Faith Accompli

3 Things and an Apology for Lameness

2008-08-14T21:55:00.003-04:00

I know, I know. I disappeared again. I'm sorry. And I keep meaning to tell you how my race went that I was training for (it was freaking hot and I'm glad I finished and didn't stop and didn't die though my time was a bit slower than I would have like). Also, I ran a 5K a couple of weeks ago that was a lot of fun, and I did better than I had expected. There are plenty of other things I've meant to mention over the past couple of months but the motivation apparently has been lacking. At any rate, I'm back at least for the moment because Brianne has tagged me. Thanks for giving me a swift kick in the butt, Brianne. I clearly needed it. And I'm glad that you look forward to reading whatever inane ramblings I put up here. Hope this will give you (and my other handful of readers) a few minutes of something to do other than work.

So, here goes:

3 Joys
- My friends
- My family
- Walking along the waterfront on a beautiful day

3 Fears
- Not finding true love
- Losing the people who are closest to me
- My parents' mortality

3 Goals
- Have a family
- Write a book
- To live the most fulfilled life possible

3 Current Obsessions
- The Olympics!!! (Specifically swimming and my future husband, Michael Phelps. No, you can't have him, he's mine.)
- McDonald's vanilla iced coffee - I think they put crack in it or something
- Reading brand new and exciting things

3 Random Surprises About Myself (this is a hard one as I'm not a very secretive person so I don't have too many surprises I don't think)
- My elbows are super hyper-extended and often freak people out
- I am afraid of heights (let the tall jokes commence)
- I am often harder on myself than anyone else possibly could be

So apparently now I'm supposed to tag other people but as I don't have too many friends that have blogs (and any that I do would most likely despise me for tagging them for something like this) I think I'll skip this part. But hopefully Brianne will forgive me for punking out on this one minor detail since I have finally given her at least a little something to read (and I promise to try to be better about updating in the future - no, really, this time).

Karma Chameleon

2008-06-22T19:33:00.003-04:00

A little long distance blogging for you today. I am currently sitting in the Denver airport taking advantage of their free wireless. Of course, I wouldn't need to take advantage of their lovely free wireless if my flight had taken off when it was supposed to (right now). I have been on a business trip to New Mexico since Friday morning and I have been cursed with the worst travel luck of my life on this particular trip.

I left my apartment before six Friday morning. An hour when no one should have to be up and about in my opinion. My flight from Newark to Denver was delayed taking off while we (once again) sat on the runway waiting to take off. Once we got to Denver, we had to wait another 45 minutes for a gate to open up. I was supposed to have an hour and a half to get my connecting flight to Farmington, NM, but as it ended up, I had 15 minutes to get from one concourse to another and run through the terminal to get to the gate in time. And when I got there, I was a bit dismayed at what I saw.

I had entered the teeny tiny airplane section of the airport. The plane I would be taking to New Mexico seated 19. I hate these small planes. They make me nervous. Though I have to say that everyone affiliated with Great Lakes Airlines really could not have been nicer. So, we taxi out to the runway, which seemed to be about 30 miles from the gate. And just as we're about to take off the pilot announces that there's a mechanical problem and we have to go back to the gate to have it checked out. Ok, fine. Better safe than sorry. So we go back and everything checks out fine. We don't even have to get off the plane. So we taxi back out to the runway and take off. About 25 minutes into the flight, another announcement from the captain tells us that the problem has returned and they've asked us to return to Denver and get a new plane. We turn around and fly back. We land back in Denver at the time I was supposed to be landing in New Mexico. At this point, I haven't eaten since I had breakfast in Newark 8 hours before. The people at the airport tell me I don't have time to go get any food because the new plane will be ready imminently. But after waiting for 20 minutes I realize that this is clearly a lie and I could have gone and come back twice by this time. Thanks to some nice people who are willing to help me and watch my stuff and the nice woman from the airline who wrote down my name to make sure the plane didn't leave without me, I was able to run to the other section of the airport (where the big planes are) to get a much needed snack. I finally arrived in Farmington at around 3:30 - twelve hours after leaving my house.

My time in New Mexico was enjoyable and I figured that I surely must have gotten all the bad travel karma out of the way for this trip and that surely my flight back today would be smoother. Not least of all because, even if everything went according to schedule, I wouldn't be landing back in Newark until midnight and getting back any later is just going to make Monday that much more painful.

My flight from Farmington was delayed, but with a 2-hour layover in Denver, I wasn't concerned about making my next flight. Nor need I have been since when I landed in Denver I discovered that due to weather, my flight to Newark had been delayed an extra hour and a half. They then tacked another hour onto that (which they have since - thank god - subtracted). I feel like I've spent the majority of my weekend in transit and it's beginning to wear a bit thin. I had been lulled into a false sense of security after my last 2 trips had been so entirely uneventful and everything had gone as planned. Looks like nothing can ever be certain where air travel is concerned. At least I can't blame it on American Airlines this time around.

Lloyd Dobler Gets Political

2008-06-16T18:15:00.000-04:00

I love John Cusack.

And, damn, does he still look good. (I know, trust me to take a meaningful political statement and reduce it to the level of a Teen Beat article, but really he looks just as good now as he did when he held a boom box over his head.)

After the Rain

2008-06-14T20:00:00.003-04:00

In between thunderstorms I stepped out onto my back porch to enjoy the cool night air (now that the heat has finally broken). Our backyard is not known for its landscaping (though it is finally now mostly weed-free). So imagine my surprise when I surveyed the scenery and saw this:

Apparently a rogue branch of a rose bush has escaped from our neighbors' (beautifully landscaped) lawn and grown up on our side of the fence. Needless to say this was a particularly nice surprise on an otherwise relatively uneventful Saturday.

Even Spicoli Wasn't That Dumb

2008-05-05T23:54:00.004-04:00

If this is for real, then this guy may just be the biggest idiot on the face of the earth. Throwing raw meat into an area where people surf is just the most irresponsible thing I've seen maybe ever. Fair enough if he wants to get himself killed, go right ahead. But this is a hazard to everyone else around him. Why are people so dumb sometimes?

Random Update

2008-05-05T23:37:00.003-04:00

So this whole updating every time I go for a run is boring, I've decided. I was getting bored writing about each run and I'm sure it was far from the most scintillating thing you've all read in a while so I've decided to go with less frequent updates. Here's your update on my last week of both running and non-running related activities (apologies in advance for the helter skelter nature of this post, all the little bits and pieces didn't seem to each warrant their own posts):

Tuesday morning - Ran 1.75 miles, slightly more than 10 minute mile pace.

Thursday - Flew to Oklahoma for work, where I was welcomed by an incoming tornado. I kid you not, I was sitting in the hotel restaurant outside Oklahoma City when we were all ushered to the storm shelter because the tornado sirens were going off. The tornado ended up going past us but I did get to see some golf ball-sized hail. Apparently in Oklahoma, the wind really does go sweeping down the plain.

Friday - Got in a 30-minute interval run on the treadmills at the hotel fitness center. It was much more enjoyable than running on concrete (comfort-wise) but my shins were still a bit sore.

Saturday - Another run in the fitness center. Shorter this time as I wanted to give my shins a bit of a break (I tried using the elliptical machines, but I'm really not a fan). After this run I've decided to take a few days off to give my legs a little bit of a break. I'll be in Virginia from Wednesday for my cousin's wedding and I think we might be going for a little bridesmaid run on Thursday so I'm resting up until then.

Oh and remember how I said that American Airlines could bite me? Well, I guess they must be trying to win back some good will after their recent spate of extraordinarily bad PR, because my flights to and from Oklahoma (2 each for a grand total of 4, as I had to switch in Dallas both ways) were all great. No delays. I think we arrived early on all flights. It was unbelievable. Maybe they're not dead to me after all. But they're still on notice.

More Running

2008-04-28T21:17:00.002-04:00

Today I officially registered for the race, which is exactly 2 months from now. I'm excited to be official. I went on another long run yesterday. 3 miles in 33 minutes. Not too bad for just a couple of weeks of training. I'm really psyched I was able to run 3 miles. It didn't seem too hard either. I'm well on my way to being able to do 4 miles. Another run is scheduled for tomorrow morning (though I'm not looking forward to getting up early to do it) and then I'll be away on business from Thursday till Sunday where I'll get to use the treadmills at the gym at the hotel, which I'm really excited about (yes, I am easily amused). It will be a nice break from running on concrete. I'm sure my legs will thank me for it.

Me, Myself, and I

2008-04-28T20:56:00.003-04:00

My amazingly chic and cool friend Sarah has an amazingly chic and cool website - Pink of Perfection. If you haven't checked it out before, do it now. Sarah has started a new segment on her blog devoted to monthly projects. This month's project was to take yourself out on a date, to woo yourself. I gave some thought here and there about what I might want to do for myself on my big date. In the end, the date ended up being rather impromptu, as I suppose are some of the best dates.

It all began with a trip to the grocery store where I procured the ingredients to prepare myself a delicious dinner. I also picked up some wine and fresh flowers (tulips, my favorite) to brighten up my room. I came home and cooked myself some tasty mushroom risotto along with a salad full of fresh veggies and a nice, cold glass of sauvignon blanc. All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a Saturday evening and I enjoyed spending some quality time with myself. A highly underrated pleasure. I highly recommend it. And thanks to Sarah for the excellent project idea. Can't wait to see what next month's project is.

Disabled List

2008-04-24T23:25:00.003-04:00

Another day another run. Went to the gym after work and then ran home from there. I didn't quite manage as fast a time as I pulled off on Tuesday but still not bad - a mile and a half in 16:08. About 10:30 per mile. Not bad. However, my shins were sore. This is not good. And I got new fancy running shoes and everything. I've had trouble with my shins off and on for years. I've played basketball for 17 years, pains in my shins and knees are commonplace and I've rather come to expect them. But with 2 months until the race and my training only just started, this is not a very auspicious happening. I've found some exercises online that I think might help. Time will tell. I'll just have to play it by ear, take it a bit easy, not push myself too hard, keep trying out the exercises and stretches, ice, advil, etc. I'm heading to Target (my favorite place ever though I should never be allowed inside because it is never a cheap endeavor) on Sunday to run a couple of errands so I think I might pick up some arch supports for my running sneakers and basketball sneakers, see if that helps. The plan was to go running tomorrow morning. Have all my running gear laid out, coffee machine programmed. But I'm thinking a day of rest might not be such a bad idea. So far this week I've gone running twice, gone to the gym three times and played basketball last night. I think the game last night impacted my shin health today. Fingers crossed I can get everything under control. And if anyone has any tips for general shin well-being, feel free to send them my way.

Eggs-traordinary!

2008-04-24T17:39:00.000-04:00

Someone has way too much time on their hands. But man is it fun to watch (even if I can't bear to think of Cadbury Creme Eggs being mercilessly slaughtered).

Running Update

2008-04-22T21:31:00.003-04:00

I haven't been on a run in a week. Ugh, I know. I was in Vegas this weekend for work and wasn't able to go on a run for the 4 days I was gone. The giant, crazy casino/hotel we were staying at didn't have a gym. Apparently they don't want you to do anything healthy in Vegas. They want you to get your endorphins solely from gambling and other illicit pleasures, not from some natural high. And Vegas isn't exactly someplace where you can run on the street. Excuses, excuses, I know. But I started back to my training today (after hitting the gym yesterday and getting some lap swimming in at the Sam's Town pool). I went to the gym and then ran a mile and a half before heading home. I felt pretty good despite having just worked out and decided to push it to see if I could get my time down a bit. I did a mile and a half in just over 15 minutes for a rate of close to 10 minutes per mile which I'm really pretty excited about since I've been closer to 11-12 on the rest of my runs. So far so good, and I'm hopefully back on my training schedule. Next run planned for Thursday, another on Friday and then a long run on Sunday. I'll keep you posted.

(Oh and thank you so much to all of you who have told me that you've enjoyed reading about my running adventures - though they're not so adventurous admittedly - and that you've been inspired to take on your own exercise goals - or at least consider taking on your own exercise goals. It's definitely keeping me motivated.)

Grounded

2008-04-22T20:54:00.002-04:00

American Airlines can bite me. I flew American Airlines in February on my trip to LA to visit Jenny (yes, I have promised long overdue coverage of this vacation for months and I may actually one day get around to it, still working on that one) and numerous other occasions. I have a lot of frequent flier miles with them (teetering on the brink of getting a free ticket) and so have purposefully chosen to fly with them whenever possible. Not anymore. On my last trip, my flight to LAX was delayed taking off and we were stranded on the runway, sitting idly with nothing to do for over an hour. Then, when we arrived at LAX we were able to continue our tour of the nation's runways while we sat on the tarmac waiting for them to open up a gate for us. I called Jenny when we landed at LAX and when she called to tell me she had made the drive from Manhattan Beach to LAX we were still sitting on the plane - almost 2 hours after we were supposed to have landed.

The trip back was even more exciting. At about 7:30am, when Jenny and I were about to leave for the airport, I checked my voicemail and discovered that my flight back to Newark had been canceled and American Airlines had so thoughtfully rebooked me on a flight leaving LAX at 1:30 in the morning, changing planes in Dallas, and arriving at Newark the following afternoon. I declined their generous offer and decided to get on the same morning flight the following day. Of course, it cost me a day of work, but there really wasn't anything I could do about that and, on the bright side, it did buy me an extra (bonus) day of vacation.

Well, that was all very well and good but I had a basketball game the following evening. I should have been home with plenty of time to go home, get ready and make it to the game. Especially since I was able to work out with Georgie that she would pick me up at the airport. Well, then my flight was delayed before they let us board and then delayed while we waited on the runway (again). And, of course, the only food on the flight is that available for purchase. I wasn't too enthused by any of the choices but after being delayed an extra couple of hours and becoming increasingly more hungry, I wasn't really in a position to argue. However, by the time the steward got to me, they were out of food for purchase - everything except for the completely unappetizing trail mix. After waiting a seemingly interminably long time for my luggage (though I was standing next to Tom Collichio at the baggage claim and it made me feel marginally better that he hadn't gotten his luggage either), Georgie and I left Newark Airport at 7:15 when we needed to be at Chelsea Piers at 23rd St on the West Side Highway for an 8pm game. Somehow, due to exceptionally good luck and timing, we actually made it but it was unnecessarily stressful.

Ok, so, that rant over, now it's time for the lavishing of praise. This past weekend I flew on Continental Airlines to Las Vegas for a business trip. It was amazing. That was absolutely the best flying experience I have had in years. My flight to Vegas took off almost on time (we were a few minutes late) and landed on time. And, much to my surprise, they fed us! For free! Admittedly not haute cuisine but, hey, I'll take what I can get.

Then, on the way back, we left early. We landed early. And they fed us again! It was an entirely novel experience. I could definitely get used to it, though I suppose I shouldn't as I will be traveling on American again for my business trip next week to Oklahoma. I won't hold my breath. A word to the wise, if you have any upcoming traveling to do, I would highly recommend that you fly Continental and stay the hell away from American Airlines.

Good News and Running Shoes

2008-04-15T17:32:00.005-04:00

(All right, so it's more about running than the actual shoes, but I couldn't resist a good rhyme. So sue me.)

Ok so you all can totally let me know when you're tired of hearing about my running exploits. Maybe I'll turn this into a weekly segment otherwise it might get pretty bored reading about how far I ran. I'm already running out of ways to make it sound interesting. But since I'm here I might as well tell you that I did my first before-work run this morning and it didn't suck. Yes, I would like to have that extra 45 minutes to sleep in the morning but now that it's actually light out at the time of day it's quite nice (and will only continue to get more so once the spring weather comes around for good - yay!). I ran the same 1.5 mile loop (it's actually a bit over 1.5) that I ran on Saturday with better results and at a pace of 11 and a half minutes per mile. So a bit better than this weekend. I never thought I'd say it but I think I'm starting to like all this running stuff. Who'da thunk it?

On a non-running related topic, I got really exciting news at work today. As I'm sure you all know, I make it a point of not talking about work here because it just seems like a bad habit to get into and like asking for trouble but I will say that I got promoted and it's awesome and it's been a pretty good day all around. And now I'm going to go celebrate. By going to the gym. I know, I'm a party animal.

Don't worry, I haven't become one of those people who would rather work out than do something fun (oh, wait, you mean working out is supposed to be fun. But I kid.). But if I'm paying money for my gym membership I actually want to use it once in a while despite all these new running excursions I've added to my schedule. No, "I wanna quit the gym!"* for me.

*bonus points if you name that quote

Training Day Numero Dos

2008-04-13T17:13:00.003-04:00

2.5 miles in 29 minutes

I am totally stoked. And I now blame the extreme tiredness I encountered on my run on Saturday on not getting enough sleep the night before. Either that or the iced coffee (mmmm) I had before going out running today amped up my energy. Whatever happened, it was great. Before I knew it I had already gone close to a mile and a half. Not long after that I got a new burst of energy. So, while I had planned to run to the end of the waterfront and then walk back home, I decided to keep up the speed as I headed for the home stretch.

By the way, people can trash talk all they want about New Jersey but, man, do I love living here. My run today was gorgeous. Beautiful view of the Manhattan skyline and then on down to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. And on my run yesterday I discovered whole new parts of Jersey City I'd never been through before. It really is a wonderful city. I would worry about word getting out and too many people moving out here but I think it's a bit too late. We just got a Duane Reade and a Starbucks outside the Grove Street Path station. Looks like we've officially jumped the shark.

Rumer Has It

2008-04-12T20:02:00.003-04:00

Last night was the kind of night that seems to only happen in New York. It was completely random but in the best possible sense of that word. The evening started off normally enough. Georgie, Kari, and myself headed to the theatre district to see our friend (and favorite bartender) Justin in a play entitled "Another Vermeer." The play was really good and cleverly written and also starred Austin Pendleton (I'm sure that name doesn't sound familiar but check out the pictures and I can pretty much guarantee that you've seen him in something as he's been in practically everything - A Beautiful Mind, Finding Nemo, The Muppet Movie, My Cousin Vinny, and the obligatory several episodes on various Law and Order franchises). After the play, while waiting for Justin, Austin introduced himself to us (very nice of him really - though it's possible he thought we were groupies, as he seemed to have a pretty large following there). Then we headed next door to have a beer with Justin, his brother, and one of his other costars.

Afterwards, as Justin and his brother, Evan (also known as Evander) were headed off to grab a steak dinner, it seemed as though the evening might be winding down. I headed back downtown with Kari and Georgie to their place and we decided to pay a visit to Bar None, conveniently located directly below their apartment (also convenient was the fact that their other roommate, Tony, was bartending last night). Justin wanted us to come and meet him and Evan at the good old Westside Tavern but Georgie and I were fading fast. Kari was having none of that, though, and wanted us to accompany her to the WT. I went along with this plan reluctantly (especially since it was pouring rain and I was tired) but as I had to go back in that direction anyway to get home I decided to stop in for a little while to say hi. I'm so glad we went.

I don't believe I've mentioned the Westside Tavern on this venerable blog before. But it's the bar we have taken to frequenting after our weekly basketball games and this is how we met Justin who is a bartender there and who takes very good care of us. Little did we know, that first night when we wandered in randomly, that we were going to find a new favorite place and some excellent new friends. At any rate, my point is that we've gone to the Westside Tavern often over the past few months and while it's always been a good time (it's a really chill place and not usually too crowded) there haven't been any truly noteworthy events taking place. Justin is always telling us about the famous people who stop in the bar. And yet we've never seen them. We give him a hard time for making it all up. But it turns out he was right.

First, the bartender tells Evan and I that Topanga from "Bot Meets World" (ok, so not so much a "celebrity" but a recognizable person at any rate - she looks pretty much exactly the same) was in the back. Meanwhile, on our way to go get a peek at her, I ran into a random acquaintance of mine (whom I coincidentally know through another off-off-off-Broadway production I saw him in when he was co-starring with the then-boyfriend of a friend of mine). I asked him what he was doing at the WT and he said his friend Raul had brought him. Turns out his friend Raul is Raul Julia, son of the famous actor Raul Julia. At this point, with coincidences and random sightings mounting, we were already pretty impressed by the turn the night had taken and were glad we'd stayed to see it unfold.

Then a group of young guys comes in and Justin identifies them to us (well, mainly to Georgie who follows such things) as Chelsea fans. Apparently, we don't like Chelsea fans as Justin suggested headbutting them, but it turns out they're regulars and friends of his and one of them is one of the stars of Gossip Girl (he plays Chuck Bass for those of you who watch the show - it's really good, by the way) who in real life is British and adorable and who came over to be introduced to Justin's friends, myself included. We ended up having a chat later at the bar about what a bad influence Justin is. Totally chill guy. Really nice to talk to. I pointed out a girl to Georgie because she looked so familiar to me. We both agreed that she looked very much like Rumer Willis (daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore) but figured it wasn't actually her. (Does anyone know the correct way to say her first name, by the way? Georgie and I couldn't decide. She thinks it's pronounced like "rumor" and I always thought it was like "rummer.") And yet we were wrong, it totally was her. She was hanging out with "Chuck" and his group of friends and they all seemed to be having a great time.

In fact, I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all. Quite a crazy evening in the end (marred only slightly by the 3 rats I ran across on the stairway leading to the Path train platform - yech!).

Training Day

2008-04-12T19:38:00.002-04:00

I started my training today. As promised, here is the very first update of my foray into the world of competitive running. Today I went for a 1.5 mile run to start to ease my way into my training schedule. I admit that it was harder than I had expected. However, I wasn't as well-rested today as I might have liked so that might have had something to do with my overall level of exhaustion. Or at least we'll say it did. I have no idea how long it took me as I didn't time myself (and I probably wouldn't admit how long it took me right now anyway since I'm sure it was embarrassingly long).

Despite a little bit of soreness, I feel pretty good and I'm psyched to keep going. I'm going to go out and have another shot at it tomorrow. If the weather's nice, I might go for a run down the waterfront, see how far I can make it. The next test of my resolve will be how I handle getting up early to do my weekday runs before work. I'm not a huge fan of getting up early.

All in all, the first day went well and hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly.

Run Like the Wind

2008-04-11T07:56:00.003-04:00

Three posts in as many days. Can you stand it?

Another byproduct of my excellent weekend in Virginia (aside from a very successful and highly entertaining shower for the happy couple) was the taking on of a new project. My cousins Jorie and Mae recently completed a half marathon. Impressive, eh? Jorie's husband, Steve, is a marathoner. He's running in the Boston Marathon next weekend (good luck, Steve!). I have a very running-happy family.

Now, despite being fairly athletic and being involved in organized sports for most of my life, running and I have never been great friends. I play basketball once a week and we often don't have enough people (or at least not enough tall people) for me to have a sub, so it's not unusual for me to play 45 minutes of basically uninterrupted full court basketball. I actually find it quite good fun (especially when we win, which we did this week - handily. Go Lady T's!). So while this requires a certain amount of physical fitness, sprinting for short bursts and running long distances are just two entirely different propositions and I've just never been comfortable with the latter. But that's all about to change.

