7.31.2007

Bender Blah (I was WRONG)

My sister and I made an impusle buy the other day when watching TV. We wanted rock hard abs like the stars, and we thought for $9.99 we'd give it a shot. So we bought

THE BENDER BALL



After weeks of waiting (6-8 to be exact) the balls finally arrived, and let me tell you, they were more
bender blah

than they were

BENDER (B)AWESOME


You take these things out of the package, and first off they are deflated (I know, shocker, I should have realized this, but they are so less impressive when not filled with air). The packaging is tiny and completely unimpressive. I felt misled... somewhat how I'd expect a girl with an egotistical boyfriend would feel the first time they, well... anyhow. I was expecting mountains, and I got a little ant hill.

WELL, let me tell you... I quickly learned that it's not the size of the packaging that's important, it's how you use it!

This little ball had my abs burning just thinking about the workout! It's easy to do, amazingly effective (408% is still in question, but it could be), and super fast. It took about 15 minutes to do, and I swear that half the time you are stretching and relaxing.

I'll definitely do this workout at least one more time before kicking the ball to the back of my closet to gather dust. Fur sure!

7.29.2007

My second best weekend this summer...

This weekend I went to NYC to try and find an apartment to live in come September. This was an exciting moment for me as I was going to meet my roommate to be, Brittany, for the first time as well as see some apartments.

First I met up with Brittany who is *so* nice, I think we are going to get on really well. After we met up, we went to look at the first apartment we had lined up to see, and it was a DUD. The apartment was not too bad... the bedrooms on either end were nice and bright with good closets. However, the living space was sooooo dark! The street also left something to be desired as well, and the nearest subway stop was not near the apartment, so we decided to pass that opportunity up.

We had no other apartment viewings set up for the day, so since Brittany had had a call from a realtor named Aiden she gave him a call back and luckily he was free that afternoon! He showed us a bunch of apartments and in the end we rented one from him that afternoon. The apartments were all really nice in great neighborhoods, and all the people we interacted with were sooooo nice. It's going to work out really well, I think.

Anyhow, below are some photos of the apartment, the street, the building.






The last photo above is actually just outside my school where I'll be working every day - you can see the school from where I was standing... it's just across the street to the left, but not in the photo.

7.22.2007

The Best Weekend of This Summer

I had the best time I've had all summer this past weekend for a variety of reasons.

First of all, Harry Potter came out. No spoilers here, as I have not read it yet. But hey, any weekend that involves the release of a Harry Potter book is a great weekend, and the fact that this was the weekend of the seventh and final book (note to self when reading this entry 10 years from now), well, that makes it super-extra-great.

Second, I spent the weekend in Boston with one of my good friends from college and had a blast. I love all my college friends, and I had so much fun hanging out with this one particular friend this weekend. We made sushi and walked around the lake, chatted about this and that, carried wing chairs down the streets of Boston... good times.

Third of all, I got to spend the weekend in a city. I had not realized how much I missed being able to walk everywhere or hop on a bus or a subway (in this case the T). Well, after having spent the weekend walking everywhere, I realized it in full blast.

And finally, the last reason that I had the most awesome weekend ever was because I got to go to a concert with my all time favorite band which also happens to be the ultimate kings of guilty pleasure music... HANSON.

There, I've said it. I'm a Hanson fan (ok, so maybe that wasn't so secret). I'm a big Hanson fan (ok, that's probably not so secret either). I've been a fan of their music since I first heard Mmmbop, and yet I bet I am probably the only fan in their ten year club to have never seen them in concert (until now). Now, you may be asking why I never bothered to go see my favorite band in the whole world play live until just yesterday. Good question.

It's because I hate screaming girls.

Have you ever seen what happens at boy band concerts? It's not pretty. Girls screaming their heads of, fainting, crying, shouting, "AJ have my babies" and being just a general disgrace to their gender. I really can't stand it.

