Holiday Success... I suppose.

Well, my sister didn't punch the dreaded stepmother in the face... I didn't poison anyone with my cooking... and I didn't yell at any of my extended family members. Ok that's a lie. Just one. The one who said "Where the heck is Gene? He doesn't come here anymore." to which I responded "BECAUSE YOU'RE MEAN TO HIM!" in a slightly joking manner, except I wasn't joking. I also may or may not have lost my shit while talking about my friend Rich who died (the chocolate cake man...) while holding my cousin's 1 mo. old baby. That was a fun time. And it was also the second Christmas in a row when I was the only cousin of my generation to not get a Christmas gift from my godfather. I have a loving family.

All in all though, it was good. I was blessed with lots and lots of knitting-ness (many many DPNs, SPNs, and circulars! Actually, Denise interchangeables. Knitting books, and a ball winder. Gene didn't know what a swift was so he didn't get that. So he gets to hold my stuff until he realizes how much easier it would be with a swift), a very pretty sparkly (read: diamond) in the form of a princess cut solitare necklace, new perfume (J'Adore. Yum.), and gift certs for clothes. Of which I've spent all my Ann Taylor ones... on two pairs of jeans and four tops. I'm slowly upgrading my closet to "big girl clothes" and getting rid of all of the stuff I've worn since high school. Seriously.

The biggest holiday surprise was the hassle that Gene got for not getting me an engagement ring for Christmas. A of all, getting it for Christmas is cheating. He doesn't have to think about a present at all. B of all, it is really no ones business! Let alone the sales guy at the jewelry store! At the company Christmas party, I got about $200 in gift certificates to a local jewelry store. I gave the gift certs to Gene and said "buy me something pretty." While he was there, he decided to look at rings. He said upfront that he wasn't buying today but that he wanted to know what the alotted budget would get him. So the guys were nagging him for a while about why he wasn't getting a ring.. and the one guy was trying to talk Gene into a journey pendant that was $2,000. When they did show him rings, they were showing him $10,000 rings... $8,000 rings... not anywhere near the budget. The one they showed him that was closest was $4,500. Um. I would feel uncomfortable wearing a piece of jewelry that was that expensive. Let alone the fact that if we had that much to throw around, I'd throw it at my kitchen...not a piece of jewelry. Needless to say, Gene isn't at all going to that place to get my ring when he finally does buy it. But it will match my necklace.

Is it Saturday now?

By 9AM this morning... I was ready for it to be 5:30. This is the first chance I've had to breathe all day. I'm already going to have to stay late. Good thing Gene asked if we could have soup and sandwiches for dinner. Anything more difficult than that and I might have gone a little more nuts.

I'm so not ready for Thursday. I still have the baby blanket for my boss to finish (I'm like maybe 60% done. I hope it won't take too long...) and slippers for our receptionist who retired after 27 years by Wednesday. Actually, I have to finish those TONIGHT. The slippers I can work on Tuesday at work (I cover the receptionist desk at lunchtime and I can't use the programs I need on that computer, so I knit or read). Plus I need to super clean my house tonight since I'm working at ULTA tomorrow and Wednesday I'm not going to be home. I don't have a lot to do... just with all the knitting it feels like I'll never get it all done.

The Christmas party was fine. I actually ended up winning $200 in gift certificates to a local jeweler. So I'm getting something pretty for Christmas! They kept showing Gene $10,000 engagement rings. I know that's not what I'm getting... but he looked at some while he was there, and the sales people kept giving him a hard time and kept showing him things that were 3-4times the budget! He kept saying "I have $x that I want to spend... what will that get me?" and they were like "oooh isn't this pretty? This is only $5000." Seriously? I mean I know that it's your job to sell a fancier ring, but if someone says I only want to spend x, it's probably because they are never ever going to pay $5000 on one piece of jewelry. I'm not a fancy girl. I don't need antique setting and platinum. White gold, princess cut. And pretty. That's all I ask for.

Christmas Party Meltdown...

I'm finally getting to go to the company Christmas party. I've been invited for the past 4 years, but this is is the first year I've been able to go.

Year 1, 2004: Junior year in college... Gene was working for the station and it was his second Christmas party. My boss now was getting married the next day, so he was picking me up from school in Allentown PA Friday night, we were driving down to go to the Christmas Party and then going to the wedding the following day. I was on my way to the mall that I worked at to pick up my paycheck and on my way home, my antilock breaks locked (hmm...?) and I totalled my car. We didn't make it to the Chrsitmas party that year.

Year 2, 2005: Senior year in college... the previous year I skipped "Scholarship Audition Day" at my college theatre. We orchestrate the audition process for incoming freshmen at my school and take them on tours, make them feel comfortable, time them, etc. We also do two performances from a student directing class. The year before I asked for my play to be taken out of consideration since I knew I wouldn't be able to go at all. But I wasn't missing my last year, so I told Gene I couldn't go to the party.

Year 3, 2006: My first year at the station. I had theatre tickets to see 42nd Street at the Walnut Street Theatre. My dad has season tickets, and I had both seats for the Christmas show that year. I was actually not too impressed by 42nd Street. I've found that I don't really like that show as a whole... it just stops.

Year 4, 2007: My second year at the station. Again, I had theatre tickets. I don't remember what show it was. I'm not even sure if it was Walnut or not. It could have been DTC.

Year 5, 2008: My third year at the station... and finally I'm able to go. Except things aren't going so well. It's 4:49 at the moment... and I still need to drive home, put my face on, fix my hair, and put on my cute pretty dress. And I have AEs putting contracts in to start this weekends. For spots that I still need to produce. Which means I also have to change all of the promos. Do these people realize how long it takes me to make my hair look pretty!? When it's been rainy all day!? It takes a while! I have big frizzy hair in the rain! I'm a little disgruntled. I only wish it was a cash bar tonight.

Disgrunted TJ's Shopper

Can someone please tell me on what planet is it all right to order around a stranger in a grocery store? I was in my local Trader Joe's picking up some lunch (mmm canneloni!) when I'm standing in line pretty close to the counter. I don't like to stand on top of the counter because, well, that's rude. This dear, sweet old lady is behind me and she says "Excuse me, but are you next?"

She was so polite... I figured I'd excuse her Captain Obviousness and said "Of course." She snidely remarks back, "Well then how about you try MOVING UP?" And then she smiled. How rude do you have to be to order someone around in a flipping grocery store!

If you've never been to a Trader Joe's before, their registers are fairly small... that is, they don't have much counter space so it isn't like you can load up your groceries. They take them straight from the cart. I was up as far as I was willing to go because I don't like to block those poor cashiers in. It's a little claustrophic in there. I was standing maybe MAYBE 18 inches away from the counter. Plus, TJ's just got new baskets which are too large to fit on the teeny tiny end that they have on the left side of the cash register where I put my items once the cashier is finished or close to finished with the previous order. This woman was still ringing stuff up from her previous customer.

I was so taken aback by this rude grandma that I had no idea what to say! I think I said something snide with a smile back just because she ticked me off. I wasn't quite so mad that I was spitting... I was more confused and just felt a bit insulted that this woman spoke to me the way she did.

This is why I hate the holidays... because I hate how people speak to me during the holiday season: as if they're better than me. They aren't better than me.

Aw, I'm fabulous!

omigoodness! becklette from how the beck... gave me a blog award! my very first! It counts even though we're real-life friends, right? Yay! However, there are rules:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 fabulous blogs.

• maureen at penny the baby girl

• jessica at the everyday adventures of me in the city

• joanie at joanie's random ramblings

• tess at the thoughts and observations of a starbucks addict

• amanda at fancie pants knits

2. You have you list 5 of your fabulous addictions

• cables. I rarely talk about my knitting on this blog (i have a knitting blog, too... called the actor's knitmare that I update much less frequently than this one, mainly because I never take pictures of my knitting) and I just learned cables, and love love love them!

• cosmetics in general. Working at ULTA, I easily feed this addiction. Though yesterday, I was buying presents for my sister with a special 40% discount for three days, and I didn't buy anything for me!

• trader joe's. I often get my lunch and snacks from there. I feel like it's healthier if I buy chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels if it's from trader joe's, right?

• grey's anatomy. Even though it hasn't been the same since season 2, and I don't know why dead denny is having sex with Izzie...

• loose tea. I'll admit it. I'm a tea snob. I only drink loose tea, unless I'm at work and I'm sick (like this week) in which case hot tea like beverage with honey it is just fine.

and 3. Include the person who gave you the award and make sure you link it back to them.

Thanks, becklette! If you haven't checked her stuff out, you should. she's funny.

I know I'm asking for it...

In a compromise of the outdated Christmas traditions that I hate... Gene proposed that we host Christmas dinner at our house... with his parents, my brother and sister, and my dad and the new wife. Anyone who knows my family situation knows that this could be potentially nuclear.

My sister has only met stepmommy dearest once. I've only seen her three times in my life, and she's been married to my dad for about a year and a half. Granted, I don't see my father all that often, but most of the time when I do he's solo. My sister is the one that we need to worry about... because if anything does go nuclear, it's going to be her. She still doesn't know that we're doing Christmas dinner at my place. We will be going to see my dad's family after dinner, but stepmommy dearest will not be joining us. Probably. It's not that I'm keeping it from my sister and that it's going to be a surprise. I'm telling her this weekend probably. She's just on a Kairos retreat until tonight (it's a Catholic thing if you don't know what Kairos is).

I think that this is a sufficient compromise for now. When my hypothetical imaginary children are no longer hypothetical or imaginary, all of this will need to be revised. But until that complication comes to pass, we're playing it by ear. But now I have the stress of cooking Christmas dinner. Like...what the heck am I going to cook?

