um, blogher pt 2?

guess who never finished her blogher breakdown? (hint: it's me!) too much stuff going on, but not really. things like joining the new rec center ($12.50/month for me & $25/month for s-time to get our butts in shape!), 2nd opinion appointment about my colitis (md told me today he wants more labs because i may have developed autoimmune hepatitis-sweet!) and using extraneous exclamation points! !!
anyway, back to blogher. what i can remember of it, that is. on saturday we hit up breakfast, went to suzanne's panel and i scouted the expo halls again while she did her booksigning. we ended up lunching with another panelist from suzanne's session, which was really an enjoyable lunch. that was when the cranky began because i was really getting sick of so much of everything (perhaps a premature bit of homesickness) & we ended up at dean & deluca so i could bring some chocolates home for s. the afternoon was a big blur and then we met all the cool kids for an indian dinner at vatan, which was amazingly delish. i'm sure i'll forget someone, but liz rizzo, zandria, sassy monkey & her fake husband, suebob, suzanne and a couple fun people i met for the first time were there. appetizer course had so many delightful treats and you could have second helpings of whatever you wanted, then they brought out the main course, which was the same way. a large round tray with like a classy, metal cafeteria tray with space for each item. it was at that point that i realized my gap jeans had decided to part ways with me. either that or the fat on my thighs had finally rubbed together so much that they were near to starting a fire because a small (read substantial) hole developed on my left inner thigh. now admittedly, i wear my long & leans 2-3 times a week, not all day, but quite a bit for the past 18 months since i bought them. and gap material quality has gone downhill in the past few years (much thinner fabric), so it could be a combination of a number of factors. by the time we had our subway adventure, the cheezburgher party, sparklecorn and the paperbag-hatted walk home to await my shuttle, the hole was at an embarrassing point. and lo, it only got bigger as i packed and stayed up with suzanne for my 3am shuttle pick-up.
but i was glad to get home, no matter how much fun i had and i absolutely can't wait until next year or whenever i get together with all the rest of you beautiful people.

blogher-licious: breakdown

here we go: on thursday, much too early, s & i left for the aeroporto and thanks to construction, i ended up getting to security at 6:20 for a flight that was set to leave at 6:45am. almost died and security took pity on me as the only person scurrying through (totally forgot to take out both my laptop & my baggy of liquids, der!)
thankfully, the rest of the trip was fine, besides picking up the supershuttle and listening to the couple next to me discuss how coney island and long island were both islands in nyc and they were pretty sure people didn't live there.
got to suzanne's, picked up my key, gave tycho bunnae a pet and walked to central park to get a metrocard. why i decided on a 7 day unlimited pass beats me.
suzanne met me to drop her stuff and we headed to the hilton, where i met the darling suebob and we headed out for dinner, while suzanne went to the ce dinner for blogher editors. as suebob and i looked for sustenance, s (so many esses in my life!) texted me that he was playing with puppies at the rescue and sent me a pic, to which he responded when asked whose it was: 'ours' i about flipped out. we have enough on our hands with grover as it as, much as i want another puppy.
paninis eaten and meeting up with a friend who moved to nyc a couple years ago outside the hilton, it was time to head to the people's party. in the huge ballroom, i instinctively headed towards suebob's tulle/tutu making table for a bit. making the circuit of the ballroom on the way back to the table, i ran into the famous jonna, who hugged me and asked what my plans were, party-wise & whatnot. sadly, that was all the jonniker-action i got, even though i kept seeing her throughout the weekend and i'm sure she thought i was stalking her because people i was with/around kept trying to catch up to her (ie suebob, sassymonkey).
come friday, suzanne & i went to breakfast and drove at least 3 separate sets of people away from our table during the opening welcome. then time for the expo halls, where we got loaded down with swag. dropping it off at suebob's room in the sheraton, we barged in on sb catching up on sleep and in her skivvies (ooh-lala!). lunch and the sex session with @avflox, who then roomed at suzanne's apartment with us after eating druze cuisine at gazala place. this was, of course, after the community keynote and voices of the year gala. we were all concerned about how the posts would translate into art. when suzanne finally saw her art, some of the comments seemed inappropriate as the posts and art seemed a bit disparate. (someone had posted "joyful" under the photo for her post about her grandfather and the holocaust) while there i saw suebob in a grouping with a cute redhead and stroller, wherein i was introduced to lawyerish. i felt like a bit of a douche because i'd read her blog from jonna's, but then when it was password protected & back to an open blog, i didn't start reading again. and hoo boy, what i've missed! she's adorable and oh-so amusing and her babeh is gorgeous.
so the 3 of us, suz, av & i, geeked out early on friday night & surfed the internet at the apartment the rest of the night.

