We’ve all been there. In that awkward phase where you know it’s not working anymore, but you don’t quite know how to end it. Here’s my dilemma:

Don’t fret everyone, Chris & I are fine. The kind of breakup I’m referring to is the friendship kind.

I have ended friendships before, but they were usually over some blowout or geographic intervention where things just drifted apart. As I get older, I’m less likely to be confrontational and just let things go. Part of me just wants to slide off the radar and never look back, but that doesn’t seem right. She has done things that have shown me she has no real interest in a friendship, and I don’t think I can let things go unsaid.

things have been building up for a while, but some examples of why I need to end this friendship:

• the classic “I have a boyfriend and I don’t need friends anymore” syndrome. I thought we all grew up & left that behind in high school.
• not bothering to tell me she couldn’t take care of my cats until the day before I went to go on vacation when I asked her when she wanted to do the key exchange. After she had already agreed. Claimed to have “mentioned it to my fiancé” but definitely didn’t.
• constantly flaking on girl evening with another mutual friend. We eventually stopped inviting her altogether.
• RSVP’ing for a party, then telling me the day before she probably wouldn’t make it because she didn’t get out of work until 8 (party was scheduled to “end” at 9 but didn’t). This wouldn’t have bothered me so much except for the fact that another friend who had called off work from being sick still made an effort to come out for an hour.

And the top reason I simply can’t ignore:

• knowing she had a depraved relationship with my fiancé and neither he nor she ever felt the reason to tell me. omitting the truth is very close to lying in my eyes.

I would have liked this split to be amicable, but at this point it’s clear it won’t be. I’m trying very hard not to send out that scathing email that simply says “You’re a dirty whore and a bad friend. Enjoy your solitude when you have no one left but yourself”, so help me out– how should I end this? Should I just walk away, or should I give her the same laundry list I have just shared with all of you?

so I implore you, dear blogtarts, how do I end this friendship?

I guess it’s easy for me to place all of the blame on you for my troubles. But when you’re describing why you’re not feeling so hot “epigastric pain” is kind of a mouthful. Plus that makes me sound like I’m trying to be a smarty pants just because I work in the medical field. It’s just easier to place the blame all on you by saying “my stomach hurts”.

Basically, I need something to blame so I chose you.

We were doing so well too. I had gone quite a few months with nary a complaint. You know that little situation we had worked out? The one where you went your way and I went mine, leaving each other alone? It was working well for me. So what happened?

Now I wake up and I’m nauseous. Something just doesn’t feel right. You’ve got my poor fiancé worried that I’m pregnant, and me worried that I’m just plain crazy (I’m pretty sure my GI specialist, the best in Pittsburgh, already thinks so anyway).

Do you really want to force me to go through all those tests again? You know, the ones where I had to eat radioactive eggs or drink barium? How about the countless blood draws? EGDs? Visits to the ER that last for hours, only to have the doctors tell me there’s nothing they can do but prescribe me Compazine? Or best yet, THAT I HAD MY GALLBLADDER REMOVED?! I sure as hell don’t.

So tell me what you want me to do. Perhaps you can have a little powwow with your neighboring digestive organs and get back to me.

In the meantime, I’m bringing back out the Compazine.

Oh, and don’t forget that I’ve removed organs before for apparently doing less. You’ve been warned.

Regards,

I don’t know about you guys, but I think Twitter is a wee bit crowded these days. Remember the days where NO ONE had over 10,000 followers? Or when we all weren’t drowning in a sea of spammers?

Lately, I’ve been seeing people posting in their facebook status “Follow me on twitter.com/sceneusername”. These are the same people up until recently were still stuck on their myspace account in 2005, and the same ones who post pictures of themselves getting drunk every weekend. Granted, not all of them are. But mostly.

I consider Twitter to be a confluence of knowledge and resources. It was an excellent way for me to connect with people in Chicago when I moved here. If I have a question and post it on twitter, I know I’ll get a reply. It’s not just about how I use it either. How many people use twitter as part of their job?

We can thank all the celebrities adopting twitter for the sudden popularity. Does anyone else find this annoying as I do? If I wanted to know the goings on in a celebrity’s life, I’d just go to PerezHilton to read about it (which I do). Celebrities and the riff raff of myspace have no idea that Twitter is supposed to be a community. It is a place for people to share ideas and communicate with one another. It seems like those days are starting to fade. It is a sad day when you begin to realize Twitter is the new Myspace.

Can the nerds/geeks/bloggers have our little piece of the internet back?!

Why I’m even thinking of taking the MCAT’s is beyond me. Yes, those MCAT’s. As in Medical College Admissions Test. I must be part nuts, part masochist.

