So it has been a little over a year since I had my lap-band surgery. It has been a pretty easy road..however, I have to admit, the last couple of months I haven’t been my “lap-band self”. It could have something to do with the fact that Photo Fun Box is as crazy as ever or that I’m never home, but my eating habits have gone by the wayside. Well, I shouldn’t say that exactly, I’m just not getting all the veggies in that I need. The other some what difficult part is that we are at multiple weddings a weekend, with multiple opportunities to eat wedding cake . I’ve given in over the last couple of weeks…..ruh roh!

It’s not that I’m gaining weight – I just don’t FEEL as good as I did because I’m missing key parts of my nutritional needs. So last night, the booth was set-up directly across from a table of red velvet cake and OMG..did it look amazing. I walked by it several times, hell, I even grabbed a fork and went in for the kill and then I remembered what it felt like to be 70lbs heavier. No piece of cake was worth that so I put the fork down and walked away. I can’t even tell you how good that made me feel. It was the first step on the road back to “STICKING to the diet”. But honestly, this summer has been hard. Pasta salad, potato salad, french fries, hot dogs — they all surround you wherever you go. I just keep telling myself — none of that is worth it. I still have 30 more pounds to go and I’m going to get there! No piece of cake is going to hold me back!

People are freakin crazy…..don’t know if many of you have seen this but I just came across it. It was too funny not to share.

Last night Austin and I went to P.F. Chang’s for dinner – one of our most favorite restaurants. When we walked in we saw plenty of tables open but the hostess told us it would be 20 minute wait. I saw a few seats at the bar so we decided to sit there. Immediately, we knew there had to be an issue with staffing or kitchen back-up because why would there be so many tables open and a 20 minute wait??

The bartender, Andrea, quickly took our order and we always get the P.F. Chang’s for Two. It comes with soup, an appetizer, two entrees and two desserts for $39.95. We quickly received our soups and appetizer – the calamari — yum!! To my right there was an older couple (man & woman) sitting and then next to them two men were sitting together. The couple directly next to us (we’ll call them John and Jane) also had appetizers as well did the two men sitting next to them (we’ll call them Jim & Joe). I should mention that John and Jane were here first, followed by us, followed by Jim and Joe.

John and Jane ask the bartender to check on their dinner because they feel it had been a little while. Andrea did and she said they were the 4th ticket up. Next meal out goes to Jim & Joe, followed by our dinner. I turn to Austin and say, “John is going to freak-out any moment.” John says to the bartender, “Can you please check again, because both of these people next to us, ordered after us and have already gotten their food.” Andrea goes in the kitchen, comes out and says, “I’m very sorry sir, it was my fault, I ordered your food late but it will be out any moment.” This dude goes into a fit of rage and just starts freaking out. He is telling Jane to get up and they are leaving and they are NOT paying for a damn thing. Andrea (bartender) gets her manager who comes out and is also very apologetic saying the food would be up within 5 minutes. This guy, John, turns to the manager and says, “the only thing you can do to make me happy is let me get the hell out of here!” Manager says “okay, have a good night.” Literally as John and Jane walked out the door, the bartender brought their food out and Austin & I and Jim and Joe shared it

Now, there are a few points here – if the bartender forgot my food would I be pissed yes, but I wouldn’t freak out. I would ask how she is going to fix the situation (i.e. what are you giving me for free?) Which by the way, they were going to give the guy his entire meal for free. The other point is that had been served appetizers and drinks – it’s not like they were sitting at the table for 30 minutes waiting for a server. Finally, the dude still had to be hungry. What’s the point of leaving? At 9:30 at night your food options are pretty limited.

So, what is the moral of this story? Patience is a virtue. What is the point in getting all worked up over something like this? It gets you no where.

In between everything else I do, I make time every week to spend an hour or so with Lil. The blind woman I volunteer with. I met her through Friendship Works. This organization pairs volunteers with elderly or disabled people that need assistance and otherwise have no family around to help.  I take Lil to the grocery store, to CVS, to the post office, where ever she needs to go because without me she can’t get out of the house (She used to take the MBTA The Ride – but they declined her from it because just because she is blind doesn’t mean she can’t take the bus this is a story for another time).

Now, believe me, I have tons of things I could be doing – errands, cleaning, laundry but if I can spend just 60 minutes per week helping someone else then why not? There are tons of organizations you can look into – here is a short list of organizations that I have been involved with at some time or another or that I have heard great things about:

United Way Emerging Leaders

Friendship Works

Big Sisters of Greater Boston

Big Brothers Association

Best Buddies

Birthday Wishes

Cradles to Crayons

If none of these organizations fit what you are looking for — you should check out bostoncares.org for more information.

