gigglechick.com

so in between wrangling MT today, i have placed two bids on ebay...

one for an old version of dreamweaver for the mac, and another for an old version of image ready...

that's all i need. that's what i was using before the Great Crash of 2002 when i lost everything.

on a lighter note... quinn may be heading into town next weekend and if it's a go, we's having din-din.... keen!

well, i woke myself up sneezing again... a split second before the rugrat upstairs began screaming "Daaaaaaad? Daaaaaaaaad?" and stomping around over my head.

i also dreamt that i was trying to piece together all the sniper clues and was heading down to find him.

i do think that this jackass has been parking on backroads and walking/running back to the van through trees,etc and having an easy getaway. i also think that there are more than 1 van...

so for a little while last night and this morning, i got a bug in my head to try and "change this site up" a bit...

it's not there yet, but i have been futzing around.... there are kinks and i want y'all to test it out, see if you throw up from it, tell me if you like the regular site, or if you want me to go a "little bolder"

see, i don't have dreamweaver or image ready anymore, so i have been designing this in simpletext and an old photoshop, so it may be effed up terribly.

trying to fiddle with the links and such, i know they are a bit dark on the one side - yrt not on the other... can't figure out how to make it so they aren't universal throughout the site

actually i don't like the newer "design" that i mentioned in the last post. and i am getting a feeling of weak blah about this regular version as well...
7 hours and 20 minutes til dreamweaver is mine... and another day and a half til image ready is mine as well (then i have to wait for shipping)

was supposed to meet my comedy sister, Monica, in the city tonight to see comedian - the seinfeld documentary - and then we were gonna go to an open mic...

had to cancel... i have been feeling punky since friday night, but it's blossomed into a horrible cold... gonna go rummage around in my fridge for some cherry flavoured nyQuil or cherry alka seltzer cold (the drugs of choice here at gigglechick.com)

eff. i took my alka seltzer cold cherry flavoured beverage (the official drug of gigglechick�), fell asleep at 3pm and i just woke up.

i woke up to find that some !@#*& outbid me by one effing dollar at the last minute.

so i took it into my own hands and shelled out $63 for this beauty

i won my pool at work!!! wooooo! i think that's $130.... yay! that'll help out with the ebay purchase! usually i am in the pool where my mom works... unfortunately, this week she didn't have to work on friday and didn't get my picks in. dang. that would have been another $100 or so.

*sniffle* *cough*

i am sick. very sick.

unfortunately i was out sick 2 days last week, we have another designer starting today and i have a ton of stuff to work on....

the alka seltzer knocks me out. gotta get gas before work, no time to buy cold meds...ahh....just remembered we have a little store in the bowels of my buildng...cool. i never go there.

Police looking for the sniper who has terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for nearly three weeks picked up two men for questioning Monday, federal law enforcement sources said.

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 21 � A SWAT team working with the sniper task force seized a man in a white van at a gas station Monday, but less than an hour later, investigators issued a statement suggesting the man was not the gunman terrorizing the Washington, D.C., area.

click below for my theory as to why this fella isn't the sniper.

Ozzy Osbourne Freaked Out Meeting Queen Elizabeth

He confessed to Britain's Radio Times: "I freaked out. I assumed I was the in-house joke. The queen spoke to me but I haven't a clue what she said. Look at photographs -- I'm in shock."

does anyone know why parasites have simple sensory systems?

(girl at work needs to know the answer)

thanks!

so now the sniper (possibly) has struck at about 6am... sheesh... dude, get some rest, you manic little bastard. maybe a little rest and relaxation will help you...

i suggest utilizing the cultural facilities that are near you before heding to mexico....

try this... Deceptions and Illusions:Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting

looks quite interesting and you like deception, right?

i doubt they allow guns, so please leave that at home. oh, what the hell, take the gun with you so they can effing catch you.

so last week a girl i work with had pink eye - a.k.a - conjunctivitis... oh joy.

this weekend, as you know, i wasn't feeling very keen... sneezing, tired, ill. still feeling that way - except yesterday and today my eyes have been burning.

lovely...right?

well i freaked out, went to the doctor (new doctor. cute physician's assistant named mike...)

wasn�t pink eye � just to ease your mind

was bad allergies � how embarrassing, eh? here i thought i had a perfectly good contagious disease�

so he slapped me on Zyrtec-D... hopefully this will kick clarinex's ass.

woo! got the police report back for the accident last thursday! i am IN THE RIGHT! woo!

apparently the driver of the other vehicle was some 29 year old @#%! named, get this, this is her first name - not giving the last...

Panagiota

what the heck?

take that, freak...

#1. for ramming into my poor cavalier...
#2. for saying i ran the stop sign - which i most certainly DID NOT.
#3. for talking the "eyewitness" into saying that i ran the stopsign 5 minutes AFTER he said to me that was in the right and that "Paagiota" was "going way too fast and hit" me....

bring it.

have chapped lips. arrrrgh.

so last night, i went to the weight watchers meeting in paramus... who should the leader be but the leader i used to have in jersey city... yay! she's the one that was really inspiring and i had much success with...

after the meeting i headed to shop-rite and bought a whole slew of good stuff...

made myself a salad at 7:30am and had it for lunch... (baby greens, cucumber, sunflower seeds, reduced fat feta and fat free balsamic vinagrette...)

was good...

i AM going to kick ass with this losing weight thing THIS time... 55pounds by june... i can do it... that's like, 2 pounds a week... can do~!

gotta say tonight was cool.... cathy and i went to see Garbage and No Doubt at the continental airlines arena... garbage was great! gotta admit, i never really was a garbage fan - or so i thought...didn't know that i knew a handful of their songs... i am so bad with remembering names of groups and matching up their songs...

cathy wrote an article about the lighting guy/production dude for garbage who's also a friend of hers... so we sat in the lighting console.... twas cool... THANKS CATH!!! pass to the show...

also went to joanne's to see her new baby!! so cute!!! so teeny!!! :)

The two men are believed to be driving a 1990 blue and burgundy 1990 Chevrolet Caprice with a New Jersey license plate NDA-21Z

john allen williams.... go. see if you know him.

hmmmmm interesting title/author for an article in 2000 ... coincidence?

(not this guy)

had no idea what the hell he meant by "like a duck in a noose"...

apparently, it's some sort of folktale...

version 1

version 2

version 3

Hi Erin,

Joe

heh. oh well... no big deal...

lovely...

so here's the skinny - my credit seems to be "not so desirable"... i am in debt about $300... seriously. that's it. (not counting the car payments, but that's not an issue)

i am turned down for credit cards left and right... meanwhile there was a lottery winner a year or so ago who was an immigrant from the philipines, was $600,000 in debt, had declared bankruptcy twice and still had SEVENTY TWO credit cards...

i can't even get a secured Capital One...or even a Sears card for that matter...

so i went on the experian website tonight - they used to be TRW - to see what's what with my history

first off, they spelled my name wrong... WRONG

second... eh... they have my birthday as 06/21/1971

if i am not mistaken, i was born in 1970

they have me working for only 2 companies and according to them, the last time i worked was in 1997... before that was 1993 (i have only had a total of 11 months unemployment between 1993 and 2002... and eight jobs to show for it)

as far as my previous addresses... they have me listed as living in 8 different homes... they have 3 addresses duplicated... with the apartment numbers being the difference... so i look like i move around a LOT... i have been in this apartment alone for 5 and a half years.

eff.

and my student loans are listed as outstanding (outstanding in a bad way)... i paid them all off in FULL last february of 2001. asses.

*sigh*

this WILL get straightened out. as God as my witness [insert Scarlett O'Hara drawl and drama here]

polarblast

i just set up and did the huge honking gif for this site...
yay... i can almost smell the freelance check right now - hellooooo car payment!

cafeteria has a guy prepare sushi every friday - i have to tell you that i could eat about 756 tuna rolls from this guy if they let me... really good - and no one has died yet

it's evolving... slowly... a very subtle remodeling is taking place on this blog...

so i am supposed to meet quinn today.... i have a ton of stuff to do during the day so i think that we should probably meet this evening... he drove down with his buddy from nova scotia to see his pal's girlfriend in brooklyn...

whoa... hold the phone, just read his post - he'd called me yesterday:

And Erin has the cutest phone voice, with just a touch of the Jersey accent. She says "cahwbs", not "cabs." Hee hee hee..

i don't have that kind of accent! that's not a jersey accent, that's a speech impedement that quinn wrote there, and i certainly didn't say it like that! i MAY have said it like "kêhbs" but so didn't say it like "cahwbs"... i say that when i am saying "corn on the cahwb"

and he's one to talk! quinn has that crazy canadian accent thing going!

(note to self: instead of saying 'cabs' say 'taxis')

think i am really getting a cold... the allergy medicine is not helping with sniffles... i have so much stuff to do today - laundry, dishes, cleaning the apartment - and feel like a slug... then i am meeting quinn at 6pm in the city... i gotta shake this thing.

am baking a potato right now which i am eyeballing through the oven window every 5 seconds... why's it take so long... i should just put it in the microwave, THEN slap the fat free cheddar and salsa on it in the oven... think that's what i am gonna do... (the salsa and f.f. cheddar are ww friendly)

snagged from nutz'so:

oh so classic...

when i grow up, i want to be a web designer... a freak. use terms nobody understands and convince myself i am no longer the geek i was in high school...

so at approximately 6:10pm, i met quinn at the Harp bar on 32nd street... my usual rendevouz point to meet folks at... it's near the PATH train...

had a good time, walked around and then had turkey burgers at Dewey's Flatiron... where he actually gave me a kickass gift of OS 9 and OSX... yay!

quinn at 25th and broadway...

walked around more and then got likkered up on 4 cups of coffee apiece...

then i found him a gypsy cab and headed towards the PATH train...
quinn and i after 8 cups o' joe at midnight

a swell fella... glad to have met him finally... so he and his buddy are trekking back to Nova Scotia (or NoSco as i am officially dubbing it) tomorrow...

*whew*

i am once again with dreamweaver (now in MX!) and have imageready... as well as a buncha other goodies.... and my machine is running smooth as silk since i have now upgraded to os9.2

sweet!

now i can hunker down, do freelance work, redesign my site and have a general feeling of peace and fulfillment with my mac...

happiness

(note to self... borrow font cd from work since i am working with 10 fonts)

by the way, i got up at effing 7am on a sunday... i never get up that early without an alarm... yet the one effing day i CAN get an extra hour's sleep... *sheesh*

pretty effing cool...

flash rubik's cube....

[snagged from allofthegoodonesaretaken]

what i was working on for a good part of the day at work...

the 'model' is my friend/co-worker Fred... and this is an email that i have to send out to folks in the company

man alive! my landlords haven't turned the heat on... i am effing freezing... i have no control over the heat... dammit

hey all i am trying out a bit of script that i snagged off of scriptygoddess.com click the "more" link below and hopefully all will be swell....

yay!!!! i just got back from my ww meeting and i LOST....

6.6 POUNDS

well... i did it. i have done a "slight" makeover on the blog... i plan to carry the design throughout the rest of the site soon... i am really tired right now, but i would absolutely love to hear what y'all think of the new layout - yes, i kept the ABV (anti-baby vitamins) image... had to!

anyway... i am going to try and get some rest, since i have to code other website stuff for work tomorrow... sort of 24 hours of coding if you will...

have i mentioned how much i am in love with moveable type?!?

well, i have to tell you i am pretty excited about this layout. i have to implement it into the other templates on my site, so maybe i will try to do that tonight... probably not though... have to go out for a cocktail after work with the marketing kids... then i wanna go home and watch west wing... i have to get some sleep so i can get up early and throw on my halloween makeup and costume.... yay! halloween is tomorrow!

happy halloween! okay - for those who wanted to know what i was going to be for this spectacular holiday.... here are a couple of photos already!!!!!! enjoy....

here i am being really serious at my desk

here i am with full frontal view!

(yes. i am a sack of potatoes... i went for the sexy look this year)

today has been the absolute BEST day for me in years!!!

everyone was freaking out about my costume... totally loving it! i got some EXCELLENT news at work (nope. sorry. can't talk about it on here) then prior to the halloween luncheon they nominated employees of the quarter - normally each manager only nominates one person - my boss nominated me and Fred, that was very cool. then the check for some freelance work i'd done came in... then i won the company costume party ($25 starbucks card... COFFEE!!!) a little later our desks we've been waiting for for months arrived and they look so keen!

then i got out of work at 6:30.

got home... took a shower... washed the goop off of my face... feeling fresh and relaxed and calm...

i sit down at my mac and on the keyboard is a folded piece of paper... i didn't have anything on my keyboard when i left for work this morning - and no one else has been in here...

i open it up and it's the piece of paper that i read from at my Poppy's funeral on February 13th, 1999... after i read it that day, i put it in a shoebox... the shoebox is in my closet... i haven't opened that box up since february of '99...

the paper contained the poem by Rudyard Kipling...

so that is the poem i read at his funeral... i could barely get through it then - and as i just typed it out again, i am sitting here with happy tears... no i haven't been drinking.

see, when Poppy died, i had to do a reading and i didn't know what to say - he was an artist so they wanted me to read something about his artistic side... kerry read something that showed his love of the ocean...

i couldn't think of anything... McLean's "Starry Starry Night" popped in my head - but that's about VanGogh and he went loopy - Poppy wasn't loopy.

The day before the funeral about 2 hours before the wake, i was going through an old scrapbook of his and a page was bookmarked, i opened to that page and that poem was on a typewritten sheet of paper... and i knew he wanted me to read that.

and i know right now he's pulling a Halloween stunt saying hello and trying to freak me out - much like he did when i was young and he would rig wires to ghosts and witches outside to scare the hell out of us when we would come trick or treating at his house...

poppy, i miss you and i love you.... Happy All Saints Eve

it's a "tibbar tibbar!" day

wanna get my hair cut but have to keep growing it - at least so it looks like this again

so my friends/ex bosses, joanne and peter had a baby on october 14th... cathy and i went over there last week to meet the new little rugrat... cute lil' guy...

hmmmmmm.... first time in 6 years i've held one of these critters...

so tonight after work i went to a place called Curves for Women

a few girls from work go there and even more folks at weight watchers go there... so i figured i might give it a shot... i signed up. i will start working out monday...

headache. all day. staying in.... actually went and bought a ton of good stuff at the food store earlier and ran some errands... now am watching "behind enemy lines" - so far, it's pretty good

wooo! and New York is the U.S. nomination for the 2012 olympics! go new york, go new york go!

this keen link i snagged off of this page intentionally left blank

so i received an email yesterday from my former therapist - i haven't seen her in about 10 or 11 years... she was doing a search on her son and i guess using her last name and i apparently wrote good stuff about her back in march... so there was gigglechick.com staring back at her on the search engine... lo and behold, she wrote to say hi! she was my best therapist - not like the freaky woman i went to 3 times last year who kept calling me "Ann"

anyway - wants to meet for coffee soon... i did a search on her and she's doing seminars entitled "the positive power of humor" and "Positive Humor, Productive Perceptions, Powerful Results!" heh. cool.

i feel like i've graduated... i am able to meet her outside the office i spent a good 6 or 7 years in...

so as i am getting ready to head down the shore for the day to help mom out around the house, i am sitting here winding down after a long hot shower in my fluffiest robe, slippers, towel around my hair and sipping from my first cup of homemade joe - brewed fresh from the coffee maker that my blog sugar daddy sent me about a month or so ago.... yum.

(it took me this long to use it because i hadn't bought milk for the fine beverage... although i HAVE been using the mug as my travel cup in the car and getting it filled every morning by the coffee cart at the corner of my street)

heh, i haven't read the comics in a while... i was on the homeless guy's site and found out that doonesbury has been yapping about blogging recently
just one of the strips...

so i almost shelled out $1450 today - actually i DID shell it out, i just had to cancel the order today...

what was i buying?

a PC *gasp* yes, i almost went over to the dark side...

i most likely WILL buy the damned thing after my next paycheck... i just have to figure out finances a little more...

i was so psyched when i ordered it online... we have a discount with DELL through work... then after i got the order confirmation, i began feeling ill...

so i cancelled... i am a woos. yup.

i have insurance and car repairs to pay for and the cash is whittling away quickly

i went to Curves tonight! really had a good time... nice girls there. and i also got an effing workout. had to do the circuit 3 times... know that my body's gonna ache tomorrow...

actually heading to bed so that i wake up early and hop on the treadmill (that's the plan)

as i was walking around the corner to the school behind my house where the voting takes place, i noticed a man walking down the stairs of a newly renovated brownstone that has apartments in it.

this was from 30 feet away... i saw him turn the corner in the direction of the polls...

as i approached the polling area, he was standing there... looking puzzled... he asked me, "is this the right place?" no, he's not a dolt. the place isn't marked well and is a little daunting with children running all over the place.

"it is, here, follow me" said i...

his last name starts with a K... i shan't say what it is...

i don't know the first name, but i know where he lives and his last name. yes... i am planning on stalking.

as i left the school, i had to walk the block and a half to my car.

i heard footsteps behind me... it was K...

as i reached my car, he was still there and slowing down, stepping into the street near me...

i took off my coat before i got into my car and he stopped at a red car that was parked in front of my house... opened the door and got in...

he looks like my ex-eric... but cuter... nice voice... and lives 40 feet from me...

jersey city isn't looking too bad right now~!

strange. i have my fat yappings and open mics housed under blogger... i can see the pages fine on the mac... on the PC, however, i only see the right nav bars and they are squished over on the left of the page...

what the heck? help!

so my old office was like a cave - no light.... the new designer here, MD, and i decided to have a tall guy here, CF, remove some of the fluorescent lights...

after removing 5 of them... the 6th was pretty warm... and CF's hands were pretty sweaty...

*BOOM* *POP*

yup... it exploded... all over the office...

MD and i are sitting here feeling like naughty kids who messed something up...

at least the room is pretty dark :)

now my old old archives from blogger are effed.

okay - temporary band-aid on the other sections...

went to weight watchers last night....

going to Curves tonight... still sorta sore from monday...

ir was THREE YEARS ago today that i first walked onstage and did my set at Stand-Up NY...

remind me that i have to get back to an open mic...

i love the west wing. i say that every week. i didn't know how they were gonna get rid of rob lowe... now it's becoming clear.

right now i am watching barbara walters interview the osbournes... eh... barbara just said the word "tits"

i went to curves tonight - man i am beat... i am heading off to bed shortly... that darned place kicks yer arse in 30 minutes. really digging it! anyone else out there a member of it or know gals on it? i would love to hear if ya' are...

i have had approx. 450 visitors (an average) each day for the past few days (actually it's been like that for a year).... why are y'all so damned quiet!!??!

speak up, poppets!

so i had to draw a turkey today... real quick i slapped this together in 10 minutes... and i have made it into a desktop for anyone who wants this silly creature

turkey lurkey desktop

i've gotten p45.net's five o'clock shadow emailed to me for a good year and a half now, i suggest you go there and sign up for it...

it's good craic!

so 6 of us from work were supposed to go grab a few cocktails tonight and force our boss to get a belly ring... now 3 girls are sick and i am actually hoping to postpone this - i am going out tomorrow night and don't wanna waste valuable ww points on 2 nights of drinking... sad, yes.

of course, if it's postponed til next week, i can't go because friday is when cowboy mouth plays at the bowery ballroom!

woo!

this is what i did the last hour or so of work

holiday party - invite for headquarters....

so i got home last night at around 10... 3 of us from work went to ruby tuesday's for some grub and beer.
(i was good. turkey burger, fries, 2 beers - corona... oh. and some spinach con queso dip)

we had a good chat... started off with work, then it started off with relationships... which, once i lose the weight, get a new wardrobe, clean and reorganize my apartment, grow my hair - which, by the way, i am coming to terms with because i was able to use my old ConAir hot styling brush yesterday... do you KNOW what that means!?!?! DO YOU!?!?

snagged from starjewel...

Anakin's Switch Commercial

haven't talked with my dad since october 8th... nope, it's not because of a fight or anything, we just aren't big phone people. although i speak with my mom every day. go figure...

anyway... around the beginning of this year his girlfriend had to have part of her lung removed because of cancer.... they had gotten it all... but then about 2 months ago it had attacked her trachea... so this week she starts chemo and radiation

hey! if you are married or know of anyone who is AND also have a kick ass online wedding album, let me know.... post the link in the comments here!!!!!!