more to come...

yippee skippy!

so to go along with my excitement for blogher next week, apparently i won a gift certificate to p&g. suh-weet! i'm already thrilled about seeing all my peoples and meeting some new ones, reconnecting with the folks i met last year, the parties, the swag, the sessions! only one week from today & i'll be there. only 2 more full work days, too.
speaking of work days, i'll only be working a half day on friday because s asked me to come with him to the sending off ceremony of his old battalion. the 832nd are being deployed to afghanistan and i'm glad to be able to take the morning off to wish them a safe journey. it also happens to be the largest deployment of iowa soldiers since wwii. both s & my brother were in iraq with combat engineer battalions and i am so glad that neither of them will be sent back again. s was out as of january this year and my brother decided not to re-up after my sil found out she was pregnant.
here's to the brave soldiers: we support you!

wow, that devolved into a pretty serious and sappy post. i'll be sure to keep it more peppy the next time.

travel-ish

in two weeks i'll already be back from nyc and blogher. new york is a nearly unexplored city for me, so i'm hoping to pack in as much as possible. at the least i want to check out grand central terminal, for some more up-close research on my bip that i haven't worked on in over a year. especially now that my laptop is working again. my only real concern about the trip is getting from lga to manhattan and finding my way around the city the times i'm on my own. oh, and not having enough hours in the day
at the end of september, we're planning to get up to nodak to meet my adorable little niece. i might be comfortable holding her since she'll almost be 3 months old. if nothing else, s loves holding little babies (ones he can give back, not his own!) and i can spoil her rotten. we might even have enough for 2 free flights on delta. amazingly, minot now has more than one airline that flies in, which makes less of an iron grip on getting in and out. international airport, my left big toe! but i can't wait to meet baby sophia!

wow!

so apparently s arranged with my mom to buy me tickets to blogher '10. i just filed his taxes this afternoon and went to check my e-mail before bed. i saw 2 confirmation e-mails for my tickets with my parents' e-mail address. mom said i'd better ask s about it. pretty much spent his whole tax refund because i do things for him all the time. and so, besides buying the plane ticket, i guess i'm gonna be crashing at suzanne's place. good thing she knows i don't snore.
that explains why he kept asking me when the early bird deadline was. aww....

home/wedding trip pt iii: the big event

now 2 weeks after the fact i'll get around to posting about my brother's wedding.
saturday saw mom & i headed to the jcpenney salon to get our hair done. it took an hour and 15 minutes for the woman to put up all of my hair. i think it turned out okay.

