So
many things happened in this 13 year period of my life from the age of
31-43 that it would be impossible to list them all but I will throw
them out, not in particularly any order,with just a comment here and there.

In
March 1967 I joined Weight Watchers and within 16 weeks I lost 72
pounds and continued losing weight as I went on to become a very
successful lecturer for them. I met my second live in lover with whom I
would move to Memphis with to open/start and get off the ground the
franchise of WW Of Greater Memphis, Eastern Arkansas and Chattanooga. I
worked my buns off 24/7 for 5 years and made more money than I ever had
imagined--I had $60-70,000 a year to play with and I did--before I
found out that I was not an equal partner in business.

I
got my driver's license in 1969 and the first car I drove was a white
Cadillac convertible. I traveled, first class all the way, to
Australia, New Zealand, South America, Vancouver, Tahiti, Mexico, Hawaii and 47 other States.

In
1971 I entered therapy by joining a Transactional Analysis ( "I'm Okay,
You're Okay") group led by Joe Cassius also seeing him on a one to one
basis and in a very short time the change stunned me and those around
me. I grew, I matured, I became sure and secure in who I was and, yes,
I became full of myself--for awhile--okay, for ever!

My
change scared my partner--we no longer had a 'son-father' relationship
but one of equal peers. It didn't take long for me to stand up on my
own two feet and things become ugly. We went to court and got both a
business and personal 'divorce'. In the one mistake I made I walked
away without fighting for what was rightfully mine but I wanted to stop
playing games and get on with my life--at the time, and I still think,
it was the right thing for me to do.

In
1974 I had a new lover and I opened a new business called Our Weigh. My
first lover had been my age, the second 5 years older than me and this
one 11 years younger. It become a case of the country bumpkin taking
the city slicker but, up to that point in my life, it was the most
honest I had been with anyone and I never regretted that.

In
1976 I celebrated my 10th Leap Year birthday at the Memphis Hilton
hotel inviting 300 of my closest--none of whom I see today!

By 1979 I had lost my lover, my business and I felt I had to leave Memphis--that's another blog!--with my tail between my legs. I loved Memphis but there was no way I could
earn a living there--to be a server you either had to be black or a
woman--remember this was 1979--and even with that, my pride, having been a big fish in a small pond, told me it was time to leave.

My
life was to take another turn--more adventures--I would meet the love
of my life, and lose him--go bankrupt twice--lose friends to death from
AIDS--lose the first person whoever gave me unconditional love to
cancer--lose everything I had materially but entering the third part of
my life happy, positive and ready for whatever was to come.

AND, NO, I DIDN'T FORGET "A CHORUS LINE" BUT THAT MAY TAKE A BLOG OF IT'S OWN :o)