leaf peeping is not dirty, unless you want it to be

no really, that's what they call it when you look at leaves. um...anyway. new england is the place to be in the fall. if you don't believe me, see for yourself:

thanks to krista and jenny for visiting nat and forcing us out into nature!

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

no, not christmas. halloween! best holiday of the year! i can't begin to express my delight in the season, the parties, the costumes, the...blah blah blah, no one cares about this. give us pictures! ok! here we go:

behold, the 2nd annual park ave creepy night

the humble hosts! skullvia pierced: witch of the south (with critter), deathica haurror: witch of the west, chreepy vamparry: witch of the east, ghoulie howlet: witch of the north

ipod commercial- genius.

me and indiana jones and...um...female character from raiders of the lost ark.

two rockers: steve perry and slash

mitt romney campaigners. they're too busy to look up for a picture.

boo! wait, didn't we all wear this costume in...3rd grade?

me and amy winehouse- look her up. this was my favorite costume, and not just cause i like the person wearing it. the fake tat's are hot, no?
luke skywalker and steve perry

popeye and olive oil
ellsbury's bride- go sox! woot!
lindsay lohan, nicole richie, paris hilton and britney spears
this was one of my favorite group costumes of the night!

we were jam packed for most of the night! crowd 1
crowd 2
crowd 3

there were so many good costumes this year. can't wait for next!

i felt the pain of public transportation...and sheer stupidity

yesterday. was not my day.

after arriving home from the cape at 11:00 pm on tuesday night, i was a bit dazed wednesday morning. i left for work a bit late, waited at the bus stop outside my house for at least 10 minutes, then proceeded from the bus to the inbound train at alewife. the ride proceeded for another 25 minutes or so, when at the park street stop it hit me: i'd forgotten my computer.

off the train, cross the platform, the doors to the outbound train shut in my face and it pulls out of sight. i wait for 12 minutes for the next, which i hurry onto and arrive in 25 minutes back at alewife just in time to see my bus pulling away. i wait for another 30 minutes for the next bus, arrive home, get the computer and turn back around for my second commute of the day.

i get to work two hours past start time and realize, i've left my phone at home.

the end.

nerds are not just candy

so i sit here at my desk wolfing down my soup/sandwich combo while frantically trying to complete today's assignment: master a new computer program by 4 pm and teach it to the rest of us. stress. i text nat with a question about smart quotes, and this time it's no joke. she responds, it works, i celebrate. in the corner of my screen a box pops up indicating there is a new email in my outlook. it's today's issue of my daily 'chief marketer' publication and is titled "a beautiful day in the virtual neighborhood". i view the articles and find that today's issue isn't nearly as interesting as yesterdays "what's awol from web 2.0" issue, and even less exciting than the webinar invite i received on demystifying online customer behavior. i'm disappointed. but then another email appears; it's my daily dilbert, and it's a good one.

and that's when it hits me...i'm a huge nerd.

o to the hio

i've been holding off on a trip update because mary really has the gems of our weekend in ohio on her laptop, waiting to be pieced together into some kind of wonderful blog. (yes mary, this is my foot on your back.)

suffice it to say that we had a great time. somehow it just felt right to be spending columbus day in columbus. we embarked on the usually 12 hour (775 mile) journey on friday night around 7 pm and arrived at my parents doorstep at 9 am on saturday morning. in my opinion we made pretty good time considering we sat for a few hours on the mass pike in stop and go traffic, took a pizza break, stopped every 200 miles for more caffeine, and slept an hour and a half in a parking lot in buffalo. still, we arrived with plenty of time to stretch our legs and prepare to sit a few more hours (well, let's be honest i laid on my bed) and be nourished by the good word. speaking of, wasn't conference awesome?

the weekend continued in the same manner. we left the house only once to go to dsw, and that was subsequently the only time i changed out of my pajamas and into real clothes. it nearly did me in. otherwise, my time was spent sleeping in, lounging on the couches and floor (they have carpet...mmmmm....carpet), watching movies, and partaking of the wonderment that is my mothers cooking. my parents were a delight, grandma was her usual fun 92 year old self, and geoff wasn't around to bother me (jk weff, i loves ya).

