The Story of My Life

What's News

2005-09-30T16:21:00.000-04:00

First things first, I should let you know that I quit my job back on September 9. Though I really hate that word “quit”. I prefer to say that I resigned. It was a really hard decision, but I knew that it was the right one. I could really feel the commute taking its toll on me. Two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening is just absurd. It’s taking away from my family time, it’s taking away from my “me” time, and it’s just not healthy. Then traveling in New York City leaves one feeling so dirty…the pollution in the air, in the subways….

I was trying to start a family with my husband, and those factors just didn’t mesh with the plan that I had in mind. So I decided the best thing to do would be to resign. Like I said, it was probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I sat with my boss about a month ahead of what would be my last day and told him up front what I wanted to do and honestly, why I wanted to do it: so that I could focus more on starting a family. My boss was unbelievably and wonderfully supportive, so that really made it much easier. Everyone else that I told was incredibly supportive and agreed that I was making the right decision as well. I already knew that, but it was reassuring to hear it from others as well. What was even more encouraging was that a lot of people said that they knew folks – women – who quit their jobs, and within a month or so, became pregnant. The stressful commute, pressures of work and deadlines and hassles of the city are just not so conducive to helping women get pregnant. Well, some of us anyway.

So that’s what’s happened, and that’s why. Another nice thing about being home now is that my husband’s parents are here. They’ve been staying with us since July 31, and are planning to stay until October 31. His mom’s been doing most, if not ALL of the cooking since she got here, so that’s been really nice. I’ve been getting pretty spoiled in that sense, but my husband’s also teased me that he wants me learning from her so that I can cook like that even after they leave. I doubt I can be as good as her, but we’ll see…

I don’t get to see his parents that often – this is the first time I’ve been with them longer than like 10 days! But it’s going well – I’ve gotten pretty good with my Tamil! We’ve taken them sightseeing to quite a few places – Niagara Falls, Washington DC, New York City, Atlantic City…and we’re planning a trip up to Boston/New Hampshire to see the fall colors in a couple weeks. It’s nice to be able to show them all the sights and sounds of the East Coast here.

"Hearing voices no one else can hear isn't a good sign, even in the wizarding world." -Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

...it was the worst of times

2005-09-02T09:19:00.000-04:00

FYI - this is a very long entry. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So it’s all over the news now, and it seems to be all anyone is talking about.

The devastation brought on by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

Oh, God. Where to start? There’s so much going through my mind about that. I first realized things had gone much, much worse than expected on Tuesday, when the first few pictures of the stranded survivors came filtering through. A colleague of mine said that the South, the New Orleans, Louisiana/southern Mississippi area happens to be one of the poorest parts of the nation. People there often don’t have cars, don’t have money to use public transportation, and that’s why so many of them didn’t actually evacuate when they heard the storm was coming. Therein lies problem number one. There should have been assistance ahead of time to help get people out. Find out who’s left, why they’re still there. Can you help them leave? Then do it. (Of course, if they’re the kinds of people that don’t want to leave, then there’s really nothing you can do about it. If they’re choosing to ride the storm out, good luck to ‘em.). That would’ve helped a great deal in terms of the current situation.

Then once the storm hit, you had the issues with the levee along the Lake that borders New Orleans. A 2-block portion of that levee apparently collapsed, unable to withstand the rapidly rising waters. They had an interview with one of the engineers on Wednesday on a CBS special, and he stated that the levee was designed to withstand the strength of a Category 3 Hurricane. Bear in mind that Katrina was a Category 5 storm – with winds, if I recall correctly, gusting up to 185 miles an hour. Pretty powerful stuff. These people knew that the levee wasn’t designed to withstand a Category 5, and so they should have known that it was bound to collapse. They knew Katrina was a Category 5, and that it was coming their way. Why didn’t they take extra precautions? Put extra barriers along the levee, reinforcements, whatever? Did they just think, “Oh, maybe we’ll luck out?” That’s a big risk. And tied in to that the interviewer asked him, “Well, why didn’t you just [initially] build a levee that would withstand a Category 5? Why limit it to a Category 3?” and his reply was that “There are costs and benefits associated with building these, and the costs of building a levee that would withstand a Category 5 outweighed the benefits.” I’m sorry, but that’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever seen. Let’s see: An extra, oh, I don’t know - $100,000 dollars. Okay, fine. Even a million dollars. A few million. Whatever. Yet if you don’t spend it, you risk losing thousands of lives. Yep. I SO see how saving the money is a better idea. NOT! The interviewer responded “I’ll bet you’re rethinking those costs and benefits now.” And he replied – almost casually, I was annoyed to find – “Oh, yes, we’ll be going back and reviewing our decision now.” Yeah – it’s a bit too late for that, my friend. The damage has already been done.

Now revert to present day and the madness and mayhem that has come about as a result of this catastrophe. It’s almost surreal. There are times when it sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie. People firing at the policemen who are there to help, chaos and anarchy reigning supreme, huddled masses, weak and weary from lack of food, sleep, and shelter, the balmy weather only adding to their discomfort. The scenes of destruction – houses leveled, floodwaters still chest deep in some places, the roofs of houses and the tops of trees the only areas visible from the air. It looks almost like a Hollywood production. Last night’s Dateline said that the people on the streets, some of them look so famished, so worn, they almost look like they stepped off the set of Survivor, but that “tragically, this isn’t reality TV – it’s reality.”

Then there are times, when it looks more like the scene at a third world country. There was a woman on TV last night carrying two infants, one in each arm. She was crying, her kids were crying, the people walking with her were trying to pour water on her and her children to keep them cool. A man lay on the sidewalk, sprawled, nearly dead. People nearby were telling him to wake up, stay strong, that help would come. But it was almost as if they were saying that for their benefit as well as his; no one really knew when help would come – they’d been there for four days, and no one had yet come to give them any information, any food, any water, nothing.

Things there just seem so disorganized. One of the reporters last night – or maybe one of the people among the masses – said “It looks like a scene in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq – but at least there they have food and water.” I mean, really, we hear that the president is going there to visit and see how bad things are today. But what is really happening to help these people?

Of course, it doesn’t help that lawlessness has chosen to rear its ugly head. Situations like this bring out the best in people, and the worst in some. When 9-11 happened in New York, people banded together to help each other. They stayed strong. I don’t recall a lot of looting, rioting, shooting, etc. I know it’s a different situation. We were facing a common enemy then (and still are): Al Qaida. There was a significant loss of life, but no one really lost their house, their possessions, had “nowhere to go”. So this is vastly different. And maybe because I’m not in (nor have I ever been, nor God help me do I hope to be) in a situation like this, but isn’t it possible to be in dire straights, to face desperation, but yet still have compassion and respect for others. Looting to take what you need is one thing – food, water, that’s fine. But take what you need. Share with others who may need it more than you. Don’t hoard.

One of the reporters last night told the story of a woman who was getting on one of the buses to go to Houston – she had handed her baby off to someone on the bus and was getting ready to get on herself, when someone pushed her out of the way. She fell to the ground and was shoved backwards as others clamored to get on the bus. By the time she was able to get back up, the bus was gone – with her baby. Obviously she was distraught, but the reporter was kind enough to hear her story, talk to a guardsman who found a police officer who was willing to help her. In fact, the policeman went above and beyond the call of duty by actually taking the woman to Houston himself, in his squad car to find her baby.

That’s the sort of thing that needs to happen. And it doesn’t have to be cops helping the citizens. People need to band together and help each other. It tears me up that there are people that are taking advantage of this situation to steal, kill, assault, and even rape! How is that justifiable? At all?! I mean, those atrocities are bad enough in a secure, non-ravaged world, but after a disaster like this, what kind of sick f#ck decides to go out and rape somebody?! People who do that sort of thing are seriously deranged, and are the worst sorts of human beings – no soul. And they’re shooting at the medics, saying “You better come help my family.” Don’t you think that if they could, they would? They’ve got their priorities. Those with children and elderly first, I’m sure.

Then you have people who’ve got their own priorities seriously misaligned. Yahoo News had the story of this one woman:

Ruby Roussell, who lost her house and car to the hurricane, said she climbed aboard a bus in New Orleans thinking she'd be dropped off in Baton Rouge, where she has family. Instead, she found herself in Houston.

"We didn't choose to come to this place," she said. "We didn't ask to come here."

Yeah. You didn’t ask to come there. Okay, then should they just take you back?? My God – have you ever heard that “beggars can’t be choosers?” There are people there that are literally dying to get out. You’re OUT. You’re SAFE. And yet you’re complaining about where you are?! You have time ahead of you to get back to Baton Rouge. You have the freedom now to go where to you need to go, when you want to go. Oh my GOD. Just SHUT UP and be happy that you’re alive, and that you’re SAFE! God, people like that just make me want to grab them and shake them and say “What is WRONG with you?”

Sorry. Getting a bit worked up.

There’s another story – last one, I think, I know I’ve been rambling for awhile here…oh – it was about another of the bad apples, and about how situations like this seem to bring out the worst in people – even law enforcement officers. Apparently a tourist asked a nearby policeman for help at one point. His response to her? “Go to hell – it’s every man for himself.” I’m sorry. But that should be grounds for his dismissal. Get his badge number, or at least his name, and report him. I know situations are tense and that there’s no time for those sorts of formalities and processes, but when all this is over, his words really should come back to bite him in the ass. Is that the sort of thing that someone who has sworn “to serve and protect” should be saying? If anyone should be showing compassion, willingness to assist, it should be them. I know that a lot of police officers were affected as well – after all, they’re human too, they have families, homes, loved ones that may still be unaccounted for. But if you can’t handle it, if it gets to be too much, if you don’t feel that you can focus on helping others like you’re supposed to, then SAY SO. Don’t take it out on fellow victims. If you can’t handle it, turn in your badge, and just quit. People like him are the ones that set the horrible examples that it’s okay to be selfish, to ignore your fellow men (or women) in need, it’s okay to loot, steal, cheat, assault, and commit all this crimes when the real issue is that people need help. The only way that this is going to work is if everybody bands together. By everybody I mean the people within the crisis, the people outside the crisis; those helping in other cities with the coordination of evacuating refugees, and the US government. Both at the federal and state levels. Everyone needs to come together to serve the common purpose. Help those who need it.

And yes, I know there are, like I said, those bad seeds. And in desperation, people do crazy things. Remember in Titanic? Upon hearing that women and children only are going to be first allowed on the escape rafts, he steals a child from one of the lowerclassmen and uses that child as his ticket onto the raft. I sincerely hope it’s not the case, yet greatly fear that many down in the ravaged areas are employing means similar to this, in their desperation to be rescued. How tragic.