We’ve all been there before..your boss does something to infuriate you and you want to vent to the world. Your tweetdeck is up on the computer and your fingers just start typing away…this is a bad idea. Not only can your employer see it but your clients, friends, co-workers, etc. all have access to it (unless of course you have set your profile to private — but I never really understood the reason behind that…a topic for another discussion).

This is the INTERNET people – it’s out there forever! So I put together a few tips so that you don’t get fired for turning to Twitter in your time of distress:

1. Simply get up and walk away from your computer or if you are with your cell phone – put the phone down!

2. If you absolutely have to type something…type “AHHHHHHHHHHH” or a smiley face.

3. Fire up Facebook and play a game of Bejeweled. That always takes the edge off.

4. Go for a walk — outside the office.

5. Call your friend, spouse, roomate and vent.

Whatever you do – think long and hard before writing that tweet. We all know someone who this has happened to but it is what it is. Always remember that everything you do online can have an impact on your professional life. So before you go off ranting about how much you hate that your client never provides lunch at noon meetings or that your co-worker smells funny – STOP! and walk away from the computer or phone.

I use Google Reader for my blog reading (I also get many subscriptions via email) but lately that poor little wealth of information has been ignored. I just don’t have the time to read it and every time I open it – I honestly have 2,000+ entries to read. I’m not sure if this means I need to whittle down my subscriptions or if I need to read it more often – I’m thinking the second option. There is just not enough time in the day to read! I’m sure there is a way I can get this to my phone, that seems like a no-brainer..but maybe not.

The thing is – I love all the blogs I read. Everything from my favorite mommy blogger to my favorite celebrity entertainment news – they are all so great! I think the real answer here is that I just need to make more time for me. I think that is the answer to many of my problems.

So normally I don’t write about beauty items. That is most certainly not my specialty. If you know me you know that I don’t know how to do hair, make-up, nails, any of it. Those are things that I pay people to do for me because I don’t have the patients or the skills. But when I received the buzz agent kit for this new CoverGirl and Olay product, I thought what they hell – I’ll give it a shot.

So I went to a wedding over the weekend and wanted to try it. I wanted something that was going to stay on for an extended amount of time but not be to heavy. So, I gave it a whirl and with finishing touches of my friend Dawn – I was good to go. The product was great. It stayed on for 15 hours no problem. It was light and like the buzz guide says, it was smooth and it did a lot of color correcting for an even youthful look.

I have worn the product once since and I will continue to wear it. If you know me, I have a few coupons I need to give out so hit me up!

I know it’s been way too long since I’ve posted..I’ve just been so busy with work both Aigner and Photo Fun Box but the antics of this past weekend deserved a blog post! The weekend started on Friday worked until 1pm at Aigner (thank god! for half-day Fridays), came home had lunch and then packed up for the nights events – a wedding and after graduation party. Went to Haverhill – the lovely Diburro’s Function Facility set up the booth and then made our way to Watertown High School to set-up for the Watertown after-graduation party. We had taken two cars because we only wanted to rent one trailer for the night. So I had followed Austin in my car and when we got to Watertown H.S. we switched cars. So, I drove the truck and trailer back to Haverhill and got their 30 minutes before the wedding started. As I got out of the truck I realized that I forgot my dress clothes and shoes — OMG! I FORGOT MY DRESS CLOTHES AND SHOES…I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans..what was I going to do??? I went in and saw the owners Bobby and David and said, “can you help me? I forgot my clothes..” I should note, that I had called Austin and he was driving me my dress but I still had to get the booth started and he wouldn’t be there for about 30 minutes. David said that he might have something in the basement and did he ever…a white button down shirt and black catering pants…oooh boy! As I’m putting this outfit on in the bathroom I was thinking to myself — thank god I lost 60 lbs..I would have never fit if I was still overweight! So here I am in my glorified catering outfit with my sneakers running across the dance floor. Austin made it there with my dress, I promptly stripped outside the backdoor of the venue and put my dress on and ran back in – that problem solved. The rest of the wedding went off without a hitch – we packed up and headed back to Watertown where I had to work with Austin until 3:30am — yes 3:30 AM. Things were fine there and we packed up and it was 5:00am when I got into bed.

