What are your all thoughts on Christmas Trees?  Plastic versus real?

Plastic trees will last a very long time, while a real tree supports a local business (for us, it supports Lotti’s Tree Farm, or a church that is selling trees as a fundraiser).  Crunchy Chicken wrote about the tree farmers and whether or not they use organic means.  It is definitely something to look into, and I will be sure to ask when we go pick out a tree this year.

I was beginning to think about how awful it is that we use a tree for a month (at the longest), and then we simply put it outside to be picked up like garbage.  But then I remembered that is what we do with flowers, and they last for a lot less time.  And when was the last time you saw a plastic Jack-O-Lantern sitting on someone’s porch, or being sold in stores?  And I don’t mean the plastic buckets that hold candy.

It is a long honored tradition to grow things, use them for decorative needs, and then discard them.  Our Jack-O-Lantern is sitting out in our garden, where it will be squirrel food, and eventually compost.  All flowers we buy also go into the compost.

Some people even decorate with pussy willows and reed mace.

I’ve also heard about a lot of people buy potted trees that they then plant in their yard.  I know Trader Joe’s sells them. Megan had expressed interest in doing that, but she believes that she can’t have the tree indoors.  My mom said she did that when she was younger, and that tree is still in her home town to this day.

We always get a real tree at the ole’ homestead, and even in my two apartments, we got two very small trees (the tree got bigger as the apartment got bigger).  I like going to get a tree, and I’m always very picky when picking it out.  My parents know not to get one without me.  I also like the way a real tree smells.  My mom has been interested in a plastic tree for years, but has never purchased one.  When I have my own family and house, I’m sure I will do a real tree as well.  It’s just a tradition.

With Christmas coming up, it makes me think about kids just getting loads and loads of Christmas presents, and what a waste that is.

My parents and I watched the two Christmas VHS tapes that we have.  One from 1987 (kids aged:5, 3, and 6 months), and one from 1991 (kids aged 9, 7 and 4).  In the 1987 video, Megan and I both expressed that we wanted a Barbie and the Rockers doll.  I know we had loads of Barbies growing up, but I don’t specifically remember this one.  But for two little just to just want a $10 Barbie, I think that’s pretty good! There are some kids that want ponies, or computers, or cell phones (well, not in 1987).  We just wanted a simple little doll.

And, although we had Barbie’s, we did not grow up with a distorted sense of self-image.  I think my mom’s Ms. Magazine took care of that!

I had once heard that a good thing to do with children with too many toys, is to pack up half of them, and hide them away.  Then, switch the toys every six months or so.  Children have such short term memories, that they get the boxed up toys, and are excited about them all over again; as if they had just received them for the first time.

As with last year, I am trying to do most of my shopping with second hand, or home made items.  My mom is paying me some money to help cover my trip to England, and besides that, I told her I didn’t really want or need anything.

I am thankful:

• that I found an internship at a wonderful site with incredibly kind people.  I get the honor of working with people when they are in their last days of life, and when their family members are going through the hardest times of their life.
• that I have wonderful parents who love me no matter what, and are incredibly supportive.  We can sit at the dinner table and talk about anything and everything.
• that we bought a $48 turkey.  14 lbs, and $3.09lb.  It’s local, antibiotic free, and free range.  I am cooking it myself!
• that school is almost done.  I am so close to the end - now I just need a job, and will enter the working world.
• for Honey Bunches of Oats.  It’s still the best cereal in the whole world.
• forThe Office, and Evan for introducing me to the American version
• for Fringe, for being the new X-Files
• for having an internship that is so much fun, that I don’t want to leave at 5pm
• for having a boyfriend who makes me laugh, smile, and writes songs about me.
• for all my friends, even the ones I don’t see very often

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I will be sure to let you know how the turkey tastes.

I’m going to do most of my Christmas shopping from handmade, or used items.  I say most because I’ve already bought two items for my parents over the summer that were new.  But I have several ideas that are handmade or used for other people.

I’m doing a lot of shopping on Etsy, which is an amazing hand made shop.  I think the best part about Etsy is the reasonably priced (or free) shipping costs.  I just had something delivered that was shipped for free, and last year, I’ve had to pay 75 cents for other items.  It’s not like eBay where you purchase something for $3, and they make you pay $9 in shipping!!

