my weekend in pictures

A three day weekend, when the outside looks like this:

Results in the making of this to keep from feeling cold:

Watching some of these to keep my attention held while making the hat:

Reading my way through these (well, not all of them):

Gathering these:

To allow for this:

And just generally hibernating.  We got a lot of snow this weekend.

because it's more than a feelin'

Just so we're clear, the title of this post has nothing to do with the post itself, it's just the song in my head right now.

Last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy was extremely good.  It was back to what I love best, Meredith being crazy, realistic-ish relationship drama, and lots of talking about tequila.  Yes please, and then some.  I do have one quick question - when did Lexie move into Meredith's attic?  Did I miss the part when she stopped living with George?  I mean I'm guessing it happened sometime after she told him he was an idiot for not realizing she had feelings, I just don't remember the actual move.

Other random observations:

Mark Sloan was the cutest ever when confessing he slept with Lexie to Derek's mom (and especially how at first she thought it was Meredith and she said, "oh Mark.  Not again..").

Derek's mom's subsequent interrogation of Lexie was also quite excellent.


Dr. Hunt has some serious issues.  Christina is perfect for him.

 
Meredith's 'alarmingly high' ponytail was great, particularly the hot pink scrunchie probably left over from 1987.

Eric Stoltz plays a creepy sociopath really really well.

I find my mind wandering whenever Callie Torres is talking these days, which saddens me as I used to really like her (though I did like it when Mark told her to walk tall).

I am so ready for Meredith and Christina to make up.

The serial killer banging his head on the bed at the end made me want to throw up in my mouth a little.

I think Derek could use some anger management classes.  

Good for Izzy on breaking up with her dead boyfriend.


Well, I think that's that!  I hope everyone has a great weekend, I know I will if for no other reason than it's going to last three days.  *contented sigh.

throw away day

Well I'm afraid I really have nothing of value to tell you today, for the following reasons:

1 - ABC is a bunch of huge bastards who canceled one of my favorite shows and left me with nothing to watch on Wednesday nights.  (oh, and ABC?  Stop being a bunch of jerks and either air the last three episodes of Pushing Daisies or release the entire series on DVD immediately.  Thanks) 


2 - The most exciting thing I did last night was pour Drano down my shower (who started to act up again this week) and clean the crap out of the tub.  I know, it was boring just to type that.


3 - I was in bed by 9:00, and sleeping by probably about 9:30.

4 - It's approximately 12 degrees Farenheit today.  That is extremely cold.  I'm bitter that I had to leave my apartment.

I don't know about you guys, but I've had my fill of winter.  Bring on the spring!

stuff on the train

While waiting for the train at the Prudential Center last night (after a fun little trip to Trader Joe's - where they have the best/cheapest frozen vegetables) I saw a lady wearing a purse that contained a giant clock on the front of it.  A clock with approximately a 6 inch diameter, fully functioning.  It was set to the wrong time, but still that's got to be convenient.  "I wonder what time it is?  Oh I know, I'll just look at my purse!"  You think I'm kidding but check it out:

Can you tell me what the allure of something like this is?  Is it pretty?  Is it cool?  When you're standing in a store, what makes you look at this and think "oh yea, I need one of those!"  I don't get it, but then no one has ever accused me of being fashionable.

Shortly after seeing Awesome Purse Lady, I was sitting on the green line daydreaming about the tacos I would be making at home, when my attention settled on a group of high school aged kids sitting behind me.  They were talking about normal kid stuff - other kids at their school, band, music, etc (is it just me or are all kids really loud?  Was I that loud at that age?  Probably, but man I'm sure it was annoying to anyone else in a public area) and one of the girls mentioned that she had bought a poster of Kurt Cobain recently.  One of the other kids said, "yea that guy blew his head off with a shotgun the year we were born."  And suddenly I felt very, very, very old.

I got to Government Center where I needed to switch on over to the blue line, and as I walked downstairs I could hear a woman yelling rather loudly.  My first reaction was that there was some crazy person ranting as crazy people do about something or other (which is possibly one of my favorite things about living in a city), but as I listened more closely I determined that this woman was actually just having a normal conversation.  On her cell phone.  Why is it that when some people are on their cell phones they think that it somehow puts them in a cone of silence and they can go ahead and speak at whatever volume they choose with no regard to the other people near them?  I wish that I could better describe exactly how loud this woman was.  Here's the best I can do:  Go outside with a buddy, have them stand a good 50 yards away (half the length of a football field) and then have a conversation with them.  The volume you would need to carry on that conversation is approximately the volume this lady was using.  In an enclosed underground space made of concrete.  And every time there was train noise, she just got louder in order to be heard over it.  Once we actually got into the train car I thought maybe she'd simmer down.  Nope, everyone in the car got to hear her conversation like she was sitting next to them for the two stops she was on the train.  Turns out she was riding with two other people.  They didn't seem phased at all by it but I would have been completely mortified if anyone I was with pulled something like that.  It's just not what we do.

Not bad for a Tuesday.

seriously?

1 - When did Lifetime start showing old episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" during the week?  Flipping through the channels at around 7pm Monday evening, I stumbled upon this previously unknown phenomenon.  Lifetime just got even more amazing (I wouldn't have thought that was possible).

2 - Monday afternoon I went to CVS in order to purchase much needed light bulbs (as my entire kitchen was left in darkness Sunday afternoon) and though I couldn't find any physical evidence to support this, I'm pretty sure someone went #2 somewhere near the soda refrigerator.  It was PUNGENT.  Also revolting.  I'm not sure how that happens, and also how the employees managed to staunchly refuse to acknowledge the smell and not set about trying to do anything about it.

3 - Friday I got an email from Amazon, letting me know that I could now reserve Twilight on DVD.  Because I bought all 4 books on Amazon, it thought I would like to purchase the movie.  On the one hand, this is very helpful.  On the other, WHY IS AMAZON STALKING ME?!?  It also freaks me out when I purchase movie tickets on Fandango and a box pops up asking me if I want it to show on my Facebook wall.  The answer is no!  Why are you keeping tabs on me, Fandango and Facebook?

4 - The AT&T commercials "more bars in more places" that imply if you don't have an AT&T phone you will die.  Particularly if you are a snowman and there is a heat wave.  Is anyone else ready to see the end of this ad campaign?


