So I was talking to my sister because I was bored and my Aunt Cathy was up visiting and she suggested that I cure my boredom with Blogging and I think I will...

The weekend was good.

I made it through the day at work on Friday. The day lasted five years until I got out of work, and then the evening flew by. I got home from work and was going around lighting candles because Molly had obviously just made a deposit in the litter box when my buzzer rang. I wasn't expecting anyone right away, so instead of just buzzing whoever was at the door in, I took a peek outside and found Beck and Dodi standing in the front hall waiting to be let in. I let them in and we hung out for a bit in the living room telling each other about our Christmases. Beck informed me that Alex was offered an extra four hours at work, so he'd be working until at least six and then would have to go home and try and fix the taillight on his car before he'd be able to come up so they invited me to dinner at Friday's.

We had bad luck at Friday's... We were buzzed in to get seated only to find that they weren't ready for us yet and so we had to stand in everyone's way while they searched out a table for us. Then our waitress apparently forgot to put our food order in because it took forever to get our dinners, which was very strange because we all got simple items: I got a baked potato and soup, Beck got a salad, and Dodi got chicken strips. There were two girls at the table next to us who were celebrating a birthday but were strange because they kept giving us evil looks. When the restaurant crew sang happy birthday it was extremely difficult to not laugh. They sang the traditional birthday song, but at the end of each verse they'd yell out the birthday girl's name. But none of them seemed into singing, so it sounded like a bunch of extremely unenthusiastic people singing, "Happy Birthday to you... Julie! Happy Birthday to you... Julie!" It was too funny. So yeah. So we had a good time at dinner and afterwards Dodi drove Beck home and I headed back to the apartment.

So I got to the apartment and immediately started to bake. I'd planned on making the last of the cookies I needed to fill in my little gift boxes to bring to my family in PA as soon as I got home from work so that I wouldn't have to be doing it when Alex came over. But I happily had other distractions, so the baking needed to be done immediately upon my arrival back to the apartment because it was already after 8 and I didn't want to be baking all night. I made integrated chocolate chip cookies, because I had all the ingredients to make Toll House Cookies (the only kind I can't screw up) but I only had a half bag each of white and dark chocolate chips. So I decided to just go with it and have politically correct cookies. The cookie making commenced and aside from a few frustrating moments with my hand mixer went smoothly. The cookies came out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Alex called as I was finishing up with the cookies, around 10. I was pissed. I mean, no one should be kept waiting until 10 when the plan was to meet up after work. He'd worked late and then went home to work on his car only to find that he wasn't able to fix the taillights so he wouldn't be able to drive down after all. I got upset and let him know that he should have called me earlier. He pointed out that I hadn't called either. Ok, I admit, I could have called. But I was being a girl and playing that game where you don't call because you want them to call because you want to know that they would call you if you didn't call them. But that wasn't the point. He apologized for not calling earlier and I said that I'd come down and pick him up even though it was late because I didn't want to have to do it in the morning before we left for PA (and also I really wanted to do Christmas with him).

So we did Christmas when we got back to the apartment. Alex really seemed excited about the Game Cube. So that rocks. I love when a gift goes over well! :) Alex gave me this very cool Guinness mirror (just like in pubs!) that I plan on hanging above my liquor cabinet (as soon as I get one... I have the spot in my apartment all picked out) and a Guinness pint glass with candle poured in to look like a Guinness. I stuck it on my one side table in the living room next to a picture of Beck and me at the Guinness Storehouse Gravity Bar holding our pints of Guinness. It's perfect! I totally needed a candle to go on that table, and that one is just too cool and fits right in there. Alex wanted me to light it right away, but I like it too much! I don't want the candle to go away! He also got me the Indiana Jones boxed set, which is extremely cool. All three movies plus a bonus disk of extra material. We put Raiders of the Lost Arc in right away (but fell asleep while it was on and woke up at 2am to hear the theme music blasting because it had played through the movie and returned to the main screen... I felt bad because I bet my neighbors could totally hear that playing for like an hour at least...). He did excellently with gifts for me! :) He rocks.

So the next morning we got a late start and then decided to go to Quintessense for breakfast so we didn't get on the road until about 11. But the ride was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect so the 4 hour ride was over before we knew it. We arrived at my Aunt Karen's house in Pottsville around 3. We hung out for a bit with my Mom and RJ. We took a ride with them in my Mom's new Chrysler Pacifica up to the mall and then to Wal-Mart to pick up salad greens before we headed back to Karen's for dinner. Everyone was there: Karen and Bobby and Sherry (of course... Ryan wasn't there though, he was out...), Nana and PopPop, Aunt Denise and her husband Bob and their sons Ian and Evan, Aunt Diane and her husband Joe and their kids: Zach, Jacob, Rachel, and Sarah, Mom and RJ and Alex and me. It was a full house. We had dinner and did the gift thing and chatted and I was exhausted by the time everyone left. Alex was tired too, and we sat on the sofa and watched "Boomtown" and then talked a bit with Mom and RJ and Karen and Bobby before everyone headed off to bed. Alex and I were just about to turn in when my cousin Ryan came in. We talked for a bit about his new car, a 2003 20th anniversary edition VW GTI. It's so very cute. A 180hp six speed with lowered sport suspension and stock 18" alloy wheels. So very sweet. They only made 4200 of them, and 200 went to Canada and 4000 came to the US. His is number 3070. It's "jazz blue." So awesome. So we were talking about the car for a bit then Ryan decided that he was hungry so he said that he was going to "Hit Sheetz." We thought he meant "go to bed" but apparently Sheetz is a convenience store that's open 24h. So he left, and when he came back he threw a wrapped sandwich in front of us and said, "here's a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit if you want it. I just hit a deer." I was like, "Oh my God! Are you ok?" and he said, "yeah, but my car's not." It was so sad. I saw the car the next day when we were leaving. If it was my car, I would be in tears. I mean, he's only had the thing for 3 months, and we were just talking about how awesome it was, and then some buck jumps out onto his hood... Here's a picture that I took with my phone's camera attachment:

So yeah. That sucked, but at least he wasn't hurt or anything. And Marc, our in-house appraiser at work, said that it didn't actually look too bad. So Alex and I left by 12:30 the next afternoon because Alex had to be back to ride with the Ambulance in Clifton Park that evening. We had an awesome ride back and stopped at Dobb's Country Kitchen in Great Bend, PA for a late lunch/early dinner. My family used to stop there all the time on our trips to PA, so it was fun to go back there and have an open-faced hot turkey sandwich with fries and gravy all over it like I used to get. The road trip was so enjoyable, that I was kind of sad when it was over... We got to Clifton Park around 6:30 after a quick stop at the apartment so Alex could help me unload my stuff and pick up his Game Cube. I decided to get my laundry done since I had to drive up to CP anyway, and ended up watching Final Destination with my brothers while I was doing the laundry and I wanted to stay until the end because I'd never seen it before and left much later than I wanted to and didn't get to bed until midnight. I completely overslept this morning and was ass-tired at work. I was going to go up to CP to hang out with Dodi, but I didn't feel like driving anymore and just came home to the apartment and now I'm sitting here in my pretty flannel jammies from Vicki's. I would have gone up to CP had I known that my Aunt Cathy was up... Ah well. My sister and Eric and Ryan are possibly going to come over and we'll watch Indiana Jones or Donnie Darko and play The Game of Life. I'm so excited to just have a quiet night in. Does that make me old?

The family is coming up tomorrow evening to hang out and view my tree. Dad said that he wants hors d'oeuvres... I hope they bring them, 'cause I've got no food and no money to buy any either. Not until Wednesday when I get paid. I'm thankful that I'm getting paid Wed, because that means that I can go out to the Macaroni Grill and possibly The Big House or Jillian's with Dodi and Tristan and possibly her cousin and her boyfriend and Beck and Kevin and possibly their friend, Dave. That seems to be the tentative plan right now. I hope it works out! I'm sure Alex'll be very busy at work that night, but maybe I'll be able to bring him some Macaroni Grill takeout or something at least...

So yeah. Good times. Gotta clean the apartment a bit for tomorrow's family visit... morelater... but if not before Wednesday, "Happy New Year!"

I felt that today's horoscope was a bit harsh, but I guess the truth hurts:

Cancer
It feels early for the bills to be coming in, but they're piling up anyway. Self-worth gets expensive when you have to go out and buy it. Consider an early New Year's resolution about reining in certain impulses.

Crap.

So, so long since I've posted.

So I hope everyone had a merry Christmas or happy whatever holiday applies to you.

I finally finished all my shopping on Tuesday. I rock. I could have been done much earlier, but I really love shopping and I have no money to shop for myself so I prolonged the whole shopping for everyone else thing because it enabled me to still shop. Yeah.

So I think all the gifts (so far) went over well. I got my sister a sweater from Express that was very cute and she seemed to like it a lot and a copy of The Bad Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want because that book is just so hella cool. I got my older-little-brother a compact DVD player for his room that I got a great deal on at Sam's Club. I got the 10 year old brother a network adaptor for the PS2 so that he can play online and beat people around the world and I got the 8 year old brother SSX Tricky because he's so much better than me on SSX and I think that's hella cool. I went in on gifts for the Wham and my dad with my brother and sister. We got Dad a DVD-RW drive so that he can put his home movies on DVDs, and we got the Wham a new digital camera because the other one that she had sucked. They were both really happy with their gifts, so that rocked.

