driving lots and giving thanks...

ahh, the annual pilgrimage. will would love the pun-age. yet it's true! every year, some portion of my immediate family and i trek out to the wilds of upstate new york, where it's cold, smoke-free, and sales tax is 8.5%, even on clothing.
everyone has thanksgiving traditions. we are no exception, except most people tell me that ours sounds hellish. this year had a few differences that may have improved upon some of it. tell me what you think.

wednesday
it starts with wednesday. leave the house around 8:30 am, my brother and i packed in the back of my father's toyota solara (2 door!). 2 grown people in the backseat of any 2 door car is a recipe for regression into childhood, pinching and whining, which is what usually happens. add in the fact that my father believes we should stop once during 8 hours of driving and it gets fairly miserable. especially for the people used to peeing every 1-2 hours. or at least less than 5 hours after their morning coffee. throw in some carsickness, the sun beating down on one part of the car (meaning you're either freezing or sweating), and a very uncomfortable nap in which your body bends sideways at the hip and your head is on a cooler. let's just say there are more fun ways to spend 8 hours. somewhere around 5pm, we arrive at my aunt's house. the exact time depends on if i convince my father i have no qualms about wetting myself on his new upholstery or how much snow/ice/construction there is. upon arriving at my aunt's house, she makes spaghetti and we hang out with at least 5 members of the extended family. the adults go to bed around 11 (except for gramma, who goes around 10) and erik and i go to our cousins' place to hang out/sleep.

thanksgiving day
thursday involves anywhere from 19-24 of us for dinner. one set of my relatives show up 5 minutes before we eat and leave about an hour after dessert. the rest of us are in it for the long haul. in recent years, i have been racked by the guilt of not cooking or cleaning on thanksgiving, but i've been reassured that this is best left to the experts. that would be the matriarchal group of 5 that manages to clean up dinner for 24 faster than i can "make" salad in a bag. dinner is followed by pie and jello (weird, i know) and laying around. it is the longest day you've ever lived, yet not unpleasant (unless you manage to butt heads with any number of people there that you disagree with). after you manage to pull yourself out of the haze that is tryptophan, it's time to flip through the circulars for the black friday sales. yes, we are those people. while i myself have never actually entered a store before 9am on black friday, every year, there is something that someone needs at 5am.


black friday
up and at them, george mcfadden (10 points for correctly identifying this reference)! maybe i don't get out at 5am, but we are usually in a store by about 9. there are usually somewhere around 12 of us. keeping track of 12 people in a store is difficult with cell phones, and we've been doing it far longer than they've been around. you would think that it would be annoying to drive 20 minutes to go to one store that one person needs one specific thing (which may or may not be in stock by that time), but it's really not. if you like shopping, you just look around. if you don't, you stand outside in the freezing cold and smoke a lot of cigarettes. i fall into both categories, depending on the store. shopping like this involves sending contingencies back to the cars with piles of bags. you buy things that you don't need and that no one really wants because it is $3. since it's usually $40, this strikes you as a good idea. there is traffic everywhere. there are people in your way. the amazing thing is that people are far nicer on black friday than other christmas shopping times. by the time i make it out in public, they have already finished bleeding from the icepick wound they received while trying to wrassle a dora the explorer cash register away from someone else. the endorphins have set in and they've reached the stage of acceptance. there aren't really long lines anywhere, because people know to be overstaffed.
and everything is cheap as shit.
the day ends with sore feet around 5. it's like a full day of work. we go back to my aunt's and eat new york pizza. yum.

saturday and sunday
saturday is spent lounging, not doing much of anything. sunday is a repeat of wednesday, only everyone's crankier after having spent 5 days in close quarters.
and so it ends.

this year
ok, so the improvements this year.
1) JP!!!!!
this is the first thanksgiving that jp and i have ever spent together. out of 7. so this was very exciting.
2) drinking.
this is the first year i've gotten woodchuck for around the house and that we've gone out for drinks. i actually saw downtown albany for the very first time because we went to a bar there to meet our friend julie. i know that drinking to cope with things isn't always the best idea, but i think thanksgiving/lots of family time is a good excuse.
3) less people.
on friday, there were only 8 of us shopping. remarkably, keeping track of 8 people is much easier than 12.
4) more relief.
jp and i refused to sit in the back of the solara, so we drove my car up instead. we listened to 'america' the book on cd and i peed 3 times. not on the upholstery. our climate was controlled in a compromising manner.

so improving on traditions is something i wholeheartedly encourage. however, you may not invite jp to your thanksgiving next year. he's staying with me.

i like when the internet tells me who i am.

