The hundred-and-eighty-seventh day...Being sick sucks!

Stuffy, achy, sneezey, coughy, and exhausted with red eyes. Well, that describes me :(

How are all of you feeling?

If only I could call out sick tomorrow - but I don't dare. Too much work, mixed with a crackdown on absenteeism in my department mean I am heading to work even if I have to crawl in on my hands and knees.

I wish I was back in PA for a few days...it was so much nicer and more relaxing there :)

The views from the lounge in Sis 2's dorm. Lovely :)

Have a wonderful night everyone! I'm off to find some Nyquil or something :)

The hundred-and-eighty-fourth day, hundred-and-eighty-fifth day, and hundred-and-eighty-sixth days combined...

Hey everyone :) Sorry for my MIA status, but it was family weekend at my sisters' college. Friday night to this afternoon was family time (awesome!).

Some pics :)

We arrived at the campus on Saturday morning just before registration closed down, but still early enough to catch them inflating the bouncy houses for the kids.

Some of the other games :)

Plenty of families and students were in attendance

One of the statues from the campus

This beautiful little leaf found it's way into our trunk

Mission Accomplished!

Yes, we did go here again - and yes, it was just as amazing!

We saw these at the CVS counter. Why would anyone make these, let alone buy them?

Yuck!

One of the campus buildings. I wish it was my house though :)

Some shopping at the Dollar Store...

and the Christmas Tree Shops...

and we caught a movie, of course :) We saw "Surrogates," btw (it was okay)

Some signs from the science building (we had to wait for my sister to start an experiment so I wandered around for a bit)

It was a wonderful weekend with the family. If only I had Monday off to recuperate :)

Have a wonderful rest of the night everyone!

The Friday 5

T.G.I.F everyone!

It has been a hard week, and I am oh so ready for the workday to be over :) How about some Friday 5 while we wait?

1) What are the titles of the last three books you read all of?
- Dead Witch Walking, Bobbie Faye's Very (very, very, very) Bad Day: A Novel, and The Christmas Box Collection: The Christmas Box Timepiece The Letter

2) What are the titles of between three and five magazines you subscribe to or used to subscribe to?
- The Week, Entertainment Weekly, Women's Health, and Time

3) What’s on your night table? (we figured this one was borderline, since it involves the bedroom, but if the vibe is right and you preface the question with the background story I told above, you could make it work)
- I don't currently have one :(

4) What are the three best things that happened to you in the past seven days?
My man has been able to pick me up after work a couple of times (yea, being able to spend even a few extra minutes with my sweetie), I finally got credited for a refund that I've been waiting for (three cheers for being able to pay bills), and I got back in touch with one of my best friends from childhood (yea, Facebook!)

5) What was your senior yearbook quote, and what would your yearbook quote be this year if there were such a thing?
My high school quote was: "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow." - Helen Keller

My quote today would probably be: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

Enjoy the rest of the day everyone!

The hundred-and-eighty-third day...Who loves free cake? I do, I do!

I had to get out of my office for a while today (there's all kinds of weird tension and backbiting going on there right now), so P and I took a walk to Grand Central Station.


I went to pick up a Lotto ticket and get some air, and P went in search of The Little Pie Company. I left victorious, Lotto ticket in hand (help me pray for a winner guys :) P left defeated (the store closed down), at least until we headed up to Junior's and got a few free samples of the most delicious Red Velvet cake I've tasted in a while. It was so good!

They also had this taiglach in the window.

I had never heard about this dessert before, and did not find it to look particularly appetizing, but I still had to look up the recipe to see what's in it. Apparently, all it has in it is flour, salt, baking powder, eggs, oil, dark honey, brown sugar, powdered ginger, nutmeg, nuts, and candied cherries. It sounds great, but I'll stick with the red velvet cake - especially when it's free. And yes, I took two huge pieces. As P pointed out while I was walking away in a haze of cake filled bliss, there wasn't a sign saying that we could only take one :)

Any other red velvet cake fans out there?

Enjoy the rest of the night everyone!

The hundred-and-eighty-second day...

