Stuff

Home—

Things are going okay, I suppose. Nothing is wrong between my husband and myself; things are great, actually. We’re able to be together more even though I’m still working like crazy. He’s been very supportive with work.

Grandma isn’t doing so well. She’s spent most of this month (May) in the hospital. From what her doctors say, it isn’t going to get better, only worse. The worst. Death. They give her two weeks to two months. So far she’s doing okay, but we’re all on edge.

Not only that, but the Children’s Home Society is trying to take my niece away from my grandmother. She isn’t going to let that happen and neither am I or my husband. Grandma is ready to move away to prevent it from happening.

My brother is getting married, finally, to his baby mama of four years. They’ve been together as long as my husband and I have been, just a month later. They finally decided after two kids it was time. I’m happy for them.

Work—

Things aren’t going well. I’m mostly happy, but not. I can’t say more than that.

Magazine—

It’s going great! We just landed our first BIG interview. Former American Idol contestant Britnee Kellogg! She talks about her family, her budding career, and more.

We’ve sold a total of 3 copies, I believe, so I count that as good.

Writing—

Fine. Its there, it isn’t going anywhere. I get only inspiration for short stories at the moment, but none of the novels. So I have a lot of stories for the short story collection The Haunted Third Shift, and nothing for any of the novels which, in a later blog, I will update.

At the moment I’m doubting that I’ll get all those novels done by the end of the year. There’s also an un-named novel planned for November for National Novel Writing Month, but that shouldn’t take long to complete. It can’t. I want to be able to do it this year.

Reviews—

The season finale reviews are coming soon. I want to be able to watch them again, maybe take notes on what goes on. I’ll have reviews for Scandal, Once Upon A Time, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and more.

I haven’t forgotten about them and I’m hoping to be able to keep up doing them all season long next year. Even if I have to take notes and write them up as I watch them and type them up when I get to work. I’ll figure it out somehow.

I think that’s everything. I’ll try to keep up with the blogs. It’s getting difficult. I may have to lose the other blogs and just keep the main one. We’ll see.

I’m Not Gay… I’m a Proud Supporter of Gay Marriage

I’m Not Gay…

I’m a Proud Supporter of Gay Marriage

By Marie Garcia

Rainbow Flag

For a long time now all I’ve been hearing about is gay marriage. I’m not sick of hearing it, but I’m worried that it will never happen in all 50 states. There are currently 9 states (Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Washington, Vermont, and Washington DC) that allow same sex marriages. While others only offer domestic partnerships, civil unions, and more. The majority of the country is just plain anti-gay marriage.

          I find this very disappointing.

          In the Constitution of the United States it clearly says that all men are created equal and yet no one believes in. Those of us in power to change that won’t because of those who choose to ignore that probably more than half the country’s population are gay.

          I want to live in an America where my gay friends and family can get married; where they have the same benefits as every straight man and woman in this county. One of my favorite quotes, for lack of a better term, is this: If the gay and lesbian communities wish to be as unhappy as the rest of us, let them get married! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a happily married woman and there are some who have said that quote or something similar to me over the last couple of years.

          I have a great-uncle who passed away in 1990 before there was all of this buzz about gay marriage. When I heard that Massachusetts was going to allow same sex couples to marry, I admit it freely, I cried my eyes out and I can recall saying I wish Uncle Steve could have lived to see this! I think he would have happy to marry his boyfriend.

Gay Marriage Equality Symbol

          I guess I can thank my uncle for making me so open minded about the gay community, though I would like to think that I would be open minded even without his influences. One of the best memories I have is walking along the beach with my great-uncle (my grandmother’s brother) and my aunt (my mother’s sister). They had me between them and I was carrying a black garbage bag. This man walked between us and Uncle Steve whipped his bald head around and said, “Damn that man has a nice ass!” My aunt looked at him and said, “Uncle Steve!” To which, he said, “What?” Completely confused. My aunt said, “Sarah is right there!” He shrugged and we kept walking.

          To this day, I can recall that moment and I just figured it was another part of life. Who cared if he didn’t like women? It was his choice and as long as he was happy, who was I to judge?

          After he had passed away, everyone was at the beach, and Grandma had gathered all of us kids in the living room (we had a beach house) and asked us to sit. We did and she told us that he was gay. I looked at her and said, “So?”

          I love my Grandmother and I know she loved her brother, but she is still one of the most anti-gay people I have ever met. I had her tell me once that if any of her children were gay that she would disown them. I just looked at her and shook my head. I can understand, slightly, where she is coming from. She’s from a very different time and she is very religious. What she needs to realize is that this isn’t 1950 or 1960 anymore and that gay people are just that, people.

          There is nothing wrong with them and I shame anyone who thinks so. Whether there is a ‘gay gene’ or if it’s a choice, doesn’t matter; as long as the person is happy that’s what matters the most.

          I know this is all over the place and I can’t help that. It’s how I think and I write how I thing. So, I apologize for that.