Again, I realize that I have never been in a situation like this. I am sure that unless you’ve experienced the fear, the anguish, and the desperation firsthand, you don’t know what you’ll do, how you’ll react, what you’ll be driven to do. But I am the type of person who yearns, who hopes to believe that man is inherently good. However, seeing people react this way in circumstances like this makes me think twice about my ethical beliefs. While I agree that help is disappointingly, and unbelievably slow in coming to this area (remember the quote that “we’re taking better care of Iraqis that we are of our own people”), it doesn’t give people a reason to harm their fellow man. People need to be compassionate, kind, helpful, and gracious. Only then will we be able to look back on this situation and say “Look at the circumstances we were given, the challenges we had to face, and see how well we managed.”

Instead, I think this disaster is going to go down in history as one of the worst in the nation, and as a lesson for a variety of subjects (management, sociology, science, logistics, etc.) filled with “coulda shoulda wouldas”.

What a shame.

Useless Quiz of the Week

2005-08-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

Who is your "Lost" Alter Ego?

You scored as Charlie. You're Charlie! Sweet, adorable and caring but with a bit of a bad habit.

Claire

69%

Charlie

69%

Hurley

56%

Kate

50%

Jin

50%

Locke

50%

Jack

44%

Sun

44%

Shannon

38%

Sawyer

38%

Boone

31%

Michael

31%

Sayid

19%

Who is your "Lost" alter ego?
created with QuizFarm.com

New Year's Plans

2005-08-18T08:06:00.000-04:00

My husband had this fabulous idea for New Year's this year. Since we live so close to New York City, we could come in and watch the ball drop. We both don't care much for the crowds and aren't too keen on standing out in the cold for hours on end, but we figured that we could get a room at one of the nice hotels in Times Square, with a view of the festivities, and watch the ball drop from our hotel window. Great idea, right?

As an added bonus, we wanted to bring Pepper as well. We feel bad that every time we travel, she never gets to come anywhere with us. There were a suprising number of dog-friendly hotels in New York, so that didn't seem to be a problem.

So I called a number of hotels. Yes, a number. It seems that even in mid-August, rooms in New York City are long gone for New Year's Eve. Everyone else was probably having the same idea as me.

I found a great hotel near Times Square that would allow Pepper, but it didn't have a view of Times Square. Scratch that.

Most other places I called were completely booked.

The Marriott Marquis had room, but didn't take dogs over 25 pounds. (Pepper is about 52 lbs.). At this point I was pretty much out of other options, so I decided we could always take Pepper another time. They did have rooms overlooking Times Square, and they had availability for New Year's. Yaay! They said there was a three-night-stay minimum, which I found completely understandable, and wouldn't really be a problem for us. So I asked them what the rates where for those rooms. They said that the 29th, 20th, 1st, and 2nd would be $369 a night. Okay, so that was a little high, but completely understandable. After all, this is New York, these rooms overlook Times Square, and the Marriott is a pretty posh hotel. But the night of the 31st, you ask? Well, that night would cost us a cool $1500.

Yep. I didn't accidentally put an extra zero there - you read right. Fifteen Hundred Big Ones.
It took all I could to keep from choking. I thanked the gentleman and hung up, then called my husband and said, "Let's forget about New York for New Year's." I went on to explain the situation and finished, "Let's just stay home and enjoy New Year's in front of the TV with Pepper." That's good enough.

Although, I was impressed with that first hotel I mentioned above - The Muse, on 46th, between 6th Ave. and Broadway. They even offer what they call a "Pampered Pooch" package (scroll down a ways to see the description). I told my husband we should go, not necessarily for New Year's or anything special. Just to go, hang out in New York City, do more dog-friendly things for Pepper. It actually says on the hotel's website that there are a few stores in NYC that are dog-friendly, so we could take Pepper there. Though I probably have to check size requirements. I think when they say dog friendly, they're thinking little rat dogs - Chihuahuas, poodles, etc.

But it works out well - we've been meaning to go to Tiffany's to check out the rings there, and my husband's new favorite store is Brooks Brothers. How cool is that?!

I Love the 60s

2005-08-12T11:28:00.000-04:00

I must be in a somewhat nostalgic mood. Nostalgic, going way back to even before I was born. A sudden resurgence of 60's influenced music seems to be gaining popularity. I've become somewhat reminiscent upon that era...

One of my favorite movies ever is "That Thing You Do", for a number of reasons:

1) Steve Zahn - "Are you crazy? A man in a really nice camper wants to put our song on the radio! Gimme a pen, I'm signin'! You're signin'! We're all signin'!"

2) Tom Everett Scott - 'I led you here, sir, for I am Spartacus. "

3) Liv Tyler - so classy as the girlfriend to the lead singer of a 60s fab-five-esque band

4) the music. VERY authentic, classic, Beatles-like.

I can't tell you how many times I asked people are you SURE the Wonders weren't a real band from back in the day? It just sounded much like songs you would've heard from that time period, and the story, in fact, seemed so realistic, it was pretty cool!

Fast forward to 2005, and enter The Click Five. Check out the website, hear the song and tell me if you don't think they sound - not necessarily authentically 60s - but heavily influenced by aforementioned era. Their song "Just The Girl" royally kicks ass.

The new fab five. Not from Liverpool, not from Erie, PA, but from Boston, home of the newly victorious Red Sox.

CD comes out Aug. 16th, and lemme tell ya, I'm going to be one of the first in line to buy it.

There. I've conducted my shameless plug and promotion on behalf of The Click Five.

Thank you for your attention.

*stepping down of my soapbox*

The Monster

2005-07-26T15:03:00.000-04:00

So my colleagues have done it again, and raised the insane green monster of jealousy, envy, and frustration within me.

I should probably start getting used to it, but it still doesn't make it any easier.One of my colleagues congratulated my boss on the fact that his wife is now at 7 months, due in September. And he said yeah, XYZ (my other coworker)'s wife is also expecting.

And then they went on to joke about how "oh, there must be something in your team's water." I felt my chest suddenly tighten, as they went on and teased me and another assistant that were right there, "Don't you go getting any ideas, now!" The other assistant laughed and was like, "Oh, hell no - not me, not now." I couldn't say anything. My eyes were starting to burn, my throat was dry - I couldn't even bring myself to look up and attempt to crack a smile. The group dispersed and went back to their own offices to continue working - meanwhile, I was trying so hard to fight the tears welling up in my eyes. I was trying to take deep breaths, calm myself down - nothing was helping - so I slipped quietly into the ladies room for a couple minutes and just let go. It wasn't anything major - just letting go of the tears that had broke through the surface. I wasn't in the bathroom for more than maybe 2 - 3 minutes tops. So it's not like I had a sobfest or anything. Just had to get the momentary frustration out of my system.

It just bugs me. I know it's not their fault. They don't know what's going on with me - how could they? I haven't told them. I mean, a few years ago I wouldn't been joining in the conversation, but it's just that things have changed now. The appointment with my doctor on Saturday just made it that much more real for me. All the tests and appointments. The doctor actually said that it's often during this testing phase that conception will actually happen. *fingers crossed* I hope so.

But you don't have to tell me - I know I'm a wuss. There are people that have tried longer and harder than us to have children. One year is NOTHING. My brother and his wife struggled for nearly 7 years to have a baby. SEVEN! Can you believe it? And here I am moping and whining about ONE. *sigh* I mean, I really do try and be strong, and try and be positive, but every once awhile things like this just happen that send me over the edge. I just have to climb back up and start moving forward again...

Lyrical Moments

2005-07-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

So I've got all of the video clips saved onto our computer at home, and I'm currently trying to burn them to DVDs...but once again our PC is acting up and is not letting me proceed with the burning. Means I need to work on it some more this weekend with what little free time I will have. Which also means the posting of the photos is getting pushed back...I'm still shooting for by end of summer though, so will let you know as soon as it's done.
And to close this very brief entry, today's lyrical excerpt moment:

Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin
-From "Colored People" by DC Talk

I just happen to think that that's one of the most creative, original, and clever lyrical sets I've ever heard.

Enjoy!

Shoulda Coulda

2005-07-08T10:57:00.000-04:00

Currently Listening: Wild Wild West - Will Smith
Mood: Lazy, yet Ambitious

So I owe y'all an entry...big time.
I should be posting pictures and updating my website, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. First priority is finishing the video that I've compiled from our Europe trip over memorial day weekend/week. I'm trying to work backwards, since that's usually the last thing to get done, but I want it to be the first, here...
So as soon as the video is done, I'll start working on pictures. My goal is to have everything done by the end of summer...but you know me and my schedule and inability to get things done on time. So we'll see what happens.
P.S. Oh man... completely forgot what a kick ass song this is. This song is probably the best thing (if not the ONLY good thing) about the Wild Wild West movie that came out a few years ago with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. Hot DAMN what a kick ass song. Have I mentioned how kick ass the song is? Just try sitting still with a beat like that! Hot diggity!

Doppelgangers

2005-06-16T10:23:00.000-04:00

So there’s a guy at work that looks almost exactly like Ian Somerhalder (from Lost, for those of you who don’t watch the show). And everytime he comes by I have to remind myself that his name is John and not Boone. I’ve come pretty close to calling him Boone a couple times, actually. How embarrassing would that be?

They’re both equally dreamy, by the way…
;-)

Grave Danger

2005-05-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

Last night was the season finale of CSI. All shows will do something outrageous, some amazing cliffhanger or some mucho famous guest star (e.g., Alec Baldwin on Will & Grace) for their season finale. But CSI? They took it one step further and opted to have the genius that is Quentin Tarantino direct the two hour season finale.

BEST. EPISODE. EVER. There were so many classic Tarantino trademarks – the camera angles, the dialogue, the music, bringing back classic actors like Tony Curtis and Frank Gorshin – the whole thing was just amazing.

A couple memorable moments from last nights’ ep:
1) Right off the bat, hearing Nick sing along with that classic song in the radio – that was Tarantino right there.
2) The autopsy scene. How funny was that?? Laughed my ass off, thanks much. And that last line of the scene with Robbins holding up Nick’s heart to his dad and going, “Your son…had a great heart.” I mean, you knew it was coming and it was SO cheesy but at the same time you couldn’t help but laugh. That whole scene was awesome!

And a couple observations:
1) The focus of this episode seemed to be more on the characters and the relationships among them. We definitely got to see more of Nick and to learn about his family – at least on the surface. We got to see more of the strong, yet very different types of bonds between Nick and Warrick, Nick and Catherine, and Nick and Grissom.
2) Which brings me to point 2. Nick and Grissom seem to have more of a father-son bond than a coworker bond. I’m not sure what Nick said to Grissom in the coffin when he was speaking into the recorder, but at the end it took Grissom calling Nick the same name Nick’s dad used – “Pancho” – to get his attention and make him focus. Interesting.
3) We got to see more of Ecklie in this ep as well, and learned that he’s really not a bad guy. Past eps have made him out to be tough and harsh, but I liked how this ep brought out the caring, concerned, do-anything-to-get-my-guy-back attitude.

