I'll be home for Christmas

That's right, I'll be in Salt Lake for the next week. I'm flying in tonight, and barring any blizzards, will be sleeping at my parents house in the beach room. The week is jam packed with activities, and I don't know how I'll be able to visit everyone that I want to see. So....I've decided to send out an open invitation to anyone who wants to see me in person.

I'm going to be getting my shredded pork salad fix taken care of at the Cafe Rio in Fort Union (6985 South Park Centre, Salt Lake City, UT 84121) on Tuesday, December 30th at 6:30 pm. Now you know where I'll be at that point, so it will be fabulous if I see you there. If not, I should be back in town sometime in the summer when I come back to visit my new niece/nephew.

loves!

Work can be interesting

A couple weeks ago our lovable, squirrel pin-wearing, office manager sent out an email letting us know that we would have an artist in the office to draw caricatures of everyone. She had a nice little schedule of who would be going first, and made sure to let us know that if we would not be present it was required that we provide a photo that the artist could work from.

We all thought it was quite silly and could think of no logical reason that she had decided to do this. After it's come and gone I still can't think of any good reason, but I must admit that I like my picture.

I heart Christmas time

I really do love Christmas, I love how people are nice to each other and more worried about others' needs. I like the lights and the hot chocolate and the treats and the trees. I like setting up nativity sets, and all the songs, and I like getting days off work.

But I have to admit that I'm tired. I just looked at my calendar for the month and there are four nights that don't have anything scheduled. I'm looking forward to the actual day for some nice r&r with the fam.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.....

Last night I roasted chestnuts for the first time ever. I used a regular old oven since there are no open fires in the vacinity, but it was still pretty cool. I don't think I cut some of them deep enough, but the ones that I did opened up quite nicely.

It's kind of fun to shell them, it's the same sort of satisfaction as getting a big chunk of wallpaper to come off all at once. And then when you get them out, it looks like you have a bowl full of little brains. It made me wonder why roasting chestnuts is a Christmas thing instead of a halloween thing.

Comcast Woes

Some of you may have noticed that just an hour after I put up the posting "Verizon Day" detailing my difficulties in dealing with Comcast, someone from the company commented on the post. I was quite amazed with the speed and efficency in which they stalked and commented on my blog. I can only regret that their customer service lacked that efficiency while I was still a customer.

Now, one of my friends is having similar difficulties with Comcast. Since she moved- in September mind you- her cable and internet has not been working properly. She's had three technicians come over and tell her the same thing, and also tell her that they'll put in an order for someone to work on the outside line. Each time someone new comes over that can't fix the problem, they start at the very beginning and three months later the problem still has not been fixed.

Being the smart girl that she is, she decided to email the Comcast guy that commented on my blog to see if he could help her out. I'll be very interested to see if he actually comes through on the offer, or if his comment was just for show.

......I'll also be interested to see if they comment on this post as well.

I....

I am ready to leave work
I know a bit about the U.S. immigration system
I want someone to kiss on New Years
I have papers all over my desk
I wish I didn't have to worry about paying bills
I miss mountains, and quite a few people that live at the foot of those mountains
I fear cops, but only when I'm driving, the rest of the time I'm a perfectly upstanding citizen
I feel like it's a good idea not to look at my 401k until 2017
I hear Christmas music
I smell not much of anything, but some dinner would be great
I crave a big hamburger and french fries after skiing all day
I search imdb.com on a regular basis
I wonder where I will be in a year, because what I plan rarely works out
I regret not being nicer to Sarah when I was younger
I love it when I grab the exact number of envelopes that I need for the stack of paper in my hands
I care about the environment, but not enough to wake up an hour earlier and take the metro to work instead of driving
I always tie my straw paper in a knot to see if someone is thinking about me
I am not going to mind driving home in Bev's BMW tonight
I believe that God has a plan for me
I dance whenever I hear a good beat
I sing in groups of six or more
I don’t like seeing roadkill, it makes me very sad
I fight waking up before 8am
I write my signature like a doctor
I lose sleep when there is something on my mind
I win at speed scrabble more often than not
I never like listening to voicemail
I listen to music whenever possible
I can recite from memory most of the lines from The Hunt for Red October
I need eleven positive touches a day to stay healthy

