w is for weasel

is the scrabble application on facebook taking over your office? it certainly has consumed mine, with a fervor akin to the news that justin timberlake is eating at the same restaurant. my office is primarily made up of people a bit too old to have been in the first facebook craze wave - they're more of the friendster crowd - so they are just discovering the joy and procrastination that is stalking people online. you walk around to talk to someone and everyone has fb open to the scrabble page. who knew it was so popular? personally, i do not support fb applications, mainly for the same reasons i type in lowercase and only capitalize stuff when i'm communicating with clients - i think it looks better and i can be stubborn when it comes to doing things that other people are doing. still - the other day my recently-defeated coworker goes, "she had a 'z' and she USED it'. oh man.

the other thing my office has done is to get a cardboard cut out of our coworker who has been posted out in la for the last 2.5 mths (alert and conscientious readers will recognize this as my office crush). apparently there's a website where you can have a picture of someone blown up and made into cardboard - ala celebrities or something - and someone went out and had one made. we've been bringing him to mtgs, and the friday team lunches that we have, and we set him up in my boss's office with the golf club from the practice putting green. the likeness is frightening. it is unclear whether our coworker knows that this has been done, but monday morning ought to be hilarious when he returns from his extended project on the west coast.

it's a good thing something will be amusing on mon - yesterday was a number of people's last day in the office. v. sad. we went out drinking to say goodbye - but it def won't be the same without them. the end of an era i suppose.

it finally cooled off in nyc and started acting like october. which means it's great temperature for being cozy like a bear in bed and watching tv. ah. there are times when i love being in the real world. mainly week nights and weekends. ;-)

the still north and my heart of gold

i'm willing to bet i'm not the only one who is slightly nostalgic for htown at this time of year, esp with classes starting yesterday. three years out of school - crike! starting to get old. i like to think of it as one more year closer to the five year reunion . . . ;-P

anyway - stumbled upon this pretty cool retrospective of doc trips. well done all around. check it out.


also, in non-d related news - found this amazing video of 'heart of gold' as sung by dave matthews and backed by jb and the coral reefer band. i know there are a lot of jb haters, but i'm sure there are some dave (or is that so high school?) and even some neil young fans. enjoy.


good thursday to you all

college on the hill

also - democratic national debate takes place at d tonight. i believe dax is up there helping out. on the whole, i don't really pay attention to politics - but shout out to htown.

9 pm on msnbc

paying the piper

seven people at my company got laid off yesterday. this is a shock to all of us - and especially me - i've never been around a situation where people are getting let go. never been around one like the last six mths either, but that's a different story.

basically, our project is wrapping up, and people that aren't directly involved with the new project or our mother-ship company got walking papers. it's really sad - i'm going to miss a lot of them a lot. if people make your job, i'm not quite sure what my job will be like anymore.

regardless - we went out to trivia and performed v. badly. 10th out of 14th - but hey, can YOU name all 9 of the chief justices on the supreme court AND the order they were appointed without looking it up on wikipedia? didn't think so. we had no chance against the law students that sent up a whoop when they heard that question. we might have to find an easier trivia night.

post trivia we went and did karoke and tore it up. i sang 'come clean' (throwback to the running 'real real laguna beach' joke in the office), a duet of 'summer loving' with my coworker, escape - also with my coworker - and then margaritaville. my mouth feels like it will never be wet enough again.

i guess drowning our sorrows in alcohol isn't really the best option here. but i don't have any better ideas.

did the power hour on sat night - had a great mix of people and interesting toasts - i'll post those when my head stops hurting. also went hiking with taylor on saturday - hungover from friday's 4 pm start office drinks. i really really need to take a break from drinking. waiter! bring me water.

and orange juice. and dragonfruit vitamin water.

i need a lover that won't drive me crazy

that is all

the writing on the wall

am i the only one who shuts off when i find out the cute boy i'm chatting up has a gf? i know that gf does not = not available, as far as i'm concerned, unless the boy is engaged, he's fair game for at least letting him know that i'm interested, if not ripping off his clothes and taking him right there. i feel like he has the right to consider other interested parties.

but personally, finding out a guy has a gf immediately kills any point of future conversation. granted, guys are better at concealing said information for longer than girls, but its like, i'm sorry - what's the point in continuing to talk? it ain't gonna do anything for me.

