Saturday, February 28, 2009

feb twitter archive

  1. just won despite being cheated. all is forgiven.
  2. i've just been cheated by my little brother in a game of phase 10!
  3. SUPER fun time with @erdysouth and @erdynorth!! (and @hassie!) and congrats @charpie for best of show!
  4. i want a slap chop now.
  5. just took my mom to work. it's just wrong. i'm so tired.
  6. yeah i was afraid of that @erdynorth. more qualified than you, though!
  7. i want to be the person who decides who is invited and where they sit at the oscars. thats possibly the only thing i'm qualified for
  8. wish i had been able to watch erdmann family favorite grease, but was cleaning @suite56 instead all day...
  9. They just served me ortega shells! I can make this at home! Wtf.
  10. Juano's downtown sucks. Slow service. Little chips. Cheap happy hour (2 for 1 cocktails first round only!). Never coming here again. I'm ...
  11. Pdwgmd
  12. friday night out with homie - finally immortalized! enjoy it here http://tinyurl.com/b8vrq5
  13. another discovery channel gem: sex toys: can you hurt yourself with them?
  14. was just watching 627 lb woman on the discovery channel. could only take 5 min of it and now me and tomerd are goin to the gym
  15. tomerd to @erdynorth tonight: "did you take your cocky pill before you came home?"
  16. my little brother is home!! he used to be so much cuter when he would come give me a hug right away....
  17. @erdynorth ok we can eat at labby's but i'm not picking up the bill if it's there. or bww.
  18. @erdynorth and @erdysouth we can eat wherever you guys want. somwehere northside i guess...
  19. thanks @erdysouth!!
  20. @Erdysouth i could probably do fotc in msp in may. then you could leave me in the cities before my flight to cdg on the 6th
  21. just saw the reader at the fargo theater. good flick. still pulling for slumdog for best picture...
  22. watching the mighty ducks. ducks vs. hawks in the championship. emilio estevez used to be so hot.
  23. just saw benjamin button. i guess it was impressive...?
  24. just booked my ticket to paris in may for my friend's 30th birthday! (damn, i'm getting old)
  25. Having cheap drinks with @erdysouth at o'kelleys. So cheap! $2.50 for my vodka diet coke. Would be $10 min in bos
  26. kindred travelers! my gma is going to san diego and i was thinking of going with her - what do you think @delicateleah
  27. it's hard work living at home. :)
  28. i just need to book tickets to europe and then to vegas and then back to fargo... all in may - to award me for working so hard. :)
  29. just booked a ticket from vegas to cancun and then new york! zaz!!!
  30. just helped my dad forward an email and set up a signature. so cute!
  31. my fortune: you'll accomplish more later if you have a little fun this weekend. zaz! check out: http://wanderlust-ndstyle.b...
  32. yeah your hear and your arb and your mink (@erdynorth)
  33. @erdynorth why are you trying to watch that movie anyway?? i think you're surgery has gone to your hear - you're crazzzzyyyy
  34. i cinged my face. again. sigh. read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/b5ya2n
  35. new post on wanderlust! http://wanderlust-ndstyle.b... check it out about @erdynorth red shirting.
  36. drinking an italian margarita and making vday cards. zaz!
  37. just discovered twitter!! now you can keep up with my blogs. zaz!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

friday night lights

the unimaginable has happened. this evening, despite a lazy attitude and lack of motivation, i put on make up (the first time in MONTHS) and got out of my sweats and went to a bar. yes, a real life bar. with real life people and real life ALCOHOL. and know what's better? the ALCOHOL was CHEAP!

so yeah, my brother and i went to o'kelly's bar which is the bar attached to the kelly inn in fargo. i would say the kelly inn is a step below a holiday inn - decent stay at a decent price, but no hilton. the bar could be described as similar. fine establishment, but no swanky east coast bar (of which there are MAYBE two in all of fargo, anyway. needless to say, lavish bars are not a typical hangout for anyone in my family). o'kelly's also doubles as a gambling spot - i think they have blackjack tables and keno is available, as well.

so me and the homie were hanging out and i notice the little flyer on the table talking about their specials. well, it was friday and so all vodka-mixed drinks were TWO DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS. that's right bizatches. you can get totally blitzed in north dakota for less than two drinks in boston. not that i got blitzed at all, of course. we chatted and caught up, which was really cool. oh, and the whole reason why we even went there - they have free wings and other crudites and appetizers starting at 5pm. it was like the best thing ever. we were also possibly the youngest people there, although i wasn't totally paying attention to others. apparently it's the watering hole for the 35-45 farming crowd (lots of flannel and baseball caps). it was fun.

after our little adventure out in the real world, we headed chez mes parents and homie did a few computer things for us. turns out my PC, which i've set up downstairs so that i can make all of our VHS magically turn into DVDs, is kind of crap. my brothers make fun of buying an e machine, but hey! i was young and uninformed and my brothers weren't smart enough to build be a computer back then (btw, if you want someone to build you a computer for less than half what a new computer costs at best buy, let me know).

