I stole this from Jen, but it’s so true…

“It’s what we think about that makes us unhappy.

Not what we have, who we are, where we are, or what we do.”

(via @iheartquotes)

I feel like being a hater today. There are a couple people on my list I could probably rant about, but then that would make me evil, and even though I try not to be, today I feel like exploding on people. Well, maybe just giving their head a shake because they are seriously clueless. Common sense has left a lot of people, like a lot of people who I thought had it. Ha. What is this world coming to!?

My camera is dead and currently recharging so I have no pictures from the weekend. Not that we really did any thing worth taking pictures of, but I do have some stories and it only makes sense to have the pictures accompany the stories to make them complete. I will say this much, Chad and I both suffered 3 day long sugar comas. It is true.

As for today, I will freeze my ass off in this wind and rain storm beat office.

The worst part of the day? When you realize that someones bowels exploded…in the WOMANS washroom. Ugh. Why can’t people drop deuces at HOME?

“So…do you work part time as an emoticon?”

I said this quote, and I can’t get over how funny it is.

I think I am the only one.

HA

Chad is taking me on a date tonight, apparently. We are going to see Avatar. I feel about Avatar the same way I feel about Space; I don’t like it.

However, with some free Nachos and Sweet Factory candy, I might be pursuaded.

What is this 3D nonsense anyways? What happened to regular TV that you plugged into the wall and didn’t need a box and 20 remotes to run.

I miss the good ol’ days.

I can’t wait for a Friday where I can eat a Steak.

I’m just putting it out there.

I can’t remember when the last time I talked about Italy was, so if I am repeating myself then I apologize.

We’ve booked the trip!

I think I mentioned all the drama going back and forth with work, or maybe I didn’t mention the most recent drama, but it made me really upset, so it’s probably good I don’t go back and talk about it. But, that is old news because everything was worked out and I ended up getting the dates I originally wanted back when we first discussed it. A small saving grace.

We officially booked the trip back in January, but I’ve been so busy with everything else that I haven’t had a moment to think about it, or talk about it, or research it.

We leave September 16th and arrive back in Vancouver October 16th. One month exactly! My parents will be joining us for the full month as well, with Chads parents only doing 3 weeks. I can not express my excitement in words.

Our plan for Italy was to fly into Venice, do some touring up north, then make our way south to Rome, do touring there and end the trip with a tour of Southern Italy. We planned to do everything ourselves, since we know the top half of the country pretty well, but were going to take a guided tour of Southern Italy, since everyone was clueless about that. So we looked up some tours, found the perfect one, based all our dates and everything around this trip, only to realized that all the prices had been given to us were in the wrong currency, meaning the trip was double what we were budgeting for. Well, out the window that went. We looked for another tour to replace it, but none of them were as extensive as this one and they were all pretty expensive. So after much discussion, we decided, we would take all the stops on our ‘Perfect Tour of Southern Italy’ and just drive it ourselves. We would book bed and breakfasts along the way and would have the freedom to stay longer, or cut short, different sites on the tour.

So, our trip to Italy now looks like this…

• Arrive in Rome
• Spend 3-4 days checking things out
• Spend about 7 days driving south, stopping in at all the cities on our list
• Once we are done Southern Italy we drive back up to Rome
• Drop Mom and Dad off at the train station where they take a direct train to Venice so they can spend extra time with family, while Chad, his parents, and I take our time touring up to Florence, Pisa, and Tuscany.
• Meet in Venice and spend a week touring Northern Italy
• Chads parents fly home
• Spend the last week doing mini trips around the city. Go to the beach, maybe a trip to Milan, tour the East Coast, or whatever we want
• Fly back home!

I think the layout of the trip works much better then when we originally planned it. It gives us more time up north with our family, and it will be much easier for us to travel with the north being our home base.

The parentals have been doing most of the reseach for the trip so far, but I finally had some time this past weekend to start looking at stuff. I love researching trips and printing out maps and organizing everything. I’m totally obsessed right now. I want to spend every waking moment organizing this trip!

Looking at all the place we will be seeing and staying make me want to leave RIGHT NOW! Only 6 short months left!

I can’t wait to show Chad Italy. He is going to freak out.

So today is about 100 times less stressful then yesterday was. Yesterday I had to go back into the Cancer Clinic.

After my Radioactive therapy last October, the scan of cancer/thyroid left in my body did not match up with the results of the blood test, so they didn’t know what was going on. They sent me home with the information that I would have to go for more blood tests and then in March, a whole 5 months away, I would get the results of everything and would find out if I had to be Radioactive again.

While the whole Radioactive therapy thing wasn’t painful, it was kind of mentally traumatic, and the thought of having to do it again freaked me out every time I thought about it. I had been so strong through out the whole year, but the thought of being isolated again sent me into panic mode.

So I went for all my blood tests and lived the past 5 months thinking March was a month that didn’t existed. I didn’t want to think about it, I didn’t want to face reality, I just wanted to pretend like nothing was going on.

Then March came. Yesterday came.

I tried to think positively about everything, and even though at my last Family Doctor visit, he said my Thyroid Levels looked good I wasn’t about to count my chickens before they were hatched.

Every time I have gone into a doctors office, by myself, thinking it was no big deal and nothing bad was going to come out of it I’ve been handed a bombshell. This has now shattered my faith of hearing good news.

I was in stomach panic mode all day yesterday. I could only function doing mindless tasking because my brain was too consumed with worry to do any other thinking. The closer it got to 3:00 the more I felt like I was going to puke. Of course I internalised it all and didn’t tell anyone other then Chad. But I know my body. When I worry more then I need to everything comes out ok. I can’t stop myself from worrying; it’s physically and mentally impossible until I face whatever it is I’m suppose to face, then everything goes back to normal. It’s been like this for 1000 years.

