One for the ladies at church, Della, goes out of her way each month during our craft group meeting and arrives early to set up,  makes tea for everyone, brings us donuts and stays till we all leave to lock up.  I decided one day I’d make her a quilt to say thank you.

All she requested was pink, anything pink.  Well pink is hard as I rarely use it so I went back to my favorite pattern, Carpenter Star.  It’s the only pattern I know you can complete it with 8 fat quarters and some background.  It gave me a chance to use some Kaffe Fasset fat quarters I been meaning to try.   Originally I hated his fabrics but some of them are growing on me.   I think she liked it.  Can’t wait to finish the round table topper I’m making her mom.

 

I hope these quilts brought at least a tiny blessing to 2 young girls.  The church asked me to teach a beginner quilt class once a month at our Creation Station.    A few weeks in advance I was able to talk to the ladies via text and email about what they needed to bring and was thrilled to speak with a very nice lady named Erica.   She seemed so excited to learn and I agreed to pick out fabric for her first quilt.   One week before the first class, Erica was struck by a car while jogging and killed.  I’m sorry I never got to meet her but one of the ladies that joined the class was her best friend.

I learned she had 2 barely teenage daughters so I took the fat quarters we choose, added some white and make them memory quilts from mom.   Her friend Melissa was kind enough to delivery them for me.  They are just slightly different fabrics from the same color line.

I am completely over the tip jar thing.  I have always over tipped servers as I agree they are unpaid and I used to be one.  But that tip jar thing is out of control.  I tip my hairdresser and my nail lady and I guess that’s fair because they go above and beyond to make sure I’m happy with their work but the rest needs to stop.

First it was the dry cleaners.  Seriously?  I paid you to clean a shirt, you did, so what am I tipping you for?  Dunkin donuts, Starbucks – really?  You poured coffee in a cup, handed it to me and I need to tip you?  Isn’t your entire paycheck payment for pouring coffee in a cup and handing it to me?

Saturday I went to the farm in Plant City to pick strawberries.  You pull in, they hand you a cardboard quart box.  You go pick all the berries you like, drive back up front, return the box and pay.  And guess what?  Here’s a tip jar.  What exactly is that tip for?   Being open?  Being available to take my money?

Last night I finally decided to ask.  I stopped at the drive thru store. She handed me a loaf of bread, I paid and she stood next to the tip jar and asked did I want the change?  So I finally had to ask. I said what’s the tip jar for exactly?  Of course she had no idea what I was asking and said what do you mean.  I said, I’m not sure what I’d be tipping for since you’re a store and I just came in to buy something.  She said, “oh I don’t know, every place has one so we put it out and people like to tip”.

So the question has really been answered.  The tip jars exist simply because people put money in them if you put them on the counter.  Or more accurately, people feel obligated to put money in them if they are sitting out.  No more.  I’m putting my foot down.  I draw the line.  I don’t feel I need to tip where you already paid to do the job I’m tipping you for.

Want to tip the people that really serve you?  Every holiday, I give each of the 3 guys that pick up my trash, gift cards for lunch at a local place. They go above and beyond and clean up after us.   They always put my cans back and lay the lid neatly on top.  They pick up someone else’s mess every day and never put out a tip jar.   Buy lunch for a police officer or firemen.  Next time you’re eating and see a serviceman, buy them a meal.

I guess the new excuse is mental illness.  I heard 2 news stories this morning on 970 talk.  One a police officer was shot several times serving a warrant and the other was a mother and child that was involved in a shooting and a house fire.   The news guy immediately pops up “well untreated mental illness is rampant in the US”.

So how did he come to that conclusion?  Why are we always looking to blame someone or something?  Part of the problem is we are so busy making excuses for evil people.  Like the school shooting in Florida.   All we heard for the first 3 days was he had mental illness issues.  Who determined that?  Under Hippa laws even if he did those records would wouldn’t be released and certainly not in 2 days.  No one started screaming mental illness until it was claimed by his lawyer.  Who also hadn’t met him before that day and couldn’t possibly know that.

