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I went a little overboard with a cake in honor of our senior editor’s retirement. The cake is of the Shakespeare Garden, a wonderful place on the Vassar campus, and took about 4 days to make. On the sides of the cake we had lego-like depictions of all the people in the office, made from ShrinkyDinks.
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After a couple years of growing out my hair I finally cut it back a bit. Now just above my shoulders. Pictures later this week. I’m worried about Garrett’s reaction — he loves to play with my hair, especially when it’s in a ponytail, and that’s because he’d do that with his mother. If he flips I’ll just have to reassure him that it will grow back.
Not quite a rant, venting session, or anything terribly cranky. (more…)
Current mood: tired
Been forgetting to keep up the list of excess purchases…..looking through the credit card bill I see….
Bottle of water at an amusement park (first time I used a credit card in a vending machine)
Small amount of crap at IKEA
Not sure why I spent $50 at CVS (although I think expensive sunscreen was in the bag)
Fair amount of birthday-related booze (also for Friday night dinner)
Wow, spent a lot on travel; luckily getting reimbursed for a bunch of that
Blew a lot of cash on coffee and lunches
All in all, getting better. Didn’t check out of the usual suspects after gathering a sizable shopping cart quite a few times. Avoiding Target.
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Currently reading : A Fraction of the Whole By Steve Toltz Release date: 2008-02-12 |
I actually went through Target and didn’t buy anything excessive. Put away a bunch of things I knew I didn’t need — a couple shirts, some curtains, sheets, containers.
But did stock up on a few household items on sale - mop head, kitty litter, laundry detergent, hand soap. However, I completely forgot cat food, which was what I went there for =)
Birthday with Mom was good. Dessert came out too….
Also took pictures of the yard….
I’m attempting to make Barefoot Contessa’s Mixed Berry Pavlova for my mother’s birthday “cake.” She turns 67 today. And is on weight watchers so I loaded up a ton of fruit and cut back on the sugar — indulgence at 200 calories each if we slice it in 6 portions.
I’m going to take strawberries and make them into candle holders — slice off the top for a flat edge and stick each candle in the end. Not sure how many candles yet. 8 sounds about right. Not sure. And I forgot something to have “Happy Birthday” on top. Meant to look at the store to see if they had some kind of topper. Oh well. Candles are good. And I got cool ones — rainbow colors and the flame is supposed to match the color of the candle (blue candle has blue flame, green candle has green flame, etc.)
The folks are picking me up in 45 minutes to go walking around Rhinebeck (2 towns north.) We were originally going to go to the city, but dad thought otherwise. I knew he didn’t want to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge — something my mother has always wanted to do — so I told her I’d go down to the city with her when weather was cooler, before the installation of the waterfalls ends.
OK, enough stalling. I’ll take pictures of the big pile of fruit with birthday candles.
Finished audio book version of Slaughterhouse Five last night — it had an interview with Kurt Vonnegut at the end, along with this odd music mix with him reading from the book.
Aside from Tivo and EZPass all I’ve bought is….
Dunkin Donuts coffee and bagel Sat
I have a book and Heroes Season 2 in my shopping cart, but holding off checking out.
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Currently reading : Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut Release date: 1999-01-12  |
Had a good time Friday night with the Bailey’s celebrating Jason’s birthday. He started poking around my ipod and set up a playlist and asked everyone to take turns adding songs. His dad made him a chess board so he set up the game for everyone to take turns playing. It was a good night.
Here’s what we came up with…. got through most of it until we switched to all Cat Stevens in honor of Jason’s dad after Jason opened the chess board.
When I get this one particular song in my head I just have to play it over and over and over and over. At least for an hour, and I could go all day, but I make myself stop. Instead of making me depressed it brings an sense of comfort, and at the same time this sense of strength — I feel better and a little energized when I hear it — appreciation of life I guess. I find it very strange.
I wish I could have been for you a more consistent friend
The chapters that I skipped I’m going to have to read againBut when I tear it down it only looks more ragged
And when I build it up it only looks more fake
But I can’t let it be because part of me died with you
And there’s lots of pages missing from my book
You had more to give than what I took.
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Currently listening : Thud By Kevin Gilbert Release date: 1995-03-21 |
Heather and I are on our way back from a day trip Charleston. Beautiful day. I think we walked 10 miles. We guessed at the temperature when we got back to the car — she gussed 93 and I guessed 91.
It was 81.
A couple friends thought of moving there a couple years ago. I’m so glad they stayed in NJ. Beautiful city though.
Michael Jackson has settled his Neverland Ranch issues for the moment, as I told you a couple of days ago.
So here’s the latest on his living arrangements. According to sources, Jackson is moving to upstate New York.
Specifically, I am told that Jackson has either bought a home or one has been purchased for him in or around Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
– From Robert Friedman, FoxNews
Current mood: drained
I”m still debating whether or not I’m going to this party Sat. It’s a big house party celebrating the end of the year with all Vassar folks — which will either be very fun and an opportunity for new friends, or a complete disaster with drunk professors bitching to me about their websites. But I think it’ll be the happier crowd.
Now, if my brother were in town it would be cool to make an appearance then go off and hang out together. I just sent him a note to see if he could come, or if not if I could go see him this weekend — looking at the calendar it’ll be until July before I’ll get another chance and that’s just entirely too long. My last visit with him — a year ago — also feels like one of the last “before my world fell apart” moments — not that dramatic, but you know what I mean. I need to bring him into the present. He wanted to visit last summer but I told him to stay away. Looking back on it I can’t believe I did that — I had forgotten actually.
