The Country Mice Visit the Big City

Fact: I have been living in Jersey for almost a year and up until last Saturday night, I had yet to get into the City (The City being New York City, not Newark. No one in their right mind would go to Newark for fun, unless you’re going to a Devil’s game and even then you need to travel by tank and have a RPG handy.) The last time I was in the Big Apple, was last March when I had to wander around the Met searching for Images of Renaissance women; did I mention that I also had suffered a bout of food poisoning the night before? Fun times.

It was looking like it was going to be a quiet weekend at home. Not that there was anything wrong with that, Chris and I had just come off of a weekend of carousing at a Bucknellian wedding and we were still pretty tired. (A blog post to come later, when I move my photos from my camera to the computer.) Anyway, I was thinking I had a weekend of laundry and grocery shopping to look forward to, when I got a call from my friend Rachel, who wanted to know if Chris and I wanted to come into the city for dinner and a show. I was ecstatic, (I hadn’t seen Rachel since the last Bucknell wedding), Chris was less so. He was up on seeing Rachel, but iffy on actually going into the city.

You see, as we have come to find out, doing fun and exciting things in New York is a lot harder when you don’t actually live in New York. Do you take the train? The Dover station is 10 minutes and the boys have taken the train into the city on multiple occasions but it’s expensive and you are very much dependent on the train schedule, which could cut short your trip if the train stops running at a certain time of night. Then do you drive? It takes us about an hour door to door, more if there’s traffic. But then you have to decide which President will make your trip easier- do you take the Tunnel (Lincoln) or the Bridge (Washington)? Then there is parking. Do you risk on street or pay through the nose in a garage?

We drove.

We actually lucked out on that aspect. After locating Rachel’s apartment (one block from the UN), we ran into a parking garage a block down with a weekend special.
After that, the rest of the night locked into place.

We had a great dinner catching up at a little Mexican restaurant (Quesadillas! Guacamole!), walked up and down 2nd Avenue where most of the restaurants had opened their large windows to the street or set up tables on the sidewalk, and grabbed a drink at a quiet bar in Union square where we watched party goers, skate boarders and a guy in a full Viking costume stream by.

We ended the night by taking in a show, Stuffed and Unstrung, an adult puppet show brought to you by the letter H, as in Brian Henson, as in Jim Henson’s son. Think Whose Line is it Anyway mixed with The Muppet show and add some alcohol to taste. The result: pure genius.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a99I7Vsh6dI
I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.

FML

My hard drive crashed last week. Again.

I had just come back from work and was ready for a little bit of Facebook stalking before I did some yoga. I opened up my laptop, hit the power button and…

Blinkie white light of death.

Even after restarting the computer, I still got a blinking white light in the upper left corner of the screen.

Did I mentioned that this isn’t the first time this has happened? This would be the third.

This first time, I paid $100 to have some IT guy at my Dad’s office claim it was a virus and “formatted” my hard drive which resulted in me losing the first three seasons of The Office, that were my go to sleep aid when I woke up in the middle of the night. I’m still feeling the effects months later.

Things were ok for while, (after I had painstakingly re-added my itunes library.)

Then it crashed again. So much for the virus theory.

This time, Chris worked some magic and the laptop was up and running again. (Minus half my photos this time)

The laptop is not really in constant use as it was in college. It sleeps all day and I really only use it for my email, facebook and now this. Pretty cushy retirement. So you can imagine my frustration last week when the damn thing decided to stay in a vegetative state.

This time, I am taking no chances. I am buying a whole new hard drive.

Does God have a Grudge against Jersey?

Either God hates New Jersey history, or he really didn’t want me to do much educational learning today.

So my parents came to visit today in honor of Mother’s Day weekend. (Holiday’s are fun when you are in a serious relationship, trying to spend time with both families) After a delicious, albeit windy, lunch at the Barn, I suggested visiting some of the area’s historic areas.

Turns out, there is lots of history here. Who knew?

Anywho, we decided on Washington’s Headquarters in Morristown. Apparently, Washington and his troops hung out here for a winter in 1780 (History lesson 1: After Valley Forge. Although the winter in 1780 was worse, less men died then at VF)

History Lesson #2: Whoever laid out the street plan for Morristown was an idiot with the wacky one way streets.

