Being sick sucks monkeyballs.

I really hate being sick. I hate leaving work because I'm sick, because I feel as if I'm bailing on some obligation. I know that's silly... and I should take care of myself, but still. That's how I feel.

I'm not one of those people who comes to work when they're at death's door. I did go to work today, but that's because there are things that I HAD to get done (things that no one else but me does) and once they were finished, I went home.

I woke up yesterday feeling kind of icky... throughout the day it was getting worse. And that area right behind your jaw hurt SO BADLY (apparently, that's where your ear tubes are? And mine are CON-GESTED!!!) that I couldn't think straight. I also had one hell of a sinus headache. Convinced that I had a sinus infection and needed an antibiotic, I went to the doctor. I see the one PA that I can't stand (because she keeps trying to make me get blood work done once a year... I was tested ONCE for arthritis, and it was negative, and now she's up my butt about it) and she condescending told me that I needed to take my allergy medicine and get some Mucinex-D. She's often condescending. I'm sorry for WASTING your time, but I'm sick. So... there.

By the time I got home from work yesterday, my entire body was aching and I kept switching between being FREEZING and sweating. So I guess I have a flu...

One of the lovely ladies at Ravelry suggested a bunch of things, one being a hot toddy. Have you ever had one of those? Because they are DELICIOUS. And made my throat instantly feel better. Where were these in college!????

For a hot toddy... you boil some water, and steep cloves in it. Whole cloves. I took them out after a few minutes, because who wants to drink whole cloves? Then you put in a lemon wedge. Then you put in a few tablespoons of honey. Then you put in a shot of rum/whiskey/scotch/bourbon. I used the rum that my mom got for me at St. Marteen's. It's called Guavaberry rum? It's awesome.

Unrelated to being sick, however, was the sight of my lawn this morning. I live in the city... but in my neighborhood there is this strip of land (a parkway, if you will) that a lot of people play baseball on, walk their dogs, etc. And the parkway runs the entire length of my neighborhood. This morning.... the parkway in front of my house was COVERED with black birds. It was a scene right out of The Birds. And I thought about going inside to get my camera to take a picture... but I was seriously afraid that the flash would make them attack me.. and then I WOULD be in a scene from The Birds. And that's the last thing I need today... being sick AND attacked by HUNDREDS of black birds? No thanks.

Who has their party panties on?!?

The party started at 4pm... as expected. And went until 3 am... as expected (or rather, 3am is when I got home.) Dinner beforehand was okay. I had a poor excuse for a cheesesteak, but delicious spinach and artichoke dip with old bay seasoned pita chips. Then we hung out at the bride's house before it was time to go to Philly.

Of course, we had obnoxious bachelorette paraphranalia: pink mini tiaras... a tiara with a veil on it... NAME TAGS... and that was it. We had some interesting names. Brinks, Party Panties (bride), Tinkerbell, Wendy Moira Angela Darling (me), Tits McGee (Maid of Honor), Kitten, Rizzo, and I forget the last one. I guess only Party Panties and Tits McGee were inappropriate. "Party panties" was a phrase that was used often throughout the day. At one of our other friend's wedding a few years ago, some older woman made a comment about our friend's lack of underwear... so she told the old broad that she was wearing her "party panties." I wasn't there, but it's pretty damn funny.

I have a question though. And it's a serious one. I know that Philadelphia as well as some other big cities with fancier clubs (that charge $8 for a jack and ginger? That's the price of a martini at home!) have dress codes. As in, don't wear sneakers.. don't wear a t-shirt. Is it normal to have 50% of the men in said bar in a suit? I mean SUIT. Suit pants, suit jacket, dress shirt, and a tie. Suit. Because at one point, a dozen Barney Stinson's walked in. Together. I'm pretty sure as they got ready, one of them said, "Suit up!" One told me friend that if they had a dance off, he would win. So I started tap dancing. He went away.

For serious. Time steps. In a bar. To club music. Clearly... I'm awesome.

I was really expecting the night to be a lot crazier than it was. And I didn't have a whole lot to drink. A bit at the bride's house, a shot, and one jack & ginger (SINCE IT WAS $8!!!) that was mostly jack.. but that was it. But I really thought that people would try to mess with us and get all in our faces... and we did have some of that. We had the Barney Stinsons and the hot dog. Yup. Someone dressed IN A HOT DOT COSTUME. It's still a week until Halloween, sir. Put the hotdog costume away.