There was a demonstration across the street from my office this morning. The MTA building is across the street, so I'm thinking it had something to do with them. Workers on strike maybe?


It happens every so often, but it's always interesting to hear and watch - especially if the alternative is facing work e-mails and phone calls.

I have been a mix of tired and excited all week. School and work are wiping me out, but this weekend is family weekend at my sisters' college, so I'm amped about that. I miss 'em quite a bit throughout the school year, and love going to visit them. I won't lie...I'm also hoping to go back to Quaker Steak and Lube. Heaven help me, I loved those wings!

In my haze I wandered into Jacks yesterday and saw this. I actually got super so excited because I thought it was a real world atlas.


I immediately felt that much dorkier, but what can I say - I love maps. Turns out it was just one of those secret safes. I never got safes like these. Seriously, everyone knows they make them and if a burglar comes to your house and sees it, the fact that he or she doesn't know your combination won't stop them from just taking the thing (and all the goodies located within). If I was investing in a safe, I would get one that would actually stand a chance of keeping my things safe. This thing could be dropped in a purse. Crazy.

Enjoy the rest of the night everyone! I'm off to finish up some care packages :)

The hundred-and-eighty-first day...

I know it's still September, but I just got the last of my Halloween decorations today. My motto is buy early and buy cheap :) I love Halloween :) I like dressing up (sometimes), but I mostly love all the wonderful decorations that you can get for the season and...candy corn (best candy of the season).

I've already bought all of my '09 Halloween decorations, including these adorable costumed rubber ducks which arrived today...


...and these wonderful mini busts :)


My office is going to kick butt this year :)

Have a great night everyone!

The hundred-and-eightieth day...

I took a sick day from work today. It was part sick day (mostly sick day, actually), and part paper writing day. I can only imagine the horror waiting for me on my desk and in my work e-mail tomorrow. The one saving grace this week is that I can actually leave work promptly at 5:30pm. I may actually try to be at the elevator, if not in the lobby, by that time :)

I was thinking today that my man and I haven't done our Times Square run in a while.

For anyone who is curious our Times Square run includes Dave & Busters, seeing a movie (or two) and walking around like tourists and taking pictures. It's just silly, wonderful fun. My man has been wanting to take me to Madame Toussaud's for the longest time, so that may be included in our next Times Square day.

Well, I have a paper to finish so night all!

Yea, it's an award :)

The wonderful miss cindy (of the great blog simple life and reading) has given me the Dragon’s Loyalty Award :) Awesome, I really appreciate it! Anyone who hasn’t already checked out miss cindy’s site definitely should. She reads the most interesting books and gives her readers a taste of each of them :)

Some rules for the award…

1) If you have a blog, post it on your blog with a link back to the site who gave it to you;

2) Leave them a comment on their site, email, etc. to let them know;

3) If you don't have a blog but have a website, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or other type account, post there with a link back; and

4) Pass this on to 3-10 loyal fans.

I’m passing this on to:

1. Jeanette @ Cooler Ranch or Nacho Cheese?
2. Badass Geek @ The Badass Geek
3. Optimistic Pessimist @ The Audacity of an Optimistic Pessimist
4. Sunshinemeg @ Float On…
5. Moonjava @ Moonjava’s Muse
6. Lee @ Photographing the Days
7. Fidgeting Gidget @ Fidgeting Gidget

Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

The hundred-and-seventy-sixth day through the The hundred-and-seventy-ninth days (combined)...Yeah, that's a whole lotta days!

Sorry for the lack of posts for the last few days. It's been a pretty hectic and mildly crappy weekend.

I worked extended hours last week so I could have Friday off. First a little tangent...I'm pretty convinced that work is trying to kill me. This must be the case as it's covering its bases so well. If the sheer stress doesn't get me, the mountains or paperwork will surely tumble down upon me and smother me. Anyway, all week long I was looking forward to sleeping like it was my job on Friday, until I remembered that I had two doctors appointments lined up for the day. It was a sad few minutes on Thursday afternoon when I looked at my planner and noticed that.

