DPF: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood.


Won't you be mine? Won't you be mine?

I Pinch?

I work in Marketing.

I work with Advertisements.

I LOVE it.

I have ALWAYS loved it.

There are times when I would literally just pay attention to commercials more than the actual show I was watching.

That being said there are some commercials that just stick with you. Still to this day I can sing the Skip-it! jingle or even the Ribbon Dancers song.

Even more so we constantly quote those damn Honda Element commercials. I don't have anything against the Honda Element, other than the fact it looks like a box with wheels. But those commercials with the platypus and crabs were epic.



Without even thinking about it Julibean, Jason, hell even my mother and I will find ourselves saying things like, "I no pinch!" or "I've got some melted butter and some tongs in here..." or even "Where does a platypus learn a word like "hodgepodge"?"

The world is a better place because of marketing and advertisements that become part of the mainstream. I am a firm believer in this.

Plus it's just downright hilarious.

MmmmmMarsden

How 'bout a little Manjoyment to start your day?



(Image borrowed from Coventry Telegraph.)

The Call

Oh hey, I don't think Long Island got the memo. Did...did you get the memo?

Didn't you hear?

Cthulhu was in town last night?

Oh yeah, tornadoes knocking LIRR trains over. Trees falling down willy nilly killing people in cars. Flooding. Lightning strikes. Thunder storms. Stand still traffic on major high ways. Chaos in Penn Station.

THE WORKS.

I'm surprised they didn't call out the National Guard.

I went to a production meeting last night and Mary Ann was telling us how she almost got taken out by a monsoon at the train station and was glad one of her friends stopped by to pick her up. (This from the woman who slept on 34th Street for a night during the Blackout of '03 because she couldn't get home nor could she see three feet in front of her to walk to a hotel or her boss' apartment.)

Penn Station apparently was shut down, they wouldn't let anyone in because it was already over crowded, and they had to cancel all trains and some subway lines too.

CRAZY.

My mother's school is closed today. Apparently they have no power and there are a few trees through some windows. Lovely.

My Dad and I stood out on the porch last night and just watched it rain. We like to do this sometimes. Thunder/lightning storms are pretty cool. The amount of rain that came down in such a short amount of time is really when Long Island suffers.

We're only about 5 feet above sea level so flash floods are a huge possibility when it pours as hard as it did last night.

But me...I think I enjoy the cuddly Cthulhu a little bit more than the scary apocalyptic one.


(First image from Wikipedia. Second from ThinkGeek.)

WW: Guest Lists

It's times like these that I really wish we had just said To Hell With It! and gotten married in Key West with our very close friend and immediate family. It would have been 50 people tops.

Including the A&B Lists our guest list is now like 215 people. Granted almost 30 of those people are B-Listers but still. It makes me sad that our families are just so huge.

A lot of the people on the B-List are people I am friends with. Maybe only 6 of the B-Listers are friends of our parents. All the rest are my friends and Jason's friends who will only make the cut if family declines the invitation.

I plan on organizing the B-Listers by priority and once we get declines sending those invites straight away. There are certain people who I would love to have there but right now only have a chance of even being invited!

Is it a horrible thing to hope lots of people won't want to come to our wedding? I love them, but this is slightly ridiculous. I didn't want a big wedding. I didn't realize how many family members would "have" to be invited. And I didn't realize how painful it would be to put certain friends on the B-List and have to remove other friends completely.

I guess thems the breaks. *sigh*

No!

To Do Before the End of the Year:

• Clean Room
• Vacuum Room
• Clean House
• Vacuum House
• Keep Room Clean
• Keep House Clean
• Redesign personal website
• Publish personal website
  
• Design Wedsite for Jason and I
• Apply to jobs in VA
• Apply to more jobs in VA
• Test paper flower bouquets and centerpieces
• Decorate dress for Halloween Costume
  
• Call Kleinfelds about special sister appointment
• Make special sister appointment at Kleinfelds to try on dresses
• Get pocketfold paper cut down
• Start folding pocketfolds
  
• Design and print Save the Dates
• Mail Save the Dates
• Take mother to David's to show her other options that aren't at Kleinfelds dresses
• Design custom address stamps
• Get stamps created
• Ask girls to be bridesmaids officially
  
• Drop two more pant sizes
  
• Design programs for YOUth Group's Production of Carousel
• Design second logo for Amy
• Call and make appointments with pastor and preist
  
• Recompile music collection onto new hard drive
  
• Meet with Ms Chase
  
• Design two websites for Ms Chase
• Tasting at Hotel w/parents and future in laws
  
• Engagement Session with HBT
• Meet pastor
  
• Book deejay
  
• Book videographer
• Book room design people
  
• Move to Virgina

I really need to learn how to say no to people. I've taken on so many freelance jobs and projects for family friends and the community that I'm thinking from now on I will have to reject freelance work. Especially pro bono work. I can't waste my precious time on things I won't be getting paid for.

NO!

The Cabinette

Today my Dad is bringing home his mother from her cabin up near Monticello. Since before my Dad was born the Shapies have spent every summer in a tiny two bedroom cabin a few miles from Yasgur's Farm and since I was young and mistakenly called it the cabinette, we've dubbed it such.

I love the cabin. It's falling apart. My father and I spent an entire weekend prying, sawing, nailing and reconstructing wobbly boards and old stairs on the decks this summer. The floors are uneven, everything creaks and half the doors don't close properly on the inside due to the shift in the foundation.

But I love the cabin.

I also love my grandma.

Mima is, as Julibean, Dan and I like to call her, a stand up broad. She is constantly giving everything of herself to those around her and never asks or expects anything in return. In fact when Dad and I took to fixing the decks (so she wouldn't trip over a loose board) Mima continued to fuss over how we were doing too much.

