Monthly Archives: June 2008

Things I dislike

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Food poisoning or something similar to it.

I took Friday off of work just to relax and get stuff done. Well, as luck would have it. That same day I came down with a terrible stomach something or another. This resulted in me laying on the couch all day and rejecting the veggie sandwich from Hoaglin. I NEVER REJECT THE VEGGIE SANDWICH FROM HOAGLIN. That’s like saying, here’s pure awesomeness on a bagel now toss it away. That’s how good this sandwich is. You know I was sick if I turned my nose up at it.

So that pretty much killed my weekend. Before I became completely bedridden, I did sit on the pourch and help my mom plant flowers in the yard. She did a great job. Now the neighbors will hate us a little less! Yippee! When I get the energy to take a picture, I’ll post it. We even have a flag hanging on the pourch. Just call me Patriot Patty (well Patriot Bess, but that doesn’t sound as clever as Patriot Patty).

One thing I did discover in my weekend on the couch was the AWESOME tv show, Whose Wedding Is It Anyway on the Style network. What great television. There was a marathon on Saturday, and this show single handedly kept me from going stir crazy. I tried to get a clip from the show, but I could figure out how to imbed it (or whatever tech lingo word that would fit appropriately).

The show follows two weddings and two planners per episodes. The show has it’s main planners that it features. It shows the struggle between bride and planner. Sometimes the problem is with the crazy family, sometimes the bride is too indecisive. Sometimes the wedding gets canceled (that was a good episode).

Let me paint you a picture of one of my favorite episodes. The bride is crazy. She decides to have a St. Patrick’s Day wedding. Yes, a St. Patrick’s Day wedding. First off, who really wants to have a St. Patrick’s Day wedding? Everything is decked out in green. Not the most romantic of holidays, and frankly, if I was a guest, I’d probably be annoyed that I couldn’t be out at some pub drinking green beer. This is an EXPENSIVE wedding too. Granted it didn’t look as trashy as I pictured it to look. On the wedding day, the bride starts bitching out her planner.

Bride: “Your my wedding planner. You need to just be calm. You don’t need to answer me all snippity. Work it, that’s what I’m paying you to do.”

Ahhh shit.

What is No More Update

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By the demand of Miss Tori I have to update this post:

5) The Yellow Victorian. This is the name we affectionately gave our home senior year because well… it was a yellow Victorian style house. Creative lot aren’t we.

Here are a few photos to show what the house once was in its Glory Years (If this was an audio presentation, I would put Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days on to a slide show presentation of the house)

This is the house with all the lovely ladies who lived there. Please notice Tori’s and my bedroom window in the background. Great house huh. Please notice how the paint is chipping and windows are falling out of it’s sockets (or whatever windows call it)

Poor Claus, I keep putting very flattery pics of us up. I think this is a good pic to illustrate the conditions we were living in. Pay particular attention to the area to the left of Claus’s hat.

Now prepare yourself…

You’re about to see a photo of what has become of our beloved YELLOW Vic.

Are you ready for it

Matt is demonstrating how we all feel on the inside about our beloved home.

Old Grey Vic ain’t what she used to be ain’t what she used to be.

Things That Are No More

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There are some things that I like that are no more. I have decided to dedicate this post to all things that are magical, but are from an era of the days of yore.

Please note: This is in no particular order

1) Blueprints Magazine: Oh Martha Stewart you touch my soul. Blueprints is a Martha Stewart Living publication geared toward the younger audience – Women in their 20’s. I would possibly vote it most popular reading choice of the living unit Senior year of college. I wanted to be the type of woman featured in Blueprints. She was so classy and fun. She throws amazing parties and wore fashionable threads. So cool. Working in media I read about the magazine folding early on. I was crushed. Absolutely crushed. It was a sad sad day.

See look how much I could learn from this issue – A Doable dinner party, fashion necessities. The possibilities are endless (well, I guess they are now considering the magazine has folded…)

2)Arrested Development: I know this is a very cliche show to love but I can’t help it. It’s just solid gold. The show was not on long enough. It’s hard to believe they could fill 3 short seasons with such goodness. They touched/joked on every topic and each character just has that something that makes me crack up with laughter. Please enjoy this clip.

ps – Huge crush on Jason Bateman. Total fox!

