Classic Me

I love the Wizard of Oz (I mean, honestly, is there a girl born in the early 80s that *doesn't* love it??).  I read the book and knew the movie by heart.  When I heard about a book that was written from the Wicked Witches point of view I was instantly sold on the idea.  So I read the Wicked.  And I can't say that I loved the book, because I didn't.  I found it very detailed and dark and kinda hard to read.  But I really liked the story it told.  When I actually read it again I found it much more enjoyable.  My best friend also read the book.  When we found out it was going to be a musical we knew we needed to go see it.  Several years ago I heard that Wicked the musical was going to be playing in Toronto.  You may be saying "Ah, Jess?  I thought you lived in NY.  Why didn't you go see it on Broadway?"  I would say to you "Awesome Reader, I do live in NY but it takes less time to drive to Toronto then it does NYC."  So anyhoo it was going to be in Toronto and I was so excited.  I emailed said friend (who totally needs a fun little nickname) and she was excited too.  I saw that it wasn't that far off and checked to see if there were even any tickets.  There were tons!  So excited!!  I downloaded the soundtrack so I could listen to the music.  Once I heard the songs I was hooked!!  I called my mom to see if she wanted to go before we ordered tickets.  We were trying to figure out the dates and we got confused.  She kept saying that whatever date I was talking about was a Friday and I kept saying "No Mom, I'm looking right here; the show's on Saturday."  

I hadn't looked at the year.  It wasn't going to be in Toronto 'til the following year.  My friend and I both ended up seeing the show, just not together.  

So then a couple years after that I saw that Wicked was coming to Rochester.  Once again so excited!  Now we could go together!!  But once again I didn't look at the year.    Do you see a pattern?

So today, I was looking to see what shows were on Broadway because I was debating going to NYC for a long weekend during my spring break to see a show.  I saw that this spring the new show Rebecca the musical was debuting.  Rebecca the musical?  you might be asking.  Rebecca is an old book written by Daphne du Maurier.  It's dark and creepy and Hitchcock made it into an Oscar winning movie in 1940.  It's the reason Best Friend and I became best friends.  She recommended it to me and after I read it we talked about it.  And we've been best friends ever since (we were 16 then).  So I was excited to see it's going to be a musical.  I was excited-see the foreshadowing.  I Facebooked (crazy that that is even a verb now) her and told her that we should go sometime after she has Baby #2 and is comfortable leaving home for night.  Then I read one of the news stories on the Broadway page and saw that they canceled this spring's opening and were hoping to open next year!  So I had to tell her never mind it wasn't opening 'til next year. 

Classic me!

When will I learn?

Friday night is my "No School Work Allowed" night.  Usually Fridays consist of me being lazy on my couch catching up on the TV I don't get to watch all week.  School is totally harshing my buzz!!  My friend Suska just finished an accelerated RN program and just took her boards on Thursday.  So Friday we decided to go out and celebrate.  We were meeting a couple of the girls from her program.  And I decided that I need to start going out and doing stuff if I want to stop being perpetually single.  I'm not going to meet anyone while I'm on my couch.  Unless you count my somewhat creepy neighbor from upstairs (but that's a story for another post).  

So out we go.  We went to a bar that is mostly known for their happy hour crowd and got some food.  The plan was to go from there to a wine bar none of us have been to before.  So me, Suska and Friend 1 had some food and a couple drinks.  Then while we were waiting for Friend 2 to let us know she was on her way we walked over to a Mexican bar that has really good margaritas.  It was dead.  So we start to walk to the first bar when Friend 2 calls and is on the way.  We then tried to figure out the best way to get down to the wine bar without everyone driving separately but making sure that when Friend 1 (who had to work in the AM) wanted to leave no one was stranded.  After much confusion and a couple of phone calls we decide Friend 1 will drive me and Suska and Friend 2 will meet us.  So we go to said wine bar.  If my parents were the kind of people who A) drank wine and B) were cool enough to go out they might have really like this bar. It was small and quaint and quirky and full of older people.  But now we need to wait for Friend 2 to decide where to go now.  She calls us and asks where we are.  She thought we were picking her up.  She had driven home and was waiting outside her building for us to get her.  Oops.  So we go back and get her and decide to go back to the bar we started at.  

