I Have a Soft Spot for Vigilante Justice

and happy endings.

(no pun intended ... seriously).

I love it when people get tough and take down the bad guys.

Red Alert!

My CZ fell out of my fake engagement ring! It's gone! Nothing but an empty setting. I guess that's what $16.50 will get you. How sad. I hope my real ring comes back soon!

My nephew is 2!

Ahh ... I just got off the phone with my two-year-old nephew. He couldn't be any cuter if he tried. He was telling me all about his birthday hat, birthday cake, birthday balloon ... he was so excited! I can't take it. My sister-in-law's mom told me that they lucked out this morning -- Sesame Street was all about birthdays!

More good news to report: It turns out there is nothing wrong with my Pearl. The plug slipped out of the wall the other night, so that's why it didn't charge. So, quite to the contrary of yesterday's post, I am very impressed that my new little toy ran for two days on a very small charge. Go Pearl! I also learned how to use the blackberry messenger thing, which is super cool. Fiance said not to bother him at work though ... jerk!

Actually, I take back the jerk part. He did surprise me with pink roses last night, for no reason! Kind of a crapola picture, but you get the idea.

It was a good thing, too, because I was a little bit cranky that the kitchen was a mess. We definitely need to establish a better system for emptying the dishwasher, etc. But we're getting there!

OK, time to get down to serious business. I am really at a loss for words with respect to the American Idol girls last night. Well, obviously I'm not at a loss for words -- that's never actually happened to me -- but I just don't really know what to make of it. I thought they were all pretty lousy. Irish Chick was good, but she is totally not my style, at all. I thought the girl in the blue dress, who sang Hopelessly Devoted, was excellent. The judges were not impressed, though. Nobody else really did anything for me, at all. Kristy Lee Cook was good but she seemed totally inauthentic doing R&B (especially with her little "Yes!" jump / fist pump when the judges said she was good), but I look forward to hearing her sing some country. And I am as frustrated as Simon and everyone else is with the Britney-impersonating Opera Singer Girl. She clearly has talent -- where is it when she comes on stage? I think the problem is that she just hasn't really figured out what her personality is.

Biker Chick is also just not doing it for me. Fiance likes her, but we both agreed that she was no good last night. The pretty girl with the little 'fro -- I can't remember her name but she is the one who had laryngitis and really long legs -- was totally forgettable last night. I have no idea what she sang. Ramiele was OK, not great. Ditto Alexandrea (whose name I will continue to pronounce Alexandria, like the ancient city, because her pronounciation is messed up). I know there were more girls, but I have no idea who they were. Oh, Asia'h (don't get me started on that apostrophe) was also just okay.

Overall, I was much more impressed with the guys than with the girls. Don't get me wrong -- I personally can't carry a tune in a bucket (not that that stops me from karaoke, to the embarrassment of my friends), so please understand that it is a given that I am impressed with all of these people. Every one of them can really really sing. But in terms of American Idol, I was unmoved by the girls last night. I'm quite interested to see what happens tonight.

*******

So, pretty much my life right now is about drooling over my niece and nephews, making dinner, stressing about a messy kitchen, receiving and appreciating romantic gestures from Fiance, playing with new gadgets, and watching American Idol. I seriously used to be very cool. I went out on weeknights! I drank! I flirted with boys! I had a lot of fun. Seriously, ask anyone. Well, ask anyone I went to law school with, at least (I was in my cool prime).

I'm getting married in 86 days. Obviously I am madly, nauseatingly, ridiculously in love with Fiance, who I am certain was custom-made for me. I am really excited to spend the rest of my life with him (if he were standing over my shoulder right now he'd remind me that it's not just the rest of our lives -- it's ETERNITY). I can't help feeling, though, that getting married means I'm OLD. All I've ever wanted my whole life was to meet Fiance, get married, settle down, and start making babies. I love that stuff. I live for that stuff. I long for that stuff. But now it's here and it's like ... wow. I'll never live alone again, never come stumbling in at 3am and go to bed with my eyeliner on and my teeth unbrushed, leaving a trail of dirty clothes from the door to the bed, neglect the dishes for 3, 4, sometimes 5 days ... Basically my Pig Days are over. I think this is what men usually fret about when they are settling down, but I guess I'm not your typical girl. And I'm not exactly fretting, either ... just sort of taking in the fact that I am at a huge turning point in my life.

