I did it!!!!!!!!!

Finally!

Only one of the best days ever

So yesterday, September 29th, was the Rob Thomas concert... and well if you know me well enough you know that I adore him... My brother is on the road with him right now and they were coming to Charlotte, so naturally he got Phil and I some tickets.... as I am sitting in my kick ass seats, my brother is texting me and waving to me to come on his side of the stage... So I run my ass over there to see what he wants, and hes like follow me... Beyond the big gate, standing there waiting for me is Rob Thomas... I about had a heart attack... I was shaking and nervous and no clue what the hell to say to him... He gave me a nice hug which calmed my nerves a bit... I thanked him for his music and all it has done for me, and got me through in the very rough years after losing Michael.... He told me to enjoy the show, it was going to be a great one, and it was... 2 hours of non stop Rob singing his beautiful music.... He gave me another big hug and a kiss on the cheek and took a picture with me...

There is just about the lyrics to his music that seems to always fit something or other in my life... My love for him is not one of lust or desire, but more admiration for all he does, and all he shares with the world... He is truely an amazing person, and I am so blessed to have spent a few minutes of my life with him.... <3

So on that note I leave with 2 lines of a song of his that I plan on including in my tattoo for michael, (when i finally get it done)

No, you will not be forgotten

and you will not be alone

Ok so with all that being said... Im sitting here suffering from the flu, my entire body hurts, my head feels like it wants to explode, my throat is almost impossible to swallow, and i generally feel like crap... lovely

stuck in a rut

ever since i came back from Charleston, i feel like i am stuck in this food rut, i havent been eating good at all... i have had Taco Bell and McDonalds a few times, and each time i finish i feel like crap because i know that i just did damage to all my hard work in losing 32 lbs... last week at weight watchers i gained 3.4 lbs.. i expected this since i was away for the weekend... but this week has been up and down, up and down... i think i may have even gained another lb or so... i have to put an end to my quick stops at the fast food crap holes and get back on track... there is no need for this... im not emotional, i have no excuse... but if i keep up with this path, i will be back up that 30lbs in no time... its time to put and end to all the crap...

ahhhh that feels much better to get it off my chest...

so after seeing that clorie keeps up with hers, and she has way more on her plate then i do, i realized that i could definately use this outlet to let it all out... so with that being said, i am going to try really hard to get here and just babble about it all...

ok so lets see what else is new... oh ROB THOMAS concert in 8 days, that is HUGE news... danny is working for him again and they are coming to charlotte... im so excited....

oh and rosann will be down this week as ron gets set up in his new place in greensboro, so hopefully her and i can get together this week and catch up...

work has been slow, but not.. its weird, we are taking alot of our PTO to get it out of the way, so this last week, and this week, im not there much... its a nice little break but im ready to get back to the hussle and bussle of working because then i wont be sitting around the house snacking... =)

phil and i decided to go to savannah in october while im on vacation... we are going to go from tue to saturday the 17th... should be lots of fun... gonna book everything on wednesday and figure out what all we are going to be doing while we are there...

ok well thats about all the time i have for today... haha, not that anyone reads this but if you do, drop a note to say hi =)

playing catch up

Ok so I know I really suck at keeping up with this blog, but hey its here when I need it, so there ya go... With all the other stuff to do its a wonder I have to get over here... There are games out there to play people... HAHA

Anyway... Today is July 1st 2009... I cant believe we are halfway through 2009 already... Where has the time gone? Insane.... But this month is going to be an awesome month, and thats not just cuz its my birthday month... HAHA...

Ok so lets see.. what has been going on? Well I been working, working, and yeah working... and spending my off days running errands, and trying to fit in some time at the pool to work on my tan... so with that being said, Phil and I are heading down to Tampa on the 8th, to visit his mother and hit the beach... not my ideal vacation, but a vacation none the less... and Im doing the right thing by supporting Phil's wanting to visit his mother... Im sure it will be fun, especially since Martin (Phil's cousin) lives down there and he is a riot... The only sucky part is we are driving home on my birthday, so we are going to get on the road early and see what we find on our way home, and make a great day of it...

Then at the end of the month, my aunt and the girls are coming to visit.. FINALLY... I so cant wait... I havent seen them since I moved down here, and I miss them... They are getting so big, I see the pictures and cry cuz I miss them... So it will be a nice visit for them to come down....

Lets see what else... Oh yeah I joined Weight Watchers, 7 weeks ago, and of course I am doing great... Im down 21.6 lbs already, which is really great...being on vacation will be tough, but I plan on trying my best to stick to the plan....

Oh and if life couldnt get any better, my brother went out on tour with Rob Thomas again... that mans music moves me like no other... I <3>

Ok I quickly got bored with writing this blog, so thats all for now... btw, if you want to get me a birthday present, I am accepting donations to get my tattoo done... Its long overdue, and my son deserves it so I must work on getting it done... =)

ok get up with ya's soon... (if anyone even reads this anymore... LOLOL)

coulda been worse right?

today was our district Ops Managers meeting, and it was the second most dreaded day this week for me... i wont go into the first... anyway.... i have such a meeting phobia... i hate being in small rooms with people i dont know and having to speak... it has been something that has haunted me for my whole existance... im not really sure why, but it is just something i am not good at.... i am though a great observer, so this is how i spent my 5.5 hrs of the meeting... i listened, i made notes, i thought of ideas, i made plans... at first i was thinking that the whole meeting was a big waste of time for all of us, but in the end i did really get alot out of it... i learned alot about my position, and just how much of a role i play in my stores success...