Happy Christmas

The Christmas countdown has begun. Officially, Christmas-time starts the day after Thanksgiving, but I'll admit that I had already watched a few abcFamily Christmas movies before Thanksgiving, but I promise the tree didn't go up until the day after.

My roommate Marci and I decorated the tree as we listened to the amazing vocals of the New Kids on the Block "Funky Funky Christmas" circa 1987. It was pretty great, but we couldn't take too much of that so we moved on to Twisted Sister and Barenaked Ladies Christmas songs.

I've actually decorated three trees so far, and some Christmas cookies. I've made a Christmas playlist with three different versions of my favorite song, "O Come O Come Emmanuel." And, I've been to two movies to do my part to support Hollywood at this trying time.

Here are some pics of Christmas cookie fun. This one won "best use of left-over sprinkles"

Julie Kelly and Jon acting as cookie judges
Robin is excited by something, she is only funny 10% of the time though:)

We decorated quite a lot of cookies, I think the Christmas trees were my favorites.

This one won for "best use of shading" Go Libby!

Give Thanks

Given the day, I thought I would take a moment to list some of the things that I am grateful for.

• My family- even though they are far away, I love and miss them
• Getting off work early on a Wednesday and not working for the rest of the week
• Good friends that get me through the day
• A regular view of the Washinton Memorial as I drive around my house
• Finding new music that I love
• Cabin memories, past and future
• Looking forward to fun vacations
• Sunday game nights
• Finding old friends and new friends on facebook
• Talking to my mom on the way home from work
• I'm going to be an auntie next year
• Decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving
• Enjoying the red rocks of southern Utah with my camping buddy
• Getting something in the mail that isn't a bill
• Going to concerts
• Going shopping with my dad on Christmas Eve
• The first snow of the year
• Having a big table that can host Thanksgiving dinner
• Liking the people that I work with
• Having friends all over the world and the hope that someday I'll be able to visit them
• Knowing that my buddy Bradley lives in a good home
• The first time in the ski season where I really remember how to ski
• Occasional hibernation
• Comfy sweats
• Watching movies
• Getting something great on sale
• Morning ski runs at Lake Powell

Ingrid Michaelson

Last night was the Ingrid Michaelson concert, it was great, and I'm pretty sure we could be great friends. She was pretty hillarious, and at one point could not even sing the song because she was laughing too much. Those are my favorite concerts- when you can tell that the artist is having so much fun.

Also, it was the last show in their tour. Last shows tend to be lots of fun anyway because even though they are happy to be heading home to sleep in their own beds, I think they realize they'll miss being on the road with adoring fans.

I feel like it's possible to post youtube videos on here, but I don't know how. And I forgot my camera last night, so if you want to see her singing "The way I am" go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVPF_IYRKI

My afternoon

Every weekday, right around 2:45 I have the exact same conversation.

Mail guy: Hi, how's it going?
Me: Pretty good, how about you?
Mail guy: Oh pretty good.

awkward pause

Mail guy: Ok, have a good day.
Me: You too.



Today was pretty interesting because he let me know that he wouldn't be here tomorrow, (we're closing at noon, so neither will I) but I have to admit that the veering off from the regular conversation with the weird mail guy has slightly thrown my afternoon out of balance.

I'm not lying

There is snow outside my window! In Virginia! In November!

