Happy birthday, Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. He would have been 54 years old today.

He was always trying to look so badass, but he was really a softie.   :-)   I love you, Dad.

Normal blogging will resume tomorrow or possibly Saturday- tonight I want to just take the time to write in my journal and let all my thoughts and emotions flow and get everything out. There'll be tears (there already have been), but that's okay. And there will be some laughter too- new eps of Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock tonight- all of which are guaranteed to bring me a little laughter... trust me, my dad would have wanted that. One of the best things about my dad was that he had a great sense of humor.  :-)

I hope you all had a great day and a wonderful night. And if you are reading this and if you can, do me a favor- call your dad and tell him that you love him.  It was the last thing I got to say to my dad, and I thank God I had that moment.

Health Fair fun

Yesterday was my company's annual Health Fair. I LOVE the Health Fair, and I go every year. I really like that my company does this for us- I feel that they do a really good job of promoting health, fitness, and nutrition to employees- they offer healthy choices in all of our cafeterias- low-fat and low-sodium meals, whole grains, low-fat cheeses for sandwiches, soy milk, a nice salad bar, baked chips, sushi, etc.; we get discounts at a variety of gyms and Weight Watchers, and get reimbursed $150 at the end of the year if we go to a gym/fitness center a certain amount of times per year (I take advantage of that every year!), a gym on main campus; intramural sports teams, etc. I feel that they do a really great job of health promotion where I work, even if not everyone uses it to their benefit.

This year's fair did not disappoint! There were tons of booths with great information... and more importantly, lots and lots of free goodies!  :-)   I collected a ton of great info/pamphlets about a variety of topics, including:

*Yoga (where I scored two free issues of Yoga Living)

*Ways to squeeze in exercise/toning at your desk

*How to stress less/decompress/relieve stress/deep breathing techniques (I noticed this was a very prevalent topic at many different booths... I wonder if my company thinks we're a little stressed out??? Haha)

*How to get a more and restful sleep at night

*Coping with anger/anxiety

*Tips for a better posture/healthy back

And all sorts of fun goodies... recipes, travel first-aid kits, computer mousepads, pedometers, magnets, pens, highlighters, etc. They also gave away snacks- Snackwell's Cookies and Fig Newton Fruit Crisps- which I took, and then took a closer look ingredients, and lo and behold, what did I see on each and every one of these? High fructose corn syrup, as well as a bunch of other scary-sounding ingredients. Yuck. I don't want to just throw them out, because that's wasteful, but I don't necessarily want to eat them, either, so maybe my sister might want them. Or another coworker.

What does your company do in terms of health promotion for its employees, if anything? Do you wish they would do more? Less? (Is it possible to do less, LOL?)

That's about the most exciting thing that's happened to me this week. Still reading Falcon Crest. It's so bad that it's good, you know what I mean? The plot is over-the-top, the characters and the dialogue are flat-out ridiculous.... but not in that "God-this-is-the-worst-book-I've-ever-read" way, but rather the "guilty-pleasure-twenty-five-cent-drugstore-paperback-romance-novel" way... get the difference there?  :-D   I really don't know if it was even worth $2. Fifty cents, maybe. But it's amusing me wildly. I wonder what the TV show was like!  :-D

In food news, I've tried some new food products this week that brought newfound joy into my life:

*Gardenburger Savory Portobello Mushroom Burger- I'm not sure if these are new on the market or new to me, but yeah, I totally dig them! I've already had two and decided that I like it better with salsa than I do with horseradish hummus (although both were delightful). But the salsa really complimented the cheesy mushroomy goodness of the burger. Tonight's sweet potato dinner was a happy party in my tummy indeed:

*I also tried an interesting new combo for dessert last night, busting open my new Kozy Shack No-Sugar Added Rice Pudding that I bought last week:

Please excuse the not-so-pretty picture... I never claimed to have photography skills. Anyhow, this was a container of rice pudding, mixed with some Kashi Honey Sunshine, cinnamon, and a teeny tiny sprinkle of vanilla whey protein powder for satiety love. This was a winner!!!! I'm so glad I have three more containers of this! Although I'm not feeling it tonight... no, I'm feeling chocolate tonight... might be time to break into that Chocolate Vitatop stash in the freezer.... mmmm... chocolate....