(example: dooce had a great one...)

so i bought a new domain today so i could free up some of the space on gigglechick.com

it'll be called erinsportfolio.com to house my designs and illustrations and whatnot... instead of taking up a ton of space on this site...

my server allows 200MB of space and i am already at 170mb... this should seperate things pretty well...

not as if i am wanting to use the portfolio to find a job since i really dig where i am at, but if anyone is looking for a freelance thing, they can go there without having to see the rest of my site and freaking out.

i just got in... right now pasta is cooking on my stovetop... yep late night eating, blowing the weightloss all to hell in a handbasket... oh well...

first we saw Bloody Sunday which had me in tears.... please. go. see it. now.

then we went to Scratchers pub in the east village...

blech.

nothing a LOT of toothpaste and water can't cure.

am heading down to mom's today. be back later.

woo.... My Favorite Stalker�, lee, has revamped his site! love it! and he did all this when he's in vacation jaunting around europe!

can't wait til he gets back so he can jaunt over to jersey and i can meet him face to face (yep. you have better get over here to NJ, mister)

i missed the sopranos last night... caught the repeat tonight...

i have to tell you - and this is sad - i felt a huge weight lift off my shoulders when tony whacked ralph! yay! happiness.

and i am glad that Pie Oh My's murder caused this wonderful thing to happen to effing ralph.

oh shepard smith... heh. he's gonna have a long day ahead of him today.

Talk about blowing it on national TV.

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith had something fairly egglike on his face last week when he launched into what should have been a straightforward item about tension between Jennifer Lopez and her old Bronx neighbors.

dang. i had 10 wins and lost the oakland/denver game last night... HAD been in the running to win another week. poop

anyone need a kick ass thesaurus!?!?

so i am slowly - but surely - making the site uniform...

i just fiddled with the ireland section... go ahead... take a peek!!

ah, hello, my little noodle

well, i really haven't had much to say lately... a few links hither and tither...

i gave you the turkey thanksgiving desktop....

now, i give you the White Castle Stuffing Recipe

merry thanksgiving!

this was forwarded to me. nope, i don't know this guy

this play is being performed across the street from me in the barrow mansion, put on by the Attic Ensemble.

it's causing a ruckus on the news (t.v. AND papers!) because the lead actors are nekkid onstage.... and mainly because it's a community theater.

i wanna go see it now.

well, here's a couple of 20 second videos, it's pretty shaky, as if someone with the DT's was holding the camera...

the 1st is of fred playing drums.... i make a cameo appearance (3mb)

the second is during "everybody loves jill" and is mainly of flailing arms and one red spoon (3mb)

blurry fred

sweaty fred walking through the crowd before he climbs up the balcony

said balcony.

as i said, i caught the last drumstick of the evening that fred flung out there.... here's proof, baby... (that's fred again. can you tell that, eh, i MAY dig fred leblanc?)

--- so that was friday...

saturday i was onstage for 3 hours...working the chinese auction circuit down the shore --- okay it was a fundraiser for this girl named patty that has leukemia...

i was asked to read the winning numbers for the auction, but it was still "stage time" in a firehouse in front of 500 people i grew up with... hopefully i will move on to calling bingo and possibly the lottery numbers.

but before that, i got dolled up and got my hair cut and highlighted... will show you the results later.... right now - at the risk of having this posted all over the internet, here is the "before" image of me....

my comedy coach, lisa lampanelli, is on Stern this morning starting at 8:30am

she is the nicest broad you'd ever wanna meet...

(i never usually listen to stern, but this is a special occasion)

so here's the aftermath of the highlighting that occured on saturday... whatcha think?

am going to see the Harry Potter flick tonight.... can't wait!

wheeeee! cathy and i just saw harry potter & the chamber of secrets tonight.... LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT!!!

now i have to raise $9500 for this

Mike needs to be famous... and fast.

and while you're at it... don't forget
erin needs to be more famous... and faster than mike.

just post the following link to your blog... please!!???

well, mike is #1 on blogdex today... congrats... hmmmmmmmm... to think that i was there in the beginning...

*sniffle*

they grow up so fast...

proof that he's #1

and if you'd like to help me get back on blogdex... i would really appreciate the link!!!!!

please!?

i know that i am copying this link whore thing, but, hey.... show this old gal some generosity!!!

erin needs to be more famous... and faster than mike.

well... i went out with the girls from work tonight.

the goal of the evening:

goal completed.
wait.

what's that? a really cool, cute, funky hand-blown glass piece of jewelry for the belly?

hmmmmmm... i've had my navel pierced twice, the last being back in '97 - that one lasted 9 months.... the first one lasted 4 days and then i couldn't stand the infection and pain that followed - needless to say, the 2nd time i had it done, things didn't go awry... then i got sick of it after it healed and i said "enough, that's it.... i've been there, i did that, i got that out of my system"

eh... until tonight.

there will be photos posted on monday - still trying to get this software to work here at home...

in the meantime, i drew a quick sketch as to what it looks like... this is my incentive to stick with weight watchers...

okay... so as i was sleeping last night, it seemed as if my bed kicked and bit me in the stomach about 6 times...

i am used to sleeping on my tummy and last night i had to do so very gingerly...

VERY gingerly.

(note to self: keep repeating the mantra "it'll be okay, erin, it'll be okay, your belly won't become an infected mass of goo, it'll be okay")

i don't think i did the track back set up right.... help! anyone? please? it worked off of 1 site. that's it, and i know there've been more links...

don't you just love waking up and finding that someone has gone insane at 2:04am and posted a delightful comment on your site?

i sure do. my oh my.... it's just grand.

of course when the ip address is 66.120.162.233 and they've used what is most likely a fake name and fake email address... it makes you wonder how disgustingly unhappy they are with their own lives that they are lashing out calling someone a "fat strumpet" (which, in and of itself, "strumpet" is up there in my top twenty favourite words...so that's fine by me with the strumpet usage)

fat, on the other hand, well, i could care less what this "person" thinks about my weight. i am nowhere near stomach stapling size and i just went down a dress size over the past week... so if you think i am fat, i suppose you should meet me in person, eh? right.

as for the birth control, i use that in my stand-up act... i also use it to regulate my menstrual flow... on top of that, i don't want children at this point in my life, so i choose to take OvCon35 - the official anti-baby vitamin of gigglechick.com�.

i also use my birth control as a calender/day planner.

as for dating someone with vision impairment... actually no, usually the guys i date have 20/20 vision, so that nips that theory in the bud.

and for those of you, especially "kristin gallegos", who are interested in my birth control pills... i have just started my sugar pills...

do you know what that means?

it means "effing bring it."

as a former cheesesteak slinger on south street in philly (the now defunct "Inky's"), i must raise my large paper cup of birch beer to david patrone and his
The Philadelphia Cheesesteak Part Three:
Proper Ordering Protocol for The Philadelphia Cheesesteak

[link via .paradox1x.org]

today is my dad's 65th birthday... he doesn't have a computer but i wanted to say it on here anyway.

he's spending it by taking his girlfriend to her radiation treatment.

i was supposed to meet him at 11am today, but since the radiation treatment was moved to today because of thanksgiving, i will see him next sunday...

so i got my bellybutton pierced for the third time on friday... very cool funky blown glass piece of jewelry... here is the close up... click the image... yes, those are red panties i am wearing

and then, this morning at about 4:30am when i woke up down the shore... faced with the prospect of driving in pain for 2 hours with a throbbing navel... i unscrewed the one end and removed it... slapped on the peroxide and have been pain free ever since...

my boss/friend, pam, on the otherhand has her bellyring in still... here's a 3MB video i took of when she got it done on friday... the "piercer" is named Adam

i mean snow.

it's on the way. i can smell it. i can feel it in my neck.

4-6 inches possible well north and west across extreme northwest New Jersey

yep. i work "north and west" of the city.

people around here can't drive in the effing RAIN, much less, SNOW!

i haven't had to commute in the snow in 5.5 years... i am a little nervous. not because of my driving capabilities, but because my tires (except the one i had replaced after the slashing) are pretty much bald. no grip. turnpike. route 80. benny drivers. thanksgiving traffic.

that's my future.

had to create another "make someone's day" email for work...

freaked people out in the grocery store.

today is my ex-boyfirend ej's 33rd birthday.

we started dating the summer between high school and college. i was working at carlson's corner and he would come in there every night and ask me out. i said no. no. no. then finally his persistance started to seem cute.

our first date consisted of dinner and then watching the "three amigos" on his boss' boat "the dorado" in brielle.

we had been dating only a couple of weeks and he had to go away for a week, then he came back on july 9th, arrived at my mom's house where i proceeded to open the door... with a shaved head and sprouts (braids that "sprouted" out of my head - out of a triangle shape, a square, and a circle shape - i named them "russell - he was the small one- fred & kook)

he said "hey, new haircut?"

mr. republican going off to scranton. clean cut. reminded me of my dad. fell for him.

we saw each other on and off, holidays and such, but we wound up experiencing college and dating other people... but we always stayed in touch and talked.

my favourite chat with him was one night sitting on the lagoon in his adirondack chairs smoking cigars and yapping about life while curled up on an august night at 2am under woven blankets.

then in the fall of 1998 i got a phone call from him... informing me not to make plans on january 15th, 2000

i was going to his wedding.

i went and i drank. and i drank. i was the only ex-girlfriend there. i sat with his friends from scranton who i remembered from the time i went up there.

then the moment during the reception that single girls either love or hate...

the bouquet toss.

i was forced out on the floor with 25 others.

i never raised my hands except to shield my face.... that's when his bride's flowers smacked me in the head.

and my jaw dropped.

and i tried to hold in tears (i succeeded at that)

my boyfriend cringed.

ej looked shocked.

his wife looked pissed - she was aiming for her friend.

and i carried it back to my seat.

and drank jameson's and ginger ale.

then i danced. and ran into ej's parents - whom i love - and i slurred something to the effect of "it's ironic that i of all people caught the bouquet, isn't it? ISN'T IT?"

they were tipsy too so i don't feel bad.

ej has 2 little girls now.

and he just turned 33.

saving a traffic advisory link for myself

http://www.traffic.com/nyfiveboroughs/index.html

they have traffic all over the country.

http://www.traffic.com/

i've deleted the contents of this post...

holy crap! the closing credits.... Jeff Stilson is the executive producer.... i absolutely LOVE him... have dug his stand-up set for nearly a decade now...

he also wrote for letterman, the chris rock show and the daily show...

one of my favourite bits of his:

"Winning players always give credit to God, while the losing players blame themselves. Just once I'd like to hear a player say, 'Yeah, we were in the game -- until Jesus made me fumble! He hates our team'"

an ex of mine, about 6 years before we dated, had to open for jeff in delaware... so tom (the ex) actually got him to autograph a headshot - this is in 1994 - and stilson said "what is she? insane? who the heck would want my picture?"

another bit of his is:

"I had a linguistics professor who said that it's man's ability to use
language that makes him the dominant species on the planet. That may be.
But I think there's one other thing that separates us from animals. We
aren't afraid of vacuum cleaners."

snagged blatently off of quinn's site:

santa claus lawyer switch ad

santa claus ipod ad

(yes. with will ferrell... *sigh* i lurrrrve him)

well... i am heading down to my mom's this afternoon... maybe i will be able to pop onto the computer at my aunt's house, but not sure...

i want you all to have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!!! go eat a turducken

and for the second year in a row, i will leave you with this:

gobble gobble goo and a gobble gobble giggle!!!!

(yep. it's now officially a tradition here.)

cheers! see ya' monday!!

how was everyone's thanksgiving? mine was fine... so were the 72 hours of leftovers to follow...

saw my dad for his birthday (a week later) - was good to see him. it's been a few months.

picture of dad and i spending quality time at the beach in 'squan

went and saw the ring on saturday. pretty creepy. i liked it. wasn't all that keen on the ending, but it was good.

pretty low-key weekend. eating, sleeping, cleaning, etc...

now am back at work. but i have put in for PTO days (personal time off) on the 23rd, 26th, 27th & 30th of december - apparently i have 120 hours of PTO days coming to me. who knew?

would love to take more, but i am swamped.

billy rocks... he IM'd me the link to this video short... good stuff! especially if you are in advertising/design/film

"The Reel Truth"

go. view it. sound up, folks...

sitting here illustrating some stuff and watching jeopardy - yep, we have a tv and cable in the office. about 7 feet away from me. gotta love it.

i have to head home soon. i have so much stuff in my car.

my dad gave me a set of golf clubs with extra irons and woods... so that is a total of about 27 clubs that i have to lug into the apartment.

hoping to get a parking spot close to the apartment.

so a guy from match.com wrote to me... i wrote him back... seems like a nice guy so far... eh... unfortunately i didn't realize when i wrote him back that my email automatically added the footer that says gigglechick.com, the perfect combo of estrogen and a sense of humor.

so much for me keeping my darned site a secret from potential dates.

ah... apparently, i, too, can be a "retro girl"

[link via cocokat in slumberland]

eh... what does one do when one's "so-called-stalker" is off galavanting with another blogger who flew off to see him?

yes.

that's right.

one gets jealous.

when i got home from work tonight at about 8:30, i found out i had no running water. so i called my landlord upstairs.

"we're working on it", she said. "it'll be working shortly"

that was almost 2 hours ago...

one minute ago, i got a phone call saying:

"we won't have water til maybe tomorrow afternoon. the pipes burst or something underground, so the water company and plumbers will be here in the morning and will have to tear up the street and sidewalk in front of the apartment."

lovely.

so i will be working from home tomorrow. i just realized that i am screwed car-wise... my parking permit expired on november 30th. so that means i have to actually go outside and move my car every 2 hours. and my yankees cap is in the car... okay, i will wrap my head up in a scarf so as not to frighten people from my unwashed face and hair as i go do that.... OR i could drive to the parking authority and get a new sticker. no. that's way on the west side... and folks will see me, even though 98% of them haven't bathed in 4 years.

i can mail my permit request in.

i will also be calling myself Showerless Joe McCool until i get H2O and soap slathered all over me.

well, sandee had her breast reconstructive surgery... go... now... wish her well... (and have the extra added bonus of seeing her cute boobie specialist!!)

still no water.

my mom called me and informed me that i forgot to give her her atm card back, so i had to go outside when i moved my car, and i had to mail the atm card back.

my watch stopped ticking.

my microsoft word is on the fritz.

i am trying do 25 illustrations today and i think that may be impossible since the script for the flash file is at work and no one has emailed it to my home account yet. arrrrrgh.

at least i got 2 buckets of coffee when i went out. (and a bagel) i'd forgotten to eat dinner last night

still no agua, aqua, wet stuff, wa-wa, h2o

so after toiling with re-vamping the links on the right-- actually the random blog links -- i still have to revise the dropdown list and add and subtract blogs from it --

i have 5 random blogs on the right nav....

got the script off of scriptygoddess...

then i had a few problems...

first, quinn came to the rescue...

and jennifer, one of the goddesses, of theworkingmom.net helped me out tremendously!!!

thank you!!!

now everyone, go click on some random blogs!!!!

here's the skinny...

since i have to use php now, if any of you have my site listed as http://www.gigglechick.com/erin/blog/index.html, change it so that it's now

http://www.gigglechick.com/erin/blog/index.php

i am so happy!!!! the water has been turned back on!!!!!

cannot wait to shower...

god, i feel gross... my creative director said if i needed to, that i could use his place to shower at... but driving 20 miles to shower is ridiculous. nice offer though.

yay!!! breaking out the ivory soap....

fluffing up the terrycloth robe...

sick of sitting here stewing in my own gravy today... (nice visual, huh? no photos, kids)

sweet baby jeezuz!

it's freezing... not in my apartment, in fact for the past 24 hours my apartment has been toasty warm... that NEVER happens.

but outside it's effing freezing....

21�F outside.... with a wind chill factor of 9�F

mother of gawd. i don't think i have rnough clothes to bundle up in.

by the way.... i've been meaning to get this link up for you fr a week or two now...

catch michael jackson's baby

hey.... is anyone having trouble commenting on my site? let me know... try commenting and let me know type of browser or shoot me an email only if you can't post...

thanks!

(quinn i know the comments work for you.)

i just designed this site for a fella that does work with our company....

so if anyone is seriously interested in renting a great place in vermont for weekends or daily during the winter or summer, check out vtvacationretreat.com

everyone...please send good thoughts, wishes and get well vibes...

okay... so maybe that bucket o' joe i had for supper wasn't the smartest idea that i've had.

i just wasn't hungry today... at all.

and now i am wide awake... watching the weather channel and gearing up for what could be 6 inches of snow (as opposed to last week's 6 inches of snow forecast)

not really looking forward to the jackasses on the roads.

this morning there was an 11 mile backup on the turnpike... and that was without any precipitation!

*sigh*

might as well find my snowboots and thick socks.... just in case the weatherdudes are right.

at least, at this time of night i get to hear the rummaging and rustling of the homeless as they rip apart the trashbags that i set out a couple of hours ago...

i enjoy opening my front door (inside the gate, of course), turning on my outside light, then slamming the door and hearing them scuttle off into the darkness.

i was sent the photo of me below last night...
i need to grow my hair back... and quick.
sad that i miss it... although my hair IS growing, i swear that it's grown 2 inches since i got it cut 3 weeks or so ago.... it's going insane.

these sites are my right arm(s) today:

traffic
weather

snow.
this isn't a decent photo of it - am trying to download others of in front of my house

i left work at 1:45pm and made it home by 3:45pm.... hoorah! 2 hours door-to-door!

there's about 5 - 7 inches on the ground now and it's still coming down

the commute in was okay - the turnpike had changed the speed limit from 65mph to 45mph... i was driving 55mph.... some !@#*&$ in an SUV comes up behind me flashing his high beams and tailgating me...

there was nowhere to go, so i did what any normal jersey girl would do...

i flipped him the finger. effing effer.

here are a few 3MB video cips of my commute into work...

nothing great. in fact in these, there's barely any snow....

i didn't dare use the camera tonight when i was driving.... horrendous.

� can't see it, but the sign says "snow ahead" -- eh... okay

� here i am fed up with the traffic and this was about 2 miles after that *!&@$ was a @!*$&#

� the first building in this shot is "Satin Dolls" - otherwise known as the Soprano's Bada Bing! - can't really see much.... snowy.

� okay... here's my office... the big black glass building... and snow

so i wore my hat at work all day because of hat head and my COO was calling me Six... as in Six, the sidekick of Blossom (remember a "very special blossom" when six's car went skidding off into a snowbank?)

so tonight i hunkered down on my couch under my flannel throw and answered the phone at around 6pm-ish...

the first phone call.

my apartment...

well, another bite of my bagel should erradicate this hangover i am sporting. not so much headache, but the 7 (various) shots i did last night on top of the 2 coors lights and the 4 apple martinis have reaked havoc on my stomach...

the office christmas party.

i saw drunk people.

i was drunk people.

didn't do anything foolish. no afghani kissing. no kissing of co-workers. co crying. no hamburger throwing. just a little trying-to-be-funny-dancing. that's about it.

and i walked the 50 yards to the Radisson nearby, plunked down my credit card (fleet bank card... since you know my credit history) and slurred something that sounded like "i need a room"

then i flicked the t.v. on and fell asleep...

woke up with my tongue stuck to the pillow and made a cup of tea... which i promptly, eh, got rid of.

felt like i was on vacation. sadly, i was in a hotel overlooking the paramus park mall and it is 25 degrees out.

am home.... trying to get my bady back into fighting shape so i can clean my apartment like i had planned.

how much do you wanna bet i will most likely be a slug on my couch all day?

wow.... it's almost like being there....

the panoramas on this site are breathtaking. very keen.

also, check out this advent calendar... great stuff!

