CoCo's Corner

  I kind of referred to Ted and my "effing burger" saga that turned into a full-on tradition for us on a Facebook/Instagram post.  I added that if anyone wanted to hear the story, let me know, because I love this story.  A couple of people said they wanted to hear it - so I'm sharing. It was my 50th birthday.  It was a pretty significant birthday.  Now, in all honesty, a couple of people had gone against my express wishes and planned a whole surprise birthday party with family, friends and all sorts of people.  The funny thing was the person who was behind the whole thing had planned one for her mother a couple of months before.  She told me the story, and I said, I would kick your ass.  I'd be so mad!!!  Yeah, she took it as a challenge.  I had planned out a day of dinner out and the Muppet Movie at the dollar theater and I was excited to spend that time with my family.  When Ted started driving the wrong direction, I knew there we...

This is not a health update. I decided to talk about life, in general, since 2014.   Today, I realized that eleven years ago today was my last day at my previous job, my previous career, my previous life.  I loved my previous life, until I didn't.  And that all turned around the end of 2013.  I was a 911 dispatcher for 32 years.  I started on March 1, 1982 as a records clerk.  Moved into dispatch as a call taker and dispatcher, was promoted to supervisor and finally was the deputy director at the end of my career.  That last part was probably the worst decision I ever made.  And maybe the best.   I was there through so many crises and events.  The day I took my application in, I was told pretty much everyone was gone "to the funeral".  A police officer had been shot and killed the week before and nobody was there to take my application.  This was LONG before the internet.  It was a handwritten application and ba...

Thea was the last of the littles to go on her special trip. We left bright and early on a Monday morning and went to Orange County. The seats getting there got tighter and tighter and I ended up using almost all of my miles to make sure we would get there. That made me pretty sad. We got to the hotel, they charged me $50 to do an early checkin. That was less than they charged me when I took Harper. We uber'ed to the park. It was so very cold!!!! It rained our entire time there, pretty much. Our first day was in California Adventure. It was kind of frustrating. So many rides were "broken" or out of service due to the rain. We did manage to get on a few. She loved the Muppets 3-D movie. She loved the Crush feature - so cute. But, sad that we couldn't go on Luigi or Ariel. Soaring came back up before we left, so we went and got on that. We left shortly after that. We went back to the hotel, soaking wet, and got our swimsuits on and went and hung out in...

It's been twelve weeks tomorrow since that fateful night, sitting in a movie theater, watching an amazing movie, when my world shattered.  My entire life changed in the matter of one hour.  One hour of watching men and machines try to keep my husband alive.  One hour until that fateful moment that a man I'd never met before came to tell me that there was nothing left to do and turned my world upside down. I stayed up for 36 hours, not being able to sleep, and finally sleeping for a mere four hours the next night.  I spent that first day crying, continuously, because the face I had loved for 15 years would never be seen again.  That first day was a myriad of plans, decisions and getting things done.  Phone calls, texts, messages were coming non-stop.  And the love of people around me, people I knew and people I didn't, was very apparent. Then came the time that I could not sit still and I could not be alone.  That's when the anxiety started....

For three years we have planned this trip and it never would work.  Either weather or other circumstances got in the way.  But, 2019 was the year. Just a little side note.  I've made it a priority to get to all fifty states before the next birthday that ends in ZERO.  That gives me two and a half years to make it to eleven more.  This year, I've made it to seven states that I had never been to before and six of them were in this trip. Monday,  Ted and I had to be up at OMG in the morning, 4:00 to be exact, to be to the airport for a 6:00 a.m. flight to Detroit.  Then we were connecting through to Boston.  We made both flights and on both flights we had the row to ourselves.  That was awesome.  We picked up our little rental vehicle and were on our way by about 2:30 in the afternoon.  One note about the rental car.  I am a crazy planner, in fact Ted feels I get too wrapped up in planning at times.  So ...