Day 8: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 2:11 PM

Hello Hello

Day 8:

After three days of 10hrs each day on a tour, we decided to take it easy and only go for 3.5 hours. So I don't have a lot of "trivia" for you today. Plus, my bro was making fun of the guide. I was laughing so hard I wasn't paying attention. He was talking so slow that it sounded like he was reading the words! Haha

We visited an island today. I thought it was a city or a region like Tuscany... Not an island. See, I was never really good at geography. The capital city is Palermo. The other two islands are Corsica and Sardina.

10 Points: Name the Island we visited

So our guide said that they have been in negotiations to build a bridge to the mainland and it will cost $7B for 2 miles of bridge and it'll take 6-7 years to build. Wow!

Ok so the city we visited is one I have never heard of before, so I don't expect y'all to know. We are in the third largest city on the island. So I'm gonna give you clues to the two parts of the name to get it.

First part: what any mom tells you to clean up?
Second part: the last three letters of my name

10 Points: Name the city we visited

One of the cities main exports is seafood. In particular raise and farm a fish w/ a long snout shaped like a weapon.

10 Points: Name the fish

This part of the country is known for their sweet desserts. I'm not a fan of this pastry, but I know others like the crunchy pastry shell. The inside is usually filled w/ ricotta cheese and it's usually topped w/ whipped cream or powdered sugar.

10 Points: Name this dish

In the city we visited the main cathedral that has the biggest organ in Italy. It has over 16,000 pipes. There was a performance of Ave Maria. It was cool, but took forever. Neil joked that everything in "the city is slow as balls".

Before heading back to the boat, we had a little snack. It's round. It is dough w/ tomato sauce and formaggio. It was hand size. I've never seen them this size, but it was cool.

10 Points: Name what we snacked on


My mom and bro said that the clues/answers are super easy today as opposed to yesterday, so everyone should get max points. Except maybe #2. That's the only semi hard one, but w/ The ORACLE on ur side you should be good to go.


Tomorrow is another sea day, so I will not be sending any updates. Until then... Have a great couple of days.

One more week and we'll be back! Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. I've been enjoying the vacation, but I miss home and sleeping in my bed.

Day 7: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 2:12 PM

Hello hello,

Day 7

We are in southern Italy. The port we docked in has it's Italian name in "That's Amore"
Here's the beginning to get you started.

When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie
That's amore!
When the world seems to shine
Like you've had too much wine
That's amore!

If you don't know this whole song like I do, you may have to look it up.

10 points: Name the city we docked in.

We drove along the amalfi coast. There was so much winding I felt really sick. Those of you who have ever been in a long car ride w/ me where I wasn't driving know that's not a good thing. Although I didn't lose breakfast, I felt horrible. When we stopped in Amalfi, it took me at least 30 mins to start to feel better. :(

Along our drive, we visited the town of Sorrento and went to this furniture maker place that showed us how chair and table wood inlaid veneers are made. I love Sorrento because of the Lemons. They are used to make one of my favorite liquors to drink.

10 Points: Name the yummy nectar made from Sorrento Lemons.

We went to the city immortalized under tons of volcanic ash and pumis.

10 Points: Name the Volcano that errupted

10 Points: Name the city that was buried (I know there's more than one... But I think y'all know which one I'm talking about, but if u give me the other city I'll still give you credit

We visited a lupanare while in the city. There were like 25 of them throughout the city. Interesting...

10 Points: What is a lupanare?
Bonus question #1: What did they order there?
Bonus question #2 How did they order it? (Hehehe)
Bonus question #3: How did the patrons of this city (and others) find the lupanares??
All bonus questions are 5 points each! :)


Random fact of the day:
We learned that Best Western in Italy is a four star hotel chain, but not so much in the US.. Go figure!

Day 6: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:28 PM

Day 6:

Today our tour group number is 21. This number is special to my brother and it just so happens to be the day number in the birthday of the city we are in April 21.

Kristen Bell and Josh Duhamel starred in a movie called "When In..." Where they met at her sister's and his best friend's wedding in Italy.

10 Points: Name the City we are in

The first place we visited was the arena that Italians went to see epic battles that showcased the talents of their gladiators.

10 Points: Name the gigantic arena built around 70 AD

The second place we visited is where the pope lives and it is it's own nation.

10 Points: Name the country we visited.

In this country, we visited the largest church in the world, named after the First Pope also called the Prince of the Apostles.

