Larry and my dad are at Mardi Gras in Vermont at the Magic Hat brewery.  Larry asked me to feed his cat today, so my mom had the great idea that I should run there!  I was already planning on running, so it was getting two birds with one stone!

I ran/walked on the way to Larry’s because I had to go up humongous hills, and I just couldn’t run up them. I did a total of 5 miles!!!!  I was going to stop a bit after mile 3, and take a right onto North St (see map), but I just kept on running.  Then, I was going to take a right onto Pearl St at mile 4, but I just kept on running!!!  I was hungry for lunch at this point, (well, not really, but it was around 1:45, so I knew I should be hungry), but I just kept going!!!!

I did the route on Mapmyrun.com, and here is the elevation:

Mile 2 is when I left Larry’s house, and it was clearly all down hill from there (except for a tad around mile 4.5.  I ran up the entire hill, then walked for a bit when it got flat again to catch my breath.    At mile 3.5, I was running in an open road with the sun blaring down, and I took my sweatshirt off and was running in my sports tank top in 35 degree weather.  I swear, I was so hot it felt like it was 70!  I didn’t put my sweatshirt back on until around 4.8.  I got onto a road that wasn’t as sunny, and it got chilly pretty quickly (Hello! 35 degrees!)

Back at home, I filled my camel back (750ml - like a bottle of wine) up, and drank it while I debated with my mom about whether or not I drink too much water.  I sat on the floor while I made her Google it.  We read that I should drink about 69 ounces, more if I exercise a lot (yes).  “This is only 24 ounces!!!!”  I said holding my water bottle.  “Ok…….” she said, hesitantly, still not trusting the answer she just read.  I just ran 5 miles, and she’s worried that I’m drinking too much water!!!!

I had to rest about 25 minutes before I was hungry for lunch (so I started a Numb3rs episode), and then I made a bowl of minestrone soup (from a can), but added about a cup of peas and green beans.  I also made one of my spinach salads, and had a piece of homemade bread.  It was the best lunch ever, and as I sat down to eat it, I said happily, “I love food.”  It was a fantastic run followed by a fantastic lunch.

Right now I am babysitting.  I have done lots and lots of babysitting this week.  $160 or so worth of it.  That’s a lot of money for babysitting.  I was in a very good mood driving here, so I texted Niles and Caroline from Destare and told them I might make an appearance tonight!  I don’t want to be out too late because I have to run and work in the morning, but I’ll stop by if I leave the babies early enough.  Saturday is a good day to go to Destare (the busiest), so I’m sure I will run into a lot of people that I know, and that will be nice.  It has been over two months since I’ve stepped foot in that place, and I finally feel like I can go back.  We’ll see if I end up there tonight, but it would be nice to stop in and say Hi.

I’ve been hanging out with Christian, a little 9 year old  boy that I pick up after school.  I walk there, and then we walk back together.  Yesterday, we made brownies from scratch!  I have a book called Small Batch Baking, and all of the recipes are for very small portions to serve between 2-3 people. They were pretty good, but I kind of screwed them up.  They called for unsweetened chocolate, but I used unsweetened cocoa baking powder instead.  I added a little milk to make them more chocolate-like, and Christian and I both liked the way they turned out.

Before Christian came over, I rearranged my entire room!  Megan is right that I have too much furniture in my room.  I have a large desk for my old PC, but I don’t have it anymore.  My dad took the tower, and I don’t know where it went.  My monitor and keyboard are still in my room.  I’m going to go up today and clean more, and I’ll move the computer stuff into the basement.  That way I’ll remove some of the clutter.  Also, because my bedside table won’t fit next to my bed anymore, I had to bring in more furniture in the way of a tiny table to hold my cell phone, glass of water, and pills.  Do’h!  However, there is a LOT more open space in the middle of my room now, because all my furniture is so cramped together against the walls.  It’s actually very nice and feels more open.  I can actually sit on my floor and do a craft now, or do sit ups or push ups.   My  dressar is also in plain view of everything now, so it will motivate me to keep all of my drawers closed (Megan says this helps make the room look tidy).  I also finally hung up my Harry Potter calendar.  It took me just two full months to get it off the floor!

