7 more days

Do you think I'm slightly obsessed by my upcoming belt test? I've run through a couple of forms today at work, that's how obsessed I am!! LOL! I'm ready for it, I tell you that! I'd like to get it done TODAY! I'm not ready for it but...that would be the thing for me.

I had to send an email to Miss A's PE teacher. I told her that I wasn't fighting her battles, but that she's been the brunt of some verbal abuse (and sock throwing) in the locker room. Junior High girls are MEAN! First they told her that she "dresses weird" because she doesn't wear high fashion clothes. I'm NOT dressing her up as a BS Wanna Be. I'm sorry, but that isn't gonna fly. I'd much rather see her wearing jeans and tee shirts. If the other girls don't like it, too flipping bad! They have no right to call her names...well, yeah, I guess they do, but...I don't want her to have that stigma. If the coach can't get the girls under control, Miss A is going to have to bite her tongue a lot. I just can't stand that they're treating her like they are. I wish I could do something but I had a few people at work jump up and tell me to let her fight her own battles.
I HOPE that I've done some good for her.

Lunch is over for me so I have to go answer the phones again. The fun never ends.

Pretest is over

I've finished my pretesting so I'm ready for next Friday. He looked at my list of breaks and said that he thought I may have an issue with the Axe kick. An Axe kick is where you raise your leg up over a board, then bring it down sharply and go through the board with your heel first. A knife hand break is where you break a board with the 'blade' of your hand (that's the outside part of your hand). I am perfectly capable of doing both of those breaks. I have all the confidence in the world that I WILL make my breaks.

Mr. M told me last night that I need to *believe* that I am capable of doing my forms. I have an assignment for the next several days--I'm supposed to look at myself in the mirror and tell myself, "I am a GREAT martial artist!" I started out by telling my cat this morning that I was a great martial artist. He was not impressed.

School picture

I am on a roll today with the posts! I have posted more today than I normally do. Must be just because I've been at lunch.
Anyway...here are some pictures because I don't share very often.

9 days

The test is only 9 days away. Today I have to decide what I'm going to break boards with and then write it on an index card. I have to give my instructor my index card tonight when I pre-test on my forms. I think I'm going to do a front snap kick, elbow break, an axe kick and a side kick. I'm THINKING about a ridge hand break as well. Either that or an inverted knife hand. I have to find out if it's allowed. I just used my boss as a guinea pig for an inverted knife chop. Hmmmm.
I think I'll just send a quick email to Mr. M and ask him if those are okay. I think I'll do the front snap kick last as it's most impressive after all the others. We shall see. I'm gonna be sooo tired...

Aidan is working my last nerve. I love him dearly, but...Yesterday I got called to pick him up from school early. He apparently provoked another kid into spitting on him by calling him names. The other child is in Ms. Beaver's class and from what Aidan told me, other kids were calling him "Beaver". Aidan jumped right in but carried it too far. He and the other child don't like each other anyway, so when he poked the guy in the chest, he retaliated by spitting at him.
Okay, so that earned him a "lonely lunch". THEN...I found out that he also spelled out a word that begins with sixth letter of the alphabet. WHERE he picked it up, *I* have no clue! He SAYS he saw it on the Internet, on a website that was "Sonic vs. Mario". My best friend hasn't heard of that and she asked her 17 year old son about it. I don't allow him to watch movies or television shows that are higher than TV-G. Sometimes PG (as in Harry Potter) but it's all dependent on what I think he can handle.
Anyway, the language was the last straw. The school called me and told me to pick him up yesterday, so I left work early and he left school early. I introduced him to a bar of Zest soap for the word. He calmly repeated the word to me and told me it was "bad word number eight." I was shocked. I try to keep my language under control at home. I know that children are great parrots and can repeat *anything* you don't want them to say.

And, poor Amanda is getting left behind in the shuffle because her brother's acting up. I now have to get with her and give her a lot more attention because I don't want her to suffer for his behavior. I found out today that she has 12 assignments due this week. She's already lost out on one of them. She took a 0 on it because it wasn't turned in. I don't know about the rest of her assignments. That's something we're going to work on today. I'll get her started on that when she gets home from school and again when she gets home from Martial Arts.