10 Points: Name the famous Landmark.

We had a nicoise salad and lasagna (tiramisu for dessert, but I didn't partake) at Da Meo Patacca.

Lastly we visited the place you throw coins into and wish for love. I was told you throw w/ ur left hand over your right shoulder. One coin is to return to the city. Two coins is to find love or to stay w/ ur loved one. Three coins is to get rid of ur loved one. Haha. It also had a really big role in the movie I mentioned above.

10 Points: Name the place I threw two coins into. :)

Day 5: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 8:30 AM

Buongiorno,

Day 4 we spent at sea. My mom and bro got massages. My mom and I went to the Art auction and decided to collect more art.

Day 5:
Greetings from the country shaped like a boot.

5 Points: Name the country we are in. (Note: My bro said that if you can't get this one you should stop playing the trivia game! Haha)

Today we were in the city Firenze, but the english name means flower for the symbol of the city, which is a lily. From 1865-1871, this city was the capital of the country.

10 Points: Name the City.

This city is known for leather and gold. My mom picked up some nice jewelry. We visited the "sexy" square as our guide called it, which had statues of gladiators, King Neptune and an exact replica of the statue of David. This square showed amazing sculptures that exemplify the Renaissance which was founded in this city

10 Points: Name the four Renaissance artists that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are named after.


This city has beautiful churches like the Bapistry of St. John, Santa Croce, and Santa Maria. We also learned the difference between a duomo and a cathedral.

15 Points: What is the difference between a duomo and cathedral?
Note: I'm allocating more points for this because the answer is not just it's the italian name. There is a difference and both guides stated the difference

As an extra bit of info... The author of Pinocchio is from this city and we ate lunch at the Palace of Napoleon's sister, Palazzo Borghese.

Finally we visited the city that houses the famous angled bell tower which was built on soft foundation and had three different architects.

10 Points: Name this famous landmark and city.

Day 3: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 2:41 PM

Day 3: we were able to wake up in time to eat free breakfast and it was sooooo good.

It was day 2 of the Barcelona bus
turistic on the blue line.

We drove by Casa Batllo which has blue titles on the roof that are supposed to look like dragon scales. It was design by a famous architect responsible for most of the architecture that the lines the streets of Barcelona.

10 Points: Name the famous architect. Hint: He lived from 1852-1926

For a bonus 5 points (my mom thought this should be 20 points): How did the architect die? (Neil wanted you to look this up!!)

Barcelona has 8 universities today. We drove passed the very first university.

10 points: Name the first University.



During our tour we passed by Palau Reial which is no longer used as the residence for the royal family. But it is used for special events like the reception for the sitting King's Daughter's wedding.

10 Points: Name the current King of Spain.


We're heading off to the cruise ship today. So excited! Our cruise line is another name for an outdoor festival and the ship name is the act that is restricted to wizards under the age of 17 to practice outside of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter universe.

10 Points: Name our cruise line and ship.

We have a suite with a little deck. It's pretty cool. I'll tell you more about it when I have more time. I probably will not send anything out tomorrow cause we'll be on the boat all day and the internet rates are horrible (this is costing me a fortune). My next one will be on Sun. Enjoy!

Day 2: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 2:18 PM

Day 2:

We went to bed early (930) then we all woke up at midnight, then we slept again. I woke up at 4am, while the other two slept. I finally fell asleep again at 430. We all woke up at 1030 and missed the free breakfast. Jet lag is a pain. :(

We casually walked down to the lobby and had croissants and coffee/tea/water for breakfast.

10 Points: Name who had which drink w/ breakfast. I'll make it easy for you. I don't drink caffeine.

Being the tourists we are, we paid for the 2 day pass on Barcelona bus turistic, so we can see the sights of Barcelona.

We stopped at the MNAC. Where my bro and I almost put the smack down on some bitches who were stealing money from my mom's purse. They have this scam where they want you to sign a petition for handicap access. Then they ask for a donation. My mom reaches into her purse and they started grabbing money out of it. They had grabbed a 50€ bill and some $1 bills I shoved them out of the way and grabbed the cash back. My bro hunted them down to get the initial 5€ she gave. There were three of them swarming her. Thank god we were there and we got everything back. Note to self: Don't stop for anything and the nice/generous gene gets taken advantage of here!

10 Points: What does MNAC stand for? Hint: it's a national museum in Barcelona

We also visited a lot of the stadiums and arenas that housed World class athletes participating in a Major World Sporting Event held here in Barcelona.