Walked to Niles’ for Lost, and we had the largest crowd yet.  I helped Niles make asparagus and some kind of delicious spreadable cheese wrapped in prosciutto, and Niles made meatballs with a pesto cream dipping sauce.  It was very gourmet.  There were people sitting on the floor because we didn’t have enough space.  There were eight of us, including Chris who told me to check out his online portfolio that he did for school. All the seniors are getting ready to present their final work, and that makes me feel old because I graduated three years ago.  (Eek!)

Then for dinner last night, I made another batch of pasta fagioli, but this time I added a can of red kidney beans instead of an additional can of cannellini beans.  I left it on the stove, and then walked down to the library for the New England Youth Ensemble concert.  It was excellent!  So many young talented children, and they were all string instruments.  I LOVE string instruments.  I always though the violin was my favorite, but it is definitely the viola.   The violin is too high pitched.  Once I got home to my soup (it had been on the stove for 2 hours!)  ALL the water had been absorbed by the beans and the pasta.  Oops!  I turned the heat back on, and added 1.5 cups of hot water, and it was still really hot, so we were able to eat immediately.  It was delicious!  My mom had requested the soup because it was just going to be the two of us, so she wanted something simple.  Today she came home after eating it for lunch and exclaimed how much she loved the recipe.  I tasted the red kidney beans and the cannellini beans straight out of the can before cooking them, and the red ones are my favorite so far.  I think they would make a good addition to my salad.  If I were to cook beans that are dry, will they keep for a bit in the fridge?  It seems like such a process to cook them (it takes hours), I would like to be able to do it in advance.

Now for today, I’m going to make homemade pizza and dough!  I’m pretty psyched.  It will be a little cheese and lots of veggies.  I also might add a tad TVP to a slice or two for me.   I also found a dessert in the Small Batch Baking book that I might make called “Apple Walnut Crostata.”  I have to make the crust by hand, and it has nine steps (which might take a while)… but it sounds delicious and I have all the ingredients.

I will post pictures tomorrow, because I am too tired (it is now 11pm), and I’m off to bed.

I walked to the gym today only discovered that it was closed.  So I walked all the way home.  1.3 miles total.  So then I put on my old sneakers, got my iPod shuffle, tied my hood on, and put socks on my hands to act as mittens, and I went for a 2 mile run outside.  I hadn’t been for a run outside since early January when my gym was closed for the holidays.  It was a mix between hot and cold.  I didn’t like it.  But I asked my dad if he wanted to go with me tomorrow morning, cause the gym is only open 12-5, and I’m at work.  So I will run before breakfast…. if I feel like it.  I haven’t had a day off in all of February.  I’m okay with not running tomorrow.

I have decided that starting on Sunday, I am going to go to bed at 10 (where I can read), turn the light off my 10:30, and wake up at 6:30 or 7.  Every day for one week.  The only day that will be a problem is Wednesday, because Lost doesn’t end until 10!  Usually we stay and hang out until 11ish.  So that night will be a little later, and I will postpone my waking up as well, but no later than 8.

I started to a new craft this afternoon!  It’s exciting, and I’m pinning it while I’m watching grey’s anatomy and sitting at my craft table (which I set up in my living room!).  Unfortunately, I am working at Macy’s tonight.  That means I don’t get to cook a good dinner (I don’t even know what I’m going to have - I’m too full from lunch), and I don’t get to keep working on my craft.  Then, I have to work all day tomorrow from 10:30 - 7:30.  Stupid Macy’s.  Stupid need for money.  This is why I don’t want to have a need for money.  Money and working to make money is stupid.

I think it would also be nice to not have to live with time.  In my mini house, if I was growing organic vegetables, and living without needing to work, then I wouldn’t ever need to know what time it was.  Wouldn’t that be interesting?  Especially in a society like ours, time is so valued.  Everything is done by time.  What would it be like if it simply didn’t matter what time it was?  You got things done when they got done.  If I were still to be a therapist, then I would have set days, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, that my patients could simply drop by as long as it was light out.  I wouldn’t have so many patients that more than one would come at once, so I bet it could work.  Well, maybe not.  For appointments and stuff I’d need time.  Maybe I could set alarms!  I wouldn’t need to know the time, just that “in one hour, you need to do this.”  Hmm.  It would probably need to be thought through a little more, but it’s an interesting idea.