Crazy bachelorette extravaganza

I have only been to two bachelorette parties. Ever. One was very low key... a few dive bars... a few shots here and there... mostly a couple of girls just hanging out.

The second one was a family bachelorette party. We were supposed to bring underwear for the bride... the first bar we went to was open bar for three hours... and then we went to more bars and had lots of shots. I didn't pay for a drink the entire night, other than the open bar, because the second bar we went to, my cousin worked at... so EVERYONE was buying us drinks. I've never been more hungover IN MY LIFE.

I'm really hoping that tonight's bachelorette party is somewhere in the middle. Because, really? I have to work tomorrow. I don't need to be so hungover that TOAST makes me sick. But I also don't want to be the only sober person there, either. AND!!! The one thing that annoys me a little is that we have a dress code tonight! Apparently, we're not allowed to wear sneakers..which I think is annoying. We're walking around the city... I need sneakers, damnit.

The party starts at 4. 4:00 in the afternoon. And apparently they want to stay out until last call... which is 2am. That's A LONG TIME with people I haven't seen in a while. I'm really hoping that all goes well... and that I don't have to babysit anyone.

Phightin' all the way!!!

Haven't I been really good about not spouting my love for the Phillies from the rooftops this baseball season?

I will not longer be good about that. At least... not right now. BECAUSE WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES AGAIN! WAHOO!!!!

They didn't think we could beat the Dodgers... this year or last year... and we put LA in their place. They didn't think we could beat the Rays last year... and they don't think we can beat the Yankees this year. (Ok... YES the Angels COULD win three straight games. The last time that happened? 2004... Yankees vs. Red Sox. It's possible. It's even possible against those Damn Yankees. But it's unlikely)

The Yankees (and even the Angels) are beatable. They are beatable teams. They are not untouchable. YES the Yankees currently have the best record in Major League Baseball. You know what they don't have? Heart and perseverence. That's the core of the Philadelphia Phillies. That and Charlie forces them to go ONE GAME AT A TIME. Don't look ahead... don't think of what this win or this loss means... one game at a time. Tomorrow is another game... just get to that game. And it works... because look at where they are.

3peat winners in our division... two consecutive wins in the NLDS and NLCS... and we're the underdog yet again in the World Series. I like those chances. We were the "underdog" last year, too.

We're having a pep rally next Friday... day before the World Series returns to Philadelphia for the second year in a row... and I couldn't be more excited. Let's just hope that we have at least one.. if not two.. wins under our belt by then!

The Hazards of One Car.

I'm at home right now. I was supposed to be at work 30 minutes ago. Because we only have one car... and because I have a REALLY hard time getting up in the morning... Gene's mom drives him to school, and I get the car. We tried me driving him to school and then me just going to work, but I was there sometimes an hour early (ew), didn't leave earlier, and Gene kept being late because I can't get my ass out of bed.

Now. When I have his keys... I leave them off of my main keyring. Because I don't want to forget to give them back. Gene? ALWAYS puts them back on his keyring when he has the car, which is WAY less often than I. I think you see where I'm going with this.

This morning... can't find the keys anywhere. We always put them in this little basket on an end table in the living room. They aren't there. So I ask him... "Do you have the keys? I can't find them." "...Yes. Sorry."

So now I'm stuck at home... and of course I'm the ONLY ONE in my department today, so if there's some kind of funky crisis, no one is there to fix it! I've been trying to get in touch with Gene's mom for the past hour, but she isn't home and her cell is off. My last hope is my friend Sara... and I feel so terrible asking her to drive me to school (which isn't far from here, honestly. It's about a 5 minute drive.. but it's JUST too far to walk. About 2 miles. Not walking four miles and then driving to work. Sorry. If I'm walking for four miles, I'm taking a nap). She's done so much for us already with this one car business.

Not having a car = suck.

I am going to cry.

Not in a bad way. I hope I don't cry in a bad way.

Tonight, I'm going to see The Wizard of Oz at a local theatre.. it's a national tour... and I'm slightly obsessed with The Wizard of Oz. When I was in high school, I played Dorothy Gale. It was my first lead role... and I had so much fun doing it. We even took the show on a high school theatre competition, and I won Best Actress. I think I still have the little trophy somewhere at my mom's house. I was so proud of that show. It was THREE hours long. THREE. Because we put EVERYTHING back in. There are a bunch of songs originally written for the movie that were taken out (the main one being "The Jitterbug," which is a GREAT song. We did swing dancing, and I got to do swing lifts! It was awesome!)