thus we conclude, in the words of boxa's masterful thesis, useless. moral of the story, if you're into a girl avoid this topic of convo at all costs. b/c it's pretty much a game over. (not that any boys read this blog - but you get the gist)

send boys not already dating girls, and preferably at my own life stage

go big or go home

super sweet video (no sound required) of the wicked intense rope swing at d. i'm pretty sure this rope swing is the reason taylor and i are friends. you can't go through an intense, near-injury experience and not come out closer. (come to think of it, this kind of sounds like jk rowling's account of when harry, hermione and ron fight the troll in the chamber of secrets. but you get the idea).

it's the kind of thing where if you get up there, and you don't go off right away - you just might not get up the guts. lifeguard on duty: charles darwin



in other news, they were jackhammering outside my bedroom at 7 am this morning. LAME.

shoes don't stretch

i walked home last night from a work dinner in my high heels. boy do my feet hurt this morning, but i have to say, i LOVE the sound they make on the pavement as i walk. i read somewhere in an article about things that retailers do in their stores to subconsciously encourage people to buy - like blast upbeat music (not so subtle), or space their displays a certain distance apart, b/c if someone brushes up behind you as you're looking at something, you're less likely to continue looking at it, and therefore, to buy it. one other thing i remember is about parque floors - stores put them in b/c they click when women walk on them in high heels and it empowers them and they are more likely to buy stuff. in my case, the entire city of new york might as well be a parquet floor. =)

going to buffett tonight at msg with taylor. incredibly excited (duh!) but it's a bit weird to be going to see him without a long trek to the concert and/or an epic tailgate. christine suggested that i get on the wrong train (the g perhaps?) just to make the journey a little more arduous as in keeping with the last four jb concerts i've been to. regardless, i am so happy to see him, and have a chance to remember (more!) of it than last time. am off to work in a suit and lei. we are the people are parents warned us about.

feeding frenzy on the shores of manhattan tonight!

license to chill

morning everyone - happy sunday. i'm having a lovely relaxing wknd - the roomies are gone so i've got the apt to myself. puttering around, catching up on sleep, cleaning, laundry and other things that have gotten somewhat out of hand with the whirl of gaiety of the last two weeks. also detoxing - much needed i might add.

got my hair done yesterday - i am back to being a brunette. it's been awhile since that was the case - but it was time for a change - and the fall inspires a more mature presentation, even if it doesn't always occur. as always when i go to the salon, i am incredibly impressed by the people that have talents at coloring and cutting and perming and whatnot. though some might argue i have a more legit career or something, there is no way i could do what they do. and the clients certainly aren't going anywhere - so in many ways it's a more stable profession as well. i just have one question - why do people working in salons always wear so much black? yes, i understand the sliming effects, the overall 'chic look' but at the end of the day, there is nothing that shows hair as well as black, and you'd think they'd be going to avoid this, given they're around hair all the time. discuss.

i've also been watching a lot of 'bewitched' - as vin has season 1 and 2 on dvd. it's interesting to watch - it's set and filmed in the '60s - a fairly progressive time, esp compared to the 'pleasantvilles' of the '50s - and in some ways it is - samantha wears pants, she and darren sleep in a double bed (apparently this is the first instance of two actors who were not married portrayed as sleeping in the same bed) - but in other's it's really not. all samantha wants to do is be a 'good housewife' - her days are filled with vacuuming and cleaning and when darren can't make a date she plays a lot of solitaire. and darren occasionally forbids her to do this and that. to that end - she pretty much does what she wants - but there is an awful lot of talk about being a good housewife. it's interesting. there is also a lot of suggestion of sex - surprisingly a lot given the above description. ah well - just the wgst minor in me coming out to analyze.

last night i baked a cake! and now i am going to make some pancakes and clean in preparation for being a good housewife. ;-P

gimme more

also - am a big fan of britney's new album tracks. i know i know - she sucked at the vma's - but the music is still hot.

AND i was able to correctly answer a trivia question on tuesday b/c i had spent all of friday listening to her - so there. check them out:


and the eurythmics sample:

planes, trains and automobiles

hey kiddos - i do apologize for the long hiatus from posting that has presumably left you to find other means of keeping yourselves entertained. had a busy couple of weeks as of late!

jimmy buffett was fabulous - not surprisingly. celeste and i journeyed up to boston to meet laurak, who had flown in from chicago, and linsalata, who had flown in from Virgina. the four of us comprised the train portion of the 'planes, trains and automobiles' trip - as we took the commuter rail from south station to meet christine.

