You need to know what is causing the pain. Muscles, nerves, pinched spinal cord, slipped disc or what. By doing the wrong thing you can irritate rather than help. Have you seen a doctor? PB

To repeat some of what I've said earlier in multiple posts, I've taken a multi-faceted approach: sunlight therapy light for 30 minutes each morning during the shorter winter months making sure to eat healthily, esp. lots of legumes exercise (which for me also includes social partner dancing...not only provides exercise but physical interaction and music!) bamboo sheets have greatly helped with night sweats. I sleep much better. join a menopause support group or else start your own such Meetup group (I did, in NYC!) I take Rainbow Light Menopause One make it a point to be social....to get out of the house and be around other people. Go for walks...be around nature. If you are a night owl (like me), try your best to change your schedule little by little. Waking up earlier and going to bed earlier means you will have more waking hours in the natural light, and fewer waking hours in the dark, which in turn helps with serotonin levels and mood. Talk to a shrink if you are depressed and/or try to engage in cognitive therapy on your own. Be aware of how you are able to somewhat impact your own mood. For e.g., I noticed a pattern, whereby I was constantly assessing my mood multiple times per day. 'Am I feeling depressed right now?....Yup, I am. I am indeed feeling down...just like I was earlier today...just like I was yesterday. Ugh.' I realized that in doing that, I was then creating a sub-conscious 'reality' for myself, that if I am feeling down today, and I felt 'down' yesterday, and the day before that, that it stands to reason that tomorrow, and the next day, will also be the same. And how on earth can I expect to be in a good mood, if I believe this to be my reality, for the foreseeable future? Talk about creating a sense of doom for oneself. ;-) So.... I realized that this thought pattern I was exhibiting was not serving me one iota. Of course, we all know the expression of 'living in the moment'. I decided to purposefully try this at every moment of every day. 'Oh, doesn't this cup of coffee taste so good?.... this is so great that I just finished this work spreadsheet on my computer...I can now cross this off my to-do list.... this is great... Oh, this is a great song I'm listening to ...this salad I'm eating tastes so fresh!.... don't my two cats look so cute sleeping together..." And so on. By doing this, at the end of each day I found that I was able to look back and think 'you know...today wasn't that bad actually...'. And if I practiced living in the moment the next day as well, I could say 'this is great...today was pretty good...yesterday was pretty good...'. So that in turn helped to create my own new reality, which then helped me believe that the days ahead would also be pretty good! ;-) (If I assumed the days ahead would not be so good, they usually were not so good. But if I took on a more positive outlook, that my days ahead would be good, or 'pretty good', indeed, they usually were. While we can't control our emotions or mood entirely, much of it IS about perspective, and recognizing the ways we self-sabotage. And on that note....do not believe for one minute that 'older women are regarded with little worth' (as someone else here said). I am so utterly tired of women (and most often, it's American women) making this complaint. If you believe it, so it will be. No one wants to be around an older woman who is down in the dumps about her age. You could take two older women who look the exact same age more or less, and who have a similar appearance. One woman is confident, takes pride in her appearance, dresses attractively, does not feel her age is in and of itself a detriment; she is engaging, curious, outgoing. The other woman goes around believing that now that she's X-years of age, she's washed-up, and that society and men will 'ignore her'. She doesn't bother trying to dress nice, because she figures 'why bother'. Which woman do you think society is going to respond to more favorably. Which woman will more men find attractive? ;-)

Sorry, don't know why I went into all that. I usually don't mention it cause I don't want to sound like a whiner. ha My family may disagree with you on the nice all the time thing. ha I do pretty good until later at night when it of course hurts the most and I'm short on patience. I'm usually grinding my teeth to keep from snapping at everyone. Just want everyone to go to bed and let me relax a bit. The pregnancies were bad at the end because I have a small frame and my babies were all over 8 lbs and one lacked only a few ounces of being 10 lbs!! A lot of weight to carry around like that, but I was basically bedridden anyway because I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum (extreme morning, noon, night sickness) and had tons of problems from that. ha Don't ask me how they all weighed that much because I didn't keep anything down the whole 9 months, not even water!! ha On my second child I even asked the dr if the baby was still in there because I was pretty sure I had thrown him up! ha I made it thru and it was only 9 months of heck for each and I have my little angels forever. Anyway, after apologizing I went ahead and gave you my life history again .ha Sorry!! I just got to look at your pics. I was out most of yesterday trying to buy a new shirt to wear out to dinner with some friends. Went to a yummy chinese restaurant. It was nice to get out. Anyhoo, saw your eggs and trays and just realized I forgot to comment on the trays. ha I'll go back over there and post there. ha You have a great weekend. ~Anj

I have also bought and sold on CL. We even advertised our house on CL and did get some viewings! Ditto on the pictures - I don't even look at ads without pictures. CL limits you to four photos, and they're pretty small, but if you use a hosting service like Photobucket you can post as many as you want and they can be much larger. Use the "HTML code" text the same way you would here. (Do note, though, that many very large pictures can make for very slow downloads for those on dialup. Approximately 600x400 is good, 800x600 is the biggest you should really go.) And don't forget the measurements, too! I am always shocked at how many people don't put measurements on their ad. IMO rule #1 is make things as easy on your potential buyers as humanly possible. Do not put your telephone number or address in the ad, although it's fine to say "near the public pool in Anytown" to give people an idea of where you are. I also suggest using the anonymous forwarding CL offers instead of disclosing your email address. I have had to relist items a few times before. Once it gets past about the second page it's pretty much "off the radar" and it's time to relist to keep it in front of people's eyes. I just copy my ad to a text file so I can relist easily. If you decide to reduce the price after a few unsuccessful listings, put "price reduced" in the subject line. I am seeing a lot of relists on entertainment centers, so you may just be out of luck on that one... depending on your tax situation you might actually be better off donating it to charity (one that will come pick it up! LOL) and taking the tax deduction. The Goodwill where I live suggests a donation value of 25% of retail, unless it's really beat up in which 10% is more appropriate. Get a receipt! phoggie, there is NO fee and NO commission. (That's why the site is pretty bare-bones basic.) You post an ad by clicking the "post to classifieds" link up in the top left-hand corner and following the instructions.