OH NO

In a moment of weakness, I made a really bad impulse buy yesterday.


I'm now the proud owner of The Sims 2 University





I can't begin to describe how cool it is. I know I made fun of all of my friends who played boop boop beep too much (bomb armed, bomb planted, GAME OVER) but I'm really beginning to think my grades will be going downhill from here.

See you in 2 months when I'm bored of it!

I had this problem...

I was obsessed with the computer game The Sims. Obsessed doesn't even do it justice. I lost track of the time of day while I wasted away an afternoon with my imaginary people. I missed a meal or two (well, I probably just delayed lunch by an hour), and I dreamt about them at night. Over my break between student teaching and the start of the spring semester, it got really really bad. And then it happened--I got bored of the game. I stopped playing for almost 2 months. More like a month and a half maybe. But still, that was really good.

Until today. It was really cold. And snowy. And my roommates were gone...and I was bored. I saw my mouse double clicking on that happy little sims icon. And before I knew it, I had created new families and built a bunch of neat little houses, with hot tubs and pools, and one even with a fish tank. Just when I thought I could see the end of my sims obsession, it was a major setback day.





All day I've been listening to some little kids who are visiting the people upstairs. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, or how they're not completely exhausted, but they've been pounding their little feet onto the floor right above my room for the entire day. I'm hoping they're going home soon, but I have a feeling I'll be hearing the not-so-angelic pitter patter at 7:00 tomorrow morning when they wake up and are ready for more jumping. Whatever happened to sitting quietly and playing board games?

I'm cranky

I actually don't mind having to wake up early on Monday (or this week on Tuesday) since it's the first day of the week that I have to get up early. At the end of the week it's a totally different story, but I'm usually all caught up in sleep so Mondays aren't bad. But last night it took me forever to fall asleep. And there's more to it than that. Being that we live in Somerville, our trash is subject to people picking through it for cans and bottles. Since my room has windows that face the street, I can hear it pretty well. And it tends not to bother me except for this morning, when I heard someone picking out glass bottles and dropping them one by one into something rattle-y sounding AT 5:55 IN THE MORNING. NOT EVEN SIX O'CLOCK AM!! WHO DOES THAT?!?!? I was so angry I couldn't sleep. I just boiled under my covers listening to the not so gentle "PLINK...PLINK....PLINK....RUSTLE RUSTLE (when he stirred the bottles up to make sure I could still hear him)....PLINK...PLINK...RUSTLE....PLINK. Needless to say I wasn't a very happy camper when my alarm clock went off at 6:36 (I have a thing with setting alarms at 5's or 10's.


I support this so much more between the hours of 8am and 10pm

Then I went off and spent way too much time with people under three years old. Even I'm sick of hearing myself sing, and that's saying something.

Crash and burn

I was thinking while I was driving this weekend that it's amazing that I have never hit a person while driving. It was never really a concern of mine while driving around the quaint little suburbs, but now that just about all of my driving is city driving, it seems likely that that will be my ticket into jail (where then I'll happily kick back on my (concrete) bed all day and read Cosmo. I'm certainly not the best driver out there, but I'm definitely not the worst, and it really surprises me that more people don't run over pedestrians. They're constantly jumping out in front of cars, especially on their way to Ghetto Basket.


I hope they'll lock me up at the jail right down the street, so I can hang out with Neil Entwistle when we're both bored of thinking about what we've done.

Kate shared an amazing picture of a Valentine's day card with me, but it's way too inappropriate to post. If you're intrigued, ask me for it and I'll gladly share it if I don't think you'd be offended.

I've had one song stuck in my head for the past 24 hours...and that would be the theme from Brokeback Mountain, which I finally saw this weekend. It's a fun little tune to hum. Or sing, or belt out. Classical music is really flexible like that.


I became a big fan of cowboys on Sunday night


It'll be ok, Heath..I miss Jake too

Fox in socks and green eggs and ham

If you've ever lived with me, shared a room with me, or talked to me, you probably know I'm not very good at sleeping. Well, that's not totally true. Usually after 4 or 5 beers I'm great at falling asleep and staying that way for at least 7 hours. But I'm not sure if it's a great idea to get in the habit of downing a six pack before bed every night just so I get a decent night's sleep.

