that fake made-up buzzword “syncrosity” is getting an invitation from one group of friends to go to the coney island polar bear swim, and finding out upon checking in with your tentative brunch friends that they had been secretly thinking of swimming too.
all reports seem to point towards it being awfully good weather for a swim (50s, perhaps rainy) too, so obviously this is something that is Meant To Be. I am so dorkily excited!
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Even though I say every year I want to make it to 100 books, this is the first time I’ve really done it, since I’ve started keeping track. rock’n’roll. So to celebrate, here are some dorky book stats:
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96. A Mother’s Gift by Britney and Lynne Spears
97. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
98. Lion in the Valley by Elizabeth Peters
99. The Deeds of the Disturber by Elizabeth Peters
100. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
101. The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters
102. THe Crocodile, the Snake, and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters
when I found out that Britney Spears wrote a YA book, I had to read it. and it was at my library! it also wasn’t that bad. It’s a decent addition to my list of BOOKS WRITEN BY CELEBRITIES.
The Worst Hard Time won the National Book Award this year, and I drove home listening to an interview with the author on Fresh Air. I went straight into the library and picked up the book straight-away, and told the librarian how excited I was to read it! she was like: “oh?” I don’t think my dedication to picking up a book right away impressed her.
Look forward for dorky book stats!
January: Received word that I had won the PE. YAY. Continued to attend physical therapy 3x a week. Enjoyed the tangible sensation of sucess as my muscles obviously and quickly responded to the treatment. Bought lots of long socks. Discovered bento boxes and magic erasers.
February: Presented thesis at Water and Environment Association meeting. Received a gold star from knee surgeon, dropped to 2x physical therapy and 1x gym workout in order to stretch out PT from insurance as long as possible, and then 1x PT and 2x gym workout. First blizzard with the Insight made me realize why some people don’t like to drive their nice shiny new cars in snow. Kicked off the new year with yummy vegan dim sum and lovelier ladies. FINALLY painted my bedroom. Mardi Gras party in PGH. Got an office at work b/c we ran out of cubicle room in the office.
March: Continued PT at 1x a week until insurance ran out. really worked hard at moving into apartment in preparation for party in April. To baltimore with crafty girlfriends. I am “the crispy noodle on the vegetarian salad of life.”
April: Started running, for real, for the first time in 2ish years. Finished the apartment including the hanging of heavy things. Sewed a skirt. Celebrated my birthday and “housewarming” in my apartment. Accidentally became a Mary Kay lady. Kelly’s bday party in PGH and Joy’s baby shower. Still haven’t finished corn baby.
May: Presented thesis at conference near Atlantic City. Spring cleaning and seed planting. Had first 60 mph tank of gas in insight. Serge and Tara’s wedding in MD. New project that will rule my life kicked off. Heart broken. Got new pink Razr phone.
June: Sad Sad Sad. Fell upon the bosum of my family. Sewed a skirt. Attended Mary Kay workshops and meetings. CSA started. Bought window fan for apartment. Dorky purchases of month: worms and eco-swiffer (a sh-mop). Received worms and worm bins! strengthened connections with lots of girls and started lovely dinners and drinks gatherings in earnest. Made a fez.
July: MK debut party. Started couch-to-5K. Prepared for eye dr. by wearing glasses for a week, and that means also wearing cataract style sunglasses over my glasses [[HOTT]]. Annual union picnic at the great escape with my lovely family. 3-D birthday party. Visit to Ranger in CT. Rock’n’roll shows. So very many vegetables. Car vs. Truck Tire, truck tire wins. found second new car dealership. japanese dollar store.
August: Got car back all repaired and shiny. Rock’n’roll show. Trained for 5K. First beach vacation of the year with michelle and family. Extra hotness inspires feelings of punk rocker street cred b/c I don’t have an A/C. Food posse! BBQs and new babies. Worked until 5AM so as to be able to take second beach vacation in Assateague, featuring fixing broken tent poles, new and life altering sunshade, breaking the corkscrew and using pliers instead, and also, phone theives. Got new phone, and thank goodness for phone insurance.
September: Realized I was a valued employee, accidentally almost got another job, received instead a promotion and raise at current job (unrelated events). another rock’n’roll show. Ran 5K, and did pretty well. Worked worked worked.
October: Pirate Band. Office Party in Philly. Chihuly exhibit. Sewed two skirts. Sheep and wool festival with stepsisters. Alumni auction and casino night with ladies. Lots of quality time with Rachel. Trip to TN to help pack up Gramma.