10 Points: Name the Major World Sporting Event and the year it was held.

We ate at Port Olimpic at Marina Moncho's Restarante, where we had sangria, steamed mussels and grilled swordfish. It was so yummy!

10 points: We also ate a spanish rice dish usually prepared w/ seafood and gets it wonderful yellowish color from saffron. Name this dish.


The last stop of the day I bought a shot glass at a worldwide restaurant chain that has a logo of a guitar and is named after a music genre. It has 150 locations in 53 countries. Some chains are in Las Vegas, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis, Sacramento, Hollywood, Berlin, Beijing, Melbourne and Bangkok. The largest is in Orlando and I think the first was in London in 1971.

10 points: Name the Restaurant Chain I bought a shot glass from!

Good luck! Tomorrow we go on the cruise boat! Whooo!

Day 1: European Vacation 2011

Sent: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 12:06 PM

Hello hello and welcome to my European Vacation 2011.

Just wanna make sure I have all the emails correct and no bouncing occurs! For those unfamiliar w/ my blogging adventure over the last few months, I usually blog about some topic and have trivia questions at the end.

For the email updates of the trip, I'm gonna tell y'all what I did that day and probably have trivia mixed in or at the end. Unlike my blog, the points will mean something (Cuz Ryan that was for you!) As the difficulty of the questions goes up, so does the number of points allocated to that question. The person(s) with the most amount of points will get something from my trip! Last year, my friend and boss Ken did something similar by using GPS coordinates, but I'm not gonna do that just clues. No pics, cause it'll cost too much to upload and eat into my data plan.

Here are the rules.
- If you answer the question correctly, you get all the points. I can and will give partial credit on multiple part questions
- As long as you email me back the correct answer before I send out the next email you get credit
- No extra points will be allocated for speed in answering the questions
- You will not be penalized for multiple guesses
- You may consult The ORACLE (internet for those that don't read my blog) although I think it'll be more exciting for you if you don't.
- I'll post the answers to the trivia questions in the next email I send
- I'm BCCing everyone so people can't influence or ruin it for someone who doesn't check their email as often
- I will keep a running total of everyone's points
- I am the ultimate judge and any arguments w/ the judge will result in points being taken away! Haha (from last year's game... U know who you are!)

By these rules everyone should be able to "win", but just like my blog I may throw a couple of hard ones ur way. Feel free not to play along and just enjoy the updates. :)

I'm starting easy today and those w/ Facebook will probably get these right away.

Day 1: I left from LAX at 1230 PDT.

I got on plane #1 headed for Elvis' Home state and home city to the NBA Grizzlies.

10 Points: Name the City, State and Airport designator of where Plane #1 landed.

I met up w/ my mom in the airport. She looked great. We took plane #2 to the capital city of this country, which is arguably the Marijuana capital of the world where we met up w/ my brother, who has a newly shaved head.

10 points: Name the city, country and airport designator of where plane #2 landed.

We took plane #3 to our final destination. This country is known for the running of the bulls and the city we landed in is the second largest in the country behind Madrid.

10 Points: Name the city, country and airport designator of where plane #3 landed.

After landing at 3pm local time (6am pdt) we took a taxi to our hotel. We are staying at a hotel whose name matches Paris and Nikki's last name.

10 Points: Name the hotel we are staying at. The second part of the hotel name is the city where we landed.

10 points: Name the cities and airport designators where my mom and brother both started their trip from. Hint: Neil left from the biggest airport in the windy city. My mom left from a city named after a former military installation in the state that gave us Walmart.

That was Day 1. Thanx for coming along w/ me... We all just had tapas and sangrias and are tuckered out. Going to bed early. We're gonna sight see tomorrow!!

Rise And Shine

Act 99:

“It’s never too late… To Wake Up

Give yourself a wake-up call. Life is short. Often we wander through it. There are no guarantees. No ‘Take Two’. Remind yourself how fortunate you are. Resolve to make the most of your time here. Help make a difference in others’ lives. It will make a big difference to yours.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” ~ Henry Miller

I’m not sure how to approach this Act. I guess Mr. Lindsay is just trying to tell us to seize the day. Wake up and smell the roses. Wake up and life your life instead of going through the motions. I feel like I’ve already done this. Something awakened inside me after my father died and I am a new person. I’m not going to reiterate that whole process. I know if you’ve been reading you’ve heard me repeat myself over and over. My comment to this for you is… Don’t fall asleep at the wheel of the car you call your life. Stop sleep walking through life and LIVE.