Bravo to the cast, to the director, and to all the crew for an amazing job.

Bravo indeed.

Mind Games

2005-05-17T03:31:00.000-04:00

I was surfing the web this weekend and came across the blog of Wil Wheaton - yes, he was an actor back in the day, still is, but is now doing theater, etc. He was probably best known for his role as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek. Anyway, one of his recommended blogs directed me to the following puzzle.

You can find the puzzle here. Just click on the one that says "Crimson Room - English".

Here's the guidelines/rules:

There are 13 items hidden in this room in order to let you get out ofthis room.

If you found:
0-6 items, your IQ is very low, total idiot
6-8 items, Low IQ, you are an idiot
9-10 items, you are normal
11-12 items, your IQ is high, above the average.
13 items found and get out of the room, there are less than 4000people in the world can do it.

The only clue I will give you is to use the URL on the Memo to help you get out!

Now, I'm proud to say that I was able to find 9 items, so I'm in the safe "normal" zone. However, it's bugging me that there are more items that are proving to be quite elusive. It's proving to be quite frustrating.

So I'm posting this link and these rules to see if anyone can figure it out.

And FYI - I've tried the other one as well - the Viridian Room. And I've gotten quite a few of the items, and have found the combination lock, but can't seem to get it open.

I've also done the Blue Room/Blue Chamber - was able to get out of that one with little/no help. So that's significantly easier...

Let me know how you do and if you have any better luck than me!...

Reality Rap-Up

2005-05-16T08:13:00.000-04:00

Oh. My. God.

Wow.

So I just watched the season finale of the Amazing Race this weekend. (I’d taped it Tuesday since I was watching the Veronica Mars season finale at the same time that day.) It’s the first season that I’ve watched the show and so I wasn’t expecting it to be at all what it was. What it was, was plainly put, the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat, roller coast ride 2 hours I have ever experienced in my TV viewing history. I mean, there were moments there that I went “There’s no way the producers didn’t plan that and make that happen!”

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, be forewarned that spoilers lie ahead.

For instance, Rob and Amber managed to get on this early flight to Miami. And the doors to the plane actually closed. And Uchenna and Joyce were right behind them and missed the plane and actually saw the walkway pulling back in towards the airport, away from the plane. They were asking the ground staff, “Isn’t there anything we can do? We really need to be on that plane!” and lo and behold, a mind numbing 10-15 minutes later, they actually bring the walkway back to the plane and open the doors to let them on!! I have NEVER in my life heard of that happening. And yet it did for them.

But I mean really, Uchenna and Joyce started the two hours in first place, and then through a series of errors/misjudgements, ended up in last place, but with all their possessions and funds stripped. All they had were the clothes on their back. So for the last hour, they were begging for money from strangers, even asking an ambulance waiting on standby to give them a ride (with unsuccessful results). And yet through all that, they stayed positive, they stayed kind to each other and to their teammates, and managed to come in first.

Seriously though, no one deserves it more than them. I want to be like them. They’ve been through so much – both of them have been laid off, they’re struggling to start a family, they’ve been questioning their marriage…it’s one of those situations you just think, “God, can’t you please, just give them a break! Give them this one thing!” And like I said, though they entered this thing with problems in their marriage, it took something like this with the stress and the pressure to realize that they really did love each other, and that this actually brought them together. (Unlike Ron & Kelly, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.) I think going a challenge and facing adversity like this as a couple really opens your eyes and shows you whether or not you’re meant to be together. I mean sure, they had problems at home, but they didn’t realize that in order to face them, they had to be a team – which, being the whole purpose and point of this race, taught them that anything they needed to face, they could face it (and overcome it) together. Hell, Joyce even shaved off her hair to make it through. Talk about taking one for the team – and Uchenna was so amazingly supportive through it all. What an amazing man!

I’m so incredibly proud of them!

And on a similarly related note…watched the end of Survivor last night as well. Again, spoilers to come, so skip the next few paragraphs if you haven’t seen it.

It was nowhere near the roller coaster ride that Amazing Race was. But still, 12 hours standing on that buoy. Man, I gotta hand it to Tom and Ian. Those guys are real troopers right there. Do you think they even realized they had the option to barter a deal or did neither one of them want to barter with the other? I mean, maybe Ian didn’t venture anything because he doubted that Tom would believe him anyway…which was why Tom made the first deal, but obviously Ian didn’t buy that either. He figured Tom was going to play him to pay him back for his renegating on his word with/for Tom previously. Which was why he did the only thing he could do – sacrifice himself. I think he did do it for the greater good – to gain Katie and Tom’s respect and trust back and to regain their friendship – but I think he also knew that there was no way that either one of them would be able to believeably offer a deal to let the other one go with them to tribal council if they gave up.

I knew Katie had basically coasted her way through to the final two, but I was amazed at how brutal her jury members were on her. I mean, really. I think Greg was downright cruel. He called her pathetic, lazy, and worthless. Geez, tell us how you really feel! I felt bad for her. I mean, if you say that she didn’t do anything around camp and sat out most of the challenges, that’s fine, but leave it at that and don’t start with the personal attacks, because that’s just not fair. It’s just way too harsh.

But I’m glad Tom ended up winning, because he SO totally deserved it. Kudos to him and a super big Kudos to Uchenna and Joyce. Both played well, played hard and deserved everything they got.

Jobs & Such

2005-04-20T12:11:00.000-04:00

Every now and again I have to wonder if I didn’t pursue the wrong field in terms of career. I have such a fascination with the entertainment industry, and there are certain aspects of it (not just the celebrity part) that I find so intriguing and interesting. It gets me thinking as to whether I’m seriously doing what’s right for me professionally. My knowledge of music and film isn’t that extensive, by far, but there are certain inner workings, certain behind-the-scenes aspects of it that I find to be so gripping.

There was sort of docu-video thing online that I stumbled upon – it showed Rob Thomas (lead singer of matchbox twenty) in the studio, laying down the lead vocals for “This Is How A Heart Breaks”, a track off his new CD “…Something to Be”. And it’s just so interesting to see what goes into making a song. And how it’s not as easy as listening to it might make it seem. He sings a few lines, his producer interrupts him, says “it was a little pitchy that time, let’s make it more solid” or “let’s try it again with a little anger”. Or Rob himself interrupts to say “Let me try this with the notes going down” and then after doing so, decides, “I’m going to do it up again, I think I liked that better.” I mean, there’s so much detail that you have to pay attention to. It’s surprisingly riveting. I’m not sure if that, per se is what I’d like to be doing, but Lord knows it would be nice to be able to work in an industry where you were able to create pieces of art like that. With musicians like that.

I guess it would depend on who you worked with though. I mean, I’d have to enjoy the music and respect the musician – Rob is one of those folks where I truly think he’s got talent, not just to sing but as a true artist – songwriter, musician, lyricist, etc.

I think I’m digressing from the point at hand though. Which is basically that it would be pretty cool to do something like that. Then again, that’s not really where my skills (which are what, exactly?) are.

It goes back to that whole earlier entry of “Ambition”. I know what I like, but my skills don’t seem to tie in. I’m good at a number of things, but that’s just it. I’m not REALLY good at one thing or another. I’m just GOOD at MANY things. So that just makes it really hard to narrow down. I like to write, but I’m not a really good writer. I like watching folks put art (music, songs, etc.) together, but I’m not good at that, either. I like photographs, etc. but am not good at taking pictures. So where does that leave me?

Evidently it leaves me with an MBA in Human Resources working as an admin in the Advertising and Sales department of a large media company.

Woo. Hoo.

Anyone out there a fan of the show '24'?

2005-04-14T15:36:00.000-04:00

Check this out:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Upcoming '24' Focuses on Jack Bauer Eating a Sandwich
Tuesday, March 15 12:00 AM ET
By Cody James
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2005/03/24_hamburger.html

Hollywood, CA - Fox was uncharacteristically candid this week about the next hour in one of CTU agent Jack Bauer's (Kiefer Sutherland) many harrowing days. In an interview with Variety, executive producer Evan Katz revealed the next hour of this season's 24-hour "day," from 7-8 p.m., would mostly focus on Jack eating a sandwich.
"Many fans remarked how Jack never seems to stop for anything," said Katz. "Since the episode is the proverbial deep breath before the plunge, we decided Jack needed some nourishment."
While Katz declined to get specific, he did share a few moments from the episode. As CTU searches frantically for Marwan and tries to uncover McLennan-Forster's secrets, Jack's SUV power-slides into an In-N-Out Burger in Van Nuys. He jumps out, dashes inside and hurriedly orders a Double-Double with no pickles, fries and a Dr. Pepper.
Naturally, the order goes horribly wrong.
The barely sentient cashier fails to enter Jack's order correctly, so the sandwich arrives with pickles anyway. He then tells Jack that the Dr. Pepper spout is broken. "Listen to me," Jack says, grabbing the cashier by the shirt. "I need you to take the pickles off now. There's no time to explain – you're going to have to trust me."
Bauer is then forced to choose between Coca-Cola and root beer while the cashier ponders a solution to the pickle crisis.
The balance of the episode is a series of intercuts between the chaos at CTU headquarters and Jack as he eats his sandwich, reads the paper and visits the rest room. As for what Jack does about the soda situation, Katz said, "Jack's a resourceful guy – he'll think of something." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking Care of Business

2005-04-11T11:16:00.000-04:00

So I’m sure most folks who are reading this (yes, that would be you, the one person who comes and reads my blog…) know by now that my husband and I are “trying”. We’ve been trying for about 9 months now with no success. My husband tends to get frustrated more easily than I do, but I had a little breakdown last week when it started to get to me as well.
Tuesday morning we had our team meeting here at work. One of my colleagues opened our meeting by saying his wife was pregnant with their first child, and that she was due in November. Great news, I was happy for him, felt slight pang of jealousy, but nonetheless, felt genuinely happy for him, getting to be a first time dad and all. Then my boss adds, “Oh by the way, my wife is pregnant as well, with our second child.” That’s when it hit me – I’m ashamed to say that my feelings jealousy grew to a point where they were slightly higher than my “happy for him” feelings. I mean, really. How fair is it that their wives are both expecting – much less, my boss’s wife for the second time and here I am with my husband, struggling for one?!?
I know I shouldn’t complain – after all, we’ve only been trying for a few months. Even my OB said to give it a year, and if we’re still not having any luck, then we’ll do some tests and stuff. I don’t know. Hopefully we’re both healthy and it’s just taking us a bit longer to conceive…Hell, it took my brother and his wife about 7 years before they were able to have a baby! So I’m sure it will happen…just gotta be patient and positive.
I’m trying to be healthier, too. Whole grains, lots of veggies and fruits, lots of water, exercising more….I’m going to gym more now. I’m trying to go every weekday. I do a bit of cardio and some weights every day, but I alternate the part of my body doing the weights. One day I’ll do upper body (arms, shoulders, etc.), then the next I’ll do lower body (legs, hips, thighs, etc.). Abs, I do every day because that’s one of the areas I need to focus on. It means getting up about 15 minutes earlier in the morning, but it’s not such a big deal. Actually does make me feel better, like I’m doing something good for myself, so it helps keep my spirits and energy up.
All part of the master plan to be in good shape, good health and therefore…good breeding ground!