5 - BARNEY LOVES ROBIN AND NOW TED KNOWS ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  In case you've missed it, I love this show.  It's the best ever, start watching it now (sorry for the spoiler, Mom, but I'm hoping you'll forget about it by the time you get to this season).  NPH is my hero.



6 - The best thing about knitting a blanket in the winter is that at a certain point you are knitting a blanket which you are using at the same time.  And it's warm and cushy and warm and cozy and warm.  And really hard to give away. (my artwork is amazing.  Gotta love Microsoft Paint)

ah, weekend.

Alas, the end of another weekend.  How I will miss you sweet weekend, until such time as we may meet again.

Yes, I do like to wax poetic about the weekends, I love them.  Particularly productive ones.  For example:  This weekend I drank a bottle of wine, played SingStar until 3am, bought a gigantic new stock pot which I proceeded to fall in love with, made a lasagna, vacuumed, read a book, watched two movies, shoveled the front walk of my house so my groceries could be delivered, had groceries delivered, ripped out a good 2 feet of a lace scarf and started from scratch on smaller needles with the pattern doubled, continued work on a wedding blanket that by rights should have been done no later that December 15 (but will probably not actually be done until sometime in March at the earliest), watched football and slept.  I know, it's pretty impressive.



What I did not do was read any more of Atlas Shrugged.  I'm not that broken up about it.  Though there was an article about it in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend.  My boss brought it in for me to read, as we've talked about the book and the fact that I'm reading it (sort of).  It's pretty interesting, how the book is becoming more and more timely.


And that's about as serious and political as I think I'd ever like to get on here, so let's move on, shall we?  Tonight is finally the return of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory so I am definitely looking forward to that tonight.  Speaking of HIMYM, did anyone see Neil Patrick Harris on SNL this weekend?  Can we discuss how the Doogie Houser theme instrumental was comedy gold?  It was pretty great.

why I prefer my books and movies fluffy and silly

First:  last night's Grey's episode was ok.  It didn't knock my socks off or anything and I didn't see the first 15 minutes because I was on the phone with my little brother.  I don't really feel like I missed much.  Let's just say I'm ready for them to move this storyline with Izzy and Denny along (I read the spoilers awhile back, I know what happens).  If for no other reason than so I can stop reading all the ranting all over the interwebs about how much everyone hates Izzy, hates that they brought Denny back, hates how unrealistic it is.  My response to those people is this:  If you hate the storylines and you hate the characters, please stop watching the show.  You'll feel less bitter about it, I swear.  Also, of course it's unrealistic.  It's Grey's Anatomy.  Realism left the building several seasons ago.  Thank you.



And now I move on to more literary thoughts.  It's been noted that my tastes in movies and books runs to the slightly silly, the romantic comedy-ish, the girliest, fluffiest stuff possible.  I won't deny it.  But there's a reason.


If you look to the sidebar on the right, you can see that Atlas Shrugged is still at the top of the list of what I'm reading.  It is taking me longer than anticipated to finish this book, because it keeps getting too heavy (material wise) and I have to take a break.  The beginning was kind of slow for me and it took awhile to make my way through that.  Then in the middle things started to get really exciting and I couldn't put it down.  And right now I am in the middle of a 60 page speech by one guy.  And while it's a good speech and provides a good recap of what the rest of the book is trying to say, it's still a SIXTY PAGE SPEECH.  And it's serious, and it's kind of depressing and when it came down to it, I decided that reading it around the holiday season was simply not the best idea.  It's been a month since I've picked it up.  It just sits there, on one of the tables in my living room, staring me down and begging me to finish it.  I'm so close to the end, too!  I may try to make it my project for the weekend to start working through it again.  But only in the mornings, and only if it's sunny. 



The major reason I'm having a hard time finishing it is that I'm afraid it's going to have a sad and/or depressing ending.  On one hand I want to find out how it will end ahead of time so that I can be prepared one way or another.  On the other hand, I know I won't do it because I won't want to ruin the rest of the book.  I have this problem a lot.  I stopped reading The Kite Runner a couple of chapters in because I had a feeling something bad was going to happen.  Same with this book my mom let me borrow like a year ago that I can't remember the name of (I haven't lost it, I just can't make myself read it).  They're both still on my list to read in the future, but I really need to work myself up mentally to the depressing stuff.  I have the same problem with movies.  It took me over a month of the DVDs sitting in my apartment before I could watch either Schindler's List or The Passion of the Christ.  


The problem is, I get a little too involved, a little too emotional.  I'm not just sad while the sad stuff is happening on the screen or the page, I stay sad about it afterward for a time proportional to how much it upset me.  Million Dollar Baby had me sitting in the middle of my living room feeling completely drained for about two hours after it was over.  With both Schindler's and The Passion, I was sad for about a week.  I still can't really think about specific scenes without wanting to cry.  I get really upset and then I can't let it go. 



The thing is, I want stuff to have a happy ending.  Especially fiction.  If it didn't happen in real life, and it's all pretty much just made up anyway, there's no reason to leave me feeling depressed at the end, is there?  I know that a lot of people feel differently and they want their entertainment to be as real as possible, so if things are a little too happy and tied up they don't like it.  Well, to that I say this:  Real life sucks quite enough a lot of the time.  Many people don't get their happy endings, depressing crap happens all the time.  So when I'm looking for something to pass the time, and it's already something someone made up, I want it to be happy.  I want the good guys to win, the bad guys to lose, and the guy to get the girl.  It may be cheesy, it may not make for world changing stuff, but it's what I like. 



Don't let this make you think that these are the only sorts of things I read/watch.  I try to have a balance, I try to be well rounded.  If a movie comes out that looks sad but also really good, I will probably still watch it.  Not until it comes out on DVD and I can Netflix it and watch it in my apartment where no one else will see my crying like a small child, but eventually I'll get there.  And any movie that comes along that is really profound and affects a lot of people (see: Schindler's List and The Passion of the Christ) I will hunker down and watch it, because I think it's important to see these things.  I'm just saying that I may limit myself to watching Meg Ryan movies from the 80's and 90's and reading books with silly pink covers for about a month or so immediately following.

bonus

I can't remember if I've ever talked about this before (probably, I'm pretty repetitive), but I have this problem where I get completely random songs in my head for no reason and I can't get them out.