Beck, Dodi, and I exchanged gifts last Friday night. I cooked us dinner: Penne alla Vodka with chicken, crusty Italian bread, a salad (with croutons for Dodi), and cosmopolitan (which, at first I made too strong, because I have this issue with making drinks to strong, but then I added more cranberry juice and they were excellent). Dinner was pretty good, if I do say so myself, and we had a great time sitting around, sipping on our cosmos and watching Sex and the City. Beck and I gave Dodi a pair of sun and moon wall sciences and a new duvet cover for her recently acquired down comforter. I gave Beck the 5th season of Sex and the City (well, I preordered it for her, so I gave her a DVD case with a cover that I made that said that it was coming to her soon) and a set from Bath and Body works that had salt "flavored" lotions in it. I got a very cool wall calendar from Dodi that has vintage advertising posters in it (matches perfectly in my kitchen/dining area) and a set of coasters from the Pottery Barn that are glass with vintage liquor advertising art on them. Very cool. I got a pair of Chinese silk slippers from Beck, along with a "Dancing Diva" for my car, some maple syrup and maple sugar candies (seriously, my favorite thing in the world), a pooping reindeer that "poops" brown jelly beans, and this awesome book called The S Factor that has workouts in it based on stripper moves. I'd totally like to take a class, but I don't think there are any around here, so the book is awesome.

I haven't yet exchanged gifts with Alex. We were going to on Christmas Eve, but we didn't have time. He had to come over to the apartment after he got out of work at 6 to pick up the TV that he and Beck bought for their parents. He wanted to exchange gifts then, but my family always exchanges our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve (and then we open our gifts from "Santa" the next day) and so I had to get home by like 7:30 or so or else my little brothers would go crazy. So we wouldn't have time to do a Christmas thing for the two of us then. As it was, Alex got out of work late and didn't get to my apartment until almost 7, so I didn't get to my house until 8 and my brothers pretty much attacked when I got in the door and started asking to open gifts. And then Alex and I couldn't get together on Christmas. He and I both did the family thing with our respective families during the day, and he wasn't able to drive down to the apartment that night because his taillights aren't working on his car so it's not safe for him to drive at night. We both had to work the next morning, and so my going to pick him up wouldn't have made sense either, so we're going to do Christmas tonight.

I had a very nice Christmas with my family. My sibling bought me some nice gifts: my sister bought me a fleece sweater, which at first I wasn't sure that I liked, but I tried it on and it looks very nice and it's the perfect in between jacket and I didn't have anything besides hoodies that fit that bill, so it's really an excellent gift. My brother bought me a new controller for my PS2, which is awesome because I only had one controller before and now I'll be able to play with other people, so it's not just "playsterbation" as Eric referred to it. My 10 year old brother got me the Sims Vacation expansion pack, which I didn't' have. He's so observant... I didn't even mention that I wanted that, but he knows from watching commercials with me that I like the Sims and he wanted to get Bustin' Out for me but they couldn't find it, so he got me that expansion pack instead. He's a sweetie. My youngest brother gave me a shiny red compact mirror with an "A" in rhinestones on the front which is exactly my taste and very sweet.

I got some nice things from Santa as well. Santa gave me a new set of knifes, which I really needed because the knifes I bought myself when I first moved out suck immensely. My new knifes are very sharp and I know that because I've already cut myself. I also got a large wood cutting board from Santa, which I didn't even think of asking for, but my other cutting board was very small, and this is excellent. It has a gripper thing that pokes into the back of what your cutting and holds it still, which is awesome because I'm retarded at cutting and can use all the help I can get. Santa also brought me the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD, which is excellent because I love that movie and really wanted that DVD. I got a couple of very cute jeweled frames and some Bath and Body Works lotion/shower gel in Mango Mandarin "flavor" which is excellent from Santa. Santa really equipped me for entertaining: he gave me a bar set, a wine set (corkscrew, collar, pourer, and bottle stopper), and a chip and dip set. I guess I'll have to have a party now... :) Santa also gave me a $75 gift certificate to Best Buy... and I'm not sure what I'm going to buy with it yet, but I'm very excited... I'm thinking I might get a new entertainment center or perhaps a whole fleet of new DVDs...

So yes. It was a very nice Christmas. We did the gift thing from Santa in the morning and then we went to Church. We had Father Lanice, which was sucky because he's kind of long-winded. But his homily was broken up by the fire alarm going off in the middle of his homily. It was so loud and annoying and it took five minutes to get it turned off, but the congregation waited patiently and applauded when it stopped and luckily it was only a local alarm so we didn't have the fire department showing up. Father Lanice said that he'd lost his train of thought and the congregation spontaneously broke out in applause again... Father took the hint and cut the rest of his homily short. After church we hung out around the house. My brother got Ghettopoly for Christmas and he and my sister and I played it for a few hours. I got beat hardcore. And it was going so well for so long. Ah well. We had dinner around 5 (ham, garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, and non-burnt-for-a-change rolls) and I headed back to the apartment around 6:30. I realized when I got back to my place that I left way too early because I had nothing to do for the rest of the night and my plans for baking were foiled because I had no butter. I got depressed and was saved by Eric calling. He's home for a bit and he came up to hang out with me. We both realized on his way up that I have two cats and he has severe allergies, so after he came in and viewed the tree, we went to a bar that's pretty much down the street and hung out and had a drink. Eric bought me a Christmas pint, and it's been so long since I had a Guinness and it was so, so good.

I'm at work now. The day after Christmas, a Friday, and they didn't close our office. And I couldn't get the day off because other people had already requested the day. So that sucks. A lot. It's almost noon and I've been here since 8 (ok, well, 8:15) and I haven't had any phone calls today. This is pointless. I'm so irritated that we're open. I was so angry when I first got here that I really couldn't talk to anyone. But I've calmed down. Carrie's here this morning and she's leaving at noon to drive to Newark and catch a plane to Scotland. I'm so happy for her that today is finally here and she gets to go to Scotland and be with John. And she'll come back officially engaged. :) She's been rushing around and being a model employee getting stuff done (while I've been sitting here pretty much not getting much done at all and typing this post) and she stapled her finger. She's so funny, because she only really got a small little puncture wound, but she stuck her finger right up above her head, like she was going to bleed out if she didn't keep her finger above her heart. I went into the kitchen to find a band-aide, but we apparently ran out of them. I brought back some disinfectant wipes and triple antibiotic ointment and opened them up for her to apply and then went to Mary Ellen's desk and found her small first aide kit and grabbed a band-aide out of it. I opened it up and stuck it on her finger for her. Andy made fun of me... he was like, "woah, way to take charge, I didn't know you had paramedic training." And I was thinking, I don't know about paramedic training, but I think I've had "mom training" from watching the Wham all these years. So that was my excitement for the morning. Now I've got 5 hours left today and no motivation to do anything. I guess I should try and keep busy so the day seems to go quicker. So yeah. I'll get to work.

Probably won't update again until next week... I'm going to PA this weekend to see my Mom and her family as she's down there from MI for Christmas. Alex is able to go with me, so that should make the trip more bearable. The road-trip part of it should be fun, at least. :) We come back up Sunday then it's back to work for Mon/Tue/Wed. I'm not sure what I'm doing New Year's Eve. Alex has to work a 24 that day, so that blows. Beck said she might be going with Kevin to Boston, and Dodi may or may not end up staying in with Tristan. I'd love if we could all go out to like the Big House or something dancing. That'd rock. I hope I just don't end up sitting alone in my apartment... or at home with my parents... I guess if nothing ends up happening for New Year's, maybe I'll try and have a little get together at my apartment the following Friday and I can use my new entertaining stuff... :)

Anywho. Yeah. So. Happy Holidays. I gotta get back to work...

so i totally suck at updating lately. i guess updates will be weekly now... or something.

so i hate snow. i was at my parents house on Saturday morning when it was blizzarding because i was babysitting for them the night before. i tried to do a good deed and take my brother to work a little before 1 and i couldn't get the bug up the street. the plow hadn't come through yet, and the street was a mess with about 8 inches of snow on it. i could back out of the driveway but got stuck when i tried to go forward, so the brother had to get out and push us back in the driveway. finally, he just decided to screw the whole being driven thing and walk. i can't believe he walked about a mile to work in the blizzarding snow. i mean, it's only price chopper. i know i would have called in. i guess i'm impressed by his work ethic...

so at first i was all panicky that i was stuck at the parents house. but then i took a nap and was happy to just sit around in the warm house and watch movies. beck couldn't be at home anymore and was desperate for coffee so she dug her car out of her driveway and came and picked me up and we went to persnickety's for coffee. i found a christmas gift for my mom there, and so some christmas shopping got done. we decided to go to the dirt mall (clifton park center) and walk around when alex called and said that he was on his way up to my house to pick me up. he's an excellent boyfriend... he knew that i was all sketchy about driving my car in the snow and that i didn't want to be stuck in the house all day so he offered to pick me up and we'd go Christmas shopping. he rules. we told him to meet us at the dirt mall and so the three of us walked around there for a bit and then Alex and i headed towards Albany.

First we stopped at my apartment to make sure the cats were ok. the streets of albany were horrible and the snow drifts we had to climb over to get to the building were at above-the-knees level. the cats were fine and we freshened their food and water and then headed to Crossgates to have dinner. we did want to do some shopping as well, but all the stores were closing early because of the snow. so we had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's and then saw the last samurai which from the previews i thought was going to blow, but was actually very good. we headed up towards Clifton Park after the movie because there was no way we were going to brave the narrow, treacherous, streets of Albany again. We went to TGIFridays in CP because no where else was open and had a few drinks. And a fabulous time. I really had a great day on Saturday...

