Just Another Day at Work

Matt's solo Formations flight, completed today. He's flying the one marked 845 and 2265, the lead of the two aircraft.

...my brother is SO much cooler than your brother.

Weekly Roundup: President's Day Edition

This has nothing to do with President's Day... apart from that being my excuse for posting Monday, not Sunday. Long weekend, you know.

Also, no fun links. Lazy long weekend, you know.

And it's hard to make it a recap, either, because this weekend was a whole lot of things. But altogether one of the best in a long time.

So instead: here's some random nonsense that I've been up to.

One: I'm officially in a state championship tournament. (Because I am (officially) out of my mind.) And as of four hours ago, I'll be doing something completely new at it. (I'm terrified.) It's exciting. (I want to throw up.) It'll be fun. (Maybe. But mostly terrifying.) I can't wait. (For it to be over.)

Two, and completely different: the 2008 season is out at the SToNJ:

• Comedy of Errors starts April 30
• Amadeus starts May 28
  
• The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged) starts at St. E's Greek amphitheatre June 18 (yes, the Reduced Shakespeare Company's play - and one of the coolest spaces ever)
• King Lear starts July 2 (with Daniel Davis as Lear)
• Private Lives starts Aug 6
• Streetcar Named Desire starts Sep 10
• Romeo & Juliet starts Oct 15
• (and the Christmas show, TBD)

Same as last year... I subscribe, so if you'll be in the area, tell me. Tickets are roundabout $35 again. It's an amazing company.

Three, lastly, and still differenter yet: as Karen points out, watching the original "Casino Royale" was like being on six kinds of drugs at once. And then watching an awful nonsensical movie. From the inside of a Surrealist painting. Upside down.

Even the synopsis is completely incoherent. It was... there are no words. It was jaw-droppingly jaw-dropping.

If you can enlighten us, please do. If not, please don't ever watch it. Because I love you.

Oh Look, I Have a Blog.

Today I learned that the difficulty with having bought a gorgeous bag on holiday, with which you are head over heels in love, is that six months later when you have a question about it, you have to dust off your ghastly proto-French to try to find an answer. (Which, it being Parisians you are asking, you do not get anyway. But you’d expected that.)

The other difficulty is being head over heels in love with the entire collection and having the nearest boutique in Montreal. Ah, the long-distance relationship. C’est vraiment tres dommage; mais c’est la vie.

But. It has been a long time without a real post, hasn't it? Je suis desolee. Life has been wonderful-busy. Specially last week’s trip to Mexico with Mrs. Sac – with whom four days catching up and relaxing would have been fun anywhere in the world – but with whom four days in paradise were utter bliss. Spending days in bathing suits lazing on four-poster cabanas overlooking the Caribbean and swimming and snorkeling; delicious food and perfect weather and so much to choose from and nothing to do at the same time. Breathtakingly perfect.

And exciting – I didn’t expect to be bitten by a fish (jellyfish?), to pilot a boat or drive an ATV, to come within ten feet of a crocodile (alligator?), to see a Passion of the Christ-meets-Cirque de Soleil spectacular (stunt show? burlesque?), to get in a physical fight with a Russian (Ukranian?). And I now know that if I ever crave attention, all I need to do is go for a run in my “Former Stripper” t-shirt. Not, shall we say, a shy and retiring lot, the Mexican men. Thanks for the gift, Peter. Thanks ever so.

But it was all fantastic. Nothing like “The Ruins” – which my boss was so sweet as to lend me when he heard where I was going.

We did indeed “make a blast,” as we were instructed - and I enjoyed every second.

So now back to life. This weekend, the stunningly dreamy Matt Hall. Next week, a trip to Texas. Then, a stint in the Mansion. Coming soon, a Massive Birthday. A Massively Scary Competition. Life is never dull. Thank goodness!

What Did YOU Do at Work Today?

(via PCJM) You have to look closely at this photo to see that it's not, as Brian Williams put it, just some weird "silvery Stonehenge".

It's the 12 members of Engine Company 22 deploying their fire shelters. Which sounds very technical and powerful.

But what it really means is that they were trapped - as the photographer put it, in a chimney - at the top of a hill. They didn't have water, so they were digging to try to block the fire. And it got around them. The fire shelter is the very last resort. They don't use it unless there are no other options.

So, as the ground they were crouching on reached 300 degrees, they were squirming into giant metallic bags. Ever bake something - fish, a potato - in an aluminum-foil jacket? Like that.

Go watch the NBC Nightly News piece here. It's really worth seeing.

"Heroes" is a word that gets thrown around so much that it's lost its meaning. So I won't use it. I'll just say that this story made me cry. It made me very grateful that there are people like those twelve guys. And it made me remember that most of what I worry about isn't important at all.

