Getting to know all about me.

What is your occupation?
Multimedia Project Manager

What color are your underwear?
Today they're pink with black trim.

What are you listening to right now?
Oprah--playing hooky from work.

What was the last thing you ate?
Trader Joe's Tuna filets in Red Penang curry sauce

Do you wish on stars?
Daily. Well, whenever I see the stars in NYC.

If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
More to the point, what is WRONG with those people at Crayola? They didn't pick ANY of my submissions for the "Name the Colors" contest a few years ago.

How is the weather right now?
Hotter than Hades.

Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My realtor.

Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yeah, Jodie's pretty okay. ;-)

If you could be anywhere right now where would you be?
Honestly, right now I'm happy sitting on my couch. But lying on the deck of my 200 foot yacht somewhere off the coast of Italy, being oiled down by a man named Sven and sipping a cool beverage wouldn't be too bad either.

Two 70's bands you would die to see?
Um, I am really bad at this stuff. I don't know any names of bands. And I don't really know decades of music either. So ...

Ever skinny dipped?
Not only have I skinny dipped, I'm a founding member of the OBWTDP.

Have you ever smoked?
Nope.

Do you wear contacts or glasses?
I've worn glasses since I was five, but I finally got contacts when I was 17 and now I only wear glasses at night.

Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, or Jessica Alba?
Angelina

Brad Pitt, George Clooney or Johnny Knoxville?
George. I have an autographed picture from him.

Favorite show(s)?
Desperate Housewives, Law & Order, Monk

What was the last movie you watched?
Actually, I'm not sure--I hardly ever watch movies. I was talking about The Princess Bride yesterday, though. That's one of my all time faves. I keep track of some of the movies I've watched on my movie blog.

Favorite day of the year?
My birthday, of course! August 3!

What do you do when you are sad?
I sit around and think about how sad I am, and then usually call somebody to try to get myself out of my funk.

What was your favorite toy as a child?
I mostly played with boxes and sticks. I had a little bunny named Lavendar that was a favorite.

What is your favorite thing to do?
Either salsa dancing or reading.

Morning or late at night?
All good, all the time. I like mornings though.

If there was a song about you what would it be?
There is a song about me, somewhere, half-finished. The chorus goes "How many hearts are breaking tonight? How many loves won't take flight?"

Living arrangements?
Currently with two roommates in a great three bedroom apartment in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. However, I'm in the process of buying a condo in Norwalk, CT, where I will be very happy to live by myself.

When was the last time you cried?
Today.

What is on the floor of your closet?
Laundry basket, canvas bag, gym bag, plastic drawers full of office materials.

Who is the friend you have had the longest?
Misty Timber--we've now been friends for TWENTY years. But Jodie's right--she's my longest friend in terms of regular communication.

What did you do last night?
Had dinner with my parents at my uncle's house in Long Island, then drove back into the city and gave my other uncle a ride back too.

Who inspires you?
Different people for different reasons. I'm especially inspired by true friendship.

What are you afraid of?
That I won't be able to take care of someone who needs me.

Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
Nirvana Vegetable burgers from Trader Joe's. YUM.

Favorite Actor?
I'm totally on the Johnny Depp wagon. I also love Patrick Stewart (O Captain, my Captain).

Favorite Actress?
Uhm. No favorite, I guess.

How many emails did you receive this morning?
27 at work, 5 in Yahoo, and I don't know how many in my personal e-mail because I haven't been able to check it for a week!

How many years at your current job?
Almost one. Hey, that's good for me.

Coffee in the morning?
Yes, when I get to work, we have these machines that make individual cups that aren't half bad.

CTS

CTS is the the code for "offer accepted" on a listing in the Multiple Listing Service. As in "I put in an offer on a condo and my Realtor called me Thursday to tell me that the seller has changed the status on the listing to CTS."

I'm going to be a homeowner!! It makes a great brithday present for myself, doesn't it?

It's a little scary, because the longest I've lived in one place is three and a half years, and that was during college. Buying a home feels so stable. But the good news is that my commute to work will go from about three hours a day to about fifteen minutes a day. You can bet I'm doing the happy dance over that!

Of course, there's still lots of stuff that has to happen before the place is actually MINE. I have to get the inspection, I have to review the condo docs, I have to have my attorney review the contract. Oh, and then I have to get a bank to lend me the money. Details, details.

