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Nationally Recognized Attorney Sharon Eubanks Joins Bordas & Bordas Nationally recognized attorney and author Sharon Eubanks has joined the Wheeling, W.Va.-based law firm of Bordas & Bordas where she will focus on complex civil litigation. With more than 30 years of experience in the legal field, Managing Partner Jamie Bordas is pleased to add Eubanks to his team of attorneys. “Sharon, as one of the nation’s leading trial lawyers, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the firm,” Bordas said. “Her background in handling high-stakes litigation throughout the country will be a valuable resource as we fight for justice on behalf of individuals who cannot fight for themselves.” In 2000, Eubanks served as lead counsel on behalf of the United States in United States v. Phillip Morris USA, et al., - the federal tobacco litigation. This was the largest civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) enforcement action ever filed. Following the nine-month trial, it was determined by the federal district court that the major U.S. cigarette companies violated the civil provisions of RICO and committed fraud. The Court ordered the companies to change their business tactics, especially in the areas of advertising and marketing. The trial court’s decision was upheld on appeal to the D.C. Circuit. Eubanks also co-authored “Bad Acts: The Racketeering Case Against the Tobacco Industry,” an insider account of the federal tobacco litigation that led to the landmark decision. Eubanks comes to Bordas & Bordas from Edwards Kirby in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Edwards Kirby, Eubanks was a partner in the firm Edwards & Eubanks. She co-founded the firm with Cate Edwards. Eubanks began her legal career in 1980 with the Federal Trade Commission where she handled antitrust cases. In 1983, she joined the U. S. Department of Justice and served as deputy director of the commercial litigation branch from 1992-1999.  While at the D.C. law firm of Holland & Knight from 2007-2009, Eubanks worked exclusively on pro bono matters and in 2009, she joined a civil litigation boutique firm in Washington representing plaintiffs in wage and hour, lead poisoning, medical malpractice and employment discrimination cases. She was part of a legal team that represented more than 6,000 women claiming gender and pregnancy discrimination in Velez v. Novartis and secured a $253 million judgment for the plaintiffs – the largest employment verdict in a gender discrimination case in U.S. history. Eubanks has discussed her work on several nationally televised programs including Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox News Sunday, The CBS Evening News and Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer. She also has been a guest on radio programs including the Rachel Maddow Show on Air America and several National Public Radio programs.  Eubanks was also featured in the 2011 documentary film, “Addiction Incorporated.” Eubanks has been the recipient of many awards for her work. In addition to her time in the courtroom, Eubanks speaks on litigation topics, civil rights and public health issues. As an adjunct professor, she has taught trial advocacy at George Washington University School of law and has worked as an instructor for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA).  Eubanks serves as a member of the board and an officer of Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and is a member of the advisory committee for the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. Eubanks is a 1976 cum laude graduate of Mississippi State University and earned her Juris Doctor in 1980 from Georgetown University Law Center. Bordas & Bordas is a plaintiff’s litigation law firm of 19 attorneys based in Wheeling, W.Va., with offices in Moundsville, W.Va., St. Clairsville, Ohio and Pittsburgh. The firm’s attorneys practice throughout the region in diverse areas of law. For more information, please contact Jamie Bordas at 304.242.8410 or Michele Rejonis at 304.905.6005, or visit bordaslaw.com.