Dinner with Larry (the veggie pot pie) was great!  I did all the work myself, and made the veggie pot pie, mashed potatoes, and a mixed green salad with spinach.

I modified a chicken pot pie recipe.  Here it is:

• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 cup frozen green peas   (or four cups of any vegetables)
• 1 cup frozen green beans
• 1 cup sliced celery
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onion
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 3/4 cups vegetable broth
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2. In a saucepan, combine all the vegetables. Add water to cover and boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3. In the same saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Slowly stir in the broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick.  Remove from heat and set aside.
   
4. Put the bottom pie crust in the pie pan, dust with egg whites, and cook for 5ish minutes.  (this makes sure it isn’t doughy) - do this step while the liquid is thickening
   
5. Mix the vegetables into the milky liquid. Pour entire mix into pie dish. Cover with top crust, seal edges, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush with egg whites.
   
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes (on a cookie tray to prevent spills), or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.If the broth and milk isn’t thick enough, the pie will come out wet and will be hard to serve.  It will still be delicious, and will thicken once it cools a bit.  To make a chicken pot pie, cut vegetables to 2.5 cups, and one pound cut chicken.  Add raw chicken to the vegetables, and boil all for 15 minutes, instead of 10.  You can then also use chicken broth.  Four cups of vegetables would be good, and any kind of vegetables.  Even a bag of mixed frozen vegetables would be great.

We ate the entire pot pie!!! After dinner, we had to admit to Larry we didn’t have anything for dessert.  I mentioned that we had ice cream in the freezer, but we didn’t have any chocolate syrup or whipped cream.  I got out my computer, and found a super easy recipes to make chocolate syrup! (I had to cut it down, the original recipes served 32!)

* 1/4 cup cocoa powder (not sweetened)
* 3/8 cup sugar (3/8 cup = 3 oz, a bit under 1/2 cup)
* 1/16 teaspoon salt (half of a 1/8 teaspoon)
* 3/8 cup water
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

I got out some frozen strawberries we had in the freezer, defrosted them in the microwave, got out some peanuts, and we cut up a banana.  We were able to make banana splits!  We thought we had no dessert, but we ended up having a fabulous homemade dessert.  The chocolate syrup came out great.  It was a fantastic meal.  All aspects.  Plus, my dad did all the dishes!  That’s one thing I love about cooking, no one ever expects me to do the dishes!

Look at the empty pie dish in front of my dad!  That bowl with the red in it are the strawberries!

This was my bowl of ice cream.  It’s a bit messy, but it was yummy!

_______

In non-food news:

I applied to be a substitute teacher today for the Fitchburg Public School system.  I think I should also apply to the other two local towns, Lunenburg and Leominster.   Being a sub would be good hours for me, and I’d still have time for class, and to do my practicum.  I would also get very good experience working with kids.

I think I have decided that I want to do my internship with hospice (working with people who are going to die within 6 months).  I would be able to work with a wide range of clients.  Elderly who are dying and their families, and also younger people who are dying and their families.  Possibly even children who are dying, or working with young children whose parents are dying.  I think that it would be extremely hard, but I also think it would be extremely rewarding.  I think I will learn a lot about life, and about death.  There are hospice places in Leominster and Fitchburg, but I think I should venture out to Worcester.  It would be neat to work in a new community, and perhaps I will be motivated to go out after work.  Also, I definitely won’t have money to pay for an apartment to live anywhere else.  I need to stay living at home, and save all the money I possibly can.  I had to pay my Visa bill today (for my tuition bill); it was $1700.  I am just now starting to freak out over money.  The good thing is that I haven’t been buying anything lately.  My only expenses are gas (but barely), car insurance ($150 a month), and my cell phone ($60 a month).  I need to make at least $250 a month to break even.