3)Gilmore Girls: I could go on for days and days about Gilmore Girls. I wish I was as witty as Lorelei and Rory Gilmore. At least it gives me something to strive for. Also, that hottie from Heroes (Hayden Panettiere’s bf) Milo was on the show. All around awesomeness. I even went as far as to write a research paper on Gilmore Girls. I was was analyzing depictions of class in the show. This is why Communications majors rock.

4)College aka my social life: This is a pretty obvious choice. I used to be in college. While there, I had a relatively active social life. Now I’m in the real world – this means I can no longer hide beer in with my groceries allowing Mom and Pop to secretly pay for it. There are no more penny pitchers at Rock House. There’s no more late night trips to Marvin’s and Wal-Mart. Oh well… I hear paying bills can be fun too ;(

To prove my love for college, I’m posting the most unflattering photo of me of all time. But this picture is an example of the social life I was referring to. Wear pjs to 210 to play beer pong on a snow day. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than that. RIP social life RIP.

Ok… that’s it for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with more things I’ll miss later.

Enjoy!

High School Boy

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No, it’s not that I like high school boys (well except for Zach Efron and Daniel Radcliff – but hey I am a woman aren’t I), but I like things that high school boys like. For example: If given the choice of any beverage in the world – the most expensive champaign, coffee, wine, an ice cold beer, anything, I would without a doubt choose Mountain Dew. I don’t know if its my rural Indiana upbring, but I think it is the greatest drink known to man kind. Yes, by drinking Mountain Dew I put myself on par with gamers who live in their mom’s basement and wanna be extreme athletes, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take for the refreshing beverage.

Unfortunately, my love for that beautiful yellow drink isn’t my only connection with high school males. I also really like video games. I should qualify that I don’t mean Halo or Grand Theft Auto. I could really do without either of those. I don’t understand the fascination with shotting prostitutes and I have yet to grasp the premise of Halo. I just LOVE Guitar Hero and Wii. After Guitar Hero 3 came out I completely embarrassed myself by beating most of my brother’s friends one weekend when we’re playing. This shows that I have way to much time on my hands. Instead of perfecting the perfect into to The Devil Went Down to Georgia I should be reading Kafka. But I don’t. Wii is pretty amazing. As I understand it, Wii has become a gaming system that women generally enjoy. I’m not very good at it though. I think the controllers give me too much control. But still, Wii is almost more entertaining to watch then to play. My love for the console started back in college with Moen’s Smooth Moves game. Who knew that raking leaves, shifting a car, and picking apples would be so much fun. Trust me – it is!

My third and final (for now) high school boy trait would be my love for Superbad. That moving is just fantastic. I find I could watch it every week and not get tired of it. I would love to be cool enough to hang out with Judd Apatow and co. I think this might become my new goal in life. The movie is an instant classic. Every character is gold – solid gold. I mean 2 of my top ten are the movie so how could it not be good? If this hasn’t made me cool enough, I recommend watching the dvd with commentary. They are hilarious and so entertaining. I could go on and on and on about my favorite parts of the movie, but nobody really cares so instead watch these videos, reflect and go watch the movie again. I guarentee that while watching you’ll say to yourself, “You know what self, Bess is right. This movie is amazing!” Maybe next post I’ll highlight how feminine I am, because this post actually just made me really depressed.

Humiliation Update

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Hurray my Giant Attraction bike is fixed.

Luckily cousin Mike is very good with the bicycles. He took out some tools, something called a tire lever, and pop and inflate. Tire is fixed. Watch out Indianapolis – I’ll become a bike riding fool!

Being Humiliated

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To get your morning started I thought I would recount the excitement of yesterday

So…I thought today is a beautiful day. I know! I’ll take a bike ride. They just added all those bike trails, this’ll be great.

I go to my garage and pull my bike down from the rack (Note: My bike is a purple mountain bike named “Giant Attraction”). I notice the tires are flat… blurgh.

“Adam do we have an air pump?”

“no”

“Damn, I know, I’ll walk my bike to the gas station a few blocks away”

I look a little like a cooze walking a bike down East street, but I try to pretend it doesn’t bother me. I pass neighbors, cute businessmen on their way home. No matter.