I also have the good news that I ordered our local turkey for Thanksgiving yesterday.  $3 a pound, but it’s from Bob’s Turkey Farm in Lancaster, MA (two towns over).  It’s raised right on a farm there, and I go to the farm to pick it up.  I’m supporting a local farmer, and will have a delicious bird for Thanksgiving, and not a cheap 49 cent frozen bird from Market Basket. To get birds to cost that little money, I don’t even want to think about how they are raised, and how they can get them so mass produced that they are practically given away.  No thank you!

Of course, I just watched Food, Inc. It’s the movie version (almost) of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I highly suggest you watch it.

I’ve also decided to eat less meat, as I did back in the Spring.

This is my song for 2008 - It’s called A Drop Filled With Memories (how appropriate!) and it’s from the movie Paprika.  Feel free to listen to it while you read my long post.  (Megan, don’t listen, it’s that song you don’t like).

2008 was a crazy, crazy year.  Absolutely insane.  Let’s review all I’ve been through.

I rang in New Year’s 2008 at Destare.  I came back from medical leave early so I could work. It was a lot of fun, but I teared up at midnight cause Steve was home alone, and I couldn’t spend it with him.  He spent the night playing World of Warcraft.

January 2nd - I had surgery on December 17th, and went to get my results from the endocrinologist and found out that the tumor on my thyroid was cancerous.  Not only was it cancer, but it was follicular cancer, rather than the more common papillary thyroid cancer.  Follicular is a more extreme of cancer, and tends to spread throughout the body while papillary always stays in the neck.  The reason they couldn’t be 100% sure about the cancer from the needle biopsy was because it was follicular, and that one they can’t tell just from a biopsy.  I needed to have another surgery, and I was only two weeks post-op from the first. Seriously, I find out I have cancer on the second day of the year?  That’s not a good start.

March 3rd - Surgery number 2.  I wasn’t really worried about this one (cause I had already done it once), but this surgery was scheduled in the middle of school.  I had to miss only one class, I think because I was still in the hospital when class met (Surgery was always on Monday, and I stayed over night until Tuesday).  For this surgery, I got out, and they put me in the recovery room, but my room upstairs wasn’t ready, so I had to stay in the recovery room all afternoon.  I got out of the OR at 11, and didn’t go up to my room until 5.  I was on morphine which was awesome, but they wouldn’t give me any water, only ice chips.  People in recovery kept getting X-Rayed, so they kept throwing a lead vest on top of me.  I think it happened about 6 times.  If I didn’t have cancer before, I most definitely had it after that. My parents kept coming in and out of the room, but for privacy reasons, they couldn’t stay.  My mom brought me my book and I was reading.  I was most definitely ready to have my own room.  I finally got upstairs and I had my own private room!  I was also really alert and able to hang out with my parents cause I was doped up.  In the middle of the night when the morphine was worn off was when the pain finally hit. I was awake on and off all night, and Steve spent the night on the floor to keep me company.  He kept having to help me move or adjust, or go to the bathroom (I had an IV in, and had to work around that to go to the bathroom).  Notice the awesome pen marks on my ear and neck in the bottom picture.  That is to say “CUT HERE”  and “THIS SIDE.”

Sometime in March - I was really really stressed out and sad.  I broke up with Steve because I felt like I couldn’t deal with anything anymore.

May - Radioactive Girl!  I had to go on a crazy low iodine diet for three weeks, and then go into Boston and get a mini dose of radiation, and then two days later, a major dose of radiation!  It was mixed with strawberry Kool-Aid. Yum.  Any of you ever been tested with a Geiger counter before?

Senator Kennedy was at Mass General the same day that I had my radiation.  I had two appointments scheduled.  I got my whole body scan (me lying down) at 12, and then didn’t go get my radiation until 2pm.  Between those times, we came downstairs to the lobby of the Wang building at MGH (that’s where all my appointments were).  Senator Kennedy was being released just as we were in the lobby.  We got to see him walk out of the hospital, and everyone in the lobby stood and clapped for him.  Here’s my dad live on CNN that day, his twin brother happened to be watching it live on CNN in Ohio, and hit record on his Tivo.  Then, he called my dad, and said:

“Uh, are you at some hospital in Boston?”
“yeah, Robin has her radiation today.”
“Are you wearing jeans and a blue shirt?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“You were just live on CNN!!!”

My dad was also on the cover of the NY Times the next day.