In conversation with Jorie and Mae, I admired their ability to run such a long race and said that such feats were beyond me. I believe my words were "the most I think I could run would be a 5K." Well, this was all my cousins needed and immediately a plan was formed for the three of us (and Chris has agreed to join us as well) to run a 5K in their area that takes place in June. It's a twilight run which sounds lovely. Turns out it's actually a 4-miler rather than a 5K but at any rate, we're doing it. I start my training this weekend. I have brand-spanking-new running shoes to accommodate my messed up feet and odd gait and, at the moment at least, I'm pretty excited about this new venture.

I plan to make this a regular feature where I update you all on my running progress (I can really only improve from here since I think the most I've ever run at one stretch is about 2 miles). I'm hoping that this can be another area of support for me as I have a feeling that my determination may, at some point, start to flag. So if it's been a while and I haven't posted about my training or I sound like I'm on the verge of giving up or not training as much as I should be, feel free to give me the swift (metaphorical) kick in the butt I need to keep me going.

NSFW

2008-04-10T17:55:00.004-04:00

With a title like that you were probably expecting something steamy and naughty. Sorry, nothing like that here. But I don't recommend watching any of the following clips if you don't want your coworkers to wonder about the strange noises coming from your cubicle/office.

IFC and Nerve.com have teamed up to compile a list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time. I'm always quite skeptical of such lists as it's hard to quantify something like great comedy but I was pleasantly surprised to see many of my favorites on here. And so I'm passing along the list and highlighting some of my personal favorites (and in case anyone also read the Gawker piece on this topic, yes I know that most of my favorites are the same as theirs, they obviously have excellent taste). I will try to put links or video up for as many as I can without the computer having a spasm.

48. "Gerald Ford Dead at 83". This sketch is funny to me if only because I can still hear my former roommate, Steph, repeating "Gerald Ford dead today at age 84" and laughing so hard she almost fell off the couch. Even if you don't have that visual in your head, it's still a really funny clip.

46. "Celebrity Jeopardy". Oh man these sketches have got to be my favorite all time SNL thing ever. Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery - genius. "I'll take 'Famous Titties' for $400." "Dolly Parton!"

33. "The Spanish Inquisition." "Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise....Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency...." 'nuff said.

27. "Head Crusher vs. Face Pincher". Because Canadians are hysterically funny. Yes, all of us. (Yes, I know that would make me only half funny. Whatever. You wish you were even half as funny as a Canadian.)

26. "Great White North". More Canadians being more funny.

22. "Went with the Wind". Carol Burnett's awesome Gone with the Wind parody that involves a curtain rod to hilarious effect. (Part 2)

16. "Buckwheat Sings". This cracked me up when I first saw it on a Best of SNL video years and years ago. Ah, to remember when Eddie Murphy was funny and not always in a fat suit or knocking up Spice Girls.

14. "Ministry of Silly Walks". Another Monty Python classic. (note: If I had been the one making up this list it would probably have included at least half Monty Python skits - that's just how I roll. I was happy to see so many of my favorites on here.)

11. "Jaws II - The Land Shark". So low-tech but so funny.

2. "Who's on First?" The classic comedy sketch, still funny after all these years.

I was a bit surprised that it wasn't number one and was prepared to be mad over whatever sketch beat it out until I realized that said sketch was:

1. "Dead Parrot". Some of the best John Cleese ranting this side of "Fawlty Towers". You've not seen a rant until you've seen John Cleese go on and on and on until you're laughing so hard you can't breathe. "He's not pinin'! He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed 'im to the perch he would be pushing up the daisies! He's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"

What do you think? Which are your favorites? Is there any sketch whose lack of inclusion is a travesty of comedic justice?

April Shower

2008-04-09T18:28:00.008-04:00

I know, I know, it’s been more than a month since I posted something and what readers I had have probably gone in search of greener (or, I guess in this case, wordier) pastures. But for those of you who have stuck around in the hopes that I would eventually post again, here I am. Thanks for hanging in there with me.

This weekend I was back in Virginia for some more fun with my oh-so-wonderful cousins. Mae and Christopher (who I’m sure you all remember from their engagement) are getting married a month from today. And this weekend, Mae’s sister and maid of honor, Jorie, and the rest of us bridesmaids threw the two soon-to-be newlyweds a shower. Yes, a shower for both of them. Some people (especially some of the older generation of attendees) were unsure of the whole couple’s shower thing, but it was such a great time. Everybody got to hang out and have a good time and while tea pots and luggage may not have been exactly Chris’s idea of exciting presents, the digital camera that he and Mae received from his parents. I imagine he’ll also be pretty pleased (later on) with the presents the girls gave Mae after the men were swiftly ushered outside to begin setting up the piñata for the games. But he’ll have to wait a while for those.

Fun with opening presents

After the presents, those tough enough to brave the early Spring winds adjourned to the backyard for games and fun involving piñatas.....and, oars?

Mae is clearly ready to show that pinata who's boss.

Did I mention the shower was Mexican themed? It was. Complete with beautiful senorita bride and bridesmaids:

And now, the lucky groom and handsome groomsmen (even if they aren't themed - oh and there's also two missing, for those of you who weren't able to do the math).

And finally, here's the happy couple, scooping up their fun honeymoon loot. One month from today, May 9, 2008, they will be married. And I couldn't be happier for them. I'm so looking forward to being a part of their special day.

Congratulations (again) Mae and Chris!

Happy Birthday!

2008-02-25T12:09:00.001-05:00

The PATH train is 100 years old today, and in honor of this momentous occasion, all PATH rides are free til 11pm. So who wants to come hang out New Jersey tonight? Come on, you know you're all dying to and the only thing that was keeping you from spending more time in my lovely home state was that pesky $1.50 charge (even though it's cheaper than the subway). Right? I mean that's why you all don't come visit more often? Isn't it?

Just Slightly Above Awesome

2008-02-25T11:50:00.004-05:00

I know I've been really sporadic with the posting of late but I promise that some new posts are on their way about my recent vacation to sunny California. Work stuff has been hectic recently and apparently it's sapped my creative energy (i.e. apparently I have nothing funny or interesting to say) but once I get that straightened out, vacation stories (involving weird fermented mushroom crap, wine tasting, and surfing) will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, have you all seen Jimmy Kimmel's awesome response to Sarah Silverman's video? The celebrity cameos are out of control.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

2008-02-05T07:42:00.000-05:00

Ok so it's been a month since I posted. I kinda got out of the habit. Sorry about that. (Oh and in case anyone was keeping track, my blog officially turned 1, oh, like a couple weeks ago. But I was busy hanging out with my awesome cousins who were visiting so no lame commemorative posts here.)

So check out this awesome video (sort of safe for work) from the Jimmy Kimmel show, including my favorite joke from "Good Will Hunting".

Hat tip to Luke for sending me this link.

Love at First Sight

2008-01-04T22:01:00.000-05:00

Those of you who know my (and probably some of those of you who don't) know that for a while now I've been looking for a special relationship in my life. Well, I thought you would all be pleased to know that I've found it. Yes, I've found a relationship which brings joy to me every day. I can't wait to rush home from work every night to spend time with my new special someone. It's still really new and we're still getting to know one another, but he's so thoughtful. He's always doing nice things for me and figuring out what I'll like. And he's so smart. He knows what I'm thinking and what I like seemingly before I even tell him. And he's so low maintenance and, best of all, easily turned on.

Maybe some of you already saw where this was going, but in case you didn't, yes, my new special relationship is with my new TiVo. I love my TiVo more than it is natural to love any appliance (although my friend, Georgie, loves her iPhone - Frank - an awful lot so apparently I'm not alone in my intense love for my new electronic boyfriend). I've had my TiVo (which was given to me as a Christmas present by my incredibly thoughtful parents) for 5 days now and already I cannot imagine being parted from it. The TiVo is simply amazing, and now I know what everyone has been going on about all this time. I'll try not to gush too much, but it's going to be hard.

I had no idea how much the TiVo could do for me. Already it's set to tape all the new episodes of my favorite shows so I'll never miss another one. In addition, I've told it some of my preferences and it's taped a whole slew of shows it thinks I will enjoy (and 9 times out of 10 it is totally right - it's so nice to come home from work to find an episode of "Gilmore Girls" or "Friends" to while away some time with while there's nothing good on tv). I can tell the TiVo certain actors I like or interests I have and it will find shows for me including these elements. OH! And if I'm at work (or wherever) and I realize there's something fantastic on tv that night but I haven't told the lovely TiVo to tape it, that's ok, because I can go online and program my TiVo from there. I can use my TiVo to look at the 5-day weather forecast for Jersey City (or anywhere else for that matter) or look at movie showings in my area and even book tickets. Seriously. Ok, I know, I sound like a commercial. I swear, I'm done with the gushing now.

There is one serious problem, though. My TiVo is without a name. I've come up with a few possible options but I can't seem to settle on anything so I thought I'd throw it open to all of you. So there's a poll below where you can weigh in on the options or write in with your own response (though I couldn't get the poll to do a write in option, so if you want to write in your own name, you'll have to put it on the comments section). Help me give my electronic boyfriend a proper name.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:23:00.000-05:00

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve. Personally, I've never been a big fan of New Year's Eve. There's all this pressure to go out and celebrate and have a good time, and I always feel like the end result never quite lives up to the expectations. It's forced fun, and it never really delivers. I would prefer to have a low-key night in with friends than some big night out. And thankfully for me, that's exactly what I got last night. I got to spend New Year's Eve 2007 with a great group of people, and I had a wonderful time. And while, inevitably, the evening didn't go entirely as I had expected (does it ever?), it was still one of the best New Year's I've had in recent memory.

I know some people are anxious to put 2007 behind them and move onto 2008. Like them, I'm looking forward to this new year and whatever it may bring, but for me 2007 was a pretty good year. I got a new job which I'm enjoying and excelling at. I've been able to spend a lot of time with friends and family, and, most importantly, I made so many great new friends last year. In fact, part of what made last night so great was the fact that, aside from my friend Wendy who came along with me and who I've known for years, all of the friends I rang in the new year with I met in 2007. So that was pretty awesome. Here's the closest thing I've got to a group shot from our celebration:

Such a happy little circle. Singing and dancing and laughing and lots of general merriment and fun. All in all, it was a great night.* I want to thank everyone for a fantastic evening and wish you all a great 2008. In closing, a few more fun pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

*Aside from the part where my finger got caught in the door on the cab ride home - that sucked.

White Christmas

2007-12-30T20:10:00.000-05:00

In case anyone (stuck in the rainy and gray NY area this holiday season) was wondering what Christmas in Canada looks like:

Pretty, eh?

Canadian Humor

2007-12-30T18:49:00.001-05:00

I'm back from the great frozen North! I was visiting my parents in Canada for Christmas (yes, it was a wonderful time, thank you for asking), and while I was there, I saw the following cartoon in the Ottawa Citizen which I got a huge kick out of. The rest of the world may enjoy taking a few good swipes at Canada every now and then, but Canadians can definitely take a joke and, as you will see below, are pretty good at not taking themselves too seriously either. Probably only Canadians (or Americans with a deep love of Tim Hortons) will appreciate it, but my mom and I thought it was hysterical. And so now I share it with all of you. Enjoy!

Cartoon by Cam Cardow for The Ottawa Citizen

No Crocodiles, No Rhinoceroses

2007-12-20T16:20:00.000-05:00

Apparently the internet has caught on to my mom's favorite Christmas song (to which the two us regularly dance around like crazy people while the dog stares at us).

Happy Holidays! Enjoy!

Crazy Canucks

2007-11-30T17:50:00.000-05:00

I have taken notice on past visits to my parents in the frozen land to the North (aka Canada - or Canadia as my good friend Mr. Westbrook would have me call it) that the commercials on Canadian channels are often quite different than American channels and often in highly amusing ways. On my most recent visit for Thanksgiving, my mother and I were watching tv and came across what started off as a pretty harmless commercial and which, at first, seemed like it might be another of those hilarious Canadian advertisements, but it soon turned into the most terrifying public service announcement I've ever seen. Apparently Canadians take their personal safety very seriously.

We've come a long way from "This is your brain on drugs."

Awesome

2007-11-30T17:38:00.000-05:00

Hollywood gets in on the fun of making fun of scripted reality. I just love anyone who makes fun of Justin Bobby (who James Franco is eerily good at impersonating).

Punintentional

2007-11-30T08:15:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't given you guys that much to read recently, in the wake of all the exciting National Book Award news, but at least I haven't abandoned the blogosphere entirely. You can go here and check out the pretty amazing pun war that took place over the past few days over on Where's Luke?. It's pretty amazing. Those boys can really get their pun on.

National Book Award Wrap-Up

2007-11-16T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well, as some of you may have already heard, Jim unfortunately did not win the National Book Award. The fiction prize went instead to Denis Johnson. Sherman Alexie won the Young People's Literature award. Robert Hass won for poetry and Tim Weiner for nonfiction. So no win for Christopher Hitchens either.

Though, apparently, Hitchens had quite an interesting evening at the awards banquet. At first I thought these headlines were deliberately exaggerating the events of the evening, but apparently not. I saw Jim last night at an event at Issue Project Room out in Brooklyn and asked him if Hichens had offered him a feel as well. Apparently not, as Jim looked at me like I had finally lost my mind. I explained what had transpired and he basically said that if you walk up to Christopher Hitchens and inquire about the state of his nether region, you're basically asking for something along those lines. Fair enough.

And speaking of the infamous Mr. Hitchens, there hasn't been too much coverage (that I've seen at any rate) about the tempestuous reading on Tuesday. Which I guess explains the jump in my readership over the past couple of days. Sara Zarr, one of the other Young People's Fiction finalists (who also, alas, did not win) put a link to my post from her website, which I thought was great. Seems she agreed with my take on the events of the evening. I sent her an email to thank her for the link and congratulate her on the nomination and she sent me a very lovely email in return, even explaining how one goes about getting into the NBA banquet (apparently a hefty donation to the National Book Foundation will do it - or being nominated of course, though I think I have a better shot at coming up with the cash than an exemplary piece of prose).

And if you haven't yet had your fill of all things book award related, here are some more links (including pictures of Jim and his lovely wife, Karen). And if you STILL haven't gone out and bought Jim's book (or at least checked it out from your local library) what the hell are you waiting for? How many times do I have to tell you people? (No, I'm not getting a commission, I just really love this book.)

National Book Award Fun

2007-11-13T22:53:00.000-05:00

I just got home from a reading conducted by all 20 nominees for the 2007 National Book Award. What an amazing event. I love that they have this sort of thing open to the public. I received an invitation to attend last night's 5 under 35 National Book Foundation event as well. I didn't go but after hearing today about what a success it was and how many people from the literary world were there, I'm very sad I didn't and am mentally marking it on my calendar for next year (provided I'm lucky enough to get an invitation). But back to tonight's event. Here is the rundown of the nominees:

Fiction
Denis Johnson - Tree of Smoke
Jim Shepard - Like You'd Understand, Anyway
Joshua Ferris - Then We Came to the End
Lydia Davis - Varieties of Disturbances: Stories
Mischa Berlinski - Fieldwork

Poetry
Ellen Bryant Voigt - Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006
Stanley Plumley - Old Heart
David Kirby - The House on Boulevard St.
Robert Hass - Time and Materials
Linda Gregerson - Magnetic North

Nonfiction
Tim Weiner - Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA
Arnold Rampersad - Ralph Ellison: A Biography
Woody Holton - Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Christopher Hitchens - God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Edwidge Danticat - Brother, I'm Dying

Young People's Literature
Sara Zarr - Story of a Girl
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
M. Sindy Felin - Touching Snow
Kathleen Duey - Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic, Part One
Sherman Alexie - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Now, as you look over this list, if you recognize no other name (not even the one I've mentioned to you all before), I'm sure there's one there that jumps out to you based on the number of times it's popped up in the news recently. Yes, I'm referring to Mr. Christopher Hitchens, the outspoken and often acerbic journalist and critic who is practically guaranteed to incite controversy wherever he goes.

When I first heard of this event with all 20 authors I wondered if, in fact, Hitchens would attend. Not that I know all that much about him, but it seemed perhaps not quite his style. I have to say that from all I've heard about him, when he entered the auditorium before the event began, just quietly milling about the seating, I was a bit in awe to be in such close proximity to such a famous (or perhaps infamous would be better in this case) individual and one who had created such a stir in the literary (and political and religious) community. I watched aghast as these two older women walked right up to him and started chatting. I have no idea what I would say to Christopher Hitchens but I think I would be woefully out of my element. Ok, so I realize I'm making him sound a bit like Elvis or something and I'm not saying that I agree with all (or any) of his strongly held opinions, but, no matter, his ideas or the sometimes off-putting way he expresses them, he is a commanding presence and a major figure. And based on his presence there tonight, I should have foreseen some of the following events.

The speaker before Hitchens, Robert Hass, before reading his poem about a waiter named Dmitri, made a small anti-war statement. Well, we all should have seen where this would end up. As Jim, pointed out to me after the event was over, with Hitchens on the roster of readers, it was bound to be an interesting night from the get go. So when Hitchens took the stage he made a remark along the lines of being proud of some battle we had just won (I can't remember the specifics, but if I dig more up later, I'll update accordingly) and how he didn't understand how anyone who called themselves a writer or a humanist could call for a removal of troops at this point. And it was at this point that members of the audience began to hiss and boo and shout at Hitchens.

I know that this is frequently the reaction that Hitchens receives when he makes inflammatory statements, and perhaps this wasn't quite the right venue for such a speech, but the door had been opened by a previous speaker so it's not like he went out on that limb by himself. And I have to say that I was really shocked by the reaction of the crowd. This was an event for the National Book Award for crying out loud and it sounded as if it had been infiltrated by a nest of vipers. It really seemed immature and out of place.

Really? Is hissing the best you can come up with? This isn't a middle school talent show. We all payed our money to hear these people read (ok, I know we didn't pay money to hear pro-war rhetoric but nor did we pay to hear anti-war speeches, and everyone was entitled to their five minutes and it seems childish to try and drown it out with sibilance). One man in my row was actually yelling at Hitchens, things such as "You're disgraceful" and "Go home!" To me, this is just plain disrespectful. We were there to honor these people and their contribution to the written word. This was not only an attack on Hitchens but an affront to the event itself and to the other writers being honored. Do you think they wanted their otherwise perfectly nice and congenial evening marred by such behavior (even if it wasn't directed at them)?

Also, I wonder what they thought they would accomplish. Their hisses and jeers only egged Hitchens on and urged him to yell louder over the growing discontent. He obviously thrives on the rise he gets out of people (you don't write a book called God Is Not Great without intending to stir up people's emotions). I was grateful when Sherman Alexie, who was two slots after Hitchens, chose to address the situation in a very graceful way. He quoted Fitzgerald who once wrote: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise." He continued by saying that while he agreed with Hitchens on some points he disagreed with him on others and that he could hold these opposing views in his head and retain the ability to function, without resorting to hissing and booing. He said that, to him, hissing has always sounded like "the dreams and ambitions of white liberals escaping." Awesome. He said to those people in less than 10 words what few of us (myself included obviously with all of my rambling paragraphs) would have been able to accomplish in pages more. Which probably explains why he's nominated in the first place.

Now, aside from all the politically-fueled drama, a few other notes on some of the other authors. The Invention of Hugo Cabret from the Young People's Literature category (on which, though I haven't read it, I helped one of my darling babysitting charges with a book talk) is wildly inventive and fun. The book is over 500 pages long but more than half of those pages are pictures. And these pictures don't just illustrate the story, as we saw tonight, but actually take the place of narrative at certain points, rather like full-page (or double-page in some cases) comic frames. As you might imagine, the author is a lot of fun as well, putting his reading (which included many of these images) on projector accompanied by suitable music. For the record he was also wearing a shiny silver suit and even shinier silver shoes.

Joshua Ferris's excerpt from Then We Came to the End was infinitely amusing and has definitely been added to my "To Read" list. The man sitting next to me, with whom I had struck up a conversation, told me that he collects modern first editions and that he was going to go out and buy this with the idea that Mr. Ferris will go on to great things (it appears as if he's already off to a pretty good start - and actually that's not a bad idea, investing in a first edition of any of these books from this list could turn out to be an excellent idea. I've been working on my own small modern first edition collection myself).

Denis Johnson's excerpt was read by actor Neal Huff, from "The Wire" a show that I don't watch but that I am told is exceptional. He is an excellent reader. Though, fair enough, it is basically his job.

And finally, Mischa Berlinski's Fieldwork also piqued my interest, being set in some native tribe from the point of view of the visiting anthropologist. Mr. Berlinski bears a rather striking resemblance to a young Woody Allen, though thankfully he sounds nothing like him.

The winners will be announced at a big shindig tomorrow (not sure what one does to get invited to this big even of the week, maybe I can figure it out by next year). I have my fingers crossed for Jim. He told me tonight that it's really just an honor to be a finalist. With 1184 nominated titles (out of the tens of thousands published), I'm sure that's very true. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be a part of such a prestigious group for an award with such an honorable literary legacy. But I'm hoping he wins anyway. I'll keep you all posted. I'm sure you are waiting with breath that is bated.

Autumn in New York*

2007-11-09T07:43:00.000-05:00

*As explained to me last night by my friend Matt and as evidenced by today's weather (um, expected snow showers? what?!)

"Hey, it's starting to feel a bit like f---- HOLY CRAP IT'S COLD OUTSIDE!"

Where's the Love?

2007-11-07T23:14:00.000-05:00

So I've finally sucked it up and joined the world of internet dating. And not just the 7-day free trial this time either. I paid money and everything. I even had a friend help me write my online dating profile. Is there anything worse than writing an online dating profile, by the way? It's like the college application essay all over again, but way worse. All of the selling yourself without any of the redeeming social value. There's a fine line to walk between selling yourself enough to make men meet that they must meet you but not so much that you seem like a pretentious bitch. This is a very very difficult line to walk.

But here's my real beef with the match.com profile. There are a list of traits/attributes which you can mark as either turn-ons, turn-offs, or no opinion. Here's a sample: brainiacs, flirting, long hair, money, power, sarcasm, tattoos, thunderstorms. It's an interesting list. First of all, while I thoroughly enjoy watching a good thunderstorm, I'm not sure I would call it a turn-on. But what really gets me is the long hair option. About 99.8% of men I have encountered on match.com have listed long hair as a turn-on. Now, it's not the first time I've hear that men like women with long hair. As you may recall, this has come up at least once before. However, I didn't realize it was so prevalent. Why has no one mentioned this to me? Why are there not more warnings? Why is no one standing outside of hair salons handing out fliers warning us women about the dangers of going with a bob or a pixie cut?

