A Little bit about my past, if ya wanna know

It is a bit interesting. I put it up in bits and pieces.
I didn't get a degree when I was younger, to much crap going on. So when I was in my 30's and living in Fl. I went part time and got my Associates degree in Human Services. I did 2 Practicums (6 month each) and one was with the mentally ill over 55 in a live in facility. I got to sit in with the psychiatrist sessions, and no one else was allowed to. I had 4.0 and that was why they let me. It was so interesting. I felt like a fly on the wall, haha.. This was a place the patients lived in. And they were given meds etc there. It was for the Manic/Depressive and Schizophrenic(sp) patients. My spelling has gone down alot since I have gotten the Fibro. It makes you have what they call Fibro fog, a little fuzzy on some things. One of the patients would get lazer beams shot through his head if he went outside. One wanted to know who was making her flowers in the front of the building get smaller one day and larger the next(this is a problem with perceptions), and another man had the devil talking to him all the time. You could see the anguish in his face when it was happening.
One lady would give her self her injection of daily meds, and then stick the needle into the couch and leave it there. We tried to have music therapy which they loved, but the company wouldn't allow it due to insurance reasons. That was so sad. Their faces really lit up when they would hear the oldies. There were many group sessions where the therapist would continue to try to make them understand their illness. One woman got to where she knew the voices were not real. She was allowed to go for walks around the area.It was a great breakthrough for her. There was a field trip one day. We took them to the store to buy cigarettes or what ever they wanted. One man put on his heavy cost in 95 degree weather. It was a grest experience.

My second 6 months I did in the Deaf Service Center and I was amazed at the inventions that have been made for these persons, and the dogs are great !!!!!! There are lights that go on if someone knocks on the door. The TDY machines they can use to talk over the phone through typing is great too. I enjoyed using these. They have their own language, close to ours but alittle different. It was during my time here that Tim had his motorcycle accident, more on that later................
I did well in college, even aced algebra which I had to go to summer school for, when I was in high school.It seemed like there wasn't a course I was not interested in. Even the way a nuclear power plant worked interested me. I got A's in everything. What a difference it makes to go when you really want to learn.

I worked as a bathroom valet in a nightclub at night, and I did that for 9 years cause the money was so good. The mensroom always made more though. It was , I have to say an extremely interesting job. more on this later too....


And I had a consignment store there for over a year too. It was for Plus size women only. This was when there was hardly anyone else selling plus size clothing.I had some very good, loyal customers. I left it cause it was a very rough part of town. One day a man was shot and killed by the police in front of the store, and I watched him die, he had been shot 3 times,and he had gashed the policeman arm with a sharp shovel. I gave the policeman a white T-shirt to bandage the arm. They roped off the whole parking lot and my customers had to stay until the investigation was over, several hours. One lady piped up and said I should have a "Homicide Sale", Pretty funny. The man had been in the area for awhile and I even said Hi to him one day as he walked by the store. He gave me the most evil look. I believe he had mental problems, and should have been in an institution, but that's not possible when they de-institutionalized the mental homes. We need them badly to come back with these. Many lives would be saved if we had them again.
A friend and a fellow store owner shot himself in the head one day in his store. He had a printing shop. Apparently he had a conversation with his wife, and I believe she had met someone else. So it was a very sad day, and another day for our stores to be roped off by the police. More bad publicity for our area. The store was in a strip mall, and my store and his store were the only ones that weren't run by the vietnamese(sp). They said they didn't think he killed himself, and the guy the wife hooked up with was a bounty hunter. He had asked me out prior, but I didn't think I wanted to be involved with that type of life.They all went out as friends to bowling and to bars, and I suppose one thing lead to another. The man who died had been in my store the day before, and he was acting very strange. He paused at the door before leaving and was just looking at me. So maybe he did kill himself, cause it was like he was saying good bye to me. Very sad. He was a nice guy. I wish I had known he was going to do that, maybe I could have stopped him. Maybe......
On super bowl sunday, my store was broken into. They broke the front window, and made of with some change. They did alittle damage, but nothing like they could have done. I felt lucky for that.
One day I was working in the store, when I was closed. I was taking a break and sitting by the front window. A man got out of a bronco and he had heavy clothing on. I looked at him and thought, this guy is gonna rob the store across the street. His clothing was out of place for hot Florida. He came out and jumped into the bronco, and sure enough the police pulled up a few min. later. I went out and flagged them to come over. I gave them the description of the bronco, the other passengers, but didn't get the license plate number. However, on their next robbery attempt, they were caught after they left due to my description. They were from New York, traveling along on a robbery spree. They didn't get to far.
I really liked having the store and would do it again if I had my health. Oh well, glad I did it once.
The consignment stores in the area had a phone call list to let others know of problem customers. I got the call one day. The bow tie man he was called, was on his way. He would go into the stores and ask for the scarfs. He would want you to show him where they were. He would take one and wind it in his hands like he was going to strangle you. It gave him his kicks to upset the women. So when he came in and asked for the scarves, I pointed to them, He said can you show them to me, and I said, right there they are, you can look at them yourself. He promptly left. Jerk, sicko, !!!!!
I had several gay customers. They would compete in shows, wearing pretty dresses etc.I thought my customers would be offended at first, the next thing I knew they were helping them put costumes together and having a ball. The couple who were gay,brought back pictures to me of where they had won the competetion.
I had one fellow who came in and he liked to wear womens underwear. He was harmless, at least he never harmed me, thank goodness. He would come in and put the pretty things on and ask me to look and see what I thought. There was nothing left to the imagination. I could see it all. He did not get excited, and he wore this under his work clothes.
He was married, and he said he thought his wife may know about it, but he wasn't sure. He would stay around and keep me company and we would talk about lots of things. Amazing, he just liked the finer things on his body.
My mailman came by, would park his truck out of site and come in and spend some time with me. He was a very friendly and outgoing guy. He even helped me find my car at a dealership. I made sure he got the 50.00 finders fee they offered, and he took his wife out to dinner with it.Though we kidded around alot, he never stepped out of line with me. Almost everyday I was there by myself, and I stayed so busy cause I did everything myself. There was alot of work to it. I had an alarm around my neck that I could push a button and the police would respond. It made me feel safer, but I knew it wouldn't save my life when it came right down to it. I would be dead long before they arrived if that was a persons intention.
I had a set up with a local church where I donated clothing to that didn't sell and the owners didn't want it back. They loved getting the clothing and it was given to the needy of their parish for free.They would bring food by sometimes that was left over. Very nice women. When I closed the store, there were many who didn't want their clothing back and this church got it. They were so excited to get so much, but knew also that I would be gone.
In the short time I had this store, it gave me many unique experiences.

More later....
Just Me........