My friend Arielle's sister needs help.

Hey everyone,

A few years ago, my friend Elysia was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at age 24. She and the cancer had a knife fight, and she came away the victor! But the fight was not without cost - she now has lymphadema. 

Elysia is an incredibly talented, driven, and important person in my life, not least because it weren't for her, I wouldn't be dating her amazingly gorgeous and talented sister.

Please donate a dollar or whatever you can, and pass along her message.

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From Elysia:

Hello my loving friends and family (and friends and family of my friends and family). This is not spam (yes, Elysia Skye is writing you a personalized electronic message woohoo!!!). I have surgery on November 5th to cure my right arm of Lymphedema. This surgery is going to cost about $25,000 and I have been instructed to take 6 weeks off work. Long story short (cuz the long version is in the attachment), I need $30,000 ASAP.

I have recently registered my non-profit organization (www.elysiaskye.org), so this donation will be a tax write off for you! So, if this email hits 30,000 people and everyone sends me ONE DOLLAR, I will have enough money to have this surgery!

Please send me $1 (or more if you'd like, i won't argue, i promise) and please, SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND REQUEST THAT THEY ALSO SEND ME $1. This is REALLY important. Please FORWARD this on (send $1 and repost please).

You can send a check or a dollar to the address below, or pay online through paypal to donate@elysiaskye.org.

I hope to raise more than enough so that I can continue working toward Cancer Awareness in people under 40.

This is very important to me, so thank you for your time and generosity.

Love and Gratitude,
Elysia Skye
"Die From Laughing, Not From Cancer."

The Elysia Skye Breast Cancer Organization
PO Box 4573
Valley Village, CA 91617

Weekend ends in Frustration

Friday: I got off work at 3:30 and immediately headed out to Temecula for a surprise dinner for my Aunt's 61st birthday. She'll always be younger then my Dad. We surprised her too. It was fun seeing my cousins and eating at the Ponte vineyard. I'd been there once before with my father-in-law, Pat, and Erik for dinner back before my wedding in 2005. It was nice visiting it again, but I didn't like the shrimp pasta that I got all that much. I wasn't expecting only 4 jumbo shrimp, but the smaller ones and it just didn't have enough flavor for my taste.

I slept at my aunt Debbies hanging out with Mandi, Christina, my Aunt Debbie, and Mandi, and Christina's babies. We all ended up going to be really early for me anyway. A little after 9pm. I called Erik to say good night, and since I got the tv room, I ended up watching Pretty Woman which I hadn't seen in years. Admittedly, I still like it.

Saturday: We headed to Rose's Bridal Hat Shower. The object of the party was that everyone was to wear a hat. I didn't get a chance to go shopping for one like I wanted, so I ended up using my straw hat that I had purchased at the Ren Faire back in 2002. I should have woren my pirate hat. My cousin Christina and I look at Target and we ended up buying these really cute Witches hats. It might come in handy for Halloween or some other function sometime. I accidentally left it in her SUV though. We were at the shower a little longer then expected, but it was nice seeing and hanging out with my cousins, aunts and Loretta. Rose's mom has a pretty nice place.

I drove home that night and Erik and I watched the latest Netflix's movie I receive. The Brother's Grimm. I hadn't seen it and watched it in honor of Heath Ledger. He was fun in it. I will probalby post a review on my Viewing Mayhem page about it.

Sunday, I cleaned up around the house and played video games most of the day. I wasn't the most productive, but it was nice relaxing. I was just finishing up some stuff online when I decided to look at the reviews on my Amazon.com website. I occasionally sell things on the website, and last month, I sold a movie called American Anthem. It played absolutely fine in my VHS player. I even copied it onto a DVD because I wasn't ready to give up the movie entirely. I sold the VHS for about $10. And the guy gave me a 1 review back in August. He NEVER contacted me that he was unhappy about the quality. He did say he got it in a timely manner, but that the quality played bad for him.. I totally would have given him a refund no questions asked. I don't sell a lot and only have a few reviews so one bad one on my record really messes with the percentage, and before him.. I had a 100% rating. Boo to bad communicators Boo!!

Thursday.. is it really Thursday?

I seriously wonder where my weeks go sometimes. The older I get.. the faster they go. Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming my mother with all the little aliments or infections that keep coming my way. This week, I've had a couple of pimples or styes in my left eyelid.

It started Sunday when I woke up and my eyelid hurt a little. I ignored it and it really didn't bother me that much. Then on Monday, when I woke up, my eyelid was all was very puffy and it hurt even more. My eye itself was fine. No redness and it didn't itch. Admittedly, I was starting to freak out a little bit. My insurance had recently switched over as of the first and I hadn't received my new card yet. I was able to hide it with makeup and no one at work noticed it. Now this is a bit gross, but a head developed on the area just under the eyelashes on the right side. I popped it. It was small. Tuesday, the swelling on the right side of my eyelid was gone but I realized, I had a 2nd pimple. This one hurt a lot and it itched. No head has developed by it has shrank in half. However, the last couple of days, It's been giving me migranes because of it's location. I have lipton cup a soups at work that seem to diminish the headache while I'm drinking it. I think it's because of the warmth. I'm going see about getting some excedrin at lunch. I'm noticing it effecting my work. I sorta snapped at a coworker when she asked for something, I didn't want to give up at the moment. It wasn't a major snap or anything, just something that I shouldn't have done.

The eye thing has been the only big irritant outside of some simple work stuff. I'm incharge of the curriculum supplies in the center. I make orders once a week. They never sent me an order from early in August and so far they've duplicated an order from a few weeks ago. I just got a shipped in today and it almost looks like it will be a triple of that same order. I'm running out of storage space.