Right now, I'm leaning towards roast beef with a rich red wine sauce, my herbed potatoes that people usually go apeshit for (both my brother and Gene don't eat mashed potatoes), and some kind of vegetable something or other. And maybe rolls. I don't know. What else does one make for Christmas dinner? The reason I wanted to do roast beef is because that's what we usually have for dinner at my dad's, Gene doesn't eat ham, and I don't feel like making turkey. Oh, and if I made lamb, my brother and sister wouldn't eat. So roast beef wins. Plus it's fairly simple-ish. I also now feel like between now and Christmas I need to vaccuum, dust, and disinfect my entire house every single day so that it's dad-approved. The man is a little OCD when it comes to cleanliness, but God forbid he helps with cleaning chores. It's probably why I have a strong aversion to doing the dishes.

My new favorite

I'm always looking for new products... the best mascara, the best shampoo, the best lip gloss... whatever. I do have old stand-bys that I always go back to, but every now and then a new treasure floats my way.

This weekend, I went to a Lush holiday party in Philly. The deal was if you RSVPed to the event, and spent over $55 then you'd get a goody bag of lushly stuff. Plus they'd play games for more free stuff. So my friend Sara and I RSVPed and went down. Spending more than $55 at Lush is a piece of cake... I could buy everything they have. I'm a big fan of their bubble bars, bath bombs, and solid shampoo (yup. a bar of shampoo. it sounds weird, and it is, but it my makes my hair wonderful). For the longest time I've been dying to try their best seller hair treatment H'Suan Wen Hua. Don't ask me how to pronounce that because I haven't the slightest idea. Basically, it's a hair mask that you put on dry hair, let sit for 30 minutes or so, then shampoo out. It's been on my list for a while, so I decided to get it. It runs a little over $16. The bulk of what I bought that day is for other people... so I figured a litle $16 for myself wasn't too bad.

I tried it the next day... and omigoodness my hair is so soft! I have fairly healthy hair, but I beat it up. I have medium coarse, thick, curlish hair... and I flat iron it most days. Lately my hair has been slightly more unmanageable, and I'm not sure if that's because I'm growing it out? Not sure. Anyway, this stuff is magic. It feels goopy on your head, and it does smell slightly weird, but it doesn't make your hair smell slightly weird. I've been toying with the idea of using a hairmask for a good long while now.. and I've heard wonders about Ojon's restorative mask, but that is $21 for a teeny tiny 1 oz container, and this is $16.45 for almost 8 oz, so... H'Suan Wen Hua wins. Most of the ingredients they use are organic or natural. I think I'm going to try to use this wonderfulness once a month and see how it goes and if I still like it when my jar is gone.

Outdated Traditions?

Christmas in my house is always interesting. Four years ago, I only had to split myself two ways: Gene's parents, my family (we always have dinner and exchange gifts with my father's entire side of the family...every...year). Now we have to split ourselves three ways: Gene's parents, my mom, my dad & his family. Usually, this wouldn't be a problem, except that Gene loathes my father's side of the family (not my father, just his brothers, his sister, and his nieces and nephews). He has good reason. They do treat him like a pariah... as if he isn't good enough for me. Why? Because Gene is a teacher, and therefore doesn't make any money. They're all white collar and snobby.

Every year before Christmas, we have the big fight. The fight where I want to still hold on to the traditions instilled on me since I was born (christmas with my dad's family) and Gene not going. Which honestly, I'm fine with. I'm fine with him not going. However I've finally realized though that eventually I'm going to have to choose... Gene or the snobby relatives of mine that I'm forced to love. I wouldn't make Gene spend holidays with these people. They don't talk to him at all, and when they do it's very condescending and trivial. And sometimes they don't talk to me either. I actually don't like these people very much... only some of them. I'm slowly starting to see why. All of the relatives that I loved on that side of the family have divorced out of the family... so they no longer come to family functions, obviously. My cousin Linsey I barely recognize anymore... her and I have grown so apart that we barely speak. I'm grown closer to my cousin Gabby than my cousin Linsey, and Gabby is six years younger than me. Gabby, my sister, and myself see the ways of our relatives and don't like them very much. Gabby's twin brother and my brother love those people and want to spend all this time with them. I don't get it.

I don't understand if there's a tradition set in place... why you (read: me) feel obligated to do it, even though it makes you feel like less of a person? These people see each other twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Rarely do they see each other any other time. And why? So they can have this illusion that they're closeknit. They aren't! And they act all rich and mighty... but they aren't! I don't understand this people anymore... but for some reason, I'm not ready to give them up yet. My mom's family is closeknit... and they live all over the world. We get together only a few times a year as well, but we all know each other's phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. When I moved, I wanted to give my address to my aunts and uncles on my father's side, but no one had anyone elses email or cell! What the heck is that?

Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

My day kind of sucked today. So I had to redo my big big big awesome interview that I landed for my show a SECOND time because the audio quality was poor. So I go to edit it today, and ran into the same problem. Luckily I had a backup interview, but this one was supercool and I'm super bummed.

So after getting shat on figuratively, I go to the mall to get lunch and to pick up a few more things for Gene. I step out of my car and am about 100 feet from the door when I am LITERALLY shat on. By a stupid seagull. So now I have bird poo all over my nice wool peacoat. It did need to be drycleaned, but I wanted to be able to have another coat on before I took it to the drycleaners. So then I drove around a while trying to find a drycleaner, but now I'm sans coat until Wednesday. Boo. Not to mention I have to ULTA tonight, so I have no coat to wear when I leave the store at 10:30 or so and it's FREEZING OUTSIDE.

Me and today aren't getting along right now.

Poor Puppers.

When I was in high school... I did a lot of theatre. My junior year, I was lucky enough to play the lead. I was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. With a show like that, you're faced with an interesting dilemma: what do you do with Toto? You need to have a dog that can actually do some acting, and when you're doing high school theatre in a gymnasium (my school was cheap. And Catholic, so we had no money unless it came to the football team) you can't exactly hire a professional acting dog.

Enter Sandra Dee, my director's lhasa apso. Yes, she was white, and no she wasn't a terrier... but she was a trooper. And she was my Toto. I love that dog a whole heck of a lot... and me, and my friend Morgan, trained her dog to do the things that Toto has to do. Like answer to the name Toto, pull the curtain away to reveal the "Great and Wonderful Oz," and run away from the Wicked Witch into the arms of the Scarecrow below after Dorothy is captured by the Flying Monkeys. I worked almost as hard on my own work in the show as I did with Sandy in her transformation for Toto. And no, she wasn't onstage the entire time (that's just mean) but she did what we asked, and she loved all the attention. She still has an identity complex, and whenever I'm over she still only answers to the name Toto. It's kind of funny.

I found out about a week ago that Sandy/Toto has cancer. They found tumors on her mammaries and removed them, and now her doggie oncologist is suggesting chemo. They found another lump that could possibly be a tumor, but might be a fatty deposit, but if she had the chemo, then it would kill it. The dilemma is that she's not a pupper anymore. She's 12. And when she had her surgery, she had a hard time recovering from that. If she gets the chemo, she'll lose all her doggie hair and might get sick. And doggie chemo also ain't cheap. If she doesn't get the chemo, the type of cancer she has happens to be very aggressive, and she may not make it much longer. Selfishness wants my friend and her family to give Sandy the chemotherapy. She would suffer though, and might not understand that they're trying to help her. I really hate how much this is hurting my friend and her family. I'm also not ready to say goodbye to my Toto. She's such a good puppers.

A Surprisingly Uncrazy Black Friday

My black Friday began at 4am. I had to be at work by 5... and not just present at 5, but pretty by 5. Something that is a bit difficult, especially when you have to get dressed in the dark. but I managed. And I managed to get to ULTA by 4:50 (despite it taking 10 minutes to get through the red turning light to get into the mall... not fun). Me and 5 of my co-workers are standing outside the door.. and no one is showing up. At all. This is a bit of a BFD because A. it's Black Friday and we were supposed to open at 5:30. B. Our district manager was coming to the store.

Our district manager (who is lovely, actually) showed up... and there was no opening manager still. We called two of our other managers, and our GM ended up letting us in, after an hour of standing outside. And you best believe I got paid for that hour I was standing outside.

For the most part, it sounded like all of the black friday evil crazies were next door at Best Buy (where they were bouncing people. They actually hired BOUNCERS.) and apparently Long Island and California. I had one person who wanted a BE color match at 6am. And a lot of people yelling at me because we didn't have the smashbox $12.99 blockbuster. We weren't hiding it from you... we couldn't find the damn thing! I'm sorry!

Most of my Christmas shopping is actually almost done. Mom, sister, brother, goddaughter, dad, Colleen, future in laws and most of Gene are done. That leaves my friend Lindsey. And my cousin Linsey, but I'm not spending a lot on her. I always do, and then she always "forgets" my gift. but I feel guilty not getting her anything. She's getting something from Lush, as is my friend Lindsey. Sara & I are going to a Lush party in Philly this weekend.. and we get a goody bag if we spend $55...which let me tell you is so not hard at Lush.

And in un-holiday news... I'm really excited about my next interview for my radio show! (I have a radio show. It runs at 6:30AM on Sundays... no one listens to it. But it's mine! I interview people) I'm interviewing Thomas Kinkade tomorrow afternoon... and I'm very squee about the whole thing. I love his art.

Enough with the crazy!

It isn't even Black Friday yet, and I've already had my fair share of ULTA shopping crazies. Last night, this woman comes in ten minutes before we close demanding a "makeup artist." Well. We don't have any of those on staff, so you get me. Who is trained on all the makeup lines, but I'm not a licensed cosmetologist or esthetician. Whatever. She tells me horror stories about the last time she was in and how this girl told her Bare Escentuals doesn't have a shade for her (which was a lie, but whatever) and how this girl had terrible skin and horrible makeup. I know the girl she was talking about, and she has a serious skin condition that she's been dealing with for years. Now she looks great because she's on acutane. But for a while, she had a really bad acne problem. I didn't appreciate the bash on my friend who has an unfortunate overproduction of sebum (the oil in your skin). But fine. I let it go.

