and she's off!

I'm off to the Dirty South for a week. Wish me luck that I won't melt! Not sure if I'll be able to blog, I'm bringing the laptop but am questionable about the internet access availability...it is the south.

Have a great week y'all (i'm already going to fit in!)

The Plan

"I have something to ask you, it might sound weird, but just hear me out," Jane said on Saturday as I was walking around Columbia Heights and headed up to RFK to see the Nats.

"Sure, what is it?"

"What would you think if I said that I'm going to give up drinking for the entire month of June?"
Thoughts racing through my head, what do I say to that? If she really wants to do it, why not, but I hope she doesn't expect me to say I'll do the same? Do I make fun of her? Or support her? What? And this is what stumbled out of my mouth:

"What about Sally's birthday?" (in 2 weekends)

"Oh, you're right, that's a stupid idea."


So after much discussion, Sally, Jane and I have officially agreed to cut back on the liquor for the month. We are allowed to drink one night Mon-Thursday (no limit once drinking has started, just limiting the act of drinking) and we can either drink Friday or Saturday. These rules come with exceptions and we can allow ourselves to drink more if need be, but the goal is to drink only 2 times a week, 3 for a special occasion. We'll see how this all works out.

"But C$, why would you do this to yourself? You enjoy drinking, know your limit. Why oh why?"
Well, the answer is simple (and basically came from Jane). Whenever we go out we always drink and often times we drink a lot. We went out last week for a "drink" which turned into 5 beers. Can't seem to stop once we start, I guess. Also, it's getting mad expensive. I can't afford to keep it up anymore! Moving is expensive and if all works out I'd like to have real movers come and do it all for me, but that's mad $$ and if I'm drinking every freakin night there is NO way I'd be able to afford movers to move all of my crap into a new place (or hopefully a storage unit!)

***************


Ruth and I went to see Virginia Coalition on Saturday at Birchmere in Alexandria. I love me some VACO and LOVE the fact that Ruth is now into them too. All of the guys looked fabulous and I wanted to go home with each of them, but refrained (I've got some self control here!) A lovely time was had by all and I am proud to announce that Ruth and I are officially part of the band and will be releasing out live CD this fall. Sept 8 and 9 at the 9:30 Club. More details to follow once available.

But until then, I will leave you with this picture of my #1 man Paul. I never knew playing piano/keyboard and bongos could be so FREAKIN' hot.
I can't even control my thoughts about this man. Must. Self. Censor. NOW.

Victory et al

In case y'all care, in the case of C$ vs. Metro the winner is C$

Turns out that Metro didn't do the math and cover their tracks. Once the questions started being asked they backed down and "reinvestigated the usage" of several bus lines including mine, the M2. I got everyone and anyone involved in the campaign, including my neighbors, council members, ANC representatives, Metro's Rider's Advisory Council. It was awesome and I'm happy to see hard work come out with a positive result.

However, I'm moving so my hard work won't benefit me, BUT it will benefit the neighborhood so I guess I should look at it that way (?).

****************
I may have stumbled along something just perfect in regards to my housing situation. It required a resume and cover letter which have been sent off and I'm just keeping every finger crossed until I hear back from the powers that be. I've got everyone praying for, sending me good thoughts, whatever they choose, but all good thoughts are accepted and appreciated.

If all works out I'd be calling this home:
Ok, the metro wouldn't be home (but how convenient would THAT be?) but this would be my new stop. I think red is a wonderful color on C$, what about y'all?


**********************
This weekend something happened. Something I thought would never ever happen as long as the sky is blue. Something I never thought I'd volunteer for, rather would only happen if forced upon. Well, it looks like the sky was orange on Saturday night:



Ladies and gents, I am no longer a tequila virgin. I'm not sure how it all happened. I also said I'd never try it--all the stories I've heard effectively scared me to stay away at all costs. However, for some reason on Saturday I decided it'd be a good thing to try (and why not?!)

I was first tempted with the drink at Rhino bar, but effectively got away from it by taking a SoCo and lime shot instead. But then the Guards happened....And the tequila was ordered, salt was licked and the shot glass emptied...

And, I am happy to report, no sickness. In fact, I believe I might have found my new "get drunk quick" drink that'll replace Jaeger (oh you've been such a great friend J).

