Fast forward to this morning. As usual, quick email check on my iPhone as I wake-up… And there is a string of emails from Pinterest with so&so following me… I thought that was weird, and wondered if those people were some sort of spammers… Later on, I turned on my computer, made coffee and started going through my Reader (yep, morning routine…). And there it was…

My heart skipped a beat…

My head felt very light…

Here’s the official Mashable page.

That’s why I love social media. 5 minutes of Internet fame is a great way to start the day!

The Good Reads synopsis summarizes things pretty well:

“In this new collection of stories, [Sandra Novack] further demonstrates her mastery of the form while exploring a universal theme: the desire for connection.

In “Cerulean Skies,” a wife must deal with her husband’s artistic calling while reexamining the loss of her own creative passion. A young woman is forced to confront the truth of her past, and its affect on her present love life, when she inherits her late dad’s possessions in “My Father’s Mahogany Leg.” In “Memphis” a man walks a delicate line between caring for his schizophrenic brother and keeping his new marriage afloat. “The Thin Border Between Here and Disaster” finds two married college professors faced with the fallout from their divorce, and a boy wrestles with his faith after the death of his mother in “Morty, El Morto.””

The opening story, “Fireflies,” drew me into the book immediately with its not-quite-manic Pixie Dream Girl who imposes a relationship on a stranger by forcing her way into his life, then continuing to show up at his apartment until she just moves in when the slacker relents. She steamrolls into his life, gets to know his mother, tries to force him to go back to school, and turns his (boring) world upside-down.

This is an amazingly powerful and well written collection of stories about failed and failing relationships and about the basic human yearning for meaning, connection, and love in a difficult world.

Purchase #1: Steve Madden Unityy Pumps – $69.95
Bought at the Steve Madden store on Walnut Street in Philadelphia, PA. Love the huge reusable shopping bag they’re giving instead of the classic plastic one.

Purchase #2: H&M Biker Jacket – $49.95
Bought on their Chestnut Street store in Philadelphia, PA – Word of advice: items located on the first floor of the Walnut Street store are also available a couple block down at the Chestnut Street one. Useful to know when one does not have your size. I was disappointed not to be able to snatch the hot red leather jacket from the Dragon Tattoo Collection, but I’m happy with my more classic (and cheaper) find.

Total for this month: $119.90 – $19.90 over budget… Adding the $8.50 from last month, I’m out $28.40… But I have some great basic pieces…

Last year, I was just starting to be involved with the person I ended-up dating for a few months. I remember sharing our first kiss a few days before the dreaded date… and having the what are we doing now?-conversation that Monday on V-Day. It was an awkward Valentine’s Day… In the end, I had a dinner out with Prince Charming, and received a corky text with that picture of the heart ferrets. It was the closest I’ve ever come to have a “real” Valentine.

So what to do, when you’re single or not-ready-for-it-being-called-a-relationship-quite-yet, when all your coupled friends are out spending fortunes on bad prix-fixe menus?

Hit an Anti-Valentine’s Day party? They’re are numerous… Some are singles only, some are open to everyone. I’d chose the open ones. Not really a good day to be reminded that the single scene can be very depressing sometime.

Have a Rom-Com marathon with your girlfriends? Make it a fun one: Bridget Jone’s Diary, 27 Dresses and, why not, Valentine’s Day.

Pretend that it’s a night like any other? Just doing what you’re usually doing on a Tuesday night… Hard to ignore the restaurants filed with lovey-dovey couples but if you’re just hitting the gym for a Pilates class and having a quiet night in, you should be alright.

Have a dinner party? Because any excuse to host a soiree is a good one… Isn’t it?

Give back? Charity organizations are always looking for volunteers and on a night where you’d rather do anything other than being reminded that  you’re alone, just put on a pair of sneakers and spread the love!

As for me? I still haven’t decided what I’ll do this year. One of the above probably. What about you? What are your plans for Valentine’s Day?

I was going through pictures of me 10 years ago, this weekend. First, I was probably 25 lbs heavier. Second, I was apparently smoking like a chimney. I had zero sense of style and bad taste in jewelry (hello black chocker…) I was happy though. I’m laughing and dancing and being silly on most photos…

But I like the person I am now so much more. What allowed me to become that person is the opportunity for a new beginning, 8-years ago, when I moved to the United States.

Now this opportunity comes knocking again.

Over the past 10 years, I have made a lot of progress on my emotional journey: I have become a better person. I have made progress on my physical journey: I eat better, exercise more and smoke less (work in progress). And I’m working on my stylistic journey: this has been a newer project of mine: rebuilding my wardrobe.

Since I’m packing boxes of my old life and realizing how much my tastes have changed, I’m also looking at making over my home. It’s time to create a place that I can call mine. And, funny enough, lately I have been obsessing with bed linens. I have never been the kind of person who would want expensive sheets and a pile of pillows. But, as I said, we change. And the best way to get a good start with your day is to wake-up in the best possible environment, isn’t it.

