brutal jackson

100% hungover. went out last night b/c charlie, our dartmouth '08 coworker, is moving on to a new rotation within our company. def called for some dragonfruit vitamin water this morning and packing for the weekend was a disaster.

here's what i forgot:

- a hat
- socks (will once again be unprepared for the weather in terms of footwear)
- a going out purse

here's what i remembered:

- elise's ipod that she left at my apt last week
- my carly simon cd's for christine

longer post to come later on the bus enroute to boston.

waiting for spring

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
- william wordsworth 'daffodils'

spotlight on: laurak

was chatting with laurak on gtalk last week. she was home in chicago from key west for her sister's pre-wedding festivities and very glad to have the internet:

laurak: it is nice to have internet

we dont have it near the boat

have to go sit in the front yard of the key west courthouse

which is possibly haunted

laurak: as i learned the other night from the ghost tour that came through while i was sitting there

me: oh my

10:12 AM that's hilarious

laurak: it was

apparently i've never been there at the right time of night before

10:13 AM me: i guess not

what did the ghost tour say about you being there on the web

10:14 AM laurak: he tried to ignore me

the internet doesn't set the haunted mood

doesn't fit in with tales from days of yore

me: lolit's true

10:15 AM were you by chance pirating internet?

b/c that might be a little bit more along the lines

10:16 AM laurak: i was

so i guess that fits in

shockingly

the yard of the courthouse is not where they intend for people to use the internet

10:17 AM just entrepreneurial folks like myself

and other boat kids who dont want to pay for it

10:19 AM me: lol

hilarious

10:26 AM laurak: i can't even tell you how often i think to myself these days

if my friends could see what i am doing right now

they would be laughing really hard

10:27 AM like i discovered this pair of bright pink rain boots that someone left on the boat

that i have taken to wearing around

me: that's pretty awesome too

i 100% approve

10:28 AM laurak: thanks

i initially went for a whale print pair

but they were too small

miss you kid. the good news is her program wraps up at the end of march and i believe the northeast is among her plans. hot dog!

come to the mardi gras

vin is down at mardi gras this week. she tried really hard to get me to come but it wasn't in the (tarot?) cards.

however, saw this performance of the song 'come to the mardi gras' when i was down in charleston visiting my grandparents last presidents day weekend. my grandparents don't have cable, but they get msnbc, pbs and a lot of radio stations. i guess this show is one they used to watch when my mom was growing up (circa 1976) with an ensemble cast and each show had a theme for the songs they performed. i just like the song. so vin, this is for you, though they're singing about brazil, not new orleans.

'make your sweetest dreams for two come true come to the mardi gras!'

hangover glossary

*know your symptoms and how to deal

the think over

you lie in bed feeling horrible, trying to count how many drinks you actually consumed and thinking about embarrassing things you said, outrageous things you did, and the fact that you'll never behave like that ever again

- the bad girl's guide to the party life

whit's bachelorette party last night was fun, but things got very messy. lots of grey goose bottle service style at a club on the west side, the harvard '07 lax team which was just depressing. i had to leave in a hurry, which worried elise who was staying with me, just a mess. it was good to see her and robin and of course whit, and the club scene isn't usually how i roll so it was interesting to see how the other half lives, but i think i'm going to stick to beer and frat bars in the future.

been an up and down couple of days for me on top of last night - my cat died on friday. my brother gtalked me 'the cat just died' and my first thought was 'is that code for something?' turns out it was not, she just dropped dead in the hallway after coming home from the vet. really really sad - she was such a sweet cat.

i found out i owe the state of new york $2k b/c they didn't withhold enough throughout the year. that was a really sparkaling realization. going to talk to my hr person to see how i avoid this next year but i don't think there's much i can do about this year unfortunately.

i ordered a blackberry storm. have heard very mixed things about it from various sources, but i figured i'd give it a try and if i hate it i can trade it in for something else.

going to go up to exeter next weekend with my parents to see my sister's basketball game. it's exeter/andover, and the last game of my old bball coach's career before he retires. it'll be nice to get out of the city and do something different.

and then 26 on the horizon has me thinking a lot about who i am, where i've come and where i'm going - not like i ever think about that right? no conclusions yet, but more to come.

congratulations are in order

to ms. reiten who just got into the public health graduate program at brown!

needless to say, she is quite excited, and is looking for someone to road trip from cali with her in early summer. and we are quite excited to have her back on the east coast! hot dog!

am at bottom of barrel*

our dry cleaner friended me on facebook. the one that lost my coat. if i didn't already not want to be friends with him b/c he's my dry cleaner and i prefer to have as little interaction with him as possible, the losing of my beloved pink coat would be enough of an incentive.

in fact, i wish we were already friends so i could DEFRIEND him. that's right. that's how upset i am about this.

