Lola at the Coffee House

I didn't fall in love white the lobster, spendi.

Thanks everyone. I have been very sad. The circumstances are especially upsetting. He was living temporarily with my youngest daughter in Austin. So Basil and I were separated, but I went down to visit him and my daughter every few weeks or so. He was doing fine down there, except he had started to sneak out the back door to the back yard. Ali has two dogs and an out door cat. Then he started to climb the tree and get into the front yard. He wasn't an outdoor cat. He had been inside all his four and half years. He didn't know about cars. But a week ago a pipe burst in Ali's house and they had to go to a hotel. Then when they got back they had to start ripping up the floors. I didn't know all this was going on. There was loud equipment and noise. He was frightened and someone (there were lots of people in the house) let him sneak out. Ali says she thinks he was frightened so that's why he ran farther away (just a few houses down to the cross street. It wasn't a busy street, just an ordinary residential street. I wanted to go down to Austin and get him, but I didn't have a place for him to stay where I am. My older cat, Zana is with me. But two cats were too much for my present living conditions. He was a blue point Siamese. Small for his age and sweet. Blue blue eyes, like Bernie. Now our family is one smaller.

I'm a little better today. I've stopped seeing the scene over and over again. And, yes fm, my memories of him will be more pleasant some day. But I keep thinking about how he used to jump into my lap while I was at the computer and sleep there, purring. I was going to go down to Austin and bring him home when I get a job and my own apartment again.

I'm just pissed off!

bump dammit

and again

OK, this is perfect timing. Nothing like something to be angry about to relieve sad feelings.

I just opened a fat envelope from my insurance company. It shall go unnamed for now. Inside were some "flash cards," a workbook and a pamphlet or two.

First flash card: (this one will really please you spendi.......NOT!)

I find joy in small things (picture of small birdie on leaf with ice cycles)
2. I don't have to be perfect.(starfish on white sandy beach with lime colored bubbly ocean)
3. Being compassionate brings me peace. (bridge over a small creek with autumn leaves on trees, sun glimmering through the trees)
4. Contentment is not about getting what you don't have. (two people sitting on a large expanse of green grass, watching people playing soccer)
5. All is perfectly well as it is (etc.)
6. I have enough of what is really important
7. I live in the present
8. Every day I have more joy.....................

You're getting the picture, I'm sure. There are more, but I'll spare you.

The work book is titled, "Positively Well: My Journal" (isn't that a creative and unique name?) and underneath are these words, sprinkled happily upon the front cover.........
Joy
Compassion Gratitude Contentment
Laughter Hope

I am going to throw up!

First page of my Journal reads like this

With Compassion I share others' experience.
Today I felt compassion for . . .
Date: and empty lines for me to write on.
Then..........
How many times today did you feel:
Compassion ___________
Contentment___________
Gratitude_____________
Hope________________
Joy_________________
Laughter_____________

Positivity Total_________

What things helped to create these positive feelings?

More empty lines for me to write on

Then:
"Turn to the back cover to track your positivity progress."

Is anyone thinking Big Brother? Newspeak? The thought police?

What the **** is this world coming to?
It must be that the expense of those happy pills are getting to be a bit much for the poor, helpless insurance company.

From an insurance company, that's very strange indeed. I can't imagine that happening here.

maybe it is time for you to consider the posibility that something as gone serously seriously wrong with America.

I'm sorry things seem to have conspired to make life a bit bleak for you at the moment, but it will get better. It always does in the end. I wish I was very clever, and had just the right words to cheer you up - but better minds than mine will no doubt post on here soon and say something that will either make you laugh - or steam with rage! Either way, here's a little light music to hum along to ... it's often helped me!

Why should Taggers consider anything of the sort? Like me, he doesn't live in America.

If, as you say, something has gone seriously wrong with America then it's down to Americans to sort it out. Leave us out of it.

Not to mention that Hawkeye's conclusion that, " something as gone serously seriously wrong with America," is hardly justified because Lola received some mail from an insurance company pushing positive thinking. He's made quite an illogical leap in his thinking.

Lola gets some stupid **** from an insurance company and I laugh at the revealed content therein. You start inventing conspiracies begun by feel- good pop psychologists.
I guess we just see things differently Hawkee.

I wish youd pull up a wee and think about some of your posts, youre embarrassing me.

I can't imagine that happening here, either.

I've never expected logical thinking from Hawkeye, although sometimes he does get something right. It's always a pleasant surprise when that happens.

Funny is the best word to describe it. Amazing. I hope they're not planning to recommend this as their remedy for depression in the over sixty crowd. Actually, it was preceded by a phone call with a recorded message about being happy and helping others as a way to feel good myself. Besides funny, it's actually insulting.

Hawkeye has a small point, as generalized as it is. People opposing the ACA (that's the Affordable Care Act) are the most selfish people I've ever known. I doubt the insurance company is thinking of my best interest. I'm just a little worried about what they're up to. If they could get away with it, they would put psychotherapists and psychiatrists out of business tomorrow, replacing them with flashcards and a daily work book. Infantile. To the extent that the insurance companies are a part of the American system, hawkeye is right. I mean, this was a large package, it cost some money to make those robo calls and send this package through the mail. I wonder how they made their decision about their mailing list. Has anyone else on Medicare Complete received a package like this?

For the meantime, I prefer to laugh at it........for now.

You start out with nuffing, you end up with nuffing.........

I love that scene, vonny. It's my favorite. And oddly enough, it's a positive message, all in all. There's something encouraging about people who can look reality in the face and laugh.

wow , so there is a conspiracy? (NOT)

Insurance companies have always spent huge percentages of their incomes on advertising and calling it research and outreach.
Nothing different from the "wellness" bullshit of the 1980's and 90's

I didn't say conspiracy, fm. You said that. Don't be putting words in Lola's mouth. What it is, is a plan. If you work in the mental health care industry, you learn pretty quick that when it comes to insurance companies, the plan is about the bottom line being profit at all costs. The wellness bullshit and the development of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are driven by the insurance companies. CBT miraculously cures complex disorders from clinical depression to excessive anxiety in just 12 sessions. In the hospitals, it works in 3 to 5 days. Think of the savings. Never mind that many people commit suicide without proper treatment. For the insurance industry, the best mental health patient is a dead patient.

You don't have to be paranoid to identify a scam when you see one. Human beings aren't just naturally benevolent. They have to use their frontal lobes and lymbic systems in unison for that. The insurance companies have too much frontal lobe and not enough lymbic. It's a sad story.

A plague of 'ology majors plus television. It is axiomatic that the more 'ology majors there are the closer their IQ gets to 100.

aka The Paperwork Party.

Holy Hell! You are smarter than the average bear, you get it!

scam, plan, conspiracy. They all seem to crowd around the same concept.