My dad

I guess most girls grow up thinking their daddy is the best. But mine really was. My dad, William Thomas, was born back in 1918. I don't know anyone that was around back then. Just to make you realize how long ago that was.........President was Woodrow Wilson and Billy Graham was born then too. WWI ends, and time zones were established. No kidding. So anyway, my point is that he's old. My dad was a real gentleman. I never heard him talk crude or disrespectful to anyone. He was born and raised in Illinois with one sister. He was a soldier in WWII and afterwards worked for the government in St Louis as a cartographer. This is where he met my mom. When they married he was in his 40's and then proceeded to raise 7 kids.

Looking back I don't recall my parents ever fighting. They may have had disagreements but it was never hostile. He was in love with my mom until the day he died. I never saw him look at another woman or speak out of line. He had a sense of humor like very few I have ever heard. It was never sarcastic but kind of dry. Maybe similar to Bill Crosby. He would have the whole family in stitches. He was not dramatic or loud. I wish I had more of his qualities. My father died in 1995 and I was rather relieved when he passed on. I say relieved because I did not want him to see some of the ways the world had become. Whether it was on TV, movies or radio; everything was turning rather raunchy. Watching my dad suffer with cancer, leading up to his death, was very hard for me. One of the hardest things I ever went through. He tried to be strong but could only hold up so long.

He insisted we went to church regularly, vote and become involved in our community. He was very strict and conservative but I don't believe he ever brought a gun in our home. None of his children, no matter what age, would ever be caught dead cursing in front of him, telling a dirty joke in front of him or smoking a cigarette in his view. It was just that kind of presence he radiated to us all. I think of him almost daily and miss him so badly. I always wonder what his life was like before he met my mom. He set such a good example for me and my brothers and sisters. Its no wonder I am single today, no one can measure up. Its just such a shame that they don't make men like him anymore.

My career of changing careers

Most children dream of what they want to be when they grow up. Little girls dream of being ballerinas, teachers, nurses, etc and boys dream of becoming a famous baseball player, fireman, doctor, etc. When I was a little girl, I dreamt of being thin, beautiful and most importantly a woman of leisure. Really. Is that wrong?? The only careers I seriously considered as a child was being a famous figure skater like Dorthy Hamill or being a TV newscaster. I never wanted to go to college and didn't plan on it. I don't know why my way of thinking was so distorted. I grew up in a middle class family in the Midwest and we had to work for what we had. The closer I got to age 18, I had come to realize I will have to work to survive but I would ONLY be working because I had to and not because I want to.


When I graduated high school with no plans of my future, I took a few odd and end part time jobs and just focused on my social life. After about 6 months of doing nothing and totally enjoying myself, my dad begged me to consider college, tech school, a course, anything! So, very reluctently, I started a 9 mos nursing assistant program with Draughans Community College, now South College. Being the follow through girl that I am, I quit just before I completed the course. I made it on their little Dean's List but school just wasn't for me. I then became a barber. Quit that when I was pregnant. Next full time thing I went to was working @ Candler Hospital as a registration clerk in the ER and admitting. Gosh, I really did love that. After about 6 mos there, I met the guy over registration @ Memorial while I was having drinks @ Cooky's bar. He offered me a job there doing the same thing but more money and better shift. So, in February of 1990 my career with Memorial began. Now this was a good time! After many years with Memorial, starting as registration clerk to ADT Coordinator, I got burned out and knew it was time to move on. I then went to work @ PaineWebber Mortgage and was their Branch Coordinator. My next move was Crawford & Co, where I met a lot of my friends I still have today. Went through a lot of life changes when I worked there. I was stalked, got married and lost my dad. After this company closed down their Savannah office and laid us all off, I went to Gulfstream. Wow, that place is really cool. But after 6 mos of working full time temporary and unable to get a permanent position with benefits, I had to change again. I then went to work as a receptionist @ Coastal Dialysis. Convinced to move up to a Dialysis tech. Very interesting and good learning experience. But after two dirty needle sticks, I knew it wasn't meant for me. I then went to work doing Physician Billing at this place called HealthPac. We did billing for 15 different doctors offices. But after I received my 12th bounced paycheck, I left there. And yes, I said, bounced paycheck. I then worked back for Memorial and then East Georgia Regional Medical Center in Statesboro in the OR. I also worked for a doctors office in Statesboro and on the ramp @ Delta Airlines. Not to forget being a certified nail tech and licensed insurance broker a long the way. Honestly, I think I could go on and on with previous jobs I've done. Its sad but I always had a good reason for moving on to the next. I worked many years for 911 and am now dispatching Fire and Ems in Savannah. This seems to work for me. 


At this point in my life, I really have little career goals. Or maybe I never have. I think I would enjoy being a travel agent (like my mother was) but never tried it. I have been told there is no money in that. I know I still dream of being thin and a woman of leisure. Maybe that really is what I am meant to be. All in all, I have had great experiences, met amazing people and learned different fields. Who knows where I will be in 10 years......

The grass is always greener ....

