Update: Licked On By Kittens

So I had my second laser hair removal treatment yesterday afternoon. I assumed it would be the same as the first time- which was kind of painful.

I have to tell you, I was pleasantly surprised. It hurt WAY less. Not that it hurt a lot- it just was...slightly uncomfortable. Doable because it was such a small area, but I'd said my eyes were watering the first time. Or, more than watering, they were streaming.

However, this time, it really was like nothing. And I don't think it's because I knew what to expect. It's just supposed to hurt less and it did. Rita, the technician, did say that next time she plans to turn it up a little- whatever that means. So, we shall see if that brings on the pain.

I will also say, while I didn't have a full on mustache, I did have enough that it had to be bleached. Rita gave me that razor to get rid of any stubble (I can't even with that), but I didn't need to use it. I did have some growth, but it definitely was less. I totally saw results in one session. I know that not everyone has that result, but I can honestly say that for ME, it works.

You also can't beat how short the appointment is, at least for the upper lip. I got there at like 1:23pm for a 1:30 appointment. I think I was seen at 1:25 and I was out before 1:40pm. I wasn't red either- not like I care, because whatever, I was just going to get E from school. But I could've gone out somewhere more dressed right after and been fine.

It kind of makes me want to do my armpits....

In any event, go to Ebates and sign up because Groupon always gives a good percentage of cash back. Then look up Elysium Groupon and get that deal! And ask for Rita.

Original blog entry: Licked On By Kittens

We Were On A Break!

"WE WERE ON A BREAK!"- That could arguably be the most well known line from Friends. Coincidentally, that happens to be my favorite Friends episode, since it jumped the shark shortly after. I still watched till the beginning of the last season when life got hectic and I don't know what happened. I think it must have been that I still had to tape it on VHS tapes and never got around to watching. I still haven't seen the last season of Party Of Five because of piles unlabeled VHS tapes being just too daunting a task to go through.

Anyhow, back to being on a break... I was watching another show the other night (Chicago Med) and it was almost the same break thing as Ross and Rachel. Two best friends dating, Natalie & Will. There was a big disagreement about how some situations were handled- having nothing to do with them dating- they work together and it was a work related issue. She wanted "space" so for two weeks she was distant. He tried to connect, she didn't seem receptive. He went to the bar and got trashed. A woman came on to him and he went with it. All of a sudden, without even knowing about the other woman, his girlfriend came to him and warmly asked him to dinner. He said yes and they went. At the beginning of dinner, he decided to be honest and he told her he went home with this woman but that it wasn't anything. He explained that he didn't know where it was going with them, she'd been cold and shut him out.

She freaked out and left. She said when she asked for space it wasn't about wanting to be with someone else. He explained he didn't want to be with anyone else but he was drunk and this woman was there. Nat wasn't having it. She was fixated that he hooked up with someone else.

I'm totally Team Boyfriend here. THEY WERE ON A BREAK! If someone says they need space, that's usually code for - I don't want to be with you anymore, but I'm too chicken to tell you, so I'll just say I need space and then when the space becomes as big as the Grand Canyon, you'll just assume we're broken up and I'll never have to actually SAY it. No one mind reads. How is someone supposed to know what "space" even means? Or if you're even coming back, ever?

I was also Team Ross back in the day. In this one instance, anyway, before he became a whiny, temperamental jerk. If you ask for space, then you have to know that the other person may not just sit around pining for you. You have no right to get all indignant or angry that they decided to hang out with or date other people! In the case of the couple in the show I was watching- they were hanging out all the time, he'd been jerked around by her prior because she was dealing with her own emotional issues, and she just went totally cold- barely even talking to him, bordering on avoidance. He had every reason to think it was probably over.

When you're on a break, you're on a break. Whatever happens in between is your business. If you get back together and you want to discuss it, fine. Unless, of course, there are extenuating circumstances, like something happens with a person your significant other specifically asked you not to contact- you're just asking for trouble. And if you're getting back together, and you do decide to talk about it, it's best to be completely honest and answer whatever your person asks. Going back, after space, is your second chance. Don't F it up by lying. You both just have to agree that whatever information comes out isn't going to be held against either person later. Make sure you have ground rules and stick to them.

