time flies when you're having fun (and rum)

7/31 - hamptons
8/7 - nyc
8/15 - cape
8/22 - nyc (kit's bachelorette)
8/29 - cape
9/5 - dc (jb #2)
9/12 - kit's wedding
9/19 - ceppos!
9/26 - vermont

hello october

there's something about a foam guitar that makes people want to stick their toungues out

today's the day! launch day that is. going to be a crazy 24 hours at work. prepping to stay there most of the night and be back early tomorrow morning. whether that actually shakes out remains to be seen.

i'm going in to the office late this morning b/c of tonight's schedule and the 'game on at 8 pm' concept, so i slept in a bit and went to an 8:30 cardio sculpt gym class. or tried to. didn't eat anything beforehand and had to sit down half-way through b/c i thought i was going to pass out. in the words of my mom, when you're dumb, you gotta pay.

a few gym observations:

- what type of woman can go to 8:30 gym classes on a regular basis? housewives? students? no one who works in an office though.
- all my gym shirts are covered in mascara from wiping my eyes with them. hmmm.

had people over on saturday night for the first party we've hosted in a long time. in the words of the 'bad girl's guide to the party life', here's how you can tell your party was a success:

1. your downstairs neighbors (who are 30) come up the fire escape to borrow a pong ball
2. the apt across the roof spends most of the night staring longingly at your terrace (wasn't sure on the ettiquette here. should we have held up a sign with our address?)
3. vin's cousin had to fill both me and vin in on exactly what went down later in the night
4. vin woke up in the east village
5. hopper passed out on our chaise lounge chairs
6. people were here playing beruit while i was passed out and vin was at the bar
7. someone took my camera by accident and it was returned in short order which was excellent b/c there's an amazing series of photos with the foam guitar we got from the today show 'no doubt' concert. photo montages is something i like to do with the old coworkers - we pick a prop (salt shaker, wad of cash, foam guitar) and everyone has to pose with it. usually makes for an entertaining time. in this case, it seems that something about guitars, even fake foam ones, makes people want to stick their toungues out, as the photographic evidence suggests.

had sangria - inger's 'elixir of love' recipe - and pimm's cups, as well as john daly's (arnold palmer with sweet tea vodka), sweet tea vodka (duh) and vodka lemonade to drink. mixing and mingling and hell hole were played and a good time was had by all. we really should do it more often.

in usual suspect news - ceppos took the gmat on saturday - she is done done done and glad about it. diana has a new job out in cali and she and the boy just moved into san fran. now it is easier than ever to go visit her! diede, celeste and i are planning to head to the cape the last weekend in august for a big sis/little sis bonding weekend. very excited about that.

more beach news. i'm heading out to the hamptons this weekend to will's house party in east hampton. this is tricky for 2 reasons:
1. i've never been. looking forward to seeing what it's like though.
2. boys are notoriously bad at details and planning, while me and my type a personality need to know the scoop (with the exception of linsalata who has already secured the party bus for the labor day jb show). witness:

will: are you coming aug 1-2?
me: sure
me: what are the details
will: come, stay at my house
be merry
thats about it
there will be a lot of other people there
20+ at the house, maybe
me: right - but tell me when you're going out there, how you're supposed to get there, etc
will: oh, ha, I see
you can get out there either on the jitney or LIRR
both are easy and let off near my house
me: will need some more details but at a high level - okay
will: I can provide any details
me: do i need to bring anything?
will: like what?
me: sleeping bag?
will: sure!
good thinking!
me: well interestingly i don't have a sleeping bag
so i'll see what i can do
will: oh, haha
thats OK
we have blankets and stuff

here is what will has not told me: where his house is in the hamptons, whether this is a full weekend affair, who else is coming and what type of attire i need to bring.

ah well. i like to live dangerously. and pretty sure as long as i bring a bathing suit i can manage.

perhaps there will be more delirious posting late night tonight. but if not, catch you on the flip side of launch kiddos.

nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded*

so no doubt about it the word is out about 'hook and ladder'. encountered some tri kaps on monday night, and then a gaggle of sae's were there last night.

on the one hand, i hate having a line three deep on a table. on the other, it's kind of a cool scene in that it's a dartmouth bar in nyc, and you can mingle with kids from other houses. on campus, if you were a brother in a house you most like didn't go anywhere but your house. (or if you were an '05 sd, by senior year you didn't leave sd, except maybe to go to psi u b/c it's like 'why not go to psi u'. but i digress). and if you weren't in that house, you could get booted off a table at any time. at hook no one has seniority or dibs on the table, everyone has to wait in line, and you actually get to meet some new people.

of course it doesn't hurt that i'm generally one of about three girls among at least ten boys. so if having more d kids at hook means i meet my future husband i'd say it was worth it. ;-P


*yogi berra

thank you capt. obvious

what about dartmouth will you be happiest to leave behind?

1. the dating scene - 32%
2. campus debate about alumni disputes - 17.9%
3. classes - 16%
4. hanover weather - 6.9%
5. keggy - 6.5%
- dartmouth alumni magazine jul/aug '09

youtube this @ now

influx of good music as of late. here's what i'm currently listening to:

1. black eyed peas 'i gotta feeling' - christine rec. not a huge fan of the peas usually but this song is catchy and a good going out song.