I was a 4-H member for years and although I grew up in the country, I never took a livestock project while being a 4-H member. Years later, as my own children became involved in 4-H, I was a little surprised when my middle child, Stefanie, announced that she wanted to take a market hog for her project. We lived on a farm and certainly had the space to raise one, but did we have the knowledge? Not really, but we dove into the market hog project with a lot of enthusiasm. I sent my kids with their grandpa and they came back with four market hogs. We would send our best two to the Marshall County Fair, although at the time we really had no idea what “best” meant. Because the kids had decided to take market hogs, we joined the Marshall County Livestock Club. The club is made up of a group of parents and the kids who take livestock to the fair to be exhibited and sold. Over the years, my kids became more knowledgeable about their animals, and we finished from worst to first and everywhere in between. Being a member of the club and taking a livestock project to the fair taught my kids valuable life lessons they will never forget, such as money management, being responsible for the health and well-being of a living animal, the significance of record-keeping, the importance of friendship, the thrill of competition and many other things. This is truly a family project as everyone gets involved with all aspects of the project from feeding the animal to cleaning pens and grooming the animal. I can honestly say I’ve shaved a pig….and a goat! The Marshall County Livestock Club proudly awards annual scholarships to its members who have completed their freshman year of college. In 2013, my son, Cole, was the recipient of a $3,000 scholarship, along with five other club members; they are a very generous group of people. The scholarship is funded by donations raised on the night of the auction, the re-sale of auction animals and through fundraisers throughout the year. The club truly believes in having children further their education and rewarding them if they have earned it. Raising livestock is not cheap or easy; it’s a lot of hard, dirty, time-consuming work. However, throughout it all, we always knew we could count on any member of the Marshall County Livestock Club for help or advice. I’m pretty sure that the 12 years we were involved in the club and “lived” at the fair for a week in our camper will be some of the best memories my kids have of their childhood—I know they are some of my best memories.

Not too long ago, I wrote a blog about being a transracial family and now I write to you about MY FEELINGS on the recent killings at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where 21-year-old, Dylann Roof shot nine black church members to death. These are not numbers or statistics. These were God’s creations - real human beings with real families who were gathering to worship God. But because Dylann Roof decided he didn’t like the color of their skin, Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Sr., Rev. Sharonda Singleton and Myra Thompson lost their lives. What does it take for people to understand that we are all equal?  And why can’t we put an end to this? Please do your part to create peace in your community. Please stand up and be proactive. Show your children and your children’s children that color means nothing; it’s the person that matters, our souls that count. I realize that a true racist is not worthy of even speaking to about this subject, but I also know that those who aren’t racists can take a stand and together, we can let them know racist behavior is not acceptable. Shame on them! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I have such a hard time watching and listening to these senseless acts of violence. But I will say this loud and clear… Dylann Roof, you are a COWARD. I don’t know why, but it seems we are always hearing something in the media about bullying, teens taking their lives, or a shooting because of the person’s skin color.  It needs to stop. Yes, this makes my blood boil. When it comes to anything like bullying and hate crimes, I have a voice and with that voice if I can help one person, it’s all worth it.

I attended my first ever pro golf tournament recently in beautiful Dublin, Ohio. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus and this is where Jack Nicklaus—one of the greatest pro golfers ever—designed a very challenging golf course.  Mr. Nicklaus is from and went to school in Columbus.  He acquired this property 40 years ago and in 1974 the Muirfield Village Golf Club opened. The first golf tournament was held in 1976—Roger Maltbie won the $40,000 purse.  Since then, Jack Nicklaus won twice, Tiger Woods five times, Greg Norman twice and others like Watson, Irwin and Azinger all came to the Memorial and took home the trophy.   Each year there is an honoree named for their contribution to the game of golf.  This year’s honoree was Sir Nick Faldo, Jr.  The honoree is chosen by members of the Captain’s Club—one member being a past president of the United States.  One of my favorite players named honoree in 2001 was Payne Stewart, two years after his tragic death. The Memorial benefits the community in many, many wonderful ways.  The list is extensive.  A longtime benefactor in honor of The Memorial’s continued support of it for many years, Nationwide Children's Hospital (Columbus), in 2006, hosted a ceremony dedicating its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as the Memorial Tournament NICU.  