Friend 1 and 2 leave at some point and Suska and I go to a dance club that plays 90s music.  Super fun.  There, I proceeded to tell a group of girls in cute non-slutty outfits that I loved that they were dressed sensibly.  Really Jessica?  Sensibly?  Really?? It was a compliment and they took it as such.  And then I basically told a older-ish women that she looked great for her age (which she did).  Also a compliment and she also took it as such.  Yikes, drunk Jessica gets nice girl ballsy.  

It should go without saying that this morning I *did not* get up and do school work like I normally do.  I did get what I wanted to get done, done.  But I had the kind of hangover that is a day long headache.  Am I the only one that gets those?  My hangover cure is some sort of McDonald's burger with a Coke (Yes, I am aware how bad that is for me) and a milkshake. Yum!

I don't really drink much anymore.  As I've gotten old matured, I'm much more of a light weight social drinker.  Why do I not remember this when I go out?  And I'm not saying that I can't stop drinking once I've started, I'm saying that I cannot hold my liquor the way I use to.   So I go out and my hangovers take twice as long to go away.  When will I learn???

Slacker McSlackington

via

Ok I admit, I've been an awful blogger lately.  And because I like to make excuses it's Pinterest's fault.  

What a day

I've been trying to get back into the swing of classes and it has not been easy.  I got up early yesterday to go to the cafe to attempt to get some reading done.  I get there and order my latte and get myself set up while he makes my coffee.  Then I realize that I forgot my iPod.  This isn't the worst thing ever; I now have to listen to whatever they are playing on the radio and everyone else's conversations.  I will say that they were playing a delightful 80s station on Sirius.  Debbie Gibson AND Belinda Carlisle!!!  Holy crap it's like I'm 9 all over again!  So I read and drink my coffee.  Then I go get an Americano (hey! don't judge, I  like fancy coffee that I don't know how to make).  After about three hours I realized that I never ate breakfast and I have a killer migraine.  Apparently I don't do well with a lot of espresso and zero food.  I went home to eat something and kill the headache.  Unfortunately, that did not happen.  So I read a little more and then gave  up and caught up on my TV shows. 

Is anyone else watching Revenge??  I am really interested to see where this is all going.  How many seasons can they keep up this story line?  I also finished watching United States of Tara.  Have you seen it?  It's so good.  I was up 'til 3AM this morning finishing it.  Yeah, I know that's crazy.  I just couldn't stop. I knew that season 3 was the last season and it was getting so good/intense.  Basically, it's a show about a woman who has multiple personalities.  It's about how her and her family cope, or at least attempt to cope, with it. I watched the sh*t of it this weekend.  How can you watch the sh*t out of something? you may be asking yourself.  I watched two full seasons this weekend. (relax,it's only 30 minutes).  That's how you watch the sh*t of something.

via

That's right I stayed up for roughly 20 hours yesterday.  What's wrong with me?

aye aye aye

Until lately I have been very successfully banning myself from Pinterest.  I've heard how addicting it is and I already am online waaaayyyyy too much.  I didn't want to have one more thing that will make me lose days of my life.   Luckily, I have a job that allows me to spend ridiculous amount of time on my computer doing personal stuff.  But someday I'll have a big girl job and I'll have actual work to do.  And I'm afraid that I'll go into withdrawal and get the DTs when that happens. 

But alas I accepted an invitation.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  I've spent hours ignoring the kids and pinning stuff.  And when I try to explain it to someone, they looked at me like I have three heads.  Random Friend: "So basically you just find things you like online?" Me:  "ummmmmm ahhhhhhh, hmmmmm yeah?"  How do I let them know that it is so much more than that?  It's insane.  And I can't believe I gave in and now I have one more thing to check online.  I'm hoping that after the novelty wears off, I'll stop searching Pinterest and just pin things that I happen to stumble across online.   Please tell me that's it works!

Happy Friday!

via

It's gonna be tough

So today is January 18th.  Wikipedia is blacked-out.  I'm gonna have a tough time with that one, I love Wikipedia!  Hopefully you are more aware than I am about political stuff; if not here's a pretty cool video.

Phew!

Well, you'll be happy to hear that I do not suck at life.  I met with my professor and yes, everyone got an email and everyone was suppose to meet with him.  My paper was not bad at all, I just need to fine tune my APA style and write at a more professional, publishable level.  He did tell me that he thought I was a good writer and that I have the potential to become a great one.  So double phew!

