Confessions of a Wizard Rock Fangirl

We'll start with the confession portion of this evening. I have two things to tell you.

1) I love wizard rock.

2) I only discovered wizard rock one year ago, on July 25th, 2008, during The Mudbloods, JFF, Whomping Willows, Remus Lupins show in Pittsburgh.

I went to this wizard rock show on a whim, and I was totally amazed by it (of course). I had wanted more friends that were into Harry Potter since Deathly Hallows. Most of my friends had read it; some had even gotten the book at the midnight release with me. By the time we had all read and discussed it, most of them were done. That was just...the end. And I didn't want it to be.

When I went to the show, most people were much younger than I was. The only ones that seemed my age were the bands, so after they were done playing, I went over to talk to them. I ended up talking to Alex Carpenter for a bit and left wanting to know more. Here's part of my blog entry from four days later:

"Being completely oblivious and ignorant can have certain advantages, I suppose. Since going to the Wizard rock show on Friday, I have spent much time listening to and finding Wizard rock. I can't get over how adorable it is to listen to songs and sing along about Harry Potter. Seriously, so much fun. Why did I never pay attention to this before?

But it turns out, uneducated in wrock as I was, that meeting Alex Carpenter is a Wizard rock fangirls' dream come true. I also introduced myself to Matt Maggiacomo of The Whomping Willows since he was sitting right there. Since I had missed most of his set, I really had no idea who he was, and have only found out by seeing pictures of him online while finding more wrock.
I wonder if they are so used to squeeing from their fans that they were amused by the fact that I was not? Did they realize I had no idea? If so, was that refreshing or disappointing?"

This past year, I went to 20 shows and saw 21 different bands perform, in 5 different states.

This past year, I started writing for and running a website and had more than my friends and family read the things that I wrote. This introduced me to one of my favorite people ever.

This past year, I invited strangers to sleep at my house. I've also slept at near strangers' houses and felt perfectly comfortable doing so.

This past year, I stopped saying "this person I know online" and started saying "my friend" about people I had never met before. I also tackle hugged many of them when I finally met them.

This past year, I have gotten more hugs than I thought possible. I also learned the definition of "stink shoulder", but I didn't mind at all.

I could go on and on, obviously.

The other day, I was with a group of friends, one of which doesn't live in town. The subject of wizard rock came up, and one of my friends said, with pride, "You know, Freya's pretty important in the wizard rock community. She runs their website and is friends with the bands and travels all the time to go see them." I quickly explained that being "important" in the wizard rock community was a slightly ridiculous concept since we're such a tight-knit community. But I couldn't help but feel amazed that one of my Muggle friends thought of it like that. Like it was something that he thought was admirable and worth mentioning. It's become how I'm defined, and I'm perfectly happy about that.

A year and a day ago, if you had suggested that this is how my life would be, I would have stared at you blankly. And laughed. And now I can't imagine wanting anything more than what I have now. I love this. I love our community. I love the music. And I love having all of you in my life.

Out of Hibernation

About six weeks of writer's/life block ended last week, and I am finally updating my life, both here and in the real world. I've had a series of annoying weeks where nothing seems to go right, interspersed with some random awesomeness. I'm going to try to topically cover everything.

Wizard Rock
Writer's block really screwed me here. I sat on articles far longer than I should have for the 'pedia, and it drove me constantly crazy that I couldn't accomplish anything but news bits for awhile. I missed writing interesting things, and I like to think that people missed reading them. I also had my first real foray into managing an all-volunteer staff. It's tough. There were weeks I spent 20 hours dealing with things for the site, and this is a LOT of my free time. At this point, I think we have managed to set everything up to be ok with less work. Big sigh of relief there. I think JP was getting to the point of resenting the time I was putting into it. I was getting there, too.

I found a roommate for and bought tickets to Wrockstock (a three day wizard rock festival in November). I get butterflies of excitement every time I think about it. Bands that I have never seen, awesome people to hang out with more (including my roommate!), new people to meet, three days in the woods of Missouri - it's going to be insanity, and I can't wait.

I have had some really cool things come out being the 'pedia editor lately. I got my first press copy of a CD to review, which included a personal note that had me all misty and going "Why did I ever doubt this was worth it?!" to JP. I spent time with wrockers that I had really only interacted with because of the site (and had an amazing time!). I've gotten random comments here and there, from people who appreciate what I do. And, most exciting of all, my proposal for a wizard rock panel at LeakyCon got accepted!

