Date Update: Date #2

So I had another date last night with match.com date guy #2, aka the cancer center dude. It was fun and I laughed a ton! He decided it was make fun of cancer patients (aka me) night from 10-12 last night, but it was hilllarious. We saw the movie 21 which was pretty good, but it was LONNNG and I started getting antsy at the end. It started at 7:30 and we didn't leave until a little before 10, too long for meeee! Then I took him to a little Italian place near the spa I usually go to. It was pretty good, we were totally keeping them open though, they turned off the open sign when our food came, ha ha. Oh well!

The best part of my date was that I had given him a project since he travels for work most of the week and stays in hotels... soooo I explained my shampoo problem and told him he needed to steal me fun stuff from the hotel, like shampoo and lotion, (even though I really don't like hotel shampoo, duh) and I even requested a postcard from New Jersey, which unfortunately was not found. BUT he did show up with a bag of hotel goods, and he even went to the Hotel Marlowe in Boston where some of his coworkers were staying and took their stuff too! Kinda like showing up with flowers, right?? ha ha

So the date wasn't awful, we'll probably hang out again, not sure when though. That's my story.

XO

Chill Out

It's been a while. Whoops. I'm really excited that it's Friday. This week just dragged and dragged. All I wanted to do was get a little extra sleep, I'm still battling my sickies unfortunately. I went to the doctors last Friday and she said I had bronchitis and she put me on antibiotics, but weak ones.... so I'm still taking them and I'm still not 100% --- boo :( I'm looking forward to sleeping late tomorrow, which will hopefully make a world of difference. Well it better, I'm officially full time this coming Tuesday, and meh, I'm going to be a sad sad lamb in the morning. I might even have to take up drinking coffee or something. Whatevs, I'll deal. Once I shake these sickies, it'll help.

I planned on doing nothing tonight, which was pretty awesome. I even did a bunch of cleaning last night, because this girl can't relax without things being clean and organized, which is funny because I've decided I'm kind of a slob that just cleans a lot.... whatevs. My place is clean now. I watched two movies I had from Netflix. One was Griffin & Phoenix which was such a sad movie. If you've fought or are currently fighting cancer, don't watch it. It made me cry. It's basically about two terminally ill people who fall in love, and it was funny at parts, but mostly sad. I actually talked to a girl at work today who turns out her brother died this summer from cancer, he was only 21. I almost started crying right then. Maybe I'm just hormonal.... I started thinking about Morgan and the others that have passed away from the hodge... it makes me so sad. Especially with someone like Morgan who was really one of the sweetest people in the world - not to forget the most hilllarious. I started telling the girl from work about her and how funny she was, and the pillow cases she was supposed to get... that were a day late.

I'm ready for a change. I'm sick of people marketing their cancer bullshit to me lately. If every friggin' cancer group starts bombarding you with email bullshit, you'd hate them too. I'm so over cancer, it's for losers. I'm sick of the myspace/facebook requests to join some stupid email group for cancer just so they can bombard me about raising money and shit. I don't have any! And even people currently fighting cancer don't want to be bombarded with this shit on an everyday basis reminding you that perhaps you're genetically challenged or something.

I want to start being healthier. I hope I have it in me. Sometimes I wonder if I don't have the willpower to get old Kelly back. I know it's one step at a time, but sometimes I feel like I'm just taking the escalator instead of taking the stairs...

Currently listening to: Ray LaMontagne - Trouble

Do You Like Avon?

If you do, me and my mom are selling Avon together. Soooo if you're interested in it at all, you can get free shipping on any of your orders, so it doesn't matter where you live (probably only US though, sorry V). Anywho, to partake in the Avon festivities click here and use the coupon code REPFS when you check out.

Email me if you have any questions.

XO and happy shopping!

Count Down To The Anti Hodge Bonanza - 99 Days!

Hi all. I'm still sicky, even took today off to prevent spreading my yuckies around the office, and get some sleep. I basically slept all day which was much needed. If I'm feeling like crap tomorrow I'll be hitting up the doctors. I'm slightly scared I have bronchitis or something since I have such a deep cough, even coughed up a lil blood today -- yuck! But I'm a trooper, so I'm hanging in there.