Sunday the streets were pretty much all plowed in Clifton Park. I met Beck at Target after dropping my little brother off at a birthday party and we hit a few stores in Clifton Park before we drove down to Circuit City in Albany. We had lunch at Panera (right next door to Circuit City) and then we did some Christmas shopping next door. We saw a few things we liked there, but ended up going to Sam's Club (around the corner) and buying them cheaper there. Sam's Rules. I was shopped out (shocking, i know!) and we headed back to CP. I met Alex for coffee at Starbuck's and then we went to Chili's for dinner. I stopped back home for a bit and then met Beck for coffee at Starbuck's (I had tea this time) and then went to K-Mart and got some snow boots (for climbing over the big snowpiles outside my apartment building) and a new tree skirt (because Molly, the little lovely kitty that she is, pooped on my other one). I headed home and was pleasently surprised to find a spot pretty quickly.

work so far this week has been boring as usual. this week is kind of busy for me. i went to the gym monday after work and then went home to wallow in my filth. i didn't feel like taking a shower or cooking so i brought boston market dinner home and sat around in my sweaty clothes and put myself to bed kind of early, at ten. at eleven my phone was ringing and it was alex calling. he worked late and was just leaving and wanted to come over. he felt bad for having woke me up but i convinced him to come over anyway. i felt like such a scummer having just sat around in my filth all night, but alex said that i was still cute, even if i was a mess. we watched tv for a bit but i just pretty much was sleeping so i went to bed. it was so cold in my aparmtment!

tuesday morning i went to work and was so jealous of alex who was still sleeping. it was just too cold to be out of bed. i had concentration issues yesterday at work (and apparently so far today as well, as i've pretty much just been working on this post and nothing else so far) and so the day seemed to drag. I submitted my paperwork online to take the test in march to apply to become a new york state trooper. i take the test on march 27th... wish me luck! :) Alex is going to be so proud of me for submitting those papers... he's been hounding me to do that ever since i expressed an interest in it. i'm so glad he's been so supportive, i probably never would have got the nerve to do it without him. i got home a little late last night after work because i stopped at the mall to do a little christmas shopping and was very pleasently surprised to find that Alex did my dishes for me. seriously, he rules. Meredith met me at the apartment and we went together to our first meeting of the Ladies Order of the Ancient order of the Hibernians. I was definitely the baby at the meeting, but we had a pretty good time. it'll be nice to belong to something and have a chance to help other people out.

so that brings me to today. i'm determined to get a lot of work done when i finally finsh this post. i've gotten pretty much all my Christmas shopping done and so there's not that temptation to internet shop to distract me from work. I'm going to the gym after work tonight. i've decided that there can be no slacking there anymore now that i definitly am going to pursue the trooper thing and now that i'm in Carrie's wedding in July and want to look fabulous in my bridesmaid dress. tomorrow night is my office's christmas party at the barnsider, which is apparently a pretty decent restaraunt. we get to bring guests for free so that rules. it should be a good time. Friday night is gym and then HOTD at McGeary's (awesome). and then i'm hoping that this weekend Beck, Dodi, and I can go to see The Full Monty the musical at Proctors... that'd rule. :)

so enough posting and now it's time to work.

Oh all the money e'er I had, I spent it in good company...

good times. so i was trying to think of a title for this post, and that opening line from "The Parting Glass" came to mind... it was between that and "Give Troy a Chance," Carrie's line of the day which could be Troy's new PR slogan (but she said don't go below third... so I guess it's actually, "Give Troy a Chance but avoid going below third..."). SO the line from "The Parting Glass" won out because the last week was filled with good times with good friends and plenty of money spending.

Wednesday night found me and Alex and Steve at Malt River Brewing Company in the Latham Circle Mall watching hair of the dog. The show started a little later than normal (I guess they had to wait for the mall to close) and they did three sets, so by the end of the night there were few of us left. But it was a good time (HOTD always is a good time...).

Thanksgiving dinner was really great. :) I was a little nervous about going to Beck and Alex's house for dinner because I felt like an orphan. I dunno, holidays are so... family and tradition... I didn't want to "mess" things up. But they made me completely comfortable and the dinner was excellent and I ended up having an excellent time. So rock. :) Beck, Kevin (who came for dessert), Alex and I went to the bowling alley 'cause Dodi invited us to meet her and her family there (they go every year after Thanksgiving dinner). We ended up getting a lane next to Dodi's and bowled two games. And it was so surprisingly cheap! It was only $20 for the four of us for shoe rentals and 2 games of bowling. Rock! Afterwards we played in the arcade for a while... Beck and I played ddr and Alex and Kevin played some racing game where your seat moves and rumbles along with the game. It was awesome to move around so much after having eaten so much Thanksgiving dinner earlier.

Friday I went shopping with Beck and Dodi at Crossgates. Being out in the Black Friday throngs was awesome. I didn't get any shopping done, but it was fun... I picked up the family at the airport and then continued the shopping. The only thing I bought was a new Christmas tree at Wal-Mart (had to get a new one because one of the cats [most likely Molly] peed on the tree from last year). It was still a cheap one (only $24.95) but it looks pretty full and cute. I went to hang out with the parents for a little bit after shopping but left after about an hour to go hang out with Eric who was home for the holiday. Ryan soon joined us and we hung out watching TV and playing PS2. I left much later than I expected and wasn't to bed 'till about 2:30am...

Saturday morning I got up and had a quick bowl of cereal and began cleaning. I cleaned my apartment from about 10am till about 3:30pm. It was a dirty, filthy mess. But by the end it was sparkling and lovely. I met Dodi at the mall for a bit and came home wiht some new bubble lights for my tree and a retro glass tree topper (and some assorted other items). I started to take my new tree out of its box but before long it was time to go with Alex to McGeary's to see HOTD. It was an awesome show. (ok, i'm biased, i always think it's an awesome show). I was drinking flavored vodkas and tonic (started with raspberry vodka at home while I was unpacking the tree and moved to orange at the pub... orange is better...) and I got drunk pretty quick. There was much bathroom eventage that night. The first time I stumbled to the line for the girls room the chick behind me was like, we should go in the men's room and when a guy came out she asked if there was anyone else in there. He looked in and confirmed it was all clear and the chick and I went in. She said I could go ahead and use the stall first, so I did, and when I came out she'd abandoned me. Annoying. So I had to leave the men's room alone, which was a little odd, but I owned it (I did get weird looks though). After watching the band more and having a few more lovely little drinks I needed to vist the bathroom again... I went to the bathroom on the way to get some more beverages and dropped my phone while I was in there and didn't realize it until some other girl gave me half my phone. After I retrieved the battery I found my way back to Alex and told him that we needed to leave because I was way too drunk and didn't want to drink anymore (it was at least halfway through the last set anyways...). We left and went to the 76 Diner (established in 74, actually... odd...) for dinner/breakfast/snack/middle-of-the-night-food whatever you want to call it. Yes, it was a good night. :)

Sunday morning Alex and I cooked a big brunch of French toast and potatoes and sausage. Alex was in charge of the potatoes and they rocked. He added some pinot grigio I had left from the other night and they were divine. We put up the tree all afternoon (damn, that took forever) while watching a marathon of the fairly odd parents on Nickelodean. Alex put the tree together a little differently than the directions said, which made me a little nervous, but it turned out great. The tree looks awesome. I posted some pics here. It's so cute!!! Afterwards I headed up to Clifton Park for my family's Thanksgiving Observed Dinner, which was great and yielded leftovers that to feed me for three days. Rock. On the way home I met Dodi and we searched the stores for the perfect Christmas tree scented candles. And we found them at Kohl's. And they were cheap! Awesome! Soyeah, I got a cute Christmas tree scented jar candle for under $5 and another jar candle that smells exactly like a candy cane and a Christmas gift for someone and a little wooden santa head door hanging that says "welcome" for the front door to my apartment. And now I'm so done decorating. And I really have to get on the whole Christmas gift shopping thing because i've only got three people done and that's no good....

so... in other news, i'm back to work after my nice little holiday and that sucks. but there's a new guy that started this week and he's got a lot of experience and my supervisor is making me give him some of my files and today i got rid of this one dog of a file that was such a mess and i couldn't even deal with it anymore and so i'm thinking that getting rid of that alone will make my whole attitude about the job improve. i felt really bad about giving it to the new guy, but he's got so much experience with this stuff that i know he'll be able to do a much, much better job on it than i was... also i got to move to a bigger cube (meredith's old cube... she switched departments) and i'm facing the wall instead of the "action" so hopefully i'll be able to be more focused at work. the new guy seems pretty cool, too. he said that HOTD is one of his favorite books, so that's awsome! :)

Ugh. Speaking of work... i better go to bed... i'm totally going to be late tomorrow... suck. it's so cold...

so it's been two weeks since i've posted and that's just too long.

first off, i went to the doctor today and i had the nurse measure my height and it turns out that sans shoes i'm 5'8" and not 5'9" or close to 5'10" as i'd believed. i'm shocked. my world is shaken. i guess i'm more overweight than i thought... suck. well, i vow that i will lose 20 lbs by march. wish me luck. (you know, i'm always complaining about being tall and now that i found out that i'm not as tall as i though, i'm kind of dissappointed....)

my apartment is a pigsty. it's gross. i'm disgusting. i think i remember needing to clean last thanksgiving as well. must be something about this time of year that makes me lazy about keeping up with keeping clean. so i did dishes last night and i'm doing wash now and i'm borrowing my parents' Hoover Floormate so that i can clean my filthass floors. they said it works pretty good... i hope so. as i said before, my place is such a pigsty right now. ugh...

so speaking of the 'rents... the family left for texas on sunday. i drove them to the airport and we were hanging out at the hosue beforehand when dad, who was in a pretty good mood and playing with the dog, jumped to kick greg's backpack and fell and hurt his ankle. he was in major pain and amy and i helped him to the sofa and got ice packs and tea towels to keep the ice packs on and he said that it felt like he broke his leg or something but insisted that he didn't need anything else and that he'd think of something else and the pain would go away. a couple of hours later he was helping to take the dog to the vet to be boarded while they were away and he seemed to be hobbling fine into the airport when i dropped them off. i called amy the next day to see how the trip was and to discuss some christmas gifting plans and she told me that they'd been to the ER out in texas that morning and that dad had actually broken his ankle. so my poor daddy is hobbling around texas on their thanksgiving vacation using crutches and with a splint on his foot. he'll need to get a cast put on when he returns to new york and i guess he's got about 6 weeks of healing to look forward to. i feel so bad for my dad!!!

