A Blog for Emma - Updated

Hello Friends,

I got this email from Kristina this morning:

Hi Everyone,

A dear friend of mine, Sophie Crew has a one year old daughter named Emma. On Friday, September 18^th, Emma was critically injured at her daycare. She suffered severe damage to her head and has been in a coma ever since. She has had two brain surgeries to remove parts of her skull to reduce the pressure in her head but she continues to still have high ICP which is her Intra Cranial Pressure. They had reduced the medications hoping she would begin to wake up but since then, they have had to increase those same medicines because of some of the risk with her ICP.

I have had the chance to visit little Emma in the hospital and hold her little hand. The sight just makes your heart go into your throat and obviously think about her poor parents Sophie and Tyler who have not left her bed side since that horrific Friday.

I never thought I would ever know anyone who has had to endure so much pain and heartache for a child so young. I think about my own babies, especially having Tristan so close to Emma’s age and can’t even begin to image what they are going through.

So I can’t fix Emma, but the best I can do is try and support their family the best way I know how and that is why I am reaching out to all of you. With the help of San Diego County Credit Union and my amazing friend Wendy Snyder, we have been able to open up a Fund for little Emma to help their family with their medical expenses they have/will take on through this time. Right now all they can think about is getting their baby back but we all know all of the other realities that will face them at some point.

If you are able to help this family they would so greatly appreciate it. We have set up an account through Paypal which will go directly into the “Emma Crew Fund” and can be accessed below or you can also write checks to:

SDCCU marked “Emma Crew Fund – Account #000368773100” & mailed to

San Diego County Credit Union

6545 Sequence Dr.

San Diego, CA 92121

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and hopefully you can contribute to this cause. If you are unable to at this time, please just pray for this little girl and her family and pass this message on if you can!!

Sincerely,

Kristina Marchesano

My friend Wendy started a blog and has posted some recent updates on little Emma and the link to donate through Paypal (it is on the right hand side). Our families and the wonderful Company I work for, are also walking on Saturday in support of Rady’s Children’s hospital.

We have set up an email account where people can leave messages for their family:

hopeandloveforthecrewfamily@gmail.com

Please visit Hope and Love for the Crew Family and keep praying for Emma.

Thank you!

Peace and love.
J

I met my prince charming an @sshole

I found a coupon code for eHarmony which got me a 3-month subscription for only $29.99! This is a crazy good deal because the usual cost is $59.99 for ONE month!! I'm about 2 months into the subscription now, and I've only communicated with two guys. One guy I just started "open communication" with today. The other guy, the prince charming, named Todd initiated communication with me on Labor Day. I wasn't sure that I'd be attracted to him based on his pictures, but we emailed back and forth during that week and even talked on the phone one night for 2 hours! He was funny and we obviously had enough in common to have easy conversation for 2 hours. He asked me out for that Friday night. I accepted, and we went to the San Francisco Giants game.

I had fun, and he was nice and funny, but totally cheesy. Sometimes that's good, but sometimes it's annoying. And good Lord, it was TOTALLY obvious that he thought I was hot and he was like so lucky to be out with me. haha. Very odd for me because that never happens to me. When we first met at the train station, he came up and he was grinning from ear to ear and he was like, "It's nice to meet you." I was waiting to pay for my parking, so I said "it's nice to meet you too" then he repeated it. And after I paid, we walked away from the pay station and he said it AGAIN. and continued grinning like an idiot. And then I said, "You wanna say it again?" He knew I was joking cause we'd joked on the phone and via email.

Then on the train ride there were no open seats so we had to stand. He kept staring at me, smiling, and he continued to all night. It's nice he thought that I'm so gorgeous, but seriously, calm the frick down and stop staring at me. Oh, and I was 100% not attracted to him.

When we were walking to the stadium he told me that I look great, and then as we were walking up the stairs to our seats, he was walking behind me and said, "Yeah. You definitely look great" (as in he was checking out my ass). I was annoyed - definitely not cool for a first date. I'm looking for someone with a little more class. So I stepped into an aisle, turned around and said, "Excuse me?!" and motioned for him to walk ahead of me.

When we were sitting and watching the game, he kept trying to touch me... touched my knee a couple times when I was joking and said something stupid and then put his arm around me for a quick side hug when I realized in the 8th inning that BOTH teams (not just the Giants) were wearing red hats (in honor of 9/11).