LeakyCon is the Harry Potter conference that I'm going to in Boston this May. My entire panel is full of people that I can't wait to hear answer the questions I have (erm, will have. WIP at the moment). I think everyone will walk away from it really impressed by our community and feel full of wrock love. At least, that's the goal. The other goal is for me to have my outfits picked out soon! I need one for traveling/arriving, one for Thursday night, one for Friday (that includes my panel), one for Saturday, one for the ball, and one (possibly two?) for Sunday. So far, I have two for sure, and three with a general plan. Well on my way.

I've been to three more shows. I don't think I will ever not enjoy jumping up and down to wizard rock. The shows that I have been to over the past six months have included some of the most raucous fun, insane adventures, and happy friend-making of my life. It's amazing.

Real Life
I've read a bunch of books, seen some good movies, and had some really great moments with the boys. It's been a generally happy time where friends and family are concerned.

I've also hit another peak of insomnia. I see 4 or 4:30 am pretty often. I'm torn about asking for more Ambien, after my last experience, but it did really help with the sleeping. We'll see.

I've spent what seems like hours trying to deal with the Parking Authority (PSA: Pay your parking tickets on time, kids!), doctor's offices, and admissions staff at La Roche. Just so you know, the Parking Authority will cash your check for a ticket, not tell you that it was late, and charge you late fees. (I only realized this when I went to pay a different ticket online. Fuckers.) Don't ever believe a doctor's office when they say they will call you back. I've never had one that did. They may also get snotty with you when you suggest that they are irresponsible assholes for not doing so, yet telling you specifically NOT to call them. Gah. And also, just because you have a bachelor's degree doesn't mean that you don't need to turn in high school transcripts. Uh huh. Makes sense to me.

I have failed to keep up with laundry or any sort of cleaning, but this is typical of this time of year. It seems that it is finally spring-ish, so I'm back in my spring cleaning mode. It really is amazing how much my productivity and what I do depends on the seasons. At least now I can mentally prepare for how gross the apartment gets in February and March (but not without the requisite guilt - I really should've been a Catholic).

And so it goes. I've noticed a lot of people seem to be trying to shrug off the mid-winter funk and get back into the swing of things. I'm glad to see we are all emerging.

An Open Letter to 17 year old Freya

This is in response to a YouTube meme that is going around. Since I'm sick, I'm not looking my best right now, and I thought I'd just type it up.
The following is a letter to me, 10 years ago. I advise myself through my 19th birthday.

Start reading Harry Potter. You've never heard of it and won't for several years, but find it and read it. You can't fathom what it will come to mean to you, but do it anyway.

In a few months, you will start to really hang out with the people that will be your friends in high school. Even though you won't be friends with most of them in 10 years, make sure to live it up while you can. This will be the first time that you truly feel like you are part of a group, and you will enjoy the hell out of it.

This summer, you will meet people that will change your life, and you will change theirs as well. Try to think of their feelings, no matter how much you think your own life sucks at that moment.
You will make an important life decision during this time. Stick with it! Go to Pitt.
Also, it's probably best not to do a shot of Scope. Vomiting in public is never the way to go.
However...you will also be given another opportunity this summer. As well as things turned out, consider working at the theater arts camp rather than going to Governor's School. I've always wondered about that.

Your 18th birthday will suck. LEARN FROM THIS. You are doing yourself no favors by clinging to the past! You're just going to be miserable. For awhile.

You know deep down if someone is right for you. It's better to deal with the initial awkwardness than to deal with hurt feelings later on.

You will have a silly fight with Abi. She's your best friend. She knows you were hurt. Call her even though you think she should call you. You could still be friends now if you did that.

You might want to care a little bit more about Calculus. No regrets on skipping school, though - those will be some fun times.

Even though you really won't want to do it, save your money from graduation. You will appreciate that later on.

Spend as much time at the Mt. Washington house as possible. Who needs a senior trip when your friends have a house free of parents?

This is perhaps the most important message of them all: your first full day at Pitt, wear your ripped jeans. They will be the ticket to your husband and 99% of the best friends you will ever have. Everything will fall into place after that.

Don't take your mom's car for that ride. You know the one I'm talking about. It's a good story later, but probably not worth the hassle in the short-term.

Go to class. Again, it all works out in the end, but failing that first semester really sucked more than the story it is now.

If only, huh?

Adventures in the Snow, or How Freya Cried at the Crystal Ball (part 2 of 5)

Friday was hp-ohio's Crystal Ball, so Kathleen, Rose, and I piled into the car with suitcases, pillows, sleeping bags, blankets, air mattresses, and ball gowns. The car was beyond stuffed.

Our trip to Loudonville was supposed to take 3 hours, according to the GPS and Google Maps. We were warned that there was supposed to be eight inches of snow that night, but we didn't expect it to affect our trip out there. About two hours into driving, the roads started to get bad. We were on fairly major roads, so it was mostly slushy and a little slippery. Not ideal, but hardly anxiety-attack inducing. Once we turned off the "main" road (a county highway) onto Township Road something something, things got bad. There were about six inches of freshly fallen snow, with only a few car tracks that had gone through and more snow falling all the time. At this point, we were about an hour behind schedule.

