my cousin has his own article on wikipedia.
weird.
25 October 2007
23 October 2007
ladies and gentlemen, my sister:
spacegirl: did I tell you that I decided to go with Minnie Mouse for the RUF hayride?
spacegirl: go as Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: not with Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: I don't know Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: yes, I remember now that I did tell you that
eirelady: you need to get more sleep
spacegirl: no, i took a nap today
spacegirl: I just need to not be dumb
spacegirl: there's a difference
spacegirl: go as Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: not with Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: I don't know Minnie Mouse
spacegirl: yes, I remember now that I did tell you that
eirelady: you need to get more sleep
spacegirl: no, i took a nap today
spacegirl: I just need to not be dumb
spacegirl: there's a difference
22 October 2007
big brother is watching
so i got a letter from my IRA people today, which had my new address on it. i never gave them my new address. but somehow they know it.
should this worry me somewhat?
should this worry me somewhat?
nothing better to do
so i'm sitting at work with nothing to do. fairly normal occurrence, really. see, i have one of those positions where what i do is vital to the operation of the company but they can never predict when it is, exactly, that they are going to need me to do it. and if they need it done and i'm not here, there is a problem. so i spend a lot of time sitting around. like now.
i went to gcc for homecoming a few weekends ago, and it was awesome. it was refreshing to drive in a big city that isn't laid out like a gigantic checkerboard. i had forgotten how much i absolutely love pittsburgh - the old neighborhoods, the crazy streets, the bridges, the restaurants, the rivers. the city truly has it's own unique culture. so often cities end up just being loosely connected confederations of separate cultural elements that just happen to be located in the same general area. but not pittsburgh. it is a city of people unified around steelers football, bad weather, refusal to use the verb to be, iron city beer, and a shared history of turn of the century opulence combined with blue-collar labor in the steel mills. the city has not only managed to transcend typical ethnic and cultural separations without losing the individual elements that make those different groups interesting, but it has taken the best of those elements and interwoven them into the shared culture of the city itself. and it is so rare to find a group of people who have so much pride in their city. you don't have people from all over the country living there for jobs. they are born and bred in the steel city, and they are proud of it. i love that about the city. when you are there, you can just feel the culture of the city surrounding you. it's like you can breathe it in. i would probably move there if it wasn't so cold in the winter.
i had a fantastic time at homecoming. i'm so glad i went. it was the first time i'd seen most of my friends since we graduated. i spent friday night on a band bus and at a high school football game (this is what happens when all of your friends are music ed majors). i was at the college all day saturday. it was funny being back, because it definitely did not feel like i've been gone over a year. i talked to one of my professors for awhile, and he was very encouraging about my grad school venture including where i'm looking at applying, which was really great. i was able to catch up with a few of the kids who are still there. i realized that i only had two or three friends left there, which was strange. i didn't go into pew, but somehow i think it hasn't changed much. i spent saturday night and sunday morning hanging out with people in pittsburgh, and, consequently, driving around like a bat out of hell because i was trying to follow kevin all over the city. and he drives like a loon. i think i ran at least two stoplights, and jess and i saw our lives flash before our eyes when i had to cut across two lanes of traffic and immediately merge onto the highway because kevin decided at the very last second that he didn't really want to take the exit after all. sunday morning, dustin and i named ourselves Official Planners and Exalted Czars of the Music Major Cruise. i think it's actually going to happen, which is awesome.
i went to gcc for homecoming a few weekends ago, and it was awesome. it was refreshing to drive in a big city that isn't laid out like a gigantic checkerboard. i had forgotten how much i absolutely love pittsburgh - the old neighborhoods, the crazy streets, the bridges, the restaurants, the rivers. the city truly has it's own unique culture. so often cities end up just being loosely connected confederations of separate cultural elements that just happen to be located in the same general area. but not pittsburgh. it is a city of people unified around steelers football, bad weather, refusal to use the verb to be, iron city beer, and a shared history of turn of the century opulence combined with blue-collar labor in the steel mills. the city has not only managed to transcend typical ethnic and cultural separations without losing the individual elements that make those different groups interesting, but it has taken the best of those elements and interwoven them into the shared culture of the city itself. and it is so rare to find a group of people who have so much pride in their city. you don't have people from all over the country living there for jobs. they are born and bred in the steel city, and they are proud of it. i love that about the city. when you are there, you can just feel the culture of the city surrounding you. it's like you can breathe it in. i would probably move there if it wasn't so cold in the winter.
