What I Wore Wednesday (WIWW)

A blog I like, The Pleated Poppy, does a "What I Wore Wednesday" post where people post the outfits they wear each week. I like this because it's just average people posting the outfits they wear to school, work, or just around the house. Some are fancy, some are from Target, but it's fun to see and get ideas. I've thought about doing it because the deeper we get into a season the less I care about how I look. But I am never together enough in the mornings to have time to take a picture, and in the evenings I immediately start shedding layers and accessories as soon as I walk in the door.

But, as today is a Very Important Day, I decided to try it. Only, my phone died after taking this test shot and I couldn't get one of me actually wearing it. So it's more like "what I was thinking about wearing, and did wear, even though you can't see me in it Wednesday." Which rolls of the tongue so well.

Shirt: Carolina Sportswear
Jeans: Gap
Socks: Johnny T-Shirt
Earrings: Shrunken Head
Bracelet: Student Stores
Watch: Fossil/Jewelry store in Goldsboro

Basically, a walking advertisement for UNC, the basketball program, and the stores on Franklin Street. I really must branch out more.

So yes, Very Important Day = Carolina v. Duke men's basketball. Isn't that what everyone considers a VID? Because you should.

Even when it doesn't turn out as it should, like tonite, a bad day as a Tar Heel is still a far better day than as anything else. Like a Dookie.

Holiday Rewind Part 3: Who's dreaming of a white Christmas?

I've tried many times in the past year to break up with snow. Once a friend that came so rarely and so gently, he was welcomed with open arms. Then, as time went on, he just wouldn't go away. A sudden drop-in here, an extended trip there, but still kind of nice to see. Until his presence escalated. Suddenly, he was sticking around for days and days. He worked himself into a frenzy and shut down a city for nearly a week. He nearly drove me crazy. But then, slowly but surely, he went away. The sun came out again and it was good.

But then it happened. He returned a week before Christmas to DC/Alexandria:

And then, he followed me home to NC, and brought this the day after Christmas, in the front yard:

And in the backyard, too:

Then I was reminded of what snow looks like in the country, with no buildings to block the view:

And then our house was made beautiful and perfect. And I spent the day with my parents in the cozy comforts of our living room. The the dogs rolled around in the soft flakes of our almost-white Christmas. .

Damn that tricky, sneaky, beautiful snow.

Next time: Cupcakes!

Holiday Rewind Part 2: I'll be home for Christmas

I spent two jam-packed weeks at home this year. Jam packed with: working, shopping, wrapping, talking, some baking, sleeping, laughing, car riding, TV watching, dog petting, eating, and eating. It was a wonderful visit where I was kept busy but also had time to relax.

The highlight of that first week, of course, was Christmas day. We were all seriously, seriously spoiled, as usual. We started the day just the four of us, with breakfast, gifts, and a fake fire. We had our few first bowls of wedding soup and decided to start a new holiday tradition, thanks to Spike TV, of watching all three "Star Wars" back to back. Then Melissa, Mike, and the girls came by for round two of gifts and soup. Now to let the pictures speak for themselves. With a few captions, too. I just can't resist. (Also, I really need to figure out the light settings on my camera.)

Why yes, that is Joey with his pants tucked into my Uggs. No comment.

Daddy opening his gift from me: bread! Panini maker to follow.

Mom opening one of her gifts.

Joey taking one of his traditional, "I'll take weird pictures of myself instead of Bonnie." shot.

The brat's new license plate. ECU Pirate or the little-known word ecupirate. Depends on who you ask.

Me and my pearls.

LIFE 50th anniversary edition!

Daddy getting in the holiday spirit.

Melissa and part of Mike opening gifts.

Joey rocking his new "old man golf hat" from one of the nieces.

And finally, nothing says Christmas like Han Solo riding Rudolph. What, your family doesn't have one? For shame. Rumor has it, he took the last room at the Inn.

I probably glossed over a lot but it was just a very, very good day. That's all that matters.

Next time: The white stuff

Holiday Rewind Part 1: Holiday Happenings

I've been in a blogging rut lately due to the fact that I never wrote about the holidays. It hovers over me all the time like a dementor, but instead of it sucking my soul, it's sucking my ability to write. Every time I select "new post," intending to write about my weekend or a funny thing that happened, all I can think is: cupcakesbasketballchristmasbirthdayhomesnowcupcakesbasketballchristmasbirthdayhomesnow. Over and over again until I get panic attacky and exit out of blogger immediately.

