nyny

Ems blog announcement

2009-03-10T17:56:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged much lately. I'm going to get better at that... I promise this time.

But on a separate note, I wanted to let any interested reader know that I, together with 5 of my friends here in NYC, have launched a new blog called the Ems Blog Project. What is "Ems" you might ask? Great question, and you can find out by reading the first post (mostly because it's been a long day at work and I am too lazy to type it all out here). Feel free to participate by commenting on any of the posts or emailing us at contact.the.ems@gmail.com. The web address is http://emsblogproject.wordpress.com.

oh geez

2008-12-07T22:45:00.002-05:00

So I just saw on New York magazine's webpage that Fran Drescher is interested in Hilary Clinton's Senate seat and is throwing her hat in the ring for consideration. Unbelievable. Please, Governor Patterson, resist her nasal charms.

another guilty pleasure

2008-11-25T22:53:00.002-05:00

I don't watch that much tv, compared to some/most people. There's shows that I'll watch if I happen to be around and find on, but there are only 5 shows that I really follow and always make sure to catch (or watch online after the fact, more often than not): Mad Men, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock and the Office. And Lipstick Jungle.

It's a little bit embarrassing to admit, even to myself, how much I LOVE Lipstick Jungle. I was soooo disappointed last week when I heard it had been cancelled, but so glad and relieved when I found out tonight that the cancellation was only a rumor (for now). I've never heard anyone I know talk about that show or admit to watching it, and I'm not sure if anyone else reading this is a fan, but it sure is nice to be out in the open with my love and support for it.

still holds up

2008-11-22T16:46:00.002-05:00

I listen to my ipod everyday, like virtually everyone else, but I rarely listen to music. I would estimate that maybe 5% of what I listen to, either on my ipod or through my computer at my apartment, is actual music. The rest is podcasts, news, symposiums, lectures, science shows, and the like. I'm certainly not against music, and I actually really like it. I don't feel like I have a lack of music in my life, and now that I think about it, I think it's because I go to a decent amount of live shows, which I suppose is a perk of where I live. Anyway, when it comes to what I listen to on my own, I just normally prefer to be fed a constant diet of information.

That said, last night it took me almost 3 hours to get home from Tribeca, courtesy of some ill-time flightiness on my own part and some scheduled train delays/track work. It was awful. But, I listened to music the entire time. I decided to go with an old fave, Caedmon's Call, and I listened to a ton of their stuff. I was both delighted and comforted to discover that, after all these years, they still totally hold up. I listen to a song or two of theirs in isolation every so often, but I just really enjoyed going back through their whole body of work. I'm curious to know what I might think of them if I were exposed to them now for the first time. Would I like them so much? I suppose that doesn't really matter. I find them incredibly talented, and their lyrics refreshingly honest and challenging.

So, last night I compiled a "Best of Caedmon's" list. That's not easy, because they've got so much out there. I gave myself a limit of no more than 3 songs from each cd. I've listed the song first, followed by the cd it's from.

1. What You Want, Long Line of Leavers
2. The Rich Song, Intimate Portrait
3. I Boast No More, In the Company of Angels
4. The Truth, Intimate Portrait
5. Wings of the Morning, Share the Well
6. Somewhere North, 40 Acres
7. Mystery of Mercy, Back Home
8. You Created, Back Home
9. Dance, Long Line of Leavers**
10. International Love Song, Share the Well
11. Bus Driver, Caedmon's Call
12. Prove Me Wrong, Long Line of Leavers
13. There's Only One (Holy One), Share the Well
14. Awake My Soul, Back Home
15. Center Aisle, Caedmon's Call
16. Table for Two, 40 Acres

**this song is not be confused with "The Danse," from In the Company of Angels
Honorable Mention, in no particular order:

Mistake of My Life, Long Line of Leavers
The Innocent's Corner, Share the Well
Where I Began, 40 Acres
Manner and Means, Back Home
Beautiful Mystery, Back Home
This World, Caedmon's Call
Before There Was Time, In the Company of Angels
Never Gonna Let Go, Back Home
April Showers, Intimate Portrait

good times

2008-11-09T23:03:00.005-05:00

So Fall 2008 is turning out to be really great. Here's some highlights.

Halloween - I went to a kickin' Halloween party and had a really great time. My idea was to go with a friend of mine as D.J. Tanner and Kimmie Gibler, but by the time I mentioned it to her she had already bought and tailored a costume of her own. So my friend Matt and I went tag-team as a Metrocard and a turnstile. My brothers didn't seem to find that all that funny, so I think maybe it's more funny if you live here and use those things several times a day. So he made an impressively accurate Metrocard costume (complete w/ emergency info on the back) and I engineered a costume with a functioning turnstile. It went over really well, but I think that, on the whole, I find it more amusing to go as a person than as an inanimate object. Good to know for the future, I guess.

last Monday - I went to see the documentary "Dear Zachary." It was devastating, but in a hopeful, haunting way. The filmmaker demands a lot of the viewer, but it's one of the best things I've ever seen. Don't research it a lot, because it's better if you go into it with fewer details. But, if you find yourself in NYC, LA, Chicago, Portland, Nashville, San Jose or Sante Fe anytime soon, DEFINITELY check it out. It's so moving.

last Tuesday - Obama was elected!!! The election night party that I went to was a blast! Although I kinda wish I would've went to a party in Harlem and been a part of the celebrating there. But, I really did enjoy spending the night with the people I was with! The feeling of electricity here on Wednesday was palpable, like on New Year's Eve or the day after the Giants won the Super Bowl. So we'll see what happens in the coming months/years.

last Thursday - My friend Caleb made the top 5 (out of 4,000!) in The Bitter End's Songwriter's Circle (songwriting contest). I was on "the list" for the final night so I got in free and managed to get good seats. In addition to the top 5 playing, Marc Cohn and Dave Barnes were the guest performers. That was kinda strange, b/c they are two very different musicians and are in two very different places in their careers, but it worked out ok. FYI... If it's not immediately familiar, Marc Cohn is the guy who did "Walking in Memphis." I thought it might be a little bit cheesy, but actually it was amazing. Hearing him do that song on the piano live, and in a dark venue with great seats, was an unexpectedly moving experience.

yesterday - My friend hosted a beer tasting party, and it was soooo fun. I think we ended up having more than 20 different types of beer. My favorite... drum roll please... Delerium Tremens.

today - Great conversation with a friend this morning; the Bears lost but it was to the last undefeated team, and they don't really suck so bad this year; I was able to get both a great nap and some quality violin practice in earlier this afternoon. I also figured out the perfect Christmas gift for my younger brother, so I can cross that one off the list.

Wednesday- I am hanging out with a really fun group of people among whom good conversation always seems to materialize.

Thursday - My good friend and HFM (hopefully future me) will be in town and I am so excited to hang out with her!

Friday - Two of the BCG's, Faith and Laura Ashely, will be in town, and we are going to one of my fave restaurants in the city. I haven't seen Laura Ashely since her wedding in 2005, and since Faith moved to Boston I don't see her all that often either. There is NOTHING like hanging out with old friends!

Plus:

*The Giants are winning. Hopefully they can hold on.
*The city is starting to get holiday-ized. It's a little bit annoying b/c it's happening before Thanksgiving. But, it's not happening to an overwhelming degree, and when I encounter it, it's sort of like a little glimpse of the wonderment to come.
*The weather continues to hover in the mid to high 50's and sometimes ventures into the low 60's. I haven't even had to bust out any scarves yet!

I'm just really enjoying life these days!

neither here nor there

2008-09-30T18:30:00.002-04:00

I haven't gotten a manicure in a little over two weeks, and the situation is really starting to become unbearable. This extended time between salon visits has, however, provided some unexpected amusement. The polish on my nails is chipping away on its own, bit by bit, and what's left of the polish on my left index finger looks exactly like Africa. For some reason that really cracked me up, so I started examining my other fingers for geographically shaped remnants. I discovered that I had a U.S.S.R. shaped blob of polish on my right middle finger, naturally. Take that, Commies!

news

2008-09-29T21:35:00.003-04:00

Like pretty much everyone else, I've been closely following the economic developments of the last couple of weeks. I've been reading, watching and listening to anything I possibly can in order to get the latest and most comprehensive information about what's happening. Somewhat surprisingly, it's making me really think through my basic thoughts on systems of life and how cultures and societies function. I'm trying not to think about it too much, because I have another more pressing matter on which to spend my mental energy, but I may blog a little bit about it after I take the LSAT on Saturday.

In the meantime, I wanted to link to an episode of This American Life that I first heard several months ago. I know many people have heard this before the past couple of weeks, and it's been even more widely circulated since Lehman Bros. went under. But, I thought I would link to it anyway in case anyone was interested and hasn't yet heard it. In this program they explain the situation involving the collapse of the housing market and the rest of Wall Street (to the extent it was already happening when the show was produced last spring) in a way that's tailored towards the everyday, non-financial genius person. If you are watching the news and know what's happening but are at a loss as to why or how, this would definitely be a helpful thing to listen to.

You can either stream the episode for free or download it for less than a buck. If the link above doesn't work, here's the URL:

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=355

what in the world

2008-08-25T20:54:00.003-04:00

Two of my new favorite things are the steam room and the sauna at the gym. I like to do 20 minutes in one or the other after my workout. Tonight, though, the steam room had a little more action than normal. There was a girl who decided to multi-task and do her stretching in the steam room. She was sitting there doing a full split while in turn leaning forward and to each side. Then she started doing side lunges, and then front lunges. Keep in mind that most people, this woman included, prefer to steam in the nude. I'm not making this up.

Now, I know I'm a relative newbie to the big city gym world, but in what universe is this considered appropriate?

olympics #3

2008-08-25T11:12:00.002-04:00

The Olympics are officially over, and I now officially owe my sister $50.

Back in middle school, I insisted that I would one day be an Olympian. It was a foregone conclusion; I didn't even entertain the possibility that I wouldn't one day attend the Opening Ceremonies, hang out in the Athletes' Village, and maybe, hopefully, come home with a medal. We ended up making an official (or as official as a 12 or 13 year old can make it) contract, which stated that I would pay her $50 if I did not compete in the Olympic Games by 2008. I'm sure I was mostly aiming for the Summer Games, which gave me 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 to make my move, but I think we left the contract open to appearances in Winter Olympics as well.

She's mentioned this contract from time to time, usually saying something like "only 3 more years until you have to pay me $50." When this happens, I usually pretend that I don't know what she's talking about. I say something about vaguely remembering some sort of summer competition between us, and then I try to convince her that she's made the rest of it up, and that I would never make a bet like that. When she persists, I say smugly something along the lines of, "Ok, fine. It's not true, but whatever. I'll go with it if you're going to insist on being delusional. Produce the contract and prove it, and I'll pay up." This was always the ace in my pocket because I knew there was no way she would have kept this contract for over a decade.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. My mom was in town for about 18 hours because of flight delays and a long layover at JFK. She stayed at my house overnight, and we spent the evening watching the Olympics. At one point she said, "You know, you owe your sister fifty bucks." I laughed and couldn't believe she remembered our bet. Then I told her, in the same smug way I always told my sister, that if Sarah can produce the contract, I'll gladly pay her. It was quiet for a few seconds, and then my mom piped up and said, "Your father has the contract."

