Young Women of the World...

..Let's make a pact. Right here, right now. Put your hand over your heart and put up your three finger "scout's honor" sign and repeat after me:

I do hereby, solemnly swear to give it my best effort, the best ol' college try I know how to give, to eliminate the word like (except where properly applicable) from my vocabulary, to refrain from ending sentences on high note such that they become questions instead of statements; to be assertive when speaking, and if I in fact do not know what the hell I'm talking about, I will say so instead of beating around the bush with phrases such as, "well, maybe, if everyone thinks it ok, I would just suggest that perhaps..." 

For the sake of the public image, perception, and intellect of myself, my generation of women, and future generations of women who, though currently emulating Jersey Shore, but will surely snap out of it one day, will need a role model for conducting oneself in public, I do hereby promise to mend my ways and speak well from this day forward, forever and ever. Amen.

That is all.

Friday Night Thoughts

• I just can't decide what's worse: tourists on your public transportation or tourists in your work lunch places. I have mowed down some families this week trying not to get stuck behind them in the line at Potbelly. 
• Ke$ha TOTALLY wrote this song for Pref Night. Ke$ha, I'm sorry you can't deny it. And yes, I'm 27 and still think about this stuff.
• We all know what Avril Lavigne really means when she says "So what if I go out on a million dates," in What the Hell. I'm sorry you're divorced and you have to date Brody Jenner now. That is sad.
• I'm kind of obsessed with the 'Til The World Ends Remix. Especially the Niki Minaj rap.
• Speaking of terrible pop, you know who has a shockingly high tolerance for terrible pop? [Husband]. Can you believe this? We have always acknowledged that he is the movie guru in our house and I am the music person, but it still surprised me. He will listen to Hot 99.5 for at least 20 minutes longer than I can handle it. And I just said I liked 'Til the World Ends. It's the remix, but still.
• And speaking of Friday Night, who loves Friday Night Lights? MEEEEEE!!! Who loves Tami Taylor? Ohhh me!! MEEE! Who wishes they were Tami Taylor (and thus married to Coach Taylor? OOOOOH MEEE PICK MEEEEEE!!!! I love this show. If you have not seen it, you need to park yourself in front of the tv and get to work. The writing and character development are so beyond network TV.  This is HBO quality.  If you do watch and you love Tami, you need to check out this montage of her Yalls (yall).
• Yall, I am TI-URD. I don't know how you people with babies do it because the puppy is seriously still killing me. Up til 11pm, up at 6am...tired. I think I'm just a wimp. 

• So I'm not a creeper, but...everyone once in awhile I'm curious about people I used to know.  The father of an old friend of mind is peripherally in the same professional field that I am. I came across his name in a document today, so I decided to look up my friend. Turns that after college she worked for The Knot in NY editing wedding images and then decided she wanted to be on the other side of the camera, so now she has a wedding photography business in Charleston. Her pictures are really great. I dropped her a line through the contact page on her website. I'm curious to see if I hear back from her.
• The last three books I read were a little heavy: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, True Grit by Charles Portis,  We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates, and now I'm reading American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Anyone have any suggestions for something happier and lighter that's not 1) by Emily Griffin or 2) The Help?  By the way, the titles I recently read, I do highly recommend.  I just need to move onto a new theme that's not crime and/or murder.
• We're going to Napa in March! This deserves it's own, post, but Yay! I'm excited!
• Yesterday was 100 days til the Richmond Marathon.
• We have a wedding to go to every month through November. I kind of want to get invited to one in December just to keep up the 6 month streak. 

Happy Weekend!

Wolf Trap

I went to Wolf Trap last night see Huey Lewis & the News . Fun fact: Did you know they were originally Huey Lewis & the American Express? They had to change the name for legal reasons.

