I'm picky, but it was good

I just tried a Stouffer's Southwest-Style Chicken Panini. As most of you know, I'm such a picky eater. But I decided to be brave and try it. Plus, it sounded delicious.

It's got cheese, chicken and bacon with a semi-spicy southwest sauce. I love it, because the bread is kind of crunchy, but the inside of the sandwich is juicy and tender.

I've tried another kind of panini from them before, but I really didn't like it. The bread was really the only good thing about it.

I apologize for the quality of the photo, but this was the only one I could find.

Bottom line: It's delicious, and you should try it.

Prom dress donations

My friends in the features department at The Island Packet published a short story in today's (Friday) paper about a group that is collecting gently used prom and bridesmaid dresses and the accessories to accompany them. Read the story at http://www.islandpacket.com/lowcountrylife/story/760472.html

I thought this was a fabulous idea. It's designed to help teenage girls that can't afford to buy their own prom dresses.

I was fortunate enough that my family could provide those dresses for me, and I remember each dress and the magical time I had wearing them. I cannot imagine how heartbreaking it would be if a young girl could not afford to look like a fairy tale princess on her special night.

The group in Bluffton, S.C., is collecting these dresses and then providing girls in the community with a chance to go "shopping" March 1. Unfortunately, I will be out of town that weekend — in the city where all of my dresses happen to be.

Does anyone in the Raleigh area know of an organization that is doing this there?

I decided just to post some photos of my time wearing each of my beautiful dresses. Ah, memory lane ...

This beautiful purple dress is from Belk, I think. I wore it to my first Junior, Senior Banquet at North Raleigh Christian Academy in 2002 my junior year of high school. Pictured with me is my date that year, my then-boyfriend, Jamin Peck. I loved this dress. It has little flowing ribbons down the back, and I had ballet slippers dyed to match the dress.


Looking back on these photos now, this teal dress is my favorite. It's so beautiful. I got it from David's Bridal. I think I wore silver flats to go with it. I wore this dress to the Junior, Senior Banquet my senior year of high school in 2003. Pictured with me is my date that year, Steven Pearce, the brother of my friend, Amy.


I actually bought this dress for an event with a campus organization at UNC my freshman year. I wore it to that event, but I don't have any photos from that; and I think I only had it on for a total of about one hour. I think I got this dress from a department store as well. The quality of this photo is not very good, but the bodice is beaded with black shiny beads, and the skirt of the dress is black matte satin — though it blends in with his tux. Shown in this photo, I wore this dress to the prom of my then-boyfriend, Thomas Boyd, my freshman year of college in 2004. Thankfully I already had it for another event, so I didn't have to buy a new one!


This beautiful crimson dress was from David's Bridal. I was the maid of honor in my friend Amy Pearce's (now Amy Moseley) wedding. I had gloves and shoes that were dyed to match. It was a wonderful dress, and it was quite similar to the teal one I bought for my senior year prom. Amy got married in December of 2005.

So most of you probably don't care about my dresses, but most of you know how much I love fashion. ;) Each of these dresses carries wonderful memories, which is why I've kept them — well, that and I'm a pack rat.

I guess every girl keeps them thinking, "What if I have an occasion to wear this again?" I've reached the point, however, of being able to give them away. I mean, if I were to ever go to an event where I needed such a dress, I'd of course want to buy a new one, right? ;)

Besides, it would mean the world to me if I could make a young girl's special evening that much more special if she could wear them. So, please, if anyone knows of another organization that's collecting gently used prom or bridesmaid dresses, let me know. I want so much to be able to give them to a good cause.

Why was six not enough?

I've had trouble understanding why a woman who has no money, no husband and no job wants children in addition to the six she already had.

Now, I'm not one of those people who thinks the death threats against Nadya Suleman are appropriate or anything. That is, of course, terrible, and I think people should at least treat her with civility. But I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why she decided to undergo in-vitro fertilization when she already has far too many children than she and her mother can care for.

While her mother, Angela Suleman, recently said her anger at her daughter's decision was softened by the sight of her newest eight grandchildren, she has gone on record as being very upset by her daughter's actions.

Angela Suleman's entire retirement check goes towards helping Nadya and her children each month. Why would someone be so selfish as to pay more money to get a procedure done to bring even one more child into the world when your family is struggling to support you. Had Nadya gotten pregnant through natural means, I would never think the child should be aborted; but this woman paid to have this procedure done.

