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well friends - per usual, i am a delinquent when it comes to this blog. twitter is a much more reliable method if you want my latest thoughts and scathing social commentary, but even that has sort of taken a backseat lately. work has just been insane - haven't quite been able to put my finger on why it's been so bad but i suspect it has something to do with google, being on the leadership team for the first time in my career and the fact that the CFO and the GM of my company are in SF.

never felt this sort of all-consuming focus and energy on work before - i've worked hard, yes, but this feels different. maybe b/c i'm out of work practice after 3 mths of leisure time? unclear. but if it's not better by december there's going be a problem.

aside from that the last few months have been pretty great. had a blast in michigan at the jimmy buffett and jackson browne concert at comercia park in detroit in july. sooo glad i went to see jackson browne - he played a great set that had me in tears (the pretender, that girl could sing, boulevard, red neck friend, somebody's baby, take it easy). definitely want to go see him again. it was great to catch up with charlo and learn more about the midwest. it's definitely a different mindset than the east coast.

was back out in michigan over labor day - last saturday we went to the michigan game in ann arbor. it was super fun to pretend to be college football fans for a day and the weather couldn't have been better, even if i did have to do a work conference call in the middle of the tailgate. my plan to be very sneaky and professional on the call even if it was mid-tailgate was blown by my boss - a michigan alum- when he called me out at the beginning of the call. so yeah. we left at half time but not before the michigan band did their james bond themed performance of 'from ann arbor with love' which involved 007 flying a jetpack over the wall of the stadium - yes a jetpack. we're ann arbor was a blast - college towns are where it's at.

i also participated in my first hash experience - hashing is kind of like a combo of running, drinking and rugby and/or SD meetings. we were running on trails following the trail left by the 'hares' in this park in ann arbor. it looked/felt a bit like new hampshire so it was a nice way to celebrate labor day and i don't get to run on trails too often. we went to a pool party afterwards with the hashes and ate rice krispie treats - all in all a lot of fun.

a couple of weeks ago we got a gang together for a unique nyc experience - we went out to the honorable william wall - the manhattan sailing club's floating clubhouse. it's anchored out near ellis island and you get a ticket for the tender out to the what is basically a large boat with a liquor license. it was a total blast and another perfect day for drinking on the water with a gang of hooligans including vin, fahey and cody. highly recommend it - it's something we should have been doing all along.

thursday night ceppos and i got last minute tickets to the red sox / yankees game in the bronx. we had wheelchair seats, which actually turned out to be perfect b/c the seats were padded and we didn't have to climb over anyone when we needed beer (often) or the bathroom or an obscenely calorie-filled jumbo bag of popcorn. it was a beautiful night for baseball and a great game - even if the stadium was only 2/3 filled and we took a lot of razzing for being red sox fans. one yankee fan helpfully told me that i could burn in hell but his mother raised him right so i should fix my shirt so my thong wasn't showing. who says yankees fans suck?

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood - clear, no humidity and sunny - so i'm going to run some errands and spend some time outside - but i mostly wanted to post b/c there's been so much good music lately - between fahey's long distance running mix and the billboard top 200 - so here's what i'm loving:

• guitar singer - crossin dixon - this was a yankee's player's at bat song. kind of alabama-esque
• tennis court & royals - lorde - her sound is really growing on me
• wait for me - kings of leon - wasn't a big KoL fan before but i'm liking this one
• red hands - walk off the earth - alternative quirk that's caught my fancy
• wildfire - john mayer - wasn't a big fan of JM before but i'm liking this one
• ways to go - group love - alternative quirk that's caught my fancy
• rock n roll - avril lavigne - loving this one and it's finally on itunes
• wobble - VIC - this one was all the rage in michigan - featured prominently at the b school bus tailgate. super catchy
• acapella - karmin - i like the sound and the composition
• all eyes on you - st lucia - alternative quirk that's caught my fancy
• mine would be you - blake shelton - sappy country - 'what's your all time high, your good as it gets, the best damn thing you lucked in to - if you asked me mine would be you'
• stompa - serena ryder - alternative quirk that's caught my fancy
• why'd you only call me when you're high - arctic monkeys. my guess is state dependent learning
• we own the night - the wanted - like it better than their other singles
• burn - ellie golding - not as good as her other singles but more of the same
• roar - katy perry - we saw them setting up for her in brooklyn bridge park before the VMAs
• boys round here - blake shelton - 'well the boys round here - ain't a damn one know how to do the dougie (you don't do the dougie?) no, not in kentucky' 
• sprawl 11 (mountains beyond mountains) - arcade fire - alternative quirk that's caught my fancy
• best song ever - one direction - like it better than their other singles
• better days - edward sharpe - van morrisonesque
• all night - icona pop - like it better than their other singles
• can't believe it - flo rida - he's done it again 

in other news - i finally gave in and bought a mac computer. it's amazing what having a working computer will do for your utility. once i figure out how to use it i mean.

and lastly but certainly not least - i'm in love with a wonderful guy :)

me against the music

not the biggest fan of spotify - i own most of the music i want to listen to and often times spotify doesn't have the artists (hi eagles and bob seger) or the versions of songs i want to hear, so i just buy the music and have it in the cloud with itunes (aka itunes match) to access on the devices i want when i want.

spotify does have one benefit though - it has the billboard top pop and country charts so it's super easy to go through what's sweeping the nation for us nyc folks who don't really listen to the radio.

back in an office every day so i caught up on the spotify latest this past week. here's what i'm digging:

• 'counting stars' - onerepublic
• 'we can't stop' - miley cyrus. took a bit but this one grew on me, esp after listening to it in the car after a saturday night out on the cape with boxa and fahey
• 'wake me up' - avicii - a little weird to have lyrics on an avicii song but i'm digging it
• 'beat it' - chris brown - anti chris brown but just too catchy not to mention it
• 'ride like the wind (klaas remix)' - heard this at the foxhole while i was home. ride like the wind is good - the remix makes it even better
• 'rebel beat' - goo goo dolls. is it 1997? maybe but still good!
• 'cups radio version' - anna kendrick - the radio version is a little more upbeat than the movie soundtrack version
• 'blurred lines' - robin thicke. duh

week one at work was good - getting back in to the swing of office, work, and gainful employment. heading out to the airport shortly to fly to detroit for the jimmy buffett/jackson browne concert. and i've got a hot date in michigan tonight. ;-)

Back in the NY Groove

Hi from the other side of 2013.