November: Mariss’ bday party in PGH. four year anniversery of blog. Bought awesome new boots, and oh, some other shoes. instituted moratorium on shoe shopping. Reupholstered couch. Rediscovered sardines. had legs waxed for first time ever. Thanksgiving in albany, including trip to peace pagoda and insightful and thought-provoking discussion on anticonsumerism.
December: office holiday party. incredibly lovely cocktail party with beautiful food and interesting guests. sewed new party dress. holiday party in PGH. luncheon at the CIA (not that one). decided to quit MK. one year birthday for wee car. surprise additional raise at work. Xmas in albany with (primarily) my nephews. Extremely hectic last few weeks at work.
So this year started out with rehabbing and recovering from surgery, and then midyear I started recovery from some serious grief. It’s been a year of building strength and serious forced growth. All that said and I know I say this every year, but: 2007 will be the best year ever. I have made a lot of positive changes at work, at home, and inside my charming brain. Yay me. Happy new year y’all!
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I don’t know if I mentioned before that my brother wanted my dad’s old rifles, and so my dad dropped them off at my house on his way north from TN to hold until my brother got a gun cabinet. maybe because I had two rifles on the top shelf of my coat closet and that is a little freaky. I mean, seriously. I’m a single girl living alone, I don’t need to give a potential stalker any MORE reasons to break into my house, you know? but now that the guns are out of my hands I can share with y’all this hilarious interlude of my life.
so, thursday night I worked until 5AM getting a report off to the PM. I went home and slept until around 8, and then packed my car. I got the guns out of the closet and made sure they were well wrapped in the old pink chenelle bedspread dad had packed them in, and put them in my car. I also grabbed my clothes, laundry, all my gifts, wrapping paper for all my gifts, fixin’s to make sweet and spicy nuts, snacks for the car, a bottle of wine as a hostess gift, and a 1/2 bottle of wine leftover from my cocktail party.
And it wasn’t until I was halfway to work that morning that I realized I was travelling with two rifles and an open bottle of wine. Ha! Plus, because I was so tired the drive up to albany was torture. I had visions of falling asleep at the wheel, crashing, finding myself surrounded with police officers standing around checking out my smashed bottle of wine and exposed rifles. YIKES. Lucikly that didn’t happen. And luckily the guns are out of my house.
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a lovely friend of mine named stellargirl tagged me to do a five things meme. I did a six things meme a while ago, so I’m going to try and come up with five totally new and hitherto unknown things about me. It’s hard, because I have been pretty up front about things here, and also, because most of the people who read this blog are actual real life friends and/or my mother. but I’ll do my best.
OK. so now I’m supposed to tag 5 people. The thing is: most of my friends don’t have blogs. so I’ll tag some of you readers to answer in the comments – Kelly and Kathleen. joy, jesse (if it doesn’t offend your content scheme), and stacey (you can think of 5 more secrets too!), y’all are tagged too!
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Monday: best day of the bunch. was tired from the pittsburgh trip but compensated with a manicure. not too shabby.
Tuesday: worked until roughly 4AM. had a horrible, no good, very bad time. little fight at work with a dude who didn’t even START working on my stuff until monday, and then might have fibbed a little about it. yuck.
Wednesday: found out about poopwater. BIG fight with dude who didn’t get me my stuff. it involved several back and forth emails, several urgent voice mails from him, a call to his supervisor, and a sad email written by me to the PM apologizing for the delays and the frustration. UGH. had to leave to clean up poopy storage unit. yuck.
Thursday: MORE WORK. when will it end! stayed until 5AM getting report totally done and emailed to the PM.
Friday: slept in a little. drove to edison for work with my manager, worked hard all day, left at 3 to drive to mahwah for a review of one of my supervisorees, left at 5PM and drove to albany. nearly fell asleep on the drive.
the best part of the week was definately realizing as I drove to work this morning that I had two rifles and an open bottle of wine in my car. I am classy! and also, lucky to not have gotten into an accident! how would I explain THAT situation?