Ok, obviously I kid. I'm not going to grow out my hair because it's what guys want. I love my short hair. My hair has been short for about a decade now, and I love it. It looks good on me. I can rock the short hair. Most everyone can pull off long hair, but it takes guts to go short. What really gets me about the "long hair" check box on match.com is that there's no "short hair" box (or any other hair option). Where is the love for the short-haired girls, Match? Short hair can be sexy too (hello, Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Portman, Mena Suvari). And I'm sure there must be some men out there who consider short hair a turn on (right? anyone? Bueller?). It's blatant discrimination. And what make this even more confusing is that this list of attributes is the same for men and women. So again I ask, why no "short hair" option?

Now, I've been known to, on occasion, prefer the slightly scruffier guys with longer locks, but this isn't really the norm. So why do I not have the option of listing short hair as a turn-on in terms of what I look for in a guy? It just seems like common sense. In fact, when viewed in comparison to the other attributes on this list, long hair just seems out of place. It's really the only physical feature on the list at all (aside from body piercings and tattoos, both of whose inclusion on the list makes sense to me). Why did they feel the need to include this? Are the people who made up the match.com user profile template some sort of hair fetishists? Why not just include a hair length proclivity in the section where you list your preferences in a potential mate. They already ask you what color hair you prefer. If you're stipulating hair color, why not hair length? This seems to make much more sense (as I understand that some people do have strong feelings, or at least preferences - one way or the other - on hair length). Hair color really could not matter less to me, personally. Specifically including long hair in the list of turn-ons (at the exclusion of all other hair lengths or types - what about people who find baldness a turn-on?) seems a definite value judgment on the part of whoever made up this idiotic and arbitrary profile option.

I'm sure you'll all say I'm taking this a bit too personally, but short-haired girls (and guys - you're affected by this omission as well) need love too. And to all the guys on match.com who don't have long hair listed as a turn on, major bonus points from me. You can email me anytime. And to the guys who do have long hair listed as turn on, you can email me too. You obviously need to see, first hand, how sexy short hair can be. I'm happy to oblige.

What is Wrong with New Jersey?

2007-11-07T19:24:00.000-05:00

As I believe I've mentioned before, I am a big fan of New Jersey. I grew up here, and despite what all the haters out there say, I think it is a great state. And if everyone would get their butts off the Turnpike once in a while they would know this too (though then even more people would want to live here, and the last thing we need is more people - don't even get me started on some of the idiot commuters here. Besides, I think my friend Luke said it best). And apparently the people we already have here can't be trusted to vote properly.

Yesterday, New Jersey voters turned out to vote on a few inconsequential (to most of us) races but, more importantly, some important resolutions. I don't give a crap whether or not the resolution to amend the part of the New Jersey State Constitution that says an "idiot or insane person" cannot vote. Poor choice of words? Yes, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over whether or not this resolution passed (and apparently, regardless of what the Constitution says, the idiots and insane persons are the only ones turning out to vote). On the other hand, what the hell is wrong with the voters of New Jersey that they decided to vote "no" on a resolution that would have provided $450 million towards stem cell research. WTF, New Jersey? (You will all have to forgive my use of this lame acronym - but my dad reads this blog so I'm opting not to use it's full, spelled out form). I thought we were past this. I thought stem cell research had gained enough publicity and good press to convince at least some of the more conservative voters that STEM CELL RESEARCH ISN'T MURDER!!!! Nor is it anywhere close to abortion or anything else you uninformed idiots assume. I think people just saw the words "stem cell research" on the ballot and immediately went with a knee jerk reaction.

It's just so disappointing. I had more faith in my state than this. I have to assume that a lot of younger, more savvy, more liberal voters who would normally turn out for a larger election didn't bother turning up. I know I personally wasn't all that motivated to turn up to vote. But then I read the resolutions on the docket and I felt that it was important I go. I wish others had done the same. It just doesn't give me a whole lot of hope for the election which is (oh thank god!) now less than a year away. Just when I think this country (and my state) is maybe beginning to catch on and wise up, they pull something stupid like this. Wise up, New Jersey, or I'll have to stop saying all those nice things about you.

Happy Heidi-ween

2007-10-31T18:19:00.000-04:00

In his never-ending quest for publicity (good or bad) , I think maybe Spencer Pratt has outdone even himself.

Seriously, one half of "Team Speidi" actually dressing up as "Spidey" for Halloween. I love a good pun as much as anyone but that's just ridiculous. And please, for the love of god, can someone tell the boy to put some underwear on under that thing? This is a family show.

Geek-o'-Lanterns

2007-10-31T18:15:00.000-04:00

More Halloween fun. Most of these are super nerdy but also super impressive.

You can see more (including Trogdor! and The Great Pumpkin) here.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T07:59:00.000-04:00

I no longer go trick or treating or dress up in costume (usually, though this year my roommate and I had a Halloween party so a costume seemed in order, more on that later). But every year at Halloween there are certain things that must be done. My friend Emily's mom is big on Halloween and we have a tradition (even now while we're scattered to various places) of gathering at her house to revel in the glory that is Halloween (even if we have to do it, as we did this year, a week and a half early). There's always a ridiculous amount of amazing food (including various pumpkin-flavored delights - pumpkin bread, pumpkin beer, etc) and, obviously, candy. And we all watch the traditional Halloween movies. Now, I'm not much for scary movies (and neither are Emily and her mom) so our list of Halloween favorites will, no doubt, be a disappointment to horror fans, but we're kids at heart and every Halloween we must watch Garfield's Halloween Adventure and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. (If you missed the showing on abc last night, you can watch the whole thing in parts on YouTube.) Halloween isn't the same without these two (and usually a good dose of the Disney Halloween special as well).

These are classics, and I remember watching them when I was growing up. In fact, as a kid, we actually lived in a house that had a large garden in which we used to grow pumpkins (or maybe my parents just told me that, but anyway) and every year on Halloween night I would go out in the "pumpkin patch" to see what present the Great Pumpkin had left for me. Coolest tradition ever. If I'm lucky, sometimes the Great Pumpkin still sends me gifts for Halloween, but being a bit short on pumpkin patches in Jersey City, they usually come in the mail.

Another great Halloween classic, and my mom's personal Halloween favorite which we used to watch every year (at least when I was old enough to not get totally freaked out....well, actually it still kind of freaks me out) is The House on Haunted Hill (the original one with Vincent Price, not the lame remake they made in the 90's with Chris Kattan and Taye Diggs). At the end of high school/beginning of college, I went through a bit of a The Rocky Horror Picture Show phase and used to try to convince everyone to watch that with me on Halloween.

So if you're looking for something to do on this beautiful (and finally fall-like) Halloween night (if you're not going to the big Halloween parade in the Village), I would recommend any of the above movies. And now I will leave you with a few of my favorite Halloween quotes (and a picture of my Halloween costume - I was a "Devil's Advocate". Get it? And I made the shirt myself - the back says "Devil's Advocate" in case anyone got confused and mistook me for some sort of Satanist. Feel free to marvel at my craftiness. I also had a red feather boa and a pitchfork but these were appropriated by other guests.)

"Ha! I'll have you know Halloween's my middle name. Gar-Halloween-field." - Garfield's Halloween Adventure

"Candy candy candy candy candy candy candy." - Garfield's Halloween Adventure

"It's almost time to lock up the house and then your party will really begin. I wonder how it will end... " - Vincent Price, The House on Haunted Hill

Linus: He'll come here because I have the most sincere pumpkin patch and he respects sincerity.
Sally Brown: Do you really think he will come?
Linus: Tonight the Great Pumpkin will rise out of the pumpkin patch. He flies through the air and brings toys to all the children of the world.
Sally Brown: That's a good story.
Linus: You don't believe the story of the Great Pumpkin? I thought little girls always believed everything that was told to them. I thought little girls were innocent and trusting.
Sally Brown: Welcome to the 20th century!

"The Great Pumpkin always picks the most sincere pumpkin patch to rise out of. He's just gotta pick this pumpkin patch. He's just gotta! Look around. You can see that there' not a sign of hypocrisy anywhere. Nothing but sincerity reaching out as far as the eye can see." - Linus, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Sally: I could have gone to tricks-or-treats! Halloween is over and I missed it! Instead, I spend the night on a pumpkin patch and all that came was a beagle! You blockhead! I could have had apples and gum, and cookies and money and other things! I'll sue! Trick-or-treats only come once a year, and instead I spent all night sitting in a pumpkin patch! What a fool I was! You owe me restitution!
Linus: [to Charlie Brown] You've heard of the fury of a woman scorned, haven't you?
Charlie Brown: Yeah, I guess I have.
Linus: Well, that's nothing compared to the fury of a woman who has been cheated out of trick-or-treats.

Happy Haunting!

The Stuff Restraining Orders Are Made Of

2007-10-26T07:35:00.000-04:00

Ok, so are y'all ready for weirdest story ever (or at least the weirdest one I will probably ever recount to you)? Well, get ready. So last night, as usual, I got on the Path train at 33rd St. I see that there's a guy (early 20's) sitting across from me and I saw that he was looking at me. I looked up, saw he wasn't attractive or really worth my notice in any way (I know, I'm charming) so I didn't really give it another thought. I was reading my book, and I'm nearing the end so it's getting quite exciting, so I was totally engrossed in that.

Next thing I know, it's my stop. So I get off and head out of the station. As I start walking up the street, I see that someone is walking (a reasonable distance away) parallel to me and at about the same pace. I look up to see if it's someone I know, or something. And it's the guy from the train. And he sees me looking at him and he makes his way over and starts to talk to me. This is conversation as best I can relate it. Oh and he had a really thick accent:

"Oh, hello, miss. I am Rashid. It is very nice to meet you."
"Uh, ok. Hi."
"Excuse me, miss, but I just had to speak to you. You see I live in Brooklyn."
"Ok. So what brings you to Jersey City?"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, miss, but I see you at thirty-third street and you are just so beautiful that I get on train and then you get off train and I get off train and, I'm so sorry miss, I follow you. I'm so sorry. Sorry."
"uhhhhhh........"
"Are you married, miss?"
"No."
"Oh, ok. Good."
"Um, so, now that you're here in Jersey City what are you going to do?"
"Oh, well, miss, I'm so sorry, you have time to get coffee?"
"No, actually, I'm actually on my way out of town. " [By the way, this is totally the truth, as I was on my way to a cooking class.]
"Oh. Well, you have cell phone number for me?"
"Oh, well, ok, sure." [No, I am not an idiot, I didn't give him my real number.]
"Thank you so much, miss. Again, I'm so sorry, thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. What is your name."
"Uh, Sarah."
"Thank you, Sarah."
"Ok, bye."
[The conversation, if you can believe it, was actually longer and more awkward than this, with far more "I'm sorry"s and "miss"es but I have shortened it to prevent you from having to endure the entire thing as I did.]

And, yes, I made sure I had gotten rid of him before I went anywhere near my house and my car. And, no, I don't think he was a threat to me in any way. He seemed like a perfectly nice (although very strange and totally misguided) young man. And he was like 5'9", maybe 160. I could have taken him if I needed to.

Ok, now I know I was just complaining to some friends yesterday that it had been a while since I'd been on a date, but COME ON! My friend Pooja got approached on the street by an amazingly good looking (and British!) guy who asked her out. And I get crazy Rashid. Where is the justice in this world. I haven't been on a date in over a year and the only person to ask me out during that year is some crazy guy who follows me home from work? Now the universe is just screwing with me.

Mad Men (and Women)

2007-10-19T17:55:00.000-04:00

I was thoroughly perplexed last night when, at 10pm, I changed the tv over to channel 38 to watch the season finale of Mad Men on AMC to find, instead, some war movie starring Michael Caine. I ran through the scenarios in my mind: Did I have the right day? Yes, it's Thursday. Right time? Yup, 10pm on the dot. Has the cold medicine made me completely loopy? Yes, but the show should still be on. I couldn't figure it out. And I had been so looking forward to watching the finale and have it lull me into a Nyquil and period drama-induced, sweet slumber. I had to console myself with 2 episodes of "Ace of Cakes" on the Food Network instead. Good, but not the same.

This morning I checked the tv listings online. (Yes, I know it would have made sense to do this last night when I was looking for the stupid show, but I had already turned off my computer and it was alllllll the way on the other side of the room which seemed so far from the cozy cocoon in which I had ensconced myself.) Turns out that sometime between last week's episode of Mad Men and this week's, Comcast decided to move AMC to channel 138. 138? Seriously? I don't even know if I get that channel. I don't think I get anything (that's not fuzz) past 70. Thanks, Comcast. What a ridiculous idea. And I love how whenever they make these random channel changes, there's never any sort of notification. And why just a couple of channels were affected I don't know either. The entire thing is retarded. And I am not happy. And even the cold medicine can't help with that. Thank god for iTunes.

The Other NBA

2007-10-10T18:03:00.000-04:00

The National Book Award finalists were announced today and I am very pleased to share with you all that Jim Shepard, my former professor at Williams College and all around awesome guy, is on the list for his latest collection of short stories, Like You'd Understand, Anyway. If you have not already read it, definitely do so. It's really great. The detail he includes in his stories is mind-boggling and they are masterfully written. The stories are written about periods of time and from points of view that you would just never expect and yet it totally works. It takes a certain chutzpah to not only attempt that but to pull it off. And if anyone has chutzpah, it's Jim. He is, without a doubt, one of the funniest and most brilliant people I've had the good fortune to meet. After two semesters of creative writing with Jim, I only hope that some of his genius has potentially rubbed off.

Congratulations Mae and Chris!!

2007-10-08T21:07:00.000-04:00

This has been a pretty exciting weekend in our family. Saturday, after working at a conference all day, I drove down to Virginia to be a part of a surprise for my cousin Mae. Mae has been dating her wonderful boyfriend Christopher for four years and now he's making an honest woman of her. Chris proposed to Mae on Saturday in a very elaborate and beautiful way. After sharing a romantic dance and popping the question over wine and chocolate (with lavender, Mae's favorite, scattered everywhere) he took her for a boat ride on a nearby lake and then for a romantic dinner. And he wasn't done yet. After dinner, Mae and Chris came back to Chris's apartment where another surprise was waiting. Mae's mom and 2 of her 3 sisters (Jorie and her husband Steve were unfortunately unable to join us as Steve was busy qualifying for the Boston Marathon - yay, Steve!) and myself were waiting for them with cake and champagne to begin the celebrating.

Here is Mae's beautiful ring (which I promised Jorie I would take pictures of):

And here is the happy couple:

Chris and Mae (and her shiny, sparkly ring) take a ride on The Lady Fran (aka The Mr. Beaumont)

The Elegant Bride

Congratulations again, Mae and Chris! I couldn't be happier for you and I was so glad to be there to share in the excitement (and I can't wait to be a part of your beautiful wedding). In closing, I will leave you with what might be my favorite picture ever. I give you, The Statue of Engagement:

Failing to Fall

2007-10-04T19:55:00.001-04:00

This morning I got up, tired after my basketball game last night (we only had 5 girls so I got one hell of a workout), but in a decent enough mood for a Thursday morning. Then I turned on the tv, and then I was depressed. The morning news doesn't usually depress me (unless there's something about Bush on, or the continually falling value of the American dollar - currently worth LESS than the Canadian dollar, um, what?!). But this morning I was confronted with this discomfiting news: Thursday - high of 82; Friday - high of 86; Saturday - high of 87; Sunday - high of 83; Monday - high of 82. And again I say: what?!

I know I've already griped about the disconcertingly unseasonably warm weather we've been having of late, but some things just bear repeating, and I think this is one of them. Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo that it's now October. It's been officially Fall for more than 2 weeks now and yet temperatures are startlingly higher than normal. I'm not going to start throwing around words like global warming, because I don't pretend to know anything about all the science (though it does seem to me that there is heaps of incontrovertible truth that is being very diligently ignored by the current administration - but that is a-whole-nother gripe for another time). Whatever's causing the insane weather, it needs to stop.

Adding to the disconcertingness (disconcertion?) of the situation are all the people I keep stumbling across who are loving this Indian Summer. One of my interns has only good things to say about this little heat wave. I have forbade her from talking about it in my presence. You see, Fall is my reward for making it through the summer without dying (or killing someone else). In case I haven't mentioned it before, though I'm sure I probably have, my bedroom has no windows and we have no air-conditioning. I am willing to put with this because my rent is wonderful and we have many other wonderful amenities. But, as you can imagine, it gets a bit warm in the summer. So I spend late May through early September counting the days until the summer is over and I might actually make it to work without all of my makeup sweating off and sleep through the night without putting ice packs on my neck.

I love Fall. I love walking down the city streets, while a crisp autumn breeze stirs the newly-colorful leaves. I love trips out to the countryside for fresh apple cider and cider donuts and maybe some homemade pumpkin ice cream. I love cuddling up under a pile of blankets at night. And pumpkin beer. And sweaters. And warm, rich, comfort food. And steaming hot cups of soup. I love sitting in my office and not feeling like I'm in an oven.

What I do not love is having to continue to use my fan in October. Or sweating while I wait for the train and while I walk to work. Or not being able to wear anything heavier than a t-shirt. Or not wanting to turn on the oven in my apartment because it's already hot enough. Or not getting to wear any of my new fall clothes (or even my old fall clothes). At this point I am so sick of all my spring and summer clothes. But every time I try to put them away and do the seasonal clothing swap, the mercury rises again and I have to stop, mid-swap. My bedroom has seasonal disorder; there are piles of clothes everywhere while the weather continues its schizophrenic mood swings.

Oh, and the Yankees are losing Game 1 of the ALDS.

I promise that one day I will post something that isn't some sort of crazy rant (perhaps once Fall actually gets here and the Yankees make it to the World Series - especially if I can manage to snag some tickets, which I'm working on).

Boy Is My Face Red

2007-09-26T22:52:00.001-04:00

We interrupt your regularly scheduled silence to bring you this blog. Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last posted. I am so embarrassed. Apparently I've been a bit lazy. I think I've been setting the bar too high (obviously not with my actual posts but with my expectations of them). I would come up with something to write about and then either think "Oh, it's not funny or interesting enough" or forget to post it or just get too lazy, or perhaps all of the above. At any rate, I will try not to abandon you for such a long period of time. (I seem to have lost many of my faithful readers - even my dad stopped reading - but there are still one or two of you out there - Jorie, Daniel, love you guys - so I'll try not to let you down again).

Which brings us to tonight's post. I'll apologize in advance for the rant I'm about to go on. But that's the beautiful thing about the internet, it's a captive audience. So allow me to enumerate the many things about today that have conspired to make me a very cranky person at the moment (some admittedly self-inflicted). (*Edited to add: I almost forgot the first thing that made me cranky and that is the fact that it feels like July. It's the end of September, it's fall, and it's 85 degrees. I was looking forward to fall foliage and cool breezes to replace hot and sweaty train rides to work. And, according to the 10-day forecast, there's no end in sight of this hot and humid - currently 95% humidity - freaky fall weather.) Then there is stuff at work that got my day off on the wrong foot. I won't go into it because I'm not dumb. I hoped that basketball tonight would unstress me. This was not to be the case.

I left my house at 8pm to meet my friend Georgie (hi, Georgie!) at 8:30 to head to our 9pm game. I was almost at the train station when I realized I had forgotten socks (oh so crucial) so ran back home to get them. Tried to take a shortcut to get to 23rd and 8th which ended up not being a shortcut when I miscounted stops while not looking up from my book and ended up at 34th and 8th and had to turn around and go back downtown which ended up with Georgie and I both being late for the game.

And now for the game. Oh man. It was not good. We played sloppily against a team we absolutely could have beaten. Our captain blamed the loss on our shots not falling. To that I say, bullsh*t (if you'll excuse my expurgated language). Yes, it would have helped if more shots had fallen. However what also would have helped would have been not making turnovers every other bloody time down the court. I watched one girl cause turnovers three times in a row. Argh!!! Not to mention that it took our guards 20 minutes to work out how to beat a pretty elementary press and to realize that with 3 people guarding them there were 2 very open forwards standing and doing jumping jacks under the basket waiting for the pass that never came.

I yelled at our captain tonight. I never do this. I love our captain. She does a lot of yelling herself, but she means well. And she's almost always right. Not tonight, though. When she insisted she (all 5'2" of her) should guard the other team's very...well...rotund forward while I should guard the 3-point shooting, winnowy small forward. And then the big girl took her for a layup to which I believe I said, "That's what I'm talking about!" Later she told me that I should have yelled at her. In which case I'm a little confused as to what she thought I was doing.

If only my frustrations stopped there. After having a nice relaxing walk to to train with Georgie, I heard the train arriving as I passed my card through the reader. Another traveler and I ran through the gates and began to sprint up the stairs to the train, both knowing the next one wouldn't be along for at least another 20 minutes (since it was already after 10pm). Well, we turned the corner to see a man slowly meandering his way up the stairs and taking up the entire staircase. Imagine my surprise when it turns out this slow walker was also trying to get on the same train - could have fooled me. He managed to get on the train but I had to wedge myself in the door and get stuck to try to get on the train, but I was not missing it. I hate those people who block the doors. I never do it. I hate being the one who did that tonight, but don't blame me. That guy broke all commuting etiquette rules ever. As if it wasn't bad enough that he blocked the stairway, but then he stood in the middle of the open train doors so I couldn't just run in. I wouldn't have gotten stuck if he had just gotten the hell out of my way.

Oh, dear readers, I really wish that it had ended there. The train went along smoothly and I was actually making good time to get home in time for the finale of Top Chef (or at least the re-airing at 11pm which I was looking forward to, to hopefully help un-crankify me) and we get to Pavonia/Newport - the last stop before mine - and we sit there. And we sit there. And the doors open, and they close. And they open, and they close. And we sit there. And everyone gets antsy. Everyone wants to go home. After what seemed an interminably long time, we got moving. And I finally made it home. With a few minutes to share before Top Chef started. I waited til 11pm to turn on the tv, lest I catch the end of the first airing. Well, either my clock lied to me or Top Chef ran over because, in some of the worst timing ever, I swear I could not have timed it this well had I tried, as I turned on tv the first thing I heard was Padma saying (SPOILER ALERT): "Brian, please pack your knives and go." Freaking great. Whatever, I'm still watching it so I can see what all it is the Malarkeys did to get themselves kicked off. And hoping that tomorrow I wake up on the right side of the bed since I'm definitely going to sleep on the wrong one.

Here endeth the rant. I promise to come back (in less than a month - no, really) with a more happy, less rant-y missive.

Father Knows Best

2007-08-26T12:24:00.000-04:00

Being an only child and a daughter, I've always been very carefully watched over and protected. I have an extremely doting father (who frequently reads and comments on this blog) who, when I was a young girl, told me, "You're not dating til you're 30." A few years ago, however, he changed his tune. As I get older and my father gets no closer to be a grandfather, he's decided to be proactive. Several years ago, my parents moved to Canada and my father made it his hobby (or perhaps mission) to find me a nice Canadian boy to settle down with, thus accomplishing two very important goals: marrying me off, and getting me to move to Canada, preferably within a 15-mile radius of my parents. My father has, on occasion, invited these nice Canadian boys over to the house, for drinks, for dinner, for some contrived event to hopefully introduce me to the man who would hopefully lure me to the other side of the border. I know he means well and it's really rather amusing. I have met some very interesting nice young men - no husband yet, though, in case you were wondering. Sorry, Dad.