It's kind of hard to see at first, and isn't enough to actually do anything other than make me happy, but it really is snowing.

update:

It actually got going up to an official flurry, but by the time I got downstairs and outside it was gone :(

Wolf Parade

I took a quick little trip up to New Jersey and New York this weekend. One of my favorite bands, Wolf Parade, only had two shows on the east coast before they were heading off to tour Europe, so of course I had to go. I was lucky enough to actually convince some other people to go with me- Marci and Alan (happy birthday Marci!), and we had a great time.

The show was awesome- especially when some of the cieling fell down on Spencer Krug, one of the leads and the crowd just cheered and said "What do you expect? You're in New Jersey!

After the show we saw a White Castle, so we stopped to get Marci and I our first White Castle burger, mmm tasty?

We went into the city on Saturday and packed in as much as we could. My new favorite thing that I think I will have to do every time I go to New York now is go to Rice to Riches and eat yummy rice pudding and get cool bowls that I can use as fun tupperware.

This is a clip from "I'll believe in anything." The guy singing is Spencer Krug, I have a crush on him. The opening band, Listening Party, came out and sang with them, as well as a "tricerasquatch"- I don't know what to say about that, except that they're Canadian.

Tonight

Tonight we played nertz, and ate cinnamon rolls, and I may have danced with/chased Kelly skipping and twirling around the kitchen island. Maybe the cinnamon rolls had a little too much sugar in them.

It's not the dump we all thought it was

I was in Pittsburgh for most of last week, and I actually quite liked the city. Coming in from the airport you kind of wonder where you are going because cities usually have some taller buildings, and then you go through this tunnel and voila, on the other side you're crossing a bridge and there is the city laid out in front of you. My hotel was right on the point park where the two rivers meet, so I had a great view of the bridges and the ridge and the park. When I woke up on Wednesday there was fog all over the river and it looked really cool.

The conference was pretty good, I met lots of great people and learned some very interesting things. I learned which secondary school systems have courses that can be evaluated as transfer credit, and about the changes in the French educational system over the last ten years, and how Bollywood can help foster cultural understanding on college campuses.

One of the highlights however, was going out to dinner with some others from the conference to the Church Brew works. It is an old catholic church that was renovated and turned into a brewery. It was pretty amazing inside, it's still a huge building, and a lot of the seats are still pews (even in the bathroom). I had a rattlesnake and cactus pirogi (a traditional Pittsburgh/Polish food- except for the rattlesnake part, that wasn't very traditional)

Verizon Day

Comcast got fired yesterday. I am usually a patient person and am mostly willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, but Comcast just pushed me too far. I've been trying to pinpoint the root of all my problems with them, and I think it comes down to the fact that they made me sign up for a phone line.

I have a cell phone, all my roommates have cell phones and none of us even have a phone that we could hook up to a landline. But Comcast "bundled" it all together and it ends up being cheaper just to get it even though we never used it. They, however, think that the phone number they assigned to me is the phone number that I use- seriously, how many people who have not had a land line already for years are going to bother learning a new phone number. I only know three phone numbers, it is a lost skill in my generation.

So, every time that I had to call Comcast because there was a problem, which happened pretty frequently, I would have to figure out a new way to maneuver through the whole phone tree because they would never recognize the phone number that I used to set up my account. So I was already pretty put out by the time that I ever talked to a person, and they would either tell me that they had fixed the phone number problem or that they couldn't, but it never got fixed, ever.

The last straw came when one of the customer service people actually hung up on me, and that was when I decided to fire them and hire Verizon.

So, yesterday I took a Verizon day off of work becuase they were coming "between 8 am and 5pm". I didn't even mind having to take a day off work to wait around for the cable guy- this is how badly I wanted to be rid of Comcast.

Cable guy showed up, nice young man, probably early 20's, and worked outside for a while. Then he came in to start setting up the boxes, and asked if he could use the restroom- sure no problem. After a while he came back out, and was working some more. He then stood up but was still kind of hunched over and in a slightly pained and surprised manner said "Oh man... not feeling so good. Oh... oh... yeah I musta eaten sumpin bad last night..."

