merry new year!

hanging out at work waiting for my bro and his two friends to come by so i can give them a tour of the building so i figured i would do an 'end of decade' post.

saw allette on tuesday night. she had been upstate at her grandparents for the holidays and was back in jersey for a night before driving back to tennessee. she came to hang out at hook where the pong skills came back quickly. she's quit her job at camp and has been taking classes in knoxville with an eye towards applying to grad programs in clinical psych. we attempted to persuade her to stay for the party tonight but she said her friends had planned an 80s themed limo bar crawl, which i have to admit sounded tough to pass up.

plans are in full swing for tonight's festivities. per usual, we've invited a ton of people and have no idea who will actually show up, but as i said in my party invite email, 'three out of three people who didn't come to last year's party regretted it.' and 47.7% of statistics are made up on the spot.

what were you doing 10 years ago on new years when the millennium happened? i've already told you what i was doing, but i think it's interesting to think about. 10 years is a long time.

tonight is a blue moon, meaning the second full moon in a month that has two full moons. not sure if we'll actually be able to see it due to the clouds and snow in the nyc area, but that's pretty nifty. this article cautions that "some believe that a full moon -- not to mention a blue one -- can cause strong emotions to flare. Some evidence shows that arrests for petty crime and public drunkenness increase 5% during a full moon, and police expect extra aggressiveness and antisocial behavior from revelers whenever a full moon occurs during a holiday". a word to the wise should be sufficient

so. a happy new year to everyone - there are many many people i wish we could be celebrating with tonight, ideally in the sigma delt basement with a keg of keystone - and in defiance of 'auld lang syne' old acquaintances and especially old friends should not be forgotten. raise a glass in toast wherever you are.

let them eat cake*

happy birthday shout outs to two of my favorites: laurak and tay tay!

laurak is newly back in chicago after sailing the seven seas and hanging out in hawaii over the fall. i don't know what's next on her agenda - ideally it involves a summer stint on the cape - but it's nice to have her on gtalk again.

and ms. duvall is doing well down in philly at bschool. she was headed home to florida for break and then off to china for a bit - that girl is a traveling fool.

miss you kids!

*supposedly, marie antoinette never said this. but it works.

confessions of an advertising fan

i know most people don't like advertisements, but i really do. i like to critique them, praise them, and tell other people about my favorites. and i don't care what anyone says, even in the age of tivo and hulu, a well done advertisement captures people's attention (exhibit a: the superbowl) i just think advertising agencies have been too lazy to put much effort into them lately. senior year of high school we didn't have a 'business/law' teacher half the year and i spent most of that time watching ads on 'adcritic.com' (this was when it was still free) and i can still recall some of my favorites.

to that end, a couple ads i think are well done:

1. target christmas ads. these ads feature situations where people think the gift-giver spent too much money on their gift, and they respond as such. the best one is where the girl thinks her boyfriend spent so much on her gift that 'they're at that point in their relationship' and she doesn't know if she's ready, but all i could find is this one:

clever!

2. mcdonald's new england roast coffee ads. these are from the fall, but mcdonald's has a new blend of coffee made to target new englanders. before you start scoffing, apparently there is a particular way new englanders like their coffee - "We enjoy a light to medium blend roast of coffee here in the northeastern corridor of the States; compare that to Seattle, for example, which prefers a darker blend." these ads are, to use a buzzword, hyper-local, in that they feature new england terminology with the 'true new englander' defining everyone correctly before he can get the cup of coffee. as christine said, the accent leaves something to be desired, but a for effort.


and last but not least, a power drink commercial spoof from my sister.totally safe for work, but i'd recommend turning down the sound. it gets a little aggressive.

definitely quotable.

also - if you like ads or business or psychology, you should read 'confessions of an advertising man' by david olgivy. quick, interested read for anyone interested in the above.

ring christmas bells across the snow

a belated merry christmas post. didn't bring my computer home and it's hard to find a computer for blog posting at home. that is to say, i like to keep this blog under the radar.

my favorite christmas quote this year was:

heap on the wood!-the wind is chill;
but let it whistle as it will,
we'll keep our christmas merry still.
- sir walter scott

there was lots of whistling wind at home on the cape, thanks to some snow squalls and a rain storm last night, plus there's pretty much always wind on the cape, but had a cozy, lively and merry christmas, thanks to the new puppy - sasha (aka sasha bear) - the kitty and logan, who was doing his best to be the senior pet in a scenario that often involved sasha chewing something, the kitty baiting the puppy and logan protecting his sticks. sasha had a squeaky carrot toy that we nicknamed 'mr carrot' that was v. helpful with the chewing and prompted a lot of references to 'veggie tales' and 'there's a party in my tummy' of 'yo gabba gabba' fame.