VH1 just gave me a whole new perspective on my life. I was watching "Hogan Knows Best" this morning and was shocked to see the lengths that Hulk Hogan would go to control his daughter's love life (and that there is actually someone who can top my own father in this regard. I should also point out that at 6'7", my father is similarly intimidating). When Brooke brings her new boyfriend home to meet the Hogans (under extreme duress as they insisted on meeting him) he gets the serious third degree. The Hulk is shocked to find out that his daughter's boyfriend is 30 (to his daughter's tender 19). He decides to take matters into his own hands and after scheming with his son and another wrestler (my former favorite, The Big Show) he invites his daughter's ex-boyfriend to visit them in Florida for the weekend to try to throw a wrench in his daughter's new relationship. And, to the great joy of meddling fathers everywhere, he succeeds. When Mark, the new boyfriend, calls the house looking for Brooke, The Hulk tells Mark that she's out with Jerry, the ex, and has been all day, and they're getting along great. Seriously, he takes meddling to all new heights. Even my father would be impressed. Of course, wily girl that she is, Brooke gets her own back by making out with Jerry on the front stoop while she knows her father is spying on them (not even I would take it that far, but I suppose she's been driven to all new levels) Perhaps I should be taking notes. But no one tell my dad. He doesn't need any more pointers.

Chock Full of Links

2007-08-21T18:23:00.000-04:00

Ok so since I gave you a whole (long, rambly) post without one single link, now it's time for some more links. Hey, at least I'm giving you things to read.

First, Part II of my Austen Translation piece for The Huffington Post.

And also, I've started doing some television writing for cinemablend. I'm on a 30-day trial to see if they like me and they put my first piece up last night. I don't actually watch CSI but this is the story they told me to write about and who am I to argue when they're the ones in charge?

Things That Rock My World

2007-08-21T08:01:00.000-04:00

I know I have been a very naughty blogger lately, not giving all of you devoted readers anything exciting (or at least interesting enough to keep you from having to do your actual work - who wants to do that?) to read. For this I apologize. I was taken to task this weekend by one of my most devout readers, perhaps the most devout, my cousin, Jordan. Sorry, Jor. This is for you, though I can't promise anything earth-shattering. At least I can catch you up on what's been going on round these parts (with no cop-out links to things I've posted elsewhere).

I spent this past weekend in picturesque Northern Virginia visiting with my lovely cousins, Jordan and Mae, my Auntie Lin, Jorie's husband Steve, and Mae's boyfriend Chris. Our weekend included such highlights as a visit to and tour of a local winery which was very pleasant (and the wines were much better than expected actually, I even brought a bottle back with me), a trip to the outlet mall, an evening of luscious desserts, my first (and highly successful) attempt at mixing whiskey sours (Jor's new favorite drink), and lots of fun and lively conversation. A good time was had by all. Thankfully, Northern Virginia is only about a 5 hour drive (unless you get stuck in construction traffic and it rains for the entire trip which is exactly what happened to me on my ride home on Sunday) so it's not too great a hassle to get to pay a visit to my favorite cousins and my equally awesome aunt (though I still don't get to see them nearly as much as I'd like).

In addition to the excellent company, there were several other factors which made me a very happy camper this weekend and these would be: 1.) Air conditioning and 2.) Sweet tea. I may not have mentioned this to you all before, but I live in a cave. Don't get me wrong, I love my cave, but it has it's disadvantages in the summer. Basically, I have no exterior walls in my bedroom, which means no windows, which means no natural light, or fresh air, or anything good at all. In the summer it can get....oh.....a bit warm. But for the insanely low rent and the fact that it only gets super annoyingly warm a few days a year, I put up with it. And when I travel to places with air conditioning, the sheer novelty of getting to sleep under a blanket (or even several blankets) in the middle of August is enough to send me into paroxysms of delight. My aunt suggested that if it was too cold in my (palatial) guest room, that I could open the windows. The very idea. It was cold, and I loved every second of it. Though I don't think my body quite knew what to do with all the natural light that came streaming in the windows the following morning. I woke up basically every hour from 6am on presumably as whatever system in my body controls sleeping and waking had a stroke from the overwhelming sensation of natural light.

And, all McDonald's south of the Mason-Dixon line (and actually, apparently, some north of it - as far north as Pennsylvania) sell a ginormous 32 oz. cup of sweet tea for $1. That's right, $1. And it is mighty tasty. And it was exactly what I needed as I headed down 81 South Friday afternoon at around 4pm when I had been on the road for more than 3 hours and my body was ready for a nap. Now if only I could get this at the McDonald's around the corner from my office. I would be a model of productivity (or, at the very least, a model of spastic over-energeticness). This is obviously the one thing that is preventing me from taking the publishing world by storm. If only I had an unending supply of heavily-sweetened iced tea, I could do anything.

Despite the seriously rambling quality of this email, I swear I haven't actually had any sweet tea today. Alas, now that I'm back in the true North, no sweet tea for me. Apparently New York isn't quite ready for sweet tea. New Yorkers like their iced tea unsweetened, something I will never ever understand.

Another Post with Links

2007-08-09T18:25:00.001-04:00

I know I've been shirking my duties as your faithful blogger a bit. Sorry. But so you all have something to read, here is my new piece over at the Huffington Post about Jane Austen mania and how it must stop. Now.

Simpsonize Me!

2007-07-31T17:55:00.000-04:00

I've been Simpsonized:

Does a Body Good

2007-07-30T17:29:00.000-04:00

From the "Caffeine Continues to be Awesome" file. A new study finds that exercising and drinking coffee may help prevent skin cancer. So slather on that tanning oil, get yourself a nice iced coffee (I highly recommend the brew from McDonald's - it's mighty tasty) and enjoy the steamy weather.

Potter Predictions

2007-07-20T23:13:00.000-04:00

Because my friend Matt has asked me repeatedly about this and because I have about 45 more minutes before this point becomes moot I figured I would finally give in and make my Harry Potter predictions, even though I honestly haven't given it that much thought in the hopes of being surprised.

To that end, I've spent all week trying to keep myself away from spoilers. They seem to be everywhere. There definitely wasn't this much hubbub about spoilers with the other books, but I suppose that's to be expected with this being the final and most anticipated of them all. I'm not sure why there are so many people out there trying to spoil everyone's fun and frankly I've never understood the allure of a spoiler. I mean I'm all for instant gratification. I'm not so great in the patience department myself, so I understand the allure of having something right when you want it (oh boy do I, only child coming through) but this has never applied to books and reading. I have never been one of those people to flip ahead to the end to find out what happens. I want the story to unfold and see where it all leads. Though I do admit (especially with the Potter books) to skimming really quickly over pages trying to get to the end of the page as quickly as possible.

These books create an interesting juxtaposition of tendencies in me. I want to savor every word of the book, as before I know it, it will be over and I will have to wait years (or in this case, gulp - I shudder to think about it, forever) until the next one arrives. And yet at the same time, I can't wait to get to the next page and see what's going to happen next. I constantly try to slow myself down and limit myself to a certain number of chapters an hour or a day but that seldom seems to work as I find myself flying through each chapter and at the end of each one I glance at the clock to see a depressingly late hour and say, "Well, I think I have time for just one more." And one more turns into ten more and then it's 4 a.m. and I'm exhausted but then there's only 100 pages left so I might as well keep going and finish it because I can't possibly put it down now. I can't sleep unless I know what happens.

All of that rambling aside, I suppose I should get back to those predictions that I'm supposed to be making. Matt, I will give it my best shot but I'm sure these will be a disappointment. I did reread 5 and 6 in anticipation of the new movie and book but the details of 6 have started to go a bit fuzzy again I have to admit. (I saw a lot of people on the subway this week doing a similar catch up session - nice to see so many adults reading Harry Potter. It always makes me smile for some reason). Ok, so totally vague predictions...horcruxes will be found (no, I have no idea what they are right now though I'm sure at least one will turn out to be glaringly obvious), Snape is actually on the good side (but I still think he has a pretty evil personality), Ron and Hermione will finally stop being stupid and get their acts together (please, there's enough teenage angst, just let them make out), oh and Harry and Ginny should totally get back together - they're really cute, I know someone we love is going to die and it had so better not be Harry so I'm going to guess and say Hagrid (or perhaps a Weasley but it had better not be Ron or Ginny or Hermione, I know she's not a Weasley but she can't die either - ok so now these aren't predictions so much as a wish list), perhaps it might also be McGonagall, Voldemort is vanquished and they all live happily ever after. What? What do you want from someone who edits romance novels on a day to day basis. I want my happy ending, dammit!

Matt, I'm sure you will find these all highly unsatisfactory, but it'll have to do. The book is released (to those of us not trying to spoil the surprise for unsuspecting children) in 18 minutes so it's time for me to go to bed. I'll see tomorrow if I was right or not (honestly I don't care, I just want to read the book and enjoy it). Happy reading, everyone!

Going to the Chapel - Part II

2007-07-16T22:02:00.000-04:00

So you're back for more wedding news, eh? Happy to oblige. The wedding was held at the Chauncey Conference Center in Princeton, NJ, and it is an absolutely beautiful setting. The ceremony was outside the adorable Laurie House (which was rented for the bridal party and company until Sunday). The weather couldn't have been nicer. Beautiful, sunny but not too hot, blue sky. Amazing. And the ceremony was beautiful. Allison and Graham wrote the entire thing themselves, including their vows which had many in the audience reaching for the tissues. Here are Rowan, the best man, and I making our grand entrance, and here are the bridesmaids.

After the receiving line, pictures, and cocktail hour, it was time for the reception. Introducing, for the first time as husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. Graham and Allison Murray:

As I mentioned in my previous post, there were lots of people at this wedding I was really excited to see, such as my parents. Also in attendance were some friends of mine and Graham's from back in elementary school that I hadn't seen in years, Alex and Jordan.

Oh and there was also dancing. Lots and lots of dancing. Many people decided to sit out the dancing but that did not deter the rest of us.

It was a fantastic evening and Allison and Graham are really happy. They're now on their honeymoon in Japan (hopefully far away from the earthquake). Everything went off without a hitch, and everyone had a fantastic time. It was so great to see my two friends so happy. I hope someday I can be as lucky as the two of them to find someone so perfect for me who brings me such happiness. Congratulations Allison and Graham!!!

Going to the Chapel - Part I

2007-07-16T21:41:00.000-04:00

As some of you probably know, two of my best friends got married this weekend. To each other! It was a very exciting weekend to say the least and I wanted to share some of the fun here with you all. The celebration began Thursday night with dinner at the Melting Pot (have you all been there, oh my god, it's fabulous - you cannot see it in this picture, but Graham, Mike, and Rowan are mesmerized by the flaming chocolate fondue) and a showing of the new Harry Potter movie (my thoughts on that to come in a separate post).

I spent the night at Allison and Graham's (the bride- and groom-to-be), staying up way too late watching Flight of the Conchords and Peep Show on YouTube (seriously funny stuff), and sleeping on their couch, which is a good 2 feet shorter than I am. And so began the weekend of not getting enough sleep.

Friday, it was time to get the wedding festivities underway. Allison and I drove to her parents' house in East Windsor to start getting everything ready (including ourselves, with a little mani/pedi fun that afternoon - every bride deserves a pedicure). Then it was time for the rehearsal and the yummy rehearsal dinner (from Famous Daves bbq - mmmmmm). The soon-to-be in-laws all mingled happily. All of this was great for me because actually, though I was one of Allison's bridesmaids and a good friend since high school, I've actually known the groom and his family since we were 9.

Here's a little background for you, I'll try to keep it short. After going to middle school with Graham, I switched schools and went to high school in a different county with Allison. I kept in touch with Graham and invited him to my 18th birthday/graduation party back in 1999. It was at this party that I introduced him to my good friend Allison because I knew they would be attending the same college (Carnegie Mellon) in the fall. Being naturally shy people, they politely said hello to one another and then retreated to their respective groups of friends. It wasn't too much later, though, that I received a phone call from Allison at college telling me that she had run into Graham and that they had started hanging out and begun dating. The rest, as they say, is history, and 8 years later we all got to attend their beautiful wedding.

So, as I was saying, this wedding and all of its festivities was particularly special for me as I knew so many of the people involved. For instance, Graham's wonderful brothers. Here they all are at the rehearsal dinner, all the Murray boys, from left: Graham, Huon, Jared, and Rowan. Aren't they a handsome bunch?

The rehearsal dinner was a great time for everyone to spend some time together before the rest of the hectic weekend began. And a good time was had by all.

Stay tuned for the rest of the wedding news and pictures. And now, to close, a picture of Allison and her two beautiful bridesmaids:

More Fun with Scientists

2007-07-11T23:09:00.000-04:00

I don't know what it is about Chris Mooney and his crazy science-loving pals, but every time we all get together for some seemingly innocuous (and educational) event, it turns into an all evening shindig. Not that I'm complaining of course. And at least this time it was a Tuesday night as opposed to a Monday - that just wrecked the rest of my week. There was less of it to wreck this time.

Last night, Seed Magazine threw a party for Mr. Mooney to celebrate the publication of his new book, Storm World. (I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I promise to report my opinions later. It's gotten some really excellent reviews, from people who know way more about this sort of stuff than I do - not that that's exactly hard. Definitely check it out, it's seriously fascinating stuff.) My roommate Kate and I were lucky enough to get invited to the swanky affair, at LES bar People, as were two of our new friends from our previous outing - Katie and Liz (hi girls!) - who we were so excited to see there. Also in attendance were others from our previous night of carousing - Davy Mooney, whose musical stylings we enjoyed during the reception, and his wife Angela, and Matt Nisbet, Chris's co-lecturer who had actually been unable to join us on our last outing. Here are Liz and Davy (complete with weird night-effect lighting) and Chris, Katie and myself out on the back patio of Madame X on Houston:

And a good time was had by all. These scientists (and journalists, and friends) really know how to party.

An Awesome Weekend...and a Caveat

2007-07-09T19:55:00.000-04:00

I had a fantastic time in our nation's capital this weekend. I was visiting my friend Daniel one last time before he heads off to grad school. Daniel and some friends of his were having a "fancy luau" in the swanky event room in Daniel's super swanky apartment building. A (mai tai-fueled) good time was had by all. Check out the mad bartending skills (and pretty dress that's been hanging in my closet since I bought it 2 years ago, waiting for the appropriate outing):

Now, what the beautiful, long dress is oh-so-cleverly hiding are the bug bites I got Friday night while sitting outside with Daniel and some friends. I was offered bug spray but declined as I neither saw nor felt any indication of bugs. Oh such a big mistake:

Yes, those things covered in red-purple splotches are my legs. Pretty, huh? Believe it or not, they're better than they were on Sunday. They started out as normal bug bites. I noticed them Saturday morning, by Saturday evening, they were swollen and red and generally not pleasant. Sunday was worse. Daniel and I spent Sunday at a really awesome public pool (seriously, why don't we have something so cool in NY?) with Daniel's friend Brian and I was embarrassed to show my legs. Except obviously to all of you lovely people with whom I felt compelled to share my experience. Ever since then, I've basically been slathering them with every available antidote and remedy I can dig up on the internet (oh and I don't recommend looking stuff like this up on the internet unless you are prepared to have the living daylights scared out of you - I spent a few hours today convinced I had been bitten by a brown recluse spider and was going to die at any minute).

Moral of the story: if someone offers you bug spray (though, admittedly, without informing you that the area in which you are currently standing is well known as an all-you-can-eat buffet for mosquitoes, or whatever the hell it was that bit me), take it. Trust me.

They're not that itchy and uncomfortable. I can totally deal. Two factors, though, make the timing of this outbreak very inconvenient. First of all, today began a heat wave in NY. It's so oppressively hot outside. And I would love to be wearing skirts or dresses or similarly well ventilated clothing. The state of my legs makes this ill-advised. But even more inconvenient than that, though, is the fact that my friend Allison's wedding is in 5 days. No one likes a splotchy bridesmaid. You don't want the wedding guests (or the bride and groom) worrying they might get leprosy. So everyone please keep your fingers crossed that these things clear up in the next 5 days, otherwise I'll be investing in a large vat of concealer to try to disguise my welts.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to try the next in my string of remedies and "put some Windex on it."

Bachelorettes on the Town!

2007-07-09T18:41:00.000-04:00

My friend Allison is getting married (to my other friend Graham)! Eight years ago I introduced the two of them (rather accidentally, though I'm happy to take some of the credit) and they're getting married in less than a week. And we all know what that means: Bachelorette Party!!!!

Ok, so our version of the Bachelorette Party (like our dear Al) was a bit unconventional. Definitely no strippers or other similar bachelorette-type debauchery. Allison's sister Deanna planned the party and it was decided we would engage in a little trip down memory lane with a trip to the Olive Garden that we used to frequent in high school (and even in college) and the seedy local bar situated on the main street of the town where we grew up (and where you are guaranteed to run into at least 3 people you went to high school with).

Here we all are at the Olive Garden (after consuming an absolutely frightening amount of food - note large quantity of to-go boxes - in addition to the largest bottle of wine I've ever seen - and which cost as much as that one glass cost me in NY). From left to right: Steph (my former roommate, Annelise (Emily's sister), Emily (fellow bridesmaid), me, Al (the blushing bride), Deanna (Al's sister and fellow bridesmaid), Brianon (De's friend).

After the Olive Garden it was off to Felix's. Oh man. That was...interesting. Although I had forgotten how delightful it can be to go out somewhere that isn't NY. Especially someplace that isn't NY as much as Washington. Because there are really are few places that are less like NY. For example, I stepped up to the bar (and ample-bosomed bartendress) and ordered a Tanqueray and tonic and a Miller Lite. The grand total? $5. Seriously. I know. I couldn't believe it either. Later, I ordered a Vodka Red Bull for $3.50. It's almost enough to make me want to move back there. Almost. (I did move back there for 2 years after I graduated college, while I was in grad school and it's definitely not something I'm looking to relive - the rents are also crazy cheap).

So that was our night out on the town in honor of Allison. Her wedding is in 5 days. So exciting! Congratulations Allison and Graham! More wedding posts to come I'm sure.

Hooray!

2007-06-29T17:48:00.000-04:00

Look who's a published writer (of sorts)! With a bio and a photo and everything.

Please to enjoy.

Fun with Books

2007-06-19T08:06:00.000-04:00

A literary themed post today, in honor of.....well, in honor of nothing specific other than the fact that I really like books (and people who come up with creative ways to celebrate them). Though I suppose if you really need something to attach yourself to, Bloomsday was Saturday. Not that I personally feel any inclination to celebrate a James Joyce character, but knock yourselves out.

At any rate, Time Out New York managed to combine two of my favorite things - competitive bracketing (shut up, that is so a word) and books. They've pitted 64 books from all different categories and countries against one another to determine which book is "most essential to life and cocktail conversation in New York City." You can see the entire bracket here. It's down to the finals where Freakonomics faces off against one of my favorites, Lolita. Though it is with a heavy heart that I report that, to make it to the finals, Freakonomics beat out my all-time favorite, Pride and Prejudice, in the semi-finals. Damn you, Freakonomics. My money's on Humbert and his questionable morals.

And, in other book-related news, The Strand (the most wonderful bookstore of my acquaintance, to which I have schlepped many a friend - most recently Jorie, Joe, Daniel, and Liz - and which I cannot leave without buying at least a few new additions to my library) is turning 80 this year*. They're asking people to vote for their top 5 books from which they will compile a list of the 80 most popular which they will then sell at their popular Strand prices. Each participant will be entered in a drawing to win:

GRAND PRIZE: The STRAND 80…all 80 books! SECOND PRIZE: A private walking tour of literary NYC with five (5) of your friends THIRD PRIZE: A strand Gift Certificate for $80

I'll be interested to see which books make it into the top 80. If anyone feels inspired to list their top 5 (Nick Hornby-style) in the comments, I'd be curious to see what emerges amongst the favorites. And just to make it fair, I'll give you my 5 (though with the understanding that picking only 5 books is very hard, like Sophie's Choice, and this list may change depending on the day, my mood, etc, but I tried to pick some of my tried and true favorites, books I return to again and again without tiring, this is the list I submitted to the Strand. Ok I cheated a bit and put in a couple alternates as well. I can't help it. It's a sickness). I have noted my preferred editions where possible:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
4. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (or perhaps A Room with a View by E. M. Forster)
5. Persuasion by Jane Austen (though I almost considered substituting Possession by A.S. Byatt)

*Hat tip to Alana for alerting me to the Strand promotion.

If You Can't Stand the Heat

2007-06-12T21:32:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. The silence. Again. I'm sorry. I'm here. And with Top Chef news. Now you're all excited, aren't you? So, today at lunch Christine (my co-worker) and I went down to Union Square for a Top Chef cook-off featuring Season 2 finalists, Sam Talbot and Ilan Hall in a quickfire challenge. We missed most of the actual cooking but made it in time for the final countdown and the judging. Here is Sam being judged (Padma and Tom Colicchio were there as well, of course).Unfortunately, Sam lost to Ilan. Again. We're not entirely sure what the subtleties of the individual dishes were since the sound quality was pretty poor, but I can tell you that Ilan's dish was a soft shell crab (which I overheard Tom Colicchio telling someone - oh that's right I was standing next to Tom Colicchio - exploded in his face as he was observing Ilan cook it) and Sam's dish was quail of some persuasion. And here is Sam in action (I may have gone a bit overboard on the pictures of Sam, but come on, can you really blame me? He is seriously hot. And he can cook. His girlfriend - who is not me, le sigh - is one seriously lucky woman).

Ok, so, as I mentioned, Ilan was there too (though this fact is less documented than Sam's presence, understandably. Christine and I both agreed that we're not such huge fans of Ilan and we both thought Sam should have won - instead of being eliminated in the first half of the finale, a fact which still makes me sad). At any rate, I figured I should include at least one picture of Ilan.

Apparently something was very funny. Ok, so admittedly I was a bit of a coward and I wasn't pushy enough to actually get a picture with Sam. Those women that did were very pushy and I had an opening but he was on his way out and I felt bad that people kept harassing him, so I didn't bother. I don't like to harass people (even if they are smoking hot). Christine and I seemed to manage always being at the wrong place when something good was going on. We missed the food they were handing out (by inches as this woman elbowed past us to grab the last plate - again with my lack of pushiness apparently), we missed the boxes of chocolate, we missed the pictures. So instead of a picture of me and Sam I will just leave you with a nice close up of Sam, being hot.

Enjoy!

The Master of the Segue

2007-06-12T08:12:00.000-04:00

Love him so much. He's very good in Ocean's 13 (which I saw this weekend and which I would definitely recommend) but my favorite line of his from one of these movies is still when he leaves a message for Brad Pitt's character: "And tell him he dresses like a gigolo." Gets me every time.