The finest care is provided here for the smallest of the small. The grounds of the golf course are beautiful, but surprisingly not all that flat.  The pedometer clocked more than seven miles of walking as we zigzagged through about half the holes on the course.  Tom, Ryan, Sam and I followed several players including Jordan Spieth, Phil Michelson, Dustin Johnson and, of course, Tiger Woods.  Tiger was having a pretty rough day on Saturday—the absolute worst of his career.  We were in the throng following Tiger and saw him on the eighth hole drive into one sand trap only to hit the ball over the green into another sand trap.  On the 15th hole, he hit into the trap again, pitched out and 3-putted for another double bogey.  Finally, on the 18th hole (a Par 4 and one that is considered extremely challenging), while we watched Tiger press through this debacle—it could only be termed this—he ended up with a quad, but the crowd continued to be encouraging and only wanted to see from Tiger the kind of play that was, at one time, considered absolutely remarkable.  Before it was over though, my thought was, “Oh, my.”  The hushed crowd was just shocked.  I certainly hope he will get back into winning contention. Long ago, Payne Stewart was my favorite pro golfer.  I often dressed my son, Ryan, when he was a baby similar to what Payne wore on the course.  My new favorite is Jordan Spieth, who is ranked in the top five and only 21 years old.  We followed Jordan for several holes, but before he even teed off on Saturday, we had a ‘sort of’ close encounter with him.  We were walking on the paved trail between the golf course on one side and houses on the other side (which were protected by a wrought iron fence) when all of sudden, someone right in front of us (in a bright orange shirt) came up to the fence from the other side and proceeded to climb over, jumped down, made eye contact, smiled, said, “Hello” and continued to run onto the course.  My husband and I recognized him at the same time on his downward journey on this side of the fence.  Tom spoke to him.  But wow, you know, a seemingly nice young man, friendly, agile and didn’t appear to have a care in the world—but so immensely talented.  I am looking forward to watching him throughout his career. A few things that I gleaned from being in Dublin this past weekend is that Dublin has some of the most beautiful homes with landscaping that is extraordinary.  I love the landscaping.  It is nice to see that McDonalds, Wendy’s and even gas stations must have to adhere to a building code that includes a certain type building (façade) and this wonderful landscaping.  The town is quaint and picturesque.  I would recommend stopping by The Dublin Village Tavern. I did not know, or had since forgotten, that Jack Nicklaus is from Columbus and the name of the golf course, the Muirfield Village Golf Club, came from Jack Nicklaus’ first British Open win at Muirfield, Scotland in 1966.  The Memorial is at times considered the fifth major and the golf course is ranked in the top 20 in the country. The Pro Golf Association is very big into philanthropy and is considered the most charitable of all the pro sports associations.  It would surprise me if Mr. Nicklaus is not at the top of that list. I recommend this golf tournament to even the most casual golf fan.   I definitely want to return to The Memorial next year.

In early 1215, civil war erupted in England. A large group of barons rebelled against King John because of his high taxes and other abuses.  The rebels captured London and forced the king to flee.  John yielded, and on June 19, he signed what came to be known as the “Magna Carta.” In the short run, the Magna Carta was a complete failure.  It was meant as a peace treaty to end the rebellion.  Within a few months, however, John and his loyalists repudiated the charter and war broke out all over again.  That could have been the end of the Magna Carta, but John died the next year and his son, Henry III, confirmed the charter as a way to secure his throne.  It was confirmed again by later kings and queens, and soon became an established part of English law. You may be wondering, what does any of this have to do with me?  Why should I care about an 800-year-old charter signed by people I’ve never heard of in a country I’ve never actually been to? That’s a fair question.  The answer is that the Magna Carta is the source of many of the civil liberties we hold dear in America today.  For example, the Magna Carta gives us the earliest expression of the right to a jury trial (no freedman could face imprisonment or loss of liberty “but by lawful judgment of his Peers or by the Law of the land.”)  There is also a guarantee of equal access to justice (“we will sell to no man, and we will not deny or defer to any man either Justice or Right.”)  These time-honored principles were enshrined in our own founding documents, including the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  In fact, the Magna Carta is so connected to our history that one of the surviving copies of the charter was loaned to us as part of our bicentennial celebration. These rights, of course, did not come without a cost.  Throughout the centuries, brave men and women have suffered and died to preserve them.  Especially as these same rights come under attack, both now and in the coming election cycle, we should remember that they are cherished by us because they were purchased with the blood of those who defended the cause of freedom. Let’s join with our English friends in celebrating 800 years of civil liberty!