In related news, for those of you who were concerned, my engagement ring safely arrived in Altoona, PA, where the jeweler is customizing my wedding band. Of course, between the time he gave me an estimate and today, the price of precious metals has gone way up. Naturally, that includes platinum. So, my wedding band is going to cost about 30% more than I was originally quoted. I think I'm going to go with it anyway. The fake engagement ring has been doing a fine job. It would probably do a better job if I didn't tell everyone that it's fake.

One really cool thing about getting married is that people send you presents. We're still 2 months and 25 day (approximately) from our wedding day, and we've already received all of our everyday place settings, a couple of platters, a vase, some bowls, and various other crystal stuff. It's pretty neat. Luckily I scored a super fabulous china cabinet from a crazy lady in my neighborhood -- it's antique, mahogany, and was $75. Most of the presents are in there; the rest are in the guest room.

*********

I'm pretty sure most people who read this blog know me IRL (that's "In Real Life," for the uninitiated). But, if you don't, it might surprise you that despite my prolific blogging, I actually have a real job, as a real lawyer, in a real firm. I'm here about 10 or 11 hours a day, which is not bad, as lawyer life goes. I don't get paid very much, but it's enough. I've had some frustrations over the past two years, but overall, I like it. I adore the partner I work for -- he's smart, he's fair, and he has a fun personality -- and I have some terrific coworkers. I am one of only 4 women in a 20-attorney firm, and that's actually alright by me. Girls are annoying (sorry, I know that's not PC or whatever, but ask me if I care). Lately, my biggest work-related gripe has to do with the admins. Ours are just awful. One of them is sweet but totally incompetent. She gets attitude once in a while, but generally she is bearable. Just don't ask her to do anything more complicated than make copies. Another is very competent but lazy, and has the worst attitude of anyone I've ever met. She talks to me and to the other associates as if she's our boss, refuses to do what we ask, walks away or turns her back while I'm speaking, cuts me off as I'm explaining something, and is generally a terrible person to work with -- unless you're a partner. Then she's prompt, cheerful, and competent. Kind of makes it tough to complain to the partner about the admin, when he thinks she walks on water. I am trying really hard to figure out how to deal with her. I'm morally opposed to just being a total bitch to her, but that might be the most effective way. I've tried just being firm and serious with her, which is only effective for about 45 minutes. I've complained to the admin coordinator, who is a lovely woman, but I'm not sure it did any good.

At least I have the admin coordinator, and, finally, mercifully, the firm hired a fantastic paralegal. She's bright, she's very pleasant, she is concerned about getting the job done right, and she's just a dream to work with. Coincidentally (or maybe not) she's Orthodox Christian (like me), so I have all kinds of wishful thoughts about going to vespers with her during Holy Week if I can't get to Bay Ridge in time. We shall see.

********

My credit card company called this morning, to verify that my card hadn't been stolen. Ummm ... nope. All of that spending was done by yours truly. I used it to buy gifts for my bridesmaids (no I'm not going to tell you!), and I sorta kinda bought a TV from BestBuy yesterday. It was on sale! I found it on Gottadeal.com, my favorite website ever. It's a 15" LCD flat screen, for the bedroom.

It was only $199 plus tax, and it will replace the 13" tv/vcr combo I bought with high school graduation money for $150 in 1999. I think it will be a nice upgrade. I'll move the old tv to the guest room, but probably won't run cable in there for a while, unless we ever actually put an elliptical machine in there like we keep thinking about doing. The thing is, I don't think we'll do that until after the wedding ... and at that point, what's my motivation to get in shape?

