Turning Back She Just Laughs

Nobody is really dead...

2011-11-20T22:36:00.007-05:00

I watch too much TV. A good chunk of that time is taken up by soap operas. When I first started watching soaps with my mom- I mean really watching, not just mocking her show in the background during school days off, or pretending not to listen back in my preschool days- she taught me "nobody is really dead on soap operas." I remember General Hospital was the first soap we started watching together- it began shortly after I got home from middle school. One of the first "soapy" deaths I recall was a character named Cesar Faison. He blew up in some sort of boat explosion, but my mom said, "he's not dead." I couldn't understand, the boat very clearly exploded while he was STANDING RIGHT ON IT! I argued this with her, but she maintained her stance that he would be alive. She was right. A few weeks later his character reappeared. Ten people can see the person's dead body, attend the funeral, and bury the person, but he'll be back. One Life to Live, I'm looking at you with Victor's "death" here, since we all know he'll be back. In the ten plus years I've been watching soap operas I have seen more "deaths" and reappearances (sometimes with new faces as well) than I can count. That is why sometimes the thought crosses my mind, what if real life worked like this? I think occasionally that my mom will walk back into my life, "oops, I've actually been alive the last four years. Those ashes you spread in California? Those were from the vacuum." I've had vivid dreams where this has happened. Sometimes they feel so real I wake up looking for my mom and calling her name. Maybe I'll hear a noise in my bathroom, pull open the shower curtain, and there she'll be using up my expensive cleanser (that's really hers). What is it Mark Twain said, "the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated"? I never saw her pass, and how does somebody go from being completely coherent to gone in just a matter of two or three weeks? Days really. What exactly does cancer do to just shut off a person's body? I'm calling bullshit. She's been hiding out in France all this time, studying how to become a Limoges box maker. Okay, maybe not, but one can dream, right? I blame my soaps, and my mom for getting me hooked on said soaps. But if you are out there somewhere... please come back in time for the new Dallas reboot to start next summer. I miss you.

The Dating Game

2011-09-15T21:40:00.005-04:00

After college it gets harder and harder to meet people (esp guys) your own age. Sports leagues can be fun, but after your sport is over people sometimes wander off and become busy again. Working in a pediatric office, the only guys I come across are teenage patients and people's fathers. Neither of those are viable options. Ick. There was a really cute drug rep once, but he was redistricted before I got a chance to really get to know him. I keep telling them to hire a cute, single, male doc, but apparently it's illegal to hire people specifically with those requirements. HMPH, LAWS. I always hear about people going to singles events in Hoboken and NYC, so when I saw a sign for one in Tart and Tufo I decided to sign right up!

Tonight's event was supposed to be "The Dating Game". When I called to RSVP they asked for my age, and then asked if I would like to be a contestant. Ready for an adventure, I said sure! Super excited, I rushed home, blew out my hair (which takes forever and a ton of patience), and did some really killer makeup. I was looking pretty nice after all that effort!

I got to Pazzo Pazzo and was greeted by the event coordinators, two women in their late fifties (at least). One of them looked just like Patricia Clarkson, which I found interesting. That was probably the only interesting part of the night... I arrived right on time, and thought maybe the rest of the young people were running late. There were two other men there, both in their late fifties to early sixties and another woman, also older. Another guy walked in, closer to my age at maybe late thirties, early forties. Still, no young people. I talked to one of the older guys, still looking around for the other young'ns to walk in. They set up the "stage" for the gameshow. There weren't even enough people there to play the game show. As I snacked on some appetizers, Patricia Clarkson asked if we minded waiting another twenty minutes for more people to arrive. I really hoped she meant the whole crowd of twenty-somethings.

I was talking to the "younger" guy, who was majorly into the fact that he's a landlord, desperately waiting for the real party to get started. Since I despise landlords right now, it wasn't really the most exciting topic for me. We spoke about a few of the restaurants in Morristown, but somehow it went back to real estate, and the latest place he bought. I couldn't figure out his age, until he told me a story about a bartender he was friendly with, who figured out he had been serving this guy for nearly thirty years. Even if this guy started getting into bars and drinking at FIFTEEN he was still way too old for me. To me, dating an older guy means dating somebody in their early thirties. HELLO I'M NOT THAT OLD! Even worse, people tell me I look like I'm a teenager, so weren't these coordinators a little confused when I showed up? Meanwhile, two women walked in who were most likely in their sixties.

"Question one: what do you do in your spare time?"
Bachelor #1- "I keep up my properties around the area. Did I mention I'm a landlord for several properties?"

The event started, and a guy dressed in seventies garb did "The Dating Game" trivia, which I had no idea of, since I wasn't alive in the seventies. The kind of trivia that you had to be there to know, rather than see a few clips here and there, and maybe an episode once or twice on GSN during a sick day before onDemand was created. I was starting to panic, since I didn't want to be courted by guys older than my dad and the landlord. As it is, the host tried to get me to give my number out. He chatted up the ladies who arrived late. What are they doing this weekend? Visiting their grandchildren.

"Question two: where do you like to go on vacation?"
Bachelor #2- "I spend my winters in Boca."

Was I going to have to go out on a date with one of these guys? I texted Kathy "Everybody is old. Get me out of here." Kathy texted me and told me to get out of there ASAP, feel no guilt. I couldn't figure out a polite way to do so. At my request, she called me up on the phone. "Are you okay?! OMG, calm down, calm down, I'm coming now!" I said into the phone. I said to the coordinator "I HAVE TO pick up my friend, she's having an emergency, she needs me." "Will you be coming back?" she asked. "I'll try my best! I don't know..." and I ran out. RAN. I felt guilty leaving the landlord in the dust, and the game without a bachelorette, but I didn't owe anybody there anything. I think Patricia Clarkson and partner owe ME $15. So here goes- NEVER EVER USE MORRIS COUNTY SINGLES.

"Question three- do you like to ski?"
Bachelor #3- "I used to go with my grandkids, but since my hip replacement I haven't been able to."

I was there for about an hour and a half, but it was so awful I'd swear it was at least three hours. I was just so disappointed. I had high hopes for the night, and so did every single person I mentioned the event to. Not one person said, hey do you think it'll only be a bunch of old people? I don't think I was jumping to a crazy conclusion, was I? If you were the coordinator, would you warn a 26 year old girl that not a single person her age had RSVP'd? Where does that fall on the business ethics scale?

Luckily, dodgeball starts up again in October. I'll be exposed to more people my own age again, and maybe even some eligible bachelors. I won't get to be a contestant on the dating show, but at least I'll be mingling with people who may be in the same peer circles as my grandmothers.

*the questions may have been exaggerated ideas in my head, since I ran away before they started the game

The world is mine today!!

2010-07-30T20:51:00.000-04:00

As regular blog readers may recall, I lost my mom to ovarian cancer, and it was later found that my grandmother and both her sisters have the cancer gene. Having this gene means you will most likely get cancer. For a long time I was being pressured into having genetic testing done. I was terrified to do the testing, and put it off as long as possible. My doctor recommended getting the testing done at 25, so when my birthday rolled around this April I was full of dread.

About two weeks ago, my Aunt Ricki forced me to make the appointment. It began poorly. I had little to eat and a lot of caffeine, my veins were small and hiding. The doctor was forced to take the blood from my hand- OUCH! My delicate little hand was completely bruised for several days. I didn't put together my lack of sleep and uneasy feeling until today.

At 4:45, only fifteen minutes before I got out of work, an unknown number popped up on my phone. I almost didn't answer in case it was a solicitor, but my gut told me to pick up the phone. It was Dr. Hirsch, telling me he only calls on Fridays with good news. I do not have the gene. I will not have to go every six months for intense check ups. I am not nearly guaranteed to have cancer. I had no idea how worried I was about the call until the relief flooded over me. I can't recall ever crying from happiness and relief once in my life, but today I couldn't stop the tears from flooding.

Tonight I am celebrating my life and health with a bottle of champagne, and good times out on the town. I only wish it wasn't so last minute so I could invite anybody and everybody! I raise my glass (glad i finally went out and bought some this week!) to my mother and grandfather, who are without a doubt watching over me.

Life is good, friends, life is good.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Attached to a glass of champagne

Doppelgangers (thanks a lot facebook)

2010-02-16T20:38:00.003-05:00

A few celebrities myheritage thinks I look like. I think this is completely inaccurate, but it's kind of interesting that Kristin Kreuk came up most of the times I ran this (note: I did this a few more times than shown, which is why she's not appearing on 2/3 charts pictured). My guess is that they go by the shape of your smile or the squint of your eyes via some Photoshop like program, which is why these matches don't quite work most of the time. I get Sofia Coppola from a lot of people, and my Uncle Barry is convince I look like Claire Danes (which I don't see, but a few people have agreed with). Interestingly enough, Sofia Coppola did appear on ONE of the charts that popped up. I'm still going to judge this a big fat INACCURATE.

It's a brief one

2009-05-12T01:44:00.007-04:00

I need to head to sleep, I totally forgot that I have an 8am work meeting tomorrow. Meaning I have to be awake in five hours! Oy, and oops! I need to grab my phone from downstairs, brush my teeth, and get the sleeping kitty cat out of the spot I sleep in. Gracie's favorite places always tend to be exactly where I need to sit, sleep, etc.

At least after my work meeting (which I get paid for and don't have to wear a uniform!) I have a facial. That will be nice. I was really feeling a lack of self-expression after painting my nails a kind of blah light pink for work so yesterday I added a dash of pink. Then today I did every other nail purple. It's not quite as fun as Mary's rainbow nails she's got going on right now, but it did make me feel a little more myself.

I passed by Ryne's room. This seems to happen once a week, I find his lights and tv on and he is passed out in his clothes from the day on top of his covers. I got tired of him ignoring my telling him to get up and left him, so we'll see how he wakes up tomorrow. He's flying to Miami (by himself!) tomorrow to meet up with my dad and take at tour of U.Miami. He then has a few days (this is an extension, he was supposed to send his answer within two or three days of his acceptance last week!) to decide if he wants to go. Big life stuff. Weird. I still think of him as a little kid, I can't imagine him going off to college.

I've gotten into watching Frasier in re-runs lately, and something came up tonight that's made me curious for years. Every now and then at the end credits of an episode there will be a sequence of head shots of various actors with the heading "thanks for calling". There were too many of them to be guest stars (esp. the really high profile actors), could they be people who visited the set? Who did something nice for the producers? Since there seems to be an answer for (just about) everything on google, it took me about ten seconds to figure out a years long question. From wiki:

The radio station callers' lines were spoken by anonymous voice-over actors while filming the show in front of a live audience. This gave the cast something to which they could react. During post-production, the lines were replaced by celebrities, who literally phoned in their parts without having to come into the studio. The end credits of season finales would show headshots of all the celebrities who had "called in" that season.

I thought that was pretty cool. Now, every time I watch Frasier I'm going to wonder whose voice I'm hearing on the phone. Alright, what to do tomorrow...

bring gym clothes to spa so I can get in a workout after meeting and before facial- can you get a facial after working out? Can you work out after a facial? I should find this out in the AM
take some Special K breakfast bars with me because it'll be too early to eat when I leave, and I'll start to get hungry around 8:30ish
pick up past two weeks worth of paychecks (we get paid weekly now) and try to remember my checkbook so I can once again attempt to sign up for direct deposit (I guess the first try didn't take)
eat remaining California rolls in fridge for lunch
babysit- try not to fall asleep on couch during kids "relax time"
come home to a most likely empty home (with Ryne and my dad gone, Patti will probably go out) and enjoy the quiet

Frak My Life

2009-05-02T11:42:00.003-04:00

It seems everybody is all about FML. I think saying Frak takes it one step further. Also, I like saying the word frak. Frak frak frak. I even sold some zazzle tee-shirts with frak. It's made me money. Another reason to like the word. So why is my life frakked? Well if you've been a regular follower of this blog you'd know that it's been like this since the start.

What in ML is F'd? Well for starters I'm writing this from work. On a Saturday. That's right, I'm back to working weekends. Dammit. To make matters worse, as I finish this paragraph it's Sunday. That's right, I didn't even manage to complete my thought bubble I was so busy. It's not as bad as it could be. I worked morning to afternoon shifts today and yesterday, so it's still light out when I'm done with work. I don't lose the ENTIRE weekend. Unfortunately I no longer have an entire DAY off to myself. The people I babysit now want me working Thursdays for them, so that means I'm working a grand total of seven days a week. I'm extremely desperate to save up enough money to move out, but the idea of not having a day off for another month or two is extremely daunting to me. I hope I don't go crazy. I hope I'm not mean to the kids. I hope I don't go off on a nasty customer at the spa... on second thought, I'm not too worried about that last one.

WORD OF THE DAY - SPRAMA - spa drama
(from the bubble above my head to your eyes and ears)

I have this incredible urge to shop, but I'm holding myself back for two reasons. The first one, I already mentioned, I want to move out! This takes soooo much money and isn't conducive to spending oodles of dollars on fun clothes. The second is that I've been losing weight, and I really won't want to spend any of my hard earned money on clothes that may not even fit me correctly a month or two from now. I may buy myself some new makeup after work though. I work RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE MALL, c'mon, I can't help it! And makeup is a fairly inexpensive way to perk myself up! At least I'm not working IN the mall anymore, that was just dangerous. One bad day and Neiman's was calling my paycheck and I like a siren's song.

One way I've been saving money is reallocating my internet time. I'm no longer online shopping nearly as much as I used to (via LJ and ebay) because I'm addicted to a facebook game. It's called Sorority Life, and it's actually pretty lame, but the people I talk to on it are fun. Unfortunately, the game tends to freeze my computer, so I can't really access the social function of the game. Basically, you make money, buy lots of clothes and accessories, earn social points, and attack people. It's not as good for my brain as sudoku and all the word games I used to be addicted to, but at least it takes up enough time that I'm not bidding on endless Marc Jacobs items on ebay.

My mind has turned into a lovely pile of goo, and I can't any wonderful thoughts out at the moment. I'll leave with one thought that's been troubling me...
I see commercials for movies months in advance and get excited to see them. They finally come out and just a few weeks later when I finally have the time to see them they are already out of the theaters. Can we just have a giant, GOB sized COME ON!

My 25 Things (from facebook)

2009-02-08T17:39:00.001-05:00

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people [in the right hand corner of the app] then click publish.)

1. One of the things I'm proudest about myself is that I can hop in the car and drive anywhere without fear or hesitation if there's a person I desperately want to see (or an outlet needing to be shopped).

2. Growing up and until about high school I used to sleep walk. At about 10 I was found wearing nothing but my underwear and an undershirt coming inside the house at about 1:30am. I told my dad I had gone to feed the neighbor's rabbit, Bun Bun. To this day I still don't know if I actually walked all the way down the street and into their sun room (while they were HOME) to feed Bun Bun...

3. ... when I was in high school I would wake up in the middle of the night and get in the shower. My mom always thought there was a robber at first. Nope, just me. When I realized what I was doing and what time it was I would cry because I knew I only had so many hours left to get in quality sleep before school.

4. Amanda would call me before school every morning to make sure I was awake because she was coming to pick me up in twenty minutes.

5. When I was younger I could recite every NHL team and where they were from. It was a car game we played.

6. When I'm with my Alpha Chi friends I sometimes wish cameras would follow us around. We're way more fun and interesting than anything on MTV or other reality shows.

7. The thing that sets me apart from most of my friends/people my age is that I cannot watch MTV. I stopped watching around college, and I honestly don't miss it. I cannot get into the Hills or Laguna. Don't think I'm totally crazy- I am in love with Gossip Girl and still enjoy a good OC repeat on SoapNet.

8. I have a habit of naming stuffed animals, dolls, and keepsakes their most basic names. Baby. Doggy. Mooskie. Heart Covers.

9. I've had my Heart Covers since the day I was born and I still sleep with them. I'm hoping by the time I'm married I'll have found a way to separate myself.

10. When I was in fifth grade my friends and I did the school talent show, lip syncing to "Respect". We were wearing vintage-y clothes probably from somebody's attic and I was put in a pink satiny slip dress with bust seams. My friends all made fun of me because I couldn't fill it out. How ironic.

11. I used to HATE going shopping. My mom would drag me to the mall with her and I would get a new Babysitter's Club book (I had over 100 by the time I stopped reading that series) and read while we walked from store to store, I was very adept at walking and reading. I would always be done with the book by the time we got home.

12. I can get ridiculously fixated on some of the randomest things and lose HOURS. Let's say I'm driving down the Pulaski Skyway and wonder who this is named after. I will then look up General Pulaski (a WWII Polish/American General) and then start looking up other famous WWII Generals, and then random WWII facts, including how women couldn't buy stockings, then I will start looking up stockings, and eventually end up shopping Spanx's newest styles. I cannot explain this. It could be why I know so much random shit about a lot of things.

13. I have a weird thing against odd numbers. If they're multiples of five I don't care as much. Overall, though, I just prefer even numbers.

14. I've watched "Dirty Dancing" over 100 times. Sometimes I'll find it on TV and watch just the final five minutes, because the ending always captivated me. One day I will learn that dance. My first crush (at the age of 1) was on Patrick Swayze's stunt double. He was dating my aunt and my mom said I'd follow him around with my eyes glazed over and just stare up at him. My mom told me that was the first time she knew I'd be boy crazy.

15. I always sleep on the side of the bed that's closest to the door. I think it started as a fear of somebody coming into my room (maybe a monster?) and me being able to get out quickly and easily, then it just became second nature. I used to think when the lights went out if my feet touched the ground a monster under my bed would reach out and grab me. Did I mention I had a VERY strong imagination?

16. I've been incredibly blessed to travel as much and as far as I have. I've been to London twice, France once, a little village in Italy (Ventimiglia) for lunch, Monte Carlo, Canada, Mexico, more than half of the US (including Hawaii), and a bit of the Caribbean. Only a small handful of these trips were actually with my family.

17. ALL MY LIFE I've seen my clothing on TV. This has led me to believe that my dream job would probably be as a television or movie stylist and I'd be damn good at it.

18.18 and 6 are my favorite numbers.

19. Sometimes I just don't understand why Gracie can't speak English, I get frustrated. Although she has mastered "NO" and a few other words, and of course that tone that says "YOU IDIOT!" when I just cannot figure out what she wants. Maybe it's better that she can't speak...

20. When I was a toddler we left my cabbage patch doll Baby at my grandmother's out on Long Island. We were already about 45 min away when I realized this and my mom made my dad turn the car around to get Baby.

21. When I was staying in La Napoule I lived in a chateau right on the beach. Every night I would fall asleep with the window open to the sound of the waves. It was the most calming sleep I've ever had. Sometimes when I'm stressed and can't sleep I try to imagine I'm back there and it helps me fall asleep.

22. As mentioned above, I slept with the window open while in La Napoule. One night I woke up with a moth sitting on my nose. That same moth seemed to stalk me around the room on a regular basis. My family thinks it was my Pop Pop trying to enjoy the trip with me. I think they were right.

23. My mom wanted to name me Fiona, but all my extended family hated that name and pressured her to pick something else. When Jordana and I were picking out our bar aliases I decided on Fiona, who works at Credit Dauphine (10 points for anybody who finds the reference).

24. If I was given money just to start my own business I would create MAG Magazine. It would feature everything I love and be a huge hit.

25. I still reach for the phone almost every day to call my mom and tell her about whatever random thought has crossed my mind.

MbMJ shirt for sale

2009-01-11T21:43:00.002-05:00

Okay so the shirt is a lot smaller than it looks, I'd say it's a smaller size 4. I got in my freshman year of college ('03-'04) and only wore it a handful of times, mostly to chapter. I have a picture of a much younger, smaller me wearing it somewhere, I'll have to dig it out. I'm looking for $40 shipped.

I can't find the actual camera right now (hence my using the computer camera), but when I do I can post another pic so you can get a better idea of the colors. It really is adorable.

All about laundry

2008-12-29T02:18:00.003-05:00

As I took off my Primp sheep shirt and the red tank top I had JUST washed two days earlier it occurred to me that I had JUST washed this TWO DAYS EARLIER. I know that's the cycle of you wash, you wear, but for somebody with as many clothes as me it seems I'm always washing the same few things over and over again. I guess we all go through phases of our favorite items. When it's really chilly outside I like to wear thermal shirts, and I only have so many of those. And I layer tank tops under items all the time. But here's the thing- the shirt was white and the tank was red- two washes that to me are special. I've gotten a little past the washes of just one color at a time, I moved into the lights and darks theory somewhere around the time I had to pay for laundry and Goddamit I'm gonna squeeze as much in this washer as my 25 cents can buy... I digress, I'm back at home, which means free laundry, but I'm less picky about what goes with what. Of course I have so much pink and blue it ends up being primarily pink washes or blue washes with their like shaded friends popping in (such as Mr. Yellow with the pinks or Miss Green with the blues), anyways, regardless of what wash I'm doing, it's very rarely white or red. I'm still in the mindset of only doing FULL loads of laundry, so I have to wait to wear a ton of white stuff or a ton of red stuff before seeing those items again. While I'm sure you're wondering why I'm talking about the ins and outs of laundrytime there is a point here. When I took off those shirts I felt a sense of disappointment. I had FINALLY gotten them back from the washpile when POOF! they're out of rotation again. I've got a ton of jeans to wash, but no white shirts.