Also, to be media-geeky for a second, I love that the photo was so memorable that it was the impetus for the TV report. I hope Karen Tapia-Anderson from the LA Times wins the Pulitzer she deserves.

Sac Says "Post," I Say "How High?"

This is where I don't want to become one of those insufferable people who halfass apologizes by telling you their life has been busy. So I won't.

But I will tell you to get to the Prudential Center as soon as you can because it is totally gorgeous and striking and classy and every single person who works there is so polite and considerate and cheerful it's absolutely terrifying.

Also you should go see Bon Jovi because it is lots of fun. (Even if he does use a teleprompter.)

Also you should not expect to see me much lately, because my next free day appears to be November 25. ...okay, that's insufferable. But I'm not sorry about it, because I'm having fun. Work is good, I'm seeing my friends. I'm a lucky girl.

But I've got a whole week in New Jersey now, which is relaxing and homey and just very good. And I'm completely loving the weather. It's cool and rainy and the leaves are changing - just perfect fall weather.

But now I have to gather up my gear and go fight. Every single time I panic. I've got a stomach full of butterflies and I'm terrified I'm going to make an ass of myself. But then I end up loving it.

A lot like life in general, eh?

Weekly Roundup: Life Edition

Friday: Simplifying me.
My closet now has wind whistling through it, thanks to the Cheeses.

Saturday: Disarming me.
Playing model in Brooklyn for Bill. (Extra points if you know who the next day's model is.)


Sunday: Girlyfying me.
Tea and massages (I am so sore, it was perfect) and shopping with the Cheeses. Also a quick phone call with Matt, sounding more cheerful.

It was a wonderful weekend. Simply lovely old friends - disarmingly engaging new ones - girly splurges - splendid times altogether. I'm a lucky girl.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! (And Welcome Back, Me)

This is for Mr. and Mrs. Sekerak, who clearly do not have enough to do at work except send me bratty emails. But it really has been a long time, hasn't it. And my goodness so much has happened.

So yeah. I went to Vienna for work, and that got done as well as it could have. I hurt the same ankle I've been hurting on and off since November. I really need to buy more flats if I'm going to be able to run a 5K (RIGHT, ERIN?) this fall. But then I got free of boss and client and suits, spent an evening with my foot in a sinkful of ice cubes, and had myself a holiday.

I spent a day in Vienna after the work people left. It's an imposing sort of place, but in a good way - very elegant and waltz-y, really. But simultaneously, I'd been at the hotel so long that the staff knew me and it got to feeling homey, which was nice.

Then I spent a couple of days in Prague, which was both larger and shabbier than I'd imagined, but still very interesting and full of pretty bits, just not the unreal fairytale I'd envisioned. My hotel was amazing - this ultra-modern outpost of unnerving chic, but full of the sweetest people. (Also, ridiculously inexpensive.) If you go, stay at the Icon and tell Nadja I said hi.

Then I flew to Paris, saying goodbye to Matt from the airport as he left for Newport - and took the train to Montpellier, which was just lovely. It's quite literally a thousand-year-old college town. So if you can imagine all the wonderful things about being a college town, and a medieval town, and in the south of France on the Mediterranean, it was all of those. Just a sun-drenched laid-back paradise of young people in cotton sundresses clutching baguettes and meandering around past pret-a-porter shops and below open French windows looking out of cool tan stone houses. Really, truly, all the time, every day. With - most importantly - the lovely Severine, who was an absolutely perfect guide and host and friend!

And then I came home with just enough time to unpack, re-pack, and go to Maine for Erin and Mike's wedding. It's wonderful enough to be with my family, who are all crazy and silly and fun and full up to the top with total love - but it was an amazing wedding, where every detail spoke of their relaxed, elegant, fun attitudes toward life and their families and each other - and it was just in the most breathtakingly beautiful place on Earth. As much as I adore Europe, Maine may be one of my favorite places.

I packed egregiously badly at all times, spent a whole lot of money on presents and jewelry and accessories, had a few lonesome moments where I realized I want my next holiday to be with somebody, and at one point apparently missed running into Tracy by all of 20 minutes. But it was an absolutely wonderful time and I am so, so lucky to have been able to have it, and to be safe and happy and full of so many great things.

I have to get my photos up on Flickr, which will be much more interesting and tell lots more specific stories - like the one about the Kazakhstan athletic team! - but I do have to do a little bit of work now. Especially since I came back yesterday to a promotion, thank you very much. Yes, you may now refer to me as Miss Director. And why yes, if you're keeping track, this is the second promotion in four months. How good of you to notice!

Hee. All done bragging now. Time for some specifics.

Jon will be pleased to know that I've continued to practice my whistle. However, it continues to be much more of a wheezy splutter than anything resembling a whistle.

Happy birthday to Ria the stunning chef, who was right about Maine as she is about everything; to Kristi the lovely maker of jewelry, who lives too far away; and to Tommy, who I can't wait to treat to dinner tomorrow!

