#GBE2: Half My Life Ago

Our original family

Half my life ago, December 5, 1987, I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday. My family consisted of my husband, golden retriever, and a five-month pregnant belly. I stayed up until midnight every night and then drove to work after filling my Honda with 95¢ a gallon gas.

My men. Wasn't my husband a fox?

My teaching job paid one-third of what I earn today, but it didn't matter because we could see our World Series Champion Cardinals for $9.24 a ticket and buy a McDonald's hamburger for 45¢, without worrying about what it would do to our bodies. We paid 22¢ to mail letters because we didn't have a computer or internet. I'd heard rumors about this thing called "the information super highway" but couldn't fathom what that actually meant.

Ronald Reagan sat in the Oval Office, even though I'd voted for John Anderson. I didn't know about the electoral college and still believed a third-party candidate could win. Although my independent won the popular vote in California, the electoral votes went to Reagan.

We enjoyed Dirty Dancing for under $4.00 a ticket and wondered how one could be as crazy as Glenn Close's character from Fatal Attraction. We still enjoyed going to bars (I didn't drink while pregnant) where we'd dance to Michael Jackson's Bad or George Michael's Faith. After a night of dancing in heels, my back didn't even hurt.

Looking back, I realize I've spent more of my life with my husband than without him, which means I am dang old.

I leave you with a clip of top songs from December 5, 1987.

Wordless Wednesday: Event Management

My daughter has a summer internship 

with a wedding planner.

 This was left in our kitchen.

It's better than finding a groom on the counter. 

The Partner's Progeny Cover Reveal

Bullies rule … or do they?

For seventeen years, Victoria Sheek has been a paralegal surpervisor at the Law Offices of Pereene, Carr, and Sevino, specializing in injury law. Rumors portray her as a bully. She remains confident that her position will never cease because of close relations to one of the founding partners, Mr. Carr.

Until Mr. Pereene, the head partner, hires Monica Bowman. Smitten with her because of her resemblance to his deceased granddaughter, Melissa, and his memories of her, she can do no wrong.

Which one of the two girls will keep their position at the firm? It takes and unexpected event to decide the outcome of this rivalry.

Shelly Arkon is the author of Secondhand Shoes

 When Shelly isn’t doing the laundry, cleaning, cooking, chasing grandkids, listening to daughter drama (five of them), or lopping heads of hair at the salon, she’s writing beside her two fur-peeps, Sir Poops and Hair Ball, popping an occasional chocolate while her hubby is flipping through TV channels.

She lives in New Port Richey with her husband and two dogs. She’s also a member of Florida Writer’s Association and Writer’s of Mass Distraction.