tomorrow

so, remember what I gave up for Lent? sleeping in... I don't know. this is harder then I thought. it means i may need to take up napping in the afternoon, and i'm not a napper. I don't sleep very well during the day, and haven't since 1996 when i had mono and had to stay home from school for 3 months. --not as fun as it seems, i was bored out of my mind and resorted to soap operas and Lambchop's Play along. that show still cracks me up. haven't seen it on in ages.

so. let's discuss daylight savings time and how much it screws me up. spring ahead fall back, i know the saying but some how still can never figure out which one i lose the hour of sleep for. my father advised, i lose the hour tomorrow night. now, back in college, the "gain an hour" day was always a big drinking night, since you were able to squeeze one more hour of hearty drinking out of the NJ ABC (alcoholic beverage commission). good times. of course that had a direct effect on the extra hour of hungover-ness the next day. ah, memories

Atlanta next week, and in a month I'll be in Costa Rica! i bought a linen skirt at H&M today out of pure excitement for trip, and it's brown and i really just haven't been able to resist brown clothing this year.

anyway, so atlanta next week. I'm excited. i'm even more excited about the 75 degree weather. who knew! Every year i forget what certain temperatures feel like, or what is appropriate attire for those temperatures. so, i'll over pack. but let me tell you, I am one of the best packers out there. i roll the shit out of my tshirts and clothes and it all fits neatly into a tiny carry on wheelie suitcase. yep flight attendant, it fits. trust me.

well. in hopes of staying with my Lenten sacrifice, i'm going to bed. i want to be up and functioning by 9 am. hehe we'll see.

faith restored

a man named John restored my faith in humanity today. I lost my little blue wallet that holds my work IDs, free coffee voucher and unlimited monthly metro card. ---all a pain in the ass to replace. I tore my apt apart this morning, nothing. i went to the bodega where i last had it. they handed me the winning numbers instead of answering my question. English wasn't the shop keepers first language. so I shook it off.

3 hours later i get a call from a man name John. he found my wallet, googled JWT and had the receptionist transfer his call. amazing.

there are good people in this world.

he left my wallet with his doorman, and its back in my possession. I'm going to leave him a $5 starbucks card and a thank you note.

score one for humanity.

oh my friggen cold

that's about all i have to say about that.

Good thing is? I'll be in sunny warm (let's hope) hot-lanta come weds evening next week. can't wait to see all of my favorite southerns, the little ones too. I hear my #1 toddler, Shortstack has his first soccer game of the season this week. I'll be the aunt on the sideline yelling at the ref recovering from a welcome-back-to-atlanta-thanks-for-visiting-bbdo-happy-hour whilst cheering on the pre-k'rs playing bumble bee soccer.
for those of you like myself who started playing soccer before you could spell the sport's name, bumble bee soccer is what i call it when the young'uns all rush to the ball and run around like bees around a hive. hovering, no positions utter chaos. i can't wait.

ramblings

it's been a while since my last post, too long in fact. this week was hectic, drawn out an exhausting. i'd have to say this work week was the worst yet. but i did learn one thing that i'm quite proud of. Do you know how when someone attacks you it's within your nature to defend? Well, I had an art director try to "put me in my place" this week. She's been in "the business for 30 years," "before [I] was born." oh go f.... nevermind.

so. a nasty voice mail and a matching email to boot, i let her cool off for about two hours or so before retaliating. I phoned her and she picked up with attitude. She started her diatribe in an unrelenting and unacceptable fashion-- and here's when the highlight of my week comes in. I did not mirror her tone, or stoop to her level. I kept the cool voice and tried to lead her through the conversation. She finally came around and apologized, etc. Looks like 30 years in the business won't make you any more of an adult.

speaking of adult. as soon as i hung up the phone, i proceeded to unleash obscenities under my breath at the direction of the phone in true terits fashion... oh come on. i had to get it out somehow.

anyway, Friday night was fun, i met an old high school friend for dinner drinks and debauchery on the lower east side. then saturday morning i headed back into NJ to meet Diane for the Hoboken St. Patrick's day parade, completely forgetting my camera. lucky samsung to the rescue.

