Isn't it nice how the littlest things can sometimes make a person SO happy? For me, right now, it's a single-cup coffee maker and finally figuring out how to wash and blow dry my hair so it comes out all pretty-like (I'm not a dummy or anything; it's been a process figuring out what to do ever since the texture of my hair changed.).

   *xo*

What DOES tickle my fancy?

This is one of my favorite paintings- "Las Meninas" by Velazquez. It lives at the Prado in Madrid and doesn't travel very often. Of course, it was part of some to-do at the Guggenheim like 3 years before I ever discovered it. ANYWAY. I came to know this painting through my "intro to art history" class when I was a sophomore in college, and I fell in love with it. The girl in the middle is the Infanta Margarita Teresa, daughter of King Philip of Spain. I like the angle of the painting- it's the view of Velazquez (court painter) painting the king and queen, who can be seen in the mirror.

FACT: The Decemberists have a song called "The Infanta" and a song called "Kingdom of Spain." Both make me think of this painting.

I really wish my dearest, darlingest didn't leave to go back to Japan on a Thursday, because that meant the "goodbye fiesta" on a Wednesday, which is fine, but I have this job thing that I do. There were a couple of other people there last night with jobs, but they left before I did. I'm not going to see BN for another 6 months or maybe a year, so I had to stay until the absolute last second. Like I wrote before- such a tease having him home, so good to see him. I did get to see him 5 times, which was swell. I figured on maybe twice if I was lucky, but I was even luckier than anticipated. I'm just so, so scared to go to Japan. Scared of getting sick in a foreign country, scared of the plane ride, scared of natural disasters. I need to just suck it up, because when you really like a person (just in general), you make sacrifices. We stood with our arms around each other for a good 5 minutes last night, in the middle of this bar; lovely;perfect;fleeting. Notfairnotfairnotfair. I don't have a mad crush on this guy, by the by. He's just a really dear friend. I suppose I should be thankful that I have LH back in the city though, and I am. I am constantly thankful for that. It's tough to have 2 of your closest friends move that far away after college- to WA and Japan, when you don't have a ton of close friends to begin with.

Anyway, came into work 2 hours late today. Felt sick and kicked. I didn't even drink that much- 2 drinks, spread waaay apart! Anyway, I'm still a little internally weepy. I'll get over it tomorrow. I just wish he wasn't so far away! It was a good night, though. I got to see some other people from my first high school who I hadn't seen in a while. It's always interesting to observe people that you meet at 11-12 and see how they grew up.

Day 5 Asked for "Your Favorite Quote." My runner up, from Catcher in the Rye: "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." TRUTH.

Ta-da, made it through the day! Nothing pissed me off before I got into the office, so I was pretty charming all day. The thing that "set me off?" Waking up at 8am. I leave at 8:20-8:30 in the morning. Thank GOD I took a shower on Sunday night. The odd thing is- I don't know if it was a case of me waking up at 7 (when my alarm went off) and falling back asleep 30 seconds later, or me not hearing the alarm at all. Sometimes it's the former, sometimes the latter. Rarely do I just not hear the alarm, though. It was a pretty quiet day overall. My boss left at 1pm for Washington DC to meet with a potential client, so he was out of my hair, and he's out all day tomorrow. It's a nice way to ease into immediate the post-holiday period.

I finally made this chili that I'd been eying, and it turned out pretty well! I also made this spinach/Parmesan dip that looks kind of suspect, but will be good for pasta or sandwiches. It tastes better than it looks. I went to Whole Foods to get turkey for the chili since I don't trust the regular supermarket for such an item, and DAMN was WF crowded. Next time, I'm just going to hit up the nice market that's actually on my way home from work, instead of going from work (27th Street) to Union Square (14th Street) and then all the way back up to 85th Street. The "nice market" has acceptable meat; why don't I think of these things sooner? Instead, I went to 3 different supermarkets just to get ingredients for this chili. And then I ate cheese cubes for dinner, basically. Classy! (I had some chili later, but at the time, it looked like that little container of cheese was IT.)

( I like this song a lot. )

Without a doubt, KING DORK by Frank Portman.

