Bridge & Tunnel: The Adventures of Two Single and Fabulous Best Friends

What This Jersey Girl Is Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving, Readers! Since I won't have access to a computer tomorrow (which has also cut down on my posting) I thought that I'd do my Thanksgiving post today. So, without further ado, my list of things I'm thankful for:

1. My Friends and Family (especially Achoo, because he is the Lurve of my Life)
2. Jersey and her fuzzy face (even though she's snuggling with grandma more than me)
3. Uggs
4. Achoo's sweatshirts
5. Peanut butter M&M's
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. Glee!
8. My new job
9. Apple Pie
10. Farmville (a-dict-ted)
11. The color pink
12. The Letter J
    
13. Sesame Street, apparently
14. Cosmo's
15. Blogs
16. Our readers
17. Hibiscus flowers
18. Being a Jersey Girl
19. The beach
20. My bed

There are many others, but I'll cap the list for this year at 20. So, dear readers, what are you thankful for this year?

Happy Holiday! Enjoy your food coma!

New Job Update, Ugly Christmas Sweaters, and Thank You 20SB!

I am literally sticking my hand out for the blogging community to slap me on the wrist. I've been a bad, lazy blogger. But I'm back! (Queens has also been super busy, but maybe if we nudge her enough we can get her to blog, too!)

So the new job is AWESOME! The people are soooo nice, and I've already run my own event (a very successful Karaoke night. Achoo helped. He's so good!). The only thing that's starting to get to me is the commute. Taking up almost 2 hours of my day and a quarter tank of gas, it's getting to be a bit draining on my sleep and my wallet. Achoo and I will hopefully begin looking for an apartment in the upcoming months (I smell interesting blog posts!) and then my commute will be much shorter.

I have a new obsession. I desperately want to have an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Party". Like, I hate that I don't have a house right now, because that means I can't have a party. And I can't exactly say "Hey LaLa, have a party at your house".

What is an UCSP you say? Only the coolest idea for a party ever! Everyone has seen Ugly Christmas Sweaters, you know, those ones your mom wears that have obnoxious decorations on them? Let me illustrate thanks to my friends at EBay:

 

And La Piece De Resistance:

Obviously, the fun part of the party is that everyone shows up wearing their Ugly Christmas Sweater! The best thing about this is that you can pick up one at your friendly neighborhood thrift store for a low, low price! Watch out, because next year, I'm definitely having one of these. I hope Achoo goes along for the ride!

Finally, I'd like to thank Alice.com and 20 Something Bloggers   for giving us "Honorable Mention" in the recent Blogger Carnival! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

Ok, so in conclusion:

Bug Queens to make her post, let me know if you have any fun Ugly Christmas Sweater Party stories or pics, and thanks for reading!

Yikes-a-doodle!

QUEENS HAS UBER STREP THROAT! Please send her well wishes, she had to go to the hospital last night! I feel bad that I now live too far away to have helped, but she's doing better today and just needs some time to recover.

I've discovered the joy of internet at Starbucks, and thankfully found a lovely green velor chair in the corner that I've perched myself in for the past hour. Thank you coffee gods, thanks you!

Finally, to answer Typepad's question of the day- Scooter was my favorite Muppet. Because he was the smart one.

The End.

Peace, love, and no sore throats,

The Happiest Day Of The Year

Every year, the commerce gods bestow upon us a magical day during which we wake up before the butt crack of dawn, bear the elements and the crowds, and hunt for the most spectacular deals imaginable. Yes, folks, I'm talking about the once-a-year phenomenon that is...

BLACK FRIDAY!

For a long time, I resisted the urge to get my spend on, because why would I wake up that early to shop? But the past few years, I have partaken in the festivities, and forgone sleep in search for the best deals.

I spend some time today checking out the Black Friday ads that have started to come out, and I already have a short list going:

1. Psych Season 3 for $12.99 at Target (the Happiest Place On Earth)

2. An HP Wireless Mouse at Staples for $9.99

That's really my list so far. Not that I can afford any of this, or that I should be buying this for myself as opposed to others, but still. I may buy Psych as part of Achoo's gift and the mouse would be for work.

On that note, I would like to share that I really do enjoy my new job, despite the fact that I'm sitting here without anything to do at the moment. My new boss has been great about giving me some new tasks to get me in the groove, but I do them too quickly, so I run out of things to do! However, I am a rock star and I'm certain that I will be able to do some good things here.

Ok, my fingers are getting cold. Peace out, kids!

Where Is Al Gore When I Need Him?

I'm currently at the house my 'rent's built (figuratively, not literally), because MY GRANDMOTHER HAS NO INTERNET! And I have no TV in my bedroom at her house. I know neither of these things are life-altering, but when you're used to having these things at your fingertips, it's a big shock when they are gone.

But I remind myself, she's taking me (and my ridiculously fuzzy cat) in for 5 months, and I need to be thankful.