this year's concert was at gillette stadium, so we couldn't tailgate as extensively as we did last year at the tweeter center - but boy did we tailgate what little time we could. it was a gorgeous, sunny, fall day - and we were drunk good and early. met up with allison and bozz - a parrothead beginner - but she got the hang of it very quick. ally drove over from her new digs in cambridge - she is v. happy to be back in new england - and made it in time for some tailgating. linsalata flew up for the concert on sat, and brought his rolling suitcase full of two cases of corona and two handles of tequila. pretty impressive. who wants to play harbor at homecoming?

parking lot - pre-tailgate

parking lot - five minutes later

amazing concert, great set list, fabulous seats - so incredible. my coworker asked me a few weeks ago if jb was the best day of the year, and i would have to say yes. christmas and my bday can't hold a candle to the opportunity to worship at the altar of the church of buffett, orthodox. we also acquired an inflatable shark - pretty bonerjamz in the words of my bro. hoping to catch him at madison square garden with tay tay when he plays next wk - we'll see what transpires and what the tiki gods have in store for me.

speaking of my bro - after a night on the cape at christine's, laurak and i participated in doc trip 'jb 101 - extreme tailgating' by traipsing through boston with leis and grass skirts, as well as the 'liquor of legitness' - aka a handle of pre-mixed tequila and rum. it was interesting - most people looked at us like we were crazy, but 'the faithful' so to speak, all recognized where we were coming from - it's funny how wearing crazy stuff makes you friends in a way that dressing normally doesn't. interesting social experiment.

laurak and i drove up to htown with jeff bate for a whirlwind 24 hours on campus. it's interim - so nothing much was going on - but we did get to see the dress rehearsal of the hcroo show - it was incredible. i was sitting there thinking about amazing d is. here 10 kids had voluntarily devoted many hours and vocal cords in the pursuit of welcoming the freshman to campus. and the flare was pretty incredible. i think ceppos' friend who's at tuck, not a d undergrad, summed it up pretty well:

I think a lot of the D freshman are starting to show up – they appear to be having a lot of costume parties or something – I have seen a lot of strangely dressed young people around…

sigh. i love d.

allette was back from the woods and came up for the night - great to see her! she's doing well at camp - newly promoted, one of her job is to de-head copperhead snakes. awesome. that's def not in my job description. she's still trying to figure out her life, but def down for a mini-reunion sometime in nov - i'll plan. huyett was also on campus and also trying to figure out life - she left at 5 am on tues and was 1.5 hours late to work, thanks to construction on 89. oops! nbd.

we also swam in the river, played with lingley's new puppy - hal - and broke into sd for some anarchy meetings - aka pong. we had an interesting group of people in the basement - but great to be back. there was bench dancing and bench sleeping - mainly on my part - as i passed out. in my defense - i'd been taking hits of the 'liquor of legitness' for some time before we began.

caught up with my bro - slept on his futon in new hamp - which was nice aside from the spider i realized i'd slept with when i woke up. still have the bites. our attempt to identify it as poisonous were thwarted when jason caught it and promptly dropped it down the drain when we tried to put it in the sink. however, i still have all my flesh - so i think i'm safe.

we also salty dog ragged, blamed it on the boogie, and played the lumberjack game which i LOVE. i think you can really only play that on campus - no one ever seems to want to at cocktail parties . . .

said goodbye to laurak when i left - she's enroute to san fran. will have to hear about their adventures through karla's blog i suppose. regardless - we are confident we will all be meeting back at the local saloon before long.

during my three days in nyc last wknd, we had a last-minute visit from kevin - who was out for a dose of the east coast before he heads to costa rica. he's deferred admission from bc law for a year - and is going down to the banana republics for some adventuring. had a great night out with megh, kjb, and dax. allette came in to hang out and vin joined us as well - good times all around.

sat i took off for ann arbor to see boxa - currently in med school at the university of mich. i really enjoyed ann arbor - nice to be back in a collegiate environment - and it's a really pretty campus. gothic buildings everywhere - rather bucolic. the downtown area is reminiscent of htown - if htown had less old, rich woman clothing stores and more urban outfitters and bars that students actually went to. caught up with skips, who had driven up, zana, who was in chicago for a law conference, marta who flew in for the occasion, and squeeze - who is newly back in ann arbor working as a college admission counselor after her two-year stint in the d admissions office. we saw gretchen briefly as well - she had just gotten back from a sediment collecting trip in europe on a 100 foot boat which, auspiciously, had an erg! you can't escape it no matter what you do.