OH. and happy friday the 13th everyone!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

salsa is america's #1 condiment

why?
because people like to say "salsa"
so i have a question. what are the rules when it comes to chinese fortune cookies? i remember seeing once on seinfeld that you had to take the cookie to the right on the plate? or am i making that up? is that true? then who decides who chooses first? also, do you share them or not? i always believe in fully eating my fortune cookie before reading the fortune, but sometimes i glimpse a word and it makes me worried i'm not reading the actual fortune that was meant for me. and then, most importantly, if your family has left a few fortune cookies out after dinner and you eat them all, do you get all the fortunes? if so, here are mine:
  • appreciate the caring people who surround you.
  • you are cheerful and well-liked.
  • you'll accomplish more later if you have a little fun this weekend.
  • your critical insights can provide the stimulus for change.
  • you have enough energy and enthusiasm for two people.
even adding "good in bed" to the end of these does not make the majority of them correct (do people really do that??). there are no people (unfortunately?) surrounding me in bed. if there are no people there, how can i be cheerful and well-liked? even out of bed, i don't think those are words people would use to describe me. i 100% believe the third comment and often take it to heart. i think the fourth one is president obama's fortune. and the last one. seriously, fortune cookie gods? really??

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

some kind of wonderful

most days i'm hard-pressed to consider myself productive. which is sad, productive is one of my favorite adjectives, productivity an excellent measurement. i love getting things done and crossing items off my list, but i typically need deadlines to do so. this is why i like doing so much at one time, keeping busy. i'm much more productive that way.

in any case, i don't have a lot of deadlines these days nor necessary deliverables. so when i get on a kick, i'm really happy. a few weeks ago, i was the ultimate multitasker. i was at home alone adding music to my computer - fun stuff, too: tricky, mtv party to go (go 90s!), old school mariah carey, and some rap. i was also drinking wine, chatting online, watching law and order on tv, listening to french podcasts on my computer and texting my brother, who, btw, was at hooters. no comment. last night was another good example, beating my mom in cards, watching american idol and reading news on my laptop. good times.

anyway, today was a good day for getting things done. my mother and i ran a ton of errands: dropping off recycling (they don't pick it up here in fargo), got some chai, picked up medication for my gma, got groceries, dropped mom off for a hair appointment, went to the bank (saw my brother's roommate), schlotzsky's (mmmm), aunt's house to drop off empty wine bottles, picked up mom, went to bed bath and beyond then macy's and then saw he's just not that into you. whew. busy day. when we got home, ready to settle down for the night, my brothers gfriend texted asking if we were going to homie's basketball game. i didn't even know that was a thing to do. so we all get up and head to my old high school to watch some 20 and 30 year olds toss the ball around. no, it was more organized than that. but i can't remember what kind of basketball it is. it's not pro. and not amateur. and not after-school ball. man, i'm messed up. but they really do need a cheering section - there were 8 people cheering - 4 of us, a wife and 3 kids running around hiding behind the vending machines.

in any case, hopefully this new "busy" kick will stick for a bit. i have a lot i'd like to get done...

Monday, February 9, 2009

money don't matter 2 night

so just a quick note for today. i'm a bit behind and don't want to be. BUT, something very important is going on and i need you all to get involved. there are petitions out in cyberspace to get obama's and the government's attention to help stimulate the economy. now that this idea was presented to me, it seemed obvious. forgive student loan! even a part of this would help everyone out. we won't go into how this would affect my old profession, but since i'm not working anymore, i have to look out for me and others who would benefit from this. check out this article on huff po and from there you can sign the petition, join the facebook group, get involved. nike. just do it!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

fire coming out of the monkey's head

sadly, tonight is not the first time my eyelashes and nose hairs have been fried by something blowing up in my face. literally.

tonight's incidence involving fire in my face is thanks to my desire for popcorn. i'm not sure if people are aware of this, but my family is a popcorn family. we eat and eat and eat popcorn. well, no. it's not like we eat popcorn ALL the time (which is what i just made it sound like). but when we do eat popcorn, we love it. this one time, at band camp... jk. at my cousin's wedding in ashley, nd, population 14, a few years ago, my brothers and i were walking from the wedding chapel (church? i have no idea the difference) to the VFW, where the reception was, and we got a big whiff and all of a sudden we all said, "mmmm, popcorn." we could smell it from the movie theater a block away. so, yeah, we like popcorn. and it was this need for popcorn that cinged the left side of my face.