Right now I'm feeling like I'm failing at being a mom. I don't want either of my kids to fail and to that end, I have to work harder at being there for them. I just don't know how to get it into the little boy's head that school is not a big joke. His teachers all said that he's very smart but he's learning to manipulate the system. I hope that the mouthful of soap helped to enforce that I want him to THINK about his behavior.
With Amanda, I know that she's also very smart and that she can do the work, but she's got to have an example of organization laid out in front of her. I want her to be a very successful 7th grader.

12 days away

The Black Belt test is only 12 days away. Am I ready? That's debatable. I know my forms and as long as I do NOT look at the kids around me and just go with what I know (including getting lots of practice on Nahainchi Cho Dan this week so that my transitions are proper!!!), I should be okay. I've got to review my one steps, but that's not that much of a problem. I only need to know 1-12 on those. We have sparring AND we have the dreaded Ho Sin Sul (self defense!). I am NOT too comfortable with the Ho Sin Sul, but I'll deal with it. I've got this week and most of next week to practice. I really don't want to spar. I have this horrible habit of laughing and giggling like a fool whenever I start sparring with someone. That has GOT to stop! I'll feel like an idiot in my sparring gear (first time I've worn it!)
We haven't been practicing the bong forms, so I won't be doing that at the test. Mr. M is going to have us do technique (for an hour!!!), 100 jumping jacks (yuuuuuuck!!!) and a minute's worth of push ups. I can do one minute of pushups! I did 38 of them in a minute today. I know, it's a pitiful number but...Mr. M says that for my age, it's acceptable. If I push it, I can build up on that number before the test.
When we did the jumping jacks in class, we all counted up to 50, then he had us stop and start again. We counted 1-9 and everyone yelled 10, then up, with everyone joining in on the even numbers (10, 20, 30, 40, 50). It looks good, sounds good and it's going to be that way. He said that when the counting stops, you stop. Period. Don't keep jumping. Hey, I'm all for that!!

We went over some basic technique. I'm standing in between two kids and there will be another taller young man right behind me. I have to make absolutely sure I do NOT kick that kid in front of me in the back! It won't be a good thing to do. LOL!!

I pre-test on Wednesday. Have to know all of my forms, my one steps and my Ho Sin Sul. This is to make sure that I really WILL be ready. Mr. M tells me he's not worried about me, but *I* am worried about me! I shouldn't be, but I am. I've had dreams where Kwan Jang Nim St. James has been grading me, looking at my forms and technique and then stops the test to ask WHY I'm in the test! I realize that he won't do that, but it was a dream.

I'm pre-testing on Wednesday. My partner is a young lady named Holly. She'll come in and pre-test with me on my Ho Sin Sul and one steps. Once we've done those, he'll let us know if we're definitely testing on the 21st. If we can get past the pre-test, it'll be a downhill slide. I have to remember to take myself off to the black belt class on Thursday because it was a good thing to go to. I may start adding that into my regime. I have to be up at the school on Thursday for the Young Warriors class so I may as well just stay to work on the black belt class as well.

Thursday again

Well, it's Thursday! It's getting closer to the end of the week! I'm off work tomorrow and that should be interesting. I'm going to be meeting with my son's teacher and the SST/SSI team at school. When he was in Kindergarten, his teacher organized an "Student Success Initiative/Student Success Team" for him at the end of the year. His teacher (2nd grade now) is seeing that he needs something extra to help him succeed, so we're meeting with them to determine what we can do to help him. I hope it will make this year as good as last year. He had a pretty good year last year but I believe it was because the SST was organized at the end of the year and was put into place at the beginning of school for last year. I know they had him in Speech and other things. In fact, I found out about the speech classes quite by accident. It was a comment he made about it that made me realize they'd done it.

We will hopefully get him settled into school and working to be a happy second grader who will be able to progress to third without issue. I am not thrilled about the idea of medicating him. I promised my martial arts instructor that I'd keep that as a possibility in my mind. Tony's more anti-medication than I am. I'm just a bit less determined to say "he's just a boy". He may need the meds and IF he does, okay, fine. We'll get him evaluated first and see how it goes from there. I know that I'm responsible for a bit of his behavior--I have a tendency to spoil him. He's not been seriously punished for a lot of things. I have let him get away with a lot of things his sister hasn't gotten away with. Some of that could be because (and probably IS) because he's my youngest, he's the boy of the family and he's my last child. Need to change me so that he behaves better.

