New BFF

So, yesterday a 24 year old at work said she thought I was "[her] age." She was surprised I was 33. Heh. I told her it was just because I act so immature all the time. She said no, I just look really young.

I KNOW I don't look 24. I look 33. But still, she's my new BFF.

Date Dave

Yes, I know. I haven't blogged in a million years. I'll start again. Someday. But for now, this is AWESOME:

http://www.datedavid.org/

Come on, Ladies, fill out an application. You know you want to. Except you, Mom. You're still married. And I do NOT want to have to call David Daddy.

Kill me now

I have found two gray hairs in as many days. Life is no longer worth living. I am old. I am never going out again. I am staying home to become a Brooklyn spinster with her cats, her garden and her TiVo.

I will miss you all.

OJ ALL DAY

Pumpkin Made Me Do it

Pumpkin made me do it.

You Are 56% Girly

You're a little girly, a little boyish, and probably a whole lot indie. You have your own unique style, and it pretty much defies gender lines.

How Girly Are You?

I'm apparently not as girlie as one might think. Though some of the questions are silly. Lots of girlie girls have guy friends. I would get more manicures regularly if I could afford it (and had a dishwasher). Being tan all the time leads to wrinkles so I think it's just as girlie to be a fanatic about sunscreen. And I have pretty hair and don't want to make it less soft and shiny by using hair dye - which I think is very girlie of me.

It's apparently been so long since I've posted I had no idea there were all these blogger changes. Bad Amanda. I'll be better once my job search is over. Promise!

Shoes

Vader made me watch this the other day (NSFW unless you watch it without sound, which is pointless). And along with the Robin Sparkles video it's become our favorite youtube thing ever. And I have no idea why. It's so bizarre. But it becomes more and more awesome with every viewing. So at my holiday party on Saturday we kept quoting it all night. And making everyone else watch it. To share the bizarre, as we like to do. We also started making up our own horribly offensive versions that tie into other horribly offensive jokes we have going, but I won't share that with y'all. Because despite what my closest friends might get to see from time to time, I am a really nice person. Honest!

We also wondered who the hell would come up with such madness, so the next day, having no holiday crap to do, I did some research (which took all of two minutes) and it turns out it's from this guy. Who has other songs and videos. And t-shirts. I almost bought a t-shirt. Instead I settled for buying the album from iTunes.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy the madness as much as Vader and I did. Or do. I'm sure we'll be saying "shoes," "deck" and "betch" all through our breakfast date tomorrow. We need help.

Post Holiday Party

So, my party is over, my cards are mailed (none of you apparently want cards for yourself), my gifts are mailed and I'm feeling like I have nothing to do. I do have things on my to do list, but until I pack for my trip to North Carolina there isn't anything I MUST DO like there was before. Bizarre. I'm sure I'll adjust.

My holiday party was nice. And fun. Vader showed up early as she often does and helped me clean and prep. Iolanthe and Muffy showed up a little later and helped too. Though there wasn't much left to do as being unemployed helps one stay on top of things. Lots of folks showed up early and then dashed off so that the party had wound down by about 11. Though the last guests didn't leave until 1. It was a small mellow kind of thing.

It was fun. I got to catch up with some folks and didn't spend nearly enough time with others. Lots of cookies were consumed, though not enough. I have plenty to take with me to Raleigh at least. The family will be happy. I might pawn the rest off on Lovey to share with folks at my old job. They always complained about my cookie baking so maybe it'll be my little revenge for my unemployment. The unemployment I've kind of been loving. :)

I guess now I just have to kick back and enjoy the holidays. And my friends. And my family. Not a hard thing to do.

The Christmas Dork Never Stops

I have sent out 131 Christmas Cards this year. Dear god. And I might send more. I'm still trying to track down a few addresses. If you didn't get a card from me and want one (everyone seems to enjoy mocking my "annual essay" so I can't deny anyone who wants in on that), just email me your address. If you don't have my email address you can email me at my gmail account. It's AuntieAmanda.

Now I need to get back to baking and cleaning for my party tomorrow night. A Christmas Dork's job is never done...

For All My Heroes Fan Friends

Some reading

Woo!

I got my first Christmas Cards today! I am beside myself with excitement! Oh how I love the Holidays.

Parental Visit

My folks were here this past weekend and we had a lovely time. With a combination of the drama of flying standby and high winds delays at Newark Airport it took them something like 13 hours or more to get here on Friday. Dad joked that he thought it might take less time for them to fly to New York from Hawai'i. Poor things. So, sadly we did not get to go out and walk the neighborhood looking at all the Christmas lights on the Brownstones. But maybe I can con Muffy into that at some point.

