I went to the dentist for the first time in I don't know how many years on Thursday. I rushed out of work to make it on time to a 5:15pm appointment only to sit there until 6:30pm- someone broke their jaw or something. Sure. I get in for my cleaning, have x-rays, and the dentist comes in and tells me that basically I need to have a few root canals and some fillings and two maybe three wisdom teeth need to be removed. Let's review a few important details here. 1. I don't have any money. 2. I don't have a job after October 23rd (my birthday). and 3. I don't have any money. I call my mom in tears telling her how much I feel like total Irish white trash and how I think I may win a Guiness Book of World Records record for having the most root canals at the youngest age, at which she replies, "No, honey I had most of mine done before I was married." Let's review a few important details here. 1. My mom was married at 20. and 2. That falls under the category of things I wished I had known before I decided to not go to the dentist for a million years. I leave the dentist's in tears. My insurance only covers about 1/3 of the dental work I actually need to get done. My first root canal is on Tuesday at 2 pm. Could things get worse? Yes. I walk out to my car and have a $38 parking ticket. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

My piece of advice to you all: GO TO THE DENIST.

 
This week's guest journal entry is being made by my newest LA friend, Sylvia. THANKS SYLVIA!

Hi, Friends of Molly’s!

I’m Sylvia Thompson, a new FoM, although I’ve long been an honorary member of the Corridan clan. Molly’s Aunt Susan and I are sisters-under-the-skin.

Molly’s invitation to write this week’s guest journal entry is faultless timing (she is, as far as I can tell, a faultless young woman). Molly’s looking forward to new digs, which means she and her roommates will have to pack up their possessions. I’ve become an authority on the subject. In fact in Molly’s entry of 9/6, she mentions doing “manual labor.” That was helping me drag boxes and boxes of my stuff out of storage and bring them here to my place to deal with.

All this came about because a couple of weeks ago I stayed with Susan and Susannah in their beautiful apartment in New York City and was impressed at how much Susan had thinned out her possessions. Loved the clean uncluttered lines. Came home inspired to give up everything I couldn’t live without. A liberating idea!

I should explain that a year and a half ago, I moved from a big house in the mountains to a small apartment in West L.A. The overflow from the house has sat in storage, soaking up cash I’d rather have spent on books, music, and lovely little cafes. Susan asked, “What do you miss that’s being stored?” I told her that, except for my food processor, I’d no idea what was there.

Dealing with objects has meant, for the most part, giving them up. I’ve tossed out sackfuls of letters/ papers/ photographs/ memorabilia that no one in my family will miss. I’ve given the library dozens of books I’ve read or will never get around to reading and cookbooks I’ll no longer cook from. Given the Goodwill armloads of clothes I’ll never wear and kitchenware I have no place for. Given family and friends treasures that are time to pass on. In a few days, I’ll be out of storage completely, huzzah.

So sometimes, when packing, Molly & Co. will have to decide whether to keep an object or not. Should they ask me what to keep and what to relinquish, I’ll say, if you can live without it, do so.

Let’s hear it for Aunt Susan!

Yours in simplicity,

ST

 
Katie and I got another donation from our uncle Kevin and aunt Sherry! THANK YOU! So we're doing well. And I'm not as worried about the fundraising, although I am still semi-concerned as we haven't met our minimum. We sent out Katie's letters last week, so those should start coming back within the next two weeks.

I have the next installment of the "guest journal entry" ready to go. I'm going to post it on Tuesday. So keep checking back.

We've checked out three 3-bedroom places so far. One in "Hancock Park" which was really Korea Town. The apartment itself was great, had a view of downtown LA and the Hollywood sign, but the neighborhood wasn't so great. Steve pointed out that all the houses had bars over the windows and a house directly across from the apartment building had a high fence with barbed wire at the top. Not great signs. Plus something that really did resemble a crack house was just at the corner. So no to that place. And then Boges checked out another one today in Beverly Hills Adjacent which she said was great. We're going to fill out the applications today and get that taken care of. And Boges also checked a place out in Santa Monica. Despite the fact that the air feeling so much better on the west side, I gathered that it wasn't that great. I just hope we get this settled soon. Moving is going to SUCK. At least Steve has a truck :)

 
The search is on for a 3 bedroom place. We're all in agreement that it's time for us all to have our own rooms. And I guess this also means that Boges plans on sticking around for a while- WOO HOO! So if anyone is from LA and is reading this and knows anyone who can assist in finding a 3 bedroom house/apt. whatever, please let me know!

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who has donated so far:
Leah, Lenny, Mr & Mrs Green (Emily's parents), Gene & Linda, Stan & Sandy, Caryn, Smiley, Jen Mack, Bobbi, Stuart, Meghan, The Quinns, Amy, Joy, Andrew, Donna & Ed, Maggie & Howard, Barbara Jo, Elaine & Mike, The Hanrahan's, Sylvia and Nana & Papa.
I think I'll get this money raised after all.

PS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEO!

 
And the first guest journal entry goes to AMY VANDER ELS! Here it is...

Ciao, i miei amichi.
molly asked me to write a little something for her web page, so here goes nothing. as I speak, I am sitting in a bookstore/cafe/internet place. There is no one here. Italy likes to completely shut down from 1-4. they take their leisure time and their food very seriously. Mama like. I am taking classes here Monday through Wednesday and then we take "field trips" on thursdays. I got a cell phone for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I am now one of those girls that I hated, but whatever. I will go back to hating them in a few months, but for now I am enjoying my celly a lot. ummm...what else? I have had gelato about 14 times in the month that I have been here. I find it pretty funny and a little sad that the 2 places where I am a regular and the people know me are the candy store and the gelateria. I have been almost killed (i am serious) by cars and mopeds. they definitely don't yield to pedestrians here. is "f*ck you" a universal term? because i've said it to many a car. excuse my language. that's katie's fault.
ok, that's all for me.
hope you are all doing well, and if anyone wants to write to me or e-mail me, here's my info:
abve2@aol.com
and
Amy Vander Els
Cartiera Papale
Porta Cartara
63100 Ascoli Piceno
Italy

a piu tarde...
Amy

 
I spent all day in class yesterday. From 8 am until 9 pm I was at Phillips Graduate Institute, learning, listening and having a pretty decent time. At this point, I'm extremely happy with my decision. Starting next week I get to watch therapy in session. The program is so hands-on and so experimental that I know I chose the right place. The professors are dedicated and motivational.