 

I don’t remember where I read about it. Perhaps Entertainment Weekly, perhaps Pajiba, perhaps A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes ago. The description was something about hating “Catcher in the Rye” and a Veronica Mars-type mystery; I was intrigued. Frank Portman is the lead singer of a band called The Mr. T Experience, and oddly enough, I ordered a MTX button off of Interpunk once when I was 17, having no idea who the band was, and not bothering to check them out.

 

The book claims to be “young adult,” but that’s misleading. It’s about a 15 year old dork named Tom Henderson, dealing with a hippie step-father, a spacey mom, a band with a constantly changing name, inept teachers, girls, and the agonizing process of getting through high school. It’s funny, mostly realistic, and sharp. The ending is slightly incomplete, but the awesomeness of the rest of the book more than makes up for that fact. It's coming of age with a little twist, basically.

 

This is my favorite line:

"The Hellerman/Fletcher eye-ray/ass phenomenon had been pretty spectacular, though, and I still wasn't sure so I asked one last question: was it all just business, or did he really have the hots for Celeste Fletcher? 'Henderson,' he said, as he does when he wants me to know he's being serious, 'I have the hots for everyone.' I could see his point."

 

( some more of my favorite lines )

 

 

There's nothing that's really my favoritefavorite, but if we're going to talk about an obsession level, and a total consumption with the particular show, it's GILMORE GIRLS, all the way.

The basic reasons:
-it introduced me to the concept of "sides"
-I joined fanforum
-I took part in heated debates with people over at the TWOP forums
-It resulted in "meeting" online friends, like genevieve & shortstuff85 
-I wrote and published fanfiction related to the show
-I learned about Ruth Gordon and Squeaky Frome and Grey Gardens and XTC and Aztec Camera
-Helen Pai = best pre-Alex Patsavas music supervisor. They used Ash, for pete's sake!
-"I Can't Get Started."

I was first introduced to the show by a friend of mine in college. She was a fan, and somehow related to Milo Ventimiglia, and we watched the S2 finale in her room, the week before the S3 premiere. I was instantly hooked; loved the look of Rory and Jess together. So of course, I subsequently went and downloaded the first 2 seasons. I thought Alexis Bledel was beautiful, the music was great, Luke was a wonderful curmudgeon, etc... Lorelai annoyed me a lot, but Lauren Graham had an undeniable presence, and she was always so much fun to watch. The worst part was how the show collapsed in the end, but it happens sometimes. We do have 4 really great seasons, 2 decent ones, and 1 with its ups and downs (7). Dan Fienberg has an excellent summation here, if you feeling like being nostalgic.

Honesty, honesty...it's "Clueless," I think.

Because:
-It still holds up.
-Many of the actors are still relevant (Faison, Sisto, Murphy [poor thing]).
-"As if!"
-When I saw "Emma," (the Gwyneth version) I knew exactly how it was going to play out because of "Clueless."
-Paul Rudd. (and oh, you've aged well, sir)
-There's a bit of intelligence to the proceedings. Amy Heckerling is no ditz.
-It's like a comforting old friend. I'll always stop and watch it when it's on TV. I can say that about only a select few movies.
-The ending still makes me giddy- the stair scene *and* the wedding.
-"That was way harsh, Tai."
-Alicia Silverstone is lovely to look at.
-"...you're a virgin who can't drive."
-It taught me the word "sporadic." (Hey, I was 12 when it came out!)
-"She could be a farmer in those clothes!"
-The line about Marky Mark planting a celebrity tree.
-"My doctor says I shouldn't do any activity where balls fly at my nose."

( Some of MY favorite lines. )

Oh crap, THIS is what we're starting off with? This is a tough one. Once upon a time, my favorite songs were Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" and "Where is My Mind" by the Pixies and something else that I can't remember.

At this point in time, it's a 2-way tie between "Holiday from Real" and "La La Lie", both by Jack's Mannequin. It took me a little while to get into the band, but once I did, it was a big old WHOOSH of love. Both songs have a sort of soaring optimism to them. "Holiday" has the bass and the "Penny Lane"-esque brass at the end. "...Lie" has the "I'm Coming Back to My Girl by July" line, which I seem to have adopted as a mantra of some sort. Even though I have no significant other to "come back to." Things strike us in odd ways; we don't ask questions.

