Cargill Animal Nutrition Donates Bikes to my At Risk Kids at Perspectives Inc.

Cargill Animal Nutrition does it again. Each academic year, Cargill's Animal Nutrition department comes and cooks with our at risk kids in the Kids cafe at Perspectives. We call Tuesdays in the Kids café, “Cargill Tuesdays."  We have three departments that have contributed to Cargill Tuesdays.  It is so much fun going in the cafe on Tuesday and seeing the three Cargill employees in their Cargill shirts and smiling faces.
In the past, they have donated to our children during the holiday season and much more. June 29th they struck again and donated bikes to twenty four of our children that live in our housing program. They bought bikes for children ages 7-12 years old from our housing program.

We were picked up in a Le Lines bus that Cargill secured for us.  I wish you could have seen the children's faces when they stepped in the bus. We showed up at Lake Ann Park in Chanhassen where the Cargill employees had their Cargill Green day. Part of this day included giving back.  They chose Perspectives kids as charity of choice. Kym Weiland was instrumental in coordinating this most perfect day.

Each child was able to pick out their own bike that Cargill Team members put together that very day. We then hopped on a bus back to Perspectives housing campus and watched in amazement as each child jumped on the bike they had chosen. What a sight to see.

Thank you Cargill for these bikes you bought and put together from Erik The Bike Man. Our kids are so happy. What is summer as a child without a bike?

Laura Rogers
Director of Volunteers

Haiku: Quits

The word I chose:Knowledge

My soul, loves,deepens never quits
Every story, every capture,
Creates the verses of Knowledge

Freedom

As a writer, I have been asked to write a blog on freedom. I could go so many different ways with this topic. I want to talk to you all about how free I feel at this time of my life. Freedom is a gift. I am so grateful for my freedom in every way.

Energetically, I want you all to know that energy in all of us is real. Our personal energy is palpable. As a hands on healer, I feel energies and am very sensitive to energies because I have a gift. I am very honored to have this gift of healing and I know it only comes from the higher source of God.

When I was married I had no freedom. I was in a violent relationship.  What does that mean?  Violence is not only physical.  It can be emotional, spiritual, verbal, psychological and so on. I want all women and men to know that violent energy in any form is debilitating. Lets look at violent relationships energetically, since this topic is not talked about very often.

I remember when I was married to him that when I grocery shopped, I would run threw the store as fast as possible.  I knew that  my ex husband would get angry I was gone. He did not like me to shop without him, but most of the time I had to because of time constraints. He would come home from work and look in the refrigerator to see what I had bought. I remember how scared I was when he did this. He always found something in the refrigerator that he did not think we should have.  I remember one time it was bath bubbles for me.   I paid for that emotionally for way too long. I know it sounds silly, but living like this is Hell.

One of the toughest memories of mine was when my ex and I took our two young babies with us to a lawyer friend of ours to sign our wills.  We were going on a trip to Mexico coming up in the next couple of weeks. My ex had told me that we would not have to pay for our wills to be drawn up since he would give this friend/lawyer friend of his free chiropractic treatment.  They had bartered services.  Great I thought. Now, at this time of my marriage, I had not clearly understood the cycle of violence.  As we sat in the office signing away, I heard the lawyer ask for a check.  I felt confused because my husband had told me it was free.

We got out into our car. I drove, my ex was in the passenger side of the car and my two kids were strapped in their car seats. My son, the oldest of my two kids was only 2.5 and my daughter was18 months younger. As I drove us out towards home I stated that I was confused as to why we paid the lawyer.  I stated that we had planned our budget for our Mexico trip and this was to be free of charge for a barter. I remember his hand flying over into my stomach, sucker punching me. I was in total shock. Tears flowed down my cheeks as he screamed telling me how ridiculous it was I was crying. I tried to hide my tears from the kids. My ex kept exclaiming how fear based I was. My darling son, cried and said, "Mommy, why did daddy hit you?".  I was then told to go to Mac Donald's and pull through the drive through window.  He told me to get the kids a ice cream cone.  "No way, you just hit me, I am upset and crying and you want me to go to a drive up window?"  Well, I knew I had no choice and drove up and through my crying ordered two cones.