When I do my laundry it feels like an event. The dryer at my dad's seems to have a personal vendetta against me and likes to shrink things even on the tumble setting. I've started laying out a lot of my more sensitive items and jeans to air dry since moving here. As I mentioned I only wash things in large loads, so when I do my jeans I do a ton of jeans. Afterwards I run out of places to drape them. They hang over the shower, over the staircase, over doors, it's like an explosion of denim around the house.

Whenever I take a pile of laundry out of the dryer it's like a bell goes off somewhere in the house for Sammy, the cat that sheds the MOST. She could be outside, but when that pile of clothes arrives she's there instantly, ready to climb all over my clothes and get her fur on them.

When I first got to college I thought laundry was going to be this sexy event. Sexy you say? Where would that kind of idea pop up? Remember Undressed? There were definitely episodes where characters would go to do their laundry and end up meeting someone hot and totally hooking up in the laundry room. Well in my dorm at UMass the laundry room was in a leaky room in the basement. And it shared space with the garbage bins. It smelled disgusting. This was not a romantic room. Nor were the people I came across while doing laundry smokin' hot. Tsk Tsk Tsk MTV for giving me a false impression of what real life is. Look at this description of Undressed on this website I found:

...or three friends who inadvertently fool around during a late-night cram session.

Freaking hillarious. Cause you know all those years when I'd have late-night cram sessions my friends and I suddenly decided to rip off our clothes and experiment with one another. Preferably in groups. Oh my.

How did I just write a whole post about laundry without even delving into all my laundry stories? Scary stuff man.

2008-12-17T02:55:00.003-05:00

Joined the following LJ communties:

Have already had overwhelming responses in NK about how to knit this:

Yay :)

Procrastination Station

2008-12-16T22:54:00.018-05:00

10:54 PM- I have no need nor want to get into twitter, so I will randomly post updates here instead (remember these?)

On meebo since somebody seems to have removed aim from my father's old laptop (my Thinking Box is still not working).

Current away message: I'm too old to still have papers due and STILL be procrastinating. On the other hand, looking forward to my first all nighter in forever (brings me back to my UMass days).

Wishing I was at the UMass library hopped up on either Dunks or Tab energy drinks and library lobby donuts in one of those damn uncomfortable chairs, sharing the same stressed/determined/tired/hardworking vibes as all the people around me. Watching as people filter in and out and some (myself included at times) falling asleep, taking frantic cat naps that make a world of difference.

11:22 PM- my word of the day remora is not just a clingy fish, but a hindrance or drag. My work is a remora.

11:32 PM- Once I've gotten this paper nonsense out of the way I'm going to contact two of my former writing teachers and get their advice about how to get back into writing again. I hope it proves helpful.

11:38 PM- contemplating life decisions. Must use hyper-focus-ness for school right now.

11:48 PM- oddly enough, the 2% milk string cheese is not as good as the skim. I usually hate anything with skim milk. Sucks that I bought a bag of 24 today.

12:06 AM- I MUST HAVE THIS

This looks like my kind of book

1:10 AM- just purchased it :) after finding a $25 gift card (that actually had the FULL amount despite being old, wtg with good policies B&N!) and Nina Garcia's Guide to Style because, why not? It's free! (well $6.48 after all is said and done...)

1:17 AM- stepping away from computer to do non-electronic work. Computer distracting (as you can see!)

T-minus 36 hours til I need to finish this shtuff

Holiday Wish List post #1

2008-12-09T18:06:00.003-05:00

I was going to make a whole big post about my dream luxury wish list. Unfortunately, I'm working off of a very slow computer, and it would take me about five hours to complete the whole post. Instead I've decided to do a series of posts, with an actual affordable item and a luxury splurge item that's on my dream (i.e. money doesn't matter) list.

Today's picks:

Realistic:

Spanx Tight End Tights in Cobalt - $26 (plus $4.95 shipping)

Not only do these fit into the category of colored tights- something I've always loved and is hugely in style right now- but they're spanx, the amazing suck-your-gut-in and shape the bum area tights. I may have to buy these myself!

Dream:

Chanel Classic 2.55 bag - $$$

This is a classic bag that every girl must have. I've wanted one for as long as I can remember. The style of this bag actually led me to purchase some of my favorite MbMJ quilted shoes (both flats and pumps) which people always compliment as looking "very Chanel". I'm hoping to find one at a consignment shop sometime in the near future until I can afford to splurge on the real thing. I feel like this bag would class up any outfit and work with anything from jeans (and a cute jacket of course) to a fancy dress.

first mobile post

2008-12-04T01:29:00.001-05:00

Greetings from my bed, via blackberry. I was just watching Arianna Huffington on the Daily Show discussing blogging. She said to blog like you're writing your friend an email. I really liked everything she said about blogging, and tomorrow I may have to post a list of all her pointers and thoughts. Since I'll be working on a paper then I can promise I'll find time to procrastinate over here.

Also on my to post list- a dream holiday list, kinda like an Oprah's favorite things list that I cannot afford. I'd work on it now, but I haven't figured out how to post pictures via phone yet. I'll work on that.

Off to bed. School tomorrow and I want to get up early and have a nice brekky. Nights all.

More comforting than a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese

2008-11-23T20:30:00.007-05:00

This weekend should be dubbed (in booming voice) MEGA MOVIE WEEKEND. It wasn't on purpose. Yesterday was cold and miserable and nobody was around. Actually, no it started Friday. Wow, I spent THREE days devoted to MEGA MOVIE WEEKEND. That's intense. Friday I was cleaning my room for a good chunk of the day, so I watched some of "Waitress", one of my newer favorite movies. It also sparked my huge crush on Nathan Fillion. And pies. It actually led me to bake cookies Friday afternoon. Not exactly a pie, but still sweet and oven baked. After that I saw a good chunk of "Juno", but I missed the adorable ending to get lunch. That evening I met up with Mary to see "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" which was cuter than I thought, and overall an enjoyable experience.

Anyways, after watching the first two films on TV, I got to thinking about how comforting it is to watch movies you love, especially when you're feeling down. It's kind of like seeing an old friend and no time has passed. I know that seems kinda cheesy, but if I was the only one who felt this way then digital cable would not be as popular as it is.

I was in a real down mood yesterday. Super lonely, but the kind of lonely that being around the wrong people only makes you feel lonelier. Why didn't I pick up a phone and call somebody? Because I kept staring at it waiting for them to call me. Who? Anybody. But it didn't work. So I watched movies with Gracie curled up next to me, on my tummy, on my legs, next to me again, but the whole time always with me. I remembered how much I loved "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and momentarily wanted to get married. I remembered why people made such a huge deal out of Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli in "Fast Times and Ridgemont High"- his ordering a pizza into his classroom goes down in movie history. Unfortunately I cannot watch Phoebe Cate's bathing suit scene without thinking of "Family Guy", I know, weird. Even weirder, I cannot find a reference to that clip on google or youtube (the FG clip that is). Oh well.

Today I saw the tail end of "Clueless" and I realized that Paul Rudd truly gets cuter with every year that passes. He was gorge in "Clueless" but I love him even more now. I'm thinking he may be my biggest celebrity crush right now and the new ideal for the guy I would like to meet. I need a casting call or something "Searching for guys that look like Paul Rudd, get hotter with age, and have his same sense of humor" k, thanks.

Lastly, "Dirty Dancing" came on. That may have cheered me up more today than when I got my nails done in a fun cranberry sparkly color for Thanksgiving festivities. Patti asked me how many times I've watched it, the answer is too many to count, probably more than 100, although not always all the way through. As it is, I missed a good half hour eating dinner. But I didn't miss my favorite part, which I could watch over and over again. The finale. One day I will learn that dance. Perhaps with my Paul Rudd-alike boyfriend.

I'm about as comforted now as if I ate that whole box of Mac and Cheese (Kraft only, I need my blue box), but without all the calories, bloating, and food coma issues that accompany. I can safely say my MEGA MOVIE WEEKEND (you better still be using the booming voice) lifted my spirits a bit even though I'm still counting down til my next trip to MA.

want vs. need

2008-11-22T00:43:00.000-05:00

I need money. I need romance. I need black leather boots. I need a new laptop.
I want more pajama pants. I want somebody to clean my room for me. I want to lose a few pounds.
I need to stop procrastinating. I need to sleep on a normal schedule. I need a friend in Randolph.
I want a Marc by Marc Jacobs bag in grape juice. I want the matching wallet. I want to get a manicure.
I need to smile more. I need to laugh more. I need my mom back. I want my mom back. I can't believe it's almost been a year. I want a new life.

There Was To Be Blood

2008-11-12T16:49:00.003-05:00

I've been feeling incredibly fatigued for about two weeks now. Daily naps, fuzzy head, struggle to wake up day in day out... whatever, I'm just exhausted. So today I had to be tested. Apparently it's a bad idea to have soda for lunch an hour before getting your blood drawn. My blood was thick so it took a while for them to take all of it. They got about three or four vials. I came home and felt sooo weak. I basically sunk into my bed for about an hour and a half. At least I got to speak LHog on the phone for a nice long time. It was great hearing from her. She once again not so subtly hinted that I move to Boston. Tempting, but most most very likely not happening. As much as I miss my friends on a daily basis I need to be near my family. Oh well.

Anyways, my eye liner test must be postponed due to the heavy sleepy eyes I keep rubbing. Oops! Tomorrow I have school, so I will play with the makeup then. More details to come soon...

Razzle Dazzle Zazzle

2008-11-12T00:32:00.002-05:00

I'll post more on the eye-liner either tomorrow or whenever I can stop rubbing my eyes (time to break out the clarinex!)...

While you're waiting check out my Zazzle gallery and tell me if there's any cute stuff you'd like me to create.

Eye Defining Experiment

2008-11-08T21:02:00.003-05:00

Always in search of the best makeup products, a few weeks ago I decided to buy Maybelline's Define-A-Lash mascara. One of my friend's owned it and said she loved it, I know Maybelline's classic mascara is always written up as one of the best, and I've been hearing for a while now that drug store cosmetics are just as good as department store brands. I loved the mascara. It's waterproof, doesn't make me look like a racoon at the end of the night, and has a curvy wand like the really expensive mascara I owned that wasn't waterproof and gave me major racoon eyes after very few hours of wear (Napoleon cough Perdis cough cough).

Tonight I was on a grocery run for my dad. I love to always throw in a random product here or there when he has me get groceries. Usually it's gum or an Odwalla drink, always something relatively cheap and that catches my eye. Tonight I saw the Maybelline Define-A-Line eye liner. It's black, has a smudger on the end, and a built in sharpener, just like my Chanel eye liner. Only this was under $6 bucks as opposed to the $28-$30something range. I had some time to kill before dinner, so I decided to try out my new eye liner. The smudger acted more like an eraser than anything. ENNHHHH (annoying buzz noise). It's been only two hours and I have not touched my eyes- there is already a nice dark circle underneath. Not full on racoon, but not nice looking either.

Tomorrow I will test the liner with just my inner-eye line. We'll see if it's any better then. Should be interesting...

Repsonsiveness

2008-10-02T12:18:00.003-04:00

I really need to write this damn response paper for my class, that is in a very short while, but I cannot get my thoughts together. Has it been that long since I wrote my last response paper? It's kind of scary if I try to think about it. I wrote a response paper for Ryne not too long ago, and that was only a few months ago. I never did find out what grade I- he- got. I thought it was pretty damn good for a 2am not very familiar with the work I was writing about paper. This work I am familiar with. I even read up a lot of criticisms, but I just can't quite get my ideas going... I'm hoping this little stream of consciousness will help open up my mind a bit and get me into a writing kind of mood. We'll see...

I went to bed wayyy to late last night. I wanted to work on my paper, but ended up catching up on my TV shows instead. Private Practice sucks. I don't want it to suck. I love Addison. I love her portrayer Kate Walsh. I have an inappropriate crush on Tim Daly who does not look like he's over fifty. That creeps me out. If somebody told me he was in his late thirties I would believe them. Is that stretching it? Well whatever, he must possess some sort of fountain of youth. It surprises me that he didn't do more movies, he's definitely good looking enough to get a bunch of romcoms under his belt. Anyways, back to the show. It's like you can hear Shonda Rhimes's voice saying "this week's theme is family, now let's make sure the audience knows that. Over and over and over again. Make sure they know- family. Family, family, family. You do whatever it takes to protect them. Your family. Protect your family. Got it? Good. Family. Protect 'em." I guess I'll keep watching, but it's definitely moving lower and lower on my list. Btw, does Shonda Rhimes have a thing for SWAT men? That stupid guy never took off his vest, surely they don't always walk around in their SWAT gear, right? And I couldn't stop thinking about the bomb guy from Grey's who she loooved.

Dammit I need to get back to this paper. What a bloody mess. No, I'm not trying to be British, it just seemed to be the proper adjective. Adjective, right? Not adverb. Adverb implies an action, and unless my paper is actually bleeding, I'm pretty sure it's an adjective. I'll have to check my grammar at a later date. Alright, off to be a student.

2008-09-26T18:07:00.001-04:00

Counting sheep with clothes...

2008-09-25T18:15:00.003-04:00

I'm going on a cruise!!! October 10th, three days, some private island off of Nassau... I cannot wait! I'm going with LHog and Candita, we're going to have an amazing time. One may ask, how are you going on a cruise with school and no job? Easy :) The cruise is Friday through Monday (my class is on Thursdays) and ridic cheap. I had a plane ticket to Tampa that I was able to switch over to Miami for a nominal fee. C'est tres facile, non?

My goal is to fit all my items (it's just three days!) into my carry-on for multiple reasons.

I don't want to pay the ridiculous fees for checking a bag
I'm terrified (to the point of nightmares before I travel) that they'll lose my bag and I'll have no clothing/bathing suits for the cruise
Checking in and out bags takes too much time

I'm very fortunate that I already have all the necessary clothing and beach items to go away. It saves me a fortune and allows me to put together outfits while attempting to fall asleep. Like counting sheep! Dressed up sheep :)

I joined a new community on LJ, "What I Wore Today" where you post your outfits and people critique them. It reminds me a little of what my mom and I used to do for each other, but I'm a little nervous because sometimes the people leave really catty comments. The above outfit was what I wore to school. I thought I looked cute, Tina said she liked the outfit too! I just wish I had blow dried my hair. I was too busy playing with Gracie this morning and ran out of time. Oops!

edit: the moderator rejected my outfit because the pic was too blurry and the outfit was "juvenille and uninspiring anyway" ... I'm kinda pissed!!

I'm anxiously awaiting dinner. If it's Thursdays it must be Mario's. Except due to the cruise I'm not having any pizza. Still a carbfest with chicken parm over spaghetti, but cutting out the pizza is the closest thing to a diet I'd be able to handle. When I try to restrict my food I only end up eating more. Luckily I've been visiting the gym at school more. Gotta love my eliptical time!

Tonight "The Office" returns. Which reminds me... I need to catch up on the webisodes! Better hop to it!

Fun fall outfit

2008-09-12T18:47:00.002-04:00

Pre-jewelry, this is a cute little outfit I put together for when it gets warmer out. The top is a white C & C tunic and I plan on wearing my "liquid-leggings" (aka fake leather leggings) underneath. For jewelry I'm thinking a few necklaces layered, def my black Dodo penguin, some longer silver necklaces, maybe my silver circles chain. We'll see. I'm still debating shoes... I want the outfit to stay casual, so I'm afraid wearing my black pumps would be over the top. I'm thinking my Tory Burch flats may be perfect. Any ideas out there? If there is anybody out there ;)

Waiting for my clarinex...

2008-09-12T15:39:00.003-04:00

I'm taking a brief break from cleaning while my clarinex kicks in. Lots of dust = allergy hell. I accomplished the first part of my list, from 8:15 (well it was actually 8:30) to noon. I even was at the gym for an hour! It was the first time I've been to the Drew gym since my hs graduation party 5 1/2 years ago. It was a little creepy for me.

On my way home from the gym Austin called and said he was stranded at the train station, could I pick him up? Of course. So as I'm waiting for him my uncle pulls up alongside me. I guess Austin WASN'T stranded. My cousin is a doofus. It worked out nicely though, because we had lunch at Arthur's and I had a nice big bowl of onion soup.

I discovered that I'm only a few minutes from just about anywhere I need to go out here, and from Morris Plains found a very quick way to Rt. 10. I went to pick up my jeans being hemmed only to discover the waist I had asked them to take in was taken in TOO MUCH. It was uncomfortable asking them to let it out a little, but I could either pay, take the pants, and never wear them or have them fixed to fit me properly.

At home I decided I should try to clean my room. And that's what I've been doing for a while. I had a ton of files on the floor from my mom's filing cabinet. I found family pictures (pre-divorce), camp letters, report cards, things with my mom's handwriting, and it was hard for me. On the plus side I found a letter Ryne wrote to my mom from camp saying he missed me. I photocopied it and stuck it on his desk. Muahahahaha.

Well, the good news is that I can now see a certain corner of my room that has remained covered pretty much since a lot of my furniture arrived. I think I may go around next and collect receipts and other junk that's found it's way to the floor and throw it out. Babysteps. My goal is to have my room mostly cleaned by next week so our cleaning lady will actually step foot in there and vacuum (I don't care for vacuuming, and yes I know that sounds ridic spoiled and obnoxious, but she's already being paid to clean, let her hit up my room).

Okay back to work for a bit before I can let myself relax and watch some TV. I'm hoping my dad comes home early-ish so I can have a nice dinner, otherwise I may just cook myself some pasta and get Maggie Moo's for dessert. EARLY.

This girl's Friday

2008-09-12T02:20:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow (errr... today since it's already well past midnight) sounds like a fluff day, but I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished.

8:15 am - breakfast (it'll be early, but hopefully I can stomach some 3 min. eggs)
9:30 am- appt with Tina where I plan to work on the fact that I cannot get to bed before midnight (I have a feeling being online right now isn't helping!!)
10:30ish am- checking out the gym at drew, donning my sneaks for the first time in way too long, scouting out an elliptical machine
noonish- a high carb lunch, if I'm not too sweaty and gross maybe somewhere on campus so I can interact with other students
1ish pm- once again if I'm not too sweaty stopping at the Short Hills mall to check out the cardigans and skinny jeans at madewell.
1ish if I am gross- go home via Rt. 10, and pick up my hemmed skinny jeans on the way
SHOWER
3 pm- watch OLTL, Friday episodes are usually doozies, hopefully this one's good
3:45-3:55 pm- post office run, ginormous duck to send out that's been in my car for nearly six months

Still not sure what to do with my evening. I have a big weekend so I'm not sure if I want to go into the city. It's expensive, alcohol and I haven't been getting along these days (hopefully that's just temporary), and I have a big weekend ahead of me. I would really like to see Burn After Reading even if it's just by myself. I'd really love to cinema hop. If I go early in the day (that may mean skipping OLTL) then it's easier to get away with it and I don't have to watch all the kids in groups socializing. Not that I'm bitter. I'm going to meet people my age soon enough and then I'll be going to bars in Morristown and hanging out. Right now I feel weird going by myself. All it takes is to meet one person. Maybe at the gym I'll meet somebody. You always hear that.

Okay I'm going to try to go to bed while I have my Gracie Girly hanging out with me.

Clubbing

2008-09-05T15:40:00.003-04:00

I need to find groups of like-minded people (possibly fanatics if this is really going to work) like me, so I can start returning to activities that I used to love. My mom and I used to have daily contests to see who could put together the cutest outfit. We'd watch Veronica Mars and wonder how I could do my hair like that. I made jewelry and then years later she copied me and made jewelry which I would always steal. Here are some clubs/support groups (both real and imaginary) I would like to find:

Daily outfits
Sample sale enthusiasts
Fun hairstyles help
Book club
Ski club
Crafts enthusiasts/ DIY'ers
Marc Jacobs fellow shoppers*
OLTL viewers who realize the show is pretty ridic. but watch it anyways, so I can tell them my ideas on how Todd is paying Starr's doc to tell her the baby died and steal it for himself... back to my list
Fashion buddies- people with the same lack of cash as me but the strong passion for fashion and our quests to save up for things, put together certain outfits, etc WHERE ARE YOU?

