and so it goes

well kiddos - i suppose i owe you an update. been busy taking care of business, which makes the type-a in me quite happy, but doesn't really make for good stories or anything.

pretty quiet, low-key weekend filled with checkbook balancing, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, gym - all the things i don't get to do when i'm traveling during the weekend. friday night post-mash-up party, which vin enjoyed, i was less than enthused, though i'm glad we checked it out, we went and met up with my coworker and his friend from la. we were at a really dbish bar on the lower east side, which meant i got pretty depressed at the state of our options in the men dept in nyc. as vin pointed out, it was a pretty shitty situation on the whole, but it's really disheartening to look around a bar filled with the best girl/guy ratio you've seen in nyc yet and know that the majority of them are doing coke in the bathroom and thinking that talking to you = an automatic swoon. trying awfully hard not to do the 'grass is greener' comparison, but sometimes it just seems hopeless. so it was appropriate that my coworker sent around the link to this site today: love in the dumps. looks to be amusing, and perhaps the change in perspective that i need.

got up early on monday morning and went to the manhattan dmv to renew my driver's license, which expired on my birthday. was much less painful than i thought, and i'll have my new one in 2-3 weeks. was VERY glad to get that off my plate.

the other thing hanging over me was my taxes - as you prob know - our zipcode changed when we moved last march (i mean the city of new york was in the process of changing it, aside from the fact we moved to a different zipcode than the one we were in) and the payroll system at work didn't recognize it as manhattan, and stopped taking out manhattan taxes, so i owe the state of new york like 2k. apparently it is the employee's job to make sure that your witholdings are actually being witheld, so i encourage all of you to double-check your paychecks to be sure all is ship-shape, lest you find yourself in my situation. was dealing with penalty forms and nonsense and finally i just said 'fuck it' and did it through h+r block. $50 bucks, but if all goes well, then it will be '50 bucks well worth it' (ala the mighty ducks 2).

tomorrow night is bowling at work. we bowl in a media league, which is interesting, but it doesn't start til 8:30 on the west side of manhattan - aka about as far away from our apartment as you can get. regardless, i think i am going to throw down. too much taking care of business - i think it's time for some fun.

very excited for sat night in boston with some of the usual suspects (though the thought of another bus trip makes me want to boot. bus to boston: lather, rinse, repeat). this trip will be worth it i hope, as we'll get to see laurak, ceppos and hopefully elise. def feeling a little nostalgia for sigma delt and dartmouth, so it will be good to be in the company of like-minded spirits.

love band montages

if you haven't seen the literal version of the 'take on me' music video, from the aptly-named 'you should have seen this' list, then you're in for a treat: http://current.com/items/89390593/take_on_me_literal_video_version.htm

a few other good links today via ben's breakfast blog:

1. article exploring how many friends a person really can have. been having this conversation on-going with will, who thinks that it's weird that i can't really point to a best friend. i have lots and lots of friends - particularly girlfriends, which i think is the most important - and i don't mean they are my friends in the 'facebook friend' sense, but i don't know that i can say that one person is my 'best friend'. i like this definition of friends:

There are friends, ie people who know you well, you confide in, could ring any time day or night, nothing changes regardless how long it's been since you see them, have shared history, issues and pasts with, are always open and honest with you, and you know they will be part of your future.

has nothing to do with how frequently i see or talk to someone, but whether we're of the same mind. that being said, many of my good friends today were not in my life in anyway before college so who's to say who will be in my life in five years? or is it that after college you just make less friends? i would argue against that theory, but read it - brings up some interesting points.

and speaking of friends, a happy early birthday to boxa who turns 26 on thursday (hell of a lot of pisces around). thank you for putting up with my nonsense and i hope you sing, eat cake, drink and celebrate like i was there.