          Back to my point, I think I had one; anyway I’m for gay marriage because it’s only fair. I think that everyone should be able to marry whomever they want, with the exception of those people who want to marry their pet goat or cow. That’s just weird.

Novel Updates and More

          So I finally decided to sit down once again and do a blog. I can’t believe that I haven’t been able to keep this up. I mean, true, I don’t have a lot to talk about, but there is always something that can be mentioned. I have so much going on right now.

The magazine

1. My writing
2. Editing
3. Hanging out with friends
4. Spending time with my husband
5. Work
6. Other family

          That’s a lot of stuff and I rarely have time to keep it all up. It’s the reason why the blogs suffer.

          So I need to update you on the books that I have in the works, what’s done, and what’s on the horizon.

Old Books to be Completed:

1. Life and Death
2. Suicide Killer
3. Dreamland Theater
4. Sai
5. Endless Soul

Old Books Completed:

1. Twelve Months
2. Weird

New Books to be Completed:

1. Better Days
2. Come Travel with Me
3. The Haunted Third Shift (Short Story Collection)
4. The Evil Ones
5. Powerful Desire (Poetry Collection)

New Short Stories:

The Crash

New Poetry:

Sunny Side Up

Sequels to Short Stories:

1. Perfect
2. Crimson Lips
3. Fighting
4. The Voyeur Saves the Day
5. Silent Pain
6. Loathing
7. Scorned

          Those are just the ones I remember, though it helped that I wrote them down. The older books I want to complete are Life and Death, Suicide Killer (the next book in the Delta Files series), Dreamland Theater, Sai, and Endless Soul. The latter will take time. I need to a ton of research on it.

          I suppose that’s all, for now. Time to work on the reviews, maybe.

Seriously Lax

        I know that I’ve been seriously lax in keeping up with all of my blogs. There have been a lot of things going on at home and with the magazine.

At Home:

·        Grandma has been in and out of the hospital most of the year. She has been diagnosed with colon cancer and her prognosis with that is good; however, her heart, lungs, and kidneys are not faring as well. Her kidneys are in full failure and she has been put on a very strict renal diet: no salt, no tomatoes, and so on and so on. If she does what she is supposed to i.e. avoiding salt and going to dialysis four times a week she can live for another seven years. On the flip side, if she doesn’t, then the prognosis is days.

·        Both Adult Protective Services (APS) and Child Protective Services (CPS) are now involved. APS will be coming in regularly to make sure the house is suitable for Grandma and that things are calm and that fighting is kept to a minimum. CPS will be helping certain individuals getting a place of their own and moving out. Hopefully that cuts down on the fighting.

GZine:

·        During the holidays I got behind with both the magazine and the blogs. I finally got the third and fourth issues published.

·        The fourth issue of the magazine is out. The issue contains an interview with my friend and our travel guru, Crystal Steinmueller and how she dealt with the death and subsequent years since the passing of her twins’ death. It also includes an article about the seventeenth anniversary of the death of the secretary of our middle school and my thoughts on everything.

·        Working on the next issue.

        Hopefully I will be able to keep going with this blog. I’m not making any promises, but I really intend to.

Seventeen Years Later

Seventeen Years…

          Joyce M. Hansen was taken far too soon. Seventeen years have passed since her husband shot and pistol whipped her to death in their home in Brush Prairie, Washington. Seventeen years since her son lost both his parents. I’ve heard so many things about why her husband murdered her. From what I have heard, he’d always been abusive and she’d finally had enough. She’d finally gotten the courage to leave him.

Joyce before I knew her.

          I can remember those last days of the school year and how excited Joyce was. She always looked forward to the Field Day (we all did). It was the one day that the school was divided and forced to play against one another. Blue vs. Red. If you had Joyce on your team especially in volleyball, you were bound to win. She was so competitive and excited. It was always fun to watch her play any sport as she was so athletic.

          Whenever I would go to the office after lunch, I served lunch more often than not, and I would watch her interact with the students. Joyce was always so loved by the student. She was like a second mom. In some cases, she was a third or forth mom.

          It’s been seventeen years and I can still remember that night. It was the night of March 17, 1996 around 9 p.m. My grandmother called me and my sister into the living room. It was past bedtime and Mrs. Morton, my sister’s seventh grade homeroom teacher, had been the one to call.

          Grandma sat us down and just told us. At first we were confused because Joyce Hansen wasn’t the only Joyce we knew. We had a neighbor with the same name. Once it had been clarified, it was so much worse.

Her parking spot memorial.

          I think the following day was the worst. So many of the students didn’t know yet and they didn’t want to believe it when they found out. Who could blame them?  To be a student and trying to learn anything was pointless. I’m sure to be a teacher and trying to teach was pointless as well. There was so much crying, not only from the student, but the teachers and other staff members as well. Boys and girls alike were crying. Even the ‘tough’ guys were fighting a losing battle. Many of the students called home and had their parents come to get them. Many of those who stayed sought counseling. Others just tried to get through the day.

