Thirtysomething: September 2006

Pluto

I have to say that I kind of want one of these.

Pop Culture

A couple of random things I'm currently interested in on TV.

I love, love, love the Jimmy Dean commercials. Don't know why. I just find them endearing.

Hinder. Are you familiar with this band? I find them to be very, very sad. At first I thought they were just making a pathetic attempt to revive rock ballads. Then I saw their video. Clearly, the lead singer thinks he's Steven Tyler in this video. He's not Steven Tyler though. His name is Austin Winkler. Honey, there's only one cool Winkler and that's Henry--nobody with the last name Winkler other than The Fonz could possibly be cool. Then I saw Hinder was featured as a "You Oughta Know" band where both the voice-over guy and the members of the band refer to Hinder as hard-core, nasty-ass and all about sex.

Note to Hinder: you're on VH1.

Energy

I do not know what the hell is wrong with me today but I've got all sorts of energy. And of the positive and happy variety, which is really weird because I got my period today. There. Isn't that more than you wanted to know about me? I'm only mentioning it because if there's one day I'm usually sluggish and bitchy it's the day the big "P" comes to town.

But not today. All sorts of energy. I actually went to the gym AND cleaned my entire kitchen, including washing down the walls, before breakfast this morning. Maybe I'm manic. This energy is also piggybacking my love-of-fall attitude over the last week. I was reading the new issue of Cooking Light last week which was chock full of great autumn recipes and since then, I've been all into baking and cooking. I've been to the grocery store twice since then and my apartment is packed with food. I've never been one to cook many types of meat, other than chicken, but now I'm going to try. I've got pot roasts, brisket, pork ribs and pork tenderloin waiting to go. I can't wait to bust out my new slow cooker. Earlier in the week, I made a Homestead Pear Crisp, which didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, mostly because I used steel-cut oats instead of regular oats. Ouch. Anyway, I'm trying the pear thing again tonight with a Amaretto-Pear Strudel. We'll see how that goes.

There are so many things I want to do this weekend. We have a pig roast (what does one wear to a pig roast?) later in the day on Saturday, so I'm hoping we can go out to Lancaster early to do some antiquing and then head to the roast from there. Sunday I'd love to hit the Italian Market, not because we need anything per se, but just because we never really go and it's a chance to be outside on what, hopefully, will be a great fall day. Sunday will also be a great day to make a nice, hearty Sunday-night meal while the man of the house watches football. At some point during the weekend I'd also like to pick up potting soil to re-pot the plants, something I never got around to doing in the spring.

Well, I've got to run and polish all the furniture in my office!

Tiresome

The budgeting begins. I just submitted paperwork to the Direct Deposit gods officially requesting that my paychecks be split between my personal account and my joint account with my husband. It'll take effect sometime next month. We've had the joint account for awhile; we just hadn't been using it frequently.

Oy.

For those of you who know me in real life, this means I'm actually going to have to account for my money. It's not that I have a problem with sharing money. I just know I suck at accounting for it. I mean I don't write many checks, so why on earth would I ever balance a checkbook? Especially when I can check my balance online or at an ATM. My money was all in one place and in my head, I always had a general idea of how much was in there.

Now with less money going to my personal account andd with two people pulling from the other account, obviously, I'll need to be more careful.

Which sucks.

Your Vote Counts!

Okay, people, don't disappoint me here. Everything depends on your vote. Even if you usually don't comment on this blog, do so today. Don't be shy.

My friend, Deidre, is getting married. Because she's either brilliant or insane, she's letting the bridal party pick out whatever individual dress we want as long as it's from the J.Crew "little black dress" collection. I don't think there needs to be any uniformity in length, fabric or style. Of course, J.Crew just put a couple of patterned and polka-dotted dresses in the collection, so unless she's really bordering on the insane side, I'm assuming we're not supposed to pick one of those.

They don't carry the dresses in the J. Crew stores, so my plan is to order two or so, try them on at home and go from there. I may wind up returning and re-ordering others depending on how things go.