But anyway. I'm very attached to this show... I have TONS of Wizard memorabilia... I know tons of random facts about the book, the 1939 filming (like: did you know that Shirley Temple was originally offered the role of Dorothy Gale? But they decided to make the main character 14 instead of 8, so they went with Judy Garland. And originally she had long blonde curly hair... but it made her look like a sexpot, so they changed it to pigtails) Lots of random trivia.

My predictions for this evening is that the show is going to be awesome, but that I will cry the entire time. I cry at theatre. And not even sad theatre. I cry at happy theatre.. because it's pretty. I cried at Annie Get Your Gun because Bernadette Peters was in it. When she walked onstage...I burst into tears. I cried at Beauty and the Beast during "Be Our Guest"...because it was really pretty. A GIANT CAKE came out of the stage... and they were doing a kickline on a revolving giant cake onstage... and then two giant champagne bottles came out of the side of the proscenium and had sparks coming out of them like champagne bubbles... EXACTLY LIKE THE CARTOON. It was really pretty. Spectacle makes me cry, ok?? Also I cried during Beauty and the Beast because Andrea McArdle was playing Belle... and she was the lead in the first professional play I ever saw, Les Miserables, in Philadelphia. She played Eponine, and she was amazing. I'd watch Andrea McArdle play a tree.

I cried throughout The Light in the Piazza because the music was so gorgeous. I cried when I saw Rent because I was just so excited to be seeing it. I did not cry during Phantom of the Opera. Because I saw the worst Christine in the history of Christine's. I will never forget her name, and I refuse to watch anything that she's in. I cried during Wicked because I love the show and the book, and I thought that it was an absolutely amazing concept, and I loved that it didn't change the core story of The Wizard of Oz at all. I cried during 9 to 5 (WHICH WAS SUCH A GOOD SHOW!! AND I HATE THAT IT WAS TAKEN OFF BROADWAY!!! THAT WAS SUCH A BAD DECISION!!! THOSE WOMEN AND MARC KUDISCH ARE AMAZING!!!) because the women are amazing, and being that close to Allison Janney (because I was totally in the front row) was giving me breathing problems. I cried during Spamalot and Avenue Q because I was laughing so damn hard.

I even cry when I hear certain songs from shows. I heard "As Long As Your Mine" from Wicked in the car this morning while listening to the lovely Christine Pedi on Sirius 77, Broadway's Best, and tried to singing, but couldn't because I got choked up. I cannot sing certain songs because I get too emotionally invested in them. I'm such a big emotional dork. I tried to sing "I'm Still Hurting" from The Last Five Years when I was in college... but couldn't make it through the song. I finished it. And there wasn't a dry eye in the damn house... because I SOBBED through the second half of the song.

This is part of the reason I stopped acting. I have NO problem getting emotionally invested. I have a problem becoming TOO emotionally invested...

Oh, Childhood...

My friend Sara and I were supposed to see The Invention of Lying this weekend, but after spending JUST a little more time in JoAnn's Fabrics than we intended (stupid busy cutting table on Saturdays...) and being a bit (ok, really) tired, we decided that we'd rather watch a movie at my house instead. But not just any random movie. The Dark Crystal.

Now. My mother swears up and down that I loved this movie as a child... and I watched it all the time. I don't remember this movie at all. But I do think that Jen the Gelfling looks suspiciously like the muppet version of Link from the Zelda games. And Kira the Gelfling is a little Zelda-y to me. But that's besides the point. I have a very hard time believing that I LURVED this movie as a child, because, well THIS IS SO NOT A CHILDREN'S MOVIE! IT'S TERRIFYING!!!

Whenever I watched the Sesame Street Christmas Special... you know the one I'm talking about. Everyone goes ice skating... and they are all holding hands and spinning in a giant circle.. and Oscar the Grouch is on the end... and someone (I believe it was Big Bird... that giant yellow bastard) lets go of Oscars hand and he goes FLYING across the ice and falls down a flight of stairs? I would SCREAM because I was afraid that Oscar was dead. Don't you think that I'd be effing TERRIFIED of those creepy Skeksis??? They are like the super evil cousins of the Fire Gang from Labyrinth.