sunday after i dropped my family off i headed back to my apartment and made plans to meet alex and steve at revolution hall to see the glengarry bhoys. alex and i had been there friday night to see hair of the dog, which was the first time that either of us had been to that venue and we were pretty impressed. there's a large stage and a bar along one wall with tables in the middle and benches around the edges and a second level with an open middle to view the stage. it was glengarry's last show of the year sunday night and they did a great job, even without their fiddler, shelly, who apparently had a broken finger.

i'm going to Malt River in Latham tonight to see HOTD with Alex and Steve and possibly others. i'm hoping it'll be a nice crowd, i love going out around Thanksgiving because pretty much everyone has time off and there are people home who aren't always home and it's a good time. I'm hoping to not repeat the last time i was at malt river to see HOTD... that was the infamous 'buka and aftershock night that still makes me want to puke thinking about it.

speaking of wanting to puke... there's a scrape on my car that makes me want to puke every time i look at it. it happened friday night when alex was driving us home from Friday's (where we went for dinner after HOTD). we'd both worked that day and were exhausted by the time we were at Friday's (literally falling asleep in our food) and so we packed up our dinners and headed back to my apartment. when he was turning from madison onto south main he went up over the curb a little and when he came back down i heard a scraping on my side of the car that i remember thinking, "oh i hope that's my mudflap!" (i have plastic mudflaps behind my rear wheels on my car). i discovered later in the weekend it wasn't. i didn't see the scrape right away because it's kind of underneath the car and when you get in and out of the passenger side you're looking down from above and it's not obvious. but when you look at the car from the side you can see it. and it's horrible and ugly. i had marc at work take a look at it and he said that for a shop to repair it it'll probably be about $200-250. suck. i'm taking it to dodi's dad's shop on tuesday for him to give me an estimate. i hope it's not too much. at least i'm getting a christmas bonus next week...

hmm... what else... oh, so i'm doing thanksgiving dinner at beck and alex's for any observant readers who noticed that my family went to texas without me and wondered what i was doing for thanksgiving. it should be a good time. i went out with meredith last week on a lunch break and picked out a bottle of pinot noir and i got a cute little wine cozy to gift it with so i can be a polite and proper guest... :)

well, the wash is finally done so it's time to head home and make plans for the evening...

Happy Thanksgiving!

"The Albanians are rowdy tonight"

So the BNL concert last night rocked. Awesome. I finally got through the day at work and went home and watched TV for a bit until Alex met me there. We decided to grab some dinner downtown near the theater before the show started. We drove down and parked near McGeary's and decided to run and pick up the tickets from the box office first and then go back to McGeary's and have some dinner. The tickets were picked up without problem but when we got into McGeary's the crowd was so thick it was obvious there was no way we could have dinner there. We retreated and headed to the Big House and had dinner there. We ordered the spinach artichoke dip and two burgers (mine with Swiss and mushrooms and alex's pretty much plain). We waited forever. After a half hour our burgers sort of came. A guy (not our waitress) was wondering around from table to table with two baskets and he finally came to our table and said, "I think these are yours... Swiss?" and put the burgers down in front of us. Mine was a little too rare and Alex's had cheese and mushrooms on it but we decided that since it took forever to get the burgers to us and we needed to get to the concert. About two minutes later the guy came back with a plate of bacon and gave it to Alex saying, "here, I forgot your bacon." We both kind of looked at the bacon and Alex plopped it on his burger. A few minutes later the waitress came to get us another round and we asked about our spinach dip and she brought that out with the next round. I'm so glad we bothered to ask for that because it was excellent. At the end of the meal the waitress brought the check and she deducted one round of drinks and the spinach dip because the service was so poor which was really smart of her because then we ended up leaving her a pretty big tip.

We walked over to the palace and found our seats just before the concert started. The seats were pretty excellent... The theater isn't all that big and we were on the orchestra level just underneath where the balcony started. So we were close enough that they looked like real people up on stage. They started energetic as always bursting into one of the songs off their new album (which I, for some reason, can't remember right now which it was). Ed played the first song shirtless and the combination of the random mohawk style of his hair and his tattooed (and pretty buff looking) upper body made him look like a Red Hot Chili Pepper. The lights went black after they finished the first song and they immediately went into "Maybe Katie", also off the new album (with Ed newly shirted). After the second song they chatted for a bit (and they explained that Tyler had told Ed he'd give him $100 if he played the first song shirtless) and then it was back to the music. As ever they did a couple of spontaneous rap-like numbers where they made it up as they went along, this time Ed saying he'd "take that hundred dollars and turn it around" if one of the other guys in the band went pantless on stage. During the question and answer section (which was really short) a fan asked if they had ever had a limbo contest in the band which they answered that they hadn't because they always assumed Jim would win and they spontaneously had a little limbo contest on stage between the band members. Steve took over for Tyler on the drums and Tyler ran off stage for a second and came back in his boxer shorts to do the limbo, evening the score between him and Ed. Providing percussion back up on stage and working the wireless mic in the orchestra section was "The Lord, God" (a guy dressed all in white with a white wig/beard) which was just entirely random. They played everything off their new album (the one kind of low light of the night was when Steve was prefacing the rather serious song, "War On Drugs", which is about suicide with a short story about it and some idiots from the back started yelling for the song, "Alcohol") and a few of their very popular old songs (including "Old Apartment", "One Week", and "Brian Wilson"). The concert was about 2 and a half hours long and high energy the whole way. Everyone stood for most of the show, sitting down only for the very slow songs (such as "War On Drugs"). There was a girl sitting in front of us who wouldn't sit all the way down in her seat and was blocking Alex's view half the time we were sitting which was kind of annoying. She was a largeish girl and the back of her shirt said "Bid Night" which was unfortunate because we started to refer to her as "Big Night". Large people should not wear words on the back of their shirts that can easily be turned into "big".

Anyway, so the concert was awesome! :)

One odd thing: we met Alex's friend Joe and his fiancee, Kathy, during the intermission before. Kathy and I had never met so when we were introduced she reached out and shook my hand. Then she said that she was really sick and still contagious and shouldn't even be at the concert. In fact, she had pink eye. And she shook my hand. All I could do was stare at my hand after I found that out. The concert was about to start up again so there was no time to go wash my hands so I kept thinking, "don't touch your eye... don't touch your eye..." as I sat back down. People: when you have pink eye, don't shake people's hands. I was doing no reaching... she reached out to shake my hand. I'm not a hand shaker and only shook because she offered. And she's an EMT! She knows you should be limiting your contact with other people when you have such a communicable sickness! I know I touched my eye that night before I got to wash my hands... But I haven't developed pink eye yet so I guess I'm fine... Still, it really skeeved me out...

a little update...

So the weekend was good. I had a little impromptu dinner party Friday night for myself, Alex, and Beck. I made the stuffed pork chop meal I wrote about on Friday and it turned out pretty good. Beck said she would be up around 8:30 and I said that I wouldn't need that much time, but I'm so glad she came then (well, even a little late). Cooking takes a lot longer than the recipe indicates when you're new at it... Also, I've got a bad habit of getting distracted with other things (dirty apartment) when I should be on task (cooking... started late). When Alex showed up I think I only had the potatoes boiling... I asked Alex to chop the onions for me and I got the pan started for the stuffing... Started the stuffing and had Alex handle mashing the potatoes... By the time Beck got there we'd burned the stuffing and started a new batch and were just waiting for the pork chops and sugar snap peas to finish cooking. I pulled out my awesome red table and we broke it in that night (first time it was more than just me eating at the table...). I set the table with my "good" placemats and lit candles and had two types of wine on hand. The dinner was pretty good (potatoes were cold by the time we ate... damn...) and I was so impressed with the little dinner party :)

I did the test scheduling thing for NYS Department of Corrections Saturday morning and then went to a candle party at Carrie's place that evening. I did the dishes from the night before in between while talking to my mom in Michigan (she always sounds so shocked when I call her). The candle party was a good time and I actually got some Christmas shopping done so rock. I can knock two people off my list, I am hella excited. I went to my parents' house afterwards and hung out with my dad and my brother for a bit (we watched Reno 911 on Comedy Central). I went back to my apartment and then Alex came down and we went to see Love Actually. I really enjoyed that movie... It's not really a complete story but rather a bunch of vignettes... I guess they could have come together a little better and it was a little long, but I enjoyed watching it. There was this kid in it that was like the cutest thing ever. He looked like he was about 8 but then he opened his mouth and started talking and he was so verbose... It was almost shocking... He was just freaking adorable though.

I met Beck at the mall Sunday and we had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays and then Dodi met us and we walked around the mall for a bit. I got some new work clothes at Lerner - including the outfit I'm wearing today: cream flare pants and a black v-neck sweater with an "A" on it. It's really cute and I love the outfit but it's raining out and you know I'll probably get these pants all dirty right away... And also Marc asked me if the "A" was for "adulteress" as in The Scarlet Letter. Someone told him that I couldn't be an adulteress because I wasn't married and I told him he was mean :)

Tonight I'm going to the Barenaked Ladies concert at the Palace Theater. I so cannot wait! This day is taking forever (of course)... I guess it would seem to go quicker if I actually did some work...

"Is that your underwear in the kitchen?"

i was sitting at my cubicle and my stomach started growling at me so i decided to feed it. so i grabbed my potato from my price chopper bag and decided to forgo putting my sneakers back on (who can sit at their desk with shoes on?) and just run into the kitchen and pop the potato in the microwave. i threw it in the microwave and set it for 8 minutes on high. i padded out of the kitchen (i know, it's gross to walk around an office without shoes on, but whatever).