What amazed me was 1) he showed me some other papers (not the names, just the work) and 2) wow, some people do, indeed, suck at life.  One person used Wikipedia as a reference.  And don't get me wrong, I love me some Wikipedia, but not for papers.  I believe this person also had what looked like footnotes in the paper.  But they weren't their footnotes; it looked like it was cut and pasted.  They also had about a 2-3 inch margin on each side.  Someone else didn't cite a damn thing but just had a bunch of references in back.

And now I feel a little less stressed about this semester.  I was worried that if my writing wasn't up to snuff then I would have that much more to struggle with.  So there are some things that I need to work on.  But I'm glad that I met with him so he could explain it to me in person; he gave me some good pointers.

BORE-ING

Stats: 5 mph, 7 incline, 1.90 mi

The very best thing about winter

I hate winter.  I hate the snow.  I hate driving in it.  I hate shoveling it. I hate being cold.  There is only one thing that I like about winter.  I Love, with a capitol L, kicking the snow/slush/ice off of my tire wells.  For those of you that live somewhere where it doesn't snow, when you drive on snowy roads the slush gets splattered under the tire well.  Then it freezes in big clumps that hang down by the tire.  I love, love, love kicking the ice off.  I can't explain it, but it feels sooooo good.  When I'm at the mall or Target and I see someone with so massive ice build up, I want to kick it.  I don't, I think that it's probably socially unacceptable to kick other people's cars.  

That folks, is the only good thing about winter.  

today's wrap up

A few things before I get into rant mode.  First off, most of my problems first world problems; I am aware of this.  My friend, Jamie, refers to them as Jessica Problems and my mother calls then Jessica Dilemmas.  So I do want to apologize to anyone who is having real problems.  And also, this is going to be long and very ranty.  I'm going to jump around a lot (because that's how I roll, yo!) and there will be mistakes aplenty.  

My classes started yesterday.  Last semester I kicked some serious grad school ass.  It honestly wasn't hard, it was just a lot of work.  So I went into this semester thinking it would be the same.  Oh boy, was I wrong.  The first class I had last night (Treatment Planning and Intervention) is not going to be easy.  It isn't even going to be kinda difficult. It's going to be freakin' hard!  Within the first 15 minutes of class the professor had divided us up into groups and gave us a handout that explained our assignment.  My group was going to be meeting with a adolescent client and we needed to have a structured assessment.  We needed to come up with questions and a diagnosis and a treatment plan.  We had 20 minutes before we met with them.  When we walked into the room, there was a young teenage girl who looked nervous.  As we began it was clear that she was having some trouble in her life.  So we interviewed her and then went back to class.  My professor then came into class with the girl and an older women (the other groups' client).  They then told us how it felt to be in a session with us and then went around the room and told us what they thought of us one by freakin' one.  It turns out that the girl was my professor's daughter and the women was her mother.  But holy crap!  So that took about 2 of our three hours.  Then the professor went through the syllabus at rapid fire.  And there is tons of work to do for this class. 

Then she proceeds to tell us this little ditty.  Last semester we had a paper to write for one of our classes (not hers).  We had to pick a psychological theory and write a 10 page position paper on it. Yuck, it was awful. Apparently, as a group, we suck at writing.  I guess there was a lot of  problems with citing and the format.  Most people have probably used MLA style writing, but we need to do APA (which is insane).  She told us that he brought the papers to her (she's the head of the department) and to the dean (!!!!).  I guess my professor told him to hand them back and make the people who wrote unacceptable ones re-write them.  To which he said he couldn't/wouldn't re-read them all.  Side note: well maybe he shouldn't have assigned a 10 page paper due a week before he needed to get the grades in.  I guess there were like 12 papers that were complete garbage.  My program only has 30-ish students in it.  Because of all this, they are going to have a faculty meeting to come up with a universal way of dealing with mistakes. Something along the lines of once you've reached five mistakes on a page it's gets handed back. So that sucked but I got an A in the class so I wasn't all that worried about it.  She told him to email people he wanted to see and set up meetings with them.  Well don't I get home and have a freakin' email from him!  WTH!!  I texted one of my friends and she got one too.  I honestly don't have a word to describe how I felt.  One of my friends used the word defeated, that was pretty close.  I even re-read my paper.  And I will be the first to admit, it was by far not my best work.  However, it was not bad.  *And* none of my professors had issues with any of the other papers I wrote last semester (hence the need for a program standard).  I talked to two other classmates and they got emails too.  So we are thinking that maybe everyone got an email and not just those that suck at life.  I'm meeting with him at 5:30 Monday.  But, if I do apparently suck at life, that's fine; I already got my A.  