After Kathleen explained to me how to drive on freshly fallen snow (easier than any slush or ice in Pittsburgh, for sure!), I was feeling pretty good. There was decent traction, and I was driving about 15 mph on the straight parts, and slower on the curves. Things weren't great, but we were making it.

Until we reached a blind curve.

As we started to round the curve, I thought we might be going a bit too fast. I knew that hitting the brakes would only make us slide, so I just hoped things would be ok. Except that around the curve was a fire truck, stuck in a small ditch on the side of the road. We slid to a stop, narrowly avoiding the ditch, and the firemen walked over to talk to us. He said they were trying to get their truck out and he would help us turn around. Turn around?! Yep. There was also an overturned car in addition to the truck in the ditch and they expected it to be an hour or more before the road opened. While I'm creating plans of us getting to a gas station bathroom somewhere to change and put on makeup, he tells us there is an alternate route. Well, at least it's something.

After about 14 reverses on the narrow road, we go back and loop around to another similar road. Still crappy, still snow-covered, and later than ever. After about 20 minutes of so on this road, we see a car ahead of us that is trying to come up a hill and just failing. The guy in the truck behind us gets out along with Kathleen, and they manage to get the car some traction to get going. We get to the bottom of the hill, which is a T, and realize we need to turn right and go up a smallish hill. We fail, so I back down the hill and try again. Fail. The third time, I started from about a quarter mile back and got enough momentum to get up. We cheered, because right at the top of the hill was the place to check in to our "hotel". I got into this little cottage, pay the guy, and he gives me an honest to goodness key and points up the big hill that we had just come down and tells me the rooms are up there.

At this point, it's about 6:30-6:45ish, and we are getting nervous about making it to the ball to check in. Kathleen comes up with the brilliant idea of just going to the castle and changing in their lobby bathroom. We can just figure out how to get to the room later.

After another harrowing ten minutes, we're at the castle, and it's magical.


(photo by Rose)

We stumble out of the car and decide to check in and then get ready so as not to be rushed. When we get into the lobby, we realize they have moved check in to the events center across the grounds. I am blinking back tears at this point because things have just not worked out at all. We have no cell signal, and there is no payphone, but the receptionist kindly lets me use her phone to call JP, which makes me burst into tears. I reassure him we are fine, calm myself down, and we wander down the path to check in. While we're checking in, Matt comes over and says "Did you guys get here ok?" I shook my head no, burst into tears, and turned around to go outside where I tried to calm down again. All I could think was, "How the hell are we going to get back to our room tonight?"

Rose, Kathleen, Matt, and Justin appeared a moment later. I got big hugs and was told that there was no way that 1) we were changing in a hotel lobby bathroom, and 2) we were trying to drive back to that hotel that night. Matt, Justin, and Sam had a suite with a pullout couch and a giant bathroom, and we were invited to get pretty there and then sleep on whatever surface we could find. I almost started crying again with relief and gratitude. I know that this is what friends do for each other, and of course I would've done the same. Nonetheless, we had been rescued, and sometimes a girl just needs to be rescued, ya know?

A Wizard Rock Birthday, or How I Now Have an Entry for Cake Wrecks (part 1 of 5)

Thursday through Sunday I spent with Rose, Kathleen, various wizard rockers, and lots of new friends. Overall, the good parts were awesome and amazing and the bad parts were awful beyond belief. By the end, though, it definitely ended up well in the plus column.

Thursday, Rose had a show at her house where Matt (The Whomping Willows) and Justin (Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills) played. Sam Friedman is their merch girl for the tour, and so after seeing her various cameos in the Five Awesome Girls videos, I finally got to meet her. She alternates between vivacious energy and low-key snarky remarks, and she can take it as well as dish it out. A good combination, for sure.

Matt has a new album coming out in May that is mostly about the wizard rock community and touring. One of his songs, titled 'A Brief Repose', features a stanza about Pittsburgh. It even mentions Edgewood in particular. Even though JP wasn't there, Matt dedicated the song to the two of us. Aside from the fact that we're included in there, I really, really dig the song. All of the new songs, actually. Justin wrote an EP with songs inspired from Beedle the Bard that were all new and completely enjoyable, too. I especially love 'Hairy Heart'. It's very quintessentially Justin. The first time I heard them, I wasn't that into JFF, but after a bit, it just grabbed me. Meeting Justin helped as well. His music is exactly what I would expect from him, and that makes me like it even more. Justin in song form! Such a good idea.

