I have this wonderful, dear heart on my friends list.  In the many years that I have known her, I have seen her grow so very much as a human being.  I've had the blessing of knowing her through the good and the bad, the ups and the downs.  I'm a better person today for having her in my life..

In the last year, I have been witness to an incredible journey of health improvement.  She has shown me on so very many levels that anything IS possible, if I'm just willing.

She's about to embark on yet another fabulous endeavor.  Rather than blather on, I give you a letter from her:

In the past year I have taken drastic measures to improve my health.  It occurred to me while doing this that I am able to change my health for the better on my own, but there are many people who do not have that same ability due to illness.  That is why I have decided while pursuing my goal of good health that I would like to help others who cannot help themselves.  On September 20^th, 2009 I will be participating in the ING Philadelphia Distance Run in Philadelphia, PA.  At this event I will be representing The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through their Team in Training.

      The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society strives to find cures for blood cancers including: leukemia, lymphoma (Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin), and myeloma, while providing support, services, and information to patients and their families.  It is estimated that currently there are 894,543 Americans living with leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

      Funding provided from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and its supporters to research has resulted in an increase of 5 year survival rate for leukemia from 14 percent in 1960 to 51 percent in 2005.  The survival rate of children with acute lymphocytic leukemia has increased to 86 percent from only 3 percent in 1964.

      For these reasons I am asking my family, friends, neighbors, and the businesses* in my local community to contribute what you can to the fight to find a cure.  If you are unable to donate at this time I want to thank you for allowing me to share with you my journey and goals.  Please also feel free to share this letter with your family, friends, neighbors, and local businesses. 

      Donations can be made using  my secure website http://pages.teamintraining.org/cpa/phildist09/spriniski. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.  Without the support and involvement of people such as you The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society could not succeed.

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I left for work early today so that I would have enough time to swing by Target and get some allergy pills.  My usual work shoes have worn down to the point that the bottoms are broken in half, my feet hurt horridly an hour into my shift, and I end up with gigantic holes in my socks by the end of the day.  Because of this, I decided to try to wear the Dr. Martens I bought (new) for $10 back in Phoenix.

Part way into my walk to work, I remembered - painfully - that my feet have grown over the years.  I ran out of room very swiftly.  By the time I reached work, it felt as if my pinky toes were shredded to pieces and I was finding it difficult to walk.  Well, crap.  Money is tight and I didn't really want to invest in a new pair of shoes, especially since I know that I HAVE to buy new work pants before next payday, too.

I hate shopping.  I HAAAATE SHOPPING.  The only places I ever LIKE to shopping to are used book stores.  Other than that, I abhor grocery shopping and absolutely refuse to to clothes shopping unless I'm completely out of lucrative options.  I have a severe hatred for spending MONEY on such things.  I don't know if it was my welfare upbringing (because my brother's the same way), but I cannot stand to pay more than $25 for a pair of shoes, or $20 for a pair of pants.

I get to Payless and - HUH?  I get to buy $70 worth of shoes for $18?  Two pair, both of which I can wear as work shoes (one absolutely so ugly and awkward looking that I just feel in love with them and both in men's shoes) that are normally $34.99 each.  Both are on sale for $12, and the have a BOGO 1/2 off of ANYTHING.

I leave in a good mood and head to Target.  What I snagged for a quick lunch (brat + soda) is usually $2.50 before tax, but it's on sale for half off!  Yay!  I drag my feet to pants and.. what is this?  A pair that would work perfectly and amazingly in my size for $10?!!?  I need allergy pills, which I believe are $6.  .... only FOUR?!?  ROCK!!!  I look up and see a neti pot.  I had been wanting to buy one, you see, but didn't want to invest the $35+ that I had been hearing they run for.  Target sells one (albeit plastic, not porcelain) for $14?  And it has a $2 off coupon attached to it?

WIN.

So, instead of only getting a pair of pants and a pair of shoes for about $60 as I had planned, I scored two pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, a lunch, food for work for three days, a box of meal bars, a neti pot, a bottle of pretend Benedryl, and coffee for a month for the same price.

