Connecticut: Not so bad after all.

Maybe. I'm not willing to concede defeat over the entire state of Connecticut just yet. I know I've said some not so nice things about Connecticut in the past (you know like that time I said I would blow up the entire state and build a bridge from Massachusetts to New York, or that time I said the Hartford Civic Center's beer selection was the only good thing the state had going for it...) but it seems that my work travels will bring me to Waterbury, CT at the end of February. What this means to you, my friends residing in the states directly above or below Connecticut is that you're hanging out with me. What? No, you don't have a choice in the matter.

Do you live in Massachusetts, Connecticut, or New York City? Do you want me to kiss your baby/drink a beer with me/cause a ruckus in a rental car between February 25th and March 4th? Hit a girl up and we'll work out dates and times.

Unrelated, but Awesome:
This would be amazing to have on my wall.

Sunday morning, 9am

So here I am, at a coffee shop in a college town. Most of the college kids are still drunk from last night's debauchery. I woke up to a craving for pastries and coffee with milk. And a coffee shop with free WiFi. So here I am. Avoiding the fact that I have to go into work on a Sunday. A Sunday. So I guess this is growing up.

The new Arcade Fire album, "Neon Bible," is good. Arcade Fire made an album where they sound like Arcade Fire. What's that you say? They made an album where they sound like themselves? Astonishing!

I've been thrown out of orbit lately- death in the family, physical sickness, depression. Not in that order, but moreso, concurrently happening in layers, depression on top of death on top of sickness.

More and more each I've been wishing for spring/summer/warmth. I walked outside yesterday and the texture of the snow looked different- not so smooth, but as though I could see each individual snowflake that made the piles of snow outside and I thought to myself, "Maybe this means it is melting away for spring time..." Snapped back into reality, its January, Jennifer. Spring is still months away. Open toed shoes and windows rolled down/music turned up is still months away.

I am headed to Houston this week for a work conference. It would seem I'm the only one among my coworkers who is a) excited to go and b) excited to learn what's new in my field. Its weird and full of pressure to be the It Girl of the Moment at your company- among your coworkers and customers. So many of the people I talk to weekly becoming real faces. So many mouths saying, "I can't wait to meet you!" and "You've done amazing things." I feel excitement, but I also feel keenly aware of the enormous pressure mounting.

And then to my granny's house in Florida- post work conference. I need some centering right now. My Granny and I are one in the same, so the long weekend will be spent at flea markets and cocktail hours and riding bicycles. Hopefully the Florida sunshine can hold me over until spring arrives...or at least until the snow melts.

"My Superbowl Shuffle will set you free."

Hey my friendlies. I'm at home sick-ish today...well, I threw up this morning at work and they sent me home (and I went willingingly!) I am a wimpy and when I throw up I want my mum. No lie. I wish she were here to watch movies with me. Right now. I've also got a wicked fever, but mostly I feel okay, so long as I don't eat or drink anything at all. Ever again. Which is really unfortunate since I love food. (Speaking of people who love food, Kevin Smith director, actor, and funny man started a new series on his blog. Every Monday he talks about his diet. And the foods he wishes he could eat. Its really hilarious. And if you haven't had the chance to read his 8 part series about helping his friend, Jason Mewes (Jay of Jay and Silent Bob) kick his heroin addiction, I strongly recommend. Its truly compelling to read such a sad story of addiction make an amazing friendship even stronger....read it and you'll wish all your friends were like Kevin Smith.) Anyways, I'm sick....

Maybe I just have a case of SUPERBOWL FEVER.



I have big boisterous love for the Superbowl Shuffle. And Mike Ditka. And the Chicago Bears.

Yay! Superbowl!



Movies I am enjoying while I am in quarantine at home:
+Stick It (Bring It On but with gymnastics)




+Material Girls




+SherryBaby

I <3 Maggie Gyllenhaal.



+This Film Is Not Yet Rated





Also, yesterday my cousin and I watched movies since its cold in Minnesota:
+Bring It On: All or Nothing

They talk in IM speak in this movie. "Oh-em-gee!" I just love a good racially motivated comedy with a happy ending and a celebrity cameo. Seriously you guys, I secretly like this movie. A lot.



+The Last Kiss
Zack Braff is highly overrated. I hope he googles his name and reads this. I was reading Pitchfork's review of the new Shins album and the review talked about how the new album was trying to combat the Brafflash of Garden State. Hilarious. Speaking of, has anyone heard the new Shins album? I'm antsy to hear it. Basically, The Last Kiss is The Last Zack Braff movie I watch.