Since the next day was Matt's birthday, I had planned for our house afterward to be a small birthday party of sorts, replete with a Hannah Montana birthday banner and a cake that I had ordered. The cake probably could've been much worse, but to quote Tim, "The guitar was clearly drawn by someone who's never seen a guitar before but has only had it described to them, in a language they had a shakey understanding of. Or [they] thought you wanted like a science fiction guitar from the future."



So, we sang happy birthday and drank cocktails until the wee hours.

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake

My friend Matt the wizard rocker is turning 30 this Friday. His band is The Whomping Willows. Since he will be at my house Thursday night, I thought I would get a cake for him. I called Giant Eagle to order it, and I believe that the woman there thinks I am insane.

me: I'd like to order a cake to pick up on Thursday.
her: Ok, and what would you like? (goes through cake/frosting options)
me: (I dislike cake usually, so I just pick random things.) Yeah, that sounds good.
her: And what do you want written on that?
me: "Happy Birthday Matt"
her: Ok, and do you want roses on that?
me: Um, well, can you put a guitar on there?
her: Well, we can certainly try to airbrush one on there, but I can't promise anything.
me: (imagining an entry for Cake Wrecks) No, that's fine. It might be funny if it's awful. I'm ok with that.
her: (laughter)
me: Um, is there any way you could also put a tree on there? Is there room?
her: We can put a tree on there, sure.
me: Awesome.
her: (slightly incredulous) Ok, so you want it to say "Happy Birthday Matt" and have a guitar and a tree on it?
me: Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much!
her: No problem, ma'am. We'll see you on Thursday.

A Year in Review

Ganked this from my friend, Ember.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I drove through Utah, Idaho, and Oregon.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My new year's resolution was to read 20 new books and I managed to read 25, plus reread Deathly Hallows and listen to an audiobook. Next year I'm shooting for 25, and I'm also going to try to blog at least 10 times/month.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Kelley and John had this cute lil' bundle. She's the only kid that I insist on holding every time I see her.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Fortunately, no.

5. What countries did you visit?
Ach, I was stuck here! I am definitely leaving in 2009, though.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Sleep. I would like to cure my insomnia.

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 22 and May 10. Jen&Doug's and Will&Shan's weddings.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting into my interior design program, I suppose.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not cleaning my carpets.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I am almost constantly suffering illness or injury. Right now, I actually have a vicious cut on my thumb from the Brita pitcher. No lie.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
It was a gift, but I love love love my Flip camera.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I thought that McCain's concession of the presidency was quite humble and dignified. Good on him.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Anyone who is publicly hateful about same-sex marriage.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Wizard rock and happy hour.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Wizard rock, LeakyCon, writing for the Wizrocklopedia, getting into LaRoche, Jen&Doug's and Will&Shan's weddings.

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2008?
Any Whomping Willows or JFF songs.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier, definitely.
ii. thinner or fatter? I was at my lowest adult weight about a year ago, so at least I'm back to reasonable.
iii. richer or poorer? Richer, I guess. We have less credit card debt, at least.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Watching movies

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Obsessing over Seth Rogen, daydreaming, sitting on my ass.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve with the extended immediate family, Christmas morning at my parents' and Christmas dinner at the Fridy's.

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
I'm constantly falling in love with one thing or another. And also constantly in love with my kittens and JP.

23. How many one-night stands?
Being married has really hindered this.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
I don't think I discovered anything new. Probably Top Chef and Project Runway - they're always good fun.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Sarah Palin, perhaps?

26. What was the best book you read?
Paper Towns by John Green

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Wizard rock, of course!

28. What did you want and get?
A much happier existence.

29. What did you want and not get?
Um, an HD TV, I guess. Not terribly disappointed, though.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Dark Knight, Sweeney Todd, Burn After Reading, and Enchanted were all awesome.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
On the actual day, I went to happy hour at Joe Mama's and dinner at Fuel&Fuddle with bunches of friends. I turned 27.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If any of my far-away friends had moved here.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Cold weather: Jeans, long sleeve tee, boots. Warm weather: Jeans, tank top, flip flops.

34. What kept you sane?
JP and Tim, though they do also drive me crazy at times.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Seth Rogen.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Anything that involves limiting science, whether in school (evolution vs. creationism, abstinence-only sex ed) or research (stem cell research, medical professionals not having to provide services they don't agree with, medical marijuana).

37. Who did you miss?
Steph (especially when she was in Iraq), Tim Scott, Kathleen, Laura, Jen&Doug, Jess&Goat.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Rose, Caity, and the other PAW-ters and the Germans.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
I can do absolutely anything that I decide to do.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
This is never gonna end/It really can't end/Cuz we've made too damn many friends.