Freedom Oh sweet Freedom, I love you.

One time as we laid in our bed I saw black figures on the walls in my bedroom. It was terrorizing, but I knew I had to make a decision. I also had two weeks that my garage would go up on it's own. I laid in bed and prayed for God to give me an answer as to what I should do, stay or leave. We had two great kids together.  As a Catholic, I really struggled with this issue. My church was not so supportive because they received a lot of financial support from my ex husbands family. Unfortunately, money talks even in the church.  My relationship with God was strong. I was walking six miles a day through this time in my life so I could hear God talking to me. This was when I realized my relationship with the God or Jesus was far more precious to me than my church. At this point in  my marriage, I had been with this man for 9 years.

Praying in my bed on these nights the same thing happened.  The garage would go up on it's own and I would go down stairs and close it. I also could hear very clearly " Laura, get out.". I had so much support from family and friends.

I had made my decision. I served him papers in 2002.  I have been set free. I feel so grateful every day.  I no longer have oppression weighing down on me. Life is such a gift. I am not saying it was easy, it was an arduous journey.

If I can help anyone in this situation, just one, then I am happy. My life is sweet and precious now. Freedom is such a gift.

Wordless Wednesday

Hope prevails. Relay Walk for all Cancers.

Food and How This One Meal Changed Our Lives

In a writing contest I entered with The Sixteenth of October, we were asked to write a personal or business lunch that made some type of impact or difference.  Only one thing came to my mind for this.

Back in 2002 my life changed drastically. I have no regrets. This was the year I made the life decision to serve my then husband of ten years. Lets just say for the record that our marriage was complicated. I have the best kids out of this marriage and that is the precious gift. Once the divorce was final we were technically together for thirteen years.


 I had gone on to earn my masters degree while I was married. At this time, I interned for my Counseling and Psychological Services hours at an agency called Perspectives Inc.  Oh, how I loved this internship.  Once I graduated they hired me on part time as a supervisor in the counseling department. I was then brought on as a a parent educator/group coordinator.  I so loved this position. My then husband wanted me to quit since he did not believe I brought in enough money. To avoid what I knew would be catastrophic if I did not give up my job there, I quit. I felt angry,sad, disgusted and stuck. At the same time my twin sister was also working at this agency and was a case manager for women in recovery.

Fast forward to 2004 when my divorce was final. Life was stressful of course since I was finally done with the bitter divorce.  At this time my identical twin sister was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was only 41 and had never smoked. My twin sister is my best friend in the world so this was tough on me and my two children. My kids at this time were only toddlers.  Not knowing where my next paycheck would come from I still invited my twin to live with us. I had faith in God and I felt somehow we would be OK.

Because I was a stay at home mother now with no income,I worried about how to bring in the bacon.  I was not just worried for my kids and I, but my sister. I wanted her to feel secure and safe and know she was in good hands. This is when I built my own cleaning business to bring in some financial stability.  It was not easy but it was worth it if it kept us in the house my kids were raised in.  My sister had her own bedroom and her own living area. I wanted so bad to keep her secure and help her in the healing process.  She had gone through surgery,chemo therapy and radiation when all was said and done.

This is where the food comes in. My sister and I were invited to go out to lunch with the CEO of this non profit agency.  My sister and I had a close relationship with her since we had both worked at Perspectives.  We all had so much in common. We had all lost our moms at the young age of nine and we were all twins. This connected us on such a deep level. 

The lunch went great and we explained during the meal all that had gone on since leaving Perspectives. Not long after that fateful lunch Jeannie the CEO called us. She knew Linda was going through a tough time during her chemo treatments.  She wanted to help in some way and so she offered to be the auctioneer at my sisters benefit that my family was throwing for her in August.