I just felt the need to write this out after watching this annoying exchange this morning.

Adventures in Seinfeldian Food Shopping

I don't know how there are people who don't get Seinfeld. I feel like I live a Seinfeld episode daily. It was a show about nothing, but that's precisely it- it's the nothing that makes up most of our days as humans, and the nothing that makes us crazy.

I can't be the only person who hardly cooks, but still needs to go to five different supermarkets or specialty stores to be able to cobble together some meals during the week. I CAN'T BE. I feel like people goof on me for this, but isn't anyone else a brand shopper?? I am not eating Bobo's mini wheats. I want Kellogg's. I want my Dickinson's Seedless Black Raspberry Jelly. I want Nature's something (Harvest? Own?) bread. JIF IS THE ONLY PEANUT BUTTER THAT SHOULD EXIST. For me. B and E don't care and I buy them different ones. You get my point. This seems like it shouldn't be a thing, yet it's a thing. A constant annoyance that I have to drive all over Bergen County because no one store is a food utopia. Again, for ME.

Wegmans opened a little over seven miles away from me. Seven miles doesn't sound far, but at peak traffic times, that could take like a half hour or even more maybe. I don't have all that time to be driving to supermarkets. It's bad enough I have to get to Paramus for Shop-Rite and Trader Joe's. Of course the Shop-Rite closest to me sucks but that's another story.

I haven't been to a Wegmans since I lived in Central Jersey and they put one on Rt 1, I think in Princeton. Or somewhere over there. I remember thinking it was awesome. I hadn't made it to the one here because I needed the hype to die down first. I'd heard it was a zoo just trying to park. We'd gone to Nyack for brunch yesterday so I thought we'd stop at Wegmans on the way home. I figured that it's so big, they must have everything I need. I assumed also that of course they'd have everything I need, just because I don't have the time to get there on a weekly basis.

THEY DID NOT. Weirdly, they have a very limited supply of sandwich bread. They had a lot of white bread, which I found odd, because who still eats white bread?? I don't think I've eaten white bread since high school- Wonder White. I bought the Wegmans Honey Wheat but it didn't look all that wheat-y.

They also didn't have my yogurt- Yoplait Greek or Yoplait Greek Whips. Nor did they have my Breakstone's cottage cheese singles with raspberry, or any of those. They had the small ones that come in a breakaway pack but that's not what I want. I wish I could just go with the flow but I can't. I need my little cup of raspberry puree to choke down something as gross as cottage cheese. Don't even talk to me about yogurt. I already hate yogurt but since I can't eat lunch food because the idea of lunch usually grosses me out, it's something I can grab and go with. It just has to be one of the two yogurts I mentioned, or I will dry heave trying to eat it. Most yogurt is vomitous.

What they did have, was stuff prepared already for you to cook, with INSTRUCTIONS. #thatswhatimtalkingabout - I would love to make myself salmon but I want the directions ON the package. On the package, they are! They also have whole meals like that are cooked and you just have to heat up. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and some other places have that, but not like this. Wegmans has WAY more choices in this kind of thing. Options for organic or healthier are there too. I bought a piece of salmon with a brown sugar glaze to put on it. B got Greek turkey burgers, for grilling, which looked appealing to him.

They also have a full on bakery with some real goodies for dessert. B got a single serving of cannoli cream with cannoli shell chips. I got some kind of blondie.

It was fine. I got most of what I needed for everyone else. Their prices were way better than most of the other supermarkets. Four sticks of Wegmans butter was $2.49. That's a deep sale price anywhere else. I think I definitely would have spent at least another twenty five dollars for the same order somewhere else. Even compared to Shop Rite, which I feel normally has the best prices of everywhere I food shop.

Their produce looks amazing. I bought giant blueberries that look mutant. I ate them today and they were fabulous. I got a container of GINORMOUS strawberries for $5.99 that E said were great this morning. I bought some tomatoes on the vine that look terrific. I felt a little rushed because B & E were there and they hate being in the food store. Plus I had twenty-four PB&J sandwiches to make for freezing and needed to get home to do that.