So, here, go to the website and pick out two dresses for me to order.

Here are my thoughts:
I'm partial to the Sadie--it's the style of dress I always chose. It has a weird seam down the front though, so I'll have to see it in person.
I like the look of the Audrey too; however the waistline, although not easy to see in the photos looks high to me. Since I'm short-waisted with big boobs, it might not be a good look for me--I'd have to try it on to know for sure.
Ditto for the Emma.
I also like the Lyndsey and Whitney.
I think I'm kind of willing to try anything.

Which ones do you like?

More with the Gym

So I went to yoga on Saturday. I know! Didn't I just say that I was shelving pilates, yoga and that stretching class? I did say that. But I like the yoga class more than the other classes and if I'm doing about 6 hours a week a the gym, which equals really 6 days at the gym, then I have one "off" day. And I decided the yoga class could be my off day. Saturdays are as good as any day for an off day.

Anyway, so we go through the whole yoga routine and one of the things I love about my instructor is that she switches things up each week, which is great because I don't get bored. But this series of poses didn't seem particularly challenging. Well, one or two of the poses were, but overall, I didn't think it was one of the toughest.

Until the next day when I felt like someone had my middle back and the backs of my thighs in a vice grip. Wow. That's all I can say about that. I wound up not being able to go to the gym on Sunday at all and my legs are still suffering a bit.

I'm glad I went to the class, but very, very sad, because I found out my instructor Nora is leaving. I've documented before how much I love her. I want her to be my best friend. She's warm and beautiful and bendy and if I wasn't married and was into chicks, I'd totally want to date her. I'm so not pleased to learn of her departure. She'll be here until late October, so I'll be going to the yoga classes until at least then. Apparently, her replacement is someone who she taught. So, even though it'll still be a power yoga class, hopefully it won't involve me standing on my head.

Yesterday was the first day of the new gym experiment. Since my legs were still sore, I opted not to run. After all my bitching about it, I did the recumbent bike for 30 minutes, but at a higher intensity level and I made sure I was pedaling faster than usual. I stood up and my legs weren't screaming in pain so I did 15 minutes on the eliptical. After work, I did another half hour on the eliptical. This morning was the eliptical again for 20 minutes and then I braved the treadmill for 25 minutes. The treadmill was rough going at first; some days it's easier to run than others. Today was one of those days where I had to play games with myself: okay, I'll run just until the end of this song (on my iPod); okay, well now, let me just run until my time gets to a nice even number like 10 minutes; okay, I'm still alive, so maybe I can just do 5 more minutes; okay, I'll get off when CNN (on the gym TVs) goes to the next commercial, etc. Somehow if I break it into little goals of 3-5 minute intervals it's better than just thinking I'm committing to 20-30 minutes of running from the get-go. Anyway, I wound up getting into something of a groove after awhile. I ran 2.75 miles in 25 minutes. That's not too bad, I'm a little proud of myself.

Of course, now my legs may be screaming at me later tonight...we'll see. But the plan is to go back after work for about 30 minutes of something aerobic. I'm officially skipping pilates tonight though. Which is kind of nice because that's an hour-long class and now I'm only going to do a half hour at most.

Thicke

This guy might be the world's worst artist. I saw his video last week and I've been meaning to google him since then. Honestly, I thought the video was a joke--like it was a spoof on something else. I actually laughed out loud from the sheer lameness of it. He looks lame, can't carry a tune and the video's not even interesting.

He kind of gives me the willies too.

Gym Stuff

I'm not digging that it's dark at 6 a.m.. Between that and the fact that it's cooler outside, it makes staying all snuggly in my bed seem like a much more favorable option than going to the gym.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know I get lazy at the gym. A couple of weeks ago, I realized I was at this point. There is no reason why someone at my level of fitness should ride the recumbent bike for 30 minutes, while reading a magazine, and think that counts as a workout. The recumbent bike is great when you're just starting a fitness routine or if you're recovering from injury or if you worked out really hard the day before and need a recovery day. But it's not for everyday once you're pretty fit. I wasn't even breaking a sweat.

