wanderlust - nd style

je t'aime

2012-02-15T02:00:00.000-05:00

i'm tired. and wed is super busy. so here is valentines day 2

how many movies can you name??

invisible light

2012-02-14T11:27:00.000-05:00

if i had planned ahead i would have some sort of cool vday thing for you guys today. i'm indifferent to the holiday. if it means people pay more attention to their loved ones, go for it. my dad sent me a text and so he is my valentine. or wait. i am his. hmm... is that different?

anyway, working today and then tonight i have NO PLANS. woo hoo! alice has plans and invited me, but i think i'm going to just hang out in my awesome hotel room and paint or something. that should be fun. can't wait to post some more pics of what i've painted!! i'm totally digging this paint thing.

oh, also, it turns out that we have successfully found a date for my sister-in-laws baby shower. easter weekend! which means i'll take that whole week off and then go directly to hawaii from fargo. woo hoo! i have to figure out what i'm going to say at the wedding, too. hmm... anyway, baby shower theme ideas, please. (that is, send them to me!) i'm really excited about this baby shower for some reason.

i was trying to find some sort of ballad for today that i love but i cant really think of too many love songs that i like and listen to. but then i came up with this one.

and then i found this video which was cute:

happy valentines day! oh wait. what are you doing for tonight?

[song by scissor sisters]

the scars of your love leave me breathless

2012-02-13T01:00:00.000-05:00

so i'm writing this while watching the end of the grammys... BORING. sooo uninteresting.

whatever.

anyway, alice came over and i gave her this painting. actually, FIRST she said she liked it and then i said "really? you do?" and she said "yeah, i walked in and i thought 'wow thats really nice'" and i was like "great! because i made it for you!!" so here are the pics:

i REALLY like it. it looks so good in person. its really cool. my first painting gift!!

here are some pics of my hotel room since i promised i would post those, too...

yep, nice room. i'm hanging here...

better things

2012-02-12T17:42:00.001-05:00

greetings interweb. greetings from columbus, in fact. normally i dont write and post, but i think i am going to right now (unless i get distracted which is about 86% possible). i am here for work. got here yesterday because tickets from sun-wed were $1100 and sat - wed were $500. figured i could save my company a dime or two, so might as well come early. aside from my room not being ready when i checked in (at 3:45, AFTER the 3pm checkin, mind you) and having to call housecleaning to have them re-clean both the shower AND the bath (hairs, eww), everything has been really good. i got some tuna from downstairs and ate that in my room with my free wine vouchers that they gave me since i had to wait for my room. i did a TON of cards and did quite a bit of work work while i watched snl. it was a pleasant evening overall.

today i had a haircut, here it is:

but that doesnt really show the color. here it is:

and then met alice's parents who are in town visiting her. we went to get jenis ice cream and that was good. then we stopped at a few stores and now i'm back in my room painting. i think i am going to paint something for alice. if she likes it she can have it. if not, no biggie.

here it is so far:

i'm waiting for it to dry a bit before i paint the bottles. i'm copying a calendar picture, so its not like i just made this idea up. i'll take a picture of it when its done and post it here no matter what it looks like.

tonight alice is coming over and we'll have some thai food and each do some work while the grammys are on in the background. oh, i have an AWESOME room. i'll take pics and post them for tomorrow maybe... its a sweet suite. ha ha. easy grammatical joke. layUP.

i'm here until wed for work. tomorrow i have a lot of non-ohio-related meetings which is always difficult when you're at some other clients' office to work on a different client. tuesday should be easy and then wed some other peeps are coming for some meetings. should be good. v-day in c-bus. oh! i bought a cbus tshirt today. its cute. i wonder if it fits. ha! i should try that. i will not be doing anything on tues night, which is 100% fine. actually, i just looked at my planner and am planning on working that night. fun fun!

ok, so thats all i've got. going back to finish painting. how was your weekend?

[song by sharon jones and the dap-kings. AWESOME. check them out. i love them. her. them. whatever.]

soul and inspiration

2012-02-11T04:00:00.000-05:00

i wish i could be inspirational.

things that are making me happy

2012-02-10T02:30:00.000-05:00

unlike most americans, i have known who jean dujardin is for a long time. he starred in this tv show i used to watch in france that i LOVED. i havent seen the artist yet, much to my chagrin, but am def planning on seeing it soon... until then...

Jean Dujardin's Villain Auditions from Jean Dujardin

things that are...

2012-02-09T06:22:00.000-05:00

the winner takes it all

2012-02-08T07:19:00.000-05:00

so something really cool happened yesterday. i've already teased my family about it and am announcing it here...

swear to god, this is no joke.

i won a car.

yep, i entered a drawing at this sushi restaurant i go to all the time and they called me yesterday to tell me i had won a car. a honda fit, in fact. here is a picture of it.

kind of sporty, no? i wonder how much it retails for... obviously i dont need a car in boston. holy crap. i just looked it up. its worth $17,000! i obviously have no concept of cars and how much they cost.

so isnt that wild??

here is what happened. i am a member of this frequent buyer card for this restaurant i love, mikunisushi. i got a voicemail from them yesterday "hi danielle, this is michelle [btw, i love it when other names rhyme with mine] from mikuni sushi. i'm calling about our promotion and to confirm your address." so i call back and she asks where i live because my address on my account is in boston. mikunis is the restaurant i go to in sac all the time when i'm there for work. "oh, i live in boston, but i'm in california often for work." then she says "oh, well, we drew your name to win a car in our vegas promotion, but i think its only for california residents... let me check. hold on." so she puts me on hold. i had no idea i had entered a contest for a CAR. i thought it was for a trip to vegas or some free sushi or something, so i was trying to convince her that i would be in california soon to collect my prize. "hi, danielle, yeah, i'm sorry to tell you but the contest is for california residents only. i am so sorry!" "eh, thats ok." i honestly didnt really care. it was kind of funny to me. so i won a car. except i can't have the car. then she said something REALLY hilarious "well, thank you for frequenting our restaurant as much as you do when you are in town!" which is funny because i go there
all
the
time
when i'm in town. i think i went at least 3 times a few weeks ago.

in this case, contrary to the stupid abba song, the winner does not take it all. but i'm not bitter. and i'm actually serious. i thought instantly "this will make an AWESOME blog post!" here is my convo with my roommate about it:

8:39 PM me: hey

8:40 PM i won a car today

8:42 PM Ryan: excuse me?

me: i did

but i cant accept it bcs i'm not a resident of CA

it was a honda fit

Ryan: lol, what are you talking about

me: mikunis, the sushi resto i go to in sac

drew me to win a car

Ryan: ROFL

8:43 PM me: but they called me bcs they saw in my profile that i live in MA

Ryan: want me to go to sac to pick it up for you

me: ha!

i wish

Ryan: they were like "hey you won... but you can't have it" ?

me: so she left me a msg

and said "i'm calling from mikunis to confirm your address" or something like that

8:44 PM so i called and told her that i lived in MA, but am in Sac often

bcs i thought she was calling about free sushi or something

Ryan: lol

me: and then she said "we drew you to win a car, but i think its for ca residents only. let me check"

and then she put me on hold

Ryan: ROFL

me: and came back and told me that was correct

Ryan: thats so bizarre

8:45 PM me: yeah

but the thing is

i didnt enter to win a car

Ryan: and something that would pretty much only happen to you

me: they had some promo to get a trip to vegas or something

and i entered that

Ryan: haha

me: apparently this was part of it or something

lol

why do you say would only happen to me??

Ryan: were you supposed to drive the car to vegas?

is that the "trip"

haha

me: i dont really know... i should find it online

8:46 PM dante was upset that i didnt try to get her to give it to him

Ryan: lol

me: which i WOULD HAVE tried

BUT he is not a member of the koki club

Ryan: i can't even listen to this

me: DESPITE ME TELLING HIM TO JOIN MULTIPLE TIMES

Ryan: lol

me: i find it very humorous

doesnt make me mad at all

8:48 PM Ryan: oh, i'm sure. i think it's hysterical

me: pretty much

8:49 PM makes fpr a great blog post!

Ryan: lol, i assumed, yeah
so yeah. thats pretty cool, non??

things that are making me happy

2012-02-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

my friend e.lb and i were at the two door cinema club concert a few months ago and this song came on and i was like "i have NEVER known what that song name is!" so i just looked up the video (she found the song by using shazam which seems awesome - i need to use it. do you?)

and the video made me happy, BUT left me with a bunch of questions:

where was this filmed?? at first i thought sweden, but now i'm pretty sure its germany. those crazy germans.
i just looked up that darude is finnish. i bet that was filmed in finland now that i think about it. never been.
i guess #2 wasnt a question. nor is this point.
what was in the box?? i can't believe they didnt show us! talk about no pay off.
something else that made me think i had enough questions for three bullet points, but now i cant think of them...
do you like this song? (maybe that was my other question)

a hazy shade of winter

2012-02-06T03:00:00.000-05:00

there is no snow. i have only seen it a few times this year. i have only worn my boots once. maybe twice. its sad. its messing with my mojo. i want to see a picture like this

i think that would make me happy. where oh where has the snow gone?

i also hope this doesn't mean that we'll have a super hot summer. that would be the WORSTEST.

how is your winter?

live blogging the superbowl

2012-02-05T20:20:00.002-05:00

ok, so i'm not ACTUALLY live blogging, but as I think of things, i'll write them here.

ok, so i'm a little behind... its 7:02 and i'm at kc and the sunshine bands house. but we're behind in the game. did the game start at 630? i'm not sure. i think so. right now its 2-0... i think its just a few minutes in. something about a safety? i'm not really sure... i got here late because i went to yoga (hear that, boys??) from 330-5 and then took the bus to work and did some work then packed up my laptop and came over here. am going to "work" while i "watch" the game... really i'm just hoping to see some cool commercials. so far here are our thoughts:

fun hyundai commercial with the vampires. fun! loved it. super appropro. apropo? hmm... idk how to speel. i've already forgotten the other commercials thus far. but they just had a close up of all the refs. are they all white? are there not any minority refs in the nfl?

so kc are really watching the game. comments like "is this just a really good passing game, so far?" make me wish for some special teams.

ugh. tom brady is so ugly.

oh right. k just reminded me of what we thought about the other hyundai commercial - the driving one with the jaguar (or was it a cougar?). it was missing a very specific driver: ryan gosling. i mean, they really should have thought that through a bit more.

why dont they make beer commercials for women?? stupid beer commercials. that wasnt even funny.

i liked the m&m commercial. was that meryl streep's voice?

not gonna watch the apprentice. just not going to.

we did our own boxes the three of us. c got upset so he has one extra. if the game ends right now he would win. so lets hope it doesnt even though i think i want the giants to win.

polar bear commercial - too safe.

apocalypse commercial... this might be erin's commercial. of course twinkies survived the apocalypse. gross. but funny. and the frogs. i dont get it, but thats cool. we're still behind time. madonna for half time? i dont know how i feel about that. has she done anything besides get divorced recently? oh she made a movie ro something, right? yeah, its 7:16pm and we're at 6:57 in the game. i hope my family doesnt text about the game. i'd hate to know what happens. not really. dont care much. i'm drinking bubbly. aside from this live blog,, that is one of the best things baout this game.

ugh. tom brady is ugly.

oh and can we talk about how the pats had 12 players on the field? i mean, dont they pay someone to stand around and count players? they could pay me to do that. i'd do that. i count good. this bridgestone commercail is boring. but troy aikman is cute. and i always like ddeon/dion/deonne? sanders. hes funny.