Honorable mention goes to Television's "Marquee Moon." If we're going to talk opening lines, "I remember how the darkness doubled" is one of my favorites.

Netflix has the Friday Night Lights series available for instant watch. Fuck and yes! It's going to kill my hard drive, but I'll go down happy. As for real football- the Giants absolutely shit the bed this afternoon, but the Jets pulled it out, somehow. I don't know what Indianapolis was thinking with like, anything, unless it was "protect our precious Peyton Manning". But good job being horrible, Giants. Way to close out your namesake stadium! To the freaking Panthers, no less. Watch- they'll win next week's meaningless game against the Vikings. Then again, if it means the Vikes drop a seed in the playoff picture, I'm all for it.

In other news, I don't want to go to work tomorrow! At least it will be another quiet week. There will be like 15 people in the office, out of about 40. It's kind of pathetic and boring. Last night was...interesting, and I didn't drink too much, but I still felt horrid all day today. I don't know if it was the wine or something else. I haven't gotten sick from wine in a while. Then again, nothing about my schizophrenic alcohol tolerance surprises me at this point. I got to see both visitors-from-abroad (my dearest darlingest and his friend), and I learned that the latter has a much better memory that I thought, 'cause he remembered something I'd said almost 2 years ago. Sure, it was of a sexual nature, but why remember something like that? Anyway, this guy is someone who gave me hell in middle school and maybe in high school, and if you'd told me 10 years ago that one day I'd be really happy to see him and hang out with him, I would have called you crazy. People evolve and change and it's a wonderful thing on occasion.

So, as it turns out, Christmas was not the fustercluck that I was expecting it to be. My parents and aunt came into the city last night to retrieve me, and we went to mass at this church near my place, which was really lovely, and I was appreciative. I enjoy church choirs a lot. Today was not so bad. My aunt didn't have any kind of crying breakdown. My cousin didn't show up, but at least he called ahead of time to let us know that he'd be showing up later, if at all, and he wouldn't be here for dinner. That's an improvement over his normal behavior.

My parents got me, among other things, one of those single cup coffee makers. Oh, is my life about to get 10x easier! I'll save money on coffee, and I won't have to worry about making it in the morning. I got myself a little coffee grinder so I could get whole bean coffee, but as it turns out, I suck at making coffee, so whatever. I'm not embarrassed. I'd rather have this single cup dealie and be able to just pop the coffee pod it and be able to have coffee at home before I leave in the morning, because I am a hungry, grumpy person without coffee. I feel a little bit like a domestic failure, but so it goes.

I do think my parents need a grandchild to spoil very soon. My aunt, too. My mother still enjoys getting me a lot of stuff, even though I'm 25. It didn't wind up being an excessive amount of goods, but the way she was talking... Yeah, I definitely need to have a kid within the next 10 years, so she's in prime "spoiling grandma" mode. I do want her to have some grandkids because I think she would enjoy it so much, and she'd have an excuse to go buy cute baby clothes.

Tomorrow, I think a trip to Costco is in order. And maybe an excursion to find me some dress pants, because I'm lacking in that department. Also, I will hopefully get to see my wonderful boy-friend. It sucks that I've talked to him twice but haven't gotten to see him yet. He's home only for a short time. I'm very Eeeeeee! inside.

 Posting this again, because I love it so much:
This one, too:


I've noted it before, but it bears repeating- Phoenix is *great* driving music. And great strutting music. It's impossible to hear some of their bouncier songs and not be cheered up. 

In a nutshell, here's what I liked about this year:
-turning 25, and actually having a good birthday for once
-spending New Years with my lovely and charming boy-friends
-How I Met Your Mother
-Parks & Recreation
-Bill Hader
-Lady Gaga (once I stopped hating)
-Glee
-finally getting a chance to see Firefly/Serenity 
-Andrew McMahon and his bands
-the presence of expatiates & mclittlebitch & tirtzah in my life
-getting back into "lose weight" mode
-getting to Carmel, CA
-going back to Boston for the first time since graduation
-True Blood
-Magnolia Electric Co./Songs: Ohia
-Charlotte Hatherley up close and personal at Bat For Lashes 
-Allison Iraheta
-the continuance of my "stop being a music snob and just love everything" trajectory
-Skins
-Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
-eating lunch in Madison Square Park

( and the not so good )

 Safari is so much faster than Firefox, but I don't want to give up Firefox b/c of my little LiveJournal add-on. I'm a baby. Maybe I'll try it again; who knows. My Google Reader seems to work better in Safari, too. And Google Maps and Weight Watchers don't crash all of the time.