*amazing quote from the 'cutting edge' inspired by my bro.

pink is my favorite color

had an absolutely delightful long/valentine's day weekend, despite the absence of anything remotely romantic. lots of pink, sunshine, and taking care of business.

friday night played copious amounts of pong at my coworker's apt. vin and i arrived around 8 and left at 3:30. pong pong pong pong pong! ceppos was in town for the night and came over with cody around midnight. we attempted to order quesos, to no avail, and ended up in line at mcdonald's for some very delicious, much needed chicken nuggetts and french fries.

saturday we got down to business with cleaning and organizing, after i fended off my hangover to buy tickets to the labor day jimmy buffett show. i also made a strawberry cake with white frosting and decorated with candy hearts. was very pleased with myself.

we recently discovered a self-serve laundry mat half a block from our apt and i was psyched to finally wash some things that i've been meaning to wash forever. and i mean forever. nice to get that off my plate. don't get me wrong, i like having someone else do my laundry for me, but there are things you want to wash that you don't want to dry, worry about having shrink, etc. etc. so it's good to know this is an option. i wish i had a washing machine SO badly.

saturday night's plan was going to be take out and a movie, but i fell asleep at 5 and slept straight through til 8 the next morning. felt really really good to sleep.

after the gym on sunday morning, vin and i watched 'the house bunny' (we demanded it from time warner) - a ridiculous movie with some decent quotes. and then prepared to do some day pong drinking. plans to start at 2 got pushed back to 4, when the boys who have become our new partners in hang out crime showed up. played a couple games, huyett put in an appearance, and then we went inside to play catch-phrase, drink beer and eat chocolate from 6 pm until 1:30 am. there was a break in the action when charlie and mike went to go get us mcdonald's (again) from the place 6 blocks up the street, after we tried in vain to get them to deliver to us. the nyc mcdonald's deliver, and it is sort of a dream of mine to do this before i leave manhattan. still haven't yet though. cody and the boy also joined through various parts of the night. good clean fun.

monday we were up and at 'em pretty early so we decided to go to the noon showing of 'he's just not that into you'. one movie chain in nyc does $6 tickets before noon, so we scored a discount on those, grabbed brunch, and headed down to union sq for the movie. which was HORRIBLE. do not waste your money, discounted or not. the plot was aimless and dull, it was way too long (2 hrs 12 min), scarlett johannsen is ugly - no idea why everyone thinks she is god's gift to guys - and it wasn't funny. there were times that were literally cringe-inducing they were so awkward. 'love actually' does a much better job of portraying love and relationships than this disaster of a movie. such a disappointment. buy the book - it's funnier.

hit up tjmaxx for some steals before the hangover hit and we had to go get dumplings and miso soup. then back to the upper east side for a nap before bed.

back to the grind this morning, already confused about what day it is thanks to the holiday. off-site for work tomorrow that i am minorly involved with, and elise arrives on friday for whit's bachelorette weekend. good stuff!

hanover winter song

went looking for a dartmouth winter carnival poster today that i had seen in thayer dining hall one time during college, but couldn't remember the theme of. all i knew was that it contained the phrase 'hanover hanover let down your hair'.

was surprised to find that there was no list of winter carnival themes from years past so i wasted 45 minutes compiling from the posters on dartmouthimages.com. posting (haha) them here with a few gaps should anyone else be feeling a little nostalgic for the still north this weekend. wouldn't you really rather be in hanover right now?