On the train ride home we ended up in seats facing each other and he continued to stare at me. At one point I said, "What?" and said, "I'm just looking at you." Awkward! When we were parting ways he said, "So maybe I'll see you again soon?" and I said, "Maybe." and he was like, "Oh? Well, I guess if I ask right!"

But, I did have fun, so it wasn't a total loss.

I didn't hear from him that weekend, so I thought I'd gotten off easy. Nope... Wednesday night I got an email from him:

Subject: Hiya

From: Todd

To: Julie

Hi Julie,

I was left with the vibe that you weren't really into me (if I'm wrong, let me know) and since I haven't heard from you, I figure that was what was going on, but I wanted to thank you again for coming out to meet me. I did have a good time. :-)

~Todd

*********************************************

From: Julie

To: Todd

Hi Todd,

I did have a good time as well, but I did not feel any chemistry. Thank you for the fun evening! Best of luck to you in your search.

Julie

*********************************************

From: Todd

To: Julie

You're welcome. As a helpful hint, it's nice to show thanks on the date, or offer to pay something for the evening (especially if you didn't feel chemistry).

~T.

*********************************************

From: Julie

To: Todd

I'm sorry you didn't notice, but I did say thank you multiple times during the evening. And you didn't really allow me an opportunity to pay for anything as you paid for the game tickets and train tickets before I arrived, and then made the offer to get the food on your own. I'd be happy to send you money to cover my portion of the evening. Just let me know what your address is and how much it was.

And as long as we're offering helpful hints, try not to make your date uncomfortable by staring at her or making comments that she looks great while you're walking behind her (and obviously commenting on her ass).

*********************************************

Seriously?!?!? RUDE!!!

Here's hoping you are either in a relationship or don't have to encounter a loser like this in your dating adventures!

Peace and love.

J

Update on Emma

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I put Google Analytics on the blog earlier this week, and I had 300 visits on Wednesday alone; nearly 500 visits in total since Monday. I'm hoping this means at least 500 people are praying for Emma!

Just to clarify - I don't know Emma or her family. I received the message via a number of people forwarding it on. The person who wrote the original prayer request email is Kristina, who is a friend of Sophie, Emma's mom. I wrote an email to Kristina this evening asking for an update on Emma since I know all of you praying would like to know how she is doing, as would I. Here is what Kristina said:

I am overwhelmed by everyone’s commitment to making sure Emma and her family are being prayed for. Thank you so much for passing my message on to others!!

Little Emma…as of yesterday they stopped the medicines that were keeping her in her coma. And as of this morning she started to twitch her little toes and her eyelids but the doctors say that there is so much medicine in her blood that it will be a couple days before she wakes up. It is really just a hope and wait game at this point. They still do not know what the long term effects will be from this accident. All we can do is hope and pray for the best. It will be a long road I am sure for her family. I am going to see Sophie in the morning (we are going to bring them some breakfast - they have been living at the Ronald McDonald house at Children’s) and hopefully she will have some good news to share. I promise to pass any new information I have onto you as soon as I have it.

Thank you for everything,
Kristina

I will update as often as Kristina updates me. Thank you all for your continued prayers! Please forward the prayer request to all the prayer warriors you know, and feel free to link to my blog if you'd like.

Peace and love.

Julie

Prayer Request - Emma Crew

Hello friends,

My dear friend Mikki emailed me with a prayer request this evening. I have seen the power of prayer, and how the Internet has facilitated wildfires of prayer.


Please pray for little 13 month-old Emma. Per the email chain: "Last Friday she was admitted to Children’s Hospital for head trauma. She just started at a new day care the previous week... A very long story but Emma hit her head and went unconscious. She was taken to Children’s where she has undergone two brain surgeries to remove part of her skull to relieve the pressure because her brain is bleeding and has actually shifted. She is in a medically induced coma and because they are having a hard time getting her head to stop bleeding they are not sure when they will be able to bring her out. They do not know the long term effects from this. She will have to wear a helmet after until they can go back in and replace the missing pieces of her skull."

See more photos of Emma on her mom's blog.

Thank you!

Peace & love.
J

Not a housewife

I'm completely hopeless. I commented on Kori's post today that I can't cook, and she replied with, "ANYONE can cook; haven’t you seen Ratatouille?" Well Kori, here's how pathetic I really am...