It’s the same with bullying.  It’s an excuse for grown people that are just plain evil.  Kids have been bullied since the dawn of time.  It happened when I was in school and no one went home and got a gun.  No one killed innocent people cause they were bullied when I was in school.  We need to look at what we are teaching kids.    We are raising a society of weak, complaining, entitled adults.

The bottom line is, stop making excuses.  Accept that some people are just evil.  Some people are just cruel, heartless, unfeeling, etc.  Name it what you will but it’s not an excuse.  There is nothing and no one to blame but the person that did it.

 

Usually I don’t discuss having lupus unless I simply need to make someone aware of it for one reason or another.  When I do the initial response is oh yes I have or I know someone who has fibromyalgia (or however you spell that).   I don’t know why it bugs me so much, but it does.

There is no research fibromyalgia is an auto immune disease.   They share a few but rarely major similarities.  Lupus affects joints, skin and nearly every internal organ we have.  Fibromyalia causes tender muscles and joint pain.  While they both have their issues and situations to deal with they are not the same.

I think it’s because most of these diseases used to be a catch all for the medical profession.  Tens of years ago if they couldn’t figure out why you were sick or in pain all the time they said you have lupus. Within the last ten years or so fibromyalgia was the new catch all.  Oh you’re in pain we can’t diagnose so that must be it.  I think that resulted in most people, even many medical professionals, to see these diseases as petty issues.  I would hazard a guess that not one of the medical professionals that have either one would say it’s a catch all.  I even have a doctor who claims she doesn’t believe in lupus.  Feels it’s just an excuse for medical professionals to “patronize” women who are dealing with many issues that are simply over sensitivity to pain.   Yes, I resisted the urge to slap her. I’d hate to know what she thinks of firbomyalgia.

This is why may of the auto immune diseases are not taken seriously by patients and medical personnel.   It makes me crazy.  Now you have the pain clinics that want to take daily meds away from people suffering constant pain.  I don’t take the meds but I know several friends that would suffer extreme life changes by taking away a simple anti-inflammatory.

 

 

Just thought I’d share some quilts that I finished up for Christmas.   The pastel courthouse blocks went to my groomer Sallie.  She takes such good care of my pups they ordered it for her for Christmas.  The other 2 were for my sexy sister Jill and her wonderful hubby Mark for Christmas.  I just love those 2.

Finally, I got 2 more of the quilts for Houston’s first responders quilted and the binding attached.  Both went in today’s mail to be delivered to the fire department.

 

Our ladies at Shiloh Baptist have a monthly craft meeting and poor Robert, I begged him into going and helping me with the quilt group.  Thank goodness he said yes as the ladies that signed up were not very familiar with even using a sewing machine.

This past Saturday we had a white elephant exchange that Robert and I forgot about till Thursday night so these are the wall hangings I made up for our give away’s.  Took me till midnight Thursday and Friday night to finish.    I will say they must have been liked as they were traded a number of times in the exchange.

 

I haven’t been able to do much in the line of Christmas decorations since I got the pups as they eat everything, and I mean everything.  This year my groomer colored the dogs for Christmas and Jill and I found this tree on black Friday.  We just happened to stop in a store to pass the time till our dinner reservation was ready.   It’s nothing fancy but I love it and Jill was kind enough to decorate her for me and fluff out all her branches.

Well hopefully the Hartshorn’s come back to the B&B in Zephyrhills.   I had them a lovely room picked out and finally a bed that didn’t leave Jill’s back aching then the bed frame broke and they had to spent the last night on an air mattress in the living room. Well had to is wrong.  I offered them my room and they refused.  I felt so bad.

But we did have a few laughs while they were here.  One of the ladies in the quilt group wanted to come join us for vacation and changed her mind last minute so we invented a virtual Mary and gave her a virtual vacation.  We took her everywhere then posted her travels on facebook for the real Mary to follow along.   Here’s Jill meeting Mary for for the first time and Mark having a glass of wine with her at The Melting pot.   I can’t imagine what the waiter thought.