Thank goodness that my lovely and extremely patient man came with me to the appointments because they were both new doctors and I hate going to new docs alone the first time. The first appointment was at 10:30am, and lasted about 40 minutes (including wait time). The next appointment wasn't until 3pm, so we went to get some grub and then wound up finding an Internet gaming place (we love our video games :)

I wish I had taken pictures of the place. It looked like an especially rundown crack house from the outside, and a something straight out of Saw inside. It was dark, smoky, and looked like it had bodies swinging from chains 10 minutes before we walked in. I made the mistake of going to the restroom - I literally suppressed my screams, opened the door with a piece of paper towel and backed out. It was a scary place to which we will never venture again.

I was wiped after the appointments - I got some not so great news from both, and was in a funk for most of Saturday and some of today. Then I had a quiz and a paper due today - and I have another paper due on Tuesday. This all just contributed to that same funk; but I had to shake myself out of it - at least enough to get some work done :)

And then look at that...it's Monday again. How is it that no day comes quite as quickly as Monday?

On to some pictures :)

I've seen this toy advertised. I'm all for inspiring creativity in kids but I think this is an accident waiting to happen.

My appointments were in Flushing, NY, so we had a chance to drive around the area a bit. Usually, I'm on the bus around there so I miss out on some of the historic buildings.

It's too bad that some of the historic locations are now commercial businesses. This clock looked a bit odd above the new sandwich shop.

Last, but not least it's almost that time again - Halloween (love it!) - and the Halloween store is coming back. You've got to love the number to call.

Have a wonderful night everyone!

The hundred-and-seventy-fifth day...

One day earlier this year as I was walking by the dollar store, I noticed that the store had put a box of stuff outside marked free. I'm attracted to that word like a moth to a flame so I wandered over. I noticed that quite a few people were circling the box, but no one seemed to want to be the first one to look at the contents. I have no such problem, so I dove in. Once I touched the box, it was like open season - people were chomping at the bit to see what was it it. Weird. The box held mostly crap like incorrectly painted dice and weird, fugly looking garlands. I was about to walk away when I saw a bunch of these things.

To be honest, they kind of freak me out, but I figured it would be nice to bring some back for the office to brighten up/cheer up the place. Initially, I was only going to take a couple, but I ended up picking up one for each assistant (at the time) and one for the Manager and Director of the Department (C.Y.A and all). I thought that they would laugh and get a kick out of how creepy they are (am I alone in thinking that?) but they all really liked them. Who knew?

Anyway, when my previous assistant left, she left hers behind - by accident or on purpose, who knows. Now it just sits at her old desk - now home of the department supplies. I kind of want to put in a drawer so I won't have to look at its creepiness :)

I'm going to be bad and blow off reading tonight. I know, I know...don't tell.

Enjoy the rest of the night everyone!

The hundred-and-seventy-fourth day...(a little belated)

Yesterday at work, desperate for a can of soda, I snatched up a dollar and headed over to the vending machine only to be met with this...


The vending machine at work is broken - again. This is the third time in a month. Is it too much to ask that the company maintain the one vending machine that we have in our micro-sized lunch room that has only enough room for three tables? It's bad enough that they last time they said they were "fixing" the machine, it was still broken but all the prices were raised.

I went back to the machine later in the day and saw that it had also started to leak. By the time I saw it, the water had travelled quite a distance.


They finally got around to putting a 'Caution-Wet Area' sign up this morning.

Is it Friday yet?

Have a great day everyone!

The hundred-and-seventy-third day...

I spotted these two construction workers enjoying some people watching from an overpass while on a break.


They must have been having some good fun too because they weren't being very subtle about the fact that they were people watching and talking about the people walking around down below. Then again, why would they be. People don't often look up, so they probably went mostly unnoticed.

Anyway, I know this is way late...but what was up with the VMAs this year? I'm not even talking about the Kanye West/Taylor Swift/Beyonce madness. I'm talking about 1) Lady Gaga's blood soaked performance (Disturbing!), and 2) L'il Mama jumping up on stage and crashing Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' performance when she was so clearly not wanted (she just bothers me so much!).

