I woke up and the first two things I thought this morning were:
1) Oh my god How is it only Tuesday?
2) I wonder how long until I can retire.
I don't HATE my job...I just don't LOVE it. I mean, truth be told, I don't think anyone LOVES their job, except professional athletes and those annoying people who knew what they wanted to do since they were like 3. I can't stand that. How are you supposed to know? I'm over a quarter century old and I still don't know if I'm doing the right thing. Just sometimes, you have those mornings where you are like, wow I reallllly wish I was independently wealth so I could quit this dog and pony show and plan events to help cure cancer or something.
I think this whole rant is evidence that its officially November in London. November in London = rain and craptacular weather. Well at least that's what it was like last year when I moved here EVERY DAY. It did not help the whole adapting to a new country without knowing anyone thing I was trying to do. I woke up this morning and it was pouring rain. It hasn't stopped. I'm pretty sure it will keep going. Yep...just looked at the 10 day forecast. Two days where its only partly cloudy, the rest will rain.
Ok time to get back on the positive train:
1) This weekend Liz is coming down from Bath and cooking me real food.
2) Next Saturday I'm going to see Beyonce
3) Next Sunday I'm moving
4) The following weekend I'm in Champagne with JamTam and Cam (haha that's funny)
5) Jess and Rachel are coming to visit for Thanksgiving!!
Alright, screw the weather. Mother Nature you can't hold me down! Tonight they are turning the lights on on Regent Street. Jim Carrey is coming to do it to promote the new Christmas Carol. Since they don't have Thanksgiving here they dive RIGHT into the Christmas cheer as soon as Halloween is over. That will keep me going too. I've downloaded Christmas songs, will watch Love Actually, and try to avoid taking out a tourist on my daily commute.
If all else fails, there is always fake tanning to keep the Vitamin D flowing!
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Monday, 2 November 2009
Happy Halloween!!
Since Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I was suuuper pumped to be going to Tam and Moderately Tall (did I get that right?) James' house for a murder mystery party. This was NOTHING like the murder mystery dinner that the fam and I went to in Hilton Head one summer, but it was just as fun.
So let me give you the background. All the characters are part of a movie production company who specializes in scary movies. We are going to the wrap party for our latest film "Ghouls just want to have fun", when the head of the production company is found dead. My character was Kat Peeple (totally a coincidence that it was the same name). I play the star in all of the films, and what came out during the evening through stages questions and answers was that I had been tricked into a long contract with low pay by the guy who got murdered, so now that he was dead, I could get out of the contract and go work in real movies. Everyone had a little motive.
DD and I arrived at about 6:30 after a quick bite to eat to eliminate any sloppiness that could occur later. Since DD didn't have a have a character he was Mr. Kat Peeple. He decided that was lame and made up a character which was funny. My character was supposed to dress up like Morticia Addams, so I wore a black dress with long sleeves and fishnet stockings (because its Halloween and when else are you going to wear them?). Well after I put the dress on I realized that in the right/wrong light it was mildly see-through. Awesome. Well it was too late to change then!
So the party went off without a hitch. Everyone was in full costume which was awesome to see. Even Hillary, who is like 7 months pregnant, KIND OF dressed up. I looked at her and said, um what are you? She raised her arms up and said I'm a bat! Her black shirt had flowy sleeves. I was like, hmm if you weren't preggo that would not be ok. By the time the murderer was revealed (sadly it wasn't me), everyone was in VERY good spirits, and having a great time. Everyone took turns answering the door for trick or treaters. At one point I heard the door open and heard some little kid yell out "'ow many people 'ave you got in there? Can I come?". His mom probably wouldn't have appreciated us sharing the "sodas" we were drinking. I answered the door once and was talking to the kids who were just staring at me, either because a) they could see through my dress, or b) because of my crazy american accent. I'm hoping it was the latter.
By the time I got home, I looked at the clock and realized that Yankees game was on! So I put that on and stayed up waaay too late watching that, but was glad I did to see them win!
Overall, it was a great Halloween!!
So let me give you the background. All the characters are part of a movie production company who specializes in scary movies. We are going to the wrap party for our latest film "Ghouls just want to have fun", when the head of the production company is found dead. My character was Kat Peeple (totally a coincidence that it was the same name). I play the star in all of the films, and what came out during the evening through stages questions and answers was that I had been tricked into a long contract with low pay by the guy who got murdered, so now that he was dead, I could get out of the contract and go work in real movies. Everyone had a little motive.