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kelly might be excited to learn that I had my very own fecal fountain (TM Kelly) experience last night…
so, during the day I got a call from my super who told me that there was a systemic and building wide plumbing issue, and hey, there was a leak in the basement so I had to clear out my storage unit so they can do the repairs. sure, I thought. no problem.
so I worked hard for the money and then when I got home at around 9, I went downstairs and discovered that the leak and TRAVELED INTO MY STORAGE UNIT. YUCK. so there was poopwater in my storage unit! LUCKILY, it was only in a small area, and LUCKILY my important boxes were on top of plastic containers, and LUCKILY only a few books (that were moldy anyway) and a box of papers from college and graduate school (which I just needed a good reason to toss, to be honest). but the rest of the stuff I had to stack in the back of the basement, because there were no open units for MY STUFF. and then I didn’t want to move the poopwater stained garbage, so I got the super’s ok to leave it in my unit. apparently, though, the landlord went to the building and walked around and got pissy b/c I hadn’t totally emptied my storage unit. the super said he told her that I had to empty it out totally. so I called the office and had a conversation with his assistant, where in I used words like “PATHOGEN” and “BIOHAZARD” and “HEALTH AND SAFETY” and “COMMON AREAS” and “SMALL CHILDREN.” when she said no one else minded tossing the garbage and I said “Maybe that’s because they’re not environmental engineers like me, and don’t know the risks.” she said she’d let the landlord know and I asked him to call me if he had any more concerns, because I was trying to be accommodating but honestly, PATHOGENS.
after that I made notes of everything and called the super again. she said that I had done a great job and they took me seriously and that I didn’t have to clean it up and also SHE didn’t have to clean it up. Good, because I didn’t even get into identifying common pathogens that might impact us, like e.coli or hepatitis c. of course, I missed a call from my landlord tonight, so who knows what HE was going to say. but I am totally not able to do anything with my stuff, or with the poopwater garbage, because I’m at work right now and won’t be home until midnightish probably. so there. blah.
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my mom left me a message asking me who this JOHN was that I was writing about on my blog. either she’s behaving in a classic “well-meaning mom” fashion, or she was so intrigued by your mystery last name that she couldn’t help herself and had to ask. ha!
confidential to my mom: YES I know you’re reading this. heh.
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One year ago today I picked up my insight. And this sunday I rolled over 30,000 miles on my way home from pittsburgh. tomorrow is the 30K service, and I need to find a detailer or someone who will wash the car down inside and out and but good as a nice little treat. happy birthday insight! I’m so glad I found you.
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it’s a good thing that mariss keeps reminding me that I am The Man, because I’m at work still and it’s 11:21. there were several events that culminated to this occasion: dude who does figures never did them, even though I constantly reminded him of the deadline and he constantly assured me that he’d be done with them “tomorrow.” also lovely lady who is normally totally on top of things apparently blew off my project in the face of louder and more masculine blowhards, and we are both at work refining the calculations. also, I have a confession that many of you may be totally jaw-droppingly shocked to learn: I am a big fat procrastinator. so when I say I am at work at this time of night, you should also know that I just exhausted the internet and am finally ready to get down to work. (though in my own defense I did have a meeting from 6:30 to 11 with the lovely lady, and we did have order-in chinese food. so it wasn’t all goofing on the internet. just the stuff I should have done during the day. shoot.)
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My friend Lorelei raved to me about king oscar brand sardines so I had to get them. She even has a little rhyme, which I can’t remember for the life of me. I hadn’t ever tried them before because they don’t seem to come in flavors in my grocery stores, just oils and water. here is a terrible photo of the can wrapping:
the back says something about the sardines being caught in the sparkling fjords of norway. if you should know anything about me, it’s that I love fjords. I love the word, the concept, and the potential for harnessing the power of the sea as it rushes in and out of the fjords. so these sardines are, apparently, for me. the website also points out that the more fish in a can indicates the higher quality. so I shouldn’t have been so impressed when I popped the fish can open and found these lovely morsels waiting for me:
they were so beautifully even and glowing with good sardiney health! I was amazed. the tasted awfully good, too. I have to admit that these were my first sardines in olive oil, and it was awfully great. this, however, was the exciting part:
look! a little tail! some of you might find this nasty or gross, but to me it indicates a sardine that was packed with extreme care and gentleness. usually there isn’t a tail and the sardine is kind of messed up in the can. these sardines were firm yet tender, and had wee fish parts still on them. the spines weren’t too bony or crunch either, which is always a good thing.
so, I would say that lorelei is 10,000% percent. king oscar sardines ARE the best. these were superawesome, and I would highly recommend.
