Happy Tuesday :o(

Hello Olenga -

Having a bad Tuesday already, but determined to recapture it while it's still early. Mously has been spending the past two nights and I have been dropping her off at her exam for 7.15. This morning as I dropped her off I realized that I had inadvertently emptied the contents of my entire 25oz SIGG water bottle into my purse destroying my MOLESKIN 2009 planner, petite Bible and my 5 year old much-sentimental-value-attached 20G iPod. Happy Day! I am still holding out hope that my iPod isn't dead, but it's doubtful. Apparently when you wet your electronics, it's a bad idea to plug them in - that should have occurred to me since I do have a brain, but it didn't until Ade said "oh you shouldn't plug it in if it might still be wet, you'll fry it." Those words of wisdom came a little too late I think as the iPod now has precipitation on the glass and faint rainbow swirly colors where the black and white face used to be :o( Not sure why charging it was what I thought it needed. It was fully charged anyway!

I have a lunch bible study with college student Marquita. Joining us will be college disciple Kelsey - to whom I hope to pass M off. Her schedule just doesn't work with mine. She works everyday from 6 - 11pm and she's a college student so she needs to be with them! This means I'm going to miss my second workout of the week :o(. On Tuesdays I take step at lunch and I'm sure my already foul mood will suffer more for missing it, but I'd say salvation is more important than the long lean (yet petite) body Elizabeth is trying to build.

You need to sleep more - period end of story. We need to figure out how you can do that. There's no need to eat healthy food, but never give your body enough time to do it's natural detoxification and rebuilding.

My frienemy Ebun, from my Sahara trip, and I just exchanged e-mails about needing to clear the air. I am glad we're on the same page (at least at this point) but I am feeling like if I need to resolve one more thing with someone I might harm myself.

Sorry for the jumbled voicemail. My whole life is kinda feeling that way these days....Glad you had fun with the Robinsons. I LOVE Gregg and need to do a better job of showing that to him (and the Mrs).

Laters,
Lisa

ps: Yes, I realize I need Jesus and probably medication. :o)

So I'm meeting the RJV...

From: Me
To: RJV
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 10:50:04 AM

Subject: Something to think and pray about...

Hi RJV -

I'm not sure how often you check this e-mail account, here's hoping you get this within the month.

I overheard people congratulating you a few weeks ago, so I assume you're officially dating the person you talked to me about. Best wishes to you both!

It would be helpful to me if we met up to have a talk - a part two if you will - of our December conversation. As mentioned that evening, I was unprepared for that conversation in many ways, and add to that my tendency toward delayed reactions...and you have the necessary second convo.

Anyway, I'm finally ready to have a voice and clearly speak my piece about all of this - while responding to a couple of things you brought up that evening. I am also convinced that Satan has had waaaaaaaay too much fun at both of our expenses over this situation for too long and I'm ready to do my part to put an end to it.

Let me know if you are willing and able to meet, so we can set something up.

Thanks,
Lisa

----------------------------

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 1:05 PM, RJV wrote:
Lisa ~

Interesting day to send me an email but joke aside - thank you for your wishes.
> It shows me a great degree of maturity and forgiveness to say such a thing to me.

I could definitely tell that something was off after I left last time but wasn't sure of what to make of it. However, I am more than willing and able to meet with you again. Just let me know when and where and I'll see whether I can be there (I'm pretty flexible)

Monday's from 4-6 is a window
Tuesdays are perfect
Wednesday's before midweek
Thursdays 4-6 another window before bibletalk
Friday - i doubt you'd want to but I'd be open to meeting up.

Hope this helps,
RJV
----------------------------
From: Me
To: RJV
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 5:13:56 PM
Subject: Re: Something to think and pray about...

RJV -

I appreciate your quick response with your availability - unfortunately, it's taken me a while to get back to you. Life is slowing down somewhat, and I can meet up with you the week of March the 9th. Is that a good week for you? I wasn't sure if the availability you sent applies from week to week. Let me know...

Lisa
----------------------------
From: RJV
To: Me
Date: Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Subject: Re: Something to think and pray about...

Lisa,

That week works. The schedule that I gave you is pretty consistent from week to week, so let me know a day that is best for you and I will see if that time and day works. Thanks.

RJV
---------------------------
RJV,

How's the evening of the 10th of March? I'm thinking 7-ish... We can set plans in stone in terms of location and exact time in a few days.

Lisa
--------------------------------
Lisa,

That sounds good. Since i messed up the name of the last place, how bout you pick a spot this time.

Ryan

What a laugh!