Once upon a time, I had this Dell laptop that lasted for about 4.5 years. And then sometime in that fourth year and sixth month, I heard a strange ticking sound, and went to turn on the computer, and I think it...didn't. So we had our IT guy come over, and basically what happened is that the fan overloaded with dust build-up, and killed the hard drive. Because no one ever tells you to clean out the internal fan from time to time. I guess it should be common knowledge, but it's not something that most people think about. 

Where I am now is that my Mac (which always got pretty warm, pretty fast) is getting warmer, faster. I'm petrified of hearing that ticking sound and the "sorry, not turning" on thing happening again. But I don't want to be without a computer for days. I'm pretty sure the fan just needs to be cleaned out, but I don't know if that's something that the Mac store can do in an hour, or if it's something that's going to take 3 days and $200. I'm pretty sure the warranty on the computer is kaput. But I have my appointment at the genius bar tomorrow night, so I'll see what the geniuses have to say. Either that, or I get freaked out by every little computer noise, and every time the machine runs slightly slower. A smart panda would head this thing off before it gets any worse. I'm going to be a smart panda and hope for the best.

I looked into cleaning out the fan myself, but it's way too complicated and I don't want to risk injuring the computer. Too many little screws and pieces. 

[you ever have one of those instances when some random line just pops into your head?]

The good news is that I don't think my coworker is going to hold a grudge against me for accidentally finding out that he's leaving. He was fairly nice to me today. Again- not my fault!

I'm so not ready for Christmas this year. I only have 3 people to buy presents for, but I'm bitching about it. And everything just kind of crept up fast, with my grandmother passing away and my bank account taking a huge hit on account of my trip from freaking *September* and me just having a hard time getting my ass in gear. I'm just not feeling very Christmassy, and I know it's going to be kind of depressing without my grandmother and I'm just kind of not pumped about it. I wish it wasn't next week. Give me another 2 weeks, huh?

Winter is a horrible time to try and lose weight. There are no indoor public spaces in the Grammercy/Flatiron/Murray Hill area where I work, so if I want to sit some place, I actually have to buy lunch every day. The alternative is to bring lunch and eat at 12:30 and then just go out whenever Doug decides to roll up and relieve me, which does happen sometimes, but winter is weird. All I want are warm foods, not so much salads. So everything is kind of fattening. My only take-out options are half sandwiches at Pret [and Pret's whole sandwiches aren't even that filling] and Subway, if I don't go get a salad at Pax or the new place that opened. And that's another thing- I was so psyched for this new place, Bread & Butter to open, and turns out it's just another generic lunch place. It's a little nicer, but it's like a smaller version of Cafe 28, which is a few blocks away. NO OPTIONS!

I suspect that my computer is on the verge of overheating, due to a clogged fan. I don't think it's still under warranty, so I'll probably have to take it to Tekserve or something. I'm going to call Apple tomorrow and see what they recommend, but I'm not thrilled about giving the computer up for 3 or 4 days just so someone can clean the fan. I looked up how to do it online and it seems incredibly complicated, and not worth the stress.

Also, I'm reading "Wicked." I'd been halfway interested in it since I first heard about it, but I think a combination of Glee doing "Defying Gravity" and all of the "Adam Lambert was an understudy!" sort of pushed me to really go for it. I'm almost done with it, and I can tell that it's going to be one of those situations where I go "Aww, I'm sad it's over!" when I finish it. I was going to actually try and go see the musical after finishing the book, but I read the musical summary on Wikipedia and I'm not thrilled about how they chopped up the book, so I'll probably skip that. It's interesting reading the book and trying to figure out what parts of it come into "The Wizard of Oz," obvious and not as obvious. she

Work is unintentionally lulzy, on occasion. L, one of my co-workers told me that she's leaving at the end of the month for a new job in Boston, but she hadn't told anyone at the time, especially O, another co-worker who she is close with.