Then she grills me about everything Bare Escentuals does, and demands to know if I wear it, and yells "don't lie." I don't. I tell people I don't because they don't match my skin. Which is true. She tells me that we have the same skin color and she can't wear Bare Escentuals. We don't have the same skin color, she's much more gold than I am. But I humor her. It's now 5 minutes before we close, and I don't do full makeovers when we're closing, but this woman was such a nutjob that I HAD to do one, because she kept yelling at me when I didn't do the other things. I didn't put mineral veil on her and she flipped her lid! Then she grilled this poor girl I was training (IT WAS HER FIRST FREAKING DAY) if she wears Bare Escentuals. Then crazy starts talking about herself in the third person, and my poor trainee was so lost and had no idea what she was talking about.

Now, I'm a good salesperson. I'm a really good salesperson. It also doesn't hurt that I like the products that I sell and that they are very nice. But I didn't want to do my pitch, I just wanted to clean my damn store and be on with it! And THEN this woman finally leaves, and says to me "Oh don't worry... I'm coming back" like it was a threat. Am I supposed to be frightened?

I'm already wishing for Christmas to be over. Is that normal? Between my two jobs... I've started to hate Christmas. I just want everything to go away for a whiel. I'm not looking forward to Black Friday. Luckily, I have off from the radio station... but I have to work at ULTA at 5am. Not happiness.

Edit: I changed "talking about herself in first person" to third person. Because first person makes no sense.

Twilighting and Silver Jewelry (spoilers, fyi)

I finally saw Twilight, so among the bajillion of other book lovers, I'm blogging about my disappointment and things I actually enjoyed about it.

I knew off the bat that the effects were going to be cheesy, so I didn't let it bother me. Instead, Sara and I laughed at them the entire time. It actually made it fun, inappropriately laughing while trying not to get our heads snapped by the 12-yr old vampiras.

Things that did upset me?
* Tyler didn't exist... like at all. He almost kills Bella with the car, and then disappears. I love the Tyler vs. Mike tension! It's hilarious!
* Bella wore her jacket in Port Angeles at the restaurant. I know that's picky, but it upset me.
* Bella also DOESN'T FIND THE BOOK STORE IN PORT ANGELES, DAMNIT.
* Taylor Lautner? He's a white kid. A white kid who went tanning to look Native American.
* Sparkly Edward looked more like Emma Frost in diamond form than I ever really wanted. (oh yeah, i'm an X-Men nerd...ps)
* Jasper... doesn't have his power... and is either really constipated or has a gun held to his back the entire time. And his hair? *almost* as bad as Carlisle's.
* Carlisle's hair... was really funny. He walked on screen, and I burst out laughing.
* It seemed like the director, the actors, everyone involved thought that this movie was a big joke. And then realized after they shot it that it was going to make a lot of money. And they tried to fix it. And they failed.

Things I loved:
* Charlie & Bella's relationship. It was perfect.
* Charlie in general. That actor was perfect.
* Edward & Bella's relationship I thought was spot on, and I thought Robert Pattinson's acting was great, despite reviews that he was "wooden." I didn't think he was wooden at all.
* Angela & Eric. Awesome. Just...awesome.
* Vampire baseball pretty much lived up to my expectations.
* The set-up for the remaining story.

Things I wanted:
* More Alice and more Esme.
* I'm curious to see how they do Breaking Dawn at all... or if they somehow make it so that Breaking Dawn never happens, which would piss off every Twilight fan ever.
* I'm curious how New Moon goes...


The rest of my weekend was fairly uneventful except for the Silpada party I went to. Silpada is like Tupperware, except it's silver jewelry and SUPER PRETTY. And I may or may not have booked my own party... for January... which becklette better come to!

Snow comes up, Charlie Brown. It comes up!

It's snowing. Before Thanksgiving. This I am so not okay with. So far... my day has been a big bowl of poo. I woke up late...and I woke up to about an inch of snow and counting. I go out to my car about 10 minutes earlier than normal, turn on my car to warm it up, and then start dusting the snow off of my car with my broom. After about 10 or so minutes (not sure exactly how long, my cell phone aka my clock is inside the car. with my purse.) I finish sweeping snow off of my car, and I'm all ready to drive off.

Except my car is locked.

Apparently my car (which is new to me as of the summer) automatically locks when you turn it on. Something I was apparently unaware of until this very moment. I actually thought it automatically locked when you put it in gear. Nope. When you turn it on. I start walking to the future mother-in-law's house, which is really not all that far away. She has a spare key to my house, but not to the deadbolt. So I take her car and drive to the school Gene teaches at, get his house keys, drop the van back off at the future mother-in-law's and go on my merry way. THANK GOD the car was still there and nothing was taken. Like my purse. And my cell phone. And my GPS.

As I'm driving to work listening to my morning show (Preston & Steve...they're hilarious), I didn't want to take 95 to work. But because I had to take Gene's keys back to him, taking any other way besides 95 would have been out of the way. So of course, as soon as I get close to 95...there's an accident with injuries. So I get stuck there. Then as soon as I get onto 95, it's jammed. I just can't win! I was almost an hour late for work. Luckily, I haven't had any time to leave for lunch all this week except for yesterday (I've eaten, don't worry, I just haven't left nor stopped working) so I have some time built up that I can still leave at a reasonable hour today.

I really hope today gets better. This morning was just riduculous. At least my car was warm...because my feet were slightly FREEZING from having to be outside in the snow for a while. Maybe I should have worn my boots instead of sneakers that get wet easily...

Firsts

I was tagged by Maureen from Penny, the Baby Girl... so here goes:

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? Stein Erik. He was Norweigan... and he was the brother of a girl in my class in high school... I was a freshman. We started dating on April Fools Day (which should have given me some clue...) and he got bored three months later. He really is a good guy though... I don't hold anything against him. I guess he was my "bad boy" that I dated... if you consider Gregorian chant listening, sword wielding nerds "bad boys" He does have a bunch of tattoos and piercings now. Still really attractive.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? No. Not even a little. I tried to extend the olive branch, and was ignored. So if the jerk wants to continue to think that I'm a Cheater McCheaterson, then he can be my guest. He did run into my mother at Red Lobster over the summer... so I know she gave him the "Oh, she's doing GREAT" speech, which makes me feel better, however shallow that may be.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? a wine cooler.. I was 13. (ETA: Actually. I liked wine when I was a toddler, and one holiday the family left me in a room of half drunk wine glasses. They came back, and they were empty. So...)

4. What was your FIRST job? Um. Technically I was a mommy's little helper when I was 12 for my neighbors, the Snootys. They had a little girl who was 3 and twins. My job was to play with the 3 year old, and I got paid like $5. I also had to clean this woman's house. Because she was too lazy.

5. What was your FIRST car? 1989 white Cavalier station wagon. Oh yeah. That car was so loud...

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? Jenny Z. She probably texted me yesterday, but I got it this morning. She sent me this text that was "you hear a song on the radio, and think of me...what song is it?" And clearly... the answer is Popsicle by New Kids on the Block. The first time around. Her and I are big NKOTB nerds. I have been since I was 6.

7. Who is the FIRST person you thought of this morning? Gene, because he stole my lunch!!!

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Mrs. Eisley. I liked her because I thought she looked like Snow White.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? Pittsburgh. It was a 47 minute flight when I was a senior in high school to the Forensics Speech & Debate Nationals. I think I placed like 60 or something out of a few hundred.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend and are you still friends with them? Cara was my first best friend, but I don't remember her because I moved from Jersey when I was only just 5. My next best friend was Rachael... and I miss her every single day. She moved to Florida when we were 13... but we still kept in touch. We've been sucking at that lately, but every time we see each other it's like she never left.

11. What was your FIRST sport played? Cheerleading. Yes it counts. And it was the only sport I played. And I did competitive cheerleading, too.

12. Where was your FIRST sleep over? My cousin Linsey's house.

13. Who was the FIRST person you talked to today? Gene.

14. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? My Aunt Laura and Uncle Jim. I started out as a flower girl, but they cancelled their wedding... and by the time they actually got married, I was a junior bridesmaid. Still the same dress, though... so it became a tea-length dress instead of a floor length dress.

15. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? hit the snooze button... a lot...

16. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? TECHNICALLY my first concert was Sarah Brightman. Not very glamorous, I know. So what do I tell people was my first concert? Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I saw them a few months later with my parents. They were pretty awesome, however high they were (CSNY, not my parents)

17. FIRST tattoo or piercing? My ears when I was 6. No tattoos yet.

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? You mean the ONLY foreign country I've been to? Canada. Ireland is coming...hopefully... stupid Colleen moving to Ireland.

19. What was your FIRST run in with the law? Besides hiding in closets in college because I was illegally drinking? I don't think anything. Except that time that my mom got pulled over for speeding on the way to take me for my permit test. Whoops. And there was that one time when a few girls (who hated me) in my neighborhood broke into a house that was just built and wrote my name on the wall to try to get me into trouble. Luckily I don't have white blonde hair, and someone say them breaking into the house. I was never questioned. Oh, and then there was the time when we had to have police detail protect me on the school yard when I was in 8th grade because one of the girls I went to gradeschool with and all of her friends surrounded me during recess, and threatened my life. Gotta love Catholic school.

20. When was your FIRST detention? It doesn't count! The entire class got detention when I was in 7th grade because they were being loud. I wasn't one of those kids because I was too scared of my teachers.

21. What was the FIRST state you lived in? Pennsylvania.

22. Who was the FIRST person to break your heart? Jeff. He was an emotionally abusive jerkoff.

23. Who was your FIRST roommate? Her name was Jeannine. She was a nice enough girl, but we had almost nothing in common. I moved in with Colleen three months later.

24. Where did you go on your FIRST limo ride? I don't think I've ever been in a limo, actually. I was supposed to get one for prom my senior year, but my wonderful "friends" planned it without me in mind, despite the fact that it was my idea. Hence why I'm a bit bitter about high school...

So now! I tag... becklette, Di, Joanie, and Tess.

Big Texas

I don't know if you're familiar with the Big Texas, but it might be the greatest thing to ever be in vending machines ever. We used to have them (and maybe they still do, I don't know) in the vending machine at my high school... and I'm pretty sure I had one every day. They are lovely cinnamon buns with icing drizzled on top.. and they might be laced with crack/cocaine because I can't get enough of them. When I got to work this morning, I discovered that my oatmeal stash in my desk was empty. So then I was forced to eat poptarts for breakfast from the vending machine. but lo, and behold...instead of poptarts there, staring back at me, was a BIG TEXAS. It's like high school on a plate. If high school was cinnamon-y and delicious.