MTV does love drama though, so I guess those incidents were just icing on the Kanye West pettiness cake.

I'm off to do some reading - again. I think the pages multiply overnight :)

Have a wonderful rest of the night everyone!

The hundred-and-seventy-first and hundred-and-seventy-second days combined...

I hope everyone had a safe and fun weekend.

I was stuck inside for most of mine, unfortunately, writing a paper :( Well...I was supposed to be writing a paper, and I was - most of the time - but every so often my brain needed a break and I read some of this book instead.


And watched some TV. And checked some e-mail...you know how it goes. But, seriously most of my time was spent on my paper. It's so sad that I was struggling with it quite a bit due in part to the subject (social identity profiles), but also because I apparently have completely forgotten how to write and cite in APA format.

I bought this book to try and reacquaint myself...


...but it's slow going so far.

The combination of being stuck in the house doing work all weekend + knowing that tomorrow is Monday and I'll be working extended hours this week = me almost wanting to weep. I think I have a bit of the ol' wanderlust.

I just want to go somewhere. It doesn't even have to be that far away; I just want a vacation. A real vacation. I've never had one, and I am craving one right now - not just a few days off where I stay home and end up running errands and cleaning the house.

I need to work something out.

What did you all do this weekend?

Have a wonderful night everyone!

The hundred-and-seventieth day...and the winner is...

Happy Friday again everyone. Well, there's no new pic today - for multiple reasons - one of which happens to be that it's that time...

Gift card giveaway time :) Yea!

Well, I took a tip from Sunshinemeg (you can find her awesome blog, Float On, here) and went old school :) I wrote all the entries on slips of paper of identical size, scrunched each slip up, put 'em in a hat, and then had someone close their eyes (and turn their head - can't be too careful) and pick a slip. It worked like a well oiled, old school machine :)

All that being said, the winner is ... miss cindy!!!

Image found here

Congratulations miss cindy (of the wonderful simple life and reading)! Just e-mail me your address - you can find my e-mail address on my profile - and I'll send those lovely gift cards right out :)

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who participated - you guys are so awesome :) I hope to do another giveaway sometime soon. We'll see. Thanks again everyone for participating, commenting, and following :)

Have a wonderful Friday night!

The Friday 5

T.G.I.F everyone!

Even though I have a paper due and a quiz to take, I am so happy that it’s the weekend! This workweek was abbreviated (thank you Labor Day :) but it felt like two weeks rolled into one to me.

And now for something that I haven’t done in way too long…The Friday 5!

1) When did you last drink something out of a glass bottle? Snapple Orangeade two days ago. That orangeade is just too GOOD!

2) Whose energy would you like to bottle for those future listless days? I’ll take Oprah’s on-screen energy.

3) How many plastic bottles are there in your shower, and what’s in them? Actually in the shower, none. In the stand beside the shower, a lot. I’ve got shampoos, conditioners, and several body washes.

4) Who in your life could be described as lightning in a bottle? My friend K.

5) You’re playing Spin-the-Bottle with your sixth-grade classmates. When it’s your turn, to whom do you want the bottle pointing? Hmm, I don’t even remember who I had a crush on back then…probably P. He was a cutie back then.

T.G.I.F again everyone!

The hundred-and-sixty-ninth day...Candy!

Fossil is celebrating it's 25th Anniversary. I've always loved the look of Fossil watches, but they are a bit too expensive for me to actually buy one. However, I happily accompanied P to the store today so that she could get her watch fixed. Why? Because to celebrate their 25th they were giving away free bottles of water and...vintage candies :) It was fun to go through the box and find Necco Wafers, Bit-O-Honey, candy necklaces, candy dots and wax lips. Mind you, the only candy out of those I just mentioned that I actually like it Bit-O-Honey, but it was still fun to see a lot of the candies that I remember from childhood.

P and I each took a pair of wax lips to wear around the office. Yeah, we're big kids.


We got a few chuckles and then tossed 'em.

It was also interesting to see all the candy that I have never even heard of before, like Clove Gum and Teaberry Gum.