Back in the NY groove means back to work. So far our office has been freezing cold - I've been wearing my hat and scarf all day. Nothing kills motivation like being cold - was debating going to the grocery store and then just chattered out 'f it' and went home.

This is bad bc one of my goals for Jan at least is to eat out less. This is hard in NYC bc it's often just as economical to order take out and have a dinner and a lunch as to cook dinner. Esp when it's cold!

Other resolution type thoughts are to call my parents more - at this point I prob talk to them once every 2-3 weeks and Gtalk w my mom every few days. I also want to work out more - partially spurred by the Cherry Blossom 10K in DC in early April and hopefully the Cape Cod Ragnar relay in early May. Did my first kettle bell class in awhile on Mon - Tues and Wed were PAINFUL.

Had a delightful New Years Eve w v little drama. Ceppos and the boy hosted a party at their apt w lots of the NYC usual suspects in attendance including Cody, Mulley and Megh.

Vin also came in to stay for a few nights. We explored Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill on our quest for booze and baked brie. We also had a lovely diner w Rowena at a restaurant in the hood and discovered my new favorite dive bar Last Exit.

I have plans for everyone to fall as in love w BH as I have when I host my housewarming brunch at my apt next weekend. Not sure how 10 people plus my cousin is going to go over but looking forward to entertaining again.

Otherwise the LA boy is on my mind. Do I go see him? Forget him? Keep on as we are until he moves back? Keep on as we are until he doesn't move back? Been trying so hard not to mess it up (ie not drunkingly tell him how much i like him) that i may have already messed it up. Not sure but it's been 5 mths since we met and 3 since I've seen him and I'm still thinking abut him (and have started caring about Baltimore sports teams more than I ever thought I would). The Lord knows, and he's not telling.

a tale of two coasts

weekend update - was in nyc this wknd for the first time in a long time. the weekends are longer when you aren't coming and going all the time but i still would have rather been somewhere else. fortunately the next three weeks are crazy - so i'll get my wish!

had a great time hanging out in LA with kevin last wknd - went to a local dive bar by the venice pier and had some late night beach hanging out time after i had dinner with a cape friend. kevin initially told me an address to meet him at after my dinner which i assumed was his apt but quickly realized it wasn't when i got to the house and found it dark and some person looking at me like i was crazy when i rang the bell and said i was looking for kevin and standing on the sidewalk with all my worldy possessions in a suitcase. fortunately we sorted it out - kevin had been at a party at the house but they had left to go to the bar but the text hadn't gone through so i didn't get the update. we all had a good laugh and i went to meet them at the bar. i essentially always end up staying up to 5 AM or so EST when i'm out there - the time change causes the most trouble at night in my opinion - and while i'm def good for an all-nighter now and again two nights in a row often does me in.

saturday we went swimming in a friend's backyard pool and then for a bike ride up the coast from the venice pier to the santa monica pier. it's been unbearably hot and muggy in nyc for the last couple weeks but it was gorgeous on the west coast - felt almost like september out here - warm sunny days and cool nights. it was a blessing to have a bit of a break from the humidity. we went for a swim in the pacific and as i was floating along in the beautiful briney sea it was like this is really my life?

saturday night i met a guy at a dartmouth party - turns out he went to high school with my cousin in maryland and now is in LA doing an urban planning degree at USC. i definitely have a type and it's engineers and track guys (he pole vaulted in hs). we had a great time hanging out (he made me breakfast to frank sinatra on sunday morning. i chopped the tomatoes and olives.) and seems like we may stay in touch. if there's one thing i'm good at it's parlaying one night stands into relationships. we'll see but it's made me really happy all week. :)

this past weekend we went to see mulley's play on friday night - several of the nyc usual suspects came out including megh and pollypocket - was fun to see them. sat night was the dartmouth club of nyc event at the mets - we went to hear the GM of the mets (a d '69) speak and then to the baseball game. things went well and it was really gratifying to see folks from different classes interacting and getting to know each other. glad to have it behind me so i can get on with weddings, fun and friends! heading up to providence, ri on friday with katie and karla to meet up with swanny, maynard, whit, skips and laurak for robin's wedding. hooray for usual suspects, weddings and weekends in new england.

lastly it's just about my 7 year anniversary of living in nyc. how did it get so late so soon? i'm moving in 3 weeks and i cannot wait. i'm sick of my roommate, my roommate's cat and my apartment being too hot all the time. ready for what's next.

least said, soonest mended

when you're dumb, you gotta pay. let's leave it at that.

the most wonderful time of the year

impossible to focus today as we are within spitting distance of jimmy buffett 2011. we have a great crew coming out for the boston show this year - some veterans (linsalata, christine, caroline and yours truly) and some virgins (rowena, alex and kelly). we have rented a mini van to drive out to the concert and while i am slightly horrified by the idea of a mini van i think it will be hilarious when we all tumble out and it has the potential to be a great home base after we put down the seats.

i love love love just sitting around and boozing and having a few laughs and listening to good music, and while there are showers in the forecast, it's also supposed to be hot, which is vastly preferable to cold rain.

things that happened this week:

• i bowled a 160 last night at bowling. my old team is in an all media bowling league and we ended up winning the league! 160 was my pr so i was very pleased
  

• i heard from laurak! she is back on the main land and making her plans for diana's wedding in july. i also talked to whit who is planning away as well. can't wait for the mini reunion in a couple of weeks.
  

• we had an offsite for work on wednesday that involved the entire company breaking up into teams to write a song about our brand. we did ours to the tune of 'only girl in the world' by rhianna and put on hula skirts and sunglasses to perform. while walking through 30 rock back to perform someone commented on how 'natural i looked wearing a hulu skirt over my work dress and parading around the building'. little does she know . . . i am happy to report we won AND they announced we're getting new computers and a software upgrade. hot dog.