{both blatantly snagged from dollar short}

this just in.... another advent calendar....

forget the segway.

save a little cash and time walking, by getting yourself a "Megway"

[winona'd from a bridge to nowhere]

awwwww...kitties!!!

go to "rate my kitten"

i miss Phil and Chris... the twin kitties i had back in 98 for a week until my landlord said no cats.... do you know who i named them after????

jeezuz! my right wrist is killing me, no idea why... possibly from trying to breakdance last night like an epileptic white girl at my holiday party... that's the only thing i can think of.

i used to have a therapeutic wrist brace from my car accident years ago.

can't find it.

so i am wearing a rollerblading wrist guard... not too comfy... nope. not gonna wear it during tomorrow's date...

.... big happy birthday shout out to zannie...... go visit and say hey!!!

mother of eff. i get out to my car to go to get something snazzy to wear tonight and my right rear tire is semi-low... thinking "well, i have to get back to jiffy lube by next saturday anyway" i went there to get the tire checked and an oil change.

after shopping and waiting another 30 minutes (even though they said it'd be 40 minutes it was an hour and a half) they hand me off my car.

the tire is still low - so i ask them if they put air in it "oh, yes yes yes"

i ask them to put more in it since it's as low as it had been prior to going there

okay. so that's done

they DID clean the windshield and semi-vacuum the floor... but i noticed the "jiffy lube next service due" sticker hasn't been changed.

eff.

whatever - probably got hosed by those ass*!@&#'s for $55...

gonna try to go to sears in the morning before work to have a look at the tire sale - not that i can afford it, but i know that the tires DO need to be replaced.

i was in sears after jiffy lube, but it was a 2 hour wait for the tires to be changed. eff that , i have to get ready for the blind date... plus it was like a third world country in there and i was already annoyed by the JL folks, and the billions of kids running into my legs... who the hell let's their kids run around jiffy lube and sears auto repair places like lunatics!?!?! effing jersey city derelicts. that's who!

grumble. gotta get outta this ranty mood before the date.

did i mention i have a date!?

heh.

met the fella at the cedar tavern... nice guy. had a lovely time...

watched the sopranos... didn't quite care for it, although carmella and tony's schtick was really good.

had a few pints of guinness at the pub with B (yep. just going by one initial at the moment) and a half of a turkey burger... i was yapping a lot and didn't finish it (eh... plus there may have been a little kissing going on at the table... heh.)

just spoke to him - he called me at work - possibly getting together at the end of the week (though not friday - i am getting together with cathy on friday... cathy what the heck do you want for xmas!?!?!?!?!) although saturday i am supposed to go to a "porn party" - dressed as a porn star with a porn name and bring a wrapped adult gift... it's a girl at work who's having it. don't really know if i am up to dressing like a ho. although i DID plan on carrying a jar of fluff and being a "Fluffer"

know what a fluffer is?

photos from my holiday party on friday...

eff. i only lost ONE game this weekend... and i STILL didn't win the football pool. dagnabit. *grumble*

yapped with the new boy quite a number of times via email and IM today. sounds like he had as good a time as i did. good good. we'll see. we'll see.

i have to admit, and some of you will yell at me for being unwise and naive, but it was getting close to 9pm (about 8:30) and we were still at the bar...

the sopranos come on at NINE! ack... what to do?!

eh... well... i hopped in a cab with him and we hightailed it to brooklyn heights.

(keep in mind: i was not murdered, maimed or violated - well, no more violated than i wanted to be)

nice area. nice apartment. better yet, nice guy. after the show ended he had a car service take me home safely sans irritating pakistani songs or incense wafting into the back of the car. just a little mellow billy joel "piano man" and new car smell... twas lovely.

and it took all of 17 minutes from brooklyn heights to jersey city... not bad. not bad at all. (one has to take these things into consideration, you know)

did i mention that he seems to be a swell egg? the kissing isn't shabby either -- yes. kissing and telling about the kisses... heh.

so uncouth of me.

i shall refrain from getting giddy...

i am trying to clean and organize my apartment... using him as incentive to get this place out of Shamblesville status

am so happy... colin has a new show! i am hoping that this one takes off!!

i just called to try and get tickets for next week.

have dug him ever since i first saw him on the now defunct Remote Control (saw that live with him and adam sandler...)

a few years ago, i went to see his one man show, Colin Quinn -- An Irish Wake... loved it.

i have to admit, when i've seen him perform at the cellar it's not stellar, but hell, he's trying bits out... gotta give it to him for always working on fresh stuff... something i still have to make time for and get to an open mic...

just want to wish the best to his show and tell you all to watch it on comedy central... at 11:30pm... right after the daily show.

slaint�

the new boy and i are heading to a comedy club on thursday - i have to see who's performing where... thinking of gotham or the comic strip live.

um. what?

i am still at work and they've been testing the fire alarm for the past 25 minutes. non-stop

WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WINGAH WINGAH WINGAH

mother of GOD SHUT IT OFF SHUT IT OFF SHUT IT OFF!

i have now officially lost it.

i still have hours of work to do here with no end to this racket in site.

what's that? oh. blood trickling from my right eardrum... okay.

what?

make it stop!!!!!!

just as i put my coat on... the effing fire alarm stops piercing my ears...

no. no. wait. it's back...

fuck it. i am leaving.

for over a year now, i have visited this site... and each time i am in awe - yet wracked with jealousy - over the illustrations....

loobylu

(my portfolio is down as i change my domain for it)

i saw i had a voicemail on my cell today... from saturday night.

it was eric. and i got it 4 days later... effing sprint pcs

for those of you just joining me - eric is my ex (this will take you to days way before my blog ever was born)... one of them... but an important one to me. we dated back in 1996 - 1997 - most of which he was stuck working in japan, while i was working in nyc.

anyway, saturday, he called me on the cell from las vegas at 10:45pm when he was supposed to be at his friend's bachelor party... i hadn't heard from him in almost 2 months-ish. i really would have loved to chat with him.

he's one of "those" types of ex's... even though we've seen each other 2x in 5 years, we still yap on the phone and i still get a pang in my chest... he reads this site and will probably freak when he sees this. but he knows.

then today i was at work and my pc has yahoo messenger on start up... i rarely use it... all of a sudden, a guy that used to consult with pwc and was at methodfive IM's me...

he was a few years younger than me. i met him on halloween 1999 when i was dressed as potatoes... he was pretty shy, then again, so was i when it came to him. i mean we worked 10 feet from each other. he was cute. i felt odd trying to flirt... there was something there though... from october til april we would catch looks and throw looks... and then one day his project ended...

and he came up to me and said that he had to ask me to have a drink with him before he left or he would regret it.

that night was cool and slightly misty out in new york.

we walked around the city, finally talking after so many months of hiding behind blocked personalities...

he had the name of a joplin song that my mother used to sing me to sleep with when i was younger.

he took me up to the top of the empire state building at 10:30 that night... very few people were up there and i'd not been there for 20 years... it was foggy and cooler than it was below... and he wrapped his jacket around me because i was shaking, more likely from the idea of finally standing so near to him than the weather.

he had a room at the marriott in times square, but took me to "the view" - the bar/restaurant atop the marriott - and we drank champagne...

after looking at each other, talking, smiling til my cheeks were going to burst we took the bottle of leftover champagne and went to his room where we stayed cuddled up for hours... til daybreak... til i had to go home and he had to catch a flight to texas.

he's now in vancouver, bc on another consutant gig.

and i am glad i heard from him today, it brought back a great, yet bittersweet, memory.

on "tough crowd"...

janeane garafalo, nick depaulo, colin quinn and the ever delightful jim norton...

so i have to go visit the "girly doctor" this morning... this one sort of creeps me out because he's close to 80 years old - at least he looks like it. gotta love my health plan and the list of doctors i can choose from - although, good news, they are switching plans on january 1st.

my first "girly doc" that i went to back when i was 18 - well, my mom asked me to ask him if there's anything to aleviate PMS... back in 1988, i received this as an answer...

"Tell you're mother to quit reading those women's magazines. there's no such thing as PMS"

eh... i think if he saw me over the past 14 years, he would change his tune

the office was cold and the gown was paper...

as i sat there in the room waiting for the doctor for 15 minutes i had my choice of pregnancy magazines...eh... sorry, not my cup of tea at the moment.

then his assistant pops her head in saying he'll be here shortly, he had to go deliver a baby...

so i waited an hour and he got in there.

okay so he's not 80 he's in his sixties. really nice guy. put me on the ovcon35 still - apparently since june i gained 10 pounds since my last appointment... i then told him in all actuality, i had gained 20 and then lost 10...

i asked about the new anti-baby vitamin that's out there that's also helpful in weight loss... it's called yazmeen (no idea of the spelling) and he didn't recommend it since i am on the ovcon for my complexion and the other one would most likely screw that up.

anyway... gotta go back in 6 months.

well. apparently after meeting a girl twice in his life and knowing her for all of 3.5 months, mike is engaged.

i find this odd.

sorry, mike, i know i was a bitch on the IM, but i really find it utterly and freakishly impulsive. and not in a good way.

** and because i expressed my opinion to him, he has taken my link down and said:

njmike1969: at this moment you mean nothing to me.

well... alrighty then. just was concerned that he was taking a big effing leap into marriage with a girl 2000 miles away and only meeting her twice. whatever. good luck to you, jackass

ah. the infamous list. not the xmas list, but my crap i have to do before i got to bed list:

� put away all my laundry
� put clean sheets on my bed
� vacuum
� dust
� put together entertainment center (they didn't drill a hole so that's scratched)
� dishes (they are actually under control again)
� put garbage on the curb
� stop sleeping on couch - going on 3 weeks - * see sheets on bed/laundy items
� throw out empty pots & potions containers in bathroom
� vacuum and mop kitchen floor
� scrub toilet
� scrub bathtub
� vacuum and mop bathroom floor

or

� hire cleaning lady (this is not an option. one must clean the first layer before hiring cleaning service)

why am i saying i need to do this tonight? eh... well... i have a date tomorrow with B and there is a possibility that i may let him come by here...

for now, the apartment is acting as my $825/month chastity belt.

so i am working on stuff for work from home today - i need to focus on this and for some reason it's a tad difficult sitting in the middle of an open space with 7 other people plus the other 4 that are in their offices...

deadline on monday.

*sigh*

hmmmm.... some jackass did a number on the union square subway station yesterday

lovely.

my theory is that it's some crazy-ass "artist" who thought it would be funny to do this and make some statement as well. what's the statement? "Fear" terrorists? "Fear" the looming transit strike?

cathy rocks! she sent me this card via oddtodd.com

heh. thanks cath.

woo! "tough crowd" just called... i will be at the 7pm show next week... gotta be there by 5:30.. which means either i have to work from home that day or i have to leave at 4pm... and gawd only knows WHAT will happen if there's a transit strike.

yay! hope there's decent guests. hoping for norton. tonight norton will be on with jerry seinfeld... i won't be home to see it. going to the comedy cellar - darryl hammond and a few others are performing.

so, the rugrat upstairs is having a tough morning - i know this since she's been screaming & crying for two EFFING HOURS!!! it seems as if she's getting a little exercise by running around on the hardwoods above my head as well.

mark o'meara kills me... go listen to his "dolly (don't be a sheep)" now...

the jerk from the other night called me and said my MOTHER called him this morning!

he called me and said "erin, i just got a call from a maureen... do you know her?"

eh... not knowing any of what justhappened i say "no" and i hang up.

i call my mom (because her name IS maureen)
she says "yes. i called that bastard after you told me what happened on thursday - i looked it up with 411 and decided to call"

a sickening feeling is sweeping my bowels at this moment.

while i am flattered by her protecting me and trying to fight my battles, i am so very angry. sort of.

***

kerry was supposed to come up tonight, but she's feeling sick. actually so am i - sore throat, sniffles, etc - so i am heading down to mom's to help her with decorations and such... and to make sure she doesn't use the phone at all today

well, after that little dating stumble, i am dusting the lint off me and moving on.

i really feel that match.com should have "user ratings" or "reviews" sort of like amazon or ebay have after someone has gone on a date with the person they should be allowed to rate them and comment - sort of forewarning the next victim.

the closest thing i could find that combines these elements with match.com is greatboyfriends.com

where women can write-up recommendations of these wonderful fellows, show their pictures and vouch for them.

they might have something here...

(of course, nothing compares to the dick list - but that's not a dating service)

hmmmm... just walked in the door from mom's place... looks like they are still in negotiations with the nyc transit strike

had to put the tree and lights up and help mom around the house as well as get a @#*!-load of groceries for xmas...

i bought mom a cell phone that i plan to share minutes with... i also broke down and bought a new cell for myself - the current one i have is almost 3 years old.

so i bought the same one for both my mom and me. the samsung sph-n400

i hate when i can't get a hold of her, scares the hell out of me, her car isn't the most reliable thing and she's up there in the age bracket, so it was time i gave her total trackdownability :) although now she can call guys i date at any point during her day. crap

i am smitten with my new phone and i haven't even switched it to vibrate! seriously, this thing kicks ass.

how's everyone's day going? haven't stepped outside except to head to work. and here i still sit. illustrating and redesigning a site.

very tired. i wanna go home and pass out on my couch - the one i rearranged the other day - am really enjoying the layout - photos at another time... the place still isn't spotless, but it's better than it had been. still have to put my entertainment center together - hoping that i get a power screwdriver for the holidays. silly, ain't i?

anyway, just taking a moment here to breathe at work, hoping that it doesn't start to snow till after i get home.

staying a little late here so that i can take off early on wednesday when i have to go to see Tough Crowd

(big shout out to neil, you rock, my friend!!)

cathy sent me this link about fixing one's credit report... cool!

for those who are just joining us, my credit is not so desirable for some darned reason...

here's the good news... as i walked in the door today, i picked up my mail (my mailbox is actually the ground between my gate and my door.... i digress)

capital one is giving me a card with a $500 credit limit!!!!

okay, so i have to secure it with a $99 deposit, but STILL!!!! i will have an actual CHANCE to regain some credibility to my credit!!!

a second (or 3rd or 4th) chance!!!

all hail Capital One... they are much better than Providian - who offered me a card for $200 and took my money without ever giving me a card (class action lawsuit ensued, blah blah blah, i received $15.00)

so far today wasn't half bad. the elevator arrived this morning without delay, it also closed on the first try and only one other person was in it instead of 16... work was fun, still redesigning an outside site, so it's a change of pace, had brainstorming meetings - my fort�, then lunch was kielbasa and noodles...i love kielbasa - don't get gutter-minded... i am polish. blah blah blah, got my phone changed over, hooked mom's up and i have been entering in the numbers and all good stuff. picked up my freshly fluffed and folded laundry,AND got a parking spot in front of my house... then the credit card approval. next came relaxing with some baked ziti on my erin-feng-shui couch while watching "Legally Blonde" (eh, LB2 is in the works) followed by a hot bubble bath and reading a little james patterson's violets are blue

pinch me!

i forgot to mention that i also received a free cheesecake!

and then as i stepped out of the door to go to work this morning, there was a package... from my stalker-with-the-mostest, lee *sigh* i love snowglobes... thank you, pumpkin!

and - there's no sound - but a girl at work brought this in (3MB) - it sings the heat mizer song

am still here at work, it seems as if they've shut the heat off because my nose is an icicle. gonna get outta here soon since it's a little creepy in the parking garage.

it is nice and quiet here right now and i am debating whether or not to stay. getting a lot done - and i have to skidaddle early tomorrow for Tough Crowd. judy gold was on last night - yes. the same comic who i saw on thursday with that fiasco (or "fiascal" as my friend fred's mom calls it)

yeah, i am gonna go home. i seem to have lost feeling from frostbite in my lower extremities.

i had a GREAT time at the taping of tough crowd... it was the last show unless it gets picked up again - so tomorrow night is the show that i was at... i am not sure, in fact, i doubt, if i am in any crowd shots, but if you see a girl in the front row in a pink top on the end near the aisle....

that's me.

jim norton was part of the group tonight - and afterwards i went up to him and introduced myself (here's the entire transcript):

me: hi jim, i used to stalk you online... gigglechickha

(insert hearty handshake and gaze into eyes)

norton: you're lovely

me: more like stalkeriffic, but thank you

and then i shrunk back into the departing crowd

yep. i am smooth. very smooth. apparently i have forgotten to introduce myself by my god-given name anymore.

colin was great, norton was great, depaulo was funny, giraldo was okay and keith robinson who i've seen a number of times was pretty good, too

(neil a million thank you's!!!!)

watch tough crowd tonight at 11:30pm on comedy central...

and definitely watch tough crowd THURSDAY DECEMBER 19th @ 11:30pm - right after the Daily Show!

nope - didn't get any pictures for fear of being tossed out

dang. i wasn't in any audience shots (all one of them) on tough crowd... oh well... will have to get my own comedy central special to actually be on camera i suppose.

ah, memories...

well... i am heading off to mom's for the next week or so - i am taking off
of work until january 2nd... i may or may not be online between now and
then... so i have compiled a few posts that i feel were significant to me
this year....

january:
� global hosting loses most of my sitecausing me to switch
to tera-byte

� january 11th - the last time i took the stage (i
swear i will be back up in 2003)

february:
� after 8.5 months of unemployment, i officially became employed again... at astoria graphics

� GSB� and i broke up

march:
� i walked out on the job at astoria graphics

� i figured i had to explain why i walked out

� i then decided to go back to the job and suck it up

� a week later i was offered a job here

� started my first day of work here on march 18th

� i yapped about my old bouts with depression

� i chopped my hair off

april:
� my ford escort's axle sheared in half and i bought a new car

may:
� my ford escort's axle sheared in half and i bought a new car

� i stripped the wallpaper off my bathroom walls - i have yet to paint

� sunburn from hell

crap... i have to leave work now - we're all going drinking and then i am heading down the shore to mom's...

happy holidays!!!!! merry christmas!!! happy new year!!!!!

hey all... i am hijacking my aunt judy's computer right now - i have been down the shore and going through computer withdrawal since the 21st... ack! i hope all has been great - holidays safe and happy...

i am over my aunt's house because i am waiting for new tires to be put on my car (YAY!)

got a sewing machine for christmas - don't laugh - i am going to get all kinds of domesticated this year!

this will be a quick post - but i wanted y'all to know i didn't drop off the face of the earth - this has been the longest that i have left my site hanging without a post since i started it!

crikey -

i will be back at work on thursday - and home in jersey city on wednesday evening (barring snow)

saw "catch me if you can" - dug it. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the opening credits...LOVE.

got a parka to go snowboarding in - going at the end of january.

a number of other good stuff i got for xmas - saw a lot of family... and all is swell..

gotta figure out my resolutions now - what are yours? i will post mine when i get back to JC...

have a safe and happy new year~~!

hugs and kisses to y'all

hey everyone it's 01.02.03 !!! cool - it's always nice to wake up and have one's mother say to them "you should have gotten married today"

that stumped me. here i am - it's 5:30am - and i was still down the shore waiting to drive up here... mom springs that on me.

eh... well, if i had an opportunity to wed someone, sure... 01.02.03 would have been a neat day... looking more like 08.09.10 nowadays.

anyway, i digress... how was everyone's new year's eve/day?

mine was really keen. went to a party at my aunt's and had a good time... then around 4am i get a phone call on my cell phone - i was still awake...

it was eric. ex-eric. the one i yap about a lot. he was up in maine for the holidays... and called me. i hadn't chatted with him in a couple of months. i missed a call from him on december 4th... he'd called me from las vegas at 10pm - he was going to a bachelor party and called me before he went out (the next day i had the first date with the brooklyn lawyer)

apparently, later that week, eric was introduced to a step-daughter of a friend of his from where he used to work. i found this out on new year's early morning. so they've been dating for about 3 or 4 weeks. said he spoke with her on new year's eve early evening... but who did he call and talk to for about 45 minutes on the first day of the new year???

yep.

me.

damn my heart fluttering around in my rib cage. it got bruised when it heard that he was dating someone new... the ol' ticker slammed itself into one of my ribs and has sort of been limping around a tiny bit since hearing this.

i joked around and said "when's the wedding?" and he got all flustered and said "oh no way it's nothing like that"

a layer of krazy glue wrapped around my heart and i felt better... sure we broke up 5 years ago... and he lives in michigan, but still..... ya' know?

what else?

oh the night that i left you on the 20th... folks from work and i went to a pub in ridgewood... my boss has been telling me since september that he wants to set me up with this guy "robbie mcmurphy" -- over and over, saying "mcmurphy, when are you going to meet robbie mcmurphy... he's got red hair... blah blah blah"

so finally, our paths cross at this pub. cute guy, red hair... and i say, "well, hello, robbie mcmurphy..." and he looks at me and says "my last name's not mcmurphy... it's [insert completely different name... not even close...]"

and i look at my boss - who is at this point saying he'll pay for a wedding if we get married that night - and he says "well, i had forgotten his last name and by the time i remembered it, i didn't want to lose my credibility..."

god love him.

so he called me on christmas day - i was down at mom's i just got the message today... so i have to call him back... wouldn't be opposed to meeting up with him.

what else?

ah, was at leggett's on monday night celebrating my cousin's new teaching job... and i ran into a guy that i knew many moons ago... used to call me molly ringwald, back in the day... he lives up north. nice guy.

was yapping with a guy later that night who turned out to be a cousin of a guy that is best friends with an ex of mine, jeff

saw another ex earlier in the evening... didn't recognize him at first - kerry and i were eyeing him up and all of a sudden he walks over to me and says "hey erin, how've you been?" turned out it was this guy rich that i was with back in 86 or 87...

leggett's - you can't swing a dead cat without running into an ex of mine.

the worst was about 6 years ago i was there and in one fell swoop, i counted 13 guys i had dated at one point or another.

what else?

eh... that's all for now.