Now. Everybody go look at stunning Jilly at 365Portraits. (And check it again next Saturday, maybe.)

Matt

Growing up, my dad always said, "You know, he's going to be bigger than you someday."


I took this to heart and made sure to beat him up as much as possible while I still had the advantage.

This may not have been exactly what my father meant.

But he was right: he did get bigger than me. Bigger in every sense - taller, yes, and more logical and more practical and more daring.

And he decided that he wanted to do something bigger with his life.

He leaves for the Navy on the 8th, while I'm away.

I'm completely terrified for him and I'm worried that he is happy and makes friends and nobody is mean to him... all of the things that his big sister has wanted to protect him from his whole life. Mostly, of course, that he is safe when, in a couple of years, he is really doing it.

But I guess it's like the aerobatics, the bungee, the tall ship, the scuba diving, the mountain biking.... It's just how he does.

All I can do is stand back and be amazed and close my eyes when it gets too scary.

And miss him like crazy. Because if he's away, who's going to be keeping an eye on me?

I love you Matt. There's no point in saying "be careful," so - have fun.

Weekly Roundup: Three... Two... One

Three weeks' worth of places I'll be

• Chester
• Stewartsville
• Frankfurt (just to change planes but still)
  
• Vienna (where I have just discovered there is a baby panda!)
  
• Prague
• Paris (just to change planes and trains but still, specially as I may have a little time to pop my head out)
  
• Montpellier
• Ogunquit
  

Two people I am so worried for it makes me cry but so proud of it makes me dizzy

• Tracy - who is currently in Scotland and WHOSE FORTIETH BIRTHDAY IT IS TODAY SO GO SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HER
  
• Matt - who leaves next Saturday
  

One final thought

• Wish them luck (and me too).

Two pictures that are not great, and for which I'm sure I'll catch heat from their subjects, but which I love because they show two of my favorite people happy:

Tracy Is Riding

TRACY IS RIDING.

It is ON.

She's packing a bag (my bag!). She's flying to Edinburgh. She's getting on a phatass Harley. She's riding to London. She leaves tomorrow. SHE NEEDS SPONSORS.

Go here for the whole saga, full of incompetent medical personnel, heroic medical personnel, and eloquent, funny, unbelievable, wonderful, badass Tracy.

BUT FIRST. GO. NOW. SPONSOR.

Weekly Roundup: Reach Out and Touch Faith

Overheard in Sarah's Weekend

• "Do you, Thomas, take Justin... (...?) ...Kristin..."
• "Ohhh, I see ass crack."
• "There are deer on the runway."
• "Honey, did you go down on him?"

Sunday Religion

Beth's got "Personal Jesus" irretrievably jammed into my head by linking on her Facebook to these videos. So you get them too.

• Depeche Mode
• Marilyn Manson
• Johnny Cash

Random Links

• Fun with Google
• Dog Cars

And just cos I like you, one more:



Well, maybe just a couple more....

When I found those pictures I discovered Jon was right: Posh was not in attendance. She was home being completely lovely.

This weekend was more of an ongoing theme, this summer: a fantastic few days with people I love. And besides the Beckham - actually even more important than the Beckham, believe it or not - I got to see somebody wonderful find her happily-ever-after. And that was pretty, well, wonderful. You might even say it was major.

Hope your weekend was major too. And for weekend fun, look right to the Flickr photos. I've left them all public for a change. And I'll keep them that way, if you promise to comment on them so I have fun surprises.

Dizzy Monday Viewing

"There's only three things I've ever been afraid of. Electricity, heights, and women. And I'm married, too."

Weekly Roundup

• 5 Alternative Ways to Browse Amazon
• The New 7 Wonders of the World on Google Maps
• MusicBrainz software to automatically fill in artist and title for MP3s
• Really Bad Tattoos (7-part series) (NSFW)
• To-do list as flip book
• Whatever happened to my fourth grade crush
  
• Before Victoria Beckham: Coming to America tonight, catch up with Being Victoria Beckham and David and Victoria's World Cup Party.
  

So yeah. Wow. What a fantastic weekend. Altogether the perfect summer weekend - full of gorgeous outdoors and fantastic people and exciting maybes and fun adventures and good talking. For reals, I am so lucky.

Maverick, Not Goose

Matt got his first choice. He's going to fly jets.

I am so scared for him that I want to throw up, but I guess that's my job as a big sister.

His job is to be awesome at this. And as he's pretty much been awesome at everything he's ever done, I know he'll be fine. I know, I know. It just doesn't make me any less freaked out.

Guess I should have seen it coming when he wouldn't take off the camo t-shirt that he got from GI Joe cereal....

The Hotel Gym Is Much Lower on Adventure

Picture it...

