I find myself here in Louisiana between NOLA & Baton Rouge. It's been a month since I've been here. It's definitely different, I don't live in the big city, rather a small everyone knows everyone's town. A car is absolutely needed to get around. Now what is my non driving ass supposed to do with that? I was good for the first two weeks but by week 3 I was starting to get beside myself. One thing I do know is I earned & paid for that 3wk Vacay. I saved $3,000 that year at FFA. It would've been more if I wasn't bothered beyond belief by my soon to be EX husband!        I was under so much stress dealing with that man! I didn't even realize how much until I was away from him. If I didn't explain it previously I'm in a bridge program to FFA. My host went out of her way to make sure I was able to get out & do something's. She took me to an open mic night. It was the last Ignite the Mic event. I really enjoyed it I hope it's n...

 What & who is Finish First Academy? FFA is a nonprofit organization with a mission to serve the adult and youth population in Los Angeles. They offer supportive services to those dealing with homelessness, abuse, disabilities & people that just have a lack of resources. They provide housing, prevention and education surrounding crisis support. Their main goal is to not leave any individual behind. They feel that resources are their golden tool with which to support all their clients.      Why am I saying farewell and what have they done for me? Well if you have been following my survival story you would at least know that, they are the program that had a bed available when I had nowhere to go. They accepted me right away after about 25 calls surfing through the women's against abuse hotline for shelters. I came into their program on February 15th 2024. They gave me a drug test which I passed and they said Mary Jane was ok!  As long as they couldn't smel...

  Remember book reports when we were in school? For some they were a dreaded terrible thing, for others they were fun ways to recall your favorite book and an easy format to tell someone what the book was about. I've decided to post some reports of books I've read recently; let's jump right in.         My oldest child gifted me this book during the holiday season. This child of mine has into been into graphic novels since their teenage years. The interest slowly crept upon me & I found myself enjoying them as well.  Almost every time a chapter in this book ended, I felt it should be over. Now, I knew it wasn't because I'm sitting here looking at over 100 pages left! I had to continue to read for the simple fact that I had to find out where they were going to go from a particular point & how they were going to set it off. The Authors did not fail to keep an exciting colorful intense pace.  Author:   Skottie Young Title:    I Hate...

    2/8/25: I'm up at 3am... This is the 2nd anxiety shower I took this week. I wake up out of my sleep, stomach pains. A pain that resides underneath my ribcage that flows down 2 the top of my belly button. It's scary because this is what happens 2 me when I get too overwhelmed & overstimulated. I've been going though this since I was 19years old. The reason it's scary is because I can slip in2 a space & find myself not ok. This time if I slip in2 that space I won't have friends or family around, I'll b crazy & alone. This is always my thought & I never have an answer but I ask anyway, why is this happening to me?  I thought I was handling it, but maybe I'm suppressing it and it's coming out affecting my health. Or maybe I just over ate the past couple of days. My digestive system isn't the best & sometimes I get really bad gas & tension there.      There has been a startling change in events this year & I've also l...

    Remember book reports when we were in school? For some they were a dreaded terrible thing, for others they were fun ways to recall your favorite book and an easy format to tell someone what the book was about. I've decided to post some reports of books I've read recently; let's jump right in.      To be honest I do not know where I came upon this book. All I know is that I was intrigued by the title & the fact that it held more than one story. I like anthology's those are books that tell more than one story. What I didn't know about this book, was that I was in for a wild ride! The first time I started reading it I had to put it down because I found myself not being able to follow it, it was so wild. The second time I took a breath sat down & took it in. I think if I tell you what it held I would be giving up too much. All I can say is if you have a weak stomach or are triggered by tragedy in detail this book isn't for you. I enjoyed it & would r...

      Or is it just change. I gotta tell ya I am tired, I am so tired of this life I created or that was created for me. EVERYTHING has it's own way of being & Everything is happening just as it should, If all of this was written to happen to me I would definitely want to kill the author! I'm so tired of my life. I can see 1 of three things happening, either (A)  I become a crazy lady screaming in the streets about my problems, maybe pushing a shopping cart or maybe just raggedy carrying a blanket. The scary part about this one is that, that lady lives deep inside of me & she just wants to give up & say FUDGE it. I don't because there is another lady that lives inside that let's me know; that she doesn't care how tired I get WE are not doing that! But sometimes I am so beat down I think the crazy lady will win. (B)  I will off myself because I'm in so much pain. A lot of you may not understand what the pain feels like that makes one just not want t...

      Whose responsibility is it for a successful outcome after Therapy? (A) You (B) The Therapist (C) Both      If I am the one to answer the question I am going to say both. Simply because you have to be willing to get better or at least help yourself get better. The Therapist doesn't wake up in the daybreak with you & go about your routine nor do they end the day with you.  Those are feats you must go through yourself. You have to want to be ok, you have to want to get through it. You have to be willing to forgive yourself, willing to accept grief. The Therapist can assist you in coming to an understanding of the things you are powerless over but the deep work happens within.        Therapy or group gives space for words of encouragement that you might find hard giving yourself. Therapy or group allows one to rant & rave about what upsets them. These supports can point you in the right direction but nothing can be done ...