At this point the smell from the bathroom started to waft out towards me; I'm at a loss for words and I just don't know what to do. I continued to crochet my mittens and let him continue working and I guess he started to feel better because he brought in his leftover noodles and asked if he could heat them up in our microwave.

And I still think the whole thing was entirely worth it to be done with Comcast.

And I've Never Been to Boston in the Fall

Well, actually I have, last weekend. And it was great! I went to visit my friend from college, Miss Jen Gruz, and we had a fabulous time!!!



First I got up at 4:30 to drive out to Dulles and catch a 7am flight, and then the weekend just kept going and so much happened and so much of it was so random, I'm going to have to reduce it to bullet points.

• Ninja pack running down the street- led by hippie ninja with a beard







• Coneheads running over the bridge and along the river (you know, the cone shaped birthday hats, all different colors, and there had to be at least 50 of them)







• The Boston Regatta







• The lumber-jacks in the Boston Regatta







• The group of guys cheering on the one guy doing sit-ups







• Realization that we both look great in tiaras







• Mexicans making our sushi and talking about us in Spanish- sure wish I paid better attention in high school







• Saw a red high heeled shoe driving down the street, yes you did read that correctly







• Pumkin tower, maze, bowling, etc.







• Got our faces painted, Jen got a jack-o-lantern, mine was a 6 legged spider, otherwise known as an ant







• bought produce at Haymarket, if you go late enough in the day they give you free avocados and nectarines and you can buy a whole box of orange peppers for $3







• a seven year old kid will ask you if he can take a picture of you and your box of peppers







• you will then ask a man dressed as a revolutionary soldier in the T if you can take a picture with him, he will kindly oblige







• Lovely dinner of orange peppers and some hummus







• Stop at the Boston Temple to take pictures, not allowed to tell the missionaries that Jen is not actually Mormon







• Waited in line for an hour for a 3D haunted something, Jen let me hold her hand







• Haunted hay-ride, again Jen let me hold on to her







• Thai left overs at 1:30am- great idea







• Watching Balls of Fury- not such a great idea, just in case you were wondering, Will Ferrell is not in that movie







• Nachos and Mangos for breakfast, and finishing Balls of Fury







• Drive out to the countryside for the best corn maze ever







• Cross all 11 bridges in the maze and get out with a whole 15 minutes to spare







• Saw crazy dread-locks guy walking down the street strumming his lute







• Get super star street parking right in front of the theater







• See Rachel Getting Married and am glad my family is functional







• Tasty butternut squash soup for dinner and early to bed







• Another horribly early flight and then strait to work

Wow, no wonder I'm still tired.

Battlefields

So I spent last Saturday with a group of Westminster alumni touring the 1st and 2nd Manassas battlefields. It was very interesting, but made me realize that I don't really know enough about the civil war. Most of the time when they guy was explaining what had happened he was using specific people's names, and unless he said Lee or Jackson or Grant, I had no idea which side we were talking about.

Later on we were back at his house and I ended up taking a quiz about the battle with three other people. Jen, whom I adore and had organized the whole thing, and Westminster's provost and his wife. I'd like to report that I got 10 out of 13 on my quiz and the provost got 9 out 13 (two of his missed answers where however, contested). I just thought it was fun scoring higher than the provost.

As I was getting ready to leave, Steve (the tour guide and very gracious host and test giver) asked why I wasn't staying to take the quiz on the 2nd battle. I kindly let him know that I reserve the right to only take one test on a Saturday night.

Candy

Martin Sexton is uhhhh-mazing!

Who else can yodel, make their voice sound like a saxophone and an electric guitar, has a four octave range and looks like a hobbit? No one else, that's who.

So we saw the show at the Birchmere, a very cool venue that's very small and intimate and serves you a great dinner with the show (not for free of course).