Time is my big hangup at the gym, how long I've been on any particular machine. I get bored. So for the last two weeks, I've been focusing on intensity instead of time at the gym. I've been running on the treadmill at the "6.5" speed or higher. Often that means I'm only running for 15- 20 minutes. Sometimes I push as high as "7.5" but only for short intervals. I'm trying to focus on distance and intensity. (Side note: I'd like to run a 5k one of these days.) When on the eliptical machine, I try to choose a higher intensity than I used to and concentrate on pedaling fast. I've been sweating like crazy. My laundry is a little out of control.

So the other day I was reading Fitness magazine, which really, I should never read and this woman was all like "I run 5 miles three days a week and I do 2 hours of weight training every other day and I do 1,200 crunches a day. My abs are firm but under a layer of fat that won't go away. What should I do?"

This has been my exact issue...except I'm definitely not doing 1,200 crunches a day. I do pilates twice a week, I do power yoga once a week and I do a stretching class that may as well be a yoga class. While all have benefits (and I do love them all) they don't really count as aerobic activity. And aerobic activity is what burns fat. I have strong stomach muscles, but there is an annoying layer of pudge over them. I've gained about 8 pounds since the wedding and while I don't care about losing it all, I would love to flatten that bit of pudge.

Anyway, back to the Fitness article. The expert who responded to the woman mentioned above gave an extremely lengthy answer, but what struck me was that she estimated that this woman worked out about 16 hours a week.

16 hours a week.

Where do you get that kind of time? It didn't register how much that was at first until I added up how many hours I spend at the gym each week and came up with somewhere between 5 and 7 hours depending on the week. Which was a disappointingly low number since I feel like I spend a good deal of time at the gym. I am not, however, looking to up it to 16 hours. I am not a total freak, despite what you may think.

What I have decided, though, is that I'm going to do a two week experiment. I'm going to shelf the pilates and yoga for now and just do running, eliptical, stairmaster, etc. All aerobic for 5-6 hours a week and see what happens.

Keeping it new is half the fun.

This Weekend

So, this weekend is turning out to be different than what I expected, and we're sort of all over the place.

I got the new issue of Cooking Light which prompted me to have some nesting instincts that kicks in each fall. Now I want to bake. And cook. I've decided on a couple of fall-like hearty recipes I want to try. Next week, I'm doing some food shopping for different types of meat and I'm going to bust out my new slow cooker, which I'm super excited about. Tonight I'm planning on making a warm pear crisp. With me, it's always a crap shoot how this things will turn out, so we'll see.

Tomorrow I think we're going to this Fall Festival on Sansom Street. Or we might go pick up my ring, which has been in the shop. Or we could go to the Phillies games. We're just crazy like that, you never know what we're going to do. We are, however, off to Christy and Michelle's for a dinner party tomorrow night. Hopefully, not after too many German beers at the aforementioned festival or we may become the entertainment for the party.

Sunday, I'll most likely go to see my Nana who broke her hip last week. She seems to be doing well, relatively speaking, and she has already started some PT. They seem hopeful that she might actually walk again with a walker. She's 87 so, that's not too bad. Anyway, I'm sure a decent portion of the rest of the afternoon will be dedicated to football. I came really close to winning in my football pool last week (damn Steelers) so we'll see how this week goes.

I'm again thinking of having a cocktail party. Trouble is our schedule is pretty full for the next month or so. We're thinking the beginning of November. I hope we actually do it.

CNN

And we made CNN. Our city hardly ever does. This is exciting.

Interesting

Well, this is interesting and I find it endearing, actually. A political verison of "I can beat up my brother, but nobody else better pick on him."

The Nonsense Continues

I'm trying to order new stationery with my monograph, but I'm not sure which initials I want to use. Okay, the first and last name initials are easy, but what about the third one? Do I use the maiden name initial? Or do I use my middle name initial? I think I might use the middle name, since you know, that's what the form specifically asks for. My problem is that since I still use maiden name and last name together, but don't hyphenate, I've never really clarified (in my head) if I'm using my maiden name as a middle name or as part of my last name.