Recently, my dad had triple bypass surgery. That scare got me thinking about my own eating habits and what I was prepared to do to escape bypass surgery in my own future now that the hereditary factor is staring me in the face. While researching various dietary methods of staving off heart disease, it was brought to my attention that exercise alone will not prevent heart disease if, like me, you eat your weight in cow and chicken every year, and let’s not even discuss bacon, which is the meat candy of the gods!  I exercise and do it a lot because I love to eat. I figured if I lived by calories in/calories out, I was all set. After all, if I’m burning the calories I consume every day, all is good, right? Unfortunately, it’s wrong. What you eat has everything to do with whether you will develop heart disease or not. While I am burning calories, the saturated fat I consume is already on the way to doing damage to my arteries.  So what do I do? Well, for starters, let’s be real. I have no intention of giving up every food that I love. However, I am willing to eat them less often. I am eating more whole foods and less meat. I have also instituted a “free pass” day. On this day I will have whatever I want, which must include cheese.  I am willing to be a quasi vegan six days a week in order to enjoy meat and dairy on the seventh. With the Fourth of July growing near, I know my free pass day will be then. I will not be denied my mom’s potato salad or the loaded cheeseburger that has my name on it. During my research, I found this article particularly helpful. It tells you everything you need to know about fighting heart disease. I am doing well in most of the areas. I don’t smoke or drink. I exercise at least an hour per day and I am trying to stay away from the evil foods, especially the ones with trans fat in them. It is so hard, though. Fast food fries are hard to say no to! Even though I’m not a fan of going to the doctor, I do it anyway twice a year to keep my blood pressure and weight in check. Being proactive about my health has to be a priority, and everything in moderation is now my mantra. Although I’m not happy with the new lifestyle change, at least not yet, I know I’ll feel better about it over time and won’t have to worry so much about my arteries clogging. After all, eating well 297 days out of 365 is a pretty good compromise.  While I can never see myself saying, “I can’t wait to eat a bowl of lentil soup,” I’ll eat it anyway while dreaming of the extra cheesy pizza I plan on having on my free pass day.  I can live with that.

The Bordas & Bordas law firm recently presented checks to the 15 high school seniors who were nominated by their teachers, friends and peers for the Anti-Bullying Award. This is the second year that we’ve recognized those students attending the 15 local high schools in Ohio and Marshall Counties in West Virginia and in Belmont County, Ohio.  The award is based on a number of criteria. The recipients treat everyone equally; respect differences in others; stand up for those who are targeted by others or who are discriminated against; and speak out against injustice. In meeting with many of the award recipients here in our Wheeling office this week and after providing each winner with a $500 check, we also presented each of them with four Pirates tickets, which will enable them and their friends or family to go see a game in the Bordas & Bordas suite at PNC Park. While talking to the kids and their parents, I became keenly aware that in many cases the young men and women who are the recipients of this award are also leaders in the classroom and in sports.  The winners were not quite those I had hoped the award would go to, but in reflection, it makes sense.  It has always seemed to me that in order to combat bullying, for the most part, the people who are able to most successfully become involved in putting a stop to the abuse are leaders.  They are leaders through academics and through sports.  It makes sense because in many cases, these leaders are some of the most popular kids in school themselves, and they are able to influence other students to do the right thing.  Certainly, if you’ve got an athlete who also happens to be a fairly tough athlete and self-confident individual, he or she might not be afraid to stand up in the face of bullies for fear of being attacked and hurt or abused either physically or mentally themselves. In making the presentation to the students, I told them of my background growing up in very tough and very poor neighborhoods, and being the oldest of nine children, and often times having to stand up physically for my brothers, sisters and other children in the neighborhood.  