So last night I had this awful tight feeling in my chest and stomach.  I don't know how else to describe it.  And this morning it did not lessen.  Then I get to work and realized that Dad-Boss was "working from home" today.  Seriously Dad-Boss???!!!  I don't like to complain about work too much because I have a pretty cushy job. But when the parents are home the kids don't listen to me.  Ever. Or as Master of Disaster would say, Evah!!  I especially annoyed by this because I wanted to be lazy and sit on my computer and not do anything with the kids.  Can't exactly do that when Dad-Boss is home.  Then at nap time he goes and wakes the boys up.  But he did it so they could go play in the snow (it's the first serious snow fall of the winter).  But I should add that both boys have been sick all week.  Whiny didn't go to school Tues, Wed or Thurs.  But let's take them out to play in the cold snow.  Whatever.  

Then I finally go home and all I wanna do is put on sweat pants and finishing re-watching Game of Thrones.  Just as I get to my driveway/parking lot someone in front of me pulls into the driveway and stops half in and half out.  A normal person,a person who doesn't live at my house, would drive around them, but I am waiting to pull in the driveway.  Then I realize, oh crap, they're stuck in the snow.  And since there is no parking on the street in front of my place, I have to drive around the block 4 times until the get their dumb car in.  

So all in all (is that the right phrase or is it "all and all"?), my life does not suck that bad, I just was in a crappy mood all day.  But I did make some super yummy cookies to bring to my cousin's daughter's birthday party this weekend.  And I just, literally, finished re-watching Game of Thrones.  If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it.  The books are awesome too.  

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Today stinks

I'm in a rotten mood today.  Later I'll post a lovely little venting post (yay you).

via

Jessica watches another movie

OMG just watched The Other Woman.

via

It's basically the story of a woman who's trying to deal with the death of her infant while trying to form a bond with her stepson.  It's a pretty heavy movie with some pretty serious themes, but it was so good.  I love Natalie Portman and she did a great job in this.  

Definitely watch this.

Stats:  5 mph, incline 7, 1.81 mi

Baby steps, Bob

It happened!!  I started "training" for the Warrior Dash!  And I did promise you all the wonderfully boring details.  Work has a treadmill I can use, so I popped BabyGirl in a pack-n-play with some toys and off I ran, at a rather slow pace.

Stats:  got up to 5.5 mph and incline #4, ran 1.85 mi in 20 min.  I did a preset program on the treadmill but bumped up the mph because I actually wanted to jog and not just walk.  

While I was jogging I realized that my "work out" play list is really old.  I would love some recommendations for new songs to add.  

Jessica watches another movie

I just finished watching The Wave (2008).  

via

Since it's a foreign film, I doubt anyone has heard of it.  My apologies if you have.  The Netflix blurb says: To give his students a real-world example of how dictatorships can grow powerful, a high school teachers conducts a social experiment.  It was nothing like I thought it would be.  I was expecting the teacher to be a power hungry, megalomaniac.  Not the case.  He was just a unconventional teacher.  But the movie was really good and I was riveted.  I notice that I pay closer attention when I'm watching foreign films because there is no way I can surf the web, or read or do anything else and still understand what is happening (I can multitask like nobody's business).  

It's a drama with some thrills.  I wouldn't call it a thriller, but I did keep wondering what was going to happen.  So if you like foreign films then I think you should watch this.   I can't stand dubbed movies, but if you don't mind them and can find it dubbed, I think you should definitely watch it. 

A very special Friday

It's a half day for me!!  Which means I'm writing this post from home!!  woot woot!!

via

Seriously??

Ok, so I just watched OMG! Now and apparently there is going to be Twilight: the musical.  Seriously people?!  And apparently it is going  to be a parody and they are donating to charity, so that's good.   But seriously??  I can't wait for Twilight to disappear and for vampires and werewolves to become unpopular again so I can go on loving them without shame.  

