Should I Feel Shame?

That one of my favorite movies ever is Romancing the Stone?

yes, THE Joan Wilder!!!

come on!

Yesterday afternoon, downtown DC;
man on street: shoe shine? shoe shine?
me: No thanks.
man: But you really need it!
me: awww, come on man!

My boss was with me and didn't hear the entire exchange. After I repeated and she started laughing, I turned to find him laughing as well.

Taking Advantage

This weekend was one of those awesome weekends where we did so much, but relaxed so much at the same time.

Saturday started with a quick breakfast after Mr. Perfect's friend called to invite him to a Georgetown bball game. I decided to hitch a ride into town and walk around, shop and get my nails did while he was at the game. I was sooooo ready to get out of the house and outside without fighting snow.

After eating a quick breakfast and literally as we were on our way out the door, Mr. Perfect's friend called to say that the game was uh, Friday. Whooops.

We were ready to go, so we decided to head into the city and visit the Native American museum. I had never been and it was about time to remedy that.

We had a good time walking around the incredible exhibits and just relaxing and chatting while soaking up the relaxing wavy architecture.

On our way back to the car, we stopped at the sculpture garden to watch the ice skaters.

We got back to Virginia just in time for Mr. Perfect to watch the KU game while I (finally - seriously, they were talons) got my nails done.

We wrapped up the evening with an awesome dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. It's nice to have family out here.

After dinner we decided to go see Valentine's Day. Mostly because I didn't want to watch Shutter Island and then go to bed. Don't judge, you have to know yourself.

So we got our tickets and head into the theater.

There was one other couple.

So we did what anyone would do - we walk up to the row in front of them, and right as we get to where they are sitting Mr. Perfect asks if it's ok if we sit there.

I had to turn away from laughing so hard.

I highly recommend engaging strangers in awkward moments.

We took our seats (three rows back from them) and had fun chatting with the couple about our double date. No one took my suggestion seriously that we should sit every-other. Oh well.

So Valentine's Day.

It was so bad, Mr. Perfect has already told me he wants to devote an entire blog post to the ridonkulousness of it.

Let's just say it was stupid, loosely tied together (as all the reviews said) and - surprisingly, especially coming from me - highly offensive. See also the scene where a disabled person randomly yells for... no reason other than to, what? be humorous because they have a different voice or face?? Ugh. IT WAS SO TERRIBLE.

Mr. Perfect was actually excited to laugh at the silliness of the movie. We didn't. We were busy cringing. Pain. Full.

Sunday made up for the pain that was inflicted by Valentine's Day.

Brunch in town, followed by Shutter Island (OMG SOOO GOOD. I wrote a friend and told them it was, "Good! Creepy, Spooky, Beautiful." to which he replied, "That's probably how my hookups describe me.").

After the movie we went for some awesome coffee and a Nutella crepe ( at Napoleon Bistro which I love. YES), shopping (Filenes - hell yes) and finally dinner at our favorite Sushi joint ($1 happy hour pieces and their tag line is Desperately Seeking Sushi, FTW!).

It was a perfect Sunday.

And pretty much a perfect weekend.

I'm ready for a repeat - perhaps featuring AMC's Best Picture Showcase?

In Which Big Drinks Are The Way To Go

Last weekend in KC, we decided to round up most of the kiddos and take them swimming at the Matt Ross Community Center. It was a great break from the winter blahs.

And hello, Luci, also known as Lulu, is the happiest kid I have ever ever seen. Love. Her.
She also looks like me, so that makes me love her even more.
Lulu was obsessed with this slide.

And she made this face every time.
The swimming was great, but exhausting. There were three adults and six kids to chase around. Ok, so the only ones we really had to worry about were the two smallest - Lulu and Maddie were both pissed they couldn't go down the big slide. They each snuck off and tried to go up the stairs to the slide. yikes.

After a big workout at the pool, we were all famished.

