I just got this in my email and I wanted to pass it on!  Please take a moment to vote on this very important issue...it could help so many women!

From a nurse:
>   I'll never forget the look in my patients eyes
> when I had to tell them they had to go home with the
> drains, new exercises and no breast.
>   I remember begging the Doctors to keep these women
> in
>   The hospital longer, only to hear that they would,
> but their hands were tied by the insurance
> companies.
>   So there I sat with my patients, giving them the
> instructions they needed to take care of themselves,
> knowing full well they didn't grasp half of what I
> was saying, because the glazed, hopeless, frightened
> look spoke louder than the quiet 'Thank You they
> muttered.
>
>   A mastectomy is when a woman's breast is removed
> in order to
>   remove cancerous breast cells/tissue.
>   If you know anyone who has had a Mastectomy, you
> may know that there is a lot of discomfort and pain
> afterwards.
>   Insurance companies are trying to make
> mastectomies an
>   outpatient procedure.
>   Let's give women the chance to recover properly in
> the hospital for 2 days after surgery.
>
>   It takes 2 seconds to do this and is very
> important .. Please take the time and do it really
> quick!
>   Please send this to everyone in your address book.
>   If there was ever a time when our voices and
> choices should be heard, this is one of those times.
>
>   If you're receiving this, it's because I think you
> will take t h e 30 seconds to go to vote on this
> issue and send it on to others.
>   You know who will do the same.
>
>   There's a bill called the Breast Cancer Patient
> Protection Act which will require Insurance
> Companies to cover a minimum 48-hour hospital stay
> for patients undergoing a mastectomy. It's about
> eliminating the 'drive-through mastectomy' where
> women are forced to go home just a
>   few hours after surgery, against the wishes of
> their doctor, still groggy from anesthesia and
> sometimes with drainage tubes still attached.
>
>   Lifetime Television has put this bill on their Web
> page with a petition drive to show your support.
> Last year over half the House signed on.
>
>   PLEASE!! Sign the petition by clicking on the Web
> site below. You need not give more than your name
> and zip code number.
>
>
http://www.lifetimetv.com/breastcancer/petition/signpetition.php
>
>
>
>   This takes about 2 seconds. PLEASE PASS THIS ON to
> your friends and family, and on behalf of all women,
> THANKS.
>
>
>
> Mary A.C. Schweitzer, Paralegal
>
> Law Offices of David C. Balmer
>
> 3611 Kutztown Road
>
> Reading, PA 19605-1841
>
> 610-929-4020
>
> Fax: 610-929-4276
>
> Email: maryschweitzer@verizon.net
>
>
>
> "Laughter is the brush that sweeps away the cobwebs
> of the heart."

Tomorrow I leave for NYC for the release of the last Harry Potter book!  I can't wait!!!

Oh, yeah, and I also get to see my dad, stepmom, and brother, who I see like once a year.  Yay!

I'll be posting pictures when I get back......

namaste.

happy birthday to me,
happy birthday to me,
i'm closing in on 30,
happy birthday to me!

i can't believe i'm now officially in my "late 20s!"  30 seems soooo close, and there's so much that i wanted to accomplish by now that i still haven't gotten around to yet!

not that i'm not happy with my life, but i feel like that last...oh...say 7 years or so have just flown by.

woosh!

just when i thought i was finally settled and was going to do the same thing for two consecutive years in a row...

my dream school district called and wants to interview me tomorrow.

i'm excited by the prospect of this change, but i find i'm also unwelcoming it a bit, simply because it has the potential to completely upheave my (professional) life.

silly, really, because it would be a good change...i'm pretty sure.  i think.

who know, it's the first interview, who knows what will happen. but i've got good ins there, and they know me, so i have a feeling i could be faced with a huge choice soon.

i'm so bad at making choices!

but then maybe i won't have to?  but in a way, i hope i have to!

the happy part of being offered this interview was that they did want to interview me wed. morning, but then they called back to change it to tomorrow.  this is good, because really, who wants to spend her birthday at an interview??  not me!  :)

i've had a very strange day thus far.

i was at rita's all by my lonesome today.  the weather is bad = people don't want water ice = work is slow.  or is, in theory.  i actually ended up being quite busy, and i could have used some extra help!  or at the very least, someone to talk to.  and someone to witness the oddities that entered the shop!