Tomorrow we meet at 9:00. I'm guessing the meeting will last about an hour. Hopefully we'll come up with a viable course of action. I like the teachers who are on his "team" so far--his own teacher, the fourth grade teacher my daughter had and the school counselor. I am ambivalent toward the principal but that's just ME. I had a few too many dealings with her because of his behavior in kindergarten. All the more reason to have this meeting. She may be a bit different this year. We shall see.

Three Wednesdays to go.

Three Wednesdays to go (if you include today!) until the black belt test. I'm starting to think it'll be an enjoyable experience. I'm pretty good with most of my forms. I need to practice at home and I still need to whip out ANOTHER class this week to make up for the holiday we just had. You're supposed to attend a minimum of two classes a week. CIT doesn't count toward the actual class, so IF I get finished with Miss A's orthodontist early enough today, we'll go to the 6:00 class. Jason's in that class too, so it'll be fun. I'm still on the fence about it.
I'm definitely going to the Black Belt class tomorrow night at 7:00. I can since I'm CIT.
I haven't been behaving with WW. I didn't go to the meeting on Saturday. Instead, I went and goofed off for a couple of hours with my friend DB. We practiced forms--ALL the forms! I think I'm really MUCH better on my stances now than I was leading up to Saturday. We shall see.

My weight was 202 at the lowest on Saturday. It went up to 203.5, then to 203 and has stayed pretty steadily during the week at 203. I'm not complaining. Yes, I know that weighing daily isn't a good thing but it helps me see where I need improvement. I don't think I'm going to worry about my weight unless it goes up more than this one pound gain. I have every confidence it'll keep going down. I have literally 3 weeks to go before I test and I'm sure that I will be able to get to 200 and keep it there leading up to the test.

This looks wicked cool!!

Sunday's cleaning frenzy?!

I went into a cleaning frenzy today. I don't know why, other than the fact that I had to clean up the floor in front of the television. We're having AT&T come in to install cable. (We caved in. We'd have had to pay $250.00 for the satellite dish we WERE going to get as part of our "security deposit". I'm so NOT happy about that! Oh well.)
While I was cleaning up in front of the television, I decided that I didn't need some old magazines that were over in a pile by the couch, so off to the trash they went. Then I asked Amanda if she minded if I tossed some of the stuff that was just laying around, things they're not playing with. We ditched old pencils, old pens, pictures that weren't useful, you name it. I found piles of mail on the table from I don't know HOW long ago--it was all junk. Old credit card offers, you name it. I shredded it. I ran through three bags in the shredder while I was at it. I'm a very happy person because I didn't let sentimentality get to me. I just jumped in feet first and shredded things.

I feel a super sense of accomplishment right now. I have been cleaning and changing the way the house looks. My next step is to go back to the garage and see what's down there, then ruthlessly toss things out there as well. I'll start boxing up books that I'm not currently reading and store them in the garage also. The better organized we are, the easier our move will be when our lease is up.

Counting down

Musings and general ramblings

I finally finished my black belt essay!! I finished it yesterday during lunch and one of my co-workers proofed it for me. She found a few mistakes, corrected redundant words and sent it to me. It's DONE!! I have to turn in the rough draft on Saturday, then it's clear until the 8th of September.

My mother made the mistake of having my grandmother call me and tell me to "come visit her". Um, no. I'm a mule. I don't appreciate my mother using my grandmother like that! I already don't get along with my mother--there's a long, sordid story there. The sad thing is, I told her months ago that I would NOT be visiting until she finally dragged her butt out here to see MY family. My family is a family of FOUR. There's my hubby, my daughter, my SON and me. It's not my daughter and me. It's FOUR of us. My mother has a seriously mental block about my son, so she won't even talk to him. I had the kids call and wish her a Happy Birthday last year. She talked to my daughter and ignored my son. My daughter's now asking those really rough questions ("Why does Grandma ignore Aidan?"). It's a hard thing to answer. I just tell her that I'm not sure. We'll have to ask her some time. Of course, I'm avoiding all issues because I don't go to my mother's house. That's a huge bone of contention for us too...we have to go to her house all the time. She refuses to come to our house. We think it's because we're in an apartment. There's nothing wrong with the apartment but she sees it differently. I'm sending her an invitation to the black belt test. She won't attend. I know she won't. She doesn't understand the pull martial arts has on me. She doesn't understand the discipline it takes to learn the art, to put the time into practicing it (and sneaking in time at work counts too! LOL!!).