Finally, we found the Ford Mansion, along with a two room museum and a creepy park ranger who informed us and some Dutch tourist that the actual Headquarters was closed for repairs but for 4 bucks we could walk around the two rooms. Darn.

I’m not sure the two rooms were worth the $4 but it was interesting to see some of the artifacts… which included an 18th century breast pump.

Part of the exhibit talked about a reconstruction of the winter encampment that was close by so we thought why not?

Well, we didn't make it... there was a massive tree that brought down power lines and blocked the road.

"You Took a Life Here Today... The Life of the Party"

It is a sad day in Scranton Pennsylvania.

Steve Carell might be leaving The Office at the end of season seven when his contract is up.

My first reaction: The same reaction that Michael Scott had when he realized that Toby had returned to his desk in the Annex:

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

But after thinking it over for awhile, I came to the conclusion that I guess it would not be the end of world. Carell has been on this hit show for almost seven seasons. If he wants to clear out his office and move on to other projects (i.e. a movies) that’s his business. I wouldn’t want him to stay out of guilt over the fans’ anger and phone his lines in, thus have the show’s quality suffer as a consequence. I mean, I wouldn’t stick around at a job just because other people wanted me to. This would be one of the only time I would condone a TV actor leaving a hit show to pursue a movie career, (I’m looking at you, Katherine Heigl) because in this case, Carell has some pretty successful films under his belt, excluding the horror that was Evan Almighty.

Now the million dollar question: Will the show continue without him?

Could it? Yes. There are, theoretically, enough story lines to last The Office several more seasons. Dwight and Angela’s legal baby drama could fill one season on its own. So could Kelly and Ryan’s love/hate relationship. Although that could be a moot point if the rumor that Mindy Kaling is getting her own show on NBC is true.

Should it? Probably not. I mean, Michael is The Office. The whole premise of the show is the obnoxious antics of Michael Scott and how his employees react to said antics. Not to mention the past couple of episodes haven’t been as funny as past seasons. If they do decide to continue the show, the writing would have to be iron clad hilarious or it’s going to go the way of Jonie Loves Chachi or worse… Joey.

Saturday's a Happy Day!

Ah weekends.

How I love them.

Ever since I was legally obligated to go to school five days a week, I anticipated the two days that I didn’t have to sit behind a desk for eight hours. I anticipated them even more now, sitting behind a desk five days a week for eight hours, but without the recess.

Elementary through High school, I would sleep in as long as I possibly could. I thoroughly enjoyed the moment waking where I realized I woke up on my own, not my alarm or my dad. It was nice to see it was light outside. I didn’t have to get up right away. I could turn over and sleep some more if I really wanted to. I would have day where I didn’t have to think about touching the homework until Sunday night if I could manage it.

In college, Saturdays were also homework free, unless I had a final. I always slept late and got up just in time for a leisurely stroll through campus to the Bison for lunch (unless it was cold, then it was more of a brisk speed walk). I didn’t have to rush off to class or meeting; I could enjoy my food (Well, try to at least, considering what sometimes passed for food….) I could go back to my room to watch TV, read (not a textbook!), check out the 19863745283754203948 events that were always occurring somewhere on campus, or maybe a nap. Soon it was dinner and time to get ready for the evening’s itinerary.

Now that I am an “adult”, I relish the days where I don’t have to get up before the sun, drag myself to work, and try to stay awake. I actually get up now at a time that my college self would have thought scandalous. (8am? Why in the hell would you want to be awake at that hour?) I like that I don’t have jump in the shower right away and rush through straightening my hair. I can get out of bed and do some yoga before the day starts, not after work when I am so exhausted that I would much rather be doing the “sleeping sloth” then cat, dog or whatever.

There also is another reason why I love the weekends:

Laundry.

For some weird reason, I love to do the laundry. I love it from dragging it down to the basement to hanging it in my closet, starched and pressed. In fact, I won’t let anyone else wash my clothes. Mostly it’s due to the fact, that I don’t want anyone with good intentions to accidently throw one of my Hand Wash Only shirts into the dryer on high. (It happened. It was almost devastating.) There is also something cathartic about putting dirty clothes into machines and have them come fluffy and clean with in a hour. It’s like all the anxiety, stress, frustration and those pesky coffee stains from the previous week are rinsed away and I can start the clean (and fluffy).