boring lexus commercial.

i'm thinking about this cute actor in the liam niesen movie. something about transformers but not really. i wonder if he is sitting at home with his family waiting for that comomercial. he looks like a new actor who is about to make it big or fall flat on his face.

wh ois this dude with the long name and the sleeve tats? they look uninteresting.

how much do the players get for winning the superbowl? just a ring? how much would the ring go for on the market? oooo. good block. good job blue helmet dude.

i dont really get why the budweiser symbol is these clydesdale horses, but thats pretty cool. way to stay in your theme. apparently thats a whatchamacallit commercial - steve buscemi or something.

ok, this camero commercial was pretty funny. it ESPECIALLY makes me think of the HEATED CONVERSATION i had with my father when i was leaving for college and he told me that i couldnt have refridgerators in my dorm room. it was a good hour-long fight about fridges and having the ability to hide beer in them. now that i think about, you could just hide the beer under your bed. you dont need a fridge to do that!

did the guy just say that he enjoys building "turds"?? a partner ad - budweiser and ge. interesting. boring commercial.

we're trying to catch up so i'm missing some commercial. taxact.com. crap. i need to do m y taxes. ohhh i just remembered the other commercial we liked: elton john and pepsi. good job. loved the shoes. loved flava flave. it was awesome. favorite commercial so far.

i dont know if i have EVER read a dr. seuss book.

the volkswagon commercial was great. i loved that dog!

oh hfamous people on the tv. steven tyler. how did he score ticks? ha. tix. tickets. everyone here laughed at the 2nd audi commercial with darth vader that i didnt get. we had to pause it to explain it to me. oh wow. number 75 is big. he needs to run on the treadmill.

illegal huddle?? what the heck is that?? is someone going to jail for it?

yep. absolutely no issues with the beckham ad. i could watch that all day looooong. in fact, i just might tomorrow. i have the day off.

superbowl rings are kind of gawdy. not to be confused with gaudi. i wonder if i would be impressed if i saw one in real life. probably not. just another one of my flaws.

ok, not sure how much longer i'll be doing this... apparently my outlook isnt working at work. it means i can't work as effectively as i normally would be during a superbowl.

oh. hm. what is this movie? rdj chris cell phone dude. samuel l. scarlett. the avengers. so basically a movie with a bunch of pretty people. i'll go to it. i love this woman's black dress. super hot. i'm ...

lol. i was going to write about that other commercial but i just busted out laughing at this skechers commercial. i dont know why mark cuban is in it, but the dog wiht the shoes was cute. i'm not sure we're actually going faster with k at the remote. we seem to keep going backwards to rewatch the beginning of the commercial.

ugh. now i'm annoyed that i cant connect to work.

fight! fight! fight!

..................

ok i paused for a while. now its the halftime show.

hmmm... why is she the halftime act?

i like the dancing. ouch. that looked painful. its called the dance floor. and heres whats in store. do we think she's actually singing? and is that the vogue magazine? i wonder if they had to get permission to use that. rita hayward gave good face.

i wonder how many concerts she has ever done. and is this the biggest? it might not be.

i really dont love this music makes the people come together song.

ok, that whole walk on the people dancing thing was pretty cool. ouch. is he jumping on a WIRE? crazy. i hope he's ok. ok, he's cool. wild hair. oh is this lmfao? hmm... who are they? i wonder how many times they practiced this whole routine.

ohhh... i'm sexy and i know it guys. ok. i like that song. yeah, madonna, we get that you're fit. another wardrobe malfunction.

nicki minaj is there. ok, thats gives me a bit more ... whatever thats called. i'm more impressed.

what is this song? i havent heard it. give me all your love? i like nicki minaj.

oh and ceel o! i like him too

life is a mystery.

oh wow. madge has had some work done.

i have a coworker at the game. i wonder if she has one of those light things on.

ok, that was a cool disappearing act for her. i am more impressed than i have been in a long time. ok, end of part 1. not sure i fthere will be a part 2 o rnot...

and to end, here is a fun new video by ok go from bostinno

got the rolly on my arm and i'm pourin chandon....

2012-02-05T03:59:00.001-05:00

i woke up a bit ago and kept laying in bed thinking "i'll fall back asleep. i will. i'll fall back asleep." and then i thought "well, it must be time to get up soon... i'll just lay here until the sun comes up..." but i knew. deep in my heart, i knew. and i was right.

its 3:34am. i should not be awake. UGH.

i just want to be asleep but i can tell i'm not going back to sleep any time soon.

grr!

ok, i was going to write more, but i just want to go back to sleep, so here are some more pictures of my art instead.

we could have fun just strollin'

2012-02-01T18:55:00.000-05:00

so this post is for my brother homie who has had an awesome day - may they just get better! he and his wife had an ultrasound today to check on the baby's status. SHE is doing fine - great! in fact. here is a picture of HER:

thanks to my doctorate in baby pictures, i can safely say that she looks pretty good. all healthy! woo hoo!

in addition to the ultrasound, homie launched a fb page for his bank - check it out here and follow their twitter here.

just do it.

way to go, homie!

mussen wir wollen

2012-01-29T11:28:00.001-05:00

so watching this video makes me feel like an amateur.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

and makes me want to change my flight on wed so i can stop more frequently and get more miles. now do you see that *i* am actually quite reasonable???

oh and the guy is doing a kickstarter campaign to raise money to do a full length movie.

[song by wir sind helden - i think...]

hot mess

2012-01-27T01:20:00.000-05:00

hi. that actually is a song title. not autobiographical. well, it might be. i'm not sure. i didnt write it, so not autobiographical for ME, but maybe for the author. anyway, its 10:15pm. i am up waaay tooo late. this is the latest i have been up all week. i've been asleep by 9:30 most days. i am hoping to get up by 4:30 tomorrow. i have to get to the office by 6:30 or so... 7 at the latest. i have a few meetings in the morning and that sucks. then i take off for phoenix. i am hoping it will be a good trip. conference and all. those are stressful because i have to be "on" all the time. ugh.

anyway, after work i ran to the salon to get a pedicure (can't go to a conference with gnarly feet!) and then stopped in the regency room (yum) and got a glass of wine with some food. i couldnt drink it because i was on my way to a massage. i love love love getting a massage while in sac. i could TELL i was sore everywhere. mostly because the massage hurt and i kept tensing up (which i NEVER do). i think its because of all the yoga i've been doing. its building strength and my muscles are being worked. sigh. i have a little ritual when i come to sac. massage around 6pm. for 1.5 hrs with hot stones. then i walk back to the hotel stopping at the beat, which is a cool record store and buy some cd's (this time i got chromeo, robyn, harry belafonte and harold melvin & the blue notes). then i stop at mikuni's to get some sushi. it was a great night. i did all that. now i'm back at my hotel room and really dead tired. so i am going to bed.

everybody's got a cousin in miami

2012-01-25T02:00:00.000-05:00

it's the week of homie!

my brother homie is proving to be an awesome videographer. he should really consider it as a second profession. maybe he could be a wedding videographer. what do you think, homie?

anyway, this is a video from when homie was in... junior high? maybe elementary school... in any case, he is still friends with joe in the video - he was in his wedding last year. i admire that. i'm not really friends with anyone from elementary school.

ok, i'm on a flight and got totally distracted. homie is awesome. and was (and is!) super cute when he was young. this was really fun for me to watch again and because i have no idea what i'm saying (the guy next to me is talking about flying and i'm trying to stay engaged...).

ok, enjoy.

i'm soo...

2012-01-24T23:49:00.000-05:00

exhausted...

can't write long. i am just too tired. its only 8:44 on the west coast, but i am p double oh p e-d pooped! i'm going to write super quickly about nothing really and then go to bed so i can attempt to get 8 hours of sleep. have to get up at 5 to pick up my coworker at 7am so we can get to the office at 730 because i have a TON of things to do. i was at work until 6pm tonight and have been running around ... sigh. i can't even talk about it.

BUT i did go to eat with my coworker and we played lost cities. it was fun. i like the game and its pretty easy.

i just looked in my email for a fun video but dont have any. why are the interwebs not making fun videos the past few days??

this is a ... something article, however. i do not know her. i wonder if my brothers do...

yep, thats about all i can do.

peace

more than a feeling

2012-01-23T03:30:00.000-05:00

let's see if this works....

i'm on a plane sunday night to ca and my brother, homie, posted this video that i thought i would share. the internet connection is kind of sketchy, so if you see this, mad props to inflight internet!

in october, one of my favorite people in the world, my dear aunt vicki, was diagnosed with breast cancer. its very scary and sad and bizarre how things change with one phone call (in this case, an email). she had surgery on halloween to remove the tumor and her surgery was successful. since then she has been undergoing chemo every few weeks (you can read more about her here) and will eventually undergo radiation. even with insurance, fighting cancer is extremely difficult financially. vicki does not have short term disability and has to take off work to go to her treatments. my other aunt (vicki's sister) and our family organized a benefit for her. i was not able to go due to high airline prices, but basically everyone else in my family was there. here is a video my brother shot and edited of the event:

pretty much everyone in a team vicki tshirt is related to me (lucky them!). a few things i thought while watching this video:
1) my sister-in-law does NOT look pregnant enough!
2) my brother homie is going to be awesome with the video camera! (thanks mom and dad for giving it to him!)
3) my other brother player is so funny - he's the one who attempts to hug vicki a foot above her head
4) its a good thing i wasn't there, surely i would have screwed up in the kitchen!
5) my family is just awesome!
6) i should PAINT something to do with breast cancer! [mentally note: because then, even if its bad, people will still enjoy it!!]

i have some more thoughts on healthy and bc, but those will come later... for now - continue fighting!

not my lover

2012-01-22T11:46:00.000-05:00

eek! i'm kind of running around like a chicken with my head cut off. wait. is that right? you know what i mean. i hope. anyway, i'm leaving today for 10 days. just did yoga (woo hoo!) gotta shower, do laundry, pack, eat some bfast, etc. lots to do! and i accidentally overslept. was up until 2am watching nikita with higgi and then slept until 8:30 and then put an eye mask on to cover the light streaming into my room. assumed i'd sleep another half hour or so. nope! 3.5 hrs later i woke up. oops! anyway, now i am rushing, so can't write long. BUT did want to post this video for my friend anny in manila.

hope to see you soon!

state of the art

2012-01-21T13:04:00.002-05:00

omgosh. art is hard. why don't people tell you that??? i suspect every person has some sort of creative bone in his or her boday - ha. i wrote boday instead of body. anyway, i'm sure everyone could be artistic, but many people choose not to be. and now i know why. its hard.

i signed up for an acrylic painting class at the bcae. i've had two classes. and its hard. BUT i really like it. so i may have found a pasttime. !!

for the first class, i walked in not even a minute late and everyone (4 people and the instructor) were busily drawing. drawing?? no one told me there would be drawing! i can't draw. drawing is hard. doodle. i can doodle reeeal good. but not draw. and besides, aren't i taking a PAINTING class?? i didnt know you had to do one to do the other. sigh.

so i start drawing. and she teaches us some things that we can do to test proportions and dimensions and stuff. that was helpful. the "sculpture" we were supposed to draw was SUPER boring. it was a white vase with a white shell and a white saucer and a white mug and a white bowl. the point was we were going to be painting using only white and black. to learn about shadows. so i draw part of the sculpture and the instructor, anna, i think, came over and helped me. but i didnt like it. so she said i could start over. i so i erased it and decided to draw the spotlight that was lighting up the "sculpture." so this is what i drew.