So, in general my favorite songs by most artists are not the ones that they usually play in concerts, i.e. Andy You're a Star- The Killers, Revelate-The Frames, and Candy-Martin Sexton. But tonight when he seemed just a bit lost on what to play next in his set list, I very subtly (or not) suggested that he sing Candy, and he did! It was great, just like getting a present, and I swear he looked out at me in the audience. Maybe not, but it's fun to think so.

Happy Madonna Day

I'm back- I know it's been a while, but I'm a busy girls. Infact, I just got home from New York last night. Miss Robin turned 20, or maybe 30, so she, kelly, Jen and I headed up to NYC for the weekend to see Madonna herself at Madison Square Garden.

The weekend started out very nicely with some shopping and a very nice, or not nice as the case may be, shopkeeper that hit me in the head with a shirt and then yelled at me. But no worries, the ladies at the next store were fabulous.

The next day Robin told us that her leg hurt- she'd had some problems the year before, but now the scar was swollen and it hurt. Jen, the pharmacist, made sure we checked it throughout the day, and after Legally Blonde (A fabulous show, and now I am grateful to Emily for making me watch the legally blonde reality show where they chose the lead) the infection started to streak- this is a bad thing, I've learned. So it was off to the emergency room.

Robin had a very nice visit with the doctor where she had to steer the conversation away from what she was supposed to tell her bosses about the war and back to her leg, which just happened to have a flesh eating bacteria in it. She got some anti-biotics, and all is well.

Monday was Madonna day. We ate at the oldest tavern in NYC where George Washington dismissed the troops, got manis and pedis, and then took a nap. (actually I took a nap every day of this little vacation, and it was fabulous!) Then off to Madonna.

She was amazing, and her dancers were even more so. Also on the amazing front, Jen managed to sit next to the only strait, single guy in the whole of Madison Square Garden.

On Tuesday I finally got to go to Serendipity and have some frozen hot chocolate. It was delicious and superfun. All around good times to be had by all.

Who let him out of the house like that?

If you look between the lovely Robin and Kelly, you'll see a man who needs the help of a woman when getting dressed in the morning. Apparently he met his girlfriend at the market.

Blue-Buck pancakes at Eastern Market are a DC tradition, and I've tried several times to partake in the syrupy goodness, but have been thwarted up until this morning.

They were indeed very tasty, below you will see Jen reaching across the table to sample some of mine. (Moments later, I reached across the table to sample some of her chocolate chip pancakes).

Kelly actually got in trouble from the owner for not finishing her pancakes, but he let her go anyway because she's cute. And if you look at the guy in the baseball cap at the very edge of the picture, he's famous and important in some government capacity. I just don't remember who he actually is.

Hello there

I went to see a Singaporean movie with some friends tonight called "Gone Shopping". I laughed quite a bit, but it was also pretty sad. The show was about a woman who bought clothes when she was lonely, shoes when she was lost and bags when she was sad. But then there was also a video gamer that caried broad sword around the mall so that helped to lighten things up.

Then, as I was walking back to the Metro I came upon this little fellow.




Now I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be, kind of looks like a little lizard ghost that got smashed in the crosswalk, but it was a pleasant surprise in the middle of Independence Ave.

I have creative friends

I have three friends that are all rather amazing and I love them dearly. Throughout the day we often send long strings of emails back and forth and they keep me thoroughly entertained. Miss Kelly is particularly creative and when there are slow news days (i.e. the convention is over) she comes up with gems like this:

In honor of Amanda who will see Les Mis and in memoriam of Coney Island for Robin. I give you the lyrics to I Dreamed a Dream, then Robin's - I Dreamed of Coney Island.