(that's my old bedroom, by the way)
we were supposed to be at the zoo/park for pictures by 11.30am and i still had to run back to the house to put on my dress and do my makeup. barely made it in time, but at least i wasn't the only late one. i felt awkward because i didn't know any of the girls except from the rehearsal the night before, besides my future s-i-l.
pictures, pictures, then the church. ceremony. as happened at my cousin's wedding (his little boy made the cutest ringbearer), the unity candle went out from the draft in the church. i always wonder if that's a bad omen?
receiving line with bride & groom, so i was accosted by old acquaintances, parents of friends & relatives while we waited for the 250 plus guests to file out. it actually wasn't so bad. i haven't lived there in 10+ years, not really. and as much as i love talking to people (heavy on the sarcasm of course), no one asked me any uncomfortable questions. maybe it was because i brought s home this time. he's the only bf i've ever brought home. then again, he's really the only serious relationship i've ever had (less a from when i started writing this thing).
so we hopped into the limo bus & started cruising the strip, broadway. adult beverages flowed & i got to chatting with one of the groomsmen who was in iraq with my brother. that was pretty cool.
reception was a whirlwind. pasta bar, sit at the wedding party table(s, 2 because there were 16 of us total). i ended up moving to sit with s & the parentals, then chatting with old classmates who are friends of my brother & old family friends. s & i migrated to my aunt & uncle (mom's brother)'s table & after the first dance, we pretty much headed upstairs to the hotel room & crashed by 1am. missed quite a bit of the festivities. no idea who caught the bouquet or any of that.
we ended up driving all the way home after the first couple gifts were opened at the homestead. we got in at about 3am on monday morning & crashed since neither of us had to work that day. it was a really awesome day off with dogpark & other leisurely activities before we had to get back to the real world.
s said he had a fun time, so that made the trip for me.

home/wedding trip pt ii

we left off at wednesday night & safely arriving at my parents' house. i took grover out to pee and play with nikki. nikki is almost 3 and a black lab. my mom likes to joke that she's so open-minded because she has two black grandchildren. a little later in the morning, while s was still sleeping, dad had me get on the trailer and go for a ride with the puppies.


mom made us waffles for brunch and then we had to go get fitted for our dresses. she had hers made by a seamstress who graduated hs the year before me and had just 'eloped' with her bf, who used to be my brother's best friend when they were kids, exactly one week before. my bridesmaid's dress was disgustingly tight, but then i'd ordered a 12. sara managed to get it zipped up (hey, working in theatre, you can get anyone into their costume). she said she'd let it out as much as possible, so i could hopefully breathe.
s & i went to eat a late lunch around 2pm at homesteaders', a place i insisted on eating in hopes that they had their divine wheatberry salad on the salad bar. sadly, all they had was something like glorified rice only with acini de pepe (sic?). it was still tasty & i introduced s to knephla soup. yum!
i'll try to cut this boring stuff short. we hit the mall to look for shorts for s & a supportive undergarment so i could squeeze into the dress. more family time after that, including making bars for the rehearsal dinner the next night.
friday i helped my aunt (pronounced aw-nt, not ant) make her famous beans. s's family calls them calico beans & they flew off the table that night. the giant crockpot was completely empty. s & i went to see 'the time traveler's wife' in the early afternoon to get some alone time. it wasn't too bad, but i don't know how anyone who hadn't read the book to follow the story.
i'll finish up this dull account with the rehearsal and wedding day tomorrow.

