Everyone Has A Story, Here's One of Mine

I've been thinking of writing an autobiography or memoir, but it just never comes together for me, but I figured if I write one story at a time and post it on my blog maybe once a month, I can do that. Maybe one day I'll pull all the stories together and put them in a book but for now I'll just share some stories with you about my childhood and into adulthood. Some of the stories will be happy, some sad and some horrific because that was my childhood. But they will all be real, things that actually happened. If it seems like something that people enjoy reading maybe, I'll keep it going. These stories will not be in any kind of order; I'll just write them as they come to me.

Living in a trailer park

*Me and my brother Billy. I was 18 and he was 15*

When I left West Virginia and came to Las Vegas to live with my mom and brother, my mom lived in a small trailer in a trailer park. You can see park of it in the picture above. It was really small but we made the best of it for a while. 

This trailer park was full of some of the nosiest people I've ever met in my life. Everyone was all up in everyone else's business. It was so comical. Especially the older people that lived there were always in everyone else's business. They loved to gossip and tell everyone's business to everyone else. I actually had a boyfriend for a while who would climb over the block wall you see in the background in order to come see me because he didn't want the other people there seeing him and telling the park manager who didn't like him. Whole bunch of tattle tells. 🤣🤣

I started babysitting while in this trailer park. I charged $2 an hour back then in 1988. I babysat a bunch of kids at different times. Back then our space rent was only $150 a month and my mom owned the trailer so bills weren't a problem. My mom worked at one of the casino's here in Las Vegas at the time. She ended up buying another trailer and let me rent this small one for myself. 

For a little while my brother lived with me in my trailer. Every morning he set his alarm to wake him up with this song playing really loud!

  

We still laugh about the long scream at the beginning of this song that used to wake me up early in the morning and drive me crazy. Living with your sibling is not easy. 🤣🤣🤣

As some of the kids got older and went to school, I started cleaning trailers for some of the older people. There was a really nice older guy in his 70's that lived in the trailer park next door and I cleaned his trailer for him a few times. On my way back over to his place one morning I saw the ambulance there and some of his family. I got a bad feeling but went over anyway and he had passed away the night before. His son found him that morning. Unfortunately, that happens sometimes when you work with older people.

There was an older guy who lived near our trailer. My mom was friends with him and she found out he had been a doctor in Egypt. But he wasn't a doctor here, he did something else and I can't remember what he did here for work. When I got food poisoning from eating ceviche at one of the Casino buffets *I know what a big mistake that was now! Never again* she asked him what she should get for me to feel better. He came over to our trailer and asked my mom to step outside for a moment so he could examine me. I didn't really think anything of it at first, he's a doctor. Right? 

He did the blood pressure, listening to my lungs, heart, breathing ect. Then he pulls up my shirt and asks me if I have ever done a breast exam on myself. I told him yeah, I knew how and started to pull my shirt back down. This idiot tries to pull my shirt up again, telling me he wanted to make sure. I said, "If you don't get out right now, I'm screaming for my mom and calling the cops." I sure as hell didn't need a breast exam for food poisoning!

He got up, went outside and told my mom to get me crackers and 7-UP and I should be ok in a few days. I told my mom what happened and she never spoke to him again and he stayed clear of me. He moved out the next year. 

So there was some good and some bad living in that trailer park. It was an adventure for sure.

Links to past stories

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Book Review: Mantras and Minotaurs by Ashley Bennett

 

Book Description

A single mom decides to take life—and love—by the horns as she falls for a hunky minotaur in this steamy monster romance.

Pam Rollins is ready to date again after spending the last few years alone. Now that her kids have grown up and moved out, she’s committed to changing her life by starting yoga classes and, at her daughter’s urging, joining a dating app. She doesn’t expect much to come from her swiping, especially not a first date with buff, kind, and generous minotaur Alistair.

Alistair Reid is the kind of swoon-worthy monster that every woman dreams of. After one date, Pam is feeling hopeful in love for the first time ever—and Alistair has fallen head over hoof for her. The only problem: they live states apart and have thriving lives of their own.