That continued in high school where I was thankfully able to do the same thing. After marriage and before my wife, Linda, and I had children, we had discussed this issue as far back as the early 1970s.  It was about the time that Linda and I had our two children that we decided that they would be taught from the very beginning not only to respect all people and to refrain from any bullying, but to put upon them the responsibility of defending the abused, the ostracized and the lonely.  We also made it a point to insist that our children sit with the child that was left alone by themselves in the cafeteria, to be inclusive in their friendships, and to be that person that would have the courage to stop the abuse and bullying of others.  Fortunately, my kids came from a position of means as they were both athletes and they had leadership qualities.  As far as I know, they did exactly what Linda and I had told them to do.  I’ve not only seen this first-hand, but I’ve also been told this by a number of adults and children in our community. All that was well and good and worked for my family and the people whose lives were involved, but the problem was that the world, after my children left high school some 15-plus years ago, became a meaner place.  And certainly with the advent of Facebook and other easily accessible outlets that have the ability to impact hundreds if not thousands of people, the problem of bullying became even worse.  Surely, most of us have seen the newspaper articles dealing with people who’ve actually committed suicide because of being bullied by their classmates.  It was because of my background and the stories that I had read and seen and having recognized how cruel people can be at times that Linda and I decided to do what we could to promote kindness and anti-bullying in the three counties in which we feel we have the strongest connections – Ohio County, Marshall County, and Belmont County.  It was after we made that decision that we talked to our partners at the Bordas & Bordas law firm and there was an agreement reached that we would do this “be nice, anti-bullying, fighting for justice campaign.” As mentioned above, I just had the experience of meeting many of the students who were nominated and received our award, along with their parents.  They truly are the type of people that should have been nominated and chosen for the award.  The thing that I would like to see happen, though, is that the leadership would filter down to the average student and the average athlete or the non-athlete, so that they could be recognized for their kindness, their good acts and the positions they take on bullying.  I would hope in the very near future that the message would go out and we would have a mixture of award recipients.  Part of the problem is that we are getting the nominations for the anti-bullying campaign mostly from teachers and principals.  Although that is who we thought would most likely nominate the award winners, the intent was not to limit the nominations to that certain class of people.  I would therefore encourage anyone in the community who knows of a high school student that routinely shows acts of kindness and courage with respect to preventing bullying and so forth to call our office and provide us with their name and school and information about that child and the reasons why you believe that this person should receive the award.  Our telephone number is 304-242-8410. All award winners will receive a $500 check from my law firm, as well as another token of our appreciation for their recognition.

Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, located at 640 Old Fairmont Pike, Wheeling, W.Va., is having a Blood Drive sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus #12195. It is scheduled for 9 a.m. - 2:30 p.m., Saturday, June 20, 2015 at the church. You can call the Red Cross at 1-800-733-2767 or Tom Knight, Grand Knight of the local Knights of Columbus, at 304-281-6640 to schedule an appointment. Help them reach their goal of 40 pints. Please note you must be 17 years of age to donate blood. With parental consent, 16-year-olds can make a donation. It is a great way for an individual to help save a life.  The Red Cross is always looking for blood donations. This is an easy one since it is going to be held on a Saturday in June. So go ahead and do it – you or a family member may need a life-saving blood transfusion in the future. PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING BLOOD TO SAVE A LIFE! THINK ABOUT IT . . . GO AHEAD, CALL TO SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT RIGHT NOW!

