motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane

ok, now there have been many pop culture references to 'snakes on a plane' or whatever that movie about the snakes on the plane was called. lorelai on gilmore girls couldn't believe that the plot was summed up so well in the title. she felt they just gave it all away. honestly, it sounds like a terrible movie. i mean, gimme a break. 2 hours of snakes on a plane? no thank you.
last night was the season 2 finale of 'weeds'. the highlight was shane (mary louise parker's fictional son) giving his elementary school graduation speech. here's how it went:

"greetings agrestic elementary school, class of 2006. hello teachers, parents, step-parents, siblings, boyfriends and girlfriends of parents, assorted relatives, friends of your mom and dad's you call aunt and uncle who really aren't, and principal dodge. as I stand before you today, on the brink of junior high, here is what I have to say: you have failed us all! everything is not ok! we have become alienated, desensitized, angry, and frightened. we picture agrestic as an airplane. a grand, soaring jet carrying us through the sky. i think you all need to understand: there are motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane."
he was promptly interrupted by the principal. you have to watch the clip, even if you don't watch 'weeds', because it's just so good:

shane's graduation speech

click on the video clip 'let him speak'.

delicious dinner, minimalism, uncomfortable meetings, dying batteries, and one sleepy toddler

friday

delicious dinner
friday involved an incredibly frustrating event followed by loveliness. essentially, i don't like when people contradict themselves and then somehow make things my fault because of it. especially to the extent where my entire weekend is nearly ruined by it. the details are not appropriate to be posted on the internet, but i will happily rant about it if you give me the opportunity. it caused some lateness on my behalf, which sucked because we had dinner plans.
dinner at casbah with my in-laws and some friends, mike and milly. it was oh-so-lovely. i love love love schmancy restaurants. drinking wine and eating cheese and someone taking your coat for you....i was born for it, i tell ya. so after tons of great food and wine, jp and i trekked back home to excitement. why, you ask?? because the newest season of battlestar galactica had arrived! yay! so we watched an episode and went to sleep.

saturday

minimalism
woke up and went to the museum with erik and colleen. the museum costs $10 if you are not a full time student. and that doesn't even get you in to see "amazon riches"! so i ask the girl if i get a discount with my cmu id and she tells me yes and asks for it. then after taking it out of its holder, examining it, and scanning it, she tells me i am not a full time student. since i am well aware of this, and never tried to represent myself as a student, i was annoyed. it says STAFF real big on my id. whatever, fine.
so we wander to the scaife gallery, which is the permanent art gallery. wander through the very blue, very religious art of the 16th and 17th century and eventually make it to the impressionists, my favorites. while going through the gallery, i find the cutest children's book ever. it's called "katie meets the impressionists" and it's about this cute lil' girl who wanders into impressionist paintings to find flowers for her grandma. super fun, every kid should read it. so i had a good ol' time til we go to the minimalists. minimalist art annoys me. i've made doodles that i think took more time and effort than some of their "work". there was actually a canvas that had been painted white, with a purple border. i kid you not. i don't care if you're the first person to think of that. it's still not creative. whenever i see people staring at and analyzing minimalism, all i can think is that the artist is at home going "sucka!". i know enough really talented people that i get angry their work isn't in a museum while this stuff is. but enough about my artistic perspective.

uncomfortable meetings
so i'm driving home from the museum and the world suddenly explodes in some sort of crazy hail/rain/leaf storm. all about 30 seconds before i have to run into the liquor store. heavy sigh.
get home, hang around, get ready for halloween parties. jp has to put on a shirt and suspenders, and i'm stuck strapping myself into my crazy costume. we leave (only 15 min late!), go pick up leeann, and head to josh's party.
i had some misgivings about going to josh's. there were definitely people that i'm uncomfortable being around that may be there. and of course they all were. i don't even know how to explain the exact source of discomfort, but it is fairly overwhelming. and we didn't really get to hang with josh that much because he was throwing a party. so we leave and go to rob and dan's, but not before grabbing a kathleen from the street (well, she was there trying to find us. she wasn't just wandering the streets alone or anything.).

dying batteries
show up at rob and dan's. wander in and i know.....3 people??? where are all my friends? who ARE these people? and why are there 40 year olds in the kitchen who are definitely making me feel like i should've worn a mu-mu? let's not forget the chick who turns around, sees me, and immediately glares. and, by the way, her costume was just as slutty. so i don't wanna hear it.
eventually i end up with all my friends in dan's room and we chill. much nicer than the other weirdness. i start to take (really cute!) pictures and my camera dies. and there are no replacement batteries in the house. life is sad. i did get a couple cute pics though. shannon came up with the bright idea of calling zac and passing him around. so we did and i think he was on the phone for about an hour and a half. it was a long time. in the meantime, i met brett's oldest brother, brian, who turned out to be super cool (even if he was very west coast). i also met rob and dan's roommate alan, who immediately realized that i'm a super nerd inside. ended up talking to him for awhile.

one sleepy toddler
amongst all the craziness, around 12:30, 1:00, these people show up with a toddler. this kid had to be somewhere around 2ish. she could walk, but not really talk much. her mother runs into the kitchen demanding shots. the kid ends up roaming around the house with drunk 20somethings not really noticing her (she was kinda short) and she wanders into dan's room. she has no toys or any sort of kid stuff to play with, so i start handing her things on dan's desk: his respironics id, an envelope...and then some afrin. she looks at the afrin funny and so i sorta fake demonstrate how you use afrin (note: afrin is nasal spray). she takes the afrin from me, holds it up to her nose, and sniffs.
i fell off the bed laughing.
her mother gets all indignant when she hands her the afrin ("who gave you that? you can't play with that!") and then gives her something she could easily choke on to play with and sends her on her merry way. hell-o? who brings a toddler to a party? and even if you did, who lets their toddler stay up until 3 o'clock in the goddamn morning??? that's when i left, and they were still there. complaining about how the kid was kinda cranky.
are you kidding me?

toddler gets stuck in vending machine

this is amazing!



i want sponge bob!!

my ipod's "if-elsif-else" loop

i just want to start this by saying that i will not defend my musical tastes in this post. please feel free to mock any of the music mentioned. i do happen to like lame (to you) music as well as other more talented/interesting things.

that being said....
as of late, i have been listening to the 'wicked' soundtrack over and over again. and not even the whole thing. i only downloaded 5 of the songs. i now know all the words to all of them. many of you may be sick of the influence it has had over my life.
so i decided to stop listening to exclusively that and the two the fray songs i have. put my ipod back on shuffle, meaning it's supposed to randomize through my library. however, i've found that my ipod has favorites as well, and they are just plain weird.
first of all, it is obsessed with particular bands. its favorites are goo goo dolls, blink 182, and tatu. 1 out of ever 2 or 3 songs is from one of these groups. statistically, these are not nearly as prevalent as others, like the beatles (which has 4 albums represented and is rarely chosen) or tori (who also has 4 full albums).
secondly, 'invisible touch' by genesis is its all time favorite song. it plays it without fail each time i set it to shuffle. the other one is 'cruel summer' by bananarama. i have paid attention to and even read the lyrics of both these songs searching for meaning, thinking maybe it's a higher power that controls the shuffle and that they are trying to tell me something. i have come to the conclusion that it is simply a computer program that looks something like this:

if (song = 'invisible touch' | 'cruel summer') {
play song;
} elsif (artist = goo goo dolls | blink 182 | tatu) {
play song;
} else {
redo loop;
}

ifrogz!

ok, these are amazing. i love 'em. my favorite combos are below:
check it out.

ifrogz

wrapz

bandz

screenz (category)

screenz

aqua spray

copper

artistic

retro

lymon

aqua spray

pop

whale

aqua spray

tree frog

nature

brown tree

tree frog

summer plum

nature

bamboo

papaya

mandarin

culture

paris

hot purple

royal blue

artistic

rags

tree frog

khaki pants

artistic

retro

aqua spray

tree frog

pop

whale

aqua spray

lymon

nature

ferns

Eyelash transplants set to sweep nip tuck world

just read this for the last paragraph...