home/wedding trip pt i

finally getting around to regaling all 3 of you with our trip to north dakota last weekend.
it all started with my remicade infusion on tuesday. things were going well until i decided to snooze in the chair. i must've pulled the iv when i turned because after 20 minutes, i felt something wet on my shirt. at least insurance pays for it because there was probably over $100 of liquid on my shirt if not more. they had to stop & replace the iv in a different part of my arm, so i didn't finish until 3.30. s was off work by then & he hadn't even packed yet. that stressed me out. then, he wanted to find a cord in our storage unit before we left town. by the time we left iowa city it was 5pm, so we grabbed sonic for the road.
grover was amazingly good in the car and napped on our laps. i realize it's probably not the safest way to travel with a puppy, but he would've cried if we'd locked him in his kennel in the backseat. the drive was fairly uneventful and we decided it would be funny to buy powerball tickets in all 3 states before the next drawing on wednesday the 12th. (that was a total bust.) we arrived at grandma m's house in st paul around 10pm. brought the monster inside along with our stuff and she tells us that she's allergic to dogs.
great, no one bothered to tell us. s's mom, her eldest daughter, didn't say a thing. grandma said it was okay & we headed to the basement to cram ourselves into a twin bed. (there are 2 beds, but that's what we did when we stayed 2 years ago, too)
wednesday morning, i got up at grover's whimpering need to go outside & we took a nice long walk around the block. grandma m has lived in the same place in st paul for over 50 years. the highway is right over the barrier, but it's a cute neighborhood.
the second leg of the trip, we grabbed breakfast on the road and headed for fargo. i had big plans to stop at great harvest bread company where i worked in college. i needed some potato dill bread (great for grilled cheese) and cinnamon chip (awesome french toast!). we got erberts and gerberts subs, then met my friend e who just opened his chiropractic clinic in the last month. we brought the puppy up in the elevator and chatted for a little before driving some more.
the next to last stop was in bismarck to see our friends, t & n. their wedding was the reason we'd stayed at grandma m's 2 years before and i'd barely seen them since they moved back to t's home in bismarck. first we stopped at n's work, then t convinced us to drive over to his parents' to meet his nephew. grover came in to say hello too and get a much needed drink of water.
two more hours on the road (for a total of 11 hours on wednesday). we stopped at the church in minot where my mom & future s-i-l were setting up for the ceremony. we grabbed a pizza on the way home to my parents' house while mom finished decorating & keeping out of the way of my brother's future m-i-l.
at home, my dad and his youngest sister and her husband were there. my aunt & uncle have been staying there as they took the summer off from texas to see their family and travel in their rv.
grover met his cousin nikki and they had a good time playing together. after such a long day, we headed to bed.
i'll finish this up in another post or two. with pictures.

ack!

i'm about to leave & the gps my parents sent me (so i could "find" my way home to nodak for my brother's wedding next month) is drained of charge. and they sent the wrong power cords. oh dear!
hopefully the googlemap directions i printed off at work will suffice. although suzanne's sister tells us that there's a construction detour. argh! it will be sheer luck if we get to suzanne's parents' place this afternoon and to the sheraton eventually.
better pack up the laptop now, take out the grover monster & hit the road. wish me luck!

photo advise

i have tons of pictures from trips overseas, mostly in 2000 & 2001, for school that i never put into photo albums. now i'm wondering what the best way to get them scanned/online without a scanner is. do places like cvs do that for you? i really want to get them on a zip drive or similar format.
any techies out there have suggestions? also, it'd be great if it's not too expensive either.

updater

two 'ittle updates
1st, the heat sitch
e-mailed the landlord (wife) who works at the u on friday morning & she said she'd send hubb or f-i-l right over. when i got home after work (glad i left the place messy for them), i found an opened, new space heater sitting on the floor running by my picture window & the heat cranked up to 72. i picked up a few things, took out my trash & then headed over to s's place since the 72* thermostat wasn't really kicking much actual warmth. we went to dinner out of town & landlord called me back around 9pm to say that he'd moved tons of stuff in my bedroom, under the kitchen sink & in the crawlspace under the stairs to find out why it was so cold until they realized it was because there wasn't enough insulation under my apartment that was causing the freeze. idiots!
i haven't been back to the apartment yet, since friday. i'll go back after church this morning.
on a second note, i previewed my tax refund situation (only waiting on a 1098 from one of my student loans i'm paying back) & i'll be getting a couple hundred from federal, so i can afford the trip to blogher if suz is down with that!
now i'm off to get dressed for church. haven't been in too long.

nyc circa feb 26

okay, here's my much-anticipated bloggings on my trip. (ha!)
after a delayed arrival in nyc, mum & i grabbed a cab from lga into the city. i called suzanne on the way to let her know that i'd made it. we finally got to her place (very nice, hugely spacious apartment) wherein i saw the purple chairs & met the infamous tycho.
even though it was sprinkling, mum & i were down for a brief walking tour. with her close proximity to the natural history museum, we spied this bizarre statue of tr out front. i couldn't find any close-ups, but a mounted tr is flanked by an indian and what appears to be a naked 'negro', as my mother said. not sure of the significance. did you ever find out, suzanne?
anyway, after passing that bit of interesting culture, we ducked into central park to see the john lennon imagine memorial, then figured out a place to eat. yummy bagel, lox & fake cream cheese for me, while suz & mum had pastrami. thanks for dinner! brief detour to a cupcake place to grab some snackies for breakfast, we headed back to suzanne's. met hubby, then suzanne kindly guided us to the subway and airtrain back to jfk & we snagged a shuttle to the hotel for our 8am flight the next morning. more to come later.
also, is that dismantled piano still sitting outside your apartment?