2. article about why the smartest people have the toughest time dating. explains SO much for all of us! didn't want to offend anyone by implying either they weren't smart or had a tough time dating, so i figured the blog was the best place to post this. but seriously the article makes some good points about what it means to have been labeled 'smart' growing up and how the same thought-processes and mindset that have made us successful in other areas of our lives is getting in the way of the dating part.

main recommendations:

1. stop being a snob about who you consider 'datable'
2. stop overthinking it and hit on the person already

rejection is a part of life. embrace it. viva la rejection! voila - that's it! i expect to be invited to all your weddings.

office move tomorrow means early release from work at 3 pm. prob is not the best idea to start drinking immediately, not if i hope to have any sort of longevity this weekend. have bought a super short, scandalous fuschia dress for sat night. pretty good odds a lot of people will see my boobs and/or my butt. hopefully not at the same time unless i've engineered it as such. ;-P

love the lovely friends

delightful weekend wrapping up here in nyc - i love seeing people i like a lot very often. in fact, i think it's one of the things that i am happiest about in my life post-college. they may not be across the hall or down wheelock street, but i get to spend a lot of time with people that make me happy and i love it.

in this case, i spent friday night hanging out with ally, who was in town for the night. met up with her at a dive bar near union sq (didn't know they had dive bars near union sq) that was kind of like a cross between the sd tv room and a basement or rec room from high school with a bunch of kids raiding their parents liquor cabinet. fun feeling - breaking rules and being scandalous and all that. ally is off to law school at gw in dc this fall - she's psyched about that, loving boston, and dating a guy who's totally into her. it was good to see her looking so happy.

sat, after a trip to the dentist (ugh), hung out with zana and huyett, who came down from boston for the night. had dinner with tunick - who's also doing very well. she's going to williams this fall to get her masters in art history, living in brooklyn, and running a marathon in vermont the weekend after green key.

all of us were impressed when she rallied to come out with us on the lower east side. we went to whiskey town, where we had originally wanted to have my bday party, and had many many gentlemen's lemonades and bud lights in cosies. really fun bar, good music, def think it should be a staple in the social repetoire. i also think we should throw a 'formal' there in may.

had a lazy sunday walking around the city in the sunshine, brunching at 7a and buying books before huyett and zana headed home and i crashed for a much needed nap. tomorrow is a big day - fingers crossed that the wall folks are coming bright and early at 8 am. really really hope they do - i want to move into my room once and for all. hope for the best i guess.

in other news, interesting article from the boston globe today about the ratio of men and women in certain areas of the us - 'a singles map of the united states'. as any nyc female will tell you, nyc is not the dating mecca that people think it is (thank you sex and the city). good places for men, where the number of single women outnumber single men, are the east coast and midwest, with nyc being the worst of all for women looking for a few good men. good places for women are dc, la, and san fran. it's looking like the new slogan for relationship destiny in the 21st century is 'go west young woman!'

incidentally, boston and the northeast do well for singles:

Greater Boston is unusual among large metro areas. It is one of the very few with a near perfect balance of singles - having just 1,600 or so more women than men - 604,960 men to 606,580 women. The entire region surrounding Boston and its immediate suburbs does well, too. Worcester; Portland, Maine; and Portsmouth-Manchester, N.H., also score among the top five for singles among small-medium-sized regions nationwide.

yet another reason new england is first in my heart.

web 2.0

well kiddos, seeing how i work in digital media, i figured i'd better give some of these 'web 2.0' apps a whirl, mainly so i can tell my boss whether we should investigate adding them to our mobile portfolio.

to that end, i have created a twitter account, which i have linked to this blog so that you can keep up with what i am up to '@ now' - thanks to keving for that terminology, all the way back to the days of 'pong @ now'. should anyone be inclined to try 'twittering' out as well, let me know and we'll 'follow' each other. i continue to say, the hallmark of web 2.0 is legalized stalking . . .

which brings me to my current favorite someecard (also on twitter!):

Rather than asking me how I'm doing, I'd appreciate it if you just spent your day waiting for my micro-blog updates

haha. oh someecards. i would be lost without you.