Meredith got up from her cube shortly after i sat down to go get her lunch ready. she came back from the kitchen complaining that i was hogging the microwave because there was still 5 minutes left on the timer. then she said, "is that your underwear in the kitchen?" we (Carrie, Danielle, and I... the boys in the claims department were all out to lunch at the time) were all shocked at the question and questioned whether there was really underwear in the kitchen and she said that there was a pair in there sitting in the middle of the floor and she didn't realize what they were at first but when she did she kicked them in a corner. we all laughed a bit about there being underwear in the corner of the kitchen and i said that maybe they were stuck in someone's pant leg and it's embarrassing when shit like that happens. i didn't remember seeing underwear there so i asked her what they looked like. she said they were blue with some sort of pattern on it and they looked like they were string bikinis.

and then i slowly came to the horrific realization that the underwear in the kitchen was mine. i was wearing the jeans that i wore last night after work today. and at the end of the night i'd quickly taken everything (jeans, socks, underwear) at the same time and threw the jeans on the floor. this morning when i put the jeans on (always in a hurry) i remember a sock fell out of one pant leg. i didn't expect anything more to be in the pants because i saw the other sock on the floor... my face burned red as i realized that my underwear from yesterday had hitched a ride in my jeans and gotten loose in the kitchen at work.

now, a smart person wouldn't have said anything.

"oh my god i think those are my underwear!" i blurted out. everyone looked a little horrified but collapsed into laughter immediately and i ran down the hall towards the kitchen laughing hysterically to check and see if it was, indeed, my underwear on the kitchen floor. i just about ran in the kitchen when i realized that two of my male coworkers, keith and john, were in the kitchen eating lunch. i ran halfway back to our cubes and stage whispered to meredith, carrie, and danielle that keith and john were in there and then i sort of composed myself and walked into the kitchen to pick up my potato from the microwave (and check to see if the underwear in the corner was mine). i casually walked over to the microwave (shaking with silent laughter) took my potato out and placed it on a plate and turned to leave. when i turned around i saw my underwear sitting in the corner. i started to get a little hysterical again and kept gasping for breaths between bouts of hysterical giggles and i guess it sounded like i was crying because john asked me if i was ok. i managed to tell him that i was just laughing and i scooted out of the kitchen and back into my cube where i continued to laugh so hard until i couldn't breathe and my sides hurt.

the kitchen had filled up with people eating their lunches and so there was no way i was going to go back in there and pick up the underwear. no one had discovered it yet, so i was planning on waiting it out and sneaking in when everyone left and then i'd grab the renegade underwear. we all sat in our cubes and tried to get work done or eat our lunches but we kept giggling. and then suddenly there was a loud sound coming from the kitchen. they'd discovered my underwear. apparently peggy, the support services supervisor, had come into the kitchen and was talking with the lunchers and saw the underwear in the corner. not knowing what it was, she picked it up and when she realized what she had in her hands she threw them out. at least it was taken care of. and at least those were clearance underwear to begin with. (seriously, i'm so glad it wasn't a thong... but i wish they'd been cuter underwear... those were kind of everyday run of the mill underwear... just cotton... well, they were leopard print... but they were blue and not even low cut or anything...)

shit like that seriously only happens to me. and this is why i need to write a sitcom. or a book. well, when i fictionalize it, it'll have a better ending anyway. also, it's kind of ironic that in the post below from this morning i wrote about how i need to be more interesting...

(oh, and as a post script, peggy came over and was talking to michael about the found underwear because he was in there when she found them and they didn't know that it was mine and he described the underwear as very "custom"... what in the world does that mean?)

i was just reading my posts from last year at this time and i've come to the conclusion that i was a lot more interesting a year ago. i need to fix that... i really love that i've kept this site up for so long and i can go back and read about what i was thinking/feeling/doing since april '02. awesome.

i left the house in a hurry this morning (when don't i, actually?) and had nothing to bring for breakfast. most mornings i bring breakfast food and eat it out of habit but am never actually all that hungry for it. today i am starving. i found an apple in one of my desk drawers (not as gross as it sounds... i stuck it in there last week i think) and ate that around 9 but was completely unsatiated. finally, at about 1015 i couldn't stand it anymore and ran out and bought a sesame bagel at bruegger's. it was awesome, but it still didn't fill me up. i feel like i have a tapeworm or something... i'm totally going to eat my lunch (a salad and a baked potato) right at noon and i know i'll be starving again by lunch. i hate days like this.

so i did go to the gym wednesday night. i whined about it the entire time i was on my way and almost skipped it... but i went. and it was awesome. wednesday night kickboxing class is taught by Tina, and she's pretty tough. she had a new combination for us, "the killer", and it really lived up to its name. we had to start in a straightforward lunge and then jump and "explode" into a lunge on the other leg. it hurt, so very much. my butt still kills. i think tonight's class is taught by Linda, and she's even tougher than Tina, so I'm a little afraid and excited for class tonight. rock. i'm totally rocking this getting to the gym thing. now i need to start rocking the eating better thing.

i'm totally cooking dinner tonight. i'm going to make stuffed pork chops and cream cheese mashed potatos and sugar snap peas. it's a rachel ray recipe. i need to stop at the store after the gym on the way home and pick up bacon and corn muffins. i am going to rock tonight. alex is coming over and i invited beck but it sounds like she might not come. dammit. i need everyone to know how much i rock in the kitchen.

on being lucky...

I am the luckiest freaking girl ever.

Ok, that's an exaggeration. But I really am lucky... And I've stopped feeling guilty about the BNL tickets because apparently it was fate or luck or something (call it fate... call it luck... call it karma) that I got the tickets. I was just informed by Dan-that-works-with-me that his girlfriend just bought four tickets to the show on eBay because she couldn't get 4 together off of ticketmaster for like $300. And I only paid face value of $33 a piece for my two orchestra seats. I couldn't believe that I'd got tickets and apparently they were so hard to get. I just randomly thought to look yesterday... A week or two ago the only tickets left were balcony tickets (which is why I didn't buy them). Mine must have just gotten released or something, because I just looked today and there were no tickets available. I am even more excited now. Rock!!

Ok back (?) to work. And listening to BNL. Rock! I'm so excited!!

on goals...

My goals for this week:
1) Eat less junk food.
2) Cook dinner every night instead of going out and bring the leftovers for lunch the next day.
3) Go to the gym for every kickboxing class this week.
4) Spend less money.
5) Be productive at work.

How I've done so far:
1) I suck. Don't ask...
2) I cooked Monday night: Seafood Tomato Alfredo. I got the recipe from the coupon flyers in the Sunday paper. Seemed simple enough, but it called for using fish in it and I'm not a huge fish fan. I decided to throw in some crab meat and tiny shrimp and I debated just leaving out the fish but I went for it. I should have left out the fish. It would have been excellent if there wasn't any fish in it... Alex and I ate around the fish but he advised that perhaps I should stick to recipes from a cookbook rather than the coupon section of the paper. I hate fish.
3) I did drag myself to kickboxing Monday. And I was very happy afterwards that I went. I'm going tonight as well, and I know I'll go Friday. This goal is not so hard to achieve... I feel so awesome after I go...
4) Very poor... I just bought Barenaked Ladies tickets yesterday. The concert's next Tuesday and I so cannot wait but I felt all guilty after I bought them and told Beck and she responded, "I thought you were trying to save money."
5) Extremely poor. I haven't done anything at work all week. It's because I hate it here. I'm going to work on my resume tonight and start applying to new jobs. I will not just sit idlely and complain anymore. I will do something about it. And in the meantime I will stop goofing off and start attacking some of these piles and become a model employee before I get the hell out of here (so that means I must stop typing and start working...).

So I absolutely hate my job. Other than working with Carrie and Meredith, I can't really think of one redeeming quality about this job. So I really have to find something else.

But my problem is I'm really picky. I mean, I guess it wouldn't be too hard to find another job. The hard part would be to find another job that I like. I do not want another desk job.

Ugh. I need to just suck it up and own it and do this job while I'm here. SUCK.

apparently i've decided to become fat again. i got home from work (after convincing myself again to skip the gym) and decided that it was a better idea to read Confessions of a Shopoholic than to do the dishes right away. so i read. and then i was a little hungry so i ate a leftover eggroll. and then i read some more. and then i felt bad about not having done the dishes so i wondered into the kitchen... and decided i was still hungry so i ate the other leftover eggroll. i haven't been to the gym in over a week now and i've been eating like a complete pig. in fact, monday night i was uncomfortable because i'd eaten so much and i think i could actually feel my stomach expanding. i'm ridiculous. i was going to be better starting today but then i had a package of peanut butter crackers, a bagel with cream cheese, a small mocha mint latte, a Chinese chicken and veggies smart ones and a package of Swedish fish. i won't be in that bad shape if i don't really eat after the gym tonight. but knowing how i've been lately i'll probably go home and have about five handfuls of peanut butter m&m's and probably more leftover Chinese food. i suck. anyway. back to last night. so after i decided to eat the second egg roll i went back to the living room (because doing the dishes seemed too overwhelming) and i played the Sims on PS2 for about an hour and a half before i switched it off and finished my book and then watched Queer Eye and passed out on the sofa. i woke up at about 3:30 and wondered into bed and was irrationally afraid of ghosts for some reason. being awake and alone at 3:30am is kind of scary. anyway. that was awful. i've been so bad lately. but i am definitely going to the gym tonight and hopefully it will be the start of my getting back on track... hopefully. i really don't want to be fat again...

so the weekend was good.

Went out with Alex on Friday, hung out with Beck and Dodi on Saturday (took Dodi to lunch for her birthday and went shopping) and later Beck and I went with Carrie to sage's production of Noises Off, which Meredith's husband was in. Then Beck and I hung out with Kevin and his friend Aaron at the Hill Street Cafe.

Sunday I had to work the NYS Trooper testing (hey, you can sign up online to take the test in march right now...). Afterwards Beck and I met Dodi at the Pier One that her sister works at because they were having their friends and family day where you can get the employee discount of your friend/family member that works there. i got a couple of sconces for my living room wall... i've been looking for some for a while and these were only $12 each plus 30% off. so rock. I also bought a couple of paper lanterns (one to hang in my porch... looks awesome... and one to go above my table in my "dining" room) which were hella cheap. so rock! Beck and I swapped Europe photos (well, i acquired some of her doubles and now i've got to get some of my pics printed for her). Alex came with me to dinner at my parents house later that night. Mom made "asian pork" which had a spicy sauce but the pork itself was very yummy... i think alex was nervous about coming to my parents house which was very cute because my parents are so harmless (well, dad is when he wants to be, and he was behaving last night).