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Think you've seen it all when it comes to cosmetic surgery?

Look more closely. Eyelash transplant surgery wants to become the new must-have procedure for women -- and the occasional man -- convinced that beauty is not so much in the eye of the beholder as in front of the eye itself.

Using procedures pioneered by the hair loss industry for balding men, surgeons are using "plug and sew" techniques to give women long, sweeping lashes once achieved only by glued on extensions and thick lashings of mascara.

And just like human hair -- for that is the origin -- these lashes just keep on growing.

"Longer, thicker lashes are an ubiquitous sign of beauty. Eyelash transplantation does for the eyes what breast augmentation does for the figure," said Dr Alan Bauman, a leading proponent of eyelash transplants.

"This is a brand new procedure for the general public (and) it is going to explode," Bauman told Reuters during what was billed as the world's first live eyelash surgery workshop for about 40 surgeons from around the world.

Under the procedure, a small incision is made at the back of the scalp to remove 30 or 40 hair follicles which are carefully sewn one by one onto the patient's eyelids. Only light sedation and local anesthetics are used and the cost is around $3,000 an eye.

The technique was first confined to patients who had suffered burns or congenital malformations of the eye. But word spread and about 80 percent are now done for cosmetic reasons.

For many women, eyelash surgery is simply an extra item on the vast nip tuck menu that has lost its old taboos.

More than 10 million cosmetic procedures -- from tummy tucks to botox -- were performed in the United States in 2005, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The figure represents a 38 percent increase over the year 2000.

Erica Lynn, 27, a Florida model with long auburn hair, breast implants and a nose job, had eyelash transplants three years ago because she was fed up with wearing extensions on her sandy-colored lashes.

"When I found out about it, I just had to have it done. Everyone I mention it to wants it. I think eyelashes are awesome. You can never have enough of them," Lynn said.

Bauman, who practices in Florida, does about three or four a month. Dr. Sara Wasserbauer, a Northern California hair restoration surgeon, says she has been inundated by requests.

"I have been getting a ton of eyelash inquiries ... If I had $10 dollars for every consultation, I'd be a rich woman."

The surgery is not for everyone. The transplanted eyelashes grow just like head hair and need to be trimmed regularly and sometimes curled. Very curly head hair makes for eyelashes with too much kink.

~i am NOT trusting myself to trim my own eyelashes. it's just not happening.~

survey says...

1. How tall are you barefoot?
well, i used to be 5'4". and i was for awhile. last year, i found out that i am 5' 5 1/2", which i'm still getting used to.

2. Do you own a gun?
god no. and you shouldn't either!

3. If you had a mental disorder, what would it be?
oh, definitely ocd. i've got some leanings already.

4. How many letters are in your crush's name?
75. oh wait, that's his age. um....47?

5. What do you think of hot dogs?
right now i'm obsessed with D's veggie dogs with spicy mustard and banana peppers. yum!

6. What's your favorite Christmas song?
i have a christmas music enjoyment problem. i like it too much. if i had to pick a fave....either 'carol of the bells' or 'god rest ye merry gentlemen'.

7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?
coffee, coffee, coffee!

8. Do you do push-ups?
maybe accidently if i happen to be laying on my stomach and then have to get up.

10. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?
no, i have a husband. it's like a boyfriend, but you get to wear jewelry and people give you presents for it.

11. Do you like the rain?
i prefer the just gray days. but if i'm inside for the day, i love watching it rain all day long.

12. Do you own a knife?
i have many. a bread knife, a paring knife, a chef's knife, a slicing knife, a santoku, a collection of steak and butter ones as well.

13. Do you have A.D.D.?
i wish, only for the focusin!

14. Full initials?
fejf. i added my maiden name to my middle name when i got married. so i have lots of names.

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.
i really wish i understood filehandles in perl.
i hope my heat works tonight.
is my halloween costume too slutty?

16. Name the last 3 things you have bought today.
i haven't bought anything today except meter time for my car. yesterday, i bought fake eyelashes.

17. Name five drinks you regularly drink, in order most to least.
water
coffee
tropicana sugar free lemonade
apple cider
wine

18. What time did you wake up today?
oh god. not til 8:45. i am not good with waking up with a flexible schedule.

19. Can you spell?
rapid city, sd city champion. 1989.

20. Current worry?
how can i go to 3 parties in 5 hours?

21. Current hate?
dishes. mine are gross and quickly piling up.

22. Favorite place to be?
walking around oakland on a fall day that isn't too cold, ipod in ears, sunglasses on so no one can see me staring at them.

23. Least favorite place to be?
the gynecologist or the dentist getting a cavity drilled. it's a tie.

24. Where would you like to go?
in general, there are many places. right now, i would like to go to a comfy couch and sit on it with laura and talk to her for hours.

25. Do you own slippers?
i'm much more into thick socks. i did have a pair, but odessa (my cat) chewed on the heel until the foam came out and then ate the foam and then threw it up in various piles around the apartment. i'll stick with my socks, thanks.

26. Where do you think you'll be in 10 yrs?
not pittsburgh, living in my own house.

27. Do you burn or tan?
i burn easily and sometimes it fades to tan. more often, it fades back to pasty.

28. Yellow or blue?
for what? clothing? decor? food? cuz i'm wary of blue food. unless it's an icee.

29. Would you be a pirate?
i'd rather be a pirate's captive.

30. Last time your cell rang?
last night. it was kathleen, calling to discuss whether or not rory was validly upset by logan's dinner.

31.What songs do you sing in the shower?
i used to sing buffy musical songs. i've been kinda taciturn in the shower as of late.

32. What did you fear was going to get you at night as a child?
whatever had been on unsolved mysteries that night. murderers, kidnappers, ghosts, con men. they were all scary.

33. What is in your pants pocket?
nothing. girl pants are too tight to put stuff in them. it just hurts.

34. Best bed sheets you had as a child?
these yellow flower ones that make me wish i still had a twin bed.

35. Worst injury you've ever had?
it's a tie between splitting my leg open and requiring 11 stitches and running into my in-laws cd rack and requiring a big plastic brace for 2 weeks.

36. What is your GPA?
i graduated with a 3.4 and some random hundreths.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house?
just one. it is overused however.