just went for a run in central park, both to remind my body that it knows how and to remind my head that it does stay light and there are enough people out and about to make it decently safe to run there this time of night. the whole place is poised for spring, even if the temperature doesn't feel like it. sprouting flowers about to bud, sprays of green, a certain scent in the air. sooo excited for spring.

wall watch (day 26): wall is supposedly coming on monday. cross your fingers.

current favorite song: leona lewis 'bleeding love'. she's like a gritty mariah carey. speaking of mariah, i enjoy 'touch my body' a fair amount as well. the video is great.

a house is a house for me

good news folks - we found an apt! it only took one month of stress and torture. it's on 77th and 3rd - we've moving back to the upper east side. we have to put up a wall, and we are super broke - but it has an amazing terrace and a dishwasher! (we're simple girls at heart). we move march 1 - cannot believe we actually managed to pull this off. am still in shock. and the best news is all our new neighbors: cody, celeste, charlo, dax and aida all live stone's throw away. yay!

valentine's day was celebrated with copious amounts of beer at desmonds. the highlight of the evening was when we discovered the dead mouse lying under the chair. at first we thought it was alive - given our drunken state - but as it hadn't moved in over 30 seconds, despite the fact the girls at the table were squealing and shrieking - we should have guessed it was dead. the best part is that apparently it had been there for over an hour before anyone realized it. yeah.

great gtalk convo with aida about the events that went down last night:

aida: he said 'i like you too' but not in like a romantic way
in like a 'i like turtles' way
me: crap
aida: or 'i like cereal'
aida: or 'i like mac and cheese'

ouch!

valentine's day also meant some fabulous links got sent. bittersweets. the website is despair.com. love it. also, laurak came up with several clutch links celebrating 'palentine's day' and 'barack obama left when he heard you weren't coming.' The linking to this website is in no way political, i just think the statements are hilarious and applicable to other areas of life.

am low country bound - off to charleston, sc tomorrow morning for an extended president's day vacation. my grandparents on my mom's side live there - that's actually where my parents met and got married. my mom will be there too. haven't been down to visit in like 10 years. looking forward to it. unfort, these grandparents aren't totally with the times, and don't have email or internet - so it's radio silence on the blogging bit for a few days. you can still get me on gchat of course and there will be stories to tell on the flip side.

enjoy the long wknd folks!

the way life should be

discovered two fun websites/blogs about maine whilst googling to figure out exactly where the term 'maine - the way life should be' came from. i quote that a fair amount, and yet we weren't sure that it was the state motto - something about 'vacationland' and whatnot on the license plate. according to one of the sources i discovered from my google search, the sign welcoming you to the state has that on it. i was just pleased to stumble on two intriguing ways to live vicariously in new england until i can get back again. please see:

1. the maine farmhouse journal
2. the way life should be

am enjoying reading these for the same reasons i take pictures of beautiful landscapes - so that when they show up as my computer screen cycles through i retrieve a little bit of my soul from nyc.

also stumbled upon an amazing blog for those of us in the working world - bnet.com.
affiliated with cnet.com, it's worth checking out simply for the 'office politics playbook'. worth its weight in solid gold.

had a busy wknd - caught up with many visitors from out of town. laurak dropped in for a visit from the west coast and some good old fashioned nyc tourist christmas activities. she's a little up in the air on the next round of plans for the upcoming months - perhaps a boat trip to mexico, and maybe even a job in woods hole. will have to stay tuned! mulley was back from london - had wine and cheese and clampuffs (courtesy of one of laurak's sailing pals) at her apt. she'll be back and forth btwn nyc and boston for the next week or so, hopefully ending up in nyc for new years! huyett also put in a late in the game appearance - she came down to interview with a nyc group this morning - hope it went well! and today is skip's bday. happy birthday bad one!