Alright ... time to get down to business. :)

Two more things

I'm very bloggy today.

1 - Seamlessweb is probably the coolest thing ever invented.

2 - Fiance makes me laugh like no other.

RIP, WFB

We'll miss you.

I Heart Jonah Goldberg (and other matters)

He's just so gosh darn good at saying what I'm thinking. Radicals Never Say Sorry

********

And on to more pressing matters ... American Idol was really good last night. David Achuleta (am I still spelling it wrong? Too lazy to check) is just so incredibly talented. I am really impressed with him. So impressed, in fact, that I voted for him -- twice.

Here's something I'm not impressed with, though. I have my very first complaint about my new toy. We all know that when you vote for your favorite American Idol, you have to dial 1-866-Idols-10 (or whatever the contestant number you want -- David A. was 10 last night). Here's the problem: The Pearl has a QWERTY keyboard with two letters per key. In the center of the keypad, the keys also have numbers on them, for actually dialing the phone, arranged in the normal pattern (1 2 3 across the top, 4 5 6 in the next row, and so on). These numbers do not correspond with letters the way a normal phone does (where 1 is blank, 2 has ABC, 3 has DEF), and so on. I had to use Fiance's Razor as a reference to figure out how to dial IDOLS on my phone. It was really tough.

When I woke up this morning, I had my second complaint about the Pearl: I charged it all night, and as soon as I unplugged it this morning, the battery was at half full (or half empty ...). I'm not sure why that happened, but if it happens again tonight, I'll call the store.

Otherwise, I am thoroughly wowed by this little gadget. It gets my emails, it locates me via satellite, it makes a creamy cappuccino .... It's just super cool.

New toy

I am embarassingly excited about my new Blackberry Pearl. Now I can quit bugging Fiance to borrow his on the bus. Woot woot! Anybody know of any super cool stuff I should be doing with it?

If all else fails ...

beat the crap out of it with a hammer. That's the lesson for today. We finally finished assembling our Billy bookcases from Ikea, but the brackets for the Morebo glass door hinges were totally warped. We have two bookcases, so that's 12 hinges in all. The very last one took, oh .... two hours? Not a fun time. I finally went online and found some Ikea Fan Forum, and someone with a similar problem beat the crap out of the hinge with a hammer. So, I gave it a shot. Whaddaya know -- we have bookcases. I know a real blogger would post pics of the finished products, but I am too lazy to clean the office right now. Soon, I promise.

After that I made a dinner of spinach salad with cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, and cucumber, in a lemon vinaigrette, followed by something I will call Boring Chicken, which I will never make again. Methinks I'm getting a little overconfident in the kitchen. I know it's hit or miss, but lately it's been a lot of miss. Maybe we'll win the lottery (not that we play) and I can stay home and be Suzie Homemaker, and perfect my weeknight dinners. A girl can dream.

And, we're back.

We got in very late last night and are both taking vacation days today. I probably could have gotten through a work day if something really important were going on, but there's nothing crucial, and I'm sad and tired.

I'm really glad we went. There were probably a thousand people at the wake, no exaggeration, including about 50 - 100 clergy members. The line of people paying their respects stretched through the church hall and out into the parking lot, and went on for over four continuous hours. I guess if you start an Orthodox school from the ground up, starting when you're 17, people take notice. Beyond that, Sonia went out of her way all the time to get people jobs, keep in touch, and just be a good friend to everyone. People flew in from California, Florida, Mexico ... the regional bishop drove down from Montreal to lead the prayers. Everyone was there. We should all live the kind of lives that touch so many people.

It broke my heart to see Nick, but I know he will be OK. There is no shortage of volunteers to look after the baby, and I know everyone will have their eye on him.

+++++++


This morning, we got up and took a walk along Shore Road. It's cold but sunny, and it felt good to get out. I made us a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits (using my camel cookie cutter), and grapefruit. I got into a little fight with the biscuit dough, and they came out a little dry, but overall it was a good way to start the day. I wish we had more mornings like this. Not sure what we're going to do for the rest of the day, but I'd like to make dinner for my priest and his family and drop it off before they get back from Boston. We'll see.

