling for support in the effort to wipe out the drug cartels sucking the life out of this country.

Granted, even coming here was an Emotional Guidance System-driven More >

Fling some money and Fly, Baby, Fly

There I was in Vegas… with a surly waitress and some crummy little shrimp and… I was as disappointed as a four-year-old staring out the window at the rain. See the “Surly Waitress” incident.

What to do? What to do? sought direction. I called on my two guidance systems.

The Emotional Guidance System said: You are being a brat here. This meal costs twenty-five dollars, you CANNOT just leave an expensive meal. You’re making too much of this! You are too picky. Hundreds of thousands, no, millions of people around the world, are going to bed hungry, and you, you are turning away from More >