2009: Summitting a Century: 100 Years of the DOC
2008: 20,000 Leagues Under the Snow
2007: Dartmouth Down the Rabbit Hole
2006: Stupendous Games 2006: Mischief in the Snow.
2005: A Dartmouth Neverland
2004: Oh the Places it Snows: A Seussentenial
2003: One Carnival to Rule them All
2002: There's Snow Place Like Home
2001: 2001: An Ice Odyssey
2000: Lest the Cold Traditions Fail
1999: Dartmouth Gone to the Dogs
1998: The Roaring Negative 20s
1997: Twas a Cold and Snowy Knight: A Medival Carnival
1996: Round the Girdled Earth they Roamed; A Prehistoric Carnival
1995: Call of the Wild
1994: When Hanover Freezes Over, All Carnival Breaks Loose
1993: Sun, Surf and Snow: Carnival in a Tropical Paradice
1992:
1991: Atlantice: Winter Under the Sea
1990: It's a Grimm Winter - the poster i want (hanover, hanover, let down your hair)
1989: Break out of Hibernation
1988: Winter Games of Old: Gods Godesses and Gold
1987:Blizzard on Bourbon Street (Mardi Gras)
1986:
1985: A Diamond in the Rough (75th Winter Carnival Anniversary)
1984: Camelot Frozen in Time
1983: The Rise and Fall of the Frozen Empire
1982: Adventures on the High Freeze
1981:
1980: Dartmouth Games
1979: The Great Gold Rush
1978: Greatest Snow on Earth
1977: The Spirit of Wintergreen
1976: A Snow-Spangled Salute
1975: Valahala: Beyond the North Winds
1974:
1973: Through a Frosted Looking Glass
1971: Fun for the Whole Family
1970: Sometimes in Winter . . .
1969: In the Land of Fire and Ice

things that happened yesterday

1. i lost and re-found my earring twice. it fell off once in my boss's office and once on the street. not sure i should keep wearing them at this rate.

2. i don't really do healthy eating. am pretty much of the ilk that if i want to eat something, i eat it. i suppose i do try to eat some vegetables and drink some water on the whole, but i don't 'bicker and argue' over soda with calories versus soda with no calories, and i always drank whole milk in college, which drove boxa crazy. i just drink/eat what i want.

including butter - i can't believe it's not butter to be precise - but i like my bagels with butter and cream cheese, and i like butter (or imitation substitute) with most things. end result: i have gone through several tubs of butter over the course of a year. i've been saving these empty tubs b/c they are great for leftovers, which made vin very confused when she thought we had five tubs of butter in the fridge at any one time. in fact, we did not; we had lots of leftovers.

made mashed potatoes on tuesday night and put them in a 'i can't believe it's not butter' container for lunch on wed. however, when lunchtime rolled around yesterday, i discovered i had not brought the mashed potatoes to work for lunch, but the actual butter.

and i couldn't believe it. ;-P

hello good morning

hey kids - nothing of note in particular this morning - just the general fifty million things running through my head.

tix go on sale for the labor day weekend jb show this coming saturday. if you're potentially in but haven't yet told linsalata make that happen. it's so nice to have these things sorted out 6 mths in advance. and jb concerts are pretty much the only thing that keep me going for much of the year.

duke/unc bball game is tonight, so am going to hang out with vin and some 10 other duke kids at brother jimmy's in the 30s, along with charlo and cody. vin is loaning us duke rugby shirts to wear so we have the appropriate shade of blue on and we are not allowed to talk about pong for the entire night. (that last part is a joke). am imposing sobriety on myself, as have to give evil presentation and model that have plagued me the last two weeks to my big boss tomorrow and don't exactly function in top form with a hangover.

the fiscally responsible side of me won out in the debate over skiing this weekend, and i'm staying in nyc instead of going up to vermont. yet another example of my grown-up status: delaying immediate gratification for long term gain. thus, have a glorious long weekend stretching in front of me, with ceppos in town for friday night, and all sorts of best-laid plans like spring cleaning and achieving my life goals. of course some of those plans include pong, which means the rest will not happen. ah well.

elise is coming to town next weekend for whit's bachelorette party - psyched for some usual suspect time. and that's the round up.

where i'm from we pronounce that 'epic'

made it back from dc in one piece, though it was questionable at times. trip was epic, nothing less than expected.

