Update:

I just heard one of the stories I wrote this morning read during the hourly newscast. I can't even describe how cool/amazing this feels. I haven't been this excited about a job since...well, since I can't even remember.

Reason #2 for total and complete excitement: C-Crew Reunion 4.0 (three times in one year!) coming up this weekend as well as Julie's wedding! Whoop whoop!

In Other News

I was up at 3:30 this morning so I could be on the road by 4:30. Why, you ask? Well, I'm so happy to answer that question for you. Because, my friends, I am the newest News Girl (not my official title) at one of our local radio stations, known for it's award winning news program. Feel free to congratulate me.

Some of you may remember a while back when I mentioned sending them an e-mail expressing my desire to merge back into the field of communications. As I wrote at the time, I had an interview and then waited for about a month while they continued conducting interviews.

After the first week of October went by, I started checking my e-mail more intentionally and was getting ready to send one to them myself just to test out the waters, but I got swamped under special events planning for my other job. I eventually got back in touch with the company and found that the position was still available.

This brings us to the present. I exchanged several e-mails/phone calls and we pegged down this morning as my first day. I'm going to be helping with the morning drive as training until I start on a weekend position. Meaning, the 18-hour/3 job days will not be forever.

I am wicked stoked. I mean, for the first time in two years I'm actually doing something that I was trained to do in college. Granted, it's not print journalism, but in my eyes, radio's the next best thing. Mark Perry would be proud.

Despite having to wake up at 3:30 a.m., I am in such a good mood. I couldn't be happier about the current situation.

A Detailed Description of a First Date

I was quite surprised when I received Mr. Boston's call two Saturday's ago. We had been in contact back in September before I traveled to Pittsburgh for Miss Sanders wedding shower, but for whatever reason, we just couldn't set a date. Combine this with the fact that I am a firm believer in what I call the one-week-rule. This is similar to the "Friend Zone" in Scrubs. Basically, from the time you meet someone new to the first date there is a maximum of 7 days to make this happen. After that week grace period has passed, your face will be distorted in all your pictures and you will die a plethora of different issues are confronted. Such as:

• You're comfort zone becomes a texting/voice mail relationship
• You develop a texting relationship placing more pressure to connect during a first date
• When said first date does occur after so much time has elapsed and the chemistry you thought would be present is absent, well that just makes everything more awkward when you have both been waiting so long
• The potential of meeting someone else and loosing interest in candidate #1

However, when Mr. Boston called, enough time had gone by that the one-week-rule had reset. We made plans for that evening and 8:15 p.m. found me at one of my favorite restaurants.

I arrived first and sent him a text letting him know it was about a 30-minute wait and I had put our names on the list. He called a moment later telling me he had arrived and asking me where I was. I walked outside to greet him and we went in to sit at the bar while we waited for our table.

Before I say anything else, let me say that I looked hot. Like, smoking hot. And Mr. Boston isn't so bad himself. This means that I'm the closest I've been to the "Matching Phenomenon" since I was with The Marine (you'll have to scroll down a bit to find the right entry. I just lost myself reading my old xanga site. Perhaps you will too?).

I have to say, the date went well and there was never an awkward lull in conversation. However, he did swear a lot and that was a huge turn off for me. I also got the sense that he's a drinker which is another no-no in my book, but, eh, not a deal-breaker at this point in time. All-in-all, though, the overall shining quality about this date was my own mental and emotional break-through that I experienced. Throughout the whole night I was nothing but blatantly honest with him about my faith, who I am, and what I want. And wouldn't you know it, Mr. Boston absolutely loved how confident and passionate I am.

At the end of the night, we were standing out in the parking lot and the conversation went a little something like this:

Mr. Boston: Well, clearly, obviously we're going to get together again
Me (teasing): Hmm, is that clearly obvious to me?
MB (laughing): No, you're totally right, it's your call. But, I had a wonderful time tonight and would love to see you again.
Me: I had a great time tonight too. But, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I don't play hard-to-get but I am hard-to-get. I know I'm a catch and if you want anything with me you're going to have to work really hard. If that intimidates you than that's a good thing. I don't mean to sound egotistical, but I'm an incredibly worthy person and I say that mostly because I haven't always seen myself that way. I know exactly what I want. I know exactly what I want. That's probably why I'm still single, but I don't mind waiting for something good.
MB: Wow. *pause* Wow, I have never had a girl be that honest with me and that is so incredibly sexy. I love that you know what you want out of life and I am totally ok with that.

Wow! Who woulda thunk that all those MSN articles I've read about guys loving confidant girls were right? The funny thing is, I wasn't even being confidant to impress him, I was being confidant for myself. For too long, the only criteria a guy needed to have to be with me was that he liked me. I'm not sure why I always had such low self-esteem when it came to relationships, I had all the pieces. I guess I just didn't know how to put them together. I didn't have the experience of learning to be comfortable in my own skin.

We didn't get together this past weekend because he didn't make it down to the Cape. He'll be down this weekend for his birthday, but I'm not sure how that's going to work since my weekends already pretty booked. Hopefully we can figure something out or else we fall back into the one-week-rule.

Oh well, as I told him after our date, even if we come out with a great friendship, I'm all set. And yes, I know guys hate being put into the "Friend Zone." Don't worry, Mr. Boston, you're not there....yet.

First Dates, Quality Time, & Weight Loss

It's been an eventful past couple of weeks. I have several stories to tell and I'm not necessarily in a writing kind of mood, so I'll use the ever-popular bullet points.