It could be (and usually is) a song I haven't heard in a long time - months, sometimes even years.  It usually won't even sound like anything I've actually heard, I can't explain it, it's just there.  And it's usually only one little phrase of a song on repeat over and over and over and over.  I can't explain it, it could be the result of a very specific and musically inclined brain tumor.

Right now the song in my head is "Guys and Dolls" sung by Frank Sinatra in, you guessed it, Guys and Dolls.  I haven't watched that movie in ages (although now I kind of want to) and I don't know how it got there!

To be perfectly honest, however, I'll take that any day over "Womanizer" by Britney Spears, which was in my head in the earlier part of the week (add that to the drawback of driving.  Top 40 stuck in your head for days...)

Now I don't know about all of you, but I'm pretty excited for the return of Grey's Anatomy tonight.  I feel like it hasn't been on in so long that it should be a new season starting or something.  It's entirely possible that when I get home I'm going to have to find the last episode online so I can have a refresher.  I feel like it was the one with Christina in the air vent?  I don't even know...when was that, October?  Stupid hiatus for the holidays.

The good news for the spring is that because stupid network television has started canceling most of the shows I really like or putting them on at horrible times that I don't think I'll be watching, my goal of less TV watching is starting to come to fruition.  As far as the next couple of months go when it's freezing, this will dramatically increase my movie watching (which I bet you didn't even think was possible), but at least there are less shows I will be hooked on.  Then when the weather starts to get better and less artic I may even develop a life!  Anything's possible, I guess.

That's all I've got for today, I'm coming down with a cold and my brain is no longer functioning.  Which is making me super productive at work, let me tell you.

winter evening

Last night, as we geared up for yet another snow 'storm' (which thus far has turned out to be approximately 2 inches, but that didn't stop all the snow emergency lights from flashing last night), all I really wanted to do with my evening was curl up on my couch and watch one of the new movies purchased with my Christmas gift certificates to Amazon (with 4 more still to come, have I mentioned how much I love an amazon gift certificate?  It's a lot):

You'll note that 3/4 of these are pretty girlie.  I recently decided that my selection of chick flicks was lacking.

I have taken measures to correct this situation.

Of course this plan was temporarily hijacked by HG 2.0 who enticed me with things like Santarpio's pizza and stopping over at Floyd's Cove (the new name of Sacha & Toni's place) for a little while to be social.  The allure of this magical pizza (and, you know, the company of my friends) was enough to get me off the couch and out the door, grumbling all the way about how I was going to be back in my apartment by 8:30 AT THE LATEST.

After a bit of chitchat and a couple slices of pizza, I took my leave.  The inevitable "oh come on, stay and hang out" started, but I explained that I wanted to watch a movie.  Which one? they asked.  "Don't worry about it" was my response.  I have noticed that nothing drives people so crazy as when you won't tell them a simple piece of harmless information.  It's one of my new favorite games (though I think it'll have to be used sparingly, otherwise it will lose its effect).

Sacha jokingly asked me if I was going home to watch some adult entertainment (not his actual word - sorry, parents).  With a completely straight face I looked him in the eye and said, "yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do.  I need to take advantage of Suneil being out of the house."  We had a good laugh and then he said, "oh wait, I bet you're going to watch that Earnest movie."  I congratulated him on being right and he responded, "well, that pretty much is adult entertainment for Jessie."  (again, sorry parents)

What I actually did was return to my apartment, put in The Importance of Being Earnest and get out my stationery, my trusty pens, and a cup of tea:

Please take special note of this fantastic tea cup brought for me all the way from Japan by Alisa.  I love it.

and settled in for the evening.  I love love love stationery (along with movies and books, it's one of the great loves of my life) and fancy writing instruments (by fancy I mean colorful), so I have decided to put both of these things to use in order to resurrect the lost art of the letter.  I enjoy writing letters, and in my youth I was all about writing to people who were far away.  And while I am a fan of the interwebs and the ease of communication these days, there's still something to be said for something you can hold in your hand that has been handwritten for you by someone else that I like.  Plus, it eventually gives me an excuse to buy more paper products (and yes, I am a huge nerd.  I'm ok with it).

ps - thanks for the breakfast suggestions, everyone!  They were extremely helpful and I will probably try all of them out at least once (after all, variety is the spice of life)

The proverbial leaf

So, the ushering in of a new year also brings the the vow of many to 'turn over a new leaf.'  People decide en mass to eat better, lose weight, go to the gym, .  In most cases these goals are never realized, or they last approximately a week or so.  Just because the year at the end of the date is 2009 and not 2008 does not mean that I've suddenly grown a new personality, or acquired willpower where there was none before.  Nonetheless, I try.

I have discovered that this leaf business works better for me in phases, and with as little pressure as possible (and apologies to Toni for totally ripping off her leaf).  Baby steps, one thing at a time.



In June I decided it was time to ramp it up, skincare wise.  I immediately went on a full scale assault of my pores, and six months later the assault is still on and I feel like I'm winning the war.  In October, I roped Alisa and myself into makeovers at the Benefit makeup counter where I spent a ridiculous amount of money, and since then I've actually graduated into being a grownup and wearing makeup every day.  When I went to Michigan for Thanksgiving, my skin suddenly dried so much that I felt like I could be used for kindling, and so I've become pretty religious about moisturizing (Eucerin body lotion is the best in case you're wondering).


On the other hand, I've tried to start drinking tea, which I'm doing sporadically, but it could be better.  I am trying to cut down on the amount of soda I drink, but I really need to get the caffeine somehow (coffee is not an option).  I'd like to spend less money on food and work on having groceries around instead of getting takeout all the time, but despite my good intentions it more often that not doesn't work out that way.  I would also benefit from leaving my house more to exercise, go for a walk, or just get up and move around.  Not so much, especially when it's -150 degrees outside.  I could probably also benefit from having a consistently clean house (and not just when I know company is coming).  Anyway, slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.  Keeping up with the baby steps.


My current drive is on having groceries around.  Over the holidays I did some cooking and remembered that I actually enjoy it.  It's kind of nice to have a bunch of ingredients laying around that can be made into something delicious when put together, and it's even better when there are leftovers to be had for lunch later on (just so long as those ingredients are balanced with things that require no preparation whatsoever for the other days when I come home and don't want to expend any effort at all).  It's cheaper than eating out for every meal, and when I buy groceries I'm more likely to shame myself into buying somewhat healthy things as opposed to eating sandwiches nonstop.  I know, I'm growing as a person.