Here we go ...

Fiance and I are heading up to Boston with two of our friends tonight. The next couple of days are probably going to be awful, but I'm really glad that we are going. We'll probably come back Sunday night. I'm sure there will be literally thousands of people there to remember and pray for Sonia. The one beautiful part about all of this is that nobody has to BS when they say what they remember about her. All of those posts on her website say exactly what people said about Sonia in life. We are all blessed to have known her and to have seen her example.

Friday

Today, the reality of Sonia's passing is starting to make its way into my brain. Yesterday I was just stunned and confused. Today I'm just sad. If you are so moved, please make a donation in Sonia's memory to The Theophany School: 754 Greendale Ave. ~ PO Box 920-736 ~ Needham, MA ~ 02492-0736.


We woke up to a blizzard this morning, with several inches of snow already on the ground. True to form, my landlords did not shovel the steps, and whoever is in charge of plowing our street hadn't gotten around to it by 8. At least Shore Road was relatively clear, and the bus ride didn't take as long as I thought it would.

When I moved to Bay Ridge, everyone warned me that the hour-long commute would be a drag. Turns out it's probably my favorite part of the whole day. The express bus is really peaceful, and Fiance and I get to commute together pretty often. Beats the heck out of the subway, that's for sure.

Yesterday I left work early -- ran out of things to pretend to do -- and I went to the post office to send my engagement ring to the jeweler who is making my wedding band (he needs to make sure it matches up). The post office was, as usual, slow and annoying. Just as I was finishing up, a crazy person went off on one of the postal workers. It was sort of terrifying. My nerves were so shot anyway that I almost fainted. Did you know that the postal workers aren't allowed to keep guns behind the counter? That seems sort of nuts to me, especially when they aren't behind glass. I also overheard, while I was there, that that particular post office won't hand-cancel your wedding invitations. Good to know. I think I'm sending them from Mom and Dad's anyway.

While my ring is at the jeweler's, probably for the next two or three weeks, I'm wearing a fake engagement ring that I bought on Amazon for $16.50. It looks disturbingly like my actual ring. It feels really light, though, since it's silver and mine is platinum. It's much more comfortable to wear a fake than it is to go without a ring entirely. Last week I ran out of the house without my ring for the first time since we got engaged almost a year ago, and I felt so weird all day.

Looks like the plan for the weekend is to head up to Boston on Saturday afternoon, stay with my sister-in-law's parents, go to the wake on Sunday afternoon / evening, and then either drive back home Sunday night or stay over again, attend the funeral on Monday, and get a ride home with my priest and his family. Either way, I'm probably not working on Monday. I don't even know why I'm here today -- all of the clients I need to speak with are out of their offices because of the snow.

I am so so sad.

And yesterday I was worried about bridesmaid dresses. Tragedy has a way of humbling you, I guess. It's hard to think through any of this without being trite, but what a reminder that we have to live every day the right way. We can't wait until we are old to repent. Sonia, like my Uncle Leddy, followed God every day, made the Church the center of her life, and, despite her piety, preserved her sense of humor. One of the first times I ever really talked to Sonia, she had me howling with laughter as she recounted a story about the ladies in her church critcizing her for her modesty. She said, "What? You want me to hike up my skirt a little more?" I guess you had to be there.

To be honest, I'm a little annoyed that she never sent me her Easter cheese bread recipe. I'd really like to make it in her memory this year. Maybe in a few weeks I can ask Nick for it.

I'm sad for Nick, and for the baby, and I'm selfishly aware that this could happen to me. She just got married, had a baby, and was settling into the part of her life that we all look forward to. I can't believe that was all she got. I am so terrified that it could happen to me. Would I be ready?

Lord Have Mercy

I got an email this morning from my brother, telling me that our friend Sonia (above, with her husband Nick and son Andrew), died suddenly last night. Grief never ceases to amaze me.

