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.

Marry me?

I just needed to share with you all that I will be marrying these Christian Louboutin shoes.

That is all.

Swoon Margi Diams

Vintage and Awesome

Well you all know me. I like to randomly look at things online.

Yesterday I came across these and I just had to share. First off they are completely and utterly gorgeous. I love the idea of using vintage enamel broaches as flowers in a bouquet.

These beauties are from Fantasy Floral Design and I am in love.

Not only are these really cool, but I feel like this is something that I could make myself. I'll have to look into it and see if I can find any tutorials online about it, but how incredible a bouquet would that be?

I can't stop staring at them!

I'm just in such a wedding mood. This weekend I'm off to Albany to visit with Laura and start making her pocketfolds for her invitations. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm more than willing to put the work in to produce a fabulous product for my best friend.

I can't wait to get started. I caught a killer sale at Michael's the other day and got 100 sheets of multi-colored cardstock for less than $6. I'll be able to use some of it for Laura's shower invites and thank yous that I have to start making soon too. Hopefully all I have to buy for those are envelopes and maybe a cute stamp. I have an idea in mind of what I want to do but I need to talk to the MOH first and see if she approves.

Tonight I have a dinner/movie date with Ashley. We're going to see Remember Me. It was either that or Dear John. What can I say, we both love the sappy crappy movies...

Ashley read the spoilers for it and apparently it has a ridiculously off the charts, I didn't see that coming, ending. She was going to tell me but I decided it'd be more fun for her to watch my reaction and talk about it afterward than it would be to just talk about it now.

Seriously. Can't stop staring.

Jersey Boys

Friday night I went into Jersey City to hang out with my friends James and Glenn. I am a horrible friend and I haven't seen them since last summer and although we keep in touch online it's definitely not the same. So since I hadn't seen them in so long and I needed James' help with my laptop I decided to trudge into the city and down to Jersey Friday night.

First off I missed my train. I literally was running up the escalator and my foot hit the platform as it was pulling out of the station. So cue to me miserable, cold and wet standing on the platform watching all the cozy dry people on their way into the city. The next train wasn't for half an hour so I went across the street and got a latte and caught up on some chit chat with Laura since we haven't spoken on the phone to each other since before I went to Vancouver.

Finally got into the city and Subwayed down to WTC and was surprised to find James waiting for me at the station. We caught up a bit on the PATH and got back to their apartment after a brisk walk past the water.

James and Glenn were roommates freshman year and they were quite possibly the funniest combo of roommates ever. Sophomore year James moved in with some other friends and Glenn moved into his frat, later Glenn became an RA and lived upstairs from me. It was pretty chill.

After graduation they found a place together in Jersey City and have since moved to a slightly nicer place. Next year they hope to actually move into NYC but we'll see how that turns out.

We often refer to James and Glenn as hetero-lifemates. They are totally like an old married couple and treat each other as such and I love the way they interact. I totally forgot how much I missed them and now that I know how to get to their new place I'll be able to visit more often. (Preferably not when the sky is falling.)

So we had a wonderful weekend hanging around, catching up, remembering old times, and eating delicious food.

Plus they helped me completely wipe my laptop and rebuild it. Saffron is no more, now I have Frank and he's fabulous and runs so well and I'm going to treat him so good and not clog up his hard drive.

Hooray for my boys!

Ketchup

Today I'm doing a lot of back-posting.

If you're interested:

• The most fun I've ever had at a funeral! (Literally.)
  
• Seattle
• Vancouver
• The Olympics!
  
• Belly dancers galore!
• Phun with Photography
  

Slightly Alive

Sorry for the lack of posting. I have lots of really cool images of Seattle and Vancouver to share with everyone and whatnot but I came home with the worst case of strep throat I have ever had.

Strep throat and I go way back. Each of us had what I like to call a "sickness of choice" while we were growing up except Dan. Dan was always really healthy up until college and then he got it all at once but let's get back to my tonsils.

Julibean's sickness of choice was always an ear infection. She had so many that eventually she got tubes put in her ears and it just continued on from there.

Since I was a child my sickness of choice was strep. In fact, I have terrifyingly large tonsils. I wish I were making that up. The first time my pediatrician looked down my throat he jumped back, and that was on a healthy day. So when I get strep or even a little sore throat, I am miserable.

This was the be all end all cases of strep. My father has never seen my tonsils that bad. I went to the doctor and he told me they were hemorrhagic...yeah...how disgusting is that? My tonsils were not only inflamed, they were bleeding.

So basically I've spent all my time since we landed Monday in bed. Lots of antibiotics, lots of ice, lots of gatorade...yeah...this is the life.

Monday and Tuesday I ate nothing but a frosty from Wendy's and then got sick so it didn't really matter that I had eaten it.

Yesterday and today I've managed (so far) to drink water, Gatorade and have eaten some Ritz crackers.

Downside to all of this is I've missed pretty much a full week of work now in addition to the time I took off to go to Seattle/Vancouver. Luckily my manager is awesome and told me to stay home today. I'm thinking I'll be able to get to work tomorrow. I don't want to push myself too hard but I think I'll be well enough to get in.

Up side to all of this is since I've been too sick to eat anything at all I've lost 7lbs. I know once I start actually eating again it'll level out but geeze, if only I could lose 7lbs in a week. It'd be nice, but so, so unhealthy.

Manjoyment Monday: The Man You Could Smell Like

I saw this commercial and a few things happened all at once.

1. I admired Old Spice for making such a hilarious commercial that was witty and sexy and had nothing to do with those ridiculous Axe ads that I hate.
2. I kind of wanted to go to the store and find out what this man smells like.
3. I laughed out loud for a long time once it was over.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:



Simply amazing.