Pretty in Pink

I was sitting at my desk this morning when the office guy came by with a package for me. (Minds out of the gutter people!) I figured it was just another product from a PR firm. I don't really get that many compared to the other editors, but then again, I'm relatively new to this position.

Anyway, when I opened it up I found a heart-shaped box wrapped in tissue paper. OK, I thought, this is obviously a promotion for Valentine's Day, which really isn't that far away if you think about it. What freaked me out a little was the fact that the tissue had "X rated" all over it. (Yes, my mind then went to the gutter at that point.) When I shook the box I could hear things moving around, so I figured it could be anything, from chocolate to lingerie or even a sex toy. As I opened the box I was fully prepared to find something completely naughty, but I was pleasantly suprised to find chocolates and three itty-bitty bottles of pink alcohol: X Rated Fusion Liqueur, a sensuous  fusion of ultra premium French vodka and Sicilian blood orange mingling with mango and passion fruits. Sounds delicious!

I brought it home with me, but I have yet to bust it open and drink it. The box included a few drink recipes, so I'll have to try them out. I shared the other bottles with my coworkers, and one of them decided she needed a swig at 11:30 this morning. I busted up laughing as I watched her, which of course made her laugh and almost choke on the drink. She was so happy for the little treat--I don't think I'd ever seen her that excited the whole time I've worked with her.

So what was the verdict? She gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up. Since it's pink, I'm pretty sure my male readers won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Well, except maybe JG--he's always up for girly things. :) I kid, I kid--not really.

I think what's keeping me from opening the bottle and downing the contents is that it's just too cute to drink. I will have to do a taste test soon if I'm going to write something up for our site. Although it's a tiny bottle, I'm pretty sure the color of my face is going to match the bottle once I'm done. Cheers to me!

Not in a Party Mood

I knew it was happening today, but I didn't think it was a good enough reason to take the day off and stay home--even though I have a million and one vacation days. So I decided to brave the commute and the sea of pinstripes to get some work done today. I should have reconsidered that plan.

My first indicator that things were not going to go well was at the bus stop. There were people there bundled up in every piece of Yankees clothing they could find, slutty fans who re-purposed their Yankees gear into more revealing outfits, adults who probably called in sick and kids cutting school. It seemed like every bus was more crowded than usual for a Friday at 9 a.m.

When I got into the city, the subway at 42nd wasn't too bad. I could tell there were some people trying to make their way downtown for the parade, but it wasn't insanely crowded. It was a completely different story when our train pulled into the 34th St. station. As the train slowed, all I could see was a see of Yankee fans and I knew they were all getting on my train. The minute the doors opened a huge crowd of them filed in, forcing me to flatten myself like a pancake against the door. I was never so glad to get off at my stop. I practically had to push people aside just to exit. The woman behind me got so annoyed she started to yell "Excuse me!" at the top of her lungs.

I thought I would have a little more breathing room once I stepped out of the train. Nope, I just ran into a huge mass of fans at the Metrocard machines. Once I surfaced on the street, it was basically the same scenario. The only place I could find refuge was in our office. Then, lunch came around. One of our former employees came by to visit so we went to a local BBQ place where, as you'd expect, were a million fans watching the parade on the many TVs in the joint. I felt like I was stuck in a Yankees nightmare. I'm surprised I even survived the day.

I'm not saying the Yankees and their fans don't have a right to celebrate. They played well and in the end they were the best team. Plus, it's about time the most expensive team ever created won a championship. I say party hard--enjoy it!

I just should have stayed home.

A Return to Order

It's hard to believe in two short months it'll be 2010. I feel like we were just ringing in 2009!

One of my New Year's resolutions was to consistently maintain a blog, and I think I've done OK. Granted, the posts haven't been as frequent lately, but I blame that on the fact that I've been staying home a lot for budgetary reasons. I really can't blog about things I'm doing if I'm not really doing anything, right?

One project I started recently was a writing blog. OK, I know what your're thinking, isn't this a writing blog? Well, yes, sort of. I prefer to see this space as more of a this-is-what-I've-been-up-to blog. It basically exists to let people know I'm alive since I'm not on Facebook or Twitter. I don't really know how many people are reading this, but I'm pretty sure I can confirm that I have four regular readers and maybe one or two who stop by occasionally.