I couldn't believe it. Apparently my father has a little box on top of his dresser where he keeps papers, trinkets, odds and ends. Our contract has been sitting in that dang box for 13 or 14 years. I was practically beside myself; I was in such a state of disbelief. I mean, I really can't believe he kept it all these years. How did he even get it? I have no idea about that, but if I had to guess, the sad thing is that I probably gave it to him for safekeeping so that my sister couldn't back out after I finished my Olympic run. Woops.

On a separate but related note, I actually played high school basketball against Oganna Nnami, one of the members of our silver medal winning indoor volleyball team! I recognized her immediately when I saw her on TV. When you come from a small midwestern town where the only black kid was a foster kid, it sort of sticks in your mind when you play against a girl named Oganna Nnami who can dunk as a sophomore or junior in high school. I think it goes without saying that her team always beat ours. I was telling a friend the other day that I feel like I did my part towards the American Olympic effort. I contributed to her athletic development by providing competition, which as any athlete knows not only builds skill, but character as well. I felt like, in my own little way, I had the tiniest little bit to do with their silver medal effort. Yesterday I realized that maybe I can use this reasoning to campaign that I, by extention, did actually compete in the Olympics by 2008. I don't think that will work, but it's worth a shot.

news update

2008-08-21T01:33:00.002-04:00

i'm taking a quick break from olympic-themed posts to announce that, for the first time ever, I just saw a doublemint gum commercial that did not feature any twins.

olympics #2

2008-08-19T22:19:00.000-04:00

olympic songs
Free music downloads | Free mp3 downloads

(make sure you press play)

I really, really, really love the Olympics. I've pretty much dropped off the face of the earth for these two weeks. I have watched them every single night from 8 pm until 2 am, and I spend as much time as I can get away with at work on nbcolympics.com. Incidentally, I'm extremely impressed with the thoroughness and depth of that website, including extensive video coverage of many events. The site is like a black hole that just sucks me right in. If I could, I would sit and watch different events on the NBC cable affiliates all day every day. I don't really get into long distance cycling, boxing, or wrestling, but everything else is totally in my wheelhouse. I mean, when else do American audiences get to see competitive handball, trampoline, badminton, water polo, or table tennis? It's awesome.

I've started to put my finger on why I enjoy the Olympic experience so much. Simply put, the Olympics are the best of what it means to be a human. I truly believe that there's something transcendent about pure, extreme athletic achievement. I experienced that to a certain degree when I completed a marathon about 3 years ago... pushing your body to that level is such an unexpectedly visceral and emotional experience. It's hard to describe. There's something about extreme physical achievement that makes you feel connected with the rest of the human race in a way that nothing else I've experienced can. The crazy (and wonderful) thing is that I don't even have to be the athlete - these same feelings are swirling around inside of me just from watching others who are truly the best at what they do. They are marvels of physicality. The things the human body can do are mind-blowingly spectacular, with the power to bring us places outside of ourselves. The Olympics capture that perfectly, and it's replicated dozens of times by hundreds of athletes over the course of two incredible weeks. I'm so proud of humanity.

olympics #1

2008-08-18T20:35:00.002-04:00

this is hilarious. dwight always seems to come through if you need a good laugh.

eat, pray, love

2008-07-28T23:05:00.001-04:00

When it comes to New York Times Bestsellers, I usually run the other way screaming. So naturally, I had no intention of reading Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love -- even if it meant I was the only female under age 35 in all of New York City who hadn't read it. The book's popularity went nuts about a year ago, and by this past spring it seemed the entire city had read it. My plan was to lay low and wait it out, hoping that eventually everyone would stop talking about it.

However, a friend of mine would not get off my back about this book. I finally caved in just so that I'd stop having to hear about it from her. To my absolute shock (and sort of horror) I didn't totally hate it. To be clear, I mostly hated it... but not completely. While Gilbert's tone was annoying and sometimes teetered on grating, a couple of the thoughts and ideas she fleshed out on her journey really resonated with ones I have found growing in my heart and mind.

If you've been living under a rock and are not familiar with the basic premise, here it is: this journalist with a seemingly perfect life leaves her crummy marriage and embarks on a year-long journey around the world to connect with her spiritual side and explore who she is.

Here's a couple of the more appealing snippets:

Her description of what it's like to truly merge with the infinite: "I got pulled through the wormhole of the Absolute, and in that rush I suddenly understood the workings of the universe completely . . . I stepped through time and I entered the void. I was inside the void, but also was the void and I was looking at the void, all at the same time. The void was a place of limitless peace and wisdom. The void was conscious and it was intelligent. The void was God, which means that I was inside God. . . I was just a part of God. In addition to being God. I was both a tiny piece of the universe and exactly the same size as the universe."

I get what she's saying with that, and she gets 2 points for the wormhole reference.

I get this one too: ". . . bowed flat on my face in gratitude to my God, to the revolutionary power of love, to myself, to my Guru and to my nephew --briefly understanding on a molecular level (not an intellectual level) that there was no difference whatsoever between any of these words or any of these ideas or any of these people."

30 pages later she writes: "God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are. (emphasis in original). God isn't interested in watching you enact some performance of personality in order to comply with some crackpot notion that you have about how a spiritual person looks or behaves. We all seem to get this idea that, in order to be sacred . . . we have to renounce our individuality . . . To know God, you need only to renounce one thing -- your sense of division from God."

I'm pretty much on board with that she says about getting rid of division from God to know God, but I'm not sure if I totally agree with what she is saying about individuality. I wonder if it's possible that, in God, a person both completely finds and completely loses his individuality. Can both of those be simultaneously realized without eliminating either or reducing either to the other? As a Western person, the concept of the individual is ingrained to the point where I don't really question it without a concerted effort. I guess it could be said that individuality is one of the most significant bi-products of capitalism. In contrast, I recently learned that the Japanese language didn't even have a word for "individual" until the late 19th century. I'm going to have to think some more on this one.

Although there would be tons of better choices, this wouldn't be the worst book to pick up if you're looking for a quick, pool/beach side, sorta-deep-but-not-really-heavy summer read. I can't believe I just said that. But don't expect me to be reading Water for Elephants or The Alchemist anytime soon. :)

growing family

2008-06-24T14:28:00.005-04:00

Over the past few months, I’ve learned quite a bit about the state of Florida’s foster care system. My sister and brother-in-law started the process of becoming foster parents last fall. Ideally they would like to adopt the child that is placed in their care. This happens if the parent(s) either voluntarily give up rights, or by default if they fail to complete each part of the judge’s prescribed plan in one year (things like: hold a steady job for 8 months, attend 4 months of parenting/budgeting classes, live in the same apartment for 6 months, etc.) So far they have had three foster babies. The first was Elijah, and they only had him for 2 days. Then there was Monty, who they had for a little less than 2 months. Now they have a little boy named Christian.

It’s such a weird, strange set of emotions that come with this whole experience. It’s such a tall order to really commit to and love these children, all the while knowing that you likely will have to give them up. It also must be borne in mind that, if that happens, the program was a success. The foster care system is set up so that children can be responsibly cared for while their parent or other family member becomes a fit guardian. At its core, the goal of the system is to reunite children with their natural families. Sarah and Mike have really embarked on a tough journey, and I’m proud of them for that… and a little in awe too.

Christian was born Wednesday, June 11, so he’ll be two weeks old tomorrow. On Saturday, June 14, Sarah and Mike got a call to pick him up from the hospital. They brought him home that day, and they’ve been the only parents he’s known. I guess he has some older siblings who have all been adopted out of foster care, so Christian was taken away immediately as a preventative measure. From what I understand, his mom hasn’t shown any interest in working with the State thus far. That’s a good sign, because if the parent shows no effort, the judge will sometimes let the child be adopted before the one year period passes. Here’s hoping.

I’ve included a couple of pictures of him, because, like all babies, he’s just adorable :)

upcoming

2008-06-19T17:11:00.002-04:00

I haven't been blogging much lately. Most of that is due to an extremely busy schedule, and the rest is due to good old-fashioned laziness.

Over the last couple of months I've run across a lot of interesting and/or thought provoking things. I'm endeavoring to share one of them each day or so over the next several days. My hope is that by first announcing my intention in this post, I will be bound to actually do it. So we'll see how that works.

time

2008-05-19T23:00:00.001-04:00

For a few months now my mind has been largely preoccupied with different ideas of time. Below are two things I've run across in the process. The first is compressed time. In the 1960's, audio documentarian Tony Schwartz recorded his niece from birth to high school, and then condensed it into a little over 2 minutes. The second is time sped up. Photographer Noah Kalina took a photo of himself every day for eight years, and made the first six and a half years into a video.

SeeqPod - Playable Search

i love this show!

2008-05-19T19:52:00.007-04:00

Spotted: clock saying 7:53. That means the Gossip Girl season finale starts in only 7 minutes, and I can't wait! It is such a good show! Seriously, if you don't already watch it, you should definitely start. Download the episodes from itunes, or there's plenty of websites where you can watch them for free (e.g. sidereel.com). You won't be sorry. And I love that this show doesn't even have to be a guilty pleasure... it counts as just a regular pleasure since it's so immensely popular with adults and has been covered by legitimate media outlets. It's definitely not in the same category as previous "teen" shows, like The O.C.

Anyway, I gotta make some dinner real quick before the show starts.

xoxo,
B

monday schmunday

2008-04-07T17:54:00.002-04:00

Tonight is going to be a fun night. In a few minutes I'm heading out from work to join a friend of mine at an advanced screening for "Smart People," starring Ellen Page and Sarah Jessica Parker. I haven't heard too much about this film, especially after all the Sundance buzz calmed down. But from what I have heard it's supposed to be pretty good. Then, it's off to meet up with another friend for the culminating evening of March Madness. For tonight, I proudly count myself as part of Jayhawk Nation!

great news!

2008-04-02T14:41:00.003-04:00

A couple of months ago I heard the first hint of a rumor that New Kids on the Block was getting back together for a reunion show, or even (better yet) a reunion tour. I promptly navigated over to their recently revitalized website and signed up for the mailing list, thereby making sure I would receive all the late breaking news.

Monday, I had an email in my inbox from NKOTB with the subject line "ARE YOU READY!?". No, it didn't announce their concert dates and locations like I was hoping. But, it did announce that they are playing Friday morning on the Today show. This is definitely good news. I don't think they would do this if a tour announcement wasn't far off. And let's not forget, this year marks the 20th anniversary of "Hangin' Tough," so the timing would be perfect...