To say we felt blessed would be candy coating it. We were giddy with excitement. The night of the benefit was outstanding. Jeannie, the CEO made so much money for my sister so she could heal and feel stress free. At one point in the night my uncle came up to Jeannie to talk about our situation. He told her that it was hard to watch as he put it " Laura had her masters degree and is cleaning houses." Do you or might you have employment for her in the future?  I did not hear of this until way after the benefit. 

My uncle that did this also has very financially stable restaurateurs as sons'.  They donated thousands of dollars in my twins honor.  It ended up that my sister was taken care of in my home for two or three years with that benefit money. 

As if that was not enough, there is more. A couple of weeks after the benefit, I received a phone call from Jeannie, the CEO of Perspectives Inc. She offered me a position in my mental health field.  I was given the title of Director of Volunteers.  I am still here at this agency enjoying my career with zest and passion.

At one point, earlier on, I almost lost the house to foreclosure.  I was able to refinance and we are in the home my family loves.  Yes, my twin sister still lives with us eight years later and is cancer free seven years.

Who would ever believe that one lunch one day at Park Tavern Restaurant would be so fateful?

" Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it." Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Money Tree Blog

" Money only buys a small measure of happiness, and then only for those who have the wisdom to use it properly." Steven Scott 

This week for my blog writer group called GBE2,we are to look at this image and go to town on what this means to us. Oh, the money tree, what visions and ideas come up oh so naturally for me.

My mind goes straight to what money can do or not do for us. Appealing to all of  our sense of wealth, I could not stop thinking about how corrupt money can really be. I mean what if we were to have a lot of money?  What would that do to our sense of morality and righteousness.  Look at our top CEO's and the money they spend on what I would call frivolous things.  Jet setting to vacation destinations, dining at the best restaurants, boats of plenty, Only the best jewelry and so on.

I will not lie.  I have put money into the lottery.  I get a sick stomach when I think of all the sad and sadistic things that could really happen if I had a lot of money and won the lottery.  How many times have we heard that the person that won the lottery was killed over it. As balanced and secure as we may think we are, what would really happen to you or I if we had won Said money?  

I would love to pay off all my family bills and mortgage.  Wow, it would be amazing to have the money to do that, but............

As great as the idea sounds money can create greed which can force many unfathomable things to spiral.  It is written that money can make it harder for us to get into the gates of heaven.  What does that really mean?  I have seen it in my life time.  I think it is rare for those with great financial stability  to stay balanced in their life.  I know it happens, but unfortunately, I think it is far more rare than the alternative.

I wish we could be a society that gave each other our personal God Given  gifts instead of money.  I know as a person in the healing field, I have returned a healing for a massage, or a chiropractic healing for cleaning a house. I mean, we all need something and we all have gifts.

What would our world be like without the exchange of money?  It reminds me of when I had my children at the Catholic school.  They all wore the same uniform.  No Tommy Hilfiger, Tommy Bahama or Hollister.  We can then observe how children dressed the same can have a set up barrier to jealousy or greed over clothes. 

Please think about this with me. Would we really want to be millionaires?  What would happen to the stability of our family lives?  Would our priorities change?  Would we be generous givers? Would our hearts harden?

As many bills as I have stacked in my pantry for "Doing the Bills Day," I don't think I would want all that would go along with having money.

Thanks for coming along with me on the issue of great wealth.  I don't really have answers, but it really makes us look at the question.  Do we really want to be rich in wealth?  I guess for me it comes down to the fact that, "I want to be rich in spirit."

Hebrews 13:5
"Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have."

Shaking Things Up

I write for a weekly  Blog entry, called "Blog Hop".  This week our topic theme  is "Shaking It Up."  Only one thought came to my mind for this theme.  Here it goes.

I am a single mom of two great kids that are 13 and 14 years old. Back in 2002, I served their dad divorce papers since we had a very complicated marriage.  The divorce was not final until 2004, so that time in between was quite rocky, stressful, and emotionally draining for all of us.

