A Little Birdie Loves Me

Yeah, this may not be the greatest shot in the world. And yeah, it's far away. But YEAH it's real! A little birdie sent me this picture during the Golden Globes last week from backstage in the press area:

Gawd, I <3 Tina Fey. I want to shake her hand and give her a hug one day.

My First California Christmas Experience

California last weekend with Jay's family ROCKED. Seriously, I had such an awesome time. We flew in on Saturday morning, with our connecting Southwest flights meeting up in Vegas and then flying to Burbank (I had no delays getting in to Las Vegas but Jay did; we then had a bit of a delay leaving Vegas because of snow in Utah I think, but it was way better being delayed with someone!)

Anyways, here's some pictures from that weekend, with captions. There's also a video in here of Jay playing guitar off-the-cuff in the kitchen while no one was paying attention. I noticed he was and grabbed my camera to pretend to take a picture and recorded some of it before he realized what I was doing & we had to go eat or whatever it was. Enjoy some of our lame pictures from our very fun Christmas #1!

Video First:



Now the photo album:

We drink when we are delayed in airports, no matter what time of day it is.

The start of the (literally) 24-hour long game of Risk that Jay & his family played!

Taking a break to text/look at pictures. We're so technologically dependent.

Naturally, we had to take a picture of the game before we went to bed that night to make sure no one cheated over night! Jay is green.

My first time ever playing Wii bowling.

All tuckered out from my 10 minutes of Wii Bowling (plus it was like 9pm NY time...)

We played in Claire's Accessories during a quick mall-trip on Sunday, 12/14. Sylar - I mean Jay - wants glasses for some reason...

I found the pickle hidden in the Christmas tree & went to claim my prize! (Okay, maaaaaybe I had a tad bit of help from Aunt Mary & Uncle Brett...)

All set for take-off from Burbank to JFK and wearing my headband because it hurt my head when I tried to sleep :)

God, we LOVE JetBlue...

It's Delightful From Inside (TWSS!)

It's snowing like crazy here in New York. My sister's boyfriend, Jeremiah #2, works right near where I used to work, only in a way cooler spot that directly overlooks Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District (I was 2 blocks north of the park on 28th/5th). He took this picture of all the snow in NYC and texted it to her, who sent it to me and somehow made its way onto the Internet! So thanks, #2 :)

Here's the view of the snow in NYC in Madison Square Park:

I really, really miss living in NYC.

Wait, When Did PostSecret Become So Greedy?

I'm back from California and I've got a huge post to talk about it, but first, I'd really like to finish a thought/post I started more than a week ago. As you may know, I am a huge fan of PostSecret. I have two of the books and bought my boyfriend another one of them last year for Christmas because we both love looking at this genius website. I don't think that 25% of them are real, but I do believe that 100% of them relate to someone in some way. From time to time, I'll even repost one on here that I like & want to share (find the category "PostSecret"). Like she usually does with most of the things I've come to love (cough cough Fiona Apple cough cough), Cassidy sent me in the direction of this site probably a good 2 or 3 years ago. New "secrets" are posted each Sunday on the website linked to above. I actually sent in one myself earlier this year, but it was never put up. Perhaps I should keep trying.

But anyway, my love of the website has been thrown out there. And that's what makes me so disturbed about what I found when I visited the site bright and early on Sunday, December 7, 2008:

Seems innocent enough, right? Until I started thinking. Why would a website that's hosted by BLOGGER a FREE Google-owned blogging website that I host THIS very blog on need to start begging for donations? I absolutely love this website, but right now, I'm starting to feel like this is the blogging website equivalent to the Catholic Church's Bishop's Annual Appeal. To make matter's worse, every 5 postcards or so, these appeared:

Frank originally claimed to be wanting to donate money to the suicide prevention hotline "Hopeline," but why would he need to beg for money to keep a free website running? They don't even have archives on PostSecret; sometimes you'll get lucky and the previous week's "secrets" will be up, but most of the time, if you don't catch them within the first week, you're out of luck and have to wait until the $30 book is published. And as someone pointed out in an email he posted to the website, "I would prefer any cash donations be directed to the suicide prevention hotline; HopeLine (not PostSecret)."