I friggen love bagpipes.


they were great. i think we should have bagpipers everyday. and check out this fire truck. cool right?
old school. today was brunch in hoboken and errands when back in the city. West Elm has this bench that I really want. see below. I want to use it as a coffee table. I could really use the storage. I'm not sure if the wood grain would work. wow how boring is this post?

anyway. i'm starting to bore myself. I think this week is going to be as brutal as last, so I'm going to get an early start and get to bed now.

carnegie, 9-5 and a visit

Carnegie hall was goose-bump amazing. Eva and I spent the whole day together and it was exhausting, but lovely. I met her at 9:45 at her apartment, where we chatted before having bagels and a ton of "schmears." she said i had to learn how to be Jewish, so she introduced me to herring and 8 million other bagel toppings. so far my favorites are: 1. cream cheese (plain or flavored) 2. Egg salad 3. Tuna fish salad. Not making the list is pickle Herring. which she made my try and i did not like. closely above Herring is Lox. i'm just not a fan of salmon, wish i was.

we left her place at 12:3o for a 2 pm show at Carnegie. She knows it takes just about an hour to get there by bus, but we were lucky and caught the transfers well, hardly a minute between buses. We waited in the lobby and she'd be standing for a while and i was getting a tad nervous for her. A lovely usher walked over and said we'd be allowed to sit. He opened up the doors to the hall, we sat on the ground or "Parcquet" floor. it was amazing, truly took my breath away. I was happy he sat us, for Eva's sake and mine to see the auditorium empty.

the show started and i immediately got goose bumps. The acoustics are mind boggling and the Symphony to that degree. I may have the drive for advertising, but music i think i just prefer to listen to.

after 2 hours we hopped the bus back downtown to our neighborhood , I walked her back to her building then headed home, exhausted.

that was yesterday. Today was equally tiring, but crazily enough i was able to leave work at 5:10 and meet Diane for a couple glasses of wine. I have about 6 pts today, so all of you fat campers know that isn't much to sustain 3/4 of a bottle of wine. so, mind the buzz. but, mainly, it feels so weird to be out of the office so early, feels like I'm cheating. but regardless, my work is done and it's the calm before the storm so I shouldn't bother.

on the other hand, earlier last week I booked my trip back to Atlanta. I'm very excited. for those of you reading this in the southern region, there should be a bbdo/welcome back happy hour on march 16. hope to see you all there. i want to visit the old office, so i'd assume the HH will be somewhere close to buckhead/bbdo. i'm open to suggestion. since it's not my going away, i wont' drive you to my favorite atl dive bars. hehe

well. i think i'm going to turn in for the night. read a book in bed and enjoy being home and in bed before 9 pm for the first time in a very long time.

g'night.

when i grow up.

I am not quite a grown up yet, because grown ups don't sleep this much. i am having the hardest time waking up on weekend mornings. there is so much to do in this city. take this morning, i woke up at 9:00, 11:00 and then 12:30. like a high-schooler. i even had a plan to go to Central Park Zoo today. i have a friend who volunteers there on weekends. well. kind of blew that one.

So I've figured out what i'm giving up for Lent: over indulgent sleep.

i think that will make me a more adjusted person, open to more opportunity. just think of all of the things i can do with an extra 5 hours in the morning on Saturdays. so. i'm going to clean the apartment, get ready and take to the street.

you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

Happy Ash Wednesday. i did my due Catholic diligence and ran out to a local church around the corner from work with a co worker.
the bags under my eyes are a combination of laughing quite hard and the after effects of a very early meeting at work. the smearing? I'm not really sure. hehe

I'm still not sure what I'm giving up for Lent or what discipline I'm taking on. it's still up in the air. maybe i could work on the discipline of making decisions quicker.

I've decided to have a hot dog and cheesy broccoli for dinner. now.

what are you giving up for Lent?

they say it takes practice

but I'm going for the show.

Remember my friend Eva from this post? She's invited me to accompany her to Carnegie Hall this Sunday. I've never been, so I am very excited. I'll pick her up around 11:00 and we'll go for a light brunch, head over to the theater by 2:00 and cap off the day with an early dinner, possibly the bird special. Without a doubt she will not let me pay, so I'm planning on bringing some of her favorite scratch off tickets as compensation and thanks. Maybe she'll hit the jackpot.