had a lovely drinks/dinner out with charlo and kit - discussed work and life and such. the evolution of these discussions is always interesting to think about - where we used to talk about classes we now talk about projects, profs now bosses, and going out clothes chat have been replaced by pros and cons of work clothes, but the conversation is still as enjoyable as ever. i think there is so much to be said for those people who have gone through these changes with you. and i have no doubt that there are several more cycles of conversation topics to go through in the upcoming years. =)

came home and lit my 'winter' candle, plugged in my white christmas lights and dialed up the itunes christmas playlist. had been feeling like christmas was cramping my style, but it was nice to unwind and enjoy it a bit. still - i wonder what's next!

cheers to you and yours

*also - it's just about the 2 year anniversary of this blog. wow - 2 years of my life chronicled publicly. i def post here more than i write in my journal. in the words of the grateful dead - what a long strange trip it's been. thanks for traveling with me!

the tide is high

informal poll:

q: if my office crush sent me a picture of a couch bearing his name with the following description:

"Bold Look, Clean Lines, Masculine Feel...
Yes, you would want to meet him and take him home"

and two trains leave their stations, one in chicago and one in boston, each going 65 miles an hour on a tuesday, does that mean he likes me?

in other office news, i was voted 'minister of fun' by my team today. i am responsible for creating and maintaining the office corporate culture and cultivating events where we drink, eat pizza in the big conference room, drag people to trivia nights, utilize the whomp it and the byob bar, and generally hang out and pretend we like each other. this is really reminding me of harvard's 'party czar' of my senior spring and the d's trip to the journalism conference in cambridge that term in which we attended v. few conference events and mostly drank ourselves into a stupor at the one party happening on campus that night b/c of the mcats. (note: there were four parties going on at d, despite the mcats. d's approach was bully for you if you're taking them). as our office sent the karoke machine, the play station, the fog machine, the lava lamp and the disco ball to the west coast in july, i have some work to do.

also, discovered this interesting magazine about business specifically geared towards women while 'researching' yesterday. it's called 'pink' - might be worth looking at more closely.

songs about rain

hey kids!

am back from extended tday vacay on the cape. nothing in particular to note - i ended up withdrawing from the world which was v. nice. i felt like i was more home from school than on vacation from work - although these days the line between work and schooling is quite blurred. slept 16 hours in one period which sort of surprised me - i didn't know i was that tired!

on the way back to nyc yesterday i took a brief stopover in boston and met up with boxa, mini boxa, lingley, huyett and reiten for lunch at legal seafood (my fave!) boxa was also exhausted from school but having a 'heigh-ho time' in her words. looking becoming in a green coat, she had until tuesday to travel back to the midwest. mini boxa is continuing her med school tour by heading out to u mich to interview on friday. huyett's bday is today - but she was off to argentina last night to see liz allen for the first real vacation of her real world existence. lingley was cruising up and down massachusetts with hal - good to see her however briefly. and reiten is down for new years in nyc. stand by for confirmation.

i realized i have way too many sweatshirts. and yet, cannot throw any away. i think i sort of have to be in a purging sort of mood for that though. i have an exeter sweatshirt of my dad's from 1973, and i have visions of similar sweatshirts when i'm as old as he is. trouble is, you have to move them and watch them fall apart, etc.

the 7 am forecast i receive on my cell phone every morning told me heavy rain for nyc today. of course, my galoshes are at work. typical.

i sent this column to ceppos last week - it's a bit long so i won't include it here. my grandfather has sent it to me several times - it's called 'never can say goodbye' by a '76 - about how no one can ever really leave/let go of d. best quote:

Where else on earth have so many smart people taken themselves less seriously for so many years?

highly encourage you to check it out. i always have tears in my eyes at the end.

now it is time to get back into it. nothing to do but smile (and go to xmas parties) for the next few weeks - so i'm psyched. gearing up for 2008 is going to take a lot of energy anyway . . . .

monday is a terrible way to spend 1/7th of your life. ;-P

the most wonderful time of the year

with the holidays upon us we are fast approaching the most wonderful time of the year. esp in the real world. less work, fiestas, opportunities to ruin your corporate persona, tons of candy and goodies to snack on during the day and shoot you into the sugar overload stratosphere around 4 pm . . . love it! to be fair though, i adore anything where normal behavior is temporarily suspended. which is why i liked finals. yeah you had to study, but all bets where off and if you had to cram five cupcakes down your throat to make it through, well dammit - eat those cupcakes!