The reason I was having such a hard time with the diet was because I was just picking at food and not eating real meals.  I finally was able to change that after a few days, but here is what I would have for lunch:

After receiving the radiation at the hospital, I had to then come immediately home and be isolated from my family for three whole days.  It was crazy!  I was having trouble sleeping because I was off my medicine, so I had to hang a blanket over my window so it would get completely dark in my room.  I also had my laptop, my pile of books, and my remotes!  Bill let me borrow 30 Rock, which was awesome because I had never seen it before.  This was the first day I was allowed to be off my diet, so I’m enjoying my first bowl of cereal in 3 weeks.  I was so excited about it, I had to take a picture (on timer mode, cause I had to be alone).

July 2 - Turned 24.  Pretty uneventful.  But I went out with friends! (Jeanne, Bill, and Paul)

July 6th - I went to the Boulder with Amy cause her friend Kyle was playing in the band.  It was the last night of the Longsjo, and I met Emiliano! (he’s the one in the yellow and green all the way to the left)

I was sitting on the curb with Amy (the band was playing in the blocked off street), and these guys come walking up to the bar.  One of the Lonsjo volunteers says “Oh, these are guys who raced today!  They’re on one of the best teams”.  I looked up, and I noticed one of the guys had bright yellow socks with weird red suns on them.  I recognized the socks as the state flag of New Mexico, because I used to live there.  I jumped up from my seat, and ran up to him and the convo went like this:

“I’m sorry… are your socks the state flag of New Mexico?”
“Yeah, that’s where our racing team is from!”
“I used to live there!”

“what part?”
“Santa Fe”
“That’s where I’m from!”
“No way!”
“Ok, I’m going to go grab a beer, and I’ll catch up with you later.”

So then I went to sit down, and the older gentlemen who were sitting near us said to me, “Wow, you don’t waste any time, huh?”  He found me later, and we hung out all night, and I just knew that he was this cool guy that I HAD to get a picture taken with, so I ran to my car and grabbed my camera to get some pictures before I left.  He had busted up his hand pretty badly in the race earlier in the day (notice the awesome wrap job).  Emiliano and I have become great friends, and he does my blog for me.  He doesn’t write it, but he does everything else.  Check out his awesome web design site, Pushing Buttons.  Go to him for all your web design needs!

July 25th - X-Files: I Want To Believe came out.  I had waited 6 years for this movie, and Bill and I went down to a midnight showing in Marlborough (a 45 minute drive). I brought my action figures with me.  I was so excited, that we kept having to re-take this picture because my smile was so big I looked like an idiot.

July 27th - Dad and I get caught in the rain while running.  We knew there was a huge storm coming, but I wanted to go for a run anyway.  We were almost done when it started down pouring.  I had my mom take the picture, because I think it shows our dedication.

July 28th - Megan and Mac came home to prepare for their wedding!  They didn’t do so much preparing, as much as they did lollygagging around and picking berries with me.  I love picking berries.

August 3rd -  Megan gets married! Mac and his parents fly in from England, and we have a great time!

At the wedding (and during the receptions) Sally and I went a little crazy, and took hundreds (literally, hundreds) of pictures of us goofing around.

August 13 - 26 - I fly out to New Mexico and hang out with Emiliano for two weeks.  We went hiking, hung out in Santa Fe, cooked a lot, took artsy photographs, watched a LOT of Weeds, and I got Strep throat, and had to go to the ER.  It was an all around great trip.  I got a little really homesick for Megan, and felt bad that she was in the US, but I wasn’t with her.  I think I got a little cranky and sad because of that, but Emiliano put up with me!  To apologize, I will include this picture (on the left), because it is his favorite, and it makes me look like an idiot.  He kept scratching this one spot on my back (scratching it in just one place, so the spot would get raw), and it was driving me insane.  I was still getting over being sick (I spent about 2 full days in bed), and I was very irritable.  This is him driving me insane on purpose so he could take a funny picture.  He looks very pleased with himself.  But seriously, Emiliano, tell them how sick I was!!!  I was incredibly sick.  His step mom was giving me Vicodin to make me feel better.  It rocked.

Emiliano was also kind enough to go on a horribly long car ride with me to Roswell, NM, home of the infamous 1946 UFO crash!  Everything was UFO themed, it was awesome.  We even went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.  Pretty interesting stuff, definitely worth the 3 hour long ride.  This was also my very first blog post!!!  (I had backdated other cancer related stuff - but the Roswell post was the first, cause that’s when Emiliano set up my blog!)