2. shakira 'she wolf' - kind of a funny song lyrics-wise and it took a couple listens but now i'm addicted. super hot: 'and the fire dept. hotline in case i get in trouble later'

3. maria mena 'all this time' - a little alternative but pretty. rec from my bro.

4. sugarland w/t little big town 'life in a northern town' - stretch of 'texas country' courtesy of being at home with my sister who now lives in houston. i take that to mean 'less mainstream country'. this one kind of sounds tribal at times.

5. charlie robinson 'my hometown' - tx country. slower and kind of twangy.

6. jason aldean 'big green tractor' - tx country. euphamism for something? i think so.

7. mickey avalon 'jane fonda' - an old song i think but heard it for the first time at hook the other night during '90s throwback night' and it's catchy

8. dropkick murphys cover of 'dirty water' - i like the edgy vibe a boston irish band gives this unofficial boston theme song.

9. pat benetar cover of 'i need a lover' - this version doesn't have the 2 minute intro that the john mellencamp original does. same message: i need a lover that won't drive me crazy!

10. 'day and night' - not sure who sings this one but it's courtesy of my brother's pipeline to dartmouth basement music.

don't underestimate the intensity

my cousin's husband (who married into the mcintyre family. my aunt is a mcintyre nee lyon) describes the entire lyon family as 'intense' and the more that i think about this the more i realize it is an excellent description of my family.

we do have a picture of a lion with a 'if you don't think being first matters trying being second on the food chain' on our refrigerator at home. pretty much sums it up right there.

tuesday on the island

happy bastille day! 5 years ago we were in paris for the bastille day celebrations. we watched the parade up the champ elysees (which was primarilly a display of all of france's military equipment) and a jet flyover, and then an incredible fireworks display against the eiffel tower that night from a bridge over the seine. ever since then bastille day has had a special place in my heart.

bought myself an ice cream from the ben and jerry's at 30 rock after work last night to eat on my walk home. i like to walk up fifth and see all the stores and then along central park for a bit. that ended up being all i had for dinner, as my intention to take a 1 hr nap from 8-9 pm and then get up and do things turned into me sleeping straight through until 7 this morning.

figured this unexpected tiredness was a bit of a result of the weekend activitites. the kid who i ended up spending a fair amount of time with last summer during my friend's wedding on the cape was in town for the night on sunday on his way back to new orleans via motorcycle. he got to the city around 6 on sunday, so we went walking in central park as the summer day faded into a summer evening. walked a lot - discovered a swing set and swang for awhile, sat on some benches, there were fireflies all over the ramble at dusk, and we saw a family of racoons as well. ended up at the uws shake shack, for a really awesome shake burger, french fries and a purple cow ice cream soda, which we sat and ate on benches outside the museum of natural history.

when we got back i asked for a ride on his motorcycle. now, i've never been on one before, having had it drilled into my head by my dad that they are dangerious, etc, and i never found them all that appealing, but there was something about this kid, and his motorcycle shirt, and his cowboy boots and his hankerchief in his back pocket that was HOT. like incredibly incredibly hot. so we went out riding around 10 or so - down second ave to houston, with a stop at mcsorleys for a beer, and then back up third ave. it was AWESOME. i felt like such a bad ass taking off the helmet and shaking out my hair like they do in movies and such a neat way to see nyc at night. sat outside on the terrace and talked and drank whiskey until 1 or so - so it ended up being a bit of a late night. but a really awesome nyc night all around. just what i needed. =)

tidbits

there's been some clamoring for a blog post and it has been awhile. usually i try to wait until i have a story or defined items to post on, but in this case you'll get a random stream of consciousness. haha.

nyc status/work
being back in nyc after my epic vacation has been good. we're still pushing ahead to the relaunch of our websites at the end of july, so there's quite a bit of work to be done which adds in a layer of constant stress, but nothing terrible. i actually got an ovation from work (that's the equivalent of a citation for you dartmouth folks) for managing the last launch. have a lot more help managing this vendor this time around, but i think it has only served to highlight how hard it was to do it by myself the first time. the ovation was a really nice validation that everyone at work knows exactly how much that sucked last time around and thinks i managed to do okay.

the weather is here/my garden rocks
weather has been delightful - almost fall like in nyc - with warm sunny days and cool nights. zero humidity. if this was nyc in the summer all the time i would be just fine. the morning glories are blooming (in the morning) and it adds a wonderful dose of green and non-city to go out on the terrace and putter around with the plants.