My two kids were toddlers at the time. I could see how tough the divorce was on them even though I felt good about how I dealt with their dad during this tough transition.

One day, it broke my heart to see my son so down and depressed. He just cried and cried and I just held him in my arms.  Then the thought came to me.  This is what happened later in the day. 

I gathered my children at the kitchen counter where we had just finished peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.  I let them sit on top of the counter which in itself was so exciting for them.  I just "let Go and let God."  I was tired of all the seriousness, and complexity of the bitter divorce.  I would set us free.  Well, at least I hoped this would work. 

I took the peanut butter jar that was on the counter.  I held it in my hand as I told them the story of the mom that ate peanut butter off her kids toes.  I still get choked up every time I think of this story.  My kids sat wide eyed, staring at me for each syllable that I would utter next, in total amazement.  They loved this story.  They thought it was the silliest story they had ever heard.  By the way, I do have the gift of gab which helps greatly in story telling. 

Once the story was over they bombarded  me with millions of questions. I  giggled and scooped peanut butter onto my hand. I put both kids side by side and spread peanut butter on their toes. Yes, I did "Shake It Up."  I ate peanut butter off my kids tootsies.  We laughed so hard and for so long.  This little show of love has lasted all these years since.  That was the day my kids came back into their hearts.  They smiled again after that silly encounter.  We now talk about this at the dinner table at least once a month. My kids just love talking about that day on the counter top. "What a silly mom you are, you ate peanut butter off our toes."

I can breathe again

Talk about a week of learning and lessons.  I see life as one lesson after the other. I believe we all grow spiritually and move up one level to the next, if were open to it. I believe that is why we are here. Why not learn and make every day and take every situation in life, as a "Teachable Moment."  I believe there is a God and that universal love energy is what makes the world go round.

Let me take you back to last week. My twin sister and I live together and raise my two children who are 13 and 14 years old.  Well, we've all been waiting for three months for the results of a scan that showed four spots on my sisters lungs. She is a seven year, cancer survivor, and yes, we had to wait. They were not able to say what the spots were three months ago, just that yes, there are four spots and you need to come back in for a re- scan in three months. They have to wait to see if the spots disappear or change in size. Furthermore, they don't want to do an invasive biopsy unless it is necessary.

I  won't candy coat it. Living in a house with four family members, wondering what the results would be, was scary and at times, debilitating.  My sister, who I adore, was at an all time crabby mood. My poor kids were unbelievably irritable.  Not all days were bad because of our faith. We pray, we talk things out in our home and love each other unconditionally. I was performing healing work on my sister at least once a week. Linda was out getting massages and anything else that would distract her and keep her busy during the wait.

In our house, we know that what we Speak, can manifest. Energy is vital and what we say,do, and how we behave, can affect us. It talks of this truth in the bible- We need to listen and be careful, how we choose our words. It isn't uncommon to hear one of us tell each other to take a negative word back.  As an example: My sister said, "MY cancer." After reminding her, she said, "the cancer."  I know it might sound ridiculous to those who have not studied energy, power of attraction or read the bible.

Anyhoo, I digress, because what I want to tell you is that my sister and I went to her appointment last week to hear the results. We walked out in the serene, "cancer garden of hope" which helped us relax a little. We went into the appointment with baited breath.
 THIS IS WHAT WE HEARD......................


"Linda, the four spots are gone or they are so small that they are undetectable." This woman doctor was awesome as she stayed very calm the entire appointment. Linda and I on the other hand, hugged and let out some loud fun screams and woo-hoo's.  You only live once and we might as well feel every inch of this positive scan that proved Linda was still cancer free.