Saturday Dad ran errands and raked leaves while Mom and I did some Christmas shopping. Neither of them have any stamina when it comes to shopping. I have no idea where my ability to shop for hours and hours and hours without fatigue comes from. I look too much like both of 'em to suspect a different father. Oh well. After all the running around, Vader came over to wrap more gifts while Mom and I baked cookies and made fudge and listened to Holiday music. And Dad and Vader acted as testers and bowl lickers and such. That sounded dirty. It wasn't. And after all the holiday fun time, Mom forced Vader to try Thai food even though she doesn't like it. And we all watched Ghostbusters. SUCH a good movie.

Sunday we all hiked out to DUMBO to go to the Jacques Torres store for gifts and chocolate for ourselves. They have really good cocoa and bonbons. It was quite a long walk, but fun and good for us. After that we got ready for TARCON, met Vader and headed into Manhattan for the event. I had a good time. We were not FIRST in line like we were last time, but pretty close. Though I think we were the only ones in line NOT talking about the show. Heh. The drinks were super strong and the food not bad. Sheena's ex, Bob, showed up before the show started and we all had a good time watching the race. I think my favorite part is watching the show with 200-300 other people who love it too with all the ooohing and aaahing and cheering and booing. Though I'm a horrible person and enjoy being catty too. Making fun of people and such. Some former racers showed up as well as the top three from the current season and Mom got good pics of 'em all. And then we headed home. Sadly the F wasn't stopping at Vader's place so we hung out with her by the bus stop before going home and passing out ourselves.

Monday almost killed Dad. Mom was up and ready to go way before we were, but we headed out about 11:15 anyway. First we went to Grand Central Terminal (it's not a station) and hit the MTA store. They always have cute gifts and I like the model train display they have every Christmas. Then we caught the 12:30PM light show. It's a Kaleidoscope show this year. Very pretty. Some of the light show was stained glass and such, but a lot of it was New York themed with MTA trains and cards and tokens in the kaleidoscope style as well as things like the Terminal itself and the Chrysler Building. We got lots of pictures and I really loved it. Then Mom and I checked out the Holiday Fair there. She found one thing she really loved and is thinking she might keep it for herself rather than give it as a gift. And I can't blame her.

After that we headed to the Bryant Park Holiday Fair. I'd never been and I wanted to check out the ice skating rink they have there in the winters now. It was pretty cool. And there were some cute things at the market. This time we left Dad with some cider and his cigar while we wandered. After that it was off to the Union Square Holiday Market. That one is my favorite of the three. Mom found a few gifts there while Dad went to Forbidden Planet to browse around like the nerd he is.

Then we headed to S'mac and it was awesome. We split five small pans of the Brie, Gruyere, Goat Cheese, All-American and Mozzarellla. So good. So very, very good. I do love that place. We noticed on the website they have a Happy Hour on weekdays from 3-5 and figured that was the best time to go. More to avoid the crowds than to get the discount, though that was nice. It was pretty dead at 3 on a Monday, just as an FYI. So the owner came out to see if we were enjoying it and we got to chat with her for a bit. She seems lovely and the place seems to be doing well. Mom then decided she needed to get a photo of her behind the counter. A few minutes later she came back and took a picture of us and said we might be on the website as the fans of the week. Right now she said it's mostly ended up being the fan of the month, but... keep an eye out for us on the site. :)

After that Dad wanted to check out the tree at Rockefeller Center. He's never seen it in person. So we headed up that way. He felt the tree was a little scraggly. Heh. Mom and I wandered around taking pictures of the tree, the cool snowflakes lights falling down along the building, the snowflakes on Sak's... I even convinced them to do the staged photos in front of the tree that NBC was doing. Totally goofy, but totally fun. I think I might even order some. Family portraits! We also did a little shopping up there as well. But finally we were exhausted and couldn't walk anymore so we came home to flop down for TV and a light dinner.

They left yesterday at noon after a morning of breakfast and hanging out. I was sad to see them go, but I'll be with 'em in North Carolina in a week, so it wasn't much of a tearful parting. And it too them much less time to get home than it did to get here.

I Love Christmas

I have my Christmas decorations up, I've had my Christmas Music (I have 470 Christmas songs on my iPod) going since November 24th, I've already started a little baking, Vader and I have already had part one of the Christmas wrapping party (she wraps my gifts in exchange for pizza and baked goods) and I've finished about a third of my Christmas Cards. Oh how I love this time of year!