So much self-created confusion.

Hell, I'm using my middle initial. Who cares if it doesn't match what the return address labels say.

Conversations

Between a co-worker and I after an in-office lunch.

Me: I am stuffed.
C: Me too.
Me:(eyeing up bruchetta) But I'm contemplating whether I should have more bread product. It was so good.
C:(rolling her eyes) I just love when people like you are worried about whether they should have more "bread product".
Me: Did it ever occur to you that "people like me" look the way we do because we do consider much bread product we eat?
(pause)
C: Hmmm, good point.

Things Annoying Me Today

So I reached up to get my Schick Quattro razor this morning and looked at it with disgust. It's not that I mind shaving. I actually don't mind it at all. And that's because I rarely spend more than 30 seconds doing it.

I was disgusted because the handle of the razor says "Quattro for Women" on it. And I wondered why on earth they needed to add the "for Women" part. It's a pink freaking razor. I doubt highly that men would look at it in the stores and think, "Well that pink one must be the one for me." I'm also doubting that the Quattros that are chrome and blue say "Quattro for Men" on the handle.

And did you check out the Quattro link up there? It's actually www.quattroforwomen.com. C'mon now. Does it really needs its own website separate from the men's? I looked up the link for purposes of this post and I'm so glad I did. Otherwise how would I have known that I could join the "owner's club". Or that they have a "tubside assistance operator", who will tell you that it's fun to dispense shaving cream out of "shiny, pretty cans". I'm sorry, did I not get the memo that women were all mentally challenged?

Sigh.

Oh, Excuse Me

So the Pope can't quote some dude from like 1400 A.D. about Islam, but you can say that I, as a Westerner, will have to covert to Islam or be slain by a sword? That's rich.

10

I just received a save-the-date for my 10 year college reunion? How is that even possible? I swear my 5 year reunion was just last year.

How depressing.

E.

Fabulous. I eat bagged spinach at least 3 times a week.

In other news, I'm going out to dinner tonight at Astral Plane and I can't wait. Unfortunately, since the restaurant is so close to my apartment, it's likely that my in-laws will come upstairs. Which means I'm about an hour away from a mad cleaning spree.

Life

As chances would have it, I happen to know someone who bludgeoned someone to death with a baseball bat. I was supoenaed to testify at his trial, only his lawyer didn't call me. So like I said at the time, if you ever commit a heinous crime and would like to spend the rest of your life in prision, I have this lawyer's number.

This person was, in fact, convicted of first-degree murder but the jury also found him to be mentally ill. This week he was sentenced to life in prision, without the possibility of parole. From the transcripts I've read, it seems the judge really doesn't think he's mentally ill, and if she could have, she would have sentenced him to the death penalty. I'm so curious as to what has transpired to make her think that he is mentally stable, because I witnessed the mental deterioration of this man and it was sad. I'm always torn about how I feel about him. I do believe him to be ill and yet I was silently rooting that he would be found guilty, rather than not guilty by reason of insanity.

Guilty, but mentally ill. I've wondered about this, where the line is between being or not being accountable for your actions. The judge in this case reportedly said, "All murderers have a mental defect, but you are no different from any of the other offenders. The only difference is that you are extremely smart." I suppose this is true. You have to have some sort of mental defect if you can look at another person and simply take her life away.

At any rate, I'm glad his life was spared, but I can't say I'm unhappy that he'll be behind bars until the day he dies.

Pieces

I pick apart songs. Have you ever done that? I totally apply songs to my life or to people I know and there's no one song that I'm totally feeling every single line. Some lines just don't fit. But there are pieces of songs, parts of lyrics, when I think: yes, I totally get what you're saying. I've been there, I've seen that. Of all the songs I love, there is always just one line, or one verse that rings true for me while the rest of the song, while lovely, isn't really applicable.

