Pale Rose: Weeks 27-29
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 31, 2008
So here is a little update on what I’ve been up to on this project. As you will see, the final photo so far is of it out of the frame. Since I was switching it to a new one, I figured I’d take this so you can see exactly how much has been done over the last year. There are still 11 more pages to go, but that feels like nothing compared to what I’ve done so far. Still looks like I’m on track to finish by the end of the year, depending on how much I get done before Andy gets home in October.
Week Twenty-Seven:
Week Twenty-Eight:
Week Twenty-Nine:
This one is for my ladies
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 20, 2008
In the last year, I’ve had to deal with cervical cancer twice. The first time was when a friend of mine, only 6 months younger than me, found out she had it. Thanks to modern medicine and catching it early, she’s still here to raise her little girl. The second time was today when I accompanied my mom to the calling hours for a friend of hers, only 6 months older than my mom, who died from cervical cancer over the weekend. Unfortunately, hers wasn’t caught so early and by the end it had spread to other parts of her body.
The American Cancer Society’s list of risk factors for cervical cancer include infections of the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, HIV and chlamydia as well as smoking, hormonal contraception, multiple pregnancies, exposure to the hormonal drug drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) and a family history of cervical cancer. Luckily, the 5-year survival rate for women with stage IA cervical cancer is around 96% while for stage IB it’s around 85%. Unfortunately, by the time it gets to Stage II, that number drops to around 55% and it keeps dropping as the stages increase.
There is hope, though. Cervical cancer is one the most preventable types of cancer thanks to regular pap smears, which can suggest the presence of premalignant changes in the cervix before cancer has even developed.
So ladies, let’s do our part to make sure we are alive to see our children, nieces, nephews and grandchild grow up. We all know how much it sucks to plop our feet in those stirrups but that 10 minutes of torture each year could save your life.
I’m all shopped out… for the moment at least
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 17, 2008
What a whirlwind weekend. Friday afternoon we drove down to NYC for a weekend of shopping. In reality, it was a day of shopping after spending Friday and today driving, but it was totally worth it.
After getting into the hotel late on Friday, we were all ready to just get some sleep so we could wake up early on Saturday. In our exhaustion, we just checked into our suite at the New Yorker. Mom and Sam immediately crashed on the pull out while I watched a little TV in bed. Right before crawling into bed to sleep, it dawned on me that we must have an amazing view from our room on the 38th floor, so I went to the window to look out. Because we were so high up, it was a bit dark out with the lights of Times Square off in the distance, but I noticed just outside my window what appeared to be a table and chairs. This was my first inkling that we might have a terrace attached to our room. Of course, with the pull-out blocking the only area where a door could be, I couldn’t really investigate until morning. Upon waking up, though, we were to find the huge private terrace with the most amazing view ever:
Since Sam wanted to at least do a little something touristy, we all walked down to the Empire State Building, where mom and Sam went up to the observation deck while I had coffee with Jack and Amanda, who had taken the train in from West Point. That done, we hopped the subway to Union Square so we could hit up the bookstore and Forbidden Planet before heading to lunch at Pie by the Pound, home of the best pizza ever. From there, we head back to the hotel for a short break before getting to the real shopping.
And shopping we did. After two hours spent in the nightmarishly packed Macy’s, we hit up H&M before mom, Jack and Sam were all shopped out. Still ready to spend, Amanda and I went down the block to Express, where we proceeded to spend a couple more hours. By the time we were done there, we were both exhausted and broke. And, for me at least, in need of a closet culling. Some lucky people are about to end up with a lot of donated clothes.
After relaxing a little more, we head off to Junior’s for dinner before ending the evening at Toys R’ Us and Sephora, where surprisingly, no one bought anything. Heading back to the hotel, exhausted, we all stayed up just late enough to watch Michael Phelps with his 8th gold medal during this Olympic games (breaking a record, I believe), before passing out only to wake up this morning still tired but ready to head home. All in all, a very successful, though short, weekend. Now I’m off to make room for my new clothes.
Girls + NYC = SHOPPING!!!
Posted by Gypsy on Aug 15, 2008
My mom, sister and I are off to NYC today for the weekend to do some shopping. It’s only for about a day and a half of actual time in the city, but I’m sure we can all do some damage to our wallets in that time. No blogging while I’m going (like I’ve really don’t any lately anyway, hehe), but lots of photos and such to come on Monday.