Anyway, it was a good weekend.

still planning on writing a book. rock. i'm gonna be so cool. then i'll get a weekly column in a major newspaper and be so Carrie from Sex And The City. only i won't spend all my money on shoes. (i'll spend it all on crap for my house).

so sad to be at work. it's raining and all i want to do is go home and crawl under my covers. awesome. but i can't do that until like 7:30 tonight because i'm going to my kickboxing class after work and i won't get done at the gym until 7. sigh.

i need to not work here anymore. i think i write that in every post. i should probably do something about it one of these days... but now it's back to work :(

i suck. i apparently cannot keep this blog updated anymore.

but i'm not giving up yet.

this week seemed to fly by... which rules. i'm all unhappy at work right now. i really need a new job. i mean, i'm not like quitting anytime soon, but i'm sort of looking again. i don't think i'm meant to work in an office every day of my life. i need a job that'll give me something different every day... and one that'd give me a random weekday off every once in a while. and it's not like i'm looking for anything prestigious either... just something to pay the bills.

beck thinks i should write a book. i'm toying with the idea... i could definitely write a fun little chic lit book... in fact, i have ideas for 2 books... i'm thinking i'll give it a shot... i mean, what do i have to lose, right? although, at the rate i'm going just trying to get myself to write on this blog who knows if i'll ever get a book done...

...but i'm thinking about it... it'd be extremely cool to have a book published...

i've recently become obsessed with bejeweld frames. i've been obsessively going through my pictures trying to pick out which ones would look fabulous in what frames... i'm even making a beaded frame out of an older frame that i had around the apartment that i didn't like. i'm so crafty...

this weekend beck and i are going to go through the Europe pictures so beck can finalize her album. i should get on my album (read: start one) as well...

well, that was a pretty pointless post. this is why i haven't been posting lately. i've been too scattered and busy to come up with something coherent... ah well... calmer days will be here again someday, right?

you know, i really try hard to not be in a bad mood. ok, well normally it's not such a struggle. i don't like to be in a bad mood because it just perpetuates grumpiness and makes the people around you annoyed and not want to be around you. i hate being pissy.

so even though i started the day in a pissy mood i'm not in one anymore... i decided that bad moods suck and i didn't want to be in one. so i'm not. i think i'm remarkable for being able to do that... and a little obnoxious i guess...

anyway...

i think i had a point when i started this post at about 9 o'clock this morning... but now that it's over 6 hours later i totally forgot what that might have been...

well that was random and pointless...

so i went to beth's wedding last night... i had a pretty great time... here are the pictures... i'll write more about it later :)

and yet again it's been (over) a week since i've updated this blog. what happened?! and now here i sit at work with piles of work to do and i'm going to update the blog...

so i'm so glad i joined my gym. i feel so much better about myself now that i'm not an inactive lump anymore. i've pretty much sucessfully gotten there every other day. and this week i started to take a kickboxing class that totally kicks my ass. it's mon/wed/fri from 545 to 645 which means that i sort of have to waste time after work (or hell, stay late, it's not like i don't have shit to do and i never freaking get here on time in the morning) or get to the gym between 5 and 515 and find crap to do there while i wait for the class to start. thus far i haven't had an issue with the class being full... i hope that doesn't become an issue... anyway, the class totally kicks my butt and that's awesome. i'm all sore and energized afterwards. there's a class immediately after that from 645 to 7 that's an abs only class. the first time i did these 2 classes it was taught by a tall instructor who was long and lean... you could definately tell that she does pilates

(i totally forgot to finish this or publish it from the other day... i'll get back to this one at some point...)

(so the first trip to the gym was a success and i plan on returning tonight to try out a class)

today is my friend meredith from work's birthday. last night i went grocery shopping. on my birthday in july meredith baked me a very delicious, moist, excellent chocolate cake. i wished to return the favor. last night i was tired. alex and i didn't get to the grocery store until about 9:30/9:45. we walked into the produce section and then towards the back right corner of the store where the bakery was located. i wanted to buy a cake. i did not want to make a cake. alex told me i was a bad friend because meredith made me a cake and i wanted to buy her one from price chopper. he said he was ashamed that i would not make a cake for her. "but i'm tired!" i whined. alex laughed at me and told me he was just kidding. he helped me pick out a particularly yummy looking snickers cake.

i knew that meredith would be in late today because she had to pick up a rental car before work. i made an effort to get here early (or at least on time) anyways, but still did not get here until about 5 after. damn my late disorder! meredith was not here yet. i snuck the cake into the back of the refridgerator and stuck her birthday card on her desk. i emailed everyone in our department but meredith that i brought in a snickers cake to surprise meredith in honor of her birthday and we would have it at about 2:15.

about 1:15 meredith, carrie and i went to the american cafe at colonie center mall for lunch. our waitress was horrible and shared too much information. we came back late. very late. while we were walking in michael yelled out to me, "well ali, we found the snickers cake on our own and just went ahead and ate it" to which i responded, "well, thanks michael it was a surprise until now". we all laughed over it. michael puts his foot in his mouth all the time. he accidently told carrie who dies in harry potter 5 a couple of weeks ago.

the cake was very good. michael believed for a few minutes that i made it. it's never dull in the office when michael is here.

my pants were getting tight. and my cute/tight jeans were not looking so cute anymore.

dammit.

why can't i just eat whatever i want, drink whatever i want and sit around and watch tv and not get fat? i had a fat issue.

so i had to do something. i worked hard a couple of years ago to get rid of 60 lbs, i will not let myself climb back up there.

so i began researching fitness centers in the area:

i used to belong to YMCA with my family. they still go there, but i'm not eligable to be a family member anymore according to their rules (how weird is that?) and it's damn expensive to join there (especially that Y) as a single person.

alex goes to gold's gym. but that place is also expensive (and i don't get a handy "life saver" discount like alex does) and i've heard from some girls that it's kind of a body builder place.

carrie and amy go to ABC Sports & Fitness. i went there with carrie yesterday because she was going to let me "sublet" her membership because she wasn't using it enough to make the $45 a month worth it for her. it was a very nice facility and amy especially raves about the classes there, but i felt weird about subletting a membership and was worried about getting caught. so i declined her offer.

there's a bally's at the mall, but i'm sure it's expensive and if you work out there anyone walking by in the mall can look in the large windows and see you sweat... so i ruled that one out as well.

then i found the website for the fitness factory. michael at work goes to that gym and he loves it. and the website actually had prices on it. and schedules for the aerobics classes. and there are locations in albany on the way home from work and one in clifton park. and the prices are pretty low. so today during lunch i dragged meredith with me to check it out. they had a decent number of elliptical machines (my favorite), a large weight room with a seperate women's only weight room, tanning beds (an extra charge), and a nice sized aerobics room. the locker rooms were decent... not anally clean like the Y in Clifton Park, but not overly scummy either.

so i decided to just go ahead and buy a membership at the fitness factory. and i was in luck because they were running a special: $100 for 100 days. so now i have a membership there paid through jan 15. i am so excited. i brought workout clothes with me today so i can go after work. i'm hoping to get there at least three times a week. and the increased activity combined with my new willingness to go back to "being good" in my eating habits will hopefully pay off.

fat issue be gone!

i love my living room. and i'll tell you why. it's a real room. it has furniture that matches. there is accent lighting. there are curtains. there is a bookshelf with both books and little nicknacks displayed. there are framed pictures and art on the walls. when you walk in the room you can tell that thought went into it and things weren't haphazzardly deposited in the room.

my living room is my favorite room of my apartment. it represents to me the fact that i am independent. when i lived at home with my parents i never had a living room of my own. sure, i have my own bedroom which had many of the things a living room has and i was able to do pretty much anything i wanted with that room but when it came down to it, it was my parents's room and they were just letting me use it. but now i am living on my own. i can be my own person. and while that means that i am responsible for myself in every way, i'm glad to be. i don't have to worry about stepping on someone's toes when i make decisions about my life. it's my life, my own, and i can live it the way i want to.

my living room is like the actual physical manifestation of my being on my own, which explains my obsession with it. the last month saw me restless and seeking change. i was unfocused in my need for change though, and unsure what i wanted. i let the clutter build in my apartment and neglected the cleaning. but somehow i've gotten past that need for change. i'm not sure what did it, but i've found myself happy again with where i'm at. i'm content with what i have. i don't think i'm settling, either. i think i'm just appreciating what i have. so now i've broken out the vaccum cleaner and the dust rags. i've rearranged the living room and added a few new accessories. and now it looks like a whole new room and i'm excited about it again. i guess that's what i did for my outlook: dusted it off, rearranged the way i looked at it and now my life doesn't seem so haphazzard. it's amazing how far i've come in a year and a half. i'm proud of myself and excited again about being me.

it's been so long since i've posted... i suck.

i guess i haven't posted because there's been nothing overly interesting to write about. well, i guess that's not necessarily true, but i haven't been in the mood to formulate a good post. so here's a summary of the last week or so and hopefully i'll be able to start posting again this week...

last thursday was alex's birthday and i baked him a carrot cake because he had mentioned that he liked carrot cake... i sucked it up... i forgot to add cinnamon and nutmeg and it was awful. but the frosting was good... he was sweet though, he said that it was good and almost ate a whole piece. i'm normally pretty good at baking so i'm irritated that it came out crappy... ah well. i'll have to bake a pie or something to prove to myself that i'm not a horrible baker. i took alex out to dinner for his birthday... we went to the macaroni grill because that's where he chose to go and we had a pretty excellent meal. we went to the big house afterwards and then wondered around the downtown bar area but it was pretty quiet so we ended up going back to my place early. it was a nice night and alex appeared to have had a good time :) so... what else... i got a haircut, i look fabulous... got new sneakers last week - a phenomenal deal (paid $35 for $85 shoes)... the weekend was quiet and that suited me fine... um... we had two new people start at work yesterday and i've been trying to appear like a good little worker so really i've got to stop posting soon and get back to work... carrie won a free lunch at uno's and we're all going in about an hour so that's excellent. we have to listen to some 10 minute thing about retirement planning from an American Express rep, but hopefully that won't be too painful...

anyway. so i'm excited that it's cooler out and i'm waiting for the leaves to change. i'm pretty shocked that it's the end of september and it really doesn't look like fall right now... i can't wait to do fall things like pick apples and go look at leaves and bake pies etc...

beh. back to work...

i think i've given up on finishing this travelogue. i had an excellent time but i can't motivate myself to write about it anymore... ah well...

