The initial disagreement was between Laura and me. No one else. I did not ask anybody to choose sides or get involved because I am a grown-up. I said my peace and walked away weeks ago. And suddenly I find several people taking cyber pot-shots at me via Facebook and blogs as if we are in a bad teenager mean-girl movie........people I have never said an unkind word to, and to whom I think I've been rather nice in the 1.5 yrs I've been blogging.

I've taken the time to remove myself from everyone's FB friends lists. For those of you haven't been involved, I'm sorry, but I'm smart enough to know that when it all boils down, loyalties would lie with whom you've known the longest and closest.

Just remember that there are two sides to every story. I wish you all the best as I am moving on with my life.

Saying My Goodbyes

HCBC,
For the better part of a week, I've just been pushing through trying to pretend that all is good and well. But pretending is just becoming too emotionally draining. The joy of blogging has been completely. sucked. out. And so, I think I'll just stop. Maybe just for awhile, maybe permanently, I don't know. I hope you don't mind if I pop in to read your blogs from time-to-time.

I leave you with this one piece of advice. Before you hit "Publish Post," ask yourself, "Would this person feel our relationship affords them a wider boundary of what isn't blog-material, and is this inside or outside that boundary?" Don't just consider whether or not that person would feel embarrassed. Embarrassment is temporary, no one ever really dies from it. But relationships die when one member suddenly feels betrayed and the other one can't or won't see why. I made a tragic misjudgment in thinking a boundary was wide, another thought it thin, and the gray area exploded. When all the dust cleared, I learned that I had made another tragic misjudgment. As an apparently unneeded "like-a-sister," I was expendable. Who knew?

Memory Lane Monday (#17)

My dad was in the army for the first 18 years of my life. We moved every few years, resulting in a lot of friends over the course of my life! I've lost track of so many of them over the years. This picture is from my 13th birthday sleep-over in Stuttgart, Germany. We had plans that we were all going to work together when we grew up. For years, I wanted to be a pediatric nurse in a hospital nursery. Kristie wanted to be an OB/GYN, our friend Sarah was going to be a pediatrician....etc, etc, etc. We all had it all worked out!

Top: Andrea, Kathy, Michelle, Amy L.
Bottom: Me, Kristie, Jenny and Amy W.
I lost track of all these friends within a year of moving since most of us moved that same summer. About 11 years ago, I started searching for them and found Andrea after I started calling every one in Pennsylvania with the last name "Bertz"--I eventually found a woman who said "I think I have a cousin that was in the Army that had kids. Could be him." I found Kathy and Kristie a few months later. We had a reunion in Chicago. I think this pic is from 2000. We had so much fun!!! Didn't feel like 20 years had passed!


I found Jenny and Amy W. later that year and we had another reunion a year or 2 later. But Amy missed her plane and didn't make it. Ironically, none of us work in a hospital or the medical field...except Kathy who is an EMT.