Luckily, Winstead's is just around the corner.

And I immediately knew that there was one item we HAD to get.

A Skyscraper chocolate malt.

Hell.

Yes.
The kids were sitting in another booth, but the second the skyscraper was delivered, we were mobbed!
Soooo delicious.

And can I just say God Bless Kansas City that massive massive thing was SIX DOLLARS!

Why would you ever not get one??
We had just as much fun watching the kids devour the skyscraper as considering the glory that would be arriving at Winstead's alone and ordering a skyscraper. Especially good if get there before a friend and can greet them with one.

So Lulu is a character.

We all know that.

But when she claimed some alone time with the skyscraper, I thought I was going to get a hernia from laughing.
That smile...
That BELLY...And then... then, she did this...
After Lu was done, Jack and Madeline had their turn.

After almost everyone had given up, Madeline turned to Shell and said, "Mom, we are going to drink ALL of it!!"

After that, we had no choice but to, well - to finish what we started.

Um, so maybe I should have been a bit more hands on when Jack took his turn?
Sorry about that bud!

Lulu - mesmerized.

Go Shell, Go!

YES!

WINNER!
Ahh, it was a weekend of big fun and big drinks.
Love you KC.

Might As Well Call It A Day

God Bless you Daily Candy, for bringing this into my life.

Dang. So clearly the sizing is messed up - click the image to see the entire thing.

How Can I Cash In On This?

Do you think there are people dumb enough to sign up for house sitting too? What about looking after their friends/family members that were left behind?

There has to be another angle here...
Updating their Facebook status for them?
Erin is... Raptured! Woohoo!

File Under: Things I Should Have Mentioned

She works at Hooters.

Notthattheresanythingwrongwiththat.


But... while we're at it... the best part of Big Daddy really was the ongoing Hooters references:

Phil D'Amato: And how long have you disliked Mr. Koufax?
Corinne: Since the day I met him
Phil D'Amato: And for the record, where did you work while attending medical school?
Corinne: Hooters
Phil D'Amato: No further questions?
Corinne: No!
Corinne: [under her breath] ... asshole!

Oh, Brother!

Just got off the phone with ... a friend... a GDfriend, if you catch my drift.

He's dating a girl and had a conversation along these lines with her:

Friend: Hm, that's interesting!
Girl: What?
Friend: They just said that scientists believe camels are indigenous to North America.
Girl: Where is North America?

She wasn't joking.

Annnnd she has now been renamed. Wait for it... wait for it...

Christopher Columbus.

She too, discovered North America long after everyone else.

Good Morning!

Running into your uncle at Starbucks (he was easy to spot - the only one in a cowboy hat) and getting a nice chat along with a free coffee is a nice way to start the day.

I've been waiting for this run-in to happen, we only work about 3 blocks from each other!

So There's This

Snuggie Sutra.

Yup.

Flying Home

All those times I got on a plane and flew back to Kansas City - ugh. They were so hard. It was so sad, and no matter if I knew I'd be seeing Mr. Perfect the next weekend or the next day, it was always hard. Yeah, I was the girl crying on the plane.

But during all those flights, all those times that I counted down the days until I could finally live in D.C., I never thought what it would be like to fly home when home was D.C.

And so there I was last night, the girl crying on the plane.

What can I say? My there are lots of people with a piece of my heart in KC.

Super Snowl

We ventured out in the snow the weekend before last to make a Super Bowl party in Chinatown.
And after a few days trapped in the snow, we start looking alike. We're the three best friends anyone could ever ever have!
Yikes. The cup that was passed around for luck.
Our hosts also made about a zillion jello shots. Every time the Saints scored, they played Shots by LMFAO and passed trays around. It was a good time.

Haaaapppppy Super Bowl!

KC

It was kinda dumb of me to think I would get to sleep past 6:30 a.m. in a house with 6 little kids.