This all brings me to this morning.  I had decided I was going to start eating breakfast again (I know Mom, breakfast is important it's not good to skip it, you don't have to yell at me), and that I might as well try to do my own breakfast instead of spending money on a bagel every morning (which is really not the best idea anyway).  Somehow I got it into my head that I would mix together some nonfat yogurt, a sliced banana and some honey nut cheerios.  That would be my filling yet healthy breakfast.  I was warned ahead of time by Grace RN that this might not work due to the amount of sugar found in yogurt that would probably just make me feel hungry again in about an hour.  I thanked her for her kind advice and said I'd try it out, with worst case scenario being that I never do it again.


Well, somehow in the middle of this brilliant plan of mine I somehow forgot that I HATE YOGURT.  I hate everything about it, it makes me gag.  I thought to myself, yogurt is healthful, when mixed with bright berries it looks kind of pretty, other people eat it all the time, I could totally do that.  Um, yea.  No, no I can't.  I tried this morning.  I gave it a legitimate effort, I swear.  It was just too gross, I hated it.  HG 2.0 advised me not to start out with the nonfat, but I don't even think that was the problem.  It was the consistency, the gooeyness, the flavor, all of it.  It's too much like pudding which I also don't like.  I ended up just being angry with myself that I ruined a perfectly good banana.  So now I'm munching on some cheerios at my desk trying to determine what else I could do for an easy breakfast that doesn't take much preparation (as in, it pretty much has to be something that I can just grab and bring into work because I'm not waking up any earlier in the morning).  Yogurt is clearly not an option.  So disgusting.

Master Mechanic

At the moment, I have another house guest (we'll call him HG 2.0).  Some subtle differences between the previous squatter and this newer model:  this one comes with a semi-fixed end date (as HG 2.0 is leaving the country shortly) and this one comes with a car.  What's more, HG 2.0 went out of town over the weekend and left me custody of said car so that I was free to roam about as I pleased (I never miss having a car until I'm driving one and then I remember how much I love it.  Until I buy gas and then I remember the parts of car ownership that suck).

The one problem with this situation is that last week HG 2.0 noticed that one of his headlights had burned out.  He said all week he was going to get a new one, but we're talking championship level procrastination here to the point where it was 7:00pm on New Year's Day, his flight was leaving at some unholy hour on Friday morning and he was calling around trying to see if any places were open (though I can't really judge, I'm a pretty high ranking procrastinator myself).  As you may or may not know, it gets dark on the East Coast at about 4:00 during the winter (which is really great for seasonal depression, let me tell you), so having one headlight out seriously limits one's ability to go places in the later part of the day without the possibility of being pulled over.  And I'm a total rule follower, so I was paranoid about going out after dark sans one headlight with an out of state car, because I was pretty sure I would be pulled over immediately (I should note that I already think I'm going to be pulled over at any second because I'm sure I'm doing something wrong that I'm not aware of.  I pretty much always think I'm doing something wrong that I'm not aware of.  Is that weird?).

So, anyway.  As I like to think I'm pretty nice (when it counts if not all the time), I offered to get the headlight replaced on Saturday morning while he was gone, using some of the money he gave me for rent.  For some reason my offer made him nervous, and he kept insisting that if I wanted to get a new headlight I could and then he could just put it in when he got back.  I appreciated his total lack of confidence in my abilities, but I assured him that from my experience the friendly people at AutoZone would help me change the headlight (I mean they help with windshield washers).  He still seemed unsure but was probably afraid to come right out and say, "I think you will break my car, please don't touch it" for fear that he would sustain bodily injury, so he just let it go.


Saturday morning I woke up bright and early and headed out for Operation: Headlight Replacement.  I arrived at AutoZone, walked right up to the counter and triumphantly declared that I needed a new headlight for a 2000 Honda Accord.  The friendly worker found my item in the computer, retrieved it for me, I paid for it and left (yes, without asking for any help).  I got back to the parking lot where I noticed a sign that said, "no working on cars in parking lot" which led me to believe that even if I asked for help I would not get it because it would constitute working in the parking lot, and I also reasoned that I am a fairly intelligent person and perfectly able to follow the directions I was pretty confident were in the owner's manual.


I returned home, got out the owner's manual, popped the hood, took apart all the pieces that required taking apart, looked at the headlight in the car, looked at the headlight I had purchased (but thankfully not opened) and thought to myself, 'one of these things is not like the other.'  I then flashed back to my time at the store when I said, "I need a new headlight for a 2000 Honda Accord."  See, the major problem with this statement is that what I actually needed was something to fit a Civic.  Serves me right for being all cocky and Ms. Know-It-All-y.  Surefire recipe for me to do something stupid like say the wrong model of car (the worst part is I KNEW it was a Civic.  I'm really not that much of an idiot, I just come across that way sometimes).


A short time later I walked back into AutoZone with my tail between my legs and the same guy remembered me and said, "is there a problem?  did you need the high intensity?"  I sheepishly told him that it was actually a Civic, not an Accord.  He chuckled a little and switched them out for me.  Once again I was on my way.  I did not ask for help again because I was determined that I would do something right, and that something would be replacing the headlight all on my own (which I have never done before) without ruining HG 2.0's car.


While I have to say the directions were not entirely as helpful as I would have liked, I managed to successfully change the light, without accidentally touching the halogen part of the bulb (which apparently can lead to overheating and explosions...nothing like the threat of hot miniature explosions to make you be careful).  Everything was put back together successfully, and my friend need never know that I did it without supervision (except that I'll probably tell him and it'll sound something like this - "so even though you think I'm a moron who can't follow directions at all I changed the headlight in your car ALL BY MYSELF and did it perfectly, thankyouverymuch."  And I may follow it up with sticking my tongue out).  And I know he doesn't read this so there's no way he ever needs to find out that I originally got the wrong headlight (except that I'll probably tell him).

This new and functioning headlight allowed me to spend some time over at Alisa's watching girly movies and eating some completely delicious homemade pot stickers, and to go to the mall where I bought giant fluffy new pillows, and to return me safely to my home.  And I suppose it will also allow me to go pick up HG 2.0 from the airport this evening.  Two headlights really are so much better than one.

you're a star, baby

So this year for something completely new and different, we all went over to Sacha and Toni's for Chinese food and drinks to ring in the new year.