When words fail...take a quiz!

2005-04-01T09:15:00.000-05:00

You are the cute but psycho happy bunny. You're adorable, but a little out there. It's alright, you might not have it all, but there are worse.

Happy Monday??

2005-03-21T08:26:00.000-05:00

So I got off to a bumpy start this morning. Woke up late, scrambled to get ready & get to the train station. Just BARELY made my train. Didn’t nap on the way in as much as I wanted to – a group of high school kids were in my train, all packed up, ready to go only God knows where (Spring Break, maybe??).

Anyway, once I got to Penn, I head for the Subway to catch the train into Times Square, and it ended up being delayed – I had to wait a good 25 minutes or so for the damn thing. THEN, to top it all off, asshole New Yorkers decide that even though theirs isn’t the next stop, they’re going to go and stand in front of the exit doors. These two people, who aren’t exiting Times Square (the next stop) are standing at the doors, so when I need to get out, they’re just, like, trying to step over so that I can squeeze through. And I’m not a big person, but I had a couple bags with me, so I’m like worming my way between them. God, how annoying. If yours isn’t the next stop, don’t stand by the doors!! It’s as simple as that…sheeesh.

Then things took a turn for the better. I got out at Times Square and there’s sort of like a revolving exit that we have to go out of – this slightly overweight (she wasn’t that big or anything, but you could tell she had a few pounds on her) black woman went through before me, and I followed just behind her. She kept turning around and looking back as we went through, and even as we went through the stairs afterwards, and couldn’t figure out why, until she said, “I didn’t think I’d fit -I’m amazed I made it through there!” I couldn’t help but laugh with her as she said that! Too cute!

And the final cherry on the sundae? There were all these girls from the GAP, dressed all pretty in their khaki trenchcoats, with baskets of flowers in their hand. One came up to me and chirped, “Happy First Day of Spring from the GAP,” and handed me not one, but THREE pink roses! Now, I don’t know what it is, but receiving flowers could put a smile on ANY girl’s face!

It could be a great Monday after all!

White Butterflies

2005-03-11T02:59:00.000-05:00

I know I’ve been complaining about snow and winter and all that comes with it in recent entries. But let me be honest – it’s not all bad.

It’s snowing today. It was fine on my drive into the train station this morning. I dozed off on the train as usual, and woke up just before Newark, only to see a fresh dusting of white on the tracks and nearby grounds. When I looked out over the horizon, I didn’t see the actual snow falling – just a sort of distant white haze. Really quite peaceful actually. It was only when we pulled to a stop that I could see the delicate white flakes drifting downwards. Really peaceful to watch, actually. I got to Penn Station, caught my subway ride, and stepped out into Times Square. It was still coming down pretty steadily. And it was just so nice to be in the midst of a light snowfall like that – almost as if you’re in the middle of some dreamworld fairyland or something. I think that’s what it is. What I especially love is having snowflakes fall on my hair. The contrast of the white snowflakes on my dark hair is so dramatic. The whole effect of it sort of makes me feel almost as if I’m a princess in a fairyland.

Okay, now I’m just getting weird.

But explain this to me. New Yorkers carry umbrellas when it snows. Why? Umbrellas are for rain – not snow. This morning I saw this one woman with an umbrella, and because of the wind and the weightlessness of the snow, she was STILL getting snowflakes in her face and hair. So what’s the point? I’m convinced it’s a NY/East Coast thing, because nobody in the Midwest that I know of carries an umbrella when it snows.
NY-ers must be daft!

Revulsion

2005-03-09T11:15:00.000-05:00

So what is it with female executives? Do they have some sort of aversion to washing their hands after they use the ladies?

It’s quite frightening, actually.

This afternoon I was in the ladies’ room and someone came in just ahead of me. Of course, they finished first, flushed (as they very well should), and then left the stall…walking straight out of the bathroom. She didn’t even stop to wash her hands, or at the very least, rinse them off!

She’s not technically an executive, but is definitely “up there”. Add to that the fact that the assistant to one of our female EXECUTIVE executives spilled the beans that this Carly Fiorina-esque individual NEVER washed her hands upon answering nature’s call.

Really makes you want to think twice about shaking their hands when you meet them.

Maybe I’m generalizing this, but consider the fact that all us other little peons take the time to wash our hands – often with soap. So is it an executive thing? Are they too busy to wash their hands, or do they think because they’re all hoity-toity high & mighty the germs won’t adhere to their hands?? Come on, people. Get real – Germs are germs, and germs don’t discriminate!

A little hygiene would be nice!

I realize I might appear a bit sexist here, but do understand – I can’t very well go visit the men’s bathroom to see who does and doesn’t wash their hands…

Am I right?

Trust...Who Do Ya?

2005-03-07T10:45:00.000-05:00

Is it really that hard to come by? I mean, really.

I was telling my husband last night that while I really do like the people that I hang out with when we all get together (his friends), I don’t really think of them as my friend friends. I told him that a friend is someone that I feel I can really confide in. I can share just about everything and I can rest assured I can trust them on two major levels:

1)They won’t go blabbing my secrets/problems to everyone else around town

2)They won’t judge me – they’ll listen and offer whatever advice they may feel is necessary.

So why is it so hard to find someone like that? I had folks down in my old position in Princeton I considered those kinds of friends – we’d go out on fun little excursions during our lunch hour and totally relate on a “non-work” level. I could share whatever was going on at home, and I’d get a very attentive, non-judgemental reponse and I knew that I could trust that the entire company wouldn’t know about it the next day. I miss those folks. We don’t talk as much as we used to only because we’re all so busy now – them with their work, me with mine.

The friends that we hang out with now, I can’t trust them worth jack. They have that tendency to where I can never be sure what I can tell them; unless I want the entire neighborhood and our whole network of contacts to know about it, I really can’t tell them anything. (Well, it’s not EVERYONE in the group – a couple select people, but I won’t name any names.)

I miss having a real friend around. I really do. It just feels like a part of me isn’t fully there. No – let me rephrase. It feels like a part of me is just constantly staying bottled up inside. And it’s just really frustrating. I want to be able to share it with someone, but there’s no one around that I feel comfortable doing that with.

On a lighter note – go check out some pics of my little nephew Max! He made his grand entrance into the world at 9:44pm on Thursday, March 3rd.

Woohoo!

Why I Love Winter...NOT!!

2005-02-28T03:05:00.000-05:00

Snow again. It's snowing AGAIN today. I'm going to seriously, really truly HATE driving home tonight. I am going to try to leave right at 5, if not a little before. If I can catch my boss, I'm actually going to try to leave between 4 and 4:30. That would be nice. I haven't seen him since 11am and it's now 1:45 though. And he has an offsite meeting at 4. So I hope I catch him before then.

I really don't want to be driving in nasty road conditions - I HATE driving in the snow. REALLY hate it.
Ugh...And don't tell me "Oh, the Northeast has had it easy this year." Okay, so we have had more than our usual share of 40/50+ days this winter. That doesn't make driving on days like this any easier.

Fargin' ice-holes!

Sumunum botches....

Ponderances

2005-02-25T09:02:00.000-05:00

Is it true that you can’t throw a potato chip very far?

Thanks to an IMDB discussion (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247082/board/nest/16127733) I now have the urge to go home and try it. There’s a huge bag of Cheddar Cheese Lays on top of our refrigerator. Unruffled. (The ongoing debate is whether unruffled go further than ruffled). I don’t have a basis for comparison, but would be interesting to see just how far the unruffled can go.

Note to self: remember to take into account the fact that Pepper may be a variable in my experiment – particularly if she grabs the chip before it marks its point of impact/distance on the floor.

All the Best Intentions

2005-02-24T14:54:00.000-05:00

So much for my resolution, eh? It just seems to fruitless to do all this writing and have nothing come of it. I want to go somewhere with it, but what can I do when no one responds to what I have to say?

I should upload my Taiwan pictures. I took pictures while we were there, and managed to get a bunch of them on CD. Which means, they’re digital, and therefore much easier to upload to Yahoo for posting on the website. I haven’t done anything with it (website) in awhile, so I think it’s high time I did. I think the last time I updated was over a year ago, with photos from the Borgota and our Christmas trip there. So it’s high time I updated, and it’s high time I posted some new photos.

So…I’m going to try and do that this weekend. Aw, hell. If it’s going to snow this weekend, what else will I be busy with (other than shoveling snow, cleaning off my car, yadda yadda yadda)

Speaking of snow. Weather forecasters said it would start this afternoon. On my drive to the train station this morning (5:45 am) the DJ’s said it would start “anytime now”. Didn’t start snowing the entire train ride/trek to my office. My desktop weather alert issued a winter weather warning in effect through Feb. 24 (yes, today) until 11am. 11:04 status check: no snow. It’s now 12:04. The sky outside, though white, is relatively calm, and shows no indication of snowing in the near future. Bizzarro…and to accommodate the ever postponing weather details, desktop weather has now changed their forecast to indicate that the weather warning is now pushed up through 5pm. Though there is still no snow to be seen.
Odd indeed…

Joys of Winter

2005-01-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

So it’s supposed to snow something awful this weekend. 6 inches or something. And so all the plans for this weekend are getting flipflopped, postponed, or cancelled.

Joy.

Not a bad thing, really. My husband and I stayed home last weekend and managed to just basically do stuff around the house, veg out, watch movies, relax. The furthest we went was to the mall to pick up a painting we’d gotten framed. Usually we’d have gone out with friends and stayed out until like 12 or 1 in the morning. It was just so much more relaxing not having to do that – I think we both really enjoyed it.

So I know I just started my new job a few months ago – but I’m already seriously considering a change. Part of it is the commute, but it’s also that I’m not in the job I want, and I’m not making the money I want to make.

This job, just like my last one, doesn’t challenge me enough. Maybe I don’t make it so…but I’m left with a great deal of idle time. I don’t feel like I’m challenged enough, I don’t feel like people trust me enough to leave me with other tasks to do. I want to be self-managed, and I try my best to be, but when I do need guidance, the powers that be are nowhere to be found. I can’t deal with that.

So my husband found this place near where he works that’s offering training in a number of pharmaceutical related areas, including technical writing (which I could totally do, with the right training) and they in turn place you with clients needing those skills. I could so totally do that. And it’s close to home.

