A friend sent me this meme, and I thought it perfect to share today on the blog. Between the pandemic, the horror that was the attack on the Capitol Building last week, and the tension over what is coming next, I am so glad that I have a cat, or two, or three, or four to sit on my lap and purr. I can always feel my blood pressure go down when one of them has settled in for a nap, and I can feel the soft rumble of the purr.
My book, Evelyn Evolving, is on sale for only .99 through January 17 for Kindle and Kindle apps. If you haven’t yet read this story of my mother’s life, now is a good time to get it at the discounted price.
Here’s what one reviewer said about the story:
“After finishing Evelyn Evolving, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. The beginning concentrates on the life of Evelyn’s mother, a woman who consistently makes bad decisions, including abandoning her two daughters to a Catholic orphanage run by cruel nuns. At that point, the book reads like a Dickens novel in the harsh and brutal treatment of the young sisters, especially Evelyn. Based on a real person, the author Maryann Miller’s mother, we see how religion, guilt, and the belittling she encountered as a child follows her through life, in her marriage and ultimately how she deals with her own children.”
For some Friday fun, I went back in my archives and found this guest post from a humor writer, Tracy Farr, not to be confused with the New Zealand novelist Tracy Farr.
Tracy number one used to be a regular columnist for me when I was the managing editor of the online community magazine, WinnsboroToday.com. Like Slim Randles, Tracy was gracious enough to share his humor with me after the magazine shut down. More of his writing can be found on his website, The Farr Place.
And he’s written a funny book Chasing America, chronicling his summer spent riding the roads from East to West and back home again on his motorcycle.
Now, here’s his post from 2008:
Hello, my name is Tracy, I’m addicted to Peanut M&Ms, but I haven’t had any for 13 hours and 22 minutes.
“Hello Tracy, and welcome to the group.”
Thanks. To be honest, I was reluctant to come here at first because I didn’t actually think I had a problem. I thought I could control my desire to eat Peanut M&Ms by myself, but I was wrong.
“Tell us your story, Tracy. You’re among friends.”
Well, I can say I’m luckier than most. Some kids are born with the need to eat M&Ms because their mothers ate M&Ms while they were pregnant. Even though the doctors warn and often beg these mothers to stop eating M&Ms during pregnancy, they don’t listen. And then they have M&M babies — newborns just twitching with the need to eat something round and chocolate. Luckily, that was not my case.
For me, my addiction started when I was quite young. I was hooked the first time I saw M&Ms, tore open a package and let them melt in my mouth and not in my hands. Those were just the plain chocolate kind — the kind kids love — but as I grew older and my tastes grew more mature, I naturally gravitated to Peanut M&Ms.
The first time I popped a Peanut M&M, my universe just sort of exploded with new possibilities. I could see things more clearly. I could understand things that I never understood before. It was like my senses were attuned to higher and more sensitive levels. And once you pop one, you have to pop another to keep that high going.
It wasn’t long before I found myself buying a bag of Peanut M&Ms and eating the entire thing without even realizing it. And I’m not talking about the little $1 bag you get out of a vending machine. I’m talking about the family-size, six-pound bag that costs almost $12 and should last a lifetime.
It finally hit me that I had a problem when my little girl said she needed new shoes and I told her I didn’t have any money, when in fact I did. I was saving that money to score me another bag of M&Ms before the weekend. And that’s why I’m here at this meeting.
I’ve tried stopping cold turkey, but it’s just too hard. I figured with help, and with belonging to a group of people who have suffered through the same problem and survived, that maybe I, with support, could pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.
But, maybe I should start slowly. Maybe I should only eat a small bag a day and ease off this addiction gradually.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
Is there a vending machine around here?
And can somebody loan me a dollar?
That’s all for today, folks. I do hope you have a good weekend, safe from the COVID virus. And I pray that there is no more violence in our country in the coming week. Be happy, be well.