In Other News

Michael Moore is disgusting. 'Nuff said.

*******


Right ... Like I could actually stop at two words. Everyone should read Waiting for Snow in Havana. Then they can tell me how wonderful that slime dictator is.

Yo yo yo dog, for me ...

I'm pretty much done with Randy and Paula. I never have any idea what Randy is trying to say. Usually it's something like, "For me (which means, in Randyspeak, "in my opinion",), it just was a little pitchy, and for me, dog, it just didn't have that yo." Oh, okay Randy, thanks for clearing that up. To be fair, though, his comments are usually a lot more encouraging "Yo yo man, dog, wow, you, wow, for me? You blew me away." Uh ...

Paula .... I'd like to just give her a bowl of pudding and a big spoon, so she can fling gobs of pudding at the contestants after they sing. It would have about as much meaning. She doesn't seem to understand, either, that the contest is an ongoing elimination. Every time someone sucks, she says, "But you're beautiful, we know you can sing," (tearing up now) " you just blow me away with all of your colors, your energy is like a rain forest ...."

At this point, Simon appropriately jumps in with his cogent criticism (and I mean that in the sense of literary criticism, not what your mother does when you gain a few pounds). When are people going to learn that Simon is ALWAYS right? This contest is about marketability, and he knows that. I might not be totally with him on the marketability of Achuela or however you spell it, but that kid can SING.

I think Randy and Paula should take a hike, and Simon should be allowed to pick two really hot girls from the audience, and the three of them should judge together. He'd be happier, the audience would have something to look at, and I wouldn't have to listen to Dog and the Botox Hunter anymore.

More Wedding Stuff Done!

Favors and guestbook are both ordered!

We might be encountering a minor situation with the bridesmaid dresses, but I think it's going to be fine.

And the Envelopes ...

are done! Hooray for the calligrapher. One less wedding thing to think about. I can't wait to see them!

Sexy Punctuation is Making a Comeback

Thanks, Tara, for directing me to this lovely article on semicolons: Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location.

It almost makes up for the NJ PATH signs ("Won't you please give this seat to the elderly or disabled.") No, I did not forget the question mark; they did.

Some Sites I'm Into

Now that we're getting married and combining finances (and debt) I'm all about budgeting. I'm a huge fan of the debt snowball calculator at www.whatsthecost.com , and I like a blog, www.savingsfreak.com . I'm also a fan of www.gottadeal.com , and my friend The Crazy Cat Lady turned me on to www.ebates.com just today.

Fine, I'll blog ...

I have a feeling most first blog posts sound exactly alike, so I'm not really even going to try to be unique here. I'm a 20-something lady living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, with my fiance, with whom I fell in love over a semicolon. I'm sort of a Jane of all trades -- I love to cook, read, knit ... but I guess you can read all of this in my profile.

Mostly, I need an outlet for all of the things that I think in an ordinary day. Also, I have taken some hilarious cell phone pictures and I need a place to post them. I only wish I hadn't lost 20 Canadian Tuxedo pics when I traded in my last phone -- what was I thinking?

I realized I needed a blog today when I was on an internet message board, and someone said they were "a tad bit annoyed." I hope someone out there in blogland can appreciate why that phrase made ME a tad bit annoyed. What the heck does "a tad bit" mean? "Tad" is a noun. "Bit" is a noun. We don't use two nouns in a row like that. It just isn't prudent. Find an adjective and go with it.

I had a similar reaction last night, while I was at my local drug store. Some snotty, belligerant guy was totally balling out the checkout boy. In defense of the old guy, the checkout boy probably was vapid and clueless -- that's generally how it goes at that store. But the old guy was really laying into him. At one point he said, "Are you like this with everyone, or is this a personal problem between you and I?" It took all the strength of my being not to remind him that "I" is not the object of a preposition. It's "between you and me," jerk. Of course, I didn't say anything; it was between him (not "he") and the checkout boy.

This blog won't be all about grammar ... but it might be mostly about grammar.