so we have a theater style popcorn maker which is well-worn. its a tin pot with a cover and a handle that you turn to keep the popcorn kernels rotating. it sits atop the oven and is waaay better than microwave popcorn. my dad taught me a new trick for how to cook popcorn - put the oil in and turn it up to high. add only 3 kernels and once they have popped, the oil is hot enough to add a cup or so to pop. so this is what i do and i wasn't really stirring because its only 3 kernels - do they really need to be stirred? we will never know. smoke starts coming up from inside the kettle and i'm thinking, 'well, it's old, it'll calm down once the kernels start to pop.' i don't know why i thought this. i don't hear any popping, so i open the cover and the whole thing is filled with smoke. i'm peering inside and all of a sudden, there is a huge bursting sound, a red-turned-orange flame and then the whole inside turns bright red, burning from all sides. i instantly close the cover, but not before my eyelashes, some of my eyebrow and nose hairs are toasted. the flames eventually go out after about 5 seconds without air. i didn't want the smoke detector to go off, so i didn't open the top again. i went to warn my parents so they wouldn't be afraid. my mom was in bed, she seemed unimpressed when i told her, so my dad came downstairs. he was amazed. he took it outside to let the smoke out. it was incredible. and yet, my craving had not subsided. i still wanted popcorn. so i put it in a pot and figured i would just shake it while on the burner. it doesn't really work - the kernnels didn't get full pop and half were burnt, anyway. i still ate it, but could only breathe out of my right nostril because my nose hairs in my left were all prickly. the next day i said to my dad, "look, aren't my eyelashes a different lennth on my left side?" kind of half-joking. turns out they really are. grrr!

so this reminds me of the first time i fought with flames back in november '06. i had moved into my fancy new apartment in california in august of that year. since i don't cook a lot, i hadn't really used the oven. my mother came to visit me one weekend and we couldn't get the oven to start. actually, rephrase... prior to her arrival, i hadn't cooked because i didn't know how to use it. it was gas. or was it electric? the kind where you have to light the burners. i think that's gas. anyway, someone told me over the phone how to use the burners, so i used those frequently - about twice a month - but had yet to use the oven part. i figured my mom could show me how. well, it turns out i'm not as big of an idiot as i thought. the oven didn't work. so i called my landlord and one night while my mom and i are watching tv, the repair dudes came. i watched them as they discovered that the little pipe-like thing that was supposed to give the oven gas had been clogged. so they cleaned it out and showed me how to use the oven. i don't think we ended up using it while my mom was there.

a week or so later, the night before i was to head to boston for work, i figured i'd make something to eat. again, the oven didn't work. when i put the match up to the starter hole thingie (i forget what its called), nothing happened. i had seen when the workers were there where the gas came in, so i figured if i could get that part lit, the whole thing would work. i had no idea how right i was. i took a match and stuck my hand into the oven, under the grill. all of a sudden, big bright blue flames erupted just in time for me to realize i should close my eyes. i was frozen with my hand in the oven. after a good 2 seconds, i pulled it out and slammed the door shut. i stood there in my kitchen thinking, "ok, i'm alive. check. i'm not on fire. check. what is that smell??" i went to look in the mirror and my hair, which had been bangless, was standing 3 inches into the hair completely fried. my eyelashes were gone and my eyebrows were crinkly. i touched my hair and it fell to the ground. the hair on my right arm was practically gone.

luckily, i had a hair appointment the next day before my red eye flight to boston. she attempted to fix the hair, but for months until it grew back, the hair around my part was less than an inch tall. i had to change my hair styles to cover it up. long sleeves covered my hair and i reshaped my brows and bought 'lengthening' mascara. only a slight few actually noticed.

combined with my candle fire with my brother, i wonder, do other people have this many incidences with fire??