My sister just showed this to me and it's wonderfully random and hilarious! Enjoy! I loved it and I don't even like kittens!

Peace, Love & Chocolate!

Katrina Markoff just might be my new hero! Her goal is to bring peace to the world through chocolate - a noble cause if I've ever heard of one. She says and I quote "Bringing peace to the world through chocolate is a pretty big mantra, but it can do that by introducing different cultures and points of view." She is doing a pretty fantastic job of that with her exotic chocolates. My new favorite chocolate in all the world is her Goji Bar which I discovered today the back of the box of which put me on to Katrina and her fabulous empire.

One of my colleagues in their customary 'diet ruining moves' put this Goji bar on the communal table we use for lunch and for magazines no one wants. Anyway, I was intrigued by the bizarre but fabulous tasting combination of Tibetan goji berries, pink Himalayan salt and deep milk chocolate and had to try some. The ingredients might sound weird, but the taste was like nothing else I've ever tried! I also liked that on the box there were instructions given about how to savor the chocolate involving all the senses. Finally, people who realize that chocolate is serious business! Let's just say it had me at the smell. Check out my fave:

http://www.vosgeschocolate.com/product/goji_exotic_candy_bar/exotic_candy_bars

An environmentalist myself, I recently found out that producing chocolate is really hard on the environment. Bah humbug! What???! Why are there fun-killers everywhere you look??? Why does everything I enjoy have a high price??? Ok, I'll stop feeling sorry for myself and tell the story already... Anyway Katrina has greened her chocolate company - they use 100% renewable energy in producing their chocolates! Yay guilt-free chocs on so many levels. Also she's known for having events such as beer & chocolate, ice cream tasting and yoga & chocolate workshops! Next to Gwyneth Paltrow and all my real-life best friends, Rina (my nickname for her) is my newest very best friend in the whole world! Speaking of best friends, I got sad that one of my besties, Gracie, who would be able to truly appreciate all of this, is across the world in Cambodia :o( I must send her some of this uber cool deliciousness!

See how Katrina gains inspiration from cultures, religion, Bob Marley, yoga, etc., then weaves them into stories she tells through chocolate. Be inspired.



Peace, love & chocolate.
Me :o)

I spent the afternoon with this woman...

...and it was so inspiring! 

The woman in question is Dierdre Connelly, our new president! I'm a member of the Executive Communications group at my company and our main agenda is to support all the communications of and from our president.  Historically, the president of the US business in our company (and I believe Pharma companies of its size) have always been white males. Imagine our collective delight when we found out on the 30th of January that our new prez was not only female but Latina! 

I got to meet her today and spend some hours listening to her address groups within the company, and it was a great education.

Lessons learned:

As if that wasn't enough, I met up with some friends in Wayne PA tonight. My friend Tom is a life coach and he needed my friend Kim and I to act out some skits for a transition seminar he was leading in two weeks. Through this, I'll learn some job/life transitioning skills which in this economy, with pending layoffs at my job, are skills I'm gonna need!

Here are the things I learned in passing:

• We're ALWAYS in transition in life. The goal is to get to a place where our talents, skills - who we are - intersects with the real needs in the world.
  
• We get what we can handle.
• The three A's of handling transition are Awareness, Alignment & Accountability.

Happy New Year to Me!

So, it's the second day of 2009 and my sister just went out to walk her dog. Today's plan is for me to meet some friends who are in town from Baltimore for coffee, then I'm going to spend the rest of the day decluttering. So I am ready and clutter-free for my first day of work on the 5th of January.

Remember the sister who went out to walk her dog? Well she returned into the house and said to me. "Sis, your car got broken into." Long story short, my 2007 car, affectionately called 'Coltrane' has been broken two twice in 7 months! The first time was two days after I returned from my Sahara crossing adventure and now, one day after I got all excited for all that lies ahead in 2009. Did I also mention that I had a really bad case of insomnia the night prior and at some point in the night, I actually thought I heard someone breaking into something. I figured they were just random city noises and distractions. Little did I know this particular distraction was my problem. :o(

The bright side to all of this, that I was able to bargain for a great deal on the repair price and they came to my house to fix it! Then my friends, Chidinma and Katie, whom I met for coffee, drove me back home to meet my car window repair guy, Clay. We sat across the street from him in Katie's toasty car (on the freezing Winter day) having the best conversation! When he was done fixing my window, we moved the convo upstairs where we ended up having

"lunner" (lunch and dinner) and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at midnight! Yes, you read that correctly, what started out as late morning coffee talk turned into the best 14.5 hour hangout ever!

Happy New Year to me!