I always think, 'Oh Wolf Trap, old people go there, I'll be  home by 10pm." False. The opening act didn't even go on until after 8 and Huey Lewis & the News (have to say the whole thing because it's not just about Huey Lewis, the News is an important part of the act...instrumental, if you will) didn't go on until after 9. Dang, yo. I didn't get home until about 5 bottles of wine past my bed time aka midnight.

As a result, I verbally assaulted some tourists on the metro escalator this morning.  There was a family taking a PICTURE on the escalator. No, really, they're all grinning and posing, taking up the whole width of the walkway and there's someone about 5 steps lower on the escalator taking their picture. Seriously? This is not only annoying, but likely unsafe. So I told them to move it or lose it, and the mom called me a bitch. And then I yelled something back about taxes and living here and getting to work. I'm banking on the fact that they're from Indiana and don't know that Federal money is a significant source of funding for WMATA.

Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day I watched the Bachelor last night. Actually, the truth is, [Husband] was watching the Caps game upstairs so the TV was momentarily NOT dominated by hockey and Mythbusters and I took the opportunity to get in some brain-rotting wonderfulness. I have a few observations/thoughts that kept running through my head last night:

• Watching these women chase after this man this way just makes me think of lab rats in a cage, fighting over cheese.

• Another scenario that comes to mind is an oldie but a goodie: Remember that guy in college who used to, like, kinda act like he liked you? Like sometimes he'd make out with you, but then he'd pretend not to see you in the caf, or call/IM you on break but not actually want to talk to you--I will skip the long-winded description of this guy and just direct you here--and you're like WHY DOESN'T HE LOVE ME, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME, WHAT"S WRONG WITH HIM, I MUST SUCK, WHY DOESN'T HE LOVE ME? And then he dates a girl in your dorm and they have this crazy hot and heavy relationship for 3 years, except she's actually your next door neighbor AND in your sorority and you're like, WHAT? I don't get it.
• Alternatively, it reminds me of the scenario above except when all your hall-mates have a crush on the same guy and you stalk his regular carrel on the third floor of Swem and your roommate likes to wait in your room till she knows he's walking to class and then it turns out he's [insert undesirable trait here: Mormon, gay, just not that into you or any of your friends, dating a girl back home who you later heard he married].
• The whole swimsuit cover date, was kind of badass. That would be pretty sweet, honestly. But that needed to either be a one-on-one date or all 6 of the remaining girls needed to be there to spread the animosity around some more. It was still way badass. If [Husband] took me on that date, I would so marry him/want him to give me a rose.
• Why are you angry when you get kicked off? You knew someone was leaving. It's a reality show!

It's just reality tv, but I can't help, but think about the deeper sociological questions that the Bachelor (and other shows like it) present unintentionally. I once uttered the phrase, "a close reading of the Twilight series" so take my sociological take on reality TV for what you will. Prior to the Bachelor I watched Watson's debut on Jeopardy against Ken Jennings and that other guy. Was anyone else pissed that they only played the FIRST round? REALLY? The game ended at 7:53pm and then there were 7 minutes of terrible commercials. And after The Bachelor, I watched a PBS documentary called "Girls" about how adolescent girls form relationships and attachments. It was like a mash up Teen Mom and True Life, but with out the undue glorification, so it was a real intellectual evening in the S* household. After that I did dishes and made cookies, so what does that say about me?

:(

After all that talk about laying waste to my iPhone the minute it was deposited in my hot little hands, guess who put [Husband's] Droid phone through the wash on Sunday? Me. [sigh]. It wasn't a full cycle and I swear I checked the pockets before I put them in the laundry basket, but I missed it. Is it bad if I think that if he just put his clothes in the hamper to begin with this wouldn't be an issue? Don't answer that. I know that has nothing to do with it. Ugh. We tried sticking it in rice over night and sticking it in the freezer. No luck so far. We're going to go to the Verizon store tonight and see if they'll possibly let us start a new two year contract so we can replace the phone for that price instead of the crazy retail cost of the phone. F. I'm eating cookies for breakfast to console myself. Any advice or magic tricks for reviving a wet phone?

