Tag: DailyPrompt

The Animal Within

~ JodiLea

What is your spirit animal?

Ha! Hah! Hee! HaHa! Oh, you’re serious?

I have thought about this over the years. The animal I can closely relate to is The Taz. Yes, the obnoxious, drooling, grunting tornado in Looney Tunes cartoons. This might surprise you depending on how well you know me.

When I watched Bugs Bunny and his friends, I could hardly wait for Taz to show up. I loved watching him be self-ish, pigging out, and completely out of control. I yearned to be able to do that – let it all go. Express and not repress. To throw a tantrum because things were just not my way.

I can only explain it like this:
Since the age of 8 and a half, our family dynamic has changed drastically. My little sister (aged 5) was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. She was the fragile one with a frightening condition.

My mom now had to become the family nurse. My dad worked full-time and was also working on his college and Masters degrees. Sis needed constant monitoring and care. Back then, there were no blood test strips or meters. No pumps. One had to pee in a cup and dip a ketone strip to determine if ketones were present in the urine. If they were, your glucose was too high, and dosages needed to be changed. The ketone test would not tell you if you were too low. Lows were determined by symptoms of insulin shock.

Fun times. Not.

I was promoted to “the healthy child,” even though I was prone to pneumonia and had serious asthma. Diabetes trumped all other illnesses combined. I understood that this meant I would be second in line. For attention, help with homework, and many things I had not thought of – yet.

I resented that they expected perfect behavior from me. I was always a disappointment. Yet, I kept striving to be their perfect daughter. I recognize this behavior now, thanks to my therapist. She told me that I was the queen of self-abuse. I needed to learn from my behavior and quit running full force into that brick wall. I exhausted myself trying to please the unpleasable.

Okay, how did I get from talking about Taz to my therapist? If you are still “with me,” I will wrap up this spirit animal thing by saying that I hope to have better manners than Taz when my jaw and teeth finally get fixed and I can chew again. But, just in case I’m a whirling dervish, keep your limbs out of the aisle.

TTFN

The Look of Love

~ JodiLea ~ 2 Comments

What have you learned in your life about love?

There are many degrees of love.

I thought no love could be stronger than my love for my daughter. Until my granddaughter was born. It is like deja vu all over again, but you have a lot more fun this time around. I had never felt such immediate and overwhelming joy about a person before.

Cats or Dogs? Most likely, you have a preference for one over the other. If you can’t tolerate either, I feel sorry for you. You have a giant void in your life that you are unaware of. If you travel a lot or have allergies, get a fish. Pets are the only friends you can count on to listen to you and not tell anyone later.

Personally, I do not do cats. Aside from being allergic to their dander, cats withhold their affection and think they are superior to you. Who needs that? A dog thinks you are the greatest person in the world. They adore you. Although they can be needy of your attention – to the point of not letting you get anything done, you feel flattered and a bit grateful. When I get annoyed beyond thought, I give in and tell my dog, “OK, I’m going to sit down now and do nothing.” She will happily escort me to my chair. After a back scratch and an ear rub, she happily lies at my feet and snoozes.

Then there is love for your fellow man. Jesus told his disciples to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:29-33)
He did not mean only love the people on your street, but anyone you meet. And yes, he meant that annoying (and extremely LOUD) family down the block.

Romantic love is exciting and happy. It’s emotional, overly sensitive, and heart-wrenching. Love hurts. It wounds. It scars. Mmmm that reminds me of a song. If you know the one I am thinking about, you are not so young.

Unrequited romantic love is a one-sided love affair that is only on your side. These are detrimental to your self-esteem and cause depression. Move on from that affair as quickly as possible. Before you become a stalker.

TTFN

Just Us Girls

~ JodiLea ~ 3 Comments

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

My family was of modest means, so vacations & trips meant the car, not jets. Most of our vacations were to visit family across the USA – many miles between the SF Bay Area and West Virginia. My mom’s people were in WV, and along the way, we visited my dad’s people in Kansas, St. Louis, and Minnesota. So many memories!

The most memorable road trip, hands down, was the Big Mother’s Day Weekend Road Trip. This trip was HUGE for me because it was the first time I drove a long distance. Fears of getting lost or stranded were abated by “Tom,” the GPS, and having my daughter with me, who actually inherited a sense of direction from someone in the family, not me. It was also HUGE for me to head down the road with my daughter and her daughter to visit my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, respectively.

The only witnesses to my wrong turns and oops moments were my girls. And Tom. No husbands to make fun of us or unwanted suggestions. Just us girls!

We were only out of the driveway 10 seconds when Tom hollered at us, “Turn the car around!” He was speaking with a Caribbean accent which made him sound panicky. I assured my passengers that Tom just wanted to take a different route to the freeway and he would re-calculate and adjust. I thought.

Caribbean Tom was more stubborn than the other Toms we had guiding us. My daughter picked out Darth Vader Tom, who was cool once we got used to his voice. If he had to recalculate because I ignored him, he would get grumpy – “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

A small “oooh,” came from the back seat. Even a three-year-old knew we had done something wrong. To try and reassure her, I said, “He’ll get over it.” We all realized how stupid that statement was two seconds later when we drove into the rest area.

Tears were rolling down my face. I was laughing so hard that I could not look at either of my girls. They could hustle faster than I, so they were peeing when I got there. I’m happy to say that we all made it with dry underwear.

After we stretched our legs and got snax out of the vending machine, we were back on Interstate 5 (I-5). If you travel from Northern to Southern California, you can drive almost straight there on I-5. Less chance of getting lost but more chance of falling asleep.

The town of Coalinga will keep you awake with its smell. Its nickname is “cow linger.” We were thankful Mother’s Day was in May and not August.

After leaving Darth Vader at the rest area, we let my granddaughter choose the next Tom to guide us. She liked Carl from the movie, “Sling Blade.” Uh Huh. For some reason, the trip seemed longer, with Carl leading us. Since we only had an hour left on the trip, we listened to happy giggling from the back seat. Carl guided us to my mom’s condo in Laguna Niguel with no trouble. Instead of saying, “you have reached your destination,” like the other guys, Carl says, “You’re here now. Hope nobody’s dead.”

And nobody was.