in which i make my flustered and ungraceful return

HALP! I am drowning reader feeds! And I haven't posted all weekend and a lot has happened happened and I don't know where to start! I've fallen, bloggily speaking, and I can't get up! Just like this puppy! Only I'm not as cute as that! (Almost, though.)

This is what happens when you leave the Internet for four days. Blogging is perhaps the only hobby that keeps on going even when you're not there.

Currently plotting my strategy to get back up to speed. Expect multiple posts today. In the meantime: how was your weekend?

bits of tid

1) My sister's senior prom is today, and since my prom experience sucked, I'm living vicariously through hers. She's already way ahead of me, as her hair is super classy (whereas mine was too short to do anything real with) and her dress makes her look like Vanna White (whereas mine looked like it was SO TWO SEASONS AGO [probably because I had bought it the year prior]) and she has realistic expectations about what the night will be like (whereas I had watched too many John Hughes movies and am still waiting for some hottie in a white tux to plant a surprise kiss on me in the parking lot at the end of the night).

2) I finally got a haircut and I feel like a new woman! After a brief period of experimentation with other stylists, I went back to my favorite, Jen. And I'm so incredibly glad. She... completes me. She gave me the rocking-est piecey, funky bangs ever. I didn't even know I could pull this shit off. Pictures soon to come, maybe.

3) I got this awesome award from Heather. Seriously, people, these AWARDS. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of them. This one is called, adorably, the "Super Comments" award, which definitely sounds like a Pokemon trance mode. And check the graphic, yo. Witness the majesty of the Mighty Panda Bear:

Passing the award is my favorite part of this whole process. I'll be tagging some super-effective commenters on Saturday!

4) Until then, I'll be down the shore with my BFF. It's our first shore trip of the summer so we're not going to get too fancy or quirky with our activities: we're gonna walk the boards and frolick in the waves and squish our toes into the sand and bask in the sun and just do Beach Stuff. I'm so excited.

Have a happy Friday, have a great weekend, and DFTBA. 

don't stop me now: the best weekend ever

This is K. She took every single picture you will see in this blog post today. Mine sucked and hers are gorgeous, and plagiarism is for chumps, so I just wanted to give her credit.

Part the First: My best friend graduates. She throws a party. It rocks.

 

Me and my friend Dru (not her real name, but she'd approve) Top Modeling it up. Note how Dru actually knows how to pose for pictures where as I can only flail about like a fish on the shore.

The scene: picturesque South Jersey backyard.

A freakishly normal picture of my sister and Matt.

An impromptu campfire for impromptu s'mores.

Me and my best friends of seven years. So much love here.

Part the Second: We go to Scotty and Jewel's wedding and we all look so freaking good. Seriously.

Centerpieces, three of which I now have in my house. 

That handsome Scotsman my friends and I are standing with is LW (stands for Legitimate Wizard, and honestly I don't know if he'd approve of that name). All of the groomsmen wore kilts to reflect Scotty's heritage, but LW is especially legit in his because he's from Glasgow. 

Also, LW does card tricks and for the life of me I couldn't figure them out. The only explanation is that he is Actually Magic (hence the name). Shortly after this picture was taken, he turned that 2 of spades into an ace.

Believe it or not, this cake tasted even better than it looks.

This band completely changed my perspective on the whole band-vs.-DJ thing. They were so, so badass.

Me, Matt, Scotty and Jewel, aka the best-looking geeks in the Tri-State area. Seriously.

Part the Third: The weekend continues at the afterparty and at the afterparty to the afterparty, but I didn't take any pictures because sometimes you want to live life and enjoy the moment without pressuring yourself to document it. 

la la life is wonderful

[image source: http://tinyurl.com/2ayfw8k]

This weekend was fucking epic. It was a maelstrom of activity, the center of which was the beautiful wedding of my friends Scotty and Jewel. Currently, I'm catching up on my reader, then uploading pictures, then writing emails to/posting on the walls of/answering texts from the new friends I made and the old ones I caught up with and the current ones that I love more than ever right now. 

I'll post about it later, after I recover. But this is just to say: Hey, guys! It's been a crazy couple of days, but watching your blog posts rack up in my reader made me smile. Guess what? I made a friend who can do card tricks that are so impressive that I'm pretty much convinced that he's a wizard. How was your Memorial Day weekend? 

geeky. girly. SPAAARKLYYY.

 I got the best award ever from Angela a couple of days ago.

The Geek Girls Unite Award! 
[For girls who are proud to be geeks.]
[Isn't it awesome? And SPARKLY?]

And here are the rules:
List ten geeky facts about yourself and...
Pass this award onto your favorite female geeks!
That's all you need to do!

My geekiness is my favorite thing in the world to talk about, so let's do this!

Top Ten Geekiest Facts About Me:

1, I used the phrase “Joss is Boss” at a dinner party. Everyone stared at me.