So last night I couldn't fall asleep because of the socks I was wearing. I went to bed wearing dress socks (actually they were Kate's dress socks I think...Kate-remind me to explain that later). You know how dress socks have that little seam right in the middle, so there's no front side or heel side to them? Well, rather than lie on the top of your toes, like normal socks, that deam lies right on the tip of your toes on dress socks. I don't know why it bothered me so much because it's not that unusual for me to sleep in dress socks, but I was so uncomfortable and couldn't fall asleep. So finally I got up and changed into normal, white, athletic socks. And the seam still bothered me. So naturally, since I wasn't sleeping, I got up to look at my sock and see what was going on.

It looked like a normal sock.

But then I was trying to wonder what the point of that seam is. Any ideas? I don't really understand the clothing-making process, but it seems like in 2006 they should have machines that can make socks without that annoying seem that feels weird on your feet. It was a long, long night.

"Date my Mom" is the worst show ever

I had some beers Saturday night, and coupled with my excitement about getting a foot and a half of snow, it's not totally surprising that I got home Saturday night and copied & pasted from weather.com. Once I find a meteorologist to marry and talk about weather and moon phases and stuff, I'm going to be the happiest person ever. Saturday night was pretty fun though. We went to our favorite bar in Beacon Hill. I was so sure that I recognized a guy from college, and Kate asked him, and his answer was that he dropped out of college. Turns out though he did go to Union with us, which makes me feel proud that people are hesitant to say they went there. Although I remembered thinking he was cute when he was a senior and I was like 18, he turned out to be really really weird. He wasn't really picking up on the hint that we didn't want to hang out with him anymore (even when Kate and I were standing with our back to the girls' bathroom, and to get out of the conversation we simply leaned back and went into the bathroom). But the we finally got out of it when he got kicked out of the bar, so that made things a little bit simpler.

The snow storm was fun yesterday, except no one wanted to play! Really, when did putting on snowpants and jumping in snow stop being fun? I spent an hour and a half shoveling the driveway last night with Kate, which was uber cool since 7 people live in our apartment and we were the only ones who did it. Today I have a sore back because I'm old, and apparently lifted from my back and not from my legs. I know that's how you're supposed to do it, but I don't really get what that means. I didn't take pictures of the snow yesterday, but Kate did. See spagbals.

OMG SNOW

I love the snow! And I love the blizzard! And I love the beer!

Blizzard Warning from the National Weather Service:



A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM TO 7 PM EST SUNDAY.

SNOW WILL INTENSIFY TOWARDS DAYBREAK. SNOWFALL RATES NEAR 3 INCHES PER HOUR ARE POSSIBLE. DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE STORM LATE SUNDAY MORNING INTO SUNDAY AFTERNOON...BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED. NORTHEAST WINDS GUSTING AS HIGH AS 60 MPH WILL PRODUCE WHITE OUT CONDITIONS WITH NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS BY SUNDAY NIGHT WILL RANGE FROM 10 TO 18 INCHES...ISOLATED SNOW TOTALS OF 2 FEET ARE POSSIBLE IN THE AREA FROM PROVIDENCE TO BOSTON AND SOUTHEAST TO THE UPPER CAPE.



I want to play outside allllll day tomorrow. It's going to be lots and lots and lots and lots of fun. Sledding and snow angels (on mass. ave. obvi) and forts! Then Kate and I are building a gingerbread christmas tree!

P.S. drunk, sorry.

And while we're on the topic of "dapper"....

Hooray!!

http://thetrack.bostonherald.com/moreTrack/view.bg?articleid=124986

Now's my chance to move in.

I'm uber stressed out, and I have the sickening feeling that I'm going to feel this way from now until a year from June, with sporadic weeks of non-worriedness in between. And to top it off, my roommate won't let me come in to eat swedish fish and have 2 minutes of pima time to wind-down. I think the deeper issue is that I need to find other ways to wind-down. But to do that I need some time to think, on the pima. Life is hard.



