Hey Everyone!
Soooooo sorry that I haven't been around, lately - just cramming for my exams and getting ready to blast off to WDW in 2 weeks!
I was just catching up on everyone's posts from the past few days - wow - I really missed a lot, around here! But so many great things to celebrate...........I don't even know where to begin!
First of all, welcome back Wendy! Great to hear from you! You sound wonderful and really happy! And so glad that you had a wonderful trip and that all is well with your family! Congratulations on that great weight loss and on your tatoo - I'm sure that you look fantastic!
Congratulations on getting your braces off, Caroline! It's obvious from your picture that you have a beautiful smile, and I'm sure that it's just all the brighter, now! Hope that that muscle pull from the end of last week is long gone.
I loved "listening" to you and Emily discuss your goals, aspirations, hopes and dreams! You are both so ambitious, energetic, realistic, practical, and intelligent that I can't imagine either of your not accomplishing every single one of them! (Even the celebrity meetings - I must add "resourceful" to that list........you'll find a way!
) As for being able to come here and discuss your thoughts freely without concern for your age, you have come to the right place!
The only time I even consider either of your ages, or Depply's, is when I read your eloquent, thoughtful, interesting, and fun posts and think to myself "wow - I wish that I had been that clever, insightful, humorous, driven, and successful when I was that age(s)"! Seriously!
I love hearing about your experiences, what you're doing now, and what you all hope to do in the future, too!
I think that your fundraising idea is amazing, Emily! Ooops - I mean "wicked good"!
See - there's a good example - I don't think that I would have the time, patience, energy, or ambition to be able to put something of that scale together NOW, muchless when I was your age! I never would have been able to think of something so original and feasible and be able to make it work, but it sounds like you have all of the bases covered (if you'll excuse the pun, Fast Pitch!
)! Please keep us posted and let us know how your plans progress - it would be fantastic if you could get that together for the end of the summer! And I enjoyed reading your essay, as well - beautifully composed!
Congratulations on the purchase of your new home and the sale of your current home, Colleen! Great news! It sounds like everything worked out even better than you'd imagined! And even though your WDW trip will be postponed, it will just give you more time to enjoy and settle in to your new home........and to look forward to your upcoming trip!
Also, I absolutely loved what you said about being a "somebody" and how one's sense of success changes with time - I really need to hear things like those, now, since I beat myself up so often about having changed my life's "direction" so many times over the past year - I'm not used to being on "uneven footing" or not being able to define my hopes and dreams and aspirations as clearly as so many of you did, a few days ago. So what you said - though you were describing yourself and your own experiences and feelings - was really meaningful to me.
Bon Voyage, Elaine! Have a wonderful trip to WDW and enjoy! We'll be thinking of you! And congratulations on YOUR great weight loss - another "skinny Minnie" (again, if you'll excuse the pun!) around here! With all of the athletes and people losing weight around here, we might just have to put together our own "EWP Suite Fitness Show"..........then we'll all become big celebrities, ourselves, and that's how we'll all make our millions..............what was that I was saying about not being as realistic or practical as Caroline and Emily??
Hey - it could happen, I suppose!
But anyway, I digress.......(can you tell that I'm delirious from studying too much??) I think that's so neat that your tatoo honors your Mother........and that there is a hidden Mickey in it, as well! That is a wonderful tribute and expression of yourself! And congratulations on DVC, too!
11 MORE DAYS, LINDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soon we'll be counting down in the single digits!
I loved your post about the apples and the wine, too! How was the Mother-Daughter banquet with your DD? And how is everyone else doing? The scales went up for me overnight, too - just a few pounds - but I'd like to believe that they are just those "phantom pounds" that we were discussing - the type that are prone to "fall off" with water weight loss, in a day or 2. Sometimes if I eat something that is very fiber-dense for dinner the night before, the scales will go up.........but I know that they're not "real pounds", either. And since I happened to have a lot of beans last night, I'd like to blame the rise on them - not "real pounds"!
All this to say, a million dollars says that your scale is right back where it should be, by now! How is your packing coming along? I'm going to hold off on starting to pack until my exams are over, in the middle of next week. In the mean time, we've been getting things organized, trying to "firm up our schedule" in terms of what we're doing on each day and when we're meeting up with our CM friends, etc. I can't believe that we'll be there and we'll be seeing you in just a little over a week!
Aside from studying, I survived my 20 year high school reunion on Saturday and Saturday night! I was a bit anxious about it, since I'd initially envisioned everyone asking "so, what do you do?" and my saying "I'm unemployed" and then their asking "so, how many children do you have", and my saying "none"..........and getting all these weird looks from them, like "what a loser!".....you get the idea! But then I started thinking more clearly, and acknowledged that I'm doing what I want to do and living my life the way that I want to live it - maybe for the first time ever - even if it's not necessarily completely "conventional". That's why what Colleen said really "hit home" with me - both the "being a somebody" part and the discussion of one's decision to have children or not. Anyway, in addition to being a little nervous about how my classmates would react to my "lack-of-career/child-free status", I was also a little apprehensive because I had worked at my high school for a short period of time in the mid-90's, and was let go for seemingly no reason - I just think that my boss didn't like me. And I knew that I would have to face him for the first time since then, at the reunion. But...........everything wound up working out wonderfully! My classmates were great, and in fact were intrigued by what I guess they perceived as my "carefree / free spirit status", rather than judging me because I don't have a career or children. In fact, I learned that a lot of them had either recently changed careers or were in the process of making a change. And they were all very complimentary of my appearance, which I appreciated! And I thought I handled the meeting with my old boss very well, too (that was a big accomplishment for me)! So all in all, I realized that I had had all that anxiety for nothing, and had a great time! And I also made some interesting "sociological observations":
1. Men gossip way more than women do...........especially when there is alcohol involved.
2. Women "miraculously" turn blonde......... immediately after hitting age 35.
3. The legal profession seems to have turned uninspiring - there are lots of lawyers out there who work in just about any field but Law.
4. High school teachers have long memories.
5. Women age much more gracefully and beautifully than do men!
Hi out there, Angie and Depply!
Hope that all is well with all of you! Have a great day! Will try to check in again as soon as I can!
gee must have been those 20 mickey ice creams that i ate....
)
wow...!!
I'm feeling very melancholy thinking of it!
))- some time very soon! Hope that you're all having a great day! 