went to services on christmas eve at 5 pm at an unheated church in hyannisport. how much more new england can you get? my mom played the organ, we sang hymns in the dark, a 90-year old man recited 'twas the night before christmas' pretty impressively and there was plenty of time for reflection. not sure when i stopped believing in santa clause (sorry for any spoilers there), but i know that i'm still impressed with the magic of christmas. i knew santa didn't exist a long time ago, but my mom still does an amazing job of making christmas feel like magic. i remember being sick with the flu on christmas eve when i was 8 or so, and even with my mom giving me ginger ale and holding my hair back while i threw up, she still managed to have empty stockings one minute, and presents the next. and she still keeps it up, only now instead of my parents instigating a 'no waking up parents til 7 am for present opening' on christmas morning, the kids have to say 'no waking us up until 9:30 for present opening'.

as december winds to a close we have to mark the 4th anniversary of the blog, which technically occured sometime in mid-december. 4 years is a long time to have chronicled something, let alone my life, but i find i still have things to say and people who (pretend!) to want to read them, so it's something i'll keep doing.

back in nyc for a couple days of work and preparing for new years festivities. it's the end of the year, but it's also the end of the decade, which i'm having a hard time remembering. last time around it was a much bigger deal with the y2k nonsense and such. i spent new years 2000 babysitting for a family friend's kids. rang in midnight outside by myself with some grape juice and fleetwood mac's 'songbird', which is a beautiful song if you've never heard it. it's crazy to think 10 years has gone by - tail end of high school, all of college, and a couple of years in the real world. in the words of 'meet joe black' - 'don't they go by in a blink.'

walking in a winter wonderland

hi everyone! just woke up from an amazing nap. we got hit with the massive winter storm that traveled up the east coast this past weekend. i was glad i wasn't trying to get home b/c, like the storm that hit this same weekend last year, i don't think it would have happened.

had a busy week this past week and a great weekend. had dinner on wednesday with dax, megh, and kjb at 'commerce', a cute little restaurant in the west village. we were celebrating, belatedly, katie's engagement. very much looking forward to her wedding in september, which will be my first dartmouth wedding believe it or not. should be a good time. thursday was our office party, which was at 'automatic slims' in the west village. i walked in and discovered that one of the bartenders was a girl i went to middles school with on the cape. small world eh?

friday night i played basketball and then headed over to megh's to visit with colin, who is back from overseas, newly into harvard bschool, and heading to hawaii for the next couple months. had a couple drinks at megh's and then went downtown to 'blackbear lodge' with dax for what ended up being a late night.

saturday vin had set up a bunch of apts to look at as we continue our efforts to prepare to move. saw a couple of great apartments in great locations which made us very sad that we weren't looking to move on jan 1, but we reminded ourselves not to 'name the puppy' and keep our fingers crossed that there would continue to be good apartments on the market come february. we stopped at 'astor wine and liquors' to inquire about buying a case of andre for new years, and was informed that we could go check out the spirit tasting event upstairs, which turned out to be pretty neat. sampled chocolate flavored tequila, pisco, and huckleberry vodka from idaho.

sat night mulley hosted a cocktail party, and boxa was back in town for more med school interviews. we got a little dressed up, grabbed some bottles of wine and headed over as the snow started to fall. by the time we were ready to head downtown it was snowing really really hard. cabs were impossible, so we traipsed down to the subway and began singing christmas carols along the way. continued singing on the train all the way down to canal street. the nyc version of caroling of sorts.

hit up mulley's brother's party in tribeca - not sure they knew what hit them - and enjoyed some eggnog and cookies, before heading around the corner to 'm1-5' for yas's birthday party. the whole night had a sort of 'last night of the term' kind of feel to it. nothing really to do tomorrow, some people around while some folks had already gone home and the snow coming down reminded me of the night kevin, kjb, boxa and i took a picture in front of the christmas tree in hanover. boxa will be back for the new years festivities.

today i played the first game of football i'd played since probably 6th grade with charlie and his roommates. there was a good 6 inches of snow on the ground which made it really fun to play. my less than stellar performance may mean i never get invited back, but i really had a great time playing.

