Kathy Lester
Bio
I'm a published author with two major publishers, a graphic designer, co-founder of Madcap Toys, a mom to three adult sons and a Nana to five grandchildren. If you like what you are reading, send me a gift or tip.
Stories (49/0)
Five Reasons Why You Should Have an Air Fryer in Your Kitchen
So, have you ever heard of an air fryer? I know there are still people out there that have never heard of this kitchen appliance before. You see them on TV, you hear about them on the radio and you even see them on the internet for sale online at various storefronts. I actually received one last year as a Christmas gift from my youngest son and I LOVE it!
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Feast
The Life of a Toy Store Owner
Hello, I am the founder/owner of Madcap Toys. Now before I begin, this is a personal opinion and each and every other collector will have his/her own opinion so if you don't agree with this article then that is fine because like I stated before, this is an opinion piece.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Geeks
Social Identity Crisis Intervention
Why are you still sitting there all by yourself? Why are you shutting the world completely out? You hide your face but nobody wants it hidden. They want to fully see it; not just through a partial view. They want to see you as you completely are without any cover-ups or false truths of someone that you always try your best to imitate. They are not the real you. You are always worried about what other people think and stay sore, afraid in your insecurities. You are jealous when other people win, making it so they won't win again, and you always lose. I mean, why should anyone else have a great day when you live to stay miserable? You can hardly stand to see someone smile or have a skip to their step. It makes you sick inside and your heart continues to harden. You begin to dislike them and then you start to build a barrier between you and them. They're no longer your friend on social media and they can't figure out what went wrong and why the friendship no longer exists. Yet you don't panic about it because you obviously don't care. Your mindset is all that matters and what you think they think about you. Because to you, that's the real truth regardless of anyone else's opinion and it will stay that way until the end. You move on with your life but you tell the people that are closest to you that no one likes you and you innocently act like you can't figure it out. The whole thing has you completely stunned but deep inside you know the truth. There are many days you blame God for it, though you say you love Him. You not only point your fingers at Him but also your accusers. You had nothing to do with this and it's never your fault; it's always someone else's. But they will pay for it in the end. Their pain justifies your existence and for you, that’s a great day. You always hope they never smile again and their soul be damned at least for the moment. Your heart is bitter but you feel you have the bigger one and it's humanity as a whole that’s really against you. You believe are your only friend but not every day. There are some days that you despise yourself too and you don't know why you continue living. You feel you were once a somebody and the role you played defined who you were but you lost it. You feel someone took it away but you let them end it. As a matter of fact, it was you that let them do it. You got tired of trying and you lost confidence and stopped loving yourself. And now you lay for days with your head in hand on the ground wishing the world would stop turning. You hope that today doesn't turn into tomorrow and you loathe change in your life. As a matter of fact, you despise it. You don't believe there's a good future for you because you don't gave a good pair of binoculars to look into tomorrow. You think every day that tomorrow may never come and you will never find your true self again and that frightens you. So you stay living in this protected bubble making sure you never get hurt again as you live your life in someone else's eyes. It makes you feel great for a day or a week and life doesn't seem so bad for the moment but there lies your true identity in the lost and found box waiting and longing to be picked up by you. You know it's there but you don't know how to go over and grab it because you don't believe that it's the real you anymore and you feel everything is lost.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Psyche
How to Avoid Cubicle Obesity
It was a brisk Monday morning as I woke up around 7:45 AMto get ready for my normal 30-minute commute to work. I had gotten dressed, put on my makeup, brushed my hair, and headed out the door into my convertible Volkswagen. Everything seemed fine and normal until I walked through the building into the lobby and onward through to the other side of the building. I could start to feel my face getting flush and heard myself huffing and puffing all the way to my cubicle.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Longevity
Should Clothing Chains Charge More to Plus Size Consumers?
Already starting this week, there are shoppers out there that are complaining on social media along with their discovery that a well-known British retailer is deliberately charging higher prices for plus-size clothing items. It’s been found that there are two clothing items that are identical except for the fact that they are different sizes. The smaller one reflects one price and the other one that is plus-sized displays a price that is nearly doubled. Is it fair and legal for this company or any other clothing retailer to do this?
