Ashley Needles

My laptop is giving out, freezing up and having all sorts of malfunctions. She's an old girl in the life of tech. At six years she's practically an antique. So I'm looking into getting a new gadget. Laptop or desktop? Those used to be the only two choices. The first is portable and convenient but not very powerful unless you're willing to spend a LOT of money. The second is cumbersome and you can't really use it to watch movies in bed very well... Or can you? With developments like "all in ones" and bluetooth keyboards possibilities have opened up. But this isn't just about watching my favorite shows, with the winter months coming I like to stay curled up under the covers for as long as possible, but UGH work?! If you're like me you probably have an income source that allows you to work from home some of the time or perhaps even all the time. Work means you need more than just a good dictionary to set your "all-in-one"...

Is it faith or delusional to believe things are going to be okay? We all go through hard times. Most of us have tragedies we try to make sense of. Sometimes things don't make sense and sometimes things don't turn out okay. I once believed that every terrible thing I went through with a determined goodness of character would someday be rewarded or compensated.  It was a coping mechanism. As a child, I believed the sexual and physical abuse I endured would be rewarded with an incredible soul mate. I was highly aware of the terrible marriage between my parents and knew not everyone got the fairytale happily ever after in life. I believed wholeheartedly I would though. But things didn't quite turn out that way. (For those of you who don't already know: abusive marriage and etc.) Still, I was excited when I turned thirty-five. I thought now bad things were over because I would no longer be in the prime age range for sexual assaults. Unfortunately, I was again di...

Why would anyone deliberately provoke a known abuser? Well, he wanted to talk and after six years of trying to get a divorce I wanted to know if that was a healthy productive option, so I gave some helpful advice that the person I once knew would respond to with extreme rage because it brought up not so great actions on his part. Here's what I said that began the onslaught of email abuse: "If you want to save your relationship with P. whom you committed bigamy for, then trying to speak to me is a bad idea." I meant: "obviously you love her enough to commit an international felony so please stop asking me to talk so you can save that relationship," but I stated it in a way that didn't romanticize the facts. I was sincerely trying to be helpful but I also wanted to know if talking to this person would be healthy or not at this point. With an abuser, anything can set them off. Was he still an abuser? I needed to know. By doin...