See, the commute part is hard. I won’t lie. I miss being able to leave to and from work when it’s light out. I miss being able to actually get stuff done at home during the week. The way it is now, leave the house at about 5:30am, get home at around 8pm. I have time to eat, change, and go to bed. That’s it. Then the cycle starts all over again. I have no life, no freedom. The house is a mess – dishes are seriously piled so high in the since I’m afraid they’ll topple over. Our walk-in closet is overflowing with clothes that need to be washed – and don’t even get me started on the sludge growing in the tracks of our sliding shower door.

I’ve barely seen my husband save for an hour before bed and that’s it. We never get to talk, never spend time with each other. My sex life is pitiful – we’re lucky if I have the energy once every couple of weeks. And on top of that, we’re actually trying to have a baby in the middle of all this??

Don’t think so…something’s gotta change….

It Pays to be a Couch Potato

2005-01-18T09:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, so not really a couch potato - but watching TV has its uses!

Case in point:

Last week, I came home from work, dropped my bag on the couch, and headed upstairs to changed and freshen up before dinner. I had changed into my sweatpants and a T-shirt, and went into the bathroom to wash my face. I happened to glance at the ledge just behind our bathtub and saw some beige splinters of wood, along with some dull lavender plastic pieces there. I was curious as to what they were from, so I scanned the door frame and the moulding along the wall - nothing appeared to be damaged, and the colors and textures weren't a match. I finished washing up, took the pieces in my hand and went downstairs.

"What are these from?" I asked my husband, holding up the shreds of wood.

"I don't know." He replied. "I was hoping you'd be able to figure it out."

"Put my CSI skills to good use, huh?" I teased. "Okay - so first question. Where'd you find it?"

"She was laying on the floor next to the bed when I got up this morning, chewing on it." He explained, motioning to our dog Pepper.

"Okay," I mused. "That makes this a heckuva lot easier." I then proceeded to examine the molding and the floor on the ground floor, thinking that perhaps she'd gotten something from there and brought it upstairs. Didn't find anything that matched. I went into the kitchen, checking under the dishwasher and the oven to see if maybe she'd found something under there. No luck.

After watching me search in vain for a few minutes, my husband left to go run a couple errands. I sat on the couch, thinking for a minute about how to best approach this mystery - then realized that I was looking at things from the wrong angle. To see what she had found, where she had gotten it from, I literally needed to come down to her level and see the world through her eyes. So I did - I got down on my hands & knees and walked around the ground floor, then made my way up the stairs slowly, pretending I was a dog, exploring all the little corners, nooks, and crevices.

As soon as I entered the bedroom, I spotted it - one of the support rails (the mismatched middle one) from underneath our bed had falled off and was on the floor. Not a big deal in terms of our bed and its ability to support us, but regardless, that's what she had been chewing on!

I went downstairs grinning from ear to ear and called my husband. "You can't ever say that watching CSI and shows like that are pointless!" were the first words I said to him.

"You figured it out," he chuckled.

"Yep." I beamed. I went on to tell him what I'd discovered - and how I'd discovered it.
So - pretty cool, right? I felt like such a detective!!

You have now reached The Outer Limits

2005-01-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

I said it, didn't I? That if this wierd psychic phenomenon happened again this week that I'd be officially freaked out?
Well, I'm officially freaked out now. I happened upon backstreet.net this morning as I was following up on one of my message board posts, and saw a thread on Aaron Carter - something about a comment he made, saying that he only liked girls that were pretty - not really relevant to my discussion here, but it interested me a bit so I followed it down and read it.
Now about 10 - 15 minutes later, I open up CNN.com and what do I see as one of the headlines? "Singer Aaron Carter escapes fiery SUV accident".
So like I said, I'm officially spooked.
I think I'm subconciously psychic or something....

The Twilight Zone

2005-01-04T03:41:00.000-05:00

You ever think you've got sort of a prophetic air around you without you really realizing it? Or that you're like, subconciously psychic or something?

Like for example: Sometimes you'll be thinking about a song, and the next thing you know, it's playing on the radio. Or you have a dream, and then you realize your dream is happening (deja vu, I believe it's called...), or something from your dream makes an unexpected appearance. It's happened to me twice in about three days. Kinda freaky, considering the odds.

Cases in point:

1) Sunday my husband and I were coming back from the mall, and a song by Hilary Duff was on the radio. Something about it made me wax nostaligic, thinking about how young today's musicians are, thinking about my high school reunion coming up this year, etc. And the song "1985" popped into my head. So I started telling my husband how even though I'm now 27, I don't feel like I'm getting old until songs like that come out and the DJ when announcing it says something to effect of "a lot of kids who like this song weren't even born yet when the artists mentioned in the song were famous". That sort of thing makes me realize that there are kids born in 1990 that would now be teenagers - and I told my husband, that is what makes me feel old. I actually remember 1990. For example, I know where I was and what I was doing when I heard that Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Yet there are kids out there that were born after that and weren't even around during the Nirvana glory days. That's the kind of thing makes me feel old. So lo and behold, guess what song comes on just after Duff's "Come Clean", just as I've finished telling my husband all this - none other than Bowling for Soup's "1985"!! Creepy...
2) Sunday night (hmm...seems Sunday was just full of creepy coin-ki-dinks, wasn't it??) I had a dream about Dennis Quaid. Not going to go into any details, but let's just say it was a really vivid dream. (A little awkward to wake up from and assess the ramifications, considering he's old enough to be my father...) I hadn't been thinking about him, hadn't seen any of his movies lately, nothing. The closest was probably a discussion over lunch three days earlier where I had very quickly mentioned his new movie "In Good Company" with Topher Grace" and how it looked pretty good. And it wasn't even a "I really want to see Dennis Quaid in 'In Good Company'" comment; it was more like, "That new movie 'In Good Company' with Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace looks really good." So today I go onto CNN.com like I always do, and what do I find? A special entertainment headline/front page story on Dennis Quaid.

Yoiks.

I think if one more freaky-deak coincidence like this takes place this week, I'll be officially spooked.

Happy New Year!!

2005-01-01T20:09:00.000-05:00

It's my first entry for 2005. And three guesses as to what my main resolution for the New Year is...yep - it's the one I made when I started this blog, that I quite obviously was unable to keep:

To write more.

Or, to be more specific, to write in this weblog (doesn't count if I write in other journals either) at least once a week. That's the only resolution I'm making this year. We'll see how well I do at keeping it. This entry - I don't really have a topic for, but I'll write anyway. We had a pretty good holiday season. Kept it lowkey this year. Probably a good thing, since soon after Christmas, I got sick - just a cold, but I was pretty miserable for a couple days. I'm still a bit congested, but now the hubby's got it.. Except he's got a fever. Which I didn't have. So it's a bit different.

I know what I can write about - the tsunami. It's all that's been on the news the last week. Really tragic, and unbearably sad, what happened. My neighbor brought up a really good point though, and I'd like to throw it out there for public feedback:

When 9/11 happened, network (and cable news) offered up a number of photos of the destroyed twin towers. They showed people running, screaming, scared for their lives. They showed firefighters at work, they showed people helping others get to safety, etc. Yet not a single dead body was shown. They didn't show people jumping out of the towers, they didn't show any dead bodies on the ground, corpses being hauled to the morge, nothing.

Yet for the tsunami, they have no qualms about showing the bloated bodies of dead civilians, bodies piled in mass graves, rows and rows of bodies tagged and waiting for identification...

Why the difference? Why is it that for a catastrophe on American soil, where the majority of casualties are Americans, that news teams, "out of respect" avoid airing dead bodies and depicting the carnage in that way. Yet, for a disaster on the other side of the world, they appear unhesitant - almost eager - to show just how many lives were lost. My neighbor said it was blatant discrimination. I'd like to give Americans a chance to defend their media, offer any possible explanations for this discrepancy that may not have been entirely obvious to me or my neighbor.

Any thoughts?

The Healing Island?

2004-12-09T09:54:00.000-05:00

So my newest guilt pleasure – though I don’t know if it necessarily makes me so guilty – is “Lost”. The series.

My husband kind of rolled his eyes when I told him last night that I wanted to watch it. He’s like, “Since when? You’re hooked on yet another show?” Yep. And this happens to be it.

Anyone happen to catch last night’s? I’m going to discuss it here, so if you haven’t seen it, you may want to skip this entry. Just a warning…
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*

I was terrified, to put it mildly, about the prospect of actually losing Charlie. I mean, I’d read somewhere that one of the producers warned us not to get too attached to the characters as not all of them would survive – but I love Charlie! I would’ve been so pissed if they had killed him off like that!!

But anyone else think it was weird that he actually came back to life? I mean, really – although I was rooting for him, when he started gasping and wheezing I went, “What the hell?” I mean, who knows how long he was hanging there before Kate and Jack managed to get him down? Then Jack was working on him for a good 5 – 7 minutes before he started to breathe. So that’s at least 10 minutes where he wasn’t breathing, at least 10 minutes of no oxygen to the brain, so wouldn’t that be at least 10 minutes where he was technically dead? I mean, I’m not sure how the whole process of hanging really works, but the way I understand it, there are a couple methods to this:

1) your neck snaps and you go instantly, or
2) you struggle and eventually strangle yourself to death.

Although the second one takes awhile, I’m inclined to believe that this is how Charlie (almost) went. Basically since if you break your neck, there really is no coming back… It’s almost like the island itself is a sort of netherworld – a place where your deepest wants/needs come to be. Someone’s a paraplegic, they want to be able to do anything, they suddenly can. Someone dies, but someone is desperately trying to revive them, they’re restored to life…almost like the island has healing powers…Or maybe I’m reading into this too much.
Then again, “Lost” is a weird show, and that’s what makes it so great.

I mean, the fact that Jack sees Ethan but Kate doesn’t, the fact that Walt keeps winning at Backgammon (although he said that even before the crash his father – not Michael – said he was “lucky”), the metal box buried in the middle of nowhere. It’s all very puzzling.
I think the next new episode is coming our way in January. Until then it’s reruns – which isn’t all bad – gives me a chance to catch up on what I missed!

Part 2 of ???

2004-12-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

So where’d I leave off? Oh right…the Diwali celebrations.

After that, we spent a lot of time just going around to the different shops, buying a number of really pretty Indian dresses. We visited his sister, brother-in-law, and niece in Bangalore – did a great deal of shopping there, then drove about 3 hours (it should have been about a 5 hour drive but our driver was something of a maniac!) to visit my aunts and uncles in Neyveli. It was nice to see all of them again, and they were very excited to see us again as well.

We left India the night of November 15 – our flight was actually very early the morning of November 16th – and headed off for Taiwan. Let me tell you, it was SO nice to be home again. Like, back in Taiwan home. I forgot how laid-back everything there is. I feel bad because we didn’t take my husband out and about as much as we should have, but I think he still enjoyed it. We visited a couple Buddhist temples, and I showed him around the local street markets. It was really neat to look at everything through his eyes – he’d ask me questions about it that I hadn’t really thought of because I’d just taken it all for granted.

