Spin Cycle: Worst Post Ever: My Firsts

This week's Spin Cycle is to post the WORST post ever! This was one of my very first attempts at blogging. I was tagged by my daughter to do this meme. Nobody responded... not even my own kid! I guess it's THAT boring! Anyway, prepare yourself for lots of yawns. This is: My Firsts, Originally posted on November 20, 2008


I don't know how to tag anyone, so if you feel like answering a few FIRSTS, feel free to copy and paste mine and replace the answers with fun stuff of your own!

My Firsts

Well, I considered myself tagged by Gina at My Inner Monoblog.

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? Kevin Kearney, my steady boyfriend

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? Nope. He died in 1990 at the ripe old age of 36.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? beer

4. What was your FIRST job? I guess babysitting Joey and Maria Vangel (those kids are now 43 and 41 lol) My first JOB was at Villa St. Joseph in Darby, PA. It was a nursing home for priests. I served meals in the dining room.

5. What was your FIRST car? a 1975 Chevy Malibu that I inherited from my then husband's grandfather. I got it in 1983 and it had 19,000 miles on it!

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? John Russo :)

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? John. He woke me up shaving and brushing his teeth.

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Sr. Maria Crucius (not sure of the spelling there) this is wrong! she was my Spanish 1 teacher in high school! I have no idea who my first grade teacher was! Sr. um.... er.... it was 47 years ago! 2nd grade was Miss Callum though!

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? Columbus, GA. I was visiting my sister and her family at Ft. Benning, GA

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Kathy Coughlan! She lived next door and she was a year and a day older than me (we thought that was so cool!) I haven't heard from her in about 30 years or more.

11. What was your FIRST sport played? probably bowling. lol

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? I can't remember. maybe Janice Hazinsky's house

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? John, when I woke up.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? My brother, Michael's first wedding, in 1972. I was a bridesmaid.

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Got dressed and drove home

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? Well, Singer, Melissa Manchester and Comedian, Robert Klein came and performed at my high school once. But my first REAL concert? (now don't laugh) 1990, I was 34 years old, pregnant with Dani and we saw Paul McCartney at the Vet Stadium in Philly.

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? I pierced my own ears when I was 13, in 1969. I have no tattoos.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? I went to Germany to vist Peggy and her family while they were stationed there. I changed planes in London first though. So would it be England or Germany?

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? When I got caught parking with my boyfriend, Kevin. I was 16 and my dad's friend was the cop who caught us. I probably would have lost my virginity that night if he hadn't come around. and THANK GOD HE DIDN'T TELL MY FATHER! I wouldn't be alive today to tell the tale!

20. When was your FIRST detention? probably in high school. We used to miss the bus on purpose and go to 69th street to catch the connecting bus to O'Hara. But we had breakfast at Kresge's first. Got to school just in time for lunch! Well worth the detention!

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? PA.

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? Billy Shaw when he dumped me for that slut Mary Downs.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate? at home, it was Anne Marie, Peggy and Jeanne (my sisters) after I left home? My ex-husband Greg.(and to date, my only roommate)

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? to Holy Cross Church, my brother, Michael was getting married and I was a bridesmaid.

So, go on over and visit Jen at Sprite's Keeper, let her know you did a Spin Cycle by leaving a link. She'll link you up with everyone else on Friday!

thinking ahead

My mind is a blank on what to write for today, but I had some ideas for later in the week when I'm running back and forth from the hospital. So I've finished my Spin Cycle, which is scheduled to post on Tuesday and Travel Tip Thursday which posts, you guess it! Thursday! Wednesday I've planned to do a Weight Watchers post and hopefully, I'll be able to post some good numbers. One day I might even tell you my starting weight!

Anyway, I'm getting ready to go to John's for a day or so, so we can spend some quality time together before he goes in for the transplant (4 more days!!) I can't believe the time is here! It seemed like so far away and now it's just a few days away! It's rather scary, because we don't know what to expect. He's handled the chemo so well so far. I'm afraid of what he'll be like with the really high dose. I also don't know the time line for his stem cell infusion. I think the hardest part will be waiting on Wednesday for the phone call to tell us a bed is ready for him. Last time it took 2 days to get a bed!
One thing I know for sure is he won't have a roommate because he'll be in isolation.