If they get back together, maybe I should try to organize a reunion of New Chicks on the Block, which was the neighborhood club I started with all the girls and fellow NKOTBers who lived on my block :)

it's madness, baby!

2008-03-20T12:12:00.004-04:00

The movie "Hoosiers" just finished, the kitchen is stocked with beer and soda, chinese food is on the way, my bracket is taped to the wall by the tv with two highlighters (green for games I got right, red for ones I didn't), and I've supposedly got some sort of food poisoning that's keeping me home from work for the next two days...it can only mean one thing. MARCH MADNESS IS HERE!

I'm really excited about my bracket pics this year. Since Illinois is not in the tournament (sigh), I'm not 100% emotionally invested in any of the teams. Yeah, I'm a fan of and like a few of them, but it's not like it is with the boys in orange and blue. So for some reason, the absence of Illinois has made me incredibly liberal with my picks. My final winner isn't all that outrageous, but I've certainly picked a good amount of upsets and surprises. Most of them are completely within the realm of possibility, so I'm really banking on what we all know to be true about this time of year... it's one and done, and sometimes when the planets align just right, virtually ANY team can beat ANY OTHER team once.

Best of luck to everyone with their brackets, and here's to the best two days of the year (with the possible exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas). Let the games begin...

love it

2008-03-19T12:27:00.003-04:00

I'm so glad I live in a place that doesn't take things too seriously and isn't at all prudish. This is the cover of this week's "New York Magazine."

U2 3D

2008-03-17T16:55:00.002-04:00

Last night I saw the U2 3D movie. I had heard that it was awesome, but was completely blown away by just how awesome. It was incredible. Phenomenal. Bono is so freakin cool. So is The Edge.

I had the good fortune of watching it on an IMAX screen, which comes with that great IMAX surround sound... it just added to the beauty. I wiki'd it today and found out that the standard IMAX screen is approximately 53 ft x 73 ft; The IMAX screen where I saw it last night is 80 ft x 100 ft. Later I realized that this screen is taller than ANY building in my hometown.

Seriously, you have GOT to see this. Especially if you have an IMAX theater nearby. Even if you're a moderate or even nominal U2 fan, the experience is totally worthwhile. I normally don't go for gimmicky things like 3D movies, but this is a major exception. It's not necessarily my favorite movie of all time, but it's definitely my favorite movie-going experience of all time. And, it's probably the most entertaining hour and a half I've had in several months. It's just that good.

tgif

2008-02-29T15:48:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-27T09:56:00.003-05:00

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.

+/-

2008-02-18T13:56:00.002-05:00

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

2008-02-16T13:11:00.003-05:00

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

2008-02-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

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.

two words I HATE:

2008-01-28T21:42:00.001-05:00

wintry mix.

highlights

2008-01-27T22:18:00.000-05:00

January has absolutely flown by! I got back to NYC from my parents' house the morning of December 31 and went right from the airport to work... and it seems like things haven't let up yet. Here's some of the highlights:

*New Year's Eve was the most fun New Year's Eve yet. Had an amazingly fun dinner and then celebrated the stroke of midnight with great friends and great drinks on a Manhattan rooftop.
*Went to the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.
*After going to the ballet, I decided to sign up for ballet classes. This week will be the third week. Maybe someday I'll make my own Lincoln Center debut :)
*Mandy and I sang karaoke, and it was both of our first times ever doing it. We picked a classic... "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips. And we totally rocked the bar!
*I decided to spend two weeks next Thanksgiving in South Africa. I'll be volunteering at a great white shark research center, spending the days cage diving and assisting the scientists with all of their data collection. I am provisionally booked and just got my days off at work approved.
*I had fondue for the first time ever... so delicious. We had the cheese fondue and also the chocolate.
*I cashed my winning check from family Deal or No Deal. I ended up picking the briefcase with the top prize of $300, and never sold it to the banker!
*Last weekend was a super fun martini party... unbelievalbe appletinis and vanilla cosmos (my new fave!)
*I got to take a little road trip to my grandparents' house in Mystic, CT. It's so beautiful up there, and it was great to get away from the city for a bit.
*Tonight was our monthly cultural dinner party. It was North African night, and I made Egyptian Kebabs. After all, who doesn't love a nice kebab?!?
*My roommate is moving to Boston, so I'm moving in with my good friend Whitney. It's just a couple of blocks away, and I have a view of the Manhattan skyline from the bedroom window!
*I registered to vote, and am VERY excited to participate in Super Tuesday on February 5.

So far 2008 is off to a great start. I hope the rest of the year is as fun as January was!

more fun with you tube

2008-01-16T08:23:00.000-05:00

Check out this video from youtube.com. It's hysterical! Make sure you listen until the end, because the most funny part is how the live TV news anchors completely lose it and start laughing uncontrollably on air.

what i love about nyc

2007-12-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

Undoubtedly, one of the best things about New York City is that EVERYBODY delivers.

There's delivery for every type of food, first of all. There's the obvious pizza, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, and Indian. Diners deliver too, so you never have to wait too long for a nice omelet or BLT. Even McDonald's delivers.

Besides restaurants, virtually all grocery stores deliver. Trader Joe's Wine Shop takes it a step further and delivers alcohol as well. Laundry places deliver fresh, clean and nicely folded clothes, and Barnes & Noble delivers book purchases right to your door. It really doesn't get much better!

sonnets and sims

2007-12-20T15:33:00.000-05:00

Sonnets:

Several months ago I realized that I somehow became a reasonably well-educated adult without learning hardly any Shakespeare. It's a little embarassing, but my Shakepearean familiarity is pathetic, at best. However, I finally decided to do something about it. I joined this Shakespeare reading group, and last night was the first meeting I attended. It's essentially exactly what is sounds like... a group of people who get together and read Shakespeare plays. We don't act them out or anything. It's more of a table read, with everyone getting assigned a role or two.

Last night we did Henry IV, part 1, and I played both Hostess and Worcester. It was actually really great. I haven't read more than two lines of Shakespeare since my junior year of high school, so I was shocked at how easily it rolled off my tongue. The prose is really quite beautiful. I'm really looking forward to next month's reading, and am glad I now have this fun way to familiarize myself with Shakespeare's body of work!

Sims:

Maybe someone can help me with this. I've decided that I would really like to become wrapped up in some sort of game (preferably computer but maybe simple game system?) where I can create something and/or be in control. Ideally, I could play over the internet without having to really download anything, and I would be able to create a world, or a character/team or creature of some sort, maybe a society or at least some buildings. I don't really know. For some reason I just really think this sounds like fun. I've never really been into this sort of thing before, so I'm not sure what my options are. I know the Sims series has been popular in the past, but I'm not exactly sure what it is/how to play, or even if it's really what I'm looking for. My brother suggested a game called Civilization. I haven't looked into that one, but I guess it's a possibility. Does anyone have any other ideas/suggestions?

"Believer" book reviews

2007-12-19T15:23:00.000-05:00

Last night I was reading my most recent issue of the literary magainze "Believer," and particularly enjoyed the one-page book reviews. Besides the review itself, each page includes some interesting info about the book and a representative sentence, chapter title, etc. Additionally, the theme/tone of each book is widdled down to a central question. These are often interesting and thought provoking. Here are this month's:

Are there any futures worth thinking about? - Love in a Fallen City, by Eileen Chang

Can sense and nonsense, melody and dissonance, together make a single work of art? -
A Fiddle Pulled from the Throat of a Sparrow, by Noah Eli Gordon

From this angle, does the world look tiny or huge? - All Over, by Roy Kesey

What does love look like when two unlovable people incapable of expressing love fall in love? - Laura Warholic, by Alexander Theroux

How many good poems can a person write about quantum physics? - Quantum Lyrics, by A. Van Jordan

Is there any such thing as continuity? - Zeroville, by Steve Erickson

Besides the reviews, I also liked what was written about art critic/writer Dave Hickey in the intro of his interview. I sometimes feel like this...
"His passions are idiosyncratic, he drives at no major thesis, nor is he seeking a revolution in taste or even acolytes. It seems he wants to construct an edifice of true things--or, at least, the least likely wrong things--that can be said about whatever subjects are most interesting and at hand."

calling all reality tv fans: i need help!

2007-12-16T23:36:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know there are a couple readers of this blog who are big reality tv fans. If that's you, please help me out! Apparently my parents have purchased the Deal or No Deal board game, and our whole family is going to have a tournament or something out at their house in California over Christmas. The awesome part is that on the last day we will be playing with real money -- mom and pops haven't decided on a final amount yet, but said probably around $250-300.

The problem is that my parents and my sister and brother-in-law are all fans of the show. I, however, have literally never even seen one second of it on tv. I have no idea how to play. Is it trivia based, do you have to win challenges? What is the strategy involved? I have no clue. This is way too big of a pot for me not to study up and master the strategy of the game before arriving out there next Sunday. If you are a fan of the show or know how it works, please please please help out and clue me in to the best tactics!

the real San Francisco treat

2007-12-12T16:42:00.000-05:00

The following is an almost verbatim excerpt from a conversation I had last night with my friend Jenny.

Jenny: Hey do you want to run the San Francisco marathon with me this year?
Me: Absolutely not. No Way. Do you have any idea how hilly it is there?
Jenny: Yeah, but when you cross the finish line you get a necklace from Tiffany's put around your neck by a fire fighter.
Me: How much is the entrance fee?

I changed my tune pretty quickly!

weird

2007-12-08T14:21:00.001-05:00

Today I:

- rode in a subway car with a half dozen Santas
- saw a grown woman who was wearing skorts

things i've realized this week

2007-12-07T12:50:00.000-05:00

1. I think I should start wearing leggins or leg warmers under my pants each day to stay a little warmer.
2. I really don't like Katharine McPhee.
3. I am going to look into purchasing a hat.
4. Revolving doors are preferable because I don't have to take my hands out of my pockets to go through them.
5. Christmas is less than 3 weeks away.
6. My new goal is to go to bed by midnight at least one day a week. I think that may help a bit with my perpetual morning tiredness.
7. Facebook is sooo much better than Myspace.
8. "Gossip Girl" is the best new show this season, and while it can't replace "Gilmore Girls," it's a solid second place.
9. More websites should have free shipping, like Amazon.
10. You really can never have too many Christmas parties.

public space

2007-12-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

I'm realizing that one of my favorite things about the city is the extensive public space system. Besides the obvious outdoor parks, there are many skyscrapers (at least in the area of town where I work) where the bottom floor is a giant space open to the public. There are usually plenty of tables and chairs, so people are kickin' back in there at all times. The public space in the building next to mine has beautiful indoor landscaping complete with a two-story waterfall, a Starbucks, and a piano player from noon-3 pm (like at Von Maur!!). The Sony building down the street has an Ilalian coffee shop and restrooms, so that's an important one. The strangest is one about a block away in the bottom floor of Lever House. This one is known for having sort of odd, modernist art, and the current display is an arragement of 2 or 3dozen sheep carcasses. It's actually a very interesting exhibit, and you can check out the NY Times article about it here.