Sunday

Ahh, Sunday. It's a day to relax. I had my Black Belt Prep class yesterday for two hours. I have to say, I popped out one of my absolute BEST round-house kicks with my left leg EVER yesterday! My left leg is not my best kicking leg. I have more power and strength on my right side for some silly reason. Well, he had us kicking pads. We had to stand exactly in front of the person holding the pad, raise our knees, then turn our hips over and kick. It was all very controlled, but I could definitely see a HUGE difference over just throwing my leg out there. Now if I can just do this during the test! LOL!! I will. I know I will. Control is the name of the game. I'm learning it.

Here's a bit of amusement for you...out of this black belt class, there are only FOUR girls/women. Two of them already have their black belts and only one is an adult. I find that amusing. I think we'll have a rather large group when we test as there are only around 15 CDB's and then we have the three or four Black Belts who are testing or recertifying for third Dan. I think some of the newest Cho Dan Bo's will be in the test too. Should be fun. It's only 39 days away now!

The kids are down at one of Tony's cousins' house this weekend. They left Friday night. The house is just quieter than quiet with them gone. I miss them. It's nice to not have them stomping and scuffing around on the floor, but man is it QUIET!! I had to turn on a CD to listen to because of it.

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Friday night. It was GOOD! I was surprised by the ending, but that's probably what Rowling wanted when she wrote the book. I would recommend it to anyone! Really, I would. I truly enjoyed the series and am going to re-read it at some point.

Not a whole lot is planned for today. I'm currently downloading mail and planning on what I can do to surprise Tony when he gets home from work. I think I'll just go in and make something he likes for dinner. I have a recipe I call "Hubby's Favorite" that uses hamburger (browned) with tomato sauce and elbows, topped with cheese and baked until the cheese is all melty. That's probably his dinner tonight. Then he can take it for lunch tomorrow too. IF it lasts that long. He likes it a lot, so it could disappear rather quickly. We shall see.

Well, the washer has stopped, so I need to do a little maintenance in that area. I may hang some clothes out on on the back porch on hangars. It's hot enough that they'll dry very quickly!! LOL!!

CIT Tuesday

I had CIT tonight. We did a drill where we broke into teams and "taught a white belt class". It's intimidating when you're standing up there in front of a bunch of black belts who are pretending to be white belts. We got a lot of good criticism from those 'classes'. I jumped up and took control of my "class" but not once did I call them by name, nor did I praise them or explain to them what I wanted to do. I did manage to tell my 'class' what I wanted them to do, but need to improve my delivery. These things I can do. It was very good to get this feedback from my peers. I appreciate it.

We talked about what makes a successful instructor. That was pretty cool.

Successful instructors (and the Dali Lama, the Pope, the President , CEO's of large and small corporations) share these traits:

1. Persistence: NEVER GIVE UP!
2. Avid Goal Setters: Set goals that you need to achieve in order to succeed.
3. Ask Quality Questions: talk to them. This can tie in how their day has been and can help the instructor teach, for example, if the parents say that the child/ren/student has been, for example, fighting with siblings.
4. LISTEN: Listen to what your students and their parents, other people, teachers are saying.
5. Are PASSIONATE about what they do. You teach better if you're passionate about your subject matter.
6. Are ENTHUSIASTIC about what they do. Enthusiasm is contagious.
7. Take Responsibility for their results: Don't blame someone else for something that is unsuccessful--don't blame competition, etc.
8. Work Hard. Be committed, attend classes, teach classes, make phone calls to white or yellow belts.
9. Keep in touch with their students (follow up with phone calls, etc)
10. Show Value (ask yourself, what can I do for my student/co-worker/etc)

I think it was an eye opener tonight. He gave us an assignment, which ties in to our other discussion, which was about Self Image. Our assignment is to remind ourselves that anything we can conceive of and believe in, we can achieve.
That's what I'm off to do.

Another loss!

