Leigh's Views

Of course everyone loves to talk about the weather. So there I was the other day, minding my own business as I grabbed a few groceries from the store. It was a chilly morning, thus I had seized a hat as I had rushed out the door. However, by the time I finished my walk there, I was regretting that choice. The weather was much balmier than I had thought. But because I didn’t want to take it off and sport hat-head, I was still wearing it. One of the employees spotted me with the hat and he gives me a grin. And then yells to everyone in the store, “We’re all going to die! Miss Wyoming’s wearing a hat!” Ugh. Not the way to win friends and influence people. Yup, now I was the punch line of one of those “It’s soo cold…” jokes. Great, just great. Laughing it off, I just waved to everyone who had turned to stare at me. Yes, remind me never to wear a hat again no matter how far below zero it may get. Like that’s ever going to happen, I live in the deep south. Home of ‘It’s 50 degrees thus t...

Now I came to this fork in the road. I’ve seen this same fork there for several months. I’ve just let it be. Yesterday when I found it again, I just had to stop and laugh because of what had happened only a short while before. Here’s the thing. Some forks represent major decisions – should I stay or should I go? Others are rather minor – the red shirt or the blue? Well, in this case, I was wanting to take a trip and yesterday morning I was going to finally plan it. I had two destinations in mind. Both places I’d never been. Both with lots of interesting things to see, do, explore. Okay, here’s the thing, I had lots of windows open on my computer as I was doing research on this trip. Finally, I made my choice and the phone rang as I was starting to book the flight. This distraction made me leave my computer for several minutes. When I got back, I booked the flight without really looking at the page I was on. Yup, I just simply started clicking away making the mistake of thinking I ...

Some things are just fun.   You can’t quite explain why but you get a kick out of them.   Maybe it’s something you’ve been doing since you were a child.   Maybe it’s something new. You never thought twice about your hobby. But now someone said they didn’t think you should be doing it. Suddenly, you’re self-conscious whenever you start to do it – crosswords, knitting, leaving kind notes in the bathroom, stamp collecting, whatever. Finally, you reach a crossroads – do you keep doing that thing you enjoy or do you find something new?   Give in to the pressure of pleasing those around you or stick to who you are and what you find enjoyable?   In the end, who should you try to make happy?   Can you live with yourself if you’re miserable?   Should you even try? My general rule of thumb is as long as it’s not against any laws or moral codes, then live and let live. But many can’t do this simple act of kindness. They feel it’s their job to be cosmic kil...

I’ve often been told I’m just to nice of a person. I’ll help anyone if they ask and apparently that’s not a good thing. Not quite sure why so many people think that, I think it's honorable to be helpful. So, yes, I, like many women, have this compulsive need to pour myself out until there’s nothing left. Okay, fine, so I get asked to help in this seemingly impossible situation. Yup, I jump right in. No thoughts about how stressful this might be or even if I should even be involved in the first place. Oh, of course not, I am woman. Hear me roar. Or at least whimper. Brother fighting against brother with elderly mother in the middle and me along for the ride. So much funage. This was truly a case of no one wanting to bend even a little for what might be best in the long run. And I’m left trying to reason with two grown men acting like children. Then their mom gets in on the fight but she’s got dementia and doesn’t know what’s best. Plus, she’s not going to remember what she said ...

I’m beginning to think there is something fundamentally flawed with this country or at least with the attitude many if not most of us have about money. The other day I was having coffee with a friend and she told me she and her husband were considering putting their house up for sale. They were tired of struggling to pay the mortgage each month. Problem was, places to rent didn’t seem to be much cheaper than the mortgage. As gently as I could, I probed a bit to see how much equity they had, how much saving they had, and what options they had considered. I was trying to figure out if they could do what I did – buy a cheap house, fix it up and live debt free. Turns out, there was practically no equity because they had only paid the standard payment each month for the past couple of years they’d owned the house. Plus, they never saved anything for a rainy day. Thus, if they walk away from the house, they’d have nothing to show for it. Yikes. However, this isn’t the first time or even ...

Now I’ve written about my love of small towns before. There’s just something magical and unique about each one. And sometimes even a visitor can get a glimpse of the insiders view of the place if there aren’t many people around. Usually, this is a good thing. Okay, so the other day I visited this little town. I seemed to be the only person there but the shop keepers. The very gossipy shop keepers. First up, a cute little store with lots of items with cutesy little sayings on them. I’m happily browsing when the owner starts chatting with me. Mostly to tell me why the store next door is closed. She used a lot of air quotes as she explained about how those people often have ‘colds’. Thus they show up for work late or not at all. It was a wonder the shop was still in business, according to her. Especially when she was sure they were treating their ‘cold’ with more than ‘Nyquil’ if I knew what she meant.   Yup, I was getting her meaning. She was trying to tell me it was her high an...

So, I’ve learned how to cook paella.   Now if you don’t know what this is, it’s this amazing Spanish rice dish. You can make it with seafood, chicken, or chorizo. But there are several tricks to making it right. First, you must use the correct rice – no substitutes allowed! Next, you must take your time and slowly add the ingredients to build the flavors in layer by layer – can’t just dump everything in a pan and call it a day! Finally, never let it come to a boil – you’ll end up with mush and rubber! There I was the other night, standing over my paella. Watching it as it slowly simmered, the smells wafting up to me as it gently bubbled happily in the pan. And I got to thinking – paella is life, life is paella. You can’t fake emotions - you have to be real with people.   You can’t rush life - you’ll miss too much and it’ll end up boring because you’ve missed most of the fun. And you most certainly can’t get angry over every little thing - because, lets face it, nobody want...

Okay, new year, resolution time. The signs have popped up everywhere – New year, New you. Weight loss, new job, education opportunities, new haircut, you name it. Oh boy, here we go. Fine, let the insanity begin. I’ve got two friends who’ve made resolutions having to do with getting rid of little foibles they have. The first has this habit of patting everyone on the arm. It’s not harmful, dangerous or at least in my humble opinion, even slightly annoying. However, she wasn’t even aware she was doing this until one fine day some idiot told her that she kept tapping his arm twice to make her points. He said it kind of bothered him. Well, that was only because he's a moron and was losing the argument. Thus, he decided to make things personal. However, she didn’t see it this way. She was hurt and began to wonder how many other people she’d bothering for years with this little tick of hers. Thus, she’s decided to eliminate this tapping now that she’s conscious she’s even doing it in ...