*I'm in an MJ livejournal group, but I've never actually attempted to make a shopping buddy out of it

Due to it's Veronica Mars-y feel, I'm trying to get my hair to look like this (see below). Wish me luck. Wow I just realized I never ate today. I better get on top of that before my stomach decides to wage war against me. On the plus side, I did get my self-interview assignment in today, so there's that.

No check bummer

2008-08-30T12:55:00.004-04:00

I finally decided to sit down and sort through my 857+ emails. Here's one that piqued my interest: (see right) so OF COURSE I clicked and went to the sale. I may be trying to save money, but I'm no shopping dummy either. Yesterday Amanda and I went shopping and I was very unlucky in my quest to find a cute cardigan that I definitely had in the 90's and should not have thrown out last year when cleaning out my effing closet. Imagine my excitement when this (see left) shows up on the front page. Great googly moogly!

Marc by Marc Jacobs (my favorite)- check.
Button down cardigan without any extra bells and whistles- check.
Good price ($29 FREAKING DOLLARS)- check.
No wool- check.
My size- NO CHECK.

It's a petite. WHY?! Is this some sort of mean prank from Barneys for no longer giving them loads of my money? I want it. It's not fair. I want to stomp my feet like a petulant child, but something tells me that it may not work in this case. Although honestly, when was the last time it did? Part of me wants to buy it anyways and see if maybe just maybe it runs really really big. I can always return it. Or try to resell it in my Marc Jacobs LJ group. Yep, I'm in one of them. My only regret is that it's not on blogger. I digress. We shall see. I'll have to ponder while I eat my bagel.

Great Googly Moogly!

2008-08-29T22:18:00.001-04:00

Eyebrows... waggle waggle

2008-08-19T17:28:00.002-04:00

I've reached a conundrum. What should I do with my eyebrows? Not something that one would usually ponder, right? Okay, this actually goes back years and years ago to the high school days. When I first got my eyebrows done it was more about keeping them two separate entities and not entering Bert-land. As I got older they started becoming shaped. Once I reached college I was pretty much a pro, and my eyebrows were not only shaped pretty nicely, but thin. As somebody with stubbornly thick (and dark) eyebrows it took a lot of work to keep them that way.

The way some people stop eating (or start eating too much), or let themselves go in some way or another, when I became depressed my eyebrows were always the first thing to go. This past winter my eyebrows became ridiculously thick. High school thick. And while I was able to keep myself from becoming Bertified, I felt like they were bigger than my eyes.

One day I met my grandmother at the Waldorf for pedicures. It was every bit as glamorous as you'd expect. Her eyebrow lady was passing by to say hello when she spotted the monstrosity on my face. She offered to do my eyebrows FREE OF CHARGE. That's how bad it was. I was a pity case. Kety actually assumed I was in high school and hadn't a clue what I should be doing yet. Oops! She then yelled at me for completely over plucking in the past. Even with thick filled in eyebrows she could still see the damage I had been doing. She said if I had kept up the way I was (before I let them grow) they would be permanently damaged, and the hair would never grow back there. She fixed my shape and told me not to tweeze them AT ALL (except for, you know, the whole Bert area) until the next time I came in.

During my week in the city I ventured uptown to the Waldorf again. I kept waiting for somebody to point me out in the lobby and shout "faker! She doesn't belong here!" Once at the salon, Kety applauded me for not using the tweezers (little did she know I lost mine two weeks earlier), but said I still have a lot of work to do. You can actually see the area where there are gaps in the hair. It's a little creepy.

Now here's the thing. I think my eyebrows look ridiculously thick! I miss having really thin eyebrows. Is this some sort of body dysmorphic disorder, but with my eyebrows? Where I think they're never thin enough but they just look ridiculous? I mean I see other people with eyebrows like that, where I just want to tell them to stop tweezing. Maybe I was always the same, but I just could never see the truth. Somebody once told me I had Brooke Shields-like eyebrows. To me that seemed an insult, because Brooke Shields can pull something like that off, whereas I... cannot. I'm going to keep growing them for now, and I guess when I reach the point where Kety is no longer lecturing me I'll start asking everyone I know under the sun for their opinions.

And thus concludes my oddest blog entry yet.

Things I Like Here

2008-08-14T11:49:00.003-04:00

Being blocks away from Marc by Marc Jacobs
Fresh Magnolia's cupcakes (esp with Chocolate Milk)
Traveling all over town (and even to NJ) via subway/train in a matter of minutes
Happy Hour!
Socializing with somebody new almost everyday
Endless inexpensive nail salons
Anything I need at my fingertips

Seems to Me

2008-08-09T19:45:00.003-04:00

Seems to me... I've got this song stuck in my head... seems to me... living alone my drive me mad... seems to me... my sanity has just walked away!

If you listen to that song and it doesn't make you want to get up and dance and burrow it's way into your mind to be hummed and sung to yourself at random times (such as in the shower) I just don't think we'll ever understand each other.

It's Day Two of my house sitting gig in the West Village. I'm loving it here, but I don't think I'd do very well living alone permanently. Abner (the cat I'm watching) likes me, but is still a little weary of me, and hasn't snuggled up to me yet. I'm hoping by tomorrow when he realizes that I'm the person who's feeding him routinely he'll start to become more affectionate.

Last night Jordana and I went out and sampled a few different places. We started with sushi (for her), I skipped lunch so I went for the bigger chicken teriyaki dinner. I had another few hours of drinking ahead of me, so it was important to get something a little more substantial in my tum. After a fantastic dinner we wandered around Hudson and eventually Bleecker for a bit. We ended up in a bar 1856 or 64 or something like that, which I'm convinced I saw a blurb of in New York Magazine or maybe Time Out. Either way, it was a western themed bar with a wonderful wall of confiscated fake IDs. The bouncer looked at my own ID five or six times, they must be pretty tough there.

After a few minutes of deciding should we stay or should we go, and if we do stay how to get to the very crowded bar, a dude offered to buy us drinks. Lovely. He was a nice guy, from Morristown actually, but kind of boring to talk to. If he wasn't so persistent about getting Jordana's number before he left (he wants to take her for dinner) I'd think he was uninterested in talking to us. After he left, and we were debating how long to stay for another guy offered us drinks. Vodka pineapples for us all night. Well, actually, I had a Malibu pineapple as my third drink, which was much better, but the vodka pineapples were a better choice for going the drunken path. Packs a bit more of a punch. The second guy (whose name I know starts with an "A" but I can't remember the rest) succeeded where Keith failed. He got us to take shots. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I haven't taken a sober shot in a VERY long time. And I did not make a fool out of myself. WHOO HOO! While "A" was friendly, Jordana and I were starting to get bored and decided to tell him that Adelle (who was home watching the Olympics with the fam) was texting us from Gasoline and was waiting for us for over an hour. While Jordana was in the bathroom "A" became super touchy and I knew we made the right choice. Ew.

Three free drinks, two shots, and not a penny spent later we started making our way up to meatpacking. Funny story, last week while having dinner with my grandmother she asked where I've been going out at night and when I told her meatpacking she had a horror filled look on her face and said "WHY?!" not realizing there was any nightlife and thinking I was hanging out by butcher shops. Anyways, after walking for what felt like forever Jordana needed to use the bathroom so we decided to stop at the next place we came across. We decided to stop at the place with the velvet rope, because doesn't a velvet rope make everything seem more appealing?

I don't know the place of where we were, but it was a small place with tables and couches everywhere, one of those bottle service places. Jordana was shocked to hear I've never had bottle service before. A guy named Orman or Omran, something like that, offered to get us drinks at his table. Unfortch, his table was empty of drinks, so we started dancing for a minute while he waited for the waiter to come back over. That's when he made a shocking relevation- he went to camp (and spoke very highly of) a ditzy jappy idiot we went to high school with. Our respect for him dropped very quickly. While he and J started dancing a foreign guy walked over to me and said "I'd like to buy you a drink from my table". He poured me a VERY strong seabreeze and we started dancing. Five minutes in I realized I needed to get away from this dude. People complain about girls who use guys for free drinks, but seriously it's just not cool when they start groping you and being very inappropriate while dancing. I'm not a prude, but I'm not going to let you touch my boobs because you gave me a drink. That doesn't make me a tease, I think it makes me not a tramp! If these guys just turned down the skeeze level a bit they'd probably get the girls to stick around a little longer, and not just until the drinks run out (or until their skeeziness scares us away). Jordana was dancing next to me and I started blinking the morse code, SOS. She didn't catch on. Eventually I got my point across with other body language and we escaped to the back of the bar. A cute guy from Holland tried to talk to me, but I couldn't understand half of what he was saying and his shouting in my ear was painful, so we parted ways. I sat down and drunk texted while Jordana danced, pretty bored. Around 2ish we left in search of a better time.

Next up was the Hotel Gansevoort. Jordana and I were talking to these two guys on the roof. It was beautiful up there! My guy, Colin, recognized some blonde girl walking by and swore he would be right back. After about five minutes, which felt more like ten, this hot guy I had been making eyes at all night swooped in and sat down. We started talking and it turns out he was German. I couldn't remember his name (I kept thinking Claus, but it was actually Cristian). Just when the German sat down, of course Colin returned. He saw his seat was occupied and walked away. I was a little bummed. The German was way hotter than Colin, but I actually though Colin was fun to talk to. Oh well. The German and I went inside to get a drink, but ended up making out instead. I was kinda creeped out. I have a weird thing with Germans, I don't know if it's their accent or too much history class, but they scare me a bit. I'm still not entirely sure why I gave him my number. When he called on Sunday my gut told me not to call him back. Sorry Claus- er Cristian. C'mon, he was a tourist anyways.

BoneheadedEST moment of the night- I walked back to the apt by myself at 4am. I pretended to be on my cell phone the whole time (it was too late to actually call anybody, Jordana was the only person awake and she was on the subway). It was actually a little fun, I got to basically converse with myself out loud, like a crazy person :) And since I'm able to post this, I obviously made it home in one piece.

Steve Carell wants you to drink responsibly

2008-07-17T13:16:00.003-04:00

It took me a while to find this clip after it was yanked off of youtube. One of my favorite moments from The Daily Show. You can tell by Stephen Colbert's reactions that Steve Carell really did get drunk. As great an actor as he is I would bet a large sum of money that this is all real.

My Declaration

2008-07-09T16:33:00.009-04:00

It's kind of pathetic how few times I've posted this year. I'm averaging just over once a month. Not cool. I remember when I started this blog for my class last year by posting a short story. Back then I would look forward to my weekly postings, and sometimes even post more than my assigned amounts. I just had to write. Had to get my word out to the world. Even if nobody was reading. I think it's obvious to everybody who knows me that I've lost myself this past year. Due to this huge hole in my heart so many of the important things that make me who I am have suffered, most notably my art. I don't really know what to write and I just haven't felt the inspiration to draw or paint. I've done some small crafts. More shoebox collages, knitting scarves in the middle of 90 degree weather. Shopping. Shopping is sort of an art... it's definitely a craft. Anyways I'm setting out to change things little by little. My "Summer of George" isn't just about being lazy. It's about enjoying myself. And in order to enjoy myself fully it's time to go back to the fundamentals of who and what is Maggie.

Here I am talking about returning to myself yet again. This seems to be a bit of a cycle. I guess as we experience more of life and get older we grow farther away from certain aspects of ourself. I think it's time to make sure that I don't lose that person entirely, because let's face it, she knew how to have a good time! So from here on I will start writing weekly blog posts (if not more, hopefully, but let's not push it) and maybe my creative juices will start flowing again.

selling my stuff

2008-06-30T01:04:00.002-04:00

In trying to clean my room and finally move into this house I'm cleansing my closet and selling items I have duplicates of, don't fit anymore, or things I simply am tired of. Also I'm selling some of my mom's Manolo's, mostly never worn, sadly many sizes too small for me (these are 36's and 36 1/2's I'm pretty much a 38). I'm hoping to make enough money to continue to fund my "summer of George" and maybe even to buy some fabulous shoes that my mom would have loved. Speaking of shoes she loved, the price of Manolos has gone up at least $100 in the past few years for just a basic pair of black slingbacks. Is this from Sex and the City or inflation? Maybe a little of both. Nothing is cheap these days.

Check out my ebay auctions!

Some pics of my items, more to come!!

Always classic slingbacks

Sadly too small for me, but I'm keeping the matching skirt!

I'm keeping this in medium instead

I have two of this!

This would look gorgeous with the green C&C top over a white camisol on a chilly summer night

For the record, I would never wear my collar popped

Oilily shirts never really go out of style

My mom got this because she loved how it looked on me, never worn, never even cut off the tags!

This color washes me out :(

How long would you survive in a horror movie?

2008-05-28T13:15:00.003-04:00

65% of the movie

You’re a smart one. You evade the monsters for a long time, outsmart them, and even start to make jokes about them. You lighten the mood in the panicking group, but then everyone scatters. You’re scared. You’re eaten.

Hey !! How long would you survive in a horror movie?

Honestly, I'm shocked. I assumed I wouldn't make it past the opening credits.

Still Takin' It Easy

2008-05-27T01:25:00.005-04:00

I saw the Eagles last night at the new Prudential Center in Newark and it was incredible! They played for three hours, and never once seemed tired out at all. These guys are around their 60's and they've still got such an enormous stage presence and energy, it's amazing. Their talent has yet to waver.

Here's the set list:

How Long
Too Busy Being Fabulous
I Don't Want To Hear Anymore
Guilt of the Crime
Hotel California
Peaceful Easy Feeling
I Can't Tell You Why
Witchy Woman
Lyin Eyes
Boys of Summer
In The City
Long Run

intermission

No More Walks In the Woods
Waiting in the Weeds
No More Cloudy Days
Love Will Keep Us Alive
Take It To the Limit
Long Road Out of Eden
Somebody
Walk Away
One of These Nights
Life's Been Good
Dirty Laundry
Funk 49
Heartache Tonight
Life in the Fast Lane

1st encore

Rocky Mountain Way
All She Wants to Do is Dance

2nd encore

Take It Easy
Desperado

Our seats were pretty great. Not nearly as incredible as Hell Freezes Over (it's hard to top floor, 9th row center). We were in the first set of stadium seats- if it was a hockey game we'd be mere rows behind the players benches. I got up to dance a few times, mostly when the people in front of me were standing. Of course I danced during "All She Wants to do is Dance" mostly for my mom. I cried during "Desperado", her favorite song. Don Henley was incredible, he held that last note longer than you could imagine. I know she was there with us in spirit (in fact I'm convinced she's finally living her dream of following the Eagles on their tour), but it was still hard to experience the concert without her. Don played the drums a good part of the night (I love it when he does that), Joe Walsh is a guitar God (Glenn Frey was pretty damn good too when he had his guitar solos), the new guitarist fits in like he's been playing with the band for years (although it's still weird not to see Don Felder), and Glenn Frey made the audience feel special (as usual).

I may get to see them again on Wednesday at MSG. I'm pushing my Uncle Barry to get us backstage passes to make up for him causing us to be late in '94 and us not getting to use our backstage passes then. I'm still convinced we could have partied with the band backstage.

All in all, it's been a really wonderful weekend. I got in some beach time with Sam, and I spent today at Chez Guerra poolside. I don't think I want to go back to work this summer. I want to lounge around alllll day every day in the sun. We'll see how that works out.

Hmmm...

2008-05-19T12:31:00.002-04:00

I lost my job. Last week. At first all I wanted to do was cry and yet a few minutes later this intense relief swept over me. That's how I've been feeling the past few days. I wake up early when I want to and I go to the gym rather than the mall. I have had no need for coffee. I can go out on the weekends and socialize now. There's a part of me that's still bummed about the job, but overall the only thing that I can really see is the enormous opportunity in front of me. I know I've been blathering on for nearly a year about running away to France and finding myself. Well, I don't think I have the money or presence of mind to run away to France, but maybe I can find the parts of me that felt so alive in France and try to let those parts live and run free here. We'll see. I've been feeling that creative push the last few days and it's time for me to channel my energy before the muse leaves me.

Here are some things I'd like to do vs. some things I need to do. A few of them match up, therefore maybe they should be my first priorities(?).

Need to do:

Finish school
Clean my room
Make appointments with every single doctor before my health insurance runs out
Find out how long health insurance lasts for
Find new job (hopefully part time so I can enjoy my summer)
Unpack house

Like to do:

Clean my room
Finish school
Paint
Pick up craft
Become better acquainted with fashion by reading WWD and Nylon as much as humanly possible
Have a relaxed summer

If you Wubba me then I will Wubba you

2008-04-11T04:04:00.003-04:00

It's amazing how I've probably gone AT LEAST ten years since hearing this song (if we're being realistic it's closer to fifteen-twenty) and it came to me out of the blue. So of course I youtubed it. And of course it was there. So let's all sing along...

Uncomfortably numb?

2008-04-09T01:52:00.003-04:00

What a weird day. It can be traced back to this dream I had last night. I ran away to Boston (maybe this was spurred by my hour long convo with Lauren in which she strongly urged me to move up there and live with her and some of my other faves) and had this nagging feeling for a while. It turned to immense guilt and I realized I forgot to call my mom and check in with her and tell her how I was doing in Boston. I became terribly homesick very quickly. As I started to call her, and I may have even spoken to her, I realized she was gone and I couldn't call her. Then I woke up. This seems to happen everytime I don't have an opening shift at work. I have a bad dream and end up spending half the morning in bed because it's left me so dazed and... urgh forgive me... confused. Half my day is wasted and I end up rushing off to work, only to come home well after nine PM.

I actually forgot about the dream until I started attempting to gather my thoughts about ohhh... two minutes ago. Strange what comes to your fingers when you start typing. A few weeks ago I got drunk and sent a very forward text (which my phone deleted, so I can't even go back and read exactly what I wrote) to somebody I went to school with. The always lovely facebook notified me today that he's in a relationship, which means he probably was seeing this person when my text went out not that long ago. That makes me feel... weird. Maybe a little dirty. Not good dirty, but dirty dirty, like I need to clean myself of this and move onto something new dirty. If that even makes sense. It's nearly two AM, of course it doesn't make sense. The good news is that I wasn't really all that bummed. In the past when former crushes of mine have found girlfriends that are not me I'm overly emotional about this. I don't feel any upset. Either I'm so numb inside with my own grief over way bigger things or the crush wasn't even a crush, just more something to occupy my thoughts when I was bored. Like scrabulous.

Today my Aunt Ricki called me to inform me that she, Nana, and Austin were at the Rockaway Mall (why wasn't Austin in school?) and picked up a cute guy at the Apple store for me. I find it slightly scary, but moreso very hilarious. We'll see if anything actually pans out from this, but apparently he's quite cute and "just my type". Happy birthday to me? We'll see. In the meantime, all I can focus on is my trip to Boston and how much fun I'm going to have seeing my favorite people. My only fear is that I'm going to have such a great time that I won't want to leave. That coupled with the fact that there are about five different positions open at Lacoste in the Boston area makes me very nervous. I should really start heading to bed if I want to actually function tomorrow morning. Opening again. I want it to either be very busy so the time flies, or so slow that Jason sends me home ridiculously early. Either way, I don't even know what I'm wearing to work tomorrow which means I need to wake up at least five to ten minutes earlier than usual.

Goodnight moon.

Sadly dead on...

2008-04-04T00:32:00.001-04:00

THE WINDOW SHOPPER

Loving, hopeful, open. Likely to carry on an romance from afar. You are The Window Shopper.

You take love as opportunities come, which can lead to a high-anxiety, but high-flying romantic life. You're a genuinely sweet person, not saccharine at all, so it's likely that the relationships you have had and will have will be happy ones. You've had a fair amount of love experience for your age, and there'll be much more to come.

Part of why we know this is that, of all female types, you are the most prone to sudden, ferocious crushes. Your results indicate that you're especially capable of obsessing over a guy you just met. Obviously, passion like this makes for an intense existence. It can also make for soul-destroying letdowns.

Your ideal match is someone who'll love you back with equal fire, and someone you've grown to love slowly. A self-involved or pessimistic man is especially bad. Though you're drawn to them, avoid artists at all costs.