argentina
bought tickets to argentina yesterday! going down there in november with one of my coworkers and really excited about it. the tickets were ridic cheap - $337 round trip. it's like we can't not go. this is perfect because i was thinking it was about time to do an international trip - the last one was to costa rica during spring break senior year with two of my friends from the cape, and before that, the trip to france and amsterdam the summer before senior year with the exbf. have done lots of domestic travel since those trips, but nothing out of the country, and upon reflection, i figure each summer's jimmy buffett concert extravaganzas in total are about the equivalent of an international trip so it was prob time to take one. no idea what we're going to do, where we're going to stay, or anything, but i'm already really excited

camera works again
got my camera fixed finally. it got dropped in the sd basement over green key by someone who shall remain nameless and was not at all functional. looked up camera places in nyc on yelp to find some place to take it and settled on 'phototech' down by union square. pretty reasonable, quick turnaround and the thing works like new so would def recommend it. glad to have it up and running again. and upon reviewing the pics from the friday of green key on the memory card, i see how it got broken in the first place. haha.

dead mice
returned to the apartment on sunday to discover it was clearly hotter than it had been inside thus far this summer, and we had a terrible smell of death emanating from our kitchen. despite taking out the trash, cleaning more than usual, trying to blame it on the vanilla coconut wallflower like last time, etc. we couldn't get rid of it, and came to the conclusion it had to be behind the stove. sure enough, vin moved the stove and discovered a dead mouse. glad to have that issue resolved, but as she says, i'm never around when there are dead mice to be dealt with.

saturday
glorious saturday in nyc. heading to the gym shortly, then some resume work, and later on to hook and ladder to play pong in celebration of hearn's birthday, which was yesterday. i owe him a shot of goldschlager.

also - pretty sure that my hulu sweatshirt has gotten me more play than any other pick-up line i know. just saying.

freelance swashbucklers for hire

linsalata gtalked me wanting a blog post. i told him i would do a post when he put his pics from jb up on facebook. that prob won't happen until sunday at the earliest, but i figured i could churn out a blog post in the meantime.

been on the cape almost a week now. last thursday was the most wonderful day of the year - aka - jimmy buffett. christine, ray, linsalata and i drove out to great woods/tweeter center/comcast center for what turned out to be jimmy buffett's 50th concert at great woods (he still calls it that - awesome). the weather took a break from being here and was actually kind of sunny, so we all got scortched. christine had prepped up the food and entertainment, including her quickly becoming famous margarita cake, and we all took a trip to kmart on thurs morning where we found foam swords (see the title of the post) which were a big hit and then the savmor liquors (at 10:35 am) for the booze.

headed out to great woods and had the savvy to set up right next to the most legit tiki bar in the parking lot. the people were from rhode island and this tiki bar had a FAN - it was that legit. they also had some serious dj speakers, a killer playlist that i am trying to replicate from (hazy) memory, and they mixed us up margaritas and mud slides all afternoon. took a trip around the parking lot, per usual, and had some shots of sambuca, got a tattoo in a compromising place, kissed shark, ate some ribs, and was lectured by a wedding dj and his wife about why i need a wedding dj at my (non-existant) wedding (something about the announcing) as opposed to my plan of making a killer playlist for the ipod. i suppose i have some time to figure this one out, but i do have his card just in case.

was pretty drunk and in heaven by the time we headed in to the concert, which i remember most of. decided to fling myself down the muddy lawn for a portion of time, which resulted in a pretty dirty skirt. linsalata was heard to exclaim that he wasn't sure why the front of his pants were dirty on thursday morning (cue 'that's what she said) but the mystery was solved when we reminded him he'd been dancing with me. absolute heaven all around.

headed down to the cape on friday, where my siblings and i are holding down the fort, as my parents decided that they wanted to go on a cruise with my grandparents to quebec the week that i would be home. haven't been doing much on my vacation - feeding the dog and the chickens (yes. as part of my dad's post-apocalyptical plan we once again have chickens) and taking my siblings to work (one of these days i will write a post about summer jobs). like most of the east coast in the month of june, it has been raining non-stop with killer thunder storms. logan, the dog, doesn't like them and has been following me up and down the stairs shaking poor thing. as much as i would like to be sitting on the beach, i do like being cozy inside when it's torrentially down pouring. it's been nice to be curled up in my bed with the rain drumming on the roof reading nonsense. did get out on christine's boat on sat where we promptly got sunburned (i'm on a boat!) and then on tuesday, and the forecast for fri, sat and sun is sunny so i'm looking forward to that. when i was last home my mom kept being like 'it's brightening!' when it looked like the sun might come out. everyonce in awhile it does actually get a little brighter; mostly this has become a catch phrase of vacation, along with 'it's fine. it's something i have to deal with but that's fine' and 'the old [x] trick' courtesy of my brother - read more about it on his blog if you're lucky enough to have the link.

10 days is a really long time to be out of the nyc scene and i have been a little sad to think about the fun i've been missing in the city while i've been here, but it's also been good to have a break from a social scene that involves a lot of drinking and a fair amount of questionable decision making. been going to bed early and not drinking as much while i've been home, and been trying to 'take a break and think about what i've done', but the only conclusion i've come to is that i want to continue as i am. being home is mainly about going back to basics, my roots, remembering who i am and where i come from, so i can bring that back to nyc with me. and i think i'm just about ready to do that. i'm afraid there is a lot of work to be done waiting for me in nyc, as we're relaunching the sites at the end of july, so i know this downtime is short-lived anyway. '. . . too much to see waiting in front of me and i know that i just can't go wrong' (jb - 'changes in latitudes')