August 27th - I flew back from New Mexico on the 26th, and the very next day, we flew out to England for Megan’s wedding party over there.  It wasn’t too bad, cause all my luggage was already packed!  I just had to grab fancy stuff for her party.  We had a lot of fun, but we weren’t there for long enough!

September- I got a pedometer, and went a little crazy.  Such as the time when I jogged in place for 2.5 miles to get to 10,000 steps.  I still wear it religiously every day, but I’m only at 4388 now (at 8:45pm), and there’s no way I’m jogging in place for 2.5 miles tonight.

October 1 - 31 - Buy Nothing Month!  It was awesome, and I’m going to do it again this month. (I bought a new laptop September 28th, only days before BNM started)

October 4th - I ran my first 5k!  (I haven’t seen that recycling shirt in a few months.  Uh oh.  That’s why I have to clean my room!!!)

October - I started picking up trash around Fitchburg.  I did this many more times, but I had to stop cause it’s too cold out and there’s snow everywhere.  Niles and I will commence in the spring.  I will try to get more people involved, and to expand the area where we work.  I think we should have T-Shirts made.  Here’s me and Niles celebrating our trash accomplishments:

November - Started to get fed up with Destare.  Started back at Macy*s for the holidays.  Thanksgiving with family friends.  I met with the Brew Year’s Eve crew twice a week to plan BYE.  We decided on our production company name, Beers For Good, and started our own website.  From August through November, I get sick for one week every single month.  It started with Strep in Santa Fe, and continued.  I am immuno-compromised.

December -  More planning of BYE.

Quit Destare.

Huge ice storm hit North Central Mass, and we lost power and heat for 11 days.

I got a 4.0 in my class this semester, leaving me with a cumulative GPA of 3.93.  I have only one class left.  w00t!  (this portion added for Megan).

Megan came home for Christmas.  We got walloped with two ice storms - 18 inches total in 72 hours.  She loved it.

Dec. 31st - Brew Year’s Eve!  It went great, and we had tons of fun.

That’s it.  2008 in a nutshell.

I clearly lost steam after October.  I figured that because I started blogging in September, I only needed to update peeps on the things that happened before then.  Plus, that’s when all the important stuff happened.  But if you want to learn more, read my friggen blog.

I am done.  This post took me 3 hours to write!  It was all the pictures that were slowing me down… but I think they’re great!

I realize this wasn’t a review.  It was a synopsis.  Here’s my review of 2008:  it sucked. Too many bad things happened.  Sure, there were good parts, but there were also not good parts, and I think the effect the bad parts had on me out weighs the good parts.  Disagree?  Too bad.

Questions?  Comments?  Leave ‘em.

I just realized last night that I haven’t been single around the holidays since I was a junior in high school - back in 2000.  That’s a long time!  I had to make sure about the dates, so I thought about all of my boyfriends and when I dated them.  Whenever I broke up with a guy, I was back in another serious relationship within a couple months. Here’s the list:

Josh - November 2001 - September 2002

Eric - December 2002 - March 2006

Steve - September 2006 - March 2008

Hahahaha… that lists looks like it’s on a grave stone or something… but I guess that kind of is the life and death of the relationship.  But anyway…. so since the Christmas of 2000, I had a boyfriend every single time, for Christmas and New Years.  That is so weird!

It was actually very nice not having a boyfriend this Christmas, because it meant that I didn’t have to buy him a Christmas present!  It did feel weird that I didn’t have more presents to purchase, but it was nice to save $100!

I don’t mind not having a boyfriend, because it allows me to figure my own stuff out, to do my own thing, and to get to know other guys and then decide that I don’t like them.  ;)   But I, like many other people out there, am waiting to find “the one.”  I don’t think it’s about finding a guy that I really want (meaning, I don’t desperately want a boyfriend), but I want to be happy.  I’m hoping “the one” will make me incredibly happy.  That’d be nice.

16 days later, and we finally have our telephone, internet, and cable TV back. Finally, we are back to normal here at home. We were all going crazy without our media stuff…. especially Internet. And especially Dylan. I wasn’t able to read my RSS reader, and so I had 149 unread new blogs. Ugh. That’s a lot of blogs to read. There’s 22 alone from Kath Eats Real Food.

