Dance Like You Don't Have A Nation!

Had to share this. Because these people were awesome.

America FUCK YEAH

I'll always remember that I was sitting in bed rolling pennies while watching the Swan Princess when my brother txted me to tell me Bin Laden was dead.

My manager said something funny this morning when he went to sign my time sheet.

Well if they killed him today it would have been 9/11.

5/2/2011
5+2+2+0/11
9/11

T's a little special with the numbers sometimes.

But Ding Dong Bin Laden's dead. Justice has finally been served. Thank you yet again you fine men and women in uniform for giving America a sense of closure.

No Dancing

Today, dancing would be inappropriate.

Today, pretty much any sort of rejoicing would be inappropriate.

I didn't sleep well last night. I had a horrible nightmare and woke up at 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I was awake at 3:33 when Jason txted me.

News, Japan, when you get up.

I have a one track mind right now, so my first initial reaction was OMG HE GOT A JOB OFFER IN JAPAN WTF ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH OURSELVES?! But then I realized I was crazy and sleep deprived and I should probably just ask what he was talking about.

Once he relayed that it wasn't anything to do with him and everything to do with a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan I felt relieved and stressed at the same time.

Up until a few months ago we had multiple military friends stationed in Japan. Fortunately those friends are back in the states and as safe as any military personnel stationed here can be.


My heart goes out to all of Japan, and anyone who has family or friends there. It's going to take a long time for them to get back on their feet after this.

For now I'm mostly concerned with flooding on the West Coast of the US, Dan does live near water.

(Image borrowed from CNN)

Oh Dear

Look what just tumbled out...

Uhhhhhhhhhh FREAKOUT!

First off, I'm not dead yet. We moved Jason. We made and mailed out all the save the dates. And I am in the midst of making all the pocketfolds for the invitations. Things have been extremely busy. Updates on those things soon.


But in other news...

FREAKOUT!!!

The Big Red Freakout is the BIGGEST Men's Hockey Game of the year at RPI. Only one year did I manage to get tickets to the game and I didn't even get to go.

It turned out we had an a cappella competition the same weekend as the big game and I had to give my ticket to a roommate.

It was so upsetting.

And since I've graduated there has always been something going on the weekend of Freakout but this year, everything changes.

This year I'm GOING.

Hooray! Yippie! Go Red!

Laura and I (along with some friends) are getting tickets through the awesome Alumni Association and we're even going to Ice House beforehand which is a happy little dinner.

Things to pack: red scarf, new RPI hockey jersey, red vest, RPI hat, FREAKOUT shirt bought years ago, red hoodie, the Devil's panties.

No Dancing, Just Uncertainty

Oh joy of joys...



Looks like I won't be moving to Virginia.

Looks like we'll be trying to find Jason a new job.

Looks like we'll have to move Jason someplace new right in the midst of holiday traffic.

Merry Christmas!

Wear Purple Wednesday

I am a very tolerant person. Although in general I dislike "people" as a whole, I still care and sympathize/empathize with those who face persecution just for being who they are.

When we were at Busch Gardens on Saturday Jason and I went to see the Monster Stomp Revamped show (which was fabulous) and there was a row of people sitting across from us who were special guests of someone. Either to the park in general or to someone who worked for the park and they had a row reserved.

The people sitting behind us who sounded like they would have been perfectly cast into Deliverance made a snide comment about one of the men sitting in the row because of the way he wore his pants. Sounds ridiculous right? I mean I have pretty good gay-dar and I could tell some of the people in that row were fabulous but I've been surrounded by gays, transgenders, and whatever else they'd like to be labeled as (or remained unlabeled) for years now and don't think twice about it.

There's nothing wrong with them, they are human beings and responding to what feels right, in fact I don't even like calling the gay community a "them" because in my eyes they shouldn't be segregated or partitioned off from the non-gays.

We're all human, plain and simple.

I wish some people could remember that!

It took all my strength not to turn around and say something to the couple behind us. I don't even think Jason knew how angry it made me to hear the blatant ignorance. I knew it existed but I had never experienced it first hand and I mean why would I experience it? I'm on the "right" side of the line aren't I? I'm a heterosexual woman engaged to a heterosexual man and that's okay with everyone! Why would anyone persecute me?