So we got to the Cancer Clinic early and sat in the waiting room. Suddenly the thought of my fate hit me as I saw a young woman walk in with no hair. Of course my condition is not that extreme, but it still freaked the crap out of me as to what could have happened. I was totally consumed by feelings of dread.

It didn’t help that they were running late and I didn’t get to see the doctor until 3:30! Sweet Jesus make me suffer.

Everything came back normal.

Praise SHAZZIB!

I have to up my Thyroid pills from 88mg to 100mg, but that’s no big deal.

Because Chad and I are looking to have babies in the next year, he wanted to make sure that everything was 100% OK, so I have to go in for one more scan.

I have to do the same thing as last time. Shot in the Bum on Monday, Shot in the Bum on Tuesday, Scan Wednesday. Then, maybe, just maybe, I will FINALLY get the all clear and just have to go back for check ups.

This is the never ending Thyroid Journey. Every time I think I am SOOO close to it being over, something else comes up. I hope this will finally be the end, for now.

• A new girl started in our warehouse on Friday. I’m a little bitter over the fact that I was introduced to her as ‘Danielle – The Receptionist’. No offence to receptionists, but I didn’t got to University for four years and major in Fashion Design to be referred to as the receptionist. Granted, it was one of the warehouse staff who did the introductions and I’m pretty sure the warehouse staff has no idea what each one of us does here in the Design Department, but still. Bitter, bitter, bitter.

• I am finally led to believe that this ‘pimple’ I’ve had in the crease of my mouth for the past week is most likely some form of Cold Sore. Not to be too graphic but it is covered by a little scab which constantly breaks open every time I open my mouth. Hurts like a mofo.

• I no longer have to go to Forever 21 this evening, which makes me happy. They left the security cookie on the $5 t-shirt I bought Friday night. (Honestly, who security cookies something worth $5) The alarm did beep when I left the store, but I ignored it and no one said anything to me. My bad though because I was pretty pissed when I went to wear it Saturday night and couldn’t cause there was a giant tag on it. I brought it to work this morning thinking our security cookie remover might work on it, even though it’s a totally different shape. Worked like a charm! Security tags are nothing but a big lump of magnets and metal, so all you need is a stronger magnet to remove it. That’s your shoplifting tip of the day.

• This coat still smells like Fire and Febreze thanks to yours truly thinking it was a smart idea to wear it to a bonfire. Only problem is, its the ONLY coat I own, so I didn’t really have a choice. I need to remedy this, this coming Fall. I need more coats.

• No one is here today, but I feel motivated to actually work. This is a good sign.

Saturday was a full impact day that started off with me discovering my car had been keyed. Yaya! I get to spend $300 for no reason!!!

I then went and picked up Pat from Dario’s house, where they were trying to figure out how to hook up the Nintendo.

It’s hard to seperate lovers when they don’t see each other often.

Pat wanted to go down to this Roller Derby sale in Vancouver. He had informed me that it was near Terminal so the plan was to take the sky train to Main Street and then walk from there. Thank God I was feeling lazy and decided to drive instead because we drove around for half an hour trying to find the place, which according to Google Maps on Pats pohone was in the middle of train tracks, only to realized that the place was actually a block away from my work. SRSLY PATRICK! If only he had given me the actual address ahead of time it would have taken me 20 minutes to get there! Oddly enough I drive by this place every day after work and have thought to myself many times that I should tell Pat about it, but never put two and two together.

Roller Derby crowds are always very interesting. We were talking to one girl who laughed and said, “I’m in roller derby, but do I look like a freak? I don’t understand why people dress so wacky for this”. I agree. There was your mix of Punks, and Goths, and 40 year old women in hooker boots on a leash. You know, the usual.

We had to wait in line for an hour because the store is small and they only let so many people in at once. I didn’t buy anything but Pat got some wheels and stoppers.

I then had the brilliant idea of going to Memphis Blues for lunch.

Pulled Pork for me and Brisket for Pat. Nom nom nom.

I promised Pat a Pork and Bacon filled dinner, something ever Jew wishes for on their Birthday. I then realized after dinner that I forgot to put bacon in two of the dishes. Ha. Woops.

I was in a mad rush as usual.

I made…

Sweet Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin
Hand Cut Shoe String Fries with Lemon Salt
Onion Gratin with Creme Fraiche and Cheese
Caesar Salad

The shoe string fries took forever to deep fry. Everything else was ready to go but we had to wait for the damn fries.

I was actually surprised at how well the Onion Gratin turned out since I have never made a recipe that used onion as the main ingredient. Everyone thought it was really good which I was thankful for!

A nice little triple date.

Pat and Dario then shared their newly discovered shot with us; The Flaming Etna. Half Fire Ball half Sambuca.

It was actually really tasty!

Off to the Cambie for the usual Patrick Zaph Party Adventures.

We sat on the Patio for the first bit because it wasn’t too cold, but we then had to move to the inside as we froze our butts off.

That’s the truth.

I finally let my mark at the Cambie.

The Pat Zaph Trio

I made a new friend.

It was a good night until Elise went to the bathroom and discovered two people in the stall beside her were having sex. She was mortified and sat at the table in shock for the rest of the night. We all found it pretty hilarious, though, if I were in her position, I probably would have been totally disgusted.

Pat left on Sunday and we weren’t going to see him so we said good bye that night.

Another amazing weekend!

Until next time my little Jewish friend.

We miss you like you will never understand. Things are only normal when you are here.