The Chonky Girl

  Its Women’s History Month.    It's about empowerment and honoring women of greatness.    When you see it on social media it's all about people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Joan of Arc and Anne Frank.   Famous for what they achieved and survived.    However, there are women influences that make up history, actually, they make up my history.   Ann Hector – my 5 th and 6 th grade teacher at Georgetown Elementary.    She recognized my love and talent for writing and encouraged me to follow my passion.   This woman was amazing and will always hold a special place in my heart, sadly, she passed away several years ago.   Polly Chandler – the wonderful bookstore owner.   Every kid in town knew who Polly Chandler was and she treated all of us as if we were her very own special guest.   Another special lady who encouraged my passion for writing as well as my love of reading. Wonder Woman  - yes...

   Its 200 degrees and I’m sweating like I’m standing in the open sun in the middle of the desert.   I’m yanking my hair up off my neck and fanning myself with a Domino’s pizza flyer someone stuck in my mailbox.    I’ve stripped down to a tank top and shorts and I’m sitting on my front steps in the middle of the night in February.      In ten minutes, I’ll be wrapped up in a fleece blanket, falling blissfully back to sleep until the next round of hot flash. I feel tired most of the time.    I’ll be awake for thirty minutes, still enjoying that first cup of coffee and I will start to nod off as the morning news drones on in the background like a soft lullaby.    For a girl who used to stay up past midnight reading books, it's almost laughable to see me struggle to keep my eyes open at eight-thirty at night.    Dark hair has begun to appear on my chin.   Just one or two.   So now plucking is a ritual, al...

  I read a lot of articles online listing the worse things about being a woman ( I’m always curious what other women think are horrible about my gender ) and I also read the articles about the downsides of being a man.   I’ve come to the conclusion that both genders have their own complaints and honestly they are good ones.  We all know that women collectively know that walking alone, especially after dark is like screaming ‘Victim here!”  I have not researched it, but I would guess statistically that most women are victimized or attacked in this scenario, why else would this be common knowledge?    On the flip side of that, men understand that women can be uncomfortable with a man following along behind them so they are hyper-aware and have to make a decision to either change course or speed up to pass the woman so as not to freak her out.   He may just be strolling down to the store for a Coke and a lottery ticket but if he steps on th...

Banned books are not a new thing.  The list is ever changing and based on opinions of those who deem themselves to be the judge and jury of what we should or should not be reading.   I read what I want to read, no one will tell me otherwise.   Thank goodness I live in the United States where I have that sort of freedom to state such a thing and put it into action.    This morning, however, I heard on the news something far more disturbing than another banned book.  It was censorship taking things up a notch.   From my understanding the publishers of the Ronald Dahl books , Puffn Books, a division of Penguin random house, has started changing passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race.          Now Augustus Gloop in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”  is no longer “enormously fat” he is just “enormous” .    The cloud-men in “James and the Giant Peach” a...

 Pepsico stopped producing Sierra Mist. I liked it, the name was  exotic sounding, and the taste was fresh. It was hard to find for  several years, and it just began appearing on shelves again and   Pepsico announced it was being shelved.  It feels a lot like when they stopped making Aspen.   I doubt anyone   remembers Aspen and if you do then you are most definitely a GenX Model.   Aspen was another clear soda, and it was crisp and clean like apples it was gone in a flash. Replaced by Slice, a lemon lime soda that was more popular and ironically all of these were produced by Pepsico.  I am seeing a pattern here I had not noticed before, Pepsico is the root of my disappointment and anger when it comes to clear sodas. They have great ideas, but I would venture to say that something goes wrong with the marketing.  ( They, of course, blame their competitor  *ahem "Coca-Cola" for their ever popular Sprite ).  ...

I am a Fairy Tale girl.    The one who wants to believe in Prince Charming and romance and happily ever after.   I was raised on Disney Princesses like so many other girls and its not a stretch to say that we were all just a little disillusioned on what to expect out of a relationship.    We expected candlelight dinners, walks on the beach, flowers and candy, romantic gestures and unwavering devotion.    A few years out there in singles scene was all we needed to show us just how skewed our expectations were.    Fairy Tales are bullshit.    Prince Charming is going to have flaws… like chewing gum so loud that you actually consider taking a frying pan to his head like a cartoon character in days of old.    He is going to stop bringing you flowers because flowers are expensive and its not that you are worth it but, girl, you don’t need flowers every day.    He won’t bring you chocolate because you complained too ma...