It was a cool 15 minute break away from the office :)

So how was the day for all of you?

Have a wonderful night everyone. I'm off to sleep :)

*** Oh, and remember to enter my gift card giveaway here if you haven't already done so. I'll be choosing the winner tomorrow. Good luck! ***

The hundred-and-sixty-eighth day...

Today was another stress filled, tension filled day at the office. There seem to be a lot of those lately. The one high point? Cake - Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Cake to be specific. Now, I'm not normally a fan of ice cream cake. I prefer my cake to be cake. If I want ice-cream, then I'll have a scoop of it on the side, but Ben & Jerry's is the exception :)


It was half vanilla, half half-baked with lovely chocolaty brownie pieces and...well, it was good :)

One of the birthday girls is my assistant, R :) Her birthday isn't actually until Friday, but one of my colleagues, who I share R with, is best friends with the other birthday girl, P. P's birthday was this past Saturday, so she decided to celebrate both b-days today. I, personally think that celebrating them today made no sense and that the cake should have been saved until Friday. I mean the celebration for P was already belated and would still be belated on Friday, Friday is R's actual b-day, and Friday is just a more relaxed day in general. But whatever. Everyone seemed to love the cake and the birthday girls had fun so that's all that mattered.

On the walk to the subway station yesterday, I passed Radio City and was reminded that the MTV Video Music Awards will be held there on the 13th.

A part of me wishes that I was attending - it always seems like such a great show, but then I remembered that Russell Brand is reprising his role as host. He's been semi-funny in a couple of movies (namely, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Bedtime Stories), but I thought that he did a horrible job last year and I can't believe they asked him back. Maybe he's revamped his hosting style? I hope he has anyway.

What do you guys think of Russell Brand? Do you even watch the MTV VMAs? Oh, and most importantly...and this is serious now...cake or ice cream cake?

Have a wonderful night everyone!

The hundred-and-sixty-seventh day...(a little belated)

Well yesterday was pretty laid back. Everyone was just trying to get back into the groove at work after the long weekend. Why is it that it is always extra hard to get up and get going after you have some days off? I was so relaxed over the weekend and now, after only one day back at work, I am exhausted. I wish it was Friday :(

On the way to the train yesterday, P asked me to walk over to the Jets store with her. It seems that the New York Jets Flight Crew was over there signing their swimsuit calendar and P's boyfriend L had begged her to buy him a calendar and get all the autographs. I didn't even know what the Flight Crew was but she, of course, asked me to go so she didn't have to go alone and so I could take a picture of her with his birthday month girl (so she could taunt him with the pic :) Sort of wrong, but still sort of funny.

Anyway, here are some pics from that:

Have a wonderful day everyone!

The hundred-and-sixty-sixth day...Three cheers for days off!

Photo found here

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the day. I, myself, am doing nothing today except relaxing and watching TV. It's been wonderful :)

Enjoy the rest of the night everyone!

The hundred-and-sixty-fourth and hundred-and-sixty-fifth days combined...

Remember the evil stuffed who-knows-what-it-is from this post?

Well, it's back...and it has a children.

It freaked me out even more that the little one's shirt says "Everything is going to be alright".

Reading it, I can hear it being said in Zelda Rubinstein's eerie voice (you know, from Poltergeist. "All are welcome...")

On another note, when I was at Toys-R-Us, a little boy (he looked about 7 or 8) and his grandfather walked up to Geoffrey and shook his hand - the little boy was ecstatic. It was adorable. They then tried to take a picture with him.

They each got on either side of him and the grandmother held up her camera, told them to say cheese, and...was screamed at by an employee who said that Geoffrey doesn't take pictures in that section of the store and that they were to either go to the designated area or move along. They opted to move along.

It was something to see the little boy turn around to get a last look at Geoffrey as they were walking away. There was no reason for the employee to yell so loudly. If I was that grandmother, I would have snapped the picture anyway. I mean they were already in place and she had the camera ready. Seriously, I would have taken the pic and walked away - and I would have made sure to look the employee in the eyes as I walked away. Just 'cause.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!