Well go ahead and do it, persecute me. Just leave my friends alone. Let my gay boyfriends live their lives. Let my lesbian girlfriends get married if they want. Let my transgender friends be whoever they want to be.

And to support them all, please wear purple tomorrow.

On october 20th we will wear purple to bring awareness to, and put an end to intolerance in honor of the 6 boys who commited suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse at home and in schools. Purple represents spirit on the Lgbtq flag and that's exactly what we would like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your parents, friends, co-workers, neighbors and schools.

RIP
Tyler Clementi
Seth Walsh
Justin Aaberg
Raymond Chase
Asher Brown
Billy Lucas
Zach Harrington
and all other victims of homophobia

Improv Everywhere

On Saturday I participated in the mp3 Experiment. Originally I was going into the City to visit my friends James and Glenn and see their new apartment on the upper east side. Plus James had to help me fix something on my laptop and he's pretty much been my IT Savior since college so I lugged my backpack around NYC all day.

I met Matty and his roommate for lunch since they were in town to see a show and it's been awhile since I've seen him. Then I made my way uptown to James and Glenn's.

The weather could not have been more perfect on Saturday by the way, it was breezy and cool but sunny. Ideal City weather.

Met James's friend Laura and he fixed our computers and then we got ourselves together and packed our bookbags with things we needed for the mp3 Experiment and headed back down to Grand Central.

The instructions for this year's Experiment were to download the mp3 and load it onto your device without listening to it (of course James listened to it beforehand because he's James), be in a certain part of NYC at a certain time and hit play exactly at 6pm, pack a bag with a roll of toilet paper, a marker, two 8.5"x11" pages with letters on them, and a gift for someone. They suggested something you had lying around your house that you no longer want and someone else might find useful. Laura wrapped up a tape measure, I wrapped up a pair of American flag sunglasses left over from the Party in the USA, and James wrapped up a copy of Windows Vista he wasn't ever going to use.

The instructions were that you should start out in a retail store somewhere between Park and 8th Ave from 39th to 42nd. We were running a little late and met our friend Sara in Quicksilver in Time Square. The store was PACKED with people plugged into headphones.

And then we all started slow dancing with an inanimate object. Almost the entire store was part of the Experiment. Those who weren't really had no clue as to what was happening and looked a little freaked out.

Then we took to the streets and freaked people out further by freezing in place for a good minute. We continued to wander around the streets first pretending to be in a marching band, then doing silly walks. Finally we picked a stranger and followed behind them forming as long a single file line as we could mimicking what they were doing. Once that was done we gave as many strangers high fives as we could to show them that we're "fun people" and that they shouldn't be scared of us.

From there we moved onto Bryant Park because the Improv Everywhere narrator Steve was waiting for us. According to his brother Mark who was narrating for us in Steve's stead, it was Steve's birthday on Saturday and Mark was throwing him a surprise party in Bryant Park but Steve was already there and he was all alone.

We crept into Bryant Park, thoroughly confusing everyone who was already there and when Steve turned to look we ducked under tables and chairs and hid behind trees. All at once we jumped up and "Surprised!" Steve. From there we took a speed lap around the gravel track, which proved to be hilarious since half of us were going the opposite way and we had to turn around when we ran into the other half of the group.

Kind of looks like Pollock doesn't it?

Then we got together on the grass and pulled out our letters and spelled words with a partner. James and I spelled BEES and we were in high demand when we started making sentences.


After that we drew portraits of a partner on the back of our paper. The one Laura drew of me was pretty freak'n hilarious.

And then we drew a map of the world, passing our paper to strangers until all 7 continents were drawn. These maps were ridiculous. I guess I forgot that lots of people don't know geography very well. Finally Steve told us to star Nicaragua on our map. I overheard someone saying, "That's in Africa right?" *facepalm*

Next we exchanged gifts with a stranger. I gave my sunglasses to a nice lady standing next to me and from her I got Memoirs of a Geisha which I have not read so it was a pretty good gift.

James got a candle which he was extremely pleased with. Funnier still it was hazelnut scented and the fragrance was called "Smell My Nuts" and all I have to say is that they do in fact smell wonderful.