It's funny how little things take you back. Who knew that a Big Texas would get me feeling all warm and fuzzy about a time in my life that I'd like to get away from. For grade school... it would be Orbitz. Remember those drinks? They had those little balls floating in them? I'd never drink one now because it would gross me out, but I LOVED those things when I was in 7th and 8th grade. Orbitz and Bonne Bell chapstick. I had a ton of those... but I had this one friend who used to convince me to give her everything I bought. She ended up with clothes I bought, lipgloss I bought, and hairbrushes. Man, was I a dumb kid. That girl probably owes me close to $200 worth of stuff in the 6 years that we were friends. Now she doesn't talk to me because I am living with Gene and we're not married, so I'm a terrible terrible sinner who cannot be "saved."

Of A Revolution

The concert was GREAT. Although, remind me to not go to concerts at U of D in the future. I forgot how much I don't like drunk underage college kids. And saying that makes me feel so old... I mean, I'm only out of college going on 3 years... but I just really don't like those stereotypical people. And University of Delaware people are just terrible with that! U D girls? are a little slutty. And by a little, I mean really. These girls were wearing clothing that barely qualifies as a dress. It just looked like a really really tight super long T-shirt to me. With high heels. And far too much makeup. My favorite drunken idiot parts? When they decided to go crowd surfing... and one girl pretty much did a backflip in the air because people tossed her... when they started passing the chairs around on the floor (where I was sitting...yay work for awesome seats!), and when they started standing on the chairs to see better.

Meeting the band was awesome. They're a really great, chill bunch of guys. They were very relaxed and a bit nervous for the show, which I thought was adorable. I officially have a giant crush on Jerry... who plays EVERY INSTRUMENT EVER. He played the guitar, drums, and saxophone... and man does he make playing the sax really sexy. The rest of the guys were great too, especially Richard (the Asian one who plays lead guitar). He was actually walking around the stadium before the show started...and nobody knew who he was, except for the group of us who met him. So I went up and asked him if he knew where their merch was, because my cousin who went with me wanted to buy a T-shirt. It would have been nice if they had let us buy merch before the show started... because then she could have had the band sign her shirt. Oh well.

I think one of the coolest parts of the show was when they had a three-way dueling drum solo. Three guys playing the drums at the same time. Incredibly hard, and incredibly amazing. If you ever have a chance to see these guys in concert, I highly recommend it. They were really great live. Also, they were trying this new thing where they taped the concert and put it on a USB drive that was actually a bracelet. They also had their new album on it also. I seriously considered getting one, but I thought it would just be spending money for the sake of spending money, so I didn't get it. Although I'm pretty sure my brother would have loved that for Christmas.

Hopefully I'll be able to add pictures later. My camera died before I could take some myself, so I'm relying on other people to email me pictures. I want to see if I can get the picture of me and my cousin with the band, maybe a promo shot of the band, and get like a shadow box for myself and one for my cousin, because we both had our tickets signed by the guys. I think that would be nice to keep it like that... that way it won't get torn or anything.

Holiday Crazytown

I really do like working in retail...except during the holidays. And what's funny is that both retail jobs I've had (ULTA and The Limited) I've started during holiday season. The first day of work for The Limited? Black Friday. My first day of work for ULTA? End of October.. and the following week we had the company holiday meeting. Well, this year, holiday started this Sunday. Now, ULTA has some pretty nice deals during holiday (the best being the free bathrobe with fragrance. We get it every year. And they're always very nice).

Not only was this weekend the kick-off of holiday in the new store since remodel, but we also had our new district manager (our other one quit or something, which was fine because she was kind of insane) and the VP of the company in the store, Jodi. Jodi is a BFD... and she's very intimidating. Lovely woman, but very intimidating. We went out to dinner with Jodi last year, all of us prestige girls, and had a wonderful time. Jodi and I had many an intelligent conversation about the difference between theatre makeup and regular cosmetics, and why I got into ULTA, and this whole philosophical debate about actors. But because Jodi was coming? The store needed to be IMMACULATE. And it was close, but not quite.

The thing I hate most about ULTA holiday? The 5fer table. We always have "5 for $5" or "5 for $10" tables... and people go apeshit over this stuff. I had one woman yesterday who wanted ten each of everything on the 5 for $5 table. I spent 85% of my day filling that damn table. Because of the remodel our stock rooms are kind of non-existant, so we are trying to figure out where things are going to go. Some genius yesterday decided to store a glass shelf in the stock room. This said shelf? Broken... as in jagged glass laying open in the stock room for people (read: me) to cut themselves on. I now have this (very small) scratch on the palm of my hand because I didn't see the glass until after I cut myself on it. It didn't really hurt, but it's in such an awkward place that it is uncomfortable.

Holiday crazy of the week: This woman got all uppity with one of our Benefit girls because the line was long. And she was getting all in her face. One of our makeup artists from Urban Decay came over to see if the Benefit girl was okay... and crazy woman looked at Urban Decay and said "Excuse me... do you work for ULTA? No. You don't. You work for Urban Decay. Go away. Get away from me." Then she goes after a manager and DEMANDS to know the full name of the person from Urban Decay and starts ranting and raving. People are flipping crazy. I'm sure I'm going to have many more Holiday Crazy of the Weeks. There's always at least 5 per weekend.

The Perks

When people from home and college found out that I now work in radio, I got a lot of "Hey, can you get my concert tickets?" Sadly, no. I usually can't even get them for me. Not free anyway. I did get to see Jenny Lewis for free, though..but it was a local show and it was a show that was not in high demand. Coldplay? Ain't happening. Not that I'd want to see them anyway, because I'm not at all a fan.

Yesterday, the programming director asked me what I was doing tomorrow (well, today now) to which I responded Um. Hanging out with my mom? Because I am. Saturday morning I'm getting a massage from my mom's friend Tina, and I'm not driving to Pottstown at 8am on a Saturday. So I'm going to Pottstown tonight instead. The conversation went as follows:

PD: So you don't want to see a concert tomorrow?
Me: Which one?
PD: OAR. You don't want tickets to that for tomorrow?
Me: Okay.
PD: And backstage passes?
Me: Okay!

So I asked my friend Sara (who, right now, is lame) to go with me...but she told me this morning that she couldn't. I thought of asking Deb to go, but since one of OAR's biggest songs is "Crazy Game of Poker" I thought it may be too much for her, so I didn't ask her. Then I had to put the word out to like a bajillion people because everyone I asked couldn't make it to Newark by 6:30. Finally my cousin Gabby got back to me after I changed my facebook status to "the first person to call/email me gets to see OAR and meet the band" so she's coming with me. I have so many people who are OAR fans that couldn't go. I have the cousin who is 9 months pregnant and due in about a week... I have the cousin who lives in Baltimore but has to work at 6am tomorrow... i have the best friend who lives in PA but didn't get back to me fast enough. It's crazytown. So now I am getting the "Ooh do you still have the ticket" emails and text messages. Sorry kids, you snooze... you lose.

And becklette...I know I didn't say anything about it to you, but I figured with all the car-ness that getting to Newark DE by 6:30 without me driving to get you would be near impossible, so I didn't mention it.

ETA: My cousin? The 9-month pregnant one? Had her baby Friday night. So she was a bit busy to go with me. They had a little girl, Juliet Catherine, and she's beautiful. She has two hot parents, so that kid is going to be a knockout.

The Chocolate Cake Man

I've been a bit absent and distracted lately. A very good friend of mine that I've played poker with almost every weekend for the past two years passed away last week. I can't remember if I've talked about my poker shenanigans, but Gene and I are poker players... and we have a group of about 20+ that we get together with and play at various friends' houses on Saturday nights. We spend holidays with these people, and in a weird way we're a (very dysfunctional) family. Gene and I are the youngest in our group by about 10 years... and these people really helped me a lot when I moved to Delaware and had literally no friends. All of my friends were still in college, in NYC, or in LA... so I was very alone in this tiny state. Most of our poker locations are in Jersey and around an hour and a half away, which I know is crazy, but I really love these people and would do a lot for them.

Gene and I carpooled with our friend Rich (whom we all called the chocolate cake man) and his fiancee Deb, because they were from Delaware as well. We'd take turns driving, we'd talk about baseball, and we got very close with these two over the past two years. Spending four hours every weekend in a car will do that. The four of us actually dressed as a group for Halloween last year. Rich was Fred Flintstone. He had a lot going for him right now. He had three beautiful little boys. Gene and I recently went to go see Clone Wars with Rich and his boys. The movie was GOD AWFUL, but we had fun because of the company. We were able to laugh at how BAD it was together. I got roped into it because I thought we were going to see the Counting Crows. Clone Wars is not the same as the Counting Crows (In my defense, that same day, the Counting Crows and Maroon 5 were playing in Camden... and Rich was a HUGE Maroon 5 fan. And Gene and I LURVE the Counting Crows. And we had talked about going together. It's a simple mistake, right?). Rich and Deb had just gotten engaged.. and they recently set a date. December 5th. And Rich had just bought Deb tickets for the final game at Texas Stadium in Dallas to see The Cowboys. They're both Cowboys fans. You know that he was a good friend if Gene and I, rabid Eagles fans, can spend a lot of time with a Cowboys fan. Who was a Mets fan to boot.

I really miss him. And I'm sorry that this post is a bit sad, but it's helping me to talk about it. It's really funny, because if someone had said to me a month ago that Rich was going to have a heart attack, I would be sad. I had no idea it would affect me like this. It took every ounce of strength I had in me on Thursday when Deb called me to not vomit. I went to work on Friday... and was a complete zombie. I couldn't cover the receptionist desk because I was afraid I was going to break down and just sob. I've been a lot better lately... although I did have a lapse at lunch. When my grandmother died, I often still talked to her. But I couldn't still talk to Rich. I did for the first time today. I also erased him from my cell phone, which was really hard. I know it's really stupid that it got me so upset, but it did. It was as if by erasing him from my phone, I would forget him.