i actually don't think it looks that bad. and then she tells me i can start painting. and everyone else has moved on to painting. and so i just sit there. i have NO IDEA what to do. like... i can figure out that i should pick up the paint brush. is that one word? paintbrush? i guess so. i picked up the paintbrush and just kind of LOOKED at the white and black paint she has squirted out for me. where do i start? do i mix? and everyone has water at their station. am i supposed to use water?? i had NO IDEA what to do. i waited a few minutes for her to make her rounds again and then i was like "umm... i have never painted before. i have no idea what to do." she was like "oh, do you do anything artistic for work?" and i said "nope. i sit at a desk and work on spreadsheets." i think she finally understood. she was dealing with a novice. painting virgin, in fact. she picked up the brush and put it in the water and then mixed a few colors and just kind of went with it. she gave me some tips and i started. it was super hard. i mean, difficult. it was sooo difficult. and she kept coming by and encouraging me, complimenting me, in fact. she then said "it looks like a graphic novel." and i didnt really get what she meant until we put our paintings up at the end of class. i, of course, was the asshole who didn't follow directions and painted something TOTALLY different from everyone else. but once i stood back, i could tell it DID kind of look like a graphic drawing. here it is.

i told my friend alissa about my class and she was like "only you would assume you could come into something and do it really well the first time." i was like "yeah, i had NO IDEA how hard it was!" then we had homework. the homework was to take a painting thats already been done (something famous, most likely) and then print it in black and white and paint it. anna actually had 4 printouts for everyone, but there were now six people in class, so i offered to find my own painting. i looked up my famous painter, charles dwyer and found a painting that i liked. here is a link to the actual thing at gallery m. here is a picture of the black and white photo i printed out.

and here is what i painted. btw, faces are super dooper hard.

so thats that for now. i've done a few other things and will post those soon..

[new song by gotye]

i have a dream...

2012-01-19T23:25:00.002-05:00

someday this will not be an issue...

2012-01-18T07:42:00.001-05:00

we're black today in support of stopping sopa and pipa.

[really this just means that i didnt get my act together to put together a real post.]

online freedom!!

what would you do-o-o for a kit kat bar?

2012-01-17T06:34:00.001-05:00

argh! its tuesday (kind of like monday since i didnt work yesterday) and i didn't get enough done at the weekend!!! ugh!

i was going to try to see my little tonight, but now i'm not sure i will be able to... i have painting homework (still need to write about that - der!) and will probably be at work late. the rest of the week: wed is painting, thur is platelets, fri is movie and dinner and sat is art class. sun i head to the west coast for 10 days. argh! maybe i shouldn't do platelets this week...? idk... i've been up for about an hour (its 630) and should have done yoga. i think i'll go do that now and then shower and head to work. so much to do! so little time!! i'd also love to clean my closet before i leave on my trip...

so this was an interesting photo. found here.

what do you think?

also, what should i do about seeing my little this week...?

i am not your gameboy

2012-01-15T09:09:00.000-05:00

so apparently there was a big football game on last night...? and i am guessing the pats won, which i'm mostly indifferent about. but this video made me laugh because i'm pretty sure i have said at least half of these things

found here. i'm not nearly as annoying as that girl, though, right??

[song by freezepop]

make you go boom boom boom

2012-01-14T21:27:00.002-05:00

so super quick because 1) most of the people who read this are at an event tonight and 2) the other main person who reads this as soon as things are posted (that i know of) just left me where i am...

here is a flash mob that big sisters did. i wasnt in it because i couldnt go that day (which bums me out, i think my little would've liked it, a lot), but in the same area at the pru as the other flash mob from the other day...

ok, i'm off to be super productive and paint. which i am going to write about soon. i promise.

bubble pop electric

2012-01-12T07:32:00.001-05:00

i want to learn how to do this

i've seen it a few places and i drink enough bubbly that i should be able to, right?? anyone have any idea how to start this sort of thing? i think i need wire handle thingies. wire twisters? cutters? you know those things that look like pliers. maybe its a plier. hmmm.

i have the wire and cap for the bottle i opened when i learned i was going to be an aunt. that would be a cool gift for a baby, non??? its never too early to get her excited about bubbly! ;)

[song by gwen stefani]

au milieu des autres

2012-01-11T07:42:00.002-05:00

so last night was uber weird. cool, too. but weird. i kind of had no plans and hadn't seen my little in a long time, so i called her and we made plans for that evening. she was at her sister's house instead of her own house. they are in the same neighborhood, but i dont know exactly where her sister lives. so i was kind of walking aimlessly on the street until she found me. she is so fearless in her neighborhood - as well she should be - but i am always on high guard. i 1) clearly do not fit in around there and 2) may look like an easy target? i'm not sure. anyway, i picked her up and we took the bus first to copley and then got on the green line to go out to brookline (which is kind of a suburb of boston, but a very fancy one). she showed me that she was wearing the earrings and necklace that i gave her for christmas. apparently she wears them every day. i was totally impressed. i had mostly forgotten about the gift, but was also touched that she liked them so much. she asked me if the earrings were expensive (and i must thank k for them since she gave them to me to give to my little) and i said "don't worry about it." apparently she is allergic to certain types of silver and those don't make her earrings swell (so i think she thinks they're expensive....).

anyway, we went to this cafe in coolidge corner for game night. the store where i buy all my board games hosts a game night every tuesday night. i've always wanted to go but never had anyone to go with and so i dragged my little (of course i didnt tell HER i was dragging her, i told her we were going to have LOTS of fun - and we did!). last night was family night and most tuesdays are advanced nights. first we played this game called bag-o-loot, which was an easy card game. it was fun. she and i played alone because all the tables were full. then we started this neat game of connect four that is really in a circle. that was also pretty cool. then the main dude asked if we'd like to play bag-o-loot with some other people and we said sure. oh, there was a puzzle game, too that we started playing.

we went to the tables and played bag-o-loot with some other people. when we got there i said hi to this guy who was standing by the games. i introduced him to my little and asked if he had been there before. he said no and pointed to some guy he was with. i assumed the guy i was talking to was my age. and the other guy was maybe in his 20s. but then we played bag-o-loot with the other guy and i started thinking maybe he was... i couldnt tell if he was a teenager or if there was something wrong with him. i had no idea. so then it made me question how old the other guy was. then i started to feel really old. later, my little said she thought the guy i had talked to was a big brother. so i think that is the case, BUT i introduced my little as "this is my little sister" and he didnt pick up and say "oh, i'm a big brother, too." also, later in the evening he commented that i couldnt "steal from family" (when i captured some of my little's cards).

i had promised to get my little something to eat, so we went across the street to naked pizza. it was actually a GREAT learning opportunity. all of the signs say "no additives - natural ingredients!" and she asked what that meant. i explained that most food has things added to them. then we talked about how she felt most often after eating. i asked if she felt tired and she said yes. i explained that, most likely, its because her food has stuff in it that our bodies don't like and thats why it makes us feel tired. i told her that she would probably feel really good after eating this pizza. which, i just remembered i have some left! great. lunch is served. anyway, i still need to teach her some manners about eating. she was trying to stuff the food in her mouth, but it was too hot so it was falling out and it was... egh. gross.

it was way past 9pm by this point, so we hopped on the t. at copley, i hailed a cab and we took it to her house and i explained i would run her upstairs and be right back. no way i was walking home at that time of night. i got in the cab and the cabbie started asking me questions. we chatted, which was nice, and it turns out he's algerian. he also explained that he speaks french and i said i did, too. so then, AFTER i had paid, i sat in the cab for at least 10 minutes talking to the guy. in french. and he gave me his email so i can send him an email to practice my written french. he told me some story about a french woman who lives in brookline and was dying and gave him some money because he was nice to her and her nephew had fought for the french in the french-algerian war. this woman's lawyer didnt like that she gave him some money, (i think over $100k), so he took the money out of the guys account. the cabbie has now hired a lawyer to look into it to get the money back. the whole point is that this woman's old friend back in france's name is danielle. the whole thing was one of those situations where i'm like "why do i ALWAYS have WEIRD stories like this??" who else sits in a cab for 10 minutes talking to their cab driver in french?? maybe this is normal, but i suspect not.

[french song by calogero translated to "in the middle of others"]

some say that we are pawns

2012-01-10T07:45:00.002-05:00

i'm worn out. i was at work for 15 hours yesterday. fifteen hours. it was tiring. i had to go in early to do my expense reports (don't get me started) and stayed late to have a conference call at 7pm. i got a lot done and am happy for that, but when i woke up this morning i thought "i'm ready for the weekend." and i am. which is funny because its not like i did anything big on the weekend!

last week was super busy. i had an all day offsite meeting on wed. after that we had a dinner at a restaurant that was quite good, but we were out late. and lots of red wine. thursday was another day of all-day meetings and then the company party. out late again. more red wine. (i'm getting smart and sticking to one drink) on friday, i had a few coworkers in town from overseas and i suggested we go for a quiet, small dinner so that the three of us wouldn't go back to our beds and sleep too early. we ended up leaving work around 7, walking to one hotel and then here to drop things off. then we had a drink here which made people perk up, i think. then we went to the gallows and had delicious food and more drinks. then we went to franklin cafe where they kicked us out at like 245. oops. another late night. i was in bed on saturday until 1. my coworkers felt much more ill than i because they finished my drink at the last place. i, wisely, stopped. i was forced to take a shot of fernet, though. who actually LIKES fernet?? thats crazy. ugh.

on saturday i saw the girl with the dragon tattoo. i keep wanting to write dragoon. like rangoon or something. the girl with the dragoon tattoo. anyway, have you seen it? have you read the books? i have read the first two books and seen the first two swedish movies. this movie was way better. its super dark and i loved the style, BUT... go with low expectations. i'd hate for someone to expect it to be great and then be disappointed. just plan to be entertained. and keep in mind its dark.

sunday i didnt do much which kind of sucked. i hate sundays. ugh. i did do yoga at 330, which was good and then met a coworker for dinner at stephis. it was good and i'm glad we went out.

i have no plans tonight except tomorrow night i have class at 745, so i suspect i will try to leave work early tonight since i will be there late tomorrow.

no real other plans this week. still need to figure out my closet, but i've gotten the main thing off my back: expense reports. they only took me 6+ hours. ugh. dred. dread, i mean. maybe a movie. yeah, i'd like to see another movie.

ok, gotta get to work.

no idea why, but i woke up with this song in my head:

did this song come out in the us? it was big in france when i lived there. no idea how it got into my head...

things that are making me happy

2012-01-08T04:00:00.000-05:00

this video is so cool.

apparently its interactive but i dont have time to do that, so if you check it out, let me know if its fun. i think its by the same guys who did the treadmill video.

yes, it is. here is that video for reference

OK Go - Here It Goes Again from OK Go on Vimeo.

does anyone have their cd? is it good?

things that are making me happy

2012-01-07T02:30:00.000-05:00

i want to be an artist. i want to make beautiful things. this video is cool. and, why didn't i think of it??

i found it on boingboing but only just now watched it. and watching it inspired me to actually sign up for a painting class that i have wanted to take for a really long time. i'm doing it! so, now, every wed, i will be taking painting. ha! je suis une artiste!!

things to make you feel smart

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

i'm interested in psychology. sometimes i just don't understand people (thanks to being an intj), but i WANT to understand. so i read a lot of books and articles on psychology and try to understand better. i read this book called 'games people play' to help understand people (and myself) better. its actually a REALLY difficult read, imho, but these videos do a really good job of summarizing it.

and video 2 is here

and finally this is a summary of what to do / how to change

so what do you think of these videos? are they interesting to you? not? can you see how you may be playing these games in your real life?

dream apartment

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

we all know i love bright pink. i'm not really a pale pink person. anyway, i LOVE this room. how cool is it?? i wonder if i would ever have guts to do that... i bet that would secure my lifelong singledom if i did. ha

found here in this cool post about color. i'm not a huge yellow fan, BUT i love the layout and the "bookshelf" of this room. imagine it in PINK. how cool would that be??

things that are making me happy

2012-01-04T04:00:00.000-05:00

while i was home, i went to a blenders concert. i can't even begin to explain everything about the blenders. they are a group from fargo. they were originally a cappella. acapela. no. acappella? you get what i'm saying. back in the day when where in the world was carmen san diego rockapella was big, they were big in the midwest. one of them (ryan) was my dance teacher in 4th grade and i would go see them wherever i could. i LOVED them. anyway, when i was home i saw them. it was cool. it was a bit more religious than my preference. but it brought back a lot of memories and was fun. i went with my parents and we had a nice date.

here is a video of them:

what is actually making me happy, though, is that my little brother went, too. (with someone else) and he then sent them an email and they wrote back! both emails are making me super happy. so here they are:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: The Blenders <mail@theblenders.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 27, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: Hey fellas
To:

Hey,

Thanks so much for the kind words. We glad you enjoyed the show. And all of those songs you mentioned have a very special place on our hearts. Don't know if we'll be performing them anytime soon, but nice to know people are still enjoying them.

