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K.C.

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  1. K.C.

    Empty Nest

    By K.C.,


    Empty Nest
    Words can’t express how proud I am of our daughter.  Today, J.J. became a home owner!

    This kid has worked her butt off saving to buy a house.  As a Paramedic, she works very long hours.  She works nights and weekends and sacrifices holidays.  When other kids her age were out partying, she was dedicated to keeping our community safe.

    J.J. did it all on her own!  

    Of course I’m nervous for her to leave the nest, but excited to see her grown. 😍
     
  2. K.C.

    COVID is just the Flu!

    By K.C.,


    COVID
    I swear if I hear one more person say that COVID is just the Flu, I might knock their teeth out! 
    I’ve had the Flu many times in my 47 years on this Earth and I this is NOTHING like the Flu. 
    I caught it 4 months ago.  It was a brutal 10 days of high fevers, awful cough, chest/lung pain, whole body aches, ear infection, lose smell and taste,  I even passed out a few times… I really thought I was going to die!
    Mine was a heavy viral load, so I kept testing positive for 6 weeks. (Needed 2 negatives to return to work)
     
    Now, 4 months later, I have long hauler symptoms:
    Heart palpitations feels like my chest will explode
    Lingering cough that is so bad that I can’t breath
    Headaches and Body aches
    My left eye randomly dilates open several times a day making it impossible to focus.
    Blood clotting problems
     
    After 2 months of No smell/taste…now I have phantom smell/taste were everything is a forest fire.  It smells and tastes like pure smoke.  It’s so overwhelming, I feel like I’m choking from smoke inhalation.
     
    The plus side, I have extremely high natural antibodies so I’m not required to take the Vaccine… yet.   
    The minus side, I feel like shit!  I was scheduled to have my hip replaced back in the fall, but that got rescheduled for the spring. 
    I returned to work late November, but every day is a struggle. 
    Last week they did an MRI for the headaches, my eye, and smell/taste.  Next week they are testing for heart and lung damage.
     
     End Rant
    ((This is my personal COVID journey.  If you got it and didn’t get sick or have no lingering effects, good for you!))
  3. K.C.
    It’s heartbreaking getting the call that one of my oldest friends is very sick. I scrambled to try and see him, but sadly, two days later he passed away.
     
    My friend, Mike and I had grown apart over the years. Our lives took different paths, but I never stopped thinking about him. He was a great guy. We talked fewer and fewer over time and now he was gone.
     
    I heard that his parents retired and moved away from the city. When Mike got sick, they wanted him to be closer to them and the funeral would be several hours drive to their new town.
     
    As soon as I got the address, I immediate recognized the tiny town. It was a place I had visited many times as a young kid, it’s were my paternal grandmother lives. I would literally be driving right passed her home.
     
    (My parents had a very messy divorce when I was a kid. Not only did my Dad leave us, I haven’t had contact with his family in years.)
     
    The entire drive down to the funeral, I kept contemplating, should I stop by her house? It’s been years since I’ve seen her. Would she even recognize me? I pushed it out of my mind and focused on Mike.
    Once I stepped foot in that town, time moved at warp-speed. The funeral was suddenly over. Mike was cremated so there wasn’t any burial service. It was just…finished. He was really gone! His life was over. I felt numb, like everything was off kilter.
     
    Back on the road, heading home, I passed a familiar spot and stopped. My hands trembled as I turned the steering wheel. I knew where I was going, even if my brain wasn’t sure, yet. One life was over. There hadn’t been any last words, no goodbye, no farewell with him. I guess I was being nostalgic, but I spotted the high fence surrounding the property and turned in.
     
    The big iron gates were wide open, so I drove up the long gravel driveway. Everything was just as I remembered. The grounds were perfectly manicured. The trees and shrubs trimmed. The gray stone house still looked icy and cold even though the outside temperatures soared.
     
    I parked my truck and stared at the big old house. The tall windows were all open. Shear fabric billowed in the breeze. It took several minutes to settle my nerves and walk to door. I rang the bell. It was a familiar chime and I waited…
     
    It felt like an eternity standing at that doorway. I had forgotten about the woodwork. It was amazing, large flowers carved into the solid wood door. I heard a small voice inside say, “Hello? Who’s there?”
    Fear struck me! What do I say? What if she doesn’t recognize me? Worse yet, what if she doesn’t even know who the hell I am?
     