I would like to go tomorrow to buy yarn for the afghan I want to knit.  Yarn is on sale (still $4.50 a skein, and I need 8 of them!) at Michael’ s Craft Store, and I have a gift card.    This is the afghan I want to make.  I like the colors, but I will make it without the fringe, because I read reviews that said it was annoying, and frayed a lot.

I am slowly getting things done.  I finally clearled out my magazines and put them in the recycling.  And of course, another Marie Claire arrived in the mail today.  D’Oh!  I got my oil changed this week, only 3,000 miles late!  D’Oh!  I cleaned my room up and bit (and completely made my bed - I never do that!).  I still have two piles of trash that need to be cleared out, including a hair dryer that I broke, because it fell off my bed one too many times (I would fall asleep with it at the foot of my bed, and kick if off). It was slowly breaking in half, and I kept having to push it back together.  Things would rattle inside, but it never caught my hair on fire.  This last time, it made a horrible noise and I smelled smoke, so I unplugged it and threw it in the trash.  I vowed to not buy another one, because we have two other hairdryers in the house that I can use.

I also want to rearrange my room.  It feels like time.  If I do, I’ll be sure to post before and after shots.

These are all little things, but it feels good to accomplish things.

I have only one class left for my degree. Counseling Assessment and Case Management.  Everyone in the program just calls it “Case.”  It’s the last class - the one that is required before I can do my internship. It’s a six credit class, so it’s a double whammy.  We will meet every Monday night from 5-10.  Even though it’s only one class, it’s double the price.  I paid for the class last week and it cost me $1558. I put it on my Visa so I could earn points.  I will be able to pay off the bill in full, but just barely.  I’m not touching my real savings, so it seems like any money I ever make goes right to school.

Years ago I thought I’d be on track to save money for a down payment for a house. This was before grad school. Before all my earned money went to my education. It comes in, and then goes right back out.  It’s very frustrating.

I had a dream last night about Destare.  It was a good dream, and I woke up missing it.  I’ve had plenty of dreams about Destare, but they were all bad dreams, where either I was getting yelled at, or something else bad happened.  Even when things were good there, I would have bad dreams about the place.  When Lance and I were on good terms, I would tell him about my dreams.  I told him I was too involved with the place if I was having nightmares from it.  Back then, we thought it was funny.  So anyway, last night’s dream was good, and I woke up kinda regretting not working there anymore.  Well, not really, but I wished I hadn’t felt like that.  I just had to remember all the bad stuff, and that it HAD sucked, and it sucked a lot lately.  I hadn’t been happy there for months.  Stupid dream!

Since I’m not working at Destare anymore, I’ve been filling in more at Macy’s.  The store manager offered me a continuous weekend manager position, every Saturday night from 5-9:30, and all day Sunday.  I told him I wasn’t interested in working every single Saturday night:  I had just gotten off a job that did that.  I told him maybe I’d consider every other, but I wasn’t positive.  I’m working this Sunday, and my guess is he’ll ask me to work next weekend as well.  I don’t mind doing that, looking at my schedule and saying “yeah, sure, I’ll work.”  But I don’t want to commit to anything.  This Saturday I told him I was unavailable, because I’m going into Boston with mom and dad to go to a Thyroid Cancer Support Group at Mass General.  Then we’ll have lunch and go see Frost Nixen (or whatever that Nixen movie is called).  I’m also babysitting every Wednesday for my family in Leominster.  That’s an easy $50 for a fun afternoon of not doing anything.  They have family friends who are looking for a sitter, but they have four kids - 2,4,6 and 8.  That’s a lot of kids!  My mom also said she knows some people who are looking for sitters - so that’d  be interesting, too.  That will leave me available to do my practicum and have time for class.

I had applied for a part time job at MOC, and I got a call back today!  Unfortunately, she told me it’s a part-time/full-time job, with hours from 8:30 - 2:30, or 4:30 Monday through Friday.  I’m looking more for a job that is only three or four days a week.  I told the lady that I was sorry, but I can’t do full time.  That sucks, but it also wouldn’t be fair for me to get a job, and then have to leave for my internship. But it’s very exciting that I got a call back!  That means they saw my resume, was impressed, and wanted me to come in for an interview (which she gave me the option to if I was still interested).

