Falling Skies – My So-Called Life.

One of the most important things I’ve learned during my journey back to being happy is that you cannot allow anyone to – even for a moment – detour you. The negativity I’ve experienced over last 18 months prior to June — has and continues to affect my health, but I must say that things are starting to get better, but it’s a day-by-day process.

I’ve found myself, for the last few days, saying, “I can not be a part of this negativity.” That’s something that I used to say after I’d been a part of the conversation for a while and suddenly would become overwhelmed. Now, I’m finding that I’m saying it almost immediately when a conversation shifts to something negative.

My therapist said that this means that I’ve reached a point where I’m no longer willing to keep myself in a situation where a conversation or an event is rapidly approaching negativity. Last week, I found myself in a conversation about someone that, apparently, is pissing people off left and right. And I, of course, added my tw0-cents worth.

I literally could feel the impact of this conversation on my body physically – my neck and shoulders began to hurt from the tension. It’s amazing once you’ve begun to feel so much better that you can instantly realise when you need to say, “I understand what’s going on and I feel bad about; however, I cannot deal with all this negativity right now and I’m going to step away.” And what I appreciate more than anything … the people in my life – my friends, family and colleagues understanding where I’m working to get and respecting me when I pull away. 🙂

This past week was extremely tiring … meetings and supposedly well thought out designs — that had to be adjusted repeatedly in order to accommodate the space I was working on … a classroom. Yes, even classrooms need exceptional design to enhance the environment for the teacher and students who’ll be living there for the year. My work there is not complete, but it’s really close! 🙂 I’ll be glad when I finish that little project and move on to bigger and better things!

I know that I talk about my TiVO a great deal and yes, I’m going to talk about it again … you see, TiVO is my friend because he lets me watch my shows without commercials. Why is that so important? Because I don’t have to watch any of the political nonsense being spewed by both sides. I rarely engage in political ~~discussions~~ debates with people who have their minds made up before they even initiate or join a conversation.

My voting method is simple: I vote against anyone who believes it’s okay to put the burden of the economy on the backs of the middle class; the dismantling of environmental protection; bash public servants (teachers, police, fire fighters, paramedics, social workers, et al.) on a regular, on-going basis and when they do not pay their fair share of taxes based upon their income (in and outside the US). End of story!

So, tonight – another of my favourite shows comes to an end for the season … Falling Skies has been better than I imagined it would be and I love the fact that Wil Wheaton hosts an after-show panel.

The second season has been better and apparently, tonight the last five minutes are touted as being sensational and setting the stage for an upswing in S3. Although, I’ve liked the show, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop — you know, Steven Spielberg’s name is on this show and so, I’m expecting things to shoot to the next level really quickly!

Speaking of shows … several of you have emailed about The Closer and well, I’ve had time to digest the final episode from last week … We all knew it would go out with a bang, but it literally did.

I figured that it would have to be related to someone from her past and I had thought about the rapist-lawyer, but I thought the bang would be that Brenda Leigh Johnson would be named as the Chief of Police.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who thought that would be the end of the show – right? It was bad enough that her mother died — that was a huge shock, but when she walked into the bedroom with the cup of coffee and was rambling without a response from her mother — well, I think that caught everyone off guard.

My guess was that she’d make guest appearances on Major Crimes as the Chief and she could focus on other acting projects. I did watch Major Crimes, but I’m not sold on it yet and maybe I’ll never be sold on it 100% … but I’m giving the show the benefit-of-doubt for a while.

I am sad that Rafa has withdrawn from the US Open, but I can certainly understand why … his knee has to be given the time to heal properly if he’s going to continue his career. It will be weird to watch without him playing, but if I’m pulling for anybody in this tourney, I’m pulling for Andy Murray now. I think his finally winning at Wimbledon — well, the Olympics, but on the Wimbledon grounds mind you — will give him a boost. Hopefully, Rafa recovers fully and returns in January for the Australian Open.

I continue to be saddened by the slaughter of the innocent people of Syria who want nothing more than freedom. If there were peace in the Middle East, the US and the EU would have already gone in to stop this bloodshed; however, because of the hostilities and threats made daily to Israel by various anti-Israeli militant and terrorist groups – it is impossible to step in for fear of attacks on Israel.

I believe that the continued defections of top Syrian leaders and military leaders will bring about the fall of Bashar Hafez al-Assad and his regime — and I hope it’s soon. It’s a shame that religion and politics play such a deadly role in the lives of human beings across this planet every single day. My prayers and thoughts go out to the people of Syria.

Okay, I have a bajillion things to do today and I’ve procrastinated long enough at this point!