I bet MLK Jr. would know the answer to this Grammar Quiz.

What is the correct name for the long, dry document I am writing for work:

a) User Manual
b) User's Guide
c) System Guide
d) Users Manual
e) Loser's Manual
f) Boozer's Manual
g) Software Bible
h) Software Koran (alternately: Software Q'oran)
i) Giant Book Containing Instructions on How to Use Our Software
j) Magical Book with All the Answers to Life's Mysteries


Culturally Insensitive Quote of the Day:
"Of course the Mennonites are working today, they don't believe in black people."

!!!

In between working and working out and generally avoiding being outside (hello, 4 degree weather, what's up buzzkill?), I had time for the following this weekend:

Watching Veronica Mars Season 1 on D-V-D
Oh that Veronica Mars. Always getting herself into trouble. I love this show.

Reading "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas" by Tom Robbins
Slow to start, but picks up in classic Robbins fashion. Still not as epic as Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Still Life with Woodpecker.

Watching a documentary on Al Capone and the St. Valentine's Massacre on the History Channel
Did you know Al Capone was let out of Alcatraz because he suffered from dementia caused by untreated syphilis? Federal officials deemed him a threat to no one. The people that took over his South Side Chicago gang while he was in prison let him continue to believe that he was still in charge after he was released from prison because he was so far gone. Near the end of his life, Capone would spend most of his time fishing in his pool talking to all the people he had murdered in his past.

Listening to all the archived "This American Life" podcasts I could find
Ira Glass, I love you.

Buying a new dress for my work conference in Houston
Its fun to buy things (you can buy many things at the mall!), its even easier on my pocketbook when I have a legitimate reason to buy said items.

And analyzing the Harry Potter books from varying literary criticism approaches (Archetypal vs. Structuralist/Formalism)
I stopped short of writing a 3 - 5 page paper. Lots of research. As proven before: I am a nerd. And Harry Potter is the archetypal hero, like the Baby Jesus. And I'm intrigued by the underlying modern day reflections on our own society JK Rowling is presenting in her fantasy based series: the corruption of government, the media's falsification and sensationalism of the truth, blahblahblah.

Basically, this is what happens when its so cold out that I get stuck indoors all weekend. Nerdy nerdism abounds all over the place. I am so S-M-R-T. And I get very productive on the working and not so productive on the laundry, like I should be.

idiot. savant.

I forgot to mention yesterday...

While I was at the movies watching Dreamgirls, there was a couple behind me who would not stop talking during the movie. As I've mentioned before, I hate when people talk during movies, so I shushed them. After the movie was over, I gathered my things and turned around to leave when I realized the person I had shushed during the movie was BLIND with one of those white blind canes and the whole shabang.

I shushed a blind person at the movies.

I am such a jackass.

iSlave

Unless you, you know, are lost in outer space, I'm sure you've heard all about Apple's announcement of the June launch of the iPhone exclusively offered through Cingular.


Being somewhat of a technophile, my mouth started drooling at all the beautiful features this phone offers. Drool. Drool. Drool.

"Jen, you just bought a Blackberry." Why, yes, I did just purchase a Blackberry, but oh man those iPhones are looking Sexy.

But, just to be clear, I'm going to wait awhile before I buy this because with it being the first generation of a new product there will be glitches, so I'm going to sit back and chill on this for awhile until they've made the thing indestructably sound.

For now I'll be content with my iLife sans iPhone. Ask me again in June though, I may have changed my mind by then.

Otherwise...
I've been a bit stressed out and ultra-focused on work lately; part of my new job is writing a User's Manual, a whole new world (A Whole Newwwww World, that's where we'll be...oh hell, I don't remember the rest of that song) of technical writing and long document graphic design, both new territories for me. I'm really digging this new ground, but my out-of-work writing has suffered tremendously. I write write write all day long and that makes it difficult to come home and try and write more. I keep telling myself it will feel so good when this giant project is done (and not just because of the promised all staff dinner party my boss promised me when its done), but because it will be an entire book that I wrote. Sure, not a great pouring of my heart and soul into a novel or creative literature of any sort, but still! Fifty thousand words with accompanying illustrations to call my own. To make up for my lack of writing, I've been taking pictures with my digital camera, my Polaroid (so so much fun!), and the tiny little iSight camera in my laptop and then Photoshopping the crap out of those pictures. (See above.)