I get to the gas station and realize that I’m an idiot. The air cost $.50. I don’t have $.50. I debate asking people for change, but I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I slowly start walking my bike back home. I feel like more than an idiot. When I’m only a block or 2 away I decided to ride it anyway. The tires are flat, but it’s slightly less humiliating (or so I thought at the time).

I walk inside grab some money and start the walk/ride back to the gas station). When I finally get there, I have to go inside and ask for change. I start filling up tire 1. it’s working quite nicely. I get to tire 2… and it’s not filling up. WTF! Then I notice that there is a black tube that seems to be stuck with air. I assume it’s the air pump and it just got stuck in the frame of my bike. I go to loosen it and realize, it’s not the air pump, it’s a part of my tire. The tread of my tire had somehow dislodged itself from the part that holds all the air and it won’t fill up. I try to stuff it back to no avail.

Once again I have to walk my bike back to my house. By this time I’ve based the same people 4 times (no joke, I’ve passed the same people each time). Now, I have a deformed tire that makes walking it very difficult.

So much for Bess’s work out plan!

It’s Friday – It’s Summer Songs

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It’s Friday (Woot Woot!) It’s Summer (Holla!)

Friday afternoons are a special time at the office. Especially in Summer. The office is quiet and the work is slow. Those last 3 hours can drag on and on and on and on and on…

I have decided to go on the offensive today. I WILL NOT LET SUMMER FRIDAY AFTERNOON DEFEAT ME! Thus, I have created a wonderful playlist to get me through the day. These are songs that make you want to dance in your cubicle even though Dave across the aisle can probably see you (completely hypothetical of course).

Here are the top 30 songs for “It’s friday – It’s summer” from my work itunes (in no particular order):

1: Theme from Boondock Saints – mainly bc it makes me think of St. Patty’s day

2: Tears Dry on my Own – Amy Winehouse – I will never tire of her doo-wop ditties

3 Chain of Fools – Aretha Miss Franklin if you’re nasty – This song makes me want to have attitude. Just try not to pout your lips and shake your head as you sing along.

4: Tennessee – Arrested Development – I had a difficult time choosing between this song and Mr. Wendel. Tennessee ended up winning for the line, “A game of horseshoes!”

5: When the Night Feels My Song – Bedouin Soundclash – I don’t know where I got this song, but it’s really great

6: Itchypoo Park – Ben Lee – Ben Lee is great. I really wanted the song “What would Jay Z do.” But unfortunately I only have it at work. But this is a great backup

7: F-cking Boyfriend – The Bird and the Bee – You can’t not smile while listening to this song. Love this band

8: Banquet – Bloc Party – I just like this one and that’s all I really have to say about that

9: I feel the Earth Move – Carole King – Tapestry is one of the best albums of all time. Matt and I want to start at Carole King cover band. I think this song will be my specialty.

10: Aretha Sing One for Me – Cat Power – I’m obsessed with Cat Power’s newest album. Most of her songs are total downers though. This one gets me moven’ though.

11: Nighttiming – Coconut Records – I LOVE Jason Swartzman. Rushmore is easily one of my favorite movies. When I found out that he had a new album out I rushed to my itunes and was pleasantly surprised. It’s very west coast/oc style. Nighttiming is my fav from it, and I find I put it on almost all of my playlists.

12: All Along the Watchtower – Eddie Vedder and the Million Dollar Bashers – this is from the “I’m Not There Soundtrack” which is AWESOME. I have yet to be tired of this album and it’s been on repeat for months. Can you really go wrong with Eddie on a Friday – or any day for that matter?

13: Ok, It’s Alright with Me – Eric Hutchinson – I must admit, I trust Perez Hilton with my music listening. He turned me on to Eric Hutchinson and I’m oh so glad he did. Great summer listening

14: When The Lights Go Out – 5ive – 5ive has always and forever will be my favorite boy band. This song is a classic

15: Hippopopotamous and Ryhmnosaurous – Flight of the Conchords – I think Bret and Jermain are the funniest guys and this song is case in point.

16: Booty Call – G Love and Special Sauce – This song is summer

17: Shakedown Street – Grateful Dead – Makes me think of college, and the Ruse playing this song at the Rockhouse on a hot Sat night, which makes me happy

18: Down to the Market – The Kooks – Great song, very catchy. Perfect for driving with the windows down on a lunch break

19: Dancing on the Ceiling – Lionel Richie – Need there be an explanation?