across the pond

well, here i am bloggin from london. i've already wanted to throttle my mother at least half a dozen times (& i'm sure she feels the same about me).
after a hectic & stressful flight out of iowa (my original flight was cancelled, we almost got in an accident on the way to the airport-only 26 cars in the ditch- then i had to connect through detroit & had 10 minutes to get from terminal C29 to A3-go check it out) i finally made it to nyc, took a taxi to suzanne's place & walked around in the rain until we found a nice kosher deli. at least i got to meet suzanne! thanks so much for dinner. you're soo adorable in person & you've got a great apartment!
our flight to london was pretty uneventful, but last night trying to find the shuttle my mum had reserved to get us to the hotel about killed me. she had almost no information about it & kept changing her mind which direction we should go. first this way, ten steps later, let's try that way. i'd want to pull out my hair, but it seems to be falling out anyway. that's what happened today too. she'd change her mind half a dozen times. let's eat at that cafe, no i think the booths by the eye will be about the same, wait, why don't we grab something at a tesco? no, we should walk over to trafalgar sq. finally we ended up at the lovely crypt in st martin's. yum!
anyway, today we woke up late-ish (8am), ate the hotel provided breakfast & took the tube from euston over to o2 where the tut exhibit is housed. it was pretty freezing out. not compared to iowa, of course, but since it was 50 when we got in last night... and the o2 was even colder because there's a skating rink in there. the exhibit was pretty cool, nothing new, but fun to see the things up close. not the famous sarchophagus, though, but some other beautiful pieces.
we then tubed it back to waterloo & got tickets for the eye, then our little lunch tiff, finally lunch at st martin's & wrote some postcards and back to the eye. after i finish up w/ my blogging we'll head back to the hotel to change & see 'wicked'.
ta-ta for now!

on my way

weather permitting, i'm heading to nyc tomorrow! to meet suzanne! and i haven't seen my mum since september. if it weren't for the raining and now giant snowflakes, my flight should leave at 7am. i'm heading over to s' place now until he drives me to the airport. i just hope the roads aren't too bad when he drives back. 70 miles one-way is a pain at 4am with or without icy roads.
if i have the chance i'll try to post while i'm away. ta-ta everyone!

exhausting

this is incredibly exhausting. i could definitely use a vacation. oh wait, i am going on one! the weather's looking grim, but we should make it to nyc on tuesday. it'll be a long two days until mum & i get to london on wednesday night. then we're going to cram in a whole bunch of cultural junk and eating. i realize london isn't exactly noteworthy for food, but i've never had high tea or fish and chips. time to indulge. i even got a recommendation for tea from a london butler. we also have to hit an indian restaurant and my old dutch. there's the tut exhibit, the eye, three plays, the national gallery
i'm pretty much packed. only a couple bits & bobs like my toothbrush and wallet left to pack away. that's a first. i usually end up waiting until the wee hours of the day i leave. maybe that'll make it less nerve-wrackig. plus, i'll be away from s. i know i'm going to miss him dreadfully, but maybe he'll miss me too.
well, i've got some cupcakes to frost & a party to go to. more later when i have something else to write about.

one week

i thought maybe it'd be a little better by now. wednesday, thursday & friday were okay because i either saw or talked with s. not that i didn't cry over it because i seem to be able to keep my composure around anyone else but him. not seeing him at all makes me more miserable than seeing him. the thought of losing him entirely overwhelms me. yeah, yeah, i'll survive. strong woman, whatever. i just don't see why i'd want to.
last night at the bar with some friends who just got back into town. s stopped by & i got a ride home as the icestorm was just starting up. it worries me, seeing him nearly as pained as i am, but not letting me in. i don't know who's helping him through this. he just says that he can't be in a relationship with anyone right now, not more than friends. i wish he could understand that it's not always easy, but that's the time you have to work harder, together. i don't know, maybe my fairytale-my happy ending isn't to be. i hope that's not the case because he's worth every ounce of this pain i'm feeling right now; he's worth fighting for.

