I Am Not a Jedi

Whew! After an insanely busy week, we had a fun, but full weekend! I’m extremely behind on my “what I’m thankful fors,” so I’m going to try to cram them all into 2 longer, more fantastic blog posts. Today’s installment will be Wednesday-Friday, although I might not be able to come up for 5 for each day, considering I can’t remember that far back Tomorrow hopefully I can catch up with Saturday through Monday.

Wednesday.

1. That I made it through the day. This might seem like a silly thing to be thankful for, but after stumbling through my sleep-deprived, zombie-like state, I was just so grateful to get done what I needed to do and not pass out from total exhaustion.
2. Ikea’s sweet tooth indulgences. I was exhausted, but also craving Ikea’s chocolate indulgence cake and Donnie was willing to indulge my craving. We made our way over the bridge for a healthy meal of mac n’ cheese and chocolate cake and then after walking around a bit, polishing off the trip with a cinnabun from the snack bar before heading out.
3. Getting a full night’s sleep. Funny how we take the little things for granted until we are without them… although I always love me some sleepy time, it’s so much sweeter when I’ve been without it for an extended period of time….

Thursday.

1. Phree Philly Phun. D often laments on missing out on the amazing line ups that The Alamo Drafthouse usually boasts, so imagine our excitement when the traveling roadshow announced a stop in Philly! We were sure if schedules would permit us to go, but we both ended up obligation free that night. We packed ourselves a picnic lunch and made our way to the art museum steps, where we not only watched Rocky I, II & III, with Chris and his cousin. It was a nice night, aside from almost getting jumped by 2 dirt bags who had been drinking  the duration of the 3 films…
2. Every month with Rachel Ray. It’s funny how a magazine subscription could brighten one’s day, especially when that magazine is Everyday with Rachel Ray. I’m sure I’m revoking tons of street cred by admitting to this, but I love her magazine. I always find good recipes in there and enjoy the articles. D picked up on my not-so-subtle you-should-get-me-a-subscription-for-my-birthday hints and kindly obliged. The first issue came in the mail Thursday and although I haven’t had the chance to look through it yet, I am looking forward to having some downtime this weekend to do so.
3. Bark if you love coupons. Petco’s been doing this online promotion/scavenger hunt thing which has including “daily deals” you can collect by checking out their FB and Twitter pages. I happened to be checking my FB right after they posted their latest deal: $25 off a $50 purchase. I immediately went to their site and bought $50 worth of Carefresh litter for the buns. Being excited over litter sounds pretty ridic, but considering how expensive it is and how good of a deal we got, I was kind of on cloud 9 about this one for awhile…
4. Accomplishment rears its handsome head. Although this was only the first step, I got our initial grant application materials submitted to get the ball rolling for having our buns in the local Petco store! The wait time is a bit of a bitch–about 4-6 weeks before they’ll green light us through to the next step–but once we get through this part, we’ll be golden.

Friday.

1. Flex time. Whenever I might feel down about my job, I am reminded nearly every Friday why it’s an OK place to work: On this glorious day, employees have the option of leaving at noon (as long as you make up the time during the week). How many other people’s jobs encourage you to extend your weekend?
2. Bonding with strangers. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who had a long week. After a little TGIF banter with the guy who works the front desk, I got on the elevator with two other women who looked as tired/defeated as me. The one overheard my conversation with the guy downstairs and shared her own excitement for the week’s end. The other women then chimed in and explained how she had left work early because she just couldn’t get through the rest of the day. By the time I hit the 5th floor, I felt comforted knowing that I had the support and sympathy of my fellow woman.
3. Nap time. After walking around exhausted for about 2 weeks straight, it felt so good to come home, plop down, and pass out the minute my head hit the arm of the couch. I literally had fantasized about that moment all week, and when it came, it proved to be as sweet as I had anticipated.
4. Surprise concert time. Although I was tired, I had wanted to check out the David Gray/Ray LaMontagne concert happening down the street. These two are some of my favorite artists, and although we had attempted previously, we never got to see David Gray in concert (I’m pretty sure I have seen Ray LaMontagne, but my memory is so shitty with those kinds of things and I haven’t really taken the time to investigate whether that’s accurate). I hadn’t bought tickets, a) because I’m cheap and b) because I thought I might be able to get them cheap off a scalper the day-of, especially because I didn’t expect the show to sell out.
5. 24-hour diner time. You would think that living in Jersey, finding a good 24-hour to call your own would be a cinch, but sadly most of these establishment now observe more conservative hours (mainly due in part to the clientele/crime generally synonymous with the late night hours).