*Last but not least- nor is this a new product, but it's new to my life- I have been introduced to the pleasure that is no-sugar-added natural chunky applesauce. Laugh all you want at how simple this discovery is. I don't care.  :-D  I've been buying the smooth/non-chunky kind my whole adult life, because that's what I grew up on, but then I saw this at Wegmans and figured, what the hell. Live a little. And I LOVE it! It's soooo much better than the smooth kind. Chunks of apple right there to chew and enjoy? Yes, please! This reminds me of when I tried chunky natural peanut butter for the first time  (I grew up on smooth), and after one bite, I knew I could never, ever go back to the smooth operator side, nor did I want to. See a pattern here? Although in my defense, I didn't even know they made chunky no-sugar natural applesauce. How about you? Have you ever tried a really simple/well-known product that you had never tried before and realized, where has this been all my life???

Hope you all had a nice Hump Day! We're halfway there.... (cue "Livin' on a Prayer Here")

Time to go catch up on blogs... later, gators!  :-D

I <3 lazy Sundays

Hello fabulous people! I hope you're enjoying the last few hours of the weekend before it's back to the daily grind.  It was a cold, rainy day here- still is! I got my workout in right after breakfast so I could be a lazy bum all afternoon.  :-D   The Phillies got rained out, but luckily there's been a marathon of The Golden Girls on all day long to amuse me.  :-D

I wasn't totally lazy. I took out the trash (in the rain= bonus points for me), and did a load of laundry. I lost a sock! One of my really cute Happy Bunny ankle socks... normally I can track down a missing sock, but I checked the washer and dryer and the floor and everywhere I could think it would have traveled, and I can't find the little bastard anywhere.  :-D   Ah well!

So I'm about sixty pages into Falcon Crest, and it's exactly what I expected it to be and hoped it would be- cheesy, over-the-top fluff. Like Danielle Steel. And not very well-written, although I'm not expecting Hemingway here- it IS a book based off a campy soap opera! But it'll entertain me and help me remember the 1980's fondly for a few days, and that's the important thing.  :-D

Speaking of the 80's, guess what? I was driving to the gym this morning, and you will never guess the song I heard on the radio- "I Think We're Alone Now," by Tiffany!!!! OMG!!! Do you remember Tiffany????  Not somewhere you hear on the radio too much these days!!!! :-D   The sad thing is, I still remembered most of the words... and sang along.   :-D   There's no room for pride on this blog!

Enjoy the rest of the evening and the weekend! I'm off to recreate the fabulous dinner from last night. In fact, all of my meals so far today have been exact replications of the ones from yesterday. Wait, that's not true. I had some chipotle salsa with my tuna melt. Delicioso!

New goodies!!!

I hope everyone's having a great weekend so far! I had a pretty great Saturday myself! I got some new and exciting fun stuff I simply have to share with you!

Right after breakfast I was out and about. First I went to Trader Joe's to get some staples: bread, flaxseed, BBQ sauce. But I picked up a new hummus to try- Horseradish Hummus! Not new to them, new to me. Needless to say, I bust that baby open with my lunch, and I thought it was great! The horseradish flavor was very subtle- I was worried it would be really strong or overpowering. But it was delish! Definitely a repeat purchase! And it's nice to have a different flavor to mix it up a little... I've been eating the red roasted pepper flavor for a while now, it was time to try something else. Success!

From there, it was on to Kohl's! I didn't have as much money on my gift card as I thought I did, but only went about $10 over. I got three supercute new shirts (please forgive the messy room/less than stellar background and crappy picture- I need to upgrade to a better camera!):

I figured I could wear this to work, as a light sweater in the summer.

This was only $4!!!! I LOVE buying clothes off-season because they are so ridiculously cheap.

I totally didn't need this- I already have a Penn State sweatshirt, and technically, I didn't go here (although I wanted to! Long story...), but whatev, it's supersoft and cozy and I looked adorable in it .  :-D

Not bad for $10!

Then it was on to my holy grail Wegmans. I mostly got the usual stuff- sweet potatoes, bananas, peanut buttah, toothpaste, veggie burgers, frozen veggies, all that fun stuff- but I also treated myself to some Kozy Shack No-Sugar Added Rice Pudding. I had found a coupon in Health magazine, and I had tried rice pudding for the first time a while back, and I really liked it, but it's never something I think to pick up, you know? Anyone ever had it? I'm not sure I've ever had any of Kozy Shack's products, although I see them around town on some of your blogs. I can't wait to try 'em out! I'll let you know what I think.

Speaking of food, I chowed down on some yummy eats today. Behold:

Lunch was a tuna melt- low-sodium tuna mixed with spicy mustard and other random spices, reduced-fat Provolone, whole-wheat bread, all grilled up. Steamed veggies and new hummus on the side for dipping delight. Check out that cheese dripping down the sandwich. This was uber-yum.