The takeaway from this excursion is that bigger can be deceiving. Like Fairway, Wegmans is a physically big place, where you can find specialty items you can't really find anywhere else, but the regular stuff you need- like staples, is in short supply. There was a really limited variety of peanut butter and jelly. That's weird to me. Very limited brands of ground turkey/chicken. Maybe it's because they do showcase a lot of their own Wegmans brand. So it could be like in CVS where they make it really difficult to buy name brands and seem to prefer you purchase their private label brand. I'm not really sure, and I did feel rushed so I might not have seen everything available to me. I'll have to go back on my own some time. Maybe when Alex is better...she likes food shopping, since she cooks.

Now I need to drive around today looking for my Special K flatbread bacon & egg breakfast sandwiches, my yogurt and cottage cheese, and just random other daily use things. I can't wait to make my salmon today though! I'm totally going back to Wegmans- just knowing it won't be the only supermarket stop that week.

Update: A Kidney for Alex

In my best Oprah- "YOU get a kidney! And YOU get a kidney! EVERYONE GETS A KIDNEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

You know who really got a kidney? Alex! I only wrote about Alex needing a kidney at the beginning of December '17 ( Kidney 4 Alex ). No one, including Alex, thought it would all happen so fast. I watch all the medical shows- Grey's Anatomy, Chicago Med, The Resident, The Good Doctor.... There are people waiting years for organs.

The ball got rolling, so many people came out of the woodwork to sign up to be tested, and the registry was even stopped for her because there were so many people willing to be tested. Turned out, romance stepped in, and the first match was the first one tested. That donor is Alex's husband Michael. Knowing them, that was the perfect way for it to go down. Keeping it in the immediate little family of three.

Of course that's scary because as the parents of an only child, that means both parents in for surgery, under anesthesia, and down for the count during recovery. But what's more romantic than really living your vows- for better or worse, in sickness and health and being able to donate an organ to the person to whom you've pledged that??

The surgery was a week ago. We had our "Last Supper" at Grand Lux Cafe in Garden State Plaza, fittingly, the Saturday night before Easter. Once all the i's were dotted and the t's crossed, it was a quickly scheduled surgery in NYC. They went in first thing Thursday morning and everything went off without a hitch. I was getting updates from Mike's mom - when he got out and when Alex went in, then when Alex came out. I was at work but happy to hear a thumbs up on all fronts.

They're doing well! Mike is a little sore but he's been walking around town. I took Alex to the doctor at the hospital this morning for her first post-operation check-up. We left the house at about quarter to six in the morning. I'm not really a morning person so I set three alarms. We made it and we were the second people there. They weren't even open yet. We were there for about three and a half hours, they checked her out, and all is well.

I'm so happy. I can see the difference in Alex already. Her demeanor is just...sunnier. She's smiling a lot and she feels more energetic. I wasn't really worried- since it's all about me, I felt that the universe wasn't giving me another terminal friend. I also just don't think negatively like that. It was serious though, and I was cognizant of that. So I'm just glad it's over and they're both on the road to recovery. Both B and I do like to joke how Mike is now inside her forever. Take that how you will. 

They both have some restrictions- no crowded places like supermarkets or restaurants. Everyone that comes into the house needs to wash their hands. No one with a cold or cough can visit. They really just need to stay away from germs as much as humanely possible. If you want to give Alex something she can use, give her some of those masks they wear at the nail salon or doctors wear during surgery. Seriously.

People keep asking what they can do for them. Alex and Mike would tell me to say nothing, because I asked them about a meal train and they thought I was crazy. But they have now used Fairway for grocery delivery so if you want to get them something, arrange for a Fairway delivery or send them a gift card for there. Mike really likes the cookies from The Cookie Connect in Bloomfield. Oh, and Alex likes Zadies in Fair Lawn, Rocca and Rock Kitchen in Glen Rock, and Trader Joe's. Just saying. By the way- They're going to kill me for writing this part because they have a hard time accepting help, but whatever. She didn't even want to ask me to drive her to the doctor today. But, they can't drive! Besides- people like to help, they like to give stuff, and Mike and Alex don't have a giant fridge for all the ziti trays people tend to make during a meal train.

So that's it. The road to recovery is long and there's many doctor's appointments in their futures, meds to take, and whatnot, but the worst is over! The surgery was successful so far and they're both home resting and spending time with their daughter and the rest of their families. And me, B, and E.