Saturday, February 7, 2009

lose control

if you were paying attention, my brother had surgery yesterday. he survived. zaz! or.... double zaz!

so yeah, surgery. the story. last summer, while doing his manly duty of lifting weights, he suddenly felt a pain in his shoulder. he stopped lifting and saw the trainer. eventually he saw doctors who told him to just hang out and see what happens. so months go by and he practices, in pain, with the team. the season starts. meanwhile, he goes to seattle with his team for a tournament and gets a new pain - in his foot. not related. when he comes back, he is diagnosed with planter fasciitis (plant-her fash-e-eye-tis). scary stuff that planter crap, also known as the flip flop disease. ironically, last summer my mother was diagnosed with planter fasciitis. the two main groups of people who get this: young athletes (brother) and middle-aged women (mother). no signs that at risk people include unemployed, inactive 27 year olds living at home. safe. yes!

and what does shoulder pain + foot pain = ? red shirting! good for brother. bad for me. part of my grand plan, which has proven foilable on multiple occassions in the past few months, was to spend a few months upon my return from europe (before leaving for afrika) watching him play basketball. my youngest brother, eric, plays basketball for the university of mary in bismarck, nd, an excellent division 2 school. he is basically their star. and then he red shirted. so now he is not playing, i am not watching him, which kind of sucks. of course, i would love to have been able to spend this time cheering on the team, but not possible. i mean, i guess i could. but no. i mean, i cheer them on in spirit, but not in person. not super interested in going to games when my brother is not playing. you get the point.

anyway, my brother gets his planter fasciitis fixed. (thanks partly to me - i got him a "how to fix planter fasciitis book" for christmas. partly thanks to his doctors who made shoe thingies for him to wear. mostly thanks to me, of course.) but the shoulder pain does not go away. so finally they send him under the knife to get fixed. we think it worked, but won't know for a few months until he can work out again. basically, his clavicle bone super-grew, or his tendons shrunk, mostly likely his clavicle super-grew and he had bone rubbing on bone in his shoulder. so the doc shaved off his bone and the bone should now form scar tissue which will work as tendon. or something like that.

the good part? my little brother is home for the weekend. the bad? we have to wait on him. :) kind of. he's getting better but his left arm just hangs out like a gimp. kinda like kevin spacey (dreamy!) in usual suspects. in any case, the team won last night (zaz!) and are playing right now. the parents and the brother are downstairs watching the game and i am up here enjoying my italian margarita. mmmm. delish!

i originally meant to write about my little bro red shirting months ago, when he was on tv. he was on this show - mauraders weekly. i'm pretty sure this link is not to his actual interview, since i'm so behind. but i thought i would put it up anyway. he was so cute on the show! he did really good. and his coach was kind of funny. instead of planter fasciitis, he said "plasher fannyitis." which is just silly. plasher fannyitis!

sidebar: update 7feb09

a few months ago i changed my blog from the "pink" standard i had before to this more interesting format. the point? so that my friend julian could read the blog at work without looking like an idiot for reading a pink website. hope you are all able to benefit.

in addition, yesterday, i finally joined the newest technology and am now a twitterer! you can follow me on twitter @spaceygrl. zaz! be sure to let me know who you are so i can follow you, as well.

as always, check back for polls and posts about my latest exploits.

Friday, February 6, 2009

semicharmed life

today will be short and sweet... i have to go to the hospital while my brother has shoulder surgery. will keep you posted. until then, for those of you who know me..

from the overheard website...

1PM In Totally Unrelated News, Homemade Cookies Anyone?

Crazy new guy: I was reading a book about serial killers by that guy who came up with profiling. It listed traits of a serial killer and I have five of the nine traits. No one around me had better go missing or I'm going down for it.

San Diego, California

Overheard by: Thanks for the warning

Thursday, February 5, 2009

dreams for plans

two nights ago, i had the most satisfying sleep ever. i was really tired, and my bed was cold (i LOVE love LOVE a cold bed) and i slept without interruption. when i woke up 8.5 hours later, i was so rested, it was unbelievable. last night was not so great, my bed wasn't as cold (i've learned the trick to a cold bed is to keep the room cold during the day and i had turned the heat up yesterday - damn my cold feet!), BUT i do feel i've done good by the next guests in this hotel room. see, it really bothers me that king size hotel beds get a little soft on the sides, so when i stay in hotels, i make sure to sleep in the middle of the bed. my small attempt to re-even out the mattress. i'm at least pleased by that.

i got a little tingle of excitement when i read the news yesterday - i read the headline Duckworth to the VA and instantly thought, "they're doing a story on the mighty ducks!" you see, the mighty ducks was one of my favorite movies growing up. "right away, mr. duckworth! quack, quack, quack, mr. duckworth!" i know these line quotations because my brothers got me the mighty ducks trilogy for christmas. i LOVE reminiscing! anyway, i had a crush on banks in the first one. i even had this green mighty ducks t shirt that i used to wear with green jeans. this was in 7th grade and all my friends used to say that wearing green meant you were horny. i dont think we knew what that meant. in any case, i was HOT in those green jeans. so i go to read the article about Duckworth and the VA and it turns out, no, it's not at all about the mighty ducks. there really is someone named DUCKWORTH. can you believe that? i'd go on about what a funny last name that is, but turns out this woman lost her legs in Iraq. eek.