    My voice trembled as I blurted out my full name (first-middle-last.) I know it’s silly. We share the same last name, but I was worried that she would think I was a lunatic off the street and yell for me to go away or she would call the police, but instead, She opened the door and let me inside.
     
    Her white hair was pulled to the side with a clip. Her silver rimmed glasses made her eyes look so incredibly bright blue. I stared at her. It was strange…this woman and her entire family turned their back on us years ago and now I was standing there, face to face with her. She looked the same as I remembered, only much older.
     
    She told me sit in the living room before quickly disappearing into the kitchen. I figured she was going to get drinks (preferably with alcohol in it) and possible collect herself from the initial shock at finding me at her door. She was old. The last thing I wanted to do was give her a heart attack. I walked around and looked at the artwork in her house. There was a stack of mail with several unopened colorful envelopes on the tables. They had my interest, but I didn’t touch anything.
     
    “It’s my birthday,” she spoke from behind me.
     
    I jumped and turned so fast I nearly fell on the floor. She held two glasses of lemonade and handed me one while nodding towards the stack of cards. “My birthday is the day after tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll be 94 years old.”
     
    It suddenly hit me, I didn’t even know her birthday. I didn’t know how old she was. I didn’t know anything about this woman…her maiden name? Does she have siblings? How long she was married? Her favorite food? Favorite color…nothing!!!
     
    I had stopped by her home on a childish whim. Now, this could be my only chance to get to know her. “I was hoping we could talk.”
     
    To my surprise, she smiled and pointed to the chairs and told me, “I’d like that. What do you want to know?”
  4. K.C.
    Started my vacation yesterday by waking up to rain, rain, rain, but that was okay. I had a bunch of indoors projects planned. Off to the bank, run errands, and hit the gym before going home to get cracking on a project when my daughter informed me that she invited her new boyfriend over for dinner.
     
    I figured that was fine, it was still a few hours before dinnertime, so I pried open my new crate of ammunition and got to work. Multiple rounds in assorted calibers needed organizing. That’s when Robert called to tell me he was stuck in traffic. There was a bad accident and he was going to be late…not a little late but very, very late. As in, sooo late he’s not going to be home in time to make dinner (((why nobody bothered to tell me we had a guest coming in the first place is beyond me!)))
     
    Well, it was up to me to make dinner!!! OMG!!!
     
    I don’t cook! My cooking track-record is awful. If you don’t believe me, check this out: The reason why I should never be allowed in the kitchen!
     
    I suggested I run out for pizza instead (we don’t have delivery here, we live too far in the country.) Robert said, NO! It was just a casual dinner and he already had everything ready to throw on the grill. He even joked and said I’m good at setting things on fire, so I should be able to handle this.
     
    Our daughter was worried, but she helped me pull it together. Burgers, corn-on-cob, salad, mac-and-cheese, grilled apples with ice-cream for dessert! I was impressed with myself. I was feeling great when her new boyfriend showed up…until she yelled at me about leaving guns and ammo spread across the living room floor. Ooops! LOL Hey, I think every parent of a teenage daughter should have a gun…just in case!
     
    In my defense, I didn’t have time to clean up after Robert called on short notice.
    Right after the boyfriend arrived, Robert got home and we had dinner. I thought it was going wonderful, until the boyfriend excused himself half-way through dinner to get sick. I joke that it was his nerves upon meeting us and our gun collection. My daughter didn’t find it funny.
     
    The kid was really sick and he went home. My daughter accused me of trying to kill him. Within 15-20 minutes later everyone was sick. I traced my steps and reviewed everything I made, checked the ingredients. Everything was fresh. I followed all the directions. I don’t know what happened! I’m cursed when I step foot in the kitchen.
     
    As payback, my daughter made me take her shopping today. Believe me, I’ll pay the price for my blunder. I told her if the young man ever wants to try meet us again for dinner, we would go to whichever restaurant he picks! Also my treat!
     