I lost all of my grandparents by the age of 16, so I miss the older wiser figure in my life. I am hereby adopting Eva as my surrogate Nana. No one could ever replace Nana Jenny (Genvieve) or Nana Herbert (Filomena/Mae), but I'd love some down home, plain and straight grandmotherly advice once in a while.

Anyway, my laundry is probably just about dry at the laundromat around the corner. Off to fold clothes and indulge in my guilty pleasure that is American Idol.

check out those stars

I'm taking a break from city life this long weekend by spending some well overdue time with my family. and get this, i got to drive today. the past couple of days have been a lot going out, late nights, early mornings -so i was looking forward to the down time of the old house and home cooked-mom meals. this evening did not disappoint. thanksgiving in february. cranberry sauce and everything. since we all have off tomorrow the week classic italian dinner was moved until tomorrow night. yum. i swear i pack on the poundage every time i visit.

speaking of home, i walked outside earlier to lock my mom's car and noticed just how starry the sky is. i'm not sure if i am just normally distracted by the pace of the city, or the lights of the buildings but i don't seem to notice the stars when i'm home. it could be the massive amount of ground light or buildings blocking my way, but i do have a clear view of the sky line so one would think i could see stars. i'm on a mission tomorrow to check it out.

so ladies night in rockville center, long island was fun. it was really cute out there. the town reminded me of red bank. downtown area, real towny feel where everyone seems to know someone, somewhere. it was cool. very close to the water too which is also a perk. i was a trooper though, i seriously did not want to leave the comfort of my apartment complete with a dirty tissue tower cascading over the garbage can. crappy head cold. but i sucked it up (literally) and made the trek off my island and on to another. had a great time.

now it's 9:45 pm, and i'm honestly thinking about turning in for the night. I think i am in need of sleep, maybe even a tad sleep deprived. over the last two nights i've clocked in a total of 10 hours?

so. i'm calling it a night. my mom's taking me to target tomorrow and i'm psyched. the closest one to me is in brooklyn. it's just not the same as hopping in my car in atlanta and arriving in the target parking lot before i can down 4 oz of a diet coke. it's a 20 oz trip out to brooklyn complete with 2 subway changes.

i digress, goodnight.

check out those stars

I'm taking a break from city life this long weekend by spending some well overdue time with my family. and get this, i got to drive today. the past couple of days have been a lot going out, late nights, early mornings -so i was looking forward to the down time of the old house and home cooked-mom meals. this evening did not disappoint. thanksgiving in february. cranberry sauce and everything. since we all have off tomorrow the week classic italian dinner was moved until tomorrow night. yum. i swear i pack on the poundage every time i visit.

speaking of home, i walked outside earlier to lock my mom's car and noticed just how starry the sky is. i'm not sure if i am just normally distracted by the pace of the city, or the lights of the buildings but i don't seem to notice the stars when i'm home. it could be the massive amount of ground light or buildings blocking my way, but i do have a clear view of the sky line so one would think i could see stars. i'm on a mission tomorrow to check it out.

so ladies night in rockville center, long island was fun. it was really cute out there. the town reminded me of red bank. downtown area, real towny feel where everyone seems to know someone, somewhere. it was cool. very close to the water too which is also a perk. i was a trooper though, i seriously did not want to leave the comfort of my apartment complete with a dirty tissue tower cascading over the garbage can. crappy head cold. but i sucked it up (literally) and made the trek off my island and on to another. had a great time.

now it's 9:45 pm, and i'm honestly thinking about turning in for the night. I think i am in need of sleep, maybe even a tad sleep deprived. over the last two nights i've clocked in a total of 10 hours?

so. i'm calling it a night. my mom's taking me to target tomorrow and i'm psyched. the closest one to me is in brooklyn. it's just not the same as hopping in my car in atlanta and arriving in the target parking lot before i can down 4 oz of a diet coke. it's a 20 oz trip out to brooklyn complete with 2 subway changes.

i digress, goodnight.

achoooo

I was on press yesterday out in Long Island, first time i've ever been out there. I thought it was the powder from the presses causing me to sneeze, (powder is laid down after the inks as a drying agent) but now I'm thinking I'm just sick. Just like this morning, i woke up and thought i just may have drank too much last night, but looks like i'm just sick. boooo.

I've sneezed about three times writing this already. jeez.

