Can I Just Tell You?

Welcome to Can I Just Tell You?
Thanks for visiting!

Can I just tell you? This whole site needs an overhaul. My goodness! Thank you for visiting, come back again in a few weeks. I still appreciate your support. :)
 
I love your support. So many of you have encouraged me to keep writing all these years. I took a few years off because I wasn't feeling very confident about my skill and self-conscience about my subject matter. I really appreciate your gentle (sometimes haunting) push to get back on the proverbial horse. My favorite thing in the world is making someone laugh, typically at my own expense. It warms my heart to hear that my silly stories have helped you smile or laugh out loud when you felt like that's the last thing you could do.

 

I also really appreciate the support of many boyfriends who read through my entire collection of crazy and still chose to continue dating. I'm not sure if you felt bad for me or found me charming. Regardless, thanks for the encouragement.

 

I'm going to change things up a little bit. As you may have guessed, from some of my posts, I have aspirations of writing a book. (Or two, three, or four… We'll see.) Anyway, all of my stories, up to 3/6/17, are true and happened to me. I'm thinking about adding some characters to my stories and playing around with fiction writing. You'll be able to tell the real stories from fiction. I think. ;-)

 

I'm not sure what my books are going to be like, yet. I've always enjoyed reading fiction but, maybe non-fiction is the right path for me. I'm pretty confident with the voice I've developed in telling my silly stories and would like to continue to write in that tone. I know I'm going to start off slow because, as you know, self-discipline has never been one of my stronger qualities. I may try to play around with other subjects, too. Stay tuned.

 

This site is meant to make you laugh through stories that you may be able to relate to whether it's sour love, a cooking disaster, a social faux-pas, etc. So, bear with me as I stumble through my experiences, hopefully, more gracefully than the actual event, but just as funny, and either share the lesson or just make you laugh out loud.

If there's ever a story that really hits your funny bone or makes your day, let me know. I'd love to hear from you.

So, sit back, put on your reading glasses and enjoy.

Please, take a minute to sign my guest book. It seems I have readers from around the world. I'd be more than happy to put you on an update list so you'll know when I have a new post. Cheers!

  

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Friday, May 2, 2008

Weight Gain

Can I just tell you? My new favorite outfit is baggy sweatpants and a tee shirt, and I wouldn’t even think twice about heading to the office without control tops. My skin feels like it’s two sizes too small for my body. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m sure I’ve put on an additional 5lbs to my original weight from when I started dieting 2 months ago. I haven’t actually weighed myself but every single pair of underwear is tight, as much as I’d like to place the blame elsewhere… I can’t imagine the lady who washes, dries, and folds my laundry shrunk every pair! (See “Laundry”) I know it’s me. Now, I know I may look like a perfectly normal weight but I just don’t feel normal in my skin currently. My skin is tight and I can’t blame it on the dead of winter and daily scalding hot showers either.


I thought I could start to whittle down my waist this week. My plan was to put at least 5 smiley faces per week on my calendar. Every day that I stayed within my allotted 18 points would garner a smiley face. I even upped it to 25 points or less for a smiley. Unfortunately, it’s been one frown after another.


On Greek Easter, I made sure I had almonds and a veggie pack with low-cal ranch dressing in my car; to eat right before I walked in to my aunt’s house, so I could refrain from the spinach and cheese pita that, I knew, would be waiting for me on the table. It didn’t help. I ended up eating everything that wouldn’t eat me. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I brought home leftovers, big mistake. I consumed my daily points before 9am the next morning and topped it off with two chocolates just because I figured, I went that far, I might as well have bon bons today and really do it up.


Does anyone else feel like that? Once you blow your diet, you might as well order dessert?


I decided it may be a good idea to try one of those “Spring Cleanings.” Well, I suspect the only way they work is if you cut out all foods that don’t grow in the soil or on trees. The desserts I choose to consume are much too pretty to be concocted anywhere else but in a food lab. The directions on the box also neglect to mention anything about portion control, which has been an issue. I know it’s not meant to be used as a diet tool but one would think weight loss would be a natural part of the process. It doesn’t seem to be working.


I only weigh myself once per week, first thing Monday morning. Maybe I should place the scale in front of the refrigerator door.


So, now I’m contemplating Nutra System. Marie Osmond looks great.

Fri, May 2, 2008 | link          Comments

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Beauty Secrets

I had dark circles under my eyes and this winter has made my skin flaky. What do you do when that happens, especially, in a society that shuns puffy eyes and dry skin? You go to a beauty specialist.

 

I was out with two friends who spend way more than I do on product. My beauty routine typically involves some moisturizer, blush, a sweep of mascara and a squirt of tinted lip balm. However, I love makeup. I don’t wear much of it partially for vanity reasons. I feel like it ages your skin. (My getting carded days are becoming fewer and farther between.)