It’s amazing how much things have changed since I’ve been there, though. I think being away from it for two years kind of helped me notice that. Both in India as well as in Taiwan. Even despite all the traffic and pollution issues I described in my earlier entry, there’s been a lot of technological advances, lots of industrial areas with companies, business, etc. that have expanded in India, for instance. And lots of retail. People in India are willing to spend, more than ever now. Especially young people. We went to Spencer’s Plaza, a huge 3 section (they call them “phases”) shopping mall in Chennai. So many shops, and such a huge crowd there! The weather outside was crummy – rainy, soggy, all that – yet inside it was packed. Especially the food court. You could barely find a place to sit, there were even people standing up and eating their lunches – pizza, smoothies, pastries, all kinds of eateries. And down on the ground floor near FoodWorld, a sort of supermarket, there was a pizza stand – you could barely get to FoodWorld because the crowd at the pizza stand was so thick! But yeah – lots of development. And everyone has a cell phone. I mean, everyone. We were standing on the balcony of his house one afternoon and saw a guy delivering water on a bicycle rickshaw. He was clad in just a T-shirt and dhoti, no shoes, but his cell phone was tucked snugly between his ear and his shoulder and he was chatting away as he pedaled around the corner. It was almost surreal. What’s even more surreal is when you realize that despite all of these technological advances, you can still see the traditional way of life when you drive out of the main cities. There are still people that live in thatched roof huts, barefoot, bathing in whatever river is nearby, with little or no electricity, living the lives of simple workers – whether they be farmers or other laborers.

Taiwan, I already knew what to expect. Technology there has always been rather advanced, cell phones were popular even when I left. What amazed me was the traffic and the roads and the buildings. So many shops came and went in my absence. The Industrial Park across from the complex where my house is has been (or is pretty close to being) completed. It’s huge, too! They’ve widened the road in front of our complex, and put a divider and extra traffic lights here and there. Roads all around seem to have improved greatly. Smoother (for the most part). Traffic is still dense in some areas, but since it’s a small island, it’s to be expected. But there was one overpass in particular that had sat untouched for at least 4 years. They’ve FINALLY completed it. My parents said it had just been tangled up in government red tape with no one really wanting to deal with it until recently. So that’s nice that that was finally taken care of. The night markets were as I remember – the sights, smells, sounds, unique offerings. It was really neat.

So that was about it for our trip. This is a long entry (sorry for yakking your ear off). But hey, at least I’m keeping up the writing, right?

Til next time, kiddies!

I’m baaaack!

2004-12-03T15:40:00.000-05:00

Guess who’s back -

Back again!

Yes, kiddies, ‘tis I. Back from my lovely, LOVELY vacation. I did pretty well with my “at-least-one-entry-a-week” while I was gone. I think I only managed to skip one week. Otherwise, there was even a week or two in there were I got in three or four entries a week! Aren’t you proud??

So…let’s see what I can tell you about my vacation. Overall, it went really well. There were, of course, little bumps along the way. Although, if you ask my husband, he’ll say that every step of the way while we were traveling, something or another went wrong through our trip. At least on the flight portions. First, while we were going to Chennai, our JFK – Hong Kong flight got delayed so missed our Hong Kong – Singapore connection. They ended up putting us on a Singapore Airlines flight to Chennai via Singapore. Then when we left Chennai for Taiwan, they wouldn’t check our bags all the way to Kaohsiung, so we went through immigration in Taipei, got our bags, then went to the transfer desk where they said we never should have come through immigration. So we had to go back, have them take care of our bags, then go to Kaohsiung and go through immigration again. Then coming back from Taiwan to JFK, our Hong Kong – JFK flight was delayed by about two hours. Little things, and minor inconveniences, when you look at it in the big picture, but it really all worked out in the end.

The trip itself was wonderful. We went to India first for two weeks. Landed on the night of November 1. We were quite exhausted, but it was wonderful to see his family again. They fed us well, as usual. His mom is a great cook, and always insists that we eat well – breakfast included. My husband’s not used to eating breakfast in the first place, but she made him eat! (So of course, we’ve both put on weight!) India’s really changed a lot though. There’s so much more traffic – but that’s modern traffic, and in addition to your usual auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, animals, bicycles, motorcycles, etc. The streets are unbelieveably crowded. Pollution is terrible. Not just the exhaust fumes, but noise as well – horns are always blaring. A couple really brief observations:

1) People never use their turning signals. Rarely when they’re actually turning, and never when they’re passing. To pass, you use your horn. You honk, scoot over, peal forward, and zip back into place in front of the car you were trying to pass.

2) Stop lights while obeyed, offer a means for drivers to cheat. What I mean is, there’s a counter next to the light that tells you essentially how many seconds remain before it will change. So when there’s five seconds left to a red light, everyone has already started going, anyway. Kind of amusing, really (unless you’re a pedestrian in the middle of crossing the street at the time!)

3) There’s no such thing as a “motorcycle lane”. They weave in and out of cars. There’s no rhyme or reason to how they’ll go. If there’s a way that they can get past you to get where they’re going faster, they’ll take it.

4) Tied with #3, there’s no such thing as a safe following distance. The lanes are narrower, and half the time drivers straddle them anyway, and they follow very closely behind cars. You frequently brake – it’s very similar to driving in NYC. Stop and go a lot of the time.
We were there for Deepavali, the Indian festival of lights. It was my first Deepavali in India, so definitely a different experience. I’ve never heard so many firecrackers in my life, even during Chinese New Year in Taiwan! And they were SO loud!! There was one called The Red Fort that’s basically a long strip of firecrackers – about 1000 of them all in a row – and you light them and they just start popping – you have to be careful, because they’ll go all over the place! My husband lit one and wasn’t paying attention – we were all wearing the new clothes that we’d bought for the special day and my husband ran back after lighting the crackers, turned around to watch, then realized one of the crackers had flown by and burnt a hole in the brand new shirt he was wearing. Luckily he wasn’t hurt or anything. But people were setting off “crackers” (as they called them) day in and day out. It started at around 11 or 12 the night before, continued on almost non-stop until 10 or 11 the next night. And they had these ones called Atom Bombs – which I hated – that lived up to their name. They literally sounded like Atom Bombs were going off right beside you. I wrote in my journal that it sounded like there was a war going off around me – literally every 15 seconds there were explosions all over the place. I lit a few – just the pretty ones – at night. I stayed away from the loud ones. Fun to watch, but hard on the ears…

Part 2 of ?? to follow….I think that’s enough for one entry.

The Day After Tomorrow

2004-10-28T16:16:00.000-04:00

It still hasn’t sunk in yet. That I’m actually leaving. That I’m actually leaving day after tomorrow. That I’m actually going to be gone a WHOLE month. No work. No deadlines. Nothing. This is the first time in over a year and a half that I’ve been work-free. It’s also the first time in over two and a half years that I will be gone – out of the country – for such an extended period of time.

I’m excited about going, and it kind of has hit me, but the proximity of it hasn’t, yet, I don’t think. I look up top and see that Day after Tomorrow bit – and really can’t believe that it’s that soon.

So you’re going to have a month of absence from me – not that anyone here cares, I’m sure, cuz from what I can tell, no one is reading my lovely little blog. Oh well. I’ll bring my journals with me, and I’m going to write as much as I can, so hopefully when I come back, I’ll have a lot of really nice stories to tell all you kiddies!

If I Could Change One Thing About Myself...

2004-10-19T06:12:00.000-04:00

You know what I need? Ambition. If I was ever lacking anything and needed to change something about myself, that’s what it is. I never got it, I never learned how to get it, so now I don’t know what to do. I have no ambition whatsoever. I know that. But I can’t go around telling people that. Do you know how stupid it sounds? I’d tell people in college, and they’d be like, “oh, it’s normal, don’t worry about it” or “oh, just wait – college is a time for exploring a variety of things anyway”. Now that I’ve graduated – and from grad school at that – I should have a better idea of what I’m doing and what I want to do with my life and be amibitious enough to take those first few steps in the direction of getting there. Yet my concept of who I want to be and what I want to do is really no clearer than it was 5 or 6 years ago. Kinda frightening really. I do want to make something of my life. I want to flourish with whatever it is that I do best. I really feel a calling towards writing – it’s just that I really don’t know what to write. Maybe that’s just an excuse I keep cooking up for myself so that I won’t have to actually do it. I need to suck it up. Brave the prospects of rejection – because every good writer was rejected at some point in time. I need to get my ass in gear and start making something of myself.

You know what, I went out and got my MBA. I’m not okay with staying in an admin position all my life. I’m not okay with being a stay at home mom (not at this point – but maybe that will change when I have kids). I’m not okay with sitting here letting time waste away. I want to do something, get my name out there, actually be able to say at the end of my road “Hey, here’s what I’ve accomplished!” because right now, I’m really not feeling it.

I guess it’s just hard to know where to start, what to do. Do I start writing, find out where I can send it to be published? Should I find an outlet first and then draft something for it accordingly? No – I think the easier thing is to write something, then seek out an appropriate outlet for it…

I’ll keep you posted…

2004-10-10T20:12:00.000-04:00

I almost did it – two entries last week. But I was working on it on Friday afternoon and got interrupted and had to leave work (where I was in the middle of it) early – long story that I really don’t want to get into here. So anyway that entry ended up being sort of outdated and so I’m just going to start afresh here.

Topic for tonight – my new job and all that goes with it. It’s actually not so bad. I think my first few days went rather well, considering the fact that everything is really new to me. I’m enjoying the people I work with, my boss is great, though self-admittedly a bit absentminded at times, but he’s a really great guy. The work that I do is interesting – keeping track of different client accounts, trying to get myself to think strategically about how we can attract new client accounts and get existing clients to renew their accounts with us.

Working in NYC itself is a whole ‘nother experience. I don’t know if it’s the people or the environment, but everything is just more…I don’t know…professional. Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing, but I don’t mind it. Makes me feel a lot more important and it’s also exposing me to a whole other corporate culture, and to be honest I’m really relishing the experience. You can study in a classroom all you want, but you never really know what you will face until you’re actually in the situation – meaning the work environment. And I really think that’s where the fun truly begins.

The commute is kind of a downside, but other than getting up early, I’m really not minding it all that much. I hate getting up so early, but once I’m on the train – really, once I’m in my car on my way to the train station, I’m okay. I read the paper on the train, get to work, truck away, and get on the train to come back home. It’s fine. One thing though – my boss wasn’t kidding when he said this wasn’t your typical 9 – 5 job. I’ve never left work this week (other than Friday) before 6 pm. Late nights. I come home, eat, and basically fall into bed. There’s no time during the week to get anything done. (Much less a journal entry….)