The original plan was to have some dinner, then go to our beloved hookah bar for awhile, returning to the apartment for champagne toasts at midnight.  The dinner part of the plan went smoothly, though the restaurant we got our takeout from has a limited menu on New Year's Eve and it does NOT include scallion pie.  Which is quite possibly the worst decision made by a restaurant ever, as scallion pie is delicious and magical.  Anyway.


After another freaking New England snow storm (let me just quickly tell you why winter here is crappier than in Michigan.  NE lulls you into a false sense of security with no snow for weeks and weeks and weeks and then BAM!  Like 10 inches of snow in one day.  Add the crazy wind whipping off the ocean that shakes the house and no amount of winter armor protection will help, and you've got yourself a recipe for a completely miserable three months weather-wise) we all bundled up as much as we could and piled into cars to head to the bar (we had perfectly sober drivers, do not fear parents!).  As the first couple people walked in the guy informed them that there was absolutely no room.  However, as soon as the rest of the party made their way in and he saw that there were 6 and not 2 of us, the manager took it upon himself to take another look around and see if he could find a table for us.  He came back a couple minutes later and said, "ok, I can get you in for $20 per person."  After this completely outrageous statement we left in a huff and went back to party central grumbling all the way about our bitterness toward the once beloved hookah bar (which will probably be beloved again in a couple weeks).


Upon our return to party central (by the way I have decided that Sacha & Toni's place needs to have a name so that we can reference the place we all spend most of our time by one word instead of having to constantly spit out 'Sacha & Toni's place'... suggestions are welcome) we consumed more adult beverages (Sacha kept trying to sell us on some drink called a 'French 75'.  It sounded and tasted kind of gross, so most of us opted to stick with our gin & tonics) and awaited the ball drop.


Which brings me to the absolute most fun party game ever.  Yes, even better than Rock Band.  What I'm talking about is the wonder and majesty known as "SingStar".  It's a game for the PlayStation 3, it comes with two microphones and a little camera that affixes to the top of your television.  Basically, it's karaoke in your house with video.  A-maz-ing.  It may not sound like much, but add a little alcohol, 'pass the mic' mode (which makes it a team event) and as much insane backup dancing as possible while filming is taking place and you've got yourself hours of entertainment, my friends!  It was pretty spectacular, and probably ended up being more fun than spending a bunch of money at the hookah bar and just sitting around the table blowing apple flavored smoke rings.


When all was said and done we enjoyed our extra second of 2008, celebrated with champagne and noisemakers and awesome paper tiaras, and (at least I) had the appropriate amount of hangover on New Year's Day.  The biggest downside of the evening by far was the walk back to my apartment at 3am.  It was cold, cold, cold.  Definitely the longest 5 minutes of the year so far.

 

We make the best faces for the camera

Resolutions:

Resolution 1:

Remember I have a blog, and actually update it.

Resolution 2:

Attempt to leave house and do fun things so there is something to say on said blog.

Resolution 3:

Use fancy new camera I got for Christmas to take fun pictures and post on said blog.


Well, it looks like I've got my work cut out for me.  Happy New Year to the 3 people who probably still check this. :)

mishaps, mayhem and more travel issues

Oh hey.

So my travels were fantastic.  Well, let me rephrase.  My trip was fantastic, the actual travels were pretty much as per usual.  Specifics?  Ok, you talked me into it.

My trip back to Michigan started out rocky the night before I left.  Returning to my apartment Friday evening after hanging out with the girls, I turned on the light in my bedroom and saw this:

Yes, that would be the ceiling fan and overhead light hanging halfway to the floor, directly over my bed.  Now, as it was 9:30 at night, my landlord's office was closed, but because that is not an unreasonable hour I thought it might be possible to get the maintenance guy over there that night if I called right away.  Riiiight.  About two hours after leaving my first message, I left a second one informing the answering service that I was leaving town for a week the next morning and I would like for someone to at least let me know when the fire hazard would be taken care of.


In the back of my mind was also the fact that I had someone staying at my apartment from Saturday to Tuesday and that chances were my friend would prefer not to sleep under something that could fall on him.  Whatever.


Luckily, I finally got a call back at 6:30 Saturday morning and said friend reported that the fan was fixed by the time he arrived Saturday afternoon.  Which was approximately 4 days sooner than I expected, but then again it's entirely possible that the landlord wants my apartment on fire about as much as I do.  In the end it doesn't really have to do with my traveling, but it was too close to be mere coincidence.  I ended up getting into Lansing about 10 minutes early on Saturday, though.



Anyway, the week was swell.  I'll do my best to post about actual events later (hopefully less than two weeks from now)


The day of my trip back Sunday began ominously.  Headed out for a farewell lunch with my family I remarked that it was snowing rather hard and wouldn't it be funny if my flight were canceled?  After lunch I checked my flight status online, saw that it was still on time and left for the airport.  Of course, once I arrived there my flight's departure was sitting at one hour after its scheduled time.  Eh, no problem.  Well, the one hour became an hour and a half, which became two hours, which ended up being almost 3 and a half hours.  But we took off.  And word was that everything out of Chicago was delayed, so there was a chance I was still going to make my connection.


Obviously I did not make my connection.  I was supposed to have a two hour layover, I took off three hours late and my connection was delayed an hour.  Which translates to: as my first flight was landing, my second flight was taking off.  Still, I was not phased.  I figured there were probably still at least a couple of flights from Chicago to Boston that night.  I was right, there were three.  The nice United lady with the longest fingernails I have ever seen put me on the 7:45 flight, which was already delayed until 9:10 (central time).  All three of the remaining flights to Boston were now going to be leaving between the hours of 9 and 10.  All this time, the weather was getting progressively worse, but the airport was still open, flights were still taking off, the outlook was good. 


We boarded our plane, we got the wings de-iced, we taxied out onto the runway.  At this point, I began fading in and out of consciousness, figuring I'd wake up when we got to Boston, go home and continue sleeping.  If you've read this blog with any regularity, you know that by now I should know better.  And, in my defense, I was not at all surprised when the pilot came on the air and said that we had to head back to the gate for more deicing because of snow buildup on the wings.  I was even less surprised when we got back to the gate and the pilot announced that the flight had been canceled (sound familiar?).  However, since the only thing I was going to be missing was work, I wasn't exactly broken up.  