Here are a few examples:
"Over My Head (Cable Car)" by The Fray. I generally like the song, but not really sure what the cable car part is about:
But that's disregard
Find another friend and you discard
As you lose the argument in a cable car
Hanging above as the canyon comes between
Everyone knows I'm in
Over my head
Over my head
With eight seconds left in overtime
She's on your mind
She's on your mind

Also, I'm feeling the "I'm in over my head" part--I've so been there. But not sure what's up with "with eight seconds left in overtime....". What I love about the song, the words as well as they way they're sung is the phrase:
I'm losing you and its effortless
Yeah, I get so get this. Only The Fray's lyrics that lead up to that line are:
And suddenly I become a part of your past
I'm becoming the part that don't last
And that's not really what I mean. I've lost people, effortlessly, not because I was becoming a part of their past, but because they were becoming a part of mine. It's surprising how easily you can let someone go, sometimes, so that you don't even realize it's happened.

So along those lines, I also love "Fair" by Remy Zero, but particularly feel atuned to the line:
And all my words were bound to fail
Just a snippit of the song, but man, I love that line because I've felt that very way.

"These are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs:
These are the days you might fill
With laughter until you break
These days you might feel
A shaft of light
Make its way across your face

"Volcano" by Damien Rice:
What I am to you is not real
What I am to you, you do not need
What I am to you is not what you mean to me
And then:
You give me miles and miles of mountains
And I'll ask for the sea

"What a Good Boy" by BNL:
I couldn't tell you that you were right,
So instead I looked in the mirror,
Watched TV, and laid awake all night

"Broken" by Seether:
I wanna hold you high and steal your pain

Recently, I came across the Sheryl Crow song "Always On Your Side" which she sings with Sting, and most of the song is a little too whiny for me, but I love:
Cause you were always waiting to be picked to play the game
But when your name was called, you found a place to hide
When you knew that I was always on your side
And then:
Leavin' only traces of the man you thought I'd be
Too afraid to hear the words I always feared,
Leaving you with only questions all these years

Say It Ain't So

I thought these two crazy two kids would last forever. Come to think of it, by Hollywood standards they did last forever.

Shopping and Dinner

I have two stories that aren't related to each other, other than they both occurred yesterday. I could separate them into two posts, but I'm lazy, so I'll just blob them together in this one post.

You may find this shocking but I haven't been clothes shopping lately. Oh, I've still be spending money like it's water, but mostly on dinners and drinks and trips. Very little shopping. In fact I haven't done much clothes shopping since before the wedding. Case in point: I did not wear a new outfit to our rehearsal dinner. Can you believe that? Anyway, apparently I've been repressing my inner need to shop because I walked out of Macy's yesterday with two suits and three tops. I might go back today for ballet flats which I need desperately since all of a sudden it's fall-like outside.

So I select two pant suits, one a cool striped, dark grey Anne Klein; the other a subtle, tannish, houndstooth. As the sales person is ringing them up, she asks "Are you a lawyer?" I am confused for a minute, then realize I'm already wearing a black pinstriped suit and say "No, why? Do I dress like a lawyer?" She then looked confused and asked, "Well, what do you do for a living then?" I blushed, sheepishly told her, realizing I really do overdress for my type of job. I do not, however, overdress for My Institution.

In other news, Ron and I went to Roy's last night, a 7:30pm reservation which we were late for because of all nights, he had to work late last night. Let me tell you how much I felt like the stereotypical doctor's wife: all dolled up, waiting for my husband to get home. At any rate, I liked the interior of Roy's and even though we were late, it wasn't a problem. I had the baby greens salad, which was great as far as salad goes. Ron had the pork spare ribs which were so good. I wished I had ordered them, but I can't bring myself to order ribs at a place with cloth tableclothes. Because of that, I did not order the beef spare ribs as an entree, settling on the tamari chicken. Ron got the walu, which he like a lot. I have no idea what walu is, per se, other than some sort of fish, but I liked it more than my chicken--and I don't do seafood. The chicken was okay--just sort of bland. The walu wasn't fishy, had an acceptable texture and great seasoning. Both the desserts were good: chocolate banana bombe was delish and the carmel almond torte was good, but could have used more carmel, less almond.

