O’s Opinions started when my husband wanted some original content to drive users to his website. I agreed to do this, as I was at a point in my life where I wanted to explore different options for potential income for the next few years. I was employed by a social service agency for almost eleven years and was reaching a point where I did not want to be dealing with other people’s issues for the rest of my life. Those of you who know me personally know that I have enough of my own to deal with!

I started blogging about relationships, as I have education and experience in this area. I quickly developed a “voice” in my blog that was a lot more personal than I had intended. My posts were becoming stories of my family and my life in general. I was enjoying this, and received a lot of positive feedback, with readers requesting more of my (so-called) humourous posts. When my mother passed away at the end of December, I found writing about my life very difficult. There were no funny and amusing stories to tell, only grief and sadness. I chose not to expose my raw wounds to the world, and so my blog was sadly neglected.

I was also very busy setting up my own business, O’s Oddities, a website (www.osoddities.com) where I sell jewelry that I have made using new and vintage material. Now that I have that up and running , I have been giving my blog a lot of thought. I have made the decision that I will continue to post, but I will not be limiting the focus to just relationships or stories of my life. I have decided that I would like to focus the whole concept of females, feminism and femininity in our society. Some days this may be amusing, and other days it may be more educational or critical.

I hope my readers will continue this journey with me and O’s Opinions, as the evolution continues. I would love to hear your feedback.

The winner of the giveaway from my other website, www.osoddities.com, is the lovely Isabelle Eini. Izzy, I will mail your new necklace this week. Enjoy!

Stay tuned for more giveaways in the near future.

Lately, I’ve been trying really hard to keep the drama in our household to a minimum. I know I can have a very histrionic, dramatic side, as do both my daughters. This is very hard on my husband, who is generally pretty laid back (although, don’t let him fool you, he can be  a pretty big drama queen at moments, too). Let’s just say I’m trying to be an adult, and get past my flair for the dramatic.

I’ve been doing pretty good, and my new mantra is “It is, what it is”. I’ve decided not to get stressed out about things that I cannot change. Overall, this works quite well. I experience much less stress and therefore, am more laid back.

I have also tried be less sarcastic and vivid when expressing myself. This has also been going well. I am not nearly as sarcastic as I used to be and I try to keep my opinions and emotions in check. Well, I really pulled a bad one yesterday.

We took my husband’s granny out for lunch and to run some errands. I let her sit in the front seat because it is easier for her to get in and out (she’s almost 93). We were getting out at a greenhouse, and I put my hand outside the SUV to hoist myself out of the back seat, when my husband slammed the driver’s door.

It took about two seconds for me to realize that the immense pain that I felt was coming from the two fingers that hubby had just slammed in the door. It was so painful, all I could see was a blinding white light. I knew there were a lot of people around and even in that pain, I was trying very hard to maintain my composure. I tried to pull my fingers out, but quickly realized that that was only going to cause more pain.

Now I still haven’t made a single sound – not a moan, groan, peep – nothing. I see my hubby walking toward the back of the truck to get granny’s walker, and I tried to tell him that my fingers were stuck in the door. What I tried to say was “Could you please open the door so I can get my hand out”? What came roaring out of my mouth was “MY FINGERSSSSSSSSSS”!

I was mortified at myself! Everyone turned and looked at me. I was trying to remain dignified and have some sense of decorum, and my brain overrode any thought of politeness and manners. I writhed silently in pain for about a minute and a half and tried really hard not to have a big hissy fit. At least I didn’t swear. I’m very proud that not one single curse word spilled from my lips.

So, I am getting better at keeping the drama out of my life. It’s a good thing I can put it into my writing.

On Monday, June 7, I am launching a new website, www.osoddities.com, where I will be selling my handmade, upcycled jewelry. To celebrate this, I would like to give one of my pieces away to my blog readers.

Just put your name, email address and which necklace you prefer in the comment box. The contest closes on July 1, 2010 and the winner will be announced on July 5, 2010.

I probably have no readers left because I have not been posting regularly and the posts I have done have not been remarkable in any way. So if there is anyone out there that is still interested in “O’s Opinions”, here goes.

