The Race for the Cure

Just 24 hrs before the deadline, I finally decided to not just attend but to register my own team for the NJ Race for the Cure on Oct 14 at Six Flags Great Adventure.

Here's the team website, Breasts are for Babies. You can either click on the "join Melissa's team" button and join us as a runner or walker (I'll be doing the latter as I'll be coming off a 24 hr shift) or even as a sleeper (you'll get a pillow case instead of a T-shirt). Or you can click on the "support Melissa" button and make a donation. Rachel is registered for the Fun Run (for 10 and under).

I'm not big on fundraising, so this is about the extent of my plea. :)

The 80's called....

and asked that I return my wardrobe from that era.

And more. Much more.

I did it.

I finally did it.

For years and years, I've had this nicely sized walk-in closet stuffed the brim with clothing. The sizes range from an 8 to an "I don't ever want to be that big again" 14. The clothing dates back to as far as the 1980s. Yes, I actually found the dress I wore to my high school graduation in the closet. Rachel did not want to keep it (so.. it's a little yellow and a little out of style... LOL), so out it went along with my banana yellow and lime green jump suits. Complete with shoulder pads. And, just because that image is not complete without a photo...

Aw... come on... you didn't have one too? I actually had 3 including one in black. I admit, that even back then, I mostly wore the black one. I thought I looked sharp in it. And thin.

So, on the eve of the anniversary of the day my hair sprouted, I woke up and decided it was finally time. 90% of the clothing did not fit anyway. Even the things I bought in this century. I'm pretty much keeping just what I've bought this year and just few older T-shirts to wear for exercising.

9 full large trash bags went to Goodwill. I'm sure someone will love these items for an 80's dance. Maybe. LOL! Not every bag was filled with clothing from the distant past. There were plenty of things that were bought in the last 5-10 years that just do not fit my reconstructed chest. It was painful to give up some of my favorite outfits, but the reality is that they no longer looked nice at all. :( But, it's not as much fun to take pictures of that sort of clothing... so more of the 80's and what was I thinking?? LOL!

I so loved this black taffetta and velvet number. Even with the double layer of double thick shoulder pads! LOLBoth Rachel and I love this fabric. Thought it might make nice pillows or maybe a curtain. Didn't everyone have a floral dress like this? I had about a dozen.


Ah yes... another of those floral dresses. This one was hard to part with because it was my favorite. OK. It is a size 7 and I will never be a size 7 again. An 8, yes. Not a 7. I wore this the day I met Howie's extended family. It was what I wore to Sara's Bat Mitzvah. So what if Sara is getting married this year. So what if it was something like 18 years ago. I know, I know. Don't worry. The dress went too.

Rachel says that Stacy and Clinton need to thank me for doing this on my own. :o And I say that I still could use a visit from that dynamic duo to help me figure out how I should be filling all that empty space in my closet. That rack behind me in the photos is the middle rack in the closet. When I woke up this morning, it was jam packed, from one end to the other. Now it is sparsly filled with a few hangers, a SMALL handful of dresses, a new hanging shoe rack and a hanging sweater rack that holds my pocketbook collection. :)

L'Shana Tova

Happy New Year! For the uninitiated, that's what Rosh Hashana is and l'shona tova is my wish to you all for a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

And now for a little newsflash:
It took one week to put it on and two weeks to take it off. Nevertheless, I am happy to report that I have lost the weight I put on during the cruise. Funny how I still managed to gain weight despite being pretty careful about what I ate and exercising daily!!

It's so strange to scroll down and see that photo from my birthday last year. It still is just as surreal as it was when it was happening. And while I admit that I am now happy with my curls, it still is odd to see photos because it's not how I picture myself. In my mind, I still look more like my profile pic on this site- straighter hair, with waves, not loose curls everywhere.

That's all.. just some random thoughts for the day. I'm now about 1/2 way through this stint at working full time. I suppose I should call it full time plus as I'm doing anywhere from 48-84 hours a week. It's like residency all over again except I have a little more "off" time than I did back then!

Adventures in Portrait Photography

Those with several children can probably relate well to this.