Thanks again and happy new year!

The Blenders

On Dec 15, 2011, at 11:26 PM, wrote:

Dear Blenders,

I literally just got home from your Chirstmas show over at the Fargo Theater. It was fantastic!

I'm writing you because I started listening to you guys back when i was 8 or so (maybe I was 10). You guys are an absolutely amazing harmonizing group and I love it. BUT.... I've never had the opportunity to see a concert of yours where you played all your old songs that I thought were (and still are) amazing; You, The Girl was Mine, Gray Matters, Don't Worry, Be Happy, Charlie Anyboy, Summer Sounds, Tasty Tasty Tasty, 60 Minute Man, Get Ready, Together, Drive By... I mean all of these are just awesome.

If you guys are ever going to do a concert featuring songs from your first couple albums, I will do anything I can do to see it. I think it could be a great show to have in Fargo somewhere.
(I hope it happens soon because you guys had mentioned that you almost didn't do the Christmas show this year)

Happy Holidays,

i love this picture

2012-01-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

from here.

BREAKING NEWS

2012-01-03T19:26:00.003-05:00

this just in at 7:25pm ET in the city of Boston, MA, *I* have changed the path of my life forever!

its official! i am a minister. no joke.

Click here to get ordained.

i am a minister in the Universal Life Church which has two tenets:

To promote freedom of religion
To do what is right.

i like those!

i may have to rethink my thoughts on religion. this is great!

two times the fun

2012-01-03T07:26:00.000-05:00

this story on npr was really really interesting for me today. check it out here. its about how 45% of our day is completed out of habit (i'm totally paraphrasing) and if you change your environment or the way you do something, it should help to change the habit (and thereby help you to keep new year's resolutions). thats a link to the written story, but you can also listen to it from that link...

the more you know....

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

ding ding dong diiiing...

so this is really interesting to me. i am the first to admit - FIRST - that i don't get religion. it just makes no sense to me. people who believe in things that they cannot see and touch and prove scientifically... i just can't do it. i guess i dont have faith. there is not a part of my being that can think "THEORETICALLY" such and such... and sometimes that sucks. because a lot of people get comfort out of religion. believing there is something higher or more important. i never see it. it just makes no sense to me. IF there is a higher being, then WHY do bad things happen? WHY this? WHY that? it just makes no sense. and the whole "he's trying to test you" argument... really? really? REALLY?? i mean... if thats the answer, then i dont want to believe in someone/thing/whatever who/that WON'T make things right for good people. THAT actually gives me comfort and because of that i am confident and secure in my beliefs. anyway, this was not meant to be a religious rant. all i wanted to say was i just don't get it. its a character flaw. i'm sorry (not really). it's also one i'm not going to be working on anytime soon.

in any case, this video is REALLY INTERESTING to me. like i said, i don't understand religion. i have never read the bible or the koran or whatever else there is out there. i don't care to. but when i hear things like this, it makes me think.

what did you think of that?

follow up

2012-01-02T19:54:00.000-05:00

player you were right - apparently fargo WAS on the list last year (at #2). see here for an article about fargo not being on the list anymore. but i dont understand why fargo fell completely off the list...

things that are making me happy

2012-01-02T11:00:00.000-05:00

i'll just make a list.

portlandia is coming back!!! this show is so subtle with their humor - i love it. and if you ever want to make fun of me or other left-leaning people, you should totally watch this show. on ifc.
i loved this article about love actually. it made me laugh. i love humorous writing.
and i love christmas movies.
obviously everything rg related
which leads you to this
this little girl is so cute. from here. i'm sure all my friends raising kids who are fearful of them being "boxed" into a sex will love this.

motivation for me to keep going in yoga
i was very happy (/sad) to see jonathan brandis on this. the rest were good old fun of 90s heartthrobs. is that one word? heart throb. heartthrob. found here
and here is a video my brothers made

dead tired

2012-01-01T19:45:00.004-05:00

wasted day. pity to start the new year like this. oops! its 730pm and i have done a whole lot of nothing today. well, i did go out for brunch at metropolis (never been - pretty good, actually) with kc and their friends. that was nice. prior to that, i was in bed until 1130 or something. elaine called and we chatted for a while. i played some settlers on my ipad. a whole lot of nothing, like i said. after that, i came home and was supposed to meet my friend emily on her way to the airport, but she ended up not having time, so i have basically been half sleeping / half watching tv for the last few hours. i need to get off my ass and do some things. there are actually a lot of things to do. i have to clean my closet and unpack (how long have i been saying this?? at least a month) and do expense reports and finish watching the increasingly bad decisions of todd margaret. and i think i'll do some yoga since i'm supposed to do that basically every day.

sigh. tomorrow i'm going to a massage at 8am - woo hoo! and then i think i'll do my expense reports because a and d come over at 3 to hang with me. woo hoo. so thats the day tomorrow. then this week will be super busy at work. i have all day meetings multiple days and then events in the evening. it will be exhausting.

i'm already tired.

this is an interesting story. i dont think i am counted.

new years eve

2011-12-31T18:00:00.000-05:00

so tonight i'm going to kc's house for some food and games and... bubbly! of course, i had a little bubbly at home while i was getting ready.... but then my glass was empty.

i'm not REALLY sad - see?

oh ha. i guess i didnt really take a picture of me smiling. thats an almost smile.

anyway, happy new year! what are you doing tonight??

there'll be much mistle-toeing and...

2011-12-30T11:57:00.000-05:00

eek. i tried to post yesterday but kept getting distracted. its on my list of things to do today. that and work. i have a lot of work to do. oops.

---------------------

ok, so i started that yesterday and never finished. i keep getting distrctated at work. too much going on but nothing really important. ANYWAY, i was planning to write about our furnace.

so tuesday i fly back from FAR. i went in to the office and then went directly to donate platelets. i was sitting in the comfy chair watching downton abbey when higgi called. blood is draining from my arm when he asks in a slightly-higher-pitched voice "what are YOU doing?" and i replied "well, i'm donating platelets. what are YOU doing?" "well, i'm standing in a few inches of water." this is not normal. "whyyy?" i asked. he then went on to explain that he was in the laundry room when he heard a hissing noise and wondered what it was. he went into our storage area and discovered our furnace gushing water. good thing he was home because he knew to turn off the water for the whole building. i would have probably stood there and gawked. anyway, long story short: we had no heat and no water.

donating platelets takes 2 hours+ so i got home around 9. no update. just a pile of muddy water in (can water "pile"? probably not. rephrase to whatever works) the storage room, furniture in the dining room rearranged, wet rug, china out of the china cabinet, etc. it was a massive mess and there was really nothing i could do.

i had originally planned to go home, drink a large glass of water (because i had just donated platelets) and go to bed. i only got 4 hours of sleep the night prior because i was packing and then had a 5am flight (read: wake up at 3am). so i was tired. and drained (literally! they drained some of my blood!). but i couldnt drink water because we had no water and therefore i didn't want to have to go to the bathroom. and i couldnt go to bed because i knew i HAD to shower in the morning 1) because its gross not to 2) because my hair was super greasy so i would've had to anyway and 3) i had a laser hair appointment wed night and you have to shave the day of the appointment. so i needed water. we didn't know if we would have water the next night, so higgi told me to go ot bed and he would wake me if we werent able to shower in the morning. this was a problem because i dont belong to a gym anymore so have no "backup" shower. higgi suggested i call a friend to use her shower. i texted her and she said that was fine and to go over to her place at 7. usually i am out of the shower before 7, so that was kind of unfortunate. the more i thought about it, the more i was convincing myself i needed to check into a hotel. 1) i needed to drink water (which would lead me to needing the bathroom) 2) i had to shower for various reasons and 3) i needed to wash my hands to take out my contacts AND brush my teeth. plus, i found it awkward to shave in someone else's shower.

so finally at 10:15, i went downstairs and i told higgi that i was going to check into the hyatt. it was only $135 before tax. homie pointed out that it sounded like a good excuse to get more points (he's right! and that thought didn't not dross my mind, of course). as higgi and i are discussing it, and the doorbell rings. saved! it was the heater dude. so he came and apparently we have some floating bob thing in this black tank outside of the furnace that tells the water system when to put water into the furnace. that bobby thing was weighted down so our system just kept putting more and more water into the furnace even thought it didnt need it. it released through the pressure valve (which is what higgi saw). the dude said we could turn on the water again and just keep the heater off. so we did that. and i didnt have to check into a hotel. phew.

what would you have done?

random stuff

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

ok, so i'm super behind. in everything. even yoga. ugh. anyway, here are some videos i've been watching

i love these guys.

i mean, i've never met them, but i'm sure i would love them in real life. if i didnt, that would be sad.

sad face :(

2011-12-27T11:19:00.001-05:00

i'm actually not really sad. BUT thinking about christmas being over makes me sad. :( so i am going to do my best to prolong the christmas season and feeling. AT LEAST until new years. i'm on my way back to boston. on the plane. i have less than a half hour until the flight ends. i really wish my roommate was picking me up at the airport, but i couldnt get a hold of him. i have FIVE suitcases - 1, 3, and 4 (luggage - i've named them) and my brother's duffle bag (thanks, player - the shoes are in the crawl space. they were big). so i have to go directly home with my luggage and then head to work. i will be super late. ugh. tonight i'm donating platelets. thats red. therefore christmas. woo hoo! hopefully i am not dehydrated or anything. that sucks. to prevent that, i have had 2 bottles (mini) of water on my flights. they are dasani which i HATE AND i hate using plastic bottles. BUT i figured the platelets were more important. and so i drank. ALSO, i'm in first class (YES they have first class on some planes from fargo to msp, which happened today) and purposely didnt have any alcohol. sad face.

anyway, here are some fab pictures of christmas in fargo.

monday monday

2011-12-26T07:39:00.000-05:00

my brother is bored at work so i am posting a video for him to enjoy for a few small minutes.

elizabeth warren. i love.

busy day today. tons of errands to run. want to spend quality time with my famdamily. lunch with gma. dinner with the fam. tennis with homie. maybe player? packing. eek. packing. THAT will be interesting. have to upload photos. so much to do! so little time!!

i've seen in time. can anyone give me some more time??

don't repeat that!