Well, I better get my butt in gear! He's working but will be done by 11:30 pm.

Dear So and So

Dear Mother Nature,
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you so very much for FINALLY taking Auntie Flo away and giving it to some sweet young 13 year old! I think having Auntie around for FORTY-TWO YEARS (minus the 3x I got knocked up) was quite enough!

Flashing but happy, Joanie

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Dear Auntie Flo,

Sorry, lady, but you have SO worn out your welcome in this body! Go bother someone else for a few decades!

Had enough, Joanie

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Dear Customers,

Are you aware that 10% is NOT a good tip? What's the matter? Will it tax your brain too much to try to figure out 15% or, god forbid 20% (buy a clue....$40 check.... see that $4 tip you are leaving? now double it! ) Maybe we need to have on the check that servers make a whopping $2.83 an hour. I have 2 kids in college. 10% ain't gonna cut it! I hope you or one of your kids gets a server job. I'll be sure to return the favor if you ever wait on me.

Unhappy server, Joanie

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Dear Alix,

Thanks so much for the advice and encouragement on the WW thing! I bet you never thought of yourself as a WW coach!

Love, Joanie

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Dear Java, the Prodigal Cat,

I was so glad to see you this morning! I thought you were long gone. But all I wanted to do was pet you. There was no reason for you to hiss at me and try to bite me! I am glad to see you are hanging around the house now that I've left you some food and water near the steps.

Hoping you'll stay and become less wild,
Mom

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Dear Son,

Dude! You got ANOTHER parking ticket! This time in NJ. This one is for $29. You better pay it right away so it doesn't become $100 like the last 2 you got! Last year, they threatened to arrest ME because you didn't pay for 2 parking tickets. I love you, kid, but I'm NOT going to jail for you! Pay the friggin' ticket!!!

Hugs and kisses,
Mommy Dearest

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Dear Lurker from Suck Creek, TN,

I love the name of your little town! Please come out of hiding and let us know the name of your blog! Or just say hi!

Curious, Joanie

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Dear Mother Nature,

YOU SUCK!!! So not funny to make an appearance 10 f'ing seconds after I post a blog about you! I should have known this headache was a warning. Silly me for thinking that 46 days after your last unwanted visit that you were finished with me. I really hate you.

Pissed, Joanie

Want to join the fun and do your own Dear So and So? Well, go to Kat's place at
3 Bedroom Bungalow to Let in Crazytown, grab a button and just do it! Let Kat know and she'll link you up!

Travel Tip Thursday: Philadelphia! Quack! Quack!

This is my first foray into the travel tips. I'll be talking about a few fun things to do in Philly, and the surrounding areas, if you plan to visit the area. But before I do, I want to thank everyone for their fabulous encouragement for me as I begin my own trip into a healthy lifestyle! I plan to blog about my Weight Watchers journey on Wednesdays, which happens to be my day off and my weigh-in day!

OK, so off to the business at hand!



If you happen to be in Philadelphia and it's summertime, a really fun thing to do is to Ride The Ducks! A duck is a bus of sorts which is actually an amphibious truck from World War II. They were overhauled and refitted as tour buses. But these are like no other tour buses you'll ever see! (unless you happen to be in Baltimore MD, Branson MO, Seattle, WA, or San Francisco, CA to name a few)

The ducks take you on a fun-filled tour of Olde City Philadelphia.

The Duck!

You'll ride past a lot of historical buildings as the Captain, who doubles as your tour guide, drives though the streets of downtown Philly. Everyone gets a"Wacky Quacker" and the Cap'n plays loud funky music and you entertain the alfresco diners along the route.

The Duck as it looked during WW II

Some of the sights you'll see are Independence Hall, The Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, Philly's Vietnam War Memorial, Society Hill (shhhh!!! no quacking as you ride through Society Hill. The rich mucky mucks don't like noise, poor babies) and other places. When you arrive at Penn's Landing, the Duck takes to the water and you sail over to the Camden, NJ side of the Delaware River and back again!

Duck on the water!

Click on the link above to get more detailed info on this really fun experience!

Come on back next Thursday for more places to see and things to experience in the greater Philadelphia area!