Dinner was a sweet potato experiment that had been building up in the back of my head for a while now, and I figured tonight was no better night to try it out:

This was just as much a success as I had imagined it to be... a SLOPPY JOE SWEET POTATO! What's that, you ask? Why, it's a serving of Boca ground crumbles warmed up in a skillet with 2 tbsp Trader Joe's All-Natural BBQ sauce and 1/2 tsp chopped onion, warmed up and slapped on top of a tater. More carrots and broccoli, and more hummus (which I actually didn't end up eating, there was so much flavor going on in the potato, I didn't need it!)

Don't worry, I ate other things throughout the day... just no pics. These are by far the most picworthy, don't worry!

Ooooh, Dirty Dancing is on TV!!! I <3 this movie!!!! I'm off to make sure nobody puts Baby in a corner- hope you all had a kickass Saturday!   :-)

Major letdown

Happy Friday, everyone! We made it through another work week, and are now rewarded with two days of blissful freedom!!!! :-)

So, I finished Sickened. And by finished, I mean, skimmed. This book started off really good and completely tapered off and got weird.

The book started off interesting enough- the first third of the book was really focused on the subject at hand, Munchausen by Proxy syndrome. The author endures numerous trips to the hospital, doctors, and specialists, while her mother fabricates and embellishes medical symptoms that her daughter supposedly has. Whether she gave her medicine or made her sick on purpose, I'm not sure. The author did mention that she was malnourished and either fed sugary junk food or just not fed at all. She was not given a lunch or money from lunch, and would barely get any dinner. At one point, her mother gets angry with a doctor who refuses to do open heart surgery on Julie, just to see if there "could" be a problem with her heart. Why that didn't signal a red flag within the doctor, I don't quite understand- what kind of mother suggests open heart surgery like it's a simple CAT-scan or MRI, and then gets angry when she is told that the surgery isn't needed, and that her daughter's tests come back fine? Most parents are beyond relieved to hear that news. Yet no one picks up on it. At this point, I was really intrigued, and wanted to keep reading, to find out what would happen to Julie as she got older, and how it would all be revealed eventually.

And then the book kind of completely fell apart. The last two-thirds of it are an absolute mess. I hope I don't give too much away here, in case anyone is interested in reading this- so I'll try not to give any spoilers here. But I felt like the book completely went off the topic of MBP syndrome and instead focused on the other disturbing parts of this poor girl's horrific childhood. If her childhood portrayal is accurate, then it sounds like MBP was, quite honestly, the least of her problems. In general, she suffered immense emotional and physical abuse from both parents on a daily basis. It sounds like both of her parents were seriously mentally ill. They lived in a secluded trailer in rural Ohio, kept loaded guns all throughout the house and constantly pulled them on each other, the mother was constantly threatening suicide, would lie to her husband and make up stories about the kids misbehaving just so he would beat them, the parents burned down their trailer for the insurance money, and once they got it, they actually abandoned their two children and went their separate ways, leaving them in a log cabin that didn't even have a toilet, etc. There are dozens of more examples I could list. I felt like every page, the abuse got worse and there would be a more terrifying story worse than the page before. I had a really hard time getting through it, as it's not really a book for the faint-hearted, which I definitely am. I had to skim through a lot of the medical procedures, and then once the book got away from all that, I had to skim the descriptions of the physical abuse. It got very graphic at times. And the writing had started out strong, but then it got jumpy and rambled all over the place. And the ending is just really abrupt and weird, with no closure. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say at least that.

I was really disappointed with this book. It was beyond depressing and beyond disturbing. My heart just breaks for this poor woman, all she had to endure- I didn't exactly grow up in the Brady household, but my parents might as well been Mike and Carol B. compared to the two monsters this author had for parents. She went through things that I couldn't even bring myself to imagine- couldn't even bring myself to read. But I bought this book hoping to get some real insight into MBP syndrome- something I really know almost nothing about- and I feel that the book hardly addressed it at all. It is really more of a memoir of graphic child abuse- while a very serious topic, not exactly what I wanted to read about or why I picked up this book. I don't feel that I learned much about MBP at all.

I'll certainly never read this again. I'll just redonate it to the library. Well, at least the $2 I spent on it went to a good cause! :-) And I hope that in writing it, it helped to heal the author's wounds a little. I don't even know how someone even attempts to recover from a childhood like that. I doubt you can. But hopefully in writing this book, she got a little closure.

I needed a really, really fun book after that. A light topic and a fun read. No way I could deal with anything heavy or intense after that! And I certainly got my wish!