All & all it was a good weekend. Including a visit from B (mentioned in Friday's post), driving a sweeeeet car, lots of laundry, cleaning and a pan of lasagna. Could it be any better?

C$

Ramblings on Friday

Random thoughts on Friday morning, nothing worthy of an entire post, but together, they can make a semi-decent one... maybe

************


The Series Finale of Will & Grace

One word: disappointing.

I enjoyed the wrap up the hour before more than the final show. Was I the only one upset with the ending? My friend Chris IM'd me right after it was done and commented that all good shows seem to go down hard and suck on their last show. I agree, but wonder, why is that. W & G had 8 great years (200+ shows) that entertained every week. I know that the writers, producers and cast wanted to wrap things up but did they need to do so in that way?

Will & Grace not seeing each other for ~ 20 years and then "fate" bringing them back to each other when their children move in to dorm rooms across the hall is just pathetic and weak with the two of them heading off to the sunset to get a cup of coffee. Cut to the scene with them sitting in their own homes talking on the phone, reminiscent of the pilot. They mention that their kids are getting married, however, Grace appears to be wearing the same thing that she wore when she moved her daughter Lila into unknown NYC dorm. Now, I am a believer in love at first site, but can be believe that they met during orientation/move in and decided to get married and arranged the whole thing without Grace changing her clothes? Yeah, I don't think so.

(sidenote: she might not have been wearing the same thing, but it was close enough to appear the same, which really is all that matters. contrast folks CONTRAST)

But I would have forgiven that, however, the shot at the end of the bar ruined it all. They were old when they took the shot but young when put down the shot (if only that worked in real life!) The one one that I noticed looked different at first was Grace (hair up vs hair down) and I exclaimed "someone made a mistake, her hair was up in the last shot!" but when they went in for the close ups of all the characters realized that they were all "young." Lame-O

Good night Gracie for sure.

******************
I have a friend, let's call him CJ

CJ used to be the IT person at my last job. He wasn't full time and would just come in whenever we needed him (he had another full time job and would come by after work) .

He is the stereotypical IT guy: tall, skinny (nothing against t & s, just painting a picture!), socially awkward, nerdy, breakdown of communication when non-computer person tries to tell him the problem with their computer/application/etc.

CJ was also married when I met him but is recently divorced and is back on the market. CJ writes poetry, has a blog, is into photography; basically he's emo. CJ also does this clicking thing with his jaw. It's like he pops it out and and back into place every 2 minutes or so, for someone that has had major jaw surgery and is in pain with jaw issues, this KILLS me.

CJ is freaking annoying. I invite him to social events (baseball & hockey games, happy hours, etc) b/c I feel bad for him--he doesn't seem to have many friends offline and that's no way to live. I often think he's hitting on me, but am not sure. He has hit on my friends and kindly turned down by them...

I just had a 30 minute conversation over choogle (google+chat=choogle) about yogurt. YES yogurt, fruit vs no fruit, consistency, flavor, stirring. OMG I wanted to kill him. He's so strange and nerdy, I can't take it.

********************
I haven't heard anything from Ben, a guy that I was sort of seeing (very casually). Last Saturday he wanted me to drop everything and head up to NYC to spend the weekend with him. I would have normally said yes (party in NYC, staying at the W, what more could a girl want?!) but I already had plans with the Clique and didn't want to back out on them. He asked that I get in touch with him at 7 with my decision, which I did and haven't heard back from him since. I guess we're not causally seeing one another any more, huh?

***********************
My friend the Teacher is retarded.

Let me explain.

The Teacher didn't start seriously dating until Junior year of college, it wasn't that she couldn't or didn't want to, she just didn't ( I think guys might have found her speed talking just a little too much to handle at 15).

When in London for the summer between junior and senior year she fell in love with some boy (and he too). He was her first and yadda yadda yadda. They had a sort of open relationship when they returned back to the states, he was from Arkansas, she from Ohio and school in Boston. He ended up getting together with some girl and ended up breaking the heart of the teacher.

The Teacher then had this thing with this guy, the construction worker. She calls it dating, I call it something else, um FWB situation...whatever. We don't agree on the term, but they ended their thing in last Sept. She claims that she's "been putting herself out there" but I think she's holding out for construction man. Every guy she goes out with just doesn't compare.

She's gone on a couple of dates with this new guy (online dating) and likes him a lot but is questioning his commitment. They've gone on 3 dates and she wonders if he has time for her, if he is what she wants, yadda yadda.