Taking the Good Along with the Bad

It's Sunday morning, and this weekend has been an emotional roller coaster so far.
Wow, that's a bit melodramatic. Essentially, yesterday was full of both happy and angry, alternating throughout the day.

It started with my 2pm appointment being canceled via a voicemail. I called back to reschedule and was told they were "too busy" to deal with it then, and they would have to call me back. When the scheduler finally called me back three hours later, she was snotty and annoyed that I asked if I could be squeezed in on Monday and then further annoyed when I told her I wasn't available on Thursday. Like it was my responsibility to keep the entire week-long period after my appointment open in case they canceled my original one. Grr.

Then I found out that I got into La Roche for my design program! Ahhhhhhh!!!! Life goals being achieved!

Then I went to drop JP off at the liquor store while I ran to Giant Eagle for flowers and some woman just backed her car out of a parking spot into my car. There is barely even a dent, so I wanted to let the whole thing go. In retrospect, I should've taken her info and fucked with her as much as possible because after she hit me:
1) She told me that if I had honked, she wouldn't have hit me. (I was laying on the horn for a good 5-10 seconds when I realized she was about to hit me)
2) She told me that I probably didn't want to have to pay my deductible for such a small dent. (Even though she would be responsible for it because SHE FUCKING BACKED INTO ME!!!)
3) She never ONCE apologized.
But we were late, and I somehow felt bad for her even though she was a raging bitch, so I just left.

Then we went to the 25th anniversary party of some family friends. We met this awful woman who bonded with JP because she's a lawyer. As the three of us were interacting, I noticed any time I tried to insert something into the conversation, she would look at me, pause, and then continue as if I had said nothing. After the third time this happened, I simply got up and left to find more enjoyable conversation partners.

Then we drove home, put on costumes, and headed over to Brian, LeeAnn, and Rob's party. Everyone was adorable, of course. I have some amazingly creative friends when it comes to costumes.


And then I woke up this morning to find a new Half-Blood Prince trailer!



I suppose the good outweighed the bad in the overall scheme of things, and I have full confidence that karma will work its magic to punish those that deserve it.

Brett and Andrea's wedding

In which I manage to make a video that is only 3 minutes and some change. Yay!

Art, anyone?

My oh-so-talented sister-in-law is moving from Kansas City to the Bay Area, and is selling some of her art pieces. She has them up on her etsy.

Aside from loving her dearly, I also adore her work. If you do too, please help her out!

Jim and Bethany's Wedding

Freya editing, take 2.
I tried another compression technique, and it still looks like shit! Dammit.

This is probably incredibly boring if you weren't there or don't know these people, and only mildly interesting if you were.

Song during the photos at the end is 'None Shall Pass' by Aesop Rock. If you don't know him, go buy any of his CDs immediately. You won't be disappointed.

Vlog, take 1

On Friday night, I decided to escape from my stressful week by driving out to Kathleen and Zack's new house, which happens to be in the middle of nowhere. I spent much of the trip video blogging in my car. This is my first shot at using video at all, really, so it's not that great. It also might be hard to see some of the text in this window, so you might want to actually go to youtube to watch it. Plus then you can read the creepy comment someone left on there.

I need to learn to edit my thoughts for sure, because this is 8 minutes long. Sorry. Kudos if you make it the whole way through.

Pittsburgh Pride

You know the rule where you're allowed to make fun of your little brother, but no one else is? Because you know that deep down you love him, so it's ok?
I have much the same affliction with Pittsburgh.

Todd recently posted this on Flickr, linking to a report on how Sienna Miller complained about Pittsburgh.
So, I get it, I really do. You live the swank life in NY and LA, and it's hard for Pittsburgh to compete.

What really bothers me are the comments on the story from regular ol' folk.

"I think it's a nice place but it's not Boston, Chicago or San Francisco and it never will be."
Well, no shit, honey. We have a small fraction of that population. Of course we are not going to have the same amenities.
Population Greater Pittsburgh: 1.3 million
Population Greater San Francisco: 7.2 million
Population Greater Boston: 4.4 million (not including Worcester or Providence, which are within 45 miles)
Population Greater Chicago: 9.5 million

"Slacked jaws, nascar, hunting, and the loss of a football game can make the entire city heartbroken and cease all activity...Not to mention the awful semi-southern white trash accent that is so abundant."
Oh, yikes. It's like the people that meet the one asshole in a city and decide the whole place is full of them. And I have to say, there are people who speak Pittsburghese, sure, but there are plenty that do not. You could hardly say the same in a large Southern city, where people look at "Yankees" funny.

"...the transportation system sucks (ONE metro, to and from South Hills?? Oh, I am sorry, I forgot about the Pat Bus, how fun to ride)."
This person moved from Pittsburgh to DC. I bet if she ever went to Buffalo or KC (comparably sized cities), she'd be begging for the PAT system.