On Saturday, all of our group (the Quorum as we call ourselves) got together to have an honorary game. Rich would have been pissed if something he did caused us not to play--pissed at himself for messing up everyone's evening. So we dealt him in, we all said some really nice stuff (and told some funny funny stories.. like the time he got arrested and the group had to bail him out of jail for running a stop sign...and having an outstanding speeding ticket he forgot existed). Rich won the tournament. Instead of giving money for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.. we collected all the money and bought flowers for the service, which is tomorrow. I called the florist a few hours ago, and we are getting a lot of really nice flowers for the guy. I feel like there should be something else that I should do, but I can't imagine what.

Rich was a guy who when you first met him, he bugged the hell out of you. He was stubborn, and abrasive, and loud. And he loved you with everything that he knew how. Once you got through that bold personality, he was such a teddy bear...who gave the best hugs. He'd do whatever you needed to do. When Gene and I almost got one singular World Series ticket the day that we had Eagles tickets, Rich offered to drive to Philly (from Maryland) pick me up from the stadium, and take me home. We didn't ask. He and Deb called Gene and I "The Kids." And the guy was always good for a really nice chocolate cake. I could really use a piece now...

Nothing like being all alone when everything happens...

The Carmen Sandiego/Waldo costumes were a big hit this Halloween... but I lost the costume contest. I lost the "best female" to a Navy Pin-up Girl...but I was clearly sexier than her as an international genius thief. Whatevs. My friend Lea took the "overall best costume" because, well, it was. Her costumes are always amazing. It actually took me a full 5 minutes to figure out who she was. Her husband looked pretty good also, but Lea always looks amazing. She cheats though. She's a high school drama teacher, and she borrows costumes from the cage... and uses prosthetics every year. Girl is talented with makeup.



Saturday I was home all by my lonesome, and had quite the evening. It all started out with me getting quite angry at my computer. Everytime I opened internet explorer (and I have the new version. I don't remember if that's 7 or 8. Whatever the new one with the tabs is) it would open about 60 new tabs... not to any particular webpage, in fact, they were all blank. But I couldn't even do an internet search for what the problem was! I ended up having to do a system restore. Annoying.

About an hour later, I see red flashing lights outside my house.. and lo and behold, there is a firetruck (sans sirens) parked in front of my house. I'm too scared to go outside, for fear of people thinking I'm nosey. I am. But I don't need my neighbors knowing that I'm nosey. The firemen get out of the truck, go next door, and about 30 minutes later, they leave, waving to my next door neighbor. I've never met my next door neighbor.. she just moved in.. so I have no idea why there was a firetruck there. No hoses ever left the truck, though, and if it was a fire you'd think that they'd get the people on either side out of their houses (I have a townhouse).

A few hours after that (it's now 2AM) I'm still by myself, watching reruns of CSI and Without a Trace, when I hear SCREAMING outside. I mute the TV and I hear (quite clearly) GET MY F*ING SISTER OUT OF YOUR F*ING CAR! GET MY F*ING SISTER OUT OF YOUR F*ING CAR!!! There were about 10 people directly across the street from my house (still about 100 ft away) having a fist fight on their front lawn in my neighborhood. From what I could gather from through my window, slightly overweight guy in a white shirt was yelling at a red pickup truck, his sister gets out of the pickup truck and starts shoving him. He shoves back, the boyfriend comes up and starts punching the brother. Meanwhile, the sister is still inbetween them. The boyfriend throws her to the ground (classy, right?) and he and the brother start punching each other in the face for a good 10 minutes. I ended up calling the cops... but by the time they drove by, the fight had broken up and the red pickup truck drove away. Slightly overweight angry (drunk?) guy was still yelling outside though.

I've lived in a few scary places, this isn't one of them, but that's the first time I've ever called the police on my neighbors. I probably should have some other times... like when I lived in the hispanic ghetto of Allentown and there were drug deals across the street and gunshots were a norm. Gotta love cheap housing when you're in college.

I'm such a Bad Gal...

While right now, all I want to do is talk about how mny Phillies are the baseball champions of the world (for 2008 at least) I won't. But just know.. I'm over the moon about it and Joe Buck can suck it! He and McCarver can console themselves for the next year. So for now, my very hoarse voice will not blog about the Phillies. Until it's baseball season again.

The thing that always gets me about Halloween (which is one of my favorite days EVER) is that on November 1st... Christmas decorations are going to be EVERYWHERE. All you'll be able to see is silver, gold, red, green, and white. Those colors are the only ones that will exist for the next two months (and blue, for Jewish people). Don't get me wrong, I like Christmas. But I'd like to get through Thanksgiving before I really start thinking about Christmas.

I have actually started Christmas shopping. So far, I have my mother-in-law, my best friend, and my sister done. Everyone else I know WHAT I'm getting, I just need to spread out the spending. And the only reason my sister is done is because we just got an employee appreciation day at ULTA for my store... so I got 40% off instead of 25% off. I may or may not have also picked up some Benefit as a present for myself during that employee appreciation.

Benefit has my FAVORITE blush in the entire universe... it's called Thrrrob. And it's a true pink blush. It's supposed to make you look like you just had some fun in the sheets because of the shade of pink. That's fine by me. It's just a great color. And I picked up their Bad Gal lash. I have 5 (now 6) mascaras...
* Lash Fusion (which is $39. I love it... but not that price)
* Boujois Clubbing Mascara, which I like... and it's vinyl, so it isn't crunchy, but it is almost a metallic black color, which is a weird look sometimes. This one I didn't pay for... I received it gratis when it came out.
* Stila majorlash mascara, which is the only non-waterproof (or water resistent) mascara I own. it's really creamy. And it's only $8.50.
* Lash Injection Pinpoint (which is $19.50. reasonable.) which I also received as gratis when it came out and I LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. It's currently my favorite mascara. It's a tube mascara, so it comes off super easily with just water, even though it's water-resistent.
* BE mascara. not a fan. I don't like their mascara because you need to wait for it to dry, and it always ends up all over my face.

Well now I have Benefit's Bad Gal lash... in blue. Every other masacara I own is black, and I tried Bad Gal the other day at the store when I decided to make my eyemakeup look like baseballs (I didn't take a picture and should have. I took Urban Decay's vapor and put it all over the lid. Then I took the Urban Decay gash lip liner and drew in the baseball laces. I lined my eyes in Urban Decay zero then, because it was too much white and my eyes looked dead. But it was a hot look). I decided that i needed some eye brightening action since I had a lot of red near my eyes, and I was exhausted from staying up late watching the World Series. So I tried the Bad Gal in blue.. and FELL IN LOVE. So. I'll let you know if I continue to love it.
*

Dilemma.

I have a very interesting question to pose. There's this person I work with who is constantly putting their work onto me. Now, I haven't said no... and the times that I have, this person can't take no for an answer and basically threatens my job. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to put other people out, so I'm a helper. I don't mind helping. But when that someone lies to me to get me to do something, or takes my work and passes it on as their own? That's hurtful. Because now I'm being used. Now you're using me to get ahead, and using my work as yours, and that's not ok. Should I wait until this person digs their own grave? Or should I say something?

My First Football Game.

I've been to football games before... high school games. My high school was definitely a sports school. Those jocks were pampered at my school, and they got away with murder. For some reason though, they were great at home, they were a really polished team, but they couldn't follow through on championships. We missed it in basketball my fresh-soph year (that's when the basketball team was amazing... and footbal sucked) and they couldn't do it my junior-senior year in football (when basketball was atrocious. They couldn't be good at the same time...ever.) I was also a cheerleader. Only for my frosh year! But I know a lot about sports. I always watched sports with my dad when I was younger (I didn't care as much then) and now I'm with a sports guy.

Gene is one of those guys who knows all of the answers to all of those dumb trivia questions they ask during games. You know, the ones that feature players from the 60s and 70s when Gene wasn't alive? He's read almost every book about the Phillies. He even met Dallas Green once. He sold him a microwave in Delaware. Well now, because of this guy, I am a sports girl. I bleed Phillies red, and I go green with the Eagles.

Yesterday I went to my first Eagles game ever. This is nothing compared to high school football. The people are drunker (which, at my high school is an accomplishment. Those people are alcoholics), they are louder, and they are more obnoxious. And I loved every minute of it. My favorite part of the game, however, was not the fabulous weather, or the fact that we beat the Falcons. It was the people sitting behind me. This older couple (probably late 50s-early 60s) about halfway through the first quarter were SO DRUNK that they passed out. While holding hands with their heads together. The big guy in front of me stood on his chair and screamed in their face. Nothing. Then people started taking pictures of them and screaming. Nothing. Then people started chucking things at them. Nothing. Finally, security came over and asked them to leave... and the guy was so drunk (and confused from being asleep, probably) that he was spilling his leftover beer all over the place, and he could barely make it down the steps! My entire section exploded in cheers of "Let them sleep!"

About midway through the third quarter, they came back! High-fiving everyone in our section. Apparently security told them to walk around for a bit and have something to eat. It was crazy. Our section was also at war with the section next to us... with who could do the E-A-G-L-E-S- EAGLES chant better. We won. Clearly. It was one heck of a game. All of Philadelphia is totally charged. This weekend was a great weekend for Philadelphia. The Flyers beat the NJ Devils...twice... Penn State won against OSU... The Eagles beat the Falcons... and now the Phils are up 3-1 in the World Series. Sunday was a great day for Philadelphia...because the Phillies TECHNICALLY won two games that day because of the rain delay, AND the Eagles won.

I also still hate Joe Buck. And still wish evilness and sickness on him. I hate that guy. And Santa sucks.

Joe Buck can suck it.

...I choose to ignore yesterday's game... and the fact that the homeplate umpire is blind.

