South Dakota Guilt

Ok, everyone at home, if you want to feel guilty, watch, "Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee" on HBO. Yeah, it talks about how the Pine Ridge Indian reservation was created. Yeah, depressing.

New Phone Part II

My emotions have been ALL OVER the place today with this phone. First, I couldn't turn on my phone yesterday after it fell on the sidewalk. I assumed it was broken and spent the better part of last night looking for new phones on eBay.

Then, this afternoon, I went to Verizon to have them pronounce it dead before buying a new phone, they plugged it in and suddenly it worked. I knew that the battery wasn't dead but they made me sit there for 5 minutes while they charged it and lo and behold, as soon as they unplugged it, nada, dead. They told me I could get a new phone (Razr...grrr) to replace my old one for $50. I decided not to do it then and there because I would have lost my phonebook and wanted to document my phone numbers before getting a new phone.

And then, tonight, I went to the Verizon by my house and the guy looked at it for one second, bent back this metal piece and turned it on. Yay for a second opinion. Still hate my phone though. :)

East Coast = Bad Luck for Roxie phones

Well, I've been on the East Coast for a little over 2 years. In that time, I've gone through 3 phones. This is not good. Now, mind you, I have been a cell phone owner since 2002, and I was on a good clip of getting a new phone every 2 years until November of 2005. Since then I have:

• Lost a phone
• A phone purchased online croaked (prob bad quality to begin with)
• My Razr died after dropping it

Mind you, I HATE my Razr. I have hated it since shortly after I got it when I realized that the operating system is ridiculously slow and that you can talk for about 60 minutes before it needs to be recharged.

So, since Verizon charges and arm and a leg when your contract is not up, I will probably be buying another phone online through eBay. Sigh.

So, odds are I won't be able to transfer my phone numbers, so if you would kindly email me your phone number, I would greatly appreciate it.

Jeopardy - thee are so wise

I was a little behind on my Jeopardy One-a-Day calendar when I ran across this clue tonight:

A. "It took thirty years for the appliance to be in over 50 percent of U.S. homes; the need to bake a potato in three minutes wasn't pressing."

I won't bother waiting for a response because the question is obviously, "What is the microwave (oven)". See, I'm not so odd. However, the microwave oven was invented in the 50's SO yeah, maybe not having one is a little odd.

Graduation Advice

While scouring the University of Kansas student newspaper I ran across some advice for new graduates joining the real world. I found this point particularly interesting:

Always pick Kansas to win it all in your office pool. It’s the right thing to do. Be really annoying and vocal during March Madness in your office if the ‘Hawks are still alive, especially if you have Mizzou and K-State grads as co-workers.

Um, yeah, so admittedly, I do this every year. I know it's not a "smart" strategy but some day it will pay off. SOME DAY. As for Mizzou/K-State grads, I've only run across a few in NYC so far, and I would gloat if I ran into them. Especially if they came to a KU bar to watch the basketball game. Rude, rude Tiger fans.

Looooove her

I am a huge fan of an artist that opened for Joshua Radin (blogged earlier) whose CD I have been listening to nearly non-stop for the last month or so. Thanks Nicole for burning it for me!

What caused me to blog about it now is that I watched last week's Grey's Anatomy episode last night on abc.com (they should pay me for all my plugs) and one of her songs was featured.

Check out Ingrid Michaelson if you get a chance.

HIMYM - Part 2

Tonight was the airing of Tim's proposal to Jana on "How I Met Your Mother" - I'm sorry I couldn't remind you all, but blogger and I were fighting today. The news cameras were there to capture the engagement party (I was totally there) and Tim and Jana watching the proposal for the first time.

You can catch the news segment here.

Congratulations again Tim and Jana (pictured above with the cast)!

Parker Wedding Extravaganza 2007

The Parker wedding was as much fun as we all expected. Erica was an absolutely gorgeous and glowing bride and you couldn't get the smile off Russell's face. Me being the sappy person that I am started crying about 15 times.

Since they met at the University of Maryland, each of the tables was named after buildings on campus. They went to the campus and took pictures in front of each building and left a large 8x10 picture on each table. It was such a cute idea.

Here is a picture of the happy couple! The rest of the pictures from the weekend, including several from Friday night's activities are posted on My Flickr site - see the link to the left.

Some random comments

1) I love bananas - and the one I just ate was PARTICULARLY good.

2) I'm going to Ocean/Atlantic City for my friend Erica's wedding this weekend! Yes, this makes my 3rd trip there in a year. Woot woot.