1. Two weeks ago (October 11 to be exact), the one-and-only Christina had herself a date. I had been in contact with a certain gentleman last month and for one reason or another our plans kept falling through. He lives and works in the Boston area so we'll just call him Mr. Boston for now (in no way, shape, or form related to the celebrity). Randomly, I received a call from him on the 11th informing me that he would be on the Cape (where he grew up) for the long weekend and wanted to know if I was available for dinner that night. I was available and we did have dinner. It was a successful first dates as first dates go and we'll most likely be getting together again. More details to come.
2. My father, sister, and niece were visiting my dad's side of the family in upstate New York all last week leaving plenty of Mommy & Me time. My mom and I don't have a history of being the best of friends, but in the past year we've really been getting along great. I spent all day Sunday and Columbus Day with her (mostly because I came down with an awful cold Sunday night), as well as Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday night and Sunday afternoon waiting for the rest of the family to return from Buffalo.
   Some of the activities we enjoyed were:
   -Going to an Artisan Fair on Sunday and getting started on our Christmas shopping
   -Watching all 6 hours of the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice
   -Watching some tear-jerker movies on the Hallmark Channel
   -Cooking together
   -Organizing my CD collection into the new case I purchased last week
3. My co-worker/friend is going to work for another company beginning next week. Who the crap am I going to have lunch with now? Or go on weird diets and weigh myself with? Speaking of weighing, we weighed ourselves this morning and I've lost 10 pounds since I started this weird candida diet two weeks ago. Go me!
4. The Red Sox are not going to the World Series. This means I've lost sleep and stayed up to watch nail-biter games for nothing. On a related topic, someone take Tampa Bay's temperature, the mercury in the cow-bell thermometer is spiking through the top.
5. The Roomie and I finally turned the heat on last night. This, or course, was after I spent all day Saturday cleaning the cat hair from the previous renters out of the vents. Now we are cozy and warm with no fire hazard or allergy inflammations.

Stay tuned for details on my date coming....uh...when I feel like it?

Why All I Can Now Is Dirt

Candida: Candida is a symbiotic yeast, which lives in us and on us, as part of our normal collection of microorganisms. Candida yeasts are symbiotic organisms; everyone has lots of them. Yeasts overgrow when conditions are right for them and they can be a nuisance. You cannot get rid of all yeast. You hope to find an ecological balance, with yeast growing at a controlled rate, below the symptom-producing level.

Some of the symptoms include (but are not limited to):

• An incapacitating fatigue
• Problems with concentration and short-term memory
• Indigestion/acid reflux
• Intense cravings for carbohydrates and/or sugars
• "Crawling" skin
• Visual disturbances may include blurring, sensitivity to light and eye pain.
• Irritability
• Anxiety
• Recurring obsessive thoughts
• Personality changes and mood swings (irrational rage or crying for no reason - fear of talking to people, any kind of confrontation, isolation)
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness and balance problems
• Sensitivity to heat and/or cold
• Alcohol intolerance
• Gluten and/or casein intolerance
• Abdominal bloating
• Dryness of the mouth and eyes
• Menstrual problems including PMS and endometriosis
• Eczema
• Allergies and sensitivities to noise/sound, foods, odors, chemicals
• Anemia
• Weight changes without changes in diet
• Feeling in a fog

It just so happens that I included all of my symptoms on that list, which is much longer and much more extensive. The hard thing about candida is that so many of the symptoms could be related to something else. So, how do I know that this is what I have and not some other debilitating disease? Easy. My chiropractor told me so. And then my witch doctor confirmed it....I mean uhhh....

In all actuality, I probably would've ignored my symptoms and continued to feel miserable and exhausted all the time (and no, the 60 hour work weeks don't contribute to that in the least); however, my sister had candida yeast as a child which caused my entire family to change our lifestyle and go on the "candida diet."

Let me give you a brief walk through of what my diet consists of these days.

Morning: Take 2 anti-fungal pills (kills the yeast overgrowth), take 2 garlic pills (also an anti-fungal), 1 multi-vitamin, 1 fiber pill.
Evening: Same as above, except no multi-vitamin and I take 2 fiber pills and two probiotic pills (the healthy bacteria in the body that needs to be replenished).
My meals in between consist of absolutely no carbs, no sugars (not even natural sugars from fruit), no dairy (as well as certain other foods to stay away from such as mushrooms and peanuts), and *gasp!* no alcohol . It's a good thing I'm not a big drinker anymore or I'd be screwed.

Now, I know you're all highly interested in the inner workings of my body, but hey, this is the most exciting thing happening in my life right now. And by exciting, I mean the bane of my existence. I must say, though, I've had much more energy since I've been doing this for the past week and no more indigestion. Saints be praised! I've also had much more tears shed when a co-worker brings in a freshly homemade apple pie that I can't have.

Nevertheless,* the really interesting thing about this is that even though I'm a healthy eater to begin with—lots of fresh produce, legumes, only lean meats, etc.—this is teaching me so much about how the human body operates, how intricate it is, and how important it is to maintain this fine balance on which we all operate.** Besides, staying away from all the processed, fatty foods can only do me good, right? And maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get rid of those love handles.

*Yeah, that's right, I busted out a nevertheless! How's that for being a grammar nerd?
**Bam, the grammatically correct sentences just continue to flow