2011-12-25T14:15:00.000-05:00

hohoho!

its christmas day. pleasant day in fargo. my parents, brother and i are watching bridesmaids (a gift i got yesterday - woo hoo!) and...

ok, so i started that earlier today and was given looks of death by my family to not type during the movie. so i stopped. its 9 hours later and we're watching the marinovich project. interesting stuff. i actually really like athletic "documentaries." one of the favorite videos of in our house going out was a larry bird story that my dad had on vhs in the 80s. "indiana's got a new state bii-ird!"

anyway, today has been great. i would've liked to have been slightly more athletic, but... oh well.

opened gifts yesterday - our tree looked beautiful! homie and lindsay and gma and aunt lucy where here. we had standard xmas dinner - turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, asparagus, fruit salad, croissant rolls (crescent really), etc. then we opened gifts and mom brought the ladies home. the 4 of us kids played dixit (which eric got for xmas) and then when mom came home she played with us. j and l left when it was quite late - they went to voss today for xmas. eric and i tried to figure out 7 wonders, but it was tough. so we went to bed. this morning, eric and i opened santa's gifts - fun! - and then we watched bridsemaids. since then, eric and i have figured out 7 wonders which is, potentially, my favorite game now. better than settlers. better than ticket to ride. better than dixit. so fun. we played 3 rounds - mom, eric and i. we're winding down for the night. i have a ton of stuff to pack so will start doing that today because i need to make sure i can get all my stuff back to boston - eek! i got upgraded already, so i get 3 suitcases, which i will def need. i just need to figure out how to get from the airport to work with my luggage. perhaps i take a cab directly to the apartment, drop off the luggage and then head to the office...? that might be easiest...

anyway, how was your xmas?

[quotation from bridesmaids]

happy festivus!

2011-12-24T18:12:00.001-05:00

cherry mistmas! can't write a lot bcs i'm in the middle of playing whist. but here are some pictures of me and my family wishing you all a very happy festivus.

dream apartment

2011-12-23T07:11:00.000-05:00

i love this room. isn't it pretty? doesn't it make you want to read a book?? from here.

motivation

2011-12-22T06:19:00.000-05:00

my aunt sent this to my mom who sent it to me.

complete motivation to keep walking. and, it turns out, i have to be able to do a full vinyasa at the end of 90 days from when my brothers and i started this competition. chaturanga. its super hard. i have no upper body strength or core strength (super strong legs, though!), so its going to be a lot of work. here is a proper chaturanga dadasana

can you do it??

oh right

2011-12-21T11:45:00.002-05:00

father wanted me to post the pictures we took the other day.

we so pretty.

africa

2011-12-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

so my trip in fargo has been fun so far. super busy and i wish i had a bit more time to do random stuff (finish some xmas cards, do my financial planning for next year, apply for goes, etc), but overall its been good.

monday i had lunch with kj. it was good - always fun to catch up for an hour or two every 4-5 months! we went to this african restaurant which, while the food was good, was a very very ... inexperienced "american" restaurant. the waiter didn't know half the dishes - he had difficulty explaining things, they were out of some things and their menu was like... 10 items. again, none of this was horrible, but if they want to expand beyond the typical african customer base (which i can imagine is a finite number in fargo), they might want to expand a bit. the main point of this is that i was late to pick kj up because i kind of bumped my brothers car when leaving the garage. no damage! but it was his fault - he parked crooked. :) (he's going to get upset - i know it wasn't his fault!) so i got to kj's house late and then we took off for the restaurant. we got there probably 12:22 or so. this accident happened at the exact intersection where we had lunch (we ate in a resto at that intersection - we didnt eat on the street!).

apparently the person ran a red light. i haven't heard any other updates about who hit who, but it looked like a MASSIVE accident. i hope everyone was ok. unless they're a child molester or something. then i hope they aren't ok.

last night, homie, player, and my father went to j. edgar. we met up with our cousin's sister (not related to us) and friend of the family, emily. she is SO CUTE! i just adore her. so the 5 of us sat and watch this movie and it might just be the worst movie i've seen all year. i think i liked sucker punch even more than this. we were kind of in the front row with 3 rows of people behind us. i dont know what the people behind us thought of the movie, but i'm sure they could tell we hated it. we were quiet, but our physical movements (throwing hands in the air, sighing, slumping over, laughing at each other, etc) could tell we could not wait for the movie to get over. at the end, homie started clapping and yelled "finally! we can go home!" everyone laughed. have you seen this? what did you think??

anyway, after that we went to rhombus guys which is a pretty cool new pizza place in fargo. i really really enjoyed it. good food. wide variety of beer. cool menu. they even have wood chipper beer. how cool is that??

ok, i'm off to do yoga, run errands, shower, finish xmas cards, etc. not necessarily in that order... what are you doing before this weekend??

[song by toto]

dream apartment

2011-12-20T06:15:00.000-05:00

i love this picture. i want to be a painter. i dont know why. it seems dirty. but this is a very clean easel. i love it. from here.

oye como va

2011-12-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

gaw! quick post. in fargo. the main 5 people who read this are also in fargo and i hung out with them sat and sun, so i didnt write yesterday. i wanted to work online last night but wasnt able to. now i feel like i have work hanging over my head. its annoying. (oh, and by wasnt able to - i literally mean my company's internet didnt allow me to - not like i didnt make time for it. i DID). ugh. anyway, today i just woke up at 10, showered, and am now going to head out for lunch with kj. my dad is sitting next to me and he is ordering glasses for me. woo hoo! drinking glasses. not eyeglasses. we saw some cool ones at the ho do the other night and my dad sells them, so now we're getting them! (we = both me and higgi AND my parents - there are 2 dozen in a case so i'll take a dozen and they will keep a dozen). anyway, lunch with kj, then downtown to look for last-minute xmas gifts. then to pick up mom and go to herbergers to get gifts. tonight i'll do some work. tomorrow night i'm hanging with the boys. gonna play le tennis with homie and then he and i are going to a movie with player. it should be fun. me and the boys. oh, and can i just tell you how much i love my brothers?? they are so cute! and funny! and smart. we played whist with gma last night and it was so much fun. i really enjoyed it.

ok, so i have to get going. cant let anyone see me with this hair!

oh wait. i just did. oops!

mele kalikimaka

2011-12-17T09:36:00.000-05:00

i'm writing from 10,000 miles up. no. thats too far. feet. feet! 10,000 feet up. except i think its more now. 35,000 feet. i know a lot of people don't like it, but i really like delta. they are pretty cool. they are nice to me. they write back when i tweet about them. they did not upgrade me today (fail), BUT i am in the process of becoming a platinum flyer. THAT is pretty cool.

yesterday was kind of a fail for me. i was super busy at work and didn't end up getting my 3 main things done. so i have to work now on my vacation. which is ok, i guess... i really want to get my stuff done this weekend, though. then after that, my coworker helped me bring 12 bottles of wine home (15 were delivered to me at work - oops!) and then she stayed at my place and we finished a bottle of wine. that was all fine and good. what was not is that i forgot that i had to go to the gym to pick up 12 one-day passes i had purchased in a groupon. yesterday was the end of the groupon. i have now lost the ability to go to the gym 12 times for free (or whatever i paid for it). crappy. groupon wins! i hate that! another fail from yesterday was that i didn't get to organize my closet. i started, but didn't get far. i was tired and had to do stupid yoga. AND i had to pack. so i went to bed instead (after doing yoga). and i got up at 4:14 to go to the bathroom and go back to bed until 4:30am and then got up and packed THREE suitcases!!! i love it. i love my new luggage. AND i have this really cool thing that my parents got me and EVERYONE at the airport was talking about it!! i mean, everyone. i was trying to board the plane and one of the gate agents STOPPED me to talk to me about it. it was cool.

my faaaaavorite time of year!!!! woo hoo!! i'm so excited to be going home. i never get excited about anything. THIS i get excited for. so fun! and i ALREADY picture being at home with my parents in their new house. i dont even picture the old house anymore. i've only been there once! thats weird.

i was going to write about something else, but i can't remember...

so you know i love christmas decorations. and i love creative things. so i love these! here were no decorations at my house, but there will be at my parents....!!! (there better be!!)

it makes me want to create a fun tree at their house made of books - so fun!

and just a bit ago, homie sent me this great story. it made me smile. and also, this made me smile. i want a bathroom to redo and make pretty like that.

[jb]

one and the same

2011-12-16T07:37:00.000-05:00

friday. sighday. i can't believe i've made it through this week. its been busy. and yesterday was a cluster. i didn't even do anything crazy on wed night! i just went out for christmas dinner with kc and the sunshine band. the issue is that i mixed alcohol. rookie mistake. i'm certain of it. i had red wine at work while we wrapped gifts for the less fortunate. then i went to their place for a glass of bubbly. on to the resto (my fav! towne) and then a whiskey cocktail and red wine with dinner. after that we went for a night cap at the place across the street (boston social club...?) and then i went home. i was home by 11pm. i even put a load of laundry in when i got home! i awoke at about 2am wanting to DIE and not sure if i would survive the night. when i got up at 7am (for an 830 meeting!) i didn't feel much better. it was a struggle all day yesterday. sigh.

so last night i came home and cleaned my room a bit. my little was going to come over to pick up her xmas gift, but of course didn't come until 2 hours after she said she was going to. i ordered pizza, ate it and watched tv. i forgot i had some work to do for a client in asia, so i logged on quickly and did that and then... dum dum dum... i did yoga! i was sooo not feeling it. but i've already skipped twice this week (sun and tue) and so i had to do it. then i went to bed.

homie called me at midnight. i had no idea what was going on. he called because some girl he was with said there was a home invasion of a mansion and a murder in boston. i was surprised - i hadn't heard anything about it. he asked me something else i think. i can't remember. i was half asleep. if i ever call homie and am about to say goodbye he's hard-pressed to say he loves me. but he sure does when he's asking me for something or when he's awoken me from slumber! :) i dont mind.

i've already showered today because i have to get going early this morning. i have a laser appointment at 9am. its for the bikini area. i'm actually slightly nervous about it. i've gotten my underarms done and i really like it. this is scarier, though.

tonight i'm packing for my christmas holiday. i need to do yoga and stop by the gym to pick up some passes. i have to organize my closet, as well. thats part of the packing process. kind of. i need to back up my computer, as well. oh and call ups. i had xmas gifts delivered to my parents old house -oops! anyway, here's a cute video.

how has your week been?

[song by audioslave]

my head hurts...

2011-12-15T07:21:00.003-05:00

oh my goodness. i think it would feel better to be dead right now. there is a spot above my right eye and back about two inches where i would really like to place a drill and relieve some pressure. i am so hungover.

i was going to write more. but i can't. i have such a bad headache. and i have to be at work in an hour. crap.

so watch this.

from here.

dream apartment

2011-12-14T05:01:00.000-05:00

i need a new closet. mine is in disarray right now. and thus, the need for a big one is present.

that looks like a fun closet - i like the ladder and the shelves and the drawers. what would you put in a dream closet?

here are some others

things that are making me happy

2011-12-13T09:58:00.000-05:00

i dont know if this is necessarily making me HAPPY. but i enjoyed it. so thats the same thing, non? hmm. idk. anyway, this is cool.