2. I read Terry Pratchett.

3. I get all teary-eyed when I hear the Shire theme.

4. I depend on Digg as my primary news source.

5. I own an album called This Machine Pwns n00bs.

6. I read so. Many. Webcomics. For instance,
Basic Instructions
cyanide and happiness
Girls With Slingshots
Questionable Content
Sam and Fuzzy
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoons (click the red button!)
Subnormality
Super Effective
Today, Nothing Happened
xkcd

7. I know what Howl’s Moving Castle is.

8. I know what the fifth element is. In chemistry AND in the Bruce Willis/Milla Jovovich movie.

9. And I know what sectumsempra would do to you.

10. My nerd boyfriend and want to get a Corgi puppy and name him or her Einstein, after the genius dog in Cowboy Bebop.

Whee! That was fun. I'm passing the torch to [drum roll, please...] Caity of caity.nu! She's one of my favorite girl geek bloggers. On her front page alone you've got a birthday picture of her in a Nintendo t-shirt, a sweet picture of her Kindle, and a blatant plug for Flight of the Conchords. That's so much awesome I can barely stand it.

Feel free to nab this and pass it on to your friends, as well. This is a really cool award and I want to see it all over the blogosphere.

Have a great weekend everyone, and DFTBA.

looking for a song to sing

Thing One: If you were a senior in high school and you had to sing a song dedicated your peers and teachers, what song would you pick? Rules that we invented:

1. No songs from musicals or rock operas or anything with a storyline. Songs out of context = the devil!
2. Something that can be accompanied by a live piano or guitar -- no tacky karaoke tracks (not appropriate for the venue).
3. Nothing that conveys overt hostility towards yours peers/teachers. "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day is OK, "Fuck You" by Lily Allen is not.
4. It's a relatively mellow event, so nothing too lively. "Dancing Queen" or "Tik Tok" are probably out of the question.

This survey is to benefit my younger sister, who has been hard-pressed to pick a song for Senior Solo Night, which is in a week. She had a relatively great high school experience, and so I think she really wants to pick a song that shows her appreciation for and warmth towards her friends and mentors. I gave her some good suggestions, most of which she nixed (I can't imagine WHY she wouldn't want to sing "I Shot The Sheriff") some of which she initially liked but then she couldn't find good enough sheet music. So I turn to you. Help me, internets. You're my only hope!

Thing Two: Unlike a lot of people, I basically loved high school. I found my niche early on (band geeks FTW) and stuck to it, and the social structure of my massive public school was too chaotic for a stifling clique-y heirarchy. Everyone basically left each other alone. I had my four best friends who accepted me for who I was (and still do!). I had teachers whom I respected and looked up to (and some I didn't of course). And there were a surprising amount of good looking guys when I was there, so had tons of eye candy to feast upon every. Single. Day. (Something you should know about me is that I was completely boy crazy for all four years of high school. If I wasn't lusting after a classmate, it was some celebrity or a guy I saw at a random Starbucks on my way to a flute lesson.)

Obviously I do look back and roll my eyes at a lot of things, cringe at my attitudes and actions, and sigh with relief that I don't have to wake up every morning at 6 and go be somewhere for seven hours, five days a week. I'm not trying to romanticize it. I think.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I'm glad high school is over, it wasn't exactly torture for me. And this whole thing with my sister's Senior Solo Night got me thinking about what I would have chosen to dedicate to my friends and mentors. I can't say for sure, but I like to think it would have been this:

I'm awake, you're still sleeping
The sun will rise like yesterday
Everything that we are now
Is everything we can't let go
Or its gone forever, far away
I hope tomorrow is like today
Don't you go away tomorrow
I don't think I could handle that
You're probably dreaming that you're flying on
Then you start to fall
But then you rise
and shine forever
Don't go away
I hope tomorrow is like today

Tell me what your experience was like! What song would you have chosen as your big fat farewell to high school? And you don't have to follow the rules I set above -- you can be as passive-aggressive (or just plain aggressive) as you please!

five things: a very short dramatic play

Scene: A phone conversation

Our players: 
MELISSA, half-asleep and isn't so much holding the phone to her ear as much as she has the phone balanced on the side of her head. 
MATT, similarly delirious. 

MATT: I seem to remember a certain person saying they would write a five things post on their blog today.
MELISSA: Ummmm but I am le tired. Plus no one even reads my blog I don't think.
MATT: (mildly offended) *I* read your blog!
MELISSA: But you already know five things about me. You already know ALL of the things about me.
MATT: That's not true. I could stand to know five more things.
MELISSA: (pregnant pause)
MATT: C'mon....
MELISSA: Ugh ok I will tell you five things FINE:

1. I like cats,
2. dogs
3. rabbits,
4. ....ka... kangaroos, and
5. um, babies.

MATT: Whoa, I didn't know you liked kangaroos.

MELISSA: Yeah I like them! They're cute. They hop all around and stuff and keep their babies in pockets?

MATT: Kangaroos are douchebags! They kick people in the face.

MELISSA: Oh...then I don't like them anymore. I changed my mind; I like ... fish. 

MATT: What kind of fish?

MELISSA: .....blue fish.

MATT: .... it's time to go to bed, isn't it?

MELISSA: zzzzzzzzz.