She is 24 years old and wants to be "settled" and having fun (causal, friendly, occasional making out, etc) doesn't appeal to her. She's gone on 3 dates with this kid and if he can't commit to seeing her every week she wants to end it. WHAT?! When did my friend become that girl? I can't FREAKING stand that girl friend or no friend.. I might just have to cut her off.

(sidenote: I did tell her that she's becoming that girl and her reply was "so?" I'm not that horrible of a friend)


********************
I guess today was a ranting kind of day. Maybe this afternoon I'll think of something more cheery :)

If anyone would like to donate to my DC Cares Servathon Project, here is the link. We'll be painting doors in a school in SW DC and some other projects. Money raised will go to deserving projects and organizations in the DC area that need help. Please donate :) Thanks!

the married man issue

I used to have this problem with (attractive) married men:

"oh my Mr. Married Man are you taken? why can't you be back in the dating pool and hitting on me? why oh why?"

I would usually think this to myself whenever I was someplace in large amounts of C$-attractive men (i.e. sporting events, concerts, dive bars, the military base near my hometown), but would get over it once I left the establishment or ran into someone single and attractive. But it always ended that way. He was married and off-limits, I was not his wife and therefore unable to interact with him with the intention of flirting.

However, married men seem to keep popping up my life either directly or indirectly though my friends. Three very specific examples come to mind. The first two have been ongoing and are older (5-7 months) and the third very recent, as in this past weekend.

(names, situations and occupations have been changed to protect the (not so) innocent married men)

Situation A:
Clique member Jane was out with a friend, Jill, one night after a high profile concert. They happen to be drinking where the staff/band members go after every concert. Jane & Jill are having fun, two single girls at a mostly male attended bar. Half way through the night Jane and youngish man start to make eyes at one another from across the bar. He appears to be with the band (management and not an actual band member) and is surrounded by his friends. They continue to eye flirt over their drinks and from across the bar the entire night. Just as Jane & Jill are about to head out, Jane approaches the youngish man and says something along the lines of "You've been looking at me all night but haven't made your move, and now....I'm leaving."

Long story short, he convinces her to stick around and have another drink. His name is Jack and he works for the club and not the band specifically. He loves the band (and music genre in general) she loves it too. He knows a lot of people in the music world and has done a lot of promoting of bands that Jane knows of—it’s basically a match made in heaven.

Jane decides it’s about time to head off when Jack asks her if he can give her a ride home. At first she hesitates, but after some (drunk) thinking, agrees. They have a pleasant conversation on the way back to her place, exchange business cards and a cheek kiss is exchanged at some point.

The next morning Jane emails Jack thanking him for the ride and to continue their music conversation, she has just so much to say to him, but wants to appear cute. His (prompt) reply goes something along these lines:

Dear Jane,

You are very welcome for the ride home last night.

I believe that I may have misrepresented myself last night: I am married with a house and a dog and the whole thing.

I apologize for misleading you.

Jack

Since that email, Jack & Jane have continued to email each other, all very lightheartedly, mostly sticking to music. They have even seen each other out and about on the town and said hi. He has even gotten her prime seats for some concerts that have come to town. Basically they have become email buddies and talk almost every day, sometimes upwards of 7-10 emails a day.

Situation B

Clique member Sally works a firm with a large male population, most of which are unappealing, but has come across one (sort of) coworker, Fred, that is very attractive to her.

They instantly start flirting and seem to hit it off right away. They talk/email frequently but it usually work related. The rumor is that he likes her, but does not want to start something while at the firm, but will be transferring soon.

They meet a couple of times with a third person, for lunch and for drinks. She finds out that he is actually married, but the wife lives in Hawaii and they are married for tax reasons only. They both date other people and are only in contact once or so a month, but he does not want a divorce now and will only consider it once he leaves the firm entirely.

Situation C

The entire Clique is out on the town (Sally, Jane, Hannah and Ruth) having a ball this past weekend at a local dive bar. The entire night passes with very limited contact with the opposite sex (an entire group of young men stood just feet away and made not attempt to even catch any Clique member’s eye). As the bar is closing an attractive man walks by the Clique and Sally grabs him for a conversation. Turns out, both parties run in the same circle and know the same people from back in the day at University. Cell phones are taken out and mutual friends are called at 2 a.m. Bob heads back downstairs to meet his friends and the Clique gets ready to leave for the night.