The day we found out the scan results, we found out a great old friend of ours had passed away in his car at the grocery store. More than likely, a heart attack. We love our friend Kevin and what became the new focus was how to support his sister which is one of our dearest friends.. When life gives you lemons, one must make a healthy dose of lemonade. Now we grieve the loss of Kevin while being grateful for the clean bill of health of my sister.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can waste our energy worrying about something that may never be or LIVE Life to the fullest.  This is what Kevin taught my whole family that day. Kevin really lived life to the fullest. What a perspective his death gave to all  of us. I am in no way implying that it is a bad thing to worry. To be human, means we will have times we obsess over things. There will be times we do everything right as we look at self -care. No judgement on how the heck we react. No one should judge how we feel as feelings are owned by the subjective person. Life is joy and pain and that is a fact. To feel joy, one must know pain.

 Tip for healing work: 

Step One- At night before you sleep, put your hand over your heart. It may get hot and it may feel tingly. That is a natural healing technique that can aid in sleeping well and help clear up illnesses.

My First Love

My real first love was William John Fadell. Oh, just saying his name makes my heart go pitter pat. We were hot items in the tenth grade. I knew Billy when he had braces. We were in confirmation classes together.

 It is funny looking back because my twin sister went on a date with him first that year. Even twins have different tastes in boys since she and Billy just did not have a spark. They went on one date and that was it.  Bill and I were different. Our first date is all we needed and that was that.

Billy and I had our first date at the local Soda Fountain which was quite popular during my high school years.  As shy as he was, he turned around in math class and got the nerve to tempt me with a challenge. He challenged me to a french fry eating contest at the Soda Fountain. "No problem I told him, but beware, as I love french fries and can out eat anyone."

The love story was one I will hold onto for the rest of my life. Bill and I wrote each other what we called "Love  Notes" almost daily that year. We spent most of our time together, jogging, watching our favorite movies together, camping, concerts, theatre, hanging out with friends at outdoor concerts and more.

Love as always has it's ups and downs and did with us. Mostly it was heaven, but as we got into our senior year Billy got into things I did not care for. He liked to smoke weed. I did not want that energy in my life since both my parents had been addicted to alcohol and it made for a tough child hood. At one point I told Billy that I could no longer date him.

After crying, filling up my fathers condo with roses and pleading with me that he would quit, we got back together and even dated somewhat into my college career. We had so much fun while I was up at college. He would come visit me at Stout University and take the greyhound bus. I went to college out of state and Billy was not yet ready to go.  I came home my first summer and could not wait to spend time with Billy. One night soon into the summer Billy and many of our friends went out to a concert. It was a great concert and lots of summer excitement except for the fact that one of his friends told me Billy never stopped smoking pot. I wondered at the concert why he did not want me in one section with him and his buddies.  I found him smoking right then and there. My heart dropped and so did my future outlook with my love.

The hardest thing I did was call it off. Yes, we had spent many nights talking about what it would be like to be married. That made it all the harder. Painful as it was to come home during college and run into him, I knew I did not want addiction back into my life.

I had met a man named Brian who treated me like a queen at first. He and I started dating became engaged and one year later married. Billy was never far from my heart. I had heard he saw the newspaper article on our engagement and was told he just sobbed for weeks. His friends which were my friends told me he was inconsolable.

One day as I worked at a pre- school program for special needs kids, I talked to my co worker incessantly about Billy, our love and how it ended. I had now been married almost one year. I wondered even to myself why I was talking on and on about Billy.

My phone rang when I walked in to my kitchen after work. I knew it my heart what the call was about.  I had a vision, a feeling, an intuition about Billy. I  knew in my heart that I was getting a call about his death. I hoped my intuition was steering me off course.  On the other end of the phone I heard " Laura, Billy died at the U.S. Open Golf Event." I hung up the phone and fell to the floor.

My sweet Billy was killed by lightening. No one else died that day. Many were hit by the lightening or felt it, but Billy lost his life. I lost an enormous part of me that day.

Control: Do we Really Ever Let Go?

Today I write about the topic of control.  This is such an intense topic, one that could be written on by any human being.  "Let Go and Let God."  I  have heard this quote all my life from my loving family and friends.  Don't we all just want to hang on to what we know?  As a psychotherapist by trade, I see so many clients, so many diagnosis that are because "We Don't Want To Give Up On Control."  Look at the news, all the stories of doom and gloom, we have a right to want to savour a little of that "control. 