The Anti Hodge Bonanza is getting closer and closer. It's going to be the weekend of June 28th. Veronica and Wullie get to Boston on Thursday the 26th from Scotland, and then most of the others get in on Friday and stay thru the weekend. Thus far, the master plan is most people arrive on Friday, we have festivities and touristy stuff on Saturday afternoon, including a duck tour! We commissioned Ry Ry to create some shirts for us, so we can be one obnoxious group on the tour. Then Saturday night we're going to have a big dinner/party at a place to be determined -- if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know, I think it's my job to figure it out. I think we'll need to rent out a room at a restaurant. Then we'll all sleep off all the champagne that Wullie promises to buy us and head to Sherril's house in Salem for a cookout on Sunday. The count of people is about 25-30 -- which is pretty amazing since a bunch of them are flying in from the West Coast.

I also checked in with an editor I know at the Boston Globe to see if she knew if anyone would be interested in covering our bonanza - I think it's a good feel good story for the Sunday paper or something. She said once I have the official details to tell her and she can pass the word along.

So mark your calendars because June 28th is a big party! Oh and if you didn't have the hodge but may have fought some other cancer and want to partake, let me know, the more the merrier! I know that Baldylocks is going to try and come and she had Leukemia, so bring on the cancer fighters :)

Other than that not much is going on. I've got the windows open right now and am trying to enjoy some fresh air and feel better - it's actually helping a lot. This weekend is Easter weekend. I'm not super religious or anything, but there might be a small family brunch or something, so I might go visit my parents -- but I'll be leaving all my valuables in fancytown. Afterall, my dog misses me... yeah totally random (well sort of) but when I talk to my parents I eventually make them put me on speakerphone so I can saw hi to my dog, and he freaks out now and barks at the phone, it's pretty awesome, he misses me. Oh and that reminds me, I need to find him a new Easter lamb for his lamb collection :)

I hope you're all doing fabulous and drinking lots of vitamin C to keep the sickies at bay.

XO!

Me + Sicky Doodles = Sad Lamb!

Sooo I'm home being loopy and fighting the never ending sickies going around my work... my cube neighbor has been hacking up a lung for the past few weeks, and this week there has been more coughing all over the office. Yuck. Hopefully I can just sleep it off and be feeling fabulous tomorrow... I went to work today but left at 4pm on the dot (yaay)! I put sweats on and made dinner --- which by the way was amazingly delicious... let me ramble and tell you what I did...

So I had left over plan pasta from last night, but didn't want heavy red sauce, and I'm having trouble finding one I like these days (I really love tomatoes!) soooo instead this is what I did...

In a medium fry pan I warmed up some oil and then added a chopped clove of garlic... I let it sit for a few minutes, then cut cherry tomatoes in half and added them to the pan... I added some salt and pepper, and kept stirring them... then I smooshed the tomatoes and made a paste-ish sauce which not only smelled amazing, but it was! Sooo anyways, I also cooked some fresh broccoli and added it to my plain pasta, and then added the tomato smoosh garlic goodness... and it was DELISH! And it was quick. I should have made chicken and added it to the mix, but still really good! Sometimes I amaze myself! :)

Hmmm what else is new? Well I went on another match.com date on Sunday... with the unabomber himself this time (I kid, I kid!)... this guy was more normal and at least could keep up with our conversation easily -- and was allowed to drink, and didn't kill people in his spare time, yada yada yada... I just don't know if we're going to get married... ha ha. We'll probably hang out again, but I'm not sure if it'll be a new friend or what... time will tell... I'm not sure if he's really my "type" but he's at least funny, speaking of funny...Funny thing about him... yeah he works for a software company that makes software for radiation oncologists! Ha! So we talked on IM before we met and he told me how there are so many cancer center shit holes in the United States... and I played along and said oh yeah? And he joked and he said, "Yeah if you ever get cancer I can tell you where NOT to go and where to go." So I played along and was said, "oh yeah? Tell me some of the good places?" And he mentioned NEMC and MGH, didn't mention Dana Farber, but whatevs, we know that's a good place. So then my response was, "Funny story.... I had cancer last year AND got treated at NEMC" ha ha! Awkward conversation out of the way :)

Umm work has been okay this week. I'm officially going full-time April 1st, it's just gotta happen (unfortunately)... because I end up doing the hours anyways, just not getting paid timely, soooo come April I'll be 8:30-5:30pm.... I'm going to have to start doing back roads to get to work then so it doesn't take me an hour in traffic. Bleh. But yeah this week has been okay thus far, I got my client to provide a quote in a story for the Boston Globe this morning, which was very nice to see. Makes me not feel like such a PR loser lately, whoop! Give me a few weeks, I'll sure I'll meet that funk again ....