And this unemployment thing is quite handy at Christmas. While I'm seriously job searching now and it takes up a hunk of my weekdays it still doesn't take up a full work day, doesn't involve an hour and a half round trip commute and doesn't include all the extra hours needed for end of the year projects. So I'm actually on top of the cards and the presents and all this year. Normally I'm frantically shopping at the last minute and sitting around at my aunt's or my parents' house on the 23rd finishing the last of my cards.

This weekend my folks are coming to town, in fact, if the flights work out, they should be here in a couple of hours, and I'm hoping to get in a little Christmas fun with them. Since I'm not living with them anymore, Mom and I don't really get to bake together or decorate together or any of that. So we're having a mini baking party tomorrow afternoon. Vader should be coming over to do more wrapping and maybe other folks will show up as well. We'll see. And we're going to check out the Grand Central Terminal light show as well as the Holiday Market and do a little sightseeing and shopping. I think we're also going to hit S'mac too, as it's tasty and Mom's been wanting to check it out. The main reason they're coming is for TARCON on Sunday, which will be fun, but I'm mostly excited to have them around for holiday fun time.

The Christmas Dork is in full effect!

How Well Do You Know Me?

You have to sign up to have your score posted, unfortunately. But you can take it for fun if you want.


Create your own friendquiz here

Happy Thanksgiving

I just had a lovely Thanksgiving at Charlotte's house with Muffy, Steph, Vader and a friend of Charlotte's. The Erogenous Vulcan even stopped by for a bit.

I love Thanksgiving with my family. I love my folks and we have all sorts of fun traditions. And we always take in an orphan or two who has nowhere else to go for the holiday. So the conversation is often fun and interesting. But since I couldn't be with my family, this was just as good. We all brought different family recipes (stuffing, corn casserole, green bean casserole), Charlotte handled the bird and Steph brought all sorts of good wine. We chatted and laughed and cooked and drank and had a great time for about 12 hours.

And so, I'm very, very Thankful to have all these wonderful friends in my life. People who are almost as much a part of my family as my parents. It's good to have people you love and are comfortable with and can just have an easy happiness with.

My Trendy Hair

A few years ago Sheena told me about the Bumble & Bumble Model Project where they'll cut your hair for free. It's not a beauty school thing like my Mom originally thought. Bumble & Bumble has signature hairstyles and cuts and teaches them to their satellite salons who sell their products; while teaching them ways to use and push their products. So everyone in the class has at least two years of hair experience, and lots of instructors are wandering around, um, instructing. It's not a huge hair risk to do the model project. So, I figured I'd been rocking the straight all one-length hair for about two decades now and I could stand something new. So I went ahead and did it and have been sporting sassy layers every since.

B&B also offers styling sessions too for the hair models. I'd never gone for those as all the appointments are 2-3 hours long and during the work day. But a few days after getting laid off I got an email with the April styling session schedule and figured what the hell. You get credit towards their products and a free shampoo and style so why not. And it's been fun. I've got a ton of shampoo stored up now as well as other products floating around the house. Maggie is VERY amused that I now actually do things to my hair beyond washing and brushing. Not that I do much more than that, but still, it's a little more. Since I have products to use and all.

Anyway, yesterday I was there for a round brush blow dry and they announced that Reader's Digest was there doing an article on the Model Project and a photographer would be wandering around taking photos. Heh. I know no one who gets Reader's Digest (y'all don't anymore, do you, Mom?), but it amuses me that a magazine considered to be for the older and more bland reader is doing an article on a place that considers itself rather fancy and shi shi. But, there you go.

Oh, and no one took my picture, but the chick next to me had a ton taken of her so maybe I'll be in the background somewhere. If anyone gets RD, keep an eye out for me. I was wearing red.

Happy Halloween! again

Okay, I'm now hiding in my apartment with the lights off as I have run out of candy. I had an OBSCENE amount of candy and yet it is all gone. I think we're a very popular block. In fact, I heard at least one parent tonight say that this block was the best one. There were lots of folks out in front of their brownstones on my street. I even saw flashes of a strobe light and heard spooky noises down a ways, so some folks were getting fancy.

I was not fancy. I DID put my flamingo in his witch costume and stuck him in the planter out in my front courtyard. And I tossed a sarong around my waist, threw on a silk flower lei and my flip flops to pass for a costume. One girl actually told me she liked my costume. Another told me she was from Hawai'i. Of course, I didn't look like I was from Hawai'i. I looked like a frat boy at a luau kegger. But, whatever works.