They got an awesome photo of James and a great photo of the woman I gave my sunglasses to but apparently I got cropped out of both photos even though I was standing right next to them.

After the gift exchange we pulled out our rolls of toilet paper and Steve informed us that we were going to have a mummy dance party but first we had to get ready.

We partnered up again and wrapped each other in toilet paper like mummies. Hilarity ensued as everyone stood around wrapped from head to toe in TP.

Then we danced!

Here's an awesome shot of my friend Sara. Toilet paper is SO in this season!

It was quite possibly one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. I'm so glad that we heard about this event and got to participate because it really was exciting and although pointless it was fun!

Snagged this photo with my phone.

(Photos: Group shot borrowed from Chad Nicholson and solo shots borrowed from Ilya Chigirev.)

mp3 Experiment 7

I'll be there.

Will you?

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.)

Heat Wave!

"It Sucks to Be Me"

On our way up to CT Friday afternoon we heard on the radio that Gary Coleman had died.

I know he's had a really rough life and for that I'm sad because it was never easy for him. However since I'm in the generation I'm in, the only real Gary Coleman interaction I personally have ever had was through Avenue Q. I never watched Different Strokes so I was never familiar with his work on the show.

I realize in Avenue Q it's just a caricature of the man, and in fact the person who plays him in the show is a woman, but I like to imagine Gary Coleman a fun-loving, goodhearted, landlord whose just trying to make his way in life on the non-existent Avenue Q. A little grumpy? Sure. A little inappropriate? You bet! That's how I'll always remember Gary Coleman.

The sky is falling!

If you hadn't heard the northeast got hit really really hard this weekend with hurricane winds and rain. New Jersey is still under water and there are roughly 2800 people on Long Island who still don't have power and haven't had it since Saturday.

Now let's step back here for a moment. Saturday early evening Casey picked me up from the train station and we ran an errand over to Michael's where I hit an awesome sale on supplies I needed for Laura's shower invites.

On our way we had to pull into a Carvel parking lot and snap a photo of this:

The sky is falling...and so are the ice cream cones. We're talking ridiculous winds here people, crap was falling out of the sky left and right!

Casey just got a new car...or rather, new to her car. His name is Sven and he is a 1998 Volvo S70. He's fantastic, all the ladies love him.

Sven is also much safer than the Eclipse that was totaled when Casey was hit last month by a girl making an illegal blind left turn into the exit of a strip mall. I am happy Casey has Sven because I worry about her safety.

Anyway. We suddenly decided that we should do something fabulous for our birthday since this year is our quarter century. Cruise to the Bahamas? Yes, please. We spent most the night as the power flickered on and off and the wind blew hard against my windows researching different cruises and how much a 3-day cruise would be.

Long story short, we're too poor to go on a cruise but we're thinking about going to Universal Orlando and staying with my wonderful friend Ron and just spending a long weekend in the warm warm Florida weather.

Once we had enough sitting there planning we decided to venture out and get something to eat. We tried to get to Outback but the roads were flooded. We tried then to turn around and go to Friday's but the power had gone out in that town. We wound up at an Applebees and it was pretty delicious.

What the hell is my point?!

People are still without power. This is awful, but people some people just won't stop complaining about it. There is a LOT of damage and it takes a LOT of time to repair that damage before power can be restored fully.

I know this because my father works for a utility company.

People are all over the news crying about how the utility companies don't care and they're dragging their feet and wah wah wah. They are doing everything they can!

I know this because my father works for a utility company and has been working non-stop since Sunday morning.

The other morning I was getting some iced coffee from DD and a cop and some random guy were standing there bad mouthing the "lazy" utility company workers. The cop basically said that he'd been sitting in road blocks all day waving people past downed wires and that the only thing he'd seen from the utility company was a truck stop, look at the damage, make a note of it and drive away.

There is a certain level of triage that the utility companies have to go through. First they assess the damage, then they determine which repairs will be the most important to the largest number of people and then they send crews out to make the repairs. They had everyone imaginable out in the field logging damage and now they have everyone imaginable out in the field starting repairs. They have crews in from Connecticut and even Detroit helping them in these repairs.