I’m not going to go into what I do in too much detail…maybe the next entry. The next entry I’ll also try and talk about what we’re doing to get ready for our India trip. Just don’t have the time now. J It’s almost time for Cold Case, and I’d like to watch that, - and my newest guilty pleasure, Desperate Housewives. Caught the encore last night and let me tell you – it was just as good as people said.

So until next time, ‘night kiddies!!…

I'm Not a Slacker - Really

2004-10-03T15:39:00.000-04:00

Current Mood: Excited

Current Music: Race Wars - BT

I skipped one week technically. But really, to be honest, I actually had an entry all typed up, but just never got a chance to post it. So this is sort of a do-over. But fine, if you want to be picky, say it – I slacked off this past week. I’ll try to do two entries this week, but since it’s going to be my first week at my new job, I’m not going to guarantee anything.

Now – about my new job. I’ve got anxieties, just like anyone else. I’m nervous about the job itself. Now that I know getting to New York is easy, and now that I’ve got the commuting part taken care of, my next concern is the job itself. Will I be able to perform whatever duties are expected of me, and meet the expectations that everyone else has of me? I mean, I kind of have a general idea of what I’m supposed to be doing, but – and I think this is perfectly normal – I’m concerned that I won’t be able to dive right in and just hit the ground running. What I mean is, I feel like it’s going to take me a few days, if not at least a week, to where I’ll be able to get the hang of things. There are so many aspects to this job that are brand new experiences for me:

Working in New York itself is working in a whole new type of environment. I’m sure the professional mentality is much different than that of working in a Princeton/South Brunswick office.

Then there’s the group of people I’m working with/for. All men. Not only is this the first time that I’ll be working with a group of all men and absolutely NO women, but this is also the first time that I can recall where I will actually have a male boss.

Finally, you’ve got the actual department that I’m moving to. I’m currently in Corporate Relations, but I’m moving to a department that’s more along the lines of Marketing, Sales, and Advertising. Again, definitely a whole new ball game for me.

Like I said, though, I think these feelings are normal. These anxieties, I guess. So the most I can do is just take a deep breath, go in, and give it my best shot. Mistakes are normal, and it’s only human to make them, but I need to be careful, be thorough, and really think about what it is that I’m hoping to achieve.

I guess what I’m trying to get at in some weird roundabout way, is that even though I’m nervous, I’m really excited. I’m looking forward to getting started and trying something new, and willing to give it a shot. Someone up there has a lot of faith in me, so I am really excited about proving myself and showing them that they really didn’t make a mistake when they chose me.

Wish me luck – I start on Tuesday!!!

Happy Birthday To Me...

2004-09-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

So it’s the big day for me today – the big 2-7. Woohoo! I’ve gotten a b-day call from my mom, and cards from the hubby as well as from my co-workers.

The best part of the day so far – my husband got me an iPod mini for my birthday!!

YAAAY!!!!!

*Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy!*

Can you tell I’m really happy???

So that’s not the only good news – well – sort of. :P

I got the job!!!

Which is good and sad. Good because it’s a great opportunity for me. I get to work in the city, which opens up a number of other doors for me. It is more money for me, and gives me a chance to use my MBA for things that are more “my level” or at least that will let me work to get there.

Sad, because this is the first time I’ve had a position for more than a year, stayed in the SAME position for more than a year, and truly enjoyed the group that I work with. With the exception of the Brit, who left in June (nothing against Brits, it’s just easier to refer to her that way). She was the only one who was a pain in my ass. Otherwise, everyone else is a joy to work with, to see everyday. We have so much fun in this group. We work hard, but we goof around a lot, too. It’s mostly women so we’ll go shopping on our lunch hour or go to a nearby deli for food, go out for lunch – it’s just a lot of fun.

But again, at the same time, I’m excited about moving to this new position because it’s all young people (although my group now is, too), and we’re all eager beavers – excited about coming to work, making a difference, interacting with each other and with clients. I think it’s going to be very different from what I’m used to, but I’m really excited about the challenges that I will face in the upcoming weeks. It’s going to be a real chance for me to prove my worth, see if I can really live up to these expectations. My reputation has preceeded me. I just hope I can live up to the high hopes that they all have for me.

No pressure or anything…

A New York Minute

2004-09-20T16:44:00.000-04:00

My husband and I are headed into the city tomorrow. We have to go and get our visa for Taiwan, for our trip at the end of this month – wow – I can’t believe it’s practically right around the corner!

We were supposed to go and scope out this new train station that we’re supposed to be leaving from. I’ve taken the train from Princeton Junction into NYC before, but the problem is that unless you get to PJ by 6:30 am, you won’t get a parking space. So one of my friends was telling me about another train station that may actually be closer on Jersey Ave., but since I’ve never been there, I’m not sure where it is. I told my husband that we needed to go and scope it out this weekend, but we didn’t get the chance. Hopefully this evening we’ll go find out where it is. Either that, or we’ll have to leave the house by 6 am tomorrow and go to Princeton Junction…

Then we need to figure out how to get to the Taiwanese Consulate. I have the address: 885 Second Avenue, 17th Floor between 47th and 48th Street.
I just need to figure out how to get there.

To top that all off, I’m meeting Mike (the guy I’m in touch with about that job offer) tomorrow as well. Originally I was slated to meet him at 10 am. But since the consulate only opens at 9, and is located all the way up on 2nd Ave., I’ve asked him to reschedule to around 1 pm or so. I figure I can stop off at the consulate at 9. Drop off any paperwork, conduct any needed interviews, have a quick bite to eat, and then trek down to AoA to meet him. Then after the meeting, which I’m assuming won’t take more than an hour or so, I’ll head back up to the Consulate to pick up the documents. They close at 4:30 so provided I’m out of AoA by 2, I should have no problem getting back up to the consulate to pick up the completed documents.

I just hope everything goes smoothly…

Random Ramblings

2004-09-14T14:41:00.000-04:00

Alright. I’ve got two different topics I’m discussing today, so just bear with me. Okay, it might be more than two. But I’ll try and distinguish between them so that it makes following my thoughts a bit easier for you….

The Job Offer

I spoke with the guy who told me about it – we’ll call him Mike. (I’m sure no one from work is reading this, much less anyone at all, but just for privacy’s sake, we’ll grant pseudonyms anyway.) We spoke about the fact that I’m leaving on October 30 on this trip, and that I won’t be coming back until November 28th, and that I was planning on being back at work on the 29th of November. He was surprised to hear it, but was grateful I had brought that up beforehand, and assured me that everyone needs to take a vacation like that at some time or another – and that it was a good thing that I was going (though he could very well have been feeding me lines…)

I also brought up the issue of salary. When I first spoke to him, he was saying, “I don’t want to see this as a negotiation, I want you to see this more as an opportunity…” but one would be foolish to assume that salary didn’t play a role in the deal anyway. So we started out by saying where I was now, and then where I thought I should be now that I had my MBA, and then where I thought I should be with the compensation for the added commuting expense that I would have to incur.

Imagine my shock when he then stated that the amount they had budgeted for this position was actually less than what I’m making now.

LESS!!

Can you believe it? I told my husband, who was incredulous. He was like, “They’re just trying to use you!”

But I told Mike flat out – I wouldn’t accept it for less than a certain amount. And it turns out that that amount is $10,000 more than what they budgeted for the job. So we’ll see if the COO really thinks I’m all that, and that I’m worth it. Because really, apart from the fact that it’s a daily commute into the city, and the fact that it’s a step up in my responsibilities, not to mention I’ve now got a degree under my belt, Mike also made it clear that there would be more than one late night a week involved.

So let’s see:
1) Commute into NYC Mon-Fri
2) Added Responsibilites
3) MBA Degree
4) Possibility of working until 8 at night

I think that very easily equals $10,000 more than what they’ve budgeted – and more than what I have now!

Order of the Phoenix
**BEWARE OF SPOILERS**

As you may recall from one of my earlier posts, I was in the middle of reading this book. I have now finished it the second time around, and certainly have a few thoughts on the matter.

Rowling’s writing style certainly seems to have progressed throughout the course of these 5 novels. I must say, I’m growing fonder and fonder of her style of writing. There’s a great deal of drama and turmoil, but at the same time, it seems as if the humor is so much more pronounced than in the first four.

For example, in the first four books, the main sources of humor were Fred & George, of course. There were certainly a few instances where Lee Jordan was commentating on Quidditch, interjecting his own opinionated interjections, only to be sternly reprimanded by McGonagall that provided comic relief, as well as a few scenes where Ron would offer some sarcastic/humorous remarks (most notably in Trelawney’s Divination sessions – “You’re going to suffer, but you’ll be happy about it.”)

It seems, however, that this last book contained more of these humorous exchanges. And not just courtesy of the Weasley twins, though theirs was of course the most pronounced. Ron’s got a lot more humor in him now – even Harry as well (see the quote below this entry). I don’t know – maybe it’s just because this book was so much longer than the others, it seemed as if there was more humor in it. It just felt like it was brought to the surface more prominently than it was in any of the other books.

The characters are also developing into their own distinguishable personas as well in this novel: Ginny is certainly coming up into her own right – strong, opinionated, independent. I kind of had the sense that Neville would grow and develop more as well – especially when we learned last year that his parents had been driven to madness by Voldemort. (Oh, suck it up – remember – fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself…) And Luna’s still a character to be reckoned with. I find it interesting that we never met her before, although I’m sure that Rowling had a good enough reason for waiting until now to introduce us to her.

The emotions are so much better displayed here as well, than when you see them in the first few books. We did see Harry’s temper in Prisoner of Azkaban when he find out Sirius “betrayed” his parents, but we really don’t see his attitude go full blown until this novel. I suppose that it’s also because of all the emotions that he’s feeling, all that he’s learned about himself, about his family, and his past in the last four years. First he learns his parents weren’t killed in a car crash, they were killed by an evil wizard. This same wizard tried to kill him but failed. Then he found out he had a godfather who was in jail for performing an unforgivable curse and killing scores of people. Then he found out this same man betrayed his parents to Voldemort. Then he learned he didn’t betray them, he tried to save them – his godfather was really for real, and was the closest thing to accepting family that he had. (The Dursleys were there, but they didn’t really give a damn about him.) He then was taken by Voldemort and helped (unwillingly) to bring him to life, and to power. He witnessed the death of a fellow classmate. And no one is giving him any answers, no one even believes him – they all think he’s nuts.

So really – what else is a teenage boy to do but rebel. It’s in the blood of every teenager, wizard or not. He’s moody, grumpy, hormones raging, mind swarming with questions. And I think Rowling does an amazing job of capturing it all. Although as Ron would say, “One person can’t feel all that at once, they’d explode!” To which Herminone’s smart reply, “Just because you’ve got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn’t mean we all have!”