Now I see how shopping for bargains can be addicting.

Not to mention the sheer joy of taking my cramped, shredded feet out of my old shoes and sticking them into spacious, comfy new ones?  HEAVEN.

Yanno that episode of Family Guy where Peter gets three wishes from a genie and his second one involves his own theme song?  Where the music gets all happy as he's skipping down the sidewalk, gaily swinging shopping bags back and forth?  That was so me.

I had planned on posting it here for you to see, but it seems impossible to find a clip on the nets.

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I had read AGES ago that my beloved OK Go were coming out with a new album in Spring of 2009.  I've been trying like mad to find additional information on it, hoping greatly that it would live up to my love of the other two; so many times I wait on baited breath for a new album from a beloved band and am completely let down by the results.  (*cough*SloanPrettyTogether*ahem*NickelCreekWhyShouldTheFireDie?*hoof*)

Finally, I find that it is currently set to drop in September (/cry) 2009, and is titled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky.  The title is much longer than their other two releases (OK Go and Oh No).

I bring you, once again, OK Go in the backyard dancing and OK Go on treadmills.  If you would rather see the band singing and playing instruments, you can watch them blow up things.

It all makes for great walking to work music.

I also love them for turning one of their rocksy songs into this.  (Be warned - awesome hand bells but annoying girly screams.)  If you would like to hear what the original song sounds like, go here and click "What to Do" and lissen.  LISSEN.

Instead of going to bed at a reasonable time, I have been dinking online, composing this pointless post, and wasting time.  My alarm goes off in less than six hours, woo!  Yay, freight day!

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What a sleepy Saturday.

We've been lazing around all morning - Daniel in the dining room watching old movies, Jess on the livingroom floor playing Final Fantasy Viii, me dinking on my baby priest Paperclip in WoW.  There were things I had planned to do today, but all I want to do now is sleep.

I shall watch Wristcutters: A Love Story instead.  This is my third attempt at watching the movie - the first time was when I received a message that Mom was in the ICU again (she was released back to the special care facility yesterday) so I was preoccupied, the second friends came over to purchase my brother's WiiNES.  (I love calling it a WiiNES.)

I wish I would have remembered to toss some beans in first thing this morning to soak.  I could be having beans und rice for din din.

I find it funny that my cat lets stale pumpkin smelling farts.

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I love the tangle of kitty paws and that it looks like there is no way it could possibly be comfortable... but she's been like that on my lap for about 20 minutes without budging.

I have one mondo caffeine headache.

I woke up naturally at just after 6 am.  Upon looking at the clock, I said, "Oh, HELLLL, no" out loud, rolled over, and forced myself to go back to sleep.  Dreamed that I had a husband and a daughter that I loved fiercely.  I was dying and knew it, but sent my husband and daughter out on some trite errand so that they wouldn't be there to watch me take my final breaths, as I knew they would be painful and I didn't want to put them through that.

Will be taking Roommate Daniel out for lunch today, as it is his birthday.  The boys returned from Hawaii last night, one with a sliced open foot (Dan) and one with one helluva farmer's tan/burn (Jess).

Received a notice of entry from the apartment complex, insisting that they are painting our front door today.  We must leave the front door open until it dries, you see, so I foresee a future of Bacci in the upstairs bathroom.  I also think that it's silly that they insist on painting our front door before they've painted the building.  They stopped the painting process halfway through the building next door about two weeks ago, so it's green on its top half.  I've also seen what the doors look like after they finish painting the building, which would certainly require yet another painting... maybe it's a mistake.  I just don't want them to do this when no one is home, as I don't want to come home to a missing cat and empty shelves where all of our electronics used to be.

I shall end this entry, then, as my headache is making it difficult to string together related sentences.