with this whirl of gaiety comes a phenomenon known as the holiday party. i think we drank up our holiday party budget in june, but no one asked me, and as i am not the budget keeper, i am keeping my mouth shut. but this brings me to a point i was pondering on the subway the other day - karaoke. why on earth do people like karaoke so much?

i'm alright with it - it's not my favorite thing to do. i can think of several other things i would prefer to do than after getting drunk then singing along poorly to things. my theory for awhile was that people liked it b/c typically buttoned up folks could let loose and make a fool of themselves, but i'm a person who lets loose and makes a fool of herself pretty easily, and i don't see the appeal.

people do like to sing in the shower - does karaoke replicate that environment? does it make us feel better on monday morning - better able to stand up in front of the boss and present that powerpoint - when we see coworkers who have utterly embarrassed themselves singing on friday night? do we let our 'signature karaoke' song define us? i'm going to keep thinking on this, and may even start doing some informal polling. let me know if you guys have thoughts - i am utterly stumped (and thankful that we are NOT doing a karaoke party for holiday event).

in other non-related news - ceppos sent me this amazing link yesterday. rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs. she got it from her friend at tuck. a mere 1/2 hour later my brother sent it to me, proving what we all already knew - it takes an incredibly short time word to spread on campus. ;-P

and happy bday lingley! we wish we could celebrate with you!

61 degrees in nyc today. no wonder 'global warming' is one of the most searched terms on google . . .

links

a few interesting links - i thought i would put them all in one place

lucy's dating blog - the blogger from lifetimetv.com that we met at the quiet party. i find her blog v. amusing, and who doesn't need more insight on the dating life?

real simple blog - i ADORE this magazine. i think it has something to do with the magazine's layout. or else i really am type-a at heart. the blog is written by the editor. a little older - but just as harried and confused.

how to fix a broken ipod. bound to come in useful for some of you eh?

lame

i'm pretty sure that staying in and catching up on tv (more on this later) and then blogging before bed on a thursday night counts as being lame in nyc. thurs night is the equivalent of wed nights at d - so you can imagine the lameness that's ensuing (WHAT?!? you're not coming to meetings? what do you have like THREE midterms, a paper and the mcats tomorrow? oh you do? so what - skip!).

however, the staying in is my choice - turned down drinks at rink bar - ie - what they have at 30 rock when it's not below freezing and prematurely xmas - so that i could lie on the couch and catch up on tv. lie on the couch b/c i am so sore from the gym yesterday, and catch up on tv b/c i hadn't seen two of my favorite shows - the closer and burn notice - in about three weeks. i feel satisfied now - still totally in love with burn notice, and the closer - well - i'd like to run my team like brenda runs hers. =)

excited for tomorrow - friday of course - and then the office is having drinks for several people's last days in our division post work. i really enjoy hanging out with my coworkers - team lunch on friday we all sit around a big conference table and are snarky and crack jokes or discuss random things like the wiggles - add alcohol to that and you have drinks on the office. however, given the last time i went drinking on the office, i think i'm sticking to beer (see late june if you're just joining us now). of course, i do actually have work to do these days, and i don't just mean trying to beat the taxing lemmings level. lots of meetings to attend, conference calls to listen in on and documents to prepare. my day is practically booked. this is a nice change - esp when people in the office are going around being like - so what is you DO all day if you have nothing to do? i guarantee i will never find myself in this situation in my work life again. haha.

went to the mets game last night to see my sis who was down in nyc working at shea for the week. had decent seats given the fact it was a so-called 'big series' - lots of booing and cheering. my sis, who is a concessions manager at fenway, hooked us up with food and gave us the grand tour of the stadium. was pretty sweet. felt very vip. that's just the way i roll.