we tailgated the oregon-michigan game - that was a blast, went for runs, took naps, ate good food (the best indian buffett in michigan!), shopped, got pedicures, the usual. did not make it to ashley's, as cmah advocated - but we did go to rick's - a pretty swinging dance party. total blast to dance and hang out and see everyone. it was amusing to be in boxa's company as well - i quote her so often, and then have to explain to whoever i'm with the background behind the quote - it was a bit odd (but wonderful!) to actually BE in the company of the person who originated it. i'm sure she feels the same about me - tee hee hee. regardless - it had been too long and the more we get together the happier we'll be!

phew! that's the update. lots has happened. i'm staying put in nyc for a couple weeks at least - which i am v. glad about. need a break from the traveling! and of course, more time to update. does the end of summer mean the end of summer fridays? some work needs to be done to get my life in order. it never ends.

pretty sweet ad: http://www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com/

who's coming to visit?

things from the bad girl's guide that i need to remember more often

1. stop making the same old mistakes and start making new ones

2. indulge early and often

3. just say no to guilt, especially when saying no

4. if it's not a great hook up and it's not true love, it's not worth your time

5. when having a sexual fantasy in public, try to remember you're in public

6. relationship red flags are not green for a reason

7. don't play hard to get, play hard to keep

8. do not yell 'have a donut fattie!' at cops to prove to friends you're sober enough to drive home

9. never confuse a free booze party with a booze free party

10. pre-party drinking can be a sign of a drinking problem. so when you do it, don't tell anyone

- cameron tuttle

live from new york - it's saturday night!

hello blog readers - happy september. getting a post in before i head up north for the next few days. celeste and i are leaving nyc v. early tomorrow to get up to boston in time to tailgate. we're meeting linsalata and laurak up there - and then christine and ally at the concert. i have been SO excited about this all week long (well, really since we bought the tix in february). it's been my thing to look forward to for six mths - hard to believe it's here! linsalata texted to say that he's wearing his palm frond hat at logan airport. love it. stay tuned for the stories.

post concert - laurak and i are heading to htown - where we hope to meet up with lingley, huyett, allette and my brother. (i guess i'm the only one who hopes to meet up with him though). excited to play some renegade pong ala new years and jump in the river. but really just excited for new england. i've been awfully homesick this weekend - labor day wknd is the last hurrah of summer on the cape - and it feels weird to not be there. 'some things never change. don't be some things'

hung out last night with coleman - as she is heading to france this week for a year. had a great mini-reunion of sd's - blair, overton, hilary dionne, mahr - really good to see everyone. blair and overton are living with cody on the east side. dionne's actually in boston - she came down for the occasion, and mahr is teaching at a boys school. having these kids around will def spice up the daily activities.

last saturday i went shopping in chinatown. had never been to chinatown when i was not late to catch the chinatown bus and dragging a stuffed suitcase so it was nice to have a look around in a leisurely manner. had a delicious chinese lunch (love the pan friend noodles) and then hunted for fake bags. SUPER sketchy. i've done a fair amount of sketchy stuff - but this was definately a cut above. people mutter things on the street about 'coach' or 'dior' and you make eye contact and they look around and lead you into a labrynth-type shop with a hidden door in the back. i've been watching too much law and order. interesting to explore an area of the city i don't know much about for sure.

i made a fb profile with my work email - everyone in my office is now on fb - my 30-year old coworker pretty much plays scrabble all day with his mom and is extremely excited that the alum group he started for his college grows in number every day - and they were giving me crap for 'not having a fb group' (the conscientious, responsible person i am in the office is not corrorberated by my d fb group, thus it has been blocked to nyc people since i moved here). i feel quite sneaky with this new profile - if not a bit divided. look me up. i also discovered via mas mailing that we now get vetrans day off. bonus!

the us open has been going on over the last week - it's pretty much all anyone can talk about. it's v. much a high-status, high-profile event, as most things associated with banking are. i wonder how many of these people actually enjoy watching tennis, as opposed to being concerned with the facetime opportunity. i suppose major athletic events taking place nearby are pretty cool - but i'm not losing sleep over it. it's interesting how the whole city can be consumed by something like this. it happens with major holidays and other big events as well. sometimes nyc doesn't feel like a massive jungle of people but rather civilized, unified neighbors. thank heavens for small favors i guess.

other than that - not too much to report. my boss told me to leave at noon on friday so i bounced early for the weekend - been beautiful weather here in the city - full on early fall. preparing for little sleep, lots of drinking, and going a million miles an hour. hopefully everyone is enjoying their holiday wknds and i'll check in via blackberry when i'm on a bus at some point.

til then - fins up!