getting ready to head home on tuesday for the holiday. found out today that my parents got a new german shepard puppy (sasha!) and were planning to surprise me when i got home. how cliche right? parents getting a puppy and surprising the kids. apparently she chewed through the christmas lights and has eaten the baby jesus out of the creche, but i am so excited to see her! now that i know my mom sent some pictures. so CUTE!

no peeking til christmas

seems to be a rash of folks losing cell phones lately. vin both lost and found two over the weekend. one randomly - no idea where she got it - and the other her own. left it at hook during disney pong yesterday and fortunately they still had it. you'd think people would lose cell phones more often. it's the one thing you don't leave home with out, which you would think would make it the one thing you lose the most. hmmm.

ridiculously delightful weekend filled with fun, friends and festiveness. kicked it off on friday night with a reunion with my old coworkers. we joshed and caught up on old times, and then i made a grown up decision to go home and go to bed. that was smart.

sat vin and i checked out a couple of apts in anticipation of the pending move. it's been 2 years since we looked for apts and lots has changed (hi lehman brothers) so it's a different scenario than we remember. we're optimistic that we'll be able to move downtown and have a little more living space without paying through the nose, but who knows what it will look like come feb 15th.

we then joined some of vin's friends from hs for the tail end of santacon. santacon, as we learned, is not a bar crawl, but a convention, of folks dressed up like santas, reindeer, christmas trees, bacon (?) and assorted other costumes moving from place to place to drink. i don't know - sure sounds like a bar crawl to me. crazy to see tons of santas all over the place. if i had had more to drink not sure i wouldn't have known what was real and what wasn't.

i couldn't hang out for very long, as i had to go meet my cousins and assorted family friends for a chinese dinner in midtown. to be fair, it was near where they were seeing a play, but i don't usually go to midtown for chinese. good to see those folks, and then we attempted to wander over to 30 rock to see the tree/window shop on fifth avenue, etc, but it was jam packed with people and it just wasn't a pleasant shopping experience. festive, but not particularly pleasant.

came home for a bit of a rest before boxa and mulley came over to pregame before heading out. boxa is in town this wknd and next to interview for med school residency - here's hoping nyc extends her an invitation (ala rush? maybe. are there poorly crafted snakes with glitter?). headed down to meet up with linsalata at a duke party for a portion of time before all the d kids decided beruit sucks and headed to hook.

at hook i ran into a kid i'd been interested in from a few weeks back, and i am pleased to say it didn't take much to close that deal. there was some making out outside the bar, making out on the sidewalk, making out in cabs, etc. meanwhile, vin had given linsalata our keys but neglected to tell him where we lived, which made it v. difficult for him to use said keys to get into our apt. fortunately he did not have to sleep on the street.

sunday the pong kids had been working all week on constructing another pong table to set up at hook to use when playing large social games of pong. like on tuesday me and hearn went to home depot to buy the wood and the stain and we stained the tables in between pong games. we managed to get the table set up around 1 on sunday and commenced playing disney pong, a game we made up kind of like world war 2 in that everyone is a different character and has different rules. i was belle, so had to drink whenever the beast drank and was also on team 'princesses' so we were attempting to win the game. there wasn't really a way to lose b/c you could five in five to get back in, and things deteriorated quite rapidly. eventually had to leave b/c linsalata and i had dinner plans and then were going to see the rockettes, but i hear the game continued for a few more hours, leading to some serious hangovers this morning.

linsalata and i capped off the weekend with some delicious lobster mac and cheese on the les, before going for a ride on the times square toys r ferris wheel (LOVE that thing) and then the show at radio city. thoughts on the rockettes: some parts were ridiculously cheesy, the precision part was very cool, it was not non-secular at all - they don't call it the 'christmas spectacular' for nothing. glad we went, a fun way to close out a crazy weekend.

in other news plans are in full swing for vin and i to host our new year's party - this year at olverson's apt. olverson is an '06 from duke who plays pong with us. if you want in let us know. me, ceppos and cody also successfully registered to run the 'covered bridges half marathon' in woodstock, vt the first weekend of june. this is pretty much the only thing i really want to do in life right now (well this and drive cross country) so figured might as well get on it. plus - three weekends in a row in nh/vt in june? pick me.

oh the places it snows

--- Forwarded message from Dr. Seuss ---

To: (Recipient List Suppressed)
From: Theodore.S.Geisel.25@Alum.Dartmouth.ORG (Dr. Seuss)
Subject: Would You, Could You in the Snow?
Date: Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:06:59 -0500

Snow! There's snow! There's lots of snow!
Lots and lots of snow to throw!