but then thinking about the mighty ducks made me think about my other long-loved movie, ladybugs. i loved jonathan brandis growing up. this was not a crush, like on banks from the mighty ducks, i literally loved jonathan brandis. or as much as any 11 year old can love someone. i had posters of him all over my bedroom walls and i used to talk to him. aloud. clearly he wasn't there with me. i remember my little brother, eric, walking into the kitchen hearing me talking, "who you talking to? jonathan brandis?" "yes." "ok." then he'd walk out like it was no big deal. well, it wasn't a big deal. he's the only person i've ever pictured marrying and i think it kind of has to do with the fantasy wedding scene in ladybugs. i know this because i just watched the movie yesterday. i hate to admit it, but i got to thinking about it last week and realized i wanted a copy of it, so i ordered it from netflix. i haven't seen the movie in 15 years or so, and ... well let me put it this way. when i first got my netflix account, i went through and rated all the movies i had ever seen. since i loved ladybugs growing up, i gave it 5 stars (out of 5). after re-watching it in my adulthoot, i realize i should probably have given it 2. but i won't change the rating. i brings back so many memories. sigh... and it's actually kind of sad. jonathan brandis is no longer with us thanks to a rope in his bedroom closet. in his memory, i'm adding this montage i found of him on youtube.

speaking of crushes, i have a new one. or should i just say crush? i think i peaked too young, i can't remember the last time i had an actual standing crush. do people get crushes at my age? i don't even know if thats normal. anyway, my new crush is a product of what i spent yesterday doing: watching Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E all day. like 5 hours worth. very sad. but it's kind of hard to stop! these tv stations reel you in with funny looking people and then get you to stay by playing hours of nonstop shows! no fair! so, no, my crush is not on Dog (i don't get the sunglasses with dangly things - what is that??), but his son, Duane Lee Chapman. He's like a big, built jason bateman. he's so cute! and he's the silent giant type. he rarely talks on the show. can you see me dating a bounty hunter? i could be the stay-at-home-cooking-wife, "did you get the bad guy, honey?" kiss him and hand him a beer when he walks in the door ... yeah, i can't picture it either. one can dream, though. one can dream.

which brings me to my final subject of the day. future plans. last night, i talked to my friend, kevy-wevy (who prefers not to go by my personalized moniker but unless he comments more, will have to live with it), about me being a criminologist or fbi profiler. can't you see that as my next career? i think it would be so fun chasing serial killers! and then when i get really good, i could write books about all my dangerous experiences on the streets chasing the derranged. and then i could go on A&E and talk about bad guys' thought processes. it'll be great! kevin wondered why i wanted to do this and i said, "well, i'm really interested in serial killers. i could just go to quantico and work for them." he pointed out that me becoming a profiler is like him deciding to become an astronaut (he's in law school now). "i really like space, and think i'd like to hang out at that nasa place, so i'll just become an astronaut." well, when you put it like that, anything sounds silly! another dream going up in smoke.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

the trick is to keep breathing

in my mind, i had it all planned out: monday (two days ago) was going to be my big return to blogging. i was going to spend hours catching up - i have 28 draft ramblings in various stages of completion. and then... well, nothing really. the internet connection (or lack of one) was annoying me and then yesterday i was not feeling well. and today my feet are cold. and it all adds up to me not being interested in much of anything.

i've been doing a bit of reading, so that's good. i guess. wrote in my journal, updated my travel book, and watched the first season of entourage, courtesy of my brother. i'm not sure how much i'll get into it - it seems like a cool show, but i can't relate. i would hate it if i had people living off of me for no reason - no offense to all my dear friends. i'm happy to help, but there might be a limit. this is probably why i will never have a family. i don't like to share. actually, that's not entirely true. i don't mind sharing, but i don't like it when my things are broken or used without being asked. when i was little, i would get really upset with my cousins because they would play my board games and rip the corners of the board game boxes. i HATED having to put tape on the sides to keep the box covers together. now they give board games plastic and tin boxes so little OCD kids don't secretly loathe their family members.

and with that... lunch is ready. oh, speaking of which. when at a hotel, and you order room service, do you add a tip? i just can't justify adding another tip when it clearly states 18.75% gratuity, a 1.25% service charge, and $3.00 delivery charge. the service and elivery charges are not gratuities. that's just wrong and yet, why did the room service guy look disappointed that i didn't give an extra tip??