Phantom Cocktails from Ty Migota on Vimeo.

from here

but you've known it the whole time

2011-12-12T07:41:00.002-05:00

my friend e.lb sent me a video she took of the two door cinema club concert in boston the other week. here it is.

need to decompress from the weekend so thats all for now.

you're not up to going

2011-12-11T06:36:00.000-05:00

if all goes as planned (why wouldnt it??) i am currently in the air flying back from nola to bos. i think the airport code is msy or mcy or something. i can never keep that one and orlando (mco?) correct. they're both stupid. anyway, i am writing this on friday morning where 1) i have been "up" since my alarm went off at 4 am so i could clean my room and pack 2) am procrastinating packing by writing this. i am off to nawleans today to visit kevy-wevy who turned 30 yesterday. AND i just so happen to be (close to) qualifying for delta platinum and will certainly qualify for hyatt diamond this weekend. on my first flight to far next weekend i will qualify for platinum for delta, but i needed this trip to nola to get me there before the end of the year. see?? no, last-minute travel and wasted flights!

so yeah, the cleaning of the room and wrapping of the gifts to send to ireland are soooo not happening. last night i, as per usual, could not think of anything to eat. mom suggested salmon so i stopped at stephanie's to get a DELICIOUS salmon with root vegetables (i actually like beets thanks to higgi!) and some ruffage. higgi and i watched nikita (3 episodes! but geesh, we still have 3 left before they pick up again) and i went to bed near to 11. alarm at 4am was too early, so i reset it for 5 am thinking i could sleep. of course i couldnt, so that was annoying. i got up at 5 and did yoga (woo hoo!). i just took a shower, but i am so tired. and i'm meant to party all weeekend in nola. i'm not sure how i will be able to handle it. which is why i am writing sundays post now. then i can just sleep on my flights on sunday. :) oh! and get THIS. i am not going to bring my laptop. how crazy is that ??? i am going to attempt JUST the ipad. and i pod. and cell phone. and blackberry. and maybe the work laptop. no. not the work laptop. i need to limit myself.

i've been upgraded from atl to bos on sunday. thats nice. no upgrade today, though. that is not so nice. i could go for some comfy seats and a glass of wine while heading down south. i do have drink tickets, though. so i guess thats ok.

ok, i raelly need to get going. i have a TON of things to do. AND i have to go to work today! gaw!!

oh wait. but its sunday. ha. what did you do all weekend? i partied in nola... :)

[lyrics from a song by two door cinema club]

perfect baby

2011-12-10T07:23:00.001-05:00

so i don't have kids (obvi). but i am going to have one in my life soon and thus, i read a lot about what to do, what not to do, what to get, what not to get.

in that case, here is a link to an article of things you dont need to get for babies. i can't believe they make half this stuff! what do you suggest new parents should have? or what was unnecessary?

my friend gigde has this stroller and i think its FABULOUS. i saw her use it and it looked really fun and easy and safe. isnt that whats important? or do you suggest a different stroller? i'm so curious about these things!

oh and here is another article on what type of baby clothes to buy. i am all about reusing and reducing. anyone have baby clothes they want to donate??

i really wanna go outside

2011-12-09T07:33:00.001-05:00

so last wed night, i went to see two door cinema club at the house of blues in boston. i couldnt find who the opening act was so, for some reason, i assumed there wasn't one. but there was. and they were GREAT. it was cults and here is one of their hit songs:

Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.

how fun is that?? and now they are on my christmas list. so fun.

perfect baby

2011-12-08T08:02:00.000-05:00

one of the many podcasts i listen to is one of ted talks - speakers named ted (haha, not really, jk) talking to people about a certain subject. the most recent one on my podcast feed was very interesting for me. here it is

it discusses the fact that babies start learning in utero. and they learn about their culture and food preferences of their mom and hear sounds, etc. the subject gets a bit dark talking about hunger winter in holland and 911, but one main theme stayed with me: my sister-in-law can teach her baby to like SUSHI!! the only catch is that now i have to get my sister-in-law to like sushi.... ha. in any case, here is a list of foods that the baby should like:

sushi

fajitas

all fruits

brussel sprouts

asparagus

hmm... what else am i missing??

ba humbug - ba you!

2011-12-07T06:49:00.002-05:00

christmas is my favorite time of year. i love giving gifts. i love shopping for gifts. i love christmas songs and happiness in the streets. i love holiday decorations and silly red sweatshirts with rudolph on them. i love everything about christmas (except for that whole religious aspect - i don't dislike it, i just dont know anything about it).

unfortunately, i'm not sure everyone around me loves it as much as i do. my roommate doesn't like fake christmas trees and begrudgingly allowed me to put my tree up last year. i'm not even going to bother with it this year since i am leaving in ten days. if i lived alone, or had my own way, i would put the christmas tree up the weekend of thanksgiving and leave it up until at least new years eve (although i have been known to leave it up until valentines day). thats how much i love christmas decorations. my parents house better be decorated to the gills. i am going to revel in it. i should go spend more time around holiday decorations...

in any case, there will be none at my place this year. so i am putting pictures of tress up here. just for me to gaze at! i love the colorfulness of this one

and the symmetry of this one.

and of course, my grandpa loved blue lights on christmas trees.

and this one is pretty too.

send me a picture of your christmas tree and i'll put it up here!

i'd didn't think you'd care i didn't think you'd care

2011-12-06T06:48:00.005-05:00

its tuesday morning. i am in bed. i can't get out. not literally - i already did get out, but now i'm back in. and i dont want to get out. i wanted to do yoga this morning, but now its too late, so i wont be able to. grr to me.

so yes, homie was right. i was caught in a flash mob last sunday at the pru in boston. it wasn't quite as dramatic as if someone right next to me had been dancing. i was shopping and walked into this open area of the mall and there were tons of people standing around waiting for something to happen. so i waited. and i KNEW who was in the mob - they were all wearing jeans and ugg-type boots. mostly young girls. so i recorded it on my phone. BUT i can't figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer. i even tried uploading it directly from my phone and it said file too large. its so weird. maybe i'll be able to find it online or something. idk.

i texted my little yesterday. i was like "what happened on sunday?" and she wrote back "sorry, my phone broke and i didnt have your number." which i guess is fine. just kind of frustrating. she has a lot of phone problems. (i do not think she's trying to get out of seeing me - she calls me all the time to see if i can do something at the last minute.)

aha! i DID find it. i searched for flash mob boston pru. apparently there was some flash mob wedding a year or so ago. i didnt watch that since i have to go to work, but here is the mob i was in (saw?):

and this is how i found it.

last night i stayed at work until almost 7. then i walked to the pru area and had dinner, by myself!, at haru. it was sooo delish. i had a free roll that you have to use by dining in. i didnt even mind. they put me in a table away from everyone else, which i totally appreciated. i wasn't going to order a drink because i had yet to do my yoga for the day, until i saw this one drink.

of course i had to order that.

and then here are two of the three rolls i ordered. they were good. really good. the one on the left is the one i got for free (worth $18!) and it was so weird... it had no taste! the textures were good, but i kept slabbing on wasabi because it had no flavor. i told the waiter and he agreed! he even sat down and talked to me about it. it was cute. i might make that a ritual-type thing. go more often. i'll get a free roll every month and i didnt mind sitting there and reading a book. here is the book i was reading.

so i'm basically a genius. i think i figured out how to get the video from my phone to my computer. now i shall attempt to upload it. i didnt realize i was covering the sound...

[lyrics from ladyhawke song "morning dreams"]

bang the doldrums

2011-12-05T06:54:00.003-05:00

normally mondays are my most favorite days. but i am dreading today at work. i didn't get in to the office this weekend to catch up on a lot of things and i really should have. i've started a new program at work and its taking a lot of time. and i dont want to neglect my other responsibilities, so i have to pick it up a bit.

so yesterday i was supposed to go out with my little. she never called. i couldnt get a hold of her. so... i have no idea what happened. i was slightly sad because i was going to take her to see either the muppets or hugo or that other christmas movie. it worked out bcs i had a ton of errands to run. so i did that and then watched arrested development.

my brothers and i have a bet going on. actually, they had a bet and i got in on it. its kind of a work out /get in shape / weight loss bet. there are different facets to it. the basics are that i have to do yoga 5 days out of 7 and if i dont lose weight over the next 90 days, then i have to buy tickets to see the timberwolves in msp. whoever loses buys the others tickets. i will end up buying my own airfare ticket, of course. should be fun! i just now have to remember to actually DO yoga every day. that will be tough.

sigh. i so don't want to go to work today.

[song by fall out boy.]

things that are making me happy

2011-12-04T06:17:00.000-05:00

so can't not put this up. from here.

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

and don't forget to check out this thing.

sit down, i've got some bad news, its gonna hurt

2011-12-03T06:57:00.002-05:00

ugh! so annoyed! i've been laying in bed for the past half hour thinking "when will my alarm go off??" i have a test today and it will take up 9 hours of my stupid life just to fail, but i can't not go to it, know what i mean? anyway, i finally get up and put my glasses on. its 6:52! my alarm was supposed to go off at 6:06!!! so i look at my phone.... the alarm is set to go off only m-f. how stupid is that??!! so, i've just decided not to shower before my test. ha. who knows? maybe my smell will distract all the others and they'll fail worse than me. it is a bell curve passing, i think... :)

i'm annoyed by this test. annoyed that i havent had time to study for it. annoyed i won't do well. annoyed i didnt MAKE time to study for it. annoyed i even signed up for it - its not at all what i want to do with my career now that i know more about it. annoyed i didnt take this test when i was unemployed and had a ton of time to study. (despite not wanting to do this for work, it still would be nice to have some letters after my name) ugh. and i'm annoyed that the test is 8 hours with a one-hour break and you have to arrive at least an hour before it starts. thats 10 hours out of my day. and higgi is out of town (one of the few times he ever is) and i don't get to hang out at home and make a mess i could never really make. (of course i'll pick it up before he gets home tomorrow morning). and i'm annoyed they won't have lockers for you. so i have to leave my cell phone at home because we just plain can't bring them into the room and i dont want to leave it in my coat pocket. someone could steal it. sigh. today blows.

i was just thinking i should put a video for today because this ramble sucks. and for some reason this is the song i thought of... i have NO IDEA WHY.

johnny angry johnny

2011-12-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

its time for some friday fun. i LOVED this song growing up. what does that tell you about me? probably something not good... :)

thanksgiving

2011-12-01T07:13:00.000-05:00

even though it was just a week ago, i feel like people have already forgotten about thanksgiving. but they shouldn't! this was the first year i have actually really ENJOYED a proper thanksgiving dinner. i can't remember the last time i went home for it (i dont think i ever have, in fact). one year, i was in sacramento alone and i drank a magnum of bubbly by myself. the year after, hoping to not repeat the fiasco, i had my brother homie come visit me. he landed on thanksgiving day and we went to dennys. it was the only thing that was open and as pathetic as it sounds. kinda fun. but sad. really sad.

this year, 2011, higgi made a FANTASTIC spread. i can't even begin to explain all the different food we had. oh, i guess i'll try. turkey (rubbed in butter and bacon fat), cranberries, gravy, so those are the usuals. oh, but we started with a curried butternut squash soup. salad with asparagus and parmesan cheese. then the sides - cauliflower with pine nuts and golden raisins. brussel sprouts and bacon. twice-baked sweet potatoes with pecans. french green beans with almonds (not! walnuts), some sort of tarte tafan (i have NO IDEA what he's saying when he says it) that had potatoes and baked brie. veggie lasagna. there were some other things, as well. i didnt take a picture of the food, but did of the table (which i set!).

equally important to the delicious food was the alcohol....

and then mr. crazy made a kazillion desserts...

it was an AWESOME day.

lick it up, baby. lick. it. up.