There are some movies that I distinctly remember as a child, though. I used to watch The Incredibly Mr. Limpet every Sunday. Though... I don't remember it being about World War II AT ALL!! That went WAY over my 4 year old head. We also had this tape that had the Smurf Christmas special, all of the Charlie Brown holiday specials, and this weird really old Garfield Halloween special on it? Until my mother unceremoniously taped over it. I still haven't completely forgiven her for that. My brother and sister and I watched that every single Christmas morning. That and The Christmas Toy... if you watch The Christmas Toy and then watch A Toy Story... they're the SAME EXACT MOVIE except The Christmas Toy takes place on Christmas Eve, and that's it. But they're the SAME EXACT MOVIE.

The other tape that was destroyed by my mother was Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass... four hours of Lewis Carroll craziness starring Natalie Gregory as Alice. And it had EVERY person who was ever famous in the 80s ever. It was a made for tv movie musical... and it was pure genius. I compare every other version of Alice in Wonderland to this version, and none of them even come close. It's also the most accurate to Lewis Carroll's book. This movie has Carol Channing, Ringo Starr, Imogene Coca, Cid Ceasar, Anthony Newley, Sammy Davis Jr, Red Buttons, Ann Gillian, Sally Struthers, Pat Morita, Scott Baio... seriously... every person who was famous in the 80s. And the Jabberwocky. If you think I was terrified of Oscar... that damn Jabberwocky gave me some serious nightmares.

Seriously.... I should be a paid wedding crisis averter consultant. Or something.

The wedding was not without conflict. But! I did not have to diffuse any fights... nor did I have to kick any of my fellow bridesmaids in the teeth. So. I say success.

The conflicts happened prior to the wedding. I get a phonecall from the bride two days before the wedding... "I need you to stay with me tomorrow night." Okay. I was supposed to stay with our other cousin, but the bride wanted us to stay with her, so we did. With the baby. Hence, why she wanted us to stay. So I got to entertain a one month old all evening.



The bride and I stayed up and tried to get that little bugger to fall asleep. He finally did around 12:45. But then he stayed asleep until almost 6:00! It was glorious. Five whole hours of sleep.

The day before the wedding, my cousin who was a bridesmaid with me picked me up from work.. and she was NOT a happy person. Because her bridesmaids dress RIPPED!!! THAT MORNING!!! She was seriously freaking out. A friend of hers had added this lace part to a strapless bodice because she didn't want it to be strapless, but didn't like the other separate tops that David's Bridal had. And her friend did a good job, and if she didn't have basically 5 days to design and sew it, it probably would have been fine... but stupid David's Bridal took SIX MONTHS to send it to my cousin, and she got it about a week before the wedding. So she wasn't happy with the neckline. In addition to it being ripped. So what do I do when we get back from having our hair done at the salon? I bust out my aunt's sewing machine... and fix that bitch. The problem was that lace has zero give... and the top fit my cousin beautifully, but it just had no stretch, so that's why it ripped. But I saved the day.



And you couldn't really tell that I fixed it the day of the wedding.

After that, everything was pretty much smooth sailing. None of the groomsmen were in the right place during the ceremony (which is not really much of a surprise) and the priest completely skipped an entire reading... but all in all, it was a very nice day. My dress was awesome.



Everyone asked me where the one I made was...

And it starts.

I decided to wear the dress that I was wearing to the rehearsal tonight to work. Usually, I wear jeans and a t-shirt or something similar to work. And sneakers. Not royal blue, classic cut, awesome Ann Taylor dress. And black stockings. And patent black shoes. And a French manicure. Generally, this is not work attire for me.

So far, these are the comments I've received:

You got all dressed up for flu shots today? (oh yeah, we're getting flu shots today. This is the one I've received most often)

What, are you switching to sales now? Going on sales calls?

You didn't have to get all fancy just for me!

And my personal favorite...

Why the hell are you wearing a dress?

Mind you... I have ZERO makeup on. I do however have all of my makeup with me (and that's not even really an exaggeration. I have I think 80% of my makeup in this giant tote bag... and the tote bag is at least 10 lbs. I do have SOME hair products in there, but not a lot).

And already this morning? My friend drove me to work... I got to work, and looked in my makeup tote bag, and lo and behold my makeup brushes are SO NOT IN THERE... they are, in fact, at home. So I ran outside in my heels and ran after my friend's car to see if they fell out of my makeup tote, and they didn't. So we had to drive all the way back to my house so that I could get my makeup brushes. Otherwise, I'm in big all trouble. I ended up being almost an hour late to work because of it, but I would have been in WAY bigger trouble tomorrow if I had zero makeup brushes. So thank GOODNESS I looked in that bag before tomorrow morning. That would have been really bad. Because I would have been more than an hour away from home, not 20 minutes.