There were all sorts of kids and parents out tonight. Way too many parents were yakking on their cell phones instead of talking to their kids for my taste, but I'm into parental bonding. There were plenty of parents following along doing the "What do you say?" "Trick or Treat!" "Now what do you say?" "Thank You." routine that I love. And a few kids wanted to pick and choose their candy. Which seemed a bit much to me. Well, except one kid who couldn't eat nuts. Poor thing must have had to tell that to every house he hit. And one cute little boy dressed as a ninja got a mini-nerds and a mini-chocolate bar from me but gave back the mini-chocolate bar as he couldn't eat chocolate. How cute. He was very sweet and polite about it. So I gave him a mini-lollipop.

I love Halloween. It's not my favorite holiday, but a it's good one when I can hand out candy to cute kids. And even not so cute kids. And even not so much kids. Still fun.

My Mom was always great about costumes for me when I was a kid and was still trick or treating. I think I started out as a witch, at least as far back as my memory goes. Who knows what tortures were inflicted upon me as a baby. Eventually I wanted to look "pretty" for Halloween and Mom came through with a darling princess costume. The dress was nice enough but I LOVED the hat. It was conical and best of all had a gauzy piece of fabric draping down from it. So princessy. Back before my tiara obsession had kicked in.

One year, I think I told my mother I wanted to be a Twix bar. I am not really sure why. Maybe Mom came up with the idea. Either way, the woman put in some effort with that costume, finding the perfect metallic material, carefully stenciling on the orange letters and sewing it all together. She even put a patch on the back with 35 cents written on it to serve as a price tag. But I wore that costume for several years, and towards the end of its life the price tag was hitting me right on my butt. And in the fifth grade or so, boys would come up to me with 35 cents in their hands. Took me a little while to figure it out. Bad little boys!

I believe it was sixth grade when I fell in love with Gone With the Wind and asked Mom to make me a Southern Belle for Halloween. Of course she did it. I'm still not totally sure how. I know she got an old prom dress from the Air Force Base Thrift Shop and altered it to fit me. And I know at one point she was trying to make the hoop from several wire hangers twisted together. I think she may have ended up sewing something kind of pipe into the hem to make a hoop. Whatever it was, it worked beautifully and I LOVED that dress. She even took the extra fabric to make me a pretty little bag for the candy and an eye mask on a stick. I was so fancy. All lacy and ruffled with curls in my hair. The only draw back was when the boys realized they could drop to the ground, roll under my dress and I couldn't do a thing about it. I tried sitting to stop them, but then the skirt just flew up in the air and I flashed everyone. Boys try and ruin all the best Halloween costumes. Bad little boys!

Thanks, Mom, for all those great costumes. So much better than the goofy ones I do these days; The Country Music Awards, Cher Impersonator, Frat Boy at Luau Kegger... Maybe you'll do my costume for next year?

Happy Halloween!

So, I just bought a metric fuckload of Halloween Candy. And Brooklyn kids (you know, like country kids) are super cute. So, if anyone in the NYC area wants to blow off work early this afternoon and come hand out candy with me & the flamingo, please do. It's more fun with more people. And maybe we can even make orange drinks!

Iwo Jima

So, I recently started reading Flags of our Fathers. The ads for the movie have sort of reminded me of my interest in Iwo Jima. I mentioned something about the book when I was in Raleigh with my Dad and he said he liked it. Though he said he liked Flyboys better. So, I bought both books and am starting with Flags.

Back in the Spring of 1995 my then boyfriend and I were trying to get to Honolulu for Spring Break with my folks. This was before Continental started its Newark to Honolulu direct flight so we had to go through Houston or California. Getting to California was a piece of cake for standby passengers (back when I was a dependant and could fly for cheap all the time), but getting from LA or San Fran to Honolulu was a nightmare. After trying for a couple of days to get out of LA my Dad hit town to fly a charter flight from LA to Honolulu. The policy is to not allow standby passengers on charter flights, but Dad asked one of the organizers if it was okay if his kid and her boyfriend could get on the flight in any open seats (with our promise we'd be the most polite and well-behaved travelers ever). The group kindly allowed us on.

