31 March 2008

I'm Coming Home Today (For Matt Maupin)

I don't normally put poetry here, but I have to today out of honor and respect.....

Momma, I am coming home today,

I a weary, my soul is lost...

Dad, I am coming home today,

I fought as I could, and I am weary...

Brother, I am coming home today,

Don't run behind me, your life is priceles...

Sister, I am coming home today,

Now I can protect you in person...

My friends, I am coming home today,

Do not weep, my heart knows your love...

My God, I am coming home today,

I did what I could, I lived as I would...

My country, I am coming home today,

I gave what I could, I did what I had to do...

Matthew, you are coming home today,

Your fight is over, come lay your spirit...

Matthew, you are coming home today,

The ticker tape parade is ready....

Matthew, you are coming home today,

We love you...we thank you!!!

~Raven

31 March, 2006

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This took a lot out of me to write. By now everyone has heard about our MIA/POW Staff Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin's remains being found and identified on Sunday....11 days before the anniversary of his disappearance 9 April 2004 right before Easter Sunday....

Carolyn Maupin is a good friend to my stepmother. This is over for them, their closure is now...however, I ask all of you to send your energies of love to the family...

I have had several opportunities to talk to Carolyn, and the hope in her heart never stopped her from trying, reaching out...today she and Keith (Matt's father) marched in the Cincinnati Red's Opening Day Parade-Matt and Joe Nuxhall (a Cincinnati legend) were honored at this game....this is what Matt would have wanted his family to do...stay strong, live in honor of him.

I know we all have opinions about this war, and about what should be done...I don't care, and I don't wish for arguements...I just ask that you take one second of your time tonight and raise a glass in honor to Matt and the 4000 (now 4001) soldiers dead (American side-unsure of the Canadian and British yet)....ask that they be brought home safely....

LOVE NEVER LOOSES IT'S WAY HOME....IN MATT'S CASE, THAT LOVE WAS A LIGHT AND A BEACON ON HIS JOURNEY!

http://www.yellowribbonsupportcenter.com/

PFC Keth Matthew Maupin

26 March 2008

Celtic Thunder Revisited

Heartland


http://www.celticthunder.ie/

http://www.myspace.com/celticthundershow



There we go....my favorite five man Celtic sing group!!!

Thought I would just give myself a mid-week pick me up...lol

Everything is going great at the new job. I just need to get used to it, and everyone seems to be happy with my performance, and I will have to press shirts for a little while longer-til Friday...no big deal.

~Karol Lynn

25 March 2008

Chat Box

I have a chat box here...hopefully it works...not sure what I will do with it, but stop and say hello-let's see if this thing works...lol

I am having a bit of a leftover emotional day so I am not very talkative for the moment. I just need to get my head straight for a moment. I will post more details about the new job soon.

Love
~Karol Lynn

24 March 2008

Emotional Day

The new job is going to be a great one....medical, dental, vacation....and now an opportunity (within less than 15 hours of working for them-pressing and training last week, walking in this morning) to make more money helping do the manager's job-dc laundry and my job of assembling (which starts on Thursday when the new presser starts)....I would say that this will be a great job, even if I don't fit in with the people I work for and I can't exactly get a feel for the owner just yet....I think things will be fine.

I have also been following a fellow poet since he's come out of incarceration....things have been very hard for him-1 year in prison and 3 months of rehab, and on top of it, his "Crazy Beautiful" isn't with him....for some reason this unfolding story is tearing at my soul for some reason. http://dosepoet.com/index.php dosePoet.com. Ignore the recent post...dose is a little high with being out and about again, but the rest is worth reading!! Especially his beautiful, raw and heart wrenching poetry for his Meghan....I don't know why, but these two pull at me, and I want them to be together so much...I feel it inside. I know that doesn't make sense, but it's what I feel. I am also compelled to write again because of his work, but I am refraining until I can get a moment to myself to get away from the influence...lol

Today is also Grandma's birthday-she is 83, she was born on March 24, 1925...my late grandfather was born on June 25, 1924....just switch the 24 and 25 around, and remember Spring and summer to remember the months...I wonder if Grandma's happy about her birthday...lol We celebrated it on Saturday because today's a work day, and yesterday would have been too hard to get everyone together, even for Easter dinner-"Peace" was with his father all weekend, and the "New Brother" was picking up a friend at the airport, and my younger brother and I had to spend Easter at Dad's house loosing track of basketball games and watching Shrek 3 lol

Today is another half emotional day for me as well....even though I am over it, in many ways-someone still is stuck within my soul...yes, I thought I would not have her here, but she is. Today was the day Chameron died....yes, I am over it, but she's still here, I feel it...I couldn't go to her grave today, I had too much within my soul to even try, and it is rather cold outside for me to want to sit out and kiss cold stone as I always do as I leave the rose on her grave (I know many will think I am morbid when it comes to Chameron and death, but it's something that is done-from me to her, a promise of life). It's alright, I am using a special friend's birthday (Nat) to make myself stay up beat, and tonight I will toast the old friend and the new friend in celebration of life, much like I did on my own birthday...

