Temptation. Island.

The Travelzoo Newsdesk has found this outstanding offer from
CheapCaribbean.com:

NEW YORK--APRIL 22, 2008-- On only 3 departure dates in May and June, CheapCaribbean.com has slashed all-inclusive packages to upscale St. Lucia to $799 per person. This package would cost $1200 to put together individually.

You must book by April 28.

This $799 package includes:

• Nonstop, roundtrip airfare from New York (JFK)
• 4 nights at the beachfront Almond Smugglers Cove resort
• Departure dates of May 15, May 18 or June 12
• All meals, drinks and snacks
• Spa credit of $50 per room

Amenities at Almond Smugglers Cove include a private beach, 9 restaurants and bars, spa, free golf (cart fee not included), and sports courts.

If your travel dates aren't that flexible, they are offering only the all-inclusive hotel for $99 per person per night.

For full details of this offer and to book directly through CheapCaribbean.com, click the link below. Or call them at 1-800-915-2322.

Weekly Roundup: Girl Stuff

• A lovely few minutes on women's shoes in narrated photos from Paris fashion shows. What I mostly notice is how prevalent black opaque tights are. (via)
• Star Wars as explained by a three-year-old girl. She's right: the shiny guy always worries. (via)
• What is it about My Little Ponies lately? They're everywhere.

Hi from Chicago, where I'm here, had a hysterical night that ended up here, and am working from here. Yesterday I went for a run along the lake and am so glad I did, because today it's too foggy to even see the lake. Today? Work, catching up, History Channel documentary on the 1968 election, IM, and yoga.

Truth in Advertising

Love it. (via DHAK)

Freezing

This is fantastic - as Patti says, art everywhere. My favorite part is the reaction of the passers-by, especially at the end; they see they've unwittingly become audience, and they're delighted.



Details about it at Improv Anywhere.

Weekly Roundup: Because I Owe You One

• Quite a few friends have lost phones recently and made me remember how important it is to have a contact backup. I use Verizon's Backup Assistant.
• I got a Traveler IQ of 100 - that's through level 8 with 252965 points and a smug Naval aviator scoffing over my shoulder. How about you?
• Check out Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art.
• Most kids want to be a doctor or a teacher or a fireman when they grow up. I wanted to be a Thundercat. (I didn’t. As you may have noticed.) But I loved finding these outtakes ten years later. And re-finding them ten years after that.
• My new favorite artist is Elliott Puckette. I'm not usually a big abstract fan, but I love her work.

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!

If Only My Shopping Wasn't Done

Everyone on my list would be getting this.

Thirsty?

Thanks, Ze Frank.

I guess I didn't want to drink from a hotel glass ever again.

Ew.

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: Would You Like a Little Whine With Your Videos?

• Japanese Shadows (No, I don't know how it works either.)
• Legacy of Sound: Happy (This was my favorite song ever at one point in high school. I don't care what you think of me for that.)
• Pulp Fiction spoken word
• Free Hugs (I think I could have posted these last two before but they're worth repeating, specially this last one.)

I feel entirely out of touch with reality. For starters, I'm sunburned. Ridiculously, patchily, unattractively sunburned. At the end of October. And not from being on vacation. I spent Saturday with Rinnie at the Hunt and had a great time. But today I'm just off, I'm sleepy, I spent today doing errandy sorts of things which is good, but I have no idea what's going on in the world, I leave too early tomorrow morning for DC and then the rest of my week is kind of scrambled. And I'm writing run-on sentences.

But I have a weekend of financial glory and supreme relaxing and rock climbing and fabulous people to look forward to at the end of it. One in which I WILL wear sunblock.

Yawn. Off to pack.

Weekly Roundup: Sweet Consumerism

• How Walmart is taking over
• Some people really do live at the mall
• Christian Audigier: pretty things
• Chateau Residence de Bionne: pretty place
• Bruern Holiday Cottages: more pretty places
• Mr. Jones watches: making time fun
• The new WebTrend map
• The Best Stuff in the World: insanely addictive browsing

Bits and Pieces

So sometimes, I write something down fast and save it as a draft blog so I won't forget it. And then I'll pick it up again later and write something totally scintillating and hysterical and incisive.

Right? Well. Sometimes. Or, I'll realize I have rather a lot of those lying around and I should probably start fresh.

So, in a fit of housecleaning, here they all are. Some of them are probably years old. It's pretty embarrassing, and I come off looking like a complete schizophrenic. Whatever. Fresh start. Think of them as a peek into my curly little head. I offer no explanation, no elaboration, no elucidation. Go for it.