on the drive home we stopped in kirtland for a quick tour of some church history sites. this was shortly after we made a completely necessary stop at the local hardees for some hamburgers and fries. what was it, like 10:30 am? but come on, it's hardees! how many times i played in the ball pit of our local hardees as a child i can't count. there was no ball pit, and no fried zucchini, but we did experience the best fast food service this side of the mississippi, not to mention a good look at some sweet mullets. ohio is weird. anyway, and yeah, kirtland was cool too. the best part, which i almost forgot and am sure mary won't mention, was the challenge i gave her to tell me a story about making a peanut butter sandwich. this story, however, had to last for 40 miles. she did it people. let it be known that just when you think things can't get any less interesting, they can. well done, mar.

back on the road after kirtland, we still had about 11 and a half hours to go. deep breath, deep drink from my coke and 90 east for another 600 miles. done up right, mar. done up right.

i've still got 90 East on my mind.

moon child

one of the great mysteries of life- solved.

here

thanks, jake

dreamer

crazy.

last night i had an extremely vivid dream about something so sad i feel like repeating it would be taboo. in my dream i was sobbing uncontrollably. i woke up this morning with wet eyes and a soaked pillow.

does that ever happen to anyone else?

a random dump with hidden gems

i am a horrible life historian. these are the only two pictures i took from my weekend spent at camp joseph. it's a good thing that other people often blog my life for me.

on another note, i've been freaking my co-workers out all morning talking about my 72 hour kit. a few of them had never even heard of one before so they are taking the fact that our church leaders have asked us to have one by october 28th as a bad sign. i don't argue with them. one guy has promised me that he'll join the mormon church if anything happens on october 29th in anywhere in the world that would necessitate a 72 hour kit. i don't think he knows what he's promising...

i've been studying for the gmat lately and have been acing the practice tests so far, i'm hoping to stay consistent for the real deal. congrats to seth who just took the lsat on saturday! hooray for wannabe students!

last night i had my 4th ever voice lesson with mary. she's amazing and fun and i think i'd be more frustrated if we didn't spend half the lesson laughing. last night christy said, "hey, i could hear you doing a seal impression upstairs." (referring to the animal, not the singer) um, not encouraging. however, i think some things are starting to click in my brain, which is encouraging. anyway, if my singing profession fails i could always just become a marine biologist, right? thanks christy.

did i mention i'm going to ohio this weekend?

oh, and did i mention i'm going to salt lake in 3 weeks?

ok, lastly, welcome october! you are the best month by far because you house the best holiday of the year. and no, i'm not talking about columbus day.

are you calling 1989?

a piggyback.

i saw this in the boston common. be ye warned, i have no discretion when it comes to taking pictures of anyone i want. (more to come on my incredibly creepy stealth picture taking of children on the t today.)

but talk about flashback friday: people using payphones.

H.A.G...W!

the loves of my life

never

i never wanted

to let you in
to keep you out
to cut you off

to be a page in your scrapbook
a note in your journal
or an unwelcome muse.

to fight
to cry
to lose

to learn this lesson
or that one
or that one again

i never knew better. i'll never know worse.

i never meant to love you

i never could have stopped

i never would have anyway.

not much to say

thanks to a good friend who blogs consistently, you can read about my last five weekends here, here, here, here, and here. suffice it to say i've had a lot of fun lately. i know that's kind of a cop-out, but really, i can't say it much better than she already did.

in other news, i woke up happy this morning. that hasn't happened in a while and i thought it was worth remembering.

poignant

No really. His hair is so distracting. And, he's not really teaching anything, he's mostly just reading from the manual. He pronounced the word "poignant" as "po-ig-nant". Why am I here?

In other random thoughts, why do the sketchiest people hang out on termont street? Seriously, I fear for my life there, no matter what time of day. Also, why does 7-11 have every flavor of mt dew slurpee except for the original? I miss the classic.

Ok, enough. Only 3 hours to go. We'll see if his hair can make it.

real time blogging is where it's at

I'm sitting at a creative marketing conference at the hyatt downtown. I'm happy to be wearing jeans on a work day. The guy giving the seminar has perhaps the worst hairpiece ever made. I wish I could get a picture, but I think he might notice. Still, it might be worth a try. Ok, breaks over. More later.

if i can't be happy, i can at least be grateful...

for:

the colder weather
good friends
a paycheck

text messages that read: "just wanted someone to talk to and you came to mind"

the internet
legs that can run
and good hair

men who honor their priesthood
a friend who will sing a primary song to my message machine

G_A's
the prospect of going home. like, home, home.
public transportation

dogs

slurpees

sleep.

that's good, and i feel a bit better.

my lucky green thumb

this is a blog about the most boring thing i can think of right now. also, it contains emoticons.

