Hey Barb, It is so good to hear from you. I thought of you a lot this past month. You have been through so much and I know you have struggled with depression. I also remembered about being a machinist, I find that women who work the trades tend to understand the men relationship things differently. The very first shop I worked at I was 18 years old, I walked in and there were nude centerfolds hanging up all over the place. The darkroom that ended up being mine was littered with magazines and the rest room -a shared one- was disgusting. I have learned to swear like a truck driver when needed, drink like a fish, and speak softly when provoked. I have stood at 5'8 150 lbs (back then) nose to nose, with men over 6' tall with much weight on them. These changes to girlie girl are hard. It isn't that I don't like it. I am enjoying shopping now. I like to have my hair done and makeup on. It is just such a different life. I am used to dealing with guys who **** each other off and then get over it. Maybe the next day at lunch over a pint. With women friends it is different. I have to watch what I say- everyone seems to talk a lot and it takes so long to figure things out.... who knows maybe with the weight loss I will grow some girlie brain cells.... LOL Thanks so much and hope things are looking up for you as well. d

thanx Barb - that makes me feel good hugsssssssss...Linda

You don't seem like the *****y type. I think with the new confidence we have, we no longer have to take anyone's sh$t. I think about the way our world treats obese people and it is so sad. I just want to shout at everyone. I find that my DH who didn't seem to care about all my guy friends now doesn't partially care for it....I also am weirded out by the attention, now I have to think why does this guy want to talk to me. but hey it is getting to be a lot more fun to be a chickie.... donna

Hi All, Thought I'd explain what the friend's thing means...now that we're all adding each other... Go down and click on my profile tab at the end of this post. You will see that you now have the chance to either keep your old profile page, or have a one time chance to switch over to the new format which I have done. On the left hand column, you will see a box that says "my friends" and all of my friends pictures have popped up there. Now, before you all go and switch over, I strongly suggest that you send yourself an email of your old profile page's code... You can do this when you're in the update profile page. At the bottom, there's a check box that will let you check it and send you a copy to your email address. You will want to do this to save the codes to where your pictures are and when you switch over, you can just highlight and copy and paste all of your updates into the new section for "my story". This is what I did. You can paste in code for pictures within the box of your text, but cannot do it this way in the "my pictures" box. You have to have your pictures saved to a file on your computer and upload them in this section that way. I've yet to switch them over from photobucket to add them to my computer (I use two computers here at home). I will get to this someday! It all sounds confusing, but it's quite simple. You just should save your old profile to an email and it won't be lost forever when you switch over. You don't have to switch over, it's up to you, you just won't have the new "friends" option on the old profile. Hope this helps... paula

Wow you look great. I too use photobucket. Once I learned how to download photo's I haven't stopped. Once down loaded it takes me a few minutes to test which of the "tag" lines I need to use in the profile, I can never remember. I haven't done any since the upgrade so that was the old way. I can't imagine that it is much different. good luck d