By lucky happenstance, my parents are here this week (to celebrate my birthday), so they get to see the new place, and my dad can even be there for the inspection, which definitely makes it all a little less scary.

And my lovely brother said that he's getting me a doormat. My choice: Your Home or You're Home. Isn't he sweet?

Marvin the Mole.

I have no idea what made me think of it, but Marvin the Mole just popped into my head. Marvin was the anthropomorphic rodent that my high school chemistry teacher used to help my sophomore chemistry class understand the concept of the mole (6.022 x 10^23 molecules of a substance). It's really not that difficult to understand if you think of it like a dozen. A dozen = twelve, a mole = 6.022 x 10^23 (that's Avogadro's Number by the way). Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

I'm actually not sure why Mr. Korin introduced Marvin. But sophomores will be sophomores, and it wasn't too far into stoichiometry that poor Marvin became "Marvin da ho-mo mole." Whenever Korin would start to talk about a mole of this or a mole of that, someone--usually one of the boys on the football team--would squeak "Marvin da ho-mo mole." Poor Korin would flush bright red and try to ignore them. He actually took a LOT of crap from the kids in my class that year and the next year when I took AP chemistry.

A favorite saying in AP was "Bend over, I'll show ya." The class was mixed juniors and seniors, but mostly seniors and boy did they torture Korin. He got them back one day during lab though. One of the usual suspects made the mistake of saying "What's this thermometer for?" and Korin quickly replied "Bend over, I'll show ya."

I suppose that kind of thing wouldn't be tolerated these days. Maybe I should change the names to protect the innocent.

What was I doing while all this was going on? Mostly trying to ignore it. I didn't mind Mr. Korin, and I loved chemistry and I was good at it. I tutored chem in college. One of my drunk tricks is that I can still derive the Henderson-Hasselbach equation.

Hey! After a little Googling, I discovered that Marvin was not the personal invention of my high school chemistry teacher. He even has his own day! (Marvin, that is, not Korin.) Who knew?

And speaking of moles, I love Trader Joe's Avocado's Number guacomole. Get it? Guaco-mole? Avocado's Number? They are so clever!

Connecticut vs. New York City

Yesterday was a perfect city day.

I went shopping in the morning and found two GREAT pairs of summer sandals, one white, and one brown, and both on sale. I wandered throught the Union Square Greenmarket and enjoyed all the vendors, but I didn't buy anything because I was still on a shopping mission and didn't want to lug my veggies around with me. On the way home I called and ordered lunch from my favorite Thai restaurant, Highline. I took lunch home and sat out on the patio to eat, and then came upstairs and took a little catnap. Around 4:30, I went rollerblading with my roommate Joel, down the Hudson River Park Development from Greenwich to the Statue of Liberty and back. Along the way we saw lots of runners, cyclers, bladers, the trapeze school, the skate park, people playing tennis, big ships in the river, Scott Stringer, park patrol yelling at me for being on the upper level, vendors, and couples on a Saturday stroll. When i got home, I grabbed my canvas bag and went to Chelsea Market and loaded up on fresh fruit and veggies at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange. All this at my fingertips with no plan required.

What's going to happen to days like this if I move to Connecticut?

Well, there aren't many Born Again Christians in Trenton, New Jersey

I didn't plan to take the train home, but when I heard that a retaining wall came down on the Henry Hudson Parkway, I figured that traffic would be pretty terrible, so I left my car in Connecticut and jumped on public transportation.

Here are my favorite quotes from the conversation I had with three colleagues:

"I don't think vampires would do very well in space."

Q: "Do you feel like you're chillin' with your harem right now?"
A: "Yeah, my intellectual harem."

"Well, there aren't many Born Again Christians in Trenton, New Jersey."

What a great ride.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

This book was a little strange for me. I liked it, but I sometimes thought the author was taking the easy way out. Some things didn't seem connected, didn't seem relevant . . . seemed like something I could have written myself. I tend to mistrust authors who write things I think I could have written. I worship authors who write things I wish I could have written.

The story is told from the perspective of an autistic boy. Actually he's supposedly writing the story. So the story is in the story. That's a little weird for me too. It is definitely an interesting perspective, and impossible to say if its authentic, but sometimes it really worked for me.

It's amazing though. All it takes to have book is a few threads of plot and a compelling narrator. I think I have it backwards!