I’m not even sure what spawned this urge to do this. It was always one of my childhood dreams to be a doctor, but I instead settled for a different route in the medical field. First it was x-ray, then CT, now I’m learning MRI. I work closely with radiologists every day. More and more, I find myself wishing I was one of them, rather than in my current position. Even if I take the MCATs, I’m still not sure if I intend on applying to medical school. Part of me is just curious to see how well I’d do, for bragging purposes I guess.

So what do the MCATs and Borders have in common? Technically, nothing. However, I did make a trip to the Borders on Michigan Avenue to pick up a review book. I figured if I’m even remotely serious about taking an exam like that, some preparation is expected. I picked up the Kaplan MCAT 2009 review book and almost choked at the price. $120.00. Seriously?! Keep in mind this isn’t even a text book. I whip out my trusty iPhone and quickly search Amazon to compare prices. Amazon list price: $75.60. To humor myself I also checked Barnes & Noble: $86.50. Sorry Borders, who do you think I’m going to buy the book from? Certainly not your store.

I did buy a few other books since I hate leaving a bookstore emptyhanded. Did you ever notice that Borders uses their own barcodes instead of the ones that are on the book already? Don’t ask me why but I hate stickers on my books. I peel them off. Naturally, this means I peel off the Borders price tag/barcode. Guess what? Borders charges $.99 more than the list price on the book. Why???

No wonder the Borders on Michigan Avenue is closing. Too bad it’s the nicer of the two here in downtown Chicago. To end my mini-rant on a happy note, I bought the review book from Amazon. In a few days I’ll have the book on my coffee table and still have $45 in my pocket.

Which bookstore do you prefer to shop? Borders? Barnes and Noble? Amazon? Or are you a fan of the private owned or secondhand bookstores?

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love Twitter. Its the perfect way of communicating things to your friends in 140 characters or less. But one of the main reasons I love Twitter so much is because I can do many things via SMS like send updates, receive friends’ updates, direct messages and so forth. This is probably the feature I love the most about Twitter because even if I can’t be in front of the computer 24/7, I am still updated as to what is going on while I’m away. 

Sure, sometimes all those updates can get annoying, but to be honest the SMS updates are what keeps me from using other platforms such as Jaiku and Pownce more readily.

So, what is with the title breaking up if all I’m doing is raving about their service? Well, here’s the thing: Twitter has been having a lot of problems lately, causing many avid users like myself many frustrations. In the past few days Twitter has been seeming to be more on track. I thought these frustrations were drawing to a close until today, when I deleted my mobile number from the SMS updates. I did this mainly because I thought maybe if I deleted it and then reactivated it, I would solve the SMS issues I was having. I ended up creating more of a headache. Instead of a quick reactivation like I had hoped for, I am now unable to reactivate my number for reasons unknown. I have attempted several times, with different verification codes with no success. I’m stressed: I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, I can’t stop worrying about not getting updates (okay exaggerating just a little there). 

So I do the next logical thing. I cry and stomp my feet and email Twitter Support for help. So now I keep my fingers crossed and pray to the Twitter gods to please be kind and give me back my SMS updates.

So now comes the even more frustrating, agonizing part: waiting. Will I get my SMS updates back or will I be forced to break up with Twitter as I keep threatening? After all, wouldn’t I be crazy to stay in a relationship in which I was no longer happy?

Twitter, if I can’t have you with SMS updates despite your quirks, then maybe I don’t want you at all. 

In the midst of all this new-found positivity, I digress and find myself having an all too familiar “Raging Bitch” day. These days usually begin with me waking up in a foul mood and continue on until I am safely asleep in my bed once again sometime later. On these days, no one is exempt from my irritability and may be subject to it at any point that our paths may cross.

In an effort to put my irritations out of sight/out of mind I’m compiling a short list and hopefully purging myself of these bad vibes.

The following are things that have displeased me at some point in the past twenty-four hours:

-Waking up from a bad dream and having that be the beginning of my day

-Driving in Pittsburgh traffic. For such a small city, there sure are enough jerks on the road to go around. While I’m on the topic, drivers who panic at the first snowflake. AND DRIVE SLOWER THAN MY 75 YEAR OLD GRANDFATHER.

-Doctors who make mistakes, then attempt to cover up their mistakes by trying to belittle you. I don’t play games. If you’re wrong, I’m going to tell you that you’re wrong. I don’t care if the title at the end of your name is more prestigious than mine.

-My brother and his friends. These two are a dangerous combination that intertwine many emotions of mine. None of those emotions are in any way good for my blood pressure.  Part of my animosity towards them comes from being jealous of them not having responsibilities. The other part is just annoyed at their juvenile behaviour.

-and last, but certainly not least, my job. True, I actually like what I do, its just all the bullshit that comes along with the territory that has my blood boiling at the moment.

Okay, now I’m going to take a deep breath, go to sleep and hope that when I wake up I will be back to myself again. I don’t like wasting time on being negative when there’s so much I’m so excited about in my life right now.

If I wake up and I’m still stuck in the rampage mode, anyone have some valium?