• i was officially elected to the executive committee of the d club of nyc. dax was elected co-vp and slaine was also elected to the committee. hooray for new blood!
  

graduation last weekend was fantastic. we drove up last friday on a gorgeous, lazy, hazy new england summer day so i could do an event on friday night at the salt hill pub for the dartmouth alumni association of nyc. the alum association bought the senior class some drinks so they would listen to our pitch about daanyc. went over to 3 dorrance post event to play pong with tommy dickie and his cousins. was happy to see that 3D is still a ledyard/climbing house and they were very nice to let me indulge my 6-years-after-graduation craving for pong.

saturday was cold and wet so i hung out in my sister's room in the choates (she's still up there working c&r and then will be back for her soph summer - '11X WOO) before doing lunch at the canoe club with my family. my main thought was how lucky i was to be sitting there surrounded by my grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousins, cousins in law and sister. a few months ago it wasn't even clear if my grandmother would be able to make it at all and i am happy to report that after a hip replacement, she is doing much much much better. will be seeing them again on the cape in a few weeks.

lastly i have recently found myself in a bit of a romantic entanglement ('avoid entangling alliances' - george washington) that i am cautiously optimistic about. it has me singing of lots of corny musical songs but i mostly keep thinking of the billy joel song 'the longest time':

Maybe this won't last very long
But you feel so right
And I could be wrong
Maybe I've been hoping too hard
But I've gone this far
And it's more than I hoped for

Who knows how much further we'll go on
Maybe I'll be sorry when you're gone
I'll take my chances
I forgot how nice romance is
I haven't been there for the longest time

it really has been an awfully long time since i thought this way and who knows where it will end but it's making me happy. will keep you posted. :)

round up

here's what i'm thinking about this afternoon:

boy woes - no one would read this blog if i didn't throw a tidbit or two in here now and then.

• boy #1 - have hung out with him a couple times now - both times ending in me sleeping platonically in his bed. not sure what's going on here but if sleeping is all i'm doing in a bed i'm going to do it in my own apt. do have to acknowledge, however, that boxa sent me a great postcard awhile back that says 'damn right i'm good in bed - i can sleep for days'. amen.
  

• boy #2 - have what i would consider great chemistry, enjoy hanging out/talking to each other and we're doing it more and more, but he continues to tell me how many dates he's going on, how he just wants to go to places to meet girls, etc. meanwhile i just want him to ask me out dammit. he just broke up with his fiancee, so i suppose it's not only to be expected, and it's not something i want to get myself into right now, but at the same time - irritated. i am greatly enjoying the verbal jousting and flitzing though.
  

charleston

had a great time down in south carolina for an extended long weekend. ended up with some warmer than expected weather (75!) and actually got a bit of a tan, which was a nice reminder that spring is on its way eventually. it's funny to watch your parents interact with their parents and to see the pictures on the wall of your parents before they were your parents. my grandparents have a picture of my mom with long hair, wearing foul weather gear and drinking a beer on the deck of their sailboat the 'cygnet' from back in the day. kept looking at that picture while i was there and being reminded that our parents had their own hopes, dreams and plans before we came along.

my dad has just gotten an itouch and in typical 'man in the yellow fleece' behavior, kept looking for wifi EVERYWHERE we went so he could check email and send pictures. this ranged from the outdoor market downtown (no), dinner on sun night (yes thanks to the hotel across the street), to the seafood market in mccleanville, sc across the dirt road from the shrimp boats 50 miles north of charleston (no. they hadn't even heard of wifi). his go to location was the dock across the street from my grandparents house (the neighbors wifi came across the pond).

my dad is also super conservative, as is my grandfather, so there was a lot of of fox business watching, price of gold and the alarming trends in the stock market discussion, and reading of laura bush's autobiography and 'the fourth turning', or 'what the cycles of history tell us about america's next rendezvous with destiny' (hint: it's not good). really made me feel more optimistic about the state of the world let me tell you.

other

• loving that it's lighter out later. and daylight savings in 3 weeks!

• toenail polish color of the moment: escapades

• listening to: 'we are the people' - empire of the sun, 'never gonna leave this bed' - maroon five, and '(sitting on) the dock of the bay' - otis redding (see aforementioned wifi scenario)

in the words of a girl i used to babysit, 'that's enough'. going shopping for spring shoes to match the spring dresses i bought this wknd. it is not too early for peep toe shoes in my opinion.

check that off the bucket list

i know i've been a delinquent on the posting front. had a bit of a crazy week and a very crazy weekend down in dc with lingley, so forgive me?

last year over mlk the party went to linsalata. this year the party went to lingley. sat afternoon lingley and i went shopping in an area of virgina where we were afraid for our lives. we decided to have lunch at the olive garden and discovered there was a woman passed out drunk at the table next to us. this was at 1 pm in the afternoon. #youcan'tmakethisstuffup.

sunday afternoon i went to the museum of american history in dc. i love this museum - looking and reading and learning about our country's history give me chills (yes i am a dork). i saw a really cool exhibit on the wars the US has been in and then the first ladies exhibit. i also love that they refer to the museum as 'your museum.' good work government - i guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.

even though i was devastated by the patriots' loss on sunday, i have to say that someecards has had some hilarious cards lately including: 'i bet mlk would have approved of the patriots' non-violent resistance this weekend.'

spent some time on sunday contemplating what would go in a 'money shot' shot, as surprisingly, it doesn't already exist. it's got to be white obvi, and frothy if possible. i was thinking maybe bailey's shaken in a shaker over ice with a splash of goldschlager? any other ideas? may have to ask dana to concoct something.

speaking of money - some money quotes from the weekend: 'he lost his one-legged virginity to you?', 'you decided to bring out the puppies tonight huh?' and 'those sound like all the ingredients for a one-night-stand.' i'll let you decide who said them and what they meant and when i read this again in a year i hope i remember as well.

i'm playing on a flag football team this winter with some of the kickball kids and we had our kickoff party on thursday. ended up running a beruit table with my new columbia '03 friend until the wee hours. can only make one of the games, as they're on saturday, and i'm out of town a lot, but it's fun to make new friends and i'm looking forward to participating in a more sport-like activity than kickball.