DD and I arrived at about 6:30 after a quick bite to eat to eliminate any sloppiness that could occur later. Since DD didn't have a have a character he was Mr. Kat Peeple. He decided that was lame and made up a character which was funny. My character was supposed to dress up like Morticia Addams, so I wore a black dress with long sleeves and fishnet stockings (because its Halloween and when else are you going to wear them?). Well after I put the dress on I realized that in the right/wrong light it was mildly see-through. Awesome. Well it was too late to change then!
So the party went off without a hitch. Everyone was in full costume which was awesome to see. Even Hillary, who is like 7 months pregnant, KIND OF dressed up. I looked at her and said, um what are you? She raised her arms up and said I'm a bat! Her black shirt had flowy sleeves. I was like, hmm if you weren't preggo that would not be ok. By the time the murderer was revealed (sadly it wasn't me), everyone was in VERY good spirits, and having a great time. Everyone took turns answering the door for trick or treaters. At one point I heard the door open and heard some little kid yell out "'ow many people 'ave you got in there? Can I come?". His mom probably wouldn't have appreciated us sharing the "sodas" we were drinking. I answered the door once and was talking to the kids who were just staring at me, either because a) they could see through my dress, or b) because of my crazy american accent. I'm hoping it was the latter.
By the time I got home, I looked at the clock and realized that Yankees game was on! So I put that on and stayed up waaay too late watching that, but was glad I did to see them win!
Overall, it was a great Halloween!!
Monday, 26 October 2009
Ouch
So remember that big weekend I had planned? Yeah, well I'm getting too old for this. I feel like DEATH today. But had an absolute fabulous time all three nights.
Friday night was the tamest of the three evenings, which is surprising because I was surrounded by the most alcohol. We all went to the wine show, tasted several different varieties, even learned a little. Then went and got a burrito, went to a bar, and got the tube home and was in bed by midnight.
Saturday was a little more crazy. Book club at my house. Book club = TONS of wine. There were about 10 of us, and we went through about as many bottles. We talked about the book, watched X Factor, then went dancing at a bar by my house which was awesome. We haven't all gotten together for a good boogie (as they call it) in a while, and the music was great, so it was definitely fun. However, Sunday morning I had red wine hangover which is the worst.
I pushed through and met up with DD, V and her parents at the tube to head to Wimbly for the BIG GAME!! It was awesome. SOO many people (82,000), tons of excitement, and every team's jersey represented. Before the game, DD spotted a McD's, and V's dad is also a big fan, so we went and got some food and then saw a gas station that sold beer, so we all got a few 4 packs to tailgate with.
**Background - DD and I are dating, but we have NOT had the bf/gf talk. V was joking around with me that her parents could do a little recon and give my parents a call to let them know what they think about DD. We laughed because it was clearly not going to happen.
Resuming story-
So we are all standing around drinking, laughing, having a good time. Then V's mom stops and goes "Oh I just remembered! V, whose boyfriend am I supposed to checking out?" My face immediately turns bright red and my jaw drops. V just points to me, and then V's mom looks at DD and goes, "Oh! Well I quite like you! You look a bit like Ben Shepherd!"
HOLY AWKWARD BATMAN!!!
I start hysterically laughing, V starts laughing, and DD goes, Oh thanks haha. Then V's dad goes, Don't worry..we don't really know her parents!
I couldn't stop laughing. I love awkward moments, but this was a bit much, even for me. DD was a really trooper about the whole thing and later told me he thought it was funny. I just thought I was going to die from embarrassment.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun. I do feel like I need a week of rest to make up for it though.
Friday night was the tamest of the three evenings, which is surprising because I was surrounded by the most alcohol. We all went to the wine show, tasted several different varieties, even learned a little. Then went and got a burrito, went to a bar, and got the tube home and was in bed by midnight.
Saturday was a little more crazy. Book club at my house. Book club = TONS of wine. There were about 10 of us, and we went through about as many bottles. We talked about the book, watched X Factor, then went dancing at a bar by my house which was awesome. We haven't all gotten together for a good boogie (as they call it) in a while, and the music was great, so it was definitely fun. However, Sunday morning I had red wine hangover which is the worst.
I pushed through and met up with DD, V and her parents at the tube to head to Wimbly for the BIG GAME!! It was awesome. SOO many people (82,000), tons of excitement, and every team's jersey represented. Before the game, DD spotted a McD's, and V's dad is also a big fan, so we went and got some food and then saw a gas station that sold beer, so we all got a few 4 packs to tailgate with.
**Background - DD and I are dating, but we have NOT had the bf/gf talk. V was joking around with me that her parents could do a little recon and give my parents a call to let them know what they think about DD. We laughed because it was clearly not going to happen.
