gmail gems

one of the best things about having 7 years worth of archived gmail and gtalks is the gems that come up when you search for something.

in this case i put in 'twenty twelve' (a techno song in the vein of aviici that my brother sent me) and up came this incredible poem by what looks to be one of huyett's friends. not sure how this was missed the first time around (aka december 12th 2008) but it's too good not to be shared. plus we like power hours and christmas is coming.

i wish to give credit to whoever wrote the below poem and say 'well done friend'.

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE POWERHOUR

Every Yorker up in York-ville liked PowerHours a lot…

But the Grinch, who lived just south of York-ville, did NOT!

The Grinch hated PowerHours! They came once a season. 

Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason. 

It could be his head wasn't screwed on just right. 

It could be, perhaps, that his undies were too tight. 

But I think that the most likely reason of all 

May have been that his liver was two sizes too small. 

But, whatever the reason, his undies or liver, 

He stood there before PowerHours, anger making him quiver. 

Staring down from Trump Tower with a sour, Grinchy frown, 

At the fun and festivities to the north side of town. 

For he knew every Yorker from west side to east, 

Was preparing to take 60 shots at the least. 

"And they're finding their shotglasses!" he snarled with a sneer, 

"Tomorrow is PowerHour! It's practically here!"

 Then he growled, with his Grinch fingers nervously drumming, 

"I MUST find some way to stop PowerHour from coming!"

For, Tomorrow, he knew, as happened four times a year, 

They'd arrive at 86th St. with glasses and beer. 

And then, oh the fun! Oh the FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN! 

That's the one thing he hated! The FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN!

Then the Yorkers, at long last, would raise glasses of beer. 

They'd drink beer! They'd drink beer! They'd drink BEER! BEER! BEER! BEER!

They'd drink beer once a minute, as their sobriety decreased. 

Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!

And THEN they'd do something he liked least of all! 

Every Yorker up in York-ville, the tall and the small, 

Would gather together, the guests and the hosts. 

They'd raise up their glasses, and shout out the toasts! 

To your mom! To the 80s! And to girls that be craaazy! 

To good friends! To Christmas! And to not making babies!

And the more the Grinch thought of these good-natured toasts, 

The more he decided it's what he hated the most. 

"Why, for a year and a half I've put up with it now! 

I MUST stop this PowerHour from coming! But HOW?"

Then he got an idea! An awful idea!

THE GRINCH GOT A WONDERFUL, AWFUL IDEA!

"I know just what to do!" The Grinch said in a flash. 

And he found an ironic t-shirt and m'stache. 

How sarcastically witty, though not known as a quipster, 

In his tight jeans and t-shirt, he'd look just like a hipster!

"All I need is a fixie…" The Grinch looked around. 

But since he wasn't in Brooklyn, there were none to be found. 

The Grinch snarled to himself,  "As the situation demands it, 

I'll do the next best thing and take public transit."

So he walked to the subway, paid with nickels and dimes, 

And finally got in after swiping twelve times. 

THEN he boarded the subway running under the street, 

And kicked an old woman out of her seat.  

And the train started moving with leaps and with bounds, 

Towards 86th St. at the north side of town. 

All the sub stops were empty. A slight haze filled the air. 

All the Yorkers were dreaming sweet dreams without care. 

Then his stop, up the stairs, down the street to the east, 

As the Grinch saw the red door his excitement increased.  

"This is stop number one," the old Hipster Grinch hissed, 

And he jimmied the lock with a flick of his wrist. 

Then he climbed flights of stairs, taking breaks in between, 

To ease the discomfort of tight hipster jeans. 

When he got to 4B he tapped lightly on the door, 

And on hearing no answer he jimmied once more. 

Once inside the first thing that he saw were shotglasses, 

A whole pile left by prior shot masses. 

So he tore open the shudders and threw out the sash,

And tossed all the glasses outside in a crash. 

Then he slithered and slunk, with an unpleasant jeer, 

Around the whole room, and he took all the beer! 

Budweiser! Keystone! And Milwaukee's Best! 