It could be worse

You can't top a Stacy

The past two weeks I've been babysitting way too much. I know this because this morning I was ready to head out to babysitting, and I heard what sounded like a big truck backing up on our street... I looked out my window and my very first thought was "OOOHHH!! A DIGGER!!!!" Then I realized it was just me, and I didn't have to feign excitement (even though it was a little exciting to see a digger on our little dead end road). The 16 month old I watch is obsessed with trucks, and I've learned all about diggers, and loaders, and bulldozers. I've been babysitting more than usual for another family with a 2 and a half year old and a new baby...and when I got there on Monday, the mom told me that the 2 year old spent a lot of time this weekend playing "babysitter." She apparently pretends to be me, and comes in the door, puts a bag in the closet, and then feeds one of her dolls. Then she says "See you on Wednesday!" and walks back out the door. It's nice to know I have that power and influence on the short people.

I watched the superbowl with 2 1/2 very apathetic people (Gillian was mostly in her bed, but came out to have some 7 layer dip). It was sad without the pats playing, but I was really excited that Tom was there. I can't seem to find any pictures of him in his velour sports jacket...but the word that instantly pops into my head to describe him is "dapper." And speaking of dapper...Travis from the bachelor?? Not bad either. God, what a cool word dapper is.

I spend a little too much time clicking around on Myspace when I don't want to read about teaching reading anymore. I found a neat website where you can type in your name and get a slogan...hence, "You can't top a Stacy." I'm having t-shirts and mugs made up tomorrow, with this picture on it. You can visit that website & make your own slogan here. Share the good ones.

"She moves in such a way"

I had a great morning. Yesterday I won two tickets to go see Stephen Kellogg play in the WBOS studio. It was really cool...I took kate as my special guest, because she's special, and because she got me into s.k. It was just the two of us, 4 other fans, and then a couple of the wbos staff. Very cool.


But he didn't play my favorite song, so I was sad.

I also won tickets (in the same contest) to see him open for OAR tonight. But sadly I had class, and reeeeaaalllly wanted to skip it and go, but decided it was too early in the semester to waste my one skip.

So I sat in class hating learning, hating thinking, hating Gillian and Kate because I gave them the tickets (sorry gill and beta, but it's true). I hate the class, which is unfortunate because I realized in the past week--the first week of my reading specialist classes--that I don't really want to be a reading specialist. At least not for like 20 years, which is much more than the original 4 or 5 years I originally planned on waiting. It's not a fun feeling because I thought I knew for the past 4ish years exactly what I wanted to be doing in life, besides going to the beach a lot. I learned in my first week of the semester last week that I don't really like a lot of the things that reading specialists do, and I don't think I'd be that good at it. I stressed out all week because the class, and my hatred for the class, and because of my concern that I'm wasting the next 8 months of time and money learning how to be something I might never be. Instead, I could have applied for my teaching licensure a few months ago and even teaching right now. I suppose in the long run it won't really be a big deal. Even if I never ever in my life become a reading specialist, it should still (hopefully) help me get a job in the classroom in the fall, and (hopefully) get me a higher salary. But for now, it's going to be a really miserable 3 1/2 months.

Sorry Kate and Gillian. I'll buy you presents. Do you like M&Ms?

Go U

Today is Oprah's birthday!!!! She's a little older, & still just as annoying!


Oprah was funnier when she was fat

Last night the moon must've been aligned with the earth or sun or mars or whatever the phrase is, because Union beat Harvard. Actually, I have no idea how the hockey team is doing this year, maybe it was par for the course. A bunch of us went out to watch the game though, and there were so many Union fans there, that it sort of felt like old times. Except we were sober, and people have real jobs. Union fans were still just as origal though...the most common thing I heard yelled at Harvard fans was "Go study!"


So Losure heads off to Texas tomorrow, and I'm happy to admit that he didn't break or spill anything (that we know of)! Good job Losure!

My head is feeling very heavy...

Who's the stupid now?

Today is the day. Everyone's favorite Minnesotan turned Texan arrives.