Then I went back to work today. What a nightmare. I didn't take too many calls today but some of them were awful. Everyday we talk with people who just don't get that we were closed for two weeks, that the company has no plans for events next year or that we genuinely are not out to make their life difficult. I knew I needed to go back to school (thank you Barbara Jo!) when after I got my "dream job" at Pallotta TeamWorks and realized that I couldn't picture myself doing it for the rest of my life, or even for the next few years. As passionate as I was, and am, about the company, I couldn't spend most of my day defending what I was there and what we were doing. I believe in our company, I believe in Dan Pallotta, and I believe that we could have continued to raise enormous amounts of money. But what does it all mean now? Anyway, going back to school is going to be great. And I have to go to therapy. Which should be interesting.

So I'm going to have a guest once a week do a journal entry. Hopefully I'll have one lined up for tomorrow. But definitely this week for sure.

 
I had my first day of classes today and it was pretty interesting. Today was a Human Diversity class from 8-5pm and it was interesting. We did a lot of ethnic training and discussions. Basically I came away from it all noticing and realizing that as different as we all are, in many important ways we are all really similar. But now I have to spend tonight and all day tomorrow doing all of the reading for Monday, because that's when I really go to class. And they scheduled me for the wrong Case Conference- where we see actual therapy take place behind a one-way mirror. I was supposed to do that on Wednesdays. Now I'll be going to school ALL DAY on Monday from 8 am until 9 pm, with two one hour breaks. Should be interesting.

Back to the books for me.

And if you're reading this, and you HAVEN'T made a donation towards my 60 MILE WALK FOR BREAST CANCER TAKING PLACE OCTOBER 18-20TH, please visit my 3-day homepage. There is a link at the top of the page! I have only raised $750 and am required to raise at least $1900. HELP

 
I realized tonight what it's like to be on the receiving end of being made fun of, criticized and talked about behind your back, and realized that it's not fun. I'm going to be more careful the next time I do the same to anyone else.

I'm having a fun time updating this and making changes. Hope you're enjoying it too.

Amy called me from Italy. We've actually talked quite a bit which is great. I wasn't sure how often we'd talk. Of course she wanted to know if I'd talk about her at all! I'm trying to figure out if I can go and visit her at all. I definitely hope to. Katie's going in December. Anyway, she lives in a studio with one other UNH student (right Aim?) named Theresa. Apparently Amy's been drinking a lot. Sounds like she's having a blast and has already started taking Italian lessons over there. Oh, and she says the pizza is better over here. Still I'd rather go over there just to double check.

Jonathan ... thanks for all of your help!

 
So it's September 11th and I feel fine. I mean of course not fine. Who could really ever feel "fine" on this day. But in LA, as a friend pointed out, if you didn't turn on the tv you really wouldn't think anything was special about this day. I tried to watch tv for a while, but it was so sad. Then I talked with Brian and he said he felt similarly. I don't exactly want to re-live the day, that's for sure. I feel for the people who have been directly affected by this. I don't know how they're getting by. I just hope they are.

On an entirely different subject, I start Grad School on Saturday. I have my first day of classes. Which means I'll have one day off this week. Which means I'll be inside all day from 8-5pm. In School. Am I ready? Yeah I'm pretty sure I am. There's something liberating and enjoyable knowing that I'm going back to school and I'm paying for it and I want to be there and I'm doing something I want to do and that I'm actually going back to school for something that I know I'm going to eventually be making money for. Who knew?

When you get a chance, and it's either before 8 am or after 5 pm PST, call Pallotta TeamWorks' 800# (1-800-825-1000) and listen to the outgoing message. Why? Just do it. It'll take a few minutes. And don't leave a message! Then let me know what you think.

I made salmon tonight. It was ok. I need to cook it with lemon slices on top so that the lemon flavor cooks into the fish. Otherwise, not so bad.

 
So far the best thing I've heard since being back at work is "You must be busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest."

 
I got hired back tonight. Me and Boges did. What a great feeling to know that I can now breath easier for the next month and a half. And then if I do a good job saving some money, then maybe I can take a little bit of time off in November. I can't even imagine what the calls are going to be like. They'll either hate us or they'll love us. I'm glad me and Boges are in it together. But wow, what an entirely different atmosphere it is going to be.

 
manual labor is really hard.

 
So I'm helping a friend today. I'm doing "manual labor." Yes folks, that's what I've been reduced to at this point. Although, truly, I don't feel as though I've been reduced. I'm happy to know people who are able to offer me these types of jobs. Maybe someday I can wait outside Home Depot with some chicos and get some day jobs that way! Until then...

 
I got an email today from a great friend who had the best (and nicest) advice for me. Read on..."In the meantime, take care of yourself and keep your chin high. Good
things always seem to happen for you - it's all timing. Something great will come up."

So nice and just what I needed to hear.

 
I've been spending enough time on the internet lately, attempting to look for jobs and keep in touch with everyone, that I figured I might as well do this. A central place where everyone can know what's going on with me! I'll draft something good to put up. Look for an update later! xoxo Molly