3) My mom is hilarious - check this out.

You're the next contestant on the Price is Right

I saw a quote on OverheardinNewYork.com that made me contemplate the price of things in New York. I'm completely desensitized by it after 8 months but this quote made me laugh (edited somewhat for younger readers):

"Dude: I don't think I'll do too well on The Price Is Right. I'm too used to Manhattan. I'd say 35 dollars for a box of Bounce. Then I'd be like, 'Holy crap, five bucks? Damn, Bob, where the %#$@ do you shop?!"

So you all know, Bounce is not $35 but prices are pretty high. My friend Molly in Austin told me that where she shops she can get 2 gallons of milk for $5. Um, I can get one for about $3.58. I did call my dad a few nights ago to let him know that I was it the fancy frou frou grocery store behind my house and they had brown eggs that were delivered fresh every day. You don't buy them in packages, but separately. For $.60 an egg. This is by no means the rule for eggs in NYC, but something I found hilarious.

Group Bonding

I've found that one of my favorite things is to have a really unusual person on the subway car and watching other people's reactions to them.

Scenario #1: Well dressed middle aged woman sitting on a bench on the subway. She begins yelling "I can't believe you! Don't touch me! An old woman sitting here and you sit on her! Don't sit on me!" Everyone starts making eye contact, rolling their eyes and smiling. Then when this other passenger gets up at the stop after be yelled from 86th St. to 59th St. another person sits down next crazy woman and she begins yelling at her. While it sounds uncomfortable, it was really funny and bonded all of the people on the car. Not as much as scenario #2.

Scenario #2: A couple of weeks ago on the first nice day of Spring I was riding the subway and I look behind me and there is an ~275 lb, incredibly muscular man listening to his headphones. Now that is not that uncommon, neither was the fact that he was wearing a wife beater, what was odd was that he was making his pecs dance to the music. Oh, and his music was loud enough that EVERYONE on the car could hear the bass line of his song. Sometimes one would go up, sometimes the other, sometimes both, sometimes they'd just shake. And he was VERY into this and had his eyes closed the whole time. The second I realized what was happening I start laughing hysterically into my arm (on the bar above), trying not to be too obvious, I kept sneaking glances and on the second glance I notice the guy sitting next to him. He is half the size of this guy, dressed business casual, and RIDICULOUSLY uncomfortable. That made me laugh even harder. There were very few people on the train not smiling that afternoon.

Not you too Grey's!

Thank you Grey's Anatomy for trying to freak out all the young single women out there. Addison is 37 years old and finally decided to have a baby after putting her career first for so many years to find out she can't have a baby. She's infertile. Hey...we get it. Alllllll of us single twenty-somethings out there understand. You can stop reminding us now.

Ok, rant is over. Thank you for listening.

However, since the episode is not yet over, there is still hope that the tests were wrong or she'll use some homeopathic remedies. I can't believe that Shonda Rhymes would tee off her base.

Successful Craigslist Experience

I had my very first Craigslist experience today! I've been meaning to get a wireless router forever and checked out the Craigslist postings the other day. I got an (almost) new wireless router for $35! Not sure if that's good but about $15 cheaper than the same one at Best Buy. Sweet deal. The woman I bought it from was super nice and said she'd take it back if I had any problems which makes me pretty satisfied with my purchase.

I'm also LOVING my new wireless network. It rocks!

Downright Refreshing

Today is the best morning I've had in a really long time and it started because I got out of bed when I naturally woke up. For the last two weeks or so, I have been waking up between 6:15 am and 6:45 am without the aid of an alarm. Usually I just think, "WHY AM I AWAKE?!?!" then go back to sleep, no problem.

Well, I'm actually pretty busy at work this week so when I woke up at 6:45 this morning I decided to just go into work early. So I left my house ~17 minutes early, got to the subway station in Soho 25 minutes early (I love empty, early-morning trains), got a coffee at Starbucks, then walked on the sunny side of the street to work. I was actually singing. Now here I sit, 10 mins early for work, my lunch is put away, my flip flops are in a drawer and my heels are on. I might have to do this more regularly.

Oh, something else I love - my new security token that allows me to work from home. I got a jump start on this morning while watching "What About Brian?" on ABC last night. I promise not to get crazy with it, it's just really nice to be able to leave work at 6 if I want to, go to the gym and pick up where I left off if I'm having an exceptional busy week. Flexible work...I LOVE IT.