If you want to get in on the fun and tell us some terrific places to see in your neck of the woods, join Pseudonymous High School Teacher and add your name to Mr. Linky! Or you can stop by her place and see what others have written about their favorite places to visit!

You meet the nicest people here

Last evening, I had the pleasure of meeting, via cell phone, the wonderfully inspiring Alix of Casa Hice!! We chatted for about an hour (with a few disconnects because cell phones like to do that)

As you know, Alix has been quite successful in her journey to fitness. I had a question or two and I wanted her advice on Weight Watchers, so I sent her an email and before I knew we were chatting LIVE, on the phone!

I've been struggling with my weight since puberty. I've gotten myself down to fighting weight a few times in my life and I really want to get myself healthy again.

With John going into the hospital for a month in a short week, I'm so afraid the stress of that is going to make me balloon up and I want some help.

I was recently diagnosed with Diabetes and I have high blood pressure. Let's not even talk about cholesterol! I know someone who no longer has diabetes because she knocked off a bunch of weight. I want that to be me too.

Lately, I've been feeling OLD. My knees hurt, I have arthritis in my right hip and leg. I find myself walking slower. I can't run up the steps any more. In the morning, I have to walk down the steps one at a time, like an old lady. I am becoming my mother and I hate it! Enough is enough.

So, with all that being said, I've decided to join Weight Watchers online. There's no way in hell I'm going to be able to go to meetings. Not now. Not with working and driving an hour each way to the hospital for the next month or so. So I think the online way is the right fit for me.

I know, with my busy schedule, I might not be able to cook meals for myself too often. But a lot of the WW frozen meals are pretty good. I've had them before. I can also take them with me to the hospital because there will be a microwave right in John's room! It's a hell of a lot healthier and cheaper than buying that cafeteria food!

Last October, I joined Planet Fitness when one opened near me. I went, for a while, then stopped, then started for a few days, then stopped. You get the picture. I was all ready to quit. But it's only $10 a month. I think I'm going to wait on that. I'm thinking I might want to use the treadmill and bikes. It's cool in there. It's open 24 hours a day. I can go early in the morning. Yeah, I think I'm going to give PF another chance.

Anyway, wish me luck! I was going to keep quiet about this, but changed my mind. I'm thinking with posting about this, it will keep me motivated, with all of you watching!

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Say It Isn't So!!

So I got my AARP magazine in the mail today, and Who is on the cover? The Boss, himself, Bruce Springsteen and the caption reads THE BOSS TURNS 60 . Sixty???? Seriously? How the hell did that happen?


My youngest kid leaves for college in 4 weeks. Is it wrong that I'm thrilled to pieces? You know that Staples commercial, where the Dad is riding the shopping cart all over the store and singing It's the most wonderful time of the year and the kids, with heads hanging, walk slowly behind him? Well, that's how I feel.


It's funny how, in my head, I feel like I'm in my 20s. Then, I get out of bed and the arthritis in my hip and down my thigh reminds me that I'm verging on 54. Sometimes, reality is a bitch.


I think I'm FINALLY going into menopause! About damned time! Forty+ years is long enough!


Am I the only one who got stuck on watching The Great American Road Trip? And does anyone else despise the Pollard Family and Di Salvatore Family as much as I do? The Pollards (from Newton, AL) are about as redneck as you can get and the Di Salvatores (from Yonkers, NY) can give the Housewives of NJ a run for their money in how obnoxious they are. Both of these families hate the Cootes Family because they keep winning the King of the Road challenges. I sure hope the Cootes win this game!

Why not go over to Keely's place and grabbing the RTT button and do some randomness of your own!!


My good friend, Joanna at The Fifty Factor is celebrating her 100th post with a really cool giveaway! Why not check her out?

Blog It Forward Award!

Ice Queen at The Constant Chill bestowed this wonderfully fabulous award on me today! (I do love getting these awards! They make me feel like my blogs posts are worth reading.) Thank you, Queenie!

I think I'm supposed to pass this on to someone whose blog inspires me. I'd like to give it to the terribly funny and really lovely Hallie at The Wonderful World of Weiners . Her work in raising funds for Organ Donation in honor of her Dad is inspiring. I swore to her that this is not a bribe to win a cool prize on her raffle.... what??? Hallie was also very helpful to Mary Ellen at Adopting M.E. when she was looking for her birth mother. That gal can dig up all kinds of stuff (have you seen her pics on Morbid Monday????)