It's just nice that there's still some interesting stuff you can check out around here for free!

ticket to pasadena!!

2007-12-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

I almost don't really care that the Bears lost a tough one today, because Illinois is going to the Rose Bowl, baby! It's normally at least semi-fun to be an Illinois fan during basketball season, but this is bonus year because the football team is actually something to write home about too. We've won 9 games this year, which is one more than the total number of wins over the last four seasons COMBINED. I know what I'll be doing at 4:30pm on January 1st!

And the cherry on top is that Ohio State is in the national championship game. I cheer for and enjoy the Buckeyes, unless they are playing Illinois, but I wouldn't call myself a super dedicated or "true" fan. They are really the only other college football team I feel any sort of substantial affinity for, so I'm pretty excited for them too.

first snow

2007-12-02T22:29:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty excited for the holidays since the day after Thanksgiving, but today I finally feel like the Christmas season is upon us. There's basically two reasons for that. First, this morning I woke up to a nice little snowshower. It was so pretty, and I was really suprised by the fact that I didn't really mind the cold all that much. I took a couple pictures... one is outside the door of my building, and the other is at the subway stop.

Second, our Christmas tree is finally up for good. It's a 7 foot live tree, so it's not the easiest thing to maneuver. We put it up last Saturday, the 24th, but on Tuesday it fell over. It leaned against the wall until late Friday night when my roomate and I were both home at the same time and could deal with it. We couldn't get it to stay in the stand without falling, so we decided to secure it by tying it up. We used 2 large 3M Command hooks and tied sturdy ribbon from one hook, around the trunk of the tree, and then to the other hook. This worked pretty well for a couple of hours, but then the weight of the tree pulled the hooks off the wall and it fell again. Yesterday I was able to pick up a different stand and get the tree standing upright without any sort of jerry-rigging. Then this afternoon I spent a few hours taking off all of the lights and ornaments (they were all messed up from all the falling and leaning) and putting them all back on again. Now, finally, our tree is up for good and our apartment officially feels Christmasy.

book recommendation

2007-11-27T23:19:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been reading this book by Gerald Schroeder. I'm a little less than halfway finished, but so far it's proven to be extremely helpful. I've had questions rolling around in my head literally for years now about the history of the universe and the origins of life. It's been really difficult for me to reconcile intelligent, scientific awareness with creationism as taught by the church. It's by no means a perfect book, so I'm not taking everything he says at face value. However, this is the first time I've ever felt hope in existing as both a scientifically literate person and a person of faith in regards to this topic; those two camps don't have to be mutually exclusive.

Schroeder goes into significant detail in explaining complex concepts, so you have to really stay with it and pay attention to what you are reading. It's really worth it though. His discussion of the theory of relativity is particularly thorough and engaging. Throughout my scholastic career, I specifically remember only three things that I had substantial difficulty understanding. The first was the concept of negative numbers in 5th grade. The second was the concept of imaginary numbers in 9th grade. Both of those things took a couple of days for me to get a handle on. The third thing was the theory of relativity in my 11th grade physics class. I just absolutely could not understand how time could slow down. I think some of this is due to the fact that my physics teacher wasn't really that great, but until now I've never really understood the concept. I guess I've never really been confronted with it or been in a situation where I was forced to understand it (for some reason we didn't cover it in my college physics class). Now, eight years after my introduction to this theory, Schroeder has explained it in such a way that I now have a real handle on it. It may seem unimportant to some, but this accomplishment is really satisfying and feels significant to me.

Anyway, it's a good book. You should read it if you are dealing with similar issues/thoughts.

meet Sarah Morton

2007-11-26T00:36:00.000-05:00

Last week I visited my friend's second grade classroom at New York City PS 106. I came as a pilgrim girl named Sarah Morton, and read them a book about the first Thanksgiving and taught them all about life at Plymoth Rock. As you can see from the pictures, it was pretty awesome. This school/classroom/neighborhood is pretty much straight up ghetto, so it was a blast hanging out and interacting with these kiddos... they were hilarious!

spotted

2007-11-20T14:39:00.000-05:00

This morning on the subway platform I sat next to and met/talked to this guy,

who I immediately recognized from his brief but memorable three episode stint on "Alias," season 4. The subway and "Alias" have proven to be a pretty good combination for me, since it was just about six months ago that I shared a subway car and conversation with another, more prominent character on "Alias," this guy:

hmmm

2007-11-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to decide what I think of the Amazon Kindle. While I'm excited about the concept and gadgetry of it, I just think it'd be a shame if the Kindle does for books what the iPod did for CDs. Guess the jury is still out on this one.

3 words

2007-11-10T18:29:00.000-05:00

Eat it, Buckeyes!!!!

ewwww

2007-11-02T12:07:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I saw an article reporting that Ashley Olsen and Lance Armstrong have been spotted making out all over Manhattan. Let me say it for you: eww, gross.

detoxing

2007-11-02T11:59:00.000-04:00

Today I'm starting a 10-day detox/cleanse called "The Master Cleanser." So far it's been going ok, but it's only noon on the first day. As 21st century Americans, this is supposed to be one of the best things we can do for ourselves... the detox cleans out everything that has built up as a result of years of eating processed foods, refined sugars, and the like.

For 10 days, I will ingest only what is loosely called "lemonade." Here's the recipe:

2 tbsp. freshly sqeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp. grade B maple syrup
1/10 tsp. cayenne pepper
10 oz. water

I think I can have anywhere between 6-12 of these per day. Also, I'm supposed to have a laxative herbal tea each evening and a quart of sea salt saline solution each morning. Should be fun. I'm a little nervous about having to give up diet coke for the next couple of weeks, but besides that I think it will be a good experience.

if you're feeling generous...

2007-10-16T13:50:00.000-04:00

If anyone would like to get me an expensive gift, I'm really wanting a rare book called Codex Seraphinianus. And if in this one instance beggars can be choosers, the French edition would be perfect. The Codex is also sold from this Italian bookseller for a MUCH cheaper price. Even with the higher shipping cost, that's probably the best bet. I'll likely look into buying it after the New Year, maybe with my tax return $$, but if you want to do something really spectacular and save me the trouble :) ...

monday math

2007-10-15T16:48:00.000-04:00

97 – number of bobby pins I removed from my hair yesterday after having it done for Rachel’s wedding on Friday. No wonder I set off the airport metal detectors.

70 – days until Christmas

0 – episodes of “Seinfeld” I’ve seen

238 – episodes of “Friends” I’ve seen

20,055 – my new top score in pacman, as of Sunday night. I’m getting really good.

1 – day until I finally get a violin

10-11 – months until I go to Africa. Hopefully.

9 – number of books I just bought for $52 from McSweeney’s Publishing. Some of their book bundles are crazy cheap right now.

great accomplishment

2007-10-10T00:18:00.000-04:00

I just played the best game of pacman of my life, and beat my previous high score by almost 4,000 points!! The downside of enjoying an hour of pacman is that I now have "joystick hand," and it's a little sore to move it around to type, but it's totally worth it.

fall/winter projects

2007-10-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

I'm really excited about my fall/winter reading projects. Here's the schedule:

Current read: The Education of Henry Adams, by Henry Adams
Next: An American Tragedy, vols. 1 & 2, by Theodore Dreiser
After that: The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
And then: Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

Two things: First, I realize it may be a bit ambitious to read both of these Ayn Rand books before the leaves start growing back in the spring. I thought about doing one this year and one the next. But, upon further thought, I've tentatively decided to do them consecutively, in the hope that I'll thoroughly enjoy The Fountainhead but that it will gear me up to read her masterpiece next. Second, this is not an exclusive list, as I will certainly be adding Logos selections, among other things.

I'm truly so glad that I'm a reader. It makes life so much better.

best little guy

2007-10-07T19:30:00.000-04:00

I just can't resist posting some of my nephew Aiden's recently taken 5 month pictures. Seriously, he's the happiest baby I've ever met. His smile and adorable dimples are in full force, and these pics of him just cracking up are the best!

sad

2007-10-03T19:53:00.000-04:00

I knew something was wrong when I saw my dad was calling at 7am Pacific time. My mom's best friend suddenly collapsed and died last night. My first thought upon hearing the news was "that can't be true... she's not old or sick." It's painful to learn that life is what it is and doesn't necessarily follow patterns.

It's been a prettty awful day. LIfe is hard.

Today

2007-10-02T16:42:00.000-04:00

Today I'm wearing a suit jacket with elbow patches. It always makes me feel smart, like I truly belong somewhere in the hallowed halls of academia. Maybe I should have worn it tomorrow though, since I'm going to the Secret Science Club.

food and drink

2007-09-30T17:26:00.000-04:00

Here's my observations lately on food and drink:

1. I think I'm going to do an experiment to see how long I can go with only buying food from fruit stands. Not only are fruit and veggies delicious, but it's an excellent way to eat cheaply and save some money. I just bought ALL of the following for $3.50 TOTAL: 1 pound of strawberries, 1 package of blueberries, 1 kiwi, 1 apple, and 4 ears of corn on the cob. What a deal! At the grocery store across the street, the 1 pound package of strawberies alone was $3.99, so I saved a bundle.

2. I'm really liking the new Diet Coke bottles, which are contoured to fit your hand. After all these years of buying whichever is cheaper, this is the thing that's making me finally commit to Diet Coke over Diet Pepsi.

3. I've noticed that drinking alcohol, especially beer, somehow heightens your taste buds and makes food taste so much better.

4. I've decided that Sabra is my favorite brand of hummus. I'm pretty sure my favorite flavor is roasted garlic, but I'm not prepared to state that definitively.

5. Chinese food is delicious, but I think I sometimes order it just so I can use chopsticks. I really enjoy eating with chopsticks. On a related note, I bought a wok yesterday and I can't wait to learn how to cook something in it.

6. Nutella is extremely tasty.

fall into fall, part 2

2007-09-29T08:38:00.000-04:00

Another reason I know fall is here.... this weekend is the Apple & Pork Festival in my hometown of Clinton, IL. I really wish I was there. It's pretty much the greatest small town festival. As the name clearly implies, both apples and pork are prominently featured, and are available in almost every form imaginable.