Last night was an awesome siblings night, today we're taking the kiddos to go swimming, and the party continues. It's exhausting and exhilerating to hang out with all the kids.

Oh, and when I got to Shell's house, flowers were there, waiting, from Mr. Perfect.

He's a good catch.

It's Not Too Late!

Quick! Just in time for Valentine's Day!

Thanks Mr. Perfect, for the link. And for the gift idea...

Snowapalooza

I don't know if you heard, but it has been snowing a bit lately.

As in, 20 inches, followed by 10 more inches about three days later.


There are steps under there, somewhere....

Our neighbors played beer pong in the street.

I was fine staying inside.

This was before the second storm.
Last night I went outside during the blizzard. As in, actual legit blizzard-blizzard.
That was dumb.

Because when I stepped off the porch and into the wind SNOMG!
The Arlington Tundra.
And then today, it all just melted away.

Ok, by all I mean the stuff in the streets - there are 4-8 foot high piles of snow lining every street.

Crazy.

And we never lost power. Crazier.

Summer, where are YOU?

Cause It's Easy to Forget

It's easy to forget that the internets are so... obvious to some people.

It's easy to forget and assume a lot of things like that.

But this posting, omgomgomgomg this post just really blew my mind.

Basically, Read, Write, Web wrote a post yesterday about Facebook's partnership with AOL. Something crazy happened with SEO and Google and suddenly when you searched (which, *you* would never do, right?) "Facebook login" the post was the first result - not Facebook.

Which led to hundreds (yeah. not. kidding.) of people clicking on the link to the site, thinking it was Facebook. It didn't help that their comments section allows you to login using your Facebook id/password.

Hilarity/sadness ensues.

Check out their post about the situation, and of course the comments on the original post.

Snowapalooza

There's already about 3 inches on the ground. The snow is supposed to get worse later on tonight. Everything is closed, again, tomorrow.

So over the weekend, the snow stopped Saturday evening. Reagan reopened Monday.

If the snow stops tomorrow evening, I guess my flight Friday should still be a-ok?

I'm just thankful I have the option to work from home, and I'm not forced to take paid leave, or worse, unpaid.

I can't help but think of how bad this snOMG snowapalooza snoverit snowpocalypse is for some people - people who either can't get to work (the metro hasn't been running full force - as in no bus service at all), their workplace is closed, or they have to stay home with kids who don't have school.

For some, this week is a vacation, for others (me) it's a diversion - barely inconvenient, but for others yet, this is a really serious drain on their finances.

Maybe their the ones who came up with snowfuckyourself.

Googlicious

YES.

Thanks K-did.

Worst Coworkers

Mr. Perfect: We're working 16-hour shifts now.
Me: What?!?
Mr. Perfect: Well, that's how long it takes you and me to log 8 hours.
Me: Damn...

Yup.
We're both working from home today.
The Fed was closed, Metro was running trains every 30 minutes and oh, we're expecting 10-20 inches of snow tonight.

Snowapalooza FAIL

Full-Circle Revenge

Tonight Shell told me possibly the best story ever.
The other day, Caroline was doing something to make Madeline cry. When Shell told her to stop, Caroline's reply was, "Mom! Come on! You did it to Erin!"

That's right.

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane...

This is honestly one of my first memories. I'm four-ish. My oldest brother & sister (Shell) decided to play I Got Your Nose with me. They refuse to give it back. I think they really have my nose. They, being evil and sadistic, run into the kitchen, throw my nose into the sink and my sister turns on the garbage disposal. I honestly remember thinking my nose was similar to ground beef, then my memory goes black, it's to difficult to go there. Shell tells me though that I was so hysterical that she had to take me to a mirror to show me my nose was actually intact.

Being the awesome little sister/aunt, I told Caroline the truth about her mother. And it totally paid off.

After Caroline told Shell she "threw" Maddie's nose into the sink and turned on the garbage disposal, Shell's reply was, "You are not doing that to your baby sister, are you?!?"