1. why is it that *some* men feel like they are showering you with blessings when they tell you they're attracted to you?  like they're the first person on the planet to have this feeling, and i should run over and make out with them right away for telling me i'm "beautiful," which was a part of this one's lousy attempt at a pick up line.

followed by:
me: "can i get you anything else today?
him: "i could really use a hug."
me: horrified, revolted expression
him: "but i guess i'm not going to get that here."
me: "no."

sorry, buddy, i'm not some little chick just waiting for a man to come rescue me.  i'm not a wilting flower, thank you very much, and you're not a heaven-sent gift. 

please, can we find more tactful, honorable ways to try to pick up women?

2. a mother walks into the store with a huge, stuffed, purple hippopotamus, and she asks if i will pose with it in a picture.  it is her daughter's 18th birthday today, and she is sneaking around taking pictures of said daughter's childhood toy (hippo) at all of daughter's favorite places.  so now, somewhere, an 18-year-old girl is celebrating her birthday by staring at a picture of me kissing her stuffed hippo.

i'm not sure if i should be freaked out by this or if the daughter should be.

3. two adorable little old women came in, with the proclamation that they've never tried rita's before, and that i must educate them.  when i let them try a sample of coconut cream, the sounds they made were almost indecent.  they were so cute!

man oh man...i must say that i'm quite proud of myself right now!

i have gotten a ton done over the last few days.  i refinished one set of outdoor furniture (one more to go!), cleaned the very icky bathroom walls (i was going to paint, but we might have to re-tile first...stupid mildew), and joe and i built a desk and completely rearranged our work area, since he's working from home again.  it's fantastic; i finally have room on the desk and a work space instead of being forced to do work from the couch!

there's still so much left to do, and i'm kind of burned out.  but i'm sure in a few days i'll be back at it again after a little break!

i feel so darn productive, and, for once, not in a scholastic way.  it's great!

namaste.

wow.  i can't believe it's been a year since i last posted.  so much has happened in a year...it's unbelievable.

some highlights.

- i completed my first official year of teaching, and it ended with a love/hate relationship with my school.  total love relationship with teaching, but definitely love/hate with my school.  still, i'm going back next year, and i hope it's an improvement!

- i moved in with joe.  and the rest of his family.  while we're happily living together, the living space is less than ideal, and we really wish we could afford a house of our own.  i feel like all i do is keep an eye on money, and there is just never enough of it.  stupid credit cards...if only i could have somehow worked a way to go back to school full time and work full time!  granted, i wouldn't change going back to school for the world...best decision ever...but i hate that i'm still paying off the credit card debt from it!  oh well...

- i met a fabulous woman named carrie, who totally understands my work frustrations, since she shares in them with me daily!  love her!

- kate and andy had a baby boy, lowell!  he's adorable, always sticking his little tongue out in pictures, and they became the first of my friends to have a baby.  kate, in natural kate way, takes adorable baby pictures and was such a cute pregnant woman.  i know they will be amazing parents.

i'm spending the summer finishing my master's courses, un-cluttering and organizing my life, writing curriculum, working at rita's (yum!), and trying to squeeze in as much yoga and walking as my energy level (and wallet) will allow.

namaste.

well, my two good friends are officially married!

 

greg and charlotte had such a great wedding; i had soooo much fun, and it was great seeing all of my friends again.  i hate that we live so far away from each other.  the once a year reunions just aren't enough! 

I GOT THE JOB!!!

 

that"s right, i am officialy a high school english teacher!  i"m soooo excited that i have a job, and it is a job doing something i love! whee!

 

i spent the morning of my 26th birthday peeing in a cup for a drug test for my new job.  that was not so fun ;)  it was highly amusing, though, since they make you feel like a criminal.

 

now i have to go to work.  birthdays just aren"t as fun when you get old.  but at least i"m employed!

 

ps...i managed to do something where everytime i hit the apostrophe button, instead of typing an apostrophe it pops up a "find" search bar.  i don"t know what i did, but does anyone know how to make it stop???

i got paid for all of these interviews!  i'd be rolling in wealth right now.

 ok, maybe not rolling.  but it at least would be easier to pay my bills this month!

 

i never realized how exhausting going to a half-hour interview is.  i came home this afternoon just exhausted.  i need a deep deeeeeep breath.  so glad i went to yoga yesterday, although i had trouble focusing.  i couldn't get my mind to calm because i was worried about today's interview since it was a second interview.  

 

at least i'll know in about two weeks whether or not i have this job.  i really think i want it, too, even though it will be a hard first couple of years for me.  i really want it!