I can't help but get the suspicious feeling that Mr. Warren is really only trying to pay for his book tours. We're in and have been in for the last 12 months a bonafide recession. These are tough economic times and someone who spends their week reading postcards with people's darkest secrets and deepest fears and insecurities on them should realize this, too. This almost seems silly to question, since the answer is 98% "DUH!", but is Post Secret really just a business opportunity for Frank Warren?

There is truly nothing wrong with asking for help, but trying to guilt someone with the excuse, "I am desperate to keep paid ads off this site..." is really shady. Do you get some sort of tax break if it comes from donations and not from paid advertisers?

I guess there really is no such thing as a completely unselfish act and Frank Warren & PostSecret are swept up in the money-making tide. But why am I complaining? I'm still gonna visit the site every Sunday and probably buy the books I don't have eventually.

Call Me Mac-Allister Now!

This is why I'm so excited about my new, beautiful Macbook, which arrived on Wednesday. Observe my Dell, duct tape/ external webcam/speakers/mic and all next to my pretty new computer. Excuse the doofus who insisted on being a part of the pictures via Skype video.

Bigger is not better.

Observe the external speakers, the duct tape, the ghetto web cam & external headset set up.
P.S. That's my dog Strider in his Halloween costume as the background!

The next set of pictures exhibit the duct tape, just because it seems that people think I'm being melodramatic when I say my laptop was held together with duct tape:

Band-aid from Jay's dad, Jack.

Isn't she lovely? I think I should name my new Macbook. Any suggestions?

Bless your heart if you made it down this far. Now that the computer issue is taken care of, I have to go to Verizon early tomorrow to get my phone fixed. It stopped charging. I bought a new one and it still doesn't pick up that the charger is plugged in. Boooo. I hope I don't lose all of my pictures and favorite texts. That would be sad...

Do you see what I see?

One of my awesome MetroBuzz listeners brought this to my attention:


'Nuff said. Thanks Keith!

So Madonna Walks Into a Divorce Attorney's Office...

This cartoon is from the New York Post yesterday and when I saw it, it made me literally laugh out loud:

...And Found

'Nuff said.

The Ring on the Milk Carton

At least my boyfriend has a sense of humor about it, even if I don't:

How can I get this on a milk carton?

P.S. My room has become comparable to Homeland Security and/or TSA. Nothing gets in or out of it without being searched fully and routine searches and re-searches of areas of the room (aka all of it) are conducted daily. And just like in the real world, all that's come of it nothing substantial has turned up and I'm delayed getting to places I need to be.

You Know Times Are Tough When...

Jay & I saw this in a parking lot in Raleigh yesterday:

Hurricane Ike has knocked out one of the oil reserves that services the Southeastern U.S., so some gas stations are shut down while others have raised the prices higher than New York prices and set a $40 limit per trip.

But to have to sell your Hummer and advertise it in a parking lot? Now I know just how tough times are...

Angelina Jolie is Mother-of-the-Year

I'm bored. At the risk of being a little bit of a Perez-copycat, I just had these thoughts while I was killing time looking at this magazine in the bathroom before (you know when you have nothing to do, so you just finish looking at whatever's staring you in the face when you sit down even though you're already washed-your-hands-done?) & had to take a picture of the cover and add my own things:

1. Congratulations to Angelina Jolie for actually being a mother and being exhausted after taking care of her children. Let's all give her a Noble prize for being such a fucking saint. The only woman in the world to be exhausted after dealing with 6 kids under the age of 8. Duh.

2. The thing that is wrong with Madonna's face is that she's old, she works out too much, and she's had about 19 too many plastic surgeries.

3. I'm cranky, but let's call it feisty.

The Cooch Couch.

This may be the greatest furniture ever:





Found them here: http://31504.livejournal.com/50971.html

Hilarious.

Entering the World of Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Fantasy

Enough of all the depressing airline posts! Although it may not seem like it, I do actually spend like a good 40% of my day NOT focusing on flying. As previously mentioned, Jay & I celebrated our one year anniversary with a trip to Disneyland. It rocked. Much thanks to "Producer Ryan" for the hook-up and the special reservation to Blue Bayou! And of course, a million thanks to Jay for taking me! :)

Getting ready to leave Ralph's apartment

Yup, we're still hammin' it up, ready to leave.