What I will talk about today is the actual act of “Waking up”. Everyone has a process. I’m a snoozer. I set my alarm about 15-20min earlier than when I REALLY have to get up so I can snooze. Don’t judge. I’ve tried not doing that and I’m always more tired the rest of the day AND I will end up being late cause my body does like to get a little bit of extra shut eye before actually getting up. It takes my body a while to wake up, so it needs those snoozes to prepare for the day.

The thing that mostly gets me out of bed is that fact I have to go to the bathroom. So, right after I finally get out of bed I go to the bathroom. Then I put on my contacts (yes I wear contacts). I shower in the mornings now instead of at night to help me wake up. So on days when I work out, I shower twice! I change like 5 times before I can get my outfit right and then brush my teeth. Then it’s off to work. I don’t usually eat breakfast (but w/ this new diet I’m learning)

Anyone who’s knows me knows I’m not a morning person. My friends and colleagues have figured it out the hard way. My brain is just not awake until about 45min-1hour after I’ve woken up. My homegirl and I used to have 8am classes at UCLA and we would walk down in silence to class, because she knew not to talk to me until I was ready to talk. She said she finally figured it out, because she used to ask me questions in the morning and would just grunt one word answers back to her until I was fully awake.

I don’t drink caffeine so I have to naturally wake myself up. Although my homegirl, Wanga, figured out that the one thing that does wake me up in the morning is Apple juice. It’s like my crack. When I drink apple juice, I bounce off the walls.. it’s crazy.

Anyway, that’s my little morning routine. I don’t play music. I don’t read the paper. I sleep as much as I can and know that it usually takes me less than 30 min to get up, get ready, and get out the door. I’m lucky that Do you have a morning routine?

BTW – I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on the hair. YAY! It’s so short that even the GUYS at work are noticing. Guys usually don’t notice a haircut, which is one of the things that women get mad at. But I had so many guys notice today and actually say it looked nice. Most of the time you can tell if ur hair looks stupid, because people go. “oh you got ur hair cut” then nothing! Today at work I got. “Wow, you cut your hair. It looks really good.” So YAY me!

I was playing this song the whole time I was writing this blog to give me inspiration. All it did was distract me from actually writing cause I kept seat dancing! Haha

Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by WHAM!

You put the boom boom into my heart,
You send my soul sky high when your lovin' starts.
Jitterbug into my brain,
Goes bang bang bang till my feet do the same.

But something's bugging me
Something ain't right
My best friend told me
What you did last night.

Left me sleeping
In my bed.
I was dreaming
But I should've been with you instead.

CHORUS
Wake me up before you go go,
Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo.
Wake me up before you go go,
I don't wanna miss it when you hit that high
Wake me up before you go go,
'Cause I'm not planning on going solo.
Wake me up before you go go,
Take me dancing tonite.
I wanna hit that high...

You get the gray skies outta my way,
You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day.
Turn a bright spark into a flame,
My beats per minute never been the same.

'Cause you're my lady,
I'm your fool.
Makes me crazy
When you act so cruel.

C'mon baby,
Let's not fight.
We'll go dancing
And everything will be alright.

REPEAT CHORUS

Cuddle up baby,
Move in tight.
We'll go dancing tomorrow night.

It's cold out there
But it's warm in bed.
They can dance,
We'll stay home instead.
(return to top)

Are You Satisfied?

Act 98:

“It’s never too late… To Be Content

It’s so easy to be seduced by expectations, to spend our lives searching… for better, bigger, more. When we often have just what we need. Think about the positives. Enjoy your family. Your health, your wonderful friends. Your blessings. Allow yourself contentment. And treat improvements as bonuses.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “Content is happiness” ~ Proverb

In trying to get inspiration, I consulted The ORACLE… and all the websites that came up when I put in “be content” were spiritual related websites. Really? What’s up with that? I think that (for me) part of being content includes spirituality and GOD, but I don’t presume that that is the case for everyone. I’m so flabbergasted by this whole thing… so I’m just not gonna think about it.

Right now, surprisingly, I am content. Despite not being where I thought I would be at this point in my life. I am happy. I wrote a blog about letting yourself be happy and that blog was about coping with my father’s death after five months. Here it is two months later and my life is totally different and I really have allowed myself to be happy. To be content.