"Doesn’t your Mayor have better things to do than comment on what a two bit actress thinks?"
Um, don't you think someone asked him about it? I somehow doubt he called a press conference to talk about Sienna Miller.

Regardless of how great other cities are, I am in Pittsburgh of my own volition. There is plenty to do if you care to look, and lots of good people here. I was a little surprised to read all of this, because most people I talk to that have been here think it's a fun town. And guess what? I pay much less for my adorable apartment than anyone living in Boston, DC, NY, or San Francisco, which makes my quality of life better. So there.

Wair iz best fwend?

Yesterday, my in-laws were over for a little bit in the afternoon. We were hanging out in the living room, and I happened to walk past Odessa while she was sitting on her favorite dining room chair. Normally when you walk past her, she gives a little meow to remind you that she is there and would like some lovin'. This time, I walked past and she started yelling.
I know, I know, cats don't yell. But Odessa tried her damndest. She was meowing with such volume and distress that I was immediately concerned. I looked at their food and water - both full. I had just cleaned their litterbox earlier that day, so that couldn't be it. Plus, this was more than annoyed - she sounded very worried. My next thought was that something was wrong with Sirius.


moar funny pictures

I enlisted JP's help and we started to hunt for Sirius. Nowhere in the apartment. He does have a bad habit of trying to leave the apartment, but we have a small foyer with a fire door that he can't get out of, so if he gets accidentally shut out there, he yowls after a few minutes and then we hear him and let him back in. I checked the foyer, no Sirius. We rechecked the apartment, no Sirius. We finally thought to check the rest of the apartment building to see if he had somehow made it past the fire door.
Bingo!
He was on the third floor (where the fire door is propped open to their foyer), sitting in front of our upstairs counterparts' apartment, screaming his bloody cat lungs out. His yowling was so loud and mournful. JP went upstairs and grabbed him, and he still cried the whole way back into our apartment. Once he was inside again, both the cats calmed down. They ignored each other, and moved to their separate (but equal) spots.

I was truly amazed at both their distress. I don't know if Odessa could hear him up on the third floor or if she just knew he wasn't there, but she knew something was very wrong and very clearly told me. And Sirius is such a badass most of the time that I never imagined him sounding so sad and scared, thinking he was trapped in the apartment stairwell forever.
Poor kittehs. That's probably the scariest thing that's ever happened to them.

4th of July

It has long been a tradition in our circle of friends to spend the 4th of July weekend at Silent Bob's parents' lakehouse, near Scranton. This year was easy, with the 4th on a Friday. I took Thursday off and left after work on Wednesday with Josh and his dog, Zehe. We left Pittsburgh at 8pm, and drove the 6 1/2 hours to the lake. I think I am getting too old to do that. It was exhausting and never-ending, especially since 80 has no lights toward the eastern part of the state. We arrived at 2:30am, and JP, Silent Bob, Brian, and Keiser were already there. The next night we were expecting 9 more people, and then 1 more on Friday, to make us 16 in total.

In the past, we have had to leave the house at least once a day to go pick up beer and food. No one likes to leave the lake, so we decided to get everything ready ahead of time. This meant ordering 2 kegs and making a grocery list for 6 meals for 16 people. I was asked to put together the food list, and Josh and I volunteered to go get food on Thursday before everyone was there. The list included things like 7 loaves bread, 144 hot dogs, 12lbs of pork roast, 8 bottles BBQ sauce, etc., etc. We filled 3 carts with groceries, and the total was around $400. Not a bad deal at all. I kept the receipt to take a picture of, but it's actually too big if it's on the floor, and I didn't feel like hanging it on the wall, so I measured it. 75 inches. That's 6'3" long. It's a good thing I thought to sign up for their discount card - it saved us $50.
So we had pancakes, bacon, and fruit for breakfast on Friday, BBQ chicken, corn, and roasted potatoes for dinner; eggs, bacon, toast, and baked beans for breakfast on Saturday, and pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner. Planning, cooking, and cleaning for 16 is exhausting even with tons of help. I'm glad that JP and I do not have 14 children.

There is so much that I love about the lake that it's hard to pick my favorite thing. Afternoons of reading while there is hacky sack in the background?

Naps on the lawn?


Fireworks set off from our dock and the dock next door? (Which, by the way, rival any that I have seen, especially as you are close enough to have flaming ash rain down on you)


The fires and marshmallows and s'mores?

It might be the stars seen laying on the dock late at night. How many constellations do you know? We could pick out 4 - Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Casseopoeia, and Orion (who can only be seen early since he is low on the horizon in summer).