In the closet at work is my bridesmaids dress, my makeup tote, and my extra clothes for tonight and clothes to wear to the salon tomorrow morning. Even though I was a Junior Bridesmaid for my aunt and uncle like 14 years ago, this is my first big time bridesmaid ordeal. And I'm already prepping to have to troubleshoot something. I'm really good at troubleshooting. I'm good at diffusing possible explosive situations quietly without other guests knowing... I'm good at fixing people's dresses when they break (though I don't have my usual wedding kit with me. Needle & thread, clear nailpolish, hairspray, bobby pins, and safety pins. I was too worried about makeup and stuff). And I'm also good at calming down brides. I had to do that for my one and only freelance makeup job. For a complete stranger. Bride was FREAKING out and I managed to calm her down, hide her tattoo from her family, AND keep her mom on track. I seriously almost felt like a bridesmaid that day with all my troubleshooting.

Tomorrow I have to deal with infant duty (the bride has a one month old. He's the cutest freaking baby ever and has the most hair I've ever seen on a baby. It looks like a toupe), make sure the groom's sister doesn't make the bride cry, and make sure that everyone's makeup looks good. Especially since our photographer is our cousin's boyfriend... and I don't think he's done a wedding before... and I want to make sure that our makeup will show up in the pictures. Hopefully.. once things get started, I'll be able to drink my cosmos and have a good time.

I'm just resting my eyes, I swear...

I think my not stopping has finally took it's toll.

I'm sitting at my desk desperately trying not to fall asleep. I have not had a day off of work since Labor Day. That was my last day off. Labor Day. And Saturday, aka the craziest day of my life thus far, was just as crazy as expected.

I did have a lot of fun, and I did learn a lot of tricks from the national artist that I worked with from Bare Escentuals, but I wish I didn't have to work 11.5 hours. Standing for 11.5 hours? Not good for my back, FYI. Thank goodness for ibuprofen.

I feel like I'm asleep right now. In fact, I actually put my head down for a few seconds just because it was so hard keeping it up. And even if I wanted to go home early today, I can't. Because the ONE car that we have is in the shop today... balls to that. Something is wrong with the lights. I'm hoping it's something simple and not some wacky eletrical problem. But, still. I did get a decent night's sleep after Crazy Saturday. I still think there's a lot I could catch up on, though. And at least I don't have to finish the bridesmaids dress this week. I'm pretty sure I'd have some kind of mental breakdown and disappear for 3 days if that happened. I did that once in college. I had a minor mental breakdown and disappeared for a day.

Right now, I'm looking forward to my mani-pedi for the wedding... and getting my hair did. Though, because of the Keratin treatment, I can only use specific styling products in my hair. My stylist at this salon is going to hate me. Because I'm totes bringing my own products with me and having her use those. I can't risk this salon not having the stuff I need.

Autumn, how I love thee

My favorite season is here. I know it was here at the end of September, but I never *feel* like fall until October. I get to pull out boots... and dark denim... and lovely sweaters... and scarves.

My favorite part about fall? The smell. I love the smell of autumn. And October has the best smell. At least in my part of the east coast. There's nothing like the smell of pumpkin, burning leaves, bread, and apples. That's what October smells like to me. My other favorite smell? The air right before it's about to snow. It mimics October just a little bit. And I love it.

Of course my allergies hate me. I even took my allergy medicine when I was supposed to (before bed) and STILL woke up congested and sneezy. Oh well. I'll take a bit of the sniffles in exchange for my favorite month and my favorite time of year.

Today is my favorite day in a long while. Generally, I hate Fridays, because on Fridays I have a crap ton of stuff to do at work. But there's not a lot that can bring me down today. I have my chunky amber ring on... my dark AT jeans... a super cute sweater... and a teal, purple, and orange necklace that ties everything together. I'm meeting my best friend in Philadelphia tonight, and we're having dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, then we're going to a yarn store around the corner to meet Jared Flood! and then we're going to see Billy Crystal do a one man show. It could not get better. It really couldn't!

I haven't decided if I'm getting real dinner, or if I'm getting banana french toast. It's my favorite dish that this restaurant has, and it's so damn good.