was laughing about this website - seacaptaindate.com - last week. can't really tell if it's real or a joke, but if it's a joke it's very well done, especially the promo video. was discussing this with several people last week when i had an epiphany - LAURAK IS A SEA CAPTAIN! so shot her off an email asking her to investigate when she gets back from sailing in the south pacific. heard back from her - she's exploring the islands and eating crepes at food trucks before heading out on a few trips. she'll be back stateside in march

headed up to hopper's farm in vermont this weekend for #rw: vermont 2011. we've got more people and less dignity - this should be interesting. other trips on the table include new haven for harbour/dartmouth-yale hockey, hanover for winter carnival and charleston to see my grandparents.

off to dinner with mulley in the hood!

sunshine state

greetings from the not-so-sunny sunshine state! seriously it's raining and like 45 out. december is pretty hit or miss. hopefully it'll warm up for the weekend - i want just one beach day please!

continuing my whirl-wind tour of the east coast, i am down visiting my grandparents for a couple days. it's a rough time to be out of the office as the end of the year is fast approaching and it seems people at my company are really not going to be around much through the end of the year, but sod it. i hate being out of the office when other people are working - just feels like i'm doing something i shouldn't. but answering emails from my grandmother's couch is vastly preferable to my desk, so i'll deal.

alert readers will already know that i'm super close with my grandparents. oldest grandchild means we've always had a special bond, and i lived with them down here when i was in college junior winter. they're getting older (not surprising) and it's tough to see them moving much more slowly than they used to, especially my grandmother. she's still very with it and wants to be active, but has had a leg issue for awhile now that's kept her from driving/walking very much, and i know it's hard for her. they live by themselves, though frequently have company, but i'm realizing how difficult things that used to be easy for them are now. i guess this is part of me getting older too, but i'm very aware of this these days, and it's only one of the reasons i'm really glad i can spend time with them this trip.

in other, happier, less serious news, i had a great trip to dc last weekend for the inquiring minds. was wonderful to catch up with aida - in arlington, va you can live in the penthouse of a complex, with a pool, parking space AND a bar within walking distance where you can get 5 drinks for $20 bucks. (said bar is the 'tortoise and the hare', motto: hop in, crawl out). something to be said for virginia!

aida and i did brunch with lingley and then bummed around dupont circle/lingley's apt sat morning, including three separate trips to ann taylor loft, when the girls decided the jeans i had packed were not the right kind for the top i had bought for dinner saturday night. met up with the boy saturday afternoon, and i am happy to say that it was really fun. surprisingly wasn't all that awkward - we had lots to talk about - went for a constitutional in the park near his apartment, out for a great dinner at 'birch and barley' and then a couple drinks at 'cafe st. ex' (named after the author of the 'little prince') where we did a bunch of whiskey shots with the bartender (oh my). really glad we decided to do it and it's always nice to talk to someone who doesn't already know your life story. not sure what's next, but good stuff all around.

monday night was the dartmouth club holiday party. mulley came to help out, and we had planned to watch the patriots/jets game at a bar afterwards. 9:30 rolled around, and the party was still going pretty strong, so we joined slaine, dax and some of the other merry-makers down in the bar room of the yale club to watch the game. ended up drinking several dirty martinis (trouble!) and sleeping in the grammercy apartment of a yale '98. there is something to be said for boys over 30, and that thing is amazing apartments. seriously - gorgeous. this kid's name pretty much sums up the entire experience, but i can't post it here in the interest of protecting the guilty. his last name is related to the 'little house' books and his name for short is a color. that ought to give you an indication. we're supposedly having dinner next week - i'll report back.

that's the word from florida. have christmas trees to set up, and doorbells to fix for my grandparents. such is the price of admission. :)

what $150 buys you in the poconos

• room and board in a 20 person house for three days. i heart house parties
  
• epic icing scenarios
• all the alcohol we could drink (and a lot we couldn't) including a bottle of hot damn. YES.
• a hot tub
• three semi-serious injuries including two hot tub wipeouts and a sore butt from falling down the stairs
• several not-serious injuries. but everything hurt on saturday morning.
  
• repair for the broken sheet rock wall in the basement that resulted from the fall down the stairs (side note: it seems no one has a picture of this. how is this possible? i literally felt like i had been blasted in the chest by a spell ala harry potter and flung down to the button of the stairs. this happened on thursday night, about 2 hours after i arrived. i joke about the #1 rule being no death but sometimes it hits a little too close to home)
• impromptu dance parties with fantastic music including multiple replays of 'dynamite' and 'the club can't even handle me right now'
• 4 group viewings of the pirate porn
• several rounds of ugly christmas sweater flip cup (of course i won. hi kickball)
  
• a trip to the poconos brewing company in our ugly sweaters. people thought we were teachers.
• quite a few compliments on my breasts
• two hungover trips to an outlet mall where nothing was purchased. i texted ceppos that i probably shouldn't have been out in public at that point
  
• an opportunity to see a grown man wear a purple fleece onesie (without feet) THAT HE FOUND IN THE HOUSE out in public
• two epic freakouts over rearranged furniture. we're talking 'couches stacked to the ceiling blocking the means of egress' furniture arrangements
• three nights of post-3 am bedtimes
• lots of beruit practice
• the nickname 'mackrel'. apparently i accessorize with fish more than i realized
  
• amazing food all weekend courtesy of lopez and amy (pot roast and beer can chicken. i don't eat that well at home)
  
• a round in the hot seat during a game of kings - 'does the carpet match the drapes?' 'how many people here have you slept with?'
• deer and wildlife sightings
• 11 new friends and one special friend ;-P
• one kick ass weekend to celebrate lingley's 26th birthday #wewerethereanditwasawesome

the music faves from the wknd:

1. ke$ha - 'blow' and 'we r who we r' - both off her new album that comes out 11/22
2. trey songz - 'bottoms up' 'bottoms up bottoms up what you got in your cup got a couple bottles but a couple ain't enough'
3. chris brown - 'yeah x 3'
4. pitbull - 'hey baby (drop it to the floor)
5. rihanna - 's&m' 'b/c i may be bad but i'm perfectly good at it'

october

october:

“There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood --
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name. ”

if september feels out of place, october feels like it was made to fit exactly where it does in the calendar. day dreaming about carmel apples, corn field mazes, pumpkins on fences, swirling leaves and witches against the night sky. effectively word porn. and why is it that paper stores like 'papyrus' and 'kate's paperie' have such adorable festive holiday windows? i want to go in and craft everything. or buy decorations at exorbitant prices. well done paper store marketers!