Framing Science

2007-06-05T02:30:00.000-04:00

Don't be confused by the subject line - you haven't accidentally stumbled upon the Anterior Commissure, though admittedly the subject matter is similar and it was the editrix of said blog who convinced me to attend tonight's science lecture. (It took far less convincing to drag me to the exclusive after party). I have, once again, been a neglectful blogger and, though I would much rather be asleep right now I figured I would share with you the events of a very interesting night. You're welcome.

After work today, I headed downtown (all the way downtown, which is actually a huge plus for me as the building in question was mere blocks from the WTC Path Station and my closest means of returning home) for the afore-mentioned lecture on Framing Science given by Chris Mooney and Matthew Nisbet (two of the cutest academics I have had the pleasure to lay eyes on). My housemate, Kate, originally interested me in the talk and it was she who suggested I attend, as she had helped organize it in the first place. How could I possibly say no?

And let me tell you, it was fascinating. I'm glad convinced me to go. I won't try to summarize all the points here. Instead I highly recommend you check out their respective blogs to see what they have to say about this issue. Also, Chris has a book out and another on the way. Buy them.

This was my first time at the NYAS but I have to say that I am a huge fan. Not only did I get to listen to a really interesting talk but then afterwards there was a reception with yummy food and tons of wine and beer. And it was all included in the $10 I paid to get in (and that would have been free, if I was a member of the academy). Not to mention the crazy views from the space on the 40th floor in the Financial District. Out of control.

As Kate had had some prior contact with Mr. Mooney, I imagined I could probably wrangle myself an introduction to the two guests of honor, however I didn't imagine that I'd end up getting to go out after the talk with Chris Mooney, his brother, his sister-in-law, and a few other friends and admirers for some after-lecture drinks, food, and conversation. After the NYAS reception ended, a few of us made our way a bit further downtown to Les Halles for some moules frites, wine, and pleasant conversation. As if that wasn't enough, our night was about to get even better.

One among us had a friend who owns a bar in the financial district. Once we figured out where exactly it was and how to get there (and then actually got there) we were treated very nicely by the establishment. We had a such a great time and Kate and I definitely plan to go back there. This nice old man even presented me with a plate of mozzarella sticks which he insisted he couldn't possibly eat and wouldn't I take them and share them with my friends. Which I did. And they were delicious and I was highly impressed with Ulysses (the bar, not the book, I'm not really a James Joyce fan and honestly found reading Ulysses to be highly unenjoyable) and the people that frequent it. I will definitely be back.

And now it is almost 3 in the morning and I'm lucky if any of this makes any sort of sense at all. But I wanted to at least give you guys an update and tell you about our awesome evening. I'm sure Kate will fill in any salient details I may have accidentally omitted. I cannot believe I have stayed up until 3am on a Monday. Tomorrow is most definitely going to hurt. Best not to think about that now. After all, tomorrow is another day.

The Birthday Fun Concludes

2007-05-26T11:51:00.000-04:00

I was allowed one final birthday celebration before people (other than my parents) started calling me on how long the celebrations had been going on. With that in mind, it was time to celebrate the actual day of my birth. And what better way to do that than with chocolate and pirates?

My friends Wendy and Pooja and my roommate Kate came out to help me celebrate this one last time. We began with dinner at Max Brenner in Union Square which was so delicious despite the fact that our waiter could not have been less enthusiastic. Pooja told him it was my birthday. He was nonplussed. He continued to take our orders without so much as batting an eyelash (though he did bring over later a yummy Max Brenner chocolate with a candle so apparently he was paying some small bit of attention - by the way, what ever happened to the days when restaurants brought you a large dessert and sang to you for your birthday? I could do without the singing, but large desserts are always a welcome addition...but I digress, as usual). Here's our merry little band:

We did get actual food for dinner but everyone knows that you go to Max Brenner for the chocolate. Kate and I shared the 2-person fondue for dessert and, on man, was it good. They bring you two different types of chocolate, marshmallows (plus a flame to toast them over), banana bread and fresh fruit (strawberries and bananas). Fondue is a seriously fun dessert.

After we had eaten our fill, we headed (minus Wendy who, though I love her, has apparently been living under a rock for the past few years where she hasn't managed to see either of the first two Pirates movies) across the street for the movie.

So now here is my quick review of the movie (which I have been chastised for not posting earlier (my apologies, Jorie). It was good. It's not nearly as dark as the first movie and seems to have more of the whimsy of the first one, which I think everyone will agree is a good thing. Everything gets tied up nicely at the end, but not in such a neat little bow that it's off putting. (Oh and for those of you who like to sit around to see if there's anything after the credits, Kate and I did this and there is a little something at the end - nothing groundbreaking but I wanted to give you a heads up because if you're going to sit and wait it's nice to know you're not waiting in vain just to see the names of the 8 million people who helped with the visual effects). Johnny Depp is great as always. Though a bit more out of his mind than usual. Keira spends a lot of time walking around with that stupid little pout on her face. I definitely found myself losing patience with dear Miss Elizabeth Swann. She gets to do some cool stuff in this movie. But it seemed for a while that she was becoming a bit of a ho and I just cannot support that when sweet little Orlando Bloom is waiting and pining for her. You do not trifle with Orlando Bloom,

Speaking of which, I have been a fan of Orlando Bloom since the boy first donned elf ears. But I have to say that by the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, I was a bit tired of Mr. Will Turner. I mean what happened to the Will Turner who fought for the love of the fair Elizabeth Swann? The man who turned to piracy for his woman. Now that's a man I can get behind. But by the end of the second movie, Will Turner had turned into this whiny, sulking annoyance and I was more than ready for Elizabeth to pitch him overboard and start a steamy affair with Captain Jack (is it just me or did Johnny Depp get sexier in the second movie?). So I was disappointed when the beginning of At World's End found Orlando Bloom back to his sulky, pouting ways, brooding over Elizabeth's imagined infidelity. Snore. But let me tell you all something, you ain't seen nothing yet, and by the end of this final (we assume) installment of the Pirates trilogy, I was firmly back in Orlando Bloom's corner and wondering where I can find myself a pirate nowadays.

So go and enjoy the opening weekend. Let me know what you all thought. I think I need to see it again if only to continue to gaze longingly at Orlando. And now Faith's birthday celebration is officially at an end. There's still a few days left in "Faith's Birthday Month" but I think it's time to call it a day. But the month has been great and I've had such a great time celebrating with everyone. Thanks to everyone for the cards, gifts, drinks, well wishes, and fun. Now it's time to start planning for next year.

The Birthday Fun Continues

2007-05-22T18:09:00.000-04:00

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.*

These are the contents of the surprise package that arrived for me today all the way from Ireland from my dear friend Jess. She was sweet enough to send me my favorite British candies since I wasn't able to come visit her this year (as I promised repeatedly I would do - yes, I suck and yet Jess has chosen to reward me, because she is awesome like that). Look, even the card rocks (in it's awesome toile-like-ness). And can we just take a moment to contemplate the serious and unbelievable awesomeness of this:

It is a Cadbury creme egg in Dairy Milk bar form. I may have just died and gone to heaven. Just one more reason why I must move back to England immediately.

*Actually, this has been a great year for birthday presents so this title must go, in a tie, to Jess's surprise candy delivery (sooooo thoughtful and wonderful), my shiny new tv from my parents (sooo pretty and shiny), and Joe and Daniel's surprise visit plus the awesome gift they got me (I know, they didn't need to get me anything after coming all that way and surprising me but they are cool like that and so decided to get me a truly awesome present of a 45-minute Swedish massage at a fancy day spa on Park Ave., around the corner from my office and which I can use anytime in the next year - thus prolonging the birthday celebration even longer). Do I have the best friends and family or what? Best. Birthday. Month. Ever. (and it's not over yet, y'all)

Birthday Surprises

2007-05-20T20:10:00.000-04:00

I had a truly awesome birthday party last night. So many great people came to help me celebrate. And I got the best birthday surprise of all in the form of two of my dearest friends, Daniel and Joe, who came to my party to surprise me (one came from DC and the other from Boston and they managed to hide from me all day leading up to the party and keep their visit a surprise). I was definitely surprised. And I couldn't have been happier. We had an amazing night and, despite everyone and their mother wanting to buy me a drink - I believe there was actually a lineup of drinks at one point - I managed to make it home in much better condition than this time last year ("Moooooooooon!").

Oh and, in addition to all of my wonderful friends who came to wish me a happy birthday, guess who else happened to be at this particular bar last night. Oh yes, that would be the Texan. He remembered me and came over to chat. He fessed up to not having actually known anyone at the party where I met him a few weeks ago. Turns out he was out last night to celebrate his roommate's birthday. I swear, New York seems like such a small town sometimes. Mercifully, I managed to avoid him for the rest of the evening.

A special birthday shout out to everyone who came out last night. Thanks to Joe, Daniel, Wendy, Aaron, Vaughn, Lindsey, Aracely, Leah, Bill, Kate, Kristy, Jules, and the random Italian guy who hit on me at the end of the night, for making it such a memorable evening. It's definitely one I won't forget (not least of all because I have many many pictures from last night - you're unfired, Daniel). So, without further ado, a recap of the evening in pictures:

100th Post - Roundup Style!

2007-05-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

Hello and welcome to the 100th post. Yes, yes, I know, I've been a bad blogger again and disappeared on you. I have no excuse for this. I was tired and lazy this week (I'll blame it on recovering from my jet lag from San Diego - shut up, I know that was almost 2 weeks ago but it's my blog and I'll make excuses if I want to).

I thought that the 100th post should be about something important or at least something interesting, but since I haven't written anything in a while and I have many little things I figured I would talk about, here they are:

Gilmore Girls finale - I was ready to be disappointed and to hate the final episode of one of my favorite shows. But, I didn't. I thought it was a very fitting end to this great show. Everything got tied up in such a way so that I, a long time fan, felt satisfied but not pandered to. Everyone was there to help Rory celebrate before she goes off to start her new job. Richard and Emily shared their sweet respective moments with Lorelai and the Luke/Lorelai situation was resolved admirably without being cloying and predictable. I'm still a little miffed about the way they just wrote off Logan. I think they could have found a better way of getting rid of the divine Matt Czuchry that didn't involve him sulking off like a spoiled child. At any rate, it was nice to see my show back to its glory days, just one last time.

Grey's Anatomy finale - I do not have such nice things to say about this finale which, frankly, disappointed me. Everyone on this show has lost their everloving mind and I spent most of the episode being pissed at everyone. First there was McDreamy with his "yes, you should be worried." ugh. But then he made that wonderful speech and Meredith dropped the ball with her "It's over. It's so over." What the hell is that about? Not happy. And I so wanted Alex to give Ava a reason to stay. Why is it that on these shows, people always realize what they want when it's too late and they run back to make things right but it's always too late? ugh again. George and Izzy are also crazy and this storyline needs to die, fast. The one redeeming moment of the finale was Christina's breakdown at the end which was so moving I almost forgot about all the insanity of the previous hour. Almost.

Last weekend - My parents were here. Yay. I had a great time visiting with them. We did way too much shopping. My mother always tells me I don't need to buy anything else and yet we always end up going shopping so this seems counterproductive. But fun. And I got to celebrate my birthday with my parents (they got me a seriously awesome new tv for my birthday which is great since my old tv is about 9 years old and 13"). We celebrated Mother's Day as well. The weekend was too short, as always, but it was great getting to visit with them. We were out in the beautiful wilds of NJ. Spring is my favorite season and it's so beautiful out there. See for yourself:

My new phone - Last weekend my mom and I went to the mall to get our new phones from Verizon (hooray for "new every 2"!). I love my new phone. It wasn't even one of the ones I thought I was going to get, but it rocks. And then I dropped it. 4 days after I got it. And it wouldn't turn back on. And I freaked out. It's ok, it still works. But that was a very tense 10 minutes. I've become very attached to my phone already and I thought I killed it. I think it's forgiven me.

Bravo TV - Bravo is giving Paula Abdul her own reality tv show. I cannot wait. That is the best idea, maybe ever. And it is going to be comedy gold. Also, Top Chef is coming back and the first episode before the new season is going to be a battle of the All Stars from the first two seasons featuring professional asshats Steven and Marcel as well as my personal favorites Harold and Sam. I'm really inordinately excited about this.

My Birthday - Ok so, technically, my birthday isn't until next Thursday (May 24 - also Queen Victoria's birthday) but I'm a firm believer in celebrating for as long as possible, like the entire month of May if possible. So far so good. I celebrated with Jenny in San Diego at the beginning of the month. Last weekend I celebrated with my parents. This week we celebrated at my office. Tonight is my party at a bar in lower Manhattan (yay! so excited!). And next week, as I mentioned before, Disney was kind enough to decide to release the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie on my birthday (actually it looked at first like it was going to open the day after but now it appears it opens on my actual birthday). So I will be going out to dinner and to the movie with friends for my actual birthday celebration. After that, there's still a week left of "Faith's birthday month". So if you haven't gotten a chance to celebrate with me and you'd like to, I'm still accepting reservations. :)

Ok, so I think that's about it for the 100th post round up. Hope you've all enjoyed the first 100 posts and will continue to enjoy the next 100. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! I'm off to get a manicure in preparation for my party tonight.

Adventures in San Diego - The Conclusion

2007-05-11T17:34:00.000-04:00

Monday was the most beautiful day of my visit to San Diego. It was gorgeous and in the 80s (I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I really did luck out, weather wise - the forecast for this upcoming weekend, which is the other weekend I was considering is supposed to be low 60s and cloudy, hee hee). Unfortunately, Monday was the day that Jenny went back to work and I had to amuse myself. Thankfully, at this point in my trip, I was well versed in the things to do in and around the beach area. First on the agenda was one final trip to Seaside Cantina where I had the most delicious breakfast quesadilla which I must remember to try to replicate at home (tomatoes and scallions and bacon and cheese and homemade salsa, mmmmmm) served with the most awesome rosemary potatoes. Definitely going to miss my breakfasts with that view. And since it was Monday and most people were gainfully employed, the beach was quiet and peaceful and I didn't have to dodge too many people as I rode up and down the boardwalk.

I did some more exploring of the area stores (in an extremely unsuccessful hunt for a birthday present for a friend, though I did manage to find myself a really cute shirt at one of the surf shops). After a bike ride in the beautiful sunshine I laid out on the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous day with my book. Is there a better way to spend an afternoon? I don't think so.

When Jenny finally got home from work and was able to come play with me, we rode back down the boardwalk for a yummy dinner (no more pizza for me for a while). When we got back to the house, I go to meet another neighbor of Jenny's. Everyone, meet Gracie. Gracie is Jenny's landlord Aaron's dog and she is totally adorable:

We had time for one more sunset and some final picture taking before Jenny had to take me to the airport (sniff).

In order to get the most out of my last vacation day, I opted to take a flight leaving San Diego at 9:30pm thus ensuring that I would get to enjoy my last day and get to spend some more time with Jenny before having to head back to this coast. However, it also meant that my flight got into Newark at 6am. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours on the plane. And (thanks to my incredibly wonderful Mom who came to pick me up at the airport) take a nap before I headed off to work for the day where I was basically a useless lump, concentrating on not falling asleep at my desk.

So that's the end of my vacation story. It took us a while to get here but thanks for indulging me and letting me ramble (not that you had much choice). It was like getting to relive my trip which is great since I didn't want it to end. I had an amazing time. I've definitely been suffering from some post-vacation malaise.

Reconnecting with Jenny was a great experience - the best of the trip. I hadn't realized how much I had missed her over the years. Missed her continued presence in my life. Sure we talked on the phone every here and there and exchanged emails but ever since I started planning this trip we've been talking more regularly. And getting to sit and talk with someone in person is always better than long distance communication. There were plenty of fun times on my trip - the beach, Cinco de Mayo - but I think that some of my favorite times were just sitting around talking to my BFF. There are some people you meet when you're younger and you drift apart as you get older and things are never quite the same though they will always hold a special place in your heart. Then, there are those rare friends who can be absent from your life for extended periods of time and yet when they return, it's like no time has elapsed. That's how it's been for Jenny and me and for that I couldn't be more grateful.

I know, I know. Forgive me my sappy moment. I'll be back soon with more updates (I'll be out in the wilds of NJ this weekend and hopefully will come back with more pictures of reasons why New Jersey is beautiful and wonderful and amazing. I know you're all waiting with bated breath.)

Adventures in San Diego - The Vacation Strikes Back

2007-05-10T18:31:00.000-04:00

After our adventurous exploits of Saturday, Sunday started out a little later. This was to be a more low key day. Especially since Jenny would have to go back to work on Monday (no more hooky for her, unfortunately). We took a bike ride all the way down the shore line from Mission Beach to Ocean Beach, past the Wave House (which previously made an appearance on an episode of Laguna Beach) and around the jetty to the bay (and I didn’t even have any biking accidents – those of you who know me, know that, despite whatever athletic prowess I might at times posses, balance and coordination are not strong suits and thus I have been known to be a little wobbly on a bike in the past – see below for photographic evidence of me being upright on a bike):

Then it was back to Seaside Cantina for some more of their excellent iced coffee (and bagels which were actually surprisingly pretty good - I'm quite prejudiced when it comes to bagels, being surrounded by such great ones in NYC) and a fantastic view of the surfing competition (in pretty crappy waves) going on down below:

After that, we drove up to Sunset Cliffs (Jenny didn’t make me bike up the hilly terrain). The view from up there is awesome. And you can see all the way to islands off the coast of Mexico (see, Luke, I told you I could see Mexico):

We had a bit of a rest back at Jenny’s apartment, where, no doubt inspired by the previously mentioned surfing competition, we watched Blue Crush (featuring Kate Bosworth in her pre-skeletal days). Then it was off to find some food. We went to Fat Boyz Pizza. Now, Jenny did tell me that the slices here were bigger than normal but apparently I didn’t believe her, or I chose to ignore her, or something. After ordering a very sensible slice of cheese pizza I stepped forward to place my order to 2 slices of pepperoni pizza at which point both Jenny and the nice young man at the cash register looked at me aghast. This should have been my first clue. And yet I continued undeterred. Jenny told me that the only person she had ever seen eat more than once slice of this pizza was her boyfriend Chris and everyone was totally amazed and in awe at the time. Now, tell me that doesn’t sound like a challenge. (This challenge was first preceded by some Ms. PacMan which I totally won, though admittedly not by a very wide margin). First, witness the sheer staggering amount of pizza (please also note that all of it is not for me and that Jenny consumed some of it as well).

Next you will see that I succeeded in my endeavor and that all my pizza has been eaten:

And then I died (also, please to enjoy the really awesome part of my neck and chest that I totally missed with the sunblock that morning).

Once I recovered, we rode our bikes (see, I totally burned off all that pizza) back to Mission Beach to watch the beautiful sunset:

Before calling it a night (or heading to Blockbuster to rent a movie for the rest of our relaxing evening) my best friend (who apparently is some sort of saint) asked if I minded if she picked up some trash first (I’m sure she’s mortified I’m telling you all this, but I think it’s remarkable and deserves mention). Jenny goes along the beach at regular intervals and picks up trash left behind by visitors who have had the bad taste to sully her “back yard.” I commend her for this. This is one of those things that people pay lip service to but hardly ever do. So, we made Mission Beach a little cleaner and then headed to Blockbuster for that movie. (We also ran into Lance – LB – in the meantime, who Jenny assures me is another Mission Beach legend, my trip was very eventful indeed).
Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion of my vacation adventures....tomorrow (can you stand the suspense?).

Adventures in San Diego - The Revenge

2007-05-10T07:51:00.000-04:00

Saturday was a very eventful day in San Diego. We were up bright and early to check out the surf conditions but since the conditions weren’t great we decided to get some more sleep. After a yummy home-cooked breakfast (courtesy of chef Jenny who got me to eat tofu and like it – she’s such a Californian now) and some browsing in the shops, we decided to try our luck with the waves after all. I wish I had some surfing pictures to show you but the digital camera doesn’t like water so much, so again, you’ll have to use your imaginations. We woke up Tim (sorry, Timmy) so he could join us (and so I could borrow his long board, Jenny let me borrow her extra wetsuit – the fact that she and I can fit into the same wetsuit is really a testament to the marvels of wetsuit elasticity, seeing as how there’s probably a good 6 inches difference in height there).

I would love to tell you that my second attempt at surfing was wildly successful and that by the end I was hanging ten with the best of them. Alas, it was not to be. I managed to get most of the way up most of the time but couldn’t quite manage to get all the way to my feet. I tried to swim out into deeper water with Jenny and Tim but the waves were rough that day and there was no break between sets. The benefits of the long board in learning, in this case, were slightly outweighed by the fact that long boards don’t maneuver as well when you’re fighting your way through the surf. I definitely got my butt kicked by those waves while trying to paddle out and eventually decided to stay closer to shore (after getting nailed in the face by one too many waves and swallowing half the Pacific). One wave really pounded me and I got slammed on the ocean floor (somehow managing to get a nasty friction burn on my elbow, even through the wet suit – fun!). It was a great experience though and I fully intend to keep trying until I eventually get the hang of this whole surfing thing.

And what better way to recover from a tiring surfing workout than by heading up to Old Town for the HUGE Cinco de Mayo celebration. I’ve never really celebrated Cinco de Mayo before but there seems to be no better place. An entire section of the city was closed off for the revelry. It was convenient too that the holiday fell on a Saturday (between that and the Kentucky Derby, pretty much everyone could find an excuse to drink. Margaritas and tequila shots or a mint julep, take your pick). Interesting that both holidays involve funny hats. Coincidence?

Finding a parking spot proved a feat of daring in and of itself but after a half hour of circling the area (and one run-in with a not-so-nice man gravely intent on a particular space) we found a spot (at the top of the steepest hill I have ever seen, thank god I chose flats that day – incidentally, my feet were very thankful for the vacation from heels and other unkind shoes and are ready to move to San Diego full time so that they can enjoy the comforts of flip flops and other luxurious sandals rather than be tortured by my usual NY footwear. I’m kinda with them on that, actually).

In Old Town, we met up with some of Jenny’s friends from work and we drank margaritas and ate guacamole and danced and had an awesome time:

Since all of this fun started early in the afternoon, we decided to call it a night fairly early and headed downtown to Visions (where Tim works – though apparently Tim didn’t manage to make it into any of the pictures, sorry again, Tim) for some of the most amazing sushi.

To come in the next installment: Bike riding along the bay! Sunset Cliffs! Faith attempts to eat a slice of pizza (ok, 2 slices) the size of her head (a photo essay)! Sunset pictures!

Adventures in San Diego - Day 2

2007-05-09T08:01:00.000-04:00

So, you're ready to hear more about my trip? Excellent.

My first day in San Diego began with a walk down the beach to the Seaside Cantina for the best iced coffee I've ever had and a seriously yummy breakfast all enjoyed from the rooftop deck overlooking Mission Beach. We even spotted some playful dolphins frolicking in the waves. What better way to start the day?