Instead, I wish to share my hatred affair with Joe Buck. Joe Buck was a terrible choice to comment the baseball post season (or fall classic, if you will) on Fox. I know Fox slobs all over Joe Buck, but he A. hates baseball and B. hates the Phillies. If you listen to his coverage of ANY Phillies game he is unabashedly rooting for Philadelphia to fall on their face in embarassment. Back during the NLCS, when the Phillies won away at Dodger Stadium for the first time all year, my best friend Joe Buck described Matt Stairs' homerun as "devastating." Um, not for Philadelphia!

Last night (I'm unignoring the game for the moment simply to Joe Buck-bash) when Shane Victorino made a spectacular in-field single which easily could have been more, and may have scored a run if it hadn't been for Iwamura, all Joe Buck had to say about it was what a wonderful 2nd basemen Iwamura is and how great of a play he made and oh yeah Shane's on base. Any time he could give Philadelphia a compliment, it's backhanded... and it somehow manages to spin it in favor of the Rays.

My favorite is how Joe Buck continues to harp on the past. EVERY game where Lidge comes in to close he brings up 2005 when Lidge blew a very important game. When he didn't play for Philadelphia AND IT WAS THREE YEARS AGO. The only blown-save that Lidge has this year was during the All-Star game in July, and he brings THAT up every time. And last night, what does Fox do? They show the Blue Jays beating Philadelphia in 1993 in Game 6. How many sports commentators does it take to piss off an entire city? One. Joe Buck. Seriously Fox, you aren't winning any fans in the city of brotherly love. Not only do you have Joe Buck AND Troy Aikman comment on Eagles games, but you throw 1993 in our faces? During the World Series? I'm waiting for Phillies phans to boo the crap out of Joe Buck, all of Fox, and the entire Rays team.

Rays fans, I'm sorry, but there were 5 of you before this year. And all 5 of you cannot compete with the passion that is Philadelphia sports phans. Go ahead and take your stupid cow bells that have nothing to do with the city of Tampa Bay whatsoever and shove it. We are the city that celebrates 10,000 losses. We are the city that parades Broad Street in the middle of the night. We are the city who builds personal shrines to Willy Penn asking for forgiveness for building something taller than him, and pleading with him to let Philadelphia win another championship.

The other thing that gets me all riled up while listening to baseball on Fox is that they keep saying "This is a franchise record for the Rays post-season." What post-season? This is their FIRST WINNING SEASON IN FRANCHISE HISTORY. Of COURSE it's a franchise record for their post-season...IT'S THEIR FIRST ONE.

If Fox wants to win back some favor with Philadelphia... you only need to do one thing. Let Harry comment. Just for a few innings. That's all we ask. And yes, he's an employee of the Phillies. But guess what? Harry's SON is an employee of the Rays (he's their commentator). This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! Capitalize on it! Harry Kalas is a LEGEND in baseball. He has one of the best voices in broadcasting, and you have the chance to have a father-son broadcast from opposite sides of the WORLD SERIES and you don't take it? Come on! There is nothing I would have loved more than when Chase Utley hit his homerun in Game 1 to have heard Harry say "It's outta here!" I love that man. During the 7th inning, I had gotten so pissed off at Joe Buck that muted my television and put on 1210 so I could hear Harry.

Oh, PS... I ordered that shirt from Son & Heir on Wednesday... and it got here today! I was told it wasn't going to be here until Saturday or possibly Monday, but it's here now! And it's wonderful. Now I just need a shirt with Harry's face on it that says "It's outta here!"

Phightin' like it's 1980

Game 1 of the World Series is tonight... and I'm so pumped that my Phillies are in it!! Usually, I could care less about the WS because I hate the teams that are still in it, but this year I think it's going to be a real phight. I think that the TB Rays are a good matchup for the Phils, and I'm not sure that they could have beat the Sox. The Rays are beatable.

I love how all of these news outlets are saying that the Rays are a slight phavorite to the Phillies this year... when the two teams haven't played at all this year! They haven't played each other since 2006!! I really think that it's going to be a good series, and in all seriousness with just a little bit of bias, I think that the Phillies are going to take it. I think it's going to be tough, but I think they'll win the series. For the first time in 28 years. Breaking the curse. WOO!

I love that one of the stations that I work for carries Phillies games and Eagles games (we're a political station that is sometimes a sports station. Don't ask.) because we often have sports parties. This morning, we had a big pep rally at a local sports bar and went nuts! Last time we had a pep rally it was when the Eagles were in the playoffs... and FOX news came out to cover our pep rally. This year it was just us, but we had Al's Sporting Goods there selling stuff as well... and they gave us station folk a li'l discount, so I got Gene a National Champion Tshirt. We have a lot of NL-East champ stuff, but no National League Champion stuff. They only had adult L and XL, which would be a dress on me, so I opted to not get one and make Gene owe me.

Sunday is going to be very interesting. Word is still out on whether or not Gene is going to go to the World Series (I have a maybe possibly chance of getting ONE and only ONE ticket to the World Series Game 4 on Sunday in Philly... and I think I'd be homeless and single if I didn't give it to Gene) but we'll be at the Eagles game. Probably wearing Phillies gear. In fact, I expect the ratio of Phillies to Eagles gear to be higher. I also expect to hear a Phillies chant or two.

note: the picture at the top is actually a logo for a T-shirt that I WANT REALLY BAD because it's awesome. The company is Son & Heir Apparel, and if you think their shirt is as awesome as I think it is, here is their website: Son & Heir Apparel

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Halloween. My favorite commercial holiday...ever. Because A. it has a religious (re: Pagan, but whatever) origin, and B. it's an excuse to get dressed up like a weirdo, and no one can look at you funny for it. I'm a big fan of making costumes and coming up with concepts and whatnot. Last year for the big poker Halloween party we have in Jersey ever year, Gene and I (and our friends Rich & Deb) dressed up as the Flintstones and the Rubbles... since we're shorter by a lot, we were the Rubbles. I happened to have 5 yards of light blue satin and the perfect pattern for a Betty dress, so Gene's mom made my costume for me, since I haven't used my sewing machine in a while.

This year, we're going as "People who are hard to find" and Gene is going to be Waldo, and I'm going to be Carmen SanDiego. It's going to be awesome. Gene's mom is making Gene's shirt (you have NO idea how hard it is to find a red and white horizontal striped long sleeved t-shirt or sweater) and I'm making the Waldo hat. I have to stop at Michael's for lunch today and pick up circulars and white & red yarn. For mine, I need to find a red fedora like hat... I'm thinking Boscovs or Walmart and raid the Red Hat Ladies section... and I need a red trenchcoat. I found one at Old Navy for $99... but um, no. So I think I need to hit up Goodwill and see if I can find a tan one... and either dye it red (not sure how yet) or spray paint it red. I know that I can turn my washing machine into a dye vat... I'm just afraid to. 'Cuz you know as soon as I do, I'm going to wash whites.. and they'll end up being pink. Why can't I have access to the dye vats in a costume shop somewhere!? Bah!

My other red hat option is to buy a black cowboy hat and just cover it in red fabric. We'll see what happens. I also think I need a long red-auburn wig, because my hair is short and black.

Bare Escentuals...you are my frenemy.

I had training this morning for BE. In Jersey. So all that sleep I needed to catch up on? Gone...because I needed to wake up THREE HOURS EARLY today so that I could make it to New Jersey in time for training at 8:00. And because I live in Delaware, I had to drive into Philly up 95N first to get on the Walt Whitman. Those of you who are not from this tri-state area... it's a nightmare. Luckily, most of the rush hour is AFTER 76-E (aka the Walt Whitman) by the Vine St. Expressway, but it still is usually not a picnic. Luckily we left just late enough that we missed the 5-6AM rush hour and just early enough to miss the 7-8AM rush hour. So that drive that was going to take us so long because of Philly/Jersey traffic only took 40 minutes... so we ended up being half an hour early for training. Oh well. I still got paid for it because I drove-ha!

BE Training was kind of awesome, but I'm still mad at them for making me wake up early. And be pretty. Not only just awake...but hair done and face done. And I get there...and there are three girls in jeans! with no make up! I woke up at 5AM people!!! Put on some damn makeup to see me!! The BE training itself was fine. Our rep from BE is amazing and I heart her a whole lot...because she used to work for ULTA and she understands. Bare Escentuals users (no offense to those who are users) are kind of crazy. And a little obsessive. So holiday time is always fun bc we always have these cute little kits and things for them. ULTA's main kit is the Topaz, which is super cute and I want one. I don't even wear BE a lot. And I want one. They have a lot of other stuff coming out also (which I won't divulge in case it's a secret. It probably isn't, but I couldn't find info on it anywhere, so I won't) but let me just say that they have some super exciting things coming out in November that make girls like me (aka dry skin girls) very very happy because my super dry skin is what keeps me from using BE as my foundation.

The best part about BE training? Free makeup. Always good. I always like free. I now have cute chocolate themed eyeshadow (including a red one... called red velvet cake. Red eye shadow? Interesting) and the SMOKEY EYE KIT which I love. I'm a big eye makeup fan. If I could get away with no lipstick ever and big drama eyes, I'm a happy girl. One of these days I'll have to post pictures of my crazy eye makeup. I'll get around to it eventually.

Can't...stay...awake...

I need to realize that I'm no longer in college. I can no longer stay up until 1:00 every night... or 3:30 on the weekends... especially when alcohol is involved. This Monday I am having one heck of a time getting through. I had a hard time getting through yesterday! We had the big grand re-opening (or G-O as we were calling it in ULTA-land) at ULTA this weekend. We've been remodeling for the past two months or so. And now it's SO PRETTY! We have a Bare Escentuals boutique... and a Benefit boutique (AND BENEFIT! Super excited. I heart Benefit!!) and a Smashbox boutique! It's super pretty. And so much more organized. However, because of G-O, I had to work extra this weekend. All day Saturday, all day Sunday. And twice during the week this week, ontop of Bare Escentuals training in Deptford NJ Wednesday morning (8:00 am in Jersey. Ew.)

