Thursday morning I woke up for some reason around 3 am. For some reason I decided to take a look at my phone - I guess to see what time it was. What I saw was that I had two text messages from my brother. I opened them up to see what he had to say.

They weren't actually from my brother, but from his landlord/good friend. He was telling me that he'd taken my brother into the emergency room for food poisoning. I texted him back asking if there was any news (the text was about 20 minutes old) and an interminible 30 minutes later got the text telling me he was ok - htat he'd gotten fluids and meds to stop the vomiting and was being made to walk around.

About an hour later I got a text from my brother telling me he was out and had orders to stay home from owrk for 3 days and NO WORKING OUT for 3 days. He was really bummed about that.

So I checked on him throughout the day Thursday, and he sounded like he was doing okay. I checked on him a couple times today, and he sounded like he was doing okay .. until the last time I checked on him. He said he was feeling worse - worse than yesterday and that he was talking to his landlord. I texted back if he was thinking he needed to see the doctor again .. and have not received a reply yet.

I'd tried calling our Aunt yesterday morning to let her know what was going on, but got her voicemail. I didn't realize that she doesn't check her voicemail. So I called her again a little bit ago, and then called her landline and finally got in touch with her. She's going to try to get in touch with him (or his landlord) and then decide what to do. So I bet she's going to go up there to stay with him, or maybe bring him to her house.

Ugh! I wish I wasn't so far away! I'm just SO very thankful for his landlord/friend. An ambulance had been called for him, but when they got there he told him he was fine. His landlord stayed - and that's when he got much worse and so took him to the ER.

Update (while I was finishing the above section)- Aunt got in touch with him. Said he sounded okay and for us to not worry. She told him if he got sick like that again, to call her and she'd meet him at the ER. Hopefully he'd actually do that. (she's an R.N.)

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Wednesday night I talked to my mom. She wants me to be an usherette in her wedding. I really, really don't want to - mostly because I don't like the idea of being an usherette. But I guess I'll do it - it sounds like it is really important to her.

She also asked me to make a list of 6 things I'd like for birthday/Christmas - even though I'd told her that the ticket there and back was more than enough and that I'd not have much money to do gifts. So am trying to think of things to put on there ... gift cards, haircut/highlights, warm socks... ummm...??? Money towards a remote car starter?? Money for car floor mats?? Auxiliary cable (to plug my phone into car stereo)?

She's having a lot of medical problems right now - stemming from the gastric bypass she had in 95? I think. She had a colonoscopy today to see if they could figure out what is going on. I don't know if staying obese for that amount of time would have had the same effect on her health or not. All I know is that I'd rather do it naturally - even if it takes forever.

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I got my first earnings from GymPact - $2.30 for 5 days.

I also found out that the My Weight app ties into another pay for success/tracking app called Acheive Mint. And that app ties into RunKeeper (which ties into GymPact.)

So I now have my walks recorded with RunKeeper earning me points/money in two different places.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

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I am looking at a $50/month plan with Tmobile where I'll be able to keep my phone - just switch sim cards. Unlimited data/voice/text. That would save me around $24/month. I looked at the $30/month plan as well, but that only has 100 voice minutes which wouldn't be enough.

I need to go in to Walmart and check more into the plan(s). (That's where they're offered.)

This would at least be a way to save a little on my cell phone until Ting can do iPhones.

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I signed up with PenFed for an account and their CC. The one I signed up for has no annual fee and 5% back on gas purchases. So this is the one I'll use when Chase and Discover don't have their gas deals.

I thought about signing up for Southwest Airlines card. But I just don't know if I could do $1000 in 3 months (to get the $800 in airfare.) If I'd known that I was about to buy a car, I could have gotten it early enough, and then easily done it. Oh well, such is life.