Other than that, not much else is going on. I'm really loving a cd Wullie gave me a few weeks ago - it's 19 by Adele and it's just great. There are a few songs at the top of my playlist you should take a lil listen to them and maybe you'll like em.

Hope you're all doing fabulous, send some anti sicky vibes my way!

XO!

I heart Friday's...

Winter makes me boring. I'm so glad it's almost over. I really hoped you all enjoyed my OCD dude post, and YES he did email me this week thanking me for dinner and asking me out again... RIIIIGHT. Anyone that writes a novel to the unabomber is not for me!

I'm really excited that tomorrow is Friday. This week has kind of been dragging for me. It's tough when I'm really busy it feels like there is no end in sight, and then when I'm only normal, then the days drag too! I went in most days this week for 10am though, which is awesome! It's been tough because I haven't been able to stick to my hours, umm basically since I came back in November. I'm going to go back to work full-time really soon and will be meeting with HR tomorrow morning to discuss it. It's too tough money-wise to not be full time too, I get paid on the normal pay dates that work people do (15th and 30th), then at the end of the month my payroll has to get submitted to disability and then they need to mail me a check for the rest of the 20 hours that I didn't get paid for -- and that's the tough part, sometimes I don't get that check until a month and a half after the end of the month... I still haven't gotten February's pay yet, so that's another thing that's pushing me towards full time. I don't want to be bouncing checks or anything, and my rent is expensive I know, but I heart fancytown, so I'm not leaving. So that means I need to get full time status, and maybe work on getting a raise or something eventually... that would be helpful... I feel like I've really been pulling my weight lately, hopefully other people see it as well... but you never know... I also sometimes wonder if I should look for some sort of stupid part time job for weekends or something, extra cash, stuff to do, new people, etc... I dunno...

I'm rambling. But I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday. Hopefully my meeting tomorrow goes well. Hopefully I do something exciting this weekend too, but I'm not making any promises. I've got plans on Friday and Sunday, so good enough for me. I know I need to break out the green for Sunday and Monday as it's St Patrick's Day on Monday - the only time of year that my green sneakers make sense!!! :)

I hope you're all well. Oh and if you have any suggestions for our t-shirts for the Anti Hodge Bonanza in June, please let me know and I'll pass 'em along. Thus far I proposed, Anti Hodge Bonanza (no one seemed to like it) and I dodged the Hodge (but some peeps may still be fighting the hodge so we can't use that either) ... so that's all I got... suggestions are welcome :)

XO

"I can't drink tonight, I'm on new meds for my OCD"

So I thought I would post something funny and since most of my posts have been kinda 'eh' lately....

Soooo you know how I have a match.com account? Well I kinda hate it and haven't met anyone from it and I haven't been on a date in forever - except with Pat or Hippy which doesn't count, because Hippy is gay, and Pat's, well he's just Pat...

Soooo this guy started emailing me on the site, he seemed a little boring from his emails, but I like to be an optimist and think maybe he'll show up and be hot and awesome....

So he asked me last week if I wanted to meet at a 99 for dinner... sure I love potato skins there, ha ha! But then when we were coordinating (via email) date/time stuff.... and he writes in the email,

To be honest, I'm currently battling my personal demon (OCD) and I'm not in such good form, often looking distracted and the like. However, if you still want to hang out, how 'bout Thursday at 7pm?

