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.

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.

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.

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.

I have been thinking a lot about manipulation lately. I’ve decided that I am relatively easy to manipulate because I tend to be a “people pleaser” and avoid conflict. This causes me many problems in my life, because I am often influenced, controlled, coerced or taken advantage of.

I am certainly quite capable of standing up for myself. It’s just that in many situations, I will allow myself to be finagled to avoid confrontation or conflict with another person.

I’m not saying I’ve never manipulated someone, ever, because I believe that we all have. I just try not to be that type of person. Sometimes this is not so easy, though, as we all have some sort of power over people and use it to our own advantage.

Some people are master manipulators. I’m sure we all have at least one of these people in our lives. They are button-pushers and know exactly what to say and do to get what they want. They tend to be very charismatic, and people are often drawn to them. They seem fantastic outwardly, but once you get a glimpse of what is inside, it is hard to see them as anything other than an emotional bully. This is what I imagine people like Hitler and Jim Jones must have been like.

These people make manipulation a way of life, and use it to gain professional favours and forward their careers, as well as on a personal level to influence friendships and intimate relationships. I liken these people to Svengali and find that their behaviour is abusive, even if it is subtle, and can be alluring to people that are unaware of what is happening.

Do you have some one like this in your life?  Do you let yourself be manipulated by this kind of person?  It’s pretty hard not to.  If you let these people know that you are “onto them”, they will often become angry with you because they are embarrassed, ashamed and they believe they will always get away with their behaviour.  It’s not pleasant for them to be discovered as a phony.

So how do we deal with master manipulators?  I am learning to deal with conflict and not be afraid of it.  This is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life.  Styles of communication are very difficult to change and it is not easy to change the way we react in situations.  Am I ever going to be able to deal effectively with master manipulators?  I hope so!

Do you have any ideas, tips or tricks on how to deal with these situations?  I’d love to hear from you!  Please leave a comment, or you can email me at donig@mts.net.  I can also be reached on my Facebook fan page or Twitter.

Hi folks! I’m off for a few days and won’t be posting or checking comments. I’ll be back on Thursday and should have a new post up on Friday. Now is a good time to catch up on any previous posts you haven’t read yet!  Take care and enjoy the beautiful summer weather!

Congratulations to Justy and redd!  They have received the entire No Doubt digital library, which includes six entire albums.  Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by O’s Opinions!

Hi folks! I’m off for a few days and won’t be posting or checking comments. I’ll be back on Thursday and should have a new post up on Friday. Now is a good time to catch up on any previous posts you haven’t read yet! Wish me luck, the Tiny Terror will be cooped up in a vehicle for several hours this week.

I started blogging for two purposes, to drive traffic to my husband’s website with original content and to work  out some of the jumble in my head.  I’ve always liked writing and I thought this might be interesting.  I started by blogging about relationships, and I initially took this very seriously.  I found very quickly though, that expressing my quirkiness was working much better for me.

My first blog was posted less than three months ago, but have learned so much in that time.  I often go back and re-read what I’ve posted (and my inner editor finds new mistakes every time, yikes!) and yesterday I was struck at how much I have grown in that short period of time.  I also realized that I have a lot of people to thank for helping me along the way.

First and foremost, the two guys I thanked at the end of my very first post need to be thanked again.  Kevin, you nudged me in this direction and have supported every move I made.  You put up with my obsessions, my highs and lows, and all my craziness.  Without you, I don’t think I ever would have discovered that I really can do this.  The second is Lee Rowley from “The Blogger’s Workshop”.  Lee, your posts are so informative and I have learned so much from you.  Keep doing what you are doing, because it helps me do what I do!

Next, I’d like to thank my new readers for checking out my blog, and hopefully returning often to see new posts.  Finally, I have to thank a handful of regular readers that faithfully give me so much positive feedback and keep me going.  These are my family and friends that also have supported my every move and keeps me going.  You guys know who you are, and I appreciate everything!

Thanks for helping me grow and I hope I continue to evolve and mature (although not too much!) as a blogger and writer.  I hope you will come back and read my posts again!