observations:

there is a homeless person who has been living at the far end of the block for about 3 weeks now. he has a cart and some bags and a tarp and he's there most of the time. i walk by at least twice a day - at this point i would imagine he recognizes that i probably live around here - prob doesn't know exactly where though. it does make me a bit nervous that he knows my regular routine, but otherwise it's interesting to ponder on teh way to work. sometimes i sort of smile at him, and i thought about giving him my old bed pillows when i got some new ones ($15.95 at tjmaxx -love it) but i didn't. mostly i guess i just don't know how to deal. i saw him in the liquor store on the next block on tuesday when i was in buying some wine. the situation makes me feel kind of helpless. and glad that i have a place to lay my head at night. very sobering all around.

some of the endless heat has subsided from nyc, though yesterday's torrential downpours made commuting hell. it was also interesting b/c i wasn't even aware it had rained so hard - i was still asleep when it happened. so the fact the subways were flooded was news to me. found out pretty quick when no subways were running up town and i had to walk all the way to work sweating balls. as my coworker said, why join a gym when the whole city is a steam room?

my current favorite song, though the video is weird, courtesy of diane k


send an air conditioner on sale and the answer to a 64,000 dollar question

enthusiastically welcoming

<-- have your (beef)cake and eat it too!

the women's crew team (ie - the '05 frosh team) has been reliving some memories of debauchery via picture sharing. the above picture was a cake for shuter's bday which many of the readers should recognize. not sure how, but the picture was posted on many of the public computers in the library. it was just one of the disasterous events to have happened in the la biblio courtesy of the '05s. have we come along way since then? unclear. do i still think the 'lochness secret society' was a brilliant idea despite the risk of drowning in the connecticut river in april? yes.

another two thumbs up for this week's episode of 'greek' on abc family in this girl's opinion. the sorority girls are total bitches and the guys frats would probably best be described as ad and omega house - omega house being sae i imagine. watching it is like eating cotton candy. no nutrious value but boy is it delicious. =P

another hilarious harry potter link: 6 questions the last harry potter book had better answer. pretty funny if you remotely care what happens in the end. amusing website on the whole - i do believe i will be adding it to the blogroll for procrastination purposes.

i bought a tix to ann arbor to see boxa and a number of other rowers that will be in town in early september. i get to see jb and reuine with the ducklings? pick me!

had a job interview today - was awfully hard to get in the swing of things and put my best foot forward, which i chalk up to being undecided about my future and the close proximity to the last time i had to do all this. found out tonight i scored a second interview - maybe the secret to interviewing is to not care. must think on this.

had couscous for dinner - i think that there's a lot to be said for the sort of 'doc trips diet' for the recent grad. it's cheap, it's nutrious, all you need is an onion, couscous and cheese. and no bake cheese cake of course. but can it ever really be authentic if you don't wash the pots and pans with iodine nalgene water? it adds a certain 'je ne ces pas' if you will.

playing some foose and pitchers tomorrow with some coworkers - looking forward to that. thursday it's exie reunion with a (paid for) open bar. taking it easy tonight in anticipation of all of that.

send a five-year plan and quarters

gchat

here's how i officially know i am addicted to gchat - the one reason i am looking forward to the '07 class graduating is b/c it means they will have to activate (and use!) their gmail addresses - and i can add them to my gchat list, which is pretty much my most favorite thing these days. i know. it's sad.

otherwise - i am DEVESTATED by the fact the '07s are graduating. mainly i think b/c i am close to a lot of them and so hearing about their experiences and thinking about what they're up to is bringing back a lot of memories of when we did it two years ago - and let me tell you, it was not pretty then. at least this time around we have a bit more distance, but it's a little crazy. i can't believe that a class of kids could have such a large impact on my college experience when they were only in it for a year. insane.