Seven!

Update! Seven actually arrived about 45 minutes before I posted this and after less than 2 hours of mom making it to the hospital! To quote one of my fellow "Baby-Watch 2011" listservers:

wow! that might be the shortest first labor i've heard of to-date. how very accommodating of Seven -- a model child already. (when do we have to stop calling her Seven, and start using her actual name?)

She was a very appropriate 7 pounds 11 ounces. And everyone is doing just fine. :) ---------------------- I have a fun post about my trip to MT lined up, but more important things for today! I have a dear friend who is having her first baby! A little girl that has come to be nicknamed Seven over the last nine months, since she'll be the seventh [insert baby girl name here] in her family. Keep mom, baby, and dad in your thoughts!

Well Begun Is Half Done

I am what might be categorized as a pathological procrastinator. About EVERYTHING. I have made significant headway since this major part of my character reared it's ugly head at age 6 (when I started taking piano lessons), but I struggle with it. It's less about papers and piano practice now than it was 15 years ago, and more about voicemails and work projects (you know things that start as "to do" and become "must do" and then "shit that's a problem") these days. I simply DREAD doing certain things. Voicemail, you are truly my nemesis. Today in typically fashion, I was choosing to do some completely optional organizing in between some less optional, less fun tasks. I have a label maker for the office now, and I have been going to town with it ALL DAY. I have labeled all essential files and drawers, set up labeled folders for day-to-day tasks and now I'm just getting silly with it. I made a label for my Burt's Bees. It now says "VKS" in very authoritative lettering. Then I decided I was going to type out one of my favorite quotes that I regularly use to try and combat my procrastination, and stick the label in a prominent spot on my desk. So I tap out "Well Begun Is Half Done." and stick it up on my desk. For me, once I just START something I dread doing, it's not usually that bad. Or at least not as bad as I thought it would be. Sometimes said dreaded task ends up being a positively ok experience. The label is a fairly visible place on my desk, other people will see it. And with the number of nosy nellies around here, I'm sure to hear some gems of comments on it. I figured I better double check whose words they are, so at least if I have this lame label quote on my desk, I know who said it. Any guesses? Aristotle. Oh yeah. I totally thought that was a Mary Poppins original. You learn something everyday.

Since I know at least one other person (other than me) is reading, I will post just for you.

I read a great article on the NY Times Website yesterday called "But Will It Make You Happy?" The article started off with an anecdote illustrating the recent trend of extreme personal down-sizing, and how in this economy, so many people are discovering in a very tangible way that things don't bring happiness. It then moved on to discuss recent research on what types of purchases actually DO bring happiness. Generally, if an item has the ability to let us participate in an enjoyable activity (golf clubs or a pair of running shoes) then that purchase actually does have the power to provide longer term happiness. And purchases that provide us with an experience (plane tickets to an fun destination) which allow us to enjoy and experience AND give us something to look back on fondly can also bring more happiness than an impulse purchase of shoes. The article was really great and gave me some more perspective on something I'd been thinking about for awhile. I've recently been trying to do two things (and have had some success): 1) NOT buy starbucks/coffeee out and 2) not buy lunch out. Neither of these things make me happy. At all. Maybe for like 2 seconds, but basically, no. But when I'm not blowing $50 a week on lunch and coffee, and I see that I actually can afford to go out and do X or pay to do C, I am pretty happy about that experience. When I was wedding planning I saw a number of articles and websites that advised picking the three aspects of the wedding that meant the most to you and spend your time and money on that and let the rest of it go. I think that's somewhat applicable in life too. Find out what you really want to spend your time and money doing and focus on that. Oh, the article also said, you get far more enjoyment out of planning and saving for something because you get to anticipate it that just purchasing something immediately. The example they gave was planning a trip in advance versus purchasing last minute deal vacations. I'm going to try REALLY hard to remember this every time I want to spend money on something ridiculous, impulsive or unplanned. Check out the article here.