you see, it all stated last week when i left my poor pink plant in the sun for about 6 days straight without water. sad :(

i dumped my whole bottle of water in it. hours later- it seemed to be getting a bit better. :/
and here we are just 2 days later and the plant is again thriving! :)

the end.

today is the first day of the rest of my life

i hate that saying.

hello september! you're going to change my life, i've decided. starting today. starting in about 8 minutes.

this is going to be good. stay tuned.

gba recap

wow. my blog has really consisted of cop-out posts lately. not unlike this blog, this blog, or this blog (which has been so badly neglected that it can hardly be called a blog at this point), i might add. sorry to call ya'll out. no, no i'm not.

this weekend was pretty good. it was all started off with a beautiful night swim in walden pond, one of my most favorite summer activities. it was perfect, except to some people who thought it was too cold. but, thanks to the overexertion of having to swim much further than i anticipated, i slept well friday night, and awoke super duper early to prepare for the great boston adventure. a day to play the ultimate boston tourist. brian, mike, annie, tim, natalie, clayton, and i (without cyrus) headed downtown in the wee hours of the morning (ok, it was 8:30- but on a saturday morning in back bay, that may as well be 4 am) and over to the museum of science to catch an infamous duck tour. we missed our first opportunity, which left a few minutes to mill around the museum- long enough to see some chicks hatching from eggs (one of which was getting trampled on by the other satanic birds in the pen- i nearly cried) and to take a moment to stop and smell the…wildlife.

the duck tour-ed us around the great city of boston, past many national and local historic landmarks. turns out boston is the city of a lot of firsts for this country; first hotel, first subway system (no, the correct answer is not new york-try me), first place to see a fist fight at the symphony...some people didn’t like our tour guide, but i thought he gave plenty of useless trivia, which is the only thing my brain retains anyway. did you know that if you made a sidewalk out of all the concrete used in the big dig project, it would stretch from here to san francisco and back 3 times? 3 times people!

post duck tour, we ate lunch at fanueil hall. despite the 99 degree 80% humidity sweltering heat, most of us got clam chowder in a bread bowl, which was not smart, but delicious and very touristy. then we headed to the aquarium to view the fishies and the penguins, and the seals who couldn’t be coaxed to put anything but their noses out of the water. not that i blame them, did i mention it was 99 degrees?

when we’d had enough of the aquarium we boarded a yacht, or maybe just a boat, and set sail to sea to see whales. and see whales we did! i believe the grand total came to 9 or 10 whales spotted. the "marine biologist" claimed she could tell the difference between the whales, and even made up names for them, but i think some just swam under the boat and came up on the other side- a trick they’ve probably worked out to boost the numbers to ensure customer satisfaction. in fact, i'm not totally convinced those were real whales. whatev, it was pretty awesome. them’r big fish.

the weekend concluded much as it began. not as much with a swim in walden pond, but with a three and a half hour post-church nap, dinner at this person’s house, and a long restful nights sleep. ahhhhh.

well, the end. this weekend= the great connecticut adventure. i hope there will be penguins.

minivans are the new porsch 911

see minivan

see minivans licence plate cover

am i missing something here?

i'd like to thank the academy

i'd just like to mark this momentous occasion...

i have made it to this person's list of current obsessions!

tears. lots of tears.

a survey. please respond

let's say you have a friend.

and let's say that said friend is on a slippery slope to self destruction, a path that is marked with subtle pitfalls- many that are hard to decipher unless you yourself have actually been on a similar road, or at least seen that road taken by too many others...

but let's also say that you're no longer close enough to said friend to be comfortable in voicing your concern to them directly. however, you know said friend has other friends who might be more influential, and you could probably say something to said other friends. what do you do?

no really, i want to know.

who needs wordsworth?

three of my favorite quotes from last weekend. explanations given to the best of my ability

"you're a pimp dude, have some cabbage"

-this was tim referring to his methodology or criteria for tipping

"that's a cell phone?"

-the first thing out of rachel's mouth when she saw tim's old phone.

but really, people have home phones smaller than that.

"it's the emoticons with noses that make me want to rip my arm off and beat myself with it."