Well, Jon Stewart is already crossed off the list, but that was just the beginning of the excitement to come. It feels like now that spring is  springing, our social calendar is budding too. Here are the events currently on our calendar I can’t wait for: (more…)

OK, so it’s Thursday and in fact, we’re closer to the next weekend than we are to what’s passed, but I have like, 6 blogs that are half started that I’m determined to actually finish… (although at this point, I might just make my “snowpocalypse” blog a private one because frankly, it’s pathetically outdated…

Anyway–last weekend was pretty good, though fairly lowkey.

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Our attendance in the US v Turkey game at the Linc on May 29th is confirmed!!! I got presale info yesterday and purchased my midfield seats within 15 minutes of getting the email!! w00t w00t.

That is about the most exciting thing going on right now.

Beyond that, it’s just another rainy, miserable day in New Jersey, although I’m admittedly grateful that we’re dealing with rain and not snow (but there is talk of snow on the way… WAAAAHHHHHHH). This work week already feels long and it’s only Tuesday. I guess it’s the weather, or maybe it’s just the natural tendency for February…

I started watching Glee last night and am officially hooked. Sure, it’s cheesy and fluffy, but there’s singing and dancing and wonderful guest appearances. I think the show really took my heart when Kristin Chenoweth sang “Maybe This Time” :

and officially sealed the deal with this:

(Jen L., if you’re out there, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the 2nd clip!!)

We made a tasty dinner last night: homemade matzo ball soup and latkes, and are planning to follow it up with some butter bean burgers tonight. I just remembered about an hour ago that the Toast to George is tonight, but this rain is killing my motivation to do anything other than put on sweatpants and sing along to Glee.

Here are a couple other highlights from the day:

1. a tasty (and cheap!) fresh salad from ACME during a lunch run with some coworkers
2. another coworker’s mom made a delicious apple cake with caramel topping for us (soooo good. ate waayyy too much of it…)
3. got a call from the marketing guy at The Riversharks. I connected with them to get some comp tickets for our Hoppy Hour (which they obliged us with very quickly!!) and he was touching base to let us know about some other fundraising opportunities that we could do with them. It was nice to hear about these other options and kind of cool to hear what sounded like genuine interest in our cause.

(BTW- if you are in the NJ area and can come to our Hoppy Hour on May 1st, it would really, really mean the world to me. We’ve been really working hard to get together some great auction prizes and Shady Katie’s is a fun spot to hang out!)

Well, now all my rambling and shameless plugging is out of the way, I’m heading out to brave the terrible weather (in heels and mismatched dress socks, no less…).

After what’s felt like MONTHS being cooped up, we took advantage of the fact that the sun is out and no precipitation is falling in the southern NJ area (granted, it’s still FREEZING, but as this point that is something worth overlooking…).

So, here’s the breakdown of the weekend:

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OK, so as most of you reading this know, I have 2 tickets to the Cape Town South Africa match on June 11th. This was awesome, until we realize how jacked up airfare is to South Africa (more jacked up than we even expected…).

Not wanting to go into total debt, we begrudgingly called off the trip… I feel bittersweet about this, but I know it’s for the best. (I’m all for “living in the moment” but how can I really justify a trip that essentially would translate into $325 a day? Maybe if I had $325 to blow daily…)

Fortunately for me, soccer is invading the states, specifically the state next door to my state.

I’m already pumped for The Philadelphia Union’s first season (Donnie just got me their jersey for V-day!!), but the soccer news just keeps getting better and better…

My coworker alerted me to this today!!!

So, alright, it definitely would have been awesome to cross continents and watch the World Cup teams battle it out in S. Africa, but I know have the chance to watch the US team in their final match before the World Cup and only have to cross the bridge?? I think our bank account can handle that!!!!!

Today was a good day–nothing too crazy to write home about, but I figure I should write all the same…

In an unprecedented move, I am going to simply focus on the good things that happened today… (I’ll save the bitching for another time). (more…)