We took Rachel plus my niece and nephew to have a portrait done as a gift for my dad for his 70th birthday later this week. (Yes, lots of birthdays in our family this week.. Dad's, mine, his wife's and even my grandfather's birthday). Miss Hannah really was not very interested in having her picture taken. She wasn't interested much in smiling either until we had left the store, of course! LOL. We spent over an hour all for the want of a single photo.

Here are the results.

The last one is actually my favorite.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Kind of a mixed up day.



So happy to have another birthday! Seriously. Nothing like having had a potentially fatal disease to make you appreciate aging. :)



It's also a day when I miss the call my mom would have made to me, usually sometime around 5:16 pm, my birth time. :)


Took Rachel to school this morning, something that was a little anti-climatic. We did our traditional first day photos at home and at school (one at each place) but no other pictures. I guess she is too old for all that. It also doesn't help that yesterday was orientation and I wasn't there for that. First school event I have missed in several years.


I know I've posted both of these before, but I wanted to share the contrast. What a difference a year makes, huh?

Cruise highlights and a little lowlight

Some shots from the cruise:



This is actually from the return trip, in the wee hours of the morning (about 5:30 am) just after we crossed under the bridge on the way to the pier (midtown Manhattan). I have some cool shots of the Statue of Liberty, but most of them were taken on the vertical, so you'll have to wait for at least some basic photo editting! These are all straight out of the camera. :)

Iguanas were everywhere in St. Thomas. This was one of many hanging out in the outdoor eating area at Coral World.

I loved this shot on the little screen on my camera. If you can't tell, it's a turtle peering out over the water. I'm now itching to learn how to use photo actions to make some of these sorts of shots even better. I've got a ton to learn first, I think.. maybe.

This is the only formal shot we bought. Incidentally, it scanned just fine, as you can see. I was not pleased with the cost of the pictures on this cruise. More than I had remembered from other cruises, plus there were no candids like we had on other cruiselines. The candids were usually my favorites. Plus both my husband and daughter said my photos are better than the ones we had to pick from. Maybe, maybe not... but I'm not in the photos I take. Anyway, I had to buy this one because it is the only picture of me in my new dress. :P I like this dress. It's essentially the same style as the one below, (the one I bought for Jessica's Bat Mitzvah) but obviously more summery.

Just found this one. It's from the second formal night, taken on our enormous wrap around balcony. It's probably the best example of where my hair is now, a year after chemo was done. Still very curly, but then again, I have not had it cut yet. This was taken about a week before my birthday. For contrast, you might want to look here (scroll down to Oct 13.. yes my bday is Sept 6, but I was otherwise occupied last September so it wasn't posted til the next month). Hey look- there's even a hint of cleavage. That's all. A hint. And that's just fine.

Here I go again. This is actually the second time I am posting a photo of myself in a bathing suit. And I still haven't lost the weight I had last summer. LOL. OK. In reality, I gained even more but I lost that and I'm back to about were I was during chemo. My arm looks funny because Rachel was slipping as she was trying to climb on the rock with me! LOL! This was taken on one of those disposable waterproof cameras at the Baths in Virgin Gorda, one of the highlights and lowlights of the trip. Mostly a highlight. I would love to get a waterproof digital or a smaller digital with a waterproof case for something like this in the future. All our cave shots came out very poorly because there was no flash. Guess I'll just have to go back! Anyway, the caves were amazing. The water was gorgeous and calm. The snorkling was incredible.... until my little incident occured. Nothing like getting your brain tossed right back into Cancerville when you are mentally at the furthest point away from that. Just a silly little thing, she says NOW. While snorkling in the crystal blue waters, I lost a toenail. No trauma. Didn't hit anything. It just simply lifted off. Not completely. It was hanging by a thread so I put a bandaid on and kept the nail on until we got home. Didn't seem silly at the time. I admit I was traumatized, but I got over it quickly because there was so much more I wanted to see at the Baths.

That seems to be all blogger will let me load for now.

So, it's back to reality tomorrow.

Rachel has middle school orientation. I am back to work. I have about 6 more weeks of this crazy schedule and then things return to the quiet normal. A happy medium would be nice and is something I am slowly working on achieving. Tomorrow will be Howie's first day working from home. He'll be doing that twice a week while I'm working both days and nights.