Happy Birthday to my laptop

So I just got an email from Best Buy wishing me a Happy Laptop Anniversary.  That's right, my baby and I have been together for a year.  In honor of this wondrous occasion they sent me $5 to spend at CinemaNow.  What is CinemaNow you might be asking.  Well I just looked it up and it's kinda like onDemand. ANNNNDDD since I just that BluRay player, I can totally watch it on my TV. Jackpot!! 

So I get to rent a movie for free.  Well actually the movies are only like 3.99, so I have some spare money.  Perhaps I'll get a snack. 

 Oh my goodness, what should I rent???!!  Any suggestions?  I looked real quick and I was thinking maybe Something Borrowed.  Thoughts, comments, concerns?

My super lame resolution

It's that time of year again:  time to make resolutions and pretend we're going to follow through.  Last year, my friend's husband's resolution was to run at least a mile everyday.  That's crazy talk.  But you know what?  He freakin' did it!!  I, however, do not have that sort of determination.  I try to make New Year's resolutions that are possible to keep.  I know what I will and will not do, so why try to kid myself.  Last year I decided I wanted to be able to finish the crossword puzzle in the paper. With no help.  I managed to do it sometime late January. Yay  me!  

So this year I decided that for every piece of clothing I buy, I am going to get rid of something.  That's doable.  I also am going to try to be on my computer less throughout the day and play with the boys more. Also very doable.   Every year I attempt to make healthy choices.  I like to use that phrasing- "healthy choices"- so I am allowed to be my normal junk food junkie self with some modifications.  Pizza?  with veggies.  Fast food?  get chicken.  And since I'm doing the Warrior Dash this summer I'm going to have to actually work out.  That's starting this week.  So get ready for some super boring posts of my training.  

How about you?  What do you want to change this year?

Jessica watches another movie

Last night I watched Insidious 

I like scary movies.  I like them a lot. Even the horrible ones like Cabin Fever, which is so awful it's funny.   But sometimes if I don't know how scary the movie is going to be or if I don't know what is going to be "scary," I don't like to watch them alone or at night.  Fair enough I think.  So I have been going back and forth about if I want to watch this.  So I decided to watch it yesterday afternoon.  

Let me tell you, there were lots of scary images in Insidious.   A lot of "jumps."  About halfway through it lost me when it got into what was really going on with the kid.  I found some of it dumb and not scary.  However, the scary images throughout the movie gave me plenty of things to attempt to not think about all night long.  I had to force myself to not think about the scary shit in Insidious.  That's not so fun when it's dark out and you live alone.  Even writing this makes me want to put something happy on TV so I can stop thinking about it. 

If you like scary movies then go for it. 

UPDATE:  Umm I still don't like to think about this movie and it's been a few months.  So yeah, it's a lingering scary.

How do I manage this stuff?

So for the past weekish I have been nothing if not a lazy piece of poop (poop is such a fun word to say) (you just said poop didn't you?).  I have to go back to work tomorrow so I figured I should get a jump on being non-lazy.  The plan was to set my alarm for 7 and get up and shower (because in all honesty I did not manage that yesterday) and go to the store to get some food.  And you're not aware of this but I'm a hard core snoozer.  I set my alarm at least a half hour before I actually *need* to get me butt out of bed.  I snooze roughly 3 times, sometimes 4.  And yes I realize that if I just set my alarm 30 minutes later I would get that much more sleep.  But that is not how my brain works; I need to snooze.  And yes I realize that I  can't actually get any decent sleep in 9 minutes, but I don't care, it's how I roll y'all.  

So I set my alarm for 7 thinking I'll get up at 7:30ish and hop in the shower.  When my alarm went off this morning I blindly hit the snooze button.  This happened 3 times.  I roll over and see that my clock says 6:29.  WTF!!  Somehow I managed to turn on my "work" alarm and a 7:00 one.  Now, should I get out of bed and start my day because I'm awake?  I'm annoyed but still awake.  Or do I try to fall back asleep until the 7:00 alarm goes off?  I really didn't want to get up at 6:30 but I was freakin' awake.  So I do attempt to fall back asleep with great success but I didn't want to get up when the second alarm went off.  

That's just a pointless story for ya.  But I got up and showered and was at Wegmans before 9 and got my shopping done by 9:20.  Now I have tons of food and I don't know what I want to eat first.  I think I'm going to make buffalo mac & cheese for dinner tonight.