Hey, I'm not one to pass on free food and drinks and with the economy they way it is today - I'm all over it! T marked the calendars to make sure we got free Southern Style Chicken sandwiches from McDonald's today and also the free iced coffee Dunkin Donuts gave away all day today (until 10 PM). Both were great!
This year's Bike To Work Day wouldn't've been the same without her.
*does a dance for joy, goes back on hiatus*
Grab your helmet, check the air in your tires, and hop on your bike because in many U.S. cities, May 12 - 16 is Bike to Work Week! Six Apart has a lot of biking enthusiasts, so we're very excited to support this event by encouraging all of our employees to bike to work this week. San Francisco's Bike to Work Day is tomorrow, Thursday, May 15th, and New York's is Friday, May 16th.
Six Apart is helping out its employees by providing maps (shaded according to steepness - a must in SF!) to help everyone plan out his/her route, as well as finding first-time riders buddies to commute with. We're also supporting ALL SF riders who pass the front of our office by handing out coffee, juice and snacks from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. If you're in our neighborhood, look for the sign that says "Six Apart Supports Bike to Work Day" and stop by to say hi and get energized!
Improve your health, financial status, productivity, and happiness by joining thousands - maybe even millions - of commuters around the country who are hopping on their bikes to get to work. Visit the Bike to Work Week website to find out more about events in your area.
Support the two-wheeled way of life with the "Passing Left" theme found in "Photo-Based" in the Design Area. Planning on cycling to work this week? Let us know in the comments!
As we mentioned last week, we had to postpone the maintenance that was due to occur on Thursday, May 8th.
We have rescheduled the maintenance for tonight, Tuesday, May 13th, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT). We'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Again, thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!
Hoping all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day!
- My mother being here would have made this Mother Day, the day it should have been for me. It's been three year's worth of Mother's Days without her. R.I.P Mom.
- I slept in this morning, which is odd because I should be caught up on sleep as I've had an abundance of sleep and rest over the last week!
- To my surprise T woke me up with an amazing bouquet of tropical flowers and a nice gift set from The Body Shop. I received calls and text messages from family, and friends I hadn't heard from in awhile.
- C took me and T to the Brazilian Steakhouse, Texas De Brazil for lunch - amazing! I usually overdose on meat, however since the surgery my appetite hasn't been totally normal so I didn't enjoy the full benefit.
- Another damper is that I'm still dragging this drain around under my arm! I was so psyched to have it removed on Friday. I met with my Surgeon, Dr. M and she burst my bubble, saying it was too soon to have it out, since there is still too much drainage from the removal of the lymph nodes under my right armpit. She could see the disenchantment in my face when she told me it would probably be Tuesday before she could remove it. She asked what was wrong - I wanted to say "WOMAN, YOU ATTACHED PLASTIC TUBING AND A DAMN DRAIN PUMP UNDER MY ARM!" "IT'S FOREIGN, IT DOESN'T BELONG THERE, THAT'S WHAT THE F*UCK IS WRONG!" Instead, I just said "Well, its awkward and uncomfortable and I was hoping to not have to deal with it Mother's Day weekend. With a long sleeve shirt on, it goes unnoticed, so that's good. I understand the need for it to remain due to the fluid needing to drain from that area, if the drain isn't there it will settle in my arm causing a condition called Lymphedema - which would definitely not be a good look.
- The Friday visit wasn't all useless - she reviewed my Pathology report which she indicated was very good. The tumor was small 1.9 CM, my margins are all clear, of the 18 lymph nodes under my armpit, cancer had only spread from the breast to 2 of them - which she removed. Both breast and lymph node incisions are healing nicely. I am considered Stage 2, which falls under the "early detection" category. One thing I wasn't looking forward to hearing was that I have to receive Chemotherapy, then Radiation Therapy which I already understood would be for 6 weeks. The Chemo was up in the air. She referred me to a Medical Oncologist, which I should be meeting with sometime this week.
- Back to work tomorrow, which is kind of good - I need my routine as much as it gets on my nerves!
Ok, so I haven't posted in about a week anyway, and things are getting really busy around here, so I'm just going to put this blog on hiatus until after June 5th, when I return from my honeymoon. See you guys then!
Emily
Nine things I am dying to say out loud.
1. Dear "I'm So Perfect, Why Don't You People Get It": If the entire world is such an inconvenience to your sensitivities, why not find your own planet full of perfect people and spare us the nasty remarks about perfectly normal and otherwise, harmless pursuits? Your slip is showing. Pull it up and shut it up. Love you, Bye!