    Happy 4th of July to everyone! Hope you have a better holiday weekend then I have. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the doghouse for a while.
  5. K.C.
    Yesterday was a crazy day at work. Every time I started to leave, something else popped up needing my attention. My shift was over, but I just couldn’t get out the door. Once I escaped, I was driving home lost in my own thoughts, completely zoned out, driving on autopilot when something caught my attention.
     
    It was a beautiful sunny day, but extremely windy when I saw a flash at the top of a building. FIRE! I saw the flames at the top of the building before I saw the smoke which was being blown across the field behind the building.
     
    There was nobody around, yet there were cars parked there. Rushing behind the building, I saw the back wall was on fire. Three ladies were working inside completely unaware that the building was on fire!!!
     
    I shouted for them to get outside and call 9-1-1. One of the ladies asked me if she should get a bucket of water. ((OMG! All I could imagine was this woman running with a full bucket sloshing over the sides and reaching the fire with only a few drops left)) “No!” I got the fire extinguisher, ran outside, and started spraying the fire until the fire department showed up.
     
    Apparently, they have been having problems with kids drinking and smoking pot behind the building and have chased them off a couple of times. Was the fire started intentionally? I don’t know, but the thought that people were inside a burning building without knowing, until it could have been too late, is really scary! Thankfully, everyone was fine.
     
    Now, I can’t help but wonder if Fate was stalling me so I would be in the right place at the right time???
  6. K.C.

    Don't Pull That

    By K.C.,

    Don’t Pull That
     
    I’ve had a very busy last few weeks. My kid is organizing a Christmas Parade which turned into the Hubby and I doing a large majority of the work. She’s a wonderful kid so we don’t mind helping out, it’s given us some extra family time (considering she’s a teenager and actually still wants us around is amazing in itself), and it has been really fun. We made this massive castle, a train, signs, got tons of candy. I was super excited…for the kids!! LOL
     
    Get down to the big day on Saturday and it poured rain and iced all day. Long story short…the parade got canceled.
    It was decided to be rescheduled, but we didn’t have all the information right away. Soon all thoughts of the parade were out of mind.
     
    Well…. this morning getting ready for work I noticed a string on my briefs. It didn’t appear to be attached to anything so I pulled it. I know! I know! Everyone always tells you to never pull those stupid strings, but nothing happened so off to work I went.
     
    Depending on the day and how many bloody/vomit/urine/sticky-nasty situations I get myself into, I change my scrubs from few times to several times a day. At one point in the locker-room, I felt a breeze ((big breeze)) and realized that pesky string had been part of the seam on the back of my boxer briefs. Now, there was a very large hole. I couldn’t help, but laugh at myself.
     
    I took a quick picture and sent to Hubby with a message: My ass is so fabulous it broke my underwear. It takes more than cotton to contain me!
     
    A few minutes later I got an update about the parade. It’s been rescheduled for this weekend and to notify everyone of the change in date/time. Being the responsible adult that I am, I forward the message to several friends/family members.
     
    My sister was the first to respond with: OMG! What the Hell is wrong with you???
     
    That’s when I realized I had forwarded the wrong message.
  7. K.C.
    I was babysitting my 6 year-old nephew for a few hours. He watched TV and played Legos while I typed away on my laptop when a new review popped up on one of my stories. I read it and smiled to myself when my nephew suddenly plopped on the couch beside me and asked, “Whatcha doing?”
     
    “I’m answering someone who liked my book.” I turned my laptop and showed him.
     
    “You wrote a book?” He asked.
     
    “Yep, I’ve written several books.” I proudly told him, but he looked very skeptical.
     
    He watched me then asked, “I mean real-real books, like heavy books on the shelf, do you write those kind of books?”
     
    I couldn’t help, but roll my eyes at him. “Yes, I have an actual real book,” And pointed towards the bookcase, “But all my other stories are online.”
     
    He thought about it for a few minutes. “How many?”
     
    “A few.” I quickly pulled up my online stories and showed him and then, trying to impress this inquisitive 6 year-old, I showed him the Top-Reviewed Stories Page. “Look, that’s me. I have 2 stories in the Top-Reviewed List.”
     
    He looked at the list as I scrolled down the page.
     