20: Paper Planes – MIA – Makes me want to be a bad ass

21: See you Again – Miley Cyrus – Judge all you want, but this is a really catchy song. Ask anyone who was at New Years 2k7 with me. By the 400th time it’s played, you love it.

22: This is How We Do It – Montell Jordan – I am embarrassed/proud to say I know every single word

23: Take Off My Clothes – Morningwood – Every woman who listens to this song, will have some guy come to mind when she hears it. And then she’ll smile

24: Handle Me – Robyn – I’m so grateful Matt introduced me to the wonder that is Robyn. Yes this is the “Show me Love” Robyn but now she’s laced with hip hop and attitude. Great pop song.

25: Where Did you Heart Go Missing – Rooney- My most played song on my work itunes. It is impossible not to feel happy when you hear it. It’s also impossible not to shimmy your shoulders.

26: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa – Vampire Weekend – I had a difficult time picking just one song from their album. This is another cd that I will never tire of. It always makes me happy and it sounds like Summer or Friday – better yet a Summer Friday

27: Superstition – Stevie Wonder – I got to see the fabulous Stevie at the Obama Rally in Indy. All I wanted was to hear Superstition. He didn’t play it, but it was still AMAZING!

28: No Diggity – Blackstreet – This song is evident of how great the 90’s were. Every time I hear this song I have to call Jane because this song single handedly got us through the long bus ride from Prague to Berlin.

29: Tonight I have to Leave It – Shout Out Louds – they sounds like the cure and I like it. It’s my mellow summer jam

30: Eventually – Zox – Great for a summer bbq

and there you have it – go forth listen and survive your friday

You’re my Top Chef

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For work today I had to search for photos from Top Chef to put into a presentation. I found this glorious photo of Chef Tom Collichio. It perfectly captures what I was describing in entry number 1. Don’t you agree?

Surprise Surprise, I like Top Chef. In fact I love Top Chef. Every Wednesday my roommate/brother and I watch it together almost as intently as we watch Lost. Each week we meticulously judge each cheftestant’s dish. We like to pretend that their Frois Gras is something I could whip up as easily as my Kraft Mac and Cheese. We also think that just because we can SEE their dish that we can accurately judge its taste. As with every other reality/game show I watch, I like to put myself in their shoes and think, “What would I sing for Neil Diamond Week on American Idol (obviously Red Wine, and Sweet Caroline)?” For Top Chef, I think I have the creativy to compete. One week, they had to create a dish based on a movie. They all picked terrible movies and even worse dishes. That is an awesome challenge that has great potential. I choose Silence of the Lambs as my inspiration and I would make liver, fava beans, and a nice chianti.

I enjoy the chefs this season, I think they have a lot of talent. However my number one cheftestant will always be CJ from season 3. He won my heart with his terrible brocclini, one testical (he had prostate cancer), and the fact that he was a giant. But really, I adore him. He had so much personality and fun with the show, and total fox. I think Padma wanted him too. I’ll fight her for him.

The most starstruck I’ve ever been was around a cheftestant. I spent New Years in Chicago with some friends from school. During that stay, we passed by a restaurant where my friend casually mentioned, “That’s the restaurant where Dale [who, it’s reported, is dating Jack from Pro Run] from Top Chef Season 3 works.” I preceded to freak out just a little bit. At the same time a worker was bringing in the valet parking sign and probably recommended to Dale that he get a restraining order from the crazy outside.

The next morning my friends Annie, Matt, and I decided to go to Dale’s restaurant for Matt’s birthday brunch. Since Dale was working late the night before (I could see him from the sidewalk- I told you a restraining order might be necessary) we weren’t expecting to see him. We walk in, and the hostess says, “Dale, your server, will be right with you.” Annie and I just stared in pure delight. Matt was way too cool to care, and judged us. When Dale came to our table to get our drink order, we tried sooooo hard to be cool. I even asked him which he recommended. After he gave his recommendation, I oh-so-very-coolly answered, “I’ll have that thanks!”

We debated all brunch whether or not to say something to him. Finally Annie and I decided that we would just be passive and awesome(which we were faking terribly). We would then become regulars and become best friends with Dale. So far the plan hasn’t worked. I’ll keep you updated though the minute that Annie, me, and Dale become bff.