scored tickets to the boston jimmy buffett show on june 25. that's a thursday for those of you without a calendar. we're taking the day off to tailgate and then i'll prob just hang out on the cape the rest of the week leading up to the 4th of july. summer vacation scheduled - check!

walked over to the pong tourney that the dartmouth club of dc was throwing in georgetown on saturday afternoon with caro and alice b/c lingley asked her to come pick me up and told her 'i like walking.' this is true. i do like walking. but i wouldn't introduce myself with, 'hi. i'm lyon. i like walking. and turtles.'

fortunately it was a gorgeous sunny spring-like day out, which we promptly effectively ditched by going into the bar and upstairs where the shades were lowered, the pong tables were set up and the bon jovi was rocking. it took me about two minutes to spill beer all over the floor. some things never change.

linsalata and i played together - the first two rounds were diamond instead of shrub (if you didn't go to dartmouth, read this useful wikipedia article on dartmouth pong) - smoked the first round, but the second round was killer. we set up for shrub in an effort to get the tourney back on track and were promptly repremanded by jen krimm. this was bad b/c we had gotten the game against two '97s off on a good start when i sunk two cups in a row. once we reverted to diamond it was a quick three sinks for the old alums and we were smoked. game over.

fortunately there was still an open bar, good music, sketchy alums to talk with and soldja boy dancing to do (i think this is how i railed my knee. per usual). lingley appeared and refused to let me go to virginia to play more pong with an '03 that i'd known since freshman year so we went back to liz and lopez's apt, where i promptly put myself to bed for three hours.

woke up around 10, had some salt and vinegar chips (the b-side lays version) and grabbed some road sodas and headed to a house party in an unidentified area of dc. we didn't know a soul but we totally dominated this party - 'we came, we saw, we conquered, not in that order of course' style.

by the time we got there there were no mixers, so rast chugged bombay sapphire straight in response to some snarky boys who asked if she was drinking water. no one there appreciated this but me, so we lamented the uselessness of non-dartmouth boys for a portion of time. i was drinking malibu straight through a straw - delicious candy. we all ended up in the kitchen (as tends to happen at parties) next to a wine rack of expensive wine and crown royal. shots were had, rast and i sang 'don't stop believing' acapella and to the amusement of the kitchen. this boy took my hat - my super sweet 'save water, drink corona' hat, that i acquired from an '08 at psi u at some point, it's my party hat - which i took as an invitation, but lingley chose that moment to show up, blitzed from the wine and cheese party she had been at, and do some shots of crown royal before passing out on the sidewalk.

there was lots of running in and out of the house, with and without shoes. some dancing. i went to go get some money so lingley could get a cab home and she managed to lose $40 in the space of 5 minutes. i later found one of the $20s in my pocket when i was getting ready for work this morning.

finally sent lingley off with lopez and liz - rast had gone home to her 'bf' tivo by this point, with a bottle of tanqueray and the bottle of malibu in tow. lingley, it turns out, had purloined two of the bottles of wine. this is the real world kids - you can't go all klepto like at school!

the boy and i go off to find his friends, end up at a restaurant for some beers - stamp on my cc slip says 2 am. turns out he is from manhattan and works on the hill. best part of this story is his name is merle and apparently he is engaged if facebook is to believed. but how was i supposed to know that?

collect my things in the morning and walk back (yes - i like walking) to lingley's, WITH my hat - there was no way i was leaving it - for potluck brunch. lings and i whipped up a sausage souffle, rast brought baked brie and liz brought a fruit salad which we inhaled with mimosas before some tv/napping time.

i headed back to nyc on a 3 pm bolt bus. met a very cute, smart boy on the way - sat next to me and we talked all the way home. he gave me his card and said he'd be down for drinks next week but if facebook is to be believed, he's dating someone, so, as vin said, i have to stop 'naming the puppy' but as christine said, he did make the 4 hr trip back much more enjoyable at the very least and it's always nice to talk to someone who doesn't already know my life story.

am actively peer pressuring the dc gang to come up for my bday - which i just booked at 'whiskey town' - and it sounds like some of them are in for the debauchery. like the post's title says, where i'm from we pronounce that 'epic'.

good work kids

turn your brain on

i thought this list of '120 things you can do starting today to help you think faster, improve memory, comprehend information better and unleash your brain’s full potential' was a good food for thought (pun intended). enjoy!