spending a lot of time cleaning the apartment and tossing things out with the upcoming move at the end of the month. after five years of living in apts and almost three years of living in this one, with the same pictures and things on the wall, i figure it's time to make some real choices and hard decisions about what moves with me and what doesn't. like the next phase of my life kind of i guess.

i grabbed dinner on friday after work with celestia, and then headed to an apt party where ece and i shot gunned beers in the bathtub before we went to dylan murphys - our typical friday night routine. went to see 'the town' earlier today. a lot like 'the departed' but it was nice to have a dose of boston in nyc. i have a bunch of coupons that get me into movies for $7.50 at any time of day that have to be used up by the end of the year, so trying to take advantage of them and i rather like going to movies by myself. fortunately there are a bunch more that need to be used up.

old end of the world pop song '1999'. new end of the world pop song (and my current fave b/c it's stuck in my head, not b/c it's good): '2012' by jay sean. check it out.

had a glorious weekend weather-wise in nyc: clear and sunny. sat out on the terrace for what is probably the last nice day before i move and actually got a tan. the morning glories are loving the weather - more in bloom now (and until late in the afternoon!) than they ever were this summer. check them out.

spent a lot of the last few days debating whether i wanted to go down to dc this coming weekend to see the boy i met at kjbb's wedding. after lots of thought, and several drunken polls, i decided against it. i do want to see him but with the move and schedules things just weren't falling into place. we're going to have to be email buddies for a little bit longer.

lastly, did something new and different for me on wednesday when i had a date with a boy in nyc. we went to 'la biblioteca de tequila' - this fantastic tequila library in midtown that rowena had told me about. highly recommend - it's in the basement of a restaurant on 40th and 3rd. this turned out to be a problem when i was sitting downstairs wondering where the fuck this kid was for 30 minutes and he was sitting upstairs no doubt wondering the same thing. we managed to meet up eventually and had fun but it remains to be seen if the movie-like initial awkward first date will turn into a hollywood ending.

sorry for partying

so i realize i have been remiss in posting and it has come to my attention that people want a post. this is because my computer is still being ridiculous and randomly shutting itself off, which doesn't make me want to turn it on, and i started my new job this week so i actually have work to do. after 3 years of working with the same people i'm getting used to a situation where no one knows me and i have no good will built up, and it's a new role, and the situation totally sucks. you really really are dependent on the kindness of people when you start over.

the reunion was amazing. so fantastic. the weather was beautiful so there was that haze over the green mountains and baker looked perfect in the early summer twilight. i'll do a run down of events

- drove up with robin - she's been in class for interior design and she and the boy are buying an apt in bklyn so she'll get to put her skills to good use.

- me, allette, karla, robin, laurak and huyett were in a cluster on the 4th floor of wheeler. i brought my mini speakers and we listened to 'in my head' (JASON DERULO!) and 'bad romance' all wknd, complete with lots of shouting of 'i don't wanna be friends!'

- mainly hung out with the rowers and the sd usual suspects, including some quality time on the sd beach. thanks to a combo of being drunk, hungover or wearing sunglasses all wknd, i didn't have to talk to many people i didn't want to see

- getting into sd was going to be an issue b/c we didn't technically have access to the house. allette rang the doorbell and we befriended the '11 housemanager, who made the risky but right decision to hide her key so we could get in. sd was a bit of a scene all weekend with folks from lots of different groups hanging out. really glad sd is still a place where anyone can go and feel welcome

- apparently my lot in life is to change the music (although i guess i'm the one that feels most strongly about it) and i was happy to discover that the random 'sd pref mix' that i put on still has 'we are family' and then 'like a prayer' as the second song, to rock out to on pref night. that's an '05 tradition that's still around.

- richardson 309 is no more, as apparently they renovated the dorm and renumbered rooms. it truly is the stuff of legends though, and i sort of feel that like 'brigadoon', it will reappear every 100 years or something

- friday night stinson's was out of pong balls (amateur hour) so we were all sticking our stash down our boobs. need a pong ball so i ran over to psi u to beg one. in my haste to get back to sd i ran out the back door of the basement as a short cut. turns out there are cement stairs that i ran into full speed and fell into the bushes. lay there for awhile, stunned, before hobbling back to sd, where i insisted the girls pour keystone on my wounds to cauterize them 'civil war style'. i'm an idiot.

- went out on the river with the '05 crew girls on sat in an eight. it was so amazing to be back in a boat on the connecticut, but i have to say it's really hard to row hungover when your hands are shaking. we rowed up to the starting line, did some pieces and rowed back, including an all eight pause at hands away with the boat set up for about 5 seconds. skips has captured this feat on video. boo yah.

- had a nice little gathering at the d that megh set up. great to see those kids. i also acquired my own copy of 'guy and fellow', the comic strip that ran for awhile. this is particularly relevant as i wasn't the biggest fan of the comic as an undergrad, though the name of this blog comes from a comic, which the d directorate board knew. when they gave me a book (the party after you left - a collection of new yorker cartoons) for being staff writer of the year (one of the awards i'm most proud of) they inscribed it was an apology that they weren't able to give me the 'guy and fellow' anthology.

- sat night we had a lobster dinner in the BEMA. i had to prepare everyone's lobster for them, as apparently lobster eating is not a life skill that everyone knows. and then we headed back to sd to hang out more. i played some pong with a bg '12 who really needs to step up his game if he wants to be respected at bg. but it was fun to hang out. ended up playing pong until 7 am, just hanging out and playing when people showed up. it was so weird for it to be light out but we decided we didn't have to stop playing just b/c the sun was coming up. shuter and i closed down the basement, and then she walked me back to wheeler b/c she had promised laurak she would. it's nice to know oaths still mean something around here.

- the 'hard guy' tshirts made a reappearance with 'hard guy reunion: i didn't even go to this school'. well played.

- drove back to nyc with karla, who is going to grad school at berkley this fall for urban planning, and huyett who doesn't yet know what she's doing this fall. we were all on the struggle jet to struggle town, but we made it.