However, as romance blooms, it becomes harder to envision a future without the other in it. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, after all....

My Review

Pam is ready to start dating again after a bad marriage. Her kids are grown and she needs to get on with her life. She doesn't really think anything will come of it though so when her daughter encourages her to download a dating app, she does and matches with Alistair, a minotaur. 

So mythical brings are known in this world and from reading this it seems that everyone just gets along with the monsters and paranormal creatures for the most part. I really liked that no one thought it was weird she wanted to date a minotaur. Plus I liked that the main characters are my age instead of in their 20's. This is the 3rd book in the Leviathan Fitness series, but I was able to read this book and enjoy it without having read the first two books. 

Alistair just happens to be in the same town as Pam because he's taken some time off of work to help his daughter. Now that she's better, he plans to go back home and back to work but then he gets matched with Pam on the dating app, and they decide to go on a date the next day. 

These two hit it off right away. Alastair is such a nice guy and treats Pam really nicely. She deserved someone who treated her well and he deserved someone like Pam who was really into him and not his money.

They start out in a long distance relationship when Alistair has to go back home and back to work but they can't stay away from each other for long. The spice level was off the charts because these two really meshed well and it was fun watching them get to know each other.

This was such a fun, fast read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

All those yellow things you see sticking to the trunk of this tree are cicada skins. They crawl out of the dirt around the tree, crawl up the tree, attach themselves, molt, shed their old skin, revealing their adult body and fly away.

It's been cloudy this week.

These clouds looked like they were boiling they were moving and changing shapes so fast.

Friday morning sunrise.

Looking in a different direction on Saturday morning during sunrise.

I found this little beetle in my apartment Saturday, I picked him up, got a picture and took him outside.

How was your week?

Book Review: Frost And Venom by Christine Feehan

 

Book Description

Deception and danger lay in wait in the beautiful, harrowing California backcountry in this gripping suspense novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan.

Surgical and trauma nurse Harlow Frye loves the small town of Knightly, where breathtaking views of the Sierra and a tight circle of female friends provides a refuge from her professional life. But lately, it’s Harlow’s personal life that’s causing all the chaos.

First, a series of anonymous threatening letters are left in her mailbox. Then, Harlow is dealt a blow when her friend Lawyer dies after reacting to some sort of toxin. And to top it off, Harlow finds her secret obsession, CIA operative Hawkin Wilder, bleeding out on a mountain trail.

As Harlow turns her home into a makeshift hospital, her infuriating, attractive patient insists on distracting her. But even in the face of their increasing connection, there’s no way Harlow can ignore the escalating storm, when someone else close to her is struck down by the mysterious toxin.

With little more than intuition to go on, Harlow turns to the five friends who have proved themselves to be a better family than her own flesh and blood. As the women attempt to unravel the killings, they will need to rely on their instincts and their connection to each other—or else they’ll lose everything they’ve come to hold dear.

My Review

Harlow is dealing with a lot. Her father, the Senator is facing some very bad charges that she knows to be true. She wants nothing to do with her parents but they keep calling her and telling her they're coming to the town where she lives and they expect her to act like the dutiful daughter they want. But she's not having it and neither is Wilder, the man who wants her for the rest of their lives. If only he can make her believe she's worth a happy ending with him. 

Someone or something is using a toxin to take down Harlow's friends and she has to find out where it's coming from before they get to close and maybe kill her or Wilder. She's been getting threatening letters and someone has betrayed Wilder and other agents. Harlow and the others are keeping Wilder a secret because someone is leaking the missions and the operatives are in danger and even his boss expected him to die in the latest mission. There was something really sketchy about Wilder's boss. 

Harlow knows that her father got a young girl pregnant and then tossed her across the border, never checking on the child he might have. But Harlow wants to know her half-brother and she goes looking for information on him, which brings an unknown danger on her and all her friends. Some secrets should maybe be kept hidden. 