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what weird miscellaneous thing am i, you ask?

What weird misc. thing are you? Fish eating spaghetti You are absolutely adorable. I want to pick you up and sqeeze you until noodles come out of your nose.

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who knew?

check it out: googlism

freya is a challenging
freya is there to provide it
freya is usually seen as the female fertility
freya is usually seen as the female fertility god of norse mythology but there are no sources suggesting that she was called on to bring fruitfulness to fields
freya is going out with a bang
freya is a goddess of love and fertility
freya is probably the best
freya is on her way
freya is taken from the norwegian goddess of fertility
freya is born in the autumn
freya is heralded a fresh voice in fiction
freya is a mature icelandic female orca
freya is a bit different
freya is less susceptible to common scab
freya is very much a "pet" quality doberman
freya is associated with the first eight runes; some of these are fehu
freya is one heck of a machine
freya is an excellent choice for a learner for the obvious reason
freya is the twin sister of the golden god freyr
freya is here to assist you in honoring your sexuality
freya is the goddess of marriage
freya is running version 4
freya is my fave character from ffix
freya is not a very good choice
freya is contemplating settling down
freya is gone
freya is devastated and doesn't know how she can live without him
freya is connected to the following things
freya is fucking happy
freya is the goddess of love
freya is tested by his increasing compassion for breeze
freya is most often recognized through its premier adult directory
freya is trained in the dragoon arts
freya is a student with a high intelligence
freya is part of the tripartite entity of ostara/freya/frigg
freya is a female domestic long hair with a beautiful calico coat
freya is a sign of his passionate core
freya is still in need of sponsorships to help pay for her care and vet treatment
freya is in the bathroom
freya is sitting on the sofa
freya is the princess of the forever cats
freya is currently undertaking research towards a phd on issues relating to biodiversity conservation and the law in the northern territory
freya is one of the last surviving dragoon knights
freya is a challenging introductory adventure for any fantasy
freya is a little chinese crested whose owner is victoria king
freya is regarded as the sister of the god frey
freya is said to be equal in power with frigga
freya is taken with viktor's manuscript
freya is much more a goddess of lust
freya is a character that we first meet in south lindbulm in a bar
freya is a trustworthy and loyal character who hides a dark and tragic past
freya is known as the lady of the vanir
freya is determined to sort out her life before she hits thirty
freya is not a lunar goddess
freya is always nearby and is probably helping to guide me in my quest for higher levels of being
freya is affectionate
freya is still perched on jackstands in the boat yard
freya is also the queen of the valkyeries
freya is going to take over the danish radio waves again over the summer
freya is doing very well
freya is a dragoon knight from burmecia
freya is quiet and serious
freya is holding is another one of master daniel's creations
freya is the pseudonym for a woman who for about 30 years has been in closed psychiatric care
freya is the goddess that you should pray to
freya is also both earth and moon
freya is eventually given work with the british foreign service during world war ii
freya is an unusual name
freya is the goddess of freedom and love and the goddess of making love
freya is an excellent fighter
freya is fleeing towards wotan and his wife

global search and replace - even more useful than i thought!

i am currently rereading 'the golden compass' by phillip pullman (book one of 'his dark materials' - if you haven't read it, go buy the trilogy RIGHT NOW. they're fantastic (in both meanings of the word).). in it, he spells the word 'demon' 'dæ mon'. since 'æ' is not readily available on the keyboard, i was thinking this morning (on the bus) that it must be difficult. the word comes up very often. even if you have it set to a keyboard shortcut, you're still looking at wasting valuable time hitting ctrl+whatever to get this. then i realized that he must've typed it up all with 'demon' and just done a global search and replace in word to change it! however, whenever i use global search and replace on large files, word likes to crash. so i hope phillip pullman didn't have too too much trouble with it.
and that would be my random bus thought for today.

