when life hands you lemons...

(shot by me, 2010)

this year was a little lemon-y...i'll explain :)

there were a lot of "friends" who just weren't.

thankfully, some of those friends disappeared by themselves:

i guess they got tired of competing with no apparent reason

except their own mind?

i really don't care how you perceive yourself as long as you're happy.

but if you keep telling everyone what you own and have acquire-

you're not only proud...

you're sad and gluttonous.

get over yourselves.

then, there were a lot of "friends" who manipulated

every situation to make it about themselves,

or "friends" who have absolutely zero respect for you

and will call you names and say things about you

behind your back.

i got tired.

once one friend "disappeared", i'll admit i was confused.

but then i realized: I WAS RELIEVED!

no more wise-ass comments about how much better

her life is than mine...

i never asked her!

so i underwent an awakening.

delete

delete

delete

more than a handful of people were deleted off of

facebook, out of my life...

and it felt good! Once I did that, my life spun on

its axis and improved more than tenfold!

these people were toxic, nasty, manipulative.

i was pulling away from people who were happy

had similar interests,

and actually cared!

collectively we realized

that the toxic people

were keeping us apart with good reason...

so much in common-

i can honestly say i have never had a group of friends

with such compassion, caring, nurturing feelings

who've busted their ass to achieve what they have

and accept me/us no matter what.

these people kick ass in every way possible-

and would kick my ass if i deserve it :)

and i thank God for them everyday.

i am incredibly lucky.

even more so now than ever before!

i think of the people who tried to stop us

from doing so many things we wanted

or the people who tried to put us down

(since they were really down themselves)

and say...

HA!

i AM happy

and

i am FREE.

so thanks for being weenies-

hope your lives are great!

please stay out of mine :)

love me,

the globetrotting gamine