Let’s look at my life right now as opposed to where I thought I would be. There’s really only one thing in my life that I thought would be different than where I’m at now and that is that I thought I would be married and have a family or at least starting one. Today is the day after spending the day in san diego for my cuz’s baby shower. It made me think about where I thought my life would be. But I think about it and if I was already married and starting a family like my cuz, I don’t think that I would’ve been ready or in the right frame of mind. Yes, I probably would’ve had my wedding day fantasies of the stuff w/ my dad fulfilled, but I probably would’ve rushed into something that I wasn’t ready for.

I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t ready for marriage and a family until now. I was too selfish. Too independent. Too bitchy. Too unwilling to compromise. Too closed off. Unfortunately, going through the pain of losing my father has really changed me in a way that has made me ready to open my heart and give it to another person. I have been in relationships before, but I was always so closed off. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve dated and they’ve broken up w/ me or we’ve decided to no longer date because I was too independent or too closed off.

I’ve literally had someone say, “So, we haven’t seen or talked to each other in two weeks and it doesn’t seem like you care.” And they were right. I really didn’t. I think that you should want to be with the person your dating or in love with all the time (well maybe not all the time, but at least want to see or talk to them in a two week period.) When talking to my friends about their spouses, they can’t imagine their life w/out them. I’ve never really felt that intensely about someone. I’ve had briefly glimpses, but they’ve been few and far between and very fleeting.

I’ve been told that when it happens… it just happens. When you stopped looking or when you have finally accepted the fact that you may end up alone. When you are content and satisfied with life. That’s when life says.. uh uh honey.. congrats on accepting life how it is now… but I have more for you. I feel like that’s where I am right now.

I am satisfied with where my life is right now. Could I be happier? Of course, but considering everything I’ve been through in the last 7 months. I’m very surprised at how happy and content I am with my life. How about you?

You’re Number One!

Act 97:

“It’s never too late… To Back Yourself

It sounds so simple. But it requires great faith. Against all the doubters, the detractors, the risks of failure and the self doubt, believe in yourself. If you don’t back yourself. Don’t expect others to. If you have the confidence in yourself, so will others.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “He can who believes he can” ~ proverb

I cheer myself on. I am my number one backer. I have faith that I can accomplish anything I set my mind to and I don’t really let anything stop me, once I’ve made up my mind.

Cheer yourself on. Be you’re number one backer. If you won’t, then who will? Forget all the nay sayers. Forget the hecklers. Forget the doubters. But most importantly… forget nay saying yourself, forget heckling yourself, and forget the self doubt! Believe that you can do it. Believe that you can make it happen.

I think sometimes it’s hard for us to “back” ourselves because we have low self confidence. This leads back into the last two days of blogs (Know Your Worth and Be Better Than You Are). You need to understand that you are worth something, have self-confidence in who you are and then finally you can improve upon your life. Sounds easy, right? Haha

I know those three things are very difficult to accomplish, but we have to try. Try to have faith in ourselves. Faith that we know what’s best for us. Faith that we have the strength and ingenuity to make our dreams come true. Faith that we can make it happen. Faith that we WILL make it happen. I have faith in you and will support you in whatever you do. I will back you. Now, will you back yourself?

I know this is short, but I’m exhausted and I don’t have much to say (I know shocker right?). I had a great day w/ my family today at my cuz Ryan and Cheryl’s baby shower today! Congrats on the baby and I can’t wait to meet her!

There's Always Room For Improvement

For those who are not on twitter or facebook… The late breaking news is the fact that I cut my hair today. Here’s a before shot. You’ll have to read the blog (or scroll down) to see the end result. =)

Act 96:

“It’s never too late… To Be Better Than You Are

Set your aims high. Don’t settle for just OK. Like an athelete, aim for personal bests. Just don’t obsess about it. Use them as inspirational guideposts. That will keep you interested. And interesting. Life will be more vital. Opportunities will open for you.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “Life’s splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness.” ~ Franz Kafka

To me this act is about complacency. Even if you are the best that you can be, there’s always something that you can do to improve yourself. Even if you are very very happy in this moment (like I am), I’m sure there are things that could make you happier.

I know that there are things in my life that I can improve upon. Here’s a list of things I know I need to work on to be better than I am or things I want to learn to

• Be less lazy – I probably should’ve wished for this the other night
• Be less of a slob – I think the non-laziness would help w/ this
• Be less of a stress case – Lately work has been a pain to deal w/
• Get in shape – I fear that all the walking on my upcoming trip will kill me because I’m so out of shape. Let’s hope that I’m still more in shape than my mom who has a bad heart… Honestly, I think we’re even! (so sad)
• Finish learning how to play the piano and guitar – I tried learning a while ago, but I stopped on both instruments because I went back to school.