38. Who is your loudest friend?
rob has no inside voice that i've ever encountered.

39. Who is your most silent friend?
corey. when we hang out, he's either quiet or asleep.

40. Does someone have a crush on you?
i hope so. that's just what my life could use, trouble with my marriage.

41. Do you wish here & there...?
how is a raven like a writing desk?

42. What is your favorite book?
very tough call. let's just say 'neverwhere' by neil gaiman.

43. What song did you last hear?
something horrible on the radio on the way to work. it sounded like death metal vocals meets nickelback. it was truly, remarkably bad.

44. What song do you want played at your funeral?
that's tough. my cheesy answer is 'defying gravity' from the wicked soundtrack. i don't know what my intellectual or ironic answers would be.

45. What were you doing 12AM last night?
trying to finish sewing ruffles on underwear. (see posting below for details)

46. What's your obsession?
veuve cliquot champagne. i cannot get enough of it. it's possible it's more expensive than any drug addiction.

47. Last television show you watched.
uhhh....HGTV's 'designed to sell'. it was just background for my ruffle sewing.

48. Favorite holiday.
halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, new year's, and my birthday. october 13th - jan 1st is a happy, happy time for me.

yarn embroidery and too many parties

my halloween costume...


i'm feeling really bitter about halloween right now.
first (and not that big of a deal) cause: costumes.
jp and i had planned to go as jack the ripper and a victorian prostitute (his next victim). jp decided he didn't want to do that. ok, fine. we couldn't agree on any other couple's costumes, so we decided to just go our own ways. adhering to the halloween philosophy of 'mean girls' ("halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it"), i bought the above ridiculous "sexy rag doll" costume. essentially, slutty raggedy ann. only it's not that bad. well, it didn't seem to be until i paid for it, had it shipped, and tried it on. it is so much shorter than i ever imagined. and it would be one thing if the skirt was formed to my body, but it's got this cute little poufy petticoat that makes it, well, poufy. so i definitely needed something to be worn under it that would be ok to be seen (e.g. not a thong!). i get the bright idea to buy little white boy shorts and sew ruffles or lace on the legs and embroider my name in yarn on the ass. i'm crafty, i can handle this. go to kmart last night to pick up supplies for jp (he's going to be a lumberjack, so red and black checked flannel and thick suspenders) and to buy lace or something ruffly. kmart has no such adornements. try the dollar store next door, and all i can find is this thick red velvet christmas ribbon. ok, i can totally make this work.
so last night, i spent about 4 1/2 hours creating ruffles by folding ribbon back over itself and sewing it to the legs of the boy shorts. lemme tell you, crafty or not, i was cranky by the end. i also managed to embroider 'freya' on the ass, only it's a little too low. oh well, certainly not pulling it all out and starting again! so fine, i have my cute lil' pantaloons and fake eyelashes and greasepaint for red circles and everything. ready for halloween now!

second cause of bitterness
except that we have 3 halloween parties to go to. up until this year, i have ALWAYS hosted the halloween party. our new apartment is not really conducive to large parties (it's just not big enough). so my friend josh is having a party. cool. we decided to go there. well, then our friends rob and dan decide to throw a party too. ok, i can probably handle doing them both. then i get a call from cliff (who i probably haven't seen since the wedding!) and they're throwing a shindig. of course, none of these people are close to each other. we've got dormont, squirrell hill, and shadyside. so now people that were going to go to josh's want to go to rob and dan's and no one really wants to go to cliff's with us. i want to go to all 3, but i also want to hang out with my friends, who are probably not up to the significant amount of party-hopping. not to mention my husband. am i going to end up just driving myself around all night so that i can make sure i see everyone? who gets left out of the equation if i can't do everything? and why must all of these parties happen now? why can't we have 'no reason' parties like we used to, so that i don't feel the obligation to trek across the city 3 different times on the same night? it's so sad that there really isn't the amount of normal hanging out that there used to be, where i would see people on a regular basis. when did we all get so busy? is it the advent of full-time work? it must be. and as if working full-time didn't suck enough, now my social life hurts because of it.

i know, i'm whining. i have no excuse, but i am genuinely upset about this. halloween is such a great holiday! and now it's been ruined before it's even begun.

did i mention i'm also melodramatic?

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to change a light bulb?

The Answer is TEN:

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.

2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.

3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.

4. One to tell the nations of the world that they are either: "For changing the light bulb or for darkness."

5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb.

6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a stepladder under the banner "Light Bulb Change Accomplished."

7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally "in the dark."

8. One to viciously smear #7.

9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light bulb-changing policy all along.

10. And finally, one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

i'm for darkness myself....

pumpkins!!

our pumpkins, left to right: kara's, mine, will's, shannon's, and jp's

fall endeavors

october 20, 2006

quote of the day: "i don't want sloppy seconds in the pumpkin guts bath." -me

today was rainy and never got above 50 degrees. except when i was walking to feed the meter 3 or 4 different times, i considered it a perfect fall day. while driving into work, someone on the radio was iterating all the halloween activities, haunted houses and the like. so i came up with the bright idea of pumpkin carving. perfect! we did it last year and i loved mine. so get jp, will, and shan on board and we're set. i go immediately to their place and hang with the 2 of them until jp shows up a little bit later and kara (shannon's friend) a little after that. so us girls go to get supplies: pumpkins (of course), pumpkin carving tools, and dinner. i insisted on picking out the largest pumpkins i could find at giant eagle (5 of them). they barely all fit in the cart. so we go to grab dinner at 'hooks' which is this crazy fried fish place in edgewood towne center (they also have a homewood location). so we order 12 pieces of fish, 12 chicken fingers, fries, and 2 large orders of hushpuppies. of course, that was enough food for 10 people and we failed miserably at finishing it.
onto the pumpkin carving! so we all cut off our tops and start pulling out guts. there was so much pumpkin insides. when we dumped it into a garbage bag at the end of the night, we had to double bag it and put nothing else in there. it was heavy as hell. anyways, it takes an awfully long time to scrape out the insides of pumpkins, which is something that i always manage to forget. luckily, we were entertained. kara made a cd of really awful, really cheesey 90's rap/r&b. it included (but is not limited to) the following:
baby got back - sir mix a lot
regulate - warren g
mo' money, mo' problems - puff daddy (no, he wasn't p diddy yet!)
push it - salt n pepa
whatta man - en vogue/salt n pepa
free your mind - en vogue
rump shaker - wreckx n effect
snow - informer
etc.
jp claimed it was "the most surreal music to carve pumpkins to". kara and i sang along to every song. it brought back many memories of 6th - 9th grades and really lame dancing and roller skating. but i digress. back to pumpkins.
will and i both managed to totally ruin our original design schemes. he was totally able to fix his and make it just look like lots of flames, way cool. mine however was rather disasterous. i had cut too much out to save it. so we're pretending it's a demon. yeah, that's what a demon looks like. kara's was adorable, so was shan's. jp's looks like a very mean ent.

i'll leave you with my current ipod song quote:
"something has changed within me
something is not the same
i'm through with playing by the rules
of someone else's game
too late for second-guessing
too late to go back to sleep
it's time to trust my instincts
close my eyes
and leap."
- 'defying gravity' from wicked

tv, why have you betrayed me so??