***wait - neat... a collection of blogger's wishlists -- although i sort of wish they had spelled "GiggleChic" with a K... ***

i must tell you that i want this...

by the way - i walked into work today and they handed me $140 because i won the pool here during xmas week... wheee!!! life is grand i tells ya'!

i nearly forgot to post some resolutions...

1] lose weight (that's a given and always on the list. shouldn't even have to say)

2] date more (actually it should read "date less... freaks")

3] start walking UP and DOWN the 9 flights to my office (we'll see if this is the rule that really is broken... just made it up now, so i haven't started it yet)

4] go back to Curves

5] curse less... use more "effings" and "mother scratchers" rather than the real terms.

6] hang out online a little less *gasp* yes. i really want to try my hand at that sewing thing. once again... we'll see

7] clean up credit

8] file my insurance papers from my october accident - no. still haven't done so.

9] dust off my treadmill at home

10] organize organize organize my apartment!

oh my dear secret santa, sarcasmo... i absolutely LOVE it!

quinn... thanks so much for the cd and the books!!

see, i just got home tonight after being away from my apartment since the 20th... great to be back and even cooler to have gifts!!!!

vote gigglechick.com for the 2003 bloggies... because no one else will!

go to the bloggies now!

just post the following code to your blog... please!!???

(throw me a bone, friends...)

time for the friday five (yes. i know i do them once every blue moon)

1. Do you wear any jewelry? What kind?
claddagh ring - silver - heart facing out... on my right ring finger. sometimes i wear a celtic cross necklace.

2. How often do you wear it?
the claddagh is every day (the necklace used to be daily til the stone fell out of it)

3. Do you have any piercings? If so, where?
ears. and the attempted belly ring (in the dormant stage)

4. Do you have any tattoos? If so, where?
nope.

5. What are your plans for the weekend?
relax after being at mom's for 2 weeks... and then saturday i have to trek back down there again... another family function on sunday. christmas with the 2nd cousins... the other twin got engaged to the effed up freako jackass she's been dating for a while. can you tell i don't care for him? whatever. as long as i am not marrying a schmuck, i am fine.

ah... there was a 50 car pile-up last night on the road i take to and from work. luckily, i decided to get the hell out of work at 5:45pm

see... i take the turnpike extension - 14c to the turnpike... get on what's called the eastern spur... which turns into 95.... and then get off on route 80 - all of which had mayhem and devastation on them last night and that was before any snow... that was only light icy drizzle.... wish me luck this morning when i have to deal with schmucks in the SUV's that think they are invincible and go about 90 mph in the snow....

(click here to get updates on the *%!@#'s on the road)

as i look out the extra-wide window of my darkened office overlooking route 80... seeing cars skid below me and brake lights flicker in the distance, cutting into the gray and charcoal coloring the scene, i am daydreaming of my couch... thinking wistfully of my old fireplace in the house where i grew up... a monster of a hearth with a black walnut mantle made from a tree on my family's former golfcourse.

now i live in jersey city. 26.2 miles from where i am now. route 80 to 95 to the turnpike to downtown jersey city where people walk out in front of you without looking... and when you step on your brakes they just stop in the middle of the street...look at you with a cold stare as if they own the world.

i digress.

it's gray out. terribly gray and it's only 2:30pm...the monochromatic tones are causing my body to ache for my afghan and a hot cocoa in an oversized mug which makes me feel like i am five again sans marshmallows.

slop. freezing rain. slush.

what's a girl to do while it's like this outside?

well... leave work at 4:30 with her boss and co-worker to go across the street to the saddle club lounge in the marriott and have a couple of beers and appys...

4 hours (and only 2 beers i swear! a lot of seltzers) later i was headed home.... there were hardly any cars on the road and the "wintery mix" had calmed down

was good yapping and doing the girl talk thing.

so i am home and as i stepped out of my car it began sleeting again. lovely. perfect timing! the couch is beckoning me.

i want to go to the salon tomorrow and get a tune-up... but that probably won't happen. debating on staying up here until sunday morning and then going down to the shore (party with 2nd cousins) or head down tomorrow and shop for their gifts there.

have i mentioned that i really don't want to go? i can't stand the one cousin's husband... and it's all about the "baby baby baby" (the kid is 4 or something. they send me photos of him all the time... the envelopes, besides having the photo in it, are usually filled with confetti that flies all around my apartment and i wind up cursing them instead of laughing at the poor attempt at "cutesy")

the other cousin (they are twins) just got engaged... to a schmuck who's been out of work about 3 of the 4 years they've been together...

flashback: they just started dating and he'd moved in with her after 3 weeks... my poppy just died and my mom asked me to call her to tell her the funeral arrangements...

the schmuck answers the phone. it's my first time dealing with him

i ask to speak to her.

he says: "who is this and whaddya want?"

me: "this is her cousin erin, i am calling to talk to her about my grandfather's funeral arrangements."

schmuck: "she ain't here"

me: "could you take a message please?"

ass-schmuck: "no. i'm watching t.v."

[click]

well, i am off, heading down the shore once more for the last of the holiday parties with the family.

well, i thought after last year's shindig with the loopy twin cousins, things might be different.

no.

asses.

i didn't want to get them gifts. they forgot me last year - even though i bought them and their boyfriend & husband gifts...

but - once again - i got them stuff because i didn't want to "embarrass" my mother...

$20 kick ass really unique candles. yeah. candles. it's not the most unique gift in the world, but it's something and they were really neat looking and the different scents i picked out for them i chose wisely and different for the both of them.

okay. that said...

they hand my mother 2 gifts.

they are made out to "aunt maureen and erin"

one... from the married twin and her husband - is a door knocker engraved with Bennett.

the other from the newly engaged (and sweet jeezuz, if she shoves that ring into one more face without them asking to see it...) and her skeezball fiance was a small photo album for dogs...

so apparently - even though they send me effing xmas cards at my apartment in jersey city - i have to SHARE a door knocker and a doggy photo album with my mother even though i haven't lived AT HOME FOR SIX YEARS.

god, they make me sick.

the only one that i was happy to see was my cousin chrissy and her husband rich - and their 2 kids who rock! they are normal - all four of them.

back to the asses... they make me cringe.

it's not the fact that i didn't get a gift really - it's the fact that apparently, since i don't LIVE with a guy or am not MARRIED to one, i don't warrant an individual gift...

i - over the past 3 years - have gotten the one cousin an engagement gift, a bridal shower gift, a wedding gift - 3 months after the wedding gift, i had to splurge on the baby shower gift (oh, did you do the math? yes.)

oh... and then... THEN one of them actually said "well, it must be nice to still be out in the dating scene, although i am sure since you are that old, that you need to start looking for guys on the clearance rack."

OH NO SHE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT... did she?!?!?!?

(click more for the ideas for thank you notes)

okay... i already love this show... fricking gold diggers...

i think it's a good premise - even if it is crappy to lie to them (oh well)...

the thing is, i wish they had made the guy sort of "normal" looking - instead of this guy who i am ready to say:

"hell! $19,000 a year is fine, i'll be your sugarmama as long as you show me your dimples and open up stuck jars of peanut butter!"

there are a couple of girls that i am glad he picked (yep. already getting wrapped up in this thing - see, i didn't watch "the bachelor", so this is giving me the 'fix' for the crazy dating reality show thing)... but the one girl, Heidi, has got to go...

remind me to clean my bed off. i have been sleeping on my couch since before xmas.

last night i had a headache for 4 hours - no matter what i took for it - excedrin...alka selzter cold meds.... nothing. and i NEVER get headaches. very rarely.

this morning it's blossomed into sniffles and feels like i have a sleestak living in the back of my throat

have a meeting at 9:30 in the city today - of course i am running a tad late (and should be in the shower instead of on here)

and tonight i am re-registering at ww with a friend from work. she's getting married in a month, so, i will hop on her "extra-incentive to lose weight" bandwagon - even though she so doesn't need to lose a pound ( i swear - but i am not dissing her - am saying that as a compliment)

okay - time for me to slather on the lather...

why kids move out

signed up for weight watchers (again) tonight with a girl from work...

on the way home i picked up my "last supper" of chicken mcnuggets and a small fry from the big M

oh. dear. i really didn't need to see ozzy walking downstairs in his underwear (black jockey shorts)

well, for the past few days i have been fending off the light symptoms of a cold... a guy at work has been sick, my mom is ill, and one of the effing cousins was sick - or actually the fiance was - on sunday....

� i have sneezed constantly for the past 5 hours.
� i have a sore throat.
� my cough has moved from being slightly annoying in the back of my throat to being a shock of pain in my chest/lungs and very "hacky" loud.

� have i mentioned the constant headache that i've had for 3 days now? i NEVER get headaches....

*whine*

what's a girl to do when she doesn't have the makings for chicken dumpling soup on hand????

enn-why-BIG EFFING Q -uil (cherry flavoured, my dears)

i should be passed out in about 4 minutes - although the expiration date was september 2002... so it may kill me altogether.

may you all stay well and healthy...

take your vitamin C!!!

i am a slug.

stayed home....

of course i set my alarm for 9:55am because i have to move my car to the other side of the street at 10am for the street cleaner...

so i struggled to remove myself from between the sheets... and slapped on some jeans, no bra, a big ol' hat to disguise my bedhead... and pulled on my warmest coat to meander out into the living world...

it snowed last night so once i made it to my car - a block away - i had to scrape it off...

then i did a spectacular job of moving it across the street... i was curious to see that there were still a number of unmoved cars on the side that i had been on... didn't these people care about getting a ticket?

and the fact that there were spots open on the opposite side of the street was strange, too.

i get out of the car, go to the coffee stand on the corner... noticing they were giving me funny looks...

was it my hat? my coat? my lack of make-up? good god! could they tell that my "girls" were footloose and fancy free through my coat!?

no.

one of them reminded me it's wednesday and that i didn't need to move my car.... dammit! wednesday is a free day! i thought it was tuesday

*@&#!*%#

so i bought my coffee and trudged back home in the snow.

by the fan-damn-tastic Loudon Wainwright III

Happy birthday, Elvis;
You're not really dead.
It's a lie, it's just a crock,
Something some people said.
I heard a cassette of you speaking
On a telephone;
From a bunker beneath Graceland,
The king sits on his throne.

i really am feeling sick... and i am outta nyQuil....

*whine*

okay... i flicked back and forth between the west wing and the bachelorette...

i am ready to hand my rose to.....

child. upstairs. hardwood. running.

erin. downstairs. headache. throbbing.

child. stomping. clomping. screaming.

erin. meditating. growling. screaming.

((groan))

stayed home from work again.

ugh.

have i mentioned that i have been taking alka-seltzer cold medicine that's expired?

oh, did i mention that it's also on that list of drugs that've been recalled?

"taking PPA increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain or into tissue surrounding the brain) in women."

well, at least my headache will have subsided

my mom just called to tell me that the best lawyer in the world died on tuesday. smart, funny and he got me a good settlement from my accident in 1987 - as well as being my family's lawyer for as far back as i can remember...

RICHARD HAROLD MILLS, 59, of WALL

okay... THIS time i was awake... effing "UNAVAILABLE" phone calls... that don't serve any purpose. this time i didn't answer it when it rang at 7:44AM... AM!

i have gotten them at 12:05AM, 12:15AM, 6:10AM... about 6 different days over the past month.

and when i answer it, all it does is either beep once and hang up or there's a whir and then it hangs up.

and when i don't answer it, it doesn't leave a recorded message....

ARRRRGH!!!!

they (whoever THEY are) are lucky i was awake and showered -- yep i am heading into work.

ah.. the joy of the co-worker emails

viking kittens!!!! ahhh--ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

so, i am home tonight still on the disabled list. resting up for the jaunt into the city tomorrow.

i have been dying to read this book for a year now. finally i got off my arse and bought it at barnes and noble. and i can't put it down (except to tell you to read it)

go.

now.

read:

Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand

in my right eye! oh jeezuz!

ow!

get burt's bees lip balm on my finger and absent-mindedly rubbed my eye...

ow ow ow ow ow!!!

ow...eh... wait a second... hey... it's calming down.... hmmmm.... that feels kinda nice and cool on my cornea....

well, mom, aunt judy and kerry should be here around 11:15am.... aunt judy got us all tickets to see les miz for xmas...

then we are heading down to our (kerry and me) restaurant in little italy that we always migrate to... caffe napoli

should be fun... although with the new smoking bill taking effect, we can expect a nicotine fit or two...

plus... it's effing freezing!

i just woke up and have to do my dishes, that's why i am whining... it'll be a fun day

so tonight mom, aunt judy, kerry and i went to Les Mis at 2pm - seen it. love it. cried (again)...then went to the MacDougal Ale House where i COULD very well be in love with the bartender (ANDY) -- then went to ye ol' caffe napoli... where i was hit on hy every single waiter and host (*prinscepessa, bella, bellisima, you are the most beautiful woman ever...) okay buddy... i know that is BS... but i will accept it and give you a 25% tip - gpd bless you.

they remembered kerry and i from previous visits...

i hjave had to spellchec k this post a few times and i am sick of spellchicking to msake you think i ain;t tipsy....

okay i am stinking at spelling......

photowhore - i mean photographer - walked around and we got him to take some pics...
me foreground, mom next to me, aunt judy on the right and kerry in the far right

all consuming

good site for all you book lovers!

i knew the face was familiar, yet i didn't really recognize it...

joey lawrence has a weekly role on american dreams on nbc

----

darned jets lost tonight. looks like i am rooting for a philadelphia v. tennessee superbowl... hopefully philly will come out on top.

ah.... so, i succumbed to the ink blot emode test...

another call from ex-eric...

wow... for some reason i woke up at 6am without my alarm... that NEVER happens... got up... relaxed... drank a cup of earl grey... and am 1/2 an hour ahead of schedule...

this feels strange not rushing

got this email (below) from match.com

um... is it me, or does it sound like a "swingers" party?!?!?!?!

hey all... mother of pearl... you KNOW it's been a while since you've been to the gym when you get LOST for an hour and a half trying to find it... then you give up, call them and transfer your membership to a branch closer to home.

hey... anyone watching a&e's story about my great-great-great-granduncle?

JUST weighed in... lost 5.4 pounds!!!!

for the past 2 and a half weeks, i have been getting headaches.

they usually start around 3pm... sometimes 4pm.

it's not from having caffeine and it's not a sign of caffeine withdrawal, as i've gotten them on days when i have had coffee, and days with just water intake.

it's not from not eating... believe me... i HAVE been eating...

it happens when i am AT home.

it happens when i am AT work.

it happened when i was walking around NYC

and it's always from 3 or 4 pm on... and lasts til i go to bed.

maybe i have seasonal affective disorder... i haven't searched for symptoms. i know that in the past i used to get depressed in the winters but i don't remember anything about getting headaches... nor do i remember hearing about that as a symptom.

*sigh*

have i mentioned that i RARELY get headaches? maybe, just maybe, 3 times a year on average... and now it's been every stinking day.

stress? possible. quite possible.

[[ i just looked S.A.D. up and yes. it does list headaches as a symptom... maybe it's time to go to tanning again!!! ]]

woo!!! i want this for my birthday!!!

thank you J.K. for releasing it on that kick ass day!!!!

off of one fat bitchy poo:


combining golf with weight loss....

thanks to all who expressed their concerns about the headaches!

actually, today i didn't get one.... see there was a little stress that i can't really talk about right now that may have been taken care of yesterday...

although i DO plan to make an appointment with both the eye doctor to see if i need a prescription... and the dentist... i DO have two cavities in my teeth that i haven't had taken care of since i found out about them last june... have been too chicken, not to mention the $$$ thing

or maybe i just have to sleep more... speaking of which...

still reading Seabiscuit

what a great book... unfortunately, i have been awake reading til 2am and now, last night, 3:20AM... the horse is killing me...

i love that book.

tonight i have to go to the NY chapter of UArts alumni's cocktail party... got an invite in the mail about 3 weeks ago... being held at the society of illustrators... it's for all the graduating class members living in the ny metro area... hopefully i will be able to get out of work at a reasonable time

i love that horse.

had the reunion tonight... first off... forgive me...i have had wine (white)

no one from my I.D. class of 92 was there.

there was however, lorenzo, who was a year ahead of me in ID... he kicks ass and is fianced (a.k.a. "engaged" now) goo d for him... keen swell egg

would most lilkely not have drank so much if people i KNEW were there

ya; ever hiccup for an hour straight,,,?

even if quinn called and a blind date dude called for the first time a minute later and you answered it thinking it was the same person you hung up with 2 minutes prior and you sound like the arse you are?!

so the reunion shindig was nice. admittedly, i drank way too much. (if you couldn't tell from previous posts - half of which i deleted)

this morning as i got into work, my mother calls me...

"are you sitting down? because you are going to have a shit fit", said she.

what? why? huh?

okay - i was best friends back in high school with a girl named christine... then i went away for the summer between junior and senior year of high school to go to college.... when i came back, i found out she started spreading rumors about me and talking trash and the friendship dissolved.

she was a quiet thing back in the day - and wound up being "Most Shy"

she also was really ditzy (in my opinion)

so when my mother read me this article in the asbury park press, i nearly died.

this has now inspired me to write a children's book about jealousy and bitterness...

it's quarter after 3 am and i couldn't sleep... mainly because the "bitch" hat doesn't fit me well.

to joanie, i am sorry to have written crap about you... it was in poor form

quinn, i just don't like reading posts with information that about me that leads to stupid comments from your peanut gallery...

i vented as i am allowed to do on my website. i vented. i went out. saw a movie. had some laughs. had some beers. had some kick arse food. came home and thought twice as to what i posted.

now some of you may think "hah! loser! letting the world get the better of her to the point where she took the post down"

sure, one could say that... but all i got was 1 nasty comment and one dim-witted email

in taking down the previous post, i prefer to think of it as an opportunity to be able to take back one's words...

cheers. i am going to sleep.

seriously... what did she say?

ah... friday's festivities with the crew from work... (since i can no longer download images on my machine at home)

after a few cosmos and martinis (mine was a carameltini - not seen)

after some more cocktails (i had a mochatini this time)

we set down our drinks and focused on the smiling

chris - from work - and i striking a cheesy pose

frank looking lovely and his buddy from staten island - a.k.a. the rock

some scary looking woman that kept grabbing chris' arse

so friday was a fun night... ran into a guy that i thought would have been at the reunion on thursday - a guy i used to have a crush on.... lo and behold he was at madison's (the bar... hoboken... 14th & washington) -- eh... not as cute as i once thought and sort of living up to what my friend rodney once said to me back in school - dumber than a bag of hammers

(funny. go. watch. now.)

damn... i missed look like ally sheedy day... by a day

so i am thinking of going off my birth control for the first time since 1987.

i have been on it ever since i was 17... that's a pretty long time. i don't know if it's a good idea to shake my body up like that... but for some reason - i sort of want to "detox" from everything...