I have thought many times about my blog and have felt pressure to post something. There are a few reasons why I have been neglecting this, though. People ask me to “write one of my hilarious posts”, but I haven’t had anything funny to say in a while. Sometimes the things that are going on around us are not amusing to ourselves, and certainly not to others. One of the other reasons that I haven’t been blogging is forgetfulness.

I have gotten so forgetful lately. I used to pride myself on my excellent memory, but I can no longer do this. There have been a few times when I was going to blog about forgetfulness, but forgot to do it. 

Let’s move on. The reason I actually sat down to write is because I am fuming over the poor writing skills and salacious, sensationalistic stories that appear all over my home page. I use Sympatico as my home page because I like having a variety of things to glance over when I go on the computer. On so many occasions in the past little while, I find the “headlines” for the links have almost nothing to do with the story and are made to look so much more newsworthy than they really are. It usually just ends up being regurgitated drivel with a scandalous tidbit to drive more users to a page. So much out there is just gross and vulgar, and if I feel that way, it must be really bad.

The other bit that irks me to no end is the horrible grammar and spelling that some of these writers use. I cannot believe that these people are able to have their stories linked from a popular site, or are actually paid to write. Does no one edit their pieces before they are published? Did these people actually take any writing or journalism courses? There are so many good writers out there trying to get read, how can this crap earn a living for these people?

I blame blogging. Any butthead with a computer can put whatever they want out there. Yes, I am biting the hand that feeds me. No, wait a minute. NO ONE PAYS ME TO DO THIS! There are so many good bloggers out there trying to have their writing skills noticed that they write for free, to gain experience and maybe have someone notice them. If people like what they read, that is a major bonus to most bloggers.

I’m not saying that I am the next great writer, I just like writing and putting some of my quirkiness out there. I still think that I am a waaaaaaayyyyyyy better writer than half of these people that are on the payrolls of these big websites that make a lot of money. How is this possible? Hell, I’ll do it for half of what they are paying the ignoramuses!

Is there anyone else out there that is sick of the tabloid-like garbage that passes for news? How do we change this? I was going to say something else, too, but I forgot. Sigh.

Okay, I know, I’m supposed to be discussing relationships and being observational and helpful. I just have to be completely off topic, though, and tell you about a funny situation.

Today I took in two pairs of shoes to be repaired (VERY disappointed in a certain designer, since they we both from HIS collections). There is a very nice pet shop in the mall that I went to, so of course my younger daughter wanted to go have a look. There was the biggest, fattest guinea pig I have ever seen, and my child fell in love.

We have explained to this child at least a hundred times that a rodent, no matter what the size, will not survive in this household. We have three cats, two of which have displayed amazing killer instincts and reactions. The third one is really fat and eats anything. A rodent would survive about five minutes in my house. She understands this, so there is never a real problem when we say “no”.

After we left the mall and were getting in the car, a weird little gruff voice from the back seat said, “I WANT A GUINEA PIG”! It was strange because it reminded me of Regan from The Exorcist.  My husband and I, being used to this child’s idiocyncracies (and knowing that genetically she is half mine), giggled a little and pretty much ignored this. So again, the possessed voice from the back seat said “I WANT A GUINEA PIG. ONE THAT IS FIVE TIMES  FATTER THAN THEODORE”. Parents reading this may understand the Simon and the Chipmunks reference, the rest of you  think back to your childhood.

Anyway, again, ignoring the bad behaviour while giggling, we were trying to figure out what to do the rest of the day. I asked the demon in the backseat what she wanted to do and received the reply ” STEAL A GUINEA PIG”. How do you not bust up laughing? I know my child is horribly precocious, but come on, how do you not not break into hysterics when you hear something like that?

It is now about eight hours later and I am still giggling over this. Again, I am going to ask people, when do you ever think you hear something like that? Having a conversation with a child is so magical and engaging sometimes. It reminds me to capture those moments in my mind and save them forever.

If you regularly follow my blog, you know that I have not been contributing regularly to it for several months. I’ve thought about writing many times over the last little while, but my emotions were too raw to expose to the world. I have been withdrawn and unsharing, but I think I am ready to return to the wonderful world of blogging.

I started out a little over a year ago blogging about relationships, and my voice quickly evolved to be more personal and less of a discussion about relationships in general. This made it very difficult for me to write about anything while I was dealing with a loved one’s terminal illness and subsequent death. So many topics came to mind and I had very good intentions (and we all know where that leads), but as I said before, it was just too personal and close to home to share.