fashion forward

so amongst all my travelling this weekend, i read the latest issue of cosmo. and guess what i found out? the latest hair style to hit hollywood is what they call 'sexy bed head' or some other such nonsense. so all you have to do is put a whole bunch of product in your hair, blow dry it completely (15-20min), curl it (15-25min), put more product in it, separate the curls (carefully! so about 5min), floof it up, and voila! in 45 min or more, you have hair that looks exactly like mine. only what i do is this: wash, add infusium 23 leave in treatment, flip head, blowdry as long as desired (average 30sec), flip head back up, shake head until hair does not look like you blow dried it upside down (average 12sec). who knew i was so trendy?
if you're really disturbed about my trendiness, rest assured it won't be true for long. i was also informed that cowboy boots will be 'so out' in 2007. however, to part with my steve maddens will take an act of god or force of nature that the world is unprepared for. so stay tuned for january, when i will be 'so last season'.

god, i love this woman already. at night i dream about student loans not being 6.8% anymore!

"Pelosi also has said that in the first 100 hours of her speakership she will push for action implementing all 9/11 Commission recommendations on national security, raising the minimum wage to $7.25, eliminating corporate subsidies for oil companies, allowing the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices, imposing new restrictions on lobbyists, cutting interest rates on college loans and supporting embryonic stem-cell research."

full CNN article

ha! now i don't have to feel bad about being mean.

tim very graciously pointed out that rick santorum's son hates us all. so we're allowed to rejoice in his sadness.

today is the greatest day in my political career...

and by 'political career', i mean my caring about politics. we won the house, montana is OURS, and rumsfeld is gone.
1, 2, 3! fanfuckingtastic! the only thing that could make life any better would be virginia. our margin is shrinking there, by the way. i'm starting to be worried through my euphoria. as of 1:04pm, we were up by .28%. down .06% from this morning. they actually took away from the total number of votes. i don't really understand that, but whatever. as long as it stays with us.

yay!!!!

somebody phone home, the american people have spoken!

i could not be more ecstatic or optimistic about the election. well, that's a lie. i'll be much more ecstatic when montana and virginia are declared a democratic victory. but for now, i have a smile on my face, and a cnn window open that i refresh every 90 seconds. hang on, gotta go do that.
ok. the democratic margin in montana just went up a bit. yay!
i've spent most of my morning calculating the percentage that the dems are winning by. at this moment, in virginia, we are up by .34% and montana is a little bit better, with .43%. that is just so crazily close.
now, i don't want to sound mean, but i'm going to be for a bit. i hope we win both those states, and that people are up in arms about the closeness and really pissed off. because i've had that feeling enough times. and they'll just have to suck it up and have a democratic senate AND house. ha!
last night, there were two fantastic moments. the first was santorum's concession speech. how absolutely great did that feel, PA?? and all 17 of his kids crying on the stage? they're all way too young to realize how evil and wrong their father really is. i'm sure they're filled with his rhetoric every day. do you think there's a way for us to adopt them and fix that?
the other was when we won the house. most times when i'm happy, i clap my hands and maybe wriggle a bit. last night, there was full on jump dancing. i mean, jumping side to side while holding my arms in the air yelling "we did it, we did it!". i'm hoping i disturbed the girl downstairs that sings really awful r&b all day long.

keep your fingers crossed people!
huzzah to the democratic process!

happy dentistry and random family encounters

yesterday i had a dentist appointment. i had had a cleaning on october 12 and was given the disappointing news that i had 2 cavities to be filled. i needed an appointment later in the day, so i had to wait until yesterday.

a little history...
now, in the past, i have had a cavity on my front tooth. the procedure of this sucks beyond all mentioning, and i was told that there was another cavity near where this one was! are you kidding me? now, this filling on my front tooth is luckily not silver, but supposedly matches my tooth color. however, it didn't. it was definitely yellower. and looked gross. it was also a different texture than my tooth (rougher) and obviously protruded a bit from the tooth, making it thicker. i was not pleased about this when i got it done, but i thought it was better than the discolored cavity part that had been there. as of late, i have hated it, but sucked it up and tried not to smile so toothily.