So I obviously shared it with Nicole (aka leg warmers or smelly pizza on my comments) -- he really didn't give me a lot to work with, hey I'm crazy, but let's meet! So I wrote back saying I'm not sure what that means, but if you're feeling okay we can meet... I knew it was going to be awful, but I really just needed to test myself, and shit, I'm part OCD, maybe it'll be okay. So anyways, me and Nicole went out on Wednesday night and talked about crazy match.com guy that I had to meet, basically for really good stories!

Oh some more backstory for him... come to find out, he lives at home with his parents (which is a big no no for me when I'm looking to meet someone online - it's sorta like a red flag, but then I was thinking, maybe I'm just too damn picky)... his dad is a shrink, his mom a social worker, and he does their medical billing! I didn't know that before the date that he works with them like that... too close, and their jobs are kinda creepy since he's tapped....

One other creepy thing... he was an aspiring journalist -- which sounds interesting on paper, however, he's got issues, and in one of his classes in college he wrote a letter to the unabomber, yes THE UNABOMBER!! It was eventually picked up here in adbusters, an anti advertising satireish magazine I used to read in college. Take a look, it's fucked up... again, I was just looking for some new awful date stories... yes, I have lots! I considered this date a 'dry run' for real dating -- I knew he wasn't going to pan out. And Nicole knew where I was, and I said I would call her immediately after... yada yada, oh and duh, I drove myself.... that should answer all your questions on if I'm responsible...

Anywho so I go meet this dude at the 99 in Woburn... he shows up all disheveled, slightly sloppy - but again, it's just the 99 and we're soooo not getting married! So I'm going to give the play by play of the date, I hope I don't bore you with details, however, I feel like they all add up to the craziness....

So I walk into the 99 and see him sitting in the lobby waiting, I smile and said Hi, and he just looked thru me -- PS we both knew what we looked like, so it shouldn't have been a surprise -- then I walked up to him and was like, "Ray?" and finally he said hi. Ha ha... no handshake, fake hug, nothing... ha

We grab a table, and I knew it was going to be painful. So I ordered a beer and then he got water, and I was like, "Oh I'm sorry, did I offend you, do you not drink?"

Best line ever.... wait for it, waaaaiiiittt....

"No I drink, but I shouldn't because I'm on new meds for my OCD"

AMAZING - enter awkward town! :)

So then some more awkward small talk, since the OCD was out of the bag it was tough. I had to lead the conversation and keep it moving because if I stopped asking questions I'd start reading cheapo 'art' on the walls of the restaurant...

I even asked him if he wanted an appetizer, because really, I went for the potato skins... but he kind of ignored my question... soooo awesome

Then we order, and we're still doing the small talk crap... I ask about his CRAZY unabomber letter and it turns out - he tried to turn it into a novel! YEP, you heard right! FUCKED! He got it to 140 pages, but that's as far as it got. CRAZY.

Then I think to myself, okay aspiring journalist, writing once and a while for a small Irish paper in Boston -- so I'm like, okay, let's talk about papers, and the media industry and how things are moving digitally (hello chemopalooza.com), papers and magazines are doing tons of lay offs, yada yada... and the kid knew nothing about any of it. I was like, wow, way to go, you'll get far in journalism! He also doesn't read anything but novels, so again, tough to break into the biz. Ha!

Then since he grew up about 30 min away from where I live now, I thought I would try discussing the technology hotspot that Massachusetts is, and well that didn't fly either - he knew nothing of it. Honestly, I was being quite the intelligent conversationalist...

Then I just keep trying... so he told me he has a 23 year old brother that doesn't live with his family - so I ask where he lives, does he live with roommates, etc? "Umm he lives in a halfway house, he has mental problems"

Yep, another red flag!!!!!!!!! Ha ha!

So then I think to myself, fuck it! And I start to ask about this lovely OCD. And he tells me, "the most well-known form of OCD is things like washing your hands a lot, etc, however, my OCD is't like that. I replay things in my head and can't tune out the noise -- not like voices, ha ha, just ongoing thoughts" RED FLAG!!! Ha ha ha!

Oh one creepy thing I forgot to mention was, he didn't eat any of his food for 90% of the date. He got a sandwich and fries and would eat one fry every 5 minutes... and he said he was going to eat all his fries before his sandwich (dear OCD)... Of course, I was eating the whole time. And eventually I had the waiter wrap up the rest of my food so I could finish when I got home, mostly because I was looking for an out.