Your exact female opposite:

The Stiletto
Deliberate Brutal Sex Master

Always avoid: The Hornivore

Consider: The Gentleman, The Loverboy, The Boy Next Door

Stretch... YAWWWWN

2008-03-04T00:06:00.004-05:00

In an effort to keep up on this blog, I figured I would make an attempt at a quick post. This morning I rolled out of bad far too late and forced myself off to work. I should have known at that point it would be one of those days. Yesterday our VP came into the store while I was in the back room. It was somewhat busy and he wasn't greeted until I came out and recognized him. Apparently I looked like "I had rolled out of bed and gone off to work"- I take offense! Maybe that was true today, but yesterday I thought my hair was looking kinda cute. Regardless, he complained to our DM and she complained to my manager, and the tone for the day was set as pretty stressful. I actually had pretty great sales at least. I was JUST short of $3000 when I left. That kills me though- why couldn't I have just sold that one extra item that would have put me at the $3000 mark? I could have sold pairs of flip flops. Ten pairs of socks. Two sale polos. Jeans. A bathing suit. The list goes on. Oh well, just frustrating stuff.

I begged my way into a lunch break at 1:30, and briefly met up with a friend from college, JJ. He works right across the street from me and we just discovered this about a week ago. Unfortch both of us had ridiculously limited schedules and demanding job stuff to get back to, so it was more of a drink break than an actual lunch break. It was disheartening yet a relief to see that I'm not the only person just out of school who is exhausted and no longer a social butterfly like the good old days.

The break helped me get through the day, and the rest of the afternoon flew by. Once getting home I discovered I was WAY too exhausted to drive up to Hunter tonight. I'm going to head up tomorrow morning since the ski conditions are going to be cruddy anyways. I ended up sleeping through a Modern Marvels on the Titanic, which was actually really boring. Normally I love Modern Marvels, but tonight it just didn't do it for me. Apres ca, I watched Barbara Walters (aka my Nanny's clone) special on the British Royals. I left the special realizing how little I know/remember about British history (what's the deal with Ireland? Is Scotland independent? would Bush have given back the colonies if the queen made him?), how little I care about the Queen of England, and how lame and unrevealing the two hour special was. Time to snuggle with Gracie and force myself to read more of The Other Boleyn Girl so I can see what I'm hoping is the far superior movie. Tomorrow morning I'm heading up to Hunter for real.

2008-03-02T21:33:00.006-05:00

A pretty funny opening for what will probably become a dark and twisted blog, only a shell of it's lighthearted and chatty predecessor- so why are you still reading? Wow, I really know how to advertise my own writing, don't I? I haven't blogged in a very long time. Too long really, I've been quite ashamed of myself. Bad Maggie. So ashamed that I can't even sleep at night. Or maybe that's the fighting cats howling near my bed. But for the sake of the already suffering blog I'll tell you it's my nightmares about not blogging anymore keeping me awake.

I'm sure you (the theoretical, is there anybody out there, reader) have a lot of questions for me in the wake of my long blogging absence. The first answer is a red Lacoste hooded cardigan, James Perse tank top, and brown cords. The second answer is working, sleeping, couch potato-ing. Any questions I haven't already and don't get a chance to address may be left in the comments section.

So today I worked open to close. It's actually not as terrible as it sounds, since Sunday is hardly your traditional 10 Am- 9 pM mall hours. I got there at 10:45 AM and clocked out at just before 6:30 PM. Still, I'm exhausted. Sundays are always tricky days, lots of non-English speaking out-of-towners, families, messes, all jam-packed into a shorter day. Usually I spend a good chunk of Sundays running around and cleaning up after the previous customer while my co-workers get to the next customer. I'm usually too tired from the week on Sundays to be on top of my selling game. Plus I'm cranky on Sundays. It's some sort of embedded thing within me that naturally believes working on a Sunday is detestable. Still, there's plenty to be proud of. We not only made our day (we were 144% to plan!), but we surpassed the $7000 stretch (the goal we make for the day in addition to plan- for example, we're $4000 short on the month right now, so I upped our goal by $2000 today, and plan on upping our daily goals throughout the week by $500-$1000 to make it up). My boss laughed at my ridiculous stretch when he called today, so tomorrow morning I will triumphantly gloat.

Working in retail I've come across so many low-lifes and detestable people that it really jades you against all of humanity. This morning a family came in and the two sons tried on jackets. Both propped the jackets on the end of the hanger rack RIGHT NEXT TO THE EMPTY HANGERS. They also looked at belts, which were carefully rolled up in a belt display, and left them unraveled in SUCH a mess. Not only one or two, but EVERY belt. EVEN THOUGH THERE WERE DUPLICATES OF THE SAME STYLE. I hope you realize that the uppercase letters means SHOUTING. I hate people like that. Then again, I had an encounter with another customer that made me want to cry (in the nice way, not the just been verbally assaulted way) after she left.

I was taking her name and address, and she told me she lives in Millburn, actually on the street directly around the corner from my house. I mentioned that I lived in Millburn, and was actually sort of still there, moving out of my house. She asked if my parents were moving, and I didn't want to lie. I didn't know exactly how to answer, so I said "my brother and I are selling my mom's house." I think that pretty much sums up what happened, and she definitely knew who we were immediately (she knows our neighbors) and gave me her sympathies and asked if I needed any help with the house. It was so touching. I'm definitely going to have to write her a really great thank you note outside of my usual "thanks for choosing to shop at our Short Hills boutique..." that I can quote in my sleep (and probably do). It just amazes me how kind people can be. It makes me feel like I'm not doing enough for the world around me. Then again, I work, I come home, eat, watch tv, and sleep. I'm definitely a waste of life. I'm sorry. Who am I apologizing to? My theoretical blog readers, my friends and family whom I let call me, and myself for wasting so many hours of my life.

Tomorrow after work I'm going skiing at Hunter. I've decided to take my crazy Nana up on her offer of a place to stay (she's right on the mountain) while I fulfill my ski lust. She'll be attempting to set me up with a republican Texan who likes to hunt, and whose father is shuddering unknowingly at the moment because his son is about to be set up with a Jewish liberal from New Jersey. Let the sparks fly!

blogging and playing with my new toy (the blackberry) at the same time, very meta

Or Maybe She Just Cries

2007-12-25T02:24:00.001-05:00

More people feel depressed and alone during the holidays. The past few years I haven't particularly been bursting with the holiday spirit, but this year things have gotten bad. In my mind, Santa is dead. Tomorrow will be our first Christmas with my dad in over seven years. I'm sure he doesn't remember any of the traditions Ryne and I have become accustomed to, and I'm depressed as hell. I've never felt so lonely. It doesn't seem like that long ago since last Christmas when I stayed up really late talking to my mom and hanging out. I went to bed and barely woke up in time to see all the gifts Santa had left under the tree. It's just not the same and never will be.

I did get to act my age (or at least a couple years younger) tonight with some kids of friends of the family. I felt somewhat left out, but also finally like I was on the right path. Doing the wrong thing felt more right than the right thing has lately. Going to France and finding myself cannot come soon enough!! I need to get through school so I can start my quest (to find myself) as soon as possible! I'm going to start listening to French books on tape when I sleep so I absorb the language. Dr. B. would be so proud- and probably have something entirely inappropriate to add :) I kinda miss taking her French 5 class... sometimes.

I know this sounds bitter, but seeing people happy makes me sick. Not that I want their happiness to go away, I just don't feel like witnessing it. I'm bitter, and frustrated, and would probably do best to stay locked up for a bit. Or shipped off to a beach somewhere I can veg.

All I want for Christmas/belated Hanukkah-maybe Chrismukkah- isssss- I have no effing clue. But it's probably sold out.

I am not alone

2007-12-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

I am TOO excited for the Sex and the City Movie!!!

I'm about to have a SatC style shopping spree (at some of Carrie's favorite haunts, no less) thanks to the abundance of unworn, still tagged clothing my mom left me. It would be more fun if she was actually there FOR the shopping spree. But then I guess if she was then there wouldn't be a chance for such a spree. Talk about Catch-22's. I think. I'm pretty sure that's the right concept. My brain's been a bit fried as of late. Either way, I'd much prefer to have my mom over some fantastic clothing. I miss her more at night and during quiet moments of contemplation. As an introvert you can imagine this is highly frequent and highly painful.

When people ask me how I'm doing, I honestly don't know how to answer. Sometimes I'm more miserable than I know what to do with, and other times I'm distracted enough to temporarily forget. Work is a great time for me. TV is a great time for me (F-YOU WRITERS STRIKE!!! Stupid producers need to fold already!) and movies are great too. Discussion of TV and movies is painful. I want to get on with life, but I don't know where to begin. If I go out and get drunk will I have an embarrassing meltdown? Am I too emotionally fragile to date?

At the same time I feel an inner strength- or maybe stubbornness that gets me through the day. Keeps me wanting to shop, trying to eat, forcing myself to sleep. Other times I think it's just denial. I will get through this.

Please listen to The Eagles' song "You Are Not Alone" by Glenn Frey. I'm pretty sure it was written just for me. I try to listen to it everyday. I have amazing friends, and I just hope they know that they're going to have to keep pushing their way into my life, because I really don't have the energy to keep up with them. Sorry. I'm trying.

Also, try to ignore the Glenn Frey photo montage, I don't know how to post music other than YouTube videos, so I recommend just listening to the song while browsing instead. But please listen.

Late Night Ramblings

2007-11-19T03:56:00.000-05:00

can't for the life of me fall asleep, and it's way way wayyyy to late to take a sleeping pill or I'll sleep through both my classes tomorrow. I hate school.

How's work going for everyone? I'm loving Lacoste. It's totally hectic, but I'm loving the responsibility and constant busyness. Sadly I have no time for a social life, and when I do I end up passing out on the couch from sheer exhaustion. I did however get to pretend I was cool for a week and race around in my dad's sportscar. I didn't manage to pick up any cute guys like I had fantasized, but I did get a lot of aggression on the road from middle aged men constantly cutting me off, and at one point racing me. Oy.

I've decided that if things take a turn for the worse personally and pick up professionally I'll be applying for a job in a French Lacoste and taking some me time to live somewhere lovely and maybe even travel Europe. Perhaps I'll sell the Magmobile to finance it. I dunno, these are mostly the ramblings of a stressed out person at 4am. I desperately just want to talk to somebody, but nobody is awake right now. I hate that. I miss school when there's always somebody awake at random hours.

I think I've isolated myself. I've made little effort to call people, and I haven't even been seeing most of my family. I know that I'm not alone, I just have to force myself not to become alone. I don't even know what I'm saying. Harry is curled up at my legs, but when I was upset and went to pet him he woke up and bit me. That only made me more upset. I told him he was really selfish sometimes and using me for my warm bed, not to comfort me. Yes, I told the cat he was selfish. I think I really am losing my mind.

I Need Your Help

2007-10-24T00:37:00.000-04:00

If there really is anybody out there reading this I need your help. I don't even need to know you're doing it, I just need you to do it. I need all the positive energy (or prayer if that works for you- I'm a firm believer in both) you can muster for the next month for my mom to get better. I really do think it will work, and I need you to think so too. Thank you.

Random Thoughts

2007-09-18T00:35:00.000-04:00

I think I'm addicted to online scrabble. Yep, I'm a loser.
Community college professors are not up to par with University profs. Who'da thunkit?
Does airborne actually work or is it mind over matter and I'm curing my own colds? If so, I wonder if it would work for $2 cheaper if I switched to the CVS brand of mind over matter?
Do cats realize they're being obnoxious when they stick their butts in your face?
I am thisclose to buying satellite radio, but my fear is that when I finally splurge they too will play the same ten obnoxious songs ever hour.
I have too many crushes to keep track of. At the moment I've been thinking about:

James Roday (of Psych, which I'm watching right now)
Another James, James Marsden
Brad Pitt (always and forever)
David Wright, the cutest Met that I think needs to marry me
Zach Braff
Josh Duhamel (when I'm able to get over the fact that he's with Fergie... ICK!)
the two dudes I was sandwiched between (of course on the day I'm in sweats and no makeup) in class today

Yeah, Psych isn't the most intellectually stimulating show on TV right now, but it really amuses me, and I think it should be more popular
I got to drive the Porsche tonight. It was thrilling.

That's all I have to say.

Happy New Year!

2007-09-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

I am incredibly lucky to be able to celebrate TWO New Years. For some reason I find January First somewhat of a let down year after year, but Rosh Hashanah- the Jewish New Year- is always filled with hope and promise for a better tomorrow. Maybe it's because one holiday is associated with family and the other with too many drunks (although in some cases it may be hard to distinguish the two).

Anyways, I had my apples and honey last night (so that I'll have a sweet New Year) and I have another day of family celebrations ahead of me. I plan on being as good as I possibly can this week so that when the Book of Life closes I will have a great year ahead of me. With the new job at Lacoste it's already shaping up to be a good year!

This may seem like a non-sequitor, but I've been thinking about the past a lot lately. It seems like just yesterday I was celebrating the New Year out on Long Island with the whole clan, going to my grandparent's temple, and playing with all the other little kids while the adults were upstairs standing and sitting for a few hours. I came across a whole batch of these on YouTube today, and I thought I'd share one of my favorites.

This is from a 1988 PBS pledge drive, which explains the many celebrities of the time making cameos. The celebrities, in order of appearance: John Candy (as Yosh Schmenge from SCTV), Andrea Martin (as Edith Prickley from SCTV), New York Mets Keith Hernandez & Mookie Wilson, Jane Curtin (of SNL and Kate & Allie), Madeline Kahn, Joe Williams, Paul Reubens (as Pee Wee Herman), Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Wynton Marsalis, Celia Cruz, Ihtzak Perlman, Gordon Jackson & Jean Marsh (as Angus Hudson and Rose Buck of Upstairs Downstairs), Paul Simon, Jeremy Irons, Pete Seeger, Rhea Perlman and Danny Devito, and NY Giants Sean Landeta, Mark Ingram, Karl Nelson and Carl Banks.

Life or Something Like It

2007-09-12T02:38:00.000-04:00

This is just atrocious. I had planned on posting all summer long, but my limited internet connection in France just didn't make that possible. I didn't want to post anything until I wrote about France, but I'm just not ready to do that. I'm hoping that this post gets my feet wet, and that I'll dive back into regular blog posts again. I do still plan on posting my "letters from France" sometime soon. I'm just not ready. I don't think I'm mentally prepared for that closure yet.

Life is changing very quickly right now, and as somebody who feels like they are on quite shaky ground with change, everything feels mighty confusing at the moment.

The Good: I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going anywhere with my job at Oilily, not to mention the fact that I lost my passion and motivation. I applied for a number of jobs, and went through a rigorous application/interview process with Lacoste. I have just given my two weeks notice (hehe fun movie) at Oilily and will shortly be starting my new job as sales supervisor!

The Bad: I've started my classes at County College Morris. I'm overwhelmed and angry. I need to get over this anger at not being back at UMass. I would've felt out of place and lonely without my core group of friends around. It's time to move on, but I still feel like everything was extremely sudden for me. My classes feel extremely redundant, but maybe that means I'll do well. At least there was a cute guy in one of them!

I have absolutely no social life. Maybe this new job will help me meet more people my age. I'm hoping that in a few weeks I'll have a better social life to report on. We shall see.

Okay I need to get to bed, I have physical therapy for my wrist at 9:15 am, so I'm already a few hours behind on my sleep. I'm going straight to Randolph from there, so I will have about two and a half hours of naptime available before class, hopefully on the deck in the sun (weather permitting).

Goodnight moon and any readers floating around out there. Hopefully each day will get better and better.

update: the word of the day for (today) Sept. 11 was plangent- "beating with a loud or deep sound; also, expressing sadness." That seems fitting in many ways, but what caught my eye was that it also seemed to fit the theme of this blog, or at least the feelings the writer believed were being posted.

The REAL Maggie Simpson

2007-08-18T14:06:00.000-04:00

Doesn't really look all that much like me, but still kinda fun...

ps I promise to post France stuff soon

Comical

2007-06-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

I should be working on my Monet paper, or even packing. Instead I'm posting this, because it reminds me very much of my dear kitties- who are currently not available at the moment to distract me from my paper writing like they usually do. Last night Sammy practically sat on my keyboard (so that explains all the cat hair I found under the keys during the last clean-up), and when I read books Gracie is usually there to sit on it before I get a paragraph in. Alas, Gracie is in Millburn, I'm still in Randolph. And Ryne is sound asleep. I guess maybe I should attempt to write this paper since, you know, my grade for the summer depends on it...

Busy Busy

2007-06-21T11:25:00.000-04:00

Like most of the important things in my life right now, I've been neglecting the blog. I'm leaving for France on Sunday, although technically my journey begins Saturday, because that's when I'm going up to Boston. Right now the terror is overruling the excitement. I am extremely excited, but at the moment there are several pressing issues I have on my mind...

The 3000 page, oops, word Monet paper that I've gotten NOTHING done on, it seems that even out of school I have concentration issues, and my body aches for the adrenaline rush that comes with waiting til the last minute
Finding my missing camera. I cannot leave without it, and it's not where I thought I left it. I haven't searched the trunk of my car yet, so maybe in a half hour or so I'll have something different to report back on
Packing- I've got basic things ready, but the fact of the matter is that at my father's house there sits about five loads of laundry and one or two unpacked bags that most definitely contain my missing tank tops
Mani/Pedi, not too big of a deal, but I'd like to clean up my feet a little before wearing flip flops for five weeks and attempting not to scare people away
Money- as of Friday I will have a paycheck from Oilily that should put me just over the $500 mark I need in spending money, although now people are telling me that I need MORE money to bring, so...umm...
Train ticket to Boston, I'll probably have that taken care of by the time I get to my dad's house this evening
Thank you notes for graduation- I want to complete those before I leave
Writing an annonomous angry letter to the next door neighbors so that their kids might stop terrorizing the rest of my neighborhood while I'm gone. Without my sunshiney appearance brightening up my other neighbor's lives, how will they get through this terrible period with those obnoxious children screaming and running around on our properties?

This sounds like quite the long list, but my goal for today is to get my paper written and hopefully spend some quality time with my mom as well. Wish me luck!

The Frat Mack Strikes Again

2007-06-11T01:34:00.000-04:00

For the record, making out with people while your friend sleeps in the bed perpendicularly touching yours is not a very nice thing to do. But it's still kind of fun ;) Not as fun, going to the bathroom, finding the person passed out, and having to share a very teeny tiny twin bed. Oops, maybe not the best planning, but still a pretty fun night. My city adventure began when I finagled some money out of my father for the trip into the city. He accused me of trying to get him to "finance my social life" but I explained the importance (and rarity) of seeing Lauren while she visits in NYC.

Stress free (from worrying about lack of cash flow) I took the train in (ran into and had pretty good convo with an old high school friend), and met up with Lauren and her boyfriend Matt at Washington Square Park. I spotted Lauren from across the street and ran across squealing and throwing myself at her. It was pretty exciting (and for her surprising). We hung out in the NYU dorms where Matt's staying for the summer. Lauren and I split a bottle of cheap (but pretty decent) wine from Trader Joe's Winery, or Wine Shop, whatever the eff it's called. Hung out some more, drank a little more wine, and myself, Lauren, Matt, his roommate, and his roommate's friend Laura headed out for dinner. We had Thai food and I was proud of myself for eating so adventurously. It was delicious.

Apres ca (see me impressively slipping in the Francais?, apres ca is "after that") we took a taxi to a bar somewhere whose name and location I have no idea. Laura was supposed to meet two of her friends there, but they didn't show up, and Matt wouldn't be able to get into the bar. So we hopped in another taxi (this group of people didn't really do the subway) and headed over to McSorley's, the oldest bar in NYC. They only served beer, and were packed, so we didn't stay too long. Once again we taxied it over to another bar, the name and location of which I cannot say. Matt was unable to get in there, too, so he and Lauren had couple time while I had two appletinis with The Roommate, Laura, and her two friends from traveling abroad. It was a good time. I bought Laura and The Roommate drinks since they paid for the taxis. My bar tab cost almost double dinner. I still haven't told my dad how much I spent. I might be in some big trouble. We shall see.

Some poor life decisions were made after the bars, but such is life when you have a few too many appletinis. All in all it was a good time. After leaving Lauren and Matt at Central Park, I walked around Madison Ave for a bit today, but alas the Puerto Rican Day Parade was going on. Many stores were closed and LARGE groups of people flooded the streets. I don't care for crowds, especially celebrating crowds (which can turn to angry crowds sometimes), so after shopping for a bit I headed home. Definitely the longest walk of shame ever ;)

Tonight I met Jordana for some Maggie Moo's and then we saw Ocean's 13. I wasn't a huge fan of 12, but I saw 11 at least six (maybe seven) times in the theaters and many more times since then. My obsession/love for Brad Pitt is well known, and the rest of the cast is pretty cute too. Yeah, even George Clooney is pretty dreamy. Who know I was capable of crushes so much older than me. Cause, you know, I totally have a chance with George Clooney, Mr. Lifelong-bachelor-I-date-the-prettiest-women-on-the-planet. Sigh. And yet I told The Roommate last night I'm done with looking for love. For now. I just don't see it in my cards until after I'm fully done with France, college, etc. I'm getting my wild ways out of my system now before it's no longer socially acceptable for my age and just deemed pathetic. It's been working pretty well so far. It all comes back to the whole "opposite George" thing going on. And after coming full circle to some of my last few posts, I'm heading to bed.