in other news... having gotten myself addicted to the likes of facebook and twitter, i had to follow this story... i must say i do agree with ashton to the point of i would rather see and hear the things he has to say then watch some stuffy news reporter who is being censored by the brass upstairs... there are not many news "organizations" out there who do not censor their content, and supply us with a wide variety of topics... as for twitter, i joined after hearing something about john mayer, it escalated from there... i follow a few dozen people now, and its interesting to get a glimpse in the life of celebrity life... and its most interesting to see what they have to say about things that are going on in the world... i think the reason i found myself intrigued by ashton kutcher's tweets was that he and his wife are using their fame to support causes, and spread the word... make sure you check out http://www.malarianomore.org/ give a gift of life in the form of a $10 donation, that donation can drastically improved the well being of another human being...

and finally my last tid bit of babble for tonight... when i started the new year i made a promise to myself that each month i would try something new... whether it was learning something or stopping something, or changing something... last month (march) i failed miserably with the no cuss'n, and in april, i got so side tracked with life that i forgot, although i guess you can say picking back up on my blog and starting to tweet, were new things for the month.... but i digress... so what im asking is for anyone out there still reading this blog, to write me with suggestions for something fun i can do in may... it has to be something new to me, it has to keep my attention, and it cant be illegal :D... so put your thinking caps on and let me know what you come up with...

a walk down memory lane - the ridgefield days

this morning i logged on to facebook for my morning fix, and see a message about how there are row boats cruising through town... apparently a water main break has put a section of town under water, and it got me thinking...





i grew up in a very small town, approximately 2.6 square miles, with roughly 10,000 current residents, im sure back in the early 80's there were more like 6,000 residents... it was one of those towns where you knew your neighbors, you didn't lock your doors, you could easily walk into your friends' houses and grab a snack, without anyone thinking twice...





for the first 4 years my mother, father, brother and i lived in bruce street... a semi big apartment community adjacent to the town pool, sports fields, and the park... there was a creek that ran through our "backyard"... it was the place to be, many a night was spent catching lightening bugs, racing big wheels, playing in the creek, and enjoying a game of man hunt... all the neighbor kids got along, played together, had petty fights, and just generally had a good time... when it was dark enough, you would hear parents whistling and kids making their way back to their porches, begging for just a few more minutes...





at 9, my parents separated and my brother, mother and i moved to broad ave ... we lived in a tiny apartment above a deli, on the main road through town... even still, there were other families right next door and a nice amount of kids to hang out with... the Paratores lived next store, and gerri and i were often found finding mischief, or walking aimlessly down the block... we built igloos in the winter, played ball in the Oritani parking lot after hours, listened to salsa from Erika's house, and just hung out...





as we got older we were able to branch out, walking through town, going to the park, meeting at the "lot", drinking down "railroad", kissing fools behind the schools, going to parties, drinking too much and lying to our parents about our whereabouts... ahhh those were the days...





these were the days before even pagers became the norm, and cell phones? what were they??? we were innocent kids, doing innocent things, sipping on 1 beer for 4 hours straight, sneaking cigarettes from our parents, and washing off our eyeliner before going home from school...





as i got older, my circles changed... there were "clicks" in high school, and i really didn't belong in any of them... i was just there, going through the motions, trying to fit in, being friendly to all (ok maybe most)... when you grow up in a small town, and go to a small school, life is a series of the same ole same ole really... there were 76 kids in my graduating class, prom was only done for senior year (and thanks to Jeff Nunez, mine sucked), the night of graduation was spent together at a country club, staying out of trouble... and then everyone went their separate ways...





after high school i didnt really keep in tough with too many people, as i said before, i didn't really fit in with too many clicks, and the few true friendships i had were all i had left... the small town i knew and loved started getting bigger, the population started to boom, they changed the "circle" to accomodate more traffic... the small town feel wasnt there anymore, at least not from my side of town... im sure had we stayed at bruce st our whole lives things may have been different...





fast forward to 2008, and the inception of facebook and myspace, and other social networking websites, that bring you back to your past, put in you contact with old friends, catching up on the good ole days, and learning about the present... it's most interesting to me to see the revolution of peoples lives, people you played manhunt with, kids you secretly wanted to be friends with, girls you disliked cuz they nabbed your crush... sharing stories of the old days, and watching their children's easter videos... its interesting to see who the people from your small town have become, and where their paths have taken them...

friends, food, fun, family

a whole lotta f's going on this weekend... it's easter weekend, and i was lucky enough to have a four day weekend... saturday night we hit here, with some friends... very nice little set up they had there... i was of course disappointed in the fact that they charge an $8 cover, and $4 a beer, but the entertainment was surely worth it, i would have felt alot better about the amount had we stayed a bit more then 2 hours.. then we headed to some backwoods, redneck bar called jokers in rock hill... it reminded me alot of Docs up in PA, just a little more high energy... aside from not being able to breathe through the cig smoke, it was a good time... then the 4 of us hit up Denny's for some latenight munchies... the whole downfall of the night was not being able to fall asleep til 5am, after getting home at 3am, and then waking up at 10:30 am to start my easter dinner prep...





easter was great, had an awesome dinner, my ham was amazing... lily and skyler did an easter egg hunt... opened their baskets, and we all just sat around and relaxed... see pictures from our day here...





so i have one more day off tomorrow, and the plan is to sit around and rest... and get ready for my long week ahead at work... hope ya'll had a good easter...

time keeps on slipping

i often imagine myself coming here and typing out the words that flutter through my head, but time never permits... im going to try and get better... yeah yeah you have heard it all before... im sure at this point no one even comes here to read anymore... Oh well, with all the things floating around inside my head, i my as well take advantage of this blog and let it loose...





more to come.. promise

this is my niece lily, demonstrating her meditation technique... makes me smile