But while watching a little "Toy Story," a little "Saturday Night Live," and some DVRed "This Week," I got inspired and thus present Holiday Rewind, part 1 of...6. Sorry, it was a busy month.

Hard to believe, but this was my fourth Christmas season in the city and its environs. As usual, I tried to pack in as many fun holiday happenings as I could. This gets more and more difficult, however, as every year I get colder, older, and lazier. But I still tried.

Free music at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel with some friends and then dinner:

Twinkling lights on King Street:

And twinkling stars at Target:

Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Portrait Gallery with Mom and Melissa:

Poster of my favorite Christmas movie:

Also with Mom and Melissa, visit to National Harbor to visit the Gaylord Hotel and its holiday decorations:

And the National Harbor tree:

And the Peeps store:

Next: Christmas in NC.

Wizards and Nuggets and Tar Heels, oh my!

On Tuesday, thanks to a generous coworker, my old roommate and I went to the Washington Wizards vs. Denver Nuggets game.

Taking the tickets wasn't exactly an open and shut decision. You see, I'm a bit of a dork. More accurately, a bit of a politics dork. And, as we all know, Tuesday night was also State of the Union night. And I love love State of the Union night.

But, in the end, the desire to go to my first NBA game for free, with a good friend, and watch a former Tar Heel star turned Denver Nugget (Ty Lawson), won out. (And because I had the current roommate DVR the news coverage and speech for me so I could watch it immediately.)

Neither of us had ever been to an NBA game before and found the whole experience fun and...interesting. Different. Between the two of us we've probably been to 50 UNC games so we are used to a certain atmosphere and style of play.

But we enjoyed watching the less-than-energetic cheerleaders and the more-than-energetic crowd warmer guy. We had a good laugh/cry over the creepy mascots. We learned that it is impossible not to cheer for a team in Carolina blue. We basked in the glares of the crowd as we cheered each time Lawson played and clapped each time Denver scored. We remained dumbfounded by the constant music and frequency of technicals. We texted our votes for "Apache," aka "Jump On It," for the "dance cam" song and waited until the last five minutes of the last quarter for it.

But, more importantly, we watched a player in blue help his NBA team to a road victory, just like we used to watch a player in blue help his Carolina team to a Dean Dome victory. And then we realized we are old. For more reasons than just the basketball game.

We also learned that there are no free biscuits in D.C. when the home team scores 100 points. Ripoff.

But B and my eye were still happy. (Placeholder pic until I get the better one from B.)

And, to top the night off, I got proposed to at the Metro farecard machine. But that's a story for another day.

Fountain Friday

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C.

I discovered this fountain my first summer on the Hill. It's not really tucked away or anything, I'd just never previously visited. A bench in the shade was perfectly situated nearby and I sat for awhile and read. While I prefer fancier fountains, with thinner streams of water, this one was still nice and the near-avalanches of water managed to make a soothing whooshing sound.

Do and Don't

I do feel like an adult when I
Go to the Kennedy Center to see the ballet.

I don't feel like an adult when I
Eat at the Potbelly on GW's campus beforehand because I can eat for less than $10.

I do feel like an adult when I
Make appetizers for a potluck/book club gathering.

I don't feel like an adult when I
Get very turned around and lost on the way and cry a little.

I do feel like an adult when I
Make a binder with calendar pages and pockets to organize my bills.

I don't feel like an adult when I 
Still forget when they are due.

I do feel like an adult when I
Am in the same building (The Kennedy Center, tonite) with the President and First Lady.

I don't feel like an adult when I
Try to think of possible responses should I happen upon them and they all include randomly shouting "I love you," "Bo," or "Rahm!"

I do feel like an adult when I 
Go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up refreshed.

I don't feel like an adult 
All the time because I never go to bed at a reasonable hour and I never wake up refreshed.

Bring on the happy

I'm in the midst of a work project that is filling my head with so much jargon and legalese that I am one federal code away from becoming an incoherent blob of a shell of my former self. That's right, not just a shell, but a blob of a shell. Here are a few things, in video form, that are keeping me teetering on that edge of sanity before I go completely over it. (Some are several months old, but there is no expiration date on joy.)

SNL Digital Short: Andy and Pee Wee's Night Out (featuring Anderson Cooper)

Oh dear gracious, the joy this has brought me is unprecedented. I think the Digital Shorts can be very hit or miss sometimes, but when they hit it, wow do they hit it.