I like Pina Coladas...

2007-06-04T02:24:00.000-04:00

Couldn't sleep. I've been avoiding the finale of Veronica Mars for a few weeks now, thinking that maybe if I don't watch it then it's not the end. It left me feeling very empty afterwards, and angry with the CW for not bringing it back. DAMN THEM! And damn whatever song was playing at the end that left me feeling melancholy. I'll have to look it up tomorrow. Rather than read up on everything VM related (hair styles, clothing, music, etc) I decided to make an M&M. Don't ask me why... I'm not even sure myself.

Can you count all the details in the background? It's got a lot of mini-Mags facts and a few Lost snippets too (since I'm a dork) hiding. Okay fine I'll just name them. None of these are too significant, they were just available in the M&M's stock clip art. The phone booth represents my trips to London (SO incredible!); the penguins because I love penguins, they looked funny and silly on a beach, and because it reminded me of Wendel the penguin (I MISS SCHOOL!), the plane is for my travels and also for Lost; the balloon is pretty looking and also kind of like the REAL Henry Gale's balloon (wouldn't it be cool to get him in a flashback?); the drink is a pina colada which I would love to have sometime soon; the balloons are PRETTY :) and the shells add ambiance. How's that? Oh and the beach ball? Hmmm... I dunno, like everything else I added, it looked pretty. Oh, and that is indeed a floating crown. Kind of like a halo, but for a princess. Maybe an angel princess? Okay now I'm tired.

Dunce Capped

2007-06-03T03:42:00.001-04:00

I'm working 11:45 am - 7 pm tomorrow. I'm going to try to get there at about 11:30 (good luck with that) so that I can hopefully run into Kym when she does payroll and go over my schedule (she put me on the week that I'm getting ready to leave for France, despite my note in the calendar) and maybe even ask for a raise. I've been offered a higher paying job for when I return in August, but I'd rather stick with Oilily a little longer out of loyalty and so that I can say I've been there a full two years. I also think staying friendly with my boss is key to getting a great recommendation when I apply to Barney's or Bergdorf's personal shopping programs (if I apply).

Tomorrow at work it will take me mere minutes to clean the store, and there is nothing left to re-tag/refill since Katie and I took care of everything today. If the store is dead and empty (like it was for a good chunk of today) I will be reading Confederacy of Dunces, which has been sitting in my trunk since I left for school last August. The last book I read for pleasure was in February. I'm very excited.

Remember when "a total Baldwin" meant cute?

2007-06-02T01:00:00.000-04:00

I've had a crush on Paul Rudd since Clueless, so that was a definite positive to seeing Knocked Up tonight. And getting out of the house. My mom's angry with me for leaving the sunroof open last night on her car. Oops! At least it didn't rain (trust me, did that once with my car, it was not a good idea)!

The movie was great. I'm pretty sure I've already mentioned recently that I've been following Judd Apatow since discovering the late, great "Undeclared" (quite possibly the best and most realistic college show...ever). He didn't fail to disappoint tonight. The cast was stellar, and the writing pretty hilarious. There was one gory moment I could have gone without, and I was relieved that my brother and I were unable to sit next to each other, major awkwardness avoided.

Another interesting moment came at the end of the movie. Joanna Kerns, who most of my generation probably knows best for being Maggie Seaver on "Growing Pains" had a brief role as the lead character's mother in the film. At the end of the movie they showed a cast and crew "baby book" with their own baby pictures and pictures of them with their children. I haven't seen "Growing Pains" for a VERY long time, and yet I immediately recognized the picture of Joanna Kerns with her child from the opening credits of "Growing Pains". I wonder how many other 80's/90's kids recognized that same picture?

I've got work at 9:30am, this will be day #6 (out of 12 I believe) without a break, since I decided to work at school fairs on my two days off. It's not really that big of a deal. It's not nearly as crazy as when I was working at Oilily AND Kent Place last summer. I believe I went a month or more without more than one or two days off. That was not fun. This is momentary business, which will very soon die down when I take my week off to prepare for France. And then France itself! I need to go to the library and start writing my book report on Monet. Last night I couldn't sleep, so at 4am I read Linnea in Monet's Garden to reacquaint myself with Monet in the most simplest terms. It really is an adorable book. I might have to break out the sequel tonight if I can't sleep. Who am I kidding? I'm exhausted.

Bon soir mes amies.

Blurbing on the blog

2007-05-30T12:47:00.000-04:00

Short blog post, I felt the need to post something, but I'm determined not to waste what little relaxation time I have before work glued to my computer screen. Do not worry, I can feel a long post coming, this is just the calm before the storm (of words)...

"Make new friends but keep the old; one is silver and the other gold" doesn't that sound like you're being taught to value one set of friends more than the other? Silver isn't worth nearly as much as gold. And if you're not into the yellow gold you can get white gold or even platinum. Silver is like the starter jewelry, easily affordable. So is there one set of friends that you can easily buy? That you wear anytime, not afraid of too much damage? Is there another set of friends that only come out on special occasions? I tell you, the song is mind boggling. What are we teaching our children?

Just did a spellcheck, NO ERRORS! YES I knew I was an English major for a reason. I's a pretty samrt laddy. :P

I saw Waitress last night with Jordana and I loved it. I've also rediscovered my crush on Nathan Fillion. I want him to wrap his arms around me for at least twenty minutes. I used to think the first thing I noticed about a guy was his eyes (it might still be), but strong arms are pretty high up on my list. Gotta love a big strong hug.

Your results:
You are Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)

You are good at fixing things.
You are usually cheerful.
You appreciate being treated
with delicacy and specialness.

Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		75%
Inara Serra (Companion)		70%
River (Stowaway)		65%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		65%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		60%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		55%
Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		50%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		45%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		30%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		25%
Alliance		25%

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz

Say it ain't so...

2007-05-26T05:36:00.000-04:00

I never sleep before I travel. I never pack until the day I have to move out. These are two things that are pretty much set in stone for me. I'm actually moving out Sunday, but that doesn't count, because most of my things are supposed to be packed off and sent home with the family on Saturday (tomorrow/today). Is it tomorrow if you never went to sleep? Or is it officially today now that the sun is back up?

So at 5:30 am when I'm too tired/excited/nervous to sleep I decide to start packing. A terror of moving out today has set in...

My dad is going to see how many boxes of Marc Jacobs shoes I own and how much clothing I have...

Oy.

On the brightside, I don't have to hit my parents up for money to go out with my friends for my last night. I sold back about $300-400 worth of books today and made fifty bucks! Normally people would be depressed and angry about the money they've lost, but let's face it- those books would've sat on a shelf untouched for years. $50 is a heck of a lot more than I had the day before ($16) and allowed me to get a drink and dinner at Panda East (where the service gets worse with each and every visit) and to pay my way into our rebellious little party tonight.

My Scorpion Bowl-mate and I

I'm not even going to address the giant elephant on the blog (er in the room) that is graduation and leaving my bubble. Yeah, I'm in absolute and total denial. So why was this party so rebellious (yeah I'm changing the subject, deal with it)? We're not allowed to drink in our house due to the risky nature of what could occur if girls did indeed go wild. But as seniors we're a pretty responsible bunch, so our partying never got too out of control. Good night, I just wish we didn't have to be up really early for... that thing... tomorrow/today. Oh wait, I'm already up early, I never went to bed! Shoot!

SHOTGUNNING

General Antics All Around

It hurts to think about leaving this place and these people that have been my home and family for over three years now.

Opposite George strikes again!

2007-05-19T03:49:00.000-04:00

I went out tonight and didn't drink. I went to Delanos and danced and had a great time. If I'm deluded enough to think that there are regular readers of this blog out there then you must be shocked for two reasons: first of all everybody who reads this seems to be convinced I'm a boozebag (my teacher's and classmate's words, not mine) and secondly my friends and I NEVER leave McMurphy's. Besides the fact that I have a lot of finals work to do tomorrow and I don't want to waste away half the day hung over, I caught the stomach bug plague that has decimated half my house and I'm still not really up for drinking. I nursed seltzer all night, but managed to have a great time dancing to the live band and just hanging out with my friends. I also worked on my "opposite George" techniques.

The guy I had mentioned in the last blog- hmm I should give him a fun name to refer to him as... photoshop guy, that works- has been popping up lately everytime I step out of the house with my friends. I've been acting somewhat aloof, which is new for me, and I kind of like it. It's not that I'm not interested in him, but I'm also not actively interested in him. I'm not in the mood to lead him on, but I'm also not making it clear that I want to be his friend. Okay this is getting confusing and complicated to write about, so if you need clarification ask me. Anyways I digress. I saw him and I just kind of smiled in his direction, but didn't stop what I was doing to go talk to him. I refuse to be awkward.

I also talked to a few new strangers, and danced with one of them. The dancing guy was kind of cute, and kissed me on the cheek when he went to leave. That was a first. I was intrigued, and I liked it. I hope maybe we'll bump into each other again one day. Another "opposite" moment occurred when this drunk guy (see guy in blue shirt to the right) was all over the place dancing and kept bumping into my friend Brian (yellow shirt). Brian started dancing behind him, and the guy didn't even notice. I took the picture and Brian desperately wanted to know the guy's name so he could tag the pic on facebook. I went over to the guy (SO not a Maggie thing to do) and put my hand on his chest, and asked him where I knew him from. I got his name (supposedly Dan Alfonso, but nothing's turned up on facebook yet, damn) and when I asked him if he was in my Shakespeare class he replied in a drunken slur: "I can be." It was hillarious. I'm really enjoying this whole opposite thing. I hope that I can use it to my advantage, and maybe bring out a more confident, more outgoing me. I'll keep my progress posted.

Also some noteworthy moments worth posting: took my first final today (for Shakespeare) and I think I did a great job; I got caught up on last night's The Office- it was INCREDIBLE and definitely worth watching (check out Creed's blog); I had my final trip meeting for France, the date is getting closer; had a very ALIAS moment Tuesday when my friend and I tailed another friend and her makeout buddy home from the bars (hehe); there are brand new fresh sheets on my bed (not necessarily noteworthy, but they're calling to me at the moment).

And may we all take a moment of silence for Veronica Mars. I was near tears. I shouldn't have been so surprised, the show has been on the brink of cancellation since the start, but it was still a shocking blow. I should be happy that I got three great seasons of such an amazing show, especially the first season, which will always remain my favorite. Thank you to the cast and crew of Veronica Mars for giving me great entertainment, and especially to Rob Thomas, who I will now follow anywhere he goes.

I could use a hug...

2007-05-15T00:41:00.000-04:00

So this is the last assigned blog entry. Not to say that I don't plan on continuing this blog (so you better keep reading!!!) but it's the last time that I have to write an entry. This will actually be my last finished class. Creepy. Unfortunately I have a handful of essays to write, a few art drawings to complete tomorrow, a Shakespeare final to prepare for, and an Oceanography final that I'm praying to get at least a B on, but that's not looking so positive right now.

It seems somewhat appropriate that the one thing I've been discussing throughout the semester is the coming of graduation. I still have another semester left, but to me this still feels like the end. My friends are moving on, I'm leaving the safe little bubble that is my sorority life, and in a way starting fresh in the fall. I'm terrified. Unfortunately this has spilled into my current life. I have a tendency of self-destruction when I'm dreading moving on. I've fallen behind in my work and have started having increased anxiety over... pretty much everything.

Last week I had somewhat of a Seinfeld-esque moment when I acted like George and did the opposite of what I would normally do. On the down side I was a bitch to one of my good friends. We're cool now, but I still feel pretty bad about it. On the up side I got a kick playing against my usual type, and embracing some inner-self confidence I didn't really know I had. It was definitely a self-esteem boost. Like George, acting as my opposite self seemed to be more positive than negative, I just need to be more careful how I use it, so that people don't get hurt in the future. Who knows, maybe a whole new Maggie is in store for next semester. Or at least a slightly more matured post-Europe Maggie. You never know.

This weekend I went home to celebrate Mother's Day. On the one hand I didn't want to go back to school. I wanted to stay with my family, continue to hang out with my parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. On the other hand all I could think about was that I was missing the last weekend of spring semester with my friends, and how much I already missed them. Being away for a weekend can feel like forever sometimes. I will definitely have tremendous separation anxiety two weeks from now (not to mention next semester). Tonight we had a ceremony that made us officially alumni(nae?) of our sorority. I had been looking forward to it for a few years, but instead it felt like somebody punched me in the gut. Or perhaps my bubble bursting. Either way, it was extremely depressing. I will probably be a bawling wreck on graduation. Note to self: do not wear mascara.

I hope everybody who has been reading this enjoyed the blog so far. I will be keeping up with it as much as possible. I hope you continue to read as I go home and work work work in preparation for France, and espcially when I start blogging FROM France. I hope to have many exciting stories and pictures to share.

And yes, if you see me, I could use a hug.

Aahhh, hotness

2007-05-09T02:01:00.000-04:00

Perhaps if I stop looking at YouTube for my favorite movie clips I will get some work done and can enjoy going out and perhaps meet a hot dancer like Patrick Swayze (circa '87, not now) who will take me out of the corner of the dugout and dance...

A Very Busy Weekend Part Un

2007-05-08T15:01:00.000-04:00

What a busy weekend! It pretty much started Thursday evening when I went to McMurphy's with the ladies (Cobb, Kath, Sam, Katy, Lauren H). On our way there we were talking about the "free cash Thursdays" a raffle McMurphy's has been doing since Spring Break. I suggested that if one of us won we buy the rest of the group a round of drinks. Sure enough, Katy won! I screamed. It was pretty exciting. Katy was supposed to win $30 but they accidentally gave her $40. The night was pretty much amazing all around.

The next day I managed to roll out of bed and off to my 11:15 discussion on time. At noon I had my second meeting for my trip to France. I'm SO ridiculously excited for this trip. It's going to be absolutely incredible. We picked out the rooming for the trip, as well. I had the choice of a single, double, or one triple. The triple is the biggest room in the villa we're staying in. It's got a giant balcony (as you can see in the picture) and is the room that everybody wants to come hang out in. I made friends with the two girls who were asking to be put in the triple, and am now going to be living with them this summer! I'm not worried at all about living in a triple, I've lived in mutliple triples at Alpha Chi and even a FIVE and loved it. I think this will be a blast. And the balcony is GORGEOUS. I cannot wait to live there! This summer is going to be amazing. I think I've said that a number of times, but the level of my excitement is through the roof. I'm going to be a wreck at the airport, I'll probably be bouncing off the walls. Just the fact that the trip is a little over a month away makes me squeal. I can't even write this entry without grinning!

Friday night we (Kate, Lauren H, Katy, Sam, Kath, Cobb) decided to get our dance on, and broke out of our McMurphy's comfort bubble and went to the Pub. For some reason there was no cover fee (nice!) and the dance floor was open. It's become quite obvious that guys seem to ignore my friends and I when we stand in a circle, so we attempted to spread out into groups of two or three. It was quite successful. There were some cute guys who came over to dance with all of us. I was mostly excited about the rockstar look I had, thanks to my dance instructor, Katy doing double duty and styling my hair. It looked so cool! We had a great time. Unfortunately, we had also decided to attend sigep's final frat party for old time's sake. It was pretty lame, and even weirder that most of the younger brothers didn't recognize us. All in all lots of awkwardness. What are you gonna do? We ended up leaving on the earlier side, not before making fun of skanky freshman girls of course. If you're looking to find the fakest baked, short skirt wearing, thong-hanging out, dancing on table (sometimes without underwear) whores then a frat party is the place to go. It's kind of like watching a train wreck. You're disgusted and try looking away, but part of you is just so fascinated you have to turn and watch.

Saturday I went to the mall with Cobb and Lauren H on a mission to get a striped cotton dress from Victoria's Secret Pink and maybe some shorts. I couldn't find the dress in my size, but I did stumble upon some really cute AF shorts on sale. They're perfect for France!!! We had to race back to Amherst because my cousin Austin texted me that his train was actually running on time (not late as he had previously told me). I picked him up at the station and hung out at the house for a little while until we joined the gang for Chili's.

Austin was here for the weekend to check out UMass/party with me. He's 17 but definitely a lot wilder than myself. My family had bets going on which one of us would corrupt the other more this weekend. Being the good cousin I am, I purchased two forties for him and let him mix me some drinks while I found a party for us to attend. Mindy's friend was having a party on Kellog St, just around the corner from the center of town. The party was a little empty at first, but picked up rather quickly, to the point where the rooms were bursting with people. I lost Austin a few times, and was a little nervous. My friend Jen told me I looked like the girl in "Can't Hardly Wait" looking for her friend the whole night. I was making sure he wasn't wandering off, getting lost, or stealing stuff (like the rice cake seen in that picture). Still, even with all my worrying it was a great time. Austin and I bonded, caught up on family back home, and even won a game of beruit. I bumped into a fellow blogger, and an old high school classmate. And people say UMass is huge. PSssshhh! Austin and I walked over to Antonio's at about 1:45, got some pizza, and rejoined the party. Unfortunately, he was pretty exhausted so shortly after we walked back to my house. As I was heading into Sam's room to recap her and Kathleen on the night, Austin wandered past me and went into my friend's room, thinking it was mine. OOPS! Yeah, I guess he was pretty drunk at that point. He woke up a very sleep deprived Dubs, who was not as amused as the rest of my friends. I sent Austin to the correct room while I spoke with my friends. Kathleen decided that she wants to marry Austin- he's "gorgeous". He's also 5 1/2 years younger than her, so I found it pretty amusing.

Oh my, this blog is SO LONG! I'll have to recap the second half of the weekend (which was a little more relaxed) in my next entry. I don't want this to look TOO convoluted!

Name the spy!

2007-05-01T17:10:00.000-04:00

So by now most of you know that I have an alter-ego, the butt-kicking spy. This past week I was watching an episode of Scrubs where Elliot's old sorority sister visited, and her drinking alter-ego was revealed. Nancy. I don't think Nancy would suit me, but I have decided that I am in need of a name for my crazy, ass-kicking, other persona, or alias if you will. (insert creepy wink). I suggested the name of Sydney (as in Bristow) to Lauren, but she wasn't buying it. The other Lauren and Cobb have the combined drinking alter-egos of Sara(y) and Michelle. Long random story behind that, but it is time for me to come up with this person.

It will also help me as I plan my newest blogging project, which includes craigslist mate-search and the humorous responses that will be sent to me. I promise it will be something that is unmissable. Alert worthy. Spitting out your drink laughing. Okay maybe I'm overhyping, but I have a feeling you are going to laugh your butts off. I know I will be.

...To be continued...

Garfield is extraordinarily relatable

2007-04-30T00:25:00.000-04:00

Getting Old

2007-04-29T14:01:00.000-04:00

Since the start of this blog I've talked about how I'm not ready to come to terms with the fact that I am indeed getting older. With age comes responsibility and all that other stuff that freaks me out. Like the fact that I now have friends who are getting married. Creepy man. I briefly considered re-celebrating my 21st again last week, but let's face it, you can't go back in time.

The day started out amazing, when I was finally allowed to open the box my mom had mailed to me a few days earlier. With her on the phone, I began unwrapping, only to discover a dress that I had been dying for in the stores (see left image). She had called me a few weeks ago and had me convinced that they were sold out everywhere. I screamed when I saw the dress, so I'm pretty sure she knew I liked it (not to mention the fact that I wore it home that weekend, too). My mom always tries especially hard to make my birthdays wonderful, and I'm looking forward to being home next year for the first time on my birthday in four years.

My friends were set on me not crying on my birthday this year (as I have on every birthday since high school for some reason or another). Maybe the original song lyrics were meant to be it's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to. Either way, this year was monumental, because I did have two briefly moody moments, I DID NOT CRY! Whooohooo!

Unfortunately, I had an unmissable class the night of my birthday, so I wasn't able to go out for dinner with my friends. Instead I was under a strict timetable to come home and be changed for McMurph's in under 15 minutes. It was "Return of the Dudes" so we wanted to get there early to get a table. I picked out my outfit beforehand (a pink satin top, my true religion jeans {they're lucky}, and black slingbacks) so I quickly rushed home and did my makeup. Sadly, both the Laurens were unable to come out (too much school work and not feeling well), but I still had a wonderful group with me. Sam and I were the first ones there because Cobb, Kate, and Katy all had art class, and Kathleen wasn't ready leave early with Sam and I. We got there at about 9:30ish, but unfortunately the tables were all taken already. I appreciate the Guitar Dudes wanting to celebrate my bday with me, but I would've appreciated a different night so that I'd have room to breathe.