Yesterday was the "big move". It took Achoo and I two trips in both of our cars, but we got everything down to GMa's. I was ex-haus-ted when I got home, and pretty much passed out at 10pm like a rock. But, I must say, Achoo was incredibly wonderful though the whole process, and I was so happy to have him help me though the entire thing.

This morning, I got up and brought my car over to the dealer to be looked at. It had been making a very loud noise for a while and since I'll now be commuting 2 hours each day, I wanted to make sure everything was ok with it. $460 later, I have a brand-spanking new Hub Bering. Whatever that is. It's a big hit to my credit card balance, but it needed to be done. Safety first.

While I was waiting for my shiny new Hub Bering, I unpacked and organized my new bedroom. My father keeps commenting on how much stuff I have, and I keep reminding him that I'm moving from a 4-room apartment into 1 room at my Grandmothers. Of course I'm going to have a lot of stuff! My grandmother was pretty impressed that I got everything put away as quickly as I did. But, when you've moved 21 times in 9 years (yes, folks, 21 times in 9 years. College, then I've pretty much moved every year since I've graduated...), you become very good at packing and unpacking.

Tomorrow starts my first day at my new job, and I'm tres excited! I'm looking forward to actually having things to plan, implement, and operate! I'm looking forward to having a say, to showing off what I can do, and to doing it well! And I'm looking forward to gaining some new experience in a new area and building my resume.

So wish my luck, and really hope that this move was a good one, and that I can make the money situation work. Take care, and hopefully I'll have internet up and running soon at work so that I can post about how AWESOME it is!

The Things A Jersey Girl Cannot Live Without...

This post is part of the very fun 20 Something Bloggers "Blog Carnival"! This fun event allows bloggers to all write on the same topic.This is the first time I'm participating, and I can't be more excited! Enjoy!

Growing up in New Jersey, being a proud Jersey Girl, and even going so far as naming my cat after the state, has led people to wonder why I love it here so much. To many, this is the "armpit" of America. But I see the good things, like: the beaches, Atlantic City, and Giants Stadium. And so, in the spirit of the Jersey Devil, I submit to you a list of things a Jersey Girl cannot live without:

1. Pork Roll. Some of you may know it as Taylor Ham. There is a great debate between the North and the South as to it's proper title. But in my neck of the woods, it's Pork Roll!
2. EZ-Pass. Parkway and Turnpike tolls are now a breeze with this fabulous toll-paying technology.
3. Hairspray. Yes, I fit into the stereotype. I like my hair to have some volume. In order for that to happen, I enlist the help of my friendly neighborhood hairspray can. You can't stop my beat.
4. Bon Jovi. Some may argue for Bruce. Bruce whines too much for me. Give me JoN and Richy (who LaLa's mom knows) and a sold-out crowd at Giant's Stadium any day of the week.
5. Air Freshener. Ok, at low tide, yes, the turnpike stinks a little. It has nothing to do with the refineries or the chemical plants, and everything to do with the orbit of the moon.
6. YES Network. There was a brief period in college when I didn't have YES, right after it's inception. I had a moment. I remember people petitioning Residence Life to get the channel, and eventually, we were reunited with our precious Yankees. (Let's Go Yankees, Let's Go! Game 6 tonight, baby!)
7. A beach chair in my trunk. At any given moment, I have a beach chair, towel, and cooler in my trunk. I have to be ready for a beach trip at any given moment!
8. Great Adventure Season Pass. This was the Holy Grail as a kid. I grew up 30 minutes away, and we used to go in the afternoon, ride Nitro, then go home. Ahh, the good old days.
9. A Casino Chip. Whether your casino of choice is the Trop, Ceasar's, Harrah's or the Taj, every NJ's young adult's right of passage is a night gambling and drinking in AC.
10. Weird NJ. Everyone from the state has, at least once, read through these fun books that highlight the "weird" sites around the state. And most of us have visited half!

So, what did I miss? Of course, my list is very "Central Jersey" in it's themes (yes, Central Jersey DOES exist!), so I'm sure some of you from the North or the South have some other Jersey Essentials to add to the list!

Thanks for reading,

This post is a part of 20SB’s Blog Carnival: Can’t Live Without, and Alice.com is awarding prizes to lucky bloggers and readers!

Wierd Karma

So, remember when things were going really well for me, but kind of shitty for everyone else?

Achoo's mom has been in the hospital since Monday. They can't figure out what is wrong with her, but suspect GI tract issues (she went in with chest pains, but it's not her heart). My sister has been having some weird car trouble, and Queens also had some bad car experiences as of late, but I'll let her tell you about that.

I went in yesterday to sign my contracts with my new job. It's going to be a really nice change of pace. I'm still worried about the money (and the fact that I won't have benefits until March), but I just need to go with it and figure it all out.

Move to G-Ma's is commencing, and over the next week I'm going to take a bunch of trips down to her house to drop things off. I need to get my car checked out though, because it's running really loud when I go over speeds of 50mph. Anyone know why it would do that?