Pretty.

Splash Mountain

Hollywood Hotel of Terror, Time #1

Hollywood Hotel of Terror, Time #2

Damn, my flight to Hoth is delayed.

Space Mountain

Just a little woman, not strong enough to lift weights...

Chillin'

Celebrating our actual anniversary at - where else? - the airport!

Between my fist & my Pollyanna flower

How awesome is this picture?

Some more pictures & an article about such phenomenons. It's from July, but still crazy. Very symbolic of life in general, no? Kinda sums up the past year quite nicely, too...

Ever since I was little, it looked like fun

Ain't this the truth for all of us blessed with two X chromosomes:

Haha, at least I'm the first to admit that it's true.

Road Trip, Day 8 - In a MD/NJ/NY State of Mind

FINALLY. I'm so over talking about this trip, lol. Last day, Monday, Nov. 13. We got up & took a walk through Federal Hill in Baltimore with Mr. Bill (Tricia's dad) & got a very early lunch around 11:30am. I really do love that area. It's really cool; I can't wait to go back with Tricia again. Anyway, afterwards, we hit the road around 1pm.

We headed for Towson, because it's where Tricia went to school before she decided to get all married & move to California. Though from all the completely nuts stories that she's told me, it sounds like she crammed more into that one year than I did in all 4 of my years at Marist. I probably could've stayed in college for 3 more years & still never caught up to Trish. Yeah. So we illegally parked by the (where else?) theatre/arts building & then walked around campus for a little bit. You know, it's not a huge campus, but it still seemed so much bigger than Marist. Then again, we had 3 academic buildings (Donnelly, the Steel Plant & the Student Center so do NOT count) so any campus that has more than like 6 buildings total seems bigger to me. (Tangent: When I lived in Upper West Cedar that torturous year, I complained about having to walk 10 minutes to get to class. Claudio would tell me to shut the fuck up bc a short walk for the smart kids at Cornell was like 20 minutes. Related: we also didn't have tennis courts, the walkway & Jazzman's back in the day, either).

Tricia trying to figure her way around Towson while both in daylight & sobriety:

Yeah, so we drove around, trying to find the spot of Tricia's favorite Towson story, but she realized that most of the time she walked places, it was at night & she was usually inebriated. In fact, she wasn't sure she knew how to get anywhere that wasn't an academic/student center/place where hot lacrosse players practiced during the day. We stayed til about 3pm, then hit the road for New York. As soon as we got onto Rt. 695 (I think...), it started pouring rain. We drove all the way up Rt. 95 in it.

Randy texted me sometime while we were on the Jersey Turnpike & told us that we should come by his house. We're like, "Sure, why not? Let's delay going back to the actual world for another 2 hours!" So it's pouring rain & we get onto the Garden State Parkway. I call to verify directions not once, not twice, but THREE times. I get the "You're going the right way, leave me the fuck alone until you're here, I'm busy being a pothead" speal. We drive for about 10 mins before we realize that we're definitely going the wrong way. In the pouring rain. We finally get to the right exit & call for more directions & he gets us somewhat lost again. He can't help much bc he doesn't know street names (seriously?!). Figures that when we start naming places & we're near a mechanic, he knows where we are. The moral of the story? Princess Cupcake Assface is an idiot.

Yeah, so I'm totally outing Princess right now: Not only does he actually live on a river ("Colleen. It's Randy. I'm drunk & peeing in the river..." remains my favorite drunk voicemail ever), but it's RIGHT in his backyard. And there's a houseboat. With a kitchen, bedroom, 2 flatscreen tvs, shower, etc. Yeah. Pam & Vinny told us they tried to get him to not be so lazy & learn how to sail it so he could take it wherever (Vinny actually sailed it to Marist once, apparently), but the coolness of that was no match for the coolness of Mary Jane. We went to a diner, where they naturally made fun of me (see video) and then Tricia & I finally left for NY. Here's the video of Tricia's first visit to a diner in 2 years (they don't have diners in CA).