Saturday night I went to see The Rocky Horror Show (not Picture Show. Actual play.) We were supposed to see the 8:00 show, but Heather the costuming wonder had to work until after 10:30, so we pushed it to the midnight showing. I didn't get home until 3:00 in the morning. I was so tired. This was in the middle of the ULTA G-O. I didn't have too many crazytown clients, but every day I'm in ULTA... I lean more and more towards getting my esthetician's license. I really think that I'd be good at it. Right now I need to focus on catching up on my sleep. I probably got a grand total of 12 hours in three nights. Not good. I was half tempted to take a half sick day today, but I didn't. I do need a nap though. It's getting to the point where my eyes are hot because I'm so tired. When we were closing ULTA last night, I had to walk really slow...if I walked too fast, I got really dizzy and almost passed out. It was not cool.

Stupid genetics.

My hair... I blame it all on my grandmother. It's all her fault that my hair, at the age of 24, is turning WHITE. Not grey. White. Not. Fair. I don't want to have to start coloring my hair! Because once you start coloring your hair... you can't stop. So today (in about 2 hours from now) I'm going to my lovely ULTA and getting my hairs did. I need a haircut anyway. I'm actually growing it out.

About 10 weeks ago I had my haircut at this fancy-schmancy place that charged be $60 FOR A HAIRCUT! IT COST ME $75 WITH TIP! That's about how much I spend at ULTA for a cut, highlight, and really good tip. My hair cut there is about $18 (I get half off the salon because I work there. What costs anyone else $100 costs me $50. It's great) Anyway. This woman cut my hair dry, and razor cut. The problem with that? The day of... it looked awesome. In fact, it looked awesome for about 4 weeks. When you razor cut CURLY HAIR... it doesn't grow out well. So. My hair to mostly everyone else looks fine. To me, it feels heavy, it doesn't lay right, and it feels damaged.

Hopefully Lauren will be able to make it look pretty. I'm taking my lunch break from job 1 at ULTA to get the hairs cut. If we have time (i.e. I can get back to the station by like 3:15ish) we're going to color it also. My white hairs need to GO AWAY. I also wish my hair would grow really fast. I miss long hair.

Acid Tongues and Rabbit Fur Coats

I heart Jenny Lewis. A lot. There were maybe 150 people there. Most of them were drunk and slightly obnoxious (like the ones screaming "I LOVE YOU JENNY...DELAWARE LOVES YOU JENNY" every time there was a lull). I hadn't heard any of her solo stuff, only Rilo Kiley. I need her new album. It's awesome. I almost bought a cute Jenny Lewis 2008 T-shirt. It was super cute, but since I just got two Phillies T-shirts, I figured I didn't need a new one.

I have a new guilty pleasure band out of this experience as well... Deer Tick. They're this mix of country, blues, and rock, and the lead singer is really interesting. He's one of those guys who laughs at his own jokes, but they're actually funny. He introduced me to my new favorite political song (it's a song-poem... titled "Jimmy Carter Says Yes")

Can our government...be competent?
Jimmy Carter says yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!
Can our government...be honest?
Jimmy Carter says yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!
Can our government...be decent an open?
As the 39th president...he has spoken yes! Jimmy Carter says yes!

Want to sing along? YOUTUBE LINK!

My favorite part of the show was probably how both Deer Tick and Jenny Lewis and her band ddrank Yuengling the entire time...then switched to Corona because I guess Yuengling ran out. Jenny was drinking beer as if it were water when she needed to clear her throat. Why I found this hysterical, I'm not quite sure, but whatevs. I was raelly hoping that she was going to sneak in a Rilo Kiley song, but alas no. I was also hoping for a Pinksy sighting as well, but again no. (Rilo Kiley's lead guitarist Blake Sennett aka Blake Swendson aka Blake Soper was Ronnie Pinsky from Salute Your Shorts. Sure did have a HUGE crush on him when I was like 11.)

The first band... Royal Family... man. They were painful. Really painful. The lead singer was awkward, had zero stage presence, and often sang with his back to the audience. He was constantly looking at his feet...and he was tone deaf. Every song was flat. His band on the other hand was amazing. The girl who played keyboard and did back up vocals was awesome...she had a great voice and an awesome presence. She did one duet with him...and it was the best song in the set because he did the least amount of singing in that one. Everything was just so flat for him. This will make sense to singers.. but he was going at every note from the bottom instead of coming up over the top if it so it fell really REALLY flat. He also kept constantly sliding into all of his notes, which is fine if you're on-key, but he wasn't.

The night was an overall success though. Strangers thought I was dating my friend Spencer... but whatever. Spence and I went to a local bar that you can walk to from my house and went people watching. It's a New Orleans Cajun bar... and they have this funk bank that plays badly every Friday apparently. Dockta D and the Infirmary. They were worse than Royal Family. But even worse than the band were the women (dressed in late 80s and early 90s clothes... and not in a fashion-forward way...I'm talking cut-out shoulders, giant gold belts, gold alligator heels, and south-west pattern vests) cutting up the dance floor. These ladies were having a grand ol' time, and I was having a ball watching them. If one of these women were your mom, you'd pretend you didn't know them.

I'm still bummed that I didn't get to see Tegan & Sara, but I'm happy that I didn't have to travel far from home to see Jenny Lewis (3 miles. Seriously.) and that I had quite the amusing evening. It really made me miss singing, actually. I spent all of yesterday and this morning while in my car listening to The Last Five Years on my iPod...probably scaring people driving next to and in front of me because I'm singing (and I mean singing as in acting while singing also.. which for The Last Five Years can get a bit emotional) every song. I love that music. It's music like that that makes me miss musical theatre. I keep going back and forth to whether or not I'm going to audition for Seussical in a few months. While I think it would be a lot of fun, I'd have to quit ULTA and I kind of need that job. I don't know what I'm going to do.

A Lovely Night

I ended up with the Phils tickets for last nights game...my plan of saying "I'll never win" and then winning...totally worked! So me and the Gene went to the game and had an effing blast!!! Our seats were WONDERFUL. We were right next to the hall of fame seats, so we basically had our own bathroom with ZERO line the entire game... plus food with ZERO line right behind us. Wonderful. And because it was pretty much inside, there was no wind knocking things out of my hand or off the table when I tried to put mustard on my hotdog. The view was pretty awesome too, except it was hard to see extreme left field and we couldn't see the Brewer's lineup.

The game was spectacular. I've never in my life seen a Grand Slam!! What a playoff game!! AND I ended up on fan-o-vision! Me and the goofy older couple next to us were bopping along to "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing" in between innings...and ended up on the big screen. It was awesome. My first playoff game=success! I also got a supercute women's tshirt of the NL East Champions. It's supercute.

This morning was hard getting up. Very hard. We got back home after 11:30 and I slept really poorly, probably because I was so pumped from the game. So Starbucks needed to happen this morning. So I'm currently having a very pumpkin breakfast. My first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year, and it's glorious. I'm also having the pumpkin & cream cheese muffin, even though I wanted pumpkin loaf, but whatev. It's still yummy. It's just a bit messy. Phillies playoff win + pumpkin things + Jenny Lewis concert tonight = successful week for me. I'm super excited about it all.

HERE'S TO MY BOYS THE PHILS BRINGING OUT THE BROOMS IN MILWAUKEE! Shane Victorino is the love of my life at the moment... and if he wanted me to have his babies, I totally would. I find it funny that the big bats didn't do so well. Utley and Howard struck out all night. The big hits were Victorino (2 2B, and A GRAND SLAM!!), Werth (2 2B) and Rollins (1 2B). Sabathia only gave up 6 hits... and they were all extra base hits. Every. One. Glorious. Plus FIVE STOLEN BASES. My boys were ON FIRE last night!! And major props for Brett Myers for a FANTASTIC at bat and the best base on balls (walk) ever...without which the grand slam would have never happened since there were 2 outs. And a pretty darn good hit as well. Man I love the Phillies. It's times like this when it's good to be from Philadelphia. You don't think about it being the most violent city in the US...

The Debate Drinking Game

Let's make politics fun...and play the debate drinking game! We did this last week for the presidental debate, and we drank anytime they said "Senator."

SO! For the Vice Presidential Debate (clearly more important...and probably more entertaining than the Presidential Debate) drinking game.

* Anytime they use the words "Wall Street" and "Main Street" in the same sentence...DRINK!
* Anytime Governor Palin stares blankly into space...DRINK!
* Anytime Senator Biden says something stupid...DRINK!
* Anytime Governor Palin says something stupid...DRINK!
* Anytime either candidate mentions the economy, Russia, or President Bush...DRINK!
* Anytime Senator Biden makes a dig at Gov. Palin's lack of experience, drink!
* Anytime a moderator asks Gov. Palin a ridiculously stupid question...DRINK!
* Anytime Senator Biden says the word "literally"...DRINK!

Apparently there are a bunch of these floating around now.. which I wasn't aware of until now. Whatevs. I work in a political news station, and they're having a big party at a bar later today to watch the debate (you know, us being from Delaware and all! WOO!) and they are having their own drinking game. So I decided to come up with my own rules. The only one I swiped was the first one, because that's funny. If there are any other ones you can come up with... I always love a good chuckle.

No tickets for me..

Every so often I'm blessed with comp tickets to a local show whether it be theatre or a concert. This Friday, I've scored two tickets (and I'm taking my friend Sara) for Jenny Lewis, the front woman for Rilo Kiley. I heart Rilo Kiley. It's Grey's Anatomy's fault. I heard Portions for Foxes on the soundtrack, and now I have all four of Rilo Kiley's albums and I'm working on getting Jenny Lewis's solo albums.

Earlier today... one of the girls in the marketing department asked me if I wanted ticekts to go see Tegan & Sara, another favorite of mine. She remembered that I'm a huge Tegan & Sara fan because I tried to get them to play their single from the latest cd on our internet rock station. The tickets? Are for this Friday. When I'm already seeing Jenny Lewis. Boo.