2011-11-30T07:23:00.000-05:00

this title (i'll tell you BEFORE you get to the end! how fun is that??) is because i watched heathers last week and it

was

awesome.

its so funny how you forget how good a movie is until you re-watch it... like 10 years later. i own a ton of movies and i dont really re-watch things. (i know, i know. sounds silly. i have no idea why i own so many movies i dont watch or so many books i dont read. compulsive owner or something??) anyway, because i havent re-watched many of my movies i'm trying to do it so the purchases weren't in vain. i re-watched stand by me last summer and it was great. i think i was in the process of watching miami vice the movie and then had to stop and havent finished it... (why does no one like the movie?? i LOVE it) the other night, i started watching arrested development while i was getting some stuff done. it is so funny. and who the hell has my oz season 1??

so this will be a quick ramble because i have to get to work. i took monday off (wasn't feeling well because i donated platelets on sunday and then promptly went and had lots of alcohol and used my last vaca day of the year) and got some stuff done for work. yesterday i was at work from 8:15am until 10pm. TEN PM. ugh. i was sooooooo upset with 1) two particular issues at work and then 2) the fact that i needed to print 10 copies of a 40 page document for a class i am teaching (kind of - but how cool is that??) and my computer just detached itself from the printer server so i couldnt print. a;oceiw;aofmecoqunwwfo; i was so emotionally exhausted last night. i took a cab home, didnt have a single bite to eat or glass of wine and then watched the new girl and went to bed. while i was in bed i got a funny call from overseas - more on that later. i slept soundly until i awoke before my alarm this morning. i will finish this and then head to work to make sure i can leave by 5pm because...

i am going to a concert tonight!!!

woo hoo! i am sooo excited!! i can not wait! i haven't been to a concert in soo long. for some reason, i am not the friend others think of when they want to go to a concert (sad) and i am not on facebook so i dont know when concerts are coming to boston (stupid). (apparently this is how people know what to buy tickets for...? how else can i do it???)

so here is the group i am going to see tonight at the house of blues

oomygosh. i have not seen that video. its so fun! it makes me like the band even more. AND i totally want to be a dancer. those moves were not hard. i could've totally done those.

things that are making me happy

2011-11-29T08:23:00.000-05:00

beautiful video of a relationship from the beginning to...

perfect baby

2011-11-28T09:28:00.002-05:00

so yes... that is a picture of a baby. or ha. soon-to-be baby. let me not mix my beliefs. anyway, don't worry! it's not MY baby. but it will be a baby in my family. thats right... i'm going to be an aunt! (i HATE when people say AUNTIE. ugh) and let me be clear, too... this is not player and some baby-mamas baby. this is homie and his wife's babe. totally legitimate child! :)

so i found out a few weeks ago. i'm happy for them, but i'm sure my reaction has been less than what they would like. i'll admit it: i'm slightly worried. or, i WAS slightly worried. less so now. i'm worried because it just seems so soon. and i feel like everyone should do it how i would do it, wait YEARS before having a kid. but i'm getting over that - i GUESS people actually WANT to have kids. new concept for me. (ha!:)) and i'm worried about money for them. but i have talked to people, notably k, who pointed out that it was better for her having kids when she was younger and without as much money as one would like to have. now her kids are out of the house and she has plenty of money. she said you really only need money when the kid gets to school and wants to do things (gymnastics, band, etc) anyway. so thats good.

and then there is my main worry - i INSTANTLY felt guilty for not living closer to home. now i'm going to have to go home more often because, let's face it - the kid is going to LOVE me. but once its a kid. i have little use for babies. and i have nothing to offer them, either. i'm sure they'd just look at me like "what do YOU want??"

i told e.lb that i was hoping the baby was born a month early so we could have the same birthday. then the baby could grow up to be JUST LIKE ME! how fun would that be??

anyway, because of the impending baby, i am starting a new segment called perfect baby. i told homie and his wife that they will have to get used to it - i'm going to send them all sorts of articles and pictures and videos of how to raise the perfect child. i cant NOT do it. so soon...

until then. what do you think of me becoming an aunt??

things that are making me happy

2011-11-27T15:37:00.002-05:00

my brother said to me today "have i told you lately that your blog sucks?" and he's right. AGAIN. :) i have been meaning all week, all week, to write and just keep putting it off. i'm not sure what i'm doing instead. sleeping? working? probably both. at the same time. in any case, this video is cute.

i'm gonna have to have gma try some when i get home in december... can't wait!!

things that are making me happy

2011-11-19T07:24:00.005-05:00

so i found this on the hairpin and i sent it to player because we both like to watch dance things. its pretty good. it makes me want to dance. and i like the title of the hairpin piece "

Is the Purpose of Human Life Synchronized Dance?" funny.

i'm pretty sure the point of life is NOT to spend all weekend taking and studying for exams which is what i am doing this weekend. i am NOT looking forward to it. in fact, i'm about ready to shoot my head off. what did i get myself into??

in any case, i wanted to point something out in the video. i'm not sure where this is - korea? china? i feel like its not japan. i am guessing korea. anyway, notice that no one ever claps?? isn't that cute?

oh, grandma

2011-11-18T17:40:00.004-05:00

its friday night and 6pm. i'm still at work - no idea why - and so i thought to call grandma - again, no idea why. she sure was in a talkative mood! here are some gems from this week:

we were talking about how old she is and she said she looks so old. i argued with her because i have heard this story 100 times: she took the nursing home bus from where she lives to the mall and some guy said to her, "you don't look a day over 60!" she told me this again tonight, but added a part that i have never heard before: "god, i coulda crawled in the back seat with him!"

she claimed she was joking, but i started to get the hint that she's feeling a bit randy tonight because then she said, "at least when you get old you can get by with kissing a man!" i didn't know what she meant so i asked, "you can get by kissing a man?" and she replied, "well, yeah, if they think you're off your rocker!"

she was really obsessed with her age. "i'm only 80! wait. 80? that's damn old!" then a second later she said, "i'm gonna live as long as my mother - 95!" no comment.

she kept talking about how much she loved high school. "i had a lotta fun in high school!" she even named some of her old boyfriends (an anderson, hornung, etc). i said, "i bet you were pretty popular with the boys." and she likes to joke, but then be serious: "well of course! noo... well, i did have a date all the time, though."

then i brought up my grandpa and said something like "but then you met grandpa and wanted to be with him!" and she said, "all my friends were going to california and seattle to work. well, i didnt have any money to go, so i got married!"

we talked a bit about that and then i brought up her second husband, ron. she married him a few years after my grandpa died. i asked her if she dated ron when she was in high school and she said "no way! i woulda never been caught dead with him!" and we laughed because she ended up marrying him. she said her mom said "you better not say that, you'll end up marrying him!" and of course she did. but then she clarified, "i shoulda never married him. i didnt love him. i think i was just bored with life."

oh, grandma.

right at this moment i'm totally cool

2011-11-17T08:50:00.000-05:00

so things have been going decently well lately... work is super dooper busy. (duper?) i was here until 9pm last night and i actually enjoyed it! i got a lot done and was happy for that. i went home and got some delish sushi (super expensive - eek, but maybe worth it) and watched happy endings, modern family, raising hope - it totally put me in a good mood! (even better mood) and then i slept through the night! i feel like a baby saying that "she finally slept through the night!" but its true, i have not been sleeping through the night lately and it bothers me. i think it has to do with alcohol (which i had none of last night). but do i give up my dear friend?? me thinks i must. but not just yet. we'll see...

i saw in time the other night with k. it was fun. i quite enjoyed it. and it turns out my boss has never seen the notebook (this came up because of yesterdays 63 reasons post) and so i brought in a bunch of movies for her to see - the notebook, saved!, kissing jessica stein, lars and the real girl, my super ex-girlfriend and prime. i love helping people see fun movies! ALSO puts me in a good mood. i wrote down what i am giving her BECAUSE... i still cannot figure out who i gave oz season 1 to! was it you?? can you check? i think i may have to buy a new one. i like it THAT much.

tonight i'm heading to dinner with my friend hok. haven't seen her in a very very long time. so we'll catch up. i would like to play some more tennis. and study (ha!) and read some more. and stay at work until 9pm every night and get lots done!! oh and meditate. and do yoga. and maybe start jogging (ha!). and wake up refreshed every day. and ramble more! and see more movies! sooo much to do! so little time!!!!!!

i'm feeling good. :)

things that are making me happy

2011-11-16T17:35:00.002-05:00

ummm... soo... right... today, bradley cooper (me = fan, yes, have been since alias) was named sexiest man alive. i'm kind of... i'm fine with that. no issues here. but THEN i saw 63 reasons why bc is NOT the sexiest man alive. and now i have to agree. rg has been robbed!

this is making me very happy. i know everyone likes 19, but i quite like 22.

thoughts?

dream apartment

2011-11-15T15:01:00.003-05:00

obviously a functioning swing is important in an apartment. with plenty of room to get really really high. i remember when my grandpa joe used to push me on the swings in walhalla. ohh, the memories.

what sayst you to swings in living rooms? oooooooooo! what if ALL dining table chairs were swings?? that would be AWESOME. i'm a genius.

help! i need your money!

2011-11-14T12:28:00.002-05:00

hey sexy kids!

so my company is doing a fundraiser for the greater boston foodbank. something like 1 in 9 people in massachusetts will go hungry this year and to help combat that, and in the spirit of thanksgiving, my company is doing a friendly turkey competition. my team is in 2nd place, and we really want to win!! for every $16 that you donate, the greater boston food bank will buy one turkey for a family in need. please help out!!

here is the link to donate: https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=998522&supId=344721554

every little bit helps. if you can donate even one turkey, that would be great!!

peace and love!

shape of things to come

2011-11-13T18:03:00.003-05:00

today was a decent sunday. my least favorite day of the week, and yet today... not so bad. i slept in (until 9 or so...?) and then did random stuff in my room before getting ready and going for a long bike ride to a game store in brookline and then a grocery store. i got home and watched food inc from netflix. its going to totally change my eating habits, of course. after that, i got ready and went to yoga which was nice. i really like that class.

after class i went to get sushi from a new, totally posh resto in this area. i ordered to go and that was ... pretty good. but SUPER expensive. not sure it was worth it. i also opened a bottle of bubbly and had that. it was good. perfect end to a sunday night! just finished dexter and am now watching next iron chef. i can't decide who i want to win. what do you think?

now i'm going to bed. nice day. what did you get up to?

[just getting in to audio slave]

dancin in the street

2011-11-09T11:26:00.001-05:00

so yesterday homie posted that my video makes him think of this:

which i had never seen (the family guy clip, not the david bowie / mick jagger video).

HIS video made me think of one of my favorite movies which i can both recite AND dance to:

have you seen that movie? do you love it? if not, why not???

say you dont recognize my face.

