Hi Everyone!
SG - forgive me for not remembering the exact date - is this the week that your daughter is having her surgery? Or is it next week? I hope that everything goes well - I'm sure that it will.
Helenabear - thanks for sharing your story with me! I am surprised that you ever smoked, considering you're a singer! (I have a friend who is a professional singer, whom I hadn't seen in many years. The first time I saw her, after maybe 10 years, the first thing she said to me was "you smoke, don't you?" She said that she could tell because my voice is so much deeper now than it was in high school, and that that's usually a result of cigarette smoking - I'd never known that, before!) And that was very nice of your friend to encourage you to quit and help you, like that! It's interesting that you say that you are allergic to smoke, now, and that the smell makes you sick - most of the people I know who have quit say that they love the smell of the smoke - my mother would say to me "blow the smoke in this direction" so that she could smell it! I hope that when I quit, the smell will make me nauseous, so that I won't want to pick it up, again (maybe that will happen if I quit and get pregnant at the same time!)! I actually smoked a cigarette for the first time in summer camp, when I was 12. A girl friend of mine and I stole one from our counselor, went across the lake, smoked it, then swallowed like an entire tube of toothpaste afterwards, so that no one would know! We thought we were soooo "cool". I didn't really smoke in high school.....but I became a "real smoker" (ie: buying my own cigarettes and smoking them regularly, instead of borrowing one from someone else every now and again) in college, and haven't stopped since. I know that it's a yucky and horrible habit - I WILL get rid of it, one of these years. Frank smokes, also, but not as much as I do. He doesn't even bring his cigarettes to work with him - he only smokes at night, at home. I'll tell you, it's interesting being a smoker at WDW, these days. Frank and I ALWAYS abide by the "only smoke in the restricted smoking area" rules in the parks, but many people don't (maybe they don't know about the smoking areas). I just don't like when non-smokers walk by the designated smoking areas and give smokers dirty looks - like, where are we supposed to go, if not the designated areas??!! Anyway, I digress.....thanks for sharing your story! I hope that Luis does decide to pop in here and say "hello", some time - it would be nice to "meet" him! And thanks for your kind words about Frank - that is very nice of you! Yes, he is a wonderful guy! I wish that I could get him to register on the DIS and drop in and visit us here, too! Your sister and her fiance are designing their own rings? That's really neat! You'll have to tell us about them, when you see the designs! Frank and I are going to have very plain rings. I just want a plain platinum band, to match my engagement ring. Plus, in traditional Jewish ceremonies, you can't use a wedding ring with stones in it (that's because the ring that the groom gives the bride is supposed to represent "something of value" that he is giving her. The thought is that stones in a ring could be fake and "deceptive", and the groom is not supposed to deceive the bride in any way, so plain metal rings are traditionally used. Some people use a plain gold or silver ring for the ceremony, but have a band with diamonds or other stones in it that they wear every day. I would want to always wear the actual ring that was used in my wedding ceremony!). Even though our ceremony is not going to be completely traditional or religious, we're still going with the plain bands. But I'm curious to hear what your sister and her fiance create! Your family is so artistic that I'm sure they'll be beautiful!
SG - Perfection????!!!! Please! As I sit here at my desk at work (procrastinating, YET AGAIN!), I am glugging down my second Diet Coke of the day (yes, that's what I drink first thing in the morning, instead of coffee!), and if I was writing this from home, I would probably be smoking, simultaneously! Thanks, as always, for your sweet and supportive words! I really did need to drop a few (thousand - hee hee!) pounds. Not just because I wanted to look "better", but because I am so afraid of eventually developing Type II diabetes, like my mother has. Seeing the mess that my mother has gotten herself into by not taking care of herself really scares me. I know that I would never allow myself to become sick or not take care of myself, like that, but at the same time my weight wasn't healthy and it was time to do something about it. Plus, I noticed other things - like when I wore my heels at work, my toes would hurt because my weight was putting pressure on the balls of my feet and toes when I wore higher heels. When we were on the planes, going to and from WDW in June, I noticed how little space there was between me and the armrests. I would bump into things 'cause I didn't realized that I was large enough to bump into them when passing by. Stupid stuff like that. Anyway, I am no skinny-minnie by any stretch of the imagination - I have a long way to go before I will deem myself at a "good / healthy" weight. But in the mean time, at least I'm saving money on new clothes - I have clothes in my closets in (literally) 6 different sizes! So as I'm growing out of a bunch of my clothes, I can go back to others that I haven't been able to wear in awhile - I'm wearing a blazer, today, that I haven't been able to wear in 2 years! Thanks again for saying such nice things, though!
OK - enough rambling! Hope that you're all having a nice day! Talk to you soon!