Hooray indeed.

Breakout the gateway beer, hide the children & anything breakable. It's time to get Losured.

Theo.

My other boyfriend (just kidding Tommy B.) is back!!




I really, really love him.

Tomorrow is back to school day for me. I get to kick it off with 6 hours of class. I'm thrilled. It's my last semester of real classes.

FOREVER!

I hope my kind, sweet, and thoughtful roommates are giving me presents to honor the special day...

24 is not just the name of the hit tv show.

Today is the 24th anniversary of the day Kate burst into the world. And as her roommate for 3ish years, I can tell you that she's only gotten better with age. She's sweet, charming, adorable, & bitterly sarcastic. And boys (and girls--sometimes, especially when she's drunk) she's single.

We had a little party 9 acadia style for her tonight...


We had not one, but two cakes. Mmmmmmmm.



Gillian got kind of rammy.






And Kate got the perfect crown!!!



It was kind of funny that it was 50 degrees for like all of January, and then it snowed on Kate's birthday. (Just kidding kate, it wasn't funny at all). I really enjoyed the last week of really warm temps, and it got me really excited for winter to be over and for spring to start. But even though Kate was miserable when she woke up and saw the snow, I was a little bit happy to make a return to winter. I went skiing last week and there was running water on the edge of the trails, which was weird and made me have to pee. Which is a pain when you have snowpants on.


Hmm well anyway, happy birthday to the bestest roommate. Just kidding gillian. Just kidding Kate.

It's a hard knock life

Today I booked a trip with spags to Sanibel Island in March. The way I figured it, government loans that are supposed to pay for me to live while I'm in grad school are already paying for me to get drunk, so why shouldn't they also pay for me to get drunk in a warm place after spending the day on the beach? I'm very excited, because I haven't been on a vacation in awhile. Let me correct that...I haven't been on a vacation that hasn't been in my apartment/house in awhile. I'm also excited because this will be my second vacation with Kate, and I remember the last time we went to Florida together. I tried to find a picture from that trip with Kate at the beach wrapped up in a towel and sweatpants and looking like she wanted to kill me for taking the picture, but all I could find was a picture of Colleen and me, I think in Captiva.



And while I'm sharing pictures, here's my current activity to keep me entertained: I've kind of learned how to knit! I still don't know what to do with the little strands from when I switch colors, so right now they're just hanging off, like side-fringe.



So one last thing for this post...I've finally been doing a better job about running consistently...which has made me realize how desperately I need some good songs to listen to on my ipod during said running. So I'm asking...even pleading, for your suggestions....because right now I'm downloading "The sun will come out tomorrow." It reminded me of new years.

Sing about Martin, Sing about caring, Sing about peace....All around the world

I thought it was mildly appropriate, given that it's MLK day, to share the lyrics from an MLK song I learned in school when I was 7 or 8, and has been stuck in my head on and off for the past 16 years or so (as my roommates can delightfully attest to). The best part of this song is that it's a call & answer sort of song. So you sing "sing about Martin," and then the other half repeats it. But then you can also change it up, like I also do often, so that it's "sing about kate, sing about brokers, sing about csl's, all around porter square." And so on and so on.

I'm watching the golden globes, and i'm really excited because pierce brosnan is there, and has shaved off all facial hair, and is either wearing makeup or has had plastic surgery in the past few weeks. Either way, he doesn't look as scary.

I had a decent long weekend, which really didn't feel much different from the rest of my vacation, except that my roommates were here too. Jeremy's birthday was Saturday, and I'm really excited to try out the presents we got him (hint hint).

I finally got the hang of knitting, and I spent a huge chunk of today working on my scarf. I might take a picture of it later, because I have to admit that I'm really impressed with myself--both that I can do it, and that I haven't gotten bored with it yet.

By the way, if you haven't been introduced to the amazing talent that is Nicholas Sparks, I suggest you experience his genius firsthand asap.


the ladies flock to JBD

oh no!

I just figured out part of the reason why the new look of Pierce Brosnan is creeping me out so much. Compare the following yourself.





