!@%!#%% blogger.

no. this isn't quantum leap or anything like that.


my post about my birthday is actually under KAT's because i had started it on Friday and decided instead to finish it up today. and it wasn't at all because i was tired, hungover, sometimes drunk and reading the last Harry Potter book.

Screw Harry Potter, it's SJ's day!

You know those friendships that are really for convenience– either you grew up together or your parents are friends? Or those friends that come out of having grown up in the same neighborhood or town, or from being forced to live together in college? How about those friendships that seem to linger on long after you’re really getting anything out of them?

On the flip side, have you ever met someone and said to yourself, “we’ll never be friends”? Were they perhaps wearing such a crazy-looking shirt (to a job interview, no less!) that you knew your styles were too different to get along? Did you ever start your friendship off with a night that had a haunted house, free food, two wardrobe changes and more men than you knew what to do with?

I have. As wacky as it sounds, that’s how I met the fun, fabulous SJ at work a couple of years ago. And how our friendship began.


Really, we look like our styles go together well. Either that, or we both figured black was a good party choice.

But friendships aren’t built on only one night of fun. We found we had a lot in common, including taking our jobs as reporters very, very seriously.


This is us taking our jobs so seriously, we stopped by the newsroom on Halloween. Yes, it was Halloween. If it was a normal night out for us, I would have been wearing a shorter skirt and SJ would have been showing a lot more cleavage... and that lollipop would have been a Cosmopolitan!

I think one of the secrets of our friendship has been a similar spirit of adventure and a willingness to try almost anything once, regardless of how goofy it makes us look. I mean, I’m really wracking my brain for examples, but I’d have to throw out wearing wacky hats to the grocery store to buy chocolate sauce and whipped cream as an example. Now, what was I saying about not being afraid to look silly?


I’m not actually sure who we’re supposed to be. I might be the Virgin Mary and SJ's Joseph? Or maybe some Greek figures. Who knows? We just liked the idea of poking our heads through the holes!

Our friendship over the last six or so years has been full of a lot of tears. Actually, I think most of the tears were the kind that start dripping down your face when you’re laughing too hard to stop. Although there was one time when we managed to make each other cry for most of a trip to the ocean. But even those were from talking about good memories. I still prefer the laughter to the tears.



One of the best things I got to do with SJ was marry her… um, I mean, be there while she got married. And I’m looking forward to having her there at my wedding. I’m planning on giving her a pretty good seat because, let’s face it, there wouldn’t be a Pretend Husband if it weren’t for her cooking abilities, which made us poor, single folks prefer to spend time at her house instead of another night in front of the TV eating Taco Bell. Oh, and the Setback games were pretty fun too.


This is one of my favorite photos. And just today I noticed SJ’s in it too!

So you might be wondering the reason behind this sappy post in honor of the girl with the best shoes, as SJ is known in these parts…


Even in a bridesmaid’s dress, she manages to sneak in some glittery shoes!

Well, there is a reason for toasting SJ today (this post wasn’t meant only to pick on a teenage wizard just trying to impress Hermione... oh, and save the world). Because, Lordy, Lordy, SJ’s 30!!!

Happy Birthday, mon amie! I plan on sticking around for at least 30 more years (we’ll be the old ladies sitting on the front porch of the nursing home with tiaras on!) and my wish for you is that they are filled with love, laughter, tears from laughing so hard, more laughter and fabulous shoes! As your husband often tells you, you don't look a day over 35!


