Welcome To My Life

I was born Angeline Inez Beck on June 23^rd – you don’t need to know the year, in Abilene, Texas where the sun is unforgiving on most days, and the bugs are always hungry.  Mom and Dad seemed to  have been stationary in one place long enough to have at least two children before moving on, and there are eight of us kids. We were a military family.  My bro Kenny was born in Abilene a year after me.  I am an American of African descent – although my mom had a bit of Irish mixed in as well.  I am usually a good-natured person except for the times when I’m not.  I do have to admit to being a pessimist at birth and dabbling in optimism like a hobby of sorts.  I am not the warm fuzzy type although I will do anything for those in my world.  I will accept a hug but I have to be honest, they make me feel a bit uncomfortable.  Not sure why, it just is. I don’t particularly care for the use of endearments aimed at me unless they come from the lips of people I’ve called mom and dad.  The types of endearments that make me want to slap something include the following:  honey, love, darlin’, sweetie, dearie, baby doll -- the latter of which is completely off limits as mom called me that from time to time as a child.  I will accept being referred to as love as long as it is spoken with an English accent.  I will accept being referred to as darlin’ if we are dating and you pay for everything, otherwise don’t do it.  Some of the above are acceptable for a waiver depending on the degree of friendship and/or whether the endearment user is age appropriate which typically means 80-plus years of age.  All in all, I still cringe inside when I’m called anything other than my name, but I no longer get the urge to throw up.

I was the president of my sophomore class and varsity cheerleader in my junior and senior year in high school. My adulthood has been spent in corporate America where I've worked my butt off. That’s all that is needed for that phase of life. My favorite pie is cherry with or without ice cream.  My favorite cake is German Chocolate – it was my dear Kenny’s favorite as well.  My favorite color is red. I’m passionate about writing, although sadly it is a passion I have not indulged.  I am an avid reader of romance books with a bite, meaning a romantic-murder-mystery-somewhat humorous-paranormal-intrigue kind of storyline.  I must have it top heavy with respect to the romance angle.  I was married, divorced, and married and divorced again, and had two really handsome boys from the first go-around.  That’s all that needs to be said about that.

Let's see, an embarrassing moment would include meeting an underwriter for the first time as an insurance assistant on a new job, and as we were walking out of a restaurant I stepped over a vent in full force, and the full skirt I was wearing popped up like one of those huge golf umbrellas. I bent forward to protect my front, and could feel my skirt fluttering against the back of my head, in what probably looked like a really absurd Marilyn Monroe imitation.  Unfortunately for me, that morning I'd decided to wear my granny panties on the outside of my much-too-small pantyhose in order to keep the hose from shifting down. Yeah.

T. M. I.?  Probably.

I have cancer now but it is not who I am, it is what I am going through.  It takes hold sometimes though and when that happens and I look in the mirror at my spotty bald head, and my liquid eyes, and my ravaged fingernails – sometimes it’s all I see.  So I got up this morning and decided I needed to remind myself of who I am so the cancer doesn’t get the credit for becoming all that I am. 

So there you have it. 

Have a great day!