Anyway, I got the idea for this new blog while reading someone else's blog. Basically, she's reading this book on writing called A Writer's Book of Days by Judy Reeves that offers daily writing exercises. These prompts are completely random and are meant to get your brain moving--kind of like mental exercises--so you can get over whatever issues you have with writing and just write. Well, considering I've become a cheapskate lately, purchasing the book wasn't really an option, so I decided to create my own plan.

I searched the Internet for seven different writing prompt sites/generators for each day of the week. It's kind of fun because I never know what I'm going to get. Although, I will admit to occasionally cheating. If it's one of those generators that allows me to hit a button for the next one, then I will if I think the current prompt is completely lame. So far I've been sticking to this plan, with the exception of the time I took off for my Maine vacation.

Some days I'm pretty excited to get home and see what my topic is for the day, and of course, on other days it's the last thing I want to do. On those days I pretty much force myself to get something up on the site even if it's just a short paragraph.

I think the reason why I've hit a huge block with my writing is because I've basically psyched myself out. I need to remember that whatever I write does not need to be perfect, and that the most important thing is to get my thoughts out before they disappear. First drafts are supposed to be imperfect. Sometimes they're not even supposed to make sense--that's what the editing process is for, which is something I forget sometimes since I spend most of my time being an editor.

I didn't really mean to make this whole post about writing, but it is what I've been doing lately. I haven't added this blog to my list at the right mainly because it's one of those things that's raw and full of mistakes and incoherent thoughts, which I suppose isn't too different from this one or the TV blog. 

I've realized that in order for me to get anything done in my own life, I must set deadlines. I'm not good at being self-disciplined or self-motivated, at least not anymore. As I've gotten older I've become more complacent--used to the life I've created for myself. This doesn't exactly translate to happiness or feeling fulfilled. Of course, this falls into my hands. If I want that, I've got to do something about it, right?

So, the only thing I can think of that may work is to create personal deadlines. I've always been able to meet them in my professional life and I seem to respond to them, so why not try them in my personal life? Now, I realize I've created deadlines and life plans in the past, but that's not what I'm talking about. I've tossed aside the idea that I need to get married by a certain age or start having babies at a certain point. Yes, biology plays a factor in that last one, but planning those things isn't realistic. There are so many factors outside of my control that it would seem silly to put a deadline on all of that stuff.

What I need to do is start small (writing five pages a day) and work my way up to the bigger things (moving back to CA). If I can get myself into a regular schedule of deadlines, then maybe, just maybe I can begin to get things accomplished again. My mind has been zigzagging all over the place (which I believe can be blamed partly on my work environment), and I just need to find a way to create some sort of order.

The other day I had another horoscope that seemed right on for the day. Actually it pretty much described every day: Getting through the workday will be a bit of a battle -- not because you're fighting with anyone, though. You just won't want to be there. You'd much prefer to be home, either alone or with the one person on the planet you feel comfortable enough to be completely silent with. It's not that you're tired -- you're just drained. You've been burning the candle at both ends lately. It's okay. Even you need to rest every now and then.

Although that's pretty much how I feel every day, the feeling was particularly strong on that day because I went to bed at 2 a.m. and I woke up to rain. Yes, I would have much preferred being at home.

The Maine Event

Day 1: Started our trip from Jersey to Maine by hitting the road around mid-morning. On the way up there, WH discovered I'd never been to a Cracker Barrel (even after living in mid-Missouri for three years and visiting the South countless times) so she took it upon herself to give me my first Cracker Barrel experience. It did not disappoint. My country fried steak was heaven in my mouth and the cheesy hash potatoes were totally awesome. Let's not forget the candy selection in their store. It had every old-fashioned candy you could think of and more.

A few hours later we arrived in Freeport, Maine, and checked into our humble abode for the week, The Hampton Inn. A large moose statue sat at its entrance ready to greet us. The property was surrounded by trees and felt warm and cozy. I think my favorite part about staying there was the endless supply of hot chocolate and the freshly baked cookies that came out at 6 p.m.

Once we unloaded our belongings, we drove around town to get a feel for it. We stopped at a nearby Thai restaurant for dinner then headed home to rest after our long day of driving.