The gorgeous weather was a seriously pleasant surprise. The weather forecast leading up to my trip had been less than encouraging. Forecasters were calling for the nicest spring weekend to date in New York and May Gray in San Diego. I was a little disheartened. However, they couldn't have been more wrong, Friday dawned crisp and beautiful with a clear blue sky. Apparently if you complain about something for long enough (like the three days I spent leading up to my vacation, whining about how crappy the weather was going to be) you can change it after all.

Jenny's neighbors are fantastic and so friendly and wonderful. On Friday I met Tom who showed us some of his recent paintings including one he did of passersby on Mission Beach including some famous (or perhaps infamous) Mission Beach local celebrities, "the Naked Guy" (aka Kenny, who stopped by to see himself immortalized on canvas) and "Slow-Mo" who rollerblades down the boardwalk as if in slow motion. (I saw Slow-Mo in person several times during my trip and Jenny informed me that to see both Slow-Mo and Kenny – as well as LB who we ran into later in the weekend – is to have a true Mission Beach experience. Score.) You can even watch Slow Mo on You Tube.

Friday was pretty relaxing. After breakfast, we took the bikes out to ride around the beach front area, stopping to do some shopping at some local surf shops so Jenny could get a new wet suit. Then it was off for a relaxing time at the nail salon for some mani-pedi fun. Check out the cute toes (in adorable - and super comfortable - new flip flops bought at previously mentioned cool surf shop).

Then it was off to the beach to break in my new bathing suit (so cute) with some lying on the sand and enjoying the weather. Until, that is, the clouds rolled in along with some serious wind (the only less than perfect weather of the whole trip).

The rest of the afternoon was spent reminiscing and watching some old movies (the titles of which I’m sure Jenny would prefer I didn’t share with the world, but I’m not ashamed to admit our 80’s tv-watching habits).

Friday evening I got to meet some of Jenny’s friends as Tim, Dave, and Karen met up with us for dinner and drinks after a ride down the boardwalk (some of us on bikes, the rest on skateboards, yes, ladies and gentlemen, my best friend is a skateboarder. I had no idea. It is so totally cool). After bypassing the long line at Gringos we headed to Moondoggies and then back home to rest up for an early morning (depending on the condition of the waves, we would be going surfing).

Did I survive surfing? How did we celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Did we watch anymore bad 80's tv? You'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out. (cue dramatic music)

(in the meantime, here's one more picture of us being adorable - enjoy!)

Adventures in San Diego

2007-05-08T21:48:00.000-04:00

I'm ba-ack! I returned this morning from a glorious vacation in sunny San Diego and I couldn't wait to regale you all with the stories and pictures and details of my trip. It was a fun-filled, action-packed four days and I will tell you all about it (probably more than you ever wanted to know, but then I'm sure you're all used to that from me by now).

The fun began, as it usually does, at Newark Airport on Thursday evening. My flight was scheduled to take off at 5:30 but we were delayed and ended up sitting on the runway in line behind more than 25 other planes and didn't taken off until after 7. So that was fun. And then the idiot in front of me (who used the time sitting on the runway when we were allowed to use our cell phones to call a buddy of his to explain that he had slept with some girl named Colleen and that maybe it hadn't been his best idea to date – I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that maybe it wasn't Colleen's brightest moment either) insisted on putting his seat back (yes, I know everyone has the right to put his or her seat back on a plane, however, if you are shorter than me and you decide to put your seat back into the one inch of leg room that has been allotted to me by the airline, I reserve the right to be seriously pissed at you and silently curse you for the rest of the flight). It wouldn't even have been that bad if he hadn't also insisted on putting it back during dinner, thus ensuring that my tray table was wedged into my sternum. Maybe he wanted to make sure I wasn't going to spill on myself. Very kind of him.

Ok all of that ranting out of the way, I did finally arrive in San Diego and the real fun began – 4 days of it. One of the best vacations I have ever had, mostly owed to one of the coolest girls I know, my best friend, Jenny. For those of you who don't know, I have known Jenny since I was 3 years old and we were BFF back when that phrase was not used in an ironic and kitschy way (and it turned out to be true – which, to me, is pretty freaking cool). Jenny actually moved away when we were in middle school, all the way out to Ohio but, thanks to our awesome parents, we were able to see each other twice a year and…oh, I could go on for pages and pages of old Jenny and Faith stories but I don't imagine you all want to hear them and Jenny would probably kill me for sharing (if I had a scanner I would post some old pictures which are awesome in their 80's-ness, but I don't so you'll just have to imagine them). Long story short, Jenny is the best friend a girl could ask for and all these years later we're still as close as those girls who used to watch Care Bears together while eating sour patch kids.

Jenny picked me up and drove me to her adorable and totally enviable apartment in Mission Beach. When I got out of the car, I could smell the ocean. I had no idea she lived so close. One block down the street and there it was. Fantastic.

We did some catching up (and I did some venting about Newark Airport and all of its delights) and Jenny shared with me the fantastic news that she would be playing hooky on Friday so we could spend the whole day together. And what a day it was.

Stay tuned for Part II of my San Diego adventures (seeing as how I got 4 hours of sleep on the red eye last night and then had to go to work today, I hope you'll all forgive me for posting in installments - hopefully it'll prolong the fun). For now I will leave you with an adorable picture of Jenny and myself.

Ray It Ain't So

2007-05-01T21:18:00.000-04:00

I know I said I was disappearing from blog land for a while but I just had to make another appearance (3 in one night, can you stand it?) to express my continued botherment that Rachael Ray will apparently endorse anything that will stand still enough to have her face slapped on it. As if it wasn't bad enough that her frighteningly cheerful mug already graces the back of all the Triscuit, Ritz, and other cracker boxes in sight but now she has to sully the name of my favorite morning pick-me-up, Dunkin Donuts. I won't be able to look at my morning iced coffee the same way anymore after watching her seriously annoying commercial where she skids to a stop at her local Dunkin Donuts, taking a break from her hectic, always on the go schedule. Maybe she wouldn't be so busy if she didn't prostitute herself to every available brand name.

This probably sounds a little harsh, and I wish to temper my current disfavor by stating that I used to be a huge fan of hers. I have several of her cookbooks and I have enjoyed many of her recipes, but she's become so ubiquitous recently that I find it hard to take her seriously anymore. She's begun to drive me up a wall. And I used to defend her against her critics (like my former roommate Anne - now we just make fun of her together, much more fun that way). Her thing has always been that she's not a chef, she's a normal person just like you and me. It's harder to buy her "normal person" shtick when she pops up every 5 minutes on tv shows, in commercials, on book shelves, in her magazines, in other people's magazines. I think she'll find that she's going to run out of the public's good will soon if she doesn't stop beating us over the head with her presence.

(I also hate the way she trims asparagus with a knife. That is so not how you trim asparagus. It annoys me every time she does it and now I finally have an outlet to express my asparagus woes.)

Messing with Texas

2007-05-01T19:27:00.000-04:00

A little peek into the New York dating scene, from my weekend. Saturday night, at a bar downtown I met a guy. He approached me and struck up a conversation. He's from Texas but now lives in New York and works for Morgan Stanley. A promising start, I thought. He seemed like an amiable, affable guy and the conversation was moving along smoothly. It was then, however that the "sketchy" started to come out. It has been my experience over the years that sketchy guys can only hide the sketchy for so long before they start to show their true colors. Luckily for me, Tucker (names have been changed to protect the most-definitely-not innocent) showed his stripes sooner rather than later.

First, as we surveyed our surroundings and the other people at the bar, he said to me "My boyfriend and I like to people watch and guess what people are like." I was surprised that he was gay as, up until that point, he had been hitting on me, but whatever. We moved on in the conversation. Five minutes later, "I'm not really gay, I just tossed that out there to throw you off." Why? We'll never know. But apparently I passed whatever test I was being given because apparently I wasn't thrown at all. Ok. Good for me?

Then, another guy came by and asked if we were in line for the bathroom. Tucker quickly responded "No, we're just engaging in the pre-sexual dance." Um, ew. He was all apologetic "Sorry, was that not funny? Did I go too far?" Yes and yes, but I let it slide because he was cute (and taller than me, a rare commodity it seems). However, the sketchy vibe was now out there and my guard was up.

The final straw came as I mentioned that I should probably be going home soon. When I told him I would be going, he posed a hypothetical: "Suppose I was going to go home with you. Convince me that I should go all the way back to Jersey City instead of back to my place." It would be hard for me to convince him of this since that sure as hell was not going to happen. In the end, I opted for the path of least resistance. I grabbed my coat, said goodbye to my friends, and left while he was in the middle of hitting on another girl (charming).

In the end, I was actually pretty proud of myself. I'll try not go all "after school special" on you guys, but though I have a good job and an apartment and am about to turn 26 and am, in every sense of the world, an adult, it doesn't often feel like that. My friends and I often talk about how we don't really feel older and none of us seems to feel like what we thought we would feel like we would when we reached our mid-20s. But every once in a while a situation or moment comes along when I feel like I made an adult decision. Saturday night was one of those. Part of me was tempted to stick around to see how this thing played out. I mean, after all, he was cute (and apaprently interested in me). How bad could it be? The other, smarter part of me realized that I didn't need to stick around to find out that it would be bad and probably end in an awkward situation that I would most likely regret later. In the past, I've sided with that "wait and see" part of my brain and I've always regretted it. It has never ended well. Finally, I seem to have learned my lesson and my Saturday night was the better for it.

Moral of the story: Apparently everything is bigger in Texas, including the assholes.

Much Busy

2007-05-01T18:54:00.000-04:00

Saturday was the "Day of Much Busy" (a term one of my interns liked so much she decided to commandeer it for her own personal use - I like to be of linguistic use to people). Well, my weekend quickly became the "Weekend of Much Busy." Allow me to quickly recap (and thus explain my recent blog silence). Friday night after work was spent babysitting my two favorite girls. Got home by midnight, in time to go to bed (the only time I was in my apartment this weekend was to sleep). Saturday I got up and got ready and schlepped myself out to Brooklyn for my boss's baby shower. Then it was off to the Upper East Side to my friend Wendy's apartment to hang out with her and her lovely boyfriend Aaron (hi, Aaron!) for a little while before the three of us hopped on a crosstown bus to attend my friend Matt's recital on the Upper West Side. After the recital it was back over to the Upper East for some food and then down to the Flatiron to Vig 27 for my friend Pooja's party where I got hit on by a sketchy Texan (more on that later) before heading home and falling exhausted into bed. And as if all of that wasn't enough, I spent over 7 hours on Sunday babysitting. Got home at 8, just in time to do some reading for my Monday morning meeting and then go to sleep. By the time I woke up on Monday morning it felt like I hadn't had a weekend at all.

I'm not complaining though (ok, not much) because tomorrow is my last day of work this week before I head off on a 4-day vacation to San Diego (I know, 4 days doesn't seem like much of a vacation, but it's all the time I can take away right now and, while it will go by far more quickly than I'd like, I'm sure, it's still a vacation, and I'm totally psyched). Oh, and to get the most out of my vacation days, I'm taking the red eye back arriving at 6am Tuesday morning and going to work that day. I'm sure I'll be hugely useful that day. In San Diego, I will be visiting with my childhood best friend who I've known since I was 3. Being on opposite sides of the country, we don't get to see each other very often so I'm definitely looking forward to a great weekend of catching up.

So this time I apologize in advance for deserting you, my faithful readers. I don't plan to blog on my vacation, so you'll just have to survive from Thursday til Tuesday without me. I'm sure you'll survive.

Fun with Treadmills

2007-04-26T22:47:00.001-04:00

Ok so this video has been out for ages but I've been listening to the song a lot recently and every time I listen to it, I'm reminded of the video and I've asked a lot of people about it and was surprised to find out how many hadn't seen this awesome bit of homemade music video action. So I decided to post it here for everyone's viewing pleasure. Hope this helps everyone have a happy Friday.

Elastic Waist

2007-04-25T23:33:00.000-04:00

My friend Sarah (who should need no introduction since I'm sure you've all gone to visit her website which I have so diligently provided in that pretty little sidebar over there) is amazing. In case some of you have ignored the handy little side bar, you should check out Pink of Perfection, like, now. Yesterday I made her risotto recipe and it was excellent! I've never made risotto before, as I've always found the prospect rather daunting. But Sarah made it easy and I give her simple recipe a lot of the credit for the fact that my first foray into the world of risotto turned out perfectly, with not one overly crunchy rice grain in sight. But I digress.

Recently, Sarah got an amazing new job (she just got so lonely over there in "country editorial" at CUP that she had to strike out on her own as well). She now gets to use her blog-making and blog-evaluating skills for her actual job. Yes, she is one lucky girl. Sarah helps Conde Nast launch blogs, and their first one is up and running and I just had to share it all with you, for it is awesome. It's called Elastic Waist and it's totally empowering and wonderful. If you're wondering exactly what it's about, here's a snippet from the blog that might help with that:

Anne: It's a blog about our bodies and how we relate to them. It’s about what we do to our bodies, what we want to do, what we think we should do and what we realize we have to let go of. Oh, and celebrities are as fucked up as we are, and that's comforting.

Weetabix: That's beautiful. So let’s introduce ourselves. You're going to be blogging on Body of Work, your personal diary about the weight-loss surgery you had this past November.

Anne: Yup. I get to talk about my ass. The ass though, is a universal subject.

Weetabix: Everyone has an ass, even Cameron Diaz! You just need a microscope to see hers.

Anne: And your ass will be blogging about body issues on Elastic Waist, and the crazy shit that goes on when we try to talk about our physical selves. And food, and celebs, and exercise, and nutrition, and products…it doesn’t stop.

So that's the long and short of it, people. I highly recommend it. It's really funny and it will definitely help talk you off the ledge after you've eaten that 4th cookie at your desk and you haven't gone to the gym in a week (ok, several weeks) and you feel fat and useless. Everybody has those days and it's nice to be reminded of that and reminded that we are not alone and we're all great exactly as we are. But don't take my word for it. Go and see for yourselves.

The Agony of Da Feet

2007-04-23T22:16:00.000-04:00

The torture devices known as women's shoes are not a new topic of discussion, but after having a particularly cruel few days with my (usually) favorite foot accessories, I just had to share. I bought an adorably cute pair of shoes on Saturday (my good friend Liz was in town for a visit and she and I should never be allowed to go shopping together - EVER!). I decided I had to wear the shoes out that night. They needed to see the town. I know it's risky to wear new shoes without taking precautions first. But we were meeting our dinner companions in Union Square to head to a restaurant which, I was assured, was "off Union Square" before returning to Union Square for dessert and a movie ("Hot Fuzz" which you should all go out and see immediately. I was laughing so hard, I was crying). I was grossly misinformed. The restaurant wasn't so much "off Union Square" as it was in the freaking East Village. By the time we got there, my feet were torn to shreds and I was hobbling like an 80-year-old woman who forgot her walker. And, of course, in order to meet my friend, Hasdai, for dessert at Max Brenner and the movie across the street, we had to trudge the entire way back to Union Square.

The backs of my feet are still recovering and covered with many blisters. So, as I prepared for work this morning, it was imperative that I find shoes without backs. Sandals it is (perfect for the balmy spring weather). I was pretty comfortable most of the day, but I had an errand to run downtown and it was so beautiful that I decided I wanted to walk the 30 blocks downtown. Hey, it seemed like a really good idea at the time. About halfway through I realized what a huge mistake this was and hopped on the subway. But it was too late. I already had a blister ON THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOT! I ask you, is that not the most sadistic place for a blister to pop up? At least with the blisters on my heels, I can wear shoes that won't aggravate them. I don't think I own any sole-less shoes (though I'm beginning to think that all women's shoes are soulless).

To add insult to serious injury, I had a Jennifer Lopez (in "The Wedding Planner") moment on the way home (still a few more blocks to go and I could feel the blister getting worse but I had forgotten to put flip flops in my bag that morning as I had originally planned). My heel got stuck in a manhole cover as I was running to beat the light on the corner of 14th and 9th. The light had already turned and the taxi cabs were headed my way and my heel was stuck good and firm in the grate of the manhole cover. I couldn't seem to free myself. But, alas, there was no Matthew McConaughey around to rescue me; I had to do it myself. I managed to free my foot and I was tempted to leave the shoe behind, if only because it had caused me so much pain already. But I didn't particularly relish the idea of walking home barefoot. So I managed to pry the offending shoe loose and trudge painfully home. If my current career has given me any delusions about romance, there are always moments like these around to remind me that real life isn't like a movie (or like a romance novel) and that Prince Charming is not going to come and pick up your size 10, broken, brown leather sandal and then take you home and give you a soothing foot massage for your poor, aching feet. More's the pity.

Scalito Strikes Again

2007-04-18T18:16:00.000-04:00

Today, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on partial birth abortions. It was a narrow 5-4 victory. Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to who those 5 votes were from? Ah, yes, it was Anthony Kennedy, Chief Justice Roberts, good ol' Clarence Thomas, and the inevitable brain trust of Scalito. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was, understandably, upset by the ruling, even deciding to read part of her dissent from the bench. According to an article in the Times today:

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the majority decision “alarming” and a retreat from the court’s earlier holdings. “It tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,” Justice Ginsburg wrote, in a dissent joined by Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.

The most alarming part of this article, to me, was the following quote from W:

President Bush applauded today’s ruling as “an affirmation of the progress we have made over the past six years in protecting human dignity and upholding the sanctity of life.” President Bill Clinton twice vetoed laws banning the procedure at issue.

It seems to me that this decision is, rather, an affirmation of the choke hold the religious right and the pro-lifers have on the Republican party (and the conservative SCOTUS justices). It's laughable to me how he can call this "progress." And I could use some further clarification on how exactly this ban is going to be protecting human dignity when there's no provision in this ban to protect the health and life of the mother.

As my (very intelligent and more level-headed) friend, Liz, pointed out to me, thank god for a (finally) Democratic Congress which is highly unlikely to hear/vote on/pass a bill against other types of (or all) abortion. However, this most recent news is still very depressing. Is it November 2008 yet?

Lappy Gets a Friend

2007-04-18T18:02:00.000-04:00

Admittedly, I have been a bad blogger recently what with the not updating and all (and I have been chastised on this count by at least 2 of my most faithful readers) so I will try to be better, I promise - nice to know you guys care. AND I cannot believe that I forgot to tell you all about one of the most exciting new developments in my life and that is that with my recent wonderful windfall, which I have decided to treat as found money (because, basically, it is) and use for something fun and frivolous and wonderful and not, instead, as a contribution to my recently created IRA (I know, I'm such an adult, it's frightening), I bought myself an exciting new toy (yes, I know that may be one of the longest, most confusing sentences this side of a James Joyce novel, sorry):
Behold the shiny new ipod and all of its majesty. (Ok, so this isn't actually my ipod because I tried to take a picture of it to post - a picture of it displaying a Strong Bad email - yes, that's right, you can use your ipod to watch Strong Bad, so exciting - but they weren't coming out so I have borrowed this one from the Apple store website. I assure you that mine is just as shiny and pretty and wonderful and live and in color.) This is my first new ipod (ok, technically I bought a refurbished one, but it's just like new so...shut up) as my original mini is a hand me down of slightly questionable origin (and which has been dying a slow death as its battery power gets progressively weaker) and then Wendy gave me her newer model, which, in the wake of my getting said new shiny ipod, will be given to my father (wonder if I can pull it off as a Father's Day present, probably not).

At any rate, my new toy makes me very, very happy. Though it has greatly curtailed my subway reading as all I've been doing on the train now is listening to music and watching episodes of Teen Girl Squad (I'm sure the other people on the train wonder what the hell it is I'm watching). Just wanted to share my most recent joy and happiness with you all.

(Yes, I went a bit link happy - wooo, links are fun!....and also I may have had a giant iced coffee this morning thus causing me to be slightly wired, I wonder if the wiredness will hold out til after my basketball game tonight.)

I Scream, You Scream

2007-04-17T08:03:00.000-04:00

It's FREE CONE DAY at Ben and Jerry's! Thought you all might like to know.

The lines are usually pretty long (though usually at this time of year it's warmer than 40 outside so that might keep some of the crowds away). And you should DEFINITELY check online first to see if your local store is actually offering free cones (last year - yes I am still harping on this - a bunch of us tried to go to the store on 23rd street, which the website assured us was offering free cones, and it was hot out and we walked all the way over there and then there were no free cones and it was a sad day - though I did email Ben and Jerry's about this and they sent me a coupon for a free cone so that was pretty cool).

Ok, so who wants to come stand in line with me?

I Said Consummate V's

2007-04-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

As promised, it's time to lighten the mood. One of my favorite things on the Internet (and in life) is Strong Bad emails on the Homestar Runner website. I have discovered that not nearly enough people know about this amazing source of humor. I discovered Strong Bad emails my senior year of college when I wondered what in the hell my friends Daniel and Caty were laughing at so loudly. Admittedly, the first few I watched, I was not impressed. I had no idea what was going on or who this weird little boxing guy was and why he was answering emails. None of this matters. They grow on you, until you reach the point where you find them hysterically funny (ok, so this isn't always true, there are people who don't find Strong Bad funny, but they are obviously idiots with questionable senses of humor and we don't need to associate with them). I try to broaden people's horizons to the wonderful world of Strong Bad but my acting out the emails is not nearly as funny as actually watching them (though this hasn't stopped me from trying - most notably on a first date. Ok, no, there wasn't a second date, but I'm sure that's a coincidence). This generally leads to people looking at me like I've got a The Cheat on my head (see, you would know what that was if you watched).

Since the advent of Strong Bad, he has now answered 170 emails. Obviously I don't expect you to watch them all. So to make this new experience accessible for all of you, I've decided to put together a list of some of my favorites (in no particular order, because it's hard enough picking a reasonably small number of favorites without also having to choose among them). With links and everything so all you have to do is click and enjoy! (and then come back and tell me what you think)

Some kinda robot - the very first Strong Bad email, so you know what you're dealing with
Sisters - "There is two of us."
Lures and Jigs - I may have done this dance on that previously-mentioned first date
Techno - "The system is down."
The Property of Ones - Because a One that isn't cold is scarcely a One at all.
Dragon - A true classic
English Paper - Writing advice from Strong Bad
Caper - I'm so glad the Cheat is not dead!
Mascot - the Crazy Go Nuts University Dumples
Caffeine - Strong Bad jumps on the National Caffeine is Awesome Month bandwagon
Virus - Computer over. Virus = Very Yes
Animal - The introduction of the lappy (and the Hudge)
Retirement - Strong Bad's Amazing Feats of Wonder
From Work - Strong Bad checks email at work too
Replacement - Strong Bad contemplates his mortality
Comic - the beginning of Teen Girl Squad (all of which you should also watch - but especially episodes 3 and 10)
Anything - Homestar takes the emailing reins (accidentally omitted first time around - thanks for pointing that out, Daniel)*

I think that's probably enough to get you started for now. I'm rather behind on the newer ones, but as I find ones that are really worth watching, I'll be sure to pass the info along. Also, for current fans of Strong Bad and the toons, check out the Homestar wiki which was just brought to my attention (thanks, Matt!).