** disclaimer: sorry to any new folks, i don't usually talk about the goings on "down there" come back soon and often, don't be afraid **

i think the main thing that i love about the Pill [besides the "lack of pregnancy" thing that it's got going for it] is the control... huh... i guess that's why they call it birth "control"... of knowing when the old "friend" will be showing up - i have scheduled her from monday thru wednesday every 28 days... i know when she's due. i'd know something's wrong if she didn't show up on a monday mid-morning with a tingle in my right thigh - seriously, i know exactly when i get it... strange.

but to give up that control?

has anyone been on the pill for a long time and gone off of it?

(i will not be changing my header if i go off of these things, just to let you know)

what should i expect? after i go off (after my last week) will - eh, sorry, boys - i have cramps and my � for an extended time??!

i may just go off for a few months...just to 'kick my body up a notch'

although i have heard the claims that it reduces the chance of getting breast cancer if you are ON the pill...

tell me tell me tell me!!! is there a doctah/nurse in the house!?!

** i may just be cheap & lazy right now... we changed our medical plan at work and now i have to get my meds mailed to me - and if i don't it's an astronomical difference in money**

**** yeah... i probably will stick with taking them... too chicken to go off of 'em... ****

okay... so, i am about 10 months behind the times... i stumbled onto the illuminated donkey's site and found out he's a fellow jersey city transplant...

besides residing in this lovely hamlet, he also wrote this last march...

The Warblog of J. Alfred Prufrock

effing brilliant...

well... i was listening to the radio this morning... and all of a sudden the news was telling tales of this high speed chase down the shore... then they said the name of the girl...

seriously, it's the WACKIEST chase story i have heard in a while

it makes me proud to have graduated from wall high school the same year with this one and then spent one year of college (at uarts, before she had a breakdown and left freshman year) with her... not to mention rooming with her at rutger's field hockey camp... she always was able to do the warm-up stretches pretty easily... now i know why

i hope to god that FOX pays a ton of money to get that videotape... highest ratings yet, i'll bet

bad girl, bad girl, whatchagonnado... whatchagonnado when they come for you?

looks like she gained weight though... 130 pounds... sheesh! she's really let her 102 pound self go since h.s.!!!!

-- gosh, if people from my school aren't publishing their own books on line, they're causing wacky high speed chases --

VOTE NOW FOR DANE COOK!!

i don't care if you've "never heard of him" -- do it anyway!!!!

go... vote for him... or, if you must make an informed decision on your own, go watch some clips of him

spread the word and tell your friends to vote for this funkin' cool dude

so, i am still at work... thought i would take a moment between site iterations (not MY site, but the stuff at work) and post something...

as i am working i have the teevee on. gotta love it. no one else is here and i have the thing blasting. heh. i really ought to clean my desk, but, i like to have a consistancy to my slobbishness that crosses over from home to work.

after hearing the horror stories from y'all about cramps, weight gain, acne and the like, i called up my doctor and got another sample of my pill - since it's cutting it too close to have it mailed

see, they changed up my health plan at work - and the prescription plan requires the medicine to be mailed - which i am not exactly thrilled with... if i don't choose to get it mailed, it's $70 as opposed to the $15 or so via the post office... dang health plans.

(still at work... cranking stuff out... and watching american idol :)

but... if YOU want to goof around and waste time (um... because i am not... i am working... seriously)..

go to this excellent site -- i snagged it off of freakgirl - who also has a great link to this dude who draws on the backs of biz cards

*** posting at 10:10pm ****
by the way... right now it's 9 degrees (farenheit) - great... and i think they turned the heat off in the building since no one else is here. i am going home.

um... when i saw the headline on aol:

"SuperBowl Security Sweep: Feds Round Up Foreigners"

all that played out in my mind was some redneck cop saying "you's a foreenah... yew can't lahk football, boy... you mus' be plottin' to do nothing good at our 'merican game."

or something to that effect

thank you. that's as political as i am getting right now. not even political, is it?

david horsey of the seattle p.i. is awesome... (and i always have to drop his name since i met him when i went to ireland... wound up seeing each other in 3 different towns... very cool)

just added gigglechick.com to blizg.com

you can go over there and quite easily click on the + sign at the top right of that page... (because if you click on any other buttons... the - and the X, you will make me wince with pain with each snap of your mouse... and you people know that i whine too much already)

[found via joni electric]

okay... an hour and a half ago, out of the blue, no provocation, i swear to you that i started singing "gimme a break, i sure deserve it, it's time i made it to the top!"

about 1 minute ago, someone here at work just blurted out that nell carter died...

apparently i shouldn't sing anyone's songs... because i am the larynx of death

on a lighter note... go wish anthony devito a happy birthday... a fine fellow comic...(even though he actually gets onstage now and again... in fact he's at don't tell mama's tonight at 9pm... go... have a great time. see the pie eyed boy perform)

go read his tips if you find yourself stuck in a Monday morning status meeting

---- also a big shout out of a happy 33rd goes to my buddy D@ve.... happy birthday, pumpkin! ----

a gem for all of you fans of the hobbit... and lord of the rings...
the special effect on this clip are way up there with LOTR2

[snagged from 3 finger salute]

sweet baby jeezus! so i went to princeton ski shop tonight after work - they are having a huge mid-season sale...

snowboarding pants
polarfleece mittens
liner gloves
long underweartops and bottoms
socks. good warm ones (2 pr)
more long johns

i am now out $222.48

*sigh*

guess i can forget about eating this week - this actually isn't a bad thing.

at least when we go up to vermont next weekend it'll be a great time
(plus payday is next friday) and there's a hot tub!!!!

jersey city is the rodney dangerfield of the ny metro area.

as seen on hands free...

"Briskly walking from the Path Train to their apartments, each person moved in a constant mode of retreat, tracing the straightest route from one set of walls to the next. The only objects at ease were cars; the cars replace the people. There are no faces, simply headlights and hood ornaments passing through the thoroughfare."

"For all its proximity to New York, Jersey City is not the living and breathing town it could have been. It was built to be a cold cut of suburbia clumsily stacked high and wedged between the golden precipice over the Hudson and the indignant spread of urban poverty lost behind the minds of city planners. This is the curse of the land. It is invisible because it is always there. It is settled, and parceled, and taken for granted, and laid to waste."

it's WINTER... it's 6 degrees out... no one is lingering around on the streets... and that area where our writer was is the business area - and that is pretty empty and quiet because people are working... of course, if it was night, no, not many are working in that area... but that's like over in the financial district in nyc... it gets desolate in the evening

believe me, there are some days where i am disgusted by my city... but there is a community within this 'cold cut of suburbia'...

i didn't grow up here... but it has been my home for the past 6 years.

*sigh*

right now i am too tired to defend JC... all i know is, yeah, it empties out in that area after work... but lunchtime is bustling... and if they went further inland they would find life... and a lot of it.

well, this was passed around at work... it's a powerpoint doc...

have a hot and bothered friday!

mother of gawd! somethings gone all kinds of haywire with my right nav... anyone have a clue as to what it was?!!? i had thought it was an image that was posted in my comments area, but i took that out (sorry jason) and the right nav is still nowhere to be found... i haven't TOUCHED IT OTHERWISE

HELP!!

(is anyone else NOT seeing my right nav?)

now the comments don't seem to be working... is someone effing with me? am i on Candid Blogger!?!?! WTF!?!>!

email me if you have suggestions gigglechickATaol.com

apparently i had filled up 200MB of server space.... and after freaking out, i yelped for help... quinn came to my rescue, galloping up on his white horse... after many attempts at trying to figure out if it was my code (which it certainly was not)... and then seeing if mt was corrupted.... he came to the conclusion that the 200MB's were filled to the brim, my friends...

i quickly called tera-byte and asked to be upgraded to 400MB... this would have entailed a whole new server and doing a lovely bit of migrating tonight...

then about 10 minutes ago, i read my email and Q (i feel like james bond) has checked out all the folders... and...

i had 90 MB of past log files... crap i don't use...

so i ran back to the phone... dialed up tera-byte....said "Whoa! Stop the presses! Hold the phones! " and cancelled my upgrade... they are a great host... 24 hour service and really nice... as most canadians are (as i've found out)

so i still have my 200mb, but it's a lot sleeker now because they've disabled my log files... (i have another service that checks logs and stats...)

happy happy... now what i had thought would be a grueling friday night rebuilding my bionic site - well, it's turned into 7 minutes on the phone and reposting my index pages...and now i am heading over to my couch where my afghan and space heater are...

cheers! happy friday!

*** for a grand laugh - a bit at the expense of a 6 year old - go check out tweebiscuit ***

okay... i am the first to admit that i am not exactly all that adept at fixing problems with my mac. in fact, the way i usually go about doing this (whether it be my mac or the pc at work) is taking a deep breath and then belting out:

"HEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPP!!!!"

of course, since i live alone (stalker info #479) i sound like a crazy woman, so i will call up tech boy Q...

this morning i am having problems... see - my IE *ie5.1* has been acting up on my lately crashing at the drop of a hat, etc. over the past 2 weeks

yes, i have reinstalled it a dozen times... it's gotten better. Q tld me one thing to do and things are looking up... or WERE looking up.... til this morning...

my IE is being very selective with what it chooses to load - sure, it pulls up my site, but if i want to click any lnks to other blogs, it has a mind of it's own, going some places, then haveing a "connection failure" at other sites... wtf? &@#^&*!@$

effing ie.

another blip in the techno-world.... my COMMENTS!!!...

i get them when you guys post them - they are sent to me via email... quite nice.

i see that someone has yapped since the number changes at the bottom of the post there...

BUT... when i try and check out the comments page or expand the comments.... no...un-uh...nyet... nothing...

Q has looked at it and has actually been stumped... to the point of posting on the movabletype support board

any idea what the hell is going on!?!?!? if you do, let Quinn know (and me, too)...

i actually have to hop in the shower because i am heading down the shore this afternoon til monday morning... so i will be away from this computer with a mind of it's own...

in the meantime....

root for the raiders to have a score that ends with 6 and the bucs to have one that ends with 3

or

root for the raiders to have a score that ends with 5 and the bucs to have one that ends with 4

then i can win up to $2500 (and believe me, i still have back rent that i owe from when i was unemployed... and i need a new pair of shoes!)

i really do not want the raiders to win - stemming back to when i was mugged, thrown in an alley in philly and knifed behind my left ear and then ran 3 blocks after the jackass who stole my handbag - all the while looking at the raiders logo on the back of his - probably stolen - jacket

go tampa bay

** if you or someone you know has a gambling problem, don't be afraid to call 1.800.GAMBLER ***

cheers! have a great weekend!!! will post monday critiquing the ads!!!!

thanks to the big bad man for letting me know what's going on in the outside world...

apparently, and stop me if you've heard this one...

"a SQL worm is attacking the internet and slowing things down to a crawl.."

now i am going to shower & head down to 'squan... really...

well... i know that i am getting older... because i am now thinking the coach is really cute as opposed to the players...

so for about 9 minutes, i was winning the 4th quarter grid with tb 4 vs. oak 5

grrrrr... why couldn't they have run the clock down (a good 7 minutes or so)

okay... commercials...

loved the bud light upside down clown ad.

dug the bud light conch shell ad.

LOVE the budweiser clydesdale/zebra/jackass ad... LOVED it...

and i really laughed at the reebok terry tate ad... especially when he stopped mid-pumeling to say, sweetly, "Hi Janice!"

--- hey... does anyone else think that "The HULK" is animated in such a way that he looks like Shrek!? ---

a hearty thank you has to go out to quinn for fixing my site and the comments...

long day for me so far - waking up at 5am, driving up to work, getting home at 7:45pm...

spoke with a fella on the phone tonight... really nice guy... am not going to yap about him right now because i don't want to "jinx" anything... we'll see... ready? cross your fingers on the count of 3...

1...

2...

3...

freezing cold in my apartment... arrrrgh

so, since they've been few & far between, i've posted a new jackasses & stalkers entry

this guy creeped me out to begin with... calling and IMing at the drop of a hat (yes. i had given him my number because i am not really into emailing all the time), etc... not all that into him to begin with.... then he IM'd me a week or so and my machine crashed... i booted back up and logged back onto aol and got an email blasting me... saying

hello caller ID and IM blocking... luckily, i don't have any bunnies laying around waiting to be boiled...

actually the jackasses and stalkers section seems to have a glitch in it at the moment - it HAD been working earlier - know idea what the problem is, so i will just post the lastest stalkerism here...

know your arse from your elbow?

now, i think that they really have to open a mcdonald's or a KFC in the congo... something more convenient than having to kill and eat 6 year old kids...

who's in the mood for a little floating head of henry rollins haikus [courtesy of punkasspunk.com

also - a bit of blogwhoring is beginning...

dave has written about something that slapped me in the face last night as i was driving home from work...

WNE-frickin-W has changed formats... in effect ripping yet another show that i listened to off the air...

ron and fez... no, i wasn't a big ass card holder... and i only got through on the phones once, then my cell cut out... but...

i really liked that show... they cracked me up, they had something called the "comedy pyramid" where callers would ring up on the topic at hand and try and have the funniest quip... and it was good.

and now they aren't on in nyc any longer...

i found this out last night as i hopped in my freezing cold cavalier at 6:58pm... flicked on 102.7 and waited.... then there was music... okay, so i waited some more... thinking they were having difficulties or takign an extra long bathroom break...

nope.

they were gone.

and so i flicked on 95.5 WPLJ where i was treated to the vocal stylings of pat benetar or something. (granted, i DO listen to plj in the morning...not at night, though)

dagnabit. now there's just crap on WNEW

so i only watched about 20 minutes of the president's state of the union speech and then my eyes closed... i was awakened by the ringing of the phone at about 10pm... i am sure i will hear all about what was said... [although, there is already a call-back to a religious ditty]

in the meantime... i found my tax stuff from last year

oh... didn't i mention?? new jersey has hired a collection agency to try and squeeze $1500 out of me for 2001 taxes!

what the hell!?

i did my taxes last year. THEY were supposed to owe ME... i never heard from them...

here's the kicker...

the ONLY contact i get is the letter from the collection agency... and they sent it to my MOTHER'S house in brick...

i haven't lived there in EIGHT YEARS!!!!! i have lived in THIS apartment for 6 years... i wrote my address in my tax stuff last year... i really am not buying that this is legit. i am NOT sending them ANY money (mainly because i don't have $1500 laying around)

i have gathered up all of my papers and am sending them copies... and am sending my accountant (who i didn't use last year - as i was unemployed and broke for most of the year) the info....

this year, you had better believe i am going with the number cruncher....

effing taxes. in the meantime, i am going to watch The Shield right now

this may be boring as all hell to y'all... but i am writing anyway...

so i took a few minutes (like 20) out of my morning to try and get this EFFING tax crap (note my eloquent use of the english language right now... the taxman has knocked it all out of me)

so i call. i wait on hold. then there is life...

some old broad named "Elenor"

me: 'hi, i was calling to see what can be done about a notice i received'

elenor: "i don't know anything about any notice"

me: 'well, let me tell you who i am and my social security number'

elenor: "what notice?"

me: 'um... i received a notice from a collection agency and...'

elenor: "why are you calling here?"

me: 'i called there already and they told me to call here since i am feeling that the information on someone's end is wrong'

elenor: "you should really talk to them"

me: 'i DID. what i want to know is why - first of all - i never received any notice from the Dept. of Taxation itself at my apartment and now there is a collection agency that sent mail to an address that i haven't lived at for 8 years. and secondly, i want to know how exactly you figure i OWE $1492.00 for 2001?'

elenor: "hold on. what is your social security number?"

me: XXX-XX-XXXX

(2 minutes of holding as the old bat rummages through my file)
elenor: "i don't know. it says here that you live at XXX york street... that's not where the letter was mailed? it says they changed the address on the 27th of january"

me: '*sigh* i had spoken to the collection agency on monday - the 27th - and made them change my info - i don't know why you people don't have the right address since i have paid taxes at this address for the past 6 years and at another address for the 2 years prior'

elenor: "well, i don't know about that"

me: 'i filed my taxes online last year'

elenor: "well, i don't know about that"

me: 'well, i am telling you so that you know that i filed my taxes online last year'

elenor: "well, i don't know about that... it says here that you emailed someone here saying that you may have made a mistake"

me: yes. and i faxed my w-2 and the other papers to you last april'

elenor: "well, i don't know about that...it doesn't say you faxed them"

me: 'i faxed them... you didn't get them? and now without ANY contact i am getting collection notices sent to an address other than my own'

elenor: "well, i don't know"

me: 'WELL, ELENOR, YOU DON'T KNOW MUCH, DO YOU!?!?!?!'

[click]

i so hung up on her...

i am so getting audited.

(but i re-faxed my info to them.... effing so and so's)

oay - i have to illustrate something "magical" for work... so i typed into google images:

"Magic Tricks"

THIS is what popped up in the results... eh...huh?

(there are a few "choice" images on this site)

so we're leaving after work on thursday to go up to vermont (me, my 3 bosses 3 co-workers and our printer guy - actually, i shall call them friends as well as collegues)

here are my plans for the next 6 days (i will be back late sunday night)

okay my friends, i am leaving work now and heading north!!! cheers!

i'm back! just got in a little while ago... had a GREAT time!

no snowboarding this weekend... minimal skiing on friday - then i wiped out because my boots were too tight and cutting off all circulation to the point where i couldn't feel my feet... so when i wiped, i effed up my left thumb)...

a LOTTA hot tubbing was had and then we went snow tubing this afternoon...

all of us are sick... must be from soaking in the hot tub for 5 hours on friday night playing Truth or Dare and winding up jumping into the snow a few times and then jumping back in the tub... with wet hair and snow falling... yep... you should hear my cough....

will yap more later - i am sore and sick and will get photos developed tomorrow (had to take disposable camera images in the hot tub and at the snow tubing place)

--- i must say to you that most of the photos will not be viewed on here, because what happened in vermont.... stays in vermont

this is the house we stayed at - dan is a kick-ass host!!! (picture the snow about 4 feet high in front of all the windows on the deck.... 'twas AWESOME!)

(by the way - Happy Groundhog Day!)

when i was up in the cabin, the most surreal part of the trip was sitting there saturday morning, the 4 of us (the other 3 went up to Magic mtn), we had flipped on cnn and there the news was just breaking.

i resisted the urge to sit and watch the station all day (like i had when i was in my cousin's cabin in margaretville when jfk, jr's plane went down)

but there was sadness. and i got to thinking about january 28th, 1986 when i sat in my bathtub writing in my journal... i found the journal (you get to read it without the 15 year old girl cursive writing, scratch-outs and tear marks... there are possible spelling errors left in, though) :

January 28th, 1986 - Tuesday
The Space Shuttle Challenger was on it's 25th mission. It was 1 minute and 39 seconds after lift off when it exploded.

The 6 astronauts and the 1st teacher on the ship, were killed. G. Jarvis, F. Scobee, M. Smith, R. McNair, J. Resnik, E. Onizuka, and Christa McAuliffe (teacher)

We heard about it in school. It freaked me out. The teachers last words before she boarded were something like - "We boarded this ship as 7 seperate bodies, but we will become one soul."

Christ! Gave me chills up & down my spine.

It blew up right in front of my eyes! freaked out. Flags are at "half-mast" for a full week. I must've seen the replay about 239 times. At least.

Well, I've gotta go I'm still watching this. It's been on since 11:40am, now it's 11:07pm.

Later Love ya Love,
Erin Patrice Danielle Bennett Tues 1-28-86

P.S.-
Jimmy Hall is going out with Kate Zitzner. CRAP Fill you up to date later.

Later Love ya Love,
Erin Patrice Danielle Bennett 1-28-86 Tuesday

okay - not the most riveting journal entry... especially the PS, but that's how i was feeling 17 years ago... now if you change the names, leave out the part about Jimmy Hall dating someone, and say it was the Columbia that perished, i have to tell you that i was still "freaked out"

very sad - not trying to be funny, but i always have this nervous humor that comes out at times like this.

