Back in November of 2009 I met my first scammer in person. It was someone I had been chatting with online for a long time. He told me he was going home to Maine for the holidays from Arizona and if I would like, he would love to stop by to see me. I thought it was great that I would finally meet this person since I felt like I already knew him from our many conversations online.

I knew he was sending me messages from Arizona because I had used IP address lookup. That made me feel ok since I felt he was telling me the truth about where he lived. Never again. From now on I will do a background check on anyone who wants to be a part of my life and especially before I allow them to come to my home.

Short story is that he stayed for a month when he was suppose to stay for two days. After a few days I was trying to figure out a way to get rid of him. Truth is I am too nice to dump someone in the street. Plus, he was such a nice seeming person. However, when people talk, I listen. He had more stories than anyone I had ever known. Each story was bigger and more grandiose than the last. That is how I finally decided he was full of shit.

I asked to see his driver's licenses and that is when everything blew up. He would not show it to me and he wasn't staying another day unless he did. That is when I found out the name he was using had another last name attached to, it if he was indeed even that person.

I was kind enough to take him to the bus station. He had called another woman and asked for money to come see her. He knew this woman from Second Life. If you don't know, then Google it. I was so upset not only with him but me. I wrote a blog about him using the name he gave me plus a photo that I took of him while he was visiting at my expense. I wrote the blog in July of 2010. It never occurred to me that anyone would read it or if they did know who he was. Well, this week a woman from California commented on my blog. This guy has been living with her for over a year. She wasn't the woman he went to see when he left here. He was living in New York I think when he went to California to see her. She fell for him and they even got married on Second Life. That was just an act. Not real.

She told me how she started to be suspicious of him and started trying to find out things about him. One day she had a friend take him to the store and while he was gone, she went though his things and only found an old power bill notice showing a cut off date in New York. Plus, she found his driver's license and his social security card. She kept both of them and then kicked him out. Good for her.

Anyway, the point of this blog is to say this. If you have been done wrong by a person or feel that you have been scammed, blog about it and put in all the details about the person that you can. Plus, always use their photo if you have one. We never know who else is out there being used by this person. What I said about him let her know that I indeed knew him. His ways didn't change like taking a shower in minutes because he feared someone going though his things.

Never allow anyone to get away with doing you wrong. Put their photo online for the entire world to see and make sure to use tags that people might be using to find information on them. I use Word Press and I can add all the tags I like but they have to be what I have written in the first couple of sentences to work on Google. Point is to make sure you use the tag words in those first few sentences.

My wish is that anyone reading this never is taken in by a scammer. I can say one thing for them, they are the most convincing people in the world in the beginning. In time their stories start to fall apart.

Honey, you don’t know it now but your life is going to be awesome. Quit worrying about everything and just take life as it comes.

Dream big, big dreams because all the dreams that you dreamed have already come true. See? If you had dreamed bigger and better dreams, you might be a famous writer today. Remember that book you started last year? Yep, that one. If you had faith in your abilities, you would have already been on book signing tours many years ago.

One thing that I am very pleased about is that you had children early in life. What a great thing you did. You grew up with your sons. They loved having a a young mom. You played ball with them, took them places, and just had a great time. Plus, you were a rocking mom but still managed to teach them all the right things to be great adults in life.

Now, they are grown with children of their own and you are still young enough to really get a kick out of life. You will learn to love yourself without conditions. Your self confidence will be awesome. I know you don’t believe this now but it is true. Oh, and you will find happiness living alone. Yep, hard to believe isn’t it? Don’t worry darling. You are so much brighter, prettier, aware and braver than you think.

When your day comes to get out in this world, just grab hold and down let go because honey, it is going to be one heck of a ride.

I love you baby more than you will ever know.