Happy Birthday, SJ!!!

how i spent my birthday celebration by sj

i started this post on friday, and it was going to be by "one day more" post talking about the momentous occassion of turning 30. but then i got caught up in my celebration.

so what's the difference between now, and say... friday? well for one, i'm not drinking at work. not that i was on friday, but i did begin drinking promptly at 6 p.m. on friday to toast with my friend jen who was also turning 30 on sat.

for two, i am a little slower on the recovery from a three-day long celebration. this also seems to have evolved over the course of the past five years. i don't leave my house to drink much anymore. (that's actually not exactly true - as we spend a good deal of time drinking at KAT's house nowadays, but you see my point.) we celebrated at midnight on friday/saturday with cake at a diner surrounded by some seriously sketchy people. but they may have thought the same of us, anyway. "wait jen- let me take a picture of you with the cake in your mouth."

i got in really, really late, and was promptly wakened at 7 a.m. by j, bearing a gift: a large, 759-page gift that was the last Harry Potter book. and of course i had to start wearing it. so then i met up with s and her husband whom i have nicknamed tall j and adorable child for lunch (i forgot how much fun i always have with s and tall j). then after lots of laughs and fun stories, it was time to let s head off to her all-male revue while i prepared for sat. night.

it was a mellow night out but as always - LOTS of laughs, and a few nice glasses of wine (a tradition i continued on Sunday). i didn't cry, even though the waitress totally thought i was 40 (thanks to j gesturing behind me -- she totally believed him because she guessed 35 and i nearly cried).

and sunday i celebrated with my family. and j's parents. so i had a few glasses of wine. not that those statements are at all related. i also took monday off as a recovery day. and by that i mean we went to the movies, slept in and did a whole lot of nothing.

all in all, it was a lovely weekend and it was just a gentle reminder to remember how very lucky i am to have such fantastic friends and family.

and i did manage during this time to read the entire book.

Give the needle… I’ll do it myself!

Things a phlab… flebot... blood taker should not say to a tired, cranky, fasting woman about to get her cholesterol tested, especially after said woman warned her about not liking needles and a past episode that may or may not have resulted in blacking out in front of her entire high school:
– Wow, those are small veins.
– Let’s see if we have better luck in the other arm.
– Want me to give it a try?
– If this doesn’t work, I can send you over to the hospital and have them do it.
– I’ll have to try a smaller needle. It’s the one we use for babies. But it will take longer.
– We need to collect A LOT of blood from you. And it’s going to take A LOT longer with this tiny needle.
– Do you think I should try?

It worked out in the end and I managed not to faint onto her floor, but c’mon! Rule one of needle sticking school should be: exude confidence. Never let them see you sweat and never, EVER ask a nervous person about to get stuck by you if they want you to “give it a try.”

kevin smith, thou art hysterical

sorry. i'm taking a page out of KAT's book today and i'm a little random. just fair warning.

i'm trying to catch up to my 20s before i turn 30, so in an effort to identify with everyone else in my generation, j and i rented an evening with kevin smith 2: evening harder. so we didn't watch the first one. so what. so we didn't watch clerks, mallrats or chasing amy.

i did see dogma.

so we rented this and i believe it's going to lead to a kevin smith weekend very soon. he is incredibly funny! i say this, somewhat surprised, because the last thing i saw him in was catch and release. so, you see my point. except, i don't know anyone who swears that much. so i'm not sure how real to every day life his movies are. but then i've never really worked in a convenience store. or a mall. so you know. what do i know.

in other news, i haven't spent much time with my family this weekend, so therefore, no funny posts. well that's not entirely true. i did go see my parents the other night (and brought them pie because i went there to steal lettuce for crispix who is entirely mended -- i may not have mentioned that i was bringing my bunny back to health, but yeah, he was sick and is now better. after days of baths, hand feeding, messy, messy bunny and some long sleepless nights. he's fat now. so all is well. but i felt bad so i had to bring pie).

my parents were well, although, dad stole jason for quite some time. it took a very loud and very close lightening crash to steal him from my dad: "That could have been our house! we have to go! the dog! the bunny!" every time we go there, my dad has to show jason pictures of tractors on line. i suppose it only means its inevitable that some day, we'll get a tractor. granted we have a half acre on a fairly busy street and probably could do without a tractor. but what if we wanted to dig a coi pond in the backyard.... so what if we have leech fields for the septic... wouldn't it make for bigger fish?