Good things going on:

• Erik is loving his English class and his swimming for Fitness. Is college counseling class is pretty lame though.
• I'm really enjoying my Netflix's membership, and still thinking of increasing the # of dics I can keep at a time.
• I checked on my application for my sub credential and they received it on 8/22, but it is still pending evaluation. Slow pokes!
• I've been working out more and back to counting my calories. I get lazy about counting, but it seems to be the only way, I'll loose weight.
• The roommate is leaving for the weekend today, so Erik and I have the place to our selves heehee.

Last night, we met up with Erik's cousin-in-law Rafe, who was out filming an Insurance convention for work. Sounds thrilling I know, but he loves filming and editing. He's out from Peoria and it was great hanging out at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney for a few hours. Of course, we picked the only restaurant down there that has a stipulation on the use of Disney season passes for discounts. We showed off our apartment and he was enamored with our tv and extensive DVD collection (I'm obsessive). It's always interesting hanging with Rafe. We only usually get to see him when we're out to Ill once a year or so. He's my age and grew up in Paris. Erik's cousin met him when she was over there for a semester aboard. They've lived a couple of times in Paris, but now their permanently back in Peoria. He does have an accent, but it isn't that strong. He just is fascinated with so much of the small things in life. It was a good visit.

Tomorrow night, I'm attending an Arbonne party that my coworker is hosting for her sister. Then Saturday, Rose's Bridal Hat shower. I have a hat that will work, but I want to find something cuter. I have a few hours to kill before the Arbonne party, so I'm going to go shopping at Victoria Gardens in Rancho. I've only been there for dinner a few times, but never to shop.

Labor Day laziness

Not too much has been going on with me. I had a nice lazy three day weekend.

Saturday, Erik has his PE class, so he went swimming for fitness for 2 hours. He bike rode to and from school and boy was he tired when he got home. We went and watched Babylon AD and it has an interesting premise, but wasn't well executed. It was lacking.

Sunday I did DDR for an hour which hurt my back some and we hosted a small movie party with a few friends. A couple of my friends who live in the Hollywood area were going to the House of Blues at Downtown Disney, so they stopped in for a few hours and we watched the Crow. My friend Ryan also joined us and stayed when Talon showed and we watched Tron and Clerks 2, along with a couple of South Park episodes from Season 11. I made homemade French Bread pizza that was a hit. I have to admit, it tasted pretty darn good.

Monday, My back was still hurting so we didn't make it over to my friend Mary's for a BBQ. I ended up taking in easy sorting through my file cabinet and playing video games all day. Erik did BBQ some chicken burgers and we had fries. All the healthy stuff for a Labor Day.

I hated going back to work because I'm so busy here getting students enrolled. I drove up to Victorville last night and had dinner with my Mom. It was nice her and I each having Quesadilla Explosion salad at Chilli's. Hmmm.. I ate my left overs just now for lunch. Back to the chaos that is my day of work.

Another illness

Monday, I didn't feel right and had a horrible day at work. That evening I had tickling in my nose. Sure enough, I woke up sick the next day. It's been a slow lingering illness. It's different then my last illnesses. It is as bacterial as the last ones were. It seems more viral. I've been feeling different every day. One area will improve and another worsen. I'm starting to feel it more in my lungs, but I can also tell that it's getting better there at the same time. I've been drinking like a fish. It hasn't developed into a full fledged cough yet and I sure hope it doesn't. I hate respiratory infections with my asthma.

No huge weekend plans for Labor day weekend. I'm looking forward to a 3 day though.
Tomorrow, Erik, Mick and I are going to see babylon AD and then on Sunday we're having a movie party at our place with a few friends. We'll see who shows. No plans for Monday. I'm going to play it by ear. We'll probably grill something though.

Nothing too Much

Another week flys by. The olympics are over. I don't pay attention to most of the second week like I do the first. I love watching swimming and gymnastics the most. Two of you know that I gave in and joined Facebook. I'm still working on figuring it out. Now, I've been talked into joining Twitter. So many web pages so little life. I even joined Netflix finally. Just mailed back the first movie we borrowed (The BSG miniseries). We started with just the 1 at a time unlimited and we'll see if we want to upgrade to the 2 at some point.

I still need to send in the RSVP for my cousin's wedding. I'm glad it's on a friday since they choice that weekend. I'm going to San Jose that weekend for special event. I'm taking a nice 4 day from work.

Saturday, I was productive and got a lot of cleaning around the apartment. Sunday, Erik and I went to the Super Secret Bats Day in the Park event. If you don't know what Bats Day in the Park is. It's more or less Goth day at Disneyland. This weekend was the 10 year anniversary for the event. However the official event has been moved to November this year and May next to have it at a less crowded and blistering hot day. Noah (the founder of Bats Day) wanted to have a day there to commemorate the actual anniversary, so he just posted a limited blog about it on MySpace and Twitter and instead of the usual 2000+ show up. Less then 50 people showed. It was pretty funny. Erik and I just wore our Nightmare before Christmas shirts. I'm planning on going all out in November though. I bought this beatiful dress at Comic Con of all places. We had dinner at the Blue Bayou and since we decided to take our left overs, we didn't stay too long after that. I need to start kidnapping more people to come with Erik and I when we go to Disneyland. I love having a season pass. I have developed a bad Disney pin collecting habit though. So far it's only for Nightmare before Christmas ones, but i don't want it to go farther then that LOL.

Me for President...

http://www.thelopezfamilyonline.com/play.php?first=Ricki&last=Dimitriadis

The moment I try to make it larger it doesn't play right, but This is pretty funny. I got it from a coworker.