Somehow Bob and his friends end up outside around the same time that the Clique does and more conversation ensues. Bob tells the group that he just bought a house and is having a house warming party next week and that we all should come, it’ll be fun. He gives his number to Sally, “she’s the one in charge of calling” he says. Hannah invites everyone back to her place for an after hours party, “why not! It’ll be fun!” Bob says “YEAH!” and convinces his other buddies to tag along. Eight people pile into a mini-van and head off to Hannah’s pad for some fun.

After raiding all of Hannah’s cabinets Bob passes out on her bed. The gang all comes into her room to keep him awake and he flirts with all of the girls. Bob’s phone rings and Sally asks sarcastically “Is that your wife?” Bob shakes his head no. (Bob is wearing a ring on his ring finger.) At some point, Bob and Sally are alone for roughly 5-7 minutes while the rest of the group is eating whatever they can find in the living room/kitchen.

Thirty or so minutes, Bob decides it’s time to leave. Everyone is sad, but he’s not feeling so good and probably should get home. On the way out Bob mentions his myspace.com account and his love for it. When leaving Bob bids all a good night with kisses (lip not just cheek).

The next morning the girls talk about their night, what fun, what craziness. Sally claims that she and Bob killed 4 times, “not make out kiss, more like serious pecks.” Hannah logs on to her myspace.com account to try and find Bob. He’s got some friends she might like to meet and wants to learn all about him and his friends. She scrolls down to check out his “companies” when she sees under “Status: Married” His wife is on his top 8 and a majority of his photos have her in them with captions of “my sweetie,” “my girl.” They’ve been married for almost a year. The house he has just bought is for he and his wife and not just for the raging parties he talked about.

____
A wedding ring used to be a clear indication of ‘taken status’ but that is no longer the case in all circumstances. Married men going home with 23 year olds, not usually normal, but happening. Email buddies with a single girl that obviously into you.

Now instead of just having to compete with other females that are on the prowl, we have to deal with wives at home—it’s just not fair.

Men, what’s the deal?

eh

Last night, that was me. the two other wheels were men. they didn't talk all night about sports or politics--both of those conversations i could have participated in. instead they talked about housing prices in SoCal and intellectual property as it relates to computer games/music/movies.

Needless to say, I felt like a guy: watching the game (sox vs yankees) while the other two talked about stuff uninteresting to me (intellectual property, housing prices in SoCal, etc) much like a new boyfriend who is meeting the girls friend's friend for the first time and tehy sit around talking about shoes or gossiping about their other friends.

I know officially feel bad for males everywhere that have to suffer through anything like this. Obviously my friend wanted to hang out the other night, I gave him an opportunity to back out ("If you need to cancel, that's cool, I completely understand friends coming into town, don't worry about it.") Gdawg refused to cancel under the premise, "if you don' t mind him tagging along if he gets in on time, let's still get together."

Long story short, it was one of the worst nights I've ever had. I didn't want to be rude to Gdawg or his friend (socially awkward nerd) but I wasn't interested in what they were talking about and made no effort to include me or talk about anything I was interested in. Plus, the friend was cheering for the yankees for the pure joy of seeing me get upset. He's not a fan of either team, but just because I was cheering for the Sox he choose the opposite team. It's cute when a girl does that to a guy, but not so cute when a married nerd does it to a normal (read: semi popular) girl. It'd be one thing if I was into him and his cheering was in jest, but it was a bit more mean spirited than that.

We said good-bye and all I got from Gdawg (a guy I've had a friend-crush on for almost 2 years now) said "well see ya. Let’s try and get together before I leave [for good] for Cali but if not, see you when you come to visit" and a quick, one handed hug. That's it. A two year friendship is coming to an end (at least in the physical sense, we'll continue to email, but that'll dwindle down once he starts as a first year associate at big law firm, inc.) and all i get is a 'see ya'. Obviously the friendship meant more to me than to him. Was it because I had a crush on him? Yeah, that probably had something to do with it, but still. Two years, great DC memories and a "see ya".

whateva. He'll probably be married within ~2 years to some good Christian who wouldn't swear like I do or drink like I do. Eh. Good luck with that.

************************
this little nugget just in:

To: C$ + department staff
From: KE [coworker]
Re: staple remover

Good morning,

If you borrowed the staple remover from the workroom, please return it. Thank you.

