Unfortunately, my fancy coffee maker broke down out of nowhere, not under warranty anymore. 😒
In desperation, the local Family Dollar supplied my need. There is not way I’m going w/o coffee especially with the snow storm pending.
Ready to continue editing 😒😒

I’ve had to go without coffee on days with editing piling up, and just had to remind myself of my alma mater, and the names’ sake (sp?), who said “Keep a-pluggin away…” (and if Paul Lawrence Dunbar could live in DC and get all of that writing, speaking, and organizing done back then, as our teachers used to say…)
But I hear you. Stay safe and warm.
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Good willpower on your part! That might have work for me, at least 2 hours haha.
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LOL! Thank you, Sir, but I must credit habit more than willpower, I suspect: I’ve only just started drinking coffee a few months ago!
🙂
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Oh you’re a newbie 😯☺️
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Ah, yes, I am a coffee newbie! For so many years, I just couldn’t afford any Fair Trade coffee (let alone Equal Exchange brands when I was a student in England), so I’m just now deciding that, at 50, I need to have a bit of coffee with my lentils and rice!!
🙂
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Oh ok. Are you still in England?
Lentils and rice are good. I use to eat that with some Rastafarians back in college. It was their signature dish after “other” activities lol.
What’s the difference between Fair trade and Equal Exchange?
Also you visited your page. You had quite a remarkable life.
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Thanks, I’m working on making my life useful, now! Hope others can avoid some of the mistakes I made, like going to England! LOL! 🙂 I did PhD work there, and was miserable the whole time!
Fair Trade and Equal Exchange are the same, just one is used more in Europe. Two different groups that charge farmers to certify status. 😦 I went to a Farmer’s market where a grower told me that his family back home grew all organic, but couldn’t afford the certification, which is not supposed to happen, but who knows?
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Oh I see. Thanks for that explanation.
Sorry you was miserable. Working on your PhD you spent quite a bit of time there., prolonging the discomfort 😒. Even though it’s not the same I had a experience of living in Florida, Duval County in the year 2000. The job, residing in a “red state,” was beyond difficult. Especially coming from activism background in St. Louis. It was a culture shock of dealing with unchallenged racism.
If you don’t mind where are you (country residing now?
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Wow, no I would never live in Florida! That must have been hellish, sorry for your experience there!
I’m in California, for the moment. Got a heck of a shock when I got here, to San Diego, and am now looking for a way to move up to upstate NY, to any reasonably inexpensive Blue Town!
After I finish Do Better, that is.
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It was an experience, a good learning one.
Cali! Expensive AF haha. Especially San Diego, but the weather is nice eh?
Hmm what kind of shock?
Upstate NY is less expensive than where you at now. The DMV is less than NY, well certain parts.
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Yup, I guess everything has to be learned from, but damned well not necessarily repeated!! LOL!
Well, I know how to live cheaply, but yeah, I could probably rent a room cheaper elsewhere. Decent weather, mostly, but not as sunny as they say it is: I think it was actually sunnier in Boston!
I came out here because I kept reading about these Intentional Communities, and one invited me to come help get it started. Turns out that it was really not as advertised, and neither was the next one I lived at!! The next ones didn’t even take me (they already had a woman of color, so I guess that’s all they needed!!), and then I’ve not even been able to get in touch with the other one here in SD, and the ones in LA won’t even talk to me until I come up there, which is too expensive.
Yeah, I’ve wiped the dust of DC off of my feet.
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Yeah lol. Those types of repeated lessons I could do without, hell anyone could.
Sunnier in Boston wow. Never would have thought that.
Seriously?! They bait and switch you? Then you ran into a quota system at the next location? Unbelievable.
Sorry, that has happened to you. You must have the patience of an angel or something of that equivalent.
DC, what happened there? If I were to guess did you encounter the pretentious environment here? Or was it something else?
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No, I’m just too ornery to give up easily!!
🙂
And I keep wanting to believe that one of these damned communities will be real community. Just too stupid to quit, I guess (a classmate once told me that they’d taken the word “gullible” out of the dictionary and replaced it with my picture!).
DC?
I was born there.
So, yeah, pretentious, hypocritical, color-conscious, classist, snobby and holier-than-thou all rolled into one. Only good memory is Grandma Marie (in my background image). And she wasn’t even my blood!! Adopted my gr. grandmother, then raised my gradnma, my mother, and me (until I was taken away from DC)!! That woman is a saint! Lifelong member of Mt. Zion UMC, our oldest Black Church!
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Oh—-wow. I see. Haha, you know your hometown.
Nothing wrong with being a believer and hoping for the best. We need visionaries such as yourself now more than ever. The enemy continues to destroy the middle class year after year. I’m glad you aren’t giving up.
I’d been fighting for Medical for all since the 90s so I understand. You have been putting in the work and it will pay off. The cause is too great for it not to.
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Fair enough
peace
(or “Love, Peace and .. Sleep!!!” if you are old enough to remember Soul Train’s Don Cornelius?)
The cause is indeed too great, my Brother.
Thank you for reminding me
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Respect! Honestly, talking with you reminded me of what I need to do. Stay bless sista’
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You, too!!
Sending you both Safe Air Hugs, if you want them!
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I will take them. Nothing wrong with hugs. Back at you
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Thank you!
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Are you on Twitter?
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Yep. I am. I don’t frequent it as much but I’m on there. KG_Bethlehem
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Just followed you
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Oh, hey, at least I got a decent short story out of my England experience!
🙂
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(I can link to the post, if you want to read it…)
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Yes, I would. Thank you
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https://shiradest.wordpress.com/2021/12/10/short-narrative-nonfiction-some-beatings-are-worth-taking/
(updated the title to “Standing in the Gap” later…)
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Cool! Checking out now
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I just sent a message through your page
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looking for it now…
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