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Home from the dentist.  I worked REALLY REALLY HARD the last year in order to get my mouth from a horrid peridontitis issue to what it is today.  Almost zero bleedy gums with all the implaments of torture thrown at it.  I would say that out of the last 365 days, I've flossed for at least 350 of them.  About the only thing that could have made my cleaning be any easier is if I actually used toothpicks.  My lady was quite happy and pleasantly surprised.

However.

I apparently have a new cavity (dangit!) and have a fractured tooth (eek!) which need to be fixed.  One filling and a crown will cost $765 - AFTER insurance.  They asked if I wanted to set up a payment plan - I told them I would get back with them.

Did my brother a favor and picked up his check and deposited it for him.  (Reminder: the roommates are in Hawaii at the moment.)  He couldn't figure out why it wasn't showing, so I called them... to discover they had put it into someone else's account.  Apparently typing in "Jesse Harrington" vs. "Jessie Herrington" will cause this to happen.  It's now fixed.

So very thankful that I have a solid two days off after my 6 am shift tomorrow.

Have a weird craving for Lackey's Talia books.

Heat wave coming this weekend, but today was almost perfect... until it hit 70 degrees.  I hath discovered that my time away from Phoenix hath caused my heat quota to be in the mid 60s.

I'm such a weather weenie.

The news is asking where I was when St. Helens erupted.  Lessee, I was five, living in a tiny town in Iowa.. and completely oblivious.  I can see St. Helens quite clearly from where I live in its beautiful whiteness.

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Work, work, work.

Yesterday and today was filled with needy people.  Not just every customer needing babysitting to pick out their stuff, but also managerial needy.  So stinking many calls...

I need a gift card!
I need a price override!
A person on the phone hasn't gotten their furniture and is angry!
This person got the wrong thing delivered and is angry!
There's a delivery at the back door!
Call for MOD on line one!
Customer at ImPress is angry!

I was supposed to leave at 3 pm and have already worked more than I was supposed to this week (which wouldn't be a problem if overtime was allowed), but was able to leave until almost 4.  I wonder what kind of mileage I put in, especially as each and every call seemed to come when I was in the furthest possible place to be in the store and still be in the building.

It occurred to me the other day that HOLY CRAP, there's only three months left until my walk to the coast for the American Cancer Society.  I really really REALLY should be utilizing that gym membership I've been paying for every month, and SOON.

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89 words

Typingtest

1st try.

Boo.

Yah.

Second consecutive day off... maybe I'll accomplish something today?  WoW servers are down, so I won't be messing with that for a few more hours at least.  I still feel weird, unfocused, restless, and... something intangible today.

Maybe more coffee will help.

Bacci is still driving me NUTS as far as her suddenly weird demands.  She gets super duper clingy and unhelpful for a bit (i.e. stomping on my keyboard, blocking half my keyboard, etc.) and then will disappear for a few hours as she heads upstairs to sleep on my bed.

I thought there was a car alarm incessantly going off outside.  I poked my head out the door to see where it's coming from and see two people across the way standing out front looking to their left at a person who is sitting in a car laying on the horn.  Umm.... stop plz thx nao.

HA!  Tiny trust.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

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Okay, so I saw Star Trek on Friday.

ZOMG.

Shall we discuss?

Let's discuss.

The roommates are in Hawaii for the week.  I'm finding myself wishing that I had the entire week off of work, to do whatever I please.  Alas, I have 40 hours of work and a dentist appointment in the mix.

What are your guilty pleasures?

I find that I'm stupidly in love with Biggest Loser and America's Next Top Model.  I occasionally listen to Fall Out Boy.  I adored the movie Doom.  I DID read the Twilight books, and did get a sappy enjoyment from it (though not an all-out obsession).  I occasionally crave a scrambled egg and peanut butter sammich on toast.

I feel sort of sporadic and unfocused today.

Tried to hook up the dvd player that Roommate Daniel loaned to me, but I can't seem to find the cables.  Poo.

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Would you like to get to know me better?

I am thusly opening a Q and A session.

Ask me whatever you wish, and I shall answer as honestly as possible.

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