Megan left last night, and called me early this morning to tell me she got home safe and sound. It was 9am-ish when she called, and I think she had only been home 20 minutes. Her plane left here at 7pm last night. That’s a long ass day/night to be traveling. When we dropped her off at the airport, my dad asked her if she was happy with Mac, and Megan said “Dad, you’re going to make me cry.” And then that made ME cry. And then she saw that I was crying, and then she started crying. I really miss her, and wish that we lived close enough that we could do dinner parties and stuff. I think that would be really fun. Whenever we leave each other, I cry. Every single time! Here’s us in England at the train station when we were saying goodbye when I visited her over spring break in 2006.

I’m going through my phone, and I’ll add pictures and talk briefly about things.

Larry got a generator from a co-worker around the 18th or so, and he was able to fit it in the back of his Mini Cooper.  It was quite the challenge.  He wasn’t able to close the trunk, and had to drive home in the freezing cold with it open.

We moved back into the house on the 20th, the day Megan came home.  We had a generator that we used, and it gave us power to pretty much every except the kitchen and family room.  We had an extension cord running to the fridge.  Neither Megan nor Dylan could appreciate what we had been through without power.  Dylan was down in Worcester, and didn’t come home until Friday afternoon.  We had already been without power for one week when he came home.  Megan came home and we had the generator, so she didn’t know anything either.  Monday morning, the generator ran out of gas, and then it wouldn’t start up again.  It was only 11 degrees outside, so my dad thought it was too cold.  Him and Megan dragged it in the house to warm it up.  Then, my dad changed the oil just in case.  When they brought it back outside, it started right up.  I had gone to the gym and showered there, because I didn’t want to hang out at home with a wet head with the house only 54 degrees (our house sure does cool down quickly…. but it was pretty cold out!)

December 19th and 21st: We had two huge snow storms. We got about 10 inches each day, totaling about two feet of snow (give or take). It was crazy. December 20th was a mandatory 11 hour day at Macy’s. The women’s shoes department had their holiday party which I was invited to (I don’t have a department, so they adopted me). I ran out in the snow storm to buy hummus and crackers, and Jenny and I shared a rotisserie chicken for dinner. It was delicious. We were both without power, so we didn’t have anything we could bring from home, so we had our own little feast at Macy’s. There was a crap load of snow when we left… it was suppose to be a storm Friday night, and Sunday night, but the storm never stopped on Saturday. We had three full days of snow.

December 23rd, Megan and I went to Boston for my doctor appointments (see previous post).

Christmas Eve we went to church at 5pm, and then came home and had a wonderful Chicken Pot Pie that Megan made. She also made delicious roasted root vegetables. They were unbelievable. I want to make them at least once a week from here on out.

On Christmas, we had a really good free range turkey (bought at Whole Foods!), stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, and cranberry sauce. It was like Thanksgiving all over again!

December 26th, I had to work all day at Macy’s, then Megan and I drove out to Boston with Becky to Pat and Nora’s Annual Yankee Swap. It was a lot of fun, and we all got to take home fun gifts.

December 27th - It was cold and rainy, but my gym was still closed, so I went for a run anyway. It was raining the whole way, but I managed to get in three miles. I got home and my pants were sticking to me, and my legs were bright red and cold. My face was bright red and hot! (I was able to run outside every day but the 26th, cause I was just too busy).

Megan and I went down to see Denise at the Total You, and Megan chopped off all of her hair to give to Wigs For Kids.  Denise was the one who did her hair for the wedding.  She’s a wonderful woman, and I know her from Destare.  Her and her husband were bummed that I left, but they understood why I did.  Look at how long Megan’s hair was!!!  And Denise ended up cutting it shorter than in that picture, because she had to style it!  There’s a bag of hair in our family room that I have to mail in.  I hope it doesn’t get thrown out before I get around to it!

Today, my entire family went down to the Armory to clean up after the emergency shelter was there. We also began setting up for the Brew Year’s Eve party. We got all the tables set up, and most of the decorations, too. We’re still a little freaked out about the food we’re going to serve, but we know the desserts are all set. We just need to make sure we get people in the door!!!!

We got our tree on Saturday.  Beautiful!  Also on Saturday, we went to the Armory for the Fitchburg Chowder Taste Off (or whatever it was called).  Then, we walked from the Armory to the Fitchburg Art Museum where they had their Holly Berry Craft Fair (also unsure of the name).  We bought some nice homemade presents for Christmas.  It was a very eventful day!

