Living strong

As I mentioned last week, this Sunday was my third year participating in the LIVESTRONG Challenge. Every year, I am amazed by the size and scope of the event, and every year I plan immediately to go back next year. But what I forget each time, is how profoundly I am touched by the survivors and other participants of the Challenge. Events like this can really put your life into perspective.

Husband driving you crazy?



At the finish line, there are two lanes, one for survivors, one for everyone else. This couple was walking in front of us as we neared the finish. As they got close to the end, the man (a survivor) grabbed her hand as they walked in their separate lanes across the finish line.

Kids making you nuts?



This five year old girl crossed the finish line in the survivor lane, with her mother on the opposite side. She was asked to come up to the podium and given a prize because, well, she's five years old and is a cancer survivor. She was so sweet and timid, and it's impossible to imagine the things she's already been through in her short life.

This year I'm going to try to remember that little girl and that strong couple, whenever my very blessed life seems too difficult. It's amazing how much we take for granted.

On a lighter note, here are a few pictures of my friends and me before and after the walk/run/ride.







On one last note, thank you to my friends and family who donated to my fundraising efforts this year -- it is greatly appreciated!!

Photoshopping babies

My cousin's son turned one last week, so there was a big birthday party for him over the weekend. Full report and pictures to come, but for now, here are a couple of pictures that I've been playing around with on Photoshop. The first one is Jack, the birthday boy, and the other is Ben, a friend's 4 month old. Such cuties!

Don't call me baby

"Hey hun!"

"What's up girlie?"

"What can I get for you sweetie?"

Are you my husband? Are you my mother or father? No? Then don't call me hun/girlie/sweetie/your choice of annoying name.

If you do, and we don't know each other, I will assume that you are being way too comfortable with me, which will result in dirty looks.

If you do, and I DO know you, I will assume that you have forgotten my name and get offended, which will result in dirty looks.

Bottom line, save the pet names for your dog or your significant other. Not for me. Okay? Glad we had this talk.

P.S. I know this is supposed to be a photo blog and I haven't actually posted pictures in a while, but I'm getting to it. Plus I've been grouchy all week, so please indulge me in my bitching and moaning.

Go ahead, pick a fight

I will be participating in the Philadelphia LIVESTRONG Challenge for the third year this Sunday. LIVESTRONG, if you're not aware, is Lance Armstrong's charity that raises money to help cancer patients and their families.

I participate in this event in honor of some important people in my life who have battled cancer, some overcoming the disease, some losing their lives to it. And this year, I walk in support of my good friend, who lost her mother to breast cancer this year.

The LIVESTRONG Challenge is an amazing event that touches the lives of not only the 6,000+ participants in Philly alone, but many families who will be helped by the over $3 million dollars that has been raised this year. If you feel so inspired, you can donate to my fundraising efforts through this link.

And I would highly encourage you to consider participating in the Challenge in 2010 (it takes place in several cities across the country) if you've never done so before -- you won't regret it. I'll be taking lots of pictures on Sunday, and I'll be sure to share them next week.

Here's my team at the event last year. All a little bit tired, but it was a great time!

No, you're not the only one

If you've already seen this, I apologize. But I just got a viral email that made me laugh out loud, so I thought I'd share. I pulled out the points that I liked the most, because there were about 100 of them. Basically, these are all wise thoughts from 20-somethings, a majority of which you have probably thought yourself.

• I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
• I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?
• That's enough, Nickelback.
• I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
• There is a great need for sarcasm font.
• Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
• I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
• How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
• LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".
• Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart," all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart."
  
• How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
• I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
• While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.
• MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
• Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
• I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
• Bad decisions make good stories.
• You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
• I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
• I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
• I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
• Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
• It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
• I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

My personal favorite is the one about keeping numbers in your phone -- this is an essential survival strategy, let me tell you.

Can I go back to college?