I had so much fun at the holiday party starring mariss and kelly. there wasn’t any traffic getting to or from pittsburgh, and also, there were new and old friends, and also, latvian breakfast for two days straight! I love pittsburgh, but mostly, I love mariss and kelly. as I lay in the tiny bedroom I imagined a world where I moved in with them and we all lived happily ever after. Don’t worry, kids, my job doesn’t have a PGH office. Yet.
this is NOT a photo of mariss and kelly and I, regardless of the context that immediately preceeds it. It is BRUCE and kelly and I. just saying. don’t bruce and I look like twins? it’s in the cheeks and the nose and potentially the squinty eyes. not that I’m saying bruce has squinty eyes. well. moving on!
jesse was there with his plates and screws and his crutch! and his lovely wife aurora!
there were a couple of babies, one of whom, I’d like to think, had his first long-arm-kari selfphoto taken.
I DID finish my dress, but the photos came out so full of flash that I think I’ll have someone else photograph me in daylight so y’all can see it. it came out pretty wonderful, if I do say so myself. ahem.
and did I mention latvian breakfast twice? thank you mariss and kelly! you are again the hosts with the mosts!
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At the party Sat. night I spent some time with a certain Mr. John P who’s last name rhymes with seltzer only without the t. He is, theoretically, going to be looking for a blog shoutout. he gave me permission to use his last name but after all the google stalking I’ve done in my day (what?) I don’t want to take the risk that someone googles “john [lastname] sardines” and finds my blog, and makes assumptions that he loves sardines. I don’t know if that’s true, see, and I would hate for him to get a reputation.This is John P[last name withheld]:
I didn’t go to the holiday party last year because of catastrophic car failures, but I hear John was given two environmental assignments for the upcoming year: 1. turn off the water when he brushes his teeth, and 2. bring his own bags to the grocery store. he’s done both of these and was asking for more assignments to green his life. John-who’s-last-name-almost-rhymes-with-seltzer, you rule. here are some suggestions for green living over the next year, pick two and tell me which ones you’ve chosen in comments.
dude, also: I think John has some seriously conflicting ideas about me. when planning my pretend 30th birthday party in columbus ohio, he suggested going to a science center to see dorky “the science of star wars’ shows, and also, artsy cultural gallery walks, and also, tossing the ol’ pigskin around (that might have been for him). I mean, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other, that’s for sure. but apparently we are practically strangers. We’re going to have to refine that list of activities if columbus is the birthday town!
It just occured to me that I should have towns lobby me as if my 30th birthday party were the olympics. bring it on, america, I’d like to see what you can offer ME.
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it is so foggy outside my window: it’s like working in a cloud. which is fun, but surreal. when I got into work an hour ago it was still dark outside and as if there was nothing at all past the walls of the building.
I finished the blue dress last night! it took some staring at the pattern to figure out how to finish the straps and bodice, but it was alarmingly easy once I got it figured out. the best part about making your own dress is how, after you seam up the sides, you can put it on inside out and pin it to your body in order to fit it particularly well. I still have to hem the skirt, so maybe “finished” is too strong a word, but I’m going to wear it to the holiday party on sat.
speaking of holiday party, I’m heading out tonight for the Best Holiday Party of the year in pittsburgh. am super excited. I want to download a book on tape for my drive, but I don’t have a way to put it onto my car stereo. I asked gabulon if I could borrow her ipod dohickey but I’m a little nervous that this fancy proprietary ipod stuff means it plugs into a fancy ipod hole and not a more universally useful headphones hole. I’ll email her and see.
I’m extra tired from all the exciting dress sewing and packing and getting up early to get things done to get on the road. and the fog isn’t helping! but it’s so nice to be sitting in work and to know that in 9 hours or so, I’ll be hitting the road west. super.
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after working primo late on friday night (got the report out!) I got up early on sat. and took a bus into the city to meet my ride up to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. my alma mater’s alumni council (of which I am an accidental member) was meeting there for a special luncheon. Rocco and Xenia picked me up outside of Port Authority and we cruised upstate. It was a quick trip, and I’d brought munchkins for the ride. Originally I had lovely plans to bring croissant and strawberries, you know, something more appropriate for our big fancy luncheon at the CIA, but when you work until 11:30 you might not have a chance to stop at whole foods on the way home. Anyway, I had to break a $20 to get change for the bus fare, so it was convenient (and appreciated).
We ate in the Escoffier Resturant and I have to be totally honest: the food was good, but not as mindblowingly good as I had expected. the portions were larger than I thought they’d be (we left feeling overfull – which is NOT at all what I thought would happen!) and maybe they just weren’t plated nicely enough for the occasion to seem extraordinarily special. And I’ve had better food in pittsburgh! Maybe I am more accustomed to fine dining than I thought.