The charter was for marines, veterans, going back to Iwo Jima for the 50th Anniversary. My boyfriend and I weren't seated next to each other, but I got to sit next to a lovely man named Milt. And it was probably one of the best flights I've ever had. He was a sweet guy and offered to be an adopted grandfather of sorts if I wanted. He had a video camera and filmed me. At one point they opened the cockpit and allowed the guys to chat with the pilots so he filmed my dad. He filmed my boyfriend and the flight attendants and the movie screen showing the flight stats. We exchanged addresses and kept in touch for a little bit. He even sent me a copy of the tape he'd made. With the flight. And then with the ceremonies on Iwo Jima.

At the time I didn't really know much about Iwo Jima. History wasn't a strong subject for me back then, much my to my father's dismay I suspect. But these were interesting guys on this plane. And the battle seemed to bring back powerful memories for them. And then the more I heard about it, the more it fascinated me. The large number of casualties. The large number of American soldiers, the hold the Japanese had on the island. The battle strategy. Just amazing to me. But beyond watching Milt's tape and the occasional quick internet search I didn't really do too much to find out more. And I want to.

So, for now I'm reading Flags. And rewatching Milt's tape again knowing more about the battle than I did back when I first saw it. And while I'm liking the book, I'd like to read more. I'd like to read something that looks more at the battle as a whole, as Flags focuses more on the six individuals in that famous photograph. They certainly deserve their stories told. But so do all the other men who were on that island and involved in that battle. Let me know if you have any book suggestions. Or if you ever want to watch Milt's tape of the trip back and the ceremonies. It's a home movie, not some fancy edited documentary. But I'm glad I have a copy. And like most people who've become a part of my life, I'm glad I got to meet Milt.

Turnip Comes to Town: Day Five

On Saturday we dragged our asses out of bed and headed out for a nice long walk. Turnip and I are both trying to get into better shape so I told her she and I would have to walk to and over the Brooklyn Bridge while she was here. Which is what we did on Saturday. And it was lovely. It was GORGEOUS fall day with a clear blue sky, bright sunshine and weather that was perfect for walking around in the sun. We made it to the bridge and over into Manhattan and back without too much fuss. And all the while taking pictures of the bridge and various skylines and each other, like the big dorks we are. One woman stopped us as we were almost to the bridge and asked if we were walking. She seemed nice so we bit back the smartass responses and said yes. She wanted to know if we'd be up for being walking buddies with her as she was looking for someone to exercise with. Turnip lives in LA so she couldn't. I would've liked to, but my walking & Y schedule depends on what else is going on with me and is hardly regular so I said no. Though maybe a walking buddy would've gotten me out more. Who knows. Too late now. Alas.

After that we hit Bagel World and then tried to make another Yoga class but didn't manage it in time. So, Turnip ran some errands and then we went to get our nails done. Which ended up taking far longer than it should have. After that we headed home to get her ready for her wedding and then she headed off for the NYBG.

She came home after I was in bed and then headed to the airport very early Sunday morning. A lovely visit, but exhausting. So I spent the rest of Sunday just being a slug for the most part. Relaxing.

Turnip Comes to Town: Day Four

Friday we got up and headed to Park Slope for breakfast with Turnip's friends from Wednesday night. And that was lovely. Good food and nice people and all. Plus it was a lovely fall day.

After that we headed back to my 'hood for our treatments. Turnip wanted to be all waxed and sexy for her wedding on Saturday so she scheduled that. I figured I'd so something as well. Since I don't have enough hair to make ripping it out worthwhile I went for a massage and scalp treatment. And it was awesome. An hour and a half of massage and scalp massage plus soft & pretty hair. I think I'm going to have to do that more often. Maybe Muffy & I need a mini spa day soon.

After that we got all dolled up and headed to Macy's to buy complicated underwear to go under Turnip's halter dress for the wedding on Saturday. Complicated underwear shopping always seems to be an ugly process. It's not like buying fun undies, the pretty & sexy stuff. This has a purpose (beyond getting one laid) and is usually a pain to get into and out of and just sucks. But we found something fairly quickly and headed to Lush to treat ourselves to fun smelly stuff. And then met JCN downtown to try out s'mac. And s'mac was GOOD. So good. Heavenly. We split four smalls so we could try more things. Manchego, Goat Cheese, Gruyere (I didn't get any of that as it had bacon) and 4-Cheese. Happy, happy.

After that it was off to the West Village for drinks with a few of my friends and a few of hers. We met at Corner Bistro, but it was packed so we wanted to head for a dead bar to just be comfy and drink beer. The one we picked ended up not being so dead in the end, but we got some seats, had some beer and a good time was had. By all, I think.