i had a fantastic time at homecoming. i'm so glad i went. it was the first time i'd seen most of my friends since we graduated. i spent friday night on a band bus and at a high school football game (this is what happens when all of your friends are music ed majors). i was at the college all day saturday. it was funny being back, because it definitely did not feel like i've been gone over a year. i talked to one of my professors for awhile, and he was very encouraging about my grad school venture including where i'm looking at applying, which was really great. i was able to catch up with a few of the kids who are still there. i realized that i only had two or three friends left there, which was strange. i didn't go into pew, but somehow i think it hasn't changed much. i spent saturday night and sunday morning hanging out with people in pittsburgh, and, consequently, driving around like a bat out of hell because i was trying to follow kevin all over the city. and he drives like a loon. i think i ran at least two stoplights, and jess and i saw our lives flash before our eyes when i had to cut across two lanes of traffic and immediately merge onto the highway because kevin decided at the very last second that he didn't really want to take the exit after all. sunday morning, dustin and i named ourselves Official Planners and Exalted Czars of the Music Major Cruise. i think it's actually going to happen, which is awesome.
another flying leap into adulthood
my best friend from high school just had a baby. i realize that this isn't that unusual. i mean, she's almost 24 and has been married for three and a half years. but still, it's wild. for some reason, it's not as freaky when it's the people i went to college with. i mean, they were adults when i met them. but this is the person with whom i shopped for homecoming dresses, giggled over cute boys, hung out at the mall, studied for 11th grade history, and obsessed over the prom. she knew me when i was in my extremely awkward 15-year-old with no fashion sense phase. she was there when i was recovering from the wisdom teeth removal fiasco. i was there when she had student directing-induced panic attacks on the bean bag chair in her parents' basement. we used to drive around our neighborhood for hours in her mom's minivan simply because we had driver's licenses. she helped me hem dresses, i helped her fold programs. we lived in the theatre department together. we sat in the hallway between classes together. we endured PE, IB, long rehearsals, long meetings, crazy parents, crazy friends, dumb boys, stupid rules, no parking spaces, cafeteria food, football season, summer jobs, summer crushes, crowded hallways, stuck lockers, stuck-up people, dairy queen runs, broken sound boards, set strikes, and too much homework together.
in short, we survived high school together.
and now she's had a baby. and it's crazy. but crazy in a totally awesome way. how can we possibly be this old?
congrats meredith, cameron, and baby sam.
in short, we survived high school together.
and now she's had a baby. and it's crazy. but crazy in a totally awesome way. how can we possibly be this old?
congrats meredith, cameron, and baby sam.
20 October 2007
19 October 2007
IRAs and mutual funds
according to my insurance company, i'm going to be living in a box on the street corner when i turn sixty-two if i don't start investing in something immediately.
problem: thinking about iras and mutual funds gives me a headache.
especially since i already have one account, a 457(k), which is a lot like a 401(k) except it's for teachers, which means that i can't actually add any more money to the account, but i don't want to get rid of it in case i ever go back into teaching (not that what i want to do with it is of any consequence, because i can't get in touch with the company or my broker about changing it to an ira - or about changing my address, for that matter) so i've got this mysterious $800 floating around somewhere and i have no idea when, or if, i'll ever see it again. i'm hoping that it will have magically turned into about $500,000 by the time i'm ready to retire and i'll get this wonderful letter in the mail when i'm sixty-five telling me about all this money that i have. but probably not.
gaahh. i don't want to deal with this.
problem: thinking about iras and mutual funds gives me a headache.
especially since i already have one account, a 457(k), which is a lot like a 401(k) except it's for teachers, which means that i can't actually add any more money to the account, but i don't want to get rid of it in case i ever go back into teaching (not that what i want to do with it is of any consequence, because i can't get in touch with the company or my broker about changing it to an ira - or about changing my address, for that matter) so i've got this mysterious $800 floating around somewhere and i have no idea when, or if, i'll ever see it again. i'm hoping that it will have magically turned into about $500,000 by the time i'm ready to retire and i'll get this wonderful letter in the mail when i'm sixty-five telling me about all this money that i have. but probably not.
gaahh. i don't want to deal with this.
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