Have to tell you that Christa McAuliffe's quote still gives me chills, too.

two of my favourite cartoonists, david horsey and steve breen, have illustrated tributes...

go here for more editorial cartoons

so, T-minus 45 minutes til tomorrow's date calls me tonight to make plans...

not going to say much about him right now, because there's a possibility that my url was thrown in with an email by mistake (automatic footer thing)

but... he's 38 years old... is in the emerald society... lives in the town where i grew up... and... get this... his last name begins with O'

an O-APOSTROPHE!!!

an O-Apostrophe AND the emerald society!!!

an O-Apostrophe, the emerald society AND his father was from Ireland!!!!

(not for nothing, but for a girl named erin, this is almost like finding the Holy Grail)

well, i will be fleeing work by 6:30pm at the latest tomorrow night - O'Boy� is picking me up at 8pm... at my apartment...

eh... unfortunately, i haven't really been around on the weekends for the past 2 months to work on the cleaning.... and when i've gotten home from work during the week... cleaning is the last thing on my mind...

my hope is that i will be spruced up and ready by the time he rings my doorbell and that i can just say "okay! let's hit the road, jack" (no. his name isn't jack)

looking like i am going to be up straightening the apartment... just in case i still have eyeliner to slap on. while he waits on my couch....

crud. this means i am going to have to move the 85% finished horse-crossing-river jigsaw puzzle that i opted to work on instead of vacuuming the flat.

*sigh*

why's he have to be a gentleman picking me up at my door and all?!

(heh... yay!)

i am so screwed. i didn't clean very much. please let tomorrow be a decent hair and makeup day so that nothing major has to be done at 7:45pm
(no pots and potions. no scaffolding. no spot putty or spackle... )

should have given myself a manicure tonight...

eh... my face is attempting to play a joke on me... it has broken out... in 3 seperate locations...

okay... ha. ha. not funny! knock it off... you've played your little trick on me, now clear up!

come on.

seriously... clear up!!!

eff.

joke. blonde joke (sorry to all the blondies out there):

sunday... vermont... right before getting my ass kicked from snow tubing

and this... this looks disgusting... but, let me tell you... mother of gawd! it was wonderful. fresh sliced ham. freshly baked bread. 2 year old aged Vermont Cheddar Cheese and - here's the stuff that makes the tastebuds twitterpated... cinnamon pear jam...

yes. jam.

had a really nice time on the date last night... dinner was really good...

(chicken parm... see, i CAN eat normal food items... can't believe that last post brought all you commenters out of the woodwork like that)

wants to "get together again"... good. he had the Robert Schimmel cd in his suv... we listened to it a bit... laughter ensued (i love robert schimmel)

got a kiss - one of those first-date-sweet-get-to-know-you-more-at-a-later-point type of kisses... was nice. not used to not making out like a hussy on a first date :)

i forgot to thank him for dinner... so 2 minutes after he drove away i called him on the cell phone and said "i think i forgot to thank you for dinner, so... thank you, had a great time"

he seemed taken aback, laughed and said "you're welcome" and then i said "that's all, drive safely... have a good night"

am i a freak? i'd rather have done that than be thought of as not thanking him for dinner

tonight we went (5 of us) to some mexican place in morristown-area called the Sage Brush - had karaoke... nope, i didn't get up there, was close to singing "Sometimes When We Touch" but the crowd was sketchy... didn't want to incite a riot with the bikers...

good time...

just got home - missed the West Wing - anyone wanna fill me in on what happened!?!?@!?!

also - just got wind that my site will probably be down tomorrow (thursday) night from 11pm til 5am-ish... (see below)

this is the crazy assed thing that i had to design today for work.

seriously.

my aunt sent me this cute thang...

horseys!

so tomorrow night is the big apple blogger bash at zanzibar...

(for those who remember - and for those who don't - the last time i went to zanzibar, i wound up throwing white castles at some guy and then kissed an afghani after pretty much harrassing chad lowe who was at a cast party at the bar...)

don't worry, those of you heading to the bash, i shan't guzzle guinness with white chocolate martini chasers

for those of you going, please - if you see this person - stop by, say hello!!! (yes. that's me)

unfortunately, i haven't gotten around to sending my laundry out to be done... have no idea what scraps of clothing i have to wear to the shindig... wore my favourite outfit on the date on tuesday...

*sigh*

so after my last post, not a nanosecond after i hit the submit button, the entire building lost power. scared the hell out of me. luckily fred was still there and we were about to leave anyway, but still.... very scary - had to walk down the fire stairs... and then out in the parking garage, there weren't any lights... THAT was the creepiest thing, haven't run that fast to my car in ages...

blah blah blah after work, since i am still tikked off about breaking out the other day - i signed up for tanning - it's been a while since i went to a tanning salon, like about 2 years (had gone to tanning for 16 years) so this one in rochelle park is great! for $10 i was able to have a face tanner/bed for 30 minutes - i love the tanning salons that aren't really strict when it comes to time limits - they asked how long i wanted to go in for... yep... fry me (yeah yeah, if you are about to yell at me on the dangers of tanning... don't. it won't help.)

so i am burnt, but it feels good. i love this feeling...

that's another thing, all of you going to the BABB tomorrow - if you see a red-faced chick... that's me....

enough about the tanning. now to speak about the whiter than white no-nosed freak who i can barely look at because he's making me sick... he is insane. and the people who are allowing this skeezeball to sleep with their kids are idiots...

"milk and cookies"... come on!

makes my blood boil... wait, no... the tanning bed brought it to a boil earlier...

the first inch has fallen

the tanning is now a burning... i am a lobster...

the snow is about 3 or 4 inches deep - i am staying home from work. i can't deal with the idiots who drive up here when it's clear and dry out... much less snowing - plus there are a lot of accidents already out there.

and my apartment is freezing, my extremities are changing color (more of a purple actually when mixed with the red of my skin)

so, since i am sitting here at home (writhing in pain still) i flipped on mtv's clone high: usa

it's clones of famous folks in history and they are all in high school... apparently, the some folks are upset over the ghandi character

i checked out on imdb to see if will forte from snl (he has a character "tim calhoun" - a guy running for senator or something - on snl) very distinct voice... lo and behold he is on this animated series...

the show is cracking me up.

a lot of well known (to me) names are lending their voices to it...

clone high:usa... normally on monday nights at 10:30pm

okaym so the only camera i have to use tonight is my crappy one... since i didn't go into work, i didn't get to bring my good camera with me. dang.

eh... i can't download images til monday anyway, dammit, ever since i upgraded my system to 9.1, my software for image downloading is all out of whack...

*sigh*

after the babb, i am meeting up with cathy and we're going to see Chicago at the zeigfeld...

am in pain. my "girls" are really sunburned.... barely can move.

it just took me 7 minutes to ease my way into my bra....

this is a torture device when mixed with sunburn

mother of gawd.
i had to take my bra off to put my jeans on... that was pleasant... although i did cut time off of putting my bra back on by using my jeans as the buffer when i do the front to back twist... only took 4 minutes this time...
no shirt yet. HAD planned on a wool sweater... eh... that won't be happening. think a tank top might be pushing it? *sigh*

have i mentioned what an ass i am?

okay... two things i need to recap from last night...

the second is the movie Chicago... i absolutely LOVED it... maybe it's because i never saw the musical... but it made me actually warm up to catherine zeta-jones... queen latifah -- mother of god the "girls" on her were more like "women"... and ren�e zellwegger was fantastic... i even liked richard gere... very funny. i love love love john c. reilly, though...

that said... chicago-go-go see it (note: i have turned into gene shalot)

the first thing that i need to yap about - sans photos [those are coming on monday] - is the big apple blogger bash 2003 a.k.a. the BABB

got there around 7:15 last night... the first people i met were Brian The (646) Guy (he hosted the shindig...), the redhead, and g.i. jane

(this is going to be a big post of name droppings and such... this means GO to all if these links and love them)

next up, i needed a beverage... the "looking-for-porn-in-all-the-wrong-places" paul katcher swooped in and picked up the tab on my guinness... and i was given a heartbreak gingersnap cookie baked exclusively by pitchaya....

the "friends don't let friends blog drunk" shirt worn by paulfrankenstein can be purchased at his site... but go there now to check out some photos... there's a lovely sunburnt jowly profile of me on it... (my entire face is swollen from the sun... and maybe a little fettucini alfredo)

along with the p.f. man, i met fellow jersey city-ite / ny party crasher ken goldstein, a swell egg who i didn't get to yap with all that much

rickey of blue red orange, in my opinion had the best card promoting his site of course, i only collected 3

i am now onto my 2nd beverage... the faces are becoming a blur - not because i am drinking, but because there are a lot of them, and there are a lot of blogs i haven't read i am realizing...

shared a wall with alex from brokentype

i see will from msnbc so i go over to thank him for his thorough recap of this week's west wing... so he and i and jason kottke started yapping about the west wing (do you like how i just casually name-dropped the elusive kottke? smooth, eh?)

mr. swill... wish him luck but don't jinx him.... great site, really nice guy...

the raving athiest apr�s-falling off his stool... those will be up on monday (dammit! why isn't this program working anymore!!??)

right before leaving, i met erin aaron of godofthemachine.com and then i said my goodbyes...

had fun.... i left at around ten of 9 because the movie was at 10... i could have stayed there yapping and getting more and more drunk, but, i would rather have people read about how tipsy i can get instead of showing them firsthand

*** sorry to those of you who i met yet the name escapes me....

****update: i forgot allan - how the heck could i forget him???? ****

so, not for nothing, and i don't expect him to call till monday or tuesday since he's working and all, but if the O'Boy� doesn't ring me up, i found this off of southern relish... it's called hurrydate i think i have 3 minutes of good material to work with for 25 guys...

of course, any guy would be fine to date, as long as he doesn't turn out like THIS date i had

remind me to buy some ginko biloba

although, it's nice to know that others can remember things for you still intact the way you left them

well, i should be cleaning my apartment... believe me, it's a pit. but since the agony of stupidity has rendered me useless i have been sitting here scrounging around on some sites...

just in time for valentine's day!!!!! go! send some beeeeee-u-tee-ful postcards!!

[from the not so soft blog via frankenzilla]

... now i am retiring over to the couch for a little saturday-nothing-on-the-tee-vee crap (unless i rent porn off of On-Demand... how's that paul? a little porn thrown into the site)

i admit i haven't been over to edrants in a while (forgive me)... but when i just meandered over, i happened upon this...

heh. nice, ed. :)

sitting at home... took a peppermint tea bath to try and alleviate the pain of sunburn - helped for a little while... anyway, i stumbled upon this link which i am chuckling and i am also looking around my apartment to see if anyone saw me chuckling... then i shut the giggling up and tried to act PC and then i smiled again...

silly website.

blackpeopleloveus.com

[via delusions of mediocrity]

heh. matthew mcconaughey is hosting snl...

just had a funny sketch on there with him leading an anti-war protest and all of the protesters were getting mixed up as to what they were protesting... many funny lines in it... my favourite:

protester (chris parnell): LEGALIZE PORN!

rally leader: sir, it is legal

protester: not the kind i like (said wistfully)

can't remember the other shouts from the crowd... as i said, remind me to get the ginko

now the peeling begins.

yay. i am molting.

(well, at least this mutation of my face ensures that the O'Boy� will probably call and want to get together... especially since i have been in too much pain to clean my apartment as well...)

i seriously have no desire to walk 2 blocks to my car in the leftover slush and clean the snow from thursday night off of it... only to drive it back to my apartment where i have to double park, get out of said car, go back into said apartment and drag not one, but TWO humongous bags of laundry out to it - stepping over the 2 foot high snowplowed banks that are on the sidewalk...

then drive it a few blocks and do everything in reverse at the laundromat... then drive it back in hope there's a parking spot

at least the beauty of having the lady there do my laundry is i don't have to sit in that third world country with migrant children running in and out of the doors blasting cold air in and out as 45 people speak to each other in 67 different languages. nor do i have to sit in my eskimo-worthy coat reading a cheesy novel holding onto my handbag as a homeless guy stumbles in and starts asking people for change. i don't have to check the dryers for the 5th time only to discover my wash is still damp and realize that i will be there for another 3 hours. another perk is, i don't have to attempt folding the clothes which would tack on another 4 hours (not a good "folder")

yes. i used to do my laundry there... but paying through the nose for the past 5 and a half years has been so worth it not to deal with that crap.

unfortunately, the place where not only did i have to pay through the nose, but add an arm and 2 toes - closed down... see, they used to come pick the laundry up and then bring it back... no hassle.

*sigh*

very excited, my creative director just called me and told me if it snows tonight (expecting between 3 and 6 inches) that 'not to rush in', to take my time and leave around 11am or when the snow lets up... 'because we need the designer to be alive'

good.

hmmmm... might i be pushing it if i wear jeans into work?!?!?!

dang. where's the snow? i wanted to sleep in.

a little redneck humor....

*$&!@#^&^* vcr.

i set it this morning. i must've hit a button twice or something...

what's the problem? i just got home and sat down to watch Joe Millionaire that i taped.

or did i tape it?

no. no i didn't.

crap. i went out with the girls after work, with not a care in the world because at 8am i had gone through the motions of programming the effing thing.

i sat down and realized the stinking vcr didn't tape.

WHAT HAPPENED ON JOE MILLIONAIRE... ?~?????
I WANT DETAILS ---- PLEASE!!!!!!!!

so, yesterday when checking voice mail at home...

i got a message at 9:30am...

thinking it's going to be a telemarketer, my finger is paused over the #3 button to delete

"hey, erin... it's matty... just calling to say hello and see how you're doing..." blah blah blah "thought you might be home" blah blah blah...

this is my ex.

we broke up october 21st, 1999 (not that anyone's counting)

he had a great sense of humor.
we clicked.
he took me to new orleans for our one year anniversary.
he was the only boyfriend to meet my poppy (who, by the way, died 4 years ago yesterday.)

by the way, i have been so effing swamped at work... it's a good busy though.

having to do an internal meeting site and emails out the whazoo... ot to mention getting images and photo retouching together for the video parody for the meeting... *filming was done a week ago

just so much to do... and the days keep flying by faster and faster... i feel like i am just getting one thing done and then it's 6pm... crazy

i received a tax thing in the mail from when i did work for cowboy mouth last year... call me naiv�, but i never gave my ss# and stuff to them and assumed that it was under the table... no such luck.

did i save any cash since taxes weren't taken out? no. (granted, it wasn't that much, but still)

that's the recap for the past 24 hours...

cheers. going to sleep now

ah... crazy italian guys...

okay... just checked my messages - at 3 o'clock this afternoon, the O'Boy� called my machine and left a voice mail... apparently he's been working (i knew that) and will be "working extra shifts" this week... said he'll call me during the week...

hey, that's cool. i am swamped at work - in fact, that's where i am right now...

plus, it's a horrible week to start dating someone, what with crazy ass valentine's day and all.

this is horrible

(i used to be a member of the cream ridge pony club here in the u.s. - and to think that another pony club member is going through this - well, it breaks my heart.)

i got home from work at 11:25... i was crawling out of my skin from the sunburn which has turned to peely itchy hellish skin....

so i drew a bath - poured in some cinnamon oil - grabbed a cheesy romance novel and went in for a soak...

my body went "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and the necessity for scratching subsided....

now that i am out and am dry - even though slathered with moisturizers - i am dying from dry skin again....

arrrrrrrrrrrgh...

hey - have i mentioned how happy i am that Survivor Amazon starts tonight!?!?

yep - another reality show added to the roster... hopefully i can get home by the time it comes on, otherwise it's another night of working late and watching the television in the studio...

lou reed's on letterman. going to sleep now (i am going to sleep... not lou reed)

a priest, a monk and a rabbi walk into a bar...

somebody says...

so, this is the tune that's permiating through the studio today
(along with watching mister rogers on the teevee)

woo!! the women win the first immunity challenge on survivor!!!

(take that you trash talking guys' tribe!)

hey everyone! happy valentine's day!!!!!!!

running late for work. cathy asked me to hang out tonight to see The Hours and "look like a couple of lesbians" on valentine's day -as much as i want to see the flick, i am actually going to let the elevated to orange level and the lying captured al quada freak keep me from going into the city.

Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier.- Blore's Razor

GEMINI (May 21-June 21): Feeling vulnerable makes you look out for
yourself, yet you're better off protecting as many people as possible.
Relieve the root causes of problems instead of merely shielding yourself
from the consequences.

or i can still stay home and clean my apartment... that's actually protecting as many people as possible from me being all drunk and vulnerable on valentine's day

got this funny little flash item via John (thank you!)

now you can sass back when people say "you don't know jack..."

heh... a little irish humor in the midst of all this pink valentine's slop

let's see... my couch and i spent a lovely valentine's evening together. i went food shopping and ran into a friend and former editor for abc that i used to design for... cathy called me with the possibility of fantastic news (everyone just start whipping up some good thoughts, prayers, vibes, sacrifical goats and send them in the direction of her - i know you don't know her, but she lurks on here anonymously as much as i tell her "comment for the love of gawd!")

oh... and at 4:48pm this afternoon, i get a phone call at work...

it's a guy's voice...

not the O'Boy�. it's -- hmmmmm --- what should i call him? F⁴ (Freaky Fireman Family Friend)... he calls me out of the blue every so often... the last i saw him was when he showed up at one of my gigs in the spring of 2001... he lives in JC, but i never hang with him.

he and his brothers (and mom and dad) used to come down the shore every summer when i was growing up - my mom is friends with his mom...

blah blah blah...

he asked me to be his date for his brother's wedding on march 21^st and also to go to the rehearsal dinner with him

mind you, i have been avoiding his calls at home and not returning them... he's a nice guy, but not my type.

how he got my work number i have no idea.

so getting back to the story - he asks me to the wedding...

what did i say? not "no". not "are you kidding me?" not "um... i guess so". not "eh... sure"

but... what i hear escaping my lips is...

"i'd LOVE to!"

what. the. eff?

so, i am going to the wedding, and i am sure i will have a good time... it's just that it was weird. that's all.

that's my valentine's day... it ends with me being invited to a wedding... by the F⁴

ever wake up at 4am with your tummy SCREAMING at you and then your nose joining in on the action by sneezing 32 times... yes. THIRTY TWO TIMES.

checking referrer stats led me to this page...

um... are there any therapists in the house that want/need clients? well, it might be like shooting fish in a barrel...

Mia Personals

("mia"... a lovely term for bulimia -- i am guessing someone linked to fat yappings... or something... no idea)

pong... it's not just a game

hmmmm... while browsing though my stats, i clicked on this link since it was in my referrals

while it's not quite the same as my site, i have an inkling there may have been some inspiration found here....

perhaps the colors, the copyright signature and oh, the CODE in the source file... yep... well, good luck to them

poor things... designing it in FrontPage.

the reason it's in my referrals is because of the code that is in it for my stat tracker --- great, now i get to see the 3 people who have gone to her site.

(note: the "copyright� 2000-2003 gigglechick.com all rights reserved
this means please don't take my images unless you ask me nicely..."... i suppose, i should add "don't steal my code" to that since no one asked about swiping stuff)

oh well. at least it's not a image of birth control pills on there... only a locket and key pic

funny, it's the 4th time in 2 years someone has imitated (but never duplicated - except for that one guy who swiped my portfolio and said it was his) my site

-----------

of course, i also find out other things with my referral stats...

like, i come up #1 when someone types "girl bentover crack showing"

lovely.

so, i finally moved my jackasses & stalkers page over to MT... and also gave it a new url

i emailed that chick about the code about an hour and a half ago... she has since taken down the same copyright copy and has removed my bits of code within the site...

i had even gone so far as to say if she had any questions about code to ask me and maybe i could help her...

all this with nary a thank you... or more importantly a "sorry..."

nice. eh? pretty rude, i think (seeing as it's pretty much the same layout as i have - sans ABV image) whatever.

***** update on the update *****

02.16.03 1:47pm | she wrote me and apologized. all is cool

woke up early, fully expecting to clean my apartment... yet, at the moment i am doubled over in pain without a single Midol in the medicine chest...

**whine**

i said...