You can throw it if you're cold,
You can throw it if you're old,
You can throw it if you're young,
You can throw it with your tongue!

You can throw it on The Green,
You can throw it at your dean!
If in the BEMA you get lost,
Throw your snow at Robert Frost!

At midnight there will be a fight!
A snowball fight this very night!
Come jump and shout and sing and dance!
Come put snow down someone's pants!

Come and throw some snow with me,
You will like it, you will see!

~Dr. Seuss

forwarded along from my sister - this made me really happy. :)

tgif (thank god it's festive)

'important' questions linsalata has asked for my opinion on in the last month:

q: would you advocate a pong table at your wedding reception if it's a dartmouth wedding?

my a: YES. particularly if it's a dartmouth wedding. one of diana's friends got a pong table (painted of course) as a wedding present. remember, i'm classy. low classy. and i know what people like to have fun.

q: at what age does it become inappropriate to pass out drunk on somebody's couch for the night? and relatedly, at what age does it become in appropriate to allow people to pass out drunk on your couch for the night?

my a: mid-thirties if you're not married, a year into your marriage if you are. sometimes passing out somewhere is the most responsible thing you can do (but i frequently have to leave events b/c i'm done. so maybe that's not true for everyone). in the words of a recent ggmm: 'the drunkest" is exactly the same as "the most popular." or at least that's what I tell myself.'

kicked off the holiday season this morning by standing with my colleagues on the 30 rock rink and singing 'we wish you a merry christmas' 20 times (literally) for the local tv station holiday greeting. it wasn't too cold, was a very cool view, apparently i have a good singing voice and it was a fun, festive thing to do, but i never want to hear 'we wish you a merry christmas again'. look for me on your local nyc tv channel in the upcoming weeks.

christine is coming down to nyc for the weekend. lots more festive activites are in store, particularly since she's never been here to do the touristy thing (only the drinking thing). there will be some of that as well - it's dana's bday party tomorrow night - but we hope to get in some fifth ave, times sq and 30 rock in between the drinking and dentisting. ceppos will also be in the city on sunday night for a last minute brief trip. hooray for good friends and good times.

i work in midtown and this time of year i like to walk home along fifth ave. sometimes it's cold, and there's always tons of tourists milling about, but it embodies the holidays (commercialism?) and it's fun. :)

have a cup of cheer

happy december! thanksgiving was so late this year that it seems like december is here too soon. but will do my best to get into the holiday spirit! i pick vanilla, nutmeg, peppermint and balsam scents for the next couple weeks and the nutcracker on sunday with the girls to kick off the season.

had a delightful, low-key thanksgiving on the cape. super nice to have nowhere to go and nothing to do. a few overheards from thanksgiving at the lyon household:

1. 'wow. i'm a nice guy.' - my bro on finding out he lent me a bunch of money to get home when i 'lost' my bag at xh over homecoming. for the record, he is a nice guy.

2. 'we had a nice chat about politics. then he invited me to fix his chainsaws.' - my brother's friend 'bb' on my dad. that's my dad in a nutshell. politics and homesteading. what he'll do with three working chainsaws thanks to bb is anybody's guess.

played pong on saturday night in our basement. our kitty, who is not so little itty bitty anymore, was fascinated by the pong ball bouncing back and forth. she would stalk it from the floor and leap up onto the table and chase it while we hit and then lie down in the middle of the table for a rest. we decided it was 'pong 2: attack of the cat' and that she counted as environment, but it was hilarious. i wish we taped it (cue 'i love college').

everyone knows that what goes around, comes around, particularly in fashion. it's no secret that the 80s are back - just walk into h+m or bloomingdales. but i remember the last time vests, tights and flannel shirts were in (circa 4th grade i think?) and i'm so scarred by some of my fashion choices at age 10 that i'm hesitant to try again.

fairly certain that most of the blog readers already know about this site, but if i haven't gotten around to telling you, check out fratmusic.com. in a move that i am kicking myself for not thinking of, they've collected all the best frat music from around the country and have some killer playlists - country, for the ladies, throwback rap - perfect for keeping your finger on the pulse of new music if you're not on my basement music distribution list. and if you needed more proof that they knew what they're doing, they have a new christmas mix. what did my senior in college frat brother spending thanksgiving doing? making a christmas mix. :)

and lastly, to celebrate the first of the month, december's chicken soup with rice:

In December I will be
A baubled, bangled Christmas tree
With soup bowls draped all over me
Merry once, merry twice
Merry chicken soup with rice