since not much of note has happened this week, i'm going to rant about television.

i happen to love tv. love love love it. i am more obsessed with television than anyone i know. i believe that i am somehow more predisposed towards attachment to characters and relationships of the fictional nature than other people. hence, my love of books and tv. there are 2 reasons why i watch tv over reading sometimes: 1) tv gives me pictures as well as a story and (more importantly) 2) you can do other things while watching tv. plus i find it easier to walk away from tv for a moment than books. books are much more of a commitment for me.
now, i don't want to give the wrong impression. i spend about 2-3 hours reading every day and read at least a book a week. since the average american (when polled) does not read ONE book for an entire year, i think i could be considered an avid reader. i don't understand people who don't like to read (i can only assume they've not found the correct genre). but in addition to reading, i spend a lot of time watching tv. back to tv.
happily, my realization of tv love has coincided with the prevalence of tv-on-dvd (henceforth referred to as tod). tod is the most amazing thing to happen to tv viewers everywhere. tod saved me in barcelona when i was incredibly homesick. tod has allowed me to catch up on shows that i didn't watch since their advent and can now watch in real time. which brings me to my current predicament.

tv schedule
how do people live having to keep up with television shows in real time?? i have never actively watched more than one show per week that i kept up with. the l word, 24, and sex and the city were the only ones. until.....
gilmore girls came along. ok, i handle two shows. not a big deal. that's tuesday, at 8.
but what about weeds? caught season 1 on demand last year one day when i was sick. watched all 10 episodes from the first season (which is only 5 hours). now we have monday, at 10 or 10:30.
veronica mars. my newfound love. well, it's on tuesdays, right after gilmore girls. no reason not to just sit for another hour. tuesdays at 9.
caught up with lost on dvd, so gotta tune in for that. add wednesdays at 9.
was convinced to give jericho a try, wednesday at 8. (it's kinda lame, but i am getting sucked in)
the nine sounds amazingly like a combo of reunion (was i the only person to watch that last year?) and 24, so replace project runway once the finale airs. wednesday at 10.
project runway, shockingly good. believe me, i was skeptical too. right after lost, so we have wednesdays at 10.
l word will start in january, so there's sunday night at 10.
and 24, so add mondays at 9.
now, granted, project runway ended this week. weeds finale is next week. that should take some of the pressure off. however, i already have replacements for them either immediately or come january.
couldn't i find something more worthwhile to do with my life than watch these shows? sure! i can get a hobby (as long as it's free) or hang out with friends (as long as they're available) or read (although i do a fair amount already) or bake (which i have been doing a lot more of) or any other number of things. but tv is so easy! and now i'm stuck where i am either greatly attached to characters and relationships (gilmore girls, veronica mars) or i've been suckered in to find out what happens (lost, jericho).

my tod complaints
now, i could just wait for these to come out on dvd and buy them and watch them. but what if they're not good? here's the conundrum i've gotten into with tod.
i own the entire buffy series (7 seasons), entire angel series (5 seasons), all of battlestar (2 seasons), all but the latest gilmore girls (5 seaons), both veronica mars, both lost, l word (first two seasons), sex and the city complete series (6 seasons), arrested development (seasons 2 and 3), simpsons (seasons 7 and 8), mash (season 3), firefly complete series (just one season), and freaks and geeks complete series (just one season). now it's really annoying for me to not have arrdev season 1, so i'll have to get it. i own the first 5 seasons of gg, so season 6 is on my xmas list. veronica, lost, and battlestar #3 will be out next summer, so those will be added too. even if these seasons are not that good, i know that i will buy them. why? because how can you not have the whole collection? season 4 of angel is horrid and i can't stand it. i still own it, though, because if i decide to watch the whole series, am i really going to skip it? nope. i'll just make sure to be doing other things while sort of soaking it up in the background. season 7 of buffy sucks, but i'll never not watch it because it's the end of the series! etc, etc.

my tv viewing complaints
so far this season, gilmore girls is terrible. their writer/creator amy sherman-palladino left the show and there is a huge vacuous void where she was. but it's supposed to be the last season, so i gotta find out what happens. lorelai nowadays may be a far cry from the lorelai of yore, but i still want to know if she ends up with chris or luke or no one (although i will be really pissed off if i watched for 7 goddamn years and she ends up with chris. it's like sex and the city, except i liked big for carrie more than chris for lorelai). l word last year was terrible, but i'll still pay for my shotime subscription to watch it this year. and veronica, i need you guys to either deal with the logan thing and move on or let him have some airtime. i'm on pins and needles over here.
and don't even get me started about project runway! what is with reality tv and rewarding the biggest assholes? i just don't get it.

i don't have tivo! or a vcr!
because of my tv schedule, i don't plan things on certain days. wanna hang on tuesday? well, by 'hang out' you better mean watching gg and vm. wednesdays? i can hang until 9, but then gotta catch lost. thursdays are good for me....monday i can stay out a little later....
like it wasn't hard enough for people to make time to see each other before we got all wrapped up in this. and since i don't have a vcr or tivo or dvr through comcast, i'm stuck. i either have to sacrifice my tv world or my real world. i'm sure to many of you that's a no-brainer, but for me, that hour i spend with veronica each week is really quite enjoyable. i just wish she'd be a little more flexible with her schedule.

product placement in a new form?

october 16, 2006

so i spent some of my itunes gift certificate yesterday. mostly bought 'wicked' songs. after seeing forbidden broadway, i remembered how much i loved the music. i'm also really into the fray lately. 'over my head' and 'how to save a life' have pretty high play counts on my itunes. they're definitely a little more low key than i usually like my music, but i've been feeling kinda low key myself lately.
then i cleaned the bathroom, which was desperately in need. cleaning the bathroom is so rewarding. it's one of those rooms where you can see the dirt being removed. and i have this amazing Method cleaner that smells like eucalyptus and mint. i also washed our duvet to be able to put the new down comforter in it. however, when we took it out of the bag, we realized it was a pillow bed. we already have a regular mattress pad plus a memory foam topper, so adding another layer to that would be pretty ridiculous. bummer! i hate returning/exchanging gifts. i always feel like a big asshole.
found out some disappointing news about my wedding album. turns out that instead of $400 like we thought, it's going to be $820.
820 freakin dollars for a photo album. that's just ridiculous. so no big formal album. i'm obviously going to have some sort of album, but not this one!
only one more episode of weeds left....
erik and colleen were over for it last night and we ended up watching the weather channel afterwards. now i realize that sometimes networks put their logos on the bottom of the screen. the worst one is bravo, who practically runs commercials for themselves at the bottom. fine, whatever, i've learned to deal with it. but last night, the weather channel had the quaker oats man in the top right corner of the screen. only the forecaster kept walking in front of it and blocking it. but it just stayed there, like it was a part of maine on the map or something. weird.