Day 2: We decided on an early start to get most of our sightseeing done since rain and snow were predicted for the following day. We started off at Bradbury Mountain State Park to look at what was left of the foliage. Thank goodness we went here first, because I don't think I would have made it to the top of Bradbury Mountain at the end of the day.

We chose the Summit hike, which was supposed to be the shortest but steepest of the hikes. A .2 mile hike? Piece of cake. As we started, we saw a group of children making their way down and thought, if they could do it, we surely could. Ummmmm, they weren't kidding when they said it was the steepest of the hikes. Halfway through I lost my breath and had to stop at least twice. I collapsed when I got to the top. I was wheezing, huffing, puffing and doing everything I could do to not toss my cookies. When I thought I was OK, I stood up, but the head rush that followed quickly put me on my ass again. Was it all worth it? Yes, it was. Check out these pics of the view from the top:

My camera obviously does not do it justice, but hopefully WH will send me the ones she took with her supercamera.

After enjoying the scenery for a few quiet moments we made our way back down, which was soooo much easier and faster than the hike up. Obviously. We jumped back into the car and headed to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park to see the water. We followed one of the trails, which brought us to this, a view of Casco Bay and the Googins Island Osprey Sanctuary:

 

When I close my eyes and think of Maine, this is pretty much what I envision. How awesome would it be to own one of those houses in the distance?

After hitting the water it was time to head to the desert. Yes, you read that right. There is a desert in Maine. Apparently a glacier caused this natural phenomenon. To find out exactly how it happened, check out the video:

Here are some great views from the Desert of Maine:

 

 

After all that we decided to look for a lighthouse. This little trip brought us all the way to the Portland Waterfront, which really didn't impress us all that much. Since we were starving, we gave up on our search for an accessible lighthouse and headed back to our little hamlet for some Japanese food. Food coma eventually hit us so we returned to our home away from home and waited for the cookies to appear at the front desk. We were exhausted. Actually, I was pretty much wiped out after our hike up Bradbury Mountain. Yeah, I really need to work on being in better shape.

Day 3: We passed by a cantina/pub called Pedro O'Hara's numerous times, and of course, we had to make a stop and see what it was all about. We decided on a late start since we had such a long day the day before and it was freezing...luckily there was no precipitation. Pedro O'Hara's had some interesting cuisine--some Mexican, some Irish but the clientele proved to be much more interesting. There was a group of senior citizens from the South at one table and a rather odd family at the other. I could try to describe them to you, but I couldn't do them justice. Control and freak are the two words that come to mind when I think of one of the women at that table. She really had some issues.

Anyway, since Freeport is the home of a rather nice outlet shopping center and L.L. Bean, we decided to do some shopping. With a little push from WH (or perhaps a shove) I finally bought the furry winter hat I've wanted for the past year.

Yeah, I'm going to be stylin' this winter. LOL!

Next stop was the Cold River Vodka distillery. We got there just before they closed and were able to sample some of their vodka, including their special blueberry vodka. It really did smell and taste like blueberries. Hours after we drank it, WH and I were still burping blueberries. Yeah, you probably didn't need to know that, but I just thought I'd share so you'd get the full experience.

Although our day was short, the shopping and drop in temperature were enough to tire us out so after our potato vodka lesson we picked up some lobster rolls and chowder then made our way back to the hotel. Have I mentioned how much I love lobster rolls? We had them twice while we were up there and that really was not enough. WH had never had one before and now she's addicted. My coworker told me about a place in the East Village called Luke's Lobster, which I'm definitely going to check out if I need a lobster roll fix!

Day 4: Time to say goodbye to our little Maine home. Luckily, the day was sunny and clear, which made the ride home pretty easy. No traffic at all and we only saw two cops! I did think it was funny how the sky turned gray as we made our way back home.

If you've never been to Maine, I highly suggest a visit. It felt a little weird to be so far away from the rest of the country, but the scenery is incredible and well worth the trip.

Status Report

It's been a while since I last blogged about anything. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, in fact, I was going to update this past weekend, but my body had other plans. A sore tooth and headaches just made it hard for me to be at the computer for long periods of time. Now, I'm leaving for Maine for a few days, so chances are I won't be posting anything until sometime next week. Sigh...so much for my attempt at regular posting. Have a great week!