Denise Willis

It's hard to determine how you really feel about somebody when you are young and your hormones are racing wildly. Physical attraction is the main thing that attracts the majority of people, but what is really important when looking for a partner in life? Perhaps there should be a checklist that we use and tick off all the things we like as well as those we don't when we are getting to know somebody. But, doesn't that take the romance out of it? Well, yes, but at the same time, if you are looking for someone to share your life with you have to consider more than romance.

Methamphetamine is a very dangerous, illegal drug that can cause short and long term problems in the brain and problems with emotions. It is very addictive, and people using this drug can have hallucinations and delusions and become paranoid and violent. The physical aspects of long-term addiction are tooth decay, weight loss, and sores where the meth user has picked at his/herself to get rid of the imaginary bugs crawling on them. When someone is addicted to meth, they only care about getting high.

As a teenager I never had acne. My sister did, and disgustedly sighed stating that I had skin like a china doll, but it didn't take me long to take care of that, however, and that is why at age sixty seven I am dealing with age spots that make me look like a spotted dalmation, wrinkles beyond my years, and sagging skin.

When I was born I had thick black hair and gray eyes. As the years went by, my hair turned dark brown as did my eyes, and when I stood outside it looked like I had red hair. Of course, that wasn't enough for me, I wanted to be a blonde. My mother let me dye my hair when I was in my teens, but she would only let me use browns or black, no blonde.

I remember the first time I told another person "no" when they fully expected me to say yes. There was a moment of silence before I said it, a moment of truth for me to see what I was made of, and then bang! Before I knew it the word "no" just rolled off my tongue, and suddenly I felt very powerful. My heart slowed down, and I stood a little taller, squaring my shoulders as I did. Mildred, the woman to whom I had just told no, had been using me for a long time. She left her two toddler sons with me for what was supposed to be an hour, and turned into four hours. She always had some emergency and needed me to watch the boys. I have raised my children, and I am not very maternal anyhow, so the last job on earth I want to tackle is babysitting.

I have struggled with my dog for the past 13 years regarding her diet. She has a very sensitive digestive system and is always having issues if she eats the wrong thing. She was never happy with dry food, only wet food, so I fed her Purina and Alpo and any other food that was supposed to be good... until she stopped eating it. She was seven, and she had blood in her stool and would not eat, so off we went to the vet. She was diagnosed with colitis, and I was told she was allergic to grain. I began making her food at home, using hamburger well-drained, carrots, and brown rice. She did well on the food, but she was gaining a lot of weight.