I'm going out in long island tonight, bit of a ladies night with the girls at work. should be a good time. and sneezed again. i love sneezing though, but the drippy nose is what is most annoying. so back to strong island. presses are always in a part of town that is industrial and generally not somewhere you'd like to be after dark. i was in freeport, and it wasn't too bad, just not a place i'd go for a leisurely trip.

i'm excited for tonight though. i hope i feel better soon. this sucks.

ooh the windows vista commercial just was on again, the "wow" one. i'm a fan of it. makes me want to see the great wall.

ok. i really need to clean the apt or something. i'm heading home tomorrow to see the 'rents and wont' have time to pick up before then.

an email to the parents

I'm going home to visit my parents on sunday. i thought i'd share the email i just sent them with you. because i think it's funny.

the national sauce and meatball shortage has reached an all time low.
local officers have scraped the barrel only to find scraps at the Ocean twp location. The sister location in new york, ny noted that the last frozen ration was consumed 2 weeks ago.
This is a dire situation and reserves must be called in.

Lieutenant Chef Ron is requested to save the day equipped with imported san marzano tomatoes, parmesano reggiano and lean beef.

His service has been requested.
Both locations, a well as the country as a whole wait for his response.

hehehe.
it makes me laugh reading it again.

And so you can all sleep tonight, Lieutenant Chef Ron has accepted the challenge.

well thank you captain obvious

I just walked down the block to pick up some coffee and a medium cup of chocolate and peanut butter tast-i-delight with rainbow sprinkles. and what does the ice cream slayer comment when i'm handing over my $4.75. "no date tonight, huh?"

thanks for that.

what she failed to see was my restraint in coming back at her with an equally obvious comment. "hmm, dipping a bit too much into the company vanilla cones lately?" instead, i became the bigger person (not literally in this case) with a "nope, not tonight"

say hello to ms. cynical, me.

on the other hand, to burden all the young love's evening, weather channel named nor'easter 2007 dropped a butt load of snow, ice and freezing rain over this wondrous city. Hmm.. looks you your over priced dress with your manolos, i must say the plastic rain boots don't do the von furstenberg it's due justice. i'm just sayin.

on a lighter note, sadly my camera batteries are dead so i can't take pictures for you fine people of the grey tinged snow that lines the streets. i'll be sure to pick up a couple at duane reade tomorrow.

hope your valentines was less obvious.

password? i have no idea

there are 8 million passwords for computer use at jwt. email, intranet, and even more to log on from home. i friggen forgot mine again, all 8 million of them, we have to change them so often. i don't understand why we just cant have this master word or something. "open sesame" would work just fine.

locked out.

letters, numbers in some crazy order. what has come to us that our own computers aren't safe. stupid question in this day an age i guess. i dunno, i still amazes me. as if someone really wanted to know the comp size of my new ad or the pubs its going in. hell i'm so damn proud i'll just tell you.

c'mon. friggen won't work. looks like my email will have to wait until tomorrow morning. this is driving me crazy. it's like when the power goes out and all of a sudden you are super thirsty but your mom tells you not to open fridge or the food will spoil. you really want what you can't have. jeeeezzzzzzzzzz. one more try

umm. is this thing on?

i'm currently watching the grammys. i'm not sure i the producer who worked on this award show is going ot have a job once the show commences. audio problems galore, and some pretty horrendous camera work.

yikes.

and why are they trying to turn the grammy's into a american idol-esque vote in show? i just don't get it.

chris brown just performed. i think he is from atlanta if i remember correctly. wow that kid can dance.

i promise.

to try to stop drunk texting friends and family whilst a night out on the town.
i realize that everyone is not up at 3:00 am for some witty electronic banter.
my apologies
hehee

This evening i'm laying low, tomorrow is going to be one hefty evening. starting with this:


yep. beer pong. a coworker's birthday, at a bar on 50th between 2nd and 3rd. funny enough, i was there last friday night, not playing pong though. it was the evening of my work 'holiday party.' i was a champ in college. we'd set up a door at parties propped up on garbage cans and toss the ping pong ball into light beer filled solo cups. so simple, you have to love it.