found this HILARIOUS link from my coworker today - i can think of several cards i'd like to send to people who shall remain nameless right off the bat . . . . maybe you'll actually have the guts to send them: love the snark (snark = snide+remark. i know - brilliant)

send a payment plan for the dental work i need done (go to the dentist! insurane or not) and ideas for dinner

that song stuck in your head

chances are that song stuck in your head is the result of a commercial. for example, i was just sitting here in bed, doing the ny magazine xword puzzle, gchatting with laurak and watching lord of the rings the two towers and they keep playing a dodge avenger commercial that has a song that i couldn't place, but couldn't lose either. thankfully, there's adtunes.com to help you out of that tight space (turns out the song is 'smoke on the water' by deep purple) check it out.

a side note about lotr - personally i find the parts with frodo, sam and gollum to be the dullest part, and this not solely b/c i am drooling all over legolas. all the exciting stuff happens with the rest of the fellowship - not the rocks and gravel of frodo's grim existence. also, was just saying to laurak that i think that the part where gandalf comes back as gandalf the white is sort of a cop out and is also mainly why i'll feel okay if jk rowling really has killed off dumbledore* bringing characters back from the dead is really lame.

also, was listening to my cape radio station today as i like to do on the wknds (sunday afternoon buffett buffet at noon!) and heard this talk-up promo:

need cash for the important things in life? like beer?

thought that was brilliant and was kind of reminiscient of the 'omg i'm so WASTED' promo that 99 rock used to do. according to the program director, the guy that they used to send the promos to used to get high and then record the promos b/c they would always come back with totally random things that they had not sent to him to say, but they were funny so they went with it. i think if i still had the radio station i would incorporate the 'important things/beer' promo in the show - then again that might be an violation of the faa. unclear.

let's rock

*oops! if you haven't read harry potter by now it's your own fault and you might as well get on the same page as everyone else. stop acting indignet and as if we've told you whether you're having a boy or a girl ala friends and ross.

also

the tudors on showtime is pretty much the hotest thing i've seen in a long time. check it out on brightcove.

nothing like a royal scandal (or 10)

enjoy!

exciting things!

like the title says:

1. my new computer comes today!
2. kevin garland is coming this wknd! (as well as colin, and hopefully lingley. steger and i peer-pressured really hard - we'll see if our years of practice pay off)
3. this blog has had over 1000 readers! if i was a little more technology savvy, and had a bit more time on my hands, i prob could have orchestrated some sort of a 'congratulations! you are the 1000 visitor to this blog!' pop up with confetti baloons and a free ipod - but i'm not. all i can say is thanks for reading about my humble exploits - if it has provided you with a spark of enjoyment throughout the long dreary days at the office - i'm glad. keep reading.
4. www.fliptrack.com - cool site that launched yesterday (oooo - tell your friends and look cool). you pick a song and then upload your pics and they set the pics to the beat of the song. v. easy to use. make your own music videos!
5. hilarious digital short from snl. i don't dare put the actual video from youtube on here for fear of receiving a cease and desist order and/or my employers finding this while searching the web for pirated content, but you all should youtube 'business meeting'. 'i say we put mustard on it!'

and on that note - we cue the music

send work outfit ideas and 'congratualations! you are the 1000 visitor to this blog!' balloons

secret of success

according to investor's business daily (henceforth to be referred to as: ibd):

1. how you think is everything: Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment.

2. Decide upon your true dreams and goals: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.

3. Take action: goals are nothing without action. don't be afraid to get started. just do it.

4. Never stop learning: go back to school or read books. get training and acquire skills.

5. be persistent and work hard: success is a marathon, not a sprint. never give up.

6. learn to analyze details: get all the facts, all the input. learn from your mistakes.

7. focus your time and money: don't let other people or things distract you.

8. don't be afraid to innovate; be different: following the herd is a sure way to medicrity.

9. deal and communicate with people effectively: no person is an island. learn to understand and motivate others.