Can you believe, this is the second book I've picked from the Media Book Sale that was just two weeks ago??? I've got books that have been sitting on my shelves for, like, five years unread, and my last two picks are some of my most recent purchases! I assure you, I give that box of titles a crazy good shakeup for a minute or two and then pick with my eyes closed- so this is just a big coincidence! Why can't I coincidentally pick the winning Powerball numbers??? :-D

Anyway, I wound up with Falcon Crest, by Patrick Mann. As most of us were 80s' babies, you probably either have maybe heard of this show, or it's possible your mom was watching it while she was giving you baby food. :-D Falcon Crest was a primetime soap opera that was on TV from 1981-1990. It focused on a wealthy family that owned a Napa Valley winery, and a rival family that also owns a winery. If your parents watched Dynasty, Dallas, or Knots Landing, then chances are they watched this too. Ask them- I'll bet they've at least heard of it. My parents didn't watch this, but my mother was a huge Knots Landing fan. As a result, I grew up watching it, and I loved it as a kid, even though I didn't know what the hell was going on. All I knew is that no one worked and everyone had beautiful houses near the beach- my dream life!!! (It still is!!!!) :-) Anyway, the usual soap opera antics ensue here, I'm sure- the backstabbing, the cheating, the dying, the evil twins, it's probably all in here! I could definitely use some mega-over-the-top cheesiness right now after my last read, and we all know that anything from the 1980s has at least a little bit of a cheese factor in there somewhere, so I'm hoping that this will be a light, stupid, and silly read (I mean, check out the cover of the book alone! Hello, 1984!!!). And I'm still working my way through the second season of Knots Landing that I just got a few weeks ago, so this is the perfect accompaniment! :-D

Has anyone ever gotten hooked on a soap opera? Which ones? I watched all my mom's as a kid- she liked Guiding Light, All My Children, and of course, Knots Landing- and I kept watching All My Children throughout college, and some of my college girlfriends were hooked on this now-defunct soap on NBC called Passions- OMG, it was SO bad, but we LOVED it- we used to not schedule any classes at 1 PM so we could make sure we could watch it! We did that all four years! (Why we didn't think to tape it is beyond me, LOL!). Anyway, it was awful- ridiculous supernatural plots, and really terrible acting- worse than regular soap operas!-, and it's not even on the air anymore. Here's some info about it here. Come on, 'fess up! I did, so it's your turn!

All right, I'm off to go make my grocery lists- I'm getting up bright and early tomorrow morning to get my grocery shopping done- I like to get all my errands all out of the way on Saturday morning, so I have the rest of the weekend to relax and not worry about it- tomorrow we're taking a trip to Trader Joe's (yay!) and Wegmans (YAY!!!!). Also I'm hoping to get in a trip to Kohls to pick up some new clothes. I have some gift cards, and I'm in desperate need of some new work clothes! I'm totally worn out from this crazy busy week, so the rest of my night involves making my lists and checkin' them twice (like Santa!), and curling up in bed with my remote (Food Network! Say Yes to the Dress! Golden Girls! Friday night TV isn't all that bad!!!), and maybe my newest read (we'll see; I'm pretty beat, so my mental span might not stretch much further than a magazine). And I might or might not cap off my evening with some microwave popcorn. What can I say... I really know how to live it up on Friday nights, don't I? ;-D Hey, leave me alone. I'm getting old and I had a rough work week. The Golden Girls understand! :-D

Happy Friday!

Short but sweet

Hey hey! Happy Thursday! I'm keeping my post brief tonight, since yours truly has had a headache off and on all day (and trying Power Yoga for the first time didn't make matters much better... I kept looking up to try to follow the instructor, and I got a bit dizzy! LOL), and have just been in kind of a blah mood all day... no real reason, nothing happened to put me in that state, it was just one of those days, you know? Oh well- it's nothing that a l'il Parks and Recreation, The Office, and 30 Rock can't fix!  :-P   Luckily, the Phillies were kind enough to take the night off so I could watch my shows uninterrupted... because, you know, their playing schedule is all about me.  :-D  

Plus I'm behind in reading all of your blogs, and trust me, you all have way more exciting lives than mine.  :-D

I will say this, though- I'm actually a little more than halfway through Sickened already! And I only started it yesterday! Even I'm impressed with myself, LOL! Nah, not really- it's not a long book (256 pages), the font size is pretty big, and I'm skimming over some of the icky medical procedures and medical records/letters from doctors that have a bunch of medical abbreviations and jargon that my simple little mind doesn't understand.  :-D I wouldn't be surprised if I had this finished up by tomorrow or Saturday, so I'll give my review and thoughts then.