Yeah she was.

Worth the 22+ year wait.

I asked Shell tonight why she ever did it to me in the first place. "We didn't think you'd actually believe it!"
"Yeah, but I was like, 3!"
"But you acted like you were 14!"


I can't help it that I was extremely precocious. (And yes, I used to tell people I was precocious.)

I wonder how Oprah would feel about this full-circle moment?

Oh, Facebook

A comment I just read on Facebook:

Snow is fun 2 play in but cold at the same time

Overconsumption

The Federal Government has already announced it's closed tomorrow.

Tonight is the Super Bowl.

In D.C., most organizations and companies base their decision to open on the Federal Government.

Which means most people at the party won't have to work tomorrow (not me).

Yikes.

Snowtorious B-I-G

We were at 17 inches at 8a.m. this morning.

The noise of the snow falling off the roof reminded me of a deep rolling thunder.

The satellite was out from 9pm last night until 10:30 this morning. I had considered that was something we might have to deal with - yeah, even though we were in a (still are in a) blizzard warning.

We are considering a multi-feature day --> Crazy Heart, Avatar in 3-D, An Education. It's all about the timing.

Balentimes Day!

Yippieee!

Thanks Love.

snOMG II

So this is what it looked like walking to the metro - snowing, but nothing stickin'.About 20 minutes (and one metro ride) later, I walk out of the Ballston metro to snomaggedon!
Annnd there are a few inches on the ground now.

Luckily, my commute was awesome. Empty cars? Yesplease!

Finished up some work when I got home, cracked into some wine (maybe that ordering is off), got some awesome pizza delivery and watching The Hangover for the 7,325 time.

Tonight's gonna be a good good night!

People, I am happy. I am very happy in my life.

Whoop-Whoop!

National Weather Service has updated their Winter Storm Warning for the
D.C. Metro Area, which is now in effect until 10PM tomorrow. 20-30" of snow now
expected in the D.C. area, with localized amounts exceeding 30". Conditions will
deteriorate rapidly through the afternoon today. The heaviest snowfall
will be from sunset today to Sat. morning. NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED DURING THAT TIME. Wind gusts of 20-30 mph expected by tonight, with some blowing snow. Visibilities will be appx. 1/4 mile. For your own safety, and to help your local responders, please stay off roads this evening and overnight.
-AlertDC

Listing

A new list of #snowmaggedon hashtags. Lovesit.

The Accumulation

Updates:

This is a picture of my grocery store.

Directions on what to do today/tomorrow.

And Twitter is coming to the rescue with Jersey Shore-inspired snOMG names. So far:
#TheAccumulation (LOVE IT)
#snowtards
#TheSnoowkituation
#TheSnowtuation
#snoowki

And best of all, lots of self-hate from @shaneadams for even participating in something Jersey Shore-related.

Here We Snow Again

There is a major snow storm heading to DC.

Major as in they are predicting 16-24 inches, with a small chance of 26 and a smaller chance of 28.

Yeah. That's right. Usually they predict a big amount with a small chance of a smaller amount and a smaller chance that it will miss you completely. Notsomuch.

As you may imagine, people are losing their shit around here.

The grocery stores have been mayhem for more than a day now. As the prediction for accumulation slowly crept upwards yesterday, so did the number of tweets complaining about massive lines at Trader Joes and Whole Foods. At 3pm. On a Thursday.

Mr. Perfect called me from the grocery store yesterday around 5:30. Our conversation went something like this:

Mr. Perfect: Soooo... there are some people at the store....
Me: Oh, yeah?
MP: Yeah. Huh.
Me: So what are you getting?
MP: Oh, stuff to make ribs. [for the Super Bowl - and he sells them to coworkers - they're that good]
Me: Well, are you like, getting us stuff too? Supplies?
MP: Like ... what??
Me: Um. Yeah, I don't know, eh. Whatever.