My mom gave me a bunch of fresh limes from her tree yesterday, so I decided to make fresh, home-made margaritas tonight. First of all I needed tequila. Margaritas are my favorite drink, so I needed some quality tequila. I went to the grocery store, and bless it's soul, ALL of the tequila was 25% off!! I felt bad only buying one bottle, but I'm not getting paid until Friday, so maybe I better wait until then, and really, what single person needs more than one bottle of tequila in their apartment?! Then, I had this genius not so genius idea to cut and peel the limes, put them in the food processor, and blend! Well, my food processor didn't do that swell of a job and it ended up pretty chunky. Also, VERY sour. After taking a few unpleasant sips, I came to my senses and decided to look up a recipe for simple syrup with the hope of adding a little sweetness to my concoction. After a little Google search, I find it really is quite simple:

Ingredients:

• 2 parts sugar
• 1 part water

Preparation:

1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Dissolve the sugar into the boiling water.
3. Once the sugar is dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat.
4. Allow to cool completely and bottle.

So I go into the kitchen and pour 1 cup of sugar into a pot, and pour 2 cups of water into a measuring cup. Then I realize, I think it said boil the water first, then add the sugar. So I pour the sugar back into the sugar canister and pour 2 cups of water into the pot. I looked at it and decided I may as well make a bunch and save it for later (as another website advised). So I add 2 more cups of water, making that a total of 4 cups of water. When it starts to boil, I add 2 cups of sugar, and gee it dissolved very quickly...

I'd seen a link for "flavor infused simple syrup" so I came back to my computer to check that out. The recipe was the same as above and listed, for example: 2lbs of sugar and 16oz of water. I thought, That's a lot of sugar... That's 1 pint glass of water and 2/5 of a bag of sugar (a 5lb bag of sugar to be exact). Oh shit!, I thought as I frantically searched for the first site I looked at. Sure enough, idiot, TWO parts SUGAR, ONE part WATER. So I quickly poured off about half the water and added more and more sugar.

I took a couple spoons full, and re-mixed my margarita with plenty of ice to cool down the simple syrup. The margarita is delicious now, in case you were wondering. (Well, with the exception of the large chunks of lime. LOL. I'm a mess!)

But seriously, I can't cook... and really, that's not even cooking - it's freaking boiling water!!!

After re-reading that post, I think I have a serious addiction to commas. I hope I'm not a comma abuser...

Peace and love.
J

P.S. El Torito called back, apologized, and said they're transferring the $26 back into my account.

Another Meme - 7 Things

I'm a horrible blogger... Oh, I don't know... a month and a half ago Britt tagged me to do this meme. And... um... I'm a slacker, so I haven't done it yet. But better late than never, right? And as we all say, "yay for blog fodder!"

The rules are as follows:
List 7 random facts about yourself
Tag 7 other bloggers

I'm not going to tag anyone... if you need blog fodder, please feel free to do the meme!

Fact 1: I weighed in at Weight Watchers last week and I've now had a loss for 3 consecutive weeks. Would have been 7, but I had one week where I gained. Anyway, my net loss is now 6.8 lbs! And I love the feeling I get when I see the numbers going lower on the scale! I usually wear a t-shirt and yoga pants to weigh-in, but I was running late last night and had to go directly from work, so I wore my work clothes, naturally. The leader told me I looked beautiful! Weight loss PLUS a compliment! Gotta love it!

Fact 2: As much as I want my CPA license and all I have left is one little ethics exam, the book has been sitting on my kitchen table for a couple months now. I wanted to take a break after having studied for 4 years to pass the 4 subject matter exams, but the little break seems to be going on and on... I need to get on it! Tomorrow is a company holiday, so I'll do my best to study and take a stab at the exam tomorrow and Saturday.

Fact 3: I am a total freak about spelling and grammar... And up until yesterday I fully thought, until JP informed me otherwise, that dammit was spelled "damnit". Oh, and he took quite a bit of pleasure in proving me wrong, which drives me crazy because I'm so anal about spelling! I can't be wrong! LOL.