Anyway, I am sooooooo looking forward to going to Charlotte for 2 weeks in June. Had dinner with the folks Sunday and my father asked if I had ever heard of the Penguin — he had seen it on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” Yup.
Fried Pickles!
I may actually FINISH SOMETHING today — we’ve been working on a redesign of a site that has been a thorn in my side for 6 years. It’s been “almost done” since November. I *just* sent off the link to the folks who need to give the OK before we can launch this puppy and I can’t contain my excitement (fingers crossed that they don’t come back with 1000 things that need adjustment before we can finish.)
http://fllac.vassar.edu/
I think every email about this site for the past two weeks has the subject “soooooooo close.”
Of course, this is the kind of project I’d *like* to pop champagne for, but the meetings I have from 12-4pm will sweep that away as we move on to other things.
This site had to be done. The office spent so much effort on publicity for the art center — from meeting with publicity folks in NY to develop new press kits, to building relationships with the press, etc. But nothing was done about the website — it was an afterthought. We keep getting articles in the NYTimes, but the site for the art center is old and cranky, and not what you expect. The new site reflects what we want folks to see when they go to the site after hearing about a show on the radio or reading about it in the NYTimes.
There’s this idea around here of publicizing Poughkeepsie, mentioning shows and performances as a day-trip from the city. Well, if I live in NY and want to visit something upstate, and the website looks like our art center’s did, I wouldn’t go out of my way to check it out. And if I saw the site after reading a glowing write-up in the NYTimes I’d be disappointed (and wonder what the NYTimes doing covering this place.) Now we can back up the work others have been doing to publicize this place.
…surprising Garrett after work tomorrow
…launching work projects that are long overdue
…reunion dinner with MBA class Friday
…spending Saturday with Jen and Steve
…hopefully seeing my brother in May
…visiting Heather and Steve in June
…various events in between all that
Trying to pep-talk myself into getting shit done (and not guzzle more coffee) as I’m running out of day.
It’s really hard to come up with cake that isn’t cute. Cake is cute. Let the challenge begin….
I seem to be doing much better sanity-wise today. Work still insane, but things are falling in place. Right-hand guy at work is back from vacation, so that helps a lot.
Almost took a video of the cat this morning as he was going crazy as I was making coffee. He thinks the bag o’ coffee is his catnip. Then again, he may have just made that mistake once, but now knows that if his starts going insane while I’m making coffee I’ll inevitably going into the living room and give a dose of catnip. I don’t give this cat that much credit. Milos, yes. Chai is like living with curious George.
When I pulled in this morning Security was camped out in visitor’s parking. Helped remind me that I was going to start parking in legal spaces today. So, I did. Let’s see if I remember where I parked when I leave tonight.
I just had the weirdest sensation I think I’ve ever experienced. My head went numb – actually felt like I was stuffed with foam – then got cold, and that worked it’s way to my toes really slowly — kind of felt like foam that got filled up with water (cold water), then I felt this strange force, like energy work it’s way from my toes up to my head, just as slowly as the cold worked it’s way down. Then I almost got sick, and now I am extremely drained. Felt like slow-motion, but probably just under 5 mins.
It was due to a totally conscious decision to fuck with my own head. Whether it was a test, or just curiosity I’m not sure, but I decided to look at Monica’s purchase history in Amazon, which has everything she ordered beginning with her first order in 2000. There it was, every weekend I stopped by and she started off with “Look what I just got.”
Obviously not ready to go through that stuff yet, but I know I need to farm it out of Amazon before it gets lost. I was happy to see things I remembered her talking about – and stuff for Garrett for when he was older.
My memory lapses when under stress, so I’m a little obsessed with keeping track of things. I don’t usually forget entirely – I know there’s a story or a detail that exists but I just can’t get to it; kind of like I can see the index of a book, but when I get to pages they’re blank. I’m kind of stuck with just having an index at the moment.
I find my own brain frustrating. I have too many thoughts at once. I try to do too many things at once. I have every single song that was playing on the ride home last night in my head at this very moment.
Yet, I can’t pick a single thing to work on, or anything to listen to.
So, I continue to have a ridiculous headache because I have 42 songs fighting in my head.
I had so many thoughts floating in my head yesterday that when asked if I wanted coffee – a simple yes or no question that 99% of the time is yes – I honestly couldn’t compute, or decide. Realized I was thirsty, so I went for water. I then got distracted by realizing just how distracted I was.
While my head was racing I appeared as a person without a thought, and very quiet.
I know that’s OK, and my friends love and accept me for who I am, and I am free to be myself. I’m just not quite sure what to do when it’s me who is upset with myself for being quirky.
I blame it on the full moon. Truth is, I’m probably losing my grip on what’s left of my sanity. I need to lock myself in my apartment this weekend and clean, organize, and purge – I can’t hope to feel on solid ground until I get things in order there first.
Then I have to give up coffee. And start running again. Or at least ride my bike — no more parking tickets would be a good step in the right direction. Hey, even bringing my lunch. I actually started adding up how much a month I’d have if I stayed away from visitor’s parking, brought my lunch, and dropped coffee. I bit more than I realized.
Those of you who see me this weekend might end up seeing a basket full of these….coconut macaroons. Taste and look far better in person.
I can’t believe I blogged about cake.
Tip: when spending the day making cake, eat something that consists of a meal. Woke up shaky, and craving bacon.
Been thinking about switching my schedule to a 4-day week. Might pitch it as a trial for the summer. This way I could have Fridays off and avoid shore traffic by going to southern NJ Thursday night, have Friday night dinner, then have Sat. open for time with kids, then Sunday to myself.
Been debating what I’m doing next weekend. Either going to southern NJ, to Boston to see my brother, or taking the long weekend for myself. Not sure.
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