Howdy Princess,
Sorry to hear about your brother, but at least things have improved much over the years (communication-wise) with the advent of emails, chat-rooms, and tele-/video-conferencing. Heck, I had a nice chat w/ a friend overseas using our webcams and voice conferencing. I know it's a poor substitute, but at least we no longer need to mess w/ airmail and long-distance phone bills. Then again, being in med school, the biggest problem is probably finding the TIME to talk to y'all. I know a little bit about that: I graduated from law school a few years ago and it seemed like I rarely saw the sun for about a couple of years.
(ps., Princess, I'm sure you've been told this before, but in your pic you remind me a lot of Gillian Anderson from The X-Files. Kinda cool).
As for the whipped cream, I MAY give it a try (but for your sake, I'll try to refrain). It wasn't that I was craving whipped cream, but rather I was getting bored w/ my usual snack repertoire, and I thought adding cream would bring some pizzazz to my cup of jello. I quickly tired of having any meat, cheese or veggie as a snack.
Again, thank y'all for the help so far. I've still got a ways to go on this diet (although I only need to lose 15lbs), so I'm sure I'll have plenty of additional opportunities to pick all of y'all's minds for advice/tips.