musclemom

Hey stranger. This place is dead. I only stopped by because a secret Facebook group was created with a bunch of EF old timers. It made me nostalgic.

Any time I can relate a bit, so I'm there with you.

At least everything with you and the now-hubby seems fantastic! I'm happy for the relationship you and he have.

There's hope!

Hey! I'm good, crazy couple of last weeks, never been so sick, had like 8 dif meds for crying out loud! my CA125 test results came back in normal range (YaaaaaaY)so now my Dr. is just waiting 3 months having me on birth control to see if everything clears out. To add insult to injury I got a horrible ear infection! lol, but it's clearing up ^_^

Thanks!!

We went to Nuevo Vallarta. It was awesome.

Ahh ,I just thought it was nice to see you after an extended time, i'm doing the same as you, alternating back and fourth trying to multitask things....Take care hon.

Thank you for the kind message, Musclemom. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.....

Digi, you ever cook hamburger meat in a microwave? You realize these people live in places that don't have full kitchens right? People at the poverty level don't have the ability to COOK. There is this book called Nickel and Dimed, it's a about a woman, a journalist who decided to live off minimum wage for a year. A lot of them don't have full refrigerators much less freezers. There are a lot of things you don't think about that go into making decisions that make it impossible for them to make them. You think they can buy hamburger meat and green beans but how much does it cost to live in an apartment with a full kitchen and have pots and pans? I know it seems like a minor thing, but you can't cook hamburger when you have no stove/oven/pan to cook it. Think about it? If you have no stove and have to talk to a grocery store what will you do? Convenience store dollar burritos and a bag of cheetos.

I lived in Pittsburgh and worked downtown for 12 years...while I was there, I was a member of a do-gooder organization called "Christmas In July"...during the month of July all the members (many of whom were tradesmen and contractors) fixed up, renovated, cleaned out and just generally spruced up residences in the Hill District and Wilkinsburg and the North Side and numerous other areas that have fallen into disrepair since the steel mills moved out...as you can imagine, these neighborhoods are probably about 99% minority. I've also worked in Columbus, Cleveland, Atlanta and a few other cities...I've worked for a couple pretty large CPA firms over the years and we had clients everywhere.

However, I also worked for a minority-owned CPA firm in Pittsburgh for a few years too...small place...I was the only true whitebread person there...the only other white-looking person there was actually half Hispanic...his last name was Vargas. The one partner was an ivy-league educated black man who went to school on an academic scholarship...very smart dude...and his diet was just as messed up as the rest of the urban folks...so, it's a more of a cultural thing (from my observation) than a lack of education...he definitely knew the right thing(s) to do and he could absolutely afford to make the right choices...he just had a hard time choosing them! haha

You've really never been in a city have you? I live 20 minutes from center city. Do you know there are virtually no grocery stores in the city? (I'm talking Philadelphia, have you ever even been?) They have bodegas. No fresh food, no produce.

Look, you're smart but I think your opinions are based on your personal experience, which is extremely limited. Watch some documentaries, read some books, open your mind, be willing to change your opinion. The obesity problem in this country is not based on people being gluttons, it's based on the fact that they are nutritionally bereft, which drives them to eat. We are biologically wired to eat fats and sugars. 200,000 years ago fats and sugars actually had nutrition and were loaded with vitamins (honey, fruits, nuts, organ meats and brains). Now sugars are JUST sugar, fat is JUST fat. You have to consider evolution, agriculture, and how it all ties into human physiology. Humans cannot change the fact they crave fats and sugars when they are malnourished because once those foods were the source of life. Now they are poison. This has nothing to do with laziness or gluttony, it has to do with how large corporations derive their profits.

As for SNAP cards being used in liquor stores ... I have no comment because that's not the way it works in my neck of the woods. I grew up on welfare, my stepdaughter has the SNAP card, you can't buy booze with a SNAP card, you can only buy food. In my county you can buy some prepared foods (you can go to Wawa and buy a hoagie, for instance) but fast food or liquor, no. My information is direct, yours is second and third hand. Are you telling me you've stood in the line at a state store and see someone use a SNAP card to buy alcohol?

did you know that you can use your access card at the liquor store?? <------ this is a crime against humanity! also, there used to be grocery stores in those neighborhoods (in pittsburgh...my only substantial metropolitan experience) but they moved out because they kept getting robbed, etc.