Resuming story-
So we are all standing around drinking, laughing, having a good time. Then V's mom stops and goes "Oh I just remembered! V, whose boyfriend am I supposed to checking out?" My face immediately turns bright red and my jaw drops. V just points to me, and then V's mom looks at DD and goes, "Oh! Well I quite like you! You look a bit like Ben Shepherd!"
HOLY AWKWARD BATMAN!!!
I start hysterically laughing, V starts laughing, and DD goes, Oh thanks haha. Then V's dad goes, Don't worry..we don't really know her parents!
I couldn't stop laughing. I love awkward moments, but this was a bit much, even for me. DD was a really trooper about the whole thing and later told me he thought it was funny. I just thought I was going to die from embarrassment.
The whole weekend was a lot of fun. I do feel like I need a week of rest to make up for it though.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Are you ready for some football?!?!
GREAT WEEKEND PLANNED!!!! I'm so excited!
Friday - Today after work I'm headed over to Angel where there is a wine show going on. Tamara got me a ticket for my birthday, so a bunch of us will head over there, get a tasting glass, and then head from booth to booth tasting wine. I'm thinking its going to be a lot like the Beerfest that Kirsten, Jess, Jordan, Meg, Margy, Sarah and I went to in Atlantic City, but instead of beer its wine. So that should be a lot of fun. Then we are going to get burritos after that at a Chipotle-esque place.
Saturday - Boo that an engineer is coming to fix our dishwasher at 8:30 am, but yay that its finally happening since its been broken since June. Then I'm cleaning house - boo again. But yay that the reason I'm cleaning is that I'm hosting book club at my house! So about 10 girls will be coming over to discuss the book we just read, and then, if we're feeling ambitious, we'll head out in SheBu. This will probably be one of my last outings in Australian-central-land.
SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! - YAY for the Bucs-Pats game! I think my seats are pretty awful, but its REAL LIVE FOOTBALL! So I'm taking my friend DD to the game with me. There we'll meet up with Allison and Chris, my friend Verity and her parents, and some other fun people before the game for some good old fashioned tailgating. If we see the CBS cameras I'll be sure to get myself noticed! I can't wait! GO BUCS!!!
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Pizza and Bagels...That's what New Jersey does!
We had a guy in London this week from our DC office. He was supposed to evaluate the state of our IT stuff, and give his opinion on how to make it better. Mostly what we want is solid connection from the Internet (since we are an Internet company), and someone who can help us if our email goes down, even if that happens at 9 am. Right now, we have to wait until the people in DC wake up to to have someone reset the email server. ANYWAY, he was asking me if I ever get homesick. I thought about it and said, not really. There are certain things I miss, and people I miss, but mostly now I've figured out how to keep in touch with people so that's not a problem. What I really miss, I said, is certain food. He said, like what? I said oh you know, Chipotle, pizza, bagels, etc.
Now, when I say this to anyone who is not from New Jersey or New York, I get one of two responses. Either, "What? there is great pizza/bagels/subs here!" or "Oh my god you have GOT to try this place, its amazing!"
When I said oh you know, Chipotle, pizza, bagels, etc. The brits replied with "What? there is great pizza/bagels/subs here!" and the IT guy replied with "Oh my god you have GOT to try this place, its amazing!"
When people say this to me, I don't believe them. I will never believe you. I don't care if you fly Mario and Luigi into Washington, DC, the pizza will not taste like what I want it to taste like. I don't care if there is a store that is known for its New York style bagels in Bethesda, MD, they won't taste like what I want it to taste like.
So IT guy goes on about how fabulous this pizza place in Dulles, VA is (red flag number one...its in Dulles? Not exactly the cultural capital of the area). He tells me how the owner is a real Italian guy who was a barber for his whole life and then decided he wanted to open up a restaurant (red flag 2...good Italian eateries are run by guys who have been punching dough since they were 5). Mr. Italian dude has been approached a bunch of times to franchise throughout DC but he always refuses (seriously is this a selling point? have you ever eaten pizza in dc? The competition isn't exactly overwhelming). So IT guy pulls up the website for this AMAZING pizza place, and starts reading about all the amazing toppings on "The Sicilian Hit" or "The Lucky Luciano". Now do I even need to tell you this is a bit ridiculous? A topping does not a good pizza make.
So I smiled and said oh yeah I'll definitely give it a try next time I'm in Dulles, VA. He then tried to tell me about a bagel place. I couldn't sit through this again.
"Look, IT guy, I know you think that the place that you know will be amazing to me, but I can guarantee you it will not be. Unless they ship their water in from New York, I will eat the bagel, smile politely, say I love it, and then vow in my head to never go back there."
IT Guy: "The water? Seriously? That's stupid."