So I had a fabulous weekend! :)

Friday

So I left work a little early and picked up the game that I wanted to get my Dad for his birthday at CompUSA. I scooted down to the parent's house in the hopes that I'd catch the whole family there (my sister was home for a doctor's appointment and was leaving right away) but it didn't work out that way because dad went to donate blood in the meantime and Amy was all antsy in her pantsy to leave after her appointment. So we did cake and presents just Mom, Dad, the two little guys and me. It was a birthday celebrated in two shifts because the next day on Dad's actual birthday Mom, Dad, and the two little guys drove down to Amy's school to pick her and David up (who'd gone down with Amy the night before to visit) and go out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

Anyway, so I left the 'rent's house a little before 7 because they were all going to a Cub Scout pack meeting and I needed to go home and get ready to go out. I got to my apartment and looked around and thought, "I better pick this place up a little bit before tomorrow because I bet there will be people here at some point" but then concentrated on trying to figure out what I was going to wear out that night because that was more pressing than guests that may or may not be there the next day.

Then Alex called. He said he was on his way to the apartment and that the plan was for Foster and his girlfriend (Amy) to meet us at my apartment and then we'd all go to McGeary's and they were going to be on their way in about 10 minutes. So I said, "ok, well I'll be running around cleaning like a madwoman so you better use the key I gave you to feed the cats with to let yourself in because hopefully I'll be done cleaning and in the shower by the time you get here." Alex responded: "There's no need to clean." I thought, "oh, you're such a boy" and I said, "oh, yes, there is a need..." and I hung up and proceeded to dash around my apartment picking shit up. I cleaned the cat litter and emptied the trash and picked up dishes... the apartment wasn't really all that bad, but all I could think of was a couple of weeks ago when we went to Amy's old apartment for her moving out party and she gave us a tour and the place was just so beautiful. And now they were going to come to my hovel and it was in no state for a tour. I ran into the bedroom and was about to start trying to move the masses of clothing on the floor but decided that if there was a tour it would not include the bedroom and shut the door. So I moved on and was hurriedly trying to do the dishes when Alex walked in. He took a look at my face and said, "What can I do?" and I asked him to please take the garbage out to the dumpster and I proceeded to tidy up the kitchen and then just gave up and jumped in the shower.

I hurriedly got ready and had finally finished rushing around when Alex checked his voicemail and found out that Foster and Amy had gone straight to McGeary's and we had to meet them there. So the cleaning like a madwoman was all in vain! Ah well.

We met Foster and Amy at McGeary's and were surprised at how few people there were in the bar when you walked in. We reasoned that it was because it was so early (8:30). We got a round (I decided to start with Bailey's on the rocks) and imbibed for a bit in the front bar room. At one point we decided to go into the performance area... and there we found all the people. The performance area was packed. Seamus Kennedy was playing. I saw him last year at Irish Fest just as I was becoming drunk and I remembered that he was very funny. For some reason Friday night he was performing the Barley Mow, like, every other song. Perhaps he felt that he needed to get the crowd drunk. I believe he was doing a good job. We didn't stay in that area for too long because it was very crowded and we were mostly interested in seeing the last band of the night, the Glengarry Bhoys, so we went back into the less crowded front bar area. Joe, Alex's friend, showed up before too long to join us in our pre-irish fest partying. The drinks kept coming, but I was unfortunately unable to get drunk off the Bailey's. I did switch to Guinness for a round, which happily gave me a buzz, but when the next round was bought I was given another Bailey's and the buzz soon left me. I informed Alex that as I was unable to get drunk that night I would be driving home. He happily consumed.

We stayed in the bar area until the band that was playing in between Seamus Kennedy and the Glengarry Bhoys ended and then we went into the performance area to stake out a good spot. The Glengarry Bhoys were awesome. I'd only ever seen them once before and it was under the tent outside McGeary's in the summer and I don't really enjoy shows under the tent because they're not as "intimate" or something. This show ruled with tons of people packed in front of the stage dancing and jumping around. When the show was over everyone spilled out the door to the sidewalk in front of the bar and stood in clumps deciding where to go next. Foster and Amy went home and Joe and Alex decided to not go to another bar so we all went home as well.

Saturday

Alex and I went to breakfast at Quintessence and I had the best bacon and eggs I'd ever had in my life. Alex had the New Yorker breakfast which had corned beef hash under the eggs. He let me try some of the hash and it was awesome. Totally not from a can... The corn beef was so freaking tasty. Anyway... Breakfast was a little late (ok, technically it wasn't even brunch... it was definitely lunch) and we had to rush a bit to get ready to go to Irish Fest. Foster met us at my apartment at around 2:30 and we watched TV for a bit to waste some time. We were going to get the 3:15 shuttle from the Albany Hibernian Hall which is like a block from my place. We walked over there and were there by about 3:00. And we waited. And waited. We'd rushed over there without hitting an ATM because we were afraid of missing the bus. But it never showed up. There was a small crowd there waiting, so we knew we were in the right place. Around quarter of 4 Foster called over to the Mohawk Ambulance Station where he works to ask if there were any spare cars... and he got a lift from the ambulance to the ATM about 3 blocks up. When he arrived back he went inside the AOH hall to see if there was any news on the bus. They said it was stuck in traffic almost in the fairgrounds and that it'd be about an hour before it even got back here. We decided to abort on the bus and we were leaving the parking lot when one of the women who was waiting there also came running around the building yelling, "the bus is here!" We ran around the corner and boarded the bus...

The bus was already pretty full. We made our way towards the back of the bus (flashes of Forrest Gump: "taken... this seat's taken...") and Alex and I found an empty seat while Foster sat with the woman who let us know the bus had arrived. The ride took a little over an hour because of the traffic caused by construction right outside of the fairgrounds. On the last leg there while the bus was in stop and go traffic a few of our fellow passengers who had apparently been drinking at the AOH hall convinced the bus driver to open the door and they poured out into a field to the right of the bus. We all watched as about four guys and one girl ran towards a small group of trees and brush. They'd reached the trees and had hidden themselves to go about their business when the bus started moving forward. The whole bus looked out the windows on the right side as we moved forward and our fellow passengers answering nature's call came into view, including the one female who could clearly be seen squatting with her shorts around her ankles. The bus erupted in laughter and the show continued as they began running to catch up with the bus. Traffic had actually started moving and they would have been left behind had it not been for their friends still on the bus who convinced the busdriver to pull to the side and let them catch up.

The bus pulled up to the gate by the grove stage at the Altamont fairgrounds shortly thereafter. We filed out of the bus and got in the "express" line to get into the fest as we'd already bought our tickets. Joe (who Alex had convinced to come along with us the night before) showed up at the same time we did and caught up with us inside the gates. We immediately headed to the nearest beer tent where we got 2 pints of Guinness (Alex and me) and two black and tans (Foster and Joe). We took our beers for a walk up to the main part of the festival where the Young Dubliners were playing. They're sponsored by Killian's and if you've ever seen that Killian's commercial with a Celtic rock song playing in the background, that's them. They were pretty decent (think I might need to listen to them now). We needed a refill on our beers pretty quickly so we walked back down to the beer tent by the grove stage because it wasn't crowded (yet) and then walked back up and listened to some pipers before it was time to go see HOTD.

The HOTD show was awesome. It was a beautiful day and the concert was early enough that a lot of people stayed and it seemed like the entire festival was at the grove stage for the concert. The whole area was packed with people - all the seats were full and people were standing the whole way up the hill. And down in front of the stage was a giant mass of revilers dancing. We met up with Una and her boyfriend and his sister with her boyfriend and stood with them for a while. The boys left me to get beer a couple of times, but I had a good time with Una and that crew. Murph showed up with his wife and a girl named Sarah who also knew all the HOTD songs so I was glad to have people to sing/drink with. During the break Una and Molly (boyfriend's sister) went to the bathroom and invited me along. I figured I should go while I had company even though I'd be "breaking the seal". We walked up to the bathroom which of course had a line for the women's room that was 4 times as long as the line for the men's room. We got in the women's line and the girl in front of Una joked about just going to the men's room and Una immediately spun around and headed for the men's room with Molly in tow. I followed behind them and when we were just about to enter I kind of whimpered, "Una, I don't think I can do this" and they told me to just come along. The attendant in the men's room ushered us to the first two stalls and even offered to clean the seats off for us. He handed us a fresh roll of paper towels and we were generally accepted without any complaint. Alex called while we were in there and I drunkenly yelled into the phone, "I'm in the men's room, I'll be right out!"