When JP and I travel, we like to explore. Neither of us wants to spend days laying on a beach. We would much rather wander around an unknown city and eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The lake is the only place that I go to just escape it all. As soon as I see it, there's just this feeling of peace and leaving everything else behind. We call it recess for adults - pure fun that lasts for days and you get to drink.

Rhymed Couplets

Have you all seen this:



In honor of positive thinking, JP's favorite rhyme scheme, and xkcd today:


I wrote my own lyrics. They're really cheesy, but I had fun doing it.

I love my kittens, I love Judd Apatow,
I love raw oysters, I love the falling snow,
I love my own world, and how my music sounds.

I love PHI, I love our happy hours,
I love my Harrys, I love when I get flowers,
I love my own world, and all its loveliness.

I love my Mazda, I love when Pittsburgh wins,
I love espresso, I love when JP grins,
I love my own world, and how my cookies taste.

February 23, 2009

So, I was incredibly dumb today. Like, ditzy awful dumb.

Last night, Cohen&Grigsby (JP's summer job firm) hosted a summer party at the president's house. The invite said "casual attire", but JP explained to me that this meant I should wear a dress. I have been worrying about this for the past few months, trying to figure out how to interact with all these lawyers and their spouses and talk to them about their houses and kids (of which I have neither). So, trepidatious, we drove out to the $783,000 house (I looked up the address on the county assessment website, lol.). It was gorgeous, of course, and wonderfully, tastefully decorated. I was amazingly impressed. And everyone was so super nice. Not actually that difficult to talk to, and most of them seemed fascinated by my work. I was surprised at how many young people were there, and how many of them had kids. Things were looking like this would be a perfectly fun time.
So, I'm standing with JP, sipping my (very weak) vodka&soda, and I get dizzy. Not just normal spin-head dizzy, but tunnel-vision-I'm-going-to-faint dizzy. I tell JP I need to sit down and he starts to end the conversation, and I tell him I need to sit down NOW, and I just walk away. As I'm walking towards an empty table in the driveway, I realize I'm not just light-headed. I'm about to throw up.

I run to the bottom of the driveway where there are some bushes and trees to block me from site and just vomit, right there, on the mulch part of the landscape of the president of Cohen&Grigsby's beautiful house and lawn. Mm-hmm.
And the neighbors were pulling into the driveway as I did it.

So then I decide I need to sit, but am too mortified to return to the party. I walk to our car (a couple blocks away) and try to call JP. No answer. So I call my next help person - my mom. She's not there, but Erik is and he says he will come get me if I need him to. We hang up, JP calls back. I explain everything to him and he comes to the car with some water. He says it's no big deal to leave (it was already 9:30 or so) and heads back to make his goodbyes. We get home without incident.

What does every girl think when they throw up randomly? What am I most scared of?
I woke up and decided to take a pregnancy test, because I am that paranoid. I bought this last one in a pack of 2, so I had thrown out the directions. It's an ept early detection test. I take it and it looks like this:



Two lines. Two lines means you're pregnant. Omigodnoseriously?!? I sit in the bathroom for a few minutes and then walk out to the living room to tell JP. He takes it really well, I cry. I insist on taking more tests (a la Katherine Heigl in 'Knocked Up'), and we need to get groceries for the Father's Day brunch we're having tomorrow. How ironic, right? So we go to Whole Foods and then I send JP to the liquor store (thinking all the while "no drinking gin and tonics for 9 MONTHS") while I go to Walgreen's. While there, I go to the home pregnancy test section and am trying to find another 2 or 7 tests to take. And then I see the ept box:

It's a plus-minus system. Not a 2 line system.
3 f*cking hours of being 100%, totally convinced I was pregnant. Telling JP that. Discussing it, thinking about it (When's the last time I had sushi? Dammit! No more sushi!), freaking out about it, crying about it, having the internet figure out my due date (February 23, 2009)...and it turns out I'm just a complete moron.
February 23rd is a Monday next year, but who's up for some celebratory cocktails that day?

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination

Regardless of the whole Lexicon thing, I was interested in reading JKR's speech for Harvard's graduation. It was a good speech. It was certainly better than my commencement speech. (It seems that Pitt doesn't try at all with their speakers.) It was also very much a commencement speech, which is fine since it was a graduation. There was one part, though, that brought me to tears.

"The friends with whom I sat on graduation day have been my friends for life. They are my children’s godparents, the people to whom I’ve been able to turn in times of trouble, friends who have been kind enough not to sue me when I’ve used their names for Death Eaters. At our graduation we were bound by enormous affection, by our shared experience of a time that could never come again, and, of course, by the knowledge that we held certain photographic evidence that would be exceptionally valuable if any of us ran for Prime Minister."

