Twisty

Turn Turn Turn

I apologize for having the ill communication this week. However, it’s been a week of big, exciting milestones. I finished graduate school and left my job (to begin a new one early next year). I won’t go into specifics. It’s all too fresh and personal. More importantly, you’ll be bored to tears. Suffice it to say, I can’t wait to pop the cork on some champagne tonight at Chez Mom and Dad. I’m crashing there tonight so tomorrow my mom and I can crank out several hundred delicious Christmas cookies.

More later…

Friday Five: Holidays

Happy Friday, folks! Here’s my Friday Five.

1. Do you enjoy the cold weather and snow for the holidays?

Hell no. The last thing I feel like doing is going out Christmas morning to shovel. Also, holiday shopping is bad enough without having to walk through icy, slushy parking lots.

2. What is your ideal holiday celebration? How, where, with whom would you celebrate to make things perfect?

I’m a simple gal. I would like my closest family and friends to have a nice, quiet relaxed dinner at my place. There would also be a nice bottle of Veuve Clicquot chilling in the ice bucket.

3. Do you do have any holiday traditions?

Lots. Also, this year we’re creating new ones. This year, J and I are staying home this Christmas Eve. I’m cooking a nice dinner (involving a lot of red meat) and we’re also uncorking one of the nice bottles we got as a wedding gift.

On Christmas morning, we’re scooting up to Chez Mom and Dad where we will open gifts, then eat homemade ziti, kielbasa (pronounced “koo-BAH-see”), and cookies until we have to loosen our belts.

4. Do you do anything to help the needy?

Yes. My office adopts a family. I’m in charge of the program. Also, I give a donation (on mine/J’s behalf) to an organization each year.

5. What one gift would you like for yourself?

I would wish for good health for me and for my family and friends. If you’re healthy, you have the world.

However, my guess is that this question is asking about tangible stuff. So, I guess I would like a new teapot. J and I brew our own tea at home, so I would like a functional, ceramic tea pot. The one I currently use spills tea all over the counter.

I shouldn’t complain too much. After all, I won it in a Seaside Heights arcade with my Video Poker winnings.

Unsolicited Advice

One of my friends has recently had a breakup.

After exchanging a few phone calls and e-mails about it, I decided to offer the following entirely unsolicited advice via e-mail. I'm hoping she/he will be "amused" as opposed to "pissed beyond belief." We'll see...

The Breakup To Do List:

#1.) Hide the phone when you go out drinking so you’re not tempted to drunk dial. It’s hard to make a drunken “Why-Is-This-A-Love-That-Cannot-BEEEEEEEEE?” call using smoke signals or carrier pigeons.

#2.) Don’t call/e-mail his family, friends, roommates, co-workers, pets, or mail carrier. Regardless of your good intentions, you will (alas) look like a fruitcake.

#3.) Return all of his/her stuff that wasn’t a gift to you. Make sure you’re out of the house when/if your ex comes to collect it. (Do you really want his/her old Greek Week t-shirts and Enya CDs gathering dust in the back of your closet?)

#4.) Don’t quit anything (e.g. smoking, fatty foods, a Days of our Lives addiction) for the next couple of days. (Viv used to quit smoking during big points in her life – graduation, finals, a family Thanksgiving. Never worked out well.) Give yourself license to do what feels good for a while, unless it’s, like, murder the neighbor’s cat or something.

* Sorry for being vague, I would just like to keep his/her identity secret. Some personal details have been changed.

So You Wanna Feel Like a Movie Star?

Some dear folks from my good ol' Alma Mater put together this very cool, little site. Pop in some info and you can instantly have your very own movie trailer. Think MadLibs! Think fun!

Click here to try it for yourself.

(Fill in "Chariots of Fire" Theme Here)

Two finals down...

One more to go...

Man, I'm pooped. I had planned to write something zesty and creative here as I kill time in these last few moment of blass. However, I don't have it in me. More tomorrow!

Clicks for a Cause: Jack Bog's Blog

Today, December 10th, my cousin* Jack is donating $1 to a local food bank for every click on his site (up to $1,000).