1. Solve puzzles and brainteasers.
2. Cultivate ambidexterity. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth, comb your hair or use the mouse. Write with both hands simultaneously. Switch hands for knife and fork.
3. Embrace ambiguity. Learn to enjoy things like paradoxes and optical illusions.
4. Learn mind mapping.
5. Block one or more senses. Eat blindfolded, wear earplugs, shower with your eyes closed.
6. Develop comparative tasting. Learn to properly taste wine, chocolate, beer, cheese or anything else.
7. Find intersections between seemingly unrelated topics.
8. Learn to use different keyboard layouts. Try Colemak or Dvorak for a full mind twist!
9. Find novel uses for common objects. How many different uses can you find for a nail? 10? 100?
10. Reverse your assumptions.
11. Learn creativity techniques.
12. Go beyond the first, ‘right’ answer.
13. Transpose reality. Ask “What if?” questions.
14. SCAMPER!
15. Turn pictures or the desktop wallpaper upside down.
16. Become a critical thinker. Learn to spot common fallacies.
17. Learn logic. Solve logic puzzles.
18. Get familiar with the scientific method.
19. Draw. Doodle. You don’t need to be an artist.
20. Think positive.
21. Engage in arts — sculpt, paint, play music — or any other artistic endeavor.
22. Learn to juggle.
23. Eat ‘brain foods’.
24. Be slightly hungry.
25. Exercise!
26. Sit up straight.
27. Drink lots of water.
28. Deep-breathe.
29. Laugh!
30. Vary activities. Get a hobby.
31. Sleep well.
32. Power nap.
33. Listen to music.
34. Conquer procrastination.
35. Go technology-less.
36. Look for brain resources in the web.
37. Change clothes. Go barefoot.
38. Master self-talk.
39. Simplify!
40. Play chess or other board games. Play via Internet (particularly interesting is to play an ongoing game by e-mail).
41. Play ‘brain’ games. Sudoku, crossword puzzles or countless others.
42. Be childish!
43. Play video games.
44. Be humorous! Write or create a joke.
45. Create a List of 100.
46. Have an Idea Quota.
47. Capture every idea. Keep an idea bank.
48. Incubate ideas. Let ideas percolate. Return to them at regular intervals.
49. Engage in ‘theme observation’. Try to spot the color red as many times as possible in a day. Find cars of a particular make. Invent a theme and focus on it.
50. Keep a journal.
51. Learn a foreign language.
52. Eat at different restaurants - ethnic restaurants specially.
53. Learn how to program a computer.
54. Spell long words backwards. !gnignellahC
55. Change your environment. Change the placement of objects or furniture — or go somewhere else.
56. Write! Write a story, poetry, start a blog.
57. Learn sign language.
58. Learn a musical instrument.
59. Visit a museum.
60. Study how the brain works.
61. Learn to speed-read.
62. Find out your learning style.
63. Dump the calendar!
64. Try to mentally estimate the passage of time.
65. “Guesstimate”. Are there more leaves in the Amazon rainforest or neuron connections in your brain? (answer).
66. Make friends with math. Fight ‘innumeracy’.
67. Build a Memory Palace.
68. Learn a peg system for memory.
69. Have sex! (sorry, no links for this one! )
70. Memorize people’s names.
71. Meditate. Cultivate mindfulness and an empty mind.
72. Watch movies from different genres.
73. Turn off the TV.
74. Improve your concentration.
75. Get in touch with nature.
76. Do mental math.
77. Have a half-speed day.
78. Change the speed of certain activities. Go either super-slow or super-fast deliberately.
79. Do one thing at a time.
80. Be aware of cognitive biases.
81. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. How would different people think or solve your problems? How would a fool tackle it?
82. Adopt an attitude of contemplation.
83. Take time for solitude and relaxation.
84. Commit yourself to lifelong learning.
85. Travel abroad. Learn about different lifestyles.
86. Adopt a genius. (Leonardo is excellent company!)
87. Have a network of supportive friends.
88. Get competitive.
89. Don’t stick with only like-minded people. Have people around that disagree with you.
90. Brainstorm!
91. Change your perspective. Short/long-term, individual/collective.
92. Go to the root of the problems.
93. Collect quotes.
94. Change the media you’re working on. Use paper instead of the computer; voice recording instead of writing.
95. Read the classics.
96. Develop your reading skill. Reading effectively is a skill. Master it.
97. Summarize books.
98. Develop self-awareness.
99. Say your problems out loud.
100. Describe one experience in painstaking detail.
101. Learn Braille. You can start learning the floor numbers while going up or down the elevator.
102. Buy a piece of art that disturbs you. Stimulate your senses in thought-provoking ways.
103. Try different perfumes and scents.
104. Mix your senses. How much does the color pink weigh? How does lavender scent sound?
105. Debate! Defend an argument. Try taking the opposite side, too.
106. Use time boxing.
107. Allocate time for brain development.
108. Have your own mental sanctuary.
109. Be curious!
110. Challenge yourself.
111. Develop your visualization skills. Use it at least 5 minutes a day.
112. Take notes of your dreams. Keep a notebook by your bedside and record your dreams first thing in the morning or as you wake up from them.
113. Learn to lucid dream.
114. Keep a lexicon of interesting words. Invent your own words.
115. Find metaphors. Connect abstract and specific concepts.
116. Manage stress.
117. Get random input. Write about a random word in a magazine. Read random sites using StumbleUpon or Wikipedia.
118. Take different routes each day. Change the streets you follow to work, jog or go back home.
119. Install a different operating system on your computer.
120. Improve your vocabulary.
121. Deliver more than what’s expected.