My father who has worked with a utility company for over 30 years and is now a manager who works a desk job has been driving around all day every day since Sunday. So listen to me people, they are doing everything they can. It's not like they are sitting on their butts delegating work, they have managers and uppity ups out in the field doing work.

I understand the frustration of being without power for an extended period of time. But this happens all the time in NH where Jason's family lives. During the ice storms this winter and last winter Jason's family was without power for 4 days. And that was in the middle of winter when the temperature was below freezing. Did they complain? No. Were they inconvenienced? Of course. But I just feel like no one up there made THAT big a deal out of it all. They would get power back when they got power back and they prepared themselves for the lack of power and survived through.

Power goes out on LI for a few days and everybody's irritable, angry, complain-y, and mean. Again, I understand the frustration, but just don't take it out on the utility companies. A lot of them don't have power at home either and they're trying their hardest to do everything they can to expedite the repairs so they can go home and turn a light on.

End rant.

Cue Brass Instrumental Music

BAAAAAAA BAAAAA BA DAA DAA DAA DAA BAA BUH BA DA BUH DA DUH DUH DAAA BUH DA DUH DUH DAAA (DA DUM DUM DUM.)

It's finally here. *squee*

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games begin TONIGHT.

I love the parade of nations and I cannot wait to watch what Vancouver has in store for the Opening Ceremony tonight. I mean the Bejing Opening Ceremony was intense and I can still remember how acrobatically cool the Sydney Ceremony was too. I can hardly contain myself, is it time to hunker down in front of NBC in my poang yet?

Really cool things:

The medals are incredible. I mean just look at them! They each have a close-up of a Raven Totem. I find this exciting for a few reasons. The Stanley Totem Park is a beautiful area in Vancouver. We stopped by last February when we were in Seattle visiting my brother and the place is just awe inspiring. I'm glad that they are pulling so much of the Olympic art from the natives.

Coincidentally when my parents took their 25th Wedding Anniversary trip to Alaska and Canada for three weeks, they returned with a beautiful carved Raven Totem necklace for me. Maybe I'll wear it the rest of the time the Olympic and Paraolympic games are underway to show my support. It's a little less in your face than my Quatchi pins are but in the spirit of support of the games and my country I'll don my Raven.

Seriously, how cool are these medals? I love the lines of the medal itself and apparently they are all made of reclaimed gold, silver and bronze from computer motherboards. How nifty is that?!

What I love most about the Vancouver Games is probably how focused they are on being more green and nurturing towards the environment. I mean even all of the mascots have a specific greener more environmentally-conscious mantra. I think this is a wonderful way to incorporate nature into the Olympic Games.

Every year I also look forward to what Ralph Lauren has to say about the Olympic Garb. This year is beautiful. Ralph Lauren always delivers a clean crisp look without going overboard on the stars and stripes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the hats and blazers from the 2008 Summer Olympics and these hats are equally fabulous.

I adore the sweaters and how they are reminiscent of antarctic explorer's sweaters - you know the kind Shackleton might have worn.

The Nike podium outfits/jackets are nice too, not too fluffy, but fitted enough to show off some Olympic bods.

Basically I'm ready! And I'm excited to get to Vancouver later this month!!!



All images borrowed from fastcompany.com.

Snowpocalypse 2010

Well it happened. We got snow.

Tuesday night I pretty much decided that even if my office were open on Wednesday I wasn't going to trek 22miles in the snow there and 22miles in the snow back. When I woke up (early) on Wednesday I turned on Channel 12 and looked out the window. It didn't look too bad, only about 2inches on the ground, streets looked okay.

One thing was I still don't have Lulu and her awesome AWD that loves the snow. In fact I have this silly Prius which I wouldn't trust on dry land, let alone on ice.

Reports said that it was fine now, it's just going to get really bad starting around noon. Okay, I thought, maybe I can get to work and leave early and be fine. So I started getting ready for work and it was then that my Dad came home.

He had already dug out my sister's 2000 Forester and attempted to go to work.

He stood in my door way. "I hit a pole." And then walked away.