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Best movie kisses

• Kyra Sedgwick and John Travolta in the kitchen in Phenomenon even though I don't like him, or even that movie
• Lucia Muniz and Colin Firth in the restaurant in Love Actually but really just the whole movie
• Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan on the stairs in The Thomas Crown Affair but yeah, the whole movie too
• Franka Potente and Matt Damon in the bathroom in The Bourne Identity, "
• Angeline Jolie and Brad Pitt in the rain in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "
  
• Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden at the end of Pride & Prejudice
  

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Passive Aggressive Notes

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• You know you're Catholic when you misread a sign for "Quilt Shop" as "Guilt Shop."
• You can order cell phone wallpaper from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
• How much is our emerging "Perez Hilton working out of a coffee shop" lifestyle just a return - or at least an attempt to fit our 21st century careers back - to our old-fashioned "cafe in the plaza" European lifestyles of centuries ago?
• Best thing someone's said to me recently: "Good luck with your artistry" - when I didn't think I was being particularly artistic.
  
• People who have achieved world domination, based on a recent unscientific sampling: Justin Timberlake, Chuck Taylor, Bob Marley, and whoever invented Crocs.
  

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Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild
The Dark Is Rising series -
The Chronicles of Narnia series - C.S. Lewis
Five Children and It - E. Nesbit
The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Secret Garden
The Little Princess
The Anne of Green Gables series and everything by L.M. Montgomery
The Four-Story Mistake
Bridge to Terabithia

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It was a never-ending story... with no luck dragon.

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The way you smile when you look at me
The way my hand feels in yours
The way your shoulders fill out your t-shirt
The way your jeans sit on your hips
The way you talk to a little kid
Whether you hold the door for me
If you can make me feel like I can dance

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Truth number one: mornings come too early.
Truth number two: apart from once or twice a year, I don't drink anything caffeinated.

So how do I wake up? Really loud, really, really, really cheesy music.

Why - you ask - which songs? Because I must do this as well! Help me!

Certainly, I reply. And I'm not just doing this because I'm low on ideas for posts, either. Nope. It's just that the people catching me singing at the top of my lungs and bopping around? They're missing out. And they? They could be you. So yup. I'm all about the public service. Not at all about the desperate for content. Nope. Not here.

And fortunately, for you, I am also connoisseur of the cheesy music.

Buckcherry, Crazy Bitch. Especially good for when you still have hoarse sleepy voice.
Gia Farrell, Hit Me Up. For when you feel like a penguin. And who doesn't.
Dutch featuring Crystal Waters, My Time.
Avril Lavigne, Girlfriend.
Las Ketchup, Asereje. Only if you can do the hand jive.
Going Out of My Head, Fatboy Slim. The combination of the guitar riff and the Kaoss pad distortion is truly ideal for seeing how loud your speakers get.

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I am one of Hallmark's best customers.

I'm a dork. You knew this. But I love the idea of somebody I like opening something that makes them happy.

In my defense, I do hate all that other Hallmark tchotchke crap. And I don't own a card organizer or anything, I promise. But yeah. I'm a soppy girly goofball. I know.

All of which to explain that I really loved these ideas on... alternative greeting cards.

• Under-communicated sentiments from the fabulous finslippy, one of my favorite new places
  

• From the Bittersweet Collection

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I hate finding street parking, but I love parallel parking.
I'm more of a morning person than a night person, but I hate getting up.
I hate Pennsylvania, but a lot of people I love live all over that darn state.

Hope nothing you're served is anything like a Squirrel Melt.

http://www.jeremybroomfield.com/

Trading Spaces. Frank and Ty, after eating dog biscuits:
Frank: Do you have the urge to chase a cat now?
Ty: I always have the urge to chase the cat, if you know what I mean.

• The 60s: Flinstones hawking Winstons.
• The 70s: 7-11.
• The 80s: Madonna for Pepsi.
  

Justin and Britney duet

"The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" - which I never read, just saw on "Reading Rainbow." I can hear Levar Burton reading it out loud in my head.

I can't find the Polaroid commercial where the kids (including Tobey Maguire, apparently) make a family-tree poster for their grandparents. YouTube failed me.

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First concert
The very first Z100 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden, December of I think 1995. Not sure - maybe 1994. Bon Jovi, Green Day, Melissa Etheridge, Indigo Girls, and a few other bands. And I met my first lesbians that night.

First album
The California Raisins, "I Heard it on the Grapevine." I got it for Christmas with a My First Sony Walkman. I was 10, so I remember being a little embarrassed because I felt that I was too old for a goofy red kid Walkman.