i always sink the half cup

am in washington dc this weekend, hanging out with lingley and a large contingent of the virginia jb crowd for the dartmouth club of dc pong tourney.

having been to these type things in nyc, i do not have high hopes for the quality of the tournament, but i do enjoy it when lots of people i like are in the same place for 'one stop shopping' hanging out, and fortunately i get to play a lot of pong in nyc, so the need to play and be good is somewhat mitigated. a number of other nyc kids are down here as well - including katie fahey - love it.

that being said, linsalata and i are playing together and we plan to rage victoriously to the n'th degree. lings, unfortuanately, has mono, and can't drink, and has to go into work this afternoon (said tourney starts at 1 pm) but the plan is to meet up later.

am also anxiously awaiting 10 am, as tickets for the boston '09 jb show go on sale. it's pretty much impossible to get jb tix at face value, but we try every year. this year the boston show is in june, not sept, which is unsettling and not ideal, esp since linsalata has a wedding on the saturday show but we will try and go anyway and plan for a blowout over labor day, which is in virginia. i wish the record to show that i will plan my wedding around the jimmy buffett tour, if he is still touring by the time that happens, so none of you need to be concerned about that.

anyway - 4 minutes to go. enjoy the spring-like weather up and down the east coast this weekend - vin is giving pong lessons on the terrace in preparation for the spring season (that would be the spring pong season, not baseball) if anyone wants to get in on that.

rivers that aren't there

received an email in my inbox this morning from apple saying, 'this valentine's day, say it with the ipod touch.'

was trying to think about what giving your romantic interest an ipod touch really says. you, like, music, are my 'hot hot sex'? or this ipod, like you, is 'a rainbow color?'

mostly i am reminded of 'the rules', which i know boxa is going to snort when she reads that. you know 'the rules' - the book that tells girls how to get married by being a creature like any other? kit gave me a copy sometime over the years and inscribed 'something appealing, something appaling' on the inside (from a funny thing happened on the way to the forum). boxa thought it was ridic and tried to recycle it, literally, several times, but i rescued it from the richardson hallway.

the book, for those of you who are not familiar, is a little nuts in a lot of ways, but it also subscribes to basic psychology, much like (and isn't this timely) 'he's just not that into you', namely, guys don't do things they don't want to do and it's really a waste of time to sit around and mope about ones that don't like you back. no one likes everyone they meet, including you, so why should every guy you like like you back? give it your best effort and then 'find another one' to quote 'the sweet potato queens book of love', is what i subscribe to.