I know there’s a bunch more, but I’m so tired right now because worked drained me. I’m trying to finish a few things before leaving on my trip and things are going a lot slower than I had hoped. I got stuck on a piece of code that just stumped me for a good hour and a half. Oh found something else to add to the list – Be a better programmer!

Speaking of my trip – although I won’t be doing blog entries every day, I’m gonna try to send out updates on the trip and I’ll probably be doing some trivia at the end of each day (in fact I know I will) Last year my boss made a game out of it, but I don’t want to commit myself to managing a game (plus, some people got really competitive). Anyway, if you want to participate, let me know and make sure I have your email addy.

To close out my thoughts on this act… Don’t be complacent. Don’t settle. Strive to improve your life in one aspect every day, whether is’ a big thing or a little thing. Enjoy life. There are so many things life can offer. Take advantage of the things you haven’t already. Be better. But most important… Be happy.

I'm happy w/ my new hair. It goes kinda well w/ this act, because it's an improvement to my life in the sense of: less shampoo, my neck can breathe now, and it can air dry very very quickly =)

Here’s the pic of my new haircut as promised… Thoughts? I think it might be too short...

What's Your Value?

Act 95:

“It’s never too late… To Know Your Worth

Nobody knows us like we do. Allow others to assess your worth. But only if you respect them and their ability. Back your own judgement. Take a dispassionate look at yourself. Don’t ignore the down sides. But don’t mark yourself too hard. Don’t underestimate yourself. Or be cowed into discounting yourself. Value yourself. And others will do the same.” – Patrick Lindsay

Quote in book: “A man is valued as he makes himself valuable.” ~ proverb

This blog can go two different ways for me. Know your worth with respect to your contribution to your family, to your friends, to your work, or to the world. Or it can be taken as know how much you are worth. =)

Let’s start with the first one. Within my family I know I’m a key member. I am the logical one. I am the straight and narrow one. I used to the bitchy one (still am sometimes). I’ve told you all that my family was into Peanuts, well I was and forever will be Lucy. The fuss budget. The one who can never relax. The one who’s always giving psychiatric help, whether the 5 cents is given or not. The ones who’s always giving their opinion when no one asked for it. Ya. That’s me (that’s even me w/ my friends). However, I know that know that my dad is gone. I’ve got to fill his shoes in some aspects. I can pick up the slack in the sports area, fill the music void, and be the complete and utter dork.

With my friends, I’ve always been told I’m the rock. The one my friends feel safe with. The one who they can confide in. The one who will be there if anything happens. The one who will drop everything she’s doing to go bring you a tank of gas or pick ur ass up from a bar because ur too drunk to drive home. The one who will take you to the hospital, when you threw ur back out playing softball and wait w/ you in the emergency room until you get to go home.

At work, I know I’m the stickler. The bitch. The mean one. Remember, my nickname is “Mean-a” But I know that the knowledge and expertise I provide to my customers is invaluable. I know they appreciate me even when I’m stressed and times are tough. I know my opinion is valued and the best part is that I do get appreciation from my management and customers. It’s nice to feel and know my value to the company and to the programs I work on.

As for the world, right now I’ve been contributing to Kat Brooks and her Face2Face movie, which I know will change lives. I can’t wait for you all to see it. I’ve always been donating a lot more money lately to different projects and organizations, now that I have a little bit more spending money. I’ve had the urge to give back so much. So, I’ve been doing that. I’ve been giving back to Kat Brooks, the F2F family and the Kat Pack for changing my life. The only one left is Erin Kelly.

How much am I worth? I actually had to do this fire drill earlier in the year. It’s really interesting trying to come up with a value. I didn’t realize what kinds of things count and what doesn’t count. I’m lucky enough to own a condo and my family has a couple of timeshares, but I’m by no means rich nor do I have a lot of money. However, I’m doing pretty well for myself. I’m not struggling for cash like some of my friends. I’m lucky to have a job and even luckier to have a job that I love. That’s worth more than the cash money that other companies have offered me to leave.

So do you know your own worth? To me, you are my lifeline. I couldn’t live my life w/out you… my friends and family. Thanks for participating along w/ me on this blogging adventure. I value all of your inputs and comments. You are very important to this process and you are worth a lot in my eyes! =) Love you!