The tension between Wilder and Harlow was fun. I liked that he had to work to gain her trust enough that she felt safe with him. But with agents being targeted, threatening letters being sent and someone using a lethal toxin to kill people, it was hard for Harlow and Wilder to find time to get to know each other. There's a lot going on but all the drama kept me entertained and ready to keep the pages turning.

I love Christine Feehan's books. I knew that this would lock me in right away and it sure did. I was excitedly turning the pages of this book, not knowing what would happen next or who to trust. These characters are great, the mystery behind the toxin was enjoyable to learn what was happening and the family drama between Harlow and her parents was fun because I know Wilder wasn't going to let her father win this time.  

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures today are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #435

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that have gone on in and around my apartment complex and in my neighborhood in the past 27 years that I've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 27 years here in a weekly blog post.

This week the residents got a warning from my apartment manager. I have one of those really small washers that you can fit a few shirts in to wash it. It plugs into the outlet and has one hose to drain the water. You have to fill the water with a pan. It's not like I'm not hooking a hose to the faucet to fill it with water. This seems a bit extreme. It had to be maintenance that told her about it when he was here replacing my bathroom faucet. I know a few other residents that have the same type of washers.

Oh, and the laundry room they are talking about has 1 washer and 1 dryer for 88 apartments to share.

This is the kind I have. It's small. I couldn't get a good picture of mine in the bathroom. A lease violation warning for this?

I looked over my 60 page lease and this is the only thing I could find about a washing machine...

"Residents are required to receive written approval from us prior to replacing or altering any of these appliances." And washing machine is listed as one of the appliances. 

Am I getting rid of it? Hell no. Next time there's an inspection I'll put it in my room and put a blanket on top of it. Go ahead and try to prove I still have it. Idiots.

And before someone asks if I'm going to try and fight this. There's no way to fight it. They would just evict me if I tried. We have something here called a, "30 day- No Cause" here in Nevada, meaning they can evict someone in 30 days for no cause, just because they want to and the judges let them do this.

 There's no way to fight it. After your 30 day notice, the Constable will put a 3 day and then a 24 hour notice on your door. After 24 hours the constable comes back with maintenance, tells you to grab as much as you can right now and they make you leave, they change the locks and tell you that you have to make an appointment to come back and get the rest of your belongings. And this is all legal. It's not like it is in California and other places where it takes months to evict someone. 

---

 

On Friday we heard a police siren going on and off up and down my street. So, I looked outside and there was just the one police car. My daughter went outside and got this video of it all starting while I took pictures and video from my bedroom window. 

It wasn't until I started uploading the pictures that I noticed my daughter and grandson standing against the sound wall behind this police car watching what was going on. lol This was the first police car to show up. More showed up very fast. My daughter talked to one of the officers out there and they said they were looking for a white male, in a white shirt weighing around 180lbs. They didn't say what they were looking for him for though.

The police were looking, they had 2 K9 dogs, the police helicopter was flying overhead, and police were walking up and down my street, alley, and the street behind this apartment complex. 

Police walking with one of the K9 dogs.

Police were parked on my street, my alley, the alley across the street, and one street over. I counted at least 9 police cars in my area for this. I have to wonder what the guy did to warrant such a large turn out?

They looked and looked, they were here for almost 2 hours searching for this guy. But they never found him. 

They stood around talking for a while and then they left. My daughter and I think whoever it was, ran down into the tunnels. But the police never looked there.

The high this week was 110F/43C

The low this week was 84F/28C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Saturday Vittles

 

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and her friend went to the World Market here in town and bought a few new things for us to try. While it wasn't the most healthy of meals, I was able to keep my dinner around 300 calories.

What she bought:

Mini sampler of calabrese, hard salami and prosciutto

Smoked mussels in a pickle sauce

Pickled gherkins/pickles

Caviar

Smoked herring

Crackers

Mini orange chocolates

Liver pate

This is what the board looked like. My daughter loves making a charcuterie board. I will say that I only ate some of this. I've had liver pate, caviar and prosciutto and I don't care for it at all, so I didn't eat that. I only had one of the smoked mussels in a pickle sauce, I didn't care for them. If they hadn't been in a pickle sauce I would have eaten them. 