Fantine - I Dreamed a Dream Lyrics
[Fantine is left alone, unemployed and destitute]

[FANTINE]There was a time when men were kind
When their voices were soft
And their words inviting
There was a time when love was blind
And the world was a song
And the song was exciting
There was a time
Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

========================================

Robin - I Dreamed of Coney Island lyrics
[Robin is with friends, recently promoted, but still sad]

There was a time when developers were kind
When Coney Island thrived
And the rides were exciting
There was a time, I'll forever remind
My friends 'bout the Mermaid Parade
And the Astroland lighting
There was a time
Now it will be gone

I dreamed a dream in times gone by
When the Cyclone was high
And the ocean breezes blowing
I dreamed this place would never die
I dreamed of hot dogs and Freaks worth Shooting
But my dreams were coldly cast aside
And Nathan's dogs will likely not get eaten
Who can I call to make this right?
Can Mayor Bloomberg be intreated?

But my friends will not desert
They press cold washcloths to my forehead
As I suffer through withdrawal
They feed me bites of cotton candy
They sit all evening by my side
And give me shoes and clothes to try on
From my agony they will not hide
And they distract me from the pain
And still I dream of Coney Island
That I will ride the rides forever
But oh my dreams, they cannot be
I must write a strongly worded letter

I had a dream but now it seems
Thor has turned my dreams to nightmares
So I take them back and now I scream,
I hate you Thor, but I'll always have my dreams

Optimistic

I just bought a lawn ticket to see an outside show..... with a hurricane approaching.

OBX

So, did anyone notice that it's September all of a sudden? I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but here it is. And as a last hurrah, I spent the final weekend of official summer at the outer banks of North Carolina and it was wonderful.

I was at an amazing beach house with 15 of my closest friends, or one very close friend and a bunch of very nice people that I didn't know before or at least didn't know very well. But it was great fun to meet lots of new people and spend a fabulous weekend relaxing, and swimming, and playing volleyball, and getting dipped cones at Dairy Queen, and taking naps.

The highlight had to have been swimming in the ocean at night because it sparkled. There was something in the water that lit up when it got aggitated (like in the waves or when we splashed or stepped on the wet sand). It was amazing to see the stars shining and the water sparkeling, it was all very surreal.

Oh, and there was a late night/early morning photo session with a frog named Celine.

Rollercoasters!

Saturday at King's Dominion- which is farther south of DC than one might think.

Jen on the swings- upside down is, in general, more fun than right side up.

This would be the synchronized slurping contest.

That would be me- on the swings.

Robin, and we haven't even started going fast yet.

Marci- going very fast, and once again upside down.

Break for funnel cake. The goal for the summer was five- almost the end of August and I'm only on number three. Better start attending more county fairs.

George Mason University

Just in case you didn't know, I work at a pretty cool school.

We were just rated as the #1 up and coming school by U.S. News and World Report.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-uc-rank

Happy To Be Alive

Went to New York this weekend, it was a good time. There was a small group from my office that went up for a cooking show with Tre Wilcox from Top Chef. There were two themes for the weekend, "I'm just so happy to be alive" and "I love America." Matt and Dan were pretty strong on loving America, and Jen and I were kind of indifferent at the beginning, but the love grew towards the end. And "happy to be alive" is the the new life philosophy.

The trip started off with a bang and a shredded tire on the New Jersey Turnpike. This was a good test of the new life philosophy, and I must say we all had a good time on the side of the road. It was a great time just sitting there with nothing to do because we didn't have a lug wrench. Most people on the turnpike were surprisingly nice- nobody actually stopped, but we did get a lot of honks and waves- and we backed up traffic on both sides!

We spent a lot of time hanging out in New Jersey which was fun, I'd never really spent time in New Jersey. Well, a little bit in Morris County (Country Club area) Camden (murder area) and an afternoon in Atlantic City. But this time we went to Hoboken, and to a classic Jersey diner where we heard someone actually say "fugedaboutit."

The cooking class was really fun too. We got to eat yummy food and I learned about browned butter and some cooking tips for risotto. Tre signed my book and we got some pictures, and then I finally got into my own bed last night at 3:30am. Actually, I should go to bed now.