     
I just recently started working back in Savannah after hanging out in the country for a while. Being back in the City has brought back so many memories for me. Just driving around to and from work reminds me of all the different places I have lived there. All within about a ten year time, I moved around a lot.  I was under the "Grass is always greener on the other side" mentality. Glad I finally grew out of that. 
     I moved out of my parents house in Fairway Oaks, a nice little neighborhood in a central location in Savannah, probably around age 19.  My first place was renting a room from a new friend named Carol who had a great condo in Lotts Landing in Georgetown, the southside of Savannah. Somehow and someway it seemed like a good idea even though I had no car and no drivers license and was no where near my job or my boyfriend. Georgetown was on the outskirts of town back then. Now its built up so that its more in the City than it used to be. For obvious reasons that didn't last long.
      I then moved in with my boyfriend, Ricky and his roommate in a house on White Bluff, which went by the nickname of the Social Club by many people. The house was always trashed and was a party house. Great memories were made here. I would have died if my parents ever showed up. We had lots of parties there and it was in a very central location to everything.  We had happy hour almost daily and friends would stop by on their way home from work and have a drink. It was such a popular place. I was so carefree and happy back then. I didn't have a care in the world! That was a short stay.
     My next living situation was to rent out an old house on LaRoche with Sherry, a high school friend. That actually worked out great. The only negative thing I remember happening while we lived there was that we had a peeping tom and thankfully one of our guy friends had caught him and ran him off. From that point on, Sherry & I were a little creeped out. I was 20 yrs old at this time and we probably lived there about a year. I would of lived there longer had I not got pregnant & married to Ricky then.
     Ricky and I moved to Coastal Place Apartments.  Very unfortunately for me, I just wasn't happy in the marriage so I moved out. This started my move 13 times in one year saga.  I rented a room from my new hair dresser named Jo. She had a beautiful home in Mayfair. In fact, to this day, I have never seen a home decorated so exquisite as hers. Little did I know, this turned out to be a party house too. I met a lot of people while living with Jo and built some amazing friends through her. I then rented a home on 61st St with a girl named Karen, whom I met through Jo. This old house had no air conditioner and we didn't stay there long. The two of us moved then to Turtle Creek Apts on White Bluff.  
     It was now that I think I moved back in with Carol and her boyfriend Stevie. She was renting a house in a rather trashy neighborhood and the house was small and looked cheap. Not sure what she was thinking. I remember there was shrimpers who lived next door to us and they reminded me of a biker group and they liked to party all night. When I was living here we had to use a laundry mat. I had a routine of driving up to the laundromat around the corner at Skidaway and Bona Bella and I would throw all my clothes in the washer/ dryer and drive back home to wait. When they were done I'd run up there again and retrieve them. It was a system that I used several times. This one time I showed up to get them from the dryer and they were gone!  All my clothes stolen!  
     I think I then moved into an old garage apartment alone on Waters Ave. It was scary but also made me feel so independent. I was close to work at Memorial and close to my parents but right on the border of the hood. I enjoyed it there but the place became infested with termites. This is about the time I lose track of where I went next. I believe I rented another room from Carol again but she was now living in Holland Park Townhomes. Gosh, what a great place that was.
     I'm sure I have the order mixed up here but to make a long story short I moved back in with my parents house and also Sherry & I moved in together again, this time to River Crossing and The Commons. When I was living in the Commons I met and started dating Greg, who eventually turned into husband #2. I moved from the Commons to Moss Gate Apartments, a loft apartment alone. Greg and I married and then guess what? Yep, we moved. We moved to a house on Wilmington Island.  Then when our house got flooded we had to move to River Crossing Apts. From there we moved to the country.
     What a trip. No pun intended. And the weird thing is that this isn't even all the places I moved to. There was more. I was young and constantly trying to find my place and my way. I consider my self a city girl but ironically the place I lived at the longest as an adult was in the country. The 'oh so familiar' thing is that now I am renting (kind of) a room from someone in a city I know no one and have to drive an hour and half one way to work while everything I possess is in a storage unit. I would of never imagined in a million years my life would of turned out this way....

And so it begins

     I have considered blogging for some time now and now that it's here I realize it is so much harder than it looks. I have always wanted to be a writer or in the journalism field in some sort of fashion but lack the talent. I remember dreaming of becoming someone like Karen Foss, a newscaster in St Louis when I was in Elementary School. She was the local version of Katie Couric back in the 80's. Or was in my eyes anyway. This is my second go at blogging and we'll see how it goes. My first try was to be a Restaurant critic (I still love the idea) but I felt my one and only very short post was rather weak. Now I think I will just try and cover anything and everything that comes to mind. That is, of course any idea that will be at least 250 words or more. Hahaha. When I was in my late teens, it seems that I could write a hand written letter to my friend Laura Green and it would be dozens of pages and it would just flow like water without my even having to put much thought into it. Where are those creative juices now? Maybe with a little practice it will all start coming back.
     According to dictionary.com, blog means a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers'own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites. Good to know. Now I know I'm not doing this wrong. The word blog actually came from the word weblog. Sounds like 'water logged' to me. Whatever. There are millions of bloggers on-line now and I realize that I can pretty much make this into whatever I want. I'm not sure what you expect to see on here and I'm not sure exactly what I will put.
     I want to share some of my experiences with you but am hesitant to include anyone's name or places for fear of upsetting someone. Couldn't people sue if they don't like what you say about their company or person? Legally I'm not sure so I best keep somethings anonymous. It kind of takes the fun out of it but maybe someone will inform me of the legalities.