Hyde Park is beautiful. I’ve never really spent much time up there, but after eating at the CIA we were directed by a fellow alum (Class of 1948) to take the road through the vanderbilt estate and then to their home, which is the old vanderbilt carriage house lovingly renovated into a beautiful loft home. We spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know the others on the alumni council a little better. The main body only meets 3x a year, so it’s hard to get to know people at the meetings. and the carriage house was BEAUTIFUL, and we got a lot of great stories from some illustrious alum.
After that we had dinner with Xenia’s sister, and I got the 9:33 train south from poughkeepsie. After a quick trip across town on the 7 I was at port authority just in time to catch the 12AM bus, only it didn’t show up for another 20 minutes, and was standing room only. So I bit the bullet and waited for the 12:30. I was home by 1AM but penalized for my patience by having to sit next to a slightly garrulous and excessively friendly gentleman who ultimately advised me that I couldn’t find a “real man” in a book (or on a bus, I could have rejoined). When all gentle hints that I was READING were ineffective, I had to tell him coldly that I wasn’t interested in discussing my personal life with a stranger. When I got home, I was so ramped from trying not to speak to this man that I ended up reading for another hour or so. Luckily my book was interesting, and my recliner comfortable!
I was awfully pleasantly surprised in my year-end review to receive a “very good” rating and to get an additional small raise. When I got my promotion and raise in september, they’d told me not to expect an end of year raise because it was included in my 3/4 year increase. and then? I got another one! I am so excited. I guess I am holding things together pretty well. and on top of that, my boss really values the way I’ve been trying hard to mentor staff and create a pleasent working environment. (though I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to create a work environment as best they can in which they want to work.) I feel, well, incredibly competent. that is a wonderful feeling.
and then on the other hand, yesterday I bought toilet paper after being out for just over 5 days. Nice way to be responsible, no? Kleenex and work bathrooms, you are my friends.
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88. The Last Word and the Word After That by Brian McLaren
89. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
90. I, Robot by Issac Asimov (audiobook)
91. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
92. Heidi by Johanna Spyri
93. The Serpent on the Crown by Elizabeth Peters
94. The Curse of the Pharoahs by Elizabeth Peters
95. The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters (audiobook)
When I was a kid, we had an old, beautifully illustrated copy of Heidi. I read it over and over and over again. it smelled delicious, and the plate illustrations were so pretty. I have no idea where it is now, but I loved that book. it’s the only thing from my childhood that I don’t have now, that I wish I did.
Also, accidentally, it seems that Kathleen and I are reading the Elizabeth Peters/Amelia Peabody books at the same time! I listened to a couple of them by downloading them from the library. I heart that feature. it kept me company as I reupholstered my couch for 10 hours, and again as I sewed on my dress that is still not done, and also as I cleaned cleaned cleaned before my cocktail party.
It’s a few days into december already, and I’m already 3 more books down.. that means that I have a super-excellent chance of hitting 100 this year!
today I got to take the train into work in nyc. I have a client meeting at the very cool new york times building, and am meeting some people after work on the west side, so thought it behooved me to, instead of driving to edison, training to ny, training to edison, driving to the path, training to ny, training to my car, and driving home, I took the train in to nyc and worked from the nyc office all day with a break for my client meeting. this way I save a lot of time moving around the ny-nj area but also get to pretend like I live the typical nj commuter lifestyle.
I’m not very good at trains, by the way. this morning I forgot my laptop power cord and had to run back and get it, so I didn’t have time to get a ticket on the platform and lived in FEAR that they would collect tickets on that one day, and then ! I didn’t know what I would do! because I didn’t have ANY cash in my wallet. I DID have an old ticket that had never been collected between my town and hoboken, which is for the same amount of money as a ticket between my town and secaucus, but I didn’t want to have to talk the conductor into taking it. luckily it’s only 10 minutes between my town and secaucus and they rarely collect tickets. so, yeah. I almost missed my train and then stole a train ride into secaucus. sigh. not a good commuter at all.
but! I’m sitting in 1 penn plaza looking over the very weird circular roof of madison square garden and am so happy to not be in nj for the day. I mean, nj is ok, it’s definately not as bad as I thought it would be. And the whole train commute thing is probably very hard to do every day what with having to make a certain train on schedule. but it’s a nice break from the turnpike drive down to edison, that’s for sure.
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the first best thing about having a party is having so many lovely people in your home having a good time.
the second best thing is definately how nice and shiny clean your apartment is afterwards. It’s so nice. Every time I swear up and down that I will not let the clutter get the upper hand. maybe this time I’ll have a better chance of it, dear readers? only time will tell.
