Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong

And Did I mention...

C lost another tooth. Her second one on the bottom. At least we know the dentist won't pull these two.

posted by Juls @ 11:33 PM 0 comments

Still stunned

It's been a crazy week. I'm finally done with "Big Brother". The finale was last Tuesday and we survived the two hour finale. It was good TV with the final three and it could've gone any way for a winner. But Jordan pulled it out 5 votes to 2 and since I had picked Jordan in the pre-move-in pool, I won $170. Not too shabby. In my 6 seasons on BB, I've now picked 4 final two houseguests but this was my first win. Woo-hoo! Not sure what I'll spend it on but it'll be something good.

In other good news, my friend S gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on Thursday. She has two daughters in 2nd and 4th grade so this little boy is going to be treated like a prince. I'm so happy for all of them.

On another front, my head has also been spinning by some truly devastating news. My friend E, out of the freaking blue, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer which has spread to her brain, liver and bones. Needless to say, it doesn't look good but she's got a game plan on chemo and radiation and will fight this all the way. She had been complaining of back pain for the past few weeks, and when she went to her son's pre-school, all of a sudden, she had some kind of a seizure and her arm started flailing around uncontrollably. Her husband took her to St. John's in Santa Monica. They did a brain CT, a brain MRI and then a total body scan and found the cancer. It seems that there's also a tumor in her hip which has been causing the back pain. OMG! Words cannot describe how this has devastated me. This is someone who's 44 years old and has a 3 son and a 1 year old daughter. E and her DH have had other tragedy in their lives which is how they came to adopt these two beautiful kids but they don't deserve this, no one does. It makes me angry how G-d or whatever higher power can do this to really good people. I pray every day that he/she's doing a "psyche" and thinking "I've given you another challenge and you've passed my test." and she'll be a medical miracle. It just has to happen that way.

When my BF was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, it sucked completely but there was NO doubt that M would come through this with flying colors, and she has. With this, it feels like it's 180 degrees different which is why I feel like I've been punched in the stomach. E posted it the devastating news on her Facebook page last Sunday having all this happen on Friday, 9/11. WTF is it with that cursed day? I saw a show on the Weather Channel about Hurricane Iniki back in 1993 which also hit on 9/11. But I digress. I was driving to work on Monday and I literally felt nauseous. I've never had anything like that happen to my physically before. I was shaking when I read the post right before our last BB production meeting. It was not easy to focus after that but I was physically ill for two full days.

Anyway, I know E from the DGA. We both serve on the National Board and she's someone who's a staunch supporter of all that the DGA stands for. We all are, but she's so vocal and knowledgeable at the board meetings, at negotiations, and she's just inspiring. She's my one real friend on the AD/UPM side of things. I met her about 12 or 13 years ago at a PAC event where Rep. Dick Gephardt was present. We've been casual friends since but definitely bonded again at the DGA Negotiations in 2007-08 and when I was elected to the National Board in 2007. This DGA Biennial Convention about 2 months ago (where the new board is elected), she was the one who stood up for me in front of all the delegates and sang my praises. She was the one who read down my resume and my accomplishments and helped get me re-elected. And I wasn't even there to be red in the face in person. She's a strong advocate for adoption and she's an even stronger voice promoting breastfeeding your kids, even if they're adopted. She's BF both kids, which is no easy feat. She leads a clean life which makes all of this so unbelieveable.

Anyway, I needed to get all this down and some of this out of my system. I pray for her strength. I pray for her husband and beautiful little kids. This is definitely one of those cases where you want to be angry and scream "WHY?" With all the fuckheads on this planet, there is no explanation for this happening to one of the true good ones walking around. If you have a little space on your prayer list, please say a little one for E. She needs to win this battle.

Here's a shot of her BFing her daughter.



And here's my favorite picture of her. Just gorgeous inside and out.

posted by Juls @ 9:43 PM 2 comments

Annual Report

Once again, I'm posting during the MDA Jerry Lewis Telethon. It's kind of a tradition at this point although usually I post in the middle of the night to stay awake. Right now, we're in Hour 3 and we're 28 minutes over. In other words, we're supposed to be done with this hour at 8:50P and it's 9:03 with another 13 minutes to go. You can thank Jerry Lewis for all that overage. It'll fall on those of us working the overnight to cut and cut to catch up and get back on time for it all to start over again when he comes back in the morning. I'm working only the first 10 hours this year because I have to get back to do "Big Brother" on Tuesday and I'm driving. The last time I drove in the afternoon, after the show, it took 8 hours to get home instead of 4. With two babies and a 6 year old in the car, that's just suicidal. My goal is to be on the road around 10A so at least we'll get home during daylight hours. I'll do another update in the middle of the night because I can.

In the meantime, here's my annual pitch. There are lots of worthy charities out there and they are all deserving of our generous donations. This year is my 20th MDA Telethon. I'm very proud to have been a part of this annual event over the years and I believe that a cure is in reach. Once they find the cure for one of these diseases, all the others out there (MDA and others) will start to fall too. If you have a little bit extra to give, please consider donating to MDA. It's a wonderful organization and they help anyone and everyone who fighting neuromuscular disease. And while you're at it, give your beautiful, healthy, strong children an extra hug and kiss tonight. We're all very blessed.

posted by Juls @ 8:48 PM 1 comments

It's Telethon time and some other stuff

Well, it's Labor Day weekend and we're knee deep (and then some) in rehearsals. We're only about 45 minutes behind schedule with a choir that has to leave in 30 minutes and rehearse two more numbers. Isn't show biz grand? More Telethon updates as we go along.

I've got a few things to update, remember, and share with my little lonely blog but I know the few of you who occasionally stop by want to see pictures of the babies so I'll start there. M&H turned 8 months on the 23rd. Yes, I know that was two weeks ago but better late than never. They're generally very happy girls. M really wants to stand and walk. H is starting to move and wants to crawl but scootches backwards. They're eating more and more foods which is more than I can say for the big sister. They're awfully cute.





Look at these yummy faces!



And since it's Telethon week, the girls got to meet Jerry Lewis. It's an annual event that C saves up her Tzedakah money, decorates some form of container and then gives him the jar of money collected. C also hit up the folks in the script and DGA areas. She wouldn't let us count up the amount but it was probably close to about $55.

(sorry for the picture of the picture)


The babies got to meet the big man too. H, of course, was like "who's this?" . M, got him cracking up which was pretty funny. He got a big kick out of all three girls and he took a bunch of pictures of the babies. I doubt we'll ever see them but you never know.



Changing gears, I have two reunions to talk about. My camp reunion will take too long so that'll be a separate post, but here's short one. I got together with 6 girlfriends who I worked with in the olden days of dick clark productions. I've known these girls since I graduated from college in the late 80's and when it was the heyday of dcp. It's so cool to know that some things never change and we can pick up right where we left off. Also, everyone looks really good even 20 years later.



More later.

posted by Juls @ 3:14 PM 0 comments

Mamabargains

I'm ridiculously behind and have a slew of photos to post but right now I'm going to post a shameless plug.

posted by Juls @ 10:58 AM 1 comments