ANYWAY

this relates to the ipod touch business b/c 'the rules' says that it doesn't matter how much the gift costs (aka $250), what matters is the type of gift it is (aka romantic). handwritten poem? check! ipod touch? wrong. why is this wrong? b/c it indicates he's not thinking about you romantically long term. again - not price of the gift, it's the type of gift.

i wholeheartedly subscribe to this way of thinking - on the type of gift point, not the entirety of the rules - but it does depend on whether or not you consider 'the rules' 'recyclable.' additionally, this is a bit of a moot point for me, as will prob forget it's valentine's day due to lack of valentines in life, but there you have it.

bloom where you're planted

as you probably know (or else you haven't been reading the blog very long) we have an amazing terrace outside. it's basically the reason we begged, cried and pleaded our way into this apartment. having outdoor space in new york is amazing and makes life much happier. it also means we get to have a garden.

vin and i picked out the flowers for our terrace last weekend. since we get to renew our lease this year we don't have to move and can reprise our garden.

things we liked about last year's garden:

1. the morning glories that grew up the fence

things we didn't like:


1. the huge towering plants. (see left)

my old boss, upon seeing them, exclaimed, 'and you must be able to smoke these things'. our 'window boxes' are about 4 feet off the ground, which makes 3 foot plants eye-level (who said math was hard?). so we had to look for plants that were low to the ground.

here's what we decided on:

1. more morning glories (celestial mix) to grow up the fence again and we'll mix in some moonflowers to make it interesting.


2. petunias - five different colors - for the pots in between the beds and for a hanging planter in the corner (height: 4-6").


3. poppies in 'sunset mixed colors' (height: 12") - now these things you really could smoke! - and the 'thumbelina mix' of baby zinneas (height: 6"). poppies are below:

so excited to plant them that it might as well be spring!

lather, rinse, repeat

if you laugh at different comics,
if you root for different teams,
waste no time, weep no more,
show him what the door is for.
rub him out of the roll call
and drum him out of your dreams.
- south pacific 'i'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair'

you can't fix a guy when he's wrong. and that's the end of it.

why hello february

having just resigned our apt lease we decided to risk life and limb last night and host a powerhour in honor of groundhog day (a rodent holiday, in the words of charlo). powerhours have been close to my heart for quite sometime now, and sort of a signature event that we host. there have been many epic nights that began with 60 minutes of shots of beer.

this event was no different. we tricked a lot of people who are scared of powerhours by telling them to show up at 9, and set a target start-time of 9:45, so that when they arrived they would be forced to participate. vin and i got creative with the furniture in the living room, but it was still blatantly apparent that we need more chairs. had a solid turnout: charlo's friend emily, megh, cody and the boy, my coworker rowena, the duke crew - emma, pj and suma, my old coworker carter, and soh won, who came bearing wine and my favorite wine mixer, sprite zero.

interestingly enough we had a smorgasboard of desserts, thanks to the guests. vin had baked brownies (NOT pot brownies, as was discussed later on in the evening), pj brought an amazing cake that i believe was flavored 'cake' (discuss) that he then took with him when he left. megh and charlo brought 'high quality custard' from the newest 'shake shack' location on the upper west side. so we found ourselves in the strange situation of having tons of baked goods and beer. creamy sweets and alcohol - kind of like rush - and both never a good idea.

toasting to something every time you drink is an sd tradition, since the epic powerhour in shuter's room on the first floor of sd soph summer, that we've continued ever since. one of these days i'll post those here, but without further ado, the toasts (plus running commentary):

before we began we distributed shot glasses. soon there were only penis shotglasses left from stein's bday gift to charlo a year ago. anon: there's a lot of penises left.