I also had an old friend from Montreal contact me today....he had disappeared for a long time, and has now returned...I don't know what to think or make of this particular event after everything else, but I will say that I almost started crying when I read his message. I didn't mention it anywhere else because I was afraid to share that with others there, but here, I trust my friends...and the Canadian Dragon is a good friend, even if my feelings didn't match or mirror his....maybe he has grown in the past 4 months since he went missing.

All I know right now is that I just want to get the fuzzies out of my head at the moment and do what I have to, I want to get into my own place and soon, and I need to find a place of peace today so that I can clear my silly head!!!

~Karol Lynn

19 March 2008

Day One/Failure To Commit

First of all, thank you to all of my supporters, but I have already failed in my commitment to quit smoking....I bought a pack on Saturday afternoon when I had less than half a pack left to begin with, and continued to smoke on Sunday....

I have examined the reasons for this: first of all, I didn't get myself into the frame of mind to BE a non-smoker, and while I wanted to, I didn't make myself ready for it....no pep talks, no replacement routines...and while I had the research and ideas, I didn't make the commitment with a full heart. Second, I need to change habit. Since it's hard for me to change, I didn't have alternative ideas ready.

Then, there is this: my brakes went out on Sunday, and cost $500 to fix, stressing me out...and yesterday I didn't get to start training for my new job because I had to take said car to the shop to fix, and it wasn't ready when I needed it, and by that point it was to late to go into the new job.,..I was upset...even though I had gotten out of my old job with enough time, the car repair shop was the problem....so, I bought another pack of cigarettes.

I know that many of you have said that you have put down the pack and walked away or just thrown them into the trash-most of you had a great incentive to quit-babies on the way, or fathers-to-be, or illness...me, however, I don't have those reasons (although, it will obviously cause illness in the future-this is the present)...so, quitting is something I want to do as much as need to do...and I am going to.

Here's the plan: I am going to finish out the week as a smoker, letting friends help me get into the mind frame of being a non-smoker...and thinking along those lines. Since my car was cleaned out Sunday, and the ash tray is relatively empty, and the nicotine is off the windshield, I am only allowed to smoke one cigarette in the car a day...this should make it easy for me to think that I can't smoke while driving (my ash tray was a disgusting nasty mess because I don't throw my butts out the window, this country is trashed enough without me adding to it). I will continue to seek out the information I need to help me through the first two weeks, and I will cut back from half a pack a day to a fourth a pack a day....that should help.

I am also going to buy some aides to help me quit smoking...something like a pill that makes me believe that if I smoke while taking it, I will endanger my life...that is something I always thought I would need-a pill that makes me think along those dastardly lines....no joke!!!

This has to be done...for myself, more than anything else....and I want it.

Now, my first training day at my new job went well, although they had a presser quit...and I got stuck having to do that job for a while (after doing it for 6 hours at my old job)....it was alright. I will like it there, everyone seems nice, and I feel comfortable there....the music is so much better. No offense, but I am tired of the oldies and that song about having a bad day...and all the emo songs that are played on the top forty....the music they listen to is hip hop, but it's not so bad....it puts a bit of bounce in the step and makes the atmosphere lighter. This isn't to say that I will listen to it all the time, mind you, but it's nice to have a change....and I will still go back to listen to my favorites (right now, I wake up to the classical music station-which is a mistake because it makes me want to just lay in bed and relax rather than get up and face the day).
I believe that I will like it at my new job, and they seem willing to help me, and quick with a smile and a hello....that is the kind of thing that I like to do when I go to work...it puts everyone at ease, and makes it easier to work. Even when I apologized to the assembler on the shirt side for the mistakes with the sleeve press, he said it wasn't a problem, and that is what he got paid to do-one of my favorite lines....lol I was even complimented for being able to figure out their assembling system so quickly (the owner said that was good, and he wasn't surprised since I told him that I could do almost any job in the dc business, he had a smile on his face, and I could tell that he was pleased to have me there).