-natalie. enough said.

is this work?

so...catching a red sox game in the middle of the day, compliments of your place of employment, isn't anything to complain about.

so i won't.

and you will be my muse

dear mr. bellamy,

hi. remember me? section 113, row L, seat 19. green jacket. i was the only person at your saturday night concert above the age of 17- save the senior citizen two rows behind me whose rear never left the seat- rock on, grandma. i just wanted to thank you for putting on perhaps the most amazing concert i've ever seen in my entire life. i must admit that i was skeptical of the venue at first. though i can appreciate and celebrate your rising success and popularity, i am one who has always preferred a smaller music scene to an arena, and a part of me will miss the days where $5 (or sometimes just a smile and a wink-depending on who was working the door) could get me into your show at that rat hole someone passed off as a night club. however, from the moment you opened with "take a bow" all my pretense flew out the window and i couldn't sit still until after your second encore, "knights of cydonia" (a perfect closing number, in my opinion). thank you, also, for going old school a bit and incorporating a number of pieces from showbiz and origin of symmetry, which no doubt meant more to granny and me than could have to the rest of the toddlers in attendance. a thoughtful shout out to your groupies. still, hearing "starlight" live nearly brought tears to my eyes and in that moment i felt akin to brace-face sophomore on the front row who's mascara stained cheeks shone in the light of the well placed pyrotechnics. that song will be played at my wedding.

there were so many other amazing moments, the least of which included the piano light parade during "sunburn", the extended guitar solo in "hysteria", and singing along with the crowd to "time is running out", three of my most favorite songs ever, and you literally brought down the house with "supermassive black hole". well, maybe not the whole house, but at least that one girl that i saw fall off her chair. you brought her down. kudos.

anyway, i may not be able to claim the position of number one fan, but i probably fall in your top thousands. what i'm saying is i really like you guys and i'd appreciate your re-appearance in boston as soon as possible. give my love to chris and dominic, and maybe i'll catch up with y'all in bucharest in october.

yours truly,

fan #4,723 (or something like that)

i'll go it alone

today i purchased 1 ticket to Muse. 1.

...

only a concert of this rocking magnitude could make me forget that i'm going there alone.

my house is a very very very fine house

today i will write about my house in salt lake city. why? oh, i don't know, maybe because i've become acutely aware of it as of late due to the busted waterline that's been filling my basement with water for the past 5-days, of which my renters failed to tell me about until yesterday.

anyway, so this is my house. it's located in the historic district of salt lake, is about 107 years old, and ugly as all get out from the outside. don't let the greek flag appearance throw you off, it's actually a pretty cool place. please, come inside with me...

this is the front room. it looks a little bare since this is post-move-to-boston photography. actually, it was always a little bare, but is my favorite room in the house at a certain time of day when the sun pours through the window and warms the couch perfectly. it made for a great reading room. i miss it.

this hallway connects the back bedroom to the front room, and there is a bathroom in-between. neither of those rooms are interesting enough to warrant their own picture, though i will mention that the shower in that bathroom has 3 different shower heads, one from the side, one from the front, and one from the back. so that's pretty cool. the yellow makes me happy. yellow=cheerful.

upstairs is the "master" bathroom with this huge jetted tub that seems to impress people. i hate baths. waste of time in my opinion, and the thought of soaking in my own grime just doesn't appeal. maybe i shouldn't admit that i'm grimy. oh well.

the best part of this room though is the view out the window. it looks out over the backyard of mine and the surrounding properties, and also onto my apple tree, which produces the best apples in the world. i miss that too.

back downstairs, the front room connects to the dining room, (and the knee bone connects to the shin bone) which is the first room you enter in the house. in the corner on the left you will note my beloved piano, and in the right, my amazingly resilient palm tree. i'm pretty sure i watered that thing, maybe, once every 3-4 months, but it's still going strong!

oh, and that's cafe rio on the table- my 9th love in life.

beyond that lies the kitchen. this is one view and below is another. it was here that i developed my love for cooking. maybe it happened here because the 5' x 7' apartment kitchens i'd been dealing with for years previous just didn't scream "hey! come spend time in here!" and my mom's kitchen growing up only represented dishes duty.

nevertheless, you can see how having two, count them, two ovens and loads of counter space might have increased my appetite (pun intended) for cooking.

and last, but definitely not least is my favorite room in the house- the laundry room. odd? yes, but the lime green soothes my soul and i love it. please take a moment to notice the shelf upon which a bunch of crap is piled. my brother installed said shelf so that we could put the tv there and watch it while doing laundry. subsequently, this room got the most attention.

anyway, this post is boring and i've got a flooded basement. better go.

totally worth blogging

this is the final message i got from my little brother on gchat today:

Geoff: okay your about as exciting as a marmoset to talk to, so im gonna sign off. Love you bye

charming, isn't he?