2. Michigan and Florida, especially Debbie Dingell: Listen. No one ROBBED you of your voices. No one denied you your voting rights. You knew the rules regarding primaries and you snubbed them. You made the decision to do what you wanted, while understanding you were in violation of DNC rules for primary dates. Please shut up with this whining about, "WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE COUNTED!" You also have the right to suffer the consequences of knowingly bucking the rules. No one's ignoring you. No one's denying your rights. Furthermore it's rather narcissistic (not to mention childish) of you to presume the process should be revamped and done over IN THE MIDST, to accommodate your inability to forecast how much of a difference your counted votes might make. And Debbie? Honestly. Don't tempt me to play with your name. I've shown GREAT restraint thus far.
3. Boundary Crossing Former Neighbors with Delusions of Granduer: I appreciate, and frankly, blush at how much you enjoy my company and your desire to make sure we "keep in touch." But your expectations are not a requirement. Therefore, if I fail to call you in a week, or fail to "check in on you to see how you are," I'm going to need you to get over yourself. Quickly. I'm hermetic in nature. Although you'd like to remedy this by showing me how to exist as you do, I caution you that I'm quite comfortable with existing as I am. Lets adjust accordingly, lest you complain yourself into an unpleasant conversation.
4. Captain Cut-off: I swear to the Universe and all the sweet spirits contained within it...if you interrupt me in the middle of a sentence or try to out talk me in your haste to raise a counter point one more time I will shake you vigorously and without mercy. It's disruptive and offering the excuse, "I don't get angry when people do it to me" is NOT acceptable.
5. Whatever rule of gravity that says the buttered/jellied side of bread MUST fall lubricated side down is just cruel and unusual.
6. Person That Likes To Make Faces At Other People's Food: It's not in your mouth, okay? Look at your own food and grow up.
7. Dear "I Must Touch You When I Talk": No. You mustn't. Fondly, RPM
8. Dear Mystery Dialer That Calls Bi-Monthly Asking For ______. Let's stop doing this dance, shall we? Tell me what you're really up to and perhaps I'll save all parties a tremendous amount of time. For the life of me, I can't imagine I've ever really intimidated anyone that much. I'm just little old me.
9. Cedric Benson: I'm not even sorry that I don't feel sorry for you. Here's some tips for success in the real world. 1) When you buy a big ass boat, make sure your simple ass actually knows how to motor it. 2) Don't think that because you're a local sports personality that you are exempt from a little racial profilin', 3) Don't ever forget that Texas is still Texas and that "Don't Mess" bit goes a little bit deeper than just littering especially when it comes to executin' a lil law enforcement, 4) Stop countin' all those chickens before they hatch and 5) Stop trying to live like you're in a Jay-Z video. It's tired and lame and well...*thinks* you are just a kid. Perhaps you need to get the bullshit out of your system. Hope you still have a job and some kinda income when that occurs.
WHEW!
Much better.
Cheers,
RPM
Tonight, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT), we'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!
Update: we've postponed tonight's maintenance, and will let you know when we reschedule. Thanks for your patience!
Someone said to me once, "what you perceive, isn't always what is."
At the time I wanted to find the nearest blunt object and bludgeon him to within an inch of his life. But time and insight can do wonders for the desire to maim. Because frankly, what he said was truth. But one of my struggles is understanding and accepting that people find their own truths and their own light, in their own time. To me, it mattered not that I knew truth as much as I was supposed to accept that what was projected on the surface was false. And for the life of me, I just can't imagine why everyone one in this world wouldn't want to be absolutely in the light. Living and being who they truly are. Saying what they really think. Free. Why wear a mask?
The short answer I guess is because they feel they must. And who am I to determine for others how valid or invalid their fears are, or the reasons they feel they are locked in their own spiritual or mental prison?
That thought stays with me. Haunts me. Partially because of the person who said it. Partially because I've been fascinated by my own frustration with it, and partially because I see so many examples of that statement in the stories that swirl about me.
Nothing is ever as it seems. When we covet what we think others have, when we compare it to our notion of how much bigger, better or broader our lives would be if we lived in someone else's skin...we're as far from the truth as we could ever be. How many times have I looked at the surface of a situation, thinking or even envying what I believe I see, only to find out later that the characters have their own demons they are wrestling. And so many are about the business of working on the appearance of things that they don't stop to deal with the murky waters of their own mess until it's pulling them under. Varying in our levels of self awareness, we either just stop spending time working on the pretty packaging and deal with the stuff inside, or we wait for the stuff inside to come busting out to scare/shock/amuse the hell out of everyone...but the worst, in my opinion...is pretending that it won't happen.
It always does. Truth is a lot like gas. You just can't keep it in. But you do have a choice about the kind of stink you make when it happens. And it's only when you recognize your ability to choose, that you take the first step to finding your own personal freedom.