yesterday...
yesterday, i show up to the dentist completely trepidatious. i hate hate hate novicaine and i am super sensitive to the drill noise. getting a cavity filled is definitely a torturous procedure for me. so all day long i worried about it. show up at the dentist at 4:20 (appt. at 4:30) and wait until 5. i hate that! so go back with the hygenist and and wait for the dentist, who is not the dentist i saw before. i didn't particularly like the dentist i saw before, so this is fine with me. so dr. so-and-so comes in and introduces himself to me. he then proceeds to tell me there have been some "discrepancies" between reality and what the other dentist said. so i don't have 2 cavities. i have some "decalcification" that may one day be a cavity and a really crappy filling on my front tooth. so he tells me he will "polish it up" for me. he does and voila! i have a tooth that is the same texture, thickness, and color as my other teeth. it's amazingly gorgeous and i have been checking out my teeth in every mirror i can find. best dentist appointment ever.

random family encounters

a little history...
most of my extended family lives right around albany, ny. every year we go to albany for thanksgiving. it's the perfect amount of family time and generally the only time i get to see my family. i'm always excited to go. this year, i'm particularly excited because it will be the very first thanksgiving that jp and i spend together.

today...
my mother calls me around 11:30 to say that she is going downtown to pick up my cousin brian (from albany) and bring him to oakland for lunch. do i want to come? free lunch and a surprise brian visit? yay! he's in town for about 24 hours to have psychological testing done to qualify him for a job. no sociopaths allowed, apparently. so i meet erik, brian, and mom for lunch at lulu's.

life's randomness is the best part. i love it!

vote vote vote!

i am so excited to vote today. i love voting. voting is the one time in this crazy fucked up world where i feel like i make a difference. i'm sure plenty of you would tell me that one vote doesn't make a difference. i'm here to tell you that if everyone had that attitude, no one would vote! and where would we be then? did you know only 1/3 of young people vote? that's the crappiest thing i've ever heard. how many times have we all complained about politics? are y'all happy with the way the us is being run? if you answered anything greater than zero for the first question or anything at all for the second, then you should vote. we all should. i hate the "it's my civic duty" thing. of course, it's a good idea to keep democracy going here. i'm into it. but i don't vote because it's my duty. i vote because i care. i understand that some people may not care, and that's fine. there are certainly things i don't care about: competitive bass fishing, the color of my socks, and polishing my nails (finger, not toes. everyone knows polishing your toes during sandal season is important.), just to name a few. but how can you be apathetic about politics? if you have healthcare, do you wonder why you pay so much for it? if you don't, don't you think you should have it? shouldn't everyone? if you want to criticize someone or call a middle eastern country, wouldn't you rather the government not know about it? c'mon people! apathy is cool if you're an 18 year old stoner. at the age of 20, 22, even 25, it's not. you're not allowed to not vote. i know you have an opinion. now go and express that, and know that you (yes, you!) have made a difference.

my name is freya and i approved this blog entry.

speaking again of cats....

last night, i tried to get sirius to make me cookies. i didn't care if he eated it, i would've just been happy with his newfound ability. to no avail....

OMG ceiling cat is watching me masturbate!!

is cat piss the answer??

now i understand how people peter out with the whole blog thing. they must actually have jobs that keep them busy! .
life lately has consisted of me feeling very guilty about the state of the apartment, but not doing much about it. yesterday i cleaned the bathroom, which didn't really need it all that badly, but i felt like i should do something, and i didn't want to do the dishes. or pick up the living room. this "picking up" thing is what kills me. i absolutely hate taking something and putting it away. it drives me crazy. so a maid service wouldn't even help me, because you have to pick up before they come clean things! the cleaning part is actually what i like much more. wiping surfaces, dusting, vacuuming - these are all perfectly acceptable tasks as far as i'm concerned. and laundry. i could do laundry all day long. are there jobs where you do that? do they also pay similarly to mine? because that would be great.
no, really, i'm desperately afraid of the fact that i will never have a well organized, generally clean place. don't get me wrong, we don't live in filth or anything. i actually do things like pick things up off a table to wipe it off and then put them back there. the problem is the piling up of things. with jp's law school workload essentially that of 2 full time jobs, he can't really be expected to do much, either. so i think we may be screwed. should i have found a neat freak? are we in for a life of apologizing anytime someone comes over, or shutting the bedroom door because god forbid someone see the piles of (clean) clothes that i have on every surface, including the floor? i can't call my landlord to come fix things for fear of them yelling at me about the state of their property. thank god the cats don't piss on things left on the floor.
hey, there's an idea. i just need a cat who would! can you train them to do that?

condoms, condoms everywhere....

no time for a real post, but read this. it's hilarious. especially if you're from allentown.

condoms as far as the eye can see...

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