Megan said that I should come see her in England and we can work on making lots of different food.  I said “Wow, I can come live there for three months like I did in Santa Fe!”  And she said “Well, I wasn’t thinking that long (cause I’ll be at work, and I don’t want you to get bored, plus it’s really expensive here), but I have a friend who maybe needs someone to look after her baby.  That’s in June, so maybe you could au pair for her?”  Holy crap would that be neat!  If I lived in England as an au pair for three months in the summer?  That’d be super cool.  I already have experience with my little baby here, and that’d be a piece of cake.  Little babies are easy, it’s when they start to crawl and run around and put things in their mouth that they’re harder.  But little babies just lie there, eat, and poop.  That’s nothing!  Megan keeps calling it my “post cancer trip.”  She’s so cute!

I was reading in the Boston Globe today that living in the city is bad for your brain.  I guess that nature is very beneficial for the brain.  They’ve done studies that say that hospital patients do better when they can see trees from their window.

It says “While people have searched high and low for ways to improve cognitive performance, from doping themselves with Red Bull to redesigning the layout of offices, it appears that few of these treatments are as effective as taking a walk in a natural place.”

They even said that a long time ago, they realized this, and that is why Central Park is in the middle of New York City.  People need trees and nature.

This is why I think it would be absolutely wonderful to live in a tiny little house out in a field somewhere.

This house is only 681 square feet.  That’s pretty little.  It has two bedrooms, and is a little bigger than their teeny tiny houses, which are around 100-200 square feet.  I would want enough room to not feel claustrophobic, and also enough room to entertain for dinner.  I think the first floor would need to be an open layout for entertaining.  I would love to live in South Carolina, and grow my own fruits and vegetables.  I think these houses only cost about $20,000 to build (and $700 for the plans), so that’s a very tiny mortgage!  Also, I think I read that it’s only about $60 in heating and electricity bills.  Even if it is ten times that amount, $600 a year isn’t bad.  I would want a full size fridge, (or almost full size), because I know that Megan has a hard time with a mini dorm-size fridge in England.

If I had this house, and grew all my own food, I think I would only work as little as possible.  With my Mental Health degree, I could see patients two or three days a week, and the other days would be for my enjoyment only.  I think I’ve decided I’d like to live a very minimal life.  I know it’s very hard to believe, because I love shopping, and my Coach bags, and my iPhone.*  I would love to be able to live my days and do things that I enjoy.  I would knit, and I would write, and read.  I would cook fabulous meals, and run, and invite friends over, and drink wine, and eat cheese, and other wonderful things like that.

I think that I am very very worried that I will end up working at a job that I hate.  And I will wake up every morning not wanting to get out of bed; not wanting to go to work.  I figure with a mini house, and growing my own food, I won’t need a crappy job, because I won’t need that much money.  Maybe Megan and Mac (my sister and brother-in-law, who live in England) could live with me, and we’d live on a lot of land, and we’d each have our own mini house.  Megan and I could look into making organic things and selling them… either organic soaps and shampoos, or organic clothes.  We could have our own line, and money wouldn’t really matter, because we’d make anything we’d need.  We could work if we needed to, but what would be the point?  We’d have food, and a house with no mortgage, it would be awesome!

Thinking about that sounds absolutely fabulous, and it makes me wonder why more people don’t do something like this.  Is it because land you can grow on is super expensive?  Maybe we could live somewhere inexpensive, but still warm enough where we could grow things all year round - like Alabama or Tennessee.  We’d have our own land and our own community, so it wouldn’t be like we were really in Alabama, because we wouldn’t be going to the Piggly Wiggly or Billy Bob’s Country Cookin’.  We could still have cell phones and internet, but a TV wouldn’t be necessary (I’m going with Megan on this one - when I get my own place, I don’t want a TV).  We’d also need a good local library, because with a mini house, we wouldn’t have much room to keep our books.  I would say e-books would be good, but I’m reading the final Twilight installment as a PDF document, and it’s a huge pain in the ass.  I’m just clicking the down arrow constantly, and the clicking noise is driving me insane.