So more awkward conversation... yada yada... me reading signs in the restaurant... and then I paid the check and said, "ya know what, this one is on me" ( ha ha !) and then 5 min later, he was still sorta (finally) eating, and I was like "yeah, well I think it's time for me to head home"

So I left, and then he left at the same time, so I tried to make sure he didn't see my car and then hurried home and called Nicole to tell her I was alive...

Ahhh dating... how fun and exciting. But really, at least I got a new story!

Oh and best part is, he emailed me this afternoon saying he'd love to meet up again!! Riiiiiight! I'll get right on that crazytown!

Anywho, I hope you enjoyed my random story and laughed a lot! Sorry it's jumpy, but if I told it to you in person it would be the same way, hilllllarious!

XO!

Bring On The Spring...

So since my last post, my mom did get her ring back. However, my dad's stuff still hasn't returned. Have I mentioned that I hate my brother?? Well, I still do. He's destroyed my family, my parents aren't as happy as they used to be and it's all his fault. He's a toxic person. Someone needs to drive him to a farm and leave him there.

I did stay the night on Saturday, I didn't want to because I got in a fight with my dad -- but by the time I was ready to go, I was exhausted and I would have fallen asleep driving 2 hours home. Soooo, I stayed. My dog was actually waiting in my room to cheer my up - I wish there were more thoughtful people that acted like my dog ;)

Ahh it's another Tuesday, it feels like there is no end in sight to the week. I'm really looking forward to the weekend approaching. I don't have any plans right now, but either way, I don't care. I just want some relaxation. I've been popping the ativan the past couple nights because I can just feel my stress in my jaw... I just want to sleep for like 15 hours. Bleh.

I saw the movie Juno tonight. It was cute, but honestly, I didn't understand the hype. I think Ellen Page was really great in it - I think she acted like I would have had I gotten knocked up at 16.... well maybe with a little more ease. But still, she was funny. Oh yeah, and Jason Bateman is my boyfriend - ha ha.

Other than that, I'm just looking forward to tomorrow being Wednesday, the official middle of the week. I've got a dermatologist appointment on Friday for more shots to my scars... ugh. I hate them.

Anywho, thanks all for your support. I'm looking forward to spring, I need to get out of this winter funk.

XO

The wrong person got cancer...

This was a super long week for me. I was really stressful, honestly, Tuesday's are always the most awful days possible! There's never an end in sight on Tuesday... but eventually, then week continued, and I even was going in for 8 on Thursday and Friday, and those days weren't that awful. I even went out for drinks with people after work on Friday. Then I met Mandy for dinner... so really not an awful Friday. Then I drove to my parents house in the beginning of another big snowstorm! I had a dentist appointment this morning at 7am, and it had snowed since 10pm... thank god for 4 wheel drive! My dentist appointment went well, no teeth to watch for cavities, but I do need to stop clenching my teeth while I'm sleeping or stressed...eh

So anyways... then I'm here this afternoon, hanging out with my parents and my drug addict of a brother --- oh maybe I haven't mentioned that I even have a brother... it's because I literally hate him. He's been in and out of jail since he was like 15 and he's just an awful person. So he recently got out of jail for I have no idea, but something related to his addiction to crack and alcohol and stealing problem. So my parents, being the nice people that they are, give him a chance -- like they have always -- and he's only been out for a few weeks. He's already sneaking and stealing their alcohol -- which they don't even keep that much in the house anyways... my mom bought me a little nip of pear vodka for funnies, and he even stole that!!

Anyways... this afternoon was worse. I know they never tell me things about him because I hate him and will never trust him. He used to rob me when I was 13 and babysitting! So far this afternoon my mom realized he stole an expensive ring of hers that she's had forever... he pawned it or whatever to some most likely drug dealer, and now is supposedly getting it back as I type... ya know, with my parents money so my mom can get her dear ring back! So since he's been gone, my dad realized that his new digital camera and ipod are also missing.... seriously, don't you think the wrong family member got cancer!?

Let's hope my parents get thru this crap... I'm not sure if I should stay here tonight or run to my place...

XO