the rest of my birthday weekend

saturday, october 14

saturday was my family party at joe mama's. this consisted of me, jp, my parents, my in-laws, my little bro, and will and shannon. we all met there and got the huge round table, which is one of two smoking tables they have left. i wasn't going to drink, but i had a glass of shiraz that went down pretty easily and then some sangria. ordered lasagna for dinner, which was huge and delicious. opened all sorts of presents. erik got me a subscription to domino, this cute&trendy interior design magazine, mom and dad got me better homes and garderns for 3 years, plus a portable radio (for npr on the bus), some really cool design software (create your own floor plans, scan in your own rooms and rearrange them, etc. etc.), and some clothes and boots (yay!). mom2 and papa bought me a down-alternative comforter, wicked the book, mean girls (which no one but mom would ever buy me!), apples 2 apples (this very amusing board game), and an adorable digital watch. meaning i can now be fashionable AND know what time it is. so all in all, quite the presents this year. i was surprised. i guess i thought that since i'm now 25 and married, there would be some cute, perfunctory gift and that's all. hey, getting old deserves a reward! i can no longer wear heels as long as i used to. anyways, we all trooped over to will and shannons afterwards to play apples 2 apples and hang out. it was a good ol' time.

sunday, october 15

yesterday, i went to my parent's to do laundry with jp. i had been thinking of dyeing my hair, so i jumped in my car (in my usual impulsiveness for all things hair-related) and went to buy dye. it ended up a really really dark brown. very dramatic. i think i like it, but i'm not too sure. jp and mom like it, so there are my toughest critics with reviews already. we'll save judgement for the first time i wear it curly (tomorrow).
other than that, mom redid her kitchen (has been gradually) and yesterday the paint was finally done. bright bright yellow. it's adorable. they added a tiled backsplash behind the sink and next to the fridge of white tiles + the occasional designed tile (cute sort of flower thing). it looks great so far. i'm so proud of her for painting a room in craziness.

my fabulous 25th birthday. perfect combo of class and craziness.

in first photo, we have destiny, abi, and rob. in the background is logan echolls look-alike christian. below is brandon, tied with abi as my second favorite logan's bartender (sorry guys, but josh has gotta be first. he'd be sad if he wasn't.).

so i had a really fun birthday this year!

morning/afternoon
i started the day with 1/2 day of work, which is so much better than a whole day of work. my officemate gave me these really cool burned copies of bands he likes and i listened to them on my unexpectedly long drive home. there was some sort of craziness where they closed like 2 blocks of craig up by fifth. so traffic was a frickin' disaster. but i made it home and jp told me what he got me (because he didn't estimate shipping correctly and things weren't in yet). he got me a banana guard, which is a plastic container to hold bananas (check it out at www.bananaguard.com). mine always get squashed at the bottom of my bag, and i always complain. so yay! he also bought me an interior design book on color. plus my itunes gift certificate. and he did most of the dishes (better than most presents!). so i was really pleased. we played super monkey ball for awhile but i totally sucked so it wasn't much fun. i read, he played more video games. i took a short nap and woke up to hurriedly get dressed and go with jp to pick up shannon at her place and will at work downtown. traffic was an awful clusterfuck because of some broken down car on grant. took forever...but eventually we get will and go to kaya.

dinner and a show
it was fabulous. we had girly drinks, mussels and plaintains as an appetizer, and i had tuna. it was so amazingly yummy and so amazingly rare. why is raw fish so good?? plus it came with this really weird wasabi-infused roe. i love wasabi and i love roe. what a good idea. unfortunately, no dessert because we have to go to our show! yay to culture! along with a ridiculous calendar about cats, will and shannon bought me a ticket to 'forbidden broadway' done by clo's cabaret theatre. it was so so fun. super funny, and the venue is amazing. you sit at a 4 top table and ours was front row, as stage left as you could get. you even have servers who bring you things. we all ordered coffee and bailey's. the show was 4 actors mocking every major musical production that you know of. the 'les mis' routine was probably my favorite.

the night continues...
so then we end up heading out to gooski's in polish hill. my little bro and my friend from high school, g, meet us there. we sit for awhile, drink some drinks. will and shannon didn't have their car and needed to go home early (yuck to working at 8 on a saturday!), so jp decided to drive them home and not come back out. erik was leaving to hang out with colleen (who is very unfortunately only 19), so that left me and g to continue the night. we decided to go to logan's. call various other people with the plan and we leave.
get to logan's and sitting at the bar is my best friend from senior year of high school, abi. she immediately buys me a drink and a shot from the familiar looking bartender and then tells me that she's getting her linguistics degree at pitt. and taking phonetics with claude this semester. brian, leeann, and katy show up next, followed closely by destiny and jenna (!) who i haven't seen in months....since the wedding i think. somewhere in all this, i realize that the bartender is brandon, josh's best friend, who i've only met once. so i was all excited and asked him if he remembered me and he's all "freya, i knew who you were when you walked in the door". and i felt dumb, but he just laughed. leeann gives me my birthday present, it's this amazing sparkly bag, a yummy candle, a halloween tote bag, and the softest, fuzziest socks ever. i immediately put all my stuff in the new bag. yay! rob, brett, and andrea show up too and at this point, i feel like i know everyone at the bar. lots of hanging out and trying to find men for abi. we do manage to find someone who looks exactly like logan echolls from veronica mars. so i go to talk to him about it and he doesn't watch veronica mars. i try and convince him to, but i'm not sure the message really got across. gotta find my converts when i can.
everyone trickles out and it's down to abi, destiny, jenna, rob, and i. we end up finally leaving around 2:45, and i drunk dial the whole way home. i definitely called colleen and talked to her. i think i may have left zac a mean message for not calling me on my birthday. i woke up with the guilty feeling that i had. and also a big headache and some dizziness. that was around 9:45 and i was up for about 1/2 hour before going back to sleep and awakening at 1pm. yikes! now, is that counted as sleeping until then, or is 1/2 hour awake enough to make 10:15 - 1 a nap?
oh well. all in all, a wonderfully perfect day.
and i promise, there will not be binge drinking for a long time after this. between last weekend and this weekend, i am done.
dammit, we have halloween parties to go to. hopefully, i'll have recovered by then.

triskaidekaphobia

i also just wanted to address the whole friday the thirteenth thing. people always ask me if i'm freaked out by my bday being friday the thirteenth every 5 or 6 years. with one notable exception, friday the thirteenth birthdays have always been my best. when i turned 14, i went to a high school football game (always very cool when you're not in high school). that night a whole bunch of us went to the italian oven and had a big cake fight. then i kissed my boyfriend ian for the first time (it's possible that was also the only time. i'm not sure.).
on my 19th birthday, it was my first jp birthday. we did some massive planning and had a huge lovefest at pitt, mostly in the ashtray. there was one point in the evening in which there were 17 people in my little slice of pie in tower A. the only bad part of the night was when i went to buy a teething ring at rite aid and realized that i had lost my debit card. however, i was far too fucked up to care. i did end up talking to pnc customer service and telling the lady that she was the nicest customer service rep i had ever encountered.
of course, last year was technically the best birthday ever. jp proposed to me that day. but we'll just say that fridays will always be great birthdays and that occasionally, you might have a good thursday one.