We filed back off the plane and waited for some agents to come and tell us when we were going to be getting out of Chicago.  There would be no flight that night.  All the flights on Monday were completely sold out due to the holiday travelers.  Right when it seemed definite that a mutiny was about to take place, we were assured that a special flight at 6am was being scheduled just for us, we were guaranteed spots on that flight, no worries.


If you're wondering about the other two Boston flights, yes they took off.  It was just us and one other flight to San Francisco that got canceled.  My luck is amazing.  Of course, because it was due to the weather, the airline was not liable, so they were not about to pay for a hotel room.  They were offering discounts, but when the hotels in the area run about $400 a night regularly, you're still looking at about $150.  Not so much.  Most of the flight hunkered down on some benches and settled in for the night.  Or what turned out to be about two hours of actual sleep after standing in line to get our receipts for the next morning's flight (now moved to 11:15) and talking amongst ourselves for awhile, and before the cleaning crew came through to vacuum by our heads at 4am.


By this time, we had bonded as fellow stranded passengers.  My two new friends and I went off in search of the earlier flights to Boston in order to put ourselves on the standby list in hopes that we could actually get out of there as soon as possible.  While in line we picked up a fourth comrade and we waited hopefully to hear our names called.  No such luck on the 6:40.


After a breakfast break we were off to try our luck on the 9:20.  One of my friends was called, and we immediately turned on her (not really).  We were extremely jealous as it was looking more and more like we were going to be stuck for another few hours.  Then, like a Christmas miracle, about 5 minutes before scheduled departure they started calling off names like Bingo numbers.  In the end all of us made it on the flight!  Hooray!  We landed in Boston at about 1:00pm Eastern Standard Time, all our bags came on the same flight we did (hooray!), I called a cab (not a scary drunken one, but one I called myself from Winthrop which I'm pretty sure I will do every time from now on) and made it to my apartment about 2.  A full 23 and a half hours since I had left for the airport the day before.  


I walked in, crashed onto my couch, and stayed there until I woke up again about 7.  I was up for a couple of hours (though definitely not coherent as evidenced by the voicemail I left my brother, which he responded to with a text saying he'd just call me tomorrow because i sounded dead), and then got back in bed at 9, where I stayed until this morning (and could have stayed much longer).


Phew!  When I got to work this morning I got a standing ovation, and I was informed that my new nickname is Typhoon Jessie, and also that no one is ever going to travel by plane the same time I go anywhere.  Probably a good idea. :)

lousy New England sports obsessions

Allow me to quickly tell you how I'm mildly bitter that ABC preempted regularly scheduled programming on the East Coast last night in order to broadcast the Jets-Patriots game.

Now, I am a fan of the football, I enjoy watching it on Sunday afternoons and especially on Thanksgiving.  I am NOT, however, a fan of this "Thursday Night Football" that the NFL network started when approximately 10 people nationwide get that channel.  The reason I am not a fan is because people out here are so insane about their sports teams that of course there had to be a way for everyone to watch it, so they put that on instead of Grey's Anatomy.  Which means I have not seen it yet.  Which is total crap.

Oh well, at least it's Friday!  

why not? It's NYC

I spent this past weekend in New York City, having loads of fun.  I was there to see Grace and a little bit of HG and basically get out of town for a few days.

I took the bus down, and let me just tell you how much of a fiasco it was Friday night.  I did a good job (I thought) researching all my options and picking a bus line that was both cost effective and not shady.  I bought my ticket online a few weeks ago, and this company has a progressive ticketing system, so I got my round trip for $24.  Well.... the story is there was traffic Friday night which was delaying everything.  Not entirely surprising, for a Friday evening.  The bus we were scheduled on didn't show up by the time we were scheduled to leave (at 6:30), so they found this spare bus and some guy to drive it, so we took off about 15 minutes late.  Part way to NYC we pulled off the highway into some shady business park area with no explanation.  We ended up at a totally sketchy bus depot that looked more like a place to do a drug deal than to park a bus.  At first we thought we were making a pit stop for snacks or a bathroom break, but that was not the case.

Our driver got out of the bus, met up with this guy, they checked out some maps for awhile, and chattered along, all with no explanation to anyone.  The first driver took off into the unknown, and the new guy took over the driving.  It seems that this new driver didn't exactly know his way to NY, and thanks to the super helpful (read: annoying) girls sitting behind me who kept google mapping the way from where we were, I knew exactly when he took a wrong turn to add another 20 minutes to our route.  It took us a full 5 hours to get to Penn Station, and this was only because one of the passengers directed him where to go after he got lost and calling Boston for directions didn't help at all. 

The icing on the cake of this awesome bus ride, however, was the girl sitting next to me.  The first two hours were totally fine.  She listened to her iPod, she texted from time to time, she read her Twilight book, she tried to sleep.  Well, she got a phone call at that two hour point that set off a chain of drama the likes of which I have not seen in years.  From what I gather, someone got fired or resigned from their job, and somebody was spreading the news.  Somehow, my seat neighbor ended up getting blamed for the spread of this gossip and it took not less than TWELVE impassioned phone calls to everyone she knew to clear things up.  Drama, drama, drama.

I was staying at Grace's sister's apartment in Queens for the weekend, and Alice had sent me very explicit instructions on how to get where I was going once I arrived at Penn Station.  What Alice did no count on, however, was that I would be an hour and a half later than scheduled.  The last hour or so of my bus ride I was getting more nad more frequent phone calls and text messages from Grace and her sister wondering about my status.  So I'm standing at the corner in front of the Madison Square Garden, dragging my suitcase, holding my bags, talking on my phone to assure my friends that I am finally on my way and probably looking more than a little crazy when some guy tried to hand me his cd.  I kept saying "no, no" to him but he wouldn't shut up or stop trying to put the thing in my hand so finally I took it and started to walk away.  Of course he then tried to collect money from me, which I knew would happen, but I was pretty much at the end of my rope at that point so I threw the cd back and him and told him to get the hell away from me.  I finally made it to the appropriate station and boarded the N train to get to Queens.  Only to be kicked off the train one stop later at Times Square because they were doing work on the tracks all weekend, and started at 12:05am Saturday there was a break in service so I needed to switch trains for a portion of the ride.