Anyway, Hallie please accept this award with love and admiration and pass it on to someone who inspires you!

Eights!

Joanna at The Fifty Factor was doing her best to avoid the tasks at hand and did this meme. She didn't tag anyone but I thought I'd play along, just for fun. You should stop by and see her. She cracks me up! So here are my Eights!

If you want to play along you are supposed to:

--Mention the person who tagged you.

--Complete the list of 8's

--Tag 8 others and let them know. (I'm not naming names either for the tag, so anyone can play along... or not.)

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1) John getting better ( that was a no-brainer)

2) My youngest going off to college this month (4 more weeks but who's counting?)

3) Work to get busy again (summer sucks for the restaurant biz, unless it's raining)

4) Seeing some new movies.

5) Having a girls' night out with my neighbors.

6) Catching up on my bills. (I'm getting there!)

7) The next season of Lost! (I know I have to wait until January. boo)

8) The new season of TV shows. (some of them look interesting!)

8 things I did yesterday

1) Worked.

2) Got Buffalo chicken pizza for dinner. yum!

3) Was thrilled to see the boy up the street finally mowed my lawn!

4) Caught up on reading the blogs (I fell way behind while I was at John's)

5) Got a decent night's sleep last night.

6) Unloaded some books on people at work.

7) Figured out how to add a link on my blog! (Thanks Patti!)

8) Did a little weeding in my way-overgrown garden.

8 things I wish I could do

1) Retire!

2) Get rid of the arthritis in my hip and leg. (then I could do those splits, too, Joanna!)

3) Get back to fighting weight (without too much work)

4) Win the lottery has a nice ring to it ( I'm stealing this one, Joanna!)

5) Go on a nice long Caribbean cruise.

6) Visit places I've always wanted to see, like Ireland, Alaska, Greece to name a few.

7) Go to New York for a few weeks and see the entire Metropolitan Museum of Art.

8) See lots of musicals while I was in NYC too!

8 places I've traveled to

1) Germany (twice)

2) Austria (once by accident, once on purpose)

3) Mexico (twice)

4) Connecticut (to visit online friends)

5) New York City (fun fun weekend with my sisters 5 years ago)

6) Georgia (to visit my sis and bil at Ft. Benning)

7) North Carolina (for my BIL's retirement from the Army)

8) Massachusetts (for my brother's wedding)

8 places I'd like to travel to

1) Ireland

2) Greece

3) Alaska (on a cruise tour)

4) Hawaii

5) the western US (John wants to do a train tour though the west)

6) California

7) Australia

8) Canada

New Spin Cycle just below this one! See? Right down there!

Spin Cycle: Digging For Gold In the Archives: Water Leaks!

This is a post from December 15, 2008. I think this video is hysterical!!!

Jennifer and Jim kept getting huge water bills. They knew beyond a doubt that the bills weren't representative of their actual usage, and no matter how they tried to conserve, the high bills continued.. Although they could see nothing wrong, they had everything checked for leaks or problems: the water meter, outdoor pipes, indoor pipes, underground pipes, faucets, toilets, washer, ice maker, etc., all to no avail. One day Jim was sick and stayed home in bed, but kept hearing water running downstairs. He finally got out of his sick bed to investigate, and stumbled onto the cause of the bills. Apparently this was happening all day long when they were not at home. Knowing that few would believe him, he recorded a video of the 'problem' for posterity:

Because I'm weird like that, I counted 10 flushes in that 2:47 time frame! The comments by the videographer are funny too! Mystery solved!

Jen at Sprite's Keeper has lots of cool spins from folks. Check it out and maybe add your own spin!

Light The Night Fundraiser

Does anyone know how to make a cool widget for my fundraiser? I'd love to add the link to the Light The Night on my sidebar! I found the picture (see it? it's right there on the right ---------> well, it WAS when I first posted this! ) Now all I need is to add the link below, so if you click on the picture, you can bop right over to my fund raising page! Easier said than done!

Hey! It works! Thanks Patti!

Hey! I did a Dear So and So post just below this one! Read it if you want.