Here's some other notable highlights, with some pictures I got from the town web page:

* many performance by the town clogging group, The Country Cloggers
* a giant flee market
* lots of demonstrations: an old man who dresses like an Indian and makes rope, a lady who makes candles, and a lady who weaves stuff with a giant loom
* performances by the Civil War era band - complete with Civil War period uniforms AND instruments (Union uniforms on Saturday, Confederate on Sunday)
* strolling Victorian-era musicians and entertainers
* performace by the town's country band, The Modern Cowboyz
* a dress-up-your-scarecrow contest
* pony rides
* lots of tractors
* a HUGE craft market, with any kind of handmade chachky you could ever imagine
* tours of the C.H. Moore Homestead, a Victorian mansion turned museum
* the town Antique Mall is tangentially involved, so you can also get any old goodie you'd like

fall into fall, part 1

2007-09-27T20:09:00.000-04:00

Fall is definitely here... it's premiere week on TV. Really, Thursday night is the only night of the week I really care about (although I hear that Gossip Girl is really good, so I may start caring about Wednesdays too). So tonight we're having a wine party to watch all the shows. Here's the line-up:

1. At 9pm we'll of course be watching Grey's Anatomy. I didn't watch last week's rerun of the season finale, so I'm a little rusty on all the particulars they'll be jumping back into, but from what I do remember it should be pretty great. Plus, I'm pretty much convinced that Patrick Dempsey is literally the most attractive man I've ever seen.

2. At 10pm we'll be watching the series premiere of Big Shots. I really just want to watch this show because one of the main characters is played by Michael Vartan, who hasn't done much since coming off of an incredible 5 year stint as Agent Vaughan on Alias. You may also remember him as the adorable Mr. Sam Coulson from Never Been Kissed.

3. At 11pm we'll round out the night by viewing The Office, which will have been TiVo'd from earlier in the evening. Incidentally, everyone I know refers to this amazing technology as TiVo, but I don't think I know anyone who actually has TiVo...everyone has DVR. Anyway, this is an amazingly hysterical show, and should be a great cap to the evening.

Welcome fall!

getting cultured

2007-09-24T21:12:00.000-04:00

This fall I've added two new culturally-enriching additions to my schedule: World Wednesdays & Astoria Around the World.

World Wednesdays is something my roommate Faith and I have started doing. We're making our way through The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World. This book lists every country in alphabetical order, and comes complete with pictures and lists of major cities, common experiences, cultural highlights, etc. Also included for each country is a song to listen to, a book to read, and a movie to watch in order to really get a good feel for that particular country. So, Faith and I are making our way through the book by watching the recommended movie for each nation. We've got Afghanistan (we took a culturally appropriate -sort of- pic for this one) and Albania under our belts. Next up is Algeria.

Astoria Around the World, on the other hand, is a monthly dinner group comprised of 8-10 friends who all live in this same little corner of New York City. Each month we pick a different country as the theme for our dinner party. Everyone brings a dish typical of that country, and dressing as a local is encouraged. We kicked it off with Caribbean night, which included jerk chicken, coconut rice, coconut chicken with mango sauce, a banana-mango crumble, and pina coladas, among other things. Last night was French night. The French flag was waving proudly above a delectable spread of bread, cheese, and wine, of course, as well as herb-ricotta chicken, lentil soup, mussels in champagne sauce, and crepes. It was soooo good.

I can't wait until German night next month!! If you have any good German recipes, send them my way.

It's a sad, dark, rainy day in the city today

2007-09-11T13:25:00.001-04:00

which is appropriate.

great day to be a sports fan

2007-09-09T18:09:00.000-04:00

This is one of the best sports days in recent memory. Right now I'm clicking back and forth between:

(1) the Chicago Bears opening game against San Diego. So far they're looking pretty good... hopefully they'll get back to the Superbowl!! (Side question - why is the SEC champion and Superbowl team playing a season opener on the road??!)

(2) the US Open Finals. Roger Federer is playing Novak Djokovic. The first set was really exciting and went right down to the wire, and so far the second set is also turning out to be quite competitive. Federer is looking reeaaally good in his all black "tuxedo" outfit. Some friends are I have decided that he is definitly the McDreamy of tennis (aka McTennis).

(3) the BMW Champtionship of PGA Golf. Things have been pretty tight at the top of the leaderboard, but it looks like Tiger is going to pull ahead and come out with the victory.

What a great Sunday afternoon! Now that I'm home and watching all of this, I don't even care that I had to go into work for 3 hours earlier today. Man, I'm SO GLAD I'm a sports fan... life is just more fun that way.

Cop Rock

2007-09-06T21:27:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago I became aware of a very short-lived television show from 1990 called "Cop Rock." Since then, I've been obsessed with getting my hands on it. This has proven difficult, however, because it's never been released on DVD, isn't available for sale in any of the places I've looked, and isn't available on Netflix or Blockbuster Online.

The premise of the show is unbelievable. Steven Bocho (Hillstreet Blues, L.A. Law) boldly attempted to create an entirely new programming genre... the hour long drama musical. Apparently half of the critics thought it was a brilliant cutting-edge idea, and the other half laughed it off as the joke of the century. Anyway, it's a serious police show with gritty stories and real-life subject matter, but each episode includes 5 song/dance numbers. Here's a brief summary of the songs in the first episode, courtesy of imdb.com:

..."first episode alone included a rap song delivered by junkies as they're being arrested in a drug raid, a gospel number by a judge and jury convicting a drug dealer, a tender pop ballad by a husband about his much younger wife, and an R&B number by a corrupt lady mayor to the man who's just offered her a bribe. But the most powerful number came at the end of the episode. A young junkie sits on a bus stop bench singing a lullaby to her infant daughter, a haunting Randy Newman song called "Sandman" (later re-used in Newman's Faust). As she finishes the song, a station wagon pulls up, a man gets out and pays her $200 for the baby. As he drives away with the baby, the junkie finishes the lullaby and breaks down in tears as the music quietly ends and the camera pulls away. It was devastating. And it was brilliant drama."

How awesome does that sound??? I've GOT to see this show. It only lasted for 11 episodes, but occasionally the whole series runs on VH1 or on Trio. Since it doesn't seem to be for sale anywhere, guess I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled on these two networks. If anyone reading this has actually seen "Cop Rock," please let me know what you think of it!

Musical Language

2007-08-29T22:08:00.000-04:00

If you have 5 free minutes, check this out.

It's an excerpt from what is quite possibly my favorite public radio program, "Radio Lab." (the first four and a half or five minutes is the introduction to this episode, and is particularly intriguing. this whole thing is the first 20 minute segment of the hour long show)

Each Radio Lab show deals with another interesting topic, some of which are memory, time, and emergence. The musical language show is one of my favorites. Most of the shows are available to download as a podcast from itunes. For some reason the musical language show is not. If you are so inclined, listen to or download the whole Musical Language show by clicking here and visiting the radio lab web site.

uh-oh

2007-08-27T19:14:00.000-04:00

Today I learned how to play Sudoku. I fear it may become my next obsession.

Harold Brodkey rocks

2007-08-26T20:32:00.000-04:00

My current favorite author is without a doubt Harold Brodkey. I'm reading "Stories In An Almost Classical Mode," and even though I'm only a little over 100 pages into a 600 page book, I already know that it will join the ranks of my all-time faves.

I don't remember the last time I have fallen completely in love with an author's writing after reading only a page or two of his work. The first story in this collection is called "The Abundant Dreamer," and it is incredibly well-written. I was immediately drawn into this wonderful world Brodkey created.

If you're looking for a new book to read, this is definitely a viable option. And it's a book of stories, so you don't have to read the whole book at once. Here's a little teaser...the first half of the first paragraph:

Marcus Weil has said he is chiefly concerned with virtue and death in the movies he makes, but the truth is that his usual theme is that we are not capable of much virtue because we are afraid of death. He would have us believe that we flee from logic and order because they remind us that we must die, while illogic and disorder soothe us by proving that nothing makes sense, that nothing is certain, not even death. In his movie "La Nouvelle Cleopatre en Avignon," the narrator says, "Do not be cross because our characters do not always have the same faces; they are being true to life and death." The narrator says, "We hope to demonstrate not Euclidean but mortal geometry, the grand trickery of theorems we place in nature and find there for our own delight."

tag

2007-08-23T23:34:00.001-04:00

Ok, so Mandy tagged me, so I guess I'm supposed to list 8 random facts/ weird things about myself. So...

1. I frequently become supremely annoyed by slate.com's pop-under ads.

2. I decided what I'm going to do for my Wikipedia entry. It's on my life to-do list to contribute an entry to wikipedia.com. I'm fascinated by the premise of the site... to effectually become the sum of all human knowledge. My entry is going to be about smoothaise, which is a condiment that Greg Grunberg's character Sean invents during season 2 of "Felicity."

3. After a little over a year of being "in style," I'm finally starting to like skinny jeans.

4. I totally cleaned up last night on "Jeopardy." Even though it was the Teen Championship, I still felt really great about myself.

5. Pretty soon I'm going to start learning how to play the violin. A friend of mine is a teacher, and she's going to snag me one from the school's music department. I can't wait!

6. Last weekend a friend introduced me to a place in the city with $3 margaritas. Jackpot!

7. I recently found out the correct phrase is "for all intents and purposes." I've always thought it was "for all intensive purposes."

8. I really do love a good turkey and avocado sandwhich.

So I guess the idea is that I'm now supposed to tag 3 other people. Not sure who really reads this and also has a blog...I'll pick Lindsay, Becca, and Erin.

pov

2007-08-23T23:05:00.001-04:00

Tonight I had to work until 10 pm, and so my boss gave me some cash to take a cab home. It was crazy how different the city looks from the inside of car. I've pretty much walked all over Manhattan, of course, so I'm famliar with the streets, stores, layouts, etc.

Still, I was floored by how different everything looked from out the cab window. Driving can totally change your perspective. It was just so beautiful, especially with all the lights at night. It was so peaceful to have the windows down and feel the wind in my hair while I went over the East River and looked at all the city lights.

It usually takes about 20 minutes to get home by subway, and the cab ride took a little over 10. It was 3.94 miles and cost $14. That's not too shabby, so I think I might start treating myself to a nighttime cab ride every couple weeks or so.

read another good book

2007-08-22T21:48:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I finished reading Gregory Maguire's "Wicked," the novel that birthed the Broadway musical of the same name. I was pleasantly surprised with the depth of issues with which the book dealt, such as death, evil, desire, choices, belief, and intentions. Here are a couple of passages that speak of evil in a thought-provoking way:

"To the grim poor there need be no pour quoi tale about where evil arises; it just arises; it always is. One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her-- is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil? It is at the very least a question of definitions."

This is a conversation between several people at a dinner party. It's a tad lengthy, but interesting.

