My move to Buffalo was a very good decision. If I had stayed in Rochester I doubt that I would have faired very well. I was working at the Sutherland Group and living at my Dad's house after leaving an abusive relationship. Under pressure from my abusive boyfriend, I had purchased a brand new vehicle. I found myself trapped, in order to pay for the car, I couldn't afford to live on my own.

So I ended up crashing the car, totaling it (not on purpose). The car was gone and so was my ball and chain. My friend Mary had already moved to Buffalo and was living with her boyfriend Adam and they offered to have me move into their 2nd bedroom for a very low cost. They lived on Main Street, steps from the Amherst Street Rail Station. I could take a train to the local community college ECC and not need a new car, a new ball and chain.

I left Rochester, I left a lot of things, my family, my abusive ex, my past. It was refreshing but I had a very hard time. My past wasn't so easily left. Actually, it followed me. Shortly after arriving, the city of Rochester seized my bank account for unpaid parking tickets, of course from the ex. The only money I had in the account was enough to pay for the monthly bus pass I needed to get to school and work.

I have been in Buffalo for 11 years now, the longest I have ever been anywhere in my life. I am a Buffalonian more than I am anything else. I went to ECC City Campus, I transfered to Buffalo State and I have worked and contributed ever since I got here. It is here that I have found faith again, here in one of the most distressed cities in the US. I love Buffalo even when in the beginning I hated it.

Cleanups
SAVE THE DATE – APRIL 16th is the date for our Spring Clean-up 2011. Saturday, from 9-12.

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For the past 15-20 years, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper has organized biannual (spring and fall) cleanups* along various local waterways to remove litter and other accumulated debris. Scajaquada Creek has always been one of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper’s largest cleanup sites. Continued attention to litter removal at the trash racks and along the banks of Scajaquada Creek from the trash rack in Delaware Park to the mouth is part of ongoing efforts by volunteer groups. Local citizens monitor the trash rack at Delaware Park and hold the City of Buffalo Department of Public Works accountable when need be. Over 500 volunteers joined Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper for the Fall 2010 Shoreline Cleanup at 34 sites around the Buffalo Niagara region. A fantastic effort for the Fall!

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Please let me know if you want to clean up Squaw Island. I told them I would bring 0-5 people. They need people for multiple locations in our areas. It really is rewarding knowing you are preventing all the trash from going into the water ways.

I don't think much of my first kiss maybe because I didn't really like it. I think I was about 13 and it happened with my next door neighbor, Kelly. It was more something that had to be done rather than me wanting it. One day we got off the school bus and it happened in her driveway. I don't even remember who initiated it, I barely remember having a relationship with her or even how it ended. It's strange, I don't really remember a lot of things and it is maybe because I don't want to.

I'm sort of mad that my first kiss was like this. I suppose they are always awkward and often forced but I wish it was with a guy. It was very hard to deny who I was and to pretend to myself and to everyone else. It was just a very difficult time in my life filled with a lot of confusion. It didn't help that we lived in the country and I didn't really know what was normal until some time after I left. Why am I telling you all this?

P.S. I like the topic suggestions.

This is how close our family cottage came to flooding. The river (Susquehanna) crested late yesterday and is now going down. In the flood of 72 the water reached the top of the second floor! We are all relieved not to have to clean up the mess.

If I start going to the spinning classes 2x's a week it should be gone by the time I go to Florida at the end of April at the rate it has shrunk already.

The one thing that might get in the way of my work out routine and my life in general is my wrist. I started getting dull pain in the right wrist about 6 months ago. My right wrist is my dominant and I believe it is related to repetitive actions and working on the computer. It freaked me out a bit and I started taking glucosamine. So far I have taken a 100 of them and the pain has been on and off since then. Now the pain is on and I am recently out of glucosamine and am not sure if it is worth continuing. From what I understand glucosamine really can't harm you but the scientific data is inconclusive as to whether it really helps with joints or not.

I definitely need some help in ergonomics at work and at home. I'm pretty sure the first thing I need to start with is the mouse. Not sure what I should do really. I question going to a doctor for this particular thing because I'm not really sure what they can do for me. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what to do? Any kind of advice about ergonomic mice or whatever? I don't know if it is carpel tunnel or if it is the beginning of arthritis or what.

Mike and I went to the Clarence Center Flea Market today. Here is a bit of the creepy.