Just after sunrise. I'm running along the Pacific Ocean. The light has turned the water gold. The waves are lapping the rocks and the seagrass is blowing in the cool breeze. I'm just north of the airport, so every now and then I see one take off or land and the sound of the engines breaks through Kanye West on the iPod.

I woke up feeling sore and sick, but being out in the fresh air is doing me right and it's all pretty spectacular. I'm looking pretty darn cute for 6:30 a.m. The hotel has provided me a lovely little map of the route and I'm looking forward to the bellhops' outstretched towel and water bottle upon my return. I'm congratulating myself for getting out and feeling pretty lucky for being here out in the hazy yellow sunshine. Life is good. I round a little lagoon and come to an Asian-inspired wooden footbridge that spans the lagoon.

And that's where I come face to face with the skunk.

I think I made little cartoon smoke clouds, I stopped so fast. So did he.

I haven't been that close to a skunk since crazy Mrs. Stevens used to bring Sofie into the pharmacy and I used to walk around with her in my arms while I filled prescriptions. But this was not Sofie the tame skunk.

Luckily the "more scared of you than you are of it" rule held, and he turned around and scooted back over the bridge and down into the bushes. But to someone far enough away not to have seen him, I must have looked awful funny running, screeching to a halt, edging my way over the bridge as far from his side as I could, and then breaking into a sprint as soon as I was over.

I was going to warn the next runner I saw, but I didn't think he would've believed me.

Tracy

Everybody, this is Tracy.

Tracy, everybody.

Tracy is awesome.

She rides a motorcycle. She has a truly lustworthy shoe collection. She has two big goofy dogs. And she has a husband who drives racecars.

And, incidentally, she is lucky enough to have an office right next to ME. Which, as you can probably imagine, is a joy hardly to be measured. Another way to look at that is that she puts up with my obnoxious ass all day long. But whatever.

She also has probably the coolest second-grader on the planet.

Everybody, this is Jason. It's an old picture, but I don't want anybody stalking the kid, and plus, it's adorable.

Jason, everybody.

So you understand by now that Jason's got a pretty amazing mom. But, you ask, exactly how amazing is she?

Here's how amazing.

In August, she's doing a week-long motorcycle trip from Aviemore, Scotland down to London (my very favorite part of the planet). She's going with 19 other breast cancer survivors to raise money and awareness of breast cancer through a program called Amazon Heart Thunder.

Oh. Did I forget to mention that Tracy is a Stage IV survivor?

Yeah. She's all that, and she's been kicking cancer's ass since Jason was an infant.

But Tracy needs donations. Lots of them.

So go check out her story. And go donate. There are good causes in this world, and good people. And this is one of the best.

Yellow

Three down, eight more to go!

Weekly Roundup: Serendipitous Beauty Edition

• The Daily Puppy. I guess it's more "cute" than "beautiful" technically but oh my dear sweet Jesus I really want a dog right now. Anybody want to lend me theirs? Just for a run or two. I'll give them back before they wake me up in the morning.
  
• Flight Patterns. Mostly for Matt, but it's just really cool. If air traffic control were ballet, it would be this.
• I Can Feel it in the Air Tonight. You will not be able to watch this clip without smiling. And possibly feeling sort of wonderful, too. It's just gorgeous.
  

...now I have to go upload some pictures so we can see how Erin and Rinnie look rock climbing.
I bet they look EXTREEEEEME.

Updated to add: while uploading I looked at my Flickr counts and I have to say, I'm pretty disturbed that this is my most-viewed photo. They're nice and all, but they're not even mine! (Literally - even the inflatables themselves didn't belong to me.) Could y'alls please go click on a few other photos to at least give that more company? And I wouldn't say no to a comment or two, either.

(Updated to also add: if my friends really really love me they will send me pictures that make me look equally extreeeeeme.)

Twenty-NINE

Oh my God, you guys.

I have this really effusive, ebullient (because I really do know what it means, Kristen) post in my head about how wonderful my birthday was. However, I suspect you jokers will make references to champagne giggles and sugar highs and might imply insincerity on my part. That's why I didn't post last night at 3 a.m. when I was still bouncing around.

But for reals, it was amazing. A great day, a fun dinner, a fantastic night, and then when I finally got home, it was like Christmas.

I am the luckiest, I really am. So, just – thank you so, so, so much.

And great big love to the little old man in the Panama hat.

Just a Coffee Run

I’ve gotten into doing things that scare me. Not as often as I’d like, or as often as I ought, but still more often than I used to. It's better than nothing.

But they’re pretty tiny. Things like going rock climbing. Or talking to somebody I’m intimidated by. Baby steps, you know?

But I know people who do really important scary things. Things that maybe saved the lives of five little boys last week.

It's pretty overwhelming just to read about. I can't imagine actually being there.

Some people go to Starbucks to get coffee. Guess others go to be superheroes.