Favorite parts: Any part with Anderson, particularly when he tries to sit on Chairy. 

Diane Sawyer Birthday Flash Mob
This is from December but somehow I missed it until today. I watched this probably 10 times trying to pick out all the different correspondents. I never imagined two of my favorite things: professional journalists and choreographed lip syncing, would ever come together. Thanks be to the news gods and musical gods for making it happen.

Favorite parts: The dancing by the Kabul correspondent and Diane's subtle middle finger at the end.


Jimmy and Justin's History of Rap
This never gets old. My office is particularly obsessed with it because it just makes us all so happy.

Favorite parts: Jimmy's Beastie Boys and Snoop Dogg and Justin's NSYNC story at the beginning, because as soon as he mentioned Sugar Hill Gang, I immediately thought of them opening for NYSNC.


Vampire Weekend vs. Black Keys on Colbert and Vampire Weekend defending the Oxford Comma on Colbert
The first one just because it has Ezra from VW, who I think is adorable. And because watching it reminded me of the second video from the summer, where Stephen attacks their stance on the Oxford comma. Now, I do love Vampire Weekend and their song, "Oxford Comma." But I also vehemently disagree with its thesis that no one "gives a f$%! about an Oxford comma," because I do, in fact, passionately care about the Oxford/serial comma. It improves sentence flow, readability, and coherence. Not sentence flow, readability and coherence.


Now back to my legalese and jargon whilst singing "Say a Little Prayer" under my breath.

Do and Don't

Things I Do Love

• Being able to utter the sentence, "I'm pulling for the team with the neon feet." (Re: Oregon in the BCS title game.)
• A week before leaving for the holidays, I lost one SmarTrip card, broke another, and bought two new ones. I found the lost one whilst cleaning. Hooray!
• Massive cleaning and organizing spree on Saturday that led to all but four items being crossed off my twenty-item to do list.
• Christmas decorations still up in the storefronts on King Street.
• And in my apartment. Oops. I'll get to them eventually.
• "Dude, we're so cultured." (Former UNC b-baller B. Frasor to former UNC b-baller M.Ginyard via Twitter regarding the fact that they're both playing in a European league. That explanation is longer than the funny quote.)
• Life in the Snow Bubble

Things I Don't Love

• Or not. Tuesday's snow:

• Inconsiderate people on the metro.
• Hurting my hand pounding on my wall trying to get my incredibly inconsiderate neighbors to turn down their I-can-hear-every-word TV after they didn't answer the door when I knocked three times. (Proving they know exactly what they're doing wrong.)
• Being awoken at 2 a.m. by another inconsiderate neighbor yelling loudly, and I hope drunkenly, about something involving voting rights, Pennsylvania, and a "her."
• That it's three weeks since Christmas and I still haven't written anything about it, my birthday, or anything else.

2010 By the Numbers

Before I get to all the holiday happenings of the past few weeks, here's a quick and painless recap of 2010. In number form. Which is odd, considering how much I hate numbers.

• 333 steps climbed to the top of the National Cathedral bell tower
• 300+ work emails sent
• 250+ metro trips
• 200+ personal emails sent
• 110 blog posts
• 69 inches of snow (Total includes the December 2009 blizzard and NC Christmas snow.)
• 64 applications downloaded to my iPhone
• 50 books read
• 47 sub-folders in my "2010 Pictures" folder
• 26 years under my belt
• 24 dollars made at my pre-moving yard sale
• 17 movies seen in the theatre
• 16 s'more surprise cupcakes
• 12 book club meetings
• 11 orders placed through Amazon
• 11 plays, ballets, or concerts
• 5 celebrity sightings
• 4 seasons watched of Friday Night Lights 
• 3.5 days of jury duty
• 3 sections in the GRE
• 3 trips to new places
• 3 trips home
• 3 apartments visited before finding a new one
• 2 lost SmarTrip cards
• 2 days of photo shoots attended for work
• 2 haircuts
• 1 call to 911 (Not for me or anything to do with me.)
• 1 graduation attended
• 1 sick day
• 1 computer re-formatted by me
• 1 Rally for Sanity
• 1 autographed UNC basketball

And that was 2010, in the most simplified manner imaginable. It wasn't the greatest year ever, but it wasn't the worst year ever either.