My favorite view of the city is from the BQE & I'm glad it stopped raining by the time we crossed the Verazano. It's such a gorgeous skyline, seriously. I said it then and I'll say it now: We traveled through the entire southern part of the US & nothing, nothing quite made me feel like I did seeing NYC. Maybe that's totally dorky, but it's true. We got home around 11:30pm, completely exhausted. I think I slept til 1pm the next day (Tues, Nov 14), which is crazy bc usually 10:30am is my sleeping late limit. It was so worth it though. If I could do it again, I would in a heartbeat.

Everybody say "Awwww" at Randy's 2nd grade picture! Can little Randy say, "Colleen wins this round."?

Road Trip, Day 7 - Baltimore At Last

I'm kinda getting tired of talking about the trip, so I'm going to try to do the last 2 days quickly. We got up early on Sunday, (Nov 12) - around 5-5:30am - & hit the road after grabbing a quick breakfast in the lobby of our little motel. We weren't much into the talking at first since it was early, so we decided to put on the rest of Van Wilder, which we had started watching on my laptop the night before in traffic. Yes, it was obviously the smartest thing to do. Randy might praise Tara Reid's acting skills, but personally, I'm not sure how Tricia was able to not want to crash the car everytime she came on screen (just kidding - American Pie & Van Wilder are the only 2 Tara Reid movies that only make me contemplate sticking things through my eyes, not actually seriously consider it; that honor is saved for special movies, like Josie & the Pussycats).

After briefly detouring in WV after missing an exit, we finally arrived in Baltimore at Tricia's dad's (Mr. Bill, as he's known) apartment in Federal Hill at around 2pm. Tricia wanted to say hello to people, so we walked to a neighbor's house where people had congregated to watch the Titans/Ravens game. Afterwards, we walked around the Inner Harbor of Federal Hill (that area is GORGEOUS) & grabbed a drink at a local pub. I was in Baltimore with Trish back in the very beginning of April (she came out for Cassidy's 21st so the 2 of us + Ian went to Elizabethtown to celebrate, then the next day Tricia & I went to her dad's for the night). I had met many of these people & seen some of the sites made famous from Tricia's childhood/college days at Towson stories. Um, can I just say that Poughkeepsie totally gypped us by not having a designated area for bars? Yeah, Toucans & Darbys were right next to each other & theorethically you could walk from Foxhole to Mahoney's or Renni's if you don't mind the potential mugging or raping, but Baltimore/Towson kids have - or at least had when Tricia went to school - this thing called the Source (I think). From what I understand, it's a warehouse full of bars that the college would drop students off & then pick them all up by bus at like 2am.

Afterwards, we went back to the apartment for a little while before heading out again to say hello to another neighbor & then went to dinner. Her dad's on/off-girlfriend, Irene, came with us. Afterwards, we went to this place called Metropolitian that had what could quite possibly be the greatest invention ever: the Expresso Martini. Yes, that's right. A lot of caffeine mixed with alcohol. And they actually tasted really good, too. Mr. Bill is so cool. It's not surprising that Tricia's so outgoing; her dad has so many friends & everyone in Federal Hill knows him. They used to joke that he was the mayor. His face his on a mural inside one of the bars, too!

We went back to Mr. Bill's place after that. Tricia & I decided to grab one last drink to celebrate the end of the trip. We were tired so we only stayed out long enough for one drink & actually had a somewhat serious talk. It's funny that we spent so much time in the car together & shared so many stories of things that have happened to each other since we last saw one another on April 6, but never really had a serious talk, about stuff like the future & things that have happened lately that have hurt us or bothered us, etc. I finally told someone about my different (as in not one specific thing) issues from this summer in their entirety, rather than the different bits & pieces I confided to different close friends bc I didn't want to talk about anything or be crazy & annoying by ranting (you know, cause getting inebriated was obviously the healthier option <<rolls eyes>>. Hindsight, hindsight). We talked for a while, then went home & went to sleep.

Waaaay too close-up video of yours truly praising the wonders of the Expresso Martini. Please note my new cap, which I managed to wear a grand total of 6 days before coming to my senses abandoning it, which is a record for me & fashion accessories.

What do we have here? Visuals?!

Finally at Mr. Bill's Brownstone.I look like I haven't slept in 8 days. Handlebar jokes not included.
With Irene & our Expresso Martinis. I still look like shit, ugh.