Enjoy!

*Oh, and several of the emails have extra bits and pieces for which you have to wait around after the paper comes down - "Anything" is one of these, in fact, the best part of the whole email comes after the end. So you best stick around.

Tragedy

2007-04-16T18:33:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. I have been a naughty blogger once again and have let all of you faithful readers (all dozen of you) without anything to while away the minutes. Terribly sorry. I'll try not to let it happen again. I'll post something inconsequential and fun in a minute but first, I just wanted to say that my thoughts are with the people at Virginia Tech (and their loved ones) as they deal with the aftermath of the deadliest school shooting in American history. My cousin is a student at Virginia Tech and we were all extremely relieved to find out that she's ok. It's hard to imagine this happening on a college campus (well, obviously it's hard to imagine it happening anywhere). I went to Williams College, a small (kickass) liberal arts college in northwestern Massachusetts. I can't imagine what it would have been like if something like this had happened there. At any rate, this is a terrible tragedy and an experience no one should have to deal with.

Oh Canada

2007-04-09T18:53:00.000-04:00

I'm back from the land of dial-up internet and old, busted computers (also known as my parents' house). It wasn't even worth trying to blog from there. I'm sure you all missed me. Wow, that's the longest I've gone without updating. My apologies. I left Friday to visit my parents in Canada for Easter weekend (after a nice little enjoyable visit with my friend Emily - three trips around Newark airport notwithstanding). The drive to Ontario was...shall we say...interesting. In case anyone hasn't noticed, it's April. Mother Nature doesn't seem to care. It snowed the entire way from NJ to Canada, sometimes in little bursts, sometimes for more prolonged white-out type periods (usually followed by seemingly incongruous patches of bright sunlight). Here is a picture of me in Watertown, NY being pelted in the face by snow (literally, it hurt) while getting gas before crossing over into Canada (where it was, I would like to point out, snowing less than in upstate NY). This is not a happy Faith (yeah, guess the sunglasses aren't entirely necessary):

All of this is (the snow, the 400 mile drive, the cold, etc.), however, worth it when you consider some of the inducements Canada (and in particular, my parents' house) holds. The thing that most excited me about this trip (aside from seeing my family and my dog, Zoe) is that Canada (like England and other Commonwealth countries) has real Cadbury's chocolate - not the fake, Americanized stuff we get down here. But it doesn't end there. At Easter time, McDonalds in Canada (as in the UK) offers Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurries. BEST IDEA EVER!!! Totally worth a 400 mile drive. Cadbury Creme Eggs have long been my favorite Easter candy (or really any time of the year candy) and whoever came up with the brilliant idea to put them into an ice cream concoction is a genius and should be given some sort of award. This is a very happy Faith:Yes, in Canada a Cadbury Creme Egg is also labeled in Canadian as an "oeuf-fondant." Doesn't sound quite as good, does it? It should also be noted that, though not quite as good as the original, if you cannot drive to Canada - or fly to England - you too can have your very own Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurry. My mom and I experimented with this last night. To make your own at home:

- Put vanilla ice cream in a blender (an immersion blender might work better - that's what we used, in which case you would put the ice cream in some sort of cup or bowl).
- Cut the top off a Cadbury Creme Egg and scoop out the fondant filling
- Add fondant to ice cream
- Put hollow Creme Egg between two layers of foil (so as not to get everything all sticky) and hit it with something hard (a mallet, a can, your shoe, your head, whatever)
- Add chocolate and blend together.
- Eat and enjoy

I have returned from Canada with a large supply of yummy Easter candy and even yummier leftovers from my parents (who are both excellent cooks). Unfortunately, though the thought did cross my mind, it didn't seem that transporting several McFlurries in a cooler in my trunk was a viable option (which turned out to be an even better decision when the guy at customs decided to give my cooler a very thorough search, including a 5 minute examination of the ingredients list on a box of appetizers I was bringing back from a speciality store for my friend's bridal shower next weekend - I was ready to throw myself on the mercy of the court to save the smuggled hors d'oeuvres, but after his lengthy investigation, he sent me on my way and wished me well. phew!)

Final Game Thoughts

2007-04-03T00:36:00.000-04:00

I won't give you my minute by minute thoughts this time around but just a few observations as the game goes on, which I will add to as more things annoy or impress me). And I suppose I should mention (though I think I've mentioned it before) that I am a bit biased since (though I'm guaranteed money either way) a Florida win gets me a nice little windfall. So, go Gators!

First of all, Joakim Noah had to come out of the game less than 6 minutes in because he was so exhausted he couldn't even seem to drag himself back to get on offense. Seriously? He was MOP in last year's championship game and it just seems odd that he's dragging so soon. Obviously, basketball is tiring. I know that as well as anyone. But this is the NCAA championship. Get your lazy ass down the court. Come on. I know you're tired and you're waiting for a sub, but in the meantime, suck it up. I expected more stamina from this so-called basketball wunderkind. I said after the UCLA game that I was waiting for him to impress me. I'm still waiting. (Meanwhile, Oden, the center for Ohio State, has played for the first 10 minutes plus of the first half - with three different men coming in to guard him - and hasn't had a sub yet, or committed a foul. If it comes down to a battle of the big men, Oden has set the bar high. Also, Oden is an 18-year-old freshman, but is it just me, or does he look about 35?)

Apparently someone has been listening to my rants. Florida is currently 5-for-5 from the free throw line (including 2-for-2 from Noah and his sidewinder of a shot).

Ok, the referees are pissing me off. They're calling the lamest most nit-picky fouls (while letting other seemingly more obvious fouls go unchecked). Specifically, they're not letting the big men play their game. They just called a foul on Richard of Florida for putting his arm on the back of the man he was defending. Now I'm not sure where these refs have been watching basketball up until this point, but that's how you play defense. It's rather difficult to play defense without touching your opponent and putting your elbow on someone's back(not in, not jabbing someone, just establishing your space). Grrr. They're unnecessarily slowing down the pace of the game and this isn't what you want to see in a game between teams of this caliber.

I am very impressed with Cory Brewer. His 3-point shooting is great. His 6'9" wingspan means he seems to be able to get his hands on just about any ball that comes near him. Also impressive is Humphrey (guard for Florida and another key component of this win tonight). He makes some 3-pointers that seem basically impossible. He's always at least 3 feet behind the 3-point line and every time I think there's no way it's going in and yet almost every time, it does. Humphrey has actually made more 3-pointers than any other player in NCAA tournament history.

Hooray Gators! Thanks for winning me some money! Back to back wins for Florida and they becocme the first team in NCAA history to repeat with the same starting 5. Nothing like winning and breaking a few records at the same time. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Noah will not be repeating as MOP (he managed to do all right for himself, but I'm still not wowed - side note, his moment with his mom after the game was really pretty cute, and he really couldn't look any less like his mom, a former Miss Sweden. He is the spitting image of his dad, right down to his hair and the gap between his front teeth, always interesting to see how family genetics play out - or maybe it's jut interesting to me). My pick would be to Horford or Brewer. Yup, MOP goes to Brewer. Good job, boys. Thanks for helping fund my shopping habit.

It's Raining 300 Men

2007-04-02T21:07:00.001-04:00

This is too funny. Enjoy!

Weekend Fun (ADD Style)

2007-04-01T20:49:00.000-04:00

Because I'm lazy and because I feel like sharing little bits of information about many different things, here's a recap of my weekend (starting with Thursday, as all good weekends do).

Thursday, my friend Wendy and I went to a party held by Entertainment Weekly at Ultra (a bar/lounge in Chelsea). The party was sponsored by Fiji Water and Yellowtail. And there was an open bar. I suppose it's a good idea to have an unlimited supply of bottled water in addition to an open bar to at least give people the option of rehydrating at the same time as they dehydrate. I doubt many people took advantage of this option. I know I didn't. At any rate, there was a lot of free stuff and, without going into too much detail (I know, very unlike me), it was an awesome time, sure to be remembered. (Also, to anyone I drunk-dialed, hope you enjoyed the voicemails I left you; I'm sure they'll come back to haunt me at a later date, as they usually do.)

I spent the weekend back out in the country visiting with my mom, who was in town for the weekend, and my godparents, which is always a fun time. First stop was a party at the Hunterdon Museum of Art (where I used to work for my wonderful former boss - and current friend - Vonda) to say goodbye to our dear friend Janet who is retiring and leaving us. We'll miss you, Janet!!

Because Easter is almost upon us, I was actually able to experience one of my extremely pleasant memories from my childhood. Hopefully my words will be able to do it justice. Across the street from the lovely general store, that I've told you about before, is a place called the Magic Shop - which sells lovely toys. At Easter time they have what they call "the Bunny Hole." When I was little, the Bunny Hole was far more elaborate than it is now. It existed on two separate floors. You crawled through a hole in a wall, as if you were crawling into a rabbit's warren, and then you slid down a slide to the floor below where you could crawl around and peer into different scenes of bunny life, each more elaborate and well thought out than the next. It was ingenious. And so much fun. My mom mentioned that it was Bunny Hole time and while I was out running an errand, I stopped into the Magic Shop to see if adults could play too.

Unfortunately, due to increased fire regulations since the days of my childhood, the Bunny Hole now exists solely on one floor with a much shorter slide, but the ingenuity is still there. Each year the Bunny Hole has a theme; this year was the Oscars, or in Bunnyland, the Eggsters. So cute and so clever. They had bunnies getting ready in fancy dresses, complete with sketches of formal wear from designers like Oscar de la Rabbit and Bunny Wang. A beautiful bunny in a red sequined evening gown, handed out the Eggster for Best Actress. Then all the woodland creatures attended the Vanity Bear after party. The volunteer manning the door of the Bunny Hole (who is an old family friend) told me that it's really more for adults anyway as kids don't get all the added details. This probably seems pretty silly to some, but it was such a nice reminder of many pleasant childhood Easter memories.

In case anyone missed it, yesterday was the NCAA Men's semifinals. Ohio State pulled out a win against Georgetown and Florida triumphed over UCLA (which guarantees that no matter who wins the final game, I will win money in the pool I'm in but if we could all cross our fingers for Florida, that'd be great). Florida was giving me a bit of a heart attack in the first half as they couldn't seem to make a shot and Joakim Noah didn't seem to be doing much of anything, other than loafing back on defense and missing foul shots (seriously, the boy has the weirdest shot I have ever seen and he must have some seriously amazing other skills to make up for his sidewinder of a shot). Very excited for the game tomorrow night.

And for anyone that's been watching the Amazing Race, are you all loving the fact that finally people seem to be getting tired of Charla and Mirna and their kamikaze tactics? They are so amazingly (ha!) irritating with the weird accent they use to speak to foreigners and the way they lean over (or in Charla's case - crawl under) ticket counters so they can get in the ticket agent's faces and bully them into getting tickets - probably just to get the weird cousins away from them as fast as possible. No one in Poland wanted to talk to them. Not wholly surprising when Mirna's approach to try to get someone to answer her questions was "Can you speak? [pause for 2 seconds, waiting for answer] No, you can't speak, can you?" Charming, no?

Admittedly that is a very random selection of tidbits. Think of it as a weekend smorgasbord, a little bit of everything; something for everyone.

Cleft-tastic!

2007-03-28T18:23:00.000-04:00

As I believe I've mentioned before, I work with romance novels on a day-to-day basis. We get many submissions every day – some of them good, some of them very, very bad. Because romance novels are, in themselves, a bit of a cliché, the submissions we get tend to be rife with standard plot devices and turns of phrase. I’m sure you know the sorts of things I’m talking about: the heroine who trips and falls and is caught by the extremely attractive male passerby, the heroine who couldn't possibly get involved in a relationship right now because some (weird/lame/totally easily overcome) obstacle stands in her way, the hero who is a fireman/cop/writer/farmer/all around amazing guy, etc. When I started this job, I was familiar with many of these romantic clichés. But there are some I will never get used to.

My first week as an editor here, the interns were having a giggle over a manuscript in which a woman is so overawed by the cleft in a handsome man’s chin that she longs to put her finger in the cleft. This struck all of us as hysterical. I mean, who does that? I have never once been struck by the desire to touch a man’s cleft chin (unless of course that man was George Clooney in which case all bets are off). Honestly, I've never even found cleft chins particularly attractive (however, see previous proviso regarding handsome George). It seemed to be a sort of one-off thing, the sort of ridiculous line or situation the creeps into certain novels written by not-so-fabulous authors. Basically, the exact opposite of a cliché. Something so profoundly ridiculous, only one lunatic would ever think of such a thing.

However, this same exact situation has cropped up in no less than 3 other manuscripts in the past few months I have worked here, once just last week. But what shocked me the most was the following passage that I read on the train home last night after basketball (from How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Live by Mameve Medwed – an actual published book, and a pretty good one, at that): “I study the cleft in his chin. What would it be like to slide a finger right into that cranny? How would it feel? Maybe like a little cocktail frank snug in its little cocktail bun. Maybe like a perfectly contained haiku? Is that a healthy thought? I wonder.”

I laughed out loud on the train. I couldn't help it. First of all, this image, far from being sexy, is actually kind of gross. It has no place in anything having to do with romance. It also seems like a thinly-veiled sexual metaphor (but in a totally unsexy way). Second, this seemed such an odd coincidence. I had never (EVER!) come across this bizarre desire before in my adult life and it strikes me as odd that it keeps coming up. Is this really a romantic cliché? If it is a standard romantic cliché, why? It must be so for a reason. Are there a bunch of dimple-crazed women running around cleft-raping innocent young men? If so, they should be stopped, and the sooner, the better. If not for the sake of these poor, defenseless, cleft-ed young men, then for the sake of my sanity so I don’t have to read about it ever ever again.

(Interesting side note: when I decided to look up cleft chins online and was scrolling through the list of people who possess this particular facial feature I discovered that there is a Bollywood actress by the name of Dimple Kapadia who has a cleft chin. Her parents must have a very odd sense of humor. I wonder if they named all of their children after some prominent trait displayed in childhood. I certainly hope not since their other daughter is named Simple - you can't make this stuff up.)

This is Sparta!

2007-03-26T22:51:00.000-04:00

I saw 300 tonight. It was way better than I expected. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why I wanted to see it as it's not typically the kind of movie that I see. But ever since the commercials started showing up, I was mesmerized and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I was definitely not disappointed. Interestingly, it wasn't really as gory as I was expecting. There was quite a bit of blood and guts but in a very sort of cartoonish way that wasn't disturbing. The violence in Pan's Labyrinth was far more disturbing.

Besides, who can concentrate on violence when there's all those handsome (and very ripple-y) Spartan men around. Yum. Apparently all the men in Sparta were blessed with abs of steel. Gorgeous. I was struck by the familiarity of the voice over and it turns out that one of the bad-ass Spartan warriors was Faramir from the Lord of the Rings movies. He has a great voice for voice overs as it's very distinctive. The most surprising appearance in the movie, however, came from Rodrigo Santora (the Brazilian hottie who romanced Laura Linney in Love Actually) as King Xerxes - though he's completely unrecognizable in this role and I will probably spend the rest of my life trying to clear my brain of the image of him as the creepy (and shiny) King Xerxes. I'm sure this wasn't the filmmaker's intention, but the role was completely ridiculous. The scene between Xerxes and Leonidas was laugh-out-loud funny. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at an action movie in my entire life. The man was wearing more eyeshadow than the entire female population of Staten Island (oh yeah, I went there).

Speaking of things that were totally ridiculous, let's move now to the pandering that took place in this movie. I don't think the movie really needed other inducements to its male audience (and it was pretty obvious from the first few minutes of the movie that it was aimed squarely at men, any joy the women in the audience - should there happen to be any - might derive from the movie is purely secondary. I'm sure this seems like a weird thing to say when there were so many scantily clad men running around but even that really seemed to be there for the benefit of the men - well, some of the men anyway). For the rest of the men not amused by the Spartans in their tight trunks, there was the multitude of gratuitous boob shots. First there was the oracle, with her convulsions and alarmingly alert nipples (someone could lose an eye). Then there was the steamy sex scene between Leonidas and his queen featuring, wait for it, more boobs. The most gratuitous of all of these, though, was the completely unnecessary scene at Xerxes' palace which is apparently full of writhing, moaning women who make out with one another. Seriously, I would have paid good money to be in the room with the writers while they worked out these plot points:

"Well, let's see, have we got all the elements of a successful movie? :
People getting beheaded? Check
Swords and spears and shields, oh my? Check
Steamy sex scene (in many different positions)? Check
Boobs galore? Check."
"Ok, I think we've given men everything they could possibly want in a movie."
"Wait. What about some women making out?"
"Right, how could we have possibly left that out?"

I'm sure from all of that, it sounds like I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but honestly I was. I thought it was fantastic. 2 hours of solid entertainment. Gerard Butler, as King Leonidas, was fantastic. Another actor with an amazing voice that is a pleasure to listen to (even if it was a bit odd that the king of the Spartans had a Scottish accent). In addition to the inadvertent comedy, there were also some deliberately funny lines ("Because only Spartan women bear real men.") And, despite the gratuitous boob shots and girl-on-girl action, the women don't come off too badly. Queen Gorgo is an amazingly strong woman. The way she handles herself in front of the council is pretty freaking awesome. And I really cannot say enough about the beauty of the Spartan men. Mmmm...sweet dreams for me tonight.

(For another most excellent review of 300 - which honestly puts mine to shame a bit - check out the latest missive from my Spartan movie watching buddy, small-d.)

No Axe-Wielding Maniacs Here

2007-03-25T20:51:00.000-04:00

Volvo has always been known as one of the safest cars on the market (which is why it was my first car, no airbags but built like a tank). And now Volvo is doing something else to keep us all safe (on the road and off). Here I thought the Lexus parallel parking system was cool (though not entirely useful), well Volvo has blown Lexus out of the water with the newest features on the new Volvo S80. First of all, there's the blind spot sensors that will tell you if there's someone in your blind spot regardless of whether or not you can see them (if only Volvo had come up with this 20 years ago so my good ole 1988 station wagon would have prevented the one and only accident I got in several years back). So that's pretty cool. But then there is the PCC (I had to go look this up on their website because when I saw the commercial I thought for sure they were joking, this couldn't be an actual feature).

The PCC is the Personal Car Communicator. The PCC and the car can communicate and the PCC will tell you whether your car is locked or unlocked. When you walk to your car, the car senses your approach and unlocks and once inside (with the PCC) you can start the car with the push of a button. Ok so that's all cool, but not super remarkable. What is pretty crazy is the fact that the PCC will also tell you if the alarm on your car has been activated and the heartbeat monitor on the PCC will tell you if someone (i.e. an intruder) is sitting in your car so you can beat a hasty retreat (and prevent the re-enactment of that horrible first scene in the movie Urban Legend which caused me to check every crevice of my car before getting into it for the past, oh, many years. Hell, I still check).

These extra frills are getting sort of ridiculous. What's next? Auto-pilot? Espresso machine built into the dash? A car that can sense any tension (conversational, sexual, etc) and provide the correct conversational ice-breaker, mood setting song, or whatever, to alleviate the situation?

Go Hoyas!

2007-03-25T19:52:00.000-04:00

Georgetown just pulled off a pretty amazing win over North Carolina and I could not be any happier. I managed (without really any knowledge of the teams whatsoever) to successfully pick the Final Four - putting me in first place in my pool with a fairly good shot at staying there and winning some cash*. Woo hoo! Georgetown was behind basically the entire game (by 11, at its largest deficit) and managed - with the help of an extremely ineffective North Caroline offense - at the end to go on a 22-6 run and tie the game with about 30 seconds to go and send the game into overtime. Fairly impressive in and of itself, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Anything can happen in overtime; it's a clean slate. North Carolina scored 3 points in overtime. Georgetown, 15. Fifteen!!! North Carolina missed their first 12 field gold attempts in overtime. North Carolina has an appalling record in overtime games. It makes me wonder if there's something intrinsic in the style of basketball they play that doesn't lend itself to overtime play. They're obviously a very successful team otherwise and overtime games are usually few and far between so I suppose this isn't usually a major deal, but tonight it certainly was. But since in this particular instance, their loss worked most spectacularly in my favor, that's just fine by me.

Also, serious props to the Hoyas for their amazing rebounding. North Carolina might have missed an obscene number of shots, but Georgetown didn't give them many second chances and that made a huge difference in their comeback. And North Carolina is a perfect example of what I was saying before about free throws. Their percentage tonight was huge and they managed to get themselves to the line far more often than their Hoya competitors.

Tangentially, Tyler Hansbrough (the center for UNC) should really get a different mouth guard. The one he was sporting tonight was Tar Heels colors (points for team spirit) half white and half baby blue, split down the middle. Unfortunately, this made Hansbrough look like he was missing several front teeth. He would have looked more at home on a hockey team.

*my fortune cookie tonight said that prosperity would knock on my door soon. fingers crossed

Stuff I'm Reading (plus a fun CONTEST!)

2007-03-22T23:20:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I did an updated "Stuff I'm Reading" post. I've been very remiss indeed. Let's hope I can remember everything I've read in the past month.

Recently completed:
Craze by Jessica Warner
Duty and Desire by Pamela Aidan
Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future by Jason Epstein
These Three Remain by Pamela Aidan

Currently reading:
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
The Girl's Guide to Absolutely Everything by Melissa Kirsch (a very exciting freebie from the NYU publishing fair I was at yesterday for work).

I've been doing a lot more reading outside of work recently and it's been great. I seem to finally making some headway in reading the backlog of books that have accumulated on my shelves (though I swear every time I look at the stacks of books I see other unread volumes I didn't even realize were there - not to mention that I keep buying, or being given, new books as well, not that I'm complaining since I am a bit of a book junkie...the first step is admitting you have a problem).

When I started reading Pamela Aidan's Fitzwilliam Darcy series, I was skeptical that she really needed upwards of 900 pages to tell the same story Jane Austen told in about 400, at some point in the midst of the second in the series I realized that Pamela Aidan didn't set out to tell the same story. The framework of Austen's story is still here to structure and outline the plot, but I hadn't realized before what long stretches of time there were in Pride and Prejudice where Darcy was off doing his own thing while we were left in the capable hands of Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Aidan has fleshed out these absences beautifully, weaving interesting tales into the fabric of the story created by Austen. She's given Mr. Darcy an entire life that we could never possibly have guessed at. Although I do take slight issue with the following passage which appears in Duty and Desire:

Her aunt's gift, the new novel by an unknown author, had barely been freed from its wrappings before their aunt had pounced upon it, begging Georgiana to lend it to her when she was finished. "It is about a widow and her three daughters, my dear, cast out upon the world by a heartless stepson and his odious wife. I am almost certain it is patterned after a true story. Do you not remember the scandal, my Lord?"
"No, I do not, my love," His Lordship had replied as he examined the title on the book's spine, "but I do hope that 'Sense' is vindicated and 'Sensibility' reproved, my dear."

