i am a very lucky girl. i got home from work and i had power. awesome.

at about 4:25 or so the power dimmed and then went off at work. blow. at first we thought it was a local thing (hell, our freaking network was down all day, we figured sure, the power could be next) but then everyone started calling their families and we realized it was most of the capital district that was down... i was kind of freaking out: i really wasn't looking forward to driving home with no traffic lights. just before i left work i called my apartment in albany to see if my answering machine was going to pick up... and it didn't. the whole way home i listened to talk radio and i totally starting freaking out when i realized how widespread the outage was. beck called to say that the power was indeed out everywhere. i'm assuming she's stuck at work now working on getting things going again (she works for a power company "mid state" [between albany and NYC]). she said she didn't know what was going on yet, but had to hang up quickly because they were being told something. she did say that her parents' answering machine picked up so she supposed that there was power in clifton park. i was thinking about going up to my parents' house because even if there was no one there it'd feel less lonely if they had power and i didn't. but when i got into albany i noticed there were pockets that had power. some streetlights worked, some didn't and when i got to my apartment i almost jumped for joy when i approached my building and i heard a fan in an upstairs apartment going. i guess the power subsequently went off in clifton park, because alex just called and said they now had no power and i called my parents' house again and this time their answering machine didn't pick up.

so yeah. very lucky girl. i'm watching MSNBC with a fan blowing right on me. i'm gonna shut down my computer because i'm thinking there's definite potential for the power to go on and off. i so hope the power stays on here. i hope it comes on quickly, especially in new york and other cities where people are stuck in elevators and subways. that sucks.

i've gathered my candles. i wish i had a flashlight and some batteries for my little black and white tv/radio. god, i hope the power doesn't go off. i don't want to be stuck here alone in the dark (especially since there's this enormous spider in the window in the living room and for some reason i feel that if the power would go off it would try and kill me).

i was so tired by the end of the day at work yesterday. i got home and just passed out on the couch and it was so nice to sleep. i wish i was sleeping now... Alex came over and we went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. you've gotta love Tuesdays. they almost always have 2 for 1 drink specials and they have the best salad bar. i always get the salad bar and baked potato combo because it's relativley cheap (only a couple dollars more than a fast food meal), good, and you get a lot of food. we went to see 28 days later afterwards. i thought the movie was really good. it was scary and stressful to watch, but it had a good ending, so that rocks. they had an alternate ending after the credits which they kind of made a big deal about by putting it on the marquee: "(Alt/End)" we stayed after the credits to watch the alternate ending. wasn't worth it. ah well. liked the ending that they chose for the movie though.

today at work is annoying. i've been so productive so far this week. my productiveness started last friday. it's stalled today. and it's not even my fault. they fucked with the server yesterday for no reason and now nothing works. so suck. i need to get tons of shit done before i leave for vacation and i only have 6.5 work days left...

...ugh. i guess i could file. work rots.

Ali's Ghetto Fabulous Trip to Europe: 2003

so this will be my blog that i hope to use as a travelog when i go to europe. i've looked up where i can find web access while i'm across the pond and i'm hoping that i'll update daily (yeah, like that's going to happen. but it'd be cool if i did).

yeah, so. travelog. yay! trip to Europe in 8 days: yay!

so i just watched the banger singers on hbo. it wasn't as awful as i thought it'd be. which isn't to say it was great. it was ok. there was one part though that got me a little hysterical, and that was when the younger, "art-y" sister failed her driving test. she runs into the dmv screaming about how they failed her for no reason and just generally throwing a fit. and i just got hysterical because that's exactly how my little sister acted when she failed her driving test. i was so embarrassed...

after the movie i flipped over to bravo and now i'm watching queer eye for the straight guy and they've got this cute teddy bear kind of guy on it and it's hysterical. the fashion guy was helping him put contacts in and the innuendos were flying and it was just too freaking funny... he said, "hold your lower lid open, it's going to want to close up automatically like a sphincter." hysterical. it's back on...