I went to WW for the first time in almost a month and found that I've managed to pull off a two pound loss. Not too bad, considering last Sunday I went totally nuts and ate 42 points! Today hasn't been that bad. I managed to eat my 25 points I'm allowed and not go over. I also ate quite a bit of vegetables, so I'm a very happy person! I've been determined to make my second 10% goal, which I set for myself when I hit that first 10%. When I hit 197, I will hit my second 10%. I'm only about 7 pounds away from that right now. My total loss is 37.4 pounds. I will take it! I am very pleased with it, despite my seeming failures at times.
I'm not overly happy that I lose weight, then gain it...but I'm looking back at my journals and am using that as a base. The biggest thing I think that has helped me is that I'm drinking more water at work and not using the excuse that "we have calls holding and I can't go to the ladies..." as an excuse anymore. If I have to go, I go. Period. End of statement.
I have noticed a disturbing trend though. When I lose "big" (for me, it's 2-5 pounds), then I'll turn right around and gain it back by not eating right or not drinking water. I'm tired of that trend. I WILL break it! I've been on plan for about a year now and have managed to lose close to 40 pounds. The month of August is going to be a very tough month for me with my martial arts training, but...I'm going to make sure I lose at least 3 pounds this month. I'm taking my loss and adding to it.

Transformation

September 21st is a red, or should I say, a black letter day. That's the day I test for my first Dan in Tang Soo Do.
With the test rapidly approaching. I've stopped telling myself "I can't"...I did that about 3 years when I first stepped foot into Unlimited Success Martial Arts. Since then, I feel that I've transformed myself into something a lot different. Instead of "I can't...", now it's "I Can..."

I'm a totally different person than I was. Back then, I followed unhesitantly and did what I was told without questioning things. I tend to not be as much of a follower anymore. I wouldn't say I'm egotistical, but I feel that my confidence level has improved greatly since I started these clases. Back in 2004, I would never have thought it possible that I could break a board with my hand or foot, much less perform rolls and such. Now I can. I enjoy it.
There's a certain thrill there when I break a board because I know that *I* did it. Just ME.

I have made some really wonderful friends who I consider absolutely my BEST friends and feel honored that they think enough of me to attend my test. One of my best friends from USMA is someone I can confide in about any number of things. He listens and offers advice. You'd think we were related in the way we natter on and on at each other. We pick at each other, but are genuinely happy for each other's successes. He'll be attending the test in September alongside those of us who are testing for our first Dan. It'll be fun. I'm a little intimidated by the fact that the head of our Federation will be there, but at the same time, I'm not going to worry about HIM. I'm going to worry about ME. I have to make sure that I'm ready for this test.

"How much or how little you are prepared to give of yourself will determine how far up the success ladder you travel."

Mark your calendars now, if you're attending. September 21st. It's a new start. I'm going to be there and I'll be proud to be announced as one of the newest black belts from USMA.

CDB2

I earned it last night, DESPITE totally blowing Bassai!! Oh well! I did the best I could do. I spent my Ho Sin Sul (self defense--hip throws) time coaching my partner on HOW to do the throws. I didn't get to throw her. Oh well. I fell nicely!!

Today's been a fairly uneventful day. The kids had karate this morning. I don't usually attend the Saturday classes. My Saturday classes start NEXT Saturday. Hopefully I won't have to work that day! I'd MUCH rather spend two hours in Martial Arts as opposed to 4 hours at work, but...work must take precedence since it pays the bills! Ah well.

Beyond that, not much else is going on. The usual Saturday things. I spent a few minutes texting with a friend and didn't even know who it was until she gave me a HUGE hint (her name, LOL!!). That was funny. Then she called me as I was trying to tell her her phone number was different from what I had in my address book. Scary. LOL!!

Tony's read Harry Potter and the Ghastly Hallows. I'm reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. All I can say is "WOW"!!! He finished it today. Now if I can finish Order of the Phoenix, I can goi see the movie. I have to read Half Blood Prince next, then I'll be able to start on Ghastly Hallows. I hope to have finished at least Order and Half by next Saturday. I may or may not finish them, but it's worth a try.

Back to back classes

I took back to back classes last night. I went to martial arts with the kids and worked out in their class, then went to my own class and worked out again. We're doing mock testing this week to get ready for our belt test next week. The kids are doing pretty well, but I won't put my blinders on and say they're perfect. I know better. Amanda's picking up the form pretty well! She does well and pays attention in class. I'm challenging her daily to give more. I told her that if she gives 100%, the next time she needs to give 110% or 120%. So far it's working. I would dearly LOVE to be able to watch her test but since she's testing at the same time I am next week, I'm going to miss it. I told Tony that he has to go in and watch the kids this time instead of me. Our little ham is going to do pretty well, I think. Since my friends, DB and S are running the test, it'll be okay. They'll get full effort out of all the kids.

