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Tag: 2012

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Charming Charlie – A New BFF for the New Year!

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I am so starting this new year off right!  I’ve been a big fan of the chunky necklaces that match every outfit that you find at places like Coldwater Creek, but I’m nearly embarrassed to admit how much I’ve spent on the likes of these fabulously faux gems.  I’ve paid way too much for necklaces that only match one blouse or earrings that I can only wear on Leap Year day or something silly like that.

Today, Brighid and I hit the Deptford Mall to check out some of the sales and use some of her Christmas gift cards, and as we were walking the mall, we discovered it.  The mecca of bogus baubles!  Charming Charlie has accessories to outfit any, well, any outfit!  You’ll find handbags, sunglasses, necklaces, earrings bracelets, scarves, hats – anything you need to put that polished finish to any look, they have.  And they have it at such amazing prices!  Necklaces that I know I’ve paid upwards of $40 for (shhhh, don’t tell my husband), I saw almost identical twins of at Charming Charlie for only $15!  They had bridal style headbands, which I was looking at for my sister, for $12 and up – very similar to ones I saw online at bridal stores for more than $75!

The handbags are all fun and funky, and you’ll find a nice selection of wallets, some crazy socks, and gorgeous pashmina style wraps and scarves to match every outfit.

And I love that the store is arranged almost like a rainbow!  Everything is with it’s matching color scheme!  Pick out which outfit you want to match accessories to, and head right to that color!

I’ll be heading back there this week to coordinate some jewelry with the outfits I’m taking to Walt Disney World next weekend – and I’m sure I’ll be back many more times after that to dress up some of the other things in my closet that need refreshing.

Check the store locator on their website to see if there’s a Charming Charlie near you.  He’ll be your new BFF in 2012!

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2011 – What I Learned This Year

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I could sum up my year in one word.  School.  I feel like the entire year was consumed by my educational aspirations.  But aside from all the -ologies I studied in 2011, I’ve learned quite a few other things.  With a year that saw me recovering from last fall’s bout with MRSA and then a stay in ICU battling kidney failure, I had lots of time to reflect on things – the good, the bad, and what was more important.

So here goes:

I learned that it’s perfectly okay to be sad about the things I’ve lost.  My sister, who died way too young; my dad, who fought for the last ten years of his life to make sure he snatched every bit of joy and happiness he could in the time he had left; the five babies I never got to hold or cuddle or sniff the tops of their tiny heads.  I know now that it’s okay to still find myself in a puddle of my own tears over not having those things.  But it’s even more important to celebrate and appreciate the things that I haven’t lost.  I have three amazing daughters, who can melt my heart with their beautiful smiles and warm me on my coldest days with their giggles.  I have a husband who loves me – cherishes me – and through all of his own battles, always manages to make me feel like his number one priority.  I am blessed with an awesome sister, terrific parents and step-parents, and extended family and friends that I adore.

I learned that it really does take the worst to make you truly understand and appreciate the best.  The worst snowstorms help you appreciate the warmest days.  A bad grade on a test makes you truly grateful when you get an A.  A bad eye day for Jim makes a good eye day such a gift.  Laying in bed in intensive care helps you to remember to find gratitude when “it’s only a cold” or “it’s a small cut”.  I’m going to bitch way less about how sore my nose is when I get a head cold and be happy instead that they discovered Puffs with Lotion!

I have finally figured out what a “good” doctor is.  I’ve had the same primary care doctor for almost 30 years.  While I’ve appreciated everything he’s done for me, I never really appreciated what a good doctor he is.  He’s funny.  I don’t mind going to see him, because I feel I will surely be entertained, but this year, when we needed balls to the wall, he stepped up to the plate.  And you already know that I truly believe I found God’s gift to medicine when I found Dr. Veitia.  So if you’re in the area, and need a primary care doctor, it’s Dr. Gary Heck.  Looking for a phenomenal surgeon?  Dr. Nestor Veitia.  And you’ll love them as much as I do when you meet some of the other doctors that are out there.

I”d like to say that in 2011, I figured out the meaning of life.  Well, at least my life.  I haven’t.  But I have made huge strides in figuring out what was important.  Family, friends, health, education, and Mickey Mouse.  If you discover the joy in all of that, you don’t really need to know the meaning of life – you just need to enjoy it.

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It’s the End of the World….Or Is It?

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Thank you, Steve MacCall-Carter, for giving me something to think about this week besides my upcoming classes on Anatomy and Physiology, which I am surely going to struggle with.

Steve brought up the pending end of the world, making me think I should stop paying my bills, pack my bags for the best cruise I can book at the last minute, and forget the worries of A&P I and II – I won’t need to know where your thigh bone is connected to if the world truly does end.

So, there are a couple of theories floating around.  According to one source, we’re all going to be judged on May 21st, 2011 (what does one wear to a judgement, anyway?  Do you think Beatrice and Eugenie are lending out those fascinating fascinators they wore to the royal wedding?); and then five months later, God is going to destroy the planet Earth.

Another theory is giving us until December, 2012 to get our act together, get our affairs in order (although, with no one left behind to tend to those affairs, who the hell cares what you’re leaving me in your will?), and start living life as though you deserve to be one of the chosen few allowed through the pearly gates.

Keep in mind that I’m Catholic, and as such, there are no requirements to actually read the Bible in my religion – only that I sit quietly each Sunday and holy day and have the bits deemed important read to me.  So if I’m off on my basis in religious fact, well, sue me.

But doesn’t it say right there in the Bible

But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone.

Hmmm.  Correct me if I’m wrong, but it would seem that none of the Doomsday prophets are claiming to be God – which means that the chances of them having some sort of inside knowledge of the coming of the end of the earth would be somewhere between slim and none.

Here’s the deal, my friends.  Live life every day as if it were your last day.  That doesn’t mean spend the mortgage money on that new Jaguar convertible so you can tool around town with your broke ass self until the repo man comes and collects on the unpaid car loan.  That sets up the scenario where Mr. Wells Fargo will knock on your door and politely tell you that the house you love is his, and he wants it back.

What it means is be freakin’ nice to each other.  Whether you believe in God or not, learn to be tolerant, patient, and accepting of each other.  Know that just because I go to Church on THAT corner, it doesn’t make me any less your human sibling because you go to Church on the OTHER corner.  It doesn’t matter what happy bits the person I climb into bed with has – what matters is that when I get out of bed in the morning, I don’t walk all over someone who is down on their luck, begging for some spare change; and I don’t ridicule someone for their disability; and I don’t disassociate from someone I like because they don’t have the same religious beliefs that I do.  And yes, I did call them happy bits.

Just learn to get along.  It’s true – everything you DO need to know about life, you probably did learn in kindergarten.  Remember this one – When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.  It’s that stick together part that we all seem to have forgotten.

Maybe the Apocalypse predictors should take a lesson from kindergarten.  Now, more than ever, we need to learn to stick together.  All of us.  If it is the end of the world, we’ll be way less frightened if we’re holding hands and facing it together.  And if it’s not, we’ll all be a whole lot happier.