 

We sauntered into Beauty & Main in Hingham. I should have had some foresight of the damage to be done to my bank account. Hingham is a haven of “have-to-have” items. It’s a shopping mecca of high priced boutiques. I love it and my bank statement can prove it.

 

It started with mascara and a quick eye-do. Danielle, the Queen of Trish McAvoy products and application (and, sales, I might add) offered to do a quick makeup session focusing on my eyes. When she finished, everyone “oohed” and “aawed” I fluttered my lashes and knew (so did Danielle) that I’d be back for more.

 

I ran out of my favorite moisturizer a week or two later and conveniently found myself in Hingham, dangerously close to Beauty & Main. I figured, since I was so close and it was a Sunday (my moisturizer outfitter was closed,) I’d check out their moisturizer line. I told the woman how much I was currently spending on moisturizer and said, “I’d like to stay within that price range.”

 

She showed me a couple of products a little higher priced than mine. They seemed okay. Then I thought, I had such a good experience with Danielle, that I should take a look at Trish McAvoy. When she told me the price, I nearly choked. She informed me that Trish’s moisturizer would make all my makeup go on smoother and it would decrease fine lines. (I immediately recalled that my tax refund check was on it’s way back to me.) I was slowly being sold then, I made the mistake of telling her I used the same moisturizing product on my eyes that I use on my face. “No, no, no,” she said. “You need an eye moisturizer for that delicate area. You don’t want crow’s feet, do you?” No, I certainly don’t!

 

Can I just tell you? I spent more money on face moisturizer in one purchase than I typically do in a year. I started using the product and, of course, my face was still dry. I emailed Danielle. She offered to help. When I first got my eye-do, she suggested I come in when I have more time and she’d help me with a new look for Spring. She would do one side of my face and show me how to do the other. Sounded like a great idea since I’ve had that done at Sephora (they do both sides.) Inevitably, I’d buy the products, get home and realize I didn’t know how to recreate the look.

 

To make a long story short, I went in, spent more money on makeup than I do in 3 years and left looking like J to the L-O just to make the boys say, “Hel-Lo.”


Thu, May 1, 2008 | link          Comments

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Greek Easter

Can I just tell you? Today is Greek Easter and my name day. I shared my Easter Egg Hunt experience with my family and asked if anyone else had ever experienced one. None of my siblings had but my mom’s sister, Auntie Roxie, made an attempt one year to hide chocolate eggs for my cousins, but she didn’t continue the tradition for long because they would make her hide them several more times after they found all the eggs.

 

They all agreed that my Favorite Aunt Sis’s husband, David, went above and beyond with his Hunt.  After I shared the story, everyone felt they had missed out.

 

I also reminded them about Fluffy, our pet lamb. My aunt informed me that his name was actually, Whitey. Fluffy, was the rabbit we used to play with that met a similar fate.

 

I must have blocked that memory out.


Sun, April 27, 2008 | link          Comments

Laundry

I live in the heart of the North End, not sure if you’re familiar with the parking situation here but, it’s a major nightmare. I used to lug all my laundry (25lbs worth) each week or two into my car, drive to the Laundromat 3 blocks away, park illegally, throw the wash in (if there were enough washers available,) run back to the car, find parking, walk back, switch the wash over, wait for the dryers, get the car, park illegally, pack up the laundry then try to find an open spot near my apartment so I wouldn’t have to lug the laundry (half my size, literally) too far back to my apartment. I did this for my first two years here in Boston.

 

Now, I am the first born of an immigrant mother who thinks it’s a sin for anyone else but you to clean up after yourself. I’ve been saying for years that I plan on hiring a cleaning person but there’s something imbedded in me that just can’t justify spending the money when I’m perfectly capable of cleaning for myself. Unfortunately, my floors haven’t seen a mop in months. That’s a whole other issue I manage by taking my shoes off upon entering my apartment and having Windex handy for any obvious spots on the floor.  I digress…

 

When I last explained my laundry system to someone I was dating, he asked me about the Wash, Dry, Fold across the street. I told him I had used it once or twice before but I still had to go to the Laundromat to wash my under-garments. He was visibly confused. “What do you mean?” he asked. I informed him that I would pull out my underwear because I just didn’t feel comfortable with a stranger folding my panties. He almost fell off his barstool. We went back and forth examining my logic on this matter for a solid 10 minutes with the tone of my voice getting more defensive by the second.

 

After I gave it a little more thought, I agreed that it was probably a silly hang-up. So, I’ve slowly adjusted to using the Wash, Dry, Fold and including my underwear. I hate to pay a dollar per pound but it’s SO much easier than my previous system.

 

Well, can I just tell you? When I told my mother about the ease of it, the first thing she asked was, “You let them wash your underwear????”


Sun, April 27, 2008 | link          Comments


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My main goal is to make you smile and, hopefully, laugh out loud by sharing experiences that you can either relate to or just appreciate that it didn't happen to you.

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