We made it back to the group before the second set started and Alex came down to tell me that Foster had bought us a sausage and peppers sandwich and some french fries. I wasn't hungry but I figured that I'd go up and eat because I hadn't eaten anything since my fabulous breakfast at Quintessence. I'd never had a sausage and pepper sandwich that was so good... I finished the quarter of it that Alex hadn't eaten... and the fries weren't bad either. Actually, I bet the food was horrible but I was drunk at that point so I didn't know any better. Somehow I kept getting Guinness handed to me and I believe by that time I'd had 5 pints and we'd been there for 2 hours. And the Guinness certainly does make me drunk. We debated momentarily about whether to stay and watch the rest of HOTD or to go see 7N, but HOTD was so good and the vibe of the crowd was so contagious that we decided to stay for the second set. So after we ate I practically skipped down the hill with the boys in tow to rejoin the group. But I really wanted to be up front with everybody dancing. And I was about to just go up on my own when Foster said, "Let's go" and Alex, Foster and I went down to the pit of dancers. I can't tell you all the songs they played. But I can tell you that I had an amazing time. Alex and Foster left to get more beers and HOTD suddenly started up with "I Used to Work in Chicago" without any real prompting from the audience (usually the audience really almost has to beg to hear that song) and the beer mission was quickly aborted to rejoin me in the throng of celebrating drunks. After the song they left me to go get the beers and I danced with the random people around me. I believe the big guy sang "Love the One You're With" at one point and I think they might have sang "Me and Julio". The second set was less trad music and more just awesome party music (but I mean, there was plenty of trad thrown in there). It was the best HOTD concert since last irish fest.

After the show we stumbled up the hill to the main festival grounds to watch a couple of other bands but didn't really get into anything and decided to head home early. We had to go back to the grove stage area to catch the bus and a couple of the HOTD band members, Eric and Rick, were still there cleaning up. Foster, who knows everyone and can get along with any one, struck up a conversation with Eric (who gave him a sip of something out of his hip flask) and was soon dancing on the stage. We shook hands with Eric and yelled "good show" to Rick as we hurried towards the bus which happened to be waiting there. The bus wasn't full and we each took our own seat and didn't have long to wait before the bus started rolling home. Only it rolled over every bump. And this girl was not happy with that. And this girl will end the posting now about the bus because the rest is an embarrassing blur. I only have this to say: I would have been fine if the bus ride wasn't so bumpy.

Anyway... It was a fantastic night. I was slightly worried coming up to Irish Fest that I was building it up too much and it wouldn't be as awesome as last year, but it definitely was :) And now I'm all kind of sad because I don't have it to look forward to... but what a night! :)

I'm so excited it's finally Friday!!!

Irish Fest is tomorrow, and I've been excited about it for about a year now!! There's a pre-party tonight at McGeary's which I, of course, am planning on attending. I woke up in the best mood today and got in an even better mood when I got in the car and played a disc full of awesome music: it started with "Mama Told Me Not to Come" and went onto "Me and Julio" and then into a whole bunch of disco. Awesomely fun music. I was totally dancing while I was driving into work. And while I'm really bored here at work and am getting pretty much nothing done I'm still in an awesome mood :) I can't wait to go out tonight and tomorrow!!!

Sigh. Only a couple more hours of work and then I'm free!!

meet Angle Grinder Man, "the U.K.’s first wheel-clamp and speed camera vigilante cum subversive superhero philanthropist entertainer type personage." Frankly, he's a little scary. Especially the cosutume...

i had a weird, long dream last night.

i don't remember all of it, but i can remember parts. i wasn't even thinking about the dream at all after i got up until i got to work and opened up explorer and it got to my home page, msn.com and i saw there was a link to a story about giant squid. and i thought that this was a very odd coincidence because part of my dream last night had a large squid in it. a squid is a very odd thing to dream about. i went to dreammoods.com to see if i could gain some insight on what dreaming about a squid might mean... here's what it said, "To see a squid in your dream, suggests that unconsciously you are feeling threatened. Your judgment may also be clouded. Perhaps you are not seeing things too clearly at the moment. Alternatively, it symbolizes greed. It is always about what you want." so hmm... in my dream the squid helped me across some water by letting me sit on it while it floated across. and then it became very attached to me and wanted to follow me around after i got out of the water... it would bounce after me and every time it bounced it made a squeak noise like a dog toy. and i really didn't want this little squid to be all in love with me and following me around. so i dunno what that means. am i greedy and i want a squid to be following me around and in love with me? or am i threatened by the squid? :) Also in my dream my parents were having a party. ("To dream that you are at a party, suggests that you need to get out more and enjoy yourself. ") I thought there weren't going to be that many people there, but it was mobbed. and, randomly, HOTD was playing. i think this part of my dream just means that i'm very, hella excited about irish fest. and maybe it means that i'm conflicted about it though, because it's my dad's birthday and the family is going down to my sister's school that day to all go out to dinner to celebrate and i won't be going and i feel bad about it :(

anyway, strange, long dream...

Friday night I was supposed to hang out with Alex. Dodi called me right after work and asked if I'd like to go "grab some chow" with her and I agreed to meet her at Crossgates. I was excited to wear my new boots out and I was late meeting Dodi because I was having a clothing crisis (couldn’t decide what to wear with the boots). I met Dodi at the mall and we had dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s (French Onion soup and salad bar… yum!!).

While I was out with Dodi Alex called. I told him where I was and said I'd call him later. He mentioned that he had to help a friend move the next morning so he couldn't really stay out too late. I told him I didn't think I'd be much longer. Dodi and I scoured the mall for a denim skirt for me (I already have five but none of them fit the exact specifications of the skirt that I need to wear with my new boots). We looked everywhere and while there were a few promising skirts, there were no winners. So it was about 9 by the time we left the mall, and we were having fun and so when we got to my car I said, "how's this: I was supposed to hang out with Alex tonight but he's got to get up early etc so how about I call him and if he doesn't seem to disappointed I'll hang out with you instead." And I started to dial Alex's number and I continued: "I mean, it's not like you're my backup or second choice or anything because I was technically supposed to do something with Alex tonight first, so I'd really be blowing him off" and in the meantime the phone had stopped ringing and suddenly I heard, "who's blowing who off?" from the other end. I was like "um! No! No one's blowing anyone off!!" and Dodi started laughing at me and we both got hysterical and I told Alex that in the future he should say "hello" when he answered the phone. He thought it was funny and told me to hang out with Dodi ("go out and get drunk" is what he told us to do) and he'd catch up with me after the moving on Saturday.

So Dodi and I went back to my apartment (because I couldn’t convince her to go out, she thought her hair looked terrible) and made frozen margaritas and watched Super Troopers which is one of my favorite movies and, I think, one of the funniest movies ever. I got a good buzz on because I'd been a little liberal with the tequila and when my phone rang with Beck's ring it took me a while to catch on that it wasn't actually her calling. It was some random guy, which I thought was one of her friends playing a joke. But it turns out it wasn’t, it was some guy that worked in a restaurant that she'd been to earlier and he had her phone because she dropped it. I let him know that he should call whatever number was in the phone book for "Kevin" and hung up before I got his name or where he was from. And then I felt all bad. But he did end up calling her and he's supposedly sending the phone to her overnight mail, which is exceedingly nice of him, I think. Dodi left soon after that, she looked like she wasn't feeling too great, and I finished off my margarita and went to bed with a nice buzz which is always kind of a cool feeling: laying in bed slightly confused and very comfortable.

Saturday I cleaned. All day. I got up at 1015 and cleaned until 5 when Beck called to invite me to dinner with her and Alex. My apartment looks much better now than it did before, but I still haven't begun to tackle the bedroom (ugh). I showered and picked them up at their house and headed out to Friday's. There was a bit of a wait so we started out at the bar with beer and potato skins and finished up at a table, each of us with an enormous salad. My salad was very disappointing: it was supposed to have dried cranberries and mandarin orange slices in it, and while it did have some fruit in it, it was mostly full of shredded lettuce and celery. After dinner we were all supposed to go to the Parting Glass to see HOTD, but Beck didn’t want to come because she said she was really tired. So we tried to convince her to come up with us but she refused and we ended up dropping her off and heading up to 'Toga, just me and Alex.

The show was sold out (it always is) so we couldn't sit in the performance area, but the bar is set up this way: when you walk in the front door it looks like a normal pub: bar all along one wall with tables and chairs in the center and booths along the other wall. Then you walk down a hall where the bathrooms are and you come into the performance area: a stage on one end of the hall and rows of tables perpendicular to the stage with small tables all around the periphery of the room. On the right side of the room there's a double doorway that leads into a longish room with another bar along one wall and dart boards along the wall across from the bar. Then there are some tables set up at the far end of the room and one of those games against that wall that are in bars that I don't know what it's called... it's a long table that's all waxed up and you slide discs down towards the end of it and try and get close to the end without falling off. The whole bar is in dark wood, and they used to have a beautiful old wood floor which for some reason they felt the need to put grey tile look linoleum flooring all over. Oh, and they stuck a juke box in the dart room. But other than those two things the bar is awesome, and it's my favorite bar in the area. ANYWAY... so when we go to see HOTD there we can never get into the performance area, but we can stand in the doorway of those double doors between the performance area and the dart room and as long as we aren't blocking traffic that's ok. So we got there, got a couple of pints, and staked out our spots by the door.

The show was awesome :) You could tell that they were getting warmed up for Irish Fest this weekend. I got very drunk... I had about 7 pints... but I didn't have a full one for the Barley Mow and I was very upset about that. They played all my favorite songs and they even ended with "The Parting Glass" which they don't really do all that often, it's just the big guy singing it by himself and it's amazing. We stayed till the end of the show and then headed home where I promptly passed out.

Sunday was a lazy day. I was going to finish cleaning, but I didn't feel like it. I went to my parents' house for a while and hung out with my dad (I'm SUCH a daddy's girl) and then went home and watched Sex and the City and Carnivale on HBO while talking to Dodi on the phone and went to bed before midnight.

Anyway... so that was the weekend. I SO enjoyed HOTD and was so excited to see them :) I'm dying this week... it's going so slow. I'm so excited for Irish Fest this weekend. And now I'm all afraid that hurricane Isabelle is going to cause it to be cancelled and that would just crush me. Beck keeps telling me not to build myself up so much for things like that (I used to build myself up for every weekend and then be let down if it wasn’t all I wanted it to be) but it’s hard not to for this. I so, so, so hope it doesn’t get rained out!! Only 4 more days!!