You know what else I would have with my tiny house?  Cats.  And a hammock.  Hammocks are wonderful.

I could go on for hours about how awesome this mini house idea is, but I have to go to the gym.  Then, I need to come home and help around the house.  My mom is being really wonderful, and is just letting me lounge around all day without saying anything.  I’m taking some well deserved time off, but I need to get my butt in motion and help out for the second half of the day.

*This past summer, I walked to the local farmers market, and I brought my Chico Bag with me, and I was being very eco, and was buying fresh produce, and supporting the local farmers, and I was walking!  But as I was walking home, I realized that I was listening to my iPhone and carrying a Coach purse.  It was quite the contradiction.  But, I was able to take this beautiful pictures with my phone, and I only noticed it because I was walking:

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.

Macy*s has this set up called the “Believe Station”. Kids come and write letters to Santa. For every letter that is put in the big mailbox, Macy*s donates $1 to the Make A Wish Foundation.
I wrote a letter asking Santa for power back at least by Saturday when Megan arrived.
Twice.

The hotel was booked for tonight, so we had to move out. My parents are staying with friends the next town over, but I don’t get out of work until midnight, so I’m just going to stay at home in the dark cold. Alone. (I didn’t want to walk into a strange home at 12:45am).
I hope I drive home, and see our Christmas lights on. That would be wonderful.
If not, we have the hotel booked for tomorrow night.

You know how I know that I made a good decision to leave Destare?  It’s Wednesday night, and I’m already dreading having to go to work tomorrow night.  Then, Friday night, my dad’s office friends are having a big party at Larry’s.  For anyone who has ever hung out with my dad, Larry and Trevor knows that’s going to be an awesome time.  Happily, I had already asked Jessica for the night off, because I didn’t want to work Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  And I asked before I even knew about the party!  Sweet!!!  But then, now I’m dreading working on Saturday!  And that’s not for a couple more days!!!  It will, however, be my last Saturday working at Destare.  Alysha said she has some friends coming in for a party, so hopefully I’ll get to wait on them!  That will make it a fun night.

I was driving to Hannaford Sunday night to buy some fruit, and I wanted to stop at Walmart to buy yarn.  I haven’t knit in a long time, and I was thinking “Wow, without working at night, I could spend my nights watching movies and knitting.”  I don’t know about you, but that seems like a fantastic idea to me.  I really want to knit a blanket.  I love blankets, and am under one on the couch all the time, even in the middle of August when its 90 degrees out.  I think it would be awesome to be able to use the blanket that I made myself!!

We had a Brew Year’s Eve meeting tonight at Hooligans after our two meetings, and we got a lot done.  At each meeting we all leave with “to do” lists.  It’s a good way of getting stuff done, but now I have a list of things to do!  Luckily, I passed in my paper for school today, so I don’t have to worry about any more school stuff.  Yay!  Now I don’t have to feel bad about spending my free time reading or blogging.  Cause what else am I suppose to do with it?  I will happily take suggestions for books, especially from Paul who said that Twilight was “written for tweens.”  I’ll admit, I’m still a little bitter about that comment.  Perhaps it wasn’t that comment specifically, but here’s how I feel: “If your comment isn’t helpful to me, or nice, I don’t want to read it.  If you’re trying to be funny, include a smiley face, or ‘lol’ so I know.  Otherwise, don’t leave me something bitter and mean for no reason.  That’s not a nice thing to do.”  If you can’t say something nice, please don’t say anything at all (but I didn’t mind your “douche” comment… that was a good one).   But in all seriousness, Paul, send me books suggestions.  I’ll look into them.  I just read Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) and it was really good!!!

So anyway, we printed up labels for our B.Y.E. postcards, but somehow, the labels printed randomly, and we don’t know which ones printed!  So I’m going through our 150 postcards and marking down which ones we already printed.  I have to go through the postcards, find the name on our mailing list, and check it off.  Then, I need to print out labels for the ones we didn’t already.  I am sitting on the couch with a blanket on top of me, laptop on my lap, and watching TV.

Time to get back to work!

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)