That pretty much right there was why my father took my sister's car instead of his or my mother's new car. Because Julibean's car is slightly battered already. She got hit in a parking lot at school so has a lovely dent in the back wheel well, she got rear-ended by a nursing student on her way to class one day so the rear bumper is dented, and now the front bumper is dented to match!

He's fine, the seat belt grabbed him hard, suffice to say he didn't go back out and suggested I stay home too. So I went back to bed and gave up.

We had an incredibly productive day. Christmas is away (except for a few straggling Spode boxes) and Julibean and I even organized a full quarter of the attic so it's actually walkable and easy to find labeled boxes.

PLUS we now each have a little box of Christmas for ourselves. Bed Bath & Beyond sells these stack-able containers that are perfect for ornaments. So the two of us sat there going through all of our mother's ornaments and picking out our favorites and once we got the okay that mom was willing to part with them we packed them away.

I got Nana's awesomely hideous fat Santa ornament which I have always loved and my mom was willing to part with a lot more ornaments than I thought she would be.

Julibean and I also decided that starting next year we're going to start a new tradition and buy each other the ugliest ornament we can find. Our cousin Jaclyn and her roommate from college Jade do this and it is quite possibly the funniest tradition I've ever heard of. Jade totally won this year with this horrible cow ballerina that was missing a leg. So next year we will start our quest to find each other the ugliest most grotesque ornaments we can. And when we open our bakery we'll decorate the tree with them.

Actually made it to work today. Pedro made it through the night, which seriously surprised me. Right now he's standing right outside the back door trying to steal some heat off the glass. Poor poor Pedro.

BANE IN THE GUY!!!

This just in!

I totally forgot (probably because of my regretful morning kvetching over the loss of my peace sign) that today was the day!!!

*squee*

I'm so proud of my brother! Today the 787 Dreamliner took off. Not even an hour ago it happened. I watched it with my manager over the webcast and it was fantastic. I could even pick Dan out of the crowd of employees lining the runway.

I've never felt so proud of my brother and so happy for his accomplishments that I do right at this moment. I could cry!


This photo is a little old, it's actually from the roll out on July 8th, 2007 but man oh man does the Dreamliner look sweet! (And Dan doesn't look to shabby himself! Proud Papa.)

Seriously though, I can't begin to tell you how fantastically amazing this feels just to know that my brother worked on this plane and quite literally put his blood, sweat and tears into it. Last Christmas he wasn't home for the holidays and it doesn't look like he'll be home this Christmas either so we don't get to see him as often as we'd like, but really...I'm just speechless.

Ever since he was a baby Dan has wanted to work with planes. His first sentence, "Bane in the guy!" as he pointed up at a plane as it flew past was quite literally one of his most defining moments. And now here he is, part of the team that helped make the Dreamliner a reality.

LOVE YOU DANNY!

Sometimes I hate NY

The New York Senate voted down more Gay Rights. This makes me angry.

However, this flow chart from ScienceBlogs.com makes me giggle.


Click to enlarge the idiocy of some people.
That is all.

Saying Thanks

As I may or may not have mentioned before in my post about my Army friends' baby, I am a huge supporter of the troops. I don't necessarily believe in war, but I do believe in the people who risk their lives every day to protect the peace and our liberties. I think it takes a very strong person to serve and I appreciate each man and woman in uniform and try to think warm fuzzy thoughts about them and the families they leave behind.

That being said, I've never been brave enough to just say "Thanks for doing what you do" I guess I just get caught up in thinking about how to do it and by the time I actually compile a phrase in my head the uniforms have walked away.

I wonder how many of us wish we could extend a smile or gratitude to the men and women who are doing so much for us without asking for anything.

Well worry no more!

This morning I got an email from a friend entitled "The Gratitude Salute" and it made me smile and want to cry at the same time.



Spread the word. Share the gratitude. And Support our Troops!

Always in 3s

This week has been horrible when it comes to the loss of celebrities. On Tuesday legend Ed McMahon died and then just yesterday we lost Farrah and Michael!

I hardly have words to describe what amazing entertainers they were. It's just so sad to have so many amazing people die at once.

Why is it that celebrities always go in 3s?
May you each find peace.

Sending sentimental fuzzies and happy thoughts to your families, close friends and fans.