Still have the post mortem photos for sale. I'm sort of surprised nobody snagged those yet. I'm not sure I would buy those for $35 for the entire set even though I sort of want to see the rest of them.



Creepy bébé



Bare chested warrior lawn jockey?

Today I flipped my lid and spent a good part of the day swearing and screaming. Mostly only I could hear me but a decent portion of it was directed at another human being. I really let her have it short of calling her the big C. Without getting into all of the specific details it basically goes like this, I am totally getting screwed over. This stupid company I have to deal with has got all the power and I have none. They can do whatever they want to me and I just have to take it because they are more powerful than I am. They are totally in the wrong and I am in the right but it just doesn't matter.

So I yelled and screamed at this girl who really was being insensitive. Her biggest problem is she REFUSED to have a supervisor call me back. This is when I unleashed my wrath on her. In my opinion, this is absolutely not fair. It is a reasonable request based on the problems that I have had with this company to have a supervisor call me back. So after hanging up on her, I had to call back after a suitable amount of time had passed to calm down to ask to speak with a supervisor. I got some stupid schmuck who wasn't a supervisor of anything, just a glorified schmuck. He wouldn't listen to me and constantly talked over me. Nobody has really ever acknowledge that the company has messed up, they actually try to blame it on me and I KNOW that it isn't my fault.

The thing is that I can be really patient for long periods of time but eventually I will explode. This problem has been going on for several months now. I feel good in knowing that I probably made this girls day worse, but I feel bad that it probably affected everyone else in her environment in a negative way.

After watching this documentary about stress being related to not having any power I completely understand. I need more power. I'm not just referring to this particular situation but just in my life in general, I have no power. I'm not really sure how to change that.

I'll let you guess which couple are my great grandparents. This is my dad's father's father and mother.

This really should be a concern for all us including those many miles away. The amount of toxins entering our great lakes is alarming. I would assume hydraulic fracturing would add greatly to the amount of hazardous material handled by Chemical Waste Management.

Every time I go to Florida I am amazed at how much cleaner the air is compared to living here in Buffalo. Florida just does not have as much industry and the air from the Gulf and the Atlantic is so pleasant.

WNY is home to 7 of top state polluters
EPA data lists CWM Chemical, Huntley Station, 3M Co. as top 3 in the region
By Aaron Besecker
NEWS NIAGARA REPORTER
Published:
December 28, 2010, 7:44 AM

Seven of the state's 25 biggest polluters are located in Western New York, according to recently released data from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Erie and Niagara counties are each home to three of the top sites, and another is in Cattaraugus County, according to the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory for discharges made in 2009.

The area's largest polluter, according to EPA data, is CWM Chemical Services, a commercial hazardous waste landfill in Lewiston and Porter in northwest Niagara County.

CWM ranked seventh in the state, with its representatives reporting to federal regulators it released 765,544 pounds of waste, 99 percent of which it buried in its landfill.

Here are the other local sites that which ranked in the top 25:

• No. 8 -- Huntley Station, Town of Tonawanda.

• No. 14 -- 3M Co., Town of Tonawanda.

• No. 16 -- AES Somerset, Somerset.

• No. 18 -- DuPont Yerkes plant, Town of Tonawanda.

• No. 19 -- Niagara Generation, Niagara Falls.

• No. 21 -- Cooper Power Systems, Olean.

A CWM spokeswoman called the agency's methodology for its Toxics Release Inventory "misleading and counterintuitive."

"What is in fact an activity that provides a high level of community protection is inappropriately reported as a 'release' to the environment," spokeswoman Lori Caso said in a written statement.

The data, released earlier this month, is compiled by the agency from reports made by the companies. It includes releases into the ground, water and air, both on-site and off-site.

Regulators said the data does not reflect what exposure there may be to the public from the chemical releases.

Finch Paper in Glens Falls released nearly 3.8 million pounds of waste into the environment in 2009 and was the state's biggest polluter, according to the data. Eastman Kodak's Eastman Business Park in Rochester ranked second in 2009, releasing more than 2.9 million pounds of waste.

Statewide, total overall releases dropped about 26 percent to 18.3 million pounds from 2008, the EPA said.

The agency's latest annual inventory includes information from 646 facilities in New York.

Nationally, about 3.37 billion pounds were released into the environment last year, down 12 percent from 2008.

For more information on the Toxics Release Inventory, visit www.epa.gov/tri.
abesecker@buffnews.com