I'm am stil alive

...well and better than ever. I'm still hectic work-wise but I am feeling good and trying to get ready for spring. My girls came the weekend before St. Patty's day to celebrate the annual town parade and bar crawl, which was a blast. For the 4th year now, no one got sick, and we had no drama - whatsoever. Decked out in our green or Irish spirited shirts, we crawled, danced, drank, ate and just enjoyed a long overdue reunion. It was like the University of Miami, Mahoney/Pearson get together. We will not wait that long before seeing each other again. That's for sure.

Additionally, the Easter holiday was great. I took off two whole days (Good Friday and Monday) to relax and actually relaxed. I needed a mental health day or I was a going to explode. Friday, I spent some time with my Papa, who surprised me by buying me a nice pretty pink Sony VAIO as an early birthday present. I am so thrilled because I was in desperate need of a new laptop. I also spent some time in Philadelphia also known as Killadelphia celebrating my younger cousin's 21st birthday with family. Sunday, I spent Easter with my Dad, Stepmom, Stepbrother, SIL and nieces, which wore me out but also was a bunch of fun. Finally on Monday, I enjoyed a sunny day running errands and just having "me" time. Of course, I tuned in for season premiere of "The Hills" with my friend Amy and her little baby girl Izzy, who tuned in for the entire thing!

Now, I'm back to work...just hoping the week flies by so I can try and have another great weekend with loved ones, as I begin kicking off my birthday week!

Well hello...

Hello people! Have you missed me? Again I come to you with excuses of late work hours and happenings of life that have caused me NOT to write, but boy the past two weeks have been good. Aside from working until 1 or 2am on certain nights, I have done/accomplished a few key things.

I FINALLY organized my nightmare of a closet -- a massive trip to the Container Store, LNT and Target totally helped me to organize and maximize my space. I read some really great articles on how to go about this process, and where to start. I think the thing that kept me from getting on it sooner was that I didn't know where to begin because it was so overwhelming. I also had to tell myself that it wasn't going to happen in one night. It took a while, but it was worth it. I have a fully functional closet and have maximized my space to the point where I actually see a crap ton of carpet. I even re-organized my bathroom and storage under the sink. I also gave both my room and bathroom a little face lift by purchasing a new bedding set and some new fluffy towels. Nothing like rolling around in some new sheets. I feel like a new woman.

My HUGE project that I have been slaving away at for the past three months has finally kicked off. One of my favorite brands I work on is sponsoring a major artist's concert tour and we're executing events on-site. I had three months to pull together the entire program, sponsorship details, creative collateral, etc. not to mention executing in both US and Canada, which is a first for my company since we just recently were combined with Canada to become "North America". Anyway, the best part about working my ass off for three months is that I got flown out to Vancouver for a show to party it up, stay in a fly ass suite (which was bigger than my apartment) and eat, drink and be merry with some crazy folks and this awesome, amazing artist on the company dime. Oh yea, and they got me a massage, too. :)

My Vancouver euphoria was quickly killed when I returned back home (after the craziest turbulent landing in which I literally thought I was toast) and was "bitched out" by my neighbor. Yes, the crazy dog-lady neighbor. She actually had the audacity to be upset with me because I "backstabbed" her when I sent her a certified letter, demanding the money she owed me. I was in shock. This jerk has the nerve to play victim when I was bit by her dog and later received a check from her, which bounced not due to insufficient funds but because their was no such account! That's right - she tried to pay me with a check from an account she had previously closed. People are friggin' bananas. In any case, after beefing about it a bit in the hallway, she later gave me the cash for what she owed me and I was happy to close that door. Eventually I will run into her, but I don't give a crap. I know I did the right thing and she will NOT intimidate me or give me shit for her screw-up. So at the end of the day: I got the money. Thank goodness.

This week it's back to the grind but I have a great ending in sight. Thursday my best friend comes into town from Chi-town, and then Friday another one of my good friends is driving up from Maryland with her boyf. to hang out with me and my girl K for a mini-college reunion (yes, we're all proud ass 'Canes) to party it up for my town's annual St. Patrick's day parade and bar crawl. Get right!

Enjoy your week all you lovely sexy people. ;-)

My maternal instincts...

I was "blessed" enough to attend a 1 year old's birthday party last week. The only "real" reason I was there was to support my friend Lina through a bunch of screaming rowdy children. Don't get me wrong people; I absolutely love children (especially the birthday boy, baby David) however, I knew this one party would consist of rowdy, mischevious little boys between the ages of 1-6 and I had to mentally prepare myself for it. In any case, my friend Amy, who just had a baby three days before Christmas brought her best Christmas gift of all with her: her new daughter Isabella (or baby Izzy as I like to call her). I don't know if it's because she was the only "lil princess" there or because she was the smallest; but I just fell in love. Not that I wasn't already. I fell in love with her during her first 24 hours on earth, but this time we got some good face time and I enjoyed being with her. She's an excellent baby and didn't cry one bit. Not even when Clarence, a friend of the group, but a (big macho football player) GUY, nonetheless, held her, rocked her, sang to her and even made her stand on her lil tippy toes and "dance". It's just so funny because I don't have children, but as soon as you get around a child, the instincts just naturally appear. I could have held her all day long. The second picture is me afterwards, proud of my maternal efforts. Some day...a long time from now...maybe it'll be my own.