Sam and I were hanging out, rather than get me a shot she bought a pitcher for the two of us to share. I was a little nervous about the beer before liquor, but what the heck? It was my birthday, I'd probably be sick ANYWAYS. I got very mopey when I discovered that there was a tall skinny Blonde girl who was 21, wearing a cute teeny red dress and a tiara, taking away from my birthday glory. Yeah, I'm honest enough to admit that. I'll share the attention any other night (and I always do) but that was MY night. The other girls arrived just in time to lift my spirits. I made them proud by actually taking shots like a champ (something that I usually am ridiculously and humorously terrible at). The Dudes were back in full force, doing a great job, and they even wished me a happy birthday! I would have preferred the crowd to not be there, but whatevsies. Yeah, I said whatevsies, you got a problem with that? I had plenty of friends there to dance with, and it was a great time. Many drinks were given to me, but still not as many as 21, which is definitely good because I didn't get sick this year! I came home, collapsed into bed, and put on my iPod (it prevents the spins that living on a lofted bed seem to cause). The next day I had to pretend to look fresh faced for my composite picture (which is ALWAYS the day after my birthday, ughhh!)

All in all, it was a great birthday, I just still am in major denial that I'm no longer 21. I still write down 21 a good chunk of the time. Oops!

all smiles for 22 (really?!)

Good for a few laughs

2007-04-27T14:34:00.001-04:00

Short story in progress

2007-04-25T22:39:00.000-04:00

I want to take English 355 next semester, creative writing. To get in I need to submit 6-10 pages of original fiction to the teacher, soon. Assuming that he's asking for double-spaced papers, I've already got about 4 or 5 pages completed so far, with two short stories. I just wrote this while avoiding studying at club lib. I'm not sure how I feel about the tense or POV, any comments and/or criticisms are welcomed. Please, be harsh, I need to get into this class, and if it takes a massive rewrite of this story (or an entirely new concept all together) then so be it.

Sleep Driving

She’s blasted the music, consumed at least two bottles of water, opened the windows all the way, but her eyelids still have weights attached to them. The car swerves slightly into the left lane, and her body jerks forward a few inches. She reaches for the music dial and turns the volume up louder, attempting to sing along. No matter how hard she tries, it’s a losing battle. Seventeen more miles to the next rest stop. She’s not sure if she can make it that long.

She’s never able to sleep the night before traveling, be it by plane, bus, car, or train. There’s a certain anxiety attached to the idea of travel, what could potentially go wrong plagues her mind and keeps her puttering around the room to avoid letting her mind drift to those ideas. She stays awake until she’s tired enough to pass out as soon as head meets pillow. It’s a terrible system, but she’s afraid of sleeping through her alarm if she takes a sleeping pill.

Instead, she wakes up after what feels like mere moments later, slightly panicked and ready to ship out and leave. A stop at Dunkin Donuts for some sort of hot caffeinated beverage is a must. She has a bad feeling that they slipped her decaf today. Those bastards. Thanks to them there’s no heat coursing through her veins, keeping her body in motion, feeling raw with energy. Instead everything feels heavy, constantly sinking. Sinking into the seat, sinking into herself; her shoulders slumping forward, and her head bobbing back and forth, as if she was vigorously nodding to somebody in approval.

She winces as she slaps her left cheek, and just as quickly and harshly she slaps her right cheek. This alerts her body for all of thirty seconds, but even the sting from her palm seems washed out by the dreariness that is taking over her body. Just ten more miles, at the speed of seventy miles per hour means… she attempts to do the math, but her brain seems to be full of cotton balls at the moment. It’s less than ten minutes, she can at least deduce that much. She attempts to do the algebra in her head. Sixty and seventy both share a common denominator with four-hundred and twenty, which means… which means her brain is too fried to figure out this simple equation at the moment. With a sigh she checks the road for hiding police and speeds up another six miles per hour. The sooner she can pull over, the sooner she’ll be able to close her eyes.

Her heart speeds up as she sees somebody jump into the road out of nowhere. What the hell are they doing crossing the interstate?! As she swerves the car, narrowly missing the station wagon next to her, she blinks and the person is out of sight. No other cars seem to be getting out of the way, and the person was definitely not fast enough to cross the road already. If somebody had hit them there would somewhat of a ruckus going on behind her. It’s not possible that she was seeing things. That would mean she had some serious issues going on. Eight more miles.

The wheel is misaligned, so the car keeps brushing up against the grating on the left side. She supposes it’s doing its job, shaking the car to alert a sleepy driver that they’re falling off of the road. She wonders what would happen if she just surrenders. That’s the sleep talking, keep alert! an angry voice yells in her head. She glances at the stereo, only to see that she’s three songs further into the CD than she last remembers. Part of her is terrified at the possibility that she’s been sleeping for a little while.

As she finally approaches the exit, the car continues to swerve, despite her best efforts. Her head is playing the bobbing game again. One red light is all that holds her back from the McDonald’s parking lot up again. A car beeps behind her, and she realizes that her eyes were closed, and the light has turned green. She drives a few more yards and pulls into the lot. It seems to take an eternity to adjust the seat. One lowered, closes her eyes and can feel her body falling deeper and deeper, the warm arms of sleep engulfing her. One last frantic thought runs through her mind before all of her systems shut down. What if she never made it this far, and the car had careened into the cement guardrail the first time she knew her eyes had been closed longer than necessary?

My Last Formal!

2007-04-24T12:45:00.000-04:00

So I never found a date to my formal. The livejournal thing was a riot, but deep down I knew it wouldn't exactly pan out, although I was flattered by my fellow blogger's support. Ex-roomie Mindy thought maybe her friend Adam could go, but he wouldn't know if he was available (due to an unfinished lab) until about an hour before the formal. When I found out he couldn't go I started to cry, which was really lame of me, but more so stupid, because I already had my mascara on. I had to tilt my head backwards and hold q-tips at the corners of my eyes for a few minutes to avoid the onslaught of black ink that would run down my face the second it got wet. I was successful, and the night was somewhat successful as well.

The formal was at the Hotel Northampton, which was beautiful. It's a senior tradition in our house that first the seniors take a limo uptown and then meet up with the rest of the party about an hour later. Of course we went to McMurphy's, because it's not even an option that we go anywhere else. It was really fun walking into an empty (except for four people who looked kind of shocked at first) McMurph's in our formal dresses. Since it's somewhat acceptable to drink after 5 (this was approx. 6pm) I think I will have to go there again early when it's completely empty. It was as if we had rented out the bars for just ourselves (and let the other few people hang out since they were harmless). We had complete control of the music, and only had to fight each other for the bartender's attention. It was a blast. And of course we had a photoshoot. The picture to the left was taken from six different cameras at minutely different angles (all the guys were in a row).

It was sad to leave the limo when we arrived at the formal (driving around in a limo all night could really be a party unto itself), but the Hotel Northampton was gorgeous. The food was amazing (I had prime rib), the dancing was fun, and the drinks were pretty good, just super expensive since I was buying for myself all night. But I'm an independent woman and I can take care of myself dammit! Not to say that I didn't appreciate two of my friends lending out their boyfriends for dances, and my friend Lauren sitting with me on the bus home while her boyfriend sat across the aisle, despite my objections that I was alright (I was a little bummed when I saw everybody all cuddled up on the bus). The only time I really cried was along with all the other seniors during the last song, because we realized this was the last time we would all be doing this together. Because of my amazing friends and the great time I always have with them, my night was a success. And my Little won the "Smiley Award" which made me incredibly proud. Despite a broken nose in a car accident a week earlier, she still showed her beautiful face, and smiled :) She's amazing.

The next night I attended a toga party at my friend Dan's, and saw two of the guys who turned me down for the formal. One of them actually had a job interview, and he had gone out of his way to have Dan tell me to have a great time. The other one asked me how the formal was and told me he felt really bad I didn't (because he didn't like "those kinds of things") but hoped I had a good time. I quietly grinded my teeth, but told him I had a very nice time (which I did, but I would have preferred a date). Speaking of the toga party, it was my first, it was also my first time shotgunning a beer (classy, right?), and being at a party that was broken up by the police (they just waltzed right in as we were all jumping up and down singing "You Shook Me All Night Long"). Once again, another great night, capping and excellent weekend, and leading up to my 22nd birthday (which will have to be addressed in my next blog entry.

Greek Goddesses

Don't Worry... Be Happy

2007-04-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

Wow, so I sound like a spoiled brat in my last post. I didn't mean to, I think it's hard to explain something that sounds good on the surface, but is filled with frustration and hurt deep down. I know I'm not a brat because my entire extended family feels this way. I think we all just want things to go back to the way they were. It's impossible to go back in time, though, so I guess it's just important to make the best of what we have now, and (as Kevin stressed in his comment) be happy. I am happy, I've got a pretty good thing going for me with the whole traveling to Europe this summer and all, but everytime I come home from a visit with my grandmother I always feel a flood of angst come over me. Hence the terribly angsty post.

But I have a LOT to say about what I've been up to, unfortunately I haven't eaten a single thing yet and if I don't get some real food this box of cookies in front of me will soon disappear. mmm... cookies... Okay, mind out of the gutter, time to eat. All new Veronica Mars tonight! WHOOHOOOO! Now that's something that makes me very happy!

Tea with the Queen

2007-04-23T01:11:00.000-04:00

Am I selling my love for clothing? As an opening sentence, that sounds pretty dirty and terrible, but it's not as bad as you think. This all goes back to the earlier blogging days when we were told to discuss our families, so this part is kind of complex, try to stay with me, okay?

My dad's stepmother was more of a grandmother to me than my actual paternal grandmother. When I was a kid I LOVED spending time with my Nanny and Poppop. My grandfather was one of the greatest people EVER. If you met him, I'm sure you would have agreed in a heartbeat. I used to stay with them for the weekend sometimes, and the trips would end with a visit to Toys 'R Us where I would usually get a Barbie or some other sort of doll that my parents had decided I didn't need. But isn't this what all grandparents do? That's not why I looked forward to spending time with them, though. I would've been just as happy to be with them without the toy store trip as I was with it. In fact, once I was out of the toy store phase in middle/high school I did just spend time with them, no gifts included, and still had a wonderful time. Not to say that there weren't the occasional shopping trips.

At the end of my junior year of high school my Poppop passed away due to cancer, which was pretty heartbreaking for the entire family. After that, visits with my Nanny would include a meal, and sometimes shopping. It was usually for one special item. Within one year she was set up with a rich old man from the city, and suddenly the shopping trips were getting ritzier and ritzier. By my sophomore year of college (that's less than three years for anybody keeping track), my Nanny was married. Her husband's wife had died just months prior to them meeting (or so the family rumors are). She now lives the life of a Manhattan socialite. Going to shows multiple times a week, having a driver, living in one of the ritziest buildings on Park Ave (no guest room), private jet, and of course the homes in Boca (still not invited) and Purchase (the country). It's not very grandchild friendly. Well... his grandchildren she sees much more, and apparently dotes on them so as to buy their love. His kids are not very warm to her, so might as well win over the grandchildren, right?

In the meantime, those of us across the Hudson in my family only see my Nanny for brief visits. These visits include an expensive meal (the entree in my lunch today cost more than my most expensive dinners out with my friends in Amherst for the whole meal) and usually a shopping trip to an expensive store. My personal favorite is Bergdorf's. My friends roll their eyes when I come home from a visit with designer jeans, head to toe new outfits (to be fair I'm never dressed "appropriately" for going out to dinner with her husband, so she needs to re-clothe me), and expensive shoes. Honestly, I would gladly trade in every single amazing thing I've been given for even another HOUR in my old life, but I figure I might as well take advantage of what I'm being given. My brother gets a twenty passed on from me, and a promise to be seen soon. And every now and then a Broadway show.

I'm not a bitter person, I'm more... disappointed. So anyways, that leads me back to the weirdness I feel from today. I came home for the weekend to celebrate the 22nd, and my grandmother insisted I come in for a few hours. I spent a half an hour being shown the real Picasso's, real Chagall (are you sure I know how to spell it?), and various other artists that make me drool to be up close to a real painting. What do you think her husband would say if I asked him to throw a couple hundred thousand my mom's way so she could pay off her house? Hmmm... So then we went for the delicious, but expensive lunch, where I saw many facelifted ladies, and listened to friends of my grandmother's stop and compare when they got home from Boca. Then we went for a walk down 3rd Avenue where my Nanny had the managers at Victoria's Secret bring out a folding chair for her husband to sit on while I quickly picked out some loungewear for my trip to France. We then walked to Scoop, a store I love but cannot afford, where her husband insisted he buy me a pair of white terry shorts. They were gorgeous, and the offer was one of his kindest moments to me, but I felt very off after the purchase. Hours later, I'm starting to feel dirty. I gave affection for Tory Burch. It's not that I don't like him, I just... I don't dislike him... My grandmother was looking for contentment, she already had a great love in her life. I don't feel any anger towards her husband, I just feel like she kind of sold her soul to live this new life. It's just that he doesn't radiate warmth, and that's kind of hard for me to deal with. I guess that's why I feel so weird that the first time he really seemed extremely warm was through buying me these shorts.

Hmmm, this may be the first blog that I edit later on. I can't decide. Until I get back to school, done with classes, and done with hw for the day to log back on again, I'll leave you with a picture of my radiant face this warm spring afternoon :)

Ryne and I preparing our Mother's Day Gift

I need YOUR help

2007-04-12T12:24:00.000-04:00

Okay what movie ended with a montage of the characters dancing to the song "Eight Days a Week"? It's been stuck in my head all day now, and I can kind of picture the characters, but the rest is blank, and it's driving me crazy, mostly because I cannot get the song out of my head. Please help me out!

Superbad!

2007-04-12T02:49:00.000-04:00

Who's coming to see this with me this summer? Let's list the reasons why there's no way I cannot love this movie:

Stars Michael Cera, aka George Michael
co-written by Seth Rogan and produced by Judd Apatow of "40 Year Old Virgin" and of course one of my favorite cancelled TV shows, "Undeclared"
The fact that the trailer already had me laughing pretty hard, especially with what's sure to be one of my favorite quotable lines this summer: "We can be that mistake!"

"We can be that mistake!"

Adventures at the Lib (long "i") Part II

2007-04-10T00:52:00.000-04:00

my desk last night
(see the blogger screen on my computer?)

There's a very amusing game I like to play in the library: "where will the chair go?" Everybody wants a cozy armchair rather than the sit-rigidly-in-one-position desk chairs on the second and third floors of the lib (pronounced libe). I, myself, watched the girl across from me out of the corner of my eye for nearly a half an hour until she left her chair. I nearly ran over to her desk to claim the spot before she was fully out the door. Other people are chair hunting too, but everybody else moves the chair to the desk they're already at. Sometimes, no, usually this is across the room. The chairs have wheels, but they're really heavy and don't exactly roll. I get to see people of all shapes and sizes struggling (even big guys, hehe) to get the chair to their desk. The best is watching somebody attempt to push the chair around a corner. Not easy. As I read my book today I saw multiple chairs passing by behind me. I'm pretty sure it's the same 4 or 5 chairs. I think the lib needs more of these popular chairs.

Random spaced out library thought #1: You know your head is in the clouds when you see "entropic failure" on your prescription pills label warnings.

As I was bending down to pick up a stray m&m (I'm NOT a litterbug) I noticed that the table/desks (whatever they are) can be lowered or raised with a little bolt on both legs. Right now I would pay to see somebody attempt that.

8:38pm- (now at the lib for just over six hours) After a lag in chair grabbing around dinnertime (there were even two open chairs!) I just saw the same chair pushed back and forth across the room. As I watched a girl put all of strength into very slowly pushing the chair past me, a small amused smile crossed my face. She apologized for the noise and I responded with a sympathetic look and "those chairs are impossible to move" so she didn't think I was just some bitch laughing at her. Maybe she still thought that. I hope not!

Random library thought #2: I hate not being able to say bless you to strangers across the room when they sneeze. If you say bless you then everybody else looks at you, and they usually look more embarrassed than thankful, it's just a big old mess. Sneezes without bless-you's are one of my biggest pet peeves.

9:13pm- I have left my cushy chair on the third floor for the computer lab on the sixteenth floor. I wanted to stay behind and see who went after my chair, but it's getting late and I've been here for about 7 hours. Random library thought #3: ever notice the library has a variety of interesting (and not in a good way) smells? Although I will say they do provide very nice smelling soap in the bathrooms, which eases my mild anxiety attacks when I have to use their public bathrooms.

So last night I left the library at nearly 2:30 in the morning. Not the smartest thing. I walked home with my cell phone pre-dialed to 911 wishing I had saved the campus escort service's phone number from my last phone. I made it back in one piece, vowing to hit the library early today so that I wouldn't have to leave so late again. How the heck did I manage to spend 9 hours there today?! I guess the library loves me and doesn't want me to leave.... hmmm...

the amazingly flattering lighting at Club Lib

Adventures at the Lib (long "i") Part I

2007-04-09T00:03:00.000-04:00

You'd think being at the library would put me into a more productive mood. But I'm not, so I'm not. Huh? Did that even make sense?

I'm going to keep a time-log of my activities, so you can see how sad it is that it's taking me this long to get anything done.

12:12am- cannot concentrate for the life of me. Attempted to write a blog entry, but had nothing interesting to talk about. Taking 21 minutes off to watch an episode of The Office.
12:34am- I'm in LOVE with Jim Halpert. In love. Tall, goofy looking guys better watch out, because I'll probably be coming after them
1:52am there's a facebook group called "Dammit. Meredith Grey Survived" hahaha. Oops, back to work.
2:17am- I'm walking home in the dark. I'm terrified. If I do not show up to class then I am probably stolen. :-O

in a mood

2007-04-03T17:45:00.000-04:00

It's not that I have nothing to say. It's just that I don't know what to say. My weekend was crazy and fun, and the best parts aren't fit to be posted. Now I'm really overtired and my brain is in a bit of a funk, and I'm incredibly cranky. I spilled water all over my desk earlier, doing damage to some pictures sitting on my desk, and just making a mess, I started screaming and then sobbing. My roommate laughed. I'm a wreck. I just need a good night's sleep, and then I can be cheerful and bubbly and a good writer again.

I've decided to follow Passover this year (last year it fell on my birthday and I didn't want to miss eating cake), but apparently my chef has no idea what this holiday is. Here's an exchange we had today after I had left a note asking him to get us matzoh:

"I'm getting crackers for you this afternoon."
"Um... I can't eat crackers, I need matzoh."
"Yeah, same thing. Matzoh crackers."
No. No, no, no. Matzoh is not crackers. Sometimes I forget that the rest of the world doesn't share the same background as I do, after coming from a community where everybody observed Passover, and exchanged yummy recipes using matzoh.
I then looked downstairs at the dinner menu, and discovered that not a single thing on there was Passover-friendly. Even the fish-sticks (which I loathe) are breaded. I mean, COME ON. I'm super-cranky and slightly weepy, and I really would like to throw a fit. Well, at least maybe I'll lose some weight, so that my formal dress will be just a little less snug.

Speaking of formal, which is April 13th, I still don't have a date. The first person I asked took a week to get back to me, and then decided it wasn't "his kind of thing." I wasn't insulted at all. Nope. Since my roommate loves me and has a whole network of people, within minutes a message had gone out to an aquaintance of hers asking if he'd want to come with me. He messaged Courtney back a few days later (huh, somebody who doesn't check facebook every five minutes. INSANE!) and told her he'd like to meet me first. We went out for coffee on Sunday, and ended up talking for over an hour and a half. I was beyond proud of myself, because as one of the most socially awkward people on earth there was not one moment of awkwardness! Unfortunately, the formal was never brought up, and I had to message him later asking if he wanted to go to my formal. And as I mentioned just a moment ago, he does not check facebook. Oops. So if you're a twenty-one year old male, who finds dressing up to be "your kinda thing" and likes riding in limos please let me know. Nope, I'm not awkward at all.

Jon Stewart's Kick Ass Interview with John Bolton

2007-03-26T22:07:00.000-04:00

I thought this was an incredible interview by Jon Stewart. It's no secret that I love him. Do you ever play that game of who would you invite to a dinner party? Well Jon Stewart is always number one on my list. I also am ashamed to say I'm too caught up in collegiate life (from studying to partying) to follow the news as closely as I should. I get a good chunk of my news from The Daily Show, and it's interviews like this that keep me somewhat well informed. Thanks Jon!

Movie Night and etc.