- someone's facebook album had a comment that 'they wanted to friend every '05 they went to school with'. it was pretty accurate. we're all obsessed with dartmouth and each other. karla and i decided there needs to be more of a commitment to getting together without major life changes like weddings. it's only going to be harder and harder for us to keep getting together and in the words of a raffi song 'the more we get together the happier we'll be.' :)

this past weekend was also ridiculous. friday night we did a ferry friday on a perfect night for it. had about 20 people come out for it which was fantastic. rode back and forth a couple times until we had drunk all the beer on the boat, so we got off and ventured into to statan island looking for a dive bar. we found one - karl's klipper. we all thought we were going to die, but we had some 'statan island ice teas', played some pool and then ventured back to manhattan to 'jeremy's ale house' in the financial district. went to 'commonground' and then down to the lower east side to a bar the boys like called 'vig 27'. drinking whiskey on the rocks was prob not the best idea, but i think it impressed the boys.

sat i rolled out of bed to go up to dana's bar 'dylan murphys' to be in a college-humor type video that a friend was shooting. my role was to look disgusted when the boys tried to pick us up with offense/dumb pick up lines (you girls on myspace?). then headed down to watch the soccer game with the crew. just kept on going out from there - things are a little hazy - i know i took a nap in the bar for a bit before ending up back on the ues at dylan murphys. things come full circle eh?

going to be a long week this week but my eye's on the prize of going home to the cape on friday for a week! wheeeeeeeeee! vin and rowena are coming along for the ride and my fingers are crossed for great weather and some fantastic fireworks. i need to go home so badly. can't wait to be where 'the wind and the water are free'.

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.

that's what you get for waking up at dartmouth

homecoming 2009:

after swearing that i would never go to homecoming again, this past weekend found me driving three girls up to hanover. got up to school around 10:30, way too late for any sort of bonfire festivities, but a few die hards were still running around the smoking pile of wood, and it was just so great to be back up north that we kind of didn't mind.

yas and i pulled ourselves together and headed to sd, where we hung out in the kitchen, did shots of gin (gag me) and kool-aid and peppermint patty shots. seriously - don't understand why people buy gin aside from at a bar with tonic. it goes with nothing. and shoots terribly. not something you want to have leftovers of.

ventured over to alpha chi to listen to a jam band and have some cider, but there were too many people to faciliate drunkness, so we headed to bg, where we pounded lots of tea in an effort to get drunk. there were kids in '13 shirts running around, which i have to say, there is no better way to convey that you are underage than by advertising your year.

ran into diede and linsalata for a brief stop at the chi gam dance party (aka mosh pit) and headed back to sae to play pong and get drunk. played a game of pong in the back room while some girl and her friend were having a wayyyyyyyyy too intense convo about whether or not her boyfriend wanted to marry her. less marriage more pong! linsalata and i played a pathetic game of pong and then the ebas arrived. we stuffed our faces and i decided that instead of sleeping at sae with a bunch of sae's, the better move would be to go back to sd.

made myself a bed on the couch in the sd library, which was slightly confusing when i woke up a few hours later on the floor attempting to use a coat as a blanket. but i think the fact there was an '03 and her husband sleeping on air mattress between my couch and the door means that i woke up, stumbled my way out the door and then decided it was easier to sleep on the floor than to try and find my way back to the couch.

sat morning after a trip to bagel basement with diede we managed to round up a game of harbour by 11 am in the sd basement, which quickly became 'take off some clothes when your boat gets sunk'. normally this wouldn't phase me, but my sister was playing and it was only slightly awk to think about getting naked in front of her, so we implemented a 'no nudity in front of siblings rule'. i have to say, that seeing how she's a month into her dartmouth career and already playing harbour bodes well for her. there was also an extremely attractive boy from middlebury playing in his boxers who at one point said that he didn't think anyone wanted to see him naked. every girl in the basement agreed that he was wrong.

post harbour played a game of social, then some more pong, then made my first kde appearance in prob a good five years to play more social. when we got there we discovered no one was in the basement, and not only was the music terrible, but you couldn't hear it in the room where we were playing, all of which confirmed my suspicions that i had pledged the right sorority.

not entirely sure what went down post social, but i suspect it involved a stop at psi u, and i know it involved a blacked out shower. woke up in the sd library at 9:30 with jenny fisher telling me it was time to go to xh for sd-xh tails.

arrived at xh on sd time - an hour after they began - and jfish and i played my bro, who was wearing a john deere sheet toga, in pong. lost pretty terribly, and then blacked out again until 12:30 or, when i blacked back in to dancing on a bench with aforementioned hot boy. this worked out well, b/c i also saw my ex for the first time in over two years (incidentally, the last time was at xh too). feel like those were pretty decent circumstances to re-encounter an old flame.

the night took a turn for the disaster when i went to leave and couldn't find my bag with my wallet, work bberry, etc in it. turned the first floor of heorot upside down, and enlisted the bro and sis to find my bag and stop me from flipping out. the main issue here was that i had to drive the girls back to ny on sunday and i wasn't sure how i was going to do that without a license or keys to get in the car.

post bag-flip out things got weird. my brother put me to bed on the couch in his room and tucked me in 'like a burrito' in an attempt to calm me down. then we had a nice chat about life and stuff and things before his door burst open and several '09 track team members came in. one snuggled with me, while the other got lectured by his girlfriend about how she was not going to sleep with him on my brother's other couch. then me and the '09 got off the couch and went to the track house where he looked (unsuccessfully) for an empty bed, and eventually we slept on a mattress in the kitchen. i did acquire a sweet pair of sunglasses, though the red plastic ray bans i really wanted were obsconded with by the '09.

got up early sunday morning to go deal with my crisis scenario in my brother's room, including cancelling my credit card, atm card, and ordering a new license from the state of ny. then returned to sd only to find that i had not actually brought my bag to xh at all, but had outsmarted myself by leaving it at sd. so. i have had no atm card these last few days and a new license is on the way. i'm an idiot. i am never telling my brother about this, as i'm fairly certain he would kill me.

made it back to ny uneventfully and put myself to bed at 7 pm. and that's what you get for waking up at dartmouth.

a sacrifice to the wedding gods: one white ann taylor cardigan

a note before i begin - started using the google share function - which i know a number of you already do. i like it, but between this blog, twitter, facebook and gtalk, i'm not sure who i'm sharing with what when. gets a little overwhelming.