KE

is anyone else having flashbacks of The Office

Milton: Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler...

What I've Learned

(from a fwd email)

I've learned that you cannot make
someone love you. All you can do is stalk
them and hope they panic and give in.

I've learned that no matter how much I care
some people are just assholes.

I've learned that it takes years to build up
trust, and it only takes suspicion, not proof,
to destroy it.

I've learned that you can get by on charm for
about fifteen minutes. After that you better have a
big willy or huge boobs.

I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to
others-- they are more screwed up than you think.

I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after
you think you're finished.

I've learned that we are responsible for what we do
unless we are celebrities.

I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a
relationship is at first, the passion fades, and there had better
be a lot of money to take its place.

I've learned that 99% of the time when something
isn't working in your house, one of your kids did it.

I've learned that people you care most about in life
are taken from you too soon and all the less importatant
ones never go away.

Living the High Life

I just spent 30 hours in Chicago at the Park Hyatt (on Michigan Ave) Home to Oprah. Feast your eyes on this :)


My humble abode for the night. Unlike the rest of the staff, I had an extra ~25 square feet in my room. But who cares about that, check out this tub:

The picture does not do it justice at all, but let's just say it was amazing.

Phone in the bathroom. Stand up shower with massage head. HUGE soak-in tub with massage head. TV in the bathroom, perfert view from the tub. Candles and bath salts. DVD player. Mable floors. Wireless. Amazing view of Michigan Ave/Church thingy that's now an art museum.

what a life. too bad i was only there for a day.

Tag! I'm It!

Bad @ Life (http://goodatdrinkingbadatlife.blogspot.com/) just tagged me, 'cause he's a badass like that (or lazy for just picking people off of his comments list that he doesn't know) regardless, here are 6 facts you didn't know about dear ole C$:

1. Freshman year of college, I thought I had met the man that I was going to be with for the rest of my life.
His name was James and he was a senior at a school in Canada. He was headed off to med school and we became very close very quickly and he applied to go med school at the same large, urban New England school that I was attending. He ended up going to Med school in Mexico (yeah, that should have been a sign...) and he basically disappeared off the face of the earth. I was 18/19 and I thought I was in love. It was a rough time in my life. And even though he's well out of my life (haven't talked to him for ~5 years) I still think of him often and compare any guy I meat to James.

2. I am a sucker for older men. I've alays had a thing for older guys. My first "real" boyfriend was 21 when I was 16. Since then, everyone I've dated or been interested in has been older, usually 5 or so years. Recently I've been hanging out with someone that's much older than I am. We just started hanging out and I'm not sure what will come of it, but it's been fun so far and I'm fine with that.

3. I love music. I really do, it's helped me get through some really tough times and has provided a great soundtrack to some awesome times in my life. I can't go very long without hearing some music and have a radio/cd player/ipod with me wherever I go. When I lost my hard drive of my laptop a couple of years ago, I was more worried and heartbroken ab out the music I had lost and not all of the other crap stored on the drive. With that said, I'm not crazy about catching my bands live and I've gone to great lenghts, but I am not willing to do all the crazy things that a lot of DMB fans have done. Maybe when I'm rich that'll change, but until then, I'll stick to catching smaller bands at the 9:30 club and Jammin Java in VA.

4. I sometimes think my life is a Sex and The City episode
I know it's lame and such, but it's true. I also know that i'm like every 20 something single woman when i say that, but again, it's true! I have a four-some of friends who also seem to fit into the roles of the characters. I even have my own Mr. Big and Aiden. All that's missing is a couple of gay 'boyfriends' and some marriages and babies.

5. I like my "me" time. I love my friends and I love going out, but nothing beats staying home and doing nothing every once in a while. I need to stay home and rest up so that I can keep on going. I need to recharge.

6. Hallmark commercals get me every time. I love me some Hallamrk commericals. They kill me. I especially love at Christmas time when they bring out the old classics--gotta love those! When I went to Kansas City MO the highlight of my trip was the trip to the Hallmark Headquaters and I got to make my own bow. Good times :)

Ok, these were LAME 6 things. I've spent the last two weeks trying to think of something, and this is as good as it gets. I'm really not that boring! I suggest looking at 100 Things about C$ for more interesting things about me--definitely more interesting then the crap above.

C$