2007-03-20T03:09:00.000-04:00

There is absolutely nothing fun to do in my town. Nothing. Lucky for me my friend Jordana's spring break trip was cancelled (not very lucky for her), so we've decided to have a few movie nights. We arrived at the video store to find that it had been majorly downgraded from the much larger space it used to occupy next door. Everything is DVD's, and all of them recent. No old classics here. Their competition with netflix, DVR, and digital cable has drastically lowered their prices, though. We got three new releases for $9.99. Not too bad.

Jordana and I picked "The Last Kiss" (because of my Zach Braff obsession), "For Your Consideration" (to get some laughs in), and "The Science of Sleep" which I know nothing about other than I saw a critic say something good about it a while ago, and it has the very yummy Gael Garcia Bernal.

As we were checking out the movies, the sales girl looks long and hard at us and says "You went to Millburn, didn't you? I know you." She did look familiar to me, but I still was completely caught off guard. She started asking us who we still talked to from high school, what we were doing after graduation (sore/scary subject) etc. It was an awkward blast from the past that felt as uncomfortable as something you'd see on The Office. Jordana kind of knew her, through the girl's younger sister, but I had NO idea how this girl (who is actually two years older than me) remembered me. I feel kind of guilty. I spent so many years in high school perfecting my invisibility, so for somebody to remember me shouldn't I remember them too? When Jordana and I signed onto our respective facebooks later that night, we both had friend requests. Note to self: pay in cash next time.

First off, my apologies for my lack of excellent review skills. I'm having a hard time critiquing without giving away too much. Let me know how I do (be honest).

The first movie we watched was "The Last Kiss" which I was really looking forward to due to the involvement of a stellar cast and my unknowing future husband, Zach Braff. I already own the soundtrack (awesome, btw), and had somewhat high hopes despite the random people who said they found the ending upsetting. I figured the ending would be gritty and realistic, and maybe Zach's character ended up with the wrong girl that they were rooting for. Without giving too much away, at the ending Jordana and I looked at each other and shared a "huh." Jordana then said she would have much rather seen the movie as a buddy comedy, focusing on the three friends of Michael (Braff's character). Jordana and I both found ourselves yelling at the characters throughout the film. From the first few minutes when Rachel Bilson is introduced, and throws herself at Michael (with the knowledge that he has a girlfriend). I found Bilson's character unlikable (which is hard to believe, since I really like her), and over the top. She consistently throws herself at Michael, and it got to the point where I was thinking enough already. Then she throws out the cheesiest line "make love to me in my dorm room" which would NEVER be uttered by a twenty-year old college student. Besides the fact that I hate the term "make love" (it just sounds ridiculous, in my opinion), I've NEVER heard anybody in college use that term (in a serious context).

Another problem is the fact that these characters really need therapy. I mean, like glaringly so. Rather than work out his newly developing problems with his wife, one of the characters chooses to just leave her and their baby. It just didn't feel realistic in any way shape or form. I mean, plenty of people leave their spouses/children all the time, but for these characters and their situations it just didn't make sense. The screenwriter of this film is Paul Haggis of "Crash" fame, a movie I hated. I thought it had great acting, but some of the most attrocious writing for such a critically aclaimed movie. It could have, should have been an afterschool special. So it really shouldn't be a surprise to me that another film he wrote missed the mark completely. I think the plot had tremendous potential, but Haggis just does not know how to tell a believable story. On the plus side, the music was great even if it was completely misplaced, and I will say one of my favorite parts of the movie where the music finally gelled with the story (rather than seemed placed in just because the songs were good) was towards the end, with Coldplay's "Warning Sign." When Zach and I finally do get together, I might have to hide this post from him, so as not to hurt his feelings. Or maybe he agrees with me, but is too classy a guy to diss his own movie in public.

Next up on our movie night schedule was "For Your Consideration" from the amazing team that made such classics as "Best in Show" and "Waiting for Guffman". First of all, I was shocked and horrified to discover Jordana had never seen any of Christopher Guest's films, and even worse had never even seen "This is Spinal Tap" (one of the greatest comedies I've seen). I later discovered that far too many of my friends had never even heard of the "Rockumentary" let alone seen it. I fear that my introducing it to them will result in the same horror that was my friends getting bored during "Young Frankenstein" (whaaaa?!?!) But I digress. What I want to know about FYC is how realistic this film is to how Hollywood is really run. Points this movie touches upon? Jews running Hollywood, execs trying to cleanse the film (originally called "Home for Purim") of it's Jewish story, the use of Botox, on-set romances, career turnarounds, obnoxious talk shows, acting for the "craft" not the awards, and soo many more. If you watch TNT at all, you've seen the overplayed commercials on "what is drama" and they discuss comedies as drama, and making people cry by making them laugh, and making them laugh after making them cry. Or something like that. I hope my point isn't too garbled. What I'm trying to say, is that even this amazing comedy managed to break my heart, thanks to the amazing Harry Shearer simply staring at a clock. It's one of the more poignant parts of the film, that brings even more life to the characters. Catherine O'Hara also manages to make me laugh to tears with her sudden change of face. If you've seen it you'll understand, if you haven't seen it then what are you doing still sitting here? Go rent it!

I wonder if I was a better Jew who really knew what the heck Purim was and who actually celebrated it, if I would have appreciated this movie even more. Either way, this is a great film and I recommend it to everybody.

As for our last film, that was pushed back a few days due to exhaustion, so I'll post that review later. Go ahead, talk amongst yourselves...

The Good, The Bad, and the Ghoulish (news)

2007-03-17T15:05:00.001-04:00

I'm going to live in a castle this summer. I'm going to live in a castle this summer. I'M GOING TO LIVE IN FRANCE FOR A MONTH!!!! When I got accepted today I nearly started crying tears of joy in front of the head of the program. I will be spending a month in the South of France taking intensive art classes. The program takes place at basically an artist's colony called La Napoule on the Riviera. For those of you lucky enough to be familiar with France, it's very close to Cannes. I'll also be spending eight days in Paris. To say I cannot wait is the understatement of the century. The only catch is that in order to afford this trip I need to become a part time student in the fall. I don't mind that so much, except for the fact that one of the bylaws of my sorority is that you cannot remain an active member while a part time student. This means that I am now on the hunt for a place to live during my final semester. I will be one of those obnoxious people bringing it up to everyone everywhere I go in hopes that I stumble upon something.

The bad news is that the reason I was able to meet with the head of this trip was due to being snowed in. My dad called my at 8am on Friday morning and told me that there was no way I would be driving home to NJ that day. It would just be me and the house ghost, Tracey. Tracey's actually a pretty friendly ghost, we believe that she came back here because this is where she had her best times, but that doesn't make it any less creepy when she's playing around with the sinks and such when you're in a house designed for 40+ people alone. I lucked out a little, I wasn't 100% alone. Besides the fact that the house director was downstairs should anything TOO creepy happen, another girl ended up staying in last night too. Her boyfriend came over and we made smoothies out of all the fruit that would've gone bad if left over break. We creeped each other out by telling Tracey stories and other ghost stories we'd heard or experienced, and also discussed possible ways that murderers could get in. Not creepy at all.

I kept myself up until about 3:30am. I pretty much waited until I passed out from exhaustion so I didn't have to lay in bed hearing every random noise, especially the wind that seems to wail outside my windows and wall. And people always thought corner rooms were the place to be. How am I going to live alone one day?! I might have to inform my parents that I will be living with one of them after college until I one day get married. Why wouldn't that idea excite them?!

Now I'm off to the Jerz, FINALLY, fingers crossed that the roads are cleared and my chicken wraps that I've been saving for this trip are still fresh and tasty. What a promising spring break this could be...

I know I'll laugh about this once I'm all healed up

2007-03-15T14:06:00.000-04:00

My TA just told me that I need a helmet. Except the year (or two) of only head injuries seems to have ended. Now my issues are from the neck down.

If you've been keeping up with my posts you'll remember when I recently fell down the stairs. And then this past weekend I fell asleep fully clothed, the one time I ever wear a belt. The belt pressed into my much more healed bruise, undoing all progress I had made in healing. Well last night my body decided that I was starting to feel too much better again. Climbing the ladder up to my bed the ladder collapsed. I skinned my left knee hitting the shelf under my bed, I think my pinky toe got hit too, since that little piggy isn't looking so good right now, and my right ankle gets really sore when I walk too much. WORST OF ALL? I landed exactly on my bruised tailbone. Like x-marks-spot landed. Perfectly. How ridiculous is all of this? I am a WRECK.

I need this week off to heal and cleanse my karma. Obviously I'm paying for something bad I've done, but I'm not quite sure exactly what that is. I'm hoping to have a peaceful week off, even if I am at home and not on some beach.

On a side note: If you've come across me randomly and I seem confused to who you are or even ignore you, I'm not really rude or flaky, I can't see faces that far. I have a hard time with that, so please don't take it personally!!

The IRS Agent and the Rabbi

2007-03-12T13:16:00.000-04:00

Just a funny joke that was sent to me this morning:

At the end of the tax year The IRS sent an inspector to audit the books of a synagogue. While he was checking the books, he turned to the Rabbi and said, "I notice you buy a lot of candles. What do you do with the candle drippings?"

"Good question," noted the Rabbi. "We save them up and send them back to the candle makers, and every now and then they send us a free box of candles."

"Oh," replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer. But on he went, in his obnoxious way: "What about all these matzo (bread) purchases? What do you do with the crumbs?"

"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi, realizing that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. "We collect them and send back to the manufacturers, and every now and then they send a free box of matzo balls."

"I see," replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Rabbi. "Well Rabbi," he went on, "What do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?"

"Here, too, we do not waste," answered the Rabbi. "What we do is save up all the foreskins and send them to the IRS, and about once a year they send us a complete dick.

“Why Being Really Lonely Is Sometimes Super Awesome.”

2007-03-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

I can sometimes have a little bit of an obsessive personality, but this is beyond that. This is full blown absolute love-it-so-much-I-wish-I-was-in-their-world obsession. I LOVE SCRUBS. I've been watching it since it first premiered six+ years ago, so in a way it feels like this show has grown up with me. It's made me laugh(and sometimes I laugh so hard I cry) and it's made me cry. It is the perfect balance of comedy and poignancy. As much as I love Grey's I think it's an even better hospital show. Scrubs has made me laugh and cry at the same time.

What's not to love about Scrubs? It has an amazing cast (yes, I've spoken quite a few times about my love for Zach Braff), great writing, and incredible directing (Zach Braff has even directed a few episodes, including my favorite, which I'll go into in a moment). Another part of the show I love is the music. I read an article recently in which Christa Miller (she plays the character of Jordan, and is creator Bill Lawrence's wife) picks most of the music, and a lot of times the cast gives it directly to her rather than Bill Lawrence. I love the fact that the cast is so involved in the show. I think you can tell the difference between the cast of a show that gels perfectly and one that doesn't sail as smooth (ex. Grey's).

Anyways, I thought I'd post some of my favorite musical clips that cement my love for this show even more. And no, I won't post the clip of "How to Save a Life" but I will tell you, Scrubs was the first show to use it last year before anybody else had even heard of the Fray.

One of my favorite episodes of Scrubs is (coincidentally directed by Zach Braff) their 100th episode "My Way Home" in which they do a full tribute to The "Wizard of Oz". I'm actually not a huge Oz fan (childhood nightmares and stuff, actually spurred by the traumatizing sequel "Return to Oz"). One of my greatest delights after the purchase of my mom's new high-def TV was watching the bright colors pop off the screen. This was an episode made for one of those TVs. True to Oz, the episode is bursting with color. That's one of the things I LOVE about Scrubs, they follow through down to the tiniest details, even the color choices.

This first clip is the introduction to the episode, which has two very funny musical moments, the first of which led me to use the phrase "It. Was. Awesome." way too many times, and also sets up the whole Wiz premise of the episode.

This second clip always makes me tear up. I don't know if it's the heartfelt conclusions to each of the character's stories or the amazing rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", but it never fails to get me a little misty eyed. Also, take a look at this amazing shot. First it zooms in on Ted's Band on the roof, and then it pans around the outside of the building, looking into various rooms where the characters are successfully facing their fears. I would love to know if this was filmed with a green-screen, or if they were filmed in the rooms we see. I know that Scrubs is actually filmed in a hospital building, so the building and all of the rooms on the set are real, rather than stages. From the looks of the people in Elliot's room when the camera is panning away I want to say they are really being filmed in those rooms. If so, I think Zach Braff accomplished an amazing shot. I'm curious to hear the film buff's opinions on this one.

This next clip is something put together by somebody on YouTube of their favorite Scrubs musical scenes. I've realized that there are so many incredible musical moments that I could fill up far too many blog entries with clips, so instead I urge you to start watching Scrubs, and discover them for yourselves. Back to this clip, look out for the last music number, which I think is a precursor to the amazing musical episode that just aired.

Another aspect about Scrubs that I adore is the fact that longtime fans get a big payoff from the writers in inside-jokes. Sometimes a joke will span across multiple seasons, and other times it'll be in a few episodes. After Scrubs was put into syndication my brother DVR'd EVERY episode, so I rewatched everything from the start this winter. I didn't realize just how long certain jokes had been going for, even extras (such as Colonel Doctor or Dr. Beardface) have been around since the early days. Two of my favorite on going jokes are the incredible love story of Turk and JD (don't YOU want a love like that?!) and Dr. Acula, JD's screenplay. I don't know about you, but I would definitely pay to see a full length Dr. Acula if it was made with the Scrubs cast. The second clip is one of the earlier introductions to Dr. Acula. Unfortunately I couldn't find all the references, probably because NBC has been patrolling YouTube as of lately.

Guy Love

Remove the . and you've got DRACULA

So for all the Scrubs lovers out there, I'd love to hear about your favorite episodes and moments. Like the time I heard an unreleased song on Scrubs (the first song featured in this clip) and tracked down the author and pretty much stalked his websites and any other sites with his music until the song was released. I actually PAID for a song off of iTunes!

By the way, the subject of this post is taken from a super funny quote in this week's episode. I LOVE quoting Scrubs :)

(sort of unrelated note: while looking for a cast picture I discovered this picture with Sarah Chalke wearing a dress I own!)

bitches ain't shit

2007-03-06T16:48:00.000-05:00

I don't know how anybody kept a straight face while making this. I think it's HILarious!

**special thanks to Madison for helping me figure this out!**

No new license but a new dress :-D

2007-03-05T20:56:00.000-05:00

My car didn't get fixed. Either my dad didn't order the part early enough or his mechanic didn't put in the order until a day before I came home. Either way, I've still got the cracked windshield. I don't regret going home this weekend though. I did get to eat my favorite pizza, and my best friend happened to be in town for her (really early) spring break. We had dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant, it was a lot of fun!

I also got to heal from my rather nasty fall down the stairs. Although, if I hadn't been going home I probably wouldn't have fallen. Nah, I travel those stairs all the time AND I'm a klutz, so I would've still fell. And then I'd probably force myself out that night and faint from the pain in the middle of a bar or something. Probably wouldn't go over to well...

I even got a few pictures in while I was at home. As soon as I broke out the camera Gracie came running over to the couch from the dining room. Then she got very shy.

(that's my lap she's cuddled up against)

I never got to drive the new car :/ because immediately after getting to my dad's house last night we left for dinner. It took about an HOUR to be served, so in the meanwhile my dad, his girlfriend, my aunt, uncle, cousin and I all finished off two bottles of wine. I really didn't think it too smart to go for a joyride after that. And this morning I was just too sleepy. Oh well... I guess I'll just have to make up for it over Spring Break when my dad is away and leaves his cars at home for the week ;)

I also managed to buy a Marc Jacobs tunic/dress thingy (oops!) and my mom gave me my (month and a half early) birthday gift, which is a blue Marc Jacobs jacket. It also came with the CUTEST Marc Jacobs tote which I proceeded to spill tomato sauce (from last night's left overs) all over today.

I'm going to be a supermodel...

2007-03-04T13:52:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first time I've ever seen America's Next Top Model, but I guess it left a lasting impression with me. There was an MTV marathon on of last year's season (maybe?) and when I left to meet my friend for dinner my mom was watching it. When I came home she had reached the final two episodes.

I basically saw about two and a half hours worth of the show. Last night I had a crazy dream that they came to UMass scouting for new contestants for the TV show. Somehow I made it on the show. Let's forget the fact that I'm 5'3" and a half (that half an inch is very important to me) and I probably STILL weigh more than most of the 6' models out there. There were guys on this version of the show, too, and one of them really hated me for being there. But they taught me how to walk pretty, and look skinny when I took pictures, and all this cool stuff that I completely lost when I woke up.

The only really terrifying part came when I looked in the mirror and realized that for my makeover they didn't fix my teeth or anything helpful like that, they dyed my hair back to blonde (I finally broke that long habit last Dec.) and they gave me... GASP... BANGS! Now, I think bangs look awesome on many people, but on me I look like I'm twelve again. I was pretty horrified. I knew I wasn't going to win the show, so why did they have to subject me to bangs again? Those things take forever to grow out. I woke up this morning a little bummed that I'm not on a nationally viewed TV show, not being coached on how to look ah-mazing, but very happy that I am not with bangs. Or dealing with the horror that is Tyra Banks. That alone might classify that dream as a nightmare.

This post is brought to you by oxy-codone

2007-03-03T00:52:00.000-05:00

Okay, I wasn't planning on posting until I got back to school, but the irony of this is just too delicious and painful. In our collaborative blog our topic of the week is falling down. This morning I decided that I was not going to be running late, and I was going to pack up my car earlier than I had planned. My back is still kind of stiff from straining it on Monday, so I decided to take one bag at a time down the fastest route, the fire escape right next to my bedroom. This morning EVERYTHING was melting. I could've gone swimming in the potholes in my parking lot. It was just wet all over. So of course the stairs were wet. It's not the first time that I've gone down the stairs on a rainy day. Unfortunately for me, while 30 degrees FEELS warm when it's been 15 for a few weeks, it is still more than cold enough for ice. The puddles of water hid the ice. The ice that I slipped on and flew threw the air and then quite ungracefully landed on my tailbone (yep, my back had JUST started feeling better), and both my elbows. My right elbow is just kind of bruised, but lefty is blue all over and has a nice little build up of fluid around the bone, which just does not look or feel right. I am beyond lucky, though, there's a landing about halfway down that kept me from sliding down the rest of the way down to the hard pavement. As it was, upon my landing I immediately started screaming and sobbing at once, convinced that I had broken something. My roommate heard me and ran out, a few girls in the common room right below the fire escape heard me and came out, and passerby on the street stopped to see if I was okay. My abandoment issues were put to rest at the moment, but I was in too much agony at the time to appreciate that. You know those commercials where they show the parts of the body with pain with a red glow? My whole body was glowing red +11.

Right now I'm laying in bed about to fall asleep thanks to a lovely painkiller, but sadly my bum (yeah I've decided to adopt that fun New England word) is still red, maybe slowly fading to orange. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll wake up and maybe I'll be back at school with Courtney shaking me saying "it's Friday morning! You were having a bad dream, but it's time to go home!"

Eh, one can hope. Let's just hope that this is the last of irony sticking out it's tongue at me, and that I don't end up returning to school in a neck brace. (Since I know you can't see me, I'm knocking on wood right now)

I'm REALLY into leather now. Tell Mom.

2007-03-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

I need to write a paper for my Shakespeare class, so OF COURSE I'm writing on here instead. One of the best ways to procrastinate is by checking my email. My crazy Nana sent me an email that consisted of only the subject and a picture. The subject line read: "Your grandparents latest" along with this picture:

Yes, apparently my Nana has joined a biker gang. She's seventy-something and skis, which is quite impressive, but this just takes the cake. Let me give you a little history on my Nana. She's married (husband #4) to a very cranky man whose catch phrase is "Goddammit Iris!" I can just picture them riding on this, their golden retriever Jake (who goes everywhere with them) holding on as well with him shouting "GODDAMMIT IRIS!!!!" Okay, I'm cracking up right now, and my brother is probably asleep, so this is my outlet. Please tell me if you find this humorous in anyway.

The original point of my post (before being distracted by the craziness that is quite scarily my blood relative) was to make a bit of a to-do list for my upcoming weekend. I figure I'll check back in on Monday and see how much of it was accomplished.

At 12:30pm tomorrow I will be departing for NJ. This time one of my sisters is coming with me so I don't have to drive alone and strain my vocal chords once again. She'll be hopping on a train to NYC to see a boyf while I get my windshield replaced. And when it rains it pours, as soon as my car had a passenger another girl I once drove home forever ago has also asked for a ride. This is great because she's being very generous and giving me gas money. So first I'm stopping in NORTH NORTH NORTH Jersey (pretty much borderline NY) and I hope to get back on 287 without getting lost, because last time it took me an hour to figure out my way home (although in all fairness it was dark that time and I was still a more novice driver). The next stop is Randolph, NJ where both my dad and his friendly neighborhood mechanic reside. I'm leaving the Magmobile to have the windshield replaced so the car can pass inspection. The only problem is that Lindsey needs to get to NYC from Millburn, where my mom lives. I will be left carless in Randolph, so I guess that means I'll have to borrow one of my dad's cars.