happiness is to birthdays as deliciousness is to rita's

ahhh, birthdays. nothing is better than a whole day when you wake up automatically in a good mood and then you get to tell everyone to be nice to you for a day. sure, everyone loves christmas or halloween or even labor day, but no one loves october 13th like i do. well, at least no one that i talk to. i know of some periphery people with my birthday, but as far as me and mine are concerned, it's MY day! so i celebrated my birthday eve by posting most of our pics to shutterfly and facebook while watching sex and the city (i'm on season 6, part 2 so i promise i'll be done soon). the earlier part of the day was less fun, it involved the dentist. the hygenist told me i have to get a night guard (wow, that's about the least sexy thing i can think of!) and the dentist told me i have 2 cavities. yuck. so think of me with pity on november 6th, around 4:30. oooh! i also got 2 early birthday presents. 1) an itunes gift certificate from my honey for all those awful pop songs that i refuse to buy the album of and 2) a down-alternative comforter from my in-laws! yay to warmth and music.
oh, and good news. everything is cleared up from my little bro's adventure last weekend. so no worries about erik.
tonight there is some sort of big surprise planned for me since we couldn't do the corn maze (which i'm still totally bummed about). it involves dinner and then something where i don't wear jeans. i'll clue y'all in as soon as i find out myself....
that's it for now! hope everyone's friday the thirteenth is as happy as mine!

in about 12 hours, i will be 25

i'll probably comment more on that after i sleep.
yay for birthdays and taking a 1/2 day of vacation!
btw, i have no idea who this guy is, but a google image search for 25th birthday cakes returned this. apparently, this was his 25th birthday. i hope mine doesn't involve blood of any kind.

my feelings on blogging...

i really hate editing what i say, but i sort of forgot that i don't necessarily want the world to read my every thought. i can't keep my mouth shut, ever. why did i think a blog was a good idea??

the woes of desperately wanting friends...

yesterday, i realized how much i dislike not being friends with my officemate. it makes life hard at work if you don't have someone to talk to. i do have my boss, but she's not just sitting 3 feet away from me. i don't know if he doesn't like me or if he's just shy or just doesn't need any more friends. i don't know what else to do to make us friends! any conversation we have that involves more than 2 turns apiece is incredibly successful as far as i'm concerned.
my mother-in-law called me last night to tell me all about the yummy groceries she bought for us. i was actually driving home with a bucket of kfc and starving, so it was pure torture. by the way, we're usually popeye's people (the, like, 2x's a year we eat fast food fried chicken. one is usually moving day and the other is sometime during the rest of the year) but popeye's on penn has closed for remodeling! i was definitely upset.
other than that, yesterday was pretty low-key. i tried to watch jericho, but it's just not that good. disappointing. on lost, just about nothing happened of note. project runway was fun, laura accused jeffrey of having someone else sew his collection. jp thinks the accusation is bullshit and that laura is just trying to get attention, but i don't know. i really hate jeffrey, so i can't be objective. however, his kid and gf are adorable and he seems to be madly in love with his family, which is great.
jp went for his final allergy testing! he is extremely allergic to: shrimp, lobster, cockroaches, english plantain, and some other stuff (dust maybe?). he is also fairly allergic to dogs, which is pretty sad. i always saw us as having dogs and so did he. but we'll see....he doesn't usually seem to have a problem at will and shan's (with nick), so it just might be long-haired dogs, which include all of my favorite breeds.
anyone remember bronwyn? zac's friend? well, her and her long-haired daschaund made it into my dream last night. weird.

the best tv night of the week!

soo...yesterday.
i was planning on having a nice, non-exciting evening (well, except for the excitement of new gilmore girls and veronica mars!). i was supposed to get out of work, take the bus home, have jp come pick me up at the park and ride and then go to kathleen's for dinner and tv. that all (mostly) works. i was really looking forward to seeing her new place and meeting her roommate ben, who i've known vicariously for probably 4 years now. show up at her house and ben is out jogging. she's making chicken and roasted veggies for dinner, followed by chocolate caramel brownies with turtle ice cream. yum.
so she gives me the tour and we're hanging out in her bedroom when ben walks in and calls out "leen?" in this sorta worried voice. she runs downstairs to see what's wrong and ben thinks he has broken his foot. ouch. with all of my hurting myself experiences, i figure that he just managed to really twist something or sprain it or whatever. so we make him sit on the couch with ice and give him some advil. after about 1/2 hour, he decides to go to the hospital but refuses to let us drive him.
so we eat and watch gg and vm and they're both pretty good. i don't want to give anything away, but let's just say i'm surprised with the route that they're taking lorelai this season. if that's really going to be the big ending of the show....i'll be pissed.
anyways, then kathleen insists that i listen to a couple songs she's discovered lately and then i show her my embarrassing music from my ipod. ben comes home in the midst of this and lo and behold - he's broken! crutches and a cast for 4-6 weeks. damn. now i feel terrible that i didn't think he broke it.
i leave and head on home. talk to jp for a bit about my blog. after our conversation, i watch sex and the city and then go to sleep.
this morning, i totally slept in because of this crazy dream i was having that i don't remember now. ran around like crazy, showering, making lunch, coffee, etc. got everything together and ran out the door. forgot my coffee, which sucked. big moving van trying to make it down my street, blocking everything. no parking spots at park and ride and it's raining. so hopefully the rest of the day will improve? it's going to be pretty hard for it to get worse....

this is kinda weird.

What You Really Think Of Your Friends

Laura is your soulmate.

You truly love Elizabeth.

You consider Zac your true friend.

You know that Kathleen is always thinking of you.

You'll remember Shannon for the rest of your life.

You secretly think Mom is creative, charming, and a bit too dramatic at times.

You secretly think that Will is colorful, impulsive, and a total risk taker.

You secretly think that Josh is loyal and trustworthy to you. And that Josh changes lovers faster than underwear.

You secretly think Jp is shy and nonconfrontational. And that Jp has a hidden internet romance.

What Do You Think of Your Friends?

you know, i answered that jp most reminded me of a saltine and this is what i get. and josh reminded me of a "meat snack". well, at least we all know what i really think of my friends.

don't know why sirius is so tiny...

my darlin' dessa baby (odessa)

hey cute boys!

we've got a brian, a will, a josh, and a pouting zac. this is right before my wedding.

yeah me!

just wanted to let y'all know that i have solved my recent perl problem. it was the eureka moment of my life. mostly because i got no outside help until afterwards. it was, as it always seems to be, quite easy once i thought of it correctly. i'll put the code below in case you're interested....i also wrote another one to accept whatever number you would want to add up to. that's there too.
thanks for the links julie, i really appreciate it.
yay!