Nadya Suleman said in interviews that she went through a period of time where she was depressed after an injury during a riot at a mental hospital where she worked in 1999. She said the birth of her first child helped her spirits, and that she wanted a large family to make up for "certain connections and attachments with another person that I really lacked, I believe, growing up."

It is not a child's responsibility to provide some sort of connection that you lacked as a child. It's your job to make sure the child doesn't experience the same thing. Trying to make up for your childhood by having 14 children is selfish and is not at all thinking of their welfare.

In these dark days of economic recession, why would you want to use your mother's money to finance a procedure which would enable you to have who knows how many more children that you will be responsible for caring and providing for? Those poor children will have a difficult life, just because she wanted a large family.

I just don't get it. It's not fair to the children. It's not fair to her mother. And it's not fair to the taxpayers that now will have to pick up the slack for raising her children.

I'll leave you with one last thought: Even if none of this makes sense, why would you want to do this to yourself?

Ouch. Also, ew.

That was a vaguely terrifying fiasco

So Tuesday afternoon, I was lying on my couch watching Friends before work. I hadn't gotten very much sleep the night before, so I fell asleep.

I realize some of you have already heard this story, but it was actually quite frightening. I just feel like getting it out there and off my chest.

I woke up about 3ish or so. I realized I hadn't had lunch and was walking to the kitchen when my neck felt a bit sore from the nap. I must have slept on it funny. So, as most of us do when we feel a bit sore, I stretched.

And something in my neck ... popped. Not only did I hear it, I felt it.

It was a little unnerving, but it didn't really hurt.

Then I turned my head to the right. I practically crumpled to the ground in pain and lost my breath because it hurt so badly. I realized that for some reason, I couldn't straighten my head, nor could I turn it to the right without experiencing that gut-wrenching pain.

I tried to stretch my neck out a little and rubbed it a bit, thinking maybe I'd just turned it funny and it would ... pop back into place? I'm not quite sure what I was thinking, but I guess I figured it would just go away.

After about five minutes of this, I started to panic. I called my dad in tears because I didn't know what to do. He told me I should try to find a general practitioner (maybe one that my co-workers used), or try to find an urgent care facility.

It turns out there's an urgent care facility about five minutes from my apartment. At this point, it's about 3:30. I had to be at work at 4:30. I called both of my bosses and left them voice mails explaining the situation. I was hoping the doctor would know what it was and be able to fix it so I could make it to work.

Have you ever tried to drive a vehicle and not been able to turn your head to the right to check for traffic? I don't recommend it. It was painful and very scary. Every time I turned my head slightly in the direction that induced said pain, I immediately took my foot off the gas because it was one of those pains that shot involuntary movements throughout your body, and I wasn't interested in ramming into anyone if my foot involuntarily floored the gas pedal.

I called David on the way and he was able to calm me down enough so that I wasn't crying. I mean, not only was I in pain with my neck tilted to the left, but I was freaking out, thinking I'd ripped, torn or strained ... something. I'm sure I looked quite odd to other drivers.

I got to urgent care without any incidents and was able to see the doctor within 15 minutes of my being there.

She was very nice and she wanted to know exactly what had happened.

With no warning, she calmly comes close to me, takes my head in her hands and begins to twist my head in different directions while putting pressure/rubbing the area I told her was hurting. She said she could feel how tense the muscle was and told me I had severe muscle spasms.

Now, while she was moving my head in all kinds of directions, I was bawling. I wasn't crying so people could hear me, but my jeans were tear-soaked by the time she was done. She was turning my head in the directions that hurt the most.

She was, however, able to relieve some of the tension, because I had more range of motion in my neck than I had when I'd gotten there.

She gave me two prescriptions: pain medications and a muscle relaxant. She also told me not to go to work, but to go home and take a bath and rest. It's definitely a good thing I didn't go back to work like I'd planned. I was loopy from the medicines, and there was no possible way I would've been able to hold my head up for eight hours in front of my computer.

I mean, I went back Wednesday (one day sooner than the doctor told me to, since she didn't clear me to go back to work until today — Thursday), and I was so out of it. I was afraid I had made some huge errors on my pages because I felt awful, and I was doped up on pain meds. Steve sat down with me last night to make some corrections, and he asked me if I was OK. I told him what had happened and he said, "But you're on something now, aren't you?" I said, "Yes." He laughed and said, "I bet you're feeling high as a kite because you have no pupils at all!"

Yikes.

So that's my terrifying adventure to urgent care. I'm still on the meds, and my neck still hurts a little, but it's definitely getting much better. I hope I never do that again. I've not felt pain like that since I tore my ACL in high school.