    “Who’s that?” He pointed to the Tiger with lots of stories on the page. “He has a ton more than you!”
     
    Instead of thanking Captain Obvious for pointing that out I told him the Tiger is my friend, Mark and explained that he was great writer and very popular, pointing to his large number of reviews on each story. I tried to break it down into 6 year-old reasoning how it all worked, when people read a chapter on a story and then leave a message about that story, even showing him the numbers on each chapter.
     
    My nephew wasn’t impressed. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “You should write a billion chapters then when people read them, you’ll have like a billion reviews. That’s way more than that other guy.”
     
    I laughed so hard. Why didn’t I think of that??? I guess my next story is going to have a billion chapters. You can’t argue with the logic of a 6 year-old!
  8. K.C.

    Ponder in the Dark

    By K.C.,

    How come, I can wake-up in the middle of the night and walk around the house in the pitch dark like a Ninja… but a few hours earlier when I went to bed, I leaped across the dark room onto the bed like a scared little girl, so the monsters under the bed wouldn’t grab my feet in the darkness??
  9. K.C.

    My Bloody Valentine!

    By K.C.,

    This past October, I had the best time working in a haunted house. It was a big production, professional make-up, costumes, blood and gore with strobe lights and fog. It was only for a month, but it was awesome!!
     
    I just got a call asking me to play a crazy killer for “My Bloody Valentine.” The haunted house is going to re-open for 1 weekend in February. Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th (aka Valentine's Day)
     
    Hell yes!!!
    Everyone tells me I’m crazy for loving this, but it is so much fun. If the haunted house was open all year long, I would quit my day job in a bloody heartbeat.
  10. K.C.

    Santa Meltdown

    By K.C.,

    Had to finish up some Christmas shopping, so the Kid and I hit the mall. Store after store and going to yet another store, she was a little irritated with me. She didn’t like anything I picked out for gifts and she was annoyed that I wasn’t taking it serious.
     
    “Could you be any more embarrassing?” Kid mumbled under her breath.
     
    ……...........….Challenge Accepted……….........….
     
    I waited until reaching the center of the packed mall, crowds of people waiting in line to see Santa when I start screaming, “Oh My God! It’s Santa!!! Look, it’s him! It’s really him!!” Now was a good time to start jumping up and down and squealing like a One Direction fan girl, “Santa!!!!!!!!”
     
    Did I push it too far? Maybe when I shouted, “I can smell the gingerbread crumbs in his beard from here!!”
     
    I turned towards the Kid and said, “Yep! I obviously CAN be more embarrassing!”
     
    She stomped off in the opposite direction.
     
    Going on 3 hours now and she hasn’t said a word to me!
  11. K.C.

    Sooooo, Now What's Next?

    By K.C.,

    As some of you know I’ve been crazy-crazy-stressed with several big changes at work ((which now requires a new certification in Anesthesia.)) It’s required to keep my job in surgery. The exam for the certification was brutal…but I passed!!!! Today, I found out that I’ve gotten the highest score out of all my co-workers. So glad, I don’t have to worry about that again, at least not for another 5 years when it’s time to re-certify
     
    I had put everything on hold to study and now that it’s done, I’ve been goofing off all week.
     
    Sooooo…now what?
     
    I don’t have anything really written yet, but I have lots of things planned. I sent Rustle the first chapter of a new story that I’ve been kicking around for the last few years. He hasn’t given the thumps-up or oh-my-stars-hide-that-piece-of-crap-in-the-deepest-and-darkest-cave-and-forget-it-ever-existed vote, yet. I’m also going to re-write an old story that was part of the GA Novella Contest a couple of years ago. I have outlines for:
     
    -Story about a Prostitute
    -Story about evil Wizards
    -Story about Shifters Creatures
    -Story about a modern romance
    -And more………
     
    There’s so much I want to write, I don’t know where to start!!! LOL
     
    I know it’s been a while, but I’m still writing (I got in trouble a few times for storylining when I was supposed to be studying!) Nothing will be ready until probably early 2015, I can’t wait. I’m so excited to get rolling on something new. Thanks for all the encouragement over the years. You guys have been so supportive and I can’t express how much it means to me.
     
    KC < I worked hard and deserve the shiny, LOL
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