While I do not have the benefit of having lived an additional 16 years with my friends, and while we may have graduated in different years, the sentiment is the same. You will be my children's (secular) godparents, the people I turn to in times of trouble, the inspiration for the names of evil things that I create. And yes, much will continue to change. One thing never will, though.

I will always have that photographic evidence. Ha! You're screwed.

ps Perhaps the sentence in the penultimate paragraph should have been written like this to avoid any confusion as to whose words were actually used: You will be "my children's" (secular) "godparents, the people" I "turn" to "in times of trouble", the inspiration for the names of evil things that I create.
(All words in quotes are that of JKR (and possibly WB). No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made from the use of these words. Unless my friends read it and want to give me money for writing nice things about them. I'll let you know.)

End of Chicago and Day One

I am home safe and I plan on blogging the whole trip, just a little at a time. Work is crazy after being off for 3 days, so the last thing I really wanted to do tonight was sit in front of the computer. But here is update #1, to be followed by more. And pictures, eventually.

So, on Friday the movers finally finished around 8 and Laura's friends Sheera, Libby, and Libby's boyfriend, Chris, came over. We ate Indian food on the floor of Laura's now empty apartment. It was actually pretty great. Sleeping on the floor was much less bad than I expected it to be, with the help of a yoga mat and a featherbed. We got off a little late the next day (11ish) and did some exciting things, like crossing the Mississippi. The highlight of Iowa was the convenience store, Kum 'n Go. I bought 6 lighters with their logo for all my smoker friends and a cheap leather wristband with skulls on it. It was awesome. We hightailed it out of there because there was a tornado warning and didn't want to be sucked up and then spit back out again. Shortly after that, we saw cows lying down. That means rain or tornadoes or something like that, so we were a little freaked. City girls don't do well in the middle of nowhere.

We managed to make it to the middle of Nebraska that day, and stopped in Kearney (pronounced carnie...like, guy that works at a carnival). We stayed at a Rodeway Inn that actually allowed pets and ordered pizza and chilled.

Speaking of pets...Ruby was a doll. She did puke once, but cat puke is something I'm well accustomed to, so no big.

Overall, good day. The 75 mph speed limit definitely helped things along, and relaxing in the hotel room (with free wi-fi!) after a day in the car was decadent.
Stay tuned for...Wyoming!

Things are not boding well.

Here's an entry I wrote yesterday, but just now got the chance to post:

Even though I am so far having a very excellent time with Laura and Eric, things haven’t exactly been going swimmingly.

Let’s start with my flight, where I was seated in the very last row. In front of me was a man and his 4 year old, and across the aisle from them was the mother and a 1 year old. Next to her was some girl who appeared to be my age and was immediately cooing over the baby next to her, talking in a baby voice. Ugh. The two children proceeded to scream for the entire flight, with the non-relation girl singing pat-a-cake for most of it. I’m not sure which I thought was worse – the screaming or the singing. It was a relief to leave the plane, though I did have to wait for the entire rest of the flight to “deplane” (the flight attendant’s word, not mine). Laura and Eric grabbed me without incident and we drove back into the city to get dinner at this really cute tapas restaurant. The tortilla was good, the patatas bravas not so much. The pulpo, shrimp, and calamares were excellent, as was the flan and café con leche. We retired to Laura’s entirely packed apartment and went to sleep.

Today, the movers were supposed to arrive between 1 and 3. We headed out around 11 to run some errands (go to the bank, grab coffee, etc.)


On the walk home, we ran into this statue:


which I convinced Laura to molest with me.

We got home and Laura got a call around 1:15 to say that they’d be here closer to 3. Fine. Laura reminds them that she can only move until 5:45 and they reassure her that this won’t be a problem.

3:25 – Laura calls the company. They tell her they’ve been unexpectedly delayed by their former job and it will be at least a half an hour before they will be there.

4:25 – Laura calls the company. They tell her they are 15 minutes away.

5:15 – Laura calls the company. They tell her “there’s an accident” and that they will be there “soon”.

5:25 – Laura calls her landlord’s office to find out if she can still move out after 5:45. The girl tells her no. Laura presses her and the girl agrees, but only if Laura is willing to forfeit the $300 deposit she had to put down for the movers. Having no other options, Laura agrees.

5:45 – Laura calls the company. They tell her that the truck to get her stuff has been in an accident and that they have to wait to file a police report.

6:45 – The movers arrive. The boss guy goes over the contract with Laura. He has added fees for packing materials and a fuel surcharge that Laura was told was included. This adds several hundreds of dollars to the cost.

7:15 – Current time. Movers still moving, but nearly done. We’re all starving, not wanting to leave the apartment earlier since we had no idea when the movers would be here. Indian food later.