Overall, Ron and I were really excited to have tried somewhere new. Ron always complains that we don't take advantage of all the restaurants the city has to offer and he's right. I'm usually fine going to the pub down the street, but I'm going to try to be more adventurous. We're going to the Astral Plane on Friday with my in-laws.

Presidential Address

I actually watched the President's address last night--which is probably the first time I've watched him speak at length in a couple of years. Since it was September 11th, I figured I'd pitch in and do my patriotic duty. For the first half of the speech, I was all like "That's right! Go on, Mr. President!" in spite of myself. And then about mid-way through the question started circulating in my head: is he or is he not going to talk about Iraq? Silently, I pleaded, "Don't mention it, just don't do it."

Of course he did, and here's the thing: I don't think it's entirely out of line to mention Iraq on September 11th. Like it or not September 11th was and is a political event. For better or for worse (guess which) it's what lead us into Iraq and what has defined just about everything about this presidency. He lost me, however, when he said something to the effect of "The safety of America depends on the war in the streets of Baghdad." That's an incredibly simplistic view on the safety of America.

In the days and weeks after September 11th, President Bush was exactly the kind of president I wanted, and I think any president who lead the country through that kind of attack, panic and confusion deserves respect for that. The aftermath though...well, I certainly don't agree with all the follow-through since September 11th. Surely, mistakes have been made, and I'm not sure that a different president wouldn't have made the same ones or different just-as-bad ones. Iraq is messy, messy, messy but some good has come out of it. It's funny how if you listen to one news station with one political leaning, it's all bad news with Iraq and if you listen to another news station with another politican leaning, it's all glossed over. I think the real truth is somewhere in the middle.

37

Today is my husband's birthday. He's 37 but he doesn't look a day over 23. Bastard.

We're got reservations tonight at Roy's, which I'm expecting to be a total zoo since it's restaurant week. Hawaiian fusion, here we come. Part of the reason we decided to eat there is that it's somewhere we'd never go if it wasn't restaurant week.

I suppose I could do a whole post where I drone on about how wonderful my husband is, but I won't. He is, indeed, wonderful, but his ego doesn't need any help.

Shopping

On a lighter note, I spent this past weekend shopping and cleaning. Meg and I went to Lancaster and did some outlet shopping. I got to meet her car, Anderson, which is just lovely. We didn't accomplish much clothes shopping department but the Pottery Barn outlet was our friend. I wanted to buy just about every frame they had there.

Exactly

I agree.

CNN Pipeline

So someone showed up in my visitor stats with the address "atl190.turner.com" and was searching for "CNN Pipeline". A search on geobytes.com shows that the IP address originates out of Atlanta, where CNN headquarters is. Is someone from CNN reading my blog?

If so, Hi! I love Pipeline. I love Miles O'Brien. I love Anderson Cooper. I wish you'd bring back Bill Hemmer. And I wish Heidi Collins was doing "American Morning". I can take or leave Soledad O'Brien. Back to Pipeline. I'm actually...well, not enjoying, but appreciating your realtime coverage of September 11th.

More

And now they're reporting an explosion on Capital Hill. I realize everyone was in panic mode and there was mass confusion, but where were they getting this stuff from? There was no explosion on Capital Hill. Did someone just make that up? Or was there a massive cover-up?

Inaccurate

Okay, so watching this Pipeline thing is really interesting. It's amazing how the news will report things before they really know what's happening. CNN was reporting that a "third explosion shattered the World Trade Center". In fact, there was no third explosion, just the first tower falling.

Crystal Blue Skies

Well, you didn't think that I wouldn't comment on today, did you? I can't really believe it's been 5 years. It doesn't seem like that long. It doesn't seem like just yesterday either.