At about 12:30am I got to Queensboro Plaza, which was where I needed to switch back to the original train line.  At this point Alice and Grace informed me that I should just stay put and they were coming to get me in the car because sitting around waiting for me to get there was driving them crazy.  I finally made it back to Alice's at about 1am, and could not have been happier for my journey to be at an end.

The weekend itself was pretty splendid, it was lovely to see my Grace and play in the city.  I did some pretty good shopping, got to wander around with HG for awhile, and do some touristy things.  Here are a couple of pictures:

The nice man AAA sent to fix our flat tire Saturday morning.  Oh, did I forget to mention that?

 A view of Central Park on our way to brunch Sunday morning

 This mobile art deal HG and I checked out Sunday afternoon

 The view from the subway platform in Queens as I was waiting for the train to head home Monday morning

The ride back was pretty good, I paid $5 to take an earlier bus Monday morning, we arrived in Boston on time, our bus driver was called "Mama T" and she brought snacks for everyone.  How cute is that?  As a bonus, she knew the route and we got there in a reasonable amount of time. 


It was nice to have today off and I'm really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, but at least it's only going to be a three day week and then another weekend!

Holy crap I'm posting with pictures even!

This is what it looks like when you totally rock out your Halloween costume:

Yes folks, that is textbook drunk, bitter bridesmaid.  You love it.  (You also like how great I am at looking really really drunk?  Though I do feel it's necessary to point out that this picture was completely staged.


This one, however, totally candid:

And so attractive, too. :)



We had some pretty fabulous Halloween costumes...check this out to see a couple of the other ones! 


I hope all your Halloweens were festive!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope everyone has something super fun and fabulous to do this weekend, I know I do. :)

I have decided to dress up as a crazy, drunk bridesmaid.  I know, I know, it's quite a stretch.  Either way, it's gonna be legen-waitforit-dary.  Pictures will follow.

So, I'm not sure how much I'm 'allowed' to say about this next part, but I'm gonna throw caution to the wind and tell you anyway.  As of yesterday I have two new nephews!  Twin boys, born yesterday evening.  Everyone is doing pretty well, last I heard.  My older brother is very touchy about the sharing of information on the interwebs, however, so I will hold off on further details until and unless I get the ok from him (though, ahem, I'm sure if anyone were really dying to know, they could always drop me an email and I would be happy to share the news on a more one-on-one basis).

I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Drunk Santa

Because I know you love these crazy people stories.

Last Friday after a shopping trip and dinner with Alisa, we were partaking in some adult beverages at a bar near her boyfriend's shop.  At the time we got there (approximately 7:30) there were a total of 5 people at the bar, not including employees.  Us, the gentleman we were sitting with, and two guys down at the end of the bar, one of whom bore a close resemblance to Santa Claus.  Now, Santa had definitely been tossing back a few, and from the looks of it, he'd been doing it for awhile.  Apparently the younger guy he was sitting with got a kick out of him and kept buying him drinks.  Strong ones, from what I could tell.  Our friend Drunk Santa was swaying to and fro and slurring his speech something terrible.  Little by little, people started trickling into the bar and the bouncers took up their posts at the doors, all the while Drunk Santa continued guzzling what I like to think was whiskey (I think all grizzled old men should drink whiskey.  It just seems right), and his new friend showed no signs of closing his wallet and cutting off the drinks anytime soon.  Eventually we lost interest in the Drunk Santa show and about an hour went by.


What happened next took approximately 60 seconds start to finish.

From the other end of the bar I heard what sounded like a door slamming over and over.  I looked over to see Drunk Santa repeatedly lifting the counter flap (you know, the thing they lift to walk under, I don't know the proper name for it) and slamming it back down while gesturing wildly about something.  People in the area were starting to look a little nervous.  The bartender told him very firmly that he had to stop doing that, or he would be asked to leave.  Apparently (the bartender told us later) Drunk Santa responded by threatening to kill him; which translated roughly from the Latin is, "please throw me out, I've had enough."

In record time, the bouncer flew in from the front door, grabbed Drunk Santa in the 'guy getting tossed out of a bar' hold and made for the door.  But Drunk Santa would not go quietly into that good night, and for an old guy wrestling with someone about half his age, I gotta say he held his own.  As they approached the door he threw out both of his arms and braced himself against the sides of the wall so the bouncer physically could not eject him, despite several attempts at different throwing techniques.   In the end it took three guys to get him out.  One on each side pinning an arm down and the bouncer to push as hard as possible to actually get him out the door.  This tactic was apparently so forceful it landed Drunk Santa in the middle of the street.  Luckily, there was very little traffic just then so no harm done, but wow.  It was something to see.  I'm still amazed he never tried to get back in, but the bouncer did shut the door behind him so maybe that proved too great a barrier to overcome.

The remainder of the evening was fairly uneventful yet still fun, mostly because we just kept retelling the story of Drunk Santa to each new person that came to join our little group.  Good times.


As a quick recap of the rest of my weekend, Saturday most of the day was spent with some friends watching the MSU game (tragic) and eating Cheesecake Factory and then watching the Red Sox game all the while drinking Sam Adams Oktoberfest (which is really really good.  You should get some, it's delicious and by the way when did I become a beer drinker?  Very weird).  Sunday I did nothing (it was pretty great) and during the week I'm as lame as lame can be so there's no story there, as I'm sure you're all very tired of my tv recap posts. :) 



Now then, everyone do your part and watch Pushing Daisies tonight!  If they cancel that show I will take it very personally and put the blame on all of you.  I'm serious. (ok you're right, I'm not.  But I will be very sad)

how i met that other chick

So I'm checking in quickly to tell you how freaking good How I Met Your Mother was tonight.

It was so freaking good.  

And I mean, I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I am SO happy that Stella is not the mom.  I like Sarah Chalke and everything, but I did not like her as potential love interest for Ted Mosby, architect.


Random thoughts:


- Robin is the coolest, I totally dug that speech she gave to Ted

- I want a job with a chimp that throws marshmallows at my head


- the first clue this wasn't going to work out should have been the fact that they were getting married at a vegan yoga resort.  Yikes

- why was Stella's ex like 50?  He seemed very old and more than a little weird.  Further evidence that she was all wrong



- I'm a little sad that Barney can't keep it in his pants long enough to get back with Robin, even if it's only for a minute

I had a totally lame weekend, I did nothing of value and yesterday morning I got a Trojan Horse virus on my computer.  All of these things have contributed to me having absolutely nothing interesting to say.  :)

I hope to have more adventures soon.