I'm off to go bond with my Motrin and make myself a nice tasty dinner before my shows... have a good night, and happy almost-Friday!!!   :-)

Busy little bee

Man oh man... is anyone else having a seriously crazy busy week??? I need more hours in the day, I tell you! (for fun, though, not work- they get enough of my time as it is, haha!) Anyway, here's what I've been up to for the past few days in a nutshell:

*Watching a lot of amazing baseball- the Phillies are kicking ASS so far this year! Although, what do you expect from the 2008 World Series Champs??? :-P Seriously though, they've just been unstoppable lately... the other night, they had TWO grand slams in ONE game! I've never seen that before! I <3 my Phils. Although sometimes I get a little sad, because it reminds me of my dad... I grew up watching baseball with him, we'd play wiffle ball and softball, and he's the one who taught me to love the game... his birthday is coming up next week, May 7, so I've had that on my mind as well.

*Work's been superbusy this week... which I'm not minding, as it makes the day fly by (as much fun as downtime is, too much of it can be a bad thing, because it makes the day drag by soooo s-l-o-w-l-y).

*I picked up mt t-shirt and registration number for the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure taking place in Philly on May 10- does anyone else do this race, in Philly or other places? I do it every year. It's a cause that I feel really passionate about as a woman, and it has affected me personally as well- I lost a grandmother to breast cancer (I'm named after her). She died from the disease back in the 1960s, before there was much really known about it in terms of symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Had she been been a few decades later, she might have lived because it's become such an commonly known disease. Unfortunately, because of the time period, she was diagnosed in a late stage, and there was not much they could do for her when she was finally diagnosed. I also lost a former neighbor/family friend to the disease- Rosemary- she fought it so, so bravely, and wasn't able to overcome it in the end, and she left behind a loving, devoted husband, and two precious, sweet little boys (both, I believe, were under the age of ten at the time, but don't quote me- this was a long time ago, like mid/late 90s'). So it's a disease that I'm passionate about for many reasons. I do the walk every single year. I walk and don't run. I'm not a runner. I admire and applaud all the runners out there- I really wish I could be one- but it's never been my thing. Believe me, I've tried. The Philly Race for the Cure takes place every single year on Mother's Day. I've been doing it for about three years now, and plan on doing it every single year until there is a cure. I'm lucky in the sense that I live near a train station that takes me right into Philly- I made the mistake of driving once, and it was a disaster. Not only were major roads blocked off for the walk, but two colleges were having Graduation Day that same day. Major fiasco. Thousands and thousands of people, and, like, five parking spots for those thousands people. You do the math. :-D Never again! And the cool thing is that the company that I work for not only pays my registration fee and pay for my T-shirt, but they also sell discounted bus and train passes for the event. My company takes a vast interest in community events and health care for employees- we have our annual Health Fair coming up next week, which I love and go to every year. They really make an effort, and I really like that!

*Played around with a few new sweet potato combos (at least, I think they're new, it's getting hard to keep track!!!):

Sweet potato + broccoli + Boca Tomato Bruschetta Parmesan Patty + roasted red pepper hummus= fabulousity.

*Last but not least, I finished Sense and Sensibility... I LOVED IT!!! I was having a hard time getting into it at first- the language was dense and it was definitely a book that required my undivided attention- but the more I read it, the more I loved it! Ah! So good! Now I get why women worship Jane Austen! I can't wait to read more of her books! I think the next book of hers I want to read is Emma. I know that the movie Clueless is based on Emma, and I love the movie Clueless (come on, who doesn't???), so I think it would be a really fun read! I'll be on the lookout for Jane Austen books at used book sales from now on!

*And I'll conclude my recap with my latest read:

I thought it was funny that I randomly picked this book, because I just bought it two weeks ago! Sickened, by Julie Gregory. The memoir of a girl whose mother purposefully sickened her because she had Munchausen disease and was psychologically ill- she made Julie sick on purpose and made up false symptoms, because she craved the attention she received from nurses and doctors. I'm actually already about sixty pages into it, and man, did this poor girl have it rough! Not just from her mother, but it sounds like her father was definitely troubled as well, he came from a broken home, the parents had a miserable marriage, the mother was (obvi) psychologically troubled, they lived in a secluded cabin in rural Ohio because her parents were suspicious of other people (and, incidentally, racist= NOT cool). They hurt Julie both psychologically and physically, and clearly seemed to favor her younger brother. And she's only ten years old at this point. My heart is just breaking for this poor kid!

Well, the blog isn't the only writing I've been neglecting lately- my journal has been ignored as well, so I'm off to go take care of that right now! Happy Hump Day!!!! :-)