To want to be in control is not a bad thing.  Ask anyone you know if they have control issues.  I think most people would agree that they do. One of the first lessons I learned in my masters of counseling psychology program was about control.  Did you know the most current epidemic and most diagnosed in the diagnostic manual is all about anxiety and the entire spectrum of disorders around that issue. Yes, you heard it from me, our planet suffers ad nauseam from panick, anxiety,depression and the like.

I think as I age and grow wiser, I find letting go to be a little easier.  I know that life is precious. I have lost so many close to me that I know I need to try to go with the flow of life. Life is about connection, love, spending time with those you love and letting them know you love them.  Just today I lost a dear friend who was found in his van after grocery shopping.  He was slumped over on his steering wheel.  To you Kevin my friend, I am glad I told you I loved you.  Tomorrow I go to the hospital with my twin sister and best friend who is a seven year lung cancer survivor.  We will find out if the three spots on her lung are gone or not.

Yes, life is precious and at times for very painful. What I know now, is that I love life and all it has to offer, be it bad or good.  Some of the most painful memories I have somehow turned me into a writer, a deep conscientious human being that wants to give back to the world. I love God and my kids and all that is there for the taking in life. We do need to live life as actors in own play.  Irv Goffman social psychologist said, " Live life full by knowing your the creator of your own play."  I love this and is how I base my life.  If you met me you would see I am a little girl in a grown up body.

Control, you can't have me.

What Inspires Me?

I must state this is hard to define: What inspires me?   I feel my cup has runneth over. I am and always have had the tendency to see the cup half full even when things are bad.  Don't let that make you think my life has been easy.  My childhood was very difficult and my marriage was too. Thirteen years with the father of my children and I had to leave. Lots of pain most my life, but I digress.

What inspires me in no certain order:

1. Music
2. Praying
3. Baths
4. Writing
5. God
6. Connections
7. My two kids Jacob and Ellie
8. My doggies Joey and Spooky
9. My Twin Sister
10. Nature
11. Walking
12. Smooth Jazz
13. My home
14. Certain People
15. Online Buddies
16. Volunteers
17. Those that work their program So To Speak
18. Love
19. Stories of Hope
20. Cancer Survivors
21. The Work I do with the homeless/at-risk population
22. My Friends
23. Food
24. All Military That Fight for our Freedom
25. Babies
26. Healing Others
27. Process of Healing
28. Moon
29. Flowers
30. Gardens
31. Family

I could go on and on and on that note. by by

Laura

Mamma Told Me There Would Be Days Like This

Have you ever had "one" of those days that leaves you scratching your chin?  Well I had one of those recently and all I can say is I am so glad it does not happen often. It was a repetitious cycle of one thing after another. It just snowballed for the rest of the day and actually somewhat into the week.  Boy did I ever sleep deep that weekend.

The first oddity happened at Cub Foods.  I am a single mom of two. I was shopping for a group of volunteers that were coming out to landscape at our housing campus for work. I work with homeless/at-risk families and children.  I was at the cash register when an elderly lady and the male cashier were having a conversation. I was putting my groceries on the conveyor belt. At one point the male cashier was flirting with me with his words. The lady he was speaking with told him he should not flirt with a customer. She was saying it all in good fun.

It was a lively, friendly three way conversation now.  He was telling the both of us how he was a single dad and put his son through the engineering program at the U of M. Impressing me though he was, I definitely was not ready for what came next. At the end of our transaction he handed me a piece of paper. I assumed it was part of the receipt that he gave me for my work account which is part of the process. 

I got out to my car and looked at the sheet of paper. It was his cell number and a note saying that he would like to take me out to lunch or coffee. No, I did not call him back.