As for novel 6 – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I read somewhere that the Half-Blood Prince is not Voldemort, nor is it Harry himself. I have a theory on this. I may be way out in left field on this, but it just occurred to me as I was rereading the book for the second time:

Viktor Krum.

Think about it – why has Hermione continued to keep in touch with him? We know they’re penpals, but we never quite found out what was in the letters she was sending him. I was under the impression that she was sending him detailed accounts of everything that was going on at Hogwarts – all their adventures, the drama, the teachers, Umbridge, etc. But is there some sort of hidden reason for that? I mean, why confide in him? Why the contact? No one really kept in touch with Fleur, right? Why Viktor? There has to be some reason why he’s being kept in the picture, some reason why she’s indicated that Hermione is keeping in touch with him and keeping him appraised on everything that’s going on…I’ll bet that it’s because he’s the Half-Blood Prince. I suppose we’ll see whether I’m right or not when the book comes out, eh?

The other thing that will be interesting to wait and see is the ultimate mysteries to the books. Rowling said somewhere that there were two questions that were so obvious, that readers should be asking themselves, but that no-one had yet asked her:

1.) Why didn’t Voldemort die when he tried to kill Harry?

2.) Why didn’t Dumbledore try to kill Voldemort (or kill him when he had the chance)?

I'll try to offer my two cents on these theories in my next entry...

Writing in General

Apparently the last time I was in India, one of my cousins that came to my wedding and talked to me, found out that I like to write. This was back when I was still writing stories and such. And he sent this email that my dad just forwarded to me.

It said that he was reading this book on Kaballah numerology that uses your name with numbers and such, to say a little about what your future holds in store for your and what your destiny is…

And he said that according to that book, my name indicates that I’m going to be involved with writing or novels or something of the sort.

Interesting, isn’t it? I really should get started writing again. I’m really going to try. And I feel almost like this is my first step towards that. If I can only keep up this journal, they maybe – just maybe – I can start writing stories again.

But first, I just have to keep up the writing, period.

***********
Draco: “You’re dead, Potter.”
Harry: “Funny. You’d think I’d have stopped walking around…”

Friends in High Places

2004-09-13T15:38:00.000-04:00

I must really have them. Friends in high places, I mean.

The COO of the company just recommended me for a position. Can you believe it? The Chief Operating Officer! And we’re a pretty big company, so it’s not like he’s your everyday Joe Schmo off the street. This guy is the real McCoy, Big Shabang, all that jazz.
I’m a lowly administrative assistant here, and he’s recommended me for a position overseeing a new project branch for the company. Wow.

That really makes my day - week - whatever....

The only downside would be that it would involve a commute to New York City every day. But I was talking to a couple friends who do it, and they said it isn’t all that bad – you can use your time on the train to catch up with the day’s schedule, read the paper, do whatever…so it’s actually not bad. The commuting expenses are going to go up, natch, but as long as the pay raise covers that I should be okay.

I’m so bad at negotiating though. I need to explain that this is a step up for me, and is a sizeable commute, and so while I’m certainly willing to take the post, I do want a reasonable amount of pay for the post.

The other thing I’m worried about is the fact that I’m going to be out of the country for a good month in November on our India trip. I am not quite sure how they’re going to take that, and if that will be a problem. God, I hope not. It’s a great opportunity, and I don’t want to let it go, but all the same, I’ve had this trip planned for weeks – I can’t just not go, you know?
So that's my minor dilemma.

What do I do?

I mean, I think I know what to do, but how do I do it?

Sigh....

***********************************************

Harry: "But why's she got to go to the library?"
Ron: "Because that's what Hermione does. When in doubt, go to the library."

Fun, Exciting, and Totally Useless Quiz of the Week

2004-09-09T16:50:00.000-04:00

Take the quiz: "Which Pop-princess are you?"

Hilary Duff
I am the 21st century pop princess. I go with the flow and the fashions. But this isnt always a good thing, as some people may see me as a sheep/follower.

Just thought you'd all like to know. :-)

Browsing Beantown

2004-09-07T14:46:00.000-04:00

Boston was our destination of choice this Labor Day weekend. We stayed with some friends of ours there – they actually live about 20 minutes from the Quincy Adams Station of the Red Line of the MBTA. About an hour or so outside of Downtown Boston.

It was actually a lot of fun. The drive to their place was long though – about 4 and a half, nearly 5 hours from Princeton, NJ. We left here probably close to 6 or so, and arrived there around 11 at night. Long drive – I offered to help my husband out – split the drive, so to speak. But since it was dark and we were taking the SUV on the curvy length of I-95, we decided it was best if he take it, and I could help him out on the return trip.

So, like I said – got there at about 11 at night. Had dinner at their place – by the time we went to bed, it was close to midnight, 1 o’clock. We slept really well; in fact, we didn’t get up til about 10 or 11 the next morning. Got up and had breakfast – then about an hour later, we had lunch (I know, it was bizarre). We showered and got ready…we were trying to decide what to do that day, and finally decided we go into downtown Boston, visit the Science Museum there, and then head over to see Spiderman 2 at the IMAX theater at the New England Aquarium.

We left the house about 1 o clock or so and took the train into the downtown area. For all you kiddies in the Jersey area, let me tell you: taking the train in Boston was quite different from taking the train here in Jersey to New York.

A breakdown:
Here: Impossible to find a parking space at the train station unless you arrive before 6:30.
There: We literally had our pick of hundreds of parking slots.

Here: Trains so crowded you have to stand next to some guy who smells like a grilled cheese sandwich that been sitting on the counter for a week.
There: A lady with a shopping bag in the far corner of the car, two teenage guys on the other end talking about their plans for a weekend at the bay. Other than that, the car is completely empty.

Let me tell you – it was actually a pleasant experience!

We took the Red Line in, switched over to the Green Line and got out at the station just across from the Fleet Center. That’s where my co-worker Bob was a few weeks ago when the Democratic National Convention was in town. I thought of him when I saw the Fleet. We had to walk a couple blocks to catch a bus to the Science Museum. Normally the train would let us off right at the museum, but apparently they’re doing some construction/renovation work, so they had a shuttle bus taking people over instead. It was a gorgeous sunny day, though, so I really didn’t mind.

The bus let us off at the museum, and we went in and bought our tickets. We ended up going to the food court first to grab a bite to eat – by that time it was already 3! (Amazing how time flies!)

We went into the museum around 3:30 or so, and wandered around, exploring the exhibits until about 5 pm. It was really pretty interesting. The family that we were staying with has two kids – one is 9, the other is about 4 – so of course everything that we saw was right up their alley. They loved all the hands-on activities and exhibits and loved going and investigating everything. And of course, for us grown-ups it was interesting as well. Something for everyone, really.

Just as an aside – for any Lord of the Rings fans venturing into Boston before October 24 – there’s a huge Lord of the Rings Exhibit going on now. It looked pretty cool – they have the costumes and scenery and everything on display, and they have presentations going through a sort of “Making Of…” feature. We didn’t go, but there were banners and poster advertisements everywhere.

Check out the following link if you’re interested:
http://ww11.e-tractions.com/mos/run/lotr?rd=502

(Just note that the link above probably won’t work if you’re clicking on it after October 24)

This concludes our shameless plug. We now return to The Story of My Life….

We left the museum at around 5:30 or so and headed over to the New England aquarium, buying our tickets to see SpiderMan 2 in Imax. Interestingly, they also happened to be showing Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban at the same theater in Imax as well. Let me tell you, I really wouldn’t have minded going to see that instead. Daniel Radcliffe – post puberty – on a larger than life screen…not a bad thing at all! That, and seeing Draco get the daylights socked out of him by Hermione – oooh…Yes, I’d pay good money to see that!!

By the way, I should know this, but does she deck him in the book as well? Or is it something that they just added for the movie? I can’t remember….does anyone recall?

But alas, we went to Spiderman 2 anyway. Just as good though, They aren’t kidding – it’s definitely worth it to see a movie like that in IMAX. The screen is huge. Spiderman 2 has so much action, so much suspense and tension – it’s really a spectacular experience to be able to see something with such intricate and exquisite special effects in that sort of larger-than-life display. The movie itself was fantastic. The plot carried it well – we really got a wonderful view of Parker’s inner turmoil – all the doubts and worries and emotional conflicts festering inside of him. Tobey MacGuire did a fantastic job. Not Oscar worthy, by any means, but fantastic nonetheless. The special effects were superb, the action was edge-of-your-seat…and there were more than a few moments where I had my hands over my face and was peering through my fingers in anticipation. Very tense…

After the movie ended at about 10, we took the train back home. We had a light dinner and watched a Tamil movie – I didn’t finish it because I was so tired – and went to bed.
The next morning was very relaxed and laid back. We stayed at home, watched a Tamil movie, watched Tamil film songs, just vegged out. In the evening we played a few rounds of poker. They said it was the same kind of poker that was played in casinos, but it really didn’t look the same. It just seemed very different to me. But it was fun. I ended up third out of four in terms of who won/lost.

Then we left their house at around 1:30 or so on Monday. Took about 6 hours to get home – only because we stopped on the way for a gas break/bathroom break/munchies break. So we got home around 7, and let me tell you – as much as I love to travel and visit new places and all that, there’s nothing like the feeling of coming home to your own house. It’s just….yours. Your bed, your food, your home. My husband said that, too. He was sitting on the bed with a beer and a bowl of chips and said, “It’s good to be home…”

Pepper’s not here yet – we need to pick her up from the kennel this evening. My husband’s so worried about her. It’s so cute. He’s all, “I hope they treat her well.” And “She’s been without us for a whole week,” and “I hope she doesn’t get a fever, we dropped her off right after she had her shots…”

My husband is so sweet. He’s going to make an amazing father…

***********************************************************

Harry: You heard Hagrid; follow the spiders.
Ron: Why does it have to be follow the spiders? Why can't it be follow the butterflies?

The First Post

2004-08-31T15:13:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to find a weblog that serves my purposes. No silly limits on filespace, nothing that will keep me from posting what I want, when I want, how I want. Hopefully this will work for me.

This is the first message I'm posting, so please bear with me as I work out the kinks. The next few entries will have a bit more substance to them. :-)

Ah - the one thing I do miss about this blog vs. an online journal - no animated little mood icons. Maybe there is a way I can save them and upload them as I need them...

I'll have to look into that.

Current Mood: working

Well, I sort of got it to work. Kind of, but not really. I suppose that's as good as I'm going to get it. Maybe I should just stick with livejournal. Suck it up & go there. It's just frustrating, because each version of the webjournal has something different that I like about it. Why can't they all have a "current music, current mood" icon? And give you the freedom that Xanga does in designing your webpage? That would be the PERFECT weblog....

*sigh*