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Viva
Fifth Harmony Surprises and Sings with Sam Smith and James Corden
OK, so just a few days ago, Sam Smith sang in a karaoke carpool on The Late Late Show with James Corden. I thought it was so cute and sweet that Sam Smith was so starstruck that he died dead when Fifth Harmony got into the car later on and surprised him singing his favorite song, "Work From Home." It’s so cool to see one star really love and appreciate another artist’s work.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Beat
The Monster Behind the Candy Bar
It’s hard being a victim of this. It doesn’t happen every day, but it happens often. You can’t control when it happens or the outbursts behind it only because you are not the one that is angry but the one that is being angered at because of your existence but it happens and it happens quickly. It makes the target like yourself just want to run far away without looking back. Instead of being the puncher, you actually become the punching bag. Moreover, you know why it happens, but the person that is struggling with the high sugar blood level content because they are suffering with diabetes has absolutely no idea what you are talking about, let alone do they actually believe you when you tell them that they have a serious anger problem. And if they do know what you are talking about, they don’t always want to face their angry behavior at all or believe that they are actually hurting someone, whether it’s physically, mentally or verbally.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Longevity
Adults Should Be Able to Trick-Or-Treat, Too
Who said the holiday was just for little kids only? Was it greedy Grandma Judy or old fart Farmer Brown that had made this decision? I mean, we were ALL children at one time, weren’t we? So why can’t adults go trick-or-treating on Halloween night, too? I believe a lot of the stress level in adults would be totally eradicated if they were allowed to get dressed up into their favorite costume after work, put on their most comfortable walking shoes, grab their durable trick-or-treat bag and start hitting the pavement along with the other kids and cool, creative adults. I mean, it’s only one time in the entire year that Halloween exists, so what in the world is the problem? It’s simply madness. Department stores across the world, whether it’s in a retail storefront or online, sell Halloween costumes for adults to wear all year long. Why do we wear them just for the kids or for personal parties? Why is it also only good to wear for comic/toy conventions to look like Super Mario or impersonate Darth Vader? Why can’t adults trick-or-treat too if they choose to, and why do the other adults frown if an adult tries to do it? Adults shouldn’t succumbed to only giving out bowls of candy and taking pictures at their house. They should have the right to choose and be a part of the trick-or-treating festivities if they choose to do it. What happened with the freedom of expression?
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Families
Things You Missed on Taylor Swift’s ‘Are You Ready For It?’ Video
Okay, so I just noticed this morning that Taylor Swift released another music video for her sixth album ‘Reputation’ for one of her new songs, ‘Are You Ready For It?’ If you’ve seen the video already, you may or may not have already realized that you probably missed a few key clues on what the song is really about when you watched it the first time. Am I correct in saying this?
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Beat
The Day I Had My First Anxiety Attack
Anxiety attacks are no laughing matter especially when they are caused by high volumes of stress. I never thought I would ever experience this but one day it hit me so hard that I literally thought that I was going to die. It all started about eight years ago, when I was working as a marketing associate for a health insurance company. The job wasn’t too hard but the hours seemed long and tedious when you wore a headset and was hooked to an auto-dialer cold calling senior citizens to persuade them in changing or adding a Medicare Advantage plan to their current insurance policy.
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Psyche
Kids That Became Famous Through YouTube
The internet may seem eternal but viral fame is only temporary. For many of these kids, dominance over the digital world was short-lived. What happened to many of the kids that got famous online? We are going to take a moment to check out and see what these web celebrities are doing right now:
By Kathy Lester6 years ago in Geeks
Halloween in the 1970s and 80s in Upstate New York Ben Cooper Costume Style
It was October 31, 1976 and I was only three years old in upstate NY. That's me on the left. I was wearing a Ben Cooper Princess costume. I really loved the days during my early trick-or treating years when I wore a Ben Cooper costume to school and paraded around the classrooms with my classmates for the older kids to see us. One of those older kids was my sister. She is four years older than I am. After the costume parade, we would go back to our desks and have a Halloween party. There would be cupcakes, cookies, and candy. You sure wouldn’t see that in the schools today. Any sugary treat is frowned upon these days. After the school bus would drop us off at home, we would freshen up and then press onward to trick-or-treat with my cousins in the early evening hours. I can remember my Mom starting up the old green Dodge to warm it up and away we went to three different small towns to gather all of our candy loot. We would travel to Massena, Brasher Falls, and my favorite town Brookdale where my Nana and Aunt Betty lived.
By Kathy Lester7 years ago in Horror