My first Sony
Originally uploaded by rogiro

I guess it was just underpaid singers doing Motown covers, but it's why I still love "Dancing in the Streets". I also got New Kids on the Block "Hangin' Tough" that year. O, the shame.

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Mainely Pictures of the Ocean

I finally posted pictures from Erin and Mike's wedding. Go look at the pretty!

Cliff House balcony panoramic

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.)

V Is for Vacant

This story made me cry tonight. Patti's stories very often get under my skin, but this one went right inside of me.

And, unrelatedly, Blogger is speaking to me in German - I realize I have the the layout of the post page memorized to a degree, which is good, because I don't know what on earth it's trying to tell me. My very limited German goes about as far as "ja," "nein," "bitte," "danke," and "scheißen". Specially that last. (Apparently "bearbeiten" means edit.)

I'm doing okay in Vienna. My hotel is gorgeous, my feet hurt, there's lots to do, things have gone wrong, my boss is fine, my clients are sweet as anything. It's not very different from the U.S. trips so far, actually.

But I guess I don't have anybody to actually talk to. And being around people and having no one to talk to can be a lot more lonely than being by yourself.

The city is beautiful, though. It's almost a stern sort of beautiful, but not in an unfriendly way. It's deliberate and austere, even though there are some frayed edges to it, where you see the uninspired graffiti on the riverbanks or a solitary street person. I guess it really isn't a city that is going to make you feel less lonesome.

But I do like it nonetheless. It's lovely, and I got to walk around for a while tonight after dinner. I need to go back out, both for photos and for shopping. There is much to be done.

Unfortunately, there is much to be done for work, too, vacant though it may feel sometimes.

Now, let's see which one of these buttons means "post."

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:

Quick Update

I am going to Vienna and Prague and Montpellier (with two quick stops in Paris) and then to Erin's wedding in Maine and all this after two weeks living at Diana's beautiful house and being in Kristin's wedding and right now Tracy is in England on a Harley and while I am gone Matt is going to Newport to be Maverick and

Well, basically, I'm basically a mess over all of it. Most of it's emotionally hard, not actually bad, I promise. The work travel is with someone I'm having difficulties with. I miss my T. And Matt leaving makes me want to cry kind of a lot.

It's just a lot going on for me to handle at once. But then Erin (not the wedding one - one of my four Erins) is prancing onto a plane Friday for a last-minute trip to New Zealand with a pop-in to Australia - and she's not even blinking.

I want to be her when I grow up.

At least the Yankees won last night, right, Jon?

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.

Thanks to the Sekeraks

• For supporting my need for a Callpod, my joy in looking forward to Lear at BAM with Peter, and other geeky pursuits.
  
• For explaining that pork is "grown".
• For coming to the conviction that fish is manly enough for eating while watching the Steelers, due to the "The Old Man and the Sea" and that misogynist bastard Ernest Hemingway.
• For telling stories in two-part harmony.
  
• For confirming that Jack Daniels is indeed called for whenever taxidermy is involved.

Here's the post you asked for, Sac darling, and oh my goodness I miss you guys.

Weekly Roundup: Sleepytime Plz?

I think I had a good week. There's a lot of stuff that's not resolved and some of it is decidedly grumpy-making. But I did do a lot of work and more importantly had an awful lot of fun and went to some amazing places and met people I liked and saw people I'd missed. The bad stuff isn't going away, but I'll handle it.

AND Saturday I was just in time to see this from only a few rows away!



Thought One
It's interesting to see a new side to a person. Sometimes it's very good. Sometimes it isn't. And sometimes both happen with the same person. That happened this week.

Thought Two
Sometimes you want a person to know that you need them to listen. But sometimes you have to realize that you have to just start talking for that to happen. That happened this week, too.

Thought Three
You should always get eight hours of sleep a night. That didn't even come close to happening this week.

This week's roundup is some reading that I like, cos and in case maybe you will like them too.

• Liz has cancer. Liz is also fucking funny.
• (Kerrin and) I should make this, these, these, this, these and this. Also perhaps shop here.
  
• This sounds like the most spectacular holiday imaginable right now.
• I like this photo essay on shoes. Her photography is sort of both spunky and elegant. And this photo essay is one of the things that make me long to be a gardening sort of person. Equally I like this essay on being a dilettante. For better or for worse, I think that's one of the words that describes me rather well.
  
• I have one of these posters (awaiting mat, frame, and a wall) as do two of my favorite people. But the clothing might help too.
  
• 39 ways to live is common sense that is hard to actually get up the nerve to do.
• Postsecret and Found are just places to go back to.

Now it's time for a silly cat moment and getting on with my afternoon.

Edited cos I can be forgetful of the very best things when trying to remember everything!