Coors! Pabst Blue Ribbon! And all of the rest!

He stuffed them in bags, then the Grinch, without care,

Threw all of the beer down four long flights of stairs. 

Then he took all the wine, which he drained down the sink, 

To ensure that there'd be nothing left for to drink. 

Then he dashed to the stereo gleaming with glee. 

"And NOW!" grinned the Grinch, "I will take the CD!"

So the Grinch grabbed the mix and was leaving the house, 

When he heard a small sound like the squeak of a mouse. 

He turned around fast and he saw a small Gee! 

Little Dylan Grace Gee, who was not more than twenty-three. 

The Grinch had been caught by this Dylan Grace Gree

Who'd arisen from bed for a middle-of-night pee. 

She stared at the Grinch and said, "Hipster, but why? "

"Why are you taking our precious mix? Why?"

But, you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick, 

He thought up a lie and he thought it up quick!

The fake Hipster Grinch declared, with a sneer on his lips, 

That the songs on the mix were insufficiently hip. 

"So I'm taking it back down to Brooklyn, my dear. 

I'll add some new songs, then I'll bring it back here."

And his fib fooled Ms. Gee. Then he patted her head, 

And she went to the bathroom and got back in bed. 

Then the Grinch took his leave, for the damage was done, 

Took a cross-town bus, then the downtown 1. 

It was quarter past dawn, all the Yorkers in bed, 

All the Yorkers still snoozing, with dreams in their heads. 

The Grinch took off downtown, his mission complete, 

Imagining the faces of Yorkers in defeat. 

He had the CD! They couldn't drink without songs!

There was no way his plan could have possibly gone wrong!

And just to be safe, he had taken the beer, 

He had taken the shotglasses, the outcome was clear!

So he hurried back home to the top of Trump Tower, 

And took a long nap 'til the Hour of Power. 

In his dreams he envisioned just what they would do, 

They would gasp! They would groan! They would cry out "BooHoo!"

The Yorkers, at last, would cease with their fun, 

And the PowerHour tradition would finally be done. 

When the Grinch finally woke he was full of good cheer, 

He ran to the edge, put his hand to his ear. 

And from York-ville up north he heard something real low. 

It started out low, then it started to grow. 

But the sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded merry!

It couldn't be so! But it WAS merry! VERY!

He stared down at York-ville, the Grinch popped his eyes!

Then he shook! What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Yorker in York-ville, the tall and the small, 

Was toasting! Without any beverage at all!

He HADN'T stopped PowerHour from coming! IT CAME!

Somehow or another, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, staring down at the merriment below, 

Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so?"

"It came without beer! Without glasses or songs!"

The Grinch stood there thinking: "Where had he gone wrong?"

And he puzzled three hours, till his puzzler was sore. 

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before!

"Maybe PowerHour," he thought, "isn't just about beer."

"Maybe PowerHour…perhaps…it about people and cheer!"

And what happened then? Well…In York-ville they say, 

That the Grinch's small liver grew three sizes that day!

And the minute his liver felt up to the fight, 

He whizzed up to Yorkville in the night's fading light, 

He brought back the CD, bought some beer for the host, 

And he, HE THE HIPSTER GRINCH, made a holiday toast!

from the archives

sigma delta in a nutshell:

6/30/2005 - author unknown

One dark and stormy night in June, a rowdy and ragged cast of characters set up shop at 10 W Wheelock.

That day has since gone down in the annals of history as the day a legend was born...


Now, after
15 hours
9 pong games
1 mike's mixed with orange juice
5 jello shots
1 hour spent wearing a cape
1 excursion into the pool
420 blitzes
70,000 choruses of Diana's song
4 billion 'Stones
5 hours of sleep

I had my first hangover and don't feel at all guilty that I spent all morning on the Collis porch.