...i wish i'd seen this one from the beginning. it's so freaking funny. i keep laughing out loud. they perform a makeover on the guy. this one included "manscaping": they trimmed his nose hair, shaved his back and trimmed his chest hair. their theory on manscaping: "it makes a midsection look smaller and just about everything else look bigger." (i was hysterical when they said that). they send him out on a date with his girlfriend and then they watch the video of it and comment. and it's so funny. they comment on how cute the girlfriend is and they critique the guy as he does or doesn't follow their directions. ohmygod, it's so funny. love this show. the best part is watching the guy who's been madeover be so proud of himself. it's so cute. at the end they discuss over cosmos. too funny. too adictive. i must find out when the next one's on...

so there's this new girl at work who drives the most annoying car in the world. it's a black honda, and i'm not sure if it's an accord or a civic. civics are cheaper, that's probably what it is. anyway. it's so irritating. it's lowered (stupid) with custom rims and an added on spoiler that looks like a handle. the tail lights are clear, of course, and she's got a huge exhaust on it. her license plate frame is chrome and she's got a custom plate: "GRLSPLA2". i hate that car, so very much. the girl seriously just got out of college, so you know mommy and daddy bought her that car. and it just looks so stupid. she doesn't even drive it fast either (or, at least, not as fast as me). and she smokes in it, which just grosses me out. when people smoke in their cars it just totally ruins the interior: makes it reek and stains the roof (ew). how can you do so much work to your car and then ruin it by smoking in it? damn, just wait until you stop and then light up. i don't know why i hate that car as much as i do, but the sight of it just irritates the crap out of me. every time i'm behind it i get this evil delight out of seeing that the brake light bar on her custom spoiler doesn't light up the whole way which just makes it look cheap and shitty. i'm so evil. i shouldn't randomly hate things. whatever. i still hate that stupid car.

saturday i went to the track with beck and her man and some of his friends. we had a great time even though it was opressivly hot out. beck hadn't ever been to the track before and i taught her how to place bets. i can't say that i told her how to bet, because i really have no idea how to pick a horse, but i know how to place a bet (having learned from working as a mutual clerk at the track a couple of years ago). she did well her first race (we got there at about the 5th race, but didn't place any bets until the 6th): she won $5.10 on a $2 bet (i think on a show, can't remember). the rest of the day wasn't so good until the 9th race when she went back to that first window she bet at and won $16.90 on a $2 to show on one of the longshots. the odds on that horse were 55:1, so it was awesome that it came in.

afterwards we went with the group to the ripe tomato for dinner. it was pretty good, but more expensive than i thought it'd be. i (thankfully) had enough money on me (because how embarrassing would that have been?). i had this pasta dish that was spaghetti tossed in olive oil and brocolli, mushrooms and whole roasted garlic (yum) which was hella good. it was served with this rosemary olive bread that was divine. the place was packed and the dessert bus (really couldn't be called a tray because it was huge) kept rolling by and the stuff on it looked amazing but we did not partake.

we went to the parting glass afterwards to play darts. the parting glass was also packed and that was not fun. a throng of dumbass downstaters was there and apparently none of them had ever been in a bart with a dartroom before because they kept strolling in front of the dart boards. it was really frustrating. this one really drunk guy was standing right by our board and he kept putting his arm on the shelf below it and beck hit him with a dart (well, it rebounded off the board) and he still didn't move. he just stood there and wined about how it hurt. boo hoo. had to have been a downstate boy. suck it up, man. we played two games, but it was just heinously crowded with a ton of stupid people, so we left right after the second game. i dislike saratoga during the track season. or i guess i dislike the parting glass then. i like the parting glass in the fall/winter/spring. not crowded. good irish music playing. room to breathe/talk/play darts. i don't think i'm going back there until after track season.

saturday was a surprisingly good day. i didn't anticipate going to the track/saratoga and i ended up going and had a great time. so rock :) i love it when days are surprisingly good.

today was surprisingly good at the end: i found out that my mom is willing to loan me money so i can go on my trip. rock. that's a huge weight off my shoulders. so now i have to really start getting my shit together for this trip: decide if i'm taking traveler's checks, figure out what to pack and what i'm packing it in, get more of a schedule set of how we want to spend our time in dublin (beck has a scotland schedule put together)... and we leave in 12 days from today. rock! very exciting... but very stressfull...