10. be honest and dependable; take responsibility. otherwise numbers 1-9 won't matter

and this link has absolutely nothing to do with success. in fact, it will prob de-contribute to your success, but it's hilarious and safe for work (SFW) so read on.

blogging is the new wednesdays

it appears that blogging is the new 'cool and ragey, drink porchcrawlers til you boot' thing to do, or maybe it's just sweeping the track team. have stumbled upon another d blog - note the latest addition to the link list - this one happens to be authored by yet another kid that i've hooked up with - not sure if his blog will prove to reflect positively on my hook up choices or not but decide for yourselves.

i do have big news - i took a job not at the company that is big and is also a verb - but at a start-up like division of another big company that is one of the big three networks. a little superstious about it all - so i don't want to go into too much detail until i actually start - but it's based in nyc, and it's headed by a d '97. he actually went up to htown this wknd. i think that's how i knew i made the right decision. am chugging cranberry juice in an effort to cleanse my system if you know what i mean, due to some poor choices over xmas break. i think i am about to turn into a cranberry.

to that end, however, i would like to thank everyone who listened to me rant and rave and stress, and offered advice and support over the last three months. without y'all i would not have made it - i am fairly certain of that. and i would also like to say that while i hope my dad has no idea that this blog exists, and he will probably never see this, i could not have done it without his 'advice from afar' as he calls consulting. without him i would have crashed and burned, or if not that been v. much up the creek without a paddle and a leak in the canoe.

been a busy but relaxing wknd which is nice. had our office party last night - so was v. drunk off of champagne early on. stein came into the city for some quality cuddle time. i prescribed some coupling episodes to balm her soul - and we crashed around midnight. had brunch with ally this morning at 7a - my most favorite brunch place in the city and then we rode the ferris wheel in times square. if you're like me, and did not realize there is a ferris wheel in times square - it's in the toys r us at 44 and broadway. full size, super cool, we rode in the e.t. car. it was fabulous.

i talked with zana the other night - she's doing well out in seattle. busy busy, going to be in san fran for the summer and taking arabic again - but having fun and making a little sense of it all - which is always nice. diana and huyett are coming down in a couple weeks which will be super fun - and laurak is officially back on the east coast for the spring - but hopefully i will see her sooner than that when i fly to chicago the first wknd of feb to see skips. the jet blue flight was so cheap it was like - why not go! going to be a short but fun visit. v. excited.

so that's pretty much it from my end. taking it easy tonight - thinking about last mlk day which was a total blast. the flare made an appearance in a big way. onwards and upwards i suppose.

send something other than cranberry juice and ideas on what i should eat for dinner

stand forth and do battle

so here i am at work, i actually do have some, but i feel like that scene in dazed and confused where they're all just biding their time before they can bust out and have summer vacation. (fortunately for me, the threat of being paddled does not exist - just the looming traffic on 95 and the torture of 5 hours on a bus. sigh).

anyway - messing around on fark.com of course - and come upon this super cool link with how to build a castle out of cardboard. there is also a pirate ship option. considering what a great time we had during clean ups one morning where someone had brought a big box and we took turns putting it on our heads and thumping each other, i think we could really blast off into euphoria if we had a CASTLE made of cardboard.

side note: said cardboard incident was one of those times where you just feel silly, pure and simple, and it feels good to laugh. had another incident when christine and i were swimming in the bio bay last wk with our adopted family (from rhode island) and we started laughing about this book i had found in the closet of the house named 'deeds of the destroyer'. some of the other book titles by this author included, 'the night of 400 rabbits' and 'the last camel died at noon'. we were having a great time trying to figure out exactly what that last one could be about, and laughing about it hysterically in the bio bay while everyone looked at us like we were crazy. felt really good though. and reminds me of this quote: "i've always thought a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying "ain't that the truth." if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.

hit up spillane's bday party in chinatown last night - saw some of the usual suspects. megh, back from france, was tres tired - but sounds like he had a good time. kevin p and celeste bonded over jaw surgery, charlo didn't make it, but then again, she did have to get up at 4 am to go home today. got rather tipsy myself. i'm headed out sometime later today - unclear when - to let the fiestas begin. safe travels to everyone heading home and i'll check in with y'all from the cape.

send aloe and traffic-free roads