Policing has been negatively portrayed in the media, particularly over the past 10 months. Like every subject, the ability of the media to pick and choose what incidents to report on really drives public opinion, and public perception. But contrary to the popular quotation, perception is not always reality. Example: In Wheeling, over the past two weeks, the police saved at least two lives in difficult situations. One officer pulled a boy out of 12-feet of water. Another talked a man down from the Suspension Bridge when he might have jumped. These events received only modest local coverage, and no attention from the round-the-clock cable TV channels. It’s unlikely those were the only such incidents in this one city. It’s certain that across the country there were hundreds of dangerous situations, with human life at stake, where police officers, sheriffs, and state troopers intervened to save lives. But those events do not fit into the popular narrative — the stories that someone, somewhere, decided we should be seeing and hearing. Our state and our country should come to grips with what we are asking of law enforcement. For over 30 years, we have asked them to police consensual crime — drug crime — as a top priority. As epidemics of cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, heroin, and today, prescription drugs, have swept across the country, our law enforcement system has repeatedly been asked to save us — from ourselves. As the substances grow more potent and addictive, and the criminal networks grow more sophisticated and ruthless, our police forces are stretched thinner and thinner. We ask more and more from law enforcement, and they respond to a steady drumbeat of domestic violence incidents, shootings, and suicides, often fueled by alcohol and/or drugs. But we give them less and less in the way of resources to do the incredibly difficult job we've assigned them. On top of it all, when the shifts finally end, our LEOs come home and find their profession being tarred and feathered on TV. Instead of hundreds and thousands of positive incidents every week that define their service to our communities, five or six events plucked out of a entire nation are chosen by producers and TV executives to define American policing. This isn’t fair. Of course there are incidents of police misconduct in a nation of our size. They should be investigated and addressed and their causes should be explored to make sure our forces are always improving their techniques and procedures. But the facts need to be fully developed in every case — no more trial by YouTube. Example: Much of the nation was outraged, and virtually everyone cringed, watching the video of Eric Casebolt responding to a Texas pool party with some very aggressive behavior under the circumstances. But the video was not the whole story, as we soon learned. Casebolt had responded to two suicide calls that same day — one of them extremely graphic. Hearing what he had been through at work that day put his language and behavior in a different perspective. Our police forces simply don’t have the manpower they need. In many cases, they are underpaid, given what we are asking them to do for us. Law enforcement doesn’t always get listened to in Charleston, or out in the county seats, even when they need better (or just replacement) equipment. West Virginia has some sparsely-populated rural counties that rely heavily on the State Police to cover all the territory. But with only one Trooper in a vehicle, help could be a long way off if even one thing goes wrong on a call. Our law enforcement agencies statewide deserve our respect and thanks for the job they do. But more than just words and gestures, we need to give them reinforcements. If we want to combat the prescription drug and heroin epidemics, we need a surge of LEOs in the most-affected areas. We need to back them up with specialists who can keep offenders from turning into recidivists. We need expanded and improved drug court structures that make our system work smarter. Respect the police, replenish their equipment, and reinforce their ranks — the lives they save may be your own.

I’ve been so blessed to work for Bordas & Bordas. When I moved to Wheeling years ago, I came to the friendly city with my husband whose job brought us, along with our two boys, (ages 10 and 6, now 29 and 25)  and my grandmother, who suffered from dementia (RIP).  I didn’t work for the first year. I stayed home so I could get everyone situated into our new lives.  When I wanted to re-enter the workforce, I just wanted to work part time to get out and be around people again, so I went back to doing what I thought I knew best, waitressing. I didn’t want to go back to working a full-time job at a bank or a car dealership like I’d worked previously. I just wanted part time. I wasn’t at my waitressing job very long when I waited on Linda Bordas. We talked a lot and one day when she came in, she asked me if I would like to work for her office.  Being from out of state, I had no clue about Bordas & Bordas, so I went home and told my husband about what had be offered to me, and then I asked him, “Do you know anything about Bordas & Bordas?”  He said, “Why yes. They are one of the best law firms in West Virginia.” Now we have two offices in West Virginia, one in Ohio and one in Pennsylvania.   I also knew Scott Blass, one of the partners at the firm, from our boys playing WAHA hockey, so I thought to myself, “Why not give it a try?”  Over the years, Scott has been a great help to me with my boys; I can never thank him enough. (If I told you all he has done for my family I would need to write a book, not a blog.)  Thank you Scott for all you’ve done. You rock. It was just going to be a better job right?  Who knew it would turn into a job of a lifetime! Well, I’ve been with the firm for 16 years. I have traveled all around the tri-state area with our clients, picking up experts and just every day running for the firm. (I do much more, but you get the picture.)  Over the years, I’ve been blessed to have met judges, clerks, court reporters, animal people, doctors and other attorneys, who are now my friends.   Taking care of the office dogs is one of the best parts of my job,(RIP, Daisy, Ivy and Otis the Dog)  and never once has Bordas & Bordas tried to make me change who I am. The best thing is they’ve helped make me a better person in and out of the office. I’m a jokester. I truly believe that laughter is good for our souls, and man, over the years at the office have we laughed. I have been caught in the acts of singing, dancing and acting silly. I’ve gotten head shakes from one of the attorneys who just happens to walk in my area, just as I am trying to make someone laugh.  I know they are laughing at me on the inside as they walk away, but when it comes down to getting the job done for our clients, no office works harder for you. Whether it be getting ready for a trial or trying to get out a big balk mailing out, it’s a team effort and everyone pitches in to help. We are truly blessed at Bordas & Bordas. We not only call this a job, we also call it our Bordas family. I can never thank Linda (Jim, too) for offering me the job. It was one of the best opportunities I’ve ever had and having you as our friends is priceless. Thank you for bringing your sons, Jamie and Ben, into our lives. Because of them, I’ve met some awesome people over the years. Getting to know the other attorneys and the wonderful girls who work in the office with me has been a wonderful experience.  I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else even though things have changed over the years. Rock on People, Rock on.