Things with Achoo are going really well, though. He is so supportive and helpful, it makes me love him more and more each day.

I'm literally counting down the minutes that I have to work here at this job I hate. It's 3240 minutes, if you must know.

Please keep your fingers crossed for Achoo's mom, so they can get her better soon!

My Own Personal Glee!

In an effort to get involved in more fun stuff...I joined a choir!!  It's actually a "rock choir" though I'm not actually sure what that means.  The guy running it wants it to be like the TV show Glee.  I'm up for it!!  We had out first rehearsal on Tuesday.  It's a little bit ragtag right now...we only have 3 guys and only half the people can read music...but hopefully we'll have more people this coming rehearsal.  This past week we sang Seasons of Love...a bit cliche for me (even though I love the song) but I guess it was something to start off with. 

I hope we get choreography and costumes!!

<3

Food for Thought and my Weekend

Went apple picking yesterday so I'm trying to figure out what to do with the giant bag of apples now sitting in my kitchen.  I'm thinking apple sauce and apple crisp.  Pie seems too time consuming at this point I think.  My baking skills are touch and go usually...sometimes I really impress myself...other times its a disaster!!  (Like the time I bought unrefined sugar (which is brown) and for some reason thought it would be ok to use that instead of actual brown sugar...because well, its brown? yeah...no so much!)  I'll let you know ow my foray into baked apples comes along. 

 Unlike Jersey, I am not in a happy and loving relationship so I have plenty to talk about. :o) 

This weekend was crazy busy.  Friday nigt I did the coolest thing I have done in a while.  I know it is super dorky...but I went to see the Lord of the Rings at Radio City Music Hall.  They pulled down this giant screen on the stage and projected the movie.  They had a full orchestra, choir and children's choir on the stage performing all of the music to the movie live.  They were pretty amazing.  You didn't know who to watch...the movie or the orchestra!!  The conductor had a little tiny TV monitor that allowed him to watch the movie and showed him all the tempo changes to make sure everything was in sync.  At the end, Howard Shore came out (he is the composer of all the music) and he was accompanied by Frodo himself! (Elijah Wood people!! who is a really skinny little guy!)  It was litterally just thousands of people with popcorn watching Lord of the Rings...breaking into random applause whenever the orchestra played a big number or a new character came on the screen.  Next year they are coming back and will be perfoming The Two Towers.  I already have it on my calendar!!  The hight at Helms Deep should be amazing!! I highly reccomend going to this!! (FYI they are also doing something similar with the Star Wars movies...I'm not a big Star Wars fan but if you are is probably worth seeing...)

Saturday night I went to dinner with my Long Island girls.  The rift is growing between Ms. Chic and my other compadre Mr. M.  But...that is a story for another day.  It makes dinner a little uncomfortable though sometimes as they tend to just kind of exclude each other from the conversation.  I also took Viva to the dog park on Saturday and walked over to the Farmers Market in Union Square.  I got some really nice fresh corn and a spaghetti squash that I'm planning on cooking tonight for dinner I think.  It makes a really nice little pasta bake type dish.  Very healthy and very yummo. 

Yesterday was as previously mentioned, the Apple picking.  I also went and hung out at my friends how for a bit which was nice.  Everyone but me pretty much has off of work today to unfortunetly it couldn't be a late night for me.  We did however book our ski trip to Utah for February.  I've never been skiing on the West Coast so I'm super excited (and a little scared) about it!!  I need to start training for this though or else my body will not be able to take it.  5 days of skiing will just about kill me and its not good to be that tired.  I'm going to come up with a training program I think...Something like 3 nights a week I run or something...anyone have any experience planning these out?? help!

I'm Sorry

I'm sorry I keep disappearing for a few days. It's not because I don't want to write, I do! It's not because I'm not around, I am! But I've been finding it hard to find things to write about.

On a whole, my life isn't terribly interesting. I have a job I don't like, and no one wants to hear me whine about that. Achoo and I spend a lot of time together and are very happy, but again, who wants to read about a girl who's happy and in love? Bor-ring. But other than that, I don't do a lot of super exciting things. Sure, I go pumpkin picking, have weird doctor's appointments, and am planning a cruise, but I'm struggling with the big question: "does anyone really care what I have to say?"

Maybe all bloggers go through this dilemma at one point or another. Maybe I'm struggling because people don't come to this blog to hear stories of a girl in a happy relationship. Or maybe they do?

Maybe I need to make a list of things that I do, so I have topics to write about. I could tell you about pumpkin carving, LaLa's new house, Homecoming, and my job interview. I guess I just need to seek out the motivation and the confidence that my stories are somewhat interesting.

I"ll work on it; ponder it a bit, and I'll let you know what I come up with. Either way I won't leave Queens high and dry, but I need to find some new fodder!

Love you all,