Monday night, I went over to Amy’s for a Lia Sphia jewelry party.  Cait and Alysha were also there.  We had wine galore and vegetables, chips, and M&Ms.  I ate too much.

Because I ate so much at Amy’s, I did a super hard hour long workout at the gym on Tuesday.  I watched two episodes of Californication.  It’s not a comedy, and sometimes it’s kind of depressing.  But it’s with David Duchovny, so that’s awesome.

I started watching True Blood this morning while I did strength training at home.  It’s going to be my new gym show (it’s about Vampires!  Like Twilight!).  I could still use suggestions, if you have them. I’ve already watched Pushing Daisies, How I Met Your Mother, and Californication.  I need more suggestions.  At home, I watch (or have seen all of) House, Heroes, Medium, 30 Rock, X Files (duh!), Lost, Weeds, and probably more that I just can’t think of.  My mom suggested New Adventures of Old Christine.  I’m going to download it… I’ve heard good things.

I am babysitting this afternoon, and then tonight I have an interview with The Telegram’s FLASH at 5:30, and then we’re on FATV (Fitchburg Access Television) at 7.  I knew that I might not have time for cardio, so I wanted to get something in this morning before babysitting.  Also, when will I have time for dinner?  I didn’t know about the FLASH interview until Trevor called me a couple hours ago.  It was scheduled for 4:30, but I’m babysitting until 5!  Luckily, they were able to push it back.  I thought I’d have time to have dinner, but now with this interview, it doesn’t look like it.  We’re at the Armory for the first interview, so maybe we’ll have to run over to Espresso Pizza again for dinner (that’s what we had to do last Wednesday, too!  We had one meeting at 5:30, and another at 7:30).

I did end up going down to Destare to talk to the owner.  I told him I was giving my two weeks notice.  He seemed indifferent.  That’s another reason to leave.  I’ve been there  a year and a half, as long as the place has been open, and the guy doesn’t even care that I’m leaving.  Why would I want to work for a person like that?  That’s just not very nice.

Trevor said a nice thing about me leaving is that I’ll have plenty of time to work on Brew Year’s Eve.  I had to call him and Jenny from Macy*s on my way to Destare cause I was freaking out that much.  I said “I’m making the right decision, right??”  They both said yes.  When I told Jeanne today, she didn’t miss a beat when she said “Oh good, you shouldn’t work for such a jerk anyway!”

If any of you guys have any ideas for things I can do for extra money, let me know!  I’m going to sell the school books that I don’t need on half.com, and then I babysit.  If you need your kids/dogs/cats/house/plants watched, let me know!  I have great references.  What else can I do for spare money while looking for a job?

So, I’m freaked out about leaving and not having any money.  I’m thinking January is going to have to be another Buy Nothing Month.  I’ll also cut out other things that I don’t have money for.  Diet soda will probably be one of them.  It’s bad for me, and I shouldn’t waste my money.

On another note (I sure am jumping around a lot today!), I think that the reason why I’m always hungry is perhaps because I’m not getting enough water.  The Real Age doctors say that I should be getting half of my body weight in ounces of water every day.  I don’t get that much water at all!!!  I should be getting 65 ounces of water every day (to save you the math, I weigh about 130 - but I haven’t weighed myself in over a week…).  That’s 8.125 cups.  That’s 2.7 fill ups on my Camel Bak water bottle.  That’s a lot of freaking water.  After the gym, I usually do about 1.5 of them.  I should make a plan out where I will finish one by 11am, one by 4pm, and another one by 8pm.  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s actually not that much water.  I just started drinking one, and it’s almost gone!  Unfortunately, it’s 4pm, and I still have two more to drink.  Also unfortunately, I’m in Leominster, and Leominster water is pretty crappy.  It comes out brown, crappy.  They have a Polar water fountain thing… but I don’t think it’s that full.  Darnit!

Anyway, my point is that I think this is a challenge!  I’m challenging every to start drinking half your weight in water.  Starting tomorrow!   It’s a good thing for everyone to do, especially around the holidays when we’ll all probably be overeating anyway.  Then, our tummys will get full with water, not on cheese and pastries, and crackers.

But I really think that’s why I’m ALWAYS hungry. Seriously, I am hungry ALL the time.  That’s why I talk about food so much.  I eat, and then I’m still thinking “Mmm… what else can I eat?”