Meanwhile, O himself is planning his escape, something that I've known about for at least a month and half now. Only he didn't know that I knew until today, when I sort of let it slip by accident. He asked me, "Do you know something that you shouldn't know that I don't know that you know?" or something to that effect, but he said it with a smile on his face, so I kind of 'fessed up. But I think he's kind of pissed about it, and as it turns out, not many of the other co-workers know. I emailed him and told him that I found out completely by accident, and he wrote back and reminded me to please keep it a secret and the ironic part is that he specifically wrote, "DO NOT tell L!"

Now, I don't know if O knows about L at this point, but I just think it's kind of funny that they're both working on departures (hers sooner), and they don't want the other to know. Meanwhile, I hope O isn't too pissed at me. Again, complete accident. I was looking through the VP's computer for an email that the boss needed RIGHT THAT SECOND, and saw that the VP had filled out a recommendation for one of the schools that O is applying to. WELL. I had been debating whether or not to say anything to him, because I'm genuinely interested as to why he'd be applying to business school, but I kept my mouth shut.

I hope this is yet another instance of me making a mountain out of a molehill, but if this goes on for a week and he's still acting sore at me, I'll probably say something.

( Work!Rant )

Email from Mom, regarding last night's "Glee"-
I loved her "Don't Rain..".It's probably the best version I have ever heard outside of Barbra.And you're right,closing with Kelly was the best .I happen to really like the song,it's just the title that is so poor.
And ten the final kiss.I was so happy.At long last love.I liked when Quinn after the tender sit down asked Lea to leave,she wanted to be alone and Lea's look and then the great jerry curl comment

I can tell that my mother likes "Glee" a lot because she knows the names of the characters. I tried to get her into "Gilmore Girls" a few years ago, but she kept referring to Rory as "the girl" and Christopher as "the girl's father." She didn't quite get the names down. I'm just happy that we have something to squee over aside from "American Idol."

I am so irrationally proud of Lea for nailing "....Parade." And for being gorgeous in her own, non-Lively/Meester way.
It's years ago, but there was this other girl who was sort of in semi-competition with her for acting things, and I think they both went to the same acting camp, and Lea always got the leads, etc., etc.... I wonder what Emily thinks now. I'm sure she's over it, though. They had very different "looks" and personalities.

So, today was a ton of fun! I got yelled at early in the morning for something that was completely my fault, but I will be excuse-y and say that I was discombobulated and and got into work later than I wanted to and I was still trying to get organized and there's that whole "my grandmother just died" thing. I almost started crying on the phone with my boss. Well, I won't make that same mistake again, for sure, never. Unless it really is an accident, because communication is not my firm's strongest suit.

It was weird, today. Every time I didn't think about my grandmother, I was fine. When I did, I got really, really, unexpectedly sad & teary. Again, I'm not used to this, this losing people who are very close to me. She's really, really gone. She hadn't been herself for a while, even before she started on her big decline, but still. It's going to take a while to sink in.

ALSO: Drew Brees is fab, and I hope the Saints go all the way. (I've said it before, but it's still in play, this idea) The Saints made the Patriots look like pansies tonight.

On a lighter note:

( MEME time! )

Well, my mother called to tell me that my grandmother passed away this afternoon. She was about a month shy of her 98th birthday, and we always thought she'd be one of those ladies to make it to 105, but it didn't quite work out that way. She had a long, successful, healthy life, but that doesn't change the fact that these week is going to be rough on my mother and her sisters and several other family members. Needless to say, I'm dreading it. I (luckily) haven't lost anyone close to me until today. All of my other grandparents died before I was born, and I wasn't all that close with my grandmother's other siblings who passed away previously. I'm proud of the life that my grandmother lead, of the values she instilled in me, of the children she raised. She will be missed very, very much.

Why is crying so exhausting? Seriously. What is it about the act of releasing tears that results in a physical toll on one's body?