So, in an attempt to avoid the insanity I never went to a concert for Hanson in the past ten years. This year, though, Hanson came out with a pretty great (translation: freaking amazing) album, and so when my sister said she wanted to go to their concert, I acquiesced. I thought that most of their fans (like me) would have grown up and stopped being so obnoxious by now. I also thought that what with all three brothers happily married now, the insanity would have lessened somewhat (let's be real, gals, there's really no hope now).

To the point, I was wrong. Starting at 1 PM there was a line around the block for a 7 PM concert (my sister's friends who were in the line called to report). The arena (while not huge is not tiny by any stretch of the imagination) was absolutely jam packed full. And I am sad to report that the screaming was often louder than the music making for a very unfortunate concert sound (when you can't hear the songs being played, really, what's the point?).

That being said, I had a really good time. The opening band was really really good, and (from the bits I could actually hear) the music was great. They played for two solid hours, and included a song called Yearbook (which surprised me) that is really good live. My sister had a blast, too. I'd say it was even worth being ridiculed by all the Red Sox fans as they left Fenway park (whoever knew the Avalon was right next to Fenway? The things you learn).

My favorite moment, though, was when the girl behind us in line got on her cell phone and started screaming at her friend who was on speakerphone. The conversation went something like this:

Unsuspecting friend (US for short): "Hi, so I am at the venue. It seems a bit small for monster trucks, and I thought there would be more guys here. Weird, no?"
Sneaky conniving friend (SCF): "Well, actually I need to tell you something."
US: "Strange, there are tons of people interested in this monster truck convention..."
SCF: "It's not a monster truck convention. It's a Hanson concert."
US: "Shut. up."
SCF: "Seriously, though, there's a line?"
US: "I HATE YOU!!!!! YOU LYING B%#!!! You conned me into going to a Hanson concert?"
SCF: "Yeah, I thought it would be a funny joke, I didn't expect it to actually get busy."
US: "You guessed wrong. Apparently they're still really popular."
SCF: "Huh. who'd have guessed?"
US: "Hurry up and get over here so I can kill you."

I got a real chuckle out of that conversation. Next time I want to con someone into going somewhere with me, I'll have to remember the monster truck plan. Nice! ;-)

7.20.2007

Summer Reading

I've been reading a ton of books this summer. Most of them are Meg Cabot books, so the other day in the bookstore I thought I should broaden my horizons and read a more adult book. I chose a book called Dairy Queen which I found in the new fiction section. I was all psyched about my purchase and got in line to buy it when my sister came over and told me she had looked at the same book in Young Adult fiction and thought it would be good and was glad I was getting it. So much for getting a more mature novel.

Anyhow, the basic plot is as follows:

Young girl fails all classes because she's working on her family farm and she's the only one who works on it. Boy comes over to help her work because if he doesn't he loses place on football team. She begins to coach him in football. He does football exercises while she drives tractor.

Or, you know, something along those lines. It sounds really strange, but actually it's pretty good.

Seriously, a lot of the best books you read sound really strange when summed up in such a way. In honor of the soon to be released, let's examine Harry Potter in the same way:

Young boy hates family, realizes he's from another community. Evil man wants to kill him but can't, so gets mad and kills many others instead. Young boy hates world, hates having friends and family killed. What will happen? Oh my. Also features wonderful subplot with other wand-bearing outcasts in same community.

It just reeks of success, doesn't it!

Sink Hole

The other day I was driving down the road as I normally do when out of nowhere the car jostled strangely. Because I am normally over-calm when it comes to unanticipated cafuffles, I thought nothing of it.

It turns out there is a sink hole in my road! Sure, it's only about 9 square feet, but it's a sink hole none the less. My dad told me that if I were going the speed limit and rode over the sink hole, the effect would be great enough to send me through the windshield of the car.

This made me realize the following two things:

1. I should drive the speed limit.
2. I should avoid the sink hole.

Well, driving the speed limit is just not going to happen (before some cops read my blog and come after me, let me just say the limit on my road is 25 and the highest enforceable limit in NH is 30, and since I only ever go 35 you've really got nothing on me). Instead, I have been concentrating my efforts on avoiding the sink hole.