If there happen to be any college students reading this, I have a piece of advice for you. DON'T GRADUATE. My suggestion would be to go the route of "Mendel Doug," the famed Villanova student who reportedly stuck around for about 8 years without graduating (reports on his actual tenure are varied). Because he was too dumb to finish? No. Because he was smart enough to know that these are the best days of our lives (yes, I know I'm stealing song lyrics).

Nasty cafeteria food, tiny dorm rooms (eek, the closet space!), finals, papers -- there's plenty about college that is not particularly appealing. But you will never have a social scene like that again. Random Wednesday night and you're bored? Guaranteed you can find friends to hit mug night at a local bar with. Weekend nights? You and your whole pack of friends probably have your choice of 5 different mixers/parties/open bars to pick from.

Then you graduate. And hopefully find a job. And your friends scatter around the country looking for jobs of their own. And it's never the same again.



One of my best friends from college moved to Connecticut this weekend, where she'll be getting her Masters degree at Yale (fancy schmancy Ivy girl). I'm so excited for her, but I also know that she doesn't have family in Philly anymore since her parents retired to the Southwest, so she doesn't have much of a reason to come back here. Which means, other than planned trips to CT, or her coming back to visit me, we're not going to see much of each other. Which sucks.

Don't get me wrong, I love my life. I have a wonderful husband and I have been lucky enough to fit in really well with his girlfriends who live locally, but somehow not being able to have a spur of the moment girls' night with the friends who saw me through the ups and downs of college is depressing.

So until I convince them all to move back to Philly (from Connecticut, Chicago, DC, Jersey, etc.), there will be lots of Facebooking, Gchatting, e-mailing and texting to get us through. And, of course, daydreaming about the days of college when all of your friends lived within a 5 mile radius. Sigh.

Chasey gets photoshopped

I mentioned last month that Geoff got me Photoshop Elements as a birthday gift. I haven't really done much with it yet because I'm completely overwhelmed by it, but I figured I should start playing around with.

Don't expect too much - at the moment I'm still working on the basics, but you've got to start somewhere, right?

Anyway, here's Chasey, with some minor Photoshopping. More to come as I (hopefully) learn some new things.

Bringing some life into the house

There's nothing like fresh flowers in the house. I bought these gladiolus at the grocery store and they keep getting more beautiful as they bloom.



My grandmother always had the most beautiful orchids at her house. When she passed away, I adopted one of her plants, which I'm trying hard not to kill (my mother doesn't have such good luck with them). So far, so good.

I ♥ Faces - Week 31 - Crazy, Silly Faces

I discovered I ♥ Faces about a month ago, and am completely enamored with the site. Each week, they have a contest where visitors are encouraged to post pictures in a certain category, which are reviewed by a judge who picks his/her favorites.

I've never thrown my hat in the ring before, but there's no time like the present, so here it goes! This week's category is Crazy, Silly Faces. Most people have pictures of little kids being funny. I have my husband.





I keep telling him that his face is going to get stuck that way, but he never listens.

And the "Just for Fun" category is Pets, so of course, here is Chasey.





Head over to I ♥ Faces for tons of great shots, you'll be sucked in in no time!

Down by the boardwalk

I have no regrets about taking a full two weeks for our honeymoon, but it does mean that I'm left with very little vacation time for the year. Which also means, no summer vacation. However, my aunt and uncle rented a house down in Ocean City for a couple of weeks, and they were generous enough to invite my family for a couple of nights.

Unfortunately, we managed to time our trip perfectly with monsoon season at the Jersey shore, so we spent most of our time in the house, but we squeezed in a trip to Atlantic City and to Brown's for homemade donuts.

Overcast skies didn't keep the crowds of people off of the boardwalk.



The sun was nowhere to be found, which is for the best for me and my pasty skin.





Hanging at the house.





Playing hairdresser. Clearly we were bored.



I hope that everyone out there is going on fabulous vacations that are not getting rained on!

Does that come in my size?

My cousin's wife is pregnant with their first child, which will mark the first grandchild on my dad's side of the family. Over the weekend we had a baby shower, where the mommy-to-be received some ADORABLE gifts. And really -- I would like some of those clothes in my size.











I can't wait to meet this baby!