Fact 4: If you haven't heard of comedian Chelsea Handler, you need to! She has a late night show on E! called Chelsea Lately, which is on every weeknight. At my location it's on at 11pm, and she makes me laugh EVERY NIGHT, so I try to stay up for it as often as possible. I also saw Chelsea live back in June. She's just hilarious! She has an assistant named Chuy who is a little person and has a very heavy accent as his first language is Spanish. He gets his jokes on a teleprompter, and then they always have to provide captions so you know what he's saying. I don't know if Chelsea knows ahead of time what Chuy is going to say, but she cracks up laughing every time he replies to her, and more often than not his replies are completely random but totally hilarious. Last night they were talking about Sharon Stone posing nude on the cover of a French magazine and Chelsea asks, "Chuy, you're friends with Sharon Stone aren't you?" and he says, "God no. She tried to feed me to a dragon." I just laugh my ass off at that show.

Fact 5: I love music. A LOT. I'm currently loving Colbie Caillat's new album "Breakthrough". I also re-discovered, on my iPod, a band called Mikeschair. They're a Christian music group and they have a new album out, but the one I have is a few years old. I wanted to recommend it to a friend, but I searched the web and found that it's no longer for sale! Oh well for them, at least I have it! I better go back it up. And my timeless favorite will always be John Mayer. His music is simply AMAZING. His new album "Battle Studies" is coming out November 17. I cannot wait.

*****I'm having a little bit of trouble coming up with 7 things because I'm pretty sure I already did a "weird things about me" post...*****

Fact 6: My hair is naturally curly, but I didn't know until I was a freshman in college. Kids in middle school would call me cocker spaniel because my hair was so poofy. Little did I know it was because my hair was curly and all I was doing was blow drying it. I blame my mom for not helping be slightly more stylish. I was pretty unattractive in those tween years. I only found out because my curly-haired friend said, "Girl, your hair is frizzy. Put some mousse in it and wear it curly." and I was like, what? my hair is curly?

Fact 7: This one is kind of lame, but I can't think of anything else and I want to finish this post today... I cry really easily. I don't consider myself to be sappy or uber sensitive because I'm pretty raw and can be crass at times, but some things just make me cry a river. Like just now my favorite former boss from the accounting firm (in the So Cal office) I worked at called me because I had emailed him asking a question earlier. His name is Peter and he is also my #1 reference for when potential employers need to verify my awesomeness. I've been keeping him updated on my struggles to obtain employment, so he said, "I'm really, truly sorry about your situation. I know it's tough. I think about you a lot and I have my fingers crossed for you." and he added that while he understands and completely respects my reasons for moving up to Northern California (family), but he would have been able to protect me from layoff and/or helped me more had I stayed in LA. I'm certain that had I stayed in LA, I would not have even been at risk of being laid off. And he's said before that if I move back down, he'd hire me in a heartbeat. And that... that made me cry a little bit. I am truly blessed to have a friend and colleague like Peter.

Peace and love.
J

WTF El Torito?

The scene: Last week. Happy hour at El Torito Grill & Bar.

My friend and I split part of the bill on our cards.

My share = $23.18.

His share = $26.

Amount charged to my card per my bank statement $49.18.

Amount charged to his card per his statement $0.

Looks like maybe his card was declined after the fact so they charged my card for his portion... wtf?! Is that allowed? What's weird is that his card was initially processed because the POS created a receipt for him to sign... and I know they didn't swipe my card twice because I only have one charge on my statement; not 2.

In the mean time, I'm waiting for El Torito to call me back. And my friend is cool about it. He said he’ll bring me cash tomorrow.

Peace & love.

J

I'm a pimp (edited)

Hi friends,

I'm pimping out my friend Mike here. He has no readers except me, his girlfriend, and some mean chick who says he's boring and his blog sucks. Mike and I go way back. We've been work BFFs since before I transferred to the San Jose office because we used to kick it in Kansas City together at national trainings. Then when I transferred to San Jose, he became my work spouse. And then sadly, we were laid off together (on the same day, not in the same meeting). Seriously folks, I love this guy. Give him a chance, pretty please. (Now the pressure is on Mike...)

Edited:
Disclaimer: Some of my more mature readers (if I have any readers left besides Kori and April...) may not find him as entertaining as I do. But folks like Becky, I would imagine, might enjoy him. (Not that you're not mature, Becky. I just know you have a similar sense of humor.)

Apparently I'm not a good judge of mature/older tastes. I was basing that disclaimer off of one of Mike's previous posts, which, if you're reading this in the future, he may have removed due to it's tastelessness. :) Love you, Mike!

Anyway... it's hard out here for a pimp, so I'll just leave you with that.

Peace & love.
J