#!/usr/bin/perl
# add999.pl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $upto;
my $sum;

$upto = 999;

$sum = $upto * (($upto + 1) / 2);
print $sum, "\n";

AND

#!/usr/bin/perl
# addwhatever.pl
use warnings;
use strict;

my $upto;
my $nums2;
my $sum;

print "i'll add the numbers from 1 to whatever you want. just tell me when to stop!\n";
$upto = ;
chomp($upto);
$nums2 = 1;

if ($upto%2 == 0){
$sum = ($upto + $nums2) * ($upto / 2);
} else {
$sum = $upto * (($upto + 1) / 2);
}
print $sum, "\n";

ahhh, monday.

october 10, 2006*

so yesterday wasn't so bad. actually, it was a pretty fun day. i was fairly useless at work on account of not being able to create a perl script that will add the numbers 1-999. i have tried everything in my power to make it work. it's getting better, but this is day 3 and i'm ready to be really annoyed. plus i can't find anything online to help solve the problem! why is computer programming a brand of logic that i just can't figure out?? it makes me feel dumb. and useless.
other than work, i went out to buy the last of erik's birthday presents (a cheese grater, some spices, and some baskets to put the spices in). had to get my prescription refilled. sucks to paying $48 for my pills, but whatever. babies are more expensive than that. i'm just excited to get a different script and not pay that much.
my new contacts suck. they bothered me thursday and friday, but i thought i was just getting used to them. saturday i was fine....sunday i wore my glasses all day....and then yesterday was awful. my eyes burned all day long. they're supposed to let in all sorts of oxygen, but i think my eyes are rejecting the thought of oxygen. they are not pleased. so i stuck in one of my old ones. i'm just annoyed because i've been wearing these contacts for about 8 years now. i like them, but of course my optometrist doesn't carry them. grrrrr to insurance making me change things!
on my way home from shopping yesterday, i'm about to make it through the green light at edgewood ave and braddock (not an easy task) and these two 14 year olds go and run in front of my car. i was the last car in the line of cars to go through the light and they just pranced across the street, not very quickly. i was pissed and ended up running the red light rather than waiting like a good, non-criminal driver.
got home and had to wrap erik's presents. turned on the tv and, lo and behold, there's an episode of gilmore girls on that i've never seen before. it must've been from that month long block that i missed last season. whoo hooo! so i got to watch rory's 21st birthday party and her talking to a minister about how "the virtue ship sailed long ago".
at 8, we went out to ryan's pub to hang out with kate (one of jp's law school friends) and matt (her bf, who i always end up talking to at law school functions). it was matt's birthday, so there were lots of people there and we didn't know any of them. everyone was really fun and interesting though. we had a really good time. it's neat to step out of the friend box every once in a while.
so then we hurry back home because erik and colleen are waiting on our porch to watch weeds. we go in, get the whole arrest scoop, unwrap presents, hang out a bit, and then watch weeds. god i love that show. why couldn't they make it an hour?? it's so disappointing when it's over. i feel like sex and the city was at least a little more episodic rather than serial. like there was a definite ending every week. weeds is just parts of a whole each time and it drives me crazy! there's only 2 episodes left, and then i can cancel showtime for awhile. it's such a worthless channel other than weeds and l word as far as i'm concerned.
but yeah, erik and colleen left around 11:15 and i ended up watching yet more sex and the city and then going to bed. totally slept in this morning (til 9!) because jp didn't have class til 10 and there was no alarm way early. well, to be honest, my alarm was snoozed from 7:45 on. i'm the best snoozer i know. i can "sleep" for hours with the alarm ringing every 9 minutes. of course, it's not very good sleep and i get cranky, but such is life.
and that brings us to here and now. i think i'm going to kathleen's tonight to watch gg and veronica. she's never seen veronica before and i'm hoping for a conversion. i need that show to have viewers and stay on the air. it really is one of my all-time favorites. better than lost even. but that's just because lost is so melodramatic and most of the characters suck in some way.
but i regress, and that's where i end today.

promised weekend craziness...

october 9, 2006

so weekend craziness doesn't even begin to explain it....

friday, october 6
left work on friday and went to will and shan's to hang out with zac. shan had already left for the rehearsal dinner. the plan was to go there, wait for will to get home, and go meet jp at his law school shindig. i arrive, talk to zac for awhile, put on some makeup, straighten my hair, blah blah blah. will arrives home, brett comes downstairs. we smoke a little and then are out the door and to oakland (amazingly enough, mostly on time!). so we find parking not too far from the law school and it's one of those new spots where you pay a machine and then put the receipt on your dash. one would imagine that being intelligent, college educated folk we could figure it out. but no. the first thing i do is push the '2 hour' button. put in 2 quarters. machine says 'paid' so i print the receipt. it only gave me a 1/2 hour. now i should've realized that parking was not going to cost 25 cents an hour, but i wasn't really thinking too hard about it. ok, so i'm screwed now because i have to print out a receipt that says i can park until 8, and this one says 7. there's 2 quarters lost to technology. so we round up the rest of the change we have between the 3 of us, and stick it in the machine. we get until 7:50 and i can live with that. no meter maid checks meters 10 min before it becomes free!
so we head on down to 'oktoberfest', the first annual international food fair hosted by the international law society. for $7, you get to wander around and eat all the dishes that the students have made and there's beer, wine and sangria too. pretty sweet deal, plus i got to see jp manning a table. we eat, brett and andrea show up, jp's booth shift is over, and he wanders over. introduces us to some friends, who turn out to be pretty cool. the one guy, ken, has a wife who is doing her first year of residency right now. yuck. he sees her less than i see jp nowadays, which seems crazy. they actually got married on the same day as us. this past year too. ken was really funny, he told me that they got married on may 30th. and i was like, oh, you got married on a tuesday? and he was confused because he knew that wasn't right. so we determined they also got married on the 28th. we also met jamie, a really nice guy who i would've sworn up and down was gay. he made a comment about his spouse and didn't say wife and jp then started talking about his wife. i thought he had made a big faux pas until we met her later on in the evening. they were both really sweet and moved to pittsburgh only about 7 weeks ago. they live in morningside, right near our stanton place.
so fast forward to when shannon, brian, and leeann arrive in oakland. at this point, jp has consumed 8 free beers. he's got the cute belligerent jp slur going on. i always appreciate when jp is drunker than i am. =)
so we all go to joe mama's and drink a bunch of cocktails. it's a good ol' time. i end up leaving around midnight because i'm exhausted, leaving jp in the care of brian. go home, clean the litterbox, go to sleep.

saturday, october 7
pre-wedding....
we wake up the next day at 9 (yay for sleeping in!) and jp is totally hungover. this works in our favor because this means he doesn't want to get trashed at the wedding and we don't have to take a cab home and go pick up will's car the next day. i have to almost immediately leave to go to BB&B for the wedding present. i take a route to the waterfront that i don't normally and end up making several wrong turns and eventually have to turn around, but not before having to cross the hi-level bridge. grrrrrr. of course, it's full of construction even on a saturday morning. so fine. go buy some knives, want to buy their magnetic knife bar but they're out. get the chick to put together a gift bag for me and i'm off to giant eagle to grab some coffee and run home. make it home without incident.
get home, iron dress (which is definitely more of a task than i expected. jersey is NOT easy to iron). jump in the shower, get dressed, makeup, straighten hair, etc. the plan is to all meet at will and shan's at 1:15. ceremony starts at 2:30 and we want plenty of time to get blitzed and drive the 20 min out there.
so we are out the door at 1 (perfect!) with everything we need. the card, the knives, the quesadilla maker i have still yet to wrap, the camera, extra memory cards, extra cigarettes, etc. etc. i've never been so on time in my whole life. get to will and shan's and i proceed to wrap the quesadilla maker and zac's present. except there isn't enough wrapping paper. so there are big stripes on the bottom of the presents that aren't wrapped. whoops.
brian and leeann arrive with bagels and coffee (sweet!) and we all look fantastic. smoke as much as we have time to, and we're off.