Slept in on Saturday and ran a few errands. Matty and Kathi (our friends) called and invited us into the city. I would like to digress here and say that I HATE weather people. All week they said that Saturday was going to pour down rain. When I finally made it out of the house it was 90 degrees and sunny. I could have been at the beach!! Anyway, we went down to The Landing in Boston. When we got there everyone was yelling “YES! We can get a shark tank!” I’m like what is that?? IT was this –

ONE GALLON of alcohol. Oh! and you better believed I had a part in drinking it..a little to much of it. We hung out and went to a few more bars and then made it home around 2am ish — what was I thinking??

Slept most of the day today and coming up this weekend I’m headed to Chicago for my friend Laura’s wedding and to see the best baby in the world – Madison!! What a weekend..at least I know I will NEVER forgot my clothes again.

It has been way too long since I posted about my lap-band. To be honest, things kinds of stalled. I’ve been loosing 1 – 3lbs per month – big deal. The good Dr. Robinson explains it as the following: I’ve lost almost 60% of my excess body weight. The lap-band is designed to help you loose 45%-55% of your excess body weight over a two year period. I’ve lost mine in 1 year. So essentially what he is saying is that I need to get my booty to the gym. Which if you know me and the life I live, is somewhat impossible.

So this morning I went for my one year check-up (I had my surgery on May 13, 2009). I GAINED 3LBS! To be honest, I’m surprised it wasn’t more. Our little excursion to Key West might have done me in. Could it have been the 5-7 frozen sugary drinks I had (PER DAY), or maybe all the fried food I consumed or the fact that I had little to NO fruit on the trip. I know it was a combination of those things and it was bound to happen sometime. As Dr. Robinson explained, I haven’t gained any weight in year. Most people fluctuate weight all the time. It’s fine. To date I’ve still lost 65 lbs!

I did get a fill. So now, my 14 cc band has 6 cc of saline in it and I’m on the liquid diet for two days. If you see me on a daily basis and I’m not very friendly this week – don’t be offended

OH! and I left out the best part of our vacation – I got stuck for the first time. “Stuck” refers to food getting stuck in the band. The only way to describe it is – you can’t breathe, food feels like it is stuck in your esophagus (not feels like, it is) and you immediately want to throw up.  So, Austin and I were enjoying a lovely breakfast on our lanai at Hawk’s Cay, I was having a western omelet (a usual for me) and there were home fries, so I ate one. I’m guess I didn’t chew it enough or maybe I ate too fast. But in 1 YEAR – this has never happened to me. I know it happens to banders all the time – but not me! I looked at Austin and said, “I’m stuck” and ran to the bathroom. I was instantaneously sweating and freaking out. Austin was trying to calm me down and I was just hoping the food would come up already. As I was praying to the porcelain gods and nothing was coming out I stood up and the food went down. All better – but what a scary moment! I’ve ready stories and other blogs where this happens daily to banders. I have no idea how they deal with that. I was in my hotel room – I can’t imagine that happening out in public. Yuck .

Hopefully, with the fill today, I will re-start my body and get back to doing what I do best – sticking to the diet and rules!

Many of you know that I’m involved on the executive committee of the United Way’s Emerging Leaders group. The program engages civic-minded young professionals through volunteer opportunities, leadership development, and social networking events. All of the United Way’s Emerging Leaders funding goes to United Way’s Youth Venture Program which inspires and invests in teams of young people, ages 12-18, to start social projects that create positive, lasting change in their communities. Youth participate in a “Dream It. Do It.” training workshop where they work in teams to develop ideas and learn how to write business plans. Teams then present their plans to a selection panel and the strongest proposals are provided seed funding up to $1,000, guidance, tools, and support from adult allies to successfully implement their ventures.

The annual gala is coming up on May 15th at the Boston Children’s Museum! As usual, Austin and I have to work – we are triple booked for Photo Fun Box, but we bought two tickets with the idea to give them away on my blog. So here is your chance!

Simply comment on this post with the name of your most favorite place that you visited as a child – it could be a park, your grandmother’s house, a special museum, anywhere! All you have to do is comment. A winner will be chosen at random on Friday, May 7th at 5:00pm EST.

BUT, before you enter – make sure you are available! Here are the details:

Join United Way’s Emerging Leaders for live music, dancing, open bar and hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction and all the fun of being a kid again at Boston Children’s Museum!

Date: Saturday, May 15, 2010
Time: 7:00-11:00 pm
Location: Boston Children’s Museum
Attire: Festive cocktail attire, jackets suggested

Complimentary hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine. Cash bar available.

Here is a link to the website for more details! Good Luck!!