It's a bit too self-referential for my tastes. Sense and Sensibility was published in 1811 and Pride and Prejudice in 1813. So the dates are, arguably plausible. However, Pride and Prejudice was first written at the end of the 18th century. Pamela Aidan says that Pride and Prejudice is generally allowed to be set in 1813 but who can be sure, especially when the first manuscript was written more than 15 years prior? Also, it seems a little weird that characters in a book set in 1813 would reference a book by "an unknown author" who would, the next year, publish a book about those very same people; people she apparently doesn't know. I suppose I should just be grateful dear old Jane didn't pop in for a cameo herself.

On a completely different note, though in a similar vein of things that annoyed me about the books I read last month, Jason Epstein's account of the book publishing industry is interesting, though it was so peppered with personal anecdotes of lunches with Nabokov, authors who spent nights crashing on the couch at his office, etc. that it began to feel like pages and pages of name dropping. Epstein is a very respected figure in the publishing world and he has contributed a lot to the industry and I'm sure when you have such an impressive list of accomplishments and famous friends it's hard to not sound like you're a wee bit impressed with yourself. (Interestingly, I noticed from the dedication and acknowledgements that Epstein is married to Judith Miller.) The other thing about this book that I found made it less appealing is that it was published in 2001 (and based on lectures given several years earlier than that). Not that 2001 was all that long ago but it certainly seems it when half the book is talking about the future of publishing and how it lies in ebooks and print on demand kiosks which will allow anyone to print out a copy of whatever book they want at an ATM-type apparatus. Many people were predicting the demise of the printed word a decade ago with the inevitable rise of the ebook. But I think people's desire to have the actual pages in front of them was seriously underestimated. This book is a great look back at the way publishing used to be, but in terms of how Epstein imagines the future of publishing, it's a bit off the mark.

(Of course, in addition to all of the above, I've also been reading stacks of manuscripts at work, one of which I am going to have to excise many paragraphs from because they are so graphic and...well...dirty and that is just not what we do. I would love to share with you the sheer ridiculousness, but, unfortunately, I can't so you'll just have to use your imaginations. I'm sure you can come up with something just as good. In fact, how about a contest? You all can write in with your own juicy paragraphs and whichever one is closest to the original offensive excerpt, or whichever I like best, or some other arbitrary judging criteria I come up with wins a prize - as yet to be determined, though something saucy seems appropriate. You can all leave your entries in the comments which should make fun reading for everyone. I'm sure it sounds like I'm kidding, but I'm totally serious. I think it sounds like fun. Maybe I'll even write one myself just for fun.)

Caffeine is Hard to Spell

2007-03-21T09:42:00.000-04:00

Seeing as how it's still National Caffeine is Awesome Month, I thought I should inform you all of a very exciting event going on today which is that Dunkin Donuts is giving away FREE small iced coffees. Granted, it's like 20 degrees outside so I'm sure a lot of you are not so excited by the idea of a nice icy-cold caffeinated* beverage. I happen to love iced coffee and drink it all year round. In fact, I generally hit up Dunkin Donuts 2-3 times a week for some of the delicious nectar. So the fact that this morning it's free is totally rocking my world. I seriously contemplated stopping at the Dunkin Donuts near the PATH station in Jersey City for a cup to tide me over on my ride to work and then at the one near my office for another jolt, but I suppose that would be a mite excessive (that and I realized I didn't have an extra hand to hold the coffee on my train ride and I have already once been the girl who spilled her drink all over the floor of the PATH train - very near to the sign saying "No food or drink on the train" - and got nasty looks from everyone for the duration of the ride, forcing me to finally just get off at Christopher Street and wait for the next train so as not to have to endure the humiliation any longer, and I didn't really want to relive that). However, I might just have to hit all the Dunkin Donuts near my office (why there need to be 3 within 4 blocks of one another, I don't quite understand but since it's going to work in my favor, I'm not really going to question the logic).

*Interestingly, the Blogger spell checker doesn't recognized the word "caffeinated" and suggested I replace this word with "decaffeinated." Has Blogger been influenced by the evil masterminds over at the Caffeine Awareness Alliance? Is it trying to, not-so-subtly, hint that I tone down my caffeine intake? Is this some sort of anti-caffeine Big-Brothering?

A Pirate's Life for Me

2007-03-20T18:30:00.000-04:00

Oh man. So apparently the brilliant minds over at Disney decided to get me something really wonderful for my birthday this year (ok so technically it'll be the day after my birthday but I'm so going at midnight so that totally counts):

*I refrained from titling this entry with the noise I emitted upon receiving this good news (and watching the super fun trailer) which went something along the lines of "Squeeeeeee!" For this I'm sure you will all thank me.

National Celebrity

2007-03-17T16:51:00.000-04:00

My (beautiful, wonderful) cousin is in the Washington Post today. Even bundled up against the unseasonable weather, she's gorgeous. (Sorry, boys, she's taken.)

*Updated to add that apparently she is also on cnn.com because she is just that freaking cool, people. She has now been updated from local to national celebrity.

(She wasn't at the march today but was at a vigil last night - lest you think she was one of the rowdies arguing with the police. She was not arrested. She's the good one in the family; I'm the black sheep - hee hee, punintended.)

Highlights (and Lowlights) of Day 2

2007-03-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my beer-filled outing and I wasn't going to blog anymore because I figure I've written more words than any one person should really write in one day and I'm sure no one likes reading my writing nearly enough to actually read all that. However, all that being said, I just had to share this one moment from the Purdue/Arizona game. The Purdue point guard, trying to drive the lane, fell over. He manged to maintain his dribble and when the guy guarding him fell over too and with the shot clock winding down, he put up a shot - WHILE ON HIS KNEES - and it went in.

Amazing! Moment of the tournament so far.

And foul shots. I know I'm a broken record on this right now, but they are so important. Best example of this in the Illinois/V. Tech game (Illinois totally had it and they blew it, thanks very much Illini, you were supposed to be my 5/12 upset). First, with under a minute to go, the Hokie player misses one of his free throws making the game still in reach for the Illini. Less than 30 seconds to go, the Illini miss the 3 that would have put them ahead but they get the rebound and the player is fouled, sending him to the line in a 1 and 1 situation. If he makes both, it's a tie game. He missed his first free throw and that's all she wrote. I wouldn't want to be that guy right now for anything in the world. I'm sure he's kicking himself. He'll probably spend the off-season shooting endless free throws (as should everyone else in this tournament who can't shoot free throws - they win games, people!).

Now, Texas, on the other hand, in their game against New Mexico State (which was very very close) was able to to seal the deal with their free throws. I didn't see them miss a single free throw in the final minutes (and they took plenty) allowing them a comfortable lead that New Mexico State couldn't challenge despite having been ahead earlier with their frenetic pace. And now (at least for the moment) I will shut up about free throws. I say all of this for your own good. Should you ever find yourself in an NCAA tournament game, you will know the importance of making your free throws and what to do when you get double teamed.

Liveblogging! - Part Deux

2007-03-16T14:52:00.000-04:00

Since I had so much fun liveblogging the first set of games today, I thought I'd keep going (but in a new post since the last one was a bit epic in length). I'm sure this is way more fun for me (and those reading it in realtime) than you reading at home, but then again it's my blog (and I'll liveblog if I want to).

Games on tap for this afternoon (my picks in bold):
11 Winthrop vs. 6 Notre Dame
12 Long Beach State vs. 5 Tennessee
15 Texas A&M C.C. vs. 2 Wisconsin
10 Creighton vs. 7 Nevada

Winthrop is my friend Dave's big Cinderella pick for this year. So I figured I'd give them one game. I try to always pick at least 1 or 2 5/12 upsets and 1 6/11 is usually a good idea as well.

3:01 pm - 13 minutes into the first half, Winthrop is down by 7 but totally still in it. Let's go Cinderella! Also, Tennessee has taken a comfortable early lead over Long Beach.

3:02 pm - Offensive foul on ND. woo hoo! Also, the last play down on the Winthrop end, the poor center got double teamed down low and performed a series of like 6 post moves before getting blocked. Sad. I feel his pain.

3:04 pm - Some seriously impressive ball movement from Winthrop (not to mention the turnovers they're forcing from ND) but they can't seem to connect on any of their shots. If they can start knocking those down, they could close this gap.

3:05 pm - And a 3 from Winthrop, followed by a steal and a breakaway layup to narrow the gap to 2.

3:06 pm - After a 7-0 run from Winthrop the game is now tied!

3:15 pm - Wow, that foul shot from Notre Dame wasn't even close. And a 3 from Winthrop puts them ahead by one wiith 30 second left in the half.

3:16 pm - Oh, damn. One more 3 for Winthrop with mere seconds left gives them a 4 point lead at the half.

3:17 pm - commercial break - A seriously budget-looking commercial for Hooters starring, of all people, Dick Vitale (apparently "It's awesome, baby!"). Now I feel nauseous.

3:21 pm - Ok so I was so caught up in Winthrop's success (woot!) that I totally didn't notice that in the first 3 and a half minutes of the Wisconsin game, they are down 10-0 to Texas A&M Corpus Christi (another team I've never heard of before and a serious underdog). What?! Honestly, I only have Wisconsin picked to win one game so if they get upset by a 15 seed, I won't be too crushed. It would be kinda sweet actually. That's a huge upset.

3:25 pm - Chapel from Wisconsin, after causing a turnover, gets taken out of the game, at which point the announcers tell us that he hasn't scored a basket since a game on March 3. Ouch.

3:33 pm - Apparently Wisconsin has finally scored; the score is now 16 to 4. Still pathetic, but slightly less so.

3:34 pm - According to the announcers, this would be Winthrop's first NCAA tournament win. Awww. If I wasn't already cheering for them, I might be now.

3:35 pm - And speaking of Winthrop winning, in the first minute and a half of the second half they scored 7 points to extend their lead to 11.

3:39 pm - Winthrop seems to have taken my advice about double teams to heart. Their ball movement on offense has been great. Meanwhile Notre Dame has been rushing their offense and consequently missing their shots.

3:41 pm - Oh man, I'm beginning to wish I had picked Winthrop to win many many games the way they're playing right now. This is some seriously excellent ball being played right now. Their lead is now up to 16.

3:43 pm - A baby hook from Bradshaw of Winthrop widens the lead further still. Amazing.

3:51 pm - Ok the liveblogging is taking a break so I can go get my drink on. Here's your last update - Wisconsin still sucks (but that's ok because them losing will probably hurt other people more than a win would help me and seeing a 15 seed win would be fun), Winthrop rocks my world. Enjoy! I'll be back later. Maybe I'll do some drunken liveblogging.

Liveblogging!

2007-03-16T13:06:00.000-04:00

The crappy northeastern weather has indeed prevented me from taking my trip to DC this weekend. I have already postponed this trip once. And I keep having to email my friends in the DC area and saying "sorry, never mind." I am the girl who cried "road trip."

On the positive side, the crappy northeastern weather also prompted everyone in my office (all three of us) to decide that it was far too crappy to stay at work and risk....slipping on the way home? I don't know. Something very treacherous. So I'm now at home. Hooray. And I am now able to watch all the basketball glory without feeling guilty about not getting work done. And I have pizza as well. mmmm. So since I'm sitting here yelling things at my tv (and maybe others besides Kate would like to experience what it's like to watch a basketball game with me) I'll refresh this post as I have things to share about the games unfolding.

1:11 pm - Seriously beginning to question the decision to pick Georgia Tech (10) to win not one, but two games. Not looking so good right now as they're down by 11. Though it's still early so maybe all is not yet lost.

1:12 pm - Memphis is apparently trying to give me a heart attack. But again, still the first half. Anything can happen. I've seen a lot of teams play strong for the first half and then fall apart in the second.

1:20 pm - commercial break - Ridiculous new Hummer commercial which at the end advertises a "complimentary sunroof" with purchase. This just sounds so ridiculous to me. I'm picturing people walking down the street holding their complimentary Hummer sunroofs over their heads.

1:23 pm - Go Georgia Tech, go! At the half they managed to cut their deficit to 7. And Memphis is up by 5. Finally. Their biggest lead of the game. Which is just sad when you consider they're playing a 15 seed.

1:26 pm - Oh snap! Alley-oop dunk for Memphis to widen the lead to 9.

1:27 - 1:45 pm - Have no idea what happened in any of the games for this time period as I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to make this an expandable post which wouldn't taken up the entire page. As you can, no doubt, see, I have failed.

1:50 pm - Score update, Georgia Tech has tied the game. For which I love them. Memphis is up by 10 and UVA is spanking Albany (anyone who even considered picking Albany must be out of their mind).

1:56 pm - a steal and a sweet breakaway 2-on-1 cuts the Memphis lead to 6. Although he almost missed the layup which would have been super embarrassing (not that I know what that's like, at all).

1:59 pm - CBS finally switched over to the UNLV/Georgia Tech game. Sweet! Since it's the closest game. Oh no wait, they switched over for all of 20 seconds before returning to the N. Texas/Memphis game (Memphis is up by 7 - no, wait, 5).

2:02 pm - Oh man! one of the N Texas players went in for the dramatic breakaway dunk (with sound effects and everything) AND HE MISSED!!!! That's gotta hurt.

2:04 pm - I want to know who decides which games get shown and when they switch between them. The GT/UNLV game has been a tied game (or back and forth 2 points either way) for the past 5 minutes of play time and CBS refuses to show it. I guess maybe they're staying here thinking North Texas may still prove to be some sort of crazy Cinderella story.

2:06 pm - If this game was being based on foul shots and layups, both teams would lose. Man. Memphis just missed another layup and apparently no one has really taught the North Texas players the importance of making foul shots.

2:08 pm - Memphis could use some work on their foul shots as well. Especially since, with more than 12 minutes still left to play and they're already in the bonus, they'll probably get to take a lot more and that could make a huge difference in whether or not they're able to pull a sizable lead at the end of this half.

2:09 pm - ....the two 3's they just hit will probably help with that too.

2:10 pm - Now that Memphis seems to have things well in hand (at least for the moment) we're back to GT and UNLV and UNLV, I regret to say, is up by 6. Come on, Georgia Tech!

2:14 pm - During this little tv time out, a little basketball math that Georgia Tech seems to need a little help with. If there are 5 of you and 5 of them and 2 of them are guarding you, someone must be open. Look up!

2:21 pm - Thanks to a couple misses from UNLV and some great shots from Georgia Tech, it's now a 1 point game (after having widened to 7 just seconds ago).

2:26 pm - Georgia Tech shooting free throws for their first lead of the game - and they get it!

2:27 pm - Ok GT, what did we just go over? Double team = open man! With 8 seconds left on the shot clock and an open man standing at the three point line, the obvious decision is to get stuck behind the double team and dribble around looking dumb. And now you're behind again. Shocker!

2:30 pm - Hey, someone listens to me! Three cheers for Young on Georgia Tech who, when driving the lane had two men collapse on him, dished to the open man for the layup (which he didn't make because he was fouled - fair enough - and managed to make 1 free throw, tying the game at 59 with 2 minutes to go).

2:31 pm - And now a little lesson on rebounding. i.e. DO SOME! UNLV just got three offensive rebounds in a row and on the 3rd one the player was falling out of bounds and bounced it off the leg of a GT player making it UNLV ball (again!). Unbelievable. UNLV got 4 chances at this offense, on the 4th they scored and got the foul call. Well done, GT. Why don't you just tie a nice little bow around the game and hand it to UNLV?

2:34 pm - Oh good god. Nice ball handling Georgia Tech. After rebounding the missed free throw of UNLV (what have we learned about making it when it counts?) the point guard turned it over on a 5-count violation. Come on! Middle schoolers know that rule.

2:37 pm - Apparently Georgia Tech doesn't want to rebound. They gave UNLV 3 offensive changes with less than a minute left when they're down by 2. UNLV didn't get a basket but they did get the foul and they made both shots putting them up by 4 and making it a two possession game.

2:40 pm - Umeh, you had so better miss one of these free throws.

2:41 pm - Damn it!

2:42 pm - 12 seconds, 5 point game. argh!

2:42 pm - Awesome, GT just throw it straight to the other team. Well done. And welcome to "the list." (Thanks for the tip, Dave. At least I didn't pick them for 3 games as Dave's bracket suggested - this would be one of those times at which we take Dave's picks with a very large grain of salt.)

2:48 pm - UVA beat Albany pretty handily (inevitably) and Memphis has managed to establish a lead of 15 with 10 seconds left. So I'm 2 for 3 so far today. Though that Georgia Tech loss smarts a bit.

Stay tuned for more liveblogging of later games.

The Madness Begins

2007-03-15T22:44:00.000-04:00

So today is the first day of March Madness and I have watched as much of all the games as possible (without losing my job or my sanity). Speaking of which, this is the time of year when business lose a lot of money in terms of productivity. Some companies have come up with an interesting way of handling their employees' desire to watch basketball at work. If only my office felt the same way. Though I suspect I would be the only one watching. The first Thursday and Friday of March Madness are, for my money, the most exciting in the tournament. Later down the line, it's still exciting but, for those of us impatient folks, less instantly gratifying. We are talking 32 games in 2 days. That is a lot of basketball in 48 hours.

And there's always such great potential for upsets in the first round games. Anything can happen. (Well, I suppose not anything...rarely does a 1 seed get upset, but it has happened, I think.) The upsets are always exciting (especially if you were lucky enough to pick them for your bracket, or at least have them not mess up your existing picks too much). There haven't been any yet. But if Duke doesn't pull their act together right snappy they could be the first (and they had better not be if they don't want to go on my list of teams that screwed me over and are now dead to me right after Syracuse and Stanford ).

Some general thoughts on the games today:

Some of the games have been entirely too close. Oral Roberts shouldn't have been that close to Washington State.
Old Dominion totally almost had Butler. And then they decided they didn't want to hit any shots. Ever. There was a stretch of time where every time down the court they made one pass and took a 3 (and this wasn't even at the end of the game when they really needed 3's, which is of course when they started shooting 2's each time). And every time they missed. Their 3-point percentage was embarrassing. (On a more personal note, there was a big goon of a guy playing for Butler who just rubbed me the wrong way, and he slashed one of the ODU players and he can't make his foul shots - which is totally inexcusable, unless it's me shooting, in which case it's ok).
Maryland almost gave me a heart attack. The beginning of the second half was ugly. They went almost 7 minutes I think without scoring. Not pretty. But they pulled it out in the end. However they're performance makes me question whether they'll be able to pull out another win as I've predicted they will. Maybe after their near elimination today will inspire them to pull up their socks.
Ok, seriously, Duke? There's 3 minutes to go in the game and it's tied at 70. I could do with a little less excitement, frankly. *Edited to add - Duke is now so totally on my list. I cannot believe they lost to Virginia Commonwealth. And I bet the Duke player who missed his freethrow at the end is kicking himself (it wouldn't have made a difference really but still, you gotta make 'em when it counts).
Oh, and thanks to Stanford for proving that they absolutely cannot be trusted to win in clutch situations like this.

Ok so those are my (not so expert) opinions. Check back later for more basketball news. I may be in DC this weekend (though with the coming inclement weather - it was 70 yesterday but apparently it's supposed to snow 6-10 inches tomorrow - that plan is looking tenuous at best). If I'm not in DC, I will share you some more first round excitement (go Winthrop!).

March Madness!

2007-03-14T22:49:00.000-04:00

Ok so before we get to talking about the real March Madness (i.e. the Men's College Basketball tournament), I have my own personal basketball news for tonight. WE WON OUR GAME TONIGHT!!! I'm sure this isn't nearly as exciting to all of you, but seeing as how, despite all of our best efforts (ok at least sometimes it was our best effort), we lost EVERY SINGLE GAME last season, this was a win we really needed. This was the first game of our new season and we triumphed. This wasn't any old win, people. We beat our opponents by more than 20 points (but not in a mean, unsportsmanlike way because I hate when people do that). Now here's where I will try not to sound like I'm patting myself on the back, but the last few games of last season my shot, apparently, went on vacation. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn (and I'm usually a pretty consistent shooter so I had no idea what was going on). Well I don't know on what tropical island my shot chose to spend its holiday, but it came back with a nice tan and with a vengeance. I was on tonight. Thank god. I also stuffed a couple girls. That just never gets old.

The game ended 2 hours ago and I have been on a high ever since (also, it was gorgeous today). It was so nice to finally see my team back to the way it used to be: making good passes, screening, cutting, getting open for good shots, making shots. Ah, back to the good ole days. I'd forgotten what it was like to go home after a game with a spring in my step rather than bitter and mad at myself and my team. And I thought my cold was going to slow me down, but I was totally able to keep up and not pass out and die. Hooray. I swear to god that the miracle cold pills I got in Canada last year are amazing. I don't know what they're made out of (ginseng, according to the bottle) but it works.

Sorry for the babbling, I swear I'm not drunk. Ok and now onto college basketball (though I'm sure you are all way more interested in my basketball exploits....right?). Every year I have this bad habit of not paying attention to college basketball until March Madness rolls around. This year was the worst yet for that. I guess I've just been busy. In cases such as this, I turn to my friend Dave, who is brilliant about all things college basketball. No lie, the kid is actually an expert. Like a filmed for real sports shows-type expert. He's also an excellent golfer and all-around nice guy. (Ladies, form an orderly line). So, I turned to Dave and his predictions and relied pretty heavily on them. However, after several years of observing Dave's publicized picks, I have to say that they have to be taken with a grain (ok, sometimes a giant boulder) of salt. Dave sometimes makes somewhat outlandish picks (really, Dave? Winthrop's going to win how many games?). If he's right, it's super impressive and if he's wrong, at least he took a shot. I don't like to take such huge risks when there's money (and pride on the line). I like to throw in a few upsets here and there. And there are certain teams that I will never trust again (this afternoon I realized I had picked Stanford to upset Louisville in the first round - blasphemy! - Stanford is dead to me...as is Syracuse, but they didn't make it into the tournament this year, ha ha ha. That'll teach Jim Boeheim and his team to screw me over in my picks). I've taken some of Dave's advice with the hope that it'll be enough to win me some money this year. If not, Dave, I know where you live.

Flower Power

2007-03-11T22:37:00.000-04:00

I've spent most of today fighting off an impending cold which I will not allow to triumph (hence my severely exceeding my daily recommended allowance of vitamin C, take that, cold!). However, I have had this lovely display (leftover from our little dinner party Friday night) in my room all weekend and how could you possibly not be cheerful with this to look at? I don't know that tulips (my favorite flower) kill germs but they sure as hell can perk up a mood (until they die, then they'll just be depressing, so let's all admire them now in all their tulipy beauty).

In Memoriam

2007-03-11T22:24:00.000-04:00

Beloved comedy actor and co-star of Are You Being Served?, (best known for the phrase "I'm free!") John Inman died on Thursday at the age of 71. Inman was wonderful as Mr. Humphries and apparently had recently been a major fixture in pantomime. He will be missed.

photo from BBC News