i played once at a bar in a atlanta with a guy from work. he graduated college two years or so ahead of me. so, we'd been out of practice for some 4+ years. we got whooped by some recent georgia tech grads. i ended up being the one to chug. that meathead, you'd think he'd be able to throw back a few. must've been too much for him. his head just ended up on my shoulder. haha

so tonight it's a nice bottle of red, and a pie (that's pizza for the southern readers) from Franks. holy hell. so happy i found this place. best pizza near my apt yet. and i am stuffed. i'm going to clean up the studio and read. i have an early morning and a late night ahead of me.

realization

do you know what i just realized? i haven't driven a car in months. i've ridden in cars, buses, subways, vans, taxis---but haven't actually driven a single moving vehicle since thanksgiving. kinda crazy, right?

i only realized this while walking up to my apartment today. i saw a navy volvo s40. should i have stayed in atlanta, or any other driving city and gotten a raise, or the 'compensation match,' it's the car i would have bought. very pretty. the exact interior and extras i would have chosen. i felt a small bit upset. but i traded my wheels for new sneakers and a metro card.



yep. i finally did find those sneakers.

top line, please

that's supposedly brit-speak for 'give me the most important info.'

1. one new york senator, Carl Kruger (D) from brooklyn, thinks it would be a good idea to ban electronic devices including ipods, cell phones and blackberrys from use while walking nyc streets. c'mon buddy. hell, i'm a democrat but those of us who aren't highly paid state employees or rich politicians don't have access to chauffeured government vehicles to drive us around while we rock out to easy listening on our pods.
2. i'm all for kids, love them. (babysitting references available upon request) but what about banning strollers? i got mauled this morning by a woman screaming at a kid driving her bright red bugaboo. is there stroller rage? let's ban that.

3. i went to a 5 star restaurant for dinner, BLT Steak. i have a 5 star stomach ache from overeating. 5 courses? oops. so much for fat camp.

4. it's so friggen cold that dog pee freezes on the street. it makes me laugh every morning.
5. i suffer from cold pants syndrome while waiting for the bus. do you know when you stand still in the cold, then finally take a step your feel that pants your have systematically dropped in temperature since your last movement, only to touch the back of your knee sending sharp chills through your body? i'm naming that cold pants syndrome.

g'nite.

weekday, work day, weekend

i've been busy. and a bit stressed. not the 'questioning my ability' stressed, more or less the 'questioning others' ability' stressed. i am not a fan of stupid people. i thought this at bbdo and i think this at jwt. we work at a world class agency, and this is what i get from you? i'll leave it at that. i'm sure you are all just dying to know about the day-to-day work issues i face each week.

nevertheless. friday evening into late morning was spent with my fellow producers. it was out 'holiday party.' producers do everything on deadline, except when it comes to issues in our own lives... that's when we call for extensions. anywhoo. a 6:30 reservation turned into a 4:30 cab home. i can't remember the last time i was out that late. you may think. c'mon at 26? i'm an old soul.

back to the late night. it's funny when you go out into the real world with your work-world. we sit around a table and vow not to discuss the office. it's much easier to said then done. what more do we have in common? sure, few of us can talk soccer, fashion, guys, girls, kids, etc. but the common bond is advertising. a few of us hang out on a regular basis, and others only when the mac's are turned on. regardless, get a few glasses of wine in anyone and they'll start dishing. i'm sure it's a plot of my boss'.

the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and shopping in search of a pair of jeans adequately priced that are long enough for me to wear with heels. -no luck there. i'd give anything to be at the marshalls on peachtree today. great jeans selection. and if you are able to face the elements and head down to the one on sydney marcus, it gets better. when did finding jeans long enough for a 5'9" woman become difficult? seriously people, i'm tall but i'm not giant. it pisses me off because these are the kind of things i can only do on weekends. i don't get out of work earlier enough to comb loehman's jeans section.

i digress.

it's cold here today, bitter cold when the wind blows. i went downtown to meet friends for brunch and didn't want to let go of my coffee cup, 1/2 way through my meal. not to mention the waitress was incapable of bringing anything to our table on time. we received our food before our drinks, and i was still cold. it's part of the reason while i'm currently watching the superbowl at home today. i was invited to a past nfl'ers rented bar with a friend of a friend, or a house party out on long island. but i chose my couch. i'm tired and i haven't spoken to you fine people in a while.

well. i'd better go and pay close attention to the commercials between plays. it's the kind of thing we get grilled on at work following the big game.
go bears. -i'm a giants fan, and my favored manning is not in the game. so, go bears.