on to last weekend:

charlo and i ran out of work pretty early on friday to get out to westport for kit's rehersal dinner. this was amusing b/c it was supposedly the first non-summer friday of the fall and i left at 4:15. to be fair - usually left about then during the summer too. but we managed to do all our work and relaunch our websites, so why can't we have fall fridays too? but i digress.

thanks to the wonder that is the metro north, we were the first people to arrive at the rowing club that the dinner was being held at, which was only slightly awkward. we wandered around and checked out the scene while we waited for the wedding party, family, etc to arrive. personally i wasn't a huge fan of having food next to the ergs (was rough enough avoiding booting during 2ks in the basement of the gym) but it was a lovely location. had delicious food, met some interesting people, had enough g+ts and wine to fell an elephant, and i made a toast to the couple. i have to say this was the first wedding in which i was genuinely happy for the bride and groom, so thrilled to be celebrating with them, etc. etc. not that i haven't been for the other events to date, but this is the first one i was really pleased to be a part of.

took the metro north back to the city on friday night (train trip #2) to crash, before a whirlwind morning in the city of gym and nails with my coworker and then back out to old greenwich (train trip #3) to the hotel we would be staying at that night.

after a stop to pick up champagne (i got you a bottle of cold champagne?) in town, we grabbed a cab to the hotel. said hotel used to be the head quarters for conde nast. how did we know this? there were all these really imposing stone pillars with 'vogue', 'house and home' etc, inscribed in them. charlo and i threw our stuff in the room, went to work on the first champagne bottle that had not been consumed while waiting for the cab, and did our hair and make up, before heading down to meet the bus that would take us to southport, location of said wedding and rehersal. (really could call this post '48 hours in south western connecticut').

ceremony was beautiful - first one i've been to in a church actually. kit had arranged the yale 'whiffenpoofs' (as charlo enlightened me, they are a premiere acapella group that travels the world) to sing 'all you need is love' ala 'love actually' for the boy. what i would like to know was did he really like a) acapella, b) love actually or c) the beatles? or d) all of the above? we then had said song stuck in our heads for the rest of the weekend.

we walked from the church to the reception at the yacht club down the street accompanied by steel drum bands. reception was a blast, mainly b/c all we did was dance. there was some toasting and dinner in there somewhere, but mainly we just danced our faces off. two particular favorites were 'living on a prayer' and 'don't stop believing' (no surprises there). could have been in a frat basement or just a formal (was dressed about the same). this was a harvard rowing wedding, so it's hardly surprising that erg test favorites were played.

we got on the bus to head back to the hotel when the best part of the wedding occured. while getting on the bus we 'discovered' a handle of dewars that someone had left in the geraniums for the bus, which we dubbed a wedding miracle. so the guests and the wedding party get on the bus and we're all taking hits off the scotch and we have a classic rock station cranked up and they're playing one amazing song after another. my favorite part of the entire wedding.

got back to the hotel and hung out at the bar for a bit with everyone. this is where said wedding sacrafice occured - my cardigan got lost in the mix. this is also where it became clear that i was going to hook up with one of the ushers. was a little cliche to be hooking up with wedding party members, but i guess that's why it's cliche - b/c everyone does it. this was also amusing b/c he was good friends with an '05 from d, so had been up to hanover several times, knew the drill, etc.
thoroughly enjoyed his company, though we had to get creative on locales - willing to bet you haven't thought twice about having a roommate in your actual room when wanting to hook up since you had the worst room draw number soph year. he also mistakenly told me that the train from old greenwich back to the city came on the :37, so after charlo and i had grabbed bfast and were ready to catch the train, we discovered the train actually came on the :05s, and we had just missed it. that's the last time i listen to a hook up for important travel details!

so we decided we would not be foiled by the metro north, and caught a train one stop east to stamford, to catch the express back to nyc (train trips 4 and 5), which got us in a full 22 minutes before the local would have if we waited for it in old greenwich.

so. lots of adventures, lots of fun. looking forward to the next one, which seems like it will be kjb next fall. that's going to be a good time. d tails on steroids - i think so.

the dog days of summer

i think technically the dog days are over, but you wouldn't know it. it is oppressively hot in nyc. not that i really thought we would escape the typical temps of summer in nyc, but i was hoping. we were doing so well for awhile there. i actually brought shorts to change into to the hook last night. there was no way i was going to be able to play pong in my work pants.

boston and hanging out with ceppos was delightful as always. we took a constitutional from 'rattlesnake' on boylston over to the bhp once i got in on friday night (trip took 5 hours - see previous post) and had a chance to catch up. played a lot of foose at the bhp and beat some kids as we usually do. i wish there were more foose tables in the world. but then, i suppose, it makes the appearance of one more impressive. diede and linsalata joined us as well; diede just started her job in boston, and linsalata was on his way to the vineyard (the lucky duck. more on ducks below).

went back to ceppos apt after the bars closed (constitutional #2) and drank some more, which put me over the edge, as i woke up wrapped in a beach towel on her couch, which i know was interesting for her roommate to walk in on, with only a vague recollection of how it came about. the vagueness includes someone else being involved, but that's the extent of it. more puzzled than anything else - but it was fun.

caught a bus down to the cape, where i immediately went to the beach. sat and sun were textbook beach days on the cape and it was good to be someplace where there was an ocean and a blowing breeze. am headed back up to the cape for a long weekend with celeste and diede a week from tomorrow. let's hope the weather holds.

all seemed okay with the family, so i am cautiously optimistic that this is behind us. i saw the new kitty, which i am calling 'bitty' b/c she is so little and itty bitty, but her real name is cora. she is, as my brother says, SO CUTE. and extremely little. and my dad has added two ducks to the chicken coop. yes. ducks. ducks are quite simply fantastic and there is little more to say on the matter.

back in nyc, i ditched my ticket to avenue q on monday night for a chance to play basketball at madison square garden with the bball team i play with in the winter. i was sad to miss the show, but i think i made the right choice. i scored a basket at msg - wheee!

dinner tonight with cody, and maybe celeste and coleman, who is back from france, and then sat is kit's bachelorette party, so look out nyc.