What’s your bedroom design style? What do you want to see when you wake-up?

In her New York Time article What’s sexy now? The slip, back in 2006, Ruth La Ferla linked the renewed interest to the lingerie icon to Old Hollywood: “Historically Hollywood has served up slips as a contradictory symbol of girlishness and womanly predation, one that glides between the poles of trashiness and class. A subtle invitation to misbehave, slips were impressed on the popular consciousness by stars like Ms. Taylor, not only dangerously feline in “Cat,” but elegantly debauched as she nursed a Scotch wearing satin and lace in “Butterfield 8.”" She saw a trend. And she was right.

Whether it’s an additional layer against cold weather, a solution for that little-too-sheer dress that’s staying in the closet or simply the idea of waking-up your inner Joan Holloway… the slip is an addition you might want to consider in your wardrobe.

From the modern Calvin Klein Stretch Satin Slip with its simple lines, basic colors and affordable price to the luxuriously girly Rosamosario Rosso Disera silk-chiffon slip there are many options out there for all tastes and all budgets.

What’s your take on it? Do you own one? What are your pros & cons?

Houston has been for several weeks now the location of Aloha Base Camp: a room at the Jesse H. Jones Rotary House, only a skybridge away from MD Anderson. If you’re lucky, you’ve never heard of MD Anderson and you have no idea what I’m talking about.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has ranked #1 in cancer care in the “America’s Best Hospitals” survey published in U.S. News & World Report for eight of the past 10 years, including 2011. When you have been living with stage 4 Metastatic cancer for over 2-years and you just got diagnosed with an additional cancer in your spinal fluid, when you need a shunt in your head to drain fluid down to your belly and an Ommaya reservoir to allow intra-cranial chemotherapy, that’s where you want to be. So that’s where Team Tigger has set up camp, affectionately nicknamed Aloha Base Camp.

My friend V. has been on a healing mission since she was diagnosed with Lobular Carcinoma breast cancer in the summer of 2009. That mission first took her to Atlanta, GA, where she was treated at the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. The goal was to get closer to her friends and family; and that’s where Team Tigger started to form: V.’s husband, her family, her childhood friends. All along, V. has wanted us to trust ”To fear for me is not loving me” she said in her CaringBridge Diary. She always thought, and still thinks, that she will beat that cancer. Both of them.

On June 16, 2010 V. celebrated her 45th birthday in Atlanta. In February of 2011, she was feeling good enough to move back to Maui, HI. Before this week, the last time I saw V. was in September, in Las Vegas, NV where she had a celebration for life with her 17 closest girl friends. Those women finished putting the T behind Team Tigger and when in December V. had to be rushed to MD Anderson developed an intricate support system that I’m extremely grateful to be a part of.

So, when I disappeared for a few days last week, that’s where I was, at Aloha Base Camp. It was my turn to take care of our friend. I helped preparing her meals, and was on pill-watch because I’m better at following a schedule than her big Australian Teddy Bear of a husband. I was a sounding board for the rest of the team (husband, dad and stepmom), and a presence and source of entertainment for V.

Again V. is a miracle. I was expecting to find a sick person, I found a healing person. V.’s favorite joke: “you girls are so crazy that all of you know that I pooped before I even get out of the bathroom”. Yup, that’s how tight the Ocean 17 net is. V.’s laughter is contagious.

V.’s stepmom nicknamed me “The Wise One” because I tried to direct all my love and energy into appeasing the fears and the anger that we all develop against cancer. I concentrated on trying to bring everyone together into a strong loving bound. I tried to stay objective and at peace. I absorbed. I discovered that 45 minutes can feel like hours when you are witnessing a friend being in pain and you know that there’s a way to relieve her but you can’t and you have to wait. I realized that the family ties are among the strongest and the weakest at the same time. I experienced empathy in its purest, rawest, draining form.

Everyday I try to respect V.’s request and not to fear. She gave me this necklace that says “Trust” and I’m caring it around my neck. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little afraid of letting go of my fear and simply trust. But for V. I’ll try to take the leap of faith, because I don’t think I’m the Wise One, I think she is.

8 years can feel like a lifetime or like a New York minute. But one thing is sure, I never stopped loving Philly and I will carry that city with me everywhere life takes me. Well, actually, literally.

See, as I mentioned before, my friends are the best. And they got me the best birthday/anniversary present a girl can ask for: jewelry! But not any kind of jewelry… They got me “The heart of Philadelphia“. A little pendant, designed by Steven Lagos, that carries with it four of the most symbolic Philadelphia monuments. And I’m not referring to the LOVE statue here, I’m talking real deal, old school, beautiful architecture: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Independence Hall, City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art mixed up in a very subtle way in the shape of a heart.

Add the dog-tag chain to hip it up a little bit and you get yourself the most fashionable, personal and meaningful gift I could have received. Well played A. & D. You’re getting brownie points for this one!