Waking from a delicious nap one Tuesday afternoon so far back in my mind, that I can't remember, I was in so much pain, I thought I was dying. After talking to my sister on the phone, she convinced me to call 911 under protest. ( As I was waiting and since I am older, I struggled to the kitchen to chew the famous aspirin. One never knows. It is better to be safe than sorry.) I was too sick to go to the hospital. Just the ride in the ambulance was enough to make me want to hurl.

The paramedic shows up at my door wondering if he is at the right house. Right. I forgot I had taken down the numbers when I was scraping my house to be painted. I thought I was screaming to come in but who knows? It could have been a whispering as I was in the land of pain and misery. He finally opens the door to find me draped around the arm of the sofa, out of my head and talking like a fruit cake. My wonderful friend and neighbor was here thank goodness. She told him that I never acted like that and must be in serious pain as I had told him.

They wasted so much of my energy trying to get me in a chair to take me outside. I am taking the buckles loose as soon as they snapped them. I felt totally out of control. I was. If there is a rainbow after the storm, I hope I will never have another urinary tract infection again in my entire life. Right.

The ER is such a lovely place to be when sick. One knows that they will decide on something but will it be the right something? They determined that I had a UTI and maybe a kidney stone after doing an exam, taking x-rays, blood work and doing the old pee in a cup thing. The doctor sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics and something for nausea. My great neighbor took them to the drug store the next morning as I wasn't any better. I thought I was as I had gotten up and dressed after she left. She was shocked to see me dressed when she returned.

I just looked at her and said, "I have decide that I not going to be sick today so, I got up and put clothes on."
Kim said, "Brenda, are you crazy? You should be in bed resting."
To which I replied, "Oh no, I will feel great today."

Anyone who knows me will recognize that remark. I make it each day of my life. It is a part of my famous signature statements.
"I will be happy today. I feel wonderful. I love my self." My famous three statements are made each day like drinking coffee.
How dare something happen to me to upset my happy state of mind? Not me? I am in control of my happiness.

The happiness fairy came along and kicked my butt. Remind me that I owe her one. Maybe if I steal her fairy dust while she
is sleeping, that will do the trick. If not, I know a Eastern European farmer that I plan to sell her too.

More to come later on this saga as I am still not well enough to sit for very long.

I belong to a site called Plinky. They put up questions to give people a thought to write something.

It is small now and it's fun to read what others write and one can comment on their writing.
The prompt was to describe the town where I live as if it was a background for a book.

A Small Southern Town

Sitting between two sets of railroad tracks is this seemingly quiet, small town with front doors painted in all hues. Flowers are blooming shades of yellow, red, pink and white in just about every yard in the neighborhood.This is the place where John Henry worked and lived.

There are mostly small, older churches that sit on just about every shady street corner. Their doors waiting to open for the congregation to come inside to worship on Sunday morning. Churches where the minister stands at the front door after services and shakes hands with everyone leaving.

Families leave to go home to have lunch with their children in their cars, trucks or SUV's. The children scramble out of the vehicles to play ball outside in the driveway. Their moms are telling them to change their clothes first. After a while, mothers call them in to eat and they grumble. Once inside, they eat everything on the table fueling their bodies for more play because it is Sunday afternoon. No school today.

On the other side of the track, crack houses can be spotted by the trained eye. Someone is always standing outside in the yard with their shaking hand in their pocket. A signal that they have what the user wants. There are toys scattered all over the yard which is grown up with weeds. A grill is set up on the front porch or in the front yard. If driving by one would think there is a family reunion except that no one stays very long. The cars come and go all day long and well into the night.

Downtown the store fronts are all closed. The new old fashioned street lights stand regally with flowers hanging down full of color The mannequins in the windows are showing off the latest fashion. Some of the traffic lights only blink as there isn't much traffic. On occasion, a shrill of a siren can be heard......an ambulance on its way to either a wreck or to someone's home.

This town is full of secrets. Behind closed doors, others have no clue as to what is really going on.

I am interested if anyone knows who this group is. They were an English group. That is all I know.

They look like a group from the seventies are eighties...not sure.

A kiss for anyone who knows.