Also taking up my time are getting the next few months figured out and watching the following T-V shows on D-V-D: Degrassi: The Next Generation, Nip/Tuck, and Veronica Mars. I am a sucker for the drama-rama. Veronica Mars...if you haven't watched this show, I'm not going to tell you that you must, but she's a smart, sassy, strong lead female character and the story has totally sucked me in. When I grow up, I want to be a girl detective super sleuth.

Up for this spring: I am all about taking a class or two at the local community college. Serious question: is it possible to get your Associate's Degree after you've acquired your Bachelor's degree? If so, I may try to focus on getting an actual degree in Graphic Design or something like that.

Otherwise, I've seen a lot of movies lately; so much so, that I've seen all but one movie at the local movie theater, and I don't really want to see that one. All the movies I've seen lately have been slightly better than mediocre. You know what, I'm going to admit that I love musicals, so I saw Dreamgirls and for the first half of the movie whenever someone broke out into song it made no sense to me. I wanted more dancing, but the costumes were fabulous.

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people talk during movies.

Discovery of the day: There is an energy drink called CRUNK! There are many many reasons why this amuses me. I'll let you think of your own reasons.

And finally:

This is the music I have been jamming these days: (mostly at work)

Martime (ex-Promise Ring and ex-Dismemberment Plan)

Lily Allen

This American Life podcast (not music technically, I know...)

The Pipettes

Annuals

Broken Social Scene

The City on Film (Robert Nanna)

Okay, my friendlies, I hope you are all well.

Old/New/Best

2006, randomly:
+saw the Harlem Globetrotters play
+spent a lot of time in NY
+moved across the country (again)
+great friends!
+put on a play with the aforementioned great friends
+made a golf cart into a dinosaur

2007, hopefully:
+Japan!
+move across the country (again)
+more school
+more great friends!


Home, again.
As you should all have figured out by now, I did make it home for Christmas and managed to spend an evening out with my bestest of pals, Mark. What was supposed to be one drink at the local watering hole ("The Firehouse"...apparently, "The Wiffle Tree" is so passe these days) turned into closing out the bar. With any trip to a local bar, particularly at holiday times, I expect to see someone vaguely familiar from high school and well....that would be a gross understatement this time. It all reminded me of the conversation Mark and I had in Ms. Schubert's homeroom about how we had yet to reach our peak of cool in high school and if my memory wasn't so clouded by all those mixed drinks, I could have sworn we revisited that topic again at the bar that night. Well, in any case, I saw a few friendly faces, a few people who apparently have better memories than me or really, I am a heartless bitch who doesn't remember that guy I dated for a week in the middle of 10th grade. Its not that I didn't like myself in high school, its just that I don't really identify with that person so when distant acquaintances of junior and high school bring up that time that I did that embarassing thing and ohmygod don't you remember that and how do you feel about it now? And well, I don't really want to relive that. Its like the guy from that classic (but not as classic as say, The Breakfast Club or other John Hughes fare) high school flick, Can't Hardly Wait:



after being hit on by drunk guys
Reminiscing Guy: Hey Amanda.
Amanda Becket: Hey.
Reminiscing Guy: Remember that time we danced at the sock hop?
Amanda Becket: Yeah.
Reminiscing Guy: I just wanted you to know I had the hugest boner and I was just wondering if maybe you and I could get together and... work it out.
Amanda walks away disgusted

I loathe Reminiscing Guy. And really, you know, its all fine to jam with your friends about hey that was really funny when we set the couch on fire and put in on our friend's lawn and then his parents called the cops, but listen up: honestly, if we were barely acquaintances in high school, can't you think of ANYTHING AT ALL to say that is more appropriate than "Remember that time you did that stupid thing, OH-EM-GEE?" A simple "What have you been up to?" or the understated, "What's new?" are realy quite sufficient over social drinks and vague acquaintances.

You get the point.

Right, so the rest of the night at the bar was...uneventful mostly. I think someone said to me, "Heeeeyyyyy, are we MySpace friends? I think I've seen your page before...." Most deserving cockpunch of the year goes to: the cultural relevance of MySpace. Despite that and seeing too many ex-boyfriends to realistically even give a flying eff anymore, the whole night was mostly harmless and ended with a sweet hot tub party showdown and Miller Genuine Draft at my parents' house until 5 am the next morning with a few of the good friends from little ol' Northern Illinois that made driving 15 hours from Colorado just to get back home totally worth it.

Also, lesson learned: Attending Christmas Eve church services still drunk from your party the night before? Not the best thought out plan.