So, I am looking forward to Monday, even if I have to start out as a shirt presser until they find someone to fill the job....and then I will be the assembler. It will be nice to work Monday through Friday, 9-5 (yes, I am not kidding, that is my hours-when I become assembler), and NO WEEKENDS! I can't wait...this means that I can go out camping this summer-YAY!!! I won't have to worry about going to work during the weekend!!! Oh, and there are benefits!! I get medical and dental after 90 days, and after 6 months, I get a week vacation...with 2 weeks in a year....oh, and in 90 days, I will get a raise also....can you believe it?

I forgot to ask what my pay is...but I will tomorrow when I go in....by the weekend, I will be able to figure out how and when I will be able to get my own place again (I miss my queen size bed!!).
Everyone have a great evening, I am going home to watch Celtic Thunder then a few episodes of Monarch of the Glen before going to bed tonight...I believe that a celebration of Godiva Liqueur is called for tonight, and some peace and tranquility (no one is home, everyone is in Wilmington searching out apartments for my little sister's next college phase) and I am going to enjoy it!!!
purple angel

~Karol Lynn

14 March 2008

Updated News

I have some news I forgot to share a while ago, and just plain forgot about it...

I didn't take that job a few weeks ago. It was a part time job way over on the other side of town, and would have cost me more in gasoline to go than it would be worth it...no biggie, I had just counted on it as a loss and be done with it.

However, this morning, I got a call from the manager who was going to hire me for her store...it seems that they have a different job opening in a another store that is full time with a bit of over-time....I guess I am meant to have this job lol I don't know what the pay is, and I still have to talk to the owner this afternoon, but I should be able to start working by next week or so....getting rid of the negative and prejudice that I feel is permeating the two places I work at now.

What this would mean for me is that I will be able to quit the job I hate and not have to work for the second job, making no money for 8 hours a day...I will have a life on Friday nights and not have to worry about certain things.

This also means that by May I will be able to get out of my mother's home and into my own place...can you say "peace and quiet!" lol It will mean that I will not have to worry about stepping on any one's toes and I can have my own rules and freedoms without worrying about others.

This also means that I will be able to afford to do things that I can't right now...and when I can, the first thing I want back in my life is a cat...I miss having a little one laying on my lap as I am reading a book and sipping tea in the afternoons....and I miss having someone who cares greet me at the front door with a little "meow" in hello. I may even get two (you can't have just one after all *giggles*) as I can afford it.

I will be able to work my way through the physical things I need to get through-like a hair cut and color for the first time in over a year...I am looking rather scraggly lately...lol And I would love to get myself a manicure for the first time in years too...I am in need of some major work over here...lol

Also, I forgot to mention that my sister is getting married soon...the gentleman is quite intelligent, kind and very caring. He loves my sister and you can tell. He has this way of subconsciously touching my sister-face, her hand, just little things that lovers do without thinking about it when they are near each other just to have physical contact.

This is nice, because he has given my sister many options-he lives in Dayton, but would be happy anywhere that she and my nephew are, and she can keep working and going to school part time, or go to school full time and quit her job...or she can quit both, it's up to her. They are working out the logistics of where and when, so only time will tell.

I also forgot to mention that my brother's girlfriend isn't pregnant..."apparently" she miscarried when she was supposedly tasered by a cop when she got pulled over in his car (I don't know why she had been pulled over, but it seemed like a routine traffic stop-my mom said)...now I ask you, why would a cop need to taser someone on a routine traffic stop? She was put in jail for a night, and that's when she "miscarried"...weird, because if she were miscarrying, she would have ended up in the hospital, but she stayed in jail. My brother is alright, he had already suspected that she has been lying to him this whole time, because she wouldn't let him go in when he wanted to for the sonograms and things of that nature (not the normal visits, but the special ones)...he was disappointed and upset, but in his heart, he knew that she had aborted his child(ren)...and now he knows that he is capable, even with MS of fathering a child. He will probably move home in the next few months-about the time I am probably moving out.

Now, as of this past semester, my youngest sister has officially been on the Dean's List every semester since her freshmen year at Kent State University (she is a senior this year), and she is going to get her degree this year...and now is looking into colleges to get her Ph.D in English...she's looking closer to home this time because she will be getting her own apartment.

This means that my mother is finally cutting the apron strings with my little sister and maybe she can start being an adult instead of letting mom guide her life outside of college...it's good that they are close, but sometimes I wonder if my mom is having a hard time letting go of her youngest because she is the baby of the family...even if she is 22 years old, she is still our little darling. LOL My poor mother!!