Sure, Brosnan combs his hair, and it looks like he uses some hair products, but I don't think Saddam had a lot of space for Paul Mitchell's collection inside his spider hole.

Whenever I try to listen to the words in songs, then I get confused about what the song means

I don't really understand why, but it seems like a lot of athletes think they're above the law. As I sit with my hair dryer aimed at my head for 15 minutes every morning, I have a few regular sites I check out, including espn.com. This morning four of the 9 or 10 headlines were about athletes who were in trouble...including the nfl player who spit in the face of another player and a college football player who pulled a gun on a group of teenagers (actually, an ex-college football player since he was kicked off his team last week for unsportsmanlike conduct and off the field legal stuff). It really makes you appreciate hot, i mean classy, guys like Tom Brady.

And speaking of Mr. Brady, he had quite the good game on saturday night, and even though no one really wanted to watch it here, Kate got into it for a quarter or so by making a drinking game out of it, and the always dependable Molly was drunk and texting throughout the game :)


Last night I was tired, and played to go to bed around 11, but then I saw that THE Kristin Cavallari was going to be on David Letterman. So I stayed up through the news, and made it until 11:30. I knew it would be a good interview, since Letterman referred to her at the beginning of the show as Christine and Christina. Sadly, I fell asleep during the commercial break right before she came on. And now I'll never know the truth about the real Laguna Beach (the real O.C.).

T minus two hours till game time

"A four year old on a blind date" (thanks Jeremy):

6:10 p.m. Struggle over what to wear: the Armani or the OshKosh. Settle on the OshKosh to project playful persona. Add touch of macho with Bob the Builder ball cap.

6:37 p.m. Go through checklist: wallet, keys, wet wipes, shoes on correct feet.

6:56 p.m. Arrive at date's apartment. Date turns out to be tall, voluptuous brunette who smells like fabric softener. Stare at breasts, hungrily. Say, "I'm hungry."

7:10 p.m. Chitchat about weather, jobs, bunnies, WMDs, ice cream. Mistake potpourri for munchies.

7:25 p.m. Prepare to leave for restaurant. Ask date to help zip coat. Date looks uneasy at offer to "hop into my shaggin' wagon" until she sees it actually is a wagon.

7:43 p.m. Arrive at restaurant. Get haughty with waiter for not offering booster seat quickly enough. Order drinks: a highball and a hot chocolate. Ask incredulously, "You ordered an eyeball?"

7:47 p.m. Awkward silence. Ask passing waiter for crayons. Breadbasket arrives. Pile on plate, making house of Melba toast. Battle ensues between knife and fork. Quietly go "Ah-h-h-h-h!" as fork plummets to its death off edge of table in slow motion. Date excuses herself to freshen up.

7:53 p.m. Date orders salmone al cartoccio. Dump handful of change on table and ask, "How much will this buy?" Settle on hamburger and french fries.

8:02 p.m. Conversation starter "I like puddles" goes nowhere. Crawl under table.

8:08 p.m. Meals arrive. Complain to waiter that hamburger has pickles on it and that you don't like pickles and that you don't want it. Date suggests just removing pickles. Argue that pickles have touched the hamburger. Realize that date just doesn't get it and that this isn't going to work out.

8:40 p.m. Finish eating in silence, except for occasional singing to self. Spill hot chocolate while making salt and pepper shakers dance the hokey-pokey. Say, "Oopsies!" Date claims headache, takes a pass on attending 9:10 showing of Chicken Little.

8:47 p.m. On way home, impress date by accurately identifying the colors of passing cars.

8:56 p.m. Escort date to door. Date declines your request to see her bedroom. Announce "Hugs!" and leap into date's arms. Wave bye-bye and say, "Night-night. Have a good sleep."

9:16 p.m. Arrive home and call buddy. Inform him that "she's my girlfriend and I'm going to marry her." Lie about getting some "tickle action." Describe date as a "MILF."


Happy birthday, Katie Couric!

I love her. Almost as much as Gill loves oprah.



Before she suddenly became blonde.

Go Pats!!!!!

I just became an avid milk drinker


Go get 'em Christian


Go team