"Evil isn't doing bad things, it's feeling bad about them afterward. There's no absolute value to behavior. First of all--"
"Institutional inertia," claimed the Witch. "But whatever is the great attraction of absolute power anyway?"
"That's why I say it's merely an affliction of the psyche, like vanity or greed, and we all know vanity and greed can produce some pretty astounding results in human affairs, not all of them reprehensible."
"It's an absence of good, that's all. The nature of the world is to be calm, and enhance and support life, and evil is an absence of the inclination of matter to be at peace."
"Evil is an early or primitive sate of moral development. All children are fiends by nature. The criminals among us are only those who didn't progress...".
"I think it's a presence, not an absence. Evil's an incarnated character, an incubus or a succubus. It's an other. It's not us."
"Evil isn't a thing, it's not a person, it's an attribute like beauty."
"It's a power, like wind."
"It's an infection."
"It's metaphysical, essentially: the corruptibility of creation--"
"Blame it on the Unnamed God then."
"But did the Unnamed God create evil intentionally, or was it just a mistake in creation?"
"It's not of air and eternity, evil isn't; it's of earth; it's physical, a disjointedness between our bodies and our souls. Evil is inanely corporeal, humans causing one another pain, no more no less--."
"No, you're all wrong, our childhood religion had it right: Evil is moral at its heart--the selection of vice over virtue; you can pretend not to know, you can rationalize, but you know it in your conscience--."
"Evil is an act, not an appetite. Everyone has the appetite. If you give in to it, it, that act is evil. The appetite is normal."
"Oh no, evil is repressing that appetite. I never repress any appetite."
"The real thing about evil isn't any of what you said. You figure out one side of it--the human side, say--and the eternal side goes into the shadow. Or vice versa. It's like the old saw: What does a dragon in its shell look like? Well no one can ever tell, for as soon as you break the shell to see, the dragon is no longer in its shell. The real disaster of this inquiry is that it is the nature of evil to be secret."

it's saturday morning

2007-07-28T11:37:00.000-04:00

1. I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a couple of days ago. It was incredible!! (except for the epilogue, which was pointless and stupid)

2. I got my most recent order from amazon.com the other day. I had ordered Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon because it is supposedly one of the top 3 books of 2006. I was excited to jump right into it after Harry, but I may take a little break first...when it arrived I discovered it was 1,085 pages long.

3. I found out this morning that Shane Barnard is engaged to Bethany Dillon. I think maybe this is a good thing, but I'm not sure because she's only 18--she hasn't even had the chance to be a real grown-up yet. Regardless, I think we should all observe a moment of silence to mourn the passing of Shane's eligibility.

4. I am REALLY good at context clues. I realized this recently when reading a Christopher HItchens book. I'm not often confronted with so many new words in one particular work, so Hiitchens has given me a great tool to expand my vocab.

5. I was thinking this morning that my old Los Angeles phone number was really great...626-261-3216. A few 6's, a few 2's, couple of 1's. It just rolls off the tongue.

6. I have to do a lot of laundry and housework today. I'm not looking forward to it.

announcement

2007-07-27T11:42:00.001-04:00

After a couple months of gallavanting around NYC on my savings, I have finally procured gainful employment!!!!

what i've been watching

2007-07-24T23:31:00.001-04:00

* I just finished watching Season 5 of "24." HANDS DOWN, Jack Bauer wins for coolest and most bad-ass male TV character. Sydney Bristow takes the cake for the females.

* The other day I watched an episode of the short-lived 90's sitcom "Significant Others." The main characters are confused 20-somethings a couple of years out of college. The dialogue hit a little too close to home in a scene where one of the characters asks another "when it started to count." I don't remember exactly, but he said something about when you're a little younger nothing seems to count. You take a summer trip to a place you don't totally love, you just go somewhere else next summer. You have a job you don't totally love, you just do something else. You date someone and you don't want to be together anymore so you just break up. It's all chalked up as good experience and doesn't really matter. You're free to try anything and everything without fear of consequences, because nothing really counts anyway. Then eventually, if you bounce from place to place, job to job, boyfriend to boyfriend, etc you just look immature and irresponsible. You wake up one day and suddenly it all counts. That's a scary moment.

* "The Wonder Years" is on as part of the late night line-up of some nominal non cable tv channel right now. I haven't seen this show in a REALLY long time, and I totally forgot how great it is.

harry madness!!

2007-07-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

As everyone in the free world undoubtedly knows, the much anticipated 7th Harry Potter book was released with much fanfare at 12:01 am this past Saturday morning. This event presented the welcome dilemma of choosing which Harry Potter party to attend Friday evening. I think this is a nation-wide thing, but each Barnes & Noble in the city was hosting a Midnight Magic party and each Borders was thowing a Grand Hallows Ball. Depending on which party I chose to attend, here's some of the possible festivities (and I'm not exaggerating):

fire eaters
stilt walkers (dressed as dementors)
fireworks
a peformance by Lifehouse at the Borders in Columbus Circle
a reading by Jim Dale at B&N in Union Square (voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks)

I ended up going to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square party, which included the following (in addition to the normal costume contests, trivia games, etc.): wand making at Ollivander's, fortune telling in Divination class, a magic/comedy show at Weasley's Wizards Wheezes, visits to Hagrid's Hut and the Forbidden Forrest, Eeylops Owl Emporium with live owls, and the cafe turned into the Great Hall (featuring butterbeer).

I had friends in town through the weekend, so I wasn't able to read a lot right away. I've got about 200 pages left, and it is definitely living up to the hype so far!! It's kinda funny because it seems that EVERYONE is reading this book. I see fellow Potterheads reading it in every coffeeshop or little lunch place I walk into, and more often than not I look around on the subway to see several other people right around me reading it. It's weird because we all strike up conversations with other, where normally everyone prefers to just ignore everyone else.

And I certainly won't include any spoilers, but so far one of my favorite moments was the laugh-out-loud part when Rowling wrote "...the fact remains he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo"...man that's good stuff!! And just for fun, here's some pics from the Midnight Magic party!

people crack me up

2007-07-18T15:30:00.000-04:00

Sometimes people are just funny...

This morning I talked with my younger brother. I asked what he was going to do today and he replied, "I don't know. Probably climb a mountain or something." That response just cracked me up...I wonder how much Midwest is left in him. I don't know how often he and his buddies actually hike up one of the surrounding mountains, but it's nice they have the option.

Later on I was at Blockbuster and the cashier was frustrated because someone returned a DVD that was rented from a different location. I heard her tell a co-worker, "Every day customers are getting retardeder and retardeder." I walked out of the store cracking up...with a sentence so politically and grammatically incorrect, that's just a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

new sucky song

2007-07-18T14:18:00.000-04:00

For the past few weeks I've been netflixing the TV series "Felicity." I started watching season 3 (or Junior Year) and I can't figure out what's up with the new theme song. The old opening sequence was so great. Now there's this nasal sounding guy singing this sucky song and all the great photographs have been replaced by scenes from the show. Sometimes change isn't so good.

maybe...

2007-07-15T21:17:00.000-04:00

Maybe I've been living in a major coastal city for too long. Here's 3 things I've realized recently that have contributed to this maybe-conclusion:

1. I attended a 4th of July party where the people I went with were wearing at least something that was red, white, and/or blue. (ex. dark blue jeans, white tank, red cardigan). They had all moved to the city semi-recently. Me? It never crossed my mind...I showed up in all black.

2. Last weekend I was down in Ocean City, MD, and was genuinely surprised and even shocked when this guy walking by said "Good morning" to me. I was looking straight ahead minding my own business...not even making eye contact with the guy. I think I responded with something like, "Huh? What? Oh. Good morning." Then about 5 minutes down the road I was surprised again when an older lady greeted me with the same morning pleasantry. This time I was a little quicker with my response though.

3. I was telling someone the other day how much I enjoy the fact that in the city you don't have to slow down or say sorry when you accidentally bump into someone or step on their foot, etc. You can just go on your way without losing a step and you're not considered rude at all.

I haven't decided yet if these are things I want to change. I don't think they are though. I kinda like it like this.

10 amazingly funny things about "Arrested Development"

2007-06-29T00:03:00.000-04:00

1. anytime Franklin appears, but especially when he and Gob sing "It Ain't Easy Being White"
2. the name Bob Loblaw.
3. Buster's hook
4. Gob's segway
5. Tobias' Analrapist business card (cross between analyst and therapist)
6. the family vehicle is an airport stair car
7. his first name is George Michael
8. Gob's chicken impression
9. the one armed man that George Sr. uses to teach his kids lessons
10. the fact that they literally refer to the other Lucille as "Lucille 2"

the writers on this show are brilliant.

strange guilt from an unidentified source

2007-06-28T15:14:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been feeling some literary guilt, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. I feel like I should be a reader of or at least familiar with Cormac McCarthy and Kurt Vonnegut. The truth is though, I've never read a single book by either one of them. I started thinking about it more the other day when I walked by a Vonnegut display in a bookstore. They are both great American novelists, but are hardly on the same page as others throughout history who have written truly transcendent literature. That's why I'm not sure why I feel so strongly that I should be familiar with their work. If anyone has read something by either one of them and could give a recommendation, that'd be great.

all in a day's work

2007-06-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

today I ...

...got shampoo in my eyes for the first time in years. it really hurts.
...sat next to lesbians making out on the subway.
...walked by a man with a big green parrot on his shoulder. i'm pretty sure he wasn't a wannabe pirate because he didn't have a peg leg. although he did have a rather pronounced limp.
...ate a corn dog. it's been about 2 years since i've had one, and i'm not sure why because they are delicious.
...got hit on by a semi creepy fireman
...finished a challenging puzzle

an italian delicacy...sort of

2007-06-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

Faith and I had a nice pasta dinner tonight with some pasta I brought home from Italy. I stumbled into a store that sold pasta in ALL different shapes, including penis pasta. As it was cooking Faith said, "Wow it's getting so much bigger." Just like a true "The Office" fan, I didn't miss a beat with my "that's what she said" reply! Just for fun, here's a pic of a cooked piece and some uncooked ones. And just so you know, in an attempt to preserve a modicum of tact we choose marinara sauce instead of alfredo...

things that are awesome

2007-06-24T21:03:00.000-04:00

- Netflix
- anything that's jerry-rigged
- the word "smarmy"
- pomegranates
- light layers
- Apple computers' Sherlock feature and also widgets
- conversations that last into the wee hours
- Cover Girl's WetSlicks lip gloss
- mechanical pencils
- weddings and the related goings-on of people you are genuinely close to
- food steamers
- 10+ hour tv on dvd and/or movie marathons
- California Pizza Kitchen
- amazon.com
- public radio
- DVD special features, especially commentaries
- Trader Joe's No Pudge Fudge
- free wifi
- a keychain compass-an especially handy tool here in the city
- rain boots
- Google Earth
- a really great blanket
- any sort of holiday themed family contest
- book lights
- Wednesday food sample hour at Whole Foods
- Root Beer Schnapps
- mutual friends
- orchids, especially white ones
- the onboard airline channel where you can listen to the pilots and the control tower

update on decisions

2007-06-24T19:55:00.001-04:00

Here's a small update from my last blog posting...