     L et's define Awareness:  Awareness is  knowledge or perception of a situation or fact. It can also be consciousness, recognition, realization or perception. Awareness is also having a concern about &  being well-informed. Now I think what happened this particular day is something that can happen to n-e-one when they get in the zone.        There is this community organization here in LA that helps people, suffering from substance abuse issues. They also help people seeking employment, people seeking housing & other things that are needed to survive in these streets. I'm not going to say the name of the organization but I became a volunteer there. This was my first day and that being the case I feel like I should've been a little more aware. It didn't have any effect on my personal performance that I wasn't, it just made me feel like from then on I would be.       That day, I came in went to group th...

  Hey family thanks for tuning in again!    Wellness over Illness                              Eat Well 2 Live Well by now Y'all know I'm a foodie & that i enjoy taste that tingle my tongue! it makes me so happy that I get to embark in the pleasures of life & that so many different taste are introduced into my 🌎!  So let's jump right in & see what I have for y'all this time.   An Avocado a day keeps UR skin glowing in a beautiful way!  https://youtu.be/jLLrwjArljI?si=NCf_LV6yrkS_QsjN   Let Jah9 sing it to U! Omg I've never tasted a smoothie quite so great. This is by far the best one! What is Taro Root you might be wondering. It  is a  root vegetable . It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family  Araceae  that are used as vegetables for their  corms , leaves, stems and  petioles . Taro corms are a food stap...

      Hey all I just want to say thank you for following me on this unorthodox life journey. It is said that there is a certain way one is supposed to live their life. The life map that society gives out is predominately this; Graduate from high school, go to college, get a "good" career, meet the person of your dreams, get married have children, become a grand parent & live ever after. Some people follow this map & it possibly works for them. What about the rest of us? The ones that were dealt a wild hand that enabled them to have the focus & discipline needed to succeed in the way society would have them too. Me & a lot of others fall into this category & it makes things that are considered "simple/normal" very challenging & that's my 2 cents.     Now how do I explain this journey. First let's briefly discuss how this event even came about.  One of my children has been going through some rough times this year & needed a momma ...

     To elevate my stress I enjoy going out & having fun. The theater is my favorite place, I enjoy watching the creativity of others. On the morning of September 6th I was siting in my room wondering what I was going to do for the evening. I hopped on event-bright where it's easy to find something to do most days. Try it yourself if you haven't here's the link  https://www.eventbrite.com . I saw many different things to do but the title of this show caught my eye. I said Not Special, I wonder what that's about.      I began to read the description; It was about a woman that was told she was special her whole life before she moved to LA & figured out she wasn't. I thought that was an amazing concept & I related to it because back home in Philadelphia, PA. Everyone told me I was special, despite the odds I was going to make it, I've been called auspicious & everything else that I guess creates resilience in a person. I've never had ...

      It's been quite some time since we last spoke. I believe it was in April & here we are in September. It's been a really random 3 months. I am still in the Finish First program. Complying with all rules & working towards my security deposit. I like to say I'm moving right along. In May my partner came back from New Jersey & boy did I need to see him! The first week or so went smoothly. Then there were bumps in the road & somehow we ended up falling in a ditch. During this time my God son came to visit from Philadelphia. He fell in love with Venice Beach & stayed 3weeks upon finding himself a job on the beach. He came to understand that if your moving to another state it's best to have a plan. He went back to Philadelphia with the ambition to return.      This is stressful to write but I owe ya'll a new part of the LA story. I am completely stressed out but it's good stress these days. Let's talk about it! Being in the Finish First P...

       Being a Personal Home Assistant is more than just a job to me. It's a peaceful and satisfying experience that I look forward to with each appointment booked. When I walk into a client's home, I take pride in knowing that I'm not just cleaning their space, but also making their lives comfortable & more enjoyable.      There's something about the feeling of a clean home that just makes everything better. And when my clients are happy with my work, it makes me happy too! It's a sense of accomplishment that one can't quite describe.     I know that some people might think that being a cleaning person is a menial job, but I see it as so much more than that. It's about taking care of people's homes & when you do it with professionalism as well as confidence, it becomes something truly special.      My clients trust me with their homes & their belongings; I take that responsibility seriously. It's not just about cle...

    Hello there, first of all Thanx 4 the visit. My name is Jodie Spartz I am a writer & I write because I write. Doing so brings a feeling of freedom joy & peace! It's hard to explain the impulse I feel to write stories, plays, & the intense journaling I am obsessed with. I've lived a long life in a very short time; during said life the writer in me fell asleep if you will. The pandemic helped me understand that life will never be fully understood by anyone &  I realized that writing stories was how I chose to make since of the world around me. I now want to share my writing with whomever reads it. There is always so much happening at such a rapid pace that I constantly lose myself & find myself many times and within those times I wrote.      Currently I am selling my books on Amazon Kindle & I will email the short stories for a donation for anyone that doesn't have Amazon Kindle. I am doing this to cover my last Psychology classes ...

  Life is like a game of chess. You get your pieces, you set them up on the board. You have your important pieces, pieces you can sacrifice and pieces that help you navigate the game. But who are you playing against? There is a force playing against you that you must defeat. Each person plays against their own energy force that was placed around them from they day they entered the planet. In life, it's important to remember that every move you make counts. The Universe just takes pieces off the board unexpectedly don't get scared. You just have to strategize, plan ahead & be ready to adapt to any situation that comes your way. But here's the thing: in life, YOU can change the rules and add to the game. You have the power to create your own destiny & shape your own future. Know this, once the Universe takes the important pieces off the chess board they're gone & this could make it harder to win the game. You must create new strategies & make moves that no...