Day one of avoiding the sink hole was not too successful. All the way down the road I said to myself, "avoid the hole, avoid the hole, avoid the hole." My chant suddenly was forgotten altogether, though, when I saw a young-ish guy out for a jog in the road. Young guys are a rare find in my town, much less young, athletic, beautifully tanned ones, so needless to say I got all distracted, forgot about the hole and drove right over it.

Day two was slightly more successful. I slowed down to 10, drove down the middle of the road for about 2 miles in avoidance preparation, and noted that the sink hole was next to the tree with orange tape on the side of the road.

Day three was successful but only because of my sister. When I started saying, "Ok, here comes the sink hole, right by the speed limit sign," she reminded me that it was not by the speed limit sign but by the tree with the orange tape.

Future outlook: not good. I've taken to wearing my helmet in the car, just in case.

Benjamin et Jacques (Look out France, it's Ben and Jerry)

Ben and Jerry's makes the most amazing ice cream (Hi, Phish Food, please accept this humble proposal of lifelong partnership).

While in France, I had ice cream only a handful of times. The French do a crap job of it, so I just ate other things (hello croissants! You can be my foreign love affair). Though ice cream is not a French specialty, they do a knock up job of crême brulée.

Crême brulée has to be one of my top 2 favorite desserts, and I realized when I got home that I had not had it one single time all year while I was in France (zut alors!!!!). So you can imagine my delight when I saw that Ben and Jerry's came out with a new flavor of ice cream... ze crême brulée!!

Tonight I tried it. I admit, I was super skeptical, but I am here to tell you that it's really, *really* good. Though it is super sweet, I would still recommend it as the best ice cream substitute for one of my 2 favorite desserts of all time.

My Sister's Innards

I hate Grey's Anatomy.

Don't get me wrong, I love the show (ok, maybe this is confusing), but I hate what shows like Grey's, ER, Scurbs, House, etc. have done to the curiousity of the general public.

This sudden scorn for all shows medical has to do with my sister's recent Gall Bladder removal.

What do you think the first thing my mother said to me was when my sister came home? If you guessed, "Meghan, your sister is doing fine," or "Don't bug your sister, she's sleeping," or "Your sister did the vom vom 7 times in the car ride home," you guessed wrong.

The first words out of her mouth were, "Do you want to see pictures of Sarah's guts?"

That's right. The doctors took pictures of my sister's insides and gave them to her as a farewell gift upon her discharge. She now has pictures of her ovaries, her liver, her gall bladder (both inside, outside, and while it was being removed through her belly button), and various other organs I care not to contemplate.

I guess in some ways it is sort of cool. I mean, my mom and my sister both enjoyed them a great deal. I, on the other hand, have a weak stomach and don't ever want to see them again.

Yeah, that's right. I told my mom to hide them out of site, so I was shocked to see them on top of the tv while retreiving a movie for her. I dropped the movie and ran out of there (incidentally that's all the exercise I've had this summer, so at least something good game of it).

Life Goes On

Hello, readers! (Hey, that's what I call some wishful thinking right there...)

I was so good about updating this journal in France, and I swear I am going to be good at it again, just as soon as my life becomes more exciting. You see, I can sum up almost every day since my last post as such:

1. Go to work.
2. Come home, eat dinner.
3. Search for apartment.
4. Go to bed.

There have been a few exceptions to said monotony. The weekends!

HA! Just kidding. My weekends go like this:

1. Breakfast.
2. Apartment search.
3. Apartment search.
4. God to bed.

The one exciting bit of information I do have to report is that my sister had 2 surgeries last week, but she's all better now. It would have been more exciting (from a blogging point of view) if she had had some terrible infection/random complication, but really I think I'd take boring blog posts over her demise any day.

Anyhow, the point of this post is to say that I have had, over the past few days/weeks, many ideas for posts and just never got around to posting them. So now, without further ado, I am going to try and post as many as I can remember all in a row. (See above four posts.)