originally untitled

for some reason it won't let me put a title on this. hmmm.

rachel requested a new post. and since i like to give rachel pretty much anything she wants, here we go.

i couldn't think of anything to blog about, so i'm going to blog about my blog. i looked up what i wrote about on this day last year, which can be found here, as well as one year prior to that which can be found here. both entries speak to some pretty significant experiences in my life and i'm feeling a little more ok about the fact that i found 3 journals last night that had all been started and quitted only a month or two later. is quitted a word?

i've been asked by a few people "why blog?". to those people i would say, "why not blog?" not necessarily because i think that is a valid answer, but because people tend to get stumped when you answer their questions with a question. while they're scratching their heads in search of a response, you can run away or stuff a candy bar in your mouth to prevent further discussion.

so to you my friends (and creepy person who googled "seagull procreation" and was sent to a previous post), tell me- why blog?

i am eeyore

if you want to read what some psychologists have said about me, here it is:
http://typelogic.com/istj.html

they're actually quite accurate.

if you want to find out what they have to say about you, go here: http://www.kisa.ca/personality/

good luck.

step 1: admitting you have a problem

and i do.

the problem is shoes.

i'm addicted to buying shoes. there, i've said it. as of yesterday, i've purchased 3 pairs this week, which my co-worker pointed out (unnecessarily and unsolicited, i might add) is an average of 1.5 pairs per day. i'm so ashamed.

but really, the problem is that i actually do need 2 very specific pairs of shoes (read: boring, boring work appropriate- one pair brown, one pair black, blah blah blah). can i help it if while combing the racks at dsw- actually looking for aforementioned specific and necessary shoes- a beautiful pair of nicole miller satin stiletto's jumps out at me, which just happen to be my size and happen to be marked down from $175 to $16? or perhaps i stumble upon a pair of vince camuto brown, studded, leather soled pumps at 80% off? can you blame me? yes? well, granted, i could choose to spend my lunch break in a more constructive and less expensive manner, but how can one bring themselves to choose that higher path knowing that somewhere amidst the rows and rows of leftovers, cast off's, and irregulars, lie that perfect pair of twolips red leather slingbacks?

oh, and did i mention that the dsw summer sale starts on thursday? triple points people! oh the shoemanity!

rachel- please?

do you like flock of seagulls?

seattle, wa: one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen.

i arrived hours before anyone else, so took myself on a tour of the city- including to the aquarium where i pet these lovely dudes above (maybe they're chicks, i don't know. do starfish have genders? and furthermore, how do they procreate? well, a blog for another day)

and saw this amazing mountain, which was definitely the tallest mountain i've ever seen, at least to that point (see forthcoming pictures from alaska...)

and another view. can't get enough.

this was a cool boat at the dock on the wharf. i was feeding the seagulls (as directed by the sign at ivans seafood).
marie and me.
this trip brought to you in part by jet blue airways and the deficit in my bank account, but mostly by the two lovely people above.

loved it.

and we're back.

this blog is brought to you in part because it's just been a while, but mostly because i see that i'm quickly approaching colleens max time allowed for not blogging and staying linked to her page. so in honor of her birthday yesterday, and her one-year boston anniversary today, i blog...

so what's new? a lot. new job, new roommates, new perspective on life. new people, new shoes, new places to eat lunch, and new lunch mates. new gchat friends, new books, new glasses (eek),
new grass, and other new stuff too sacred for this blog. i'm loving it all so much. have i ever mentioned that my life rocks? well it does. remember when i went to alaska 2 weeks ago? yeah, that was awesome (pictures and a blog forthcoming). oh, oh, and remember when i went to seattle for preston and marie's wedding reception and it was fantastically amazing? yeah, i remember that (pictures and a blog forthcoming). my life is honestly chalk full of great stuff, due in part to the fact that i live in boston- pretty much one of the best cities in the entire world- but also because of my fantastic friends and family. now you know i love you all, but i have to highlight a few people in my life for just one sec. first, my mom. favorite moment of this week was when she called to see if carri and i want the 2 trench coats she found in the basement, which she plans to throw out. trench coats. anyway, there's also rachel, who makes me feel like every time i'm in her presence i'm the best thing since sliced bread. and also nat, who gchat battles with me better than anyone i know, and who's company i'm always a fan- no matter the circumstances. the point is, i freaking love my life and that's as much as i have to say right now.

ZZZZzzzzz

remember when i used to blog? yeah, that was cool...