2011-11-08T06:19:00.000-05:00

another pre-written ramble. i'm gettin ready to hit the town. i've had a few glasses of wine and fun is flowing. in honor of that, check out this video of a song that i have loved since i was 4 years old...

oh my gosh. that is wild. i had never actually seen that before.

oh, i got my hair did.

its red-purple according to my stylist.

cathy's clown

2011-11-06T08:37:00.000-05:00

happy sunday!

if all goes as planned on saturday evening (its saturday afternoon as i write this - i'm at a coffee shop in columbus "studying") then i will be sleeping in after a fun night of dancing after the gallery hop in the short north.

columbus is actually a really cool city. i like it a lot. i always have a good time here. anyway, i'm busy doing stuff and this song came on and i thought "wow. i haven't heard that song in FOREVER. i LOVE that song." so here it is. enjoy your sunday. get some exercise. have fun. drink. watch football and cheer for my fantasy team.

what are you up to on this day?

occupy

2011-11-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

dont have much time to comment on the actual occupy movement, except to say that i support it. they are outside my offices in boston and i keep thinking i should get something for them... hand warmers? pizza? a bull horn? i wonder how long they'll stay with the snow and whatnot... in any case, until i can write more fully about it, check this out.

from my friend @arshadhasan

things that are making me happy

2011-11-03T17:14:00.000-04:00

i'm not sure that i'll ever get married. but if i do, i want this:

from here.

things that are making me happy

2011-10-31T05:03:00.000-04:00

this video makes me happy. she is just so sane and normal.

dream apartment

2011-10-29T21:12:00.003-04:00

I can't keep track of the number of issues of dream apartment i've had anymore so now they won't be numbered. in any case, i think these stairs are really really cool. i might like them with a bit more color, but its such a neat idea. here are some other neat photos.

in the airport lounge

2011-10-28T19:02:00.003-04:00

remember last summer when i lied and said i was going to DC to visit my friend gidget and then really went to fargo to surprise my father for his 60th birthday? well, this time i no lie. i'm on my way to reagan to see gidge and moondoggie and cloud 9 (the new baby). i'm currently in the delta lounge and its fun. well fun because there is wine and food and free internet (which i guess is in my loung fee). so thats the plan for the weekend.

because i'm keepin' it short, and because i basically LOVE the mention of north dakota, here is a fun infographic for you. from here. btw, screen junkies are probably my FAVORITE website these days.

so what about you? did you have netflix? did you change your plan? what do you think of it all?

pop, pop, poppity pop

2011-10-27T08:20:00.000-04:00

i love posting maps of things. i don't know why. i love geographical representations. so here is one such map. from here. i still say pop. it reminds me of funny accents where i'm from.

homie - its your birthday!

2011-10-26T05:31:00.002-04:00

.............and we're back!!!

and back for one reason only: to honor my ramblings' numero uno fan, my little brother's birthday. happy 28th homie!!

homie has been my number one commenter and reader ever since i started this thing. he points out when i'm stupid or really clever or haven't written in a long time. i'll come back now, but in shorter rambles and all thanks to homie.

this is a picture of us a few months ago when he visited me in boston. so fun!

happy birthday!!

hasta la vista, baby

2011-09-21T06:39:00.002-04:00

my brother said to me last night "your blog sucks recently." this is true. i'm taking a break. i'm too tired and have too much going on these days. and i actually am going on vacation. i'll write more when i am back from my trip.

happy birthday to the most beautiful woman in the world

2011-09-10T10:10:00.000-04:00

today is my mom's 29th birthday. oh wait. that would make her younger than me... happy birthday mom!

sorry i took your kids from you... :(

things that are making me happy

2011-09-01T07:23:00.002-04:00

i want to be a dancer. i want to have a wardrobe from the past 100 years. i want to do a choreographed dance in those clothes. basically, i want to be this redhead.

happy birthday, dyaddy!

2011-08-23T21:06:00.001-04:00

in case that ultra-big picture isn't clear enough, today is my fathers actual 60th birthday. happy birthday, dadyd! we had a really good night. it was fun. we were going to go out to eat, but stayed home instead. we grilled steaks for the boys (my father and oldest younger brother, homie) and then my mom and i had deliciously marinated (you're welcome, mom) chicken. :) i made brussel sprouts for my family to try - i made them the way my roommate taught me (or attempted to, anyway) with brown sugar and pepper flakes and some bacon. except we didn't really have bacon bacon, so i used bacon bits. ha. thats right. bacon bits. they were pretty good. ironically, the boys liked them and not my mom (who was the one willing to try - i had to practically open the boys' mouths and force feed them). we also had asparagus and corn on the cob (or, to be clear, my father had corn on the cob - he got all three of the good ones. the other three were on the bottom rung and got overcooked so the corn kernels turned starchy and icky. those were the ones my brother, mother and i had).

afterwards, my brother humored me and played ticket to ride. it was fun. he won and i didn't mind. i just like playing. my father went to wash the car in time for a trip and mom went to bed.

overall, pretty good night. happy birthday, pops!

eat your heart up

2011-08-22T09:15:00.001-04:00

so here are some random things that i enjoy (dissecting things by state and regions):

check out this link to how much cigarette packs cost by state. i would've guessed $5 a pack -thisexplains why

here is a map about food deserts. note the large amounts of red space over nodak. sad.

question for you? do you think americans drink a lot? note, i did not ask, do YOU drink a lot, do americans in general. check out this link to see a map by drinking.

so compare food deserts and drinking and look at this map of what we eat:

i do not fit into that circle chart. :( or maybe thats a good thing...?

and here is the final chart, which my family will not be happy that i post - how pop affects your body.

[song by the blow]

30e60 Invites

2011-08-21T18:26:00.003-04:00

so... yesterday was our surprise party for my father. we have been planning this party since march (or, at least thats when we started talking about it and when i booked my ticket home). we sent out paper invites a few months ago and then started sending email reminders out. i will try to take a picture of the invite that we sent out, but, of course, we dont have a copy here at my parents house (because we didn't want him to see it). and post it for everyone to see. the party was super fun. i will write more about it soon, but for now, here is a pic of me and my pops. and the emails that we sent to people (so he can see them).

first email sent 9aug11:

Greetings and Salutations!!

On Saturday, August 20th, the Erdmann family will be hosting a SURPRISE 60th Birthday Party for Tom Erdmann.

30e60

Thirty Erdy is turning Sixty!!

The party will be at 4pm at Trollwood Park in the West Pavillion. You are cordially invited to this party, but please keep in mind that this is a SECRET. A Surprise. We need to be stealthy and keep it confidential. If you are receiving this email, hopefully you received a paper invitation in the mail. If you did not it is because we simply did not have your address. Please invite anyone who would be interested in coming, but please do...

RSVP by Tuesday, August 16 so that we have enough time to buy food and drinks.

We will be having food, beer and wine for your enjoyment. If you would like to bring other drinks, please feel free to do so. Food will be grilled by our dear friends at Grilling Addiction. Check them out here: http://grillingaddiction.com/. There will be music, games, and good company.

Feel free to respond to me to RSVP or to the group email - [redacted]. As we get closer to the date, I will send out more information / call people to inform them of the specifics of the surprise. Jon and Eric are taking Dad golfing so we will have to coordinate when people arrive at Trollwood for maximum surprise effect.

No gifts necessary, but if you can't make it please send cards and pictures and funny stories to my brother and his wife:

[Redacted]

If you prefer for me to invite someone we may have not invited, please forward me an address or email so that I can do so.

Finally, my brothers will be creating a playlist so if you have any suggestions for songs, please let us know.

Looking forward to seeing you all there! (Yes, it is a surprise that I will be in Fargo for this - shhhh!)

See you at the party,

Danielle

second email / updated info sent 16aug11:

Greetings Gypsies in the Palace!

For all of you Growing Older but not Up, thank you for RSVPing to 30e60 - the most fabulous 60th birthday ever created by people who never plan 60th birthdays!!

Get ready to Quietly Make Some Noise while I lay down the dilly-o... Jon and Eric will be golfing with Tom at Edgewood on Saturday. We would like all Pirates Looking at 40 (and any other age) to arrive at Trollwood West Pavillion around 4pm. If you cannot make it to the West Pavillion (including being parked and AT the bunker) by 4:20pm, please do not arrive until 4:45 pm to ensure optimum surprise. We will have a keg of beer and wine available from Tin Cup Chalices. Feel free to bring anything else you would like to drink. We can begin enjoying the festivities at 4pm and once I receive the phone call from my brother, Jolly Mon, we will move to create a big group of people with signs to welcome the the King of Somewhere Hot to the event.

The party is Caribbean / Hawaiian themed, so feel free to wear hawaiian shirts and leis. We will have a guest book for you to sign, write fun stories, and place your email addresses so we can send pictures afterwards. Grilling Addiction is concocting some fabulous food (http://grillingaddiction.com/) Incommunicado.

If you have any questions, can't find the location (check out this link: http://maps.google.com/?ll=46.92493,-96.77927&spn=0.001553,0.004128&t=h&z=19&vpsrc=6), or just want to chat feel free to chat with me over the Coconut Telegraph at [redacted].

If I have missed any Captains or Kids, please do pass on (I don't have emails for the Hs, Ls, Bs, and CM - please pass on if you know them or see anyone else).

I'm Off to See the Lizard,

Danielle

various nd things

2011-08-20T14:27:00.000-04:00

if all goes well, i am surprising my father today. today is

30e60

and its AWESOME

thirty erdy is turning sixty!! i'll explain more, but right now i am not in DC as i mentioned earlier this week. i am, in fact, in north dakota. ehehehehe. in honor of my surprise trip, here are some fun nodak things in the news lately.

first, a video on the minot flood.

and here are some articles i wanted to keep:

for when all ya'll come to fargo, you can expect to enjoy taking a picture with a woodchipper
i quite enjoyed this article about a guy who visited fargo. check it out here.
an article on an abortion case in nodak
read this to hear about how there are a lot of out-of-towners going to college in north dakota.
AND since all this is so awesome, here is proof that you need to look for a job in nodak.

bite your goings!

2011-08-19T21:41:00.002-04:00

so hello there. i am on a plane. an aeroplane. thats some fancy language for airplane. and i am writing this to 1) have another blog mention to my friend, e/lb. ohh interesting. that could be like "e" divided by "pound". iiiinteresting. e/lb. you know who you are! and 2) because i am SOO bored. i am sitting by a nice guy on the plane, but the guy nex tto HIM is a major douche. he is super "my job is great because its so satisfying and challenging. i've been there 13 years and every day is a new challenge." umm, helloooo... if you've been there that long and every day is a challenge, maybe you're not too bright?? ok, thats mean. i have other reasons to dislike the guy, but i dont care enough. i'm too tired, as well.

last night i went to dinner with c of kc and the sunshine band. twas good. we went to sushi because k doesnt really love japanesi food (and she is out of town). nice chat, fun times, not out too late (although i took my sweet-ass time packing AND forgot stuff (!) which meant i had to go home DURING work to get everything - stupid wasted twenty bucks!), so it was good. we even had sake and i enjoyed it. so that is why i am tired. i was out until 9 pm (so late!) and then went home and watched tv, played catan, and then packed. oops! BUT i'm in first class on my next flight and therefore can sleep... wait. no. i'm in first class on a 40 min flight. i am SO drinking. have fun with me homie & fly girl! does fly girl work? she needs to tell me...

i was going to write about something else, but now i'm just going to post because e/lb is looking...

[bite your goings does not equal an old saying from grandmas. its autocorrect for "bite your tongue"!]

yes, please

2011-08-18T10:12:00.000-04:00

that's all i'm going to say.

h/t here and here.