Let's see.... while I will never complain about borrowing his BMW 5 series, he has apparently had a second midlife crisis and traded in the 1980 Porsche for a 2007 BMW Z4. I'm not sure how else this crisis will work since he can't exactly leave his wife and kids a second time. Oops, do I sound bitter? I digress, let's talk cars more. 5-speed, black exterior, red leather interior, hotness. I think my coolness factor would go up majorly if I was spotted driving that. Of course, I'll need to match the car, so I think a quick shopping trip is in store. I'll need a black leather mini skirt, cool black sunglasses, thigh high black leather boots, and hair extensions so my long flowy hair can wave in the wind. In my crazy procrastinating mood I drew a GLORIOUS picture on paint that I will let you wait til the end to see.

So... besides looking freaking awesome in my butt-kicking spy gear and car (yes I'm assuming I will get my greedy little paws on it), here are my other plans for the weekend...

Take Lindsey to the train station, make sure to put her on correct train
Reunite with my mom and kitty Gracie
Complete assigned artwork so I have no homework to do Tuesday night
Eat my FAVORITE pizza, Randazzo's
Avoid shopping with my mom, but eventually give in. This means we'll look at expensive things that she'll urge me to buy with my own money. At some point I'll give in and probably buy some Marc Jacobs item that I cannot afford to add to my overstuffed closet.
Do laundry
Not fight with my brother, Ryne. Maybe bond over that crazy picture of my Nana and how crazy she is.
Get new driver's license (kind of embarrassing story I'll post at some point)
Get car reinspected with new windshield as early as possible so I don't wait on line FOREVER
Steal bottled water and snacks
Beg for spare change from my dad, will mostly likely receive a twenty

Oh, and did I mention the laundry? Can't forget the FREE laundry.

Also, if you know where the quote from the subject line came from I might just love you forever.

Procrastination... if you add an "f" you've got CRAFTS

2007-02-26T02:01:00.000-05:00

Okay, so on Friday night I came home drunk off of not even three drinks and kind of pissed and wrote the LONGEST rant on the blog. Then I watched the season... er series finale of the OC and passed out with all my makeup on. The next day I realized that I couldn't subject anybody to reading this angst-ridden crap. Long story short I hate men, and yet I'm boy-crazy, what to do what to do. Mostly I just hate being treated badly. Is it too much to ask for to be treated nicely? I've become very cynical in my "old age" and yet that's fighting with the part of me that is so much a hopeless romantic that I'm just left ridiculously confused. Okay rant over, it's safe to read now.

My angry Friday night led me to stay in Saturday, and get my craft on. Two weeks ago I purchased two plain white shadowboxes on sale at Target for $1.98 (on sale from $7.99) with the promise that I would make something special. Saturday night I painted the first box pink with white polka dots, and today (Sunday) I printed out all the fun pictures. It is now HANGING on my wall. I'm very proud of myself for not abandoning this project halfway through. This evening I watched the Oscars with my crazy former roommate, now across the hall neighbor, Mindy, and we each painted another shadowbox. My second shadowbox is not as polished as the first, but very Mackenzie Childs inspired. I'm kind of obsessed with Mackenzie Childs, so I'm super proud. I just need to figure out the theme of the pictures for that box. The first box is "Seniors '07" themed. It has pictures of all the girls out at McMurphy's, mostly Guitar Dudes, one from New Years when Dubs visited me, and just a cute picture of my friend Lauren and I. It's kind of funny that my hair color is different in every single picture I'm in. My roommate Courtney says that I'm a chameleon. Hehe. I also put in the picture that is being used for our facebook group "The Loft." That's what all the seniors are calling the right end of the front hallway. We're cute like that. Or just childish like that. Either way, it's fun. I hope that my second box theme will come to me quickly so I don't waste HOURS looking through pictures. I am the WORST procrastinator EVER. Seriously.

The pictures (in order): Box 1, pictures in Box 1, a shot of it with my finger over the flash that looked really cool and artsy, Box 2, and two closeups of Box 2 showing off the Mackenzie Childs-ness of it all.

Speaking of procrastination in the name of "blog research" I have spent a good chunk of the week reading all of the gossip blogs, and I am now a full blown EXPERT on Britney Spears and her breakdown. I even have several personal opinions. Maybe I should rename my blog something witty and start my own celebrity gossip page. Or maybe not. I would just find a reason to spend even more of my time working on a pass/fail course and ignoring all of my graded classes.

I'll probably be procrastinating more this week by posting some sort of Oscars recap and talking about my favorite clothes. I will say for now:

Nicole Kidman looked like a joke
Beyonce is getting on my nerves, she definitely tried to steal Jennifer Hudson's thunder when they were singing
I was extremely happy for Martin Scorsese when he won, and I'm even more annoyed with myself for choosing Legally Blonde to do my crafts to rather than watching The Departed for the first time
I got very misty eyed during Ennio Morricone's speech, even though I don't understand a word of Italian. I could feel his joy :) And unfortunately I did miss a good chunk of the translation because my ex-roomie was chatting away
Does Clint Eastwood speak Italian?
Penelope Cruz looked GORGEOUS
Who invited Tom Cruise? ick
Jack Nicholson looked freakin' scary with that big bald head
The Oscars were kind of a bore this year

Yeah, he told me you were the only sheriff in America who was a true friend of Dorothy

2007-02-20T23:24:00.000-05:00

OH. MY. GOD. Veronica Mars is one freaking intense show. Okay so here's the deal, if you don't watch Veronica Mars I would prefer if you do not read this because I see everybody who does not watch as a possible convert. One day I will get you to watch. And I do not want to ruin this moment for you. And if you do watch but are not caught up to the 2/20/07 episode, I don't want to spoil you. Trust me on this, the surprise is better left to viewing it for the first time.

ON THAT NOTE...

I'm
just
going
to
create
some
nice
and
long
and
useless
spoiler
space
here
while
you
look
at
this
awesome
poster
I think
I need...

hehe okay... I COULD NOT believe they killed Lamb! WOAH! I'm guessing Veronica is filled with the same emotions that I am. Sadness at the loss of a life, relief at the loss of a jackass, guilt over that relief, etc. Just. Wow. I'm speechless. Seeing Keith in the uniform was pretty intense, but exciting as well. I'm wondering where the show is going to go from here. It was always about Keith and Veronica as underdogs, so how are they going to go on from here? I also want to know how this will tie in with the fact that the show is now going to be doing more canned episodes, rather than the overarcing mystery. Rob Thomas is incredibly brave, and for that I applaud him.

Other great parts of the episode that are probably being overlooked due to everybody's shock:

The scavenger hunt- very cute, but geeze Logan definitely has a thing for blondes. Have we ever seen him dating/hooking up with somebody who is not blonde?
Mac and the new boyfriend are adorable. I'm so glad she's gotten over all the damage Beaver did to her. I SWEAR her boyfriend was a minor (different) character in Season One (a la Lucky/Tim) will research
Veronica's jail time behavior
The use of EVERY character in this episode. Sure Wallace didn't get that much airtime, but it was wonderful to see him back again. Oh wait, Piz wasn't in this, so not EVERY character, but just about as close to all of them as you can get, and let's face it- Piz didn't belong in this episode.
The fact that Rob Thomas just totally NAILS film noir. It makes me want to go rent old classics to see all of his inspirations.

That was just so exciting. I'm sure I'll think of more things later to add. Once again, WOW. Yep, that's me being stunned.

Hi! My name is Maggie and I am a CREEP!

2007-02-18T04:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, so maybe I'm not a total creep, but I do look pretty creepy in this picture. In the past week I've had so many photoshoots, that on Friday night I came to the realization that my friends and I are out of our minds. We were at Panda East and I looked around the table to realize that at least five of us had cameras with us. Come on, why take all your pictures on one camera and pass that camera around afterwards to share the pictures when you can try to compile two or three pictures from four other cameras? That's silly. Nobody thinks like that.

I'm not sure what my point was, but Friday was about reclaiming that lost youth from Thursday. Maybe I should go back a few steps, since I seem to be into telling stories completely backwards. How very artsy of me.

Thursday we had bid day, and then a party later on to celebrate the new girls/the end of recruitment. That's when it occurred to myself and a few other seniors that we are OLD. It's been three years since I was a new member watching all the older sisters talk about how excited they were to get to know us and be done with the hell that can be recruitment. THREE YEARS. Even three semesters ago feels like yesterday. This was too scary. Not to mention all the guys that I spoke to were freshmen and sophomores. This led to a minor anxiety attack the next day.

My dad told me a story about how one of his most depressing moments in life was when he realized he was a senior in college. And that's when I said WHAT? I'm a senior in college? I thought I was a senior in high school! Actually that's not what I said, but I do sometimes feel that way. He then proceeded to tell me that it's been eighteen years since he graduated law school, something i remember fairly well seeing as I was three or four at the time. This only made me feel older. In a wow, I'm old enough to remember eighteen years ago kind of way. Thanks for the pick-me-up Dad. Eventually he calmed my nerves a little bit by reminding me how young I still am, and to enjoy every moment of it.

That's the cue for Panda East to enter the story. My friend Cobb decided we'd celebrate her 22nd birthday by starting with Scorpion Bowls at Panda and then moving up to McMurphy's (our perpetual hangout). First of all, I just want to state for the record that the service at Panda sucks. It has in the past and it did again last night. But where else can you get Scorpion Bowls? I split two big bowls with my friend Lauren, and it ended up that each of us basically drank an entire large scorpion bowl. On my hunt to reclaim my lost youth I found myself opening up a tab at McMurphy's (no cash makes getting drinks feel like freebies at that particular moment, therefore you end up buying more). I purchased a shot (what was I thinking?! I hate taking shots!) and two drinks. This doesn't sound like too much, but let's not forget the giant punch bowl of rum and 151 I had guzzled down an hour earlier. I was so drunk that I forgot to take a million pictures! How ever will I remember such a crazy night years from now? That's what this amazing blog is for! Why else would I announce to the world that I am very much a lush?

I arrived home to find three lost boys with a 30 of beer. Which I proceeded to happily drink. This morning I woke up and my head did not feel so good. All day. And even a little bit at night. As my roommate Courtney likes to say, "Oh My."

AND YET... I felt like I reconnected with my younger self of about two years ago. Crazy nights aren't as common once you're too old and too cool for frat parties. Money runs thin, tolerance grows stronger, and last call is at 1am. There is more of a limit. Last night I not only took it to the limit but went above and beyond. Sure I paid the price the next day, but my anxiety over age seems to have calmed a bit, and I had A TON of fun. I just wish there were more pictures :-P (which brings us full circle again to why I'm a creep).

Let's check back in and see how I'm doing in two months when I'm 22!

I will sing this victory song- woo hoo hoo hoo, oh yeah, woo hoo hoo hoo

2007-02-13T12:54:00.000-05:00

I really hate when I have a million things to talk about on here and by the time I get to my computer they have all faded from my mind. I mean seriously, that's just like a cruel trick my brain has been playing on me. And as soon as I've finally posted and scraped together the best possible ideas left in my poor abused mind, the brilliant thoughts will come back. Of course, by then I'll be walking to class, or somewhere else random.

Yesterday ideas came to me as I was driving three and a half hours back to Massachusetts from New Jersey. I couldn't stop, so yes, I was that crazy person on the road attempting to jot down a note while driving. Very safe. Well I was writing against the steering wheel, and never took both hand off of it, so you could say it was the safest way to write. A police officer might not agree, but that's all in the past.

Anyways, what keeps me going while driving is music. My favorite station in the tri-state area is 95.5 PLJ. I listen to that until it starts getting unbearably fuzzy about twenty minutes down I-87, right after the first tollbooth. Right before this is when the odd moment occurred. I was listening to the new Blue October song "Let the Rain Come Down" (or something like that, I will edit this with the exact details and links when I find the appropriate free websites and html-ish stuff) and I realized it was a complete and total rip-off of that 80's song in Napoleon Dynamite. I mean TOTAL. The only thing different were the actual lyrics. It left me perplexed. The song regained some popularity after Napoleon came out, so why would they copy it when it's still fresh in everybody's minds? Perhaps their egos are that big. And after I just got over their cockroaches line in the first song.

Well this isn't a full on rant. I had started describing my drive back up to UMass. Once the station gets garbled, I don't have patience to keep looking for the local stations, which don't last too long anyways since I'm driving through the mountains. Luckily the Magmobile has a six-CD changer. Unfortunately this is in the trunk, so I have to pick out my CDs very carefully beforehand. Usually I forget to change these CDs so I need to pick music that I don't mind listening to over and over again. This week's drive was sponsored by:

The X-Y is an amazing album, but that one is not as easy to sing along with as the others. So yes, I am outing myself here on the internet, I am one of those people you drive past bopping their head up and down, using the steering wheel for percussion, singing their heart out. I've even been caught waving my hands in the air. That is me. Usually I pay no attention to the people watching me, because I'm never going to see them again- except for maybe my next jaunt through Connecticut after a weekend home. But the worst is traffic.

So if you were driving on I-84 at approximately 11:30am yesterday you might have been stuck next to me as I was belting out some Sheryl Crow. Oops! The one saving grace is that it's cold out and my windows were closed. I like to turn the music up loud enough that I can't hear my own voice, thus making me believe that I sound like Sheryl Crow or whoever else I am listening to. Common sense tells me that I possess only the ability to make dogs howl, so at least these strangers did not have to endure that while sitting in traffic yesterday. And no, I have no plans to go on American Idol.

Is UMass racist?

2007-02-06T13:39:00.000-05:00

Even I'm insulted by this, I can only imagine how I'd feel if I were black...

The DC has decided to honor Black history month by cooking food that... comes from extreme stereotyping?

DC Menu for Thursday-

"**BLACK HISTORY MONTH**

Soup:
Tomato Florentine (vegetarian)
Kick’n Crab & Corn Chowder (Berkshire)
Radical Roasted Vegetable Soup (Berkshire)

Entrée:
Southern Fried Chicken with Gravy
Fried Catfish Filets
Hoppin’ John
Southern Style Macaroni & Cheese
Baked Cod with Grilled Pepper Coulis (Berkshire)
BBQ Baby Back Ribs (Carving Station)

Vegetarian options
BBQ Riblets
Tofu Stir Fry (V) (Berkshire)
Spiced Mushroom Pecan Rice (Worcester)
Pesto Lasagna (Worcester)
Veggie Dogs (Worcester)

Dessert Station
Benne Cakes
Sweet Potato Pie
White Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing (vegan)"

This could be the start of a beautiful obsession

2007-02-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

This movie sounds like it could be the male-counterpart to Veronica Mars. Therefore, I must see it. The Minnesota Daily refers to Brick as a film noir, and also says it's "described as 'Twin Peaks' meets 'Donnie Darko'." Not only was I thoroughly intrigued by Donnie Darko, but Twin Peaks is something that helped to inspire Veronica. I will probably be heading down to Blockbuster (yeah, I broke down and got a membership) at the end of this week. More to come on that later...

I have become comfortably numb...

2007-02-05T21:04:00.000-05:00

Hello.... is there anybody out there?

Or just anybody reading this blog, really. Okay I've been putting this off long enough, but I guess I just need to sit down and get to it. What is the point of this blog? Besides the obvious and somewhat smart-alecky answer of to fulfill a class requirement.

First of all, I want my blog to look pretty. It must be something that catches the eye of somebody flipping through blogs, and also captures my spirit. What is my spirit? Well, I'll get to that later, but I want the blog to be well organized, fun, but not overwhelming colors, and kind of girly looking. I want my blog to be something that people enjoy looking at, as well as reading. When I'm browsing through multiple blogs I usually tend to skip over the ugly, disorganized, and/or hard to read blogs. I tend to linger on the blogs that have colors that pop, I'm not straining my eyes to read, and most importantly have pretty pictures. I still haven't quite figured out how to put pictures (ed. note, I figured this out later on) and other forms of glossiness on my blog, but it is a main objective of mine.

Besides the 500 words per week requirement, I would like to post on my blog whenever I feel bursts of inspiration. In a world as crazy as ours, I feel this inspiration all the time. In fact, I plan on posting an entry as soon as this prospectus is finished. I think that most blogs seem to start this way, people need to discuss all the stuff in their head.

Basically, I plan on discussing whatever seems to be looming on my mind at the moment. The blog will mainly be about (this part is going to sound really cheesy, but I cannot find a better way to put it) my journey to find who I am and what kind of world I'm living in. Mainly I will post things that I find amusing, but I will also post about things I am currently obsessing over at the moment. I am a huge fan of most things media related, especially fashion and television. I will have plenty to say about my favorite shows, especially as February sweeps begins.

While I don't plan on putting down all of my information, such as my address, phone number, screen name, etc, my blog will not be anonymous either. If you pay close enough attention it will be pretty easy to figure out where I am and what places I frequent most. One of the great things about blogs is that there is certain anonymity of being in public. There are SO many blogs out there, that you can get lost amidst the many. If I were to write about this crazy girl I came across today, some guy reading in Idaho wouldn't be like "Oh Wow! That's Kim!" If a story is not too incriminating I will mention my friends and other acquaintances by name. If it's something that I think will embarrass them when they decide to support me and read my blog, I'll keep it anonymous. I plan on making this blog popular enough that my friends, along with various UMass students will be reading this frequently.

Short Story from English 354

2007-01-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

Very Important People

We’re here to look pretty, take ridiculous amounts of pictures, and get drunk. Preferably for as little money as possible. We’re not mooches. Regularly we’ll buy a pitcher or two and let the rest of the drinks come to us. The strangers rarely bite.

It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, we’ve even done Sundays, although expect to bring cards for entertainment on off nights. We generally depart between 10 to 10:30, unless somebody doesn’t hop in the shower til 9:45, and then we arrive at 11. That’s never fun. Of course we know the bouncer, he waves us right in like the very important people we know we are, usually donning denim minis and leggings or the most butt flattering jeans we can squeeze into. One of us always wears the boob shirt. Mostly that’s me. Don’t wear shoes TOO nice because they will ALWAYS be spilled on.

Sometimes we have a table, but more often than not we head right for the dugout. We let the guys come to us. Typically, we “run into” our male counterparts. They are regulars as well, who hide in the dugout waiting for girls to come to them. They’re pretty much the beer providers for the rest of the night. When they’re occasionally feeling extra friendly we receive mixed drinks and shots.

Be careful about expressing interest in a stranger or one of the girls will push, no shove, you into him. Otherwise, fresh meat can come in the form of one of the girls’ co-workers or a friend of our regular guys. It’s always pretty loud, so the conversations never reach real depth.

“That necklace is Tiffany’s, isn’t it?”
Be still, my heart. “How do you know?”
“I used to get it for my ex-girlfriend.”
Ex-girlfriend is the universal bar-phrase for single.
“Have you seen that stand in the campus center? They sell fakes,” he lifts my necklace, “look just as good.”
What’s that noise? My heart has started beating again.

The grass is always greener on the other side, and girls always want what they can’t have, especially their friend’s bodies. Not in a sexual way, but in the “your waist is smaller” “but your boobs are bigger” kind of way. This eventually leads to the boob-grabbing part of the night. For some reason it is perfectly acceptable for girls to touch each others chests. It’s usually a playful poke, although some of us have endured all out grabs from our friends. It usually gets the attention of every male within eyesight, although that is not the purpose at all. The purpose? Still unknown. What is certain, however, if a guy were to attempt to join in on all this fun he would A) lose his hand, B) get thrown out of the bar, followed by C) miss out on all our picture taking because he is too busy getting his very own mug shot. Shame for them really.

Once everybody is good and liquored up Bon Jovi, Journey, or some other 80’s drunken sing-a-long fave starts playing. If you don’t know the words then you obviously do not hang out with us enough, or have never been to a college bar. We know the songs have been played specifically for us, because who doesn’t want to hear us sing off-key the ballad of that small-town girl living in a lonely world?

Shortly after we’ve made it clear to the world that we belong on American Idol, last call is announced. Time to chug down whatever’s in our hand, and head on out. The night is far from over. We have no qualms with freezing our asses off to get a free piece of pizza. We’re not mooches, we’re just hungry. Why waste money that you’ll need for going out again tomorrow? After all, tomorrow there will be new guys to flirt with, but they better come to us, because we’re far too important to break away from our circle and meet them. And they better not believe in fake Tiffany’s.