          Over the following days and weeks flowers, stuffed animals, cards, poetry, and more flowed from her desk and down into the library. Even into her parking space.

Some of what my fellow Pleasant Valley Alumni
had to say about  Joyce soon after her death.

          Her memorial service was packed to standing room only. 1500+ people, if I remember correctly, attended the service held at nearby Prairie High School. It was heart wrenching as students, faculty, and parents gathered around her son and remaining family members.

          For me, and maybe many of us leaving the school that year, it was difficult. For my entire four years, as I got to know her, I couldn’t wait for Joyce to hand me my ‘diploma’ for completing middle school. Don’t get me wrong, Pat was great, but it was an almost bittersweet moment.

          Over the last seventeen years I have thought of Joyce fondly and often.

          I wandered what became of her son. Does he have the career he always wanted? Is he married with kids? A single dad? Would Joyce be proud of him?

          There isn’t a day that goes by when I curse our judicial system. I get her husband—murderer—was 52 years old and a former cop, but to give him 20 years was completely atrocious.

          How is that justice?

Joyfully buoyant and fun

Overly protective of family and friends

Yearning for freedom

Chances that were never taken

Joyce as I knew her.

Essential to young minds blossoming

Managing the office was a plus

Happy, always happy

Average in beauty she was not

Nagging wasn’t something she did

Sensing what young people wanted

Evolved so much more than the rest of us

Never forgotten

          How in the world could this have happened to someone like Joyce? This is something that I have been asking myself for seventeen years. How could Joyce be dead and at the hand of her own husband? Why would he do that? How could he do that?

          I’m sure that there wasn’t just one thing that caused him to do this, but it seems that because she was leaving him was the main one. Holly Meyers (Sonners) just sent me some of the articles about her death and they are ones that I hadn’t read before.

The inside of her memorial program.

          Did he love her so little that he had to do this? Did he love so much that was why? Was it a case of if he can’t have her no one can? Did he hate her so much? Did he love Mike, their son, so little hat he wanted him to be without both of his parents?

          There are so many unanswered questions that I doubt there will ever be an answer to. The only person who can answer it is Ron Hansen and I doubt he ever will.

A Life Lesson from my Husband

How to Listen to a Woman

1.     Ask her how her day was

2.     Tell her she dresses up nicely and smells good

3.     Tell her she was right (sometimes she’s wrong) tell her she is always right

4.     Respect her and she’ll respect you

5.     Never hit her because she can make your life a living hell

6.     If she has a bad day tell her its okay, hug her, and a smile will appear

7.     Show her you love all the time

8.     Spend time with her and she’ll be happy

9.     Tell her you love her

10.            If she’s got kids and you’re dating her, say I’ve got your back through the hard times and the easy times

Tons of Updates

            It’s been a long time since I’ve written a blog! I was getting so good a making sure I had a blog every day or every week, too. I was so proud of myself. Don’t feel bad, though, readers. All of my blogs have suffered. There is so much going on.

            I completed Twelve Months and Weird. I also completed two new collection books: Egotistical Mama (poetry) and A Perfectly Secret Affair (short story). Things got a little difficult last year when I was competing in the National Novel Writing Month (November) with my other novels, but if you saw the list I had to begin with you’d realize that it wouldn’t have mattered. My goal is to complete every novel on the list before the end of the year. That’s a lot of books to finish writing. I think I can do it though. Look for the list later.

            Not only have things been happening with the magazine (see the blurb below), but things have been going on at work and at home.

            Things at work are constantly changing. New general manager, new supervisor, new people, and new rules; tons of craziness.

            At home things aren’t any better. Grandma has cancer.

Reviews

            Thinking back as to why I created this blog, I’m not sure that I should have. I don’t review books, movies, or TV shows as often as I would like. I’m going to try to be more diligent about it, but don’t be surprised if you only get a review of a season premiere or season finale of a TV show. Maybe a series premiere; stay tuned for my reviews of the final episodes of Fringe and Private Practice. I’ll be reviewing American Horror Story: Asylum as well. Plus a season long review of the former show as well and thoughts on the upcoming season of the same show.

            Also please don’t be surprised if you get a smattering of episode reviews throughout a season as well. These will be ones that just caught my attention and that I feel like reviewing. Keep you as updated as I possibly can.

Novels to be Completed

1. Life and Death
2. Suicide Killer
3. Dreamland Theater
4. Sai
5. Endless Soul

GZine

            A lot has been going on with GZine lately. We’re going on our fourth issue and we’ve even sold a copy of the 3^rd issue! It’s not much, but it’s a start.

            Issue Four will contain the contests from issues 5 and 6. The explanation is below.

            From now on GZine will be released every three months. That way there is more content and a better shot at making the magazine even better than it was before. There will be still be columns, recipes, reviews, questions, and more for you all to enjoy. As soon as I have the information, you will know more about it.

            Issue 4 of GZine will be released March 1. Be prepared.