Me: "Yes the water. Its a fact. Its science. Science is real. You can't argue with it."
IT Guy: "Riiight."
I could have kept going, but its pointless to argue with poorly informed (and clearly poorly formed tastebuds).
So yes...I get homesick for certain things. I get homesick for Chipotle after a big night, but I have found other burrito places. I miss my family and friends, but I have ways to keep in contact with them. I get homesick for pizza and bagels. There is not cure for this one...but its a battle I've been fighting since I was 18. Sadly I'm used it.
Now, when I say this to anyone who is not from New Jersey or New York, I get one of two responses. Either, "What? there is great pizza/bagels/subs here!" or "Oh my god you have GOT to try this place, its amazing!"
When I said oh you know, Chipotle, pizza, bagels, etc. The brits replied with "What? there is great pizza/bagels/subs here!" and the IT guy replied with "Oh my god you have GOT to try this place, its amazing!"
When people say this to me, I don't believe them. I will never believe you. I don't care if you fly Mario and Luigi into Washington, DC, the pizza will not taste like what I want it to taste like. I don't care if there is a store that is known for its New York style bagels in Bethesda, MD, they won't taste like what I want it to taste like.
So IT guy goes on about how fabulous this pizza place in Dulles, VA is (red flag number one...its in Dulles? Not exactly the cultural capital of the area). He tells me how the owner is a real Italian guy who was a barber for his whole life and then decided he wanted to open up a restaurant (red flag 2...good Italian eateries are run by guys who have been punching dough since they were 5). Mr. Italian dude has been approached a bunch of times to franchise throughout DC but he always refuses (seriously is this a selling point? have you ever eaten pizza in dc? The competition isn't exactly overwhelming). So IT guy pulls up the website for this AMAZING pizza place, and starts reading about all the amazing toppings on "The Sicilian Hit" or "The Lucky Luciano". Now do I even need to tell you this is a bit ridiculous? A topping does not a good pizza make.
So I smiled and said oh yeah I'll definitely give it a try next time I'm in Dulles, VA. He then tried to tell me about a bagel place. I couldn't sit through this again.
"Look, IT guy, I know you think that the place that you know will be amazing to me, but I can guarantee you it will not be. Unless they ship their water in from New York, I will eat the bagel, smile politely, say I love it, and then vow in my head to never go back there."
IT Guy: "The water? Seriously? That's stupid."
Me: "Yes the water. Its a fact. Its science. Science is real. You can't argue with it."
IT Guy: "Riiight."
I could have kept going, but its pointless to argue with poorly informed (and clearly poorly formed tastebuds).
So yes...I get homesick for certain things. I get homesick for Chipotle after a big night, but I have found other burrito places. I miss my family and friends, but I have ways to keep in contact with them. I get homesick for pizza and bagels. There is not cure for this one...but its a battle I've been fighting since I was 18. Sadly I'm used it.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
The 90s
I find this blog HIGHLY entertaining, and always makes me go "oh yeah!!" whenever I read it. Here's one for you kids of the 90s: http://childrenofthenineties.blogspot.com/2009/10/dont-tell-them-its-educational.html
Oh the weather outside is frightful...
Can we talk about the fact that its FREEZING outside?? Ok maybe not freezing but I feel like winter came over night! One day it was sunny and 67 and then it was a bit brisk (smelled like pumpkins and rugby season and waiting for the bus), and then it was COOLLDDDD! I have a feeling that it will be a rough winter!
Well I've decided to make the most of it. I've taken out all my winter clothes and started working sweaters into my outfits. I still refuse to wear my winter coat, because I need something to work up to. Instead I'm wearing my "I'M AMERICAN!!!" jacket, aka my northface. Not only is it a northface, its a salmon colored one. You see a few in London, but they are almost always black. Yeah I stand out a bit.
My second "make the most of winter" is to try and figure out whether or not I want to have a party. I love Christmas parties. In DC we used to have one before everyone went home for the holidays. It was great because we would all dress up, bring a dish or a bottle, Scrappy would get a Turducken, and we would just hang out. Sooo much fun. I love Christmas parties. I want to make sure I go to at least one, so I think to make sure that happens I need to have one. I haven't hosted a party since I lived in DC. I think my new apartment is the perfect place for it. I always feel bad having a Christmas party because what if you take someone else's date that they wanted to have theirs on? I think the solution to this is to loop it in with a Housewarming party. People can come and go as they please, since it will be during one of the 4 days that people actually have Christmas parties.
I mean really these things are just an excuse to get everyone all together. Soo what do we think? December 12th? (can't believe I'm planning this before Halloween has even happened) Save the date folks!
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