The station that I work for has multiple stations. One of them carries Phillies games, and because of that we have some Phillies perks. Like playoff tickets. Except we give those playoff tickets to clients. Any that are left over may be purchased by the staff. Today's game they had like 5 pairs of tickets, and magically five people expressed an interest. For tomorrow's game (which they are giving away for purchase today) there are I'm not sure how many pairs. I think 3. This morning there were only two people on the list for the PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE ME PHILLIES TICKETS. Now...there are at LEAST 6. Which means...I'm probably not going to see the playoffs this year, and I may cry. I was so excited this morning when I knew that it was only me and the internet manager on the list. And now there are 6 bastard people. I never win anything in raffle situations. Damnit. I really wanted to go...

...ok. Maybe I was wrong.

I admit that I haven't seen anything from 9 to 5. Because it's only in LA. And has been for the past year since it's been workshopped. Since I live in lowly Delaware, I'll have to wait until it hits Broadway in March 2009 to see it... and that's if I feel like paying the exorbitant amount that box offices are charging nowadays. I may look into preview tickets.

I have been scolded for knocking 9 to 5 since I hadn't seen it. I have seen the movie, and I've been noticing the downward spiral in the quality of theatre. I just could't see how that movie can translate into a musical that's going to catch on the way that Wicked, Rent, and Hairspray did. It's a cute movie. It's one of those movies that I categorize as bad movies you love. It's not that the acting is bad, because it isn't or else it would be unwatchable. It's just a lot of fluff. Legally Blonde is one of those movies, and so is Bed of Roses (which happens to be one of my favorite movies ever). Even Mel Brooks' latest musical didn't do so hot... and Young Frankenstein has musical juggernauts in it (Megan Mullally, Sutton Foster, Roger Bart... and Susan Stroman choreography). There's no reason that that show shouldn't have a sold out house every night.

With that said... I looked up the cast of 9 to 5. And I have to tell you... it has my three favorite musical theatre women in it. Allison Janey... one of the funniest ladies in entertainment today. If you want to see good comedy, watch Drop Dead Gorgeous. She's flipping hysterical. Stephanie J. Block...the woman who was supposed to be Elphaba in the first place... she's incredible and very underrated. And finaly, Megan Hilty...who is comedy gold. She's playing Dolly Parton's role, and she's this perfect mixture of Dolly and Loni Anderson's character from WKRP in Cincinatti (and if you have no idea what that is, RENT IT...IT'S AWESOME. I wish they would release it with the original music in it though. WKRP was a great TV show that I only discovered last year...and it isn't just funny for radio people.) I also looked up some stuff on Youtube, which is scarce since 9 to 5 is only on the West Coast, and us poor lowly East Coast folk have to wait and search on Youtube, and I now have the song 9 to 5 stuck in my head. So thanks for that. The only stage clip they have is a montage to the chorus singing 9 to 5. Which sounds pretty good. And they have a clip of Megan Hilty (which is where I got the Loni Anderson vibe... because the way she stands and a scene where she rips the boss a new asshole really reminded me of something that Jennifer did in WKRP). but that's it. Any other songs are just audio with the logo on 9 to 5 on it.

I said before that when I listen to musicals or see them... I'm looking for that song where I go "Wow... I need to sing that." 9 to 5 has that song. Get Out and Stay Out. Stephanie Block sings it... and man can that girl sing. It's really visceral. My gauge for good theatre (and this may sound really dumb, but whatever) is if I cry or not. And I cry at happy theatre. I cry HARD at happy theatre. I saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway when I was 14 (STARRING ANDREA MCARDLE WHO I FREAKING LOVE) and during Be Our Guest...I burst into tears. Because it was pretty. The next year, I saw Annie Get Your Gun...and as soon as Bernadette Peters walked onstage I was a sobbing mess. And that entrance is funny. Sometimes I'm crying because I'm laughing so hard, like in Hairspray. When I saw Wicked... I knew I was going to cry as soon as Elphaba started flying in Defying Gravity, and I did. I know that if I do get to see 9 to 5... when that song happens... I'm going to burst into tears.

When I'm wrong, I admit it. and I was wrong about 9 to 5. I hope it does well. I don't wish ill on any piece of theatre...I hope they all go well. I'm just a realist, and when I don't think something is going to work I have no problem saying it. But when I'm wrong... I say I'm wrong.

Chocolatey bacon goodness

I am a muchnie junkie. Big time. I love to snack all day long on whatever unhealthy snack is in front of me. Occasionally it is healthy (like unsalted tree nuts...which are in my desk right now) but oftentimes it's things like Doritos and Snickers bars. I've never ever been a healthy eater, and it's probably going to catch up with me one day. I've tried to eat healthy, and it just doesn't happen. It doesn't help that I hate milk and am allergic to fruit. Seriously. I eat fruit, and I die. It isn't a fun time.

Lately I've been branching out and eating new things. I am currently on a bacon kick. I love love bacon. At the wedding over the weekend, I had bacon wrapped scallops because there was bacon. I don't like seafood. But I like this, because it had bacon. Yum. I have also tried choclate bacon candy bars and they are DELICIOUS. it sounds really weird...bacon and chocolate...but I promise you it's wonderful. This company has an array of "exotic chocolate" that I am dying to try. My friend Sara introduced me to this wonderful world of bacon chocolate not too long ago, and the two of us and our friend Heather are IN LOVE.

Sara and I are also trying to gather a group of local knitters and have a little stitch-n-bitch going, but without much luck. Our last one (which was a generic crafting party) had fondue. Cheese fondue. I am proposing that we have a chocolate fondue and have the normal things (like fruit, marshmellows, pretzels, graham crackers) and BACON. It will be delicious. I'm a big fan of the sweet and savory combination in food. In addition to bacon chocolate, I also like to dip french fries and pretzels (soft or hard) in chocolate ice cream (or smoothies from Wendy's). I also dip my Fritos in cream cheese. Peanut butter is a great condiment for Poptarts as well. Any other weird food combinations I should try?

Some people cry at weddings...

I always get emotional at weddings. But now that Gene and I have been talking about eloping, getting emotional is an understatement. Rationally, I'm perfectly fine with that decision. It makes a lot of sense. It would be SO MUCH EASIER. But emotionally? Not so much. At the best wedding ever this weekend, I got a bit emotional. At the rehearsal dinner, a few people put together a slideshow of pictures of the bride and groom. And the first song they played? Butterfly Kisses. That song? Is the one that I've always wanted to dance with my father to. So...needless to say, I lost it. After Butterfly Kisses it's Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. I have a personal attachment to that song. So that made it worse. And then I started thinking about how I'm never going to have anything like this, and it took every ounce of self control not to sob like a child and run out of the room. I managed to contain myself until I got to the bathroom. This girl Lauren was in there. I've met Lauren once, but she's one of those take charge "you're not going to ruin this day" people. I now have her card, and she thinks she's planning my wedding. I'm not sure what happened.

The actual wedding? A-mazing. I had a blast. I was also *mostly* sober. That was I think my problem the day before. I did get choked up during the ceremony, but the bride started crying as soon as she started walking down the aisle, so that was about it for me. I was also sitting next to a blubbering mess (who is getting married next June) and she kept fanning herself to keep the tears from streaming down her face. That failed. The nice thing about this weekend was "the girls." All of those in "the girls" have their significant others in this little group that calls themselves The Wolfpack. I'm not sure why. But they're all really close. We get together for Phillies games (mainly opening day!) and weddings and summer parties and whatever excuse they can use to get together. Usually us girls are not invited. But! Now us girls are all friends...because we spent ALL WEEKEND together since our significant others were all in the wedding. The funniest relationship in this females of the Wolfpack group is myself and this girl Kate. Kate and I should hate each other. My ex cheated on me with Kate's best friend. My best friend had a fling (I refuse to say she dated him) with Kate's other bff's (ex) boyfriend.... so she hated my best friend. For some reason, Kate and I get along swimmingly, and we always have. She's getting married next June (read: she was the blubbering mess) and her wedding has the extreme potential to be incredibly awkward for me.

Back to D&K's wedding. Best wedding ever. I had a blast. They had a full band rather than a DJ, and these people were unreal. They played Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Maroon 5, The B-52s, whoever sings BRICK HOUSE (yup. Played Brick House. And they changed the list to "Kara's a brick...house.. and the bride was dancing in the middle of a big circle of people. And when I say dancing, I mean strutting. It was hysterical), Jimmy Buffet, K.C. and the Sunshine Band, AC/DC, and Outkast! It was unbelievable. And they were awesome. I think the best compliment of the night of that band was when someone (guy who is really picky about everything) kept saying "I love this song.. oh wait... someone is playing this LIVE." It was just incredible. We had so much fun dancing around. The bride and groom danced to Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You (also played by the amazing best ever band) and sure did rehearse their dance. They looked awesome. Kara also sang "I Will Survive" and it was awesome. It took us all a second to realize that it was the bride singing and not someone else. I couldn't tell you the last time I had this much fun at a wedding. And I've hung out with most of these people before, but the only people that I really knew were Kate and Gene. The funniest moment of the night was when the band started playing "Margaritaville" and all of the groomsmen and the boys were singing it AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS while chugging their drinks. And they were screaming the refrain (specifically the word "margaritaville") and while dinner was being served, the bride and groom did an inpromtu dance to "If I had a Million Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies... to which all of the groomsmen yelled the responses in the refrain (you know..If I had a 1,000,000 If I had a 1,000,000... I but you a fur coat but not a real fur coat that's cruel) . It was one of the funniest things I'd seen. They'd be eating their dinner and still screaming the responses. What a bunch of goofs.

The wedding started at 10am... so the reception was over by 5pm... so we walked a few blocks down to another hotel and drank in the bar. Oh, the wedding was on the Jersey Shore. The only bummer about the wedding was the 93% humidity. By the end of the night my hair looked like Monica Gellar's from that episode of Friends when her, Chandler, Phoebe, and Mike are in some tropical high humidity place and Monica looked like she stuck her finger in a socket. That was my hair. Anyway. We went to this other bar and made the bartender put the Phillies game on. Everyone at the wedding was a huge Phils fan, so them clinching the division (WOOO!!) was the perfect ending to a great night. I can't wait to do this all again in June.