I did it!!

I finally did it. I REACHED MY GOAL WEIGHT! Ok. My friends and family have been on this weight loss journey with me and I am happy to report after almost 2 long years, I have lost a total of 32 lbs. and am now pretty much back to "normal". I feel confident and most importantly, comfortable in my own skin again. :)

Before - April of 2006

After - February of 2008

Here's the journey along the way.

October of 2006 - Me and my "homeslice" R. (Of course, my girlfriend R in the picture always looks great!)

I was down about 10lbs from my heaviest (April) and I had just started Weight Watchers with my best Sin. We only lasted until about December, but we kept the learnings and the money in our pockets.

February of 2007 - me with Mel (my childhood friend and a modern day Pocahontas).

About 15 lbs down from the beginning, although you can still see it in my face an arms.

June of 2007 with Sin, K and much shorter hair (ahhhh). I was down about 22 lbs. I also started going to the gym more regularly, so although I wasn't losing very quickly, I was toning and firming and becoming stronger overall.

@ Dewey Beach (sooo tan, I love it) August of 2007. F---!!!! I hit the Plateau of the century.

Didn't I tell you I hit the plateau of the century? Probably only another 1 or 2 down if that. This was November and December of 2007. Holidays. Always a killer, but I did my best and was at least able to maintain my weight.

Hard work pays off! Finally lost that final 8 lbs in January and early February. I feel great. I'm stronger and have more endurance. I actually enjoy working out and I have a new lease on life.

Now it's called: "MAINTENANCE". But I finally did it. :)

(Thanks to my friends and family who listened to me, offered encouragement and who supported me the entire way through. I love you all).

Pepe Le Pew...

WTF is wrong with me and my luck these days?

After an exhausting week and weekend, I wanted nothing more than to get a little face time with my pillow and blankets; yes plural since it's mighty cold these days. So anyway, I'm getting my sleep groove on, deep into my REM when suddenly I am awakened by a G-O-D AWFUL STENCH.

Now, my bedroom windows are worth shit, are not air tight and have let in everything from cold air to hot air, my neighbor's exhaust from the cars, my neighbor's loud mouths (in a drunken stupor at 2am), etc. through them, but this time, I almost lost it. Literally, almost vomited. A fucking skunk. That's right people, Pepe-Le-Fucking-Pew himself, was messing around outside and set it OFF. You would have thought the little fucker was hiding under my bed or something. I don't know when it happened, but what I do know is that at 4am, I was forced to build a blanket cave so that I could 1) attempt to go back to sleep and 2) breathe. Wasn't happening. I sealed my blanket cave so tight, I almost suffocated and was forced to breathe through my mouth, not my nose, which means when/if I did fall back asleep, I probably swallowed a spider or two. I did attempt to take it to the living room BUT it was worse out there (and much colder). I ended up crying at 6am, because tired ole me kept having visions that my clothes, which were drying on my drying rack (from being washed the night before) were going to smell like Pepe.

Needless to say, I made it to work SUPER early this morning.

If I could tell him anything...

I would say:

You know you want to...it's all you can think about; that you made a mistake.
A BIG MISTAKE.
You're sorry, maybe not for walking away because that's what you "had to do", but for hurting me and all you want to do is let it be known. So stop letting your ego get the best of you. Put your foolish, childish pride aside and make well with the world. C'mon.
You know you want to...It's all you can think about.

A tad stressed...

...which means Mecca will sleep like sh*t tonight. Basically. I just strolled in from work after the another long drawn out day of meetings upon meetings, emails upon emails and phone calls upon phone calls. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love my job and I'm blessed to have it BUT I work my tail off and I don't know that I always get the appreciation or the recognition I deserve. Lately, it's been weighing on me, because I've become this work-a-holic, Treo carrying, late night and early morning email checking fool, while other important things in my life slack...or are slowing starting to slack.

Tomorrow, I've got to take my car into the body shop at 7:30, where the rental car will meet me at 7:45 and then rush the rental to the local train station where I have to hop an 8:30 train into NYC to make a 10am meeting. After the meeting, I'll come home and work like the work horse I have slowly become, because I will be out of the office on Friday to attend my stepmother's mother's funeral. Would you believe I was actually relieved I would be only missing ONE day of work instead of two which I originally thought was the case? How f-ed up is that?

Then, it's supposed to snow on Friday, so who knows how the services and funeral will actually go.

One other thing I'm stressing about waaay in advance is the fact that, my bestie is coming into town (yippee) from the Chi (in a few weeks) and that means, Mecca has GOT to get this room in order. As we all know, space is limited up in this piece and I don't want my A feeling like she is sitting on top of herself, so it is my mission, to clean & organize. Any suggestion of ways to make/create more space in tiny living environments? I'm dying here.

Danke.