***WHINE***

okay - i just rummaged around an old handbag and found a couple of old Midols at the bottom - sure, the expiration date was 03/02, but at the moment, it's a case of sheer desperation...

i don't plan on this becoming a "recovery on the couch" day, but maybe an hour - while these kick in - won't hurt

how to keep a blonde occupied for hours

click here for the tune

Snow Man by gigglechick with inspiration from pearl jam

Waitin', watchin' the clock, it's four o'clock, it's got to stop
Tell them, predict no snow, she practices her speech
As she opens the door, the snow falls over...
Pretends to sleet as she looks it over
She lies and says her gloves aren't warm, can't build a snowman...
She dreams of cocoa, she dreams of bed, can't build a snowman...
Can't build a snowman
Can't build a snowman...
Ohh...

Talkin' to herself, there's no one else who needs to know...
She tells herself, oh...
Memories back when she was young and strong
And waiting for the plow to come along...
Swears she knew it, now she swears it's gone
She lies and says she can't drive to work , can't build a snowman...
She dreams of her couch, she dreams of bed, can't build a snowman...
She lies and says she still loves the snow, can't build a snowman...
She dreams of Cancun, she dreams of a tan, can't build a snowman...
Can't build a snowman...
Can't build a snowman...
Yeah...

She loves sun, yeah...she don't want to live this way
She needs sun, yeah...that's why she'll go tanning
Can't build a snowman...
Can't build a snowman...
Can't build a snowman...
Can't build a... snow...man...
Ohh...ohh...
Uh huh...
Ohh...

nothing better than doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and fixing magnetic thingies on cabinets while listening to Q104.3 as they play Foghat, the Animals and Van Halen all while i am hopped up on Xenadrine and Midol.

SWEET! they're playing Ironman now!

okay - it does get better...

i just vacuumed to FREEBIRD!!

wooooo!

freebird!

i think they ought to sell a "Now That's What I Call Cleaning Music - Volume 16"

the first flakes of the storm have begun... ever so gently cascading down...

it's about damned time!

mom has 4 inches already in bricktown, katie has a number of inches as well...

i said i would work the holiday tomorrow (in exchange for st. pat's day off) but if it's a totally ridiculous snowfall, i am staying home

my cousing kerry is most likely laughing her arse off right now... she flew into cancun on friday night and is expected to come home on friday

my friend michael's brother matthew directed the simpsons 300th episode tonight...

yet another famous wall high school graduate...

matt gave me the test to be an animator for the simpsons back in 1997... i got chicken about moving to LA and turned down the offer...

yep. just one of those little regrets in life.

winter advisory has now been upgraded to nor'easter with blizzard conditions

i am SO not going into work tomorrow

ahhhhhhhhhh.... *sigh* totally relaxed right now.

just soaked in the bath for an hour and a half (prune!)

the best part of it was not the cheesy romance novel i am trudging through, but the body tea that i bought on friday

T� Tao - Tea for Body / Body Smoother

it smells awesome... like tea! except with a hint of salt - since this is a sloughing scrub as well as a bath salt...

and it's a bath oil as well...

i am relaxed and my skin is soft, shiny, smooth and well moisturized... nary a trace of the craziness from the sunburn....

highly recommend buying it...

woo! so, when i woke up this morning, i got an email asking me to design a callout for the company's intranet (that's why the image below says HQ)... yay... snowangels will be part of my day now!! (well, more like an imaginary snowangel on my bed.)

so after this snowfall, it got me thinking about the "big one of '96"
when i lived on the beach

and now for a post about the whole war / anti-war protesting schtick:

i am in support of our government. there. i said it. i am backing them. that's pretty much as in depth as i am going with this.

sure, "peace" and all would be a lovely thing in this world. i love "peace" - but WHOSE "peace" do you support?

i think Dean has said it best by running the animation created by the dissident frogman- found here

and i agree with a small victory... no oil for pacifists

by the way... go visit notes of an iranian girl - a next door neighbor of those in the spotlight

and i am sick of the 14 different anti-war petitions that have wound up in my email box just THIS morning alone.

woo! somehow i was finally able to download images from my camera...

� we have a x-country skier in jersey city!

� check out the snow (ignore the garbage can in front of my house)
note my kick-ass landlord shoveling...

� the snowdrifts have been shifting all over the place... some spots look like there's no snow, some parts are really deep

� and the snow piling next to my gate is wacky

� my car... you can see a little bit of it

mother of god. i think i am having a heartattack.

i just shoveled out my effing car... now i know why i DIDN'T have a car up here in jc for the past 6 years. the last time i had to shovel was when i was down the shore for the blizzard of 96 (as i said earlier)

took me an hour. !@#*%#
that's my workout for the month. there ya' go.

think i lost 46 pounds from sweating in the freezing cold. took photos... the "before" pics came out, but the after pics were all foggy because the camera was against my chest the entire time i was shoveling, so the heat messed with the lense.

here's my neighbour with the right idea. i, on the otherhand, had to snag my landlord's snowshovel and did it all by hand.

i predict there's a hot bath and some T� Tao in my future...

nice.

well... i certainly know that i live in jersey city.

first off, my landlord already shoveled everything.

next, i had my blinds cracked a bit to see outside and 2 - what i assume to be homeless - guys are staring in my window... then they ring the bell

first guy: "excuse us, ma'am... you need us to shovel?"

me: "um... no. no thanks, my landlord already did that."

first guy: "alright then, have a good day"

me: thanks, you too. [closing door]

second guy: "FUCK. excuse me lady, you wanna make a donation to the cause anyway?"

me: "eh... no. if i had money i would, but..."

second guy: "!@#*&%"

[i then slam the door]

nope... this isn't manasquan with 11 year old kids with cherubic faces and rosy cheeks shoveling the walk for a cup of cocoa (as they did in my day - yes, i am 32... but i remember kids would work for a couple of bucks OR cocoa)

not guys in their 30's in ripped clothing peering into my apartment and then trying to swindle me for cash -- and i was sure as hell NOT going to offer cocoa.

so, i told you that the O'Boy� called me last wednesday and left a message stating that he'd been working extra shifts, etc...

i hadn't called him back... knowing full well that he was working today i figured it was time to give a ring back...

got the machine:

"Hey K-----, it's erin. Just returning your phone call. Hope all is well down there. Heard you guys got only a dusting of snow. Okay, well, that's my poor attempt at a blizzard joke
*ahem* um, okay, well, i hope you're keeping warm and safe... um... it's about twenty after 6 on monday... uh, okay then, hope all is well... um... stay cool"

[click]

um... STAY COOL!?!?!?!

there you have it folks... in the midst of this blizzard, i had a meltdown (gee, even THAT joke was better than the dusting joke)

stay cool.

i may as well have ended the message blathering "well, keep on truckin'" or "okay, have a good night and sit on it, Potsie" or "hang in there Kitty"

"stay cool"

*groan*

gonna chalk this one up as a failed voice mail attempt. apparently, my phone and social skills have gone to hell in a handbasket since i leapt out of my twenties.

awwwwwww! he picked zora and she was cool with him....
and i had a feeling that they were going to give them money...
*sniffle* [smile]

can't believe it's STILL snowing.

it's still snowing. i am trying to work from home today... the plow came back last night and plowed my shoveling job back in... arrrgh.

** it figures, the one day i am home and actually have regis and kelli on, they have the horrid comedy stylings of effing CarrotTop.

[click]

*** just found this link off of 3bruces.... ATTACK CARROT TOP (very therapeutic)

sort of broken news alert

now that i have switched all of my blogs from blogger to mt.... now blogger is bought by google. i know this story broke last week or whatever, but...

gonna go out on that limb and suggest new names for blogger:

googer
blooger
goggler

but i think my favourite name would be:

Chuck.

no reason, i just think Chuck is a nice goofy name.

this has been an absolute waste of time... please return to your normal programming

well, i finally got the insurance check in the mail for my accident claim.

unfortunately, i forgot i have a $500 deductible... crap. so i was quite shocked at the low amount of the check....

grrrr. dummy.

cripes! between PMSing and being snowbound with a fully stocked fridge, i have been eating like a fiend

tonight consisted of gilmore girls, frasier, less than perfect and...

� motivational posters for alcoholics

� feed the nine mouthed baby

[both via 3 bruces]

this morning's commute sucked!

i was happy that i didn't have to go on route 78 because there was a 30 mile ( i kid you not) backup...

heard early on there was a jackknifed tractor trailer at the very exit on route 80 west that i get off...

so i got gas, went to the bank and i was off and running...

communipaw ave - the first leg of the morning jaunt - it took me 45 minutes to go 0.5 miles.

why? because the effing plows made a 3 lane main thoroughfair into a 1 lane horse drawn carriage lane. and it all happened in an intersection.

okay - through that. good. i am on the turnpike now. all is going well... 55 mph...

listened to the traffic reports - they said route 80 was clear - the trailer was removed and traffic was fine.

i get to the toll booth, go through, it's slightly heavy... no big deal...

traffic report still saying the coast was clear - okay what the hell, i'll go route 80 instead of my alternate route on 46...

as soon as i merged left onto the no-turning-back-now-you're-screwed stretch of 95 before hitting 80, the traffic became a parking lot.

it took me 2 hours and 35 minutes to get into work this morning.

i am SO not looking forward to tomorrow... much less, tonight when i have to find a parking space that's not clogged with snow.

*sigh*

...golb ym no rorrim rorrim

thanks to michele for a look into my blog's soul!

so my best friend from college - rodney - emailed me out of the blue last night...

apparently, my other friend from college (who i haven't yapped with in a few years) is living in new zealand and is knitting gorgeous baby clothes... turns out she knitted some items that sarah jessica parker loves - way to go hadley :)

go... buy some toasty warm and organic knitty things for babies - even if you don't have a rugrat, go... buy some (don't buy babies, i meant buy something from hadley)

so, i am thinking of creating different skins for this dang site. i mean, i do like this version of GC, but thinking it's once again, time to mix it up a bit...

even though it's going to kick my butt as a huge undertaking.

might as well do it before spring - so i can feel free to roam outdoors once the snow melts...

anyone have any ideas how to go about skinning this beast? also, if you have any requests as to what you'd like to see post it here, my friends!

* no boobies or other genitalia will be shown, no matter how much they're requested.

the club fire in rhode island is quite a sad story...

but WHY the hell would you use pyrotechniques (basically, FIREWORKS) indoors in such a small space!? a WOODEN structure, no less.

the band, great white, used their own pyrotechniques (um.. a little common sense was needed desperately, folks)

"I just couldn't believe how fast it went up," Great White lead singer Jack Russell told CNN affiliate WCVB. "I'm so saddened it's such a tragedy.

"What do you say? Gee, I'm sorry? That just doesn't cut it," Russell said. "There's no words to express how I feel right now."

Russell said guitarist Ty Longley was missing.

Russell said the band had received permission from the club for the pyrotechnics, but The Station's stage technician, Paul Vanner, said he was not aware that the band planned to use fireworks.

PLUS... it was a small enough club that they DID NOT need to have a sprinkler system by law....

ehm.... that's just not good.

what's even more shocking is that at least 85 people went to see Great White.

heh... funny in an adultery sort of way

the O'Boy� called me at 3pm today and left a message! yay! he's been working a ton of overtime and shifts and all that... and, what with the snow and all, has been crazy busy (as i expected)

so he's calling me next week since he's got a few more days at work this weekend!

almost called the F⁴ tonight to see what he's up to - have erased that thought from my head - i really want to see Old School and not sure who exactly will want to see it with me since it's so damned silly... (if worse comes to worst, i am going on sunday to a matinee in JC by myself.)

it's pouring rain right now...causing the 2 feet of snow to melt... which means...

FLOODING.

so happy i live at the BOTTOM of a brownstone where the water can enjoy running down the stairs that lead to my apartment (no, i am not in the basement like Laverne & Shirley) but i am still in the line of fire water...

guess i have to find some sandbags or call the national guard or something.

*note: as of this post, there's been no water entering my apartment... otherwise this entire post would have been typed out in uppercase lettering...

where's george celebrating his birthday?

think i am going to trek up to hackensack for a bit... i don't know... there's a target up there...

although maybe i should just meander into nyc today - supposed to meet up with cathy later

even though i should be setting up the sewing machine that mom gave me for xmas, i have a hankering to try and learn how to knit... have had it for a while now, haven't done anything about it though... i think hadley's site kicked me in the butt the other day - unless i am just feeling a little snow and stir crazy

who the hell am i kidding? i have to clean my apartment. i am trying to talk myself into going to target to try and get out of cleaning and organizing... i can't go. i have to work on stuff here.

but, erin...

what? i am not listening to you. you know that the place is still looking like a bomb hit it and you can't go out.

well, i was just going to mention that instead of knitting supplies, maybe we could go to target for some much needed organizational items... like under the bed storage thingies and stuff for the closet

i'm listening... go on...

i mean, it's pretty inexpensive... and you have to take the car out anyway to take your laundry to the chick down the street, what's the harm of spending an hour or two getting stuff you NEED anyway?

um... damn. fine. let's hop in the shower and get out of here.

i am so damned easy, it's sad.

mind over body? no.

as i was pulling my jeans on, my back and shoulder muscles pulled a coup on me and decided that it's best for everyone if i stay on the couch today.

ouch.

i can barely move.

just because it's pouring sheets of rain, the body puts a halt to any ideas i may have had about going out and doing anything today.

my own hell... there's nothing good on the teevee.

hot bath
epsom salts
body tea
ben gay s.p.a. cream
midol cramp (closest thing i have to a muscle relaxant)

i can sort of move slightly now... am typing with one hand (stop it, gutterminds) while massaging ben gay onto my back

might be cracking open the bottle of coppola's chardonnay that my boss gave me... maybe

but that's too "elvis" of a therapy for my back, i think

the F⁴ called to see if i wanted to go to ny comedy club tonight.. i wanted to actually say yes to get out of the house (cathy and i canceled plans for tonight because of the rain) but i really cannot move my neck... or my right shoulder... this ain't good, folks...

at least it's keeping me from running back and forth to the fridge.

slept from about 4:30/5pm til cathy called at 8pm... man. i think i needed the snooze, earlier - on top of the whole back thang, i felt a cold coming on... so i was likkered up on tylenol cold and midol

the only thing making me keep the chardonnay chilled is the fact that i am doing really well on the point intake for the diet...

so, for some reason around 12:30am i had a thought in my head, "i wonder how Eric is?"

i haven't spoken with him since mid january - he lives in royal oak, michigan...

12:42am ex-eric calls my cell phone... says "i was walking in the blizzard on the way to the pub and said 'i haven't talked with erin in a while. i have to call her'"

this freaked me out - we were on the phone for about 15 minutes.

there's always been this odd connection between he and i.

like, the day before he had to leave to go work in japan in '97 i got a call that i had to leave to work in south korea for nine west the same day... so instead of being thousands and thousands of miles away, we were merely hundreds...

i miss him.

this photo doesn't do him justice... it's the only one i could find of him from back in 1997 when we were at a xmas party for Nine West.

he's been dating some chick out there for the past 2 months though... said to me "we have a good time... i guess."

ringing endorsement?

then he asked how my lovelife was and i mentioned dating the O'Boy� (although i didn't call him that to eric) and then he changed the subject rather quickly

*sigh*

the back feels a little better... not 100%, but better... i can move a bit - had a weird dream that eric called me and said he's visiting me on st. patrick's day. then i woke up.

doing well, in the past week, i have lost 8 pounds... yay! most was probably water, but, hell, i will take that loss!

so the grammys are tonight... i want Bruce to win (and norah jones...)

who are YOU rooting for?

meandered out of the house today... dropped the laundry off to the lady down the street... that was fun... dragging 50lbs of clothes to my car, over snow banks, lifting into car, driving, dragging laundry out of car and over larger snowbanks and into the laundromat.

so that's done - will pick up on tuesday. ahhhh fresh clothes.

then i wanted to be annoyed even further so i went food shopping at the neighborhood shop rite - this is a decent place, not quite as annoying as the pathmark here is. (again... 3rd world country) but, still, a million trillion people with coupons and family first checks were in line in front of me...

ever since getting my car, my grocery horizons have expanded.

loaded up on the ww smart ones, lean cuisines and healthy choices (they all give the ww points) as well as aleve... my back is back to killing me again (lifting 50lbs of dirty clothes may not have been good for it.

all in all, an uneventful day.

except for when i ran over that homeless person

well, dum-dum here (that's me.) quickly grabbed the healthy choice stuffed shells dinners (2 of them) without reading the effing fine print which said "with mushrooms"

if there is one food item in the world that i have a problem with... it's mushrooms. can't look at 'em.

disgusting vile funghi.

simon and garfunkel!!! yay!

dustin hoffman: "bruce spring street"

please.

please mommy, make vanessa carlton stop singing

oh good... john mayer soothing my horrified ears...

and now james taylor and yo-yo ma... good good!

bruuuuuuuuuuuce! i love bruce.

too bad jimmy fallon didn't win best comedy album... i mean i like robin williams but he steals material right and left

thought avril was pretty good. glad norah won (aren't i cool acting like i am on a first name basis with them?)

um. shut up ashanti. please.

i want to see eminem's performance...

holy s#�t! the tribute to the clash by springsteen, costello, grohl and van zandt kicked ass!!

(see what i did there? i tried to be cool by just saying their last names now!)

wow... norah jones beat out bruce... she swept the grammys... wow.

(i love that cd by the way)

20 Clues a Woman Should Call it a Night

i may or may not have had a night like this... odds are i have.

everyone ready for what's sure to be the longest hour on television?

so after posting eric's photo the other day, i got to rummaging around in a few shoeboxes and dug up 1% of my exes... pretty much a few that actually were around long enough to have their photos taken

� John... not my first boyfriend... but another first... good guy
status= friends. married. 1 rugrat

� Dale - this is right before his junior prom... in 1986
status= not friends. married.

(i would go to my junior prom with bill r. and then senior prom with scott j. )

� Patrick - fling. good kid, we kept in contact a little my freshman year of college, but that's it. last i knew - in this photo - he lived in florida
status= MIA

� Brendan - met freshman year of college - dated on and off throughout. he was a film major - hopefully is doing what he wants now
status= MIA

� Ryan - met senior year of college when i was slinging cheesesteaks on south street in philly. he was in the navy, but was from arizona and was a bull rider.. he shipped out, asked me to marry him, i said no and then i moved on to the next fella (joe) word has it ryan got married 6 months later...
status= MIA

� Joe - dated for 5 months. sent me roses every week. wrote poetry and love notes... then broke up with me on christmas... he didn't smile once this night on halloween when i made a matching potato costume for him * after the breakup i was so upset that i lost 40 lbs in 2.5 months... i had a fleeting thought that i wanted him to date me and break up with me again as a quick way to drop a few pounds
status= not friends. married.

� Bill - my first real red-headed boyfriend. swell egg.

here's bill in 1993 with archie still yap with his family - that was the hardest part of breaking up.
status= still good friends.

� you saw eric the other night

� Matt - aka "fat matt"... um... sort of cordial to each other now but i am still bitter over this schmuck. this is the one that said i was way too fat. *ahem* cathy - poor cathy can't hang with me without hearing at least one derogatory matt comment... we broke up in 99 - and then he broke into my apartment and took all the food out of my cabinets.
status= speaking terms have no use for him.

updated 12.03.03: hey all of you nosing around for FattyPack... the page you seem to be entering from is "CACHED" through google... it is no longer on MY site... so make a note of it...

� and the GSB� - who was last seen dating me feb. 17, 2002
status= not friends (although i do get IM'd by his roommate every so often, hey Mike!)

that's just a smattering and a teeny glimpse into my dating past

so my comedy sister, monica, has talked me into getting my ass together for my set... we're probably doing some open mics in the next month

make your own presidential speech!

just got a call from comedy central giving me tickets to next wednesday's taping of Tough Crowd with colin quinn...

cool. so i'll be there with my ash wednesday ashes on!!!

hey... once and for all... what's the best beginner paraphenalia to buy (needles etc?)

like what size is a good beginner size... what type of yarn, etc...

nope. i don't have a pattern. i just want to start by attempting to knit.

help!!! let me know! PLEASE!!