I probably should be ashamed to admit this here in my blog, but…I am what I am. I have a plaque hanging, of all places, on my refrigerator that proudly professes: “If God would have wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them on my knees.” Yep.  That is pretty much how I feel about exercise!  I didn’t always feel that way.  I was not blessed with a high metabolism, so I have always had to watch my weight.  When I was younger, I have to admit, though my diet was very poor and I had to starve myself to lose weight, exercising came easy to me.  I was always joining this or that aerobic class, Jazzercise class or walking for miles and miles all over the place with my friends…anything that would keep me slender and fit.  I didn’t really care too much about being “healthy,” I just wanted to make sure I could keep the inches off my waist and thighs and look good in bathing suits and jeans. I also would like to share this observation with you: have you ever seen a man or woman over the age of 40 in any of the many diet and exercise commercials?  No.  Why?  Probably because there are very few men or women over 40 that would look good enough to sell their product! So fast forward 30 years and here I sit, now watching meticulously what I eat, worrying about my health and yet I am constantly battling the notorious bulge.  And, ironically, I struggle with even the idea of taking a 30 minute walk every day, let alone going to any kind of exercise class!  Why is it when we age and need that strong determination to stay fit our bodies seem to shift into low gear, causing a slow metabolism to be an almost non-existent metabolism, which then affects our brains into convincing us to just “take it easy.” Exercise is so wasted on youth.

Headed outside and got the sunscreen? Don’t forget the bug spray! Bugs can carry diseases that make you very sick. As a matter of fact, the older I get the more diseases I am finding out these bugs carry and it’s making me really nervous, so trying to stay a step ahead of them is essential, not just for you, but your pets, too. This isn’t about the pretty bugs.  You know the kind - the ladybugs, grasshoppers and butterflies.  This is about the serious bug predators; the ones that don’t play fair and even double team us when darkness falls knowing we are tired and our defenses are down. Some insects tend to pick on some more than others.  I always said, “When a mosquito chose me, it was because I was sweeter.”  Perhaps it’s not true, but what I do know is that these things can be quite dangerous. Mosquitoes can carry malaria and West Nile virus.  They can even cause heartworm in your cats and dogs. Ticks carry diseases like Lyme disease. Spiders can live much longer than you would expect and grow to be very large.  The venom can be deadly. Bees, wasps, hornets, honeybees, whatever they are…I do not like bees.  One stung me just a couple years ago and although never before in my life had I had a reaction, my entire hand swelled for days. Creepy spiders.  Daddy long-legs or tarantulas – stay away from me.  I was known to once use aerosol hairspray to freeze what I believed to be a tarantula type spider.  Smashing it was never an option.   There are so many different insects out there that bite or sting.  Although usually painful or itchy, it’s the diseases they carry and spread that are more of a concern for me and I am sure as years go by we will find out they carry even more. Should you experience a suspicious looking bite that doesn’t seem to heal, a rash or perhaps you develop a fever or achy body, don’t assume it’s a flu-bug.  It could be the beginning of something far more serious.  Be sure to get it checked out.  The earlier you seek medical attention, the better.