received an unexpected text last night from an unknown number - turned out to be the kid i hooked up with the first time we went to hook (ie - like 4 mths ago). his text literally was: 'haha. it's josh (side note: had no idea what his name was). we met/briefly hated each other way back at "beer pong" at hook and ladder." it's all coming back to me now. so may try to get a drink tomorrow night with him. why the hell not right?

and lastly - some big fun on the horizon. two weeks from saturday is the labor day jimmy buffett show in dc. have planning in the works for that, and vin is coming to argentina with my coworker and me in november! very excited for her to join. i suppose we better get planning on that front. sept and oct are going to fly by. 'there's just too much to see waiting in front of me and i know that i just can't go wrong'. =)

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

gk '09: twist

i want you all to know i got up specifically to update on gk, as i know inquiring minds want to know.

a couple of episodes of 30 rock ago, one of the tag lines was 'twist!', meaning the plot had suddenly taken an unexpected turn. this occurred last friday at about 5 pm when guy #1 asked if his third roommate could come along in the car with us. this was a 'twist' b/c i had spent last tuesday night talking to his roommate about why he should agree to go out with me for a drink in a non-pong/frat basement environment and see if we really liked each other. so now it was me, celeste and the three '08 sig eps in the car and we'd all be on campus together.

actually had a great time road tripping. the mix cds worked out great - something for everyone - and i heard a lot of songs that i don't listen to on a daily basis on my ipod. a trip down memory lane if you will.

we got up to campus around midnight. the green key magic worked it out so that a random party cd played 'since you been gone' as we drove into hanover, and then 'come on eileen', which the boys had been clamoring for all road trip as we drove around the green and into sig ep. celeste and i headed over to sd and found diede and my brother in the sister's room of sd. played some pong before moving out to the main room. kevin garland showed up, more wasted than i have ever seen him (he looked physically terrible) and we danced for awhile, before he disappeared. we headed over to chi gam to check out the scene, which did not impress us, and then i went to sig ep to find the boys (my coworkers had come up on thursday night), where i had an epic conversation about relationships and cheating with said roommate of interest.

spent the weekend referring to sigma delta as the 'room of requirement' (of harry potter fame) b/c of its ability to just provide whatever you need. for some reason there were several sleeping bags and umbrellas, as well as assorted other things we needed in there. sd always provides.

saturday morning i played harbour at xh with my bro and several members of the track team. this was my only priority for green key, so i'm glad it was accomplished. after bfast/lunch at the hop, went back to sd to play more pong/drink more. i took a nap on the first floor of sd (i had gone to bed at 5!) and then we headed over to sig ep for convention.

i've never fully explained what went down at convention the first time i went on the blog, but it was legendary and most of you know the story anyway. this time around was no different. i watched my brother drink 25 cups of beer in 5 minutes, and boot 4 times, which was a little unsettling. the event disintegrated into a boot/beer/red bull-flinging impromptu dance party in the basement of sig ep. spent about 2 hours dancing on a pong table, before we found some undergrads to buy us food (chicken filet with ranch, bacon and swiss!) and played more pong at sigma delt, where we ran into ceppos and the boy.

my coworker and i played a couple games with them, then it was back to sig ep for ebas and a walk home in the rain to pass out around 1.

grabbed bfast with diede at the hop, hit up the co-op for some new dartmouth flip-flops, and then it was back in the car to head home to nyc. celeste and i decided we wanted friendly's, which we made happen in short order (love the watermelon slammers), though the boys scoffed, and got rear-ended on the west side highway in stop and go traffic. it was chafey b/c i was driving a zip car, and it was the first accident i have ever been in, but the magic of green key was strong b/c the car had no visible damage and no one was hurt. waiting to hear back on this though.

carried on the fun of green key by going to olive garden with the boys once we were back in the city, which was a tourist-ridden endeavour, but still fun. was telling the boys how my mom thinks she's a failure b/c all of us kids grew up on the cape and don't know how to sail, and joe goes, 'your brother can chug 25 cups of beer in 5 minutes and you're wearing the same boot and beer soaked shirt you've been wearing for the last 24 hours, and you think inability to sail is why your mom is a failure?' (for the record i think my dad would approve) true to form, all my predictions about clothing and frequency of showering had come true: aka ruined and not at all.

not sure what's up on the boy situation - tbd - but it was a blast hanging out with all three of them, and i think there is more to come. it's hard to spend 10 hours in a car with someone and not come away either hating them or loving them (in the words of 50 cent).

speaking of boys, i went with my gut and told the boston boy he shouldn't come down this weekend. i wasn't looking at it as serious, and i wasn't really looking forward to him coming. breaking up with him sucked (it's hard to do) but i feel really relieved that i did and that i have the weekend to do what i want instead of get irrationally irritated for not listening to my intuition.

onwards and upwards.

love the wallpaper

went out last night for dinner with my cousin and her husband, and her maid of honor and one of her friends from home. went to dinner at nolita house (god i love their lobster mac and cheese) and then to a little speakeasy-type place in the flat iron district for a really good drink. i had a 'rumble' - with white rum, sugar, lemon and blackberries. yum! the wallpaper in this joint from far away looked like really ornate black flourishes and curly-cues, but up close you could see it was a very tasteful rendition of people doing the positions from the karma sutra. i want it for my living room.

throughout the night was texting with the boston boy, and with a ny boy i met a couple weeks ago. it was red sox-yankees last night, and the boston boy was texting me the highlights from the red sox side as they came back from a 4-2 deficit, and the ny boy was bummed the yankees were throwing away the win. to be fair, the ny boy clearly doesn't know me that well, but was highly amused by that.

speaking of red sox, went to a company women's network event yesterday morning featuring a conversation with doris kearns goodwin - a pulitzer prize winning author. she's written several books on presidents - abraham lincoln, the roosevelts, lyndon johnsons - but she also wrote a memoir on baseball (wait til next year). the moderator mentioned how she was the first woman to be in the red sox locker room, and doris corrected her that she probably wasn't the first woman to be in the red sox locker room, but she was the first woman journalist. also highly amusing. she was a great speaker, and it was really neat to see how someone who has worked with the most high-profile and powerful people in the country is really down to earth, and also does embarrasing things, and procrastinates. tee hee hee.