So I had 4 crackers, 2 pieces of the salami and calabrese, the tiny pickles, smoked herring, and 2 mini chocolates. My dinner was less than 300 calories. It was an interesting combination for sure. 

My daughter was putting the liver pate, crackers, herring and caviar all together. She loved all the things she picked for dinner. This was not the expensive caviar, it was only $8 for the jar. But it was her first time trying any caviar and she liked it. I'm not a fan though. 🤣🤣🤣

Would you eat this? Are you a picky eater or do you like trying new things?

Freebie Friday

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full-sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things.  I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

A bag of Purina Dentalife dog chews from Fur Buddies.

Falcor wasn't sure about them at first. 

Mr glowing eyes, trying to read my mind if he should eat them or not. 🤣🤣🤣

He did eventually go for it. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Jupiter by R.E. Butler

 

Book Description

Second-in-command lion shifter Jupiter Ross has a lot on his plate. As the head of security for Amazing Adventures Safari Park, he has to ensure the safety of not only the humans who come through the gates every day, but the natural animals, and most importantly, the shifters who live and work in secret at the park. The alphas have recently determined that bringing in unmated humans for VIP park tours would allow some of the males and females to find their soulmates, and that increased Jupiter’s duties tenfold. As an unmated male, he’d like to find his soulmate and settle down, but he’s not sure that random human females coming in for free tours is the way to go.

When Celeste Patterson receives an invitation for a free tour of the safari park, she and her best friend, Adriana, can’t wait to go. Even though they’re separated and unable to take the tour together, Celeste can’t help but think that a wonderful adventure is just around the corner. Jupiter is amazed to discover that his soulmate is in fact one of the recipients of a VIP tour invitation. The feisty female is everything he could have ever wanted in a mate, from her gorgeous curves to her mile-wide attitude. He just has to figure out a way to share the secret of his shifting nature with her.

Get your ticket and get in line for the Amazing Adventure Safari Park VIP Tour. You just might be lucky enough to find your happily ever after.

My Review

Celeste and Adriana get an invitation for a free tour of the safari park. They are excited but have no idea that the shifters have sent out these invitations to mostly females in the hopes that a few of the visitors will be mates to the single shifters who have made the safari park their home. Soon after they get to the park, Celeste and Adriana are separated to go on separate personal tours. 

When Celeste is shown the lion habitat, Jupiter- a lion shifters catches her scent and knows he's just found his mate. He kinda loses his mind and his alpha has to talk him down before he scared Celeste. The tour is cut short and Celeste finds herself in a room with Jupiter, a lion shifter. In a matter of minutes, Celeste is told about shifters, mates and how he hopes she feels something like a pull towards him and will stay at the park with him. 

He shifts in front of her so she will believe what is happening and what he's telling her. The fact that she just goes with it all, decides to stay at the park, give up her job, apartment ect. in a matter of hours after meeting Jupiter, just made this entire encounter so unbelievable for me. Things just went too easy, too fast and too corny for me to really enjoy the writing from this story. 

So the humans are just supposed to give up their lives to live at the park underground so the shifters aren't found out? Seems unfair to me but Celeste was ready and willing to do just that. Why does the woman have to give her whole life up for him? I didn't like this part at all, what happened to a little bit of compromising and coming together in the middle in order to make things work out? 

I can only hope that things change in the future for the new human mates and they don't have to give up their entire lives in order to have their HEA. I doubt I will read anymore in this series though. 

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

Lots of big clouds one day this week.

I loved the color of this sunset.

Falcor crawled up into my grandson blankets to take a nap with him one morning. 

My grandson came outside to walk with us and Falcor so he could take some pictures with his new phone. My grandson is 13 years old and is now taller than I am. I'm 5'6" and he's about an inch taller than I am. But his dad is 6'7" so I think he's going to be getting taller yet.