I thought it was fun. In fact, I haven't wielded a hammer since my days with Habitat for Humanity and those are some of my fondest memories of high school. And yes, I walked away from the weekend with a sore arm and blisters on my hammering hand but it was worth it and I really do enjoy carpentry.

I'm glad that Mima will be around this week/weekend and I hope she doesn't fuss too much about us wanting to spend time with her. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed by too much attention because she's not used to it. I guess it's difficult for people who have spent their life taking care of others to allow someone to take care of them.

But I'm also glad that we'll be able to spend Rosh Hashanah with her and she won't spend the new year alone. There's nothing this little Catholic girl loves more than some Jewish soul food.

Bring on the brisket!

And to all my actual Hebe friends and relatives: L’shanah tovah tikatevi v’taihatem. May you be sealed for a good year.

WW: Ebb and Flow

I realize this whole getting married thing is going to be an adventure. What I didn't realize is that it's also going to be a long process in learning exactly how to: not only live together, but how to work as a team as well. Obviously I have no doubt we'll be able to do this. Ten, maybe even five years down the line we'll be one well oiled married machine and that'll be a wonderful day.

But in the meantime, we're still learning more and more about each other's habits and other little quirks...it's been...interesting...

This past weekend I unloaded three crates, one big box, and one enormous rubbermaid into Jason's apartment in Virginia, including various other items such as appliances, exercise equipment, and bar-ware. I'm not moving in yet, it'll be a few months before that happens but I wanted to use the long weekend to take a drive down and bring some things that were more fragile and needed more attention in the move OR were useful to Jason now instead of later when I move in.

Jason wasn't really interested in anything I brought down to make his life easier. I mean I didn't expect him to do a little dance out of sheer excitement over a few pots and pans, but I didn't expect the disinterest in it either.

Apparently Jason wants to rip the bandaid off in one swift pull.

Here I thought he'd rather me move in slowly in phases so he could get use to small changes over time but I couldn't have been more wrong. Jason wants a shock to his system. A big one.

He'd rather one day have his mancave all to himself and the next have me and all my possessions there at once.

Now that I understand that I think it'll be much easier in the future.

We did a little browsing for some other furniture but I think the china cabinet/buffet that I want to get will get tossed onto the back burner for now. So for now the only focus I have is buying the couch we picked out last year at Bob's and making sure it fits through the door.

Other than the couch I think the only other furniture we'll need are desks for the guest room/office and some bookshelves. Doesn't excite me that the closest Ikea is almost four hours away. I can't remember the last time I bought something from Ikea and didn't have to go back at least twice for spare parts or to replace a piece that was damaged.

In the coming months I think I'll frequent the GoodWill and Salvation Army around town. One of our GoodWill has an amazing furniture collection so if I can find bookshelves for $10 there then I'll be super happy with that. I'm all for re-purposing and saving some cash. Not really looking forward to the fact the Uhaul will probably be $600 to rent. Ick. Too bad we really need it to move couches.

MM: My Hero

I cried when I saw this. Cried from laughing. I miss RPI, especially RPI Hockey. And I think I've mentioned before how much I love Puckman...

Best yet, I had many a class with Perry. Well done sir, well done.

DPF: Aunties

Yesterday was my Aunt Nancy's birthday!

Her favorite animal is the otter!

Celebrate!

Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

Leaving this afternoon for Maryland then tomorrow onward to Virginia. It's no wonder I put so many miles on Lulu.


Image borrowed from KinokoFry

WW: Moving

Tomorrow afternoon I'm leaving work early to head down to the Baltimore area and visit with my sister. We plan on going to the state fair and hanging around until I leave for Virginia on Friday afternoon for the long weekend.

I'm packing Lulu to the gills (imagine a Griswald Family Vacation for one!) and moving some things down to Jason's apartment. These are things I don't necessarily need in my house now but will eventually need in our home together when I move down there for good.

Basically I have a lot of kitchen supplies that Jason could be using. Right now the "mancave" supports a meager two pots and one frying pan, dollar store silverware, a bare pantry, and a dining room table covered in computers and papers.

We've already gotten a few place settings of Fiestaware(!) and after opening them up with me (and torturing me via phone by not telling me what colors they were), Jason has still yet to take them out of the box. He says that he doesn't want to use these things until I'm there and although it's very sweet that he considers these things "ours," it's going to be difficult enough unpacking a UHaul of crap when I move there permanently so I'd like to get some things unpacked in advanced.

Not to mention the plates Jason is eating off of now are easily 6 years old at this point and were bought for a grand total of about $15 at a Walmart. They have served their purpose well but it's time to say goodbye to the scratched up and mangled plates and make way for something nicer.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about moving away from home and in with Jason. I know we'll be fine, and I know it will take some time to adjust to each other's living habits, but it's juuuust out of my comfort zone and it will be different. I'm prepared for it to be an adjustment, I know it won't be totally perfect the second we're living together, but nothing in life is perfect anyway and we have our whole lives to make it work like clockwork.

Not very many of my friends are currently married. In fact I have three sets of family/friends who are currently married so advice is hard to come by. Not very sure what I even need advice on, but I'm just slightly baffled by the whole thing.

I knew this was all coming. I've wanted this to happen for a long time. This weekend is a big step in the whole "our lives together" process and I'm excited and terrified all at the same time.

We're going to go furniture shopping for some dinning room pieces and see if we can finally do something with the guest bathroom since Jason hasn't much decorated anything yet. We're thinking pirate theme...yeah, you heard me...I think it'll be awesome.