Pay him a visit and help support a good cause.

* Perhaps you can help me figure this out: Jack is my grandmother's nephew. So, he's my second cousin, right? I can never get this crap straight. Regardless, give him a click!

OK. Um. Reconfiguration Time.

Sarah just told me that Dave Coulier of Full House fame was the Alanis Morissette boyfriend who inspired the rage-filled masterpiece Jagged Little Pill.

So, it was “Uncle Joey” who single handedly destroyed her self-esteem and inspired this masterful venom?

Me: Are you serious? You’re talking about the guy from Full House, right? That guy?

Sarah: Yeah. You mean you didn’t know –

Me: No, I guess I didn’t.

Sarah: Wow. I thought everyone knew that.

Me: I need to go now and rethink everything I ever knew about music, television, and pop culture.

Guess I didn’t get the memo.

Snippets

What I am doing today after work:

-Making pork chops and Sweet Potatoes Anna.
- Working on my finals.
- Watching part two of the Sci-Fi channel mini-series Battlestar Galactica with J and Supergenius.

Oh yeah!

I'm Back!

Hello!

Some of you folks have been kind enough to ask what I have been up to in the time I’ve been gone.

Frankly, I didn’t expect to take such a long Blog break – a week at most. I feel like I was channeling Rachel Lucas a bit. Between work and grad school finals, I’ve been typing for sometimes upwards of 11 hours a day. Frankly, my poor fingers are pooped. (I’m even sleeping with those oh-so-sexy wrist supports. Roooaaaar!) Also, because of the holiday season, every spare moment is taken up with either shopping, cooking or organizing or worrying about not having made enough headway with shopping/cooking/organizing.

So, here’s a little bit of scoop on what I’ve been up to the past few weeks:

Hosting Thanksgiving
Yep. I had my first official Thanksgiving as a married gal. We were joined by J’s mom, my mom and dad and J’s friend Tony. Yeah, my salmon appetizers were a little less than appetizing but other than that, everything went off without a hitch. By far, it was one of the best Thanksgiving celebrations I’ve ever had.

Avoiding Paris Hilton
She’s young, she’s rich, she had sex in front of a video camera and now she tortures some nice, hardworking people on a new “reality” show. 10 years from now she’ll be a vague memory and, perhaps, a Trivial Pursuit question.

Having the Same, Damn Nightmare
Barring unforeseen dramas and sadistic grading policies from my current professors, I expect to graduate from grad school this December. (Can I get a woo hoo!?!) Never the less, I have been having the same recurring nightmare.

It’s set in my junior high school building. However, I think I’m either in my final semester of high school or college. (Judging my hairsprayed hair and name plate I wear in the dream, I’m guessing it’s supposed to be high school.) Just when I think I’ve completed everything I need to do, start cleaning out my notebook and take a look at my class schedule. I have an advanced math class scheduled for second period. A math class? I didn’t know I had a math class? I go in to the room and the teacher says, “You haven’t been here all semester. Don’t even think I’m passing the likes of you!” Then I wake up in a cold sweat. Ugh.

Discovering the Wonder of New Things
Here are some new things I’ve come to enjoy:
- Campbell’s Soup at Hand. I love things that are yummy and convenient!
- Organic Veggies. Better tasting. More nutritious. How can you go wrong?
- Crock Pots. I now make this pulled BBQ chicken recipe that is virtually fat free and out of this world!

Learning to Seriously Dislike Other Things
Here’s the short list:
- Group Work
- Shoveling
- Snow
- People Who Stand There and Watch You Shovel Snow (Don’t they…um…have something better to do?)

Celebrating My Pop!
My dad of Parkway Rest Stop fame has been nominated for the 2003 Weblog Awards! If you love my dad (and his blog) as much as I do, click here to vote for him under the “Marauding Marsupials” category.

So, I’m back – kinda. Throughout December, I expect to post about once or maybe twice a week if I’m feeling extra saucy.

It’s great to be back. Thanks for sticking with me.

Hugs from Jersey,
TJ