I've changed my mind about baseball. I think I'm going to be a Mets fan instead of a Yankees fan. I realized that being a Yankees fan is like being a Lakers fan. No one takes the Lakers or their fans seriously. It is a much more respectable choice to be a Clippers fan. I think the Mets/Yankees dilemma is a pretty similar situation, so I'm going to go with the Mets.

The football choice is still up in the air. A trusted friend has suggested to go with the Jets, but two cute guys I met said to go with the Giants. So we'll see on that one.

decisions, decisions

2007-06-23T23:59:00.001-04:00

So, I'm trying to decide which New York City sports teams to start cheering for. While clearly not the most important thing ever, I feel like it's a pretty big choice. Here's what I've got so far...any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated. Also, to be clear, these will not become my new favorite teams (I don't think). I just need teams to cheer for, enjoy, like, and attend games. My true teams will always be the Chicago Bears, University of Illinois college basketball, and for pro basketball the Chicago Bulls. For baseball I feel equally towards the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and LA Dodgers. I like the LA Kings because they are the only pro hockey team I've really seen, but I feel that allegiance is up for grabs.

college teams: I think I'm going to go with Hofstra. This is mostly a default decision because there are suprisingly few teams here. Maybe another choice could be St. Johns, but I think that's about it. Most NYC colleges aren't really known for their athletics, so it's slim pickin's here.

NBA: I've think I will just go ahead and cheer for the Knicks. This is sort of weird since they were the Bulls' biggest rivals back in the glorious early-mid 90's. The Knicks are awful these days, and it's always fun to root for the underdog.

NHL: I'm fully ok with my choice to become a Rangers fan. I really like watching hockey live, which I never knew until I went to a couple of Kings games when I was in LA. It really makes for a fun evening.

NFL: This is tough. I love the Bears, but need a hometown team to root for. I don't really know much about either the Jets or Giants, so I could go either way. I'm leaning a little towards the Jets because I like their green color better than the Giants' red and blue combo. That's a really shallow reason to pick a team, so the jury's still out on this one.

MLB: I've always enjoyed a baseball game as much as the next girl...it's a great time to work on your tan and hang out with some friends. But I've never been a real die hard baseball fan. I don't really have a team that I absolutely love, so I've never had a problem just adopting the team of whatever city I live in. This is a little problematic now, because I've learned it's not acceptable to be both a Yankees and Mets fan; you have to pick one. The Mets seem to be a more substantive team, and are maybe a little easier to take seriously. However, the Yankees have all these sports divas and are so damn theatrical it's like cheering for a soap opera. That's pretty hard to resist. So...I think I'm going to go with the Yankees on this one.

So all in all, I think I'm in a pretty good spot. I'm happy with my pro basketball and hockey choices. I think I'm pretty good with the baseball and college basketball, but if you've got some input please send it my way. And any NFL suggestions would be much appreciated.

movies and books

2007-06-16T22:38:00.001-04:00

Lately I've had the good fortune of selecting great movies and books. Here's my latest few books:

1. What is the What--my current read, written by Dave Eggars. I'm a little over halfway finished, and so far it's excellent. It's a novel based on the lives of several Sudanese refugees.

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--any Harry book is a delight to read, this one especially as it's gearing me up for next month's book 7 release.

3. The Lost Carravagio-- Nice, easy read about (clearly) a lost Carravagio painting. This novel is entertaining and doesn't require a lot of brain power, but still educates you with a little art history.

My ongoing read: This quarter's edition of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. This publication comes in a different format with different types of content each quarter, and this time it's a hard-back book of short stories.

Next up: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, the latest book from the venerable Chris Hitchens.

My latest few movies have been:
Freedom Writers- good but not unbelievable
Closer- great flick
Cool Runnings- best Jamaican movie AND best bobsled movie I've ever seen. Maybe also best Olympics movie.
Little Children- loved this one. the ending makes a beautiful point
Best in Show- can't belive it took me so long to finally watch this hilarious gem

This movie list has caused me to think about other great sports movies, particularly movies featuring winter sports. I think the best are Cool Runnings, the Might Ducks trilogy (particularly D2), and The Cutting Edge. And maybe I'd have to give an honorable mention to Ice Princess...it's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it does star the girl who played in Harriet the Spy, and that's gotta count for something.

summer travels

2007-06-16T21:38:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I am going up to visit some family in Mystic, CT (town with the pizza parlor Mystic Pizza, which inspired the Julia Roberts movie of the same name). I'm pretty excited about this. It's a very nice New England town, complete with a drawbridge that still goes up twice an hour to let the boats through. Plus, pretty much every member of my mom's family lives within about a half hour of there. I haven't been there in about three years, so I'm pretty pumped to visit.

Then, in about 3 weeks I'm heading down to Ocean City, MD to visit my dad's family. They all live in Maryland, except there's one uncle's family in Delaware. This will be a short visit as well, but will definitley be a fun one since Ocean City is where the whole family goes each summer for a vacation on the beach. The whole extended family goes every year, except my immediate family hasn't gone in several years, mostly because we now live all over the country.

Growing up we'd take a 2 week family vacation to visit mom's family in Connecticut for a week and then drive down to visit dad's family in Maryland for the second week. I tell you all this because today I realized that this is going to be the first time since those family vacations 7 or 8 years ago that I will see all members of my family, immediate and both sides extended, within a 7 month period. These next few weeks will take care of all the extended family, and I saw most of my immediate family in May when I visited Illinois when my nephew was born. Everyone was there except my dad and brother, but I just saw them at Christmas. So there ya go...7 months to see everyone is not too shabby.

Oh crap, I just realized my brother-in-law wasn't there in May and he and my sister didn't come to Christmas in California. But, I did see him at my brother's wedding in November. So I guess that makes it 8 months. That's still really great though. Even though we all have issues and things sometimes get pretty difficult...there really is nothing like family.

new record!

2007-06-02T12:23:00.000-04:00

this morning, with a point total of 147, i set a new personal high score in "brick," one of the games that comes on ipods.

back to america

2007-05-31T08:29:00.000-04:00

After a big airport fiasco (hint: never fly Alitalia) I finally got back home yesterday evening. It was a fantasic trip and maybe I'll get some pics posted soon. Even so, I'm glad to be back home.

Every single day was of course incredible, but here are the top few things:

1. St. Peter's and the Vatican
2. Alexander Platz--one of the top jazz clubs in all of Europe
3. riding down the Grand Canal in Venice
4. the Borghese Gallery
5. Michaelangelo's David in the Accademia
6. the gelato and the wine. well, food in general I guess

And an expansion of #6...after sampling a huge array of flavors, these are the best (in no certain order):
1. pear
2. almond
3. coconut
4. banana
5. miele, which is a honey flavor
6. rice (sounds gross but is actually delicious)

And finally, here are the top things about being back home:
1. I can read anything and genearlly speak to anyone with whom I come in contact without a considerable amount of effort
2. not having to pay to use public restrooms
3. I can actually drink Diet Coke instead of Coca Lite, a mostly disgusting but slightly respectable foreign "equivalent"

And in the interest of lists, after my day at the beach today here's my list of top priorities here in NYC:
1. get friends
2. find a job
3. find a church
4. unpack
5. find some fun community activities, like take a dance class with Faith. In my head this is similar to the one Jodie takes in "Center Stage," but I'm sure ours will be about a zillion skill levels below that.

sunday in roma

2007-05-27T08:31:00.000-04:00

Today has pretty much been a perfect day. I got up early to check out this church nearby with Benini's "St. Theresa in Ecstasy." It was awesome. This sculpture caused a HUGE outcry when Bernini completed it. St. Theresa has just been hit with God's flaming arrow, and a cherub with a sly knowing smile is pulling it out of her chest. The sculpture was extremely controversial because both St. Theresa's posture and facial expression are very erotic. Bernini was making a huge statement by portraying her spiritual experience in an orgasmic way.

After that I went down the road to the Cappuccin Crypt, or Church of Bones. This place is crazy. The crypt under the still-used church is literally full of and decorated with the bones of 4,000 monks who died from the 1500s-1800s. It's wild. There's literally rooms filled with piles of skulls, leg bones, other bones, and full skeletons laying there still dressed in monk robes. Even the wall decorations are made from human bones. The chandeliers are made from bones too. The last room has an inscription that says "We were what you are...you will become what we are now."

After that experience, I made my way up to the Villa Borghese. It's a huge park, sorta like Central Park. There were families out picnicing and all sorts of people. In the park is the Galleria Borghese, which is an unbelievable art museum. I really think it may be my favorite museum in Italy (so far). The Bernini sculptures are out of this world. I don't even know how to begin describing them. There's also several Carravagio paintings. They were fantastic. You kind of think these things are overhyped, but once you see them you understand that they are tottaallly not at all. It was an amazing experience. I'm so glad I'm learning more and more about art history and how to truly appreciate it. I honestly think it's really enriching my life. Also, I met this couple from Sydney and hung around with them while at the Borghese. They were really interesting, and just arrived here in Rome from a 3 week stay in Turkey. Man, the Borghese was incredible.

Another definite highlight of my day was going to the ballet at the Opera House. I've only been to 2 or 3 other ballets before, but this one was the best. Maybe I was just too young to appreciate it then, I don't know. There's just something so beautiful and affecting about movement. It's understated in a way, but still so powerful and very present. I figured out during the ballet that perphaps this is what I like about sculpture...it has the same sort of quality. Ballet or dance or whatever shows the beauty and emotion in movement, and a good artist can do the same with sculpture. It's like capturing all of that in one still, freeze-frame moment. I love how a sculpture's single pose can communicate so much about an entire set of circumstances.

Anyway, so it was a pretty full day today. Lots of other little things and interactions in between, but that was the major stuff. Tomorrow I've got a private tour at the Vatican to see the things usually off limits to tourists, thanks to a Swiss guard friend of a friend of a friend (thanks for the hook up on that one Linds). And maybe I'll hit the Pantheon or something. We'll see.

Ok. I'm going to bed now. Ciao.

when in rome...

2007-05-24T15:46:00.000-04:00

Italy is awesome!!! I have practically no time left to type, but wanted to post a quick blog message that Italy is fantastic! I have had half a day in Rome, a whole day in Venice, and just arrived for two days in Florence before heading back to Rome for a few more. Everyone should be able to come here at least once during their life. It is incredible! I will post some pictures and stuff when I get home, but for now I am just focusing on eating my weight in gelato!!

almost there

2007-05-21T12:54:00.000-04:00

It's about 1 o'clock, and I'm stopped for lunch at Panera about 70 miles outside NYC. Here's some observations so far:

1. Panera has a new salmon salad that looks unbelievable. Today I'm just eating a quick bagel, but I've got to try that salad soon.

2. Pennsylvania really is nice this time of year. The air smells very clean.

3. It's not really that fun driving a UHAUL. It's a little hard to get used to only having side mirrors and no rearview mirror or over-the-shoulder visibility.