He didn't buy anything other than the ribs. I stopped on the way home and got some wine.
Clearly we are very prepared for the situation. (Note: I've been trying to make a Jersey Shore snow storm name all morning. Not going so well. Other people are also working hard at figuring out what to call this storm. )

This storm is so out of control before it has even started.

There has not be one single snow flake to fall, yet the District has already declared a snow emergency, schools are either closed or closing early, the Federal government is closing 4 hours early, my work is closing at 2 at 1 and so on.

Many people didn't even go into work today. The train was normal, (crap shoot based on when the last train was at the station) but the metro stations and streets were pretty empty. I was considering staying home but I knew a coworker was going to be in today and I wanted some face time.

So now I have to figure out when to go home.

The Metro will close above ground stations as soon as there is 8 inches on the ground (something to do with it interfering with the electric third rail). I'm lucky in that my entire commute is underground, so I don't have to worry about my station closing - I actually live at the last underground station in Virginia - Ballston. However, when those above ground stations close, they also start running trains every half-hour (vs. every 10 minutes or less).

They are predicting we reach 8 inches before evening rush-hour is over, hence the early closures.

When you combine the early closures with possible stations closures, that means rush hour is coming early. Very early. I would predict from noon to 3pm.

The problem there?
The trains won't be running rush hour schedules.
That means crowded stations, platforms and trains.
Blerg.

So my big question - when do I head home today? This is more thought and strategy than I put into anything in life outside of planning shopping trips.

Oh well. I guess if I want to delay my departure I'll just consult the list of bars staying open throughout Snowmaggedon II: The Snoowki.

I Heart the Internets

For giving the world Fuckyeahfrosting.

And some of the most poignant, accurate and plain funny pairings of pop culture and literature.

Thanks to Josh for sharing. (he teaches me stuff sometimes too)

The Trouble Is...

I have words, phrases, paragraphs and even entire blog posts jumping around my head all day.

At work - when I know better.

On the metro - when I'm crammed against my newest friends.

Walking home.

Getting ready in the morning.

Basically all day.

All day, until I get home.

Then I'm just tired. Or busy helping cook dinner. Or watching a show with the family. Or hanging out with Mr. Perfect. Or on the phone. Or just getting much-needed alone time.

And the next thing I know, I am ready for bed, not Blogger.

This would be an issue except I am the best Irish Catholic out there when it comes to feeling pointless guilt. Yup. I have guilt for not posting. It is perhaps some of the most self-indulgent guilt ever.

But it's there.

I'm telling myself that this phase, this non-blog period, is mostly due to finding the new balance in my life (speaking of New Balance, omg, I got the sweetest NB's last week that are black with electric blue. Sweeeetness.) in regards to my new job.

No longer can I roll in a late mess who is unattached to everything around me (in other words, goodbye temping!). I leave work an hour later (at least). I get home later. Oh, and I didn't spend my day e-mailing, blogging and screwing around online.

It is a new normal, and I'm still figuring out how all the pieces come together.

But there is more truth to share. It's not just finding a balance with the clock, it's finding a balance with sharing. I truly care about this job in a way that (I realize now) I never have before. I see not only what I can contribute and accomplish on a daily basis, but also how that will shape the next few years. Oh, and uh, I'm someone's boss.

(I'll just let you take a minute to digest that one.)

So suddenly, I'm left wondering how I really feel about my coworkers, my subordinate, seeing what a ridonkulously awkward ass I can be.

I think this concern is a good sign - I didn't really worry about it before because I was never this invested.

No, this isn't some long-winded goodbye or sign off. This is just me letting you know that maybe I won't be posting as often as we both became accustomed. But the words are still there. The posts will come.

I'll see you later.

Yeah, I hope not sporadically.

Missed Connection

Brilliant.
via DC Blogs

Monday Entertainment

In honor of the announcement of Season 2 of Jersey Shore, I bring you (via Dave) kids reenacting scenes from Jersey Shore!