If you know me, either in real life or just through this blog, you know my feelings about that day. I was angrier and sadder than I had ever been. And shocked. Let's not forget shocked. Because before September 11, 2006, I had no idea really who Bin Laden was or that Al Qaeda existed. I knew that there were terrorists and organizations that didn't like the United States, and I knew some dude tried to blow up the World Trade center before, but I didn't know names or specifics. Probably, like so many Americans.

I know there was the option not to turn on the TV this morning. But of course, I tuned into CNN because I wanted to see the footage again. In fact, CNN's Pipeline is streaming to my computer right now with that day's real time footage. As I'm typing this, they're broadcasting that the Stock Market opening would be delayed indefinitely and that all airports are closed. I don't like to harp on this date, this day but I do want to see the footage because even after 5 years it's still incredible to watch. I remember realizing that I couldn't even comprehend what was happening.

Anyway, there's nothing to be said that I haven't said before. The good that came from this day was that for a short while, the country was united. People looked out for one another. Out of tragedy came hope and purpose. A couple of things that I always notice when watching the playbacks from that day:
--It's hard to shock people anymore and New Yorkers are particularly hard to impress. But when you see the people on the streets of the city looking up at the World Trade Center as the planes are hitting, it's overwhelming to see how strickened they all look. Even reporters are flabbergasted and seem to put their personas on the shelf for awhile.
--United Flight 93. I didn't see the movie and there's some debate on what actually occurred, but if you think about it in its purest sense, how amazing is it that passengers overtook terrorists?
--The sky was clear blue that day. I noticed that in my apartment that morning before I knew anything was happening. It seems everyone remembers how blue the sky was. Do you think they planned it that way? If it was overcast, the tops of the towers would be foggy and somewhat obstructed from view.

As I continue to type, by the way, that Pipeline feed is reporting there's a "fire" at the Pentagon and that the White House is being evacuated. If I recall correctly, I think this is about the time that everyone started to panic a little bit.

Wherever you are reading this, I hope you don't think today about the war in Iraq or Afganistan, or how seemingly retarded the Republican government is, or how wrong everything's gone since then. Remember instead, that although we were a nation that was imperfect, we did nothing to deserve September 11th.

Just remember.

After the Chapel

I realized today that I've been married for nearly 6 months. I can't believe that much time has passed. It seems like it was just yesterday.

Random

So random fact about me: I haven't worn a belt in about 8 years. I don't even own any belts. Most of my pants don't have any belt loops. Belts seem to be pretty hot this fashion season, albeit not in belt loops but rather over some sort of shirt or dress, so I'm curious to see if a belt makes its way into my closet this fall.

Where?

Sometimes I feel really dumb. Like today I was reading an article that mentioned Kyrgyzstan and slowly I began to realize this was a country. At least I think it's a country. At any rate, I had no idea it existed.

Vanity So Not Fair

I'm so disappointed by this. I so wanted her to be fake. Although they timed the release of these photos extremely well given Tom's divorce from Paramount, or whatever company it was.

Labor Day

I spent my weekend loafing around. Well, not entirely. We spent some time mopping up all the water that the trailer took on from the Tropical Storm Ernesto. Then I decided to rearrange all the furniture on the porch. I mean we had to move it all anyway to mop up the water, so why not try a new layout? Ron's parents, the owners of the trailer, weren't there so this will be a nice little surprise for them when they go back down.

Other than that, we ate a lot. Having a grill is great. We watched TV and read. I finished two books: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and Good Grief by Lolly Winston. While not difficult reads, not exactly warm and fuzzy either. In fact, the Lolly Winston (how does wind up with a name like Lolly anyway?) book is one that I started to read right after my honeymoon, right at the same time I started to totally freak out that my husband was going to die at the age of 42 and leave me a widow with 2 kids. I had only gotten about 3 pages into the book at that time when I dissolved into tears and Ron had to pry the book away from me. This time, however, I read it without incident. Oh sure, I teared up a bit, but I'm prone to doing that during the sad parts of any book.