On Palm Sunday (this weekend), I will stop smoking. I have been reading Jenster's Musings lately, and I have realized that I have been taking my own health for granted. I had originally decided that I would quit smoking by the time I was forty, and I am two years away from that now...and I had thought that I would do it on New Year's Eve sometime, but that never happened...so now, I am just going to do it...quit. I will have to break my Lenten promise with the "NO CANDY" bit by using gum sometimes too, but I think Father won't mind that one for the moment-or even mints, and a friend gave me a stop-smoking aromatherapy remedy that has helped her friends quit, so I think I will be alright. However, I will need help here-with accountability...I am in need of others who will ask how I am doing, and how many days I have gone without a cigarette, and I know that I have that in a few people. Hopefully I won't get cranky on everyone....lol I will gain weight, but that is what I originally want to do anyway...I have already resolved to gain 15 lbs by the end of March, and I have already gained 4-5 lbs already, and I am happy about that!


With the last week of online spring cleaning, I have been doing a bit of spiritual self cleaning as well. If you haven't seen it here on this blog page, then I will say that I have gone back to Father and asked for His help in understanding myself and what it was that I needed...there is only one way for me to go, and I deal better with Three in my heart, knowing that it is the right path for me. I do stumble on my journey, but eventually, I will get the message-He has always spoken to me (someday I will relate my salvation story-quite funny and quite interesting), and He always will!!

I am so glad that I am going back along my own path now, I feel like I have gained control of myself, and since I have said the words "Help me, Father", I seem to have gotten the things that I needed and wanted from Him.


Well, there it is. I won't be gaining any new nieces or nephews anytime soon (unless my sister changes her mind about the no babies after 34 deal-which she just might lol), but I will be gaining a new brother....I have a new job with new possibilities and I will stop smoking this weekend. I am also going to be making more changes in the future, and I am hoping that they are good for myself and others....I am sad for my brother, and happy for my sisters, but most of all, I am excited for myself!!


I am also glad to say that construction of this site is almost over. It would seem that things are moving along nicely, and all that is left is going over and catching up on blogs and various things...I will be on forums sometime in the next two days.

Sunday is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week for me, I will be a bit busy working on my spirituality, and preparing for the Easter Vigil, as well as working towards what I will need for my journey with Father...I love this coming week because it is the countdown to my second birthday-my Baptism...I am always happy to go through my own heart and see what I have learned and how I have grown...of course, I love Easter, and I can't wait to see all of my favorite kidlets dressed in their cutest outfits...lol

Blessings
~Karol Lynn

13 March 2008

Celtic Thunder

Last night, as I was surfing through the channels, trying to find Showtime on Demand to watch the next episodes of The Tudors, I stopped on the Cincinnati public television station, thinking that while I was searching out what I was looking for, there would probably be a Celtic Woman or Acuna Concert they would be replaying or something of that nature.

Instead what I found had me stuck on the CET Cincinnati despite the fact that it was pledge week for the channel...I had already missed the first half hour to forty five minutes of the program, but the rest of the program (a two hour special) was enough to have me in absolute awww!!! It was a five man Irish band called Celtic Thunder!! The youngest member is 14, the eldest is 40....they are all so hot and they are very talented...read the bio and then cut and paste the first video first before watching the other ones....

I believe I was in heaven last night (even if I didn't watch The Tudors-that is another blog post).

11 March 2008

Under Construction & Online Spring Cleaning/Together We Go

Alright, I am at it again...lol

Page is under construction, and it is kinda messy. Pardon the mess. It'll take a day or so to cleanup, so don't get frustrated with me. There are still lovely sites I need to add, along with my forums....so that the page looks a bit like it's former glory...if I am missing a blog or a site, it will be added very soon.

I have been doing a bit of online cleanup lately, and I just got rid of a lot of places that were not exactly what I needed, or were taking up way too much time, so I deleted them. I am still wondering if keeping Facebook is worth it all too.

I couldn't get rid of LiveJournal or Myspace, I had invested way too much time and love into both sites, and there are several people there that I love....but the other places weren't what I needed and I didn't have time to work with them.

I do have a new blogstream, however, that I would love to use as a side to this site, and to make friends there....or maybe we will just see what is going on there.

I just had too many irons in the fire, that's all...it's time too just get myself organized and on with it...lol
~Karol Lynn
faith

Oh, and this blog's name is changing to TOGETHER WE GO...it'll be a mirror to my blogstream-different, but similar...

Mists of Avalon

Two days in a row!  WOW!! I have been re-reading Mists of Avalon.   I know, last year I was supposed to be a part of a book discussion on it...