You will live in apartment. You will drive a yellow bmw. You will marry eric and have 3 kids. You will be a cartoonist in river edge.

if you are like me, and were never successful enough at mastering the fine art of 6th grade origami - play M*A*S*H online

moved around a lot of furniture tonight... see, i live in a railroad/studio/apartment with a half wall/ and a huge kitchen... there really is no room. i have to look into getting a storage unit somewhere in the underbelly of jersey...

anyway - i had bought an entertainment center and bookshelf back in november... i haven't been able to put it together - it's not that i can't... except for the fact the effing manufacturer didn't drill a couple of holes where they are supposed to be...

so the pile of wood (approx. what seems to be about 300 pounds - but may be more like 75lbs) and screws has been sitting in my living area (note there is no use of the word "room") blocking my treadmill...

the weightloss this week has gotten me all excited-like -- in fact, i feel as if i am "back in the zone" with the ww - even though i am not going to meetings right now - but i am eating within my points, etc.

blah blah blah... so there i was itching to get my treadmill running... there was no room.

so i moved the unbuilt crap, then i needed to move the la-z-boy recliner which in turn didn't fit ANYWHERE anymore... so then i dragged that about 15 feet into my "sleeping area" and had to, in turn, move 2 trunks filled with more stored crap...

my apartment is like one of those little plastic puzzles you played with when you were young where you have 8 pieces and 9 spaces to move things around in...

the way i used to solve that was to take it apart and cheat.

that's why i need to move stuff to a storage center.

you don't even WANT to see my closet "area".

there's a storage place down near my mom's that has 5'x5' units for $39/month... thinking of doing that - see, thinking of having it down there because she can store stuff, too. also, i go down there a lot - and i don't really trust the jersey city folks...

if i pack stuff really well, i think it'll help...

very excited to possibly gain control of my apartment again (or for the first time)

yay!

now if only i had time to pack and organize.

Visitors to Daypop, an index of personal journalism sites known as Weblogs, were treated on Wednesday to a new feature called "word bursts," an automated attempt to identify the hottest words at the moment.

...

Word Bursts are heightened usage of certain words in weblogs within the last couple days. They are indicators of what webloggers are writing about right now, in contrast to Top 40 and Top News which are indicators of what webloggers are linking to currently. Word Bursts can frequently indicate current events of interest that are not usually accompanied by links. Sample weblog posts accompany each word burst.

*click*

after casting on six times in a row and then ripping it out five times, i finally got a bit of the hang to knitting. (of course, the first 3 times i had to rip out the stitches, i didn't realize at the time that i was following the "left-handed directions"...guess who's NOT a lefty?)

it was my first time! the yarn was gentle.

i bought a beginner's knitting booklet... i did the "casting on" bit and have attempted the "knit stitch"...

i know there are mistakes in it, but i have to tell you... it kept me occupied and relaxed for a couple of hours... i can see why people love it!...

... could this be the beginning of gigglechick.com becoming a knitting blog!!?!

dun dun DUN!

tune in next time, kids... perhaps erin will learn how to do the "binding off" move...

i also have been fiddling with the size 8 circular needles... unfortunately, it seems as if they are metal and not coated...

but it's fun.

one thing, i am having trouble at the ends of the rows... how does one tighten it? it seems pretty loose when i do the last stitch in the row - not to mention i KNOW that i must be screwing up on a couple of stitches...

i am enjoying the challenge and i haven't thought about food for about 5 hours - amazing!

could knitting be the new diet!?

okay, this is scary... i actually picked up the knitting this morning and got up early to do so...

what the hell is going on with me!?

my favourite was when he went to the chewing gum factory and we got to see the gum being made and sliced and stuff. also, i loved the land of make believe (although Lady Elaine scared the hell heck out of me...)

meow meow meow we'll miss you meow meow.

what i was working on this morning - i switched needles (wanted to conquer the circular ones) and i switched yarn...

so tomorrow i have a 10am dental appointment... it's about a mile from work, but we're supposed to get, what else, snow - starting after midnight - possible accumulations of 3 - 5 inches

new dentist... hoping he's a good guy - as opposed to the one a few years ago who put ovocaine on the bottom right side of my mouth and proceeded to drill on the top left side... when i said "whoa! wait!", he said "oh, suck it up, it's almost over."

[prior to that, i LOVED the dentist, but my old dentist of 15 years, died. now i am a transient patient, searching for the holy grail of dental gods who offer the sweet air a.k.a. nitrous oxide]

blah blah blah. dentist tomorrow.

tomorrow night i am supposed to (barring the weather) go out to celebrate my boss's birthday... only can stay for an hour then i have to head down the shore...

saturday i have to hook up digital cable for my mom and then go get my hair trimmed & foil highlights (been since november 15th that i last had anything done... hello roots)

sunday is all about the belmar st. patrick's day parade...

i really have only seen one flag, heard a piper and then the rest of the parade is usually spent in Patrick's Pub or Pat's Tavern where joe finn plays (he's great... just great - have been seeing him sing for over 15 years or so now - have to remember to pack my kazoo)

going with kerry... gotta find me a piper in a kilt to flirt with *sigh* i love this time of year....

as much as i like bruce willis and johnny mac, it just goes to show ya' that dave is irreplaceable

the poor little pumpkin has shingles - ouch.

go wish paul a happy 30th birthday...

welcome to your thirties!

woo! no cavities and they complimented my flossing and lack of tartar!

(it's weird because last may i went to a different dentist who did the scraping, but didn't polish, then she looked in my mouth briefly and said i had 2 cavities - i never got them fixed...)

it's a miracle~!

i'm an "Official Placque Fighter"!!!

my friend heather at work got married on valentine's day...

(then the lucky broad went to Belize for 2 weeks)

love the bouquet!

so i had an interesting time at the st. pat's parade in belmar yesterday! kerry and i went and hung out at Pat's Tavern to see Joe Finn... and met a red-headed boy (again)

Some blog entries take the form of no more than one or two-sentence gasps. Business-minded Lawlor refers dismissively to the mass of blogs as "angst journals" even as he upholds the form as a model of effective small group communication. With names like gigglechick and worldwiderant, one doesn't even need to click to imagine where such blogs are headed.

hmmm... so reuters wrote an article "Blog Publishers Stealing Web Limelight"

as i was sitting down watching six feet under (i taped it)... my phone rang...

'twas the RHB�

changed the format of my comment box... slightly.

come on, people.... yap away! comment! type something! i know you're out there!

happy fat tuesday!!!!!
(remind me i have to get up early tomorrow to go get ashes!) ***no. those aren't my "girls"

for some new orleans flavour, check out my favourite band in the world - cowboy mouth or go check out the iguanas

have a few hurricanes and flash yer boobies (unless you're a guy with man boobs... then just go eat another slice of King Cake)

(i, myself, will most likely be venturing off to weight watchers and then knitting tonight. woo. let the good times roll!)

i haven't done one in a while... so here are a few lovely items

i am so tired and achy right now (there's your "angst" mr. reuters) - although, i want to redesign my site right now. so crowded. i long for the days where it was somewhat clean...

do you think i should bring the 3 column format back? *sigh* nearly midnight - this is always when these re-designing thoughts pop into my noggin...

*** lazy tired girl - that's me - only darkened the body copy here - i think that's been difficult to read for some

i have to wake up at 6am so i can get to church for ashes by 7:15... *yawn*

well, i am off to hop in the shower and then get me some ashes.

not for nothing, but i didn't get ashes last year during work - i tried getting them after work... walked around downtown for 2 hours in the fridgid cold last ash wednesday after i got out of that horrid job i had been at

then in 2001, i was working at digitas.

i had gotten ashes in the morning before work. hey - i have done this for years. so, i am in a meeting with about 15 people (there weren't any others in the meeting with ashes - but there were others in the company that had ashes)

anyway - long story short - my creative director (n. horowitz) says to me in the middle of the meeting in front of everyone...

"erin take that crap off of your forehead, it's bothering the hell out of me"

i didn't take it off. i was pissed. i was mortified.
how dare she say that... have i ever tried to embarrass someone of the jewish faith in the middle of a meeting by saying "hey take that silly 'yamaha' beanie off of your head - it's rude to wear hats indoors?"

no. because i am not an ass.

and then i was laid off from digitas... too bad i am not the "suing type" of person.

okay - now that i have gotten myself all worked up - i have to go take a shower.

no idea what i am giving up for Lent... thinking chocolate is a good call... although, is Weight Watchers "chocolate" technically the real deal - or is it Mocklate?

so i walk into work today and i get the comment "i'm so glad that i have a 'normal' religion like southern baptist instead of catholics, muslims and jews... what's the point of that ash thing?"

*sigh*

it's gonna be a long day...

especially since in all my years this has to be the largest batch of ashes that i've received...

i may as well be the billionth blog to post this:

bush & blair & their endless love

okay... what will happen now? underground meetings of those wishing to read charlotte's web, the three little pigs, animal farm?

this is really ridiculous.

[found on sheila's site]

also found on her site is a link to peta's new ad campaign - which i had only heard about this morning on the radio... i think it's an outrage to even compare

hey new yorkers/north jerseyites... is anyone else as appalled at the NY/NJ Metro Chevy Dealers commercial that has Chevy Tahoes driving in droves around the city?

okay - let me be more specific...

they are driving NORTH on broadway....

through times square... the wrong direction...

in front of the flatiron building, the WRONG direction... hello crapolicious computer generated schlock!

driving uptown on a clearly downtown street.

idiots. just for that alone i wouldn't buy a chevy tahoe... that and my credit is shot... but, still!

for the time being - because i don't have 24 hours of time on my hands to redesign this site - i have just organized the side a bit and thanks to the magical code from mandarin design, it's appeasing my desire to tear this site down and start from scratch for now.

so, sunday i am heading into the city to grab a beer and root for UNC... cathy went there, so i can't root for Duke (um... not that i'd want to Cath... even if i did have a crush on Laettner way back when i was in college.)

not a huge basketball fan...

i mean, my school didn't have any sports... hell, it was an art school (the university of the arts)

until one day, my senior year i was crossing the street and this giant gray beast appeared... he had our school logo on it's arse...

i walked into our Great Hall - which at this time, turned into a gymnasium... it was packed had about 40 people in there... watching intramural volleyball.

what the?

wait... what the hell is that gray thing?

some freshman answered me "It's the University of the Arts Artvark!"... not for nothing, but i was vice president of the student body for 2 years, then i had too much work and gave the post up during my senior year... now there's SPORTS in an art school!?

the "team" played against (and lost) U Penn, Drexel, Temple and VillaNova...

the "uniform" consisted of a black t-shirt, black shorts, black socks, black converse chucks... and a lot of non-chalant attitude

the "band" consisted of a handful of the performing arts majors... one guitarist, one keyboard player and a snare drummer...

the school "fight song" seemed to be a medley of Billy Joel songs...

*sigh*

go team.

okay, i had seen this a while ago and never did it... but someone emailed this to me again today so i tried it...

so of course, i had to freak the hell out of my co-workers and send it to them - now no one is getting any work done because we're all trying out the flash mind reader

below is the second email i got... enjoy, ladies

not that i am anywhere near using this at the moment because i am back to having troubles even casting on. seriously, i had been doing well, then i started a new thing of yarn - i am still practicing - no patterns as of yet - but for those of you wanting to make your own patterns, create your own graph paper

[found off of squibnocket]

looking forward to a little Presidential yapping tonight (followed by survivor)

the night is chock full of the serious and the silly

(you be the judge as to which is which)

by the way... have i mentioned that i am sick of the snow?

hey God... um... do you think you can cut us a break? i mean, i'm giving up chocolate for 40 days - howzabout you chill with the sleet, hail, 5 inches of snow and slush that we experienced today?

just a thought...

if not, i am going to buy 56 cans of RAVE hairspray megahold and get this global warming into gear...

deal?

rumor has it rob savoy is leaving cowboy mouth.

crap.

i don't know how this will affect the future of the band... but i wish him well.

dang.

goodbye to the King of Mardi Gras

oh my gawd! i have to agree with my buddy neil -- the animation in this flash thingamabob is incredible!!!

in other news... i went to sleep at 11:06pm and woke up at 7:07am...

this is the first night that i have had 8 hours sleep in about a year or more... of course, i did have a crazy dream that matt lauer and katie couric were assassinated... strange... very strange

2 parody songs and a few jokes sent to me via p45.net

wow... the emails with jokes are flying into my inbox today...

this is a follow-up to the ex-files i had written a week or two ago...

colin - this is the guy - i sort of dated in a "we didn't go out much and i would see him at 2am after the bars" type of dating about 6 years ago... status: married, 1 rugrat

bobby - this is the guy that i liked at methodfive (he was a pwc consultant) and we never did anything and then he asked me to hang out with him the day he was leaving - the photo doesn't exactly do him justice :) status: speak on yahoo messenger every once in a while... single still (as far as i know)

so my coat is gone forever - looks like someone swiped it on me. i called the bar and it's not there

the beginning of the end for me: chock full o' nuts martini.

tasted like an iced coffee at dunkin donuts... i had 6 or 7 of them... in about an hour and a half. a gorgeous drink.

always nice when the bartender mocks you by saying "do you want a pitcher of the chock full o nuts"

the cop that drove me home was really nice... my landlords probably were looking out the window going "oh dear - the cops are driving her home now"

missing a small piece on my cell phone... knocked over my golf clubs when i walked in... IM'd a few people when i was "tipsy" last night...

blew through a ton of cash last night - unfortunately the martinis were $8 a pop. then the guinness (2 of them) and the irish car bomb... then the 3 coors lights... i don't think there were any shots that i indulged in...

saw the guy i had the crush on in college... eh... remember telling him how much i liked him back then - pathetic! then his girlfriend of 3 years sidled up.... eh...and then they left... (but he gave me his card)

all i know is that some guy from phoenix was asking me to go to his hotel with him and i couldn't get away from him... i kept looking for my coat to make the escape and after 15 minutes of that i left.... walking down the street in the freezing cold trying to get to the PATH train which is 14 blocks away... after 3 blocks the cop pulled over - i think i had a "please pull over i'm pathetic" look on my face... and he had me hop in the front... he used my cell phone to call the station to let them know he was going to take me to jersey city...

the slurring that i was doing - whew - not exactly proud of - he was laughing because i kept apologizing...

all in all... fun night

well, my hangover is subsiding... it's time to clean... i have procrastinated enough... my apartment is crammed with crap... and a lot of crap has migrated into my closet... this is the one closet (i am not even opening the door to the other closet...) i am going to throw stuff out today... if you don't hear from me in a day - it means that something has fallen on me and either a) broken my leg b) caused me internal bleeding c) i am dead.

i am a little overwhelmed with the thought of tackling this...

i'm scared.

after i conquer the closet... this is the rest of what i have to look forward to... anyone wanna help??? pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?!

so, since i am rummaging around in my closet i had to open up boxes to toss things out... in the meantime i found this photo of me on my high school graduation night june 22, 1988... i had a huge party where about 350+ people showed up... here's lisa, spags, steve, sue, kristen and stacy and a very tan me with a backless rag dress - i loved that dress.

EXFILE:
Jeff W. - dated after meeting at the manasquan turkey trot in november of 95... in this photo we're coming back from hunter mountain from a day of skiing and drinking... note the beer about to land in jeff's lap... we broke up 2 days before valentine's day 96... unfortunately the vermont teddy bear he canceled still arrived at work on 2.14 and i had a breakdown. status: married with rugrats

okay - back to cleaning...

so cathy and i aren't watching the basketball game tomorrow - i will be here digging out of the bigger mess that i have created in my apartment with the "cleaning" out of my closet...

i have an ab roller in there that's not seen the outside world since 1998... do you think the homeless guy will use it if i put it out on the curb?

audblog audio post

(i used my blogger site to post it and transferred it to MT - right now the audblog schtick isn't supported by MT at the moment...)

i sound like a dork by the way - and thank god i didn't do this last night....

audblog audio post

i promise to have better, more substantial audio posts from now on (meaning after you listen to this blather here!)

yeah i am still procrastinating and haven't finished the closet

i sound manic.

and if there is one word in there that you can't understand... it's the word "burly"... the best thing about having a written journal is being able to go back and make corrections and deletions...

awwww... on SNL the last sketch was a tribute to mr. rogers... horatio sanz sung "You're Special" and then the trolley rolled behind him as he said "thanks Mr. Rogers"... i teared up.

that was nice.

when in the bathroom, has your body ever made noises similar to that of a cappuccino machine's milk frother?

just curious.

woo! clean closet!!!

whelmed.

and there's a good possibility that i popped a disc or threw my hip out in the past 10 minutes -- i swear i HAVE been lifting with my knees, too.

heh... an excuse to procrastinate...

snagged from quinn....

Iraqi soldiers have crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces - because they thought the war had already started.

wouldn't it be nice if it ended before it started? a nice big fake out. or like the kid shaking in his sneakers waiting for 3 o'clock to roll around because the bigger kid's gonna kick his ass, so he runs home instead?

i dunno. bad metaphors - but they are keeping me from cleaning (sad when i am faking myself out from cleaning, much like i used to when my mom used to scream at me to clean my room)

there is a definite light at the end of the tunnel right now. while the place isn't spic and span, i have managed to let go of the past a little and throw out 11 lawn & leaf sized garbage bags filled with clothes, shoes, trash, papers, etc...

so if you see a homeless guy walking down the street in jersey city wearing a purple ski suit, a pair of high heels and carrying an ab-roller while wheeling around a small bathroom organizer shelf thing... you know that he was my personal rummager

i thought talking to my poppy and asking him for a sign every so often was a good thing... poppy was a prankster... but i think after reading this story by Yoda from bitch-session, i will just say "hey, Pop" and leave it at that... that's the safest route.

"...and who opened the door? melissa gilbert... it was like looking into the face of evil itself."

god. i love six feet under

just got an email from Caroline's comedy club about their improv class.. it's probably a million dollars - but i may be interested - think the producer's club has improv for $5 a week, that may be more in my price range...

*** the guy just called me back... it's $300 for 6 weeks/ wednesdays from 7-10pm... and that's with the $50 discount... i am tempted to do this. unfortunately, my car payments should come first -- which they haven't been lately ***

i have been doing the lean cuisine/weight watchers thing (the frozen dinners i am talking about)... i haven't been eating much of anything else - haven't wanted to - the thing is, i am having to eat like, 4 or 5 of these entrees to make my ww points minimum for each day -- crazy... we'll find out at tomorrow's meeting if i lost any weight this week!

yay! the RHB� called! were on the phone for 1/2 an hour... i hate talking on the phone. 100% chance of me rambling like a nitwit... as i did, but he seemed okay with it :)

we've got a date set up for thursday (pray that his basketball league doesn't change their game til then... there's a chance.) supposed to call me wednesday to finalize everything...

cripes! i have to take stuff to the laundromat tomorrow so i can get clothes back for thursday!!!

ack! (not that i will invite him into the apartment but...) i have to finish cleaning!

and please god... enough already with the random pimples appearing on my face....

jack black voiceover on clone high!!! woo!

kids getting high from smoking raisins!

a bit parodying "the wall"!

a dragon from australia that says "i'm gonna eat you like a dingo eats 'is baby"!

said dragon making a sandwich and singing a vegemite sammy song to the tune of "waltzing matilda" in the belly of a cat!

think there's a bit of "jesus christ superstar" thrown into the mix

i think i am in love with the creators of this show....

*sigh*

watch clone high usa...FOR THE LOVE OF SWEET BABY JEEZUZ PEOPLE...

you've attempted to save "Frenchie" from american idol with petitions and all... come on! SAVE CLONE HIGH USA.

watch the danged show! (here's what it's about, in case you're a heathen who hasn't listened to me about watching it.)what other show would have marylin manson singing about the food pyramid?

survivor? no.
fricking CSI:Las Miami? i think not, sir.

would you scroll through and LOOK at this cast it has? i said "LOOK!"

come on!

go. find it. it's on that kooky mtv that the kids seem to like to watch.

oh yeah... and wish me luck with losing a few pounds tomorrow... but a more realistic goal is you watching Clone High USA

am a little (not too badly) sunburned from the tanning salon last night - spent 20 minutes in it (i have built up a base) i am not in pain, just my face is looking a bit blotchy red right now... please please please let it become even and slightly brown by thursday!!!

dumb pasty irish girl signing out.

okay - well, a silly little flash thang that some of y'all may have already seen...

spank bush... it's not as dirty as it sounds

sweet!!! i weighed in at weight watchers tonight!!!!!!