It was just nice to cook and read and eat and sleep and not have a care in the world. The weather was gorgeous yesterday and we did not want to come home.

Green Alligators

I'm sad that Steve Irwin has died. He was dorky, but enthusiastic. His shorts were too short, but he had a cool accent. He was probably labeled "overactive" as a child, but he seemed to have a good heart.

Addressing

A couple of things:
It kind of annoys me when people who know that Ron is a doctor address mail to him as "Mr. Ron LastName". It's fine if you're not going to use a formal title. And between his close friends and family, who cares? But if you're going to use a title, use the right one.

Mail for me these days is a freaking disaster. I've made way too much of this FirstName MaidenName LastName thing. Now I'm getting mail addressed to Ron and I as:
Mr. Ron LastName
Ms. FirstName MaidenName LastName

Okay, taking it that far was never my intention. I mean it was always going to socially be "Mr. & Mrs. Ronald LastName". Whoops. Make that "Dr. & Mrs." Anyway, this new batch of mail with me listed as an entirely separate person does not so much please my husband. Honestly, I find it ridiculous too. One of my aunts RSVPed to the wedding and wrote in her and her husband's names separately (she also uses her maiden name as a middle name) and frankly there isn't enough damn room on an RSVP card to write that much. It's ridiculous. No one needs to assert their own personal identity that much.

It's funny I made such a stink about keeping my maiden name and I'm very glad that, legally, I do still have it included. But it's a mouthful. And while I haven't dropped using it and while my new last name does not yet easily roll off my tongue, in my mind I am warming to the idea of just having a first name and a new last name. Professionally, I'll still keep the maiden name in the middle there at least for the time being. And legally I'll keep it that way because it's too much of a pain to change it again and frankly it is comforting to know the maiden name is still there. But socially? I think I'll be using it less and less. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with that.

So my next set of return address labels will look alittle different. Alittle less wordy.

End of Summer

Well, this weekend is the unofficial end of summer, which makes me a little sad, even though I love the fall. The streetlights were still on when I went to the gym this morning, but it was still dark. It wasn't dark when I left for the gym a few weeks ago. I hate the days getting shorter. Does anyone really enjoy more darkness? I love when it's sunlight when I walk up and still light out at 8:30p.m. I feel like I have so much more time in my day. I can eat dinner at 8p.m. and who cares? It's still daylight. Eating dinner at 8p.m. in December makes me feel like I'm eating in the middle of the night.

As an aside, I didn't achieve my goal of developing rock hard abs by the end of the summer. Still smushy. I think all the alcohol I've been consuming has something to do with that.

I'm not sure what we'll do this weekend. There's a tropical storm on the way that will pretty much ruin most of the weekend. I'm still debating going to the trailer, just for a change of scenery. That being said, the trailer sits on a river which flows into the Chesapeake which is supposed to get slammed with this storm. I'm not sure being in a trailer is too smart. Not that I think it'll blow away, but it might lose power and that would suck. It's chilly and rainy and just a question of whether we do nothing here in Philly or nothing in Maryland.

Goodbye summer.

Thirtysomething

Friday, September 29, 2006

Pluto

Pop Culture

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Energy

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Tiresome

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Your Vote Counts!

More with the Gym

Friday, September 22, 2006

Thicke

Gym Stuff

This Weekend

Thursday, September 21, 2006

CNN

Interesting

The Nonsense Continues

Conversations

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Things Annoying Me Today

Monday, September 18, 2006

Oh, Excuse Me

10

Friday, September 15, 2006

E.

Life

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Pieces

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Say It Ain't So

Shopping and Dinner

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Presidential Address

37

Monday, September 11, 2006

Shopping

Exactly

CNN Pipeline

More

Inaccurate

Crystal Blue Skies

Friday, September 08, 2006

After the Chapel

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Random

Where?

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Vanity So Not Fair

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Labor Day

Green Alligators

Friday, September 01, 2006

Addressing

End of Summer

Stuff I Read

Parent Stuff

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