tgif
This is such a great Friday... mostly because I don't have to work. Instead, I slept in until 11 and then watched tv for awhile before whipping up a delicious lunch. Here at my new apartment, I now have cable for the first time since college and I can't stop watching trashy tv. If Celebrity Rehab, E! True Hollywood Story, or anything about Britney Spears is on, I have NO hope of tearing myself away. Despite this, I still got some stuff accomplished. I made a lot of progress in my effort to unpack past the "unpacked enough to move around" stage.
Tonight is dinner with a good friend, and then off to my church's 3rd annual Celebration of All That Is Good. I'm pretty sure it's basically just an excuse to party. We are meeting at some bar for free food, karaoke, and Guitar Hero. I'm not sure, but maybe there's free booze too, but that's probably just wishful thinking. This afternoon I've been thinking about karoake songs, and here's my top contenders:
"I Would Do Anything For Love" - Meatloaf
"Overprotected" - Britney Spears
"Turn the Beat Around" - Gloria Estefan (I really like the rat-tat-tat-tat- on the drum part)
"Love is a Battlefied" - Pat Benetar
"Islands in the Stream" by Dolly and Kenny as my male duet option
We'll see.
whatev
I used to be pretty good at keeping up with people/things. Somehow I've gotten really bad at it in the last couple of months. My list of people to email back/email is sitting at 18. I've seriously gotta tackle this soon.
+/-
Today's negative: I have to work on this national holiday.
Today's positive: When I left for work at 9:30 this morning, it was already 61 degrees outside. Spring is coming, my friends!
weekender
This is shaping up to be a great weekend. It's a type of weekend I haven't had in a looong time: one with nothing to do.
It started last night with a new tradition some friends and I have started in order to officially usher in the weekend: Take a Shot Fridays. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like. We take a shot whenever we get home on Fridays, whether it's super early at 2 pm or at 2 am after a night on the town. Only one shot is allowed, unless it's your birthday week or a 3-day holiday weekend. In that case, two shots are taken. Unfortunately, my boss moved President's Day to the following Monday, February 25, so I was only able to down a single.
Later on, I went to Rite-Aid and made out like a bandit. My $11 mascara was on sale for $4.14, I got $4.99 shampoo and conditioner for $1.99 each, and I picked up some regularly priced $4.19 cereal for $1.99 as well. It was awesome.
I slept in till noon today, and have nothing I have to do except unpack, since I moved this past week. I guess that's sort of a big job, but it doesn't require a lot of out-and-about-ness. Then tonight, my new roomie and I are having a girly movie double feature -- "Chasing Liberty" and "The Prince and Me." I'll probably stay up pretty late tonight, which sets me up perfectly for my Sunday afternoon nap tomorrow.
None of these are really earth-shattering life developments, of course, but just the type of things that make life a little bit better.
best tuesday
Yesterday was the best Tuesday ever; it was truly a triple threat.
First, it was the New York Giants Super Bowl victory parade. I watched some of the pre-parade festivities on TV before work, and it just sucked me even further into Giants mania. Growing up as an Illinois resident/Chicago Bulls fan during the Michael Jordan era, I've certainly seen my fair share of unbelievable sporting accomplishments. However, the Giants' victory on Sunday was one of the best sports spectacles I've been privileged enough to witness during my quarter-century on this planet. Pulling from my last couple years of memories, it ranks right up there with the game that sent the University of Illinois basketball team to the Final Four in 2005. They were losing to Arizona by 15 points with just 3 or 4 minutes left, and then tied the game with a 3-pointer in the final seconds. Then they went on to win by 1 point in overtime. Unbelievable. What a great night. Anyway, this Giants victory is similarly amazing. Besides the sheer athletic aspect, I love how it's pulling the city together in ways I've only witnessed twice before. After the game, it was so fun being outside and I didn't really want to go back to my apartment. Cars were driving around honking like crazy, I was high-fiving strangers I passed on the sidewalks, and we were all whooping, hollering and cheering at/with each other like crazy people. It was so fun. In the past, I've experienced this same sort of city-wide unity only on New Year's Eve, when we were reveling in the streets/subways with the rest of the hoi polloi, and also when the final Harry Potter book came out and people would strike up conversations with any number of the dozen or so strangers holding a Potter book that would be in any person's line of sight at any given time. To me, the Giants parade represented the city at its best. And fyi… they used 50 TONS of confetti. I can't even wrap my mind around the amount of paper it would take to comprise 50 tons. At first, this seemed to me supremely wasteful. Then, however, I discovered that they used recycled paper, so no additional trees were harmed. Also, throughout this whole thing, I was reminded of what I love about sports: it's completely unscripted and no one knows what's going to happen. It's virtually the only thing like that. Movies, tv shows, books, pictures, etc. are all organized and created. Somebody made/produced it, and so knows how it will end. Even live things, like concerts, are planned out. Sports are so great because no one knows what's going to happen, and that unpredictability is addictive and fascinating.
The second awesome thing about yesterday was, of course, that it was election day. I am having a BLAST following politics this year. I mean, forget about the writer's strike… we've got all the drama we need with this race! I felt so privileged to exercise my democratic right and go to the polls. And well, I was going to write more about this, but this post is already WAY longer than I thought it was going to be, and I'm getting tired. So, real quick, the third awesome thing about yesterday was that it was MARDI GRAS! I had this great party to go to, but I forgot to vote before work, so I had to go vote after work, and after that I didn't feel like trucking it all the way to the Village for the party. So I had my own little Mardi Gras celebration while watching all of the election coverage. I love Mardi Gras... what a great excuse to have a party. I've never been to a really crazy Mardi Gras party, but some day I hope to. Maybe I'll even make it to New Orleans one of these Februaries.
Ok, so more on politics later. It's only 11:30, but for now I'm going to bed.