They're out of whiskey here, so I'm headed back home.

here's looking at you kid

believe it or not, i am coming up on my five year anniversary of being in nyc, which is a little crazy considering how i don't know how i ended up here in the first place. maynard was wrapping up her summer living in nyc in the east village when i came down to apt hunt and moved in - some of my favorite places to eat in the city (including 7A!) are places she introduced me to. she confessed (at a much later date) that when i first got here she wasn't sure i was going to make it, and now, like many other people, i am the person she thinks of when she thinks 'nyc', even though i am probably the least nyc-like person most people know. but i digress.

was searching through gmail for something and i stumbled upon the blitz i sent out to the crew team after my first day of work in nyc after i graduated. i'd lived in the city for about a day at this point i think. i didn't start this blog until december of my first year in the city, so a lot of those firsts from life after college aren't chronicled, but i'm republishing an edited version of that first email here in commemoration of the way i was when i moved to new york city five years ago. time flies when you're having fun eh?

well friends - have successfully survived my first day at work. was def understanding the meaning of 'today is the first day of the rest of your life'. happily - do not have to be to work until 9:30 - but work until 6:30 or 7 instead. however, just spoke with littlechen who was thrilled to be out of work before midnight - which QUICKLY put it all in perspective.

am loving le apt - we live above a bagel place, a pizza place and a chinese place - so it's like - mmm what's for dinner? a tasti delite is 1/2 a block a way - which is fantastic. getting to know the neighborhood - ie the pharmacys and liquor stores - that might take some time though. being in ny is rather surreal feeling - having trouble fitting my perception of myself into my surroundings - but that will probably take some time.

i think work will be good - spent the day learning how to work the phone system, the msn outlook situation, and msn instant messenger that we use to communicate in the office. oooo la la! it's ridiculously hot here in the city right now - but it's one of those dumb situations, not unlike studying in baker berry, where work is extremely air conditioned - so i must bring a cardigan to work so i don't freeze. good lord. am getting a crash course in media EVERYTHING right now - soon will be able to throw out names and media outlets with the best of them. there are SO many restuarants here - you could eat at a different place every night. which - at this rate - i think i will be doing. have yet to cook anything. tee hee hee.

nyc is a whole different way of life - had no idea people did things like they do here. weird.

anyway - miss you guys

love

lyon

time capsule: intro

so, i would like to introduce a new feature on the blog i'm going to creatively call 'time capsule'. was reading a blog that reviewed a book called 'no one cares what you had for lunch' - ie it had suggestions for how to get creative and interesting on your blog. now, everyone i know thinks this blog is fascinating, but i still checked out the suggestions, one of which was to go back to an old diary and post an entry.

i keep a journal in addition to this blog - it holds the really emotional stuff so i don't bore you with it here. however, upon re-reading, i'm still not ready to post my most intimate feelings about things that most of you already know about.

that being said, everyone reading this knows how integral gtalk is to my life and i realized that i have been on gmail and been using gtalk ever since it was launchd (self-call) and thanks to the archiving feature, i have tons of content waiting to be mined. some of it will be used in the book i write chronicling post-college life through gtalk, but i thought i would do a post every now and then where i go back to +/- 3 days of the date ,1, 2, 3 years ago and post interesting or funny tidbits from emails or gtalks, edited for content and clarity. just another snapshot of life.

without futher ado:

gtalk convo with diana 4.18.06

lyon: from ally and charlo (who went to cornell and yale respectively and are forced to be around us d people at all times)
12:14 PM we made a platonic web of sketch on sun b/c we know EVERYONE in such weird ways
so charlo says on ally's fb wall:
yes the green paper social matrix is crazy sweet.

what have we learned from this exercise?

a) we know everyone in new york
b) those people we dont know went to dartmouth and we will eventually meet them "unexpectedly" at a bar
c) upon meeing said "D People", everyone will discuss how ridiculous it is that people dont spend their entire adult lives in new york playing pong WITH PADDLES in basements.

and ally replies on charlo's fb wall:
so true. and:
d) even when we do get to know said "D people" they will be gone every other weekend when the hanover umbilical cord snaps them back to rural new hampshire, so close friendships are futile
e) it is only a matter of time before we, too, start referring to people, animals, and select inanimate objects as "friend"
f) and that scares me.

hmmm - doesn't seem like much has changed. ;-P