4. "Under Pressure" by David Bowie and "I'll Stand By You" by The Pretenders are GREAT songs to sing in the car.

5. Truckers can be really creepy sometimes.

6. This is the first time I've stopped and noticed several people having a thick New York accent. It sounds pretty cool, but I don't think I could pull one off.

7. A few hours ago a passed a sign advertising the "World of Pigeons." I'm pretty sure it was just on someone's private farm because the sign was hardly professional quality. I sorta wish I would've stopped to check it out.

All right, back to the road I guess!

it's friday

2007-05-18T12:46:00.000-04:00

1. I can't believe Paul Wolfowitz resigned from the World Bank yesterday. All along his camp has been saying he wouldn't. Now if only Alberto Gonzalez would do the same.

2. Moving is exciting, but packing sucks.

3. I'm about to watch last night's "The Office" season finale. Hope it doesn't disappoint.

4. I'm selling my car in about 2 hours. Feels so good to give up that dependence.

5. Life is good :)

the top few...

2007-05-16T05:17:00.000-04:00

I was really bored at work tonight, so I made some "top few" lists. At first they were top 5 lists, but I quickly realized I didn't feel like coming up with 5 in every category. All of these lists are in no particular order.

tv season finales:
1. Alias, season 1-Sydney's assumed-to-be-dead-former-Russian-spy-murderer-bad-guy mom is actually alive and is revealed to be the mastermind ("The Man") behind the big bad guy group.
2. Alias, season 2-Sydney defeats her best friend look-a-like (actually bad guy Alison Doran who took appearance altering drugs to pose as Sydney's friend Francie) in Los Angeles and then passes out. In the next scene she mysteriously wakes up in Hong Kong, finds out two years have passed and she had long ago been pronounced dead, and her love interest has married another woman.
3. Friends, season 5-Ross said Rachel's name in his vows when he was marrying Emily. Oops.
4. Gilmore Girls, season 6-Lorelai calls off her marriage to Luke and sleeps with Christopher. I always liked him better. Although I know some find her character annoying, Lauren Graham is a very talented actress...maybe one of the most under rated.
5. The Office, season 2-Jim confesses his love to Pam
6. Grey's Anatomy, season 1-Dr. McDreamy is married!!

things about summer:
1. sundresses
2. cookouts
3. being tan

things i learned the hard way:
1. double check that you have taken the gas pump out of your tank and put it back on the machine before you drive away. otherwise you will pull the hose completely off the pump and have an agitated gas station worker come scream at you. plus it will count as a "collision" and your insurance will go up.
2. never just assume that every door is automatic. if you do you will find your self marveling at how sensitive the sensor is, and then a split second later walking full speed right into the door.

places I'd rather be right now:
1. california
2. italy
3. portland
4. outer space. wish i was rich so i could go on one of these civilian trips to the moon. maybe i'll win a contest or something one day and be able to go.

old school Nickelodeon (or Nick Jr.) shows that have unfortunately fallen into obscurity
1. Salute Your Shorts
2. Hey Dude
3. David the Knome
4. the one with that girl Sandy and the 2 koalas that lived in the tree outside her window

old school Disney shows that have met the same fate as above:
1. The Torkelsons (because bay windows like Dorothy Jane's are WAY underappreciated)
2. Kids Incorporated (where Fergie got her start)

magazines
1. McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
2. SEED
3. The Believer

what am i doing????

2007-05-13T02:23:00.000-04:00

I have no idea what I am doing right now. More accurately, I have no idea why. It's 2:24 AM Sunday morning, and instead of sleeping (also, only got 4 hours last night) I am doing a puzzle and watching season 2 of "The Office." Definitely both worthwhile activites, but it just suddenly occurred to me what an awful use of my time it is. I have SO MUCH to do. I shouldn't be spending free time doing anything other than:

(1) packing. I'm moving to NYC in exactly one week, and haven't packed a thing. To be fair, I have weeded through my clothes and made my gigantic "get rid of" pile, but haven't actually packed anything at all.

(2) preparing for Italy. I'm heading out in exactly 9 days. While I have all the majors taken care of, I still have tons to do...reading through restuarant and wine reviews, estimating my budget for each of the 3 cities I'll be seeing, mapping my route of museums/activities so I can maximize my time and not have to backtrack, educating myself with crash courses of Renaissance art and Italian history, doing some more Italian language learning, and getting some light shopping done.

It's going to be a very busy week. I'm soooo glad I now only have 1 full time job instead of 2. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of this done. I'm going to bed now.

operation hydration

2007-05-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

I know it's a cheesy name, but I've decided to get Operation Hydration started. Basically, all this means is that I'm going to make a concerted effort to drink water. This may not sound like much, but it will be a HUGE thing for me. I almost never drink water. The only time I might ever really have a sip is when I am exercising. Besides that, my liquid intake consists entirely of diet coke/pepsi, coffee, and various alcoholic beverages. To be clear, I'm not cutting these things out of my life, I'm just bringing water into it. Hopefull I'll be able to do it :)

indiana

2007-05-08T15:53:00.000-04:00

I don't really know why, but I'm not a huge fan of Indiana. However, driving completely across the state 4 times in the last two weeks has afforded me plenty of time to come up with this short list of redeeming factors.

1. speed limit is 70 mph.

2. Jimmy Chitwood and the whole "Hoosiers" gang...there's always a soft spot for them.

3. multiple 24-hour Starbucks drive though locations have popped up along I-74.

4. Radio Disney 98.3 FM.

thoughts from small town Illinois

2007-05-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

1. I was at Wal-Mart making picture printouts from the digital camera Saturday night, which happened to be prom night. While there for maybe an hour, we saw several people come in dressed up in their prom gear. It was so strange. These girls and one guy were totally done up with dresses/tux, corsages, shoes, hair, jewelry and everything. What in the world were they doing at Wal-Mart? I just can't figure it out. And maybe I could understand seeing one or perhaps two people, but it seemed we were seeing prom kids everywhere we looked.

2. The local grocery store has jacked up the price for the outdoor soda machines. It now costs 60 cents for a 12 oz. can of soda. That means the price has almost doubled since I moved away 7 years ago (it used to be 35 cents) and has gone up considerably since the last time I was here in the fall (when it was 45 cents).

3. For the life of me I cannot find the local NPR station. It's crazy. Surely there is one, but so far no luck finding it. I should just look online, but I keep forgetting. Maybe I'll do that now.

he's finally here!!

2007-05-02T16:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening my nephew, Aiden, was finally born!!! He's pretty much a beast, coming in at 22 inches long and 10 lbs 8 oz.

Here's the scoop...My sister-in-law was told on Saturday that she was in early labor and would probably have him on Sunday. Well, Sunday and Monday both came and went without a baby. At 6 am Tuesday she was induced and an hour later the doctor broke her water, but by 4 that afternoon she was only 3 cm dilated (she was 2 cm on Saturday). So they ended up doing a C-section...which was a great choice considering he was more than 2 pounds heavier than they were told he was going to be. So basically, watching her go through this is further cementing my previous feelings that I do not want to ever bear my own child. Adoption is an option I have been very drawn to for quite awhile, for reasons other than pain avoidance. I suppose though if it comes down to it there's always surrogacy. I just can't imagine putting my body through the pregnancy/childbearing experience.

Anyway, back to Aiden. He's perfect. My mom says he's got a great temperament. He was letting everyone and their dog hold him and was alert and smiling and moving around, and not really crying much or anything. He has curly blond/reddish hair with blond eyebrows and eyelashes so light and fair you can barely see them. I can't wait to meet him this weekend!!!

from stuff I'm reading...

2007-04-26T16:53:00.000-04:00

From Nick Hornby’s column in last month’s “The Believer” magazine:

Maybe the best thing to do with favorite films and books is to leave them be: to achieve such an exalted position means that they entered your life at exactly the right time, in precisely the right place, and those conditions can never be re-created. Sometimes we want to revisit them in order to check whether they were really as good as we remember them being, but this has to be a suspect impulse, because what it presupposes is that we have more reason to trust our critical judgments as we get older, whereas I am beginning to believe the reverse is true....Favorites should be left where they belong, buried somewhere deep in a past self.

--at this point I was seriously lamenting Hornby’s logic, because truly acknowledging the sense his point makes would mean reluctantly sacrificing my faves in the name of artistic or philisophical integrity. I was so relieved when I continued reading the column and eventually came to these concluding sentences:

Forget everything I said! Revisit your favorites regularly!

And from Henry Adams’s autobiography The Education of Henry Adams (sorry for the error but Blogger doesn't have the underline feature on Macs, at least that I can figure out):

This problem of education, started in 1838, went on for three years, while the baby grew, unconsciously, as a vegetable, the outside world working as it never had worked before, to get his new universe ready for him. Often in old age he puzzled over the question whether, on the doctrine of chances, he was at liberty to accept himself or his world as an accident. No such accident had ever happened before in human experience. For him, alone, the old universe was thrown into the ash-heap and a new one created...his new world was ready for use, and only fragments of the old met his eyes.

What an interesting idea Adams brings to the table...that the world is working to get ready for each individual person to enter it and interact with it, and that this universe is never precisely the same for any two people.

things

2007-04-24T07:18:00.000-04:00

1. I really like classical music, but don't know much about it. I think I need to pick a favorite composer

2. My Shakespearean knowledge is pathetically liimited. I'm going to work on becoming more educated in this field.

3. Females should not use the "Sage and Citrus" flavor of car jars. The scent is pleasant enough I suppose, but it smells like boy.

4. Music that uses acoustic guitar and violin together is really great.

5. Everyone should try sun-dried tomato turkey. It makes for a delicious sandwich, and can be found at your friendly neighborhood Kroger (among other places I'm sure).

6. I had to work overtime and so only got 1 hour of sleep. Should be a fun day :/

the weekend!!

2007-04-20T05:55:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is my first Saturday off work since early January. I'm soooo pumped. I was supposed to have Sunday off as well, but got roped into picking up an overtime shift. That's ok though, because I don't have to work on Saturday!!!!

Also, I'll be an aunt in approximately 10 days! WOO-HOO!!!

Hokie Nation

2007-04-18T04:25:00.000-04:00

It’s a sad week. Clearly this situation really gets to everyone, but it’s affecting me much more deeply than I first anticipated it would, and I’m not sure why.

May God bless the families and friends of those involved, with whom our thoughts and prayers lie.

things I realized today

2007-04-13T05:02:00.000-04:00

1. The single best gift to bring to a white elephant gift exchange is a garden knome.

2. The hamburger is hardly the best burger. Two wonderful alternative selections are the turkey burger and the buffalo burger. The salmon burger isn't too shabby either.

3. I really love jogging shorts. And I don't mean any pair of shorts that become jogging shorts because they are worn while jogging. I mean the official kind--the kind with the underwear built right in. They just make life so much easier.