One thing that really stuck out in my mind is how a set of siblings can share the same biological parents, yet have experienced such different parenting from those same parents. Birth order has a lot to do with this, as does gender. My parents were of this liberated time and there was no real apparent gender bias to their parenting styles, yet our society still dictates that male and female children be raised differently.

I am the oldest of five, and I was very aware of the difference in parenting between children in the same family. I was still surprised at some of the attitudes of my siblings while dealing with the death of our mother. I also saw more clearly the role that my parents played in my life. Being the oldest, I was shocked to learn that there were so many things about my parents that I knew that none of my siblings had any idea about. My oldest brother kept asking me “How do you know that” or “How do you remember that”?

Our parents treat us differently based on our personalities as well. This became very apparent as my siblings and I discussed our mother or when we were going through her personal items to split up. I was surprised at things that held sentimental value to someone, but was pretty meaningless to me, or vice versa.  A lot of this had to do with what activities we engaged in with our parents and it the experiences that we had with them.

Well, I guess that’s a good start to getting back into the groove of writing. I have been thinking a lot about this topic and may return to it in the future, as there a lot of unformed idea about this rattling around in my head. I hope you enjoy the new look of the blog and I hope you will check out my new project when I have it up and running. I am in the process of creating a new website where I will be selling jewelry that I have made. I have tons of stuff, as I have found this very theraputic (you were bang on with that one KL!).  Have a great day and I hope to be posting again soon!

I am still not quite myself, but each day it gets better and better. Life does move on, and you either go with it or get left behind.

I thought since I am still not quite ready to begin my regular blogging , I would showcase a rising new writer that has shown a knack for poetry. Here’s where I show my Proud Parent Syndrome, or PPS, as my brother calls it. The young writer in question is my younger daughter and she wrote such a good poem that her teacher brought it to the principal’s attention, who then decided that it should be published in the school newsletter.

Judge for yourself!

Spaghetti

Spaghetti is in a bowl.
I slurp it up.
The meatballs are giant.
Stinky cheese on the meatballs
Lots of tomato sauce
The noodles dance with the meatballs
They scream not to get eaten
Too late!

Not bad for a seven-year-old!

I have returned to blog another day. Things have been emotionally difficult for me since my last post, and every time I tried to write, my voice got tangled in so many feelings that I couldn’t find my voice.

My mother passed away on December 27 after a nearly four year battle with cancer. It has only been in the last week or so that I have started to move forward in the grief process and have started to feel a bit like my old self. I am not going to write about this process yet, as it is all still too fresh and close to my heart at this time.

I have been making jewellery and various crafts and have decided to start selling them online. In the next few days, a new page will be available on hardertofind.net that will be called “O’s Oddities”. I will be setting up a Pay Pal account and will ship items to Canada and the U.S.

I hope to return to blogging soon. I also hope you will have a look at “O’s Oddities” once it is up and running and like what you see. Take care, people, life is too short to waste.

Hello dear readers. I have been terrible at keeping my posts current. There are all the regular excuses of being busy, Christmas is coming up, blah, blah, blah. It affects everyone and you are not interested in hearing the excruciating minutia of my life.

There is another reason for my lack of contribution to the garbage floating around on the internet. My mother has been terribly ill. This is not new, but she is a very private person and I have respected that by not posting anything about her condition. Enough said.

I needed to tell you this in order to explain what is going with me. I haven’t posted because I don’t know what to say. It is so difficult to express the turmoil that is going on inside and the overwhelming feelings of helplessness, guilt, grief and sadness.

My mother is one of the strongest people I have ever met. She is smart and funny, talented and creative. Everything that I could ever hope to be. She has been a rock in my life, even though I spent about a decade thinking she was crazy and had no idea what was going on with me. You know, typical adolescent that knows more than anybody else that ever lived.

Life really is too short. Most people, me included, rush about their daily routines, rarely stopping to appreciate all the good things they are missing. Simple things, like spending time with family and friends and valuing what we have, instead of desiring the next best thing.

In this season of peace and good will toward men, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, stop and reflect on the good things in your life and be conscious of what you have before it is gone.