Presto Chango

The before:

The after:

I love nothing better than having my hair cut really short after growing it out for a year and a half.

Glorious.

Things Remembered

So on Saturday, as anticipated, I made myself a little nest on my couch and stayed there pretty much all day watching movies.  It was swell.  And also kind of disgusting when I think about how little I actually did in a 24 hour period.  Yea.  It's possible I need to leave my house a little more.


Anyway, at some point on Saturday afternoon I suddenly remembered that I know how to knit, even though it's something I haven't done in approximately 6 months.  I figured I'd give that a shot so that at least I would be able to see progress in my laziness.  So far, so good, this is two days' progress on a pair of socks for my mother:

I really like the yarn, it's soft and cozy feeling.  It's Jawoll Cotton Superwash by Lang Yarns.  I don't know much about it, my mom picked it up because I told her if she bought some sock yarn I'd make her a pair of socks.  I think it's a good trade, I get free yarn and she gets new socks.  Anyone else interested in this type of arrangement, you just let me know. :)


Friday I was at dinner with my old pal Sacha, and while expressing typical existential angst (that would be me expressing the angst - not an uncommon thing) he suggested I check out this book:

He cautioned me that it was over 1,000 pages.  I assured him I could handle it.  He agreed I'm probably up to the challenge.  I'll keep you posted.  I feel like this is one of those important books I probably should have read before now in life, but better late than never eh?  

Anyway, so I was in the bookstore, buying this heavy (both literally and figuratively) book and my brain practically begged me to get something to balance the seriousness, so on my way past the clearance section I picked up this:

The cover makes me cringe, I want to cover it with a grocery bag like in junior high.  I started reading it on my way home (while working very hard to hide the cover so no one would see I was reading a book with lip marks on the front) and it's basically just a slightly classier smut book, but whatever it's entertaining.  It's the literary version of a mindless chick flick, but I don't hate it. :)


Meanwhile, I already miss the weekend, and I'm on my second glass of wine.

My plan for a better tomorrow.

Yesterday, in what was a completely necessary bout of retail therapy after the issues that never fail to pop up at work, I purchased three movies in anticipation of what will be a glorious movie weekend extravaganza in which I will be a total hermit and probably not change out of my pajamas once.  These movies along with the new Netflix movies that should be heading my way (I sent back three movies today that I'd had for over a month and didn't manage to watch a single one the whole way through.  I don't know how I managed to get three depressing movies all at once, but I will have to be more careful in the future.  In case you care, they were Magnolia [boring and depressing], Atonement [couldn't bring myself to keep watching a movie I knew would only get more depressing as it went on], and The Crow [which I did not remember putting in my queue and couldn't even convince myself to take out of the little sleeve]) should pretty well keep me entertained for two days.
 

Anyway, while making my purchases online yesterday, I was made more aware than ever of a disturbing phenomenon that is ruining this country (or at least, it's really annoying).  Every single one of the three movies I bought (Sex and the City, Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall) had special collector's editions of the DVD available.  And I know that at least in the case of SATC, the collector's edition came out before the regular edition.  These are all movies that were released on DVD within approximately the last month.
 

People, please.  Stop the madness.

 

On principle, I bought only the regular DVDs.  I can live with spending $17 on a movie, but I see no reason to spend $23 for a cover sleeve and bonus features I will never watch.  However, it's about more than just the money.  You shouldn't be able to take just any ol' flick, slap a fancier cover on it, put a bunch of random stuff on a 2nd disc (or 3rd) and call it a "collector's edition".  I brought this theory up with Toni today and we determined that some conditions need to be met before something has earned the right to have a "collector's edition":

 

1.  The movie needs to have held up for a MINIMUM of 15 years.  As in, people still need to love it.  The Godfather, The Sound of Music, The Princess Bride, stuff like that.

 

2.  The collector's edition should absolutely not come out BEFORE the regular edition.  That shouldn't even require explanation.

 

3.  Any collector's edition should come with some sort of prize that makes it worthwhile.  Because as previously mentioned, most people will never actually watch all the bonus features.  Most movies don't need them.  Not unless...

 

4.  There should be some sort of drama surrounding the initial release of the movie, some sort of untold story that needs to come out, or a director's cut that blows the original out of the water but was not released theatrically because the studio never thought it would work, something like that.  This is not absolutely mandatory, but it doesn't hurt.

 

5. It should be part of something bigger that would cause someone to actually have a "collection" (and not just a movie collection).  A series of movies, a cultural phenomenon, etc.  This ties right in with the prize thing.

 

I don't think this is an unreasonable list of demands.  Can't we all agree?  Now, I admit that I do own several collector's editions, and that not all of them meet all the requirements.  But the buck stops here from now on.  No more.

 

Let me tell you what the absolute best collector's edition I have ever come across is.  The Ultimate Superman Collector's Edition (which I got for Christmas last year) meets every one of the above mentioned conditions.  The original movie it still great 30 years later, each movie was released on its own before this came out, it included both the 2000 extended version of the original movie and the Richard Donner cut of the 2nd movie (meets the requirements of #3 and #4), and it includes all 4 of the Christopher Reeve movies as well as the 2006 movie, not to mention a cartoon and several of the bonus feature discs, which I haven't watched.  But that's ok, because even though I'll probably never watch all that stuff, it was still totally worth it just for fact that it came with seven movies and a cartoon!  There might even be a mini Superman comic in there, but I'm not quite sure (and I'm not at home to check).
 

And while I'm ready to admit that the day might come when any of these three movies might merit a collector's edition (though I have serious doubts about at least one of them), that day has not yet come.

My advice to you all for today is:  Watch Pushing Daisies tonight at 8:00pm on ABC.  Its first (albeit abbreviated) season was really really good, and I just love it.  Admittedly it's one of those "quirky" shows, so if that's not your thing you might not like it, but seriously.  Just check it out.  

If it gets cancelled I will be very sad, particularly in a season where that janky new 90210 is popular.  That would be wrong in every possible way.  All I'm sayin'