and i'm still not up to talking about this in any other medium than written. i'd just be incoherent.

and on the topic of one week, i'll be leaving in about a week. looking forward to meeting suzanne (of cuss), seeing nyc, going back to london & theatre (we've got tix to wicked & spamalot, plus one more not yet chosen play), not to mention the food. how i love me some food! my friend n has asked for bizarre british treats, so i'll see what i can smuggle back. also, i have to hit up at least one of the lush stores. i need to restock. there goes the idea of only carry-on luggage!
but back to work for me. apologies for all the angst, but that's my life.

travelin’

this morning some friends leave for a month in asia. i am so jealous, even if i do leave for london via nyc in…47 days. that sounds like a lot more than saying 6 weeks. i've truly missed traveling. the last time I went abroad was 5 years ago. that's the longest time in between trips since i started my trekking at 16. as previously mentioned, this will be my fifth trip to london. it's nice to have the familiarity of a big city that you’ve seen once or twice (or fice?), but knowing that there’s always more to see, and what you’ve seen before may have changed ever so slightly. i'm looking forward to the national gallery, the new tut exhibit and eating at my favourite london restaurant-my old dutch. can't wait!
my coworker just got back from her first trip to london. she thought she was getting a tour with some other people since she went by herself. nope, turns out they just gave her some vouchers for things like a play and a bus tour of the city. she was there for new year’s eve & her birthday, all alone. i don’t think i’d mind & she said she didn’t. makes me reminisce about my first trip. there were eight of us from my hs. 4 guys, 4 girls, plus our English teacher who’d arranged the trip under the umbrella of the drama club going to see Shakespeare & other good theatre. 2 of the guys, one being my best friend’s older brother chad, & his best pal at the time, dan, had actually graduated. ahhhh, memories. my roomie & friend since kindergarten went on the trip with her bf at the time. i can't say i appreciated paul peeping in our window in attempts to get nikki to come outside to make out or whatever i thought they might be doing in my innocence at the time.
with any luck, this trip will be the best one yet. my mom will have more than 3 days to explore the city & i'll be able to revisit all my favourite haunts (st martin's crypt, my old dutch, national gallery) & maybe catch some new ones.

puddle hopping

mum & i are returning to england after a 5-year hiatus. yay! she booked the trip last night. last week february/first week of march, 6 nights.

things i must do in london, spring ‘08:
two (2) plays, minimum
tut exhibit
london eye
eat at my olde dutch (for the 5th time)

any other 'musts'? this will be my fifth trip in a dozen years, so i've already seen most of it & have plans for repeats on many things.

my dad is rather disappointed about this trip, even though it's been five years in the making. mum's first trip was the same week we declared war on iraq (march 2003) and was a painfully brief 3 days. she'd wanted to go her entire life, which is why she sent me the first time when i was sixteen. anyway, dad says this is all a surprise to him when my mum made the reservations last night because finances are tight (mum has been saving specifically for this for at least 3 years), he wanted to go visit his sister in texas because it could be his last trip (where do i get my melodramatic streak?), when is mother going to have more vacation time and once the jeep craps out they'll need to invest in a new(ish) vehicle. he does know how to lay on the guilt trip. i know he's sick, but he's not helping his health by this depression, which i informed him he should talk to a therapist, whether he's diagnosed with a terminal illness or not. and since he has yet to be diagnosed with one, there's no need to play guessing games as to which dire disease he thinks he may have now. i love my daddy, but if he isn't careful, he's going to quite literally worry himself into an early grave. *sigh* there goes the sparkle on my trip to londontown.