1. good times and great oldies
2. drinking before running
3. human misery - we got right down to the things that are important
4. superbowl weekend and being more drunk tomorrow than i will be tonight
5. herman's hermits and the entire british invasion (something tells me i'm into something good)
6. my life would suck without you. ('you' being me. in the words of joe, thanks for the self validation and the ego boost!)
7. commemorating small furry animals
8. fallen nfl teams that should be playing in the superbowl (who did play tonight? all i know is it wasn't the patriots)
9. double shots
10. end of january (really went out on a limb with that one)
11. google images and office productivity. vin spent the week google imaging groundhogs and printing them out to grace our apt walls
12. emma and her lovely fiance. we all thought this was a little weird. but as suma pointed out, it would have been even weirder later on
13. state of nyc subsidizing my lifestyle (aka unemployment)
14. no-pressure toasting. it's not a presentation people. it's a drinking game
15. a little less talk and a lot more action
16. being under 30
17. being over 30 and not giving a fuck
18. winter nights in the northeast where there is nothing to do but drink (hi ethan frome)
19. america. love the patriotism
20. daniel craig (the 007 theme song was on)
21. high quality custard
22. excessive mixing and mingling [of friend groups]
23. 2008 being better than 2009. that's what i have written but i think it's supposed to be the other way around
24. lyon rocks (what can i say? how about - i'm rad, you're rad, let's hug?)
25. hollywood week on american idol. do people still watch that show? (vin: he's my friend i can haze him)
26. arrested development movie
27. boston + st paddy's and suma's bday. epic roadtrip coming up kids. get ready.
28. march bdays: emma, suma, rowena and moi!
29. ignoring our mothers well-meant advice
30. pirates and the pirate porn. excessive discussion about the quality of the film ensued after this toast. thought we were going to have to get it out and watch it or something.
31. bad pornography. is there such a thing?
32. carter: fastest 45 minutes i've ever had (note that we were at toast 32)
33. glorious german men's field hockey team victory at the olympics. what?
34. irish men (vin: do you want some jameson? we have some)
35. infinity peer pressure. i wrote the symbol for infinity. rowena called me a dork.
36. (go to mardi gras with vin if possible). this seems like more of a direction than a toast. but it's feb 24 if you're not doing anything.
37. being a southern female. hmmm.
38. dirty jersey
39. ghostbusters (i ain't afraid of no ghost)
40. new episode of 'gossip girl'. (vin: live your life or live in nyc. not sure what that means).
41. gender ambiguity as represented in 'sorority boys' or 'white chicks'.
42. burping everytime you take a shot
43. training everyone to party at our level
44. vin's brownies (as noted before, while NOT pot, still delicious)
45. killing our brains with alcohol
46. new blood - not sure where we were going with this
47. make it happen chris and rhianna. i support this.
48. brooklyn (i'm sorry that i don't think brooklyn is better than manhattan)
49. library voices. taylor kept telling us to keep it down at one of our parties in richardson 309 soph year. we didn't listen then and we didn't listen last night.
50. vin being put to bed before we go out. fact.
51. duke blue devils
52. having justin timberlake's babies (hate this expression for the record)
53. cashmere
54. the color red
55. inappropirate comedy. is there any other kind?
56. safe sex crossed out then 'contraception'
57. mclovin
58. i'm just saying
59. spring season on the pong table. we have recruited many folks who want in and it is documented on the chalk board. will have to hold a training session in the upcoming weeks.
60. the toast i couldn't remember. had a good one but then i got drunk

hilarity ensured after the powerhour concluded. huyett made it evenutally, after train trouble, as did my coworker, but he's just perpetually late to things anyway. there was a lot of discussion of housing options on the upper east side, and the entire party supported vin in her quest to make it happen, which i am happy to report she did.

more good quotes:

vin: we haven't taken out the recycling in awhile
charlo: you're going to have so much money!

vin: the people who came with others are hoping to secure their own invite. (fact.)

all around good times. thanks to everyone who came out! we drank ALL the beer. that never happens. and no one took me up on my invitation to boot and rally if need be, so long as it happened in the bathroom, so i would say success.

i spent most of this weekend at work - have a deck and a model due this week and just haven't had time to do it on top of my regular stuff. hadn't planned to go out on friday night, in fact had a nice take-out dinner and some 'what not to wear' with charlo early on, but my coworker blitzed about pong and i decided to err on teh side of raging.

did not get very drunk, but i did stay out til 4:30. this was brutal when i had to get up at 7:30 to get my hair done and then go to work, but i'm glad i went to hang out.

95% committed to going to dc this coming weekend for the dartmouth club pong tourney, and thinking killington next weekend to ski, so it's going to be busy. one month til my birthday! mark your calendars.