Later, I went to my son's baseball game. To say I was a baseball magnet is putting it ever so mildly. At one point in the game after the fourth ball almost hit me and the folks near me, this is what the man next to me said.  " I think we need to move because most balls are coming right to you in our area."  He was right, they were all coming to me and I could not even enjoy the game. I finally moved to another area and guess what?  The balls followed me over there too.  It was so odd. 

The next thing that happened was my brand new Kia Sedona car engine died. I was at a Walgreen's with my sister shopping for odds and ends. We went out to the car and it did not start. I decided to leave my sister at the car and I would go to the gas station across the road for gas. I am writing a mystery series right now.  Because I am writing this, I feel as if I am playing a part in a movie. I am a silly woman, but life is so much fun. I spotted the officer and his shiny state patrol car. I ran over to him in the store and said, "oh, your just the person I wanted to run into now."  He could not believe it as he said he does not hear that one too often. Anyway I put gas in a container and the officer said he was willing to take me back to my car and help me out. If you haven't been in a police car before, you don't ever want to. It was so compact in the back seat and the plexy glass partition was very creepy.  I met the perfect state patrol guy because he said "Should we play a trick on your sister?"

I got chills of happiness. Here was my chance to play a character in the back of a squad.  I was so excited. "Yes, of course, what's your plan?"  As we pulled up in the state trooper squad, I waved at Linda from the back of the car.  She looked like she had seen a ghost. The trooper put his window down and spoke to her window to window. " Mam, I'm taking her in." 

Ahem, these are the days.  Mama told me there would be days like this.

My Sister Got Punked

OK, so just like in the old twin show that some of us watched when we were young, twins do play tricks on each other. "What a crazy pair." One day about two weeks ago, my twin sister and I were out running errands in our car. I have a new Kia Sedona mini van. Well, after Linda and I shopped around at our local Walgreen's store and went back to our NEW car, it would not start.




I told my sister that I believed we ran out of gas since I knew we were low, but I did not know we were quite that low. It was time to problem solve. I told my sis that I would go across the street to a gas station and bring back a container of gas. No problem, we would put it in the car and Wah La, everything would be hunky dory.



I am writing a mystery novel right now, so my life feels like a movie. I kind of felt on this day that I was premiering in my own movie hoping some great opportunity would come a knockin on my door to help in this fun endeavour. Well, I walked across the street to get some gas and what do you think I saw?



I spotted a state trooper vehicle outside of the gas station. Perfect I thought, I will ask him to help me out and this could be a great part for me in the " Drama of the day." I looked at the state trooper and said right inside the gas station " Your just the person I wanted to see right now." He told me he had never heard that one before. I told him my plight and he said he was willing to drive me over to the parking lot that my car ran out of gas and help me out.



He did share with me that as exciting as this whole thing was, he would have to put me in the back of the squad behind the plexy glass. He also told me I lucked out because had I run out of gas in the road he would have no choice but to ticket me. Well, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. This was a perfect scene for me in my first fake movie. OK I said, but wow, there was not a lot of room back there. I could hardly fit my legs in there. I am so claustrophobic, but I thought it would so be worth it when my twin sister saw me driving up in a state trooper squad car.



Eric the state trooper and I chatted on the way to the parking lot and he prepared me for the fact that I could not get out of the car till he walked back to it and opened my door. Ooh, I didn't really like the sound of that one, but now there was not much I could do. He suggested to me that we play a little prank on my twin sister which I delighted in.



Waving from within the MN state trooper car at my twin she looked at me as if she had seen a ghost. The state trooper put his window down and spoke to her window to window. He peered in her window and pointed at me and said, " I am taking her in." Oh how I wish I had a picture at just that moment. Linda has a great sense of humour and she of course loved the whole thing only after the state trooper let me out of the car.



Funny Twin Sister Fact: My twin sister and I were extras in a real movie that you can see in video stores. I think it was one of the worst movies every made. It was called the Come Back with Robert Yurik and China Phillips. Don't laugh too hard if you see it. Make sure to have your cheaters on so you can see Linda in the bank scene and I in the walking up the stair scene. Please don't ask me for autographs.