Oh, and this is most definitely a challenge for Shauna.  Shauna, you have to do this with me!!!

(long post!  Sorry if there are spelling or grammar mistakes, I haven’t had time to read through it yet)

On the news tonight, I heard that the Indiana Planned Parenthood is offering gift certificates for the holidays.  Some people are crapping their pants about it, and saying “Gift certificates for abortions!  That’s horrible!”  Planned Parenthood is saying “with the economy so bad, people are having to choose whether to eat, or heat their house.  We want people to have the option to go get their health screened for free.”  They also added that less than 5% of their services are abortions.  The crazy anti-PP lady said that it was crazy to offer free abortions on the day that celebrates Baby Jesus.

I believe that these gift certificates are a moderately good idea.  I honestly don’t know who you would give a PP gift to…. I don’t know how I would feel if I got one from my parents.  I’d honestly be a little confused, I think.

I do, however, absolutely love Planned Parenthood.  I would love to work for them (my mom feels the same way!).  I would love to do abortion counseling, or just counseling young women on their options for birth control, or even just other issues that women face.

In other news, because of the closure of my gym for holidays (cause it’s connected to the college, so it is going to be closed a lot during winter break - dammit) on Thanksgiving, and the Saturday after, the gym was closed, and I was forced to face the cold weather and run outside.   I  have a usual two mile route that I do, but I haven’t done it in a while since I’ve been at the gym.

Anyway, I headed out Rindge Road, and towards the end of the road, I started to notice all of the trash that had accumulated on the road again.  This made me very, very angry.  When I started picking up trash in the past, it was my daily running that made me realize how bad the trash was.  My very first clean up was on Rindge Road, back in mid October. I hadn’t been running in the street, so I didn’t notice the trash.

Rindge Road is a pretty long road, at one end is McKay school, and there aren’t any houses until the very other end of the road, about a mile down. (See photo for eye-popping graphics) Most of the trash that I noticed was up near the houses!  Not in their yard, but in close proximity to their house.  Close enough where if the inhabitants of the house ever went on a walk, they would be disgusted by the trash in their “neighborhood.”

So here’s what I was thinking.  I was thinking about doing a “Help Robin Pick Up Trash This Week,” and ask all of my friends, family, and anonymous blog readers to pick up trash.  You don’t have to live in Fitchburg, or do it every day.  But take a moment, and pick up a good amount of trash.  A whole bag, if you will.

I was thinking that I would make up posters to give to these people who live at the end of Rindge Road.  On this sheet, I would tell them who I am, a local college student who also lives nearby, and runs along their road.  I would explain my goal (cleaning up my town/neighborhood), and also provide them with pictures of the trash I’ve picked up in the past.  Then, I would ask them to please help me, and to go outside their homes (they don’t have to go that far, the trash is RIGHT THERE), and please help me with the task of picking up this trash.

What do you guys think?  How would you feel if a stranger left a flyer like that in your door?  Would you be annoyed?  Pleased? Thankful there are caring people in the world?

Would you help and pick up the trash?

Do you think it being holiday season has any effect on what you’d do?

If I DO do this, I would want to do it before it snows a lot.

Oh, and tomorrow, I would like to write about the quote “The best things in life aren’t things.”  Remind me!

Fruit salad (cause it is delicious)

Wonderful friends at both of my jobs

Jenny at Macy*s for bringing me to see Twilight (I give it a 93 out of a possible 100).  We’re going to try to hang out more and watch sci-fi/fantasy movies together.

Trevor, Liz, and my dad for letting me be a part of Beers For Good, even though I’m not a beer enthusiast.

Being the healthiest and most fit I’ve ever been in my entire life (minus having cancer).

Being almost done with my degree.  One more class, and then my internship!

A mom and dad who understand that I’m trying to save money, and let me live at home rent free, and they even buy me groceries.  I try to cook for them, but I’m terrible at cleaning up after myself.

My friend Jay who introduced me to the TV show How I Met Your Mother.  It’s fantastic.

My friend Niles who always makes me smile at Destare, and who goes and picks up trash with me. (He’s the only one, you environment hating dead-beats).

Honey Bunches of Oats.  I couldn’t start my day without it!

Emiliano for hosting this blog free of charge.  (I didn’t even know that until last week, but I’m very thankful)

Fruit salad  (I just got a second serving!!!)

Diet Pepsi Max (Megan will kill me, but I LOVE it)

That Barack Obama won the election