ceremony and pre-reception
manage to get to the wedding mostly on time (they actually started the wedding about 5 min early. i was amazed.) and we get halfway decent seats for the HOUR LONG catholic ceremony with mass. i lost it when kathy walked down the aisle. standing there, dabbing the corners of my eyes to avoid smearing my eyeliner (my only not waterproof makeup of the day). so they get married in about the first 15 min., but we keep praying and standing and sitting and singing and kneeling and praying, etc. etc. whenever i'm at catholic mass, all i want to do is yell "stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight!". jp and leeann know all the catholic callbacks and the rest of us are confused. but we make it through and get to leave. no receiving line (for the only wedding where i know most of the wedding party!) and we all pile out to smoke and say hello to everyone. hang out there for a good while, since it's 3:30 and we can't go to the reception until 5. finally leave around 4 (minus one will, who has joined the wedding party in the limo bus) and we need to stop for batteries for the camera and drinks and cigarettes and whatnot. stop at an eckerd in this mini strip mall plaza and jp and brian decide to wander into "record rama" (doesn't that need an "O"?). we go to eckerd, then join them. record rama was amazing! so much vinyl, and halfway decent stuff at that. i pick up tull's 'aqualung' and the knack for erik for his bday (that day). there's an article posted in the store from the post-gazette about how the owner has the world's largest collection of popular music. the library of congress wanted to buy it from him because their collection is only 1/2 of his. pretty sweet for random store in the middle of grotesque northern suburbia.
so we leave and continue to the reception. have to wait a little while to get in, so we take pictures of us looking snazzy outside.

reception
finally get in to cocktail hour and there are drinks to be had. vodka is skyy, so i'm totally pleased. guy behind the bar looks younger than me, and cards me. thank god i thought to bring my id!
the ballroom we're in is really cozy (i think the number of us was the max the room could fit). this means that the walk to the bar is not long. there are chair covers with big red bows and red roses as centerpieces. it all looked very...swank. very wedding-like. very unlike my wedding in every way, which was sort of strange to see.
so we drink and eat and go outside to smoke and drink and eat more appetizers, etc. the wedding party arrives and kathy and ryan dance to 'lovesong' (very cute, they totally learned to dance for that). there are best man and maid of honor toasts. rachel says something about " their love, which is never futile, will always be wasted" and we were all confused. who knows, maybe she was drunk already. so we move on to dinner (pretty yummy) and drinking and more drinking and dancing. i call erik at one point, but it's noisy at the wedding and also noisy where he is. all i know is that i wished him a happy birthday and told him i'd see him tomorrow. i spend a lot of my night dancing, but also mingling. kaiser is there for the weekend and it's good to see him. plus yulch and erin are there too, and i haven't seen either of them in forever. everyone looks great, all dressed up. kaiser looks so much like a mobster, it's scary. manage to talk to all the parents except kathy's mom and thank them. they all seemed to be having fun and it was quite obvious that we all were. the bartender knows my drink well at this point and is no longer skimping on the vodka. we dance to all sorts of (mostly) fun songs, but i miss the 2 that i really really wanted to dance to! 'yeah', which i requested, and shakira's 'hips don't lie'. i was really sad, but life goes on. we start to realize the night is winding down, so i try and drink as much as possible before we leave.

the embarrassing parts...
yeah, leaving. here is where much of the night has been not necessarily remembered, but told to me. up until this point, i've been having a good time, but have been very much in control of myself. this is when things changed. we walk out the front door of the hall and i totally fall. jp and shan tell me that i say "it's possible that i'm not ok" and tell them that i really hurt my wrist. then i realize the shuttle school bus is right there, full of my also drunk friends who have just seen me fall and are yelling at me to make sure i'm ok. so i think that i need to apologize and board the bus. since i haven't talked to anyone on the bus and jp did not follow me there, i have no idea what i said. i do know that the bus driver was definitely freaked out by me. well, these things happen.....
so jp drives us home. on the way home, i start the drunk dialing. leave a message for anferni and i call elizabeth and end up talking to her for awhile, the whole car ride and then again at will and shan's until my phone dies. on the way into will and shan's, i end up almost falling off the stairs but manage to catch myself. i spend the rest of the night asking everyone if they think elizabeth will be mad at me for my phone dying. they are reassuring. at one point shannon claims she wants to be me at that moment for halloween. i get mock angry and shake my fist, tossing my lighter somewhere across the room. i also end up spilling some hot ash on the carpet and burning it. end up feeling really guilty. jp takes me home and i manage to undress myself and get into bed. have one of those drunken breakdowns and cry for awhile since i've made a fool of myself. finally fall asleep....

sunday, october 8
wake up at 9. can't go back to sleep. realize that i've slept in my contacts the whole night and take them out. wander into the living room and watch sex and the city for about 1 1/2 hours until jp wakes up. plan is to breakfast at ritters. call shannon and she is the only one awake. we agree to wander over there in a little bit. so we change and get over to their place. no one is moving very quickly. smoke a little and then get ourselves to ritters. in order to seat all 5 of us soonish, we all squish into a booth with shan and zac on one side and me, will, jp on the other. i insist on playing 'mandi' on the jukebox and someone else does the same about 2 songs later. even i think there should be a limit on barry manilow.
my mom calls while we're there, looking for erik (see also: crimey mcgoestojail, above). never showed up at his friend chuck's house last night and he talked to colleen (his gf) at 2:45am and told her he was wandering around carnegie by himself.
we leave ritters and go back to will and shan's. sit around and watch the history channel, essentially dozing because we are all beat. zac decides to go play disc golf for a little bit.
erik is eventually found, and there's another crazy story there.
quite a weekend. next one is my birthday...i'm hoping for no disasters and me not having to apologize for drunken behavior.

first try

october 6, 2006

well, this is my first shot at blogging in general. i'm curious to see if it will drop off like every blank book i've ever bought. i suppose we will soon see....
crazy weekend ahead...the last of 5 weekends in a row with wedding related events. i can't wait for it all to end. i hope no one else had 2 weddings, a shower, an engagement party, and a bachelorette party to go to right around my wedding! if so, i am truly, truly sorry.
it's strange to be amidst all this wedding stuff and be married already! definitely kinda sad. i think i might have gotten away without any post-wedding blues if it weren't thrown in my face like this. but life goes on, and i'm sure i will make it. =)
zac (my good friend from tx, with me above) is in for the weekend because of the wedding. it's amazing how much i missed him. i don't think i realized it until i picked him up from the airport. it's crazy how you can just go right back into being together again. we all hung out last night to celebrate zac-ness, which totally rocked. i haven't had a weeknight party to go to in awhile.
still have to go buy a wedding present tomorrow, but hey, that's why weddings don't start until the afternoon, right? lol. i should be back with more once the weekend craziness is done. until then...