We got our assignment for the black belt essay on Sunday. I've already decided that I'm going to use something I wrote on June 3rd as my essay. It needs to be fine-tuned, but I've already got over 500 words. The rough draft is due August 18th. I'm ready for it. September 15th is when my final draft and all the Federation paperwork/Dan application is due. Should be fun between now and then. Plus, starting the 4th, I'll have classes for two hours, so I'll go up to the dojang with the kids for their Saturday classes, then I'll stay for another two hours. The first class I have to miss, unfortunately, because of a silly mundane thing like WORK! Oh well. He already knows I'm going to miss and he's told me it's okay. Once is fine. More than once and you're going to have to make it up in a private lesson on a SUNDAY. I sure hope the other kids aren't going to goof off and skip classes.
I'm really excited. This is a big thing for me. One of my co-workers told me I was obsessed. I think he's right! LOL!

Countdown to the Black Belt is on...

I attended the CDB/BB class last night and am VERY glad I went. I think it'll be something I will be attending more often. The class is Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tuesday's at 6:00 and Thursday is at 7:00. I already have to be there at 6:15 for the Little Ninjas class, so it makes plenty of sense to just stay. I can do this. I'm really looking forward to it.
I was the oldest person in my class tonight. I can laugh about it because I'm 42 and I'm testing with a bunch of pre teen to teenagers. The next oldest people are my good friend S and our instructor. LOL!
We did a LOT of work on our forms tonight. We started with Basic Forms #1, 2 and 3, then moved on to Pyung An Cho Dan (which looks really incredible once you do it SLOWLY!). After that, he had us work on Sip Soo. I feel like I can practice and show off to the people at work---if I do that enough, I'll do it very well. We found out tonight that we're not going to do the entire form at the test--we're only going to do the first part of it. We'll hit the rest of it in the next testing cycle.

Now we're starting in on the hardest part of things. We're going to start in with MANDATORY 2 hour testing preparation classes. This will be on Saturdays starting August 4th. I'm looking forward to it. I also have to start researching my black belt essay. He's going to send out the topics to us and we'll have to turn in the rough draft on the 18th of August. The completed essay is due in September.
Black belt test has been bumped up to October 13th, one day after a dear friend's birthday. I wish I could fly her out here to see me test--that would be so awesome! I know she'll be thinking of me anyway, so I can be happy with that.

What's next? I'm already looking forward to the next part of my journey--I'm going for my second Dan. (pronounced DON). I'm not going to stop with just being a first Dan black belt. I'll be able to test again a year after the next test for me (my recert is April, 2008). I'm already planning ahead and I'm not there yet.

Word of mouth is important...

It has been quite a week! I actually saw 6 people logged in today at work which was amazing! Of course, *I* left early today (and didn't say "BOO!" to anyone when I left!!), so they were down to 5 people for 30 minutes, IF someone stayed on the phones today. It was incredibly busy! I haven't figured out why it's been so busy unless it's because people were off for the holiday last week.

There's a thunderstorm going on outside my window right now. We're still under a flash flood watch. I'm very glad we're up on the second floor right now! It may be absolute HELL when the people upstairs stomp around up there, but at least I know I'm not going to float away any time soon!

I read a blog tonight that made me want to reach through the wires and give her a HUGE HUG! She's had some pretty serious things going on in her life and has gotten crap for care! I think that's pure BS in caps!! I don't care WHO you are...you can be an Amazon or a Pygmy. You can be a Rubenesque person or someone who can be blown away by a stiff breeze. It shouldn't matter HOW you look. What should matter is that you're treated LIKE A HUMAN BEING!! I
wonder how the people who we pay for caring for our needs--mechanics, shop-keepers, doctors, lawyers, etc--can get away with poor treatment of their clients? If we don't pay you for your services, you don't get to keep your doors open. Mechanics rely on word of mouth, among other things. Shopkeepers are responsible for having our business. We buy their products or they don't stay open. If you don't provide services/products equally to all people, how are you going to stay in business? If you're a rude shopkeeper, people won't come in to your store and you can forget staying open. If you're any other type of professional and you aren't empathetic, why the hell are you in your chosen profession then?

I'm on a tear! Whoa! I guess I'm fairly pissed about the way this poor lady has been treated. Her biggest "crime"? She's working on losing weight, as are all of us. How is that a "crime"??? Oh it makes me livid, reading her story. I haven't gotten her permission to tell her story, but I wanted to post here that I support her 100%!! I think that she's getting the short end of the stick and all I want to do is to go scream at people she has to deal with!!!