Amanda.Jean

Gone Fishin'

2010-08-08T17:05:00.000-04:00

Kinda.

As you can tell, I have not been oh so stellar about updating. It's sad and pathetic and evil, believe me, I know.

But I'm back at it... only on a slightly different blog platform.

So follow me on over here, bitches!

See you on the flipside.
xxxooo
Amanda

I Go to Too Many Concerts... and Love It

2010-03-02T17:00:00.001-05:00

You may all remember a few weeks back my great excitement over my upcoming trip to California. That's right, today is March 2 which means in twenty-six days I will be seeing my beloved Andrew McMahon perform with Something Corporate in Anaheim. I am looking forward to this vacation and hopefully some sunshine too.

Of course, it isn't all about Andrew. There are plenty of bands I cannot wait to check out and some of my favorites that I haven't seen much lately all playing this two day festival. So you would think that I'd be done with concerts for awhile.

But then, you clearly don't understand my friendship with my best friend Megan which has largely centered around music for the better part of the last ten or so years. And so we are going to the AP Tour at Boston's House of Blues in late April. Luckily this is only going to cost me $23 after service fees. What I find so amusing about this is that the AP Tour consists of five bands: nevershoutnever, Hey Monday, The Cab, Every Avenue and The Summer Set. Three of which will also be at The Bamboozle.

If only concerts were free, because I spend too much money seeing the same bands over and over. Oh and you know that I plan on buying Warped Tour tickets when those go on sale despite the fact that once again, it is mostly for the same bands. But that's me and my best friend for you, and I think it makes us awesome.

Oh and in case you were wondering, you really do need to check out nevershoutnever. I recently discovered them and love, love, love their stuff. Even if the lead singer is only 19 and makes me feel very, very old. I especially recommend the song liarliarpantsonbackwards. You can check out a lot of their stuff here on their MySpace.

How I Spend Days Off

2010-03-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

So my lack of posting is largely due to the fact that I have been spending most of my free time on the internet job hunting rather than blogging. Finally it has paid off and tomorrow I have a meeting to go fill out all of the paperwork necessary for starting a new job with my first actual day being Thursday of this week.

At the risk of sounding like a horrible person, quitting my last job was almost more exciting than actually finding a new job. When you put so much work and effort (and hundreds of extra hours) into a job, only to be let down when they decide they don't really need you anymore, it hurts. Plain and simple. Though I never felt that I was working for a company that I saw a great future with, I had expected to remain there for the remainder of college and possibly for a short time after. That being said, it clearly didn't work out that way and I am looking forward to starting my first full time job this week. It all feels very grown up! Wish me luck.

And so with a Monday free and no food in the house, I've been rather productive today. I had a leisurely trip to Shaw's during hours that it is not overly crowded and then came home for some cooking. This is of course after spending the better part of the morning setting up all that I bought at IKEA yesterday. I swear I'm cut out for being a housewife.

What I love so much about my grocery shopping tendencies is that I buy what looks good and then get home and figure out what to do with it. Which can prove challenging, but today turned out wonderfully and so I'll share a new recipe that I plan on making over and over again.

Start cooking some pasta - I prefer whole grain and used penne today

Saute a chicken breast (cubed - boneless/skinless) in a little bit of olive oil with basil and red pepper (you know I love red pepper)

After about five minutes, add some scallions to the chicken and then finish cooking (about five more minutes)

While this is going on, toss some arugula and baby spinach in olive oil and lemon - I used a half a lemon since I like it so much

When the chicken and pasta are done, toss them in with the salad and top with parmesan cheese

This took me about 20 minutes total and was absolutely delicious!! I'm glad I have leftovers!!

25 Random Things

2010-02-23T17:00:00.002-05:00

My good friend Joe tagged me in one of those notes on Facebook where you list 25 random things about yourself. I thought long and hard, and here is what I have come up with:

1. If I hadn't transferred, I'd be graduating in 89 days. But I'd also be miserable.
2. In 36 days I'm flying to California for a band. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever spent money on but Megan and I will definitely have the best 5 days ever while we're there.
3. Sometimes I think about moving far away, but I think Boston has always and will always be my home.
4. NESN should fire Kathryn Tappen from hockey commentating and hire me instead.
5. Officially, I own 100 pairs of shoes and I don't think that's enough.
6. In addition to shoes, I collect shot glasses that I have never used to take shots from.
7. One of these days I'll visit all 50 states. So far I'm at 17 plus DC.
8. I have seen Guster upwards of 30 times in concert but have yet to meet the band.
9. What the hell am I going to do with a PoliSci major?
10. If only every day could be Christmas Eve - except then I'd be really, really fat.
11. I'm glad my friends come to me for advice, I just wish I could follow it myself.
12. Ten months from now I'll have a degree but will also be 40k in debt. To start paying it off I'd like to become a flight attendant.
13. Dr. Pepper is my least favorite beverage. I also hate ketchup. And cherries.
14. Embarrassingly enough, I have Titanic memorized. Including the deleted scenes.
15. Dana Carvey's Broccoli Song is the best way to turn a bad day around. Either that or cuddles.
16. I have grown up a lot in the last year. I think I have better goals and ideas about what I want out of life.
17. I am only slightly addicted to my Blackberry.
18. 22 was, by far, better than 21 as far as birthdays go. I have some amazing friends.
19. If nutrition was not an issue, I'd eat crepes every day. With Nutella. And whipped cream. Oh okay and strawberries and bananas too.
20. I'm still not convinced college was right for me or that I was really ready for it.
21. 8 months ago, without even trying, a really amazing guy saved me from a really awful situation and I hope he knows how much I appreciate it.
22. It's a good thing I don't make more money or I'd be covered in tattoos.
23. I have questionable taste in television shows and I am okay with it. The same is true of movies.
24. Owning a panda bear would kick ass. Or a penguin. Or a llama. I'd settle for a cat though.
25. I hope the Bruins don't win the Cup until I can afford season tickets!

I was surprised at how difficult that was. But I think the thing I learned the most about myself is just how much I have grown up and changed in the last year or so. I'm pretty gosh darn proud of myself!

Don't Die, It's Only Hockey

2010-02-22T17:00:00.003-05:00

... only hockey? After all my ranting and raving over the Bruins this season, how my boyfriend can honestly think telling me that "it's only hockey" is a rational idea is beyond me. The list of things that will always cheer me up is as follows:

1) Hockey
2) Dana Carvey
3) Titanic
4) Forehead kisses

In that order. When all else fails, it's hockey. A sport that has somehow always been so easy for me to get wrapped up in. I live and die by the Bruins and make no apologies for it. But beyond my love for this team is a love for this game that is absolutely unparalleled.

I'll spare you all the details, if you care to know why Olympic hockey is superior to the NHL, about.com does a great job of summarizing it here. I recommend reading it if you are both unfamiliar with hockey and also planning to watch some of the upcoming matches. If you're in it for the fights, don't bother - they are nonexistent in international play.

"Hockey is entertaining but I don't share your passion for rule variations. I enjoy it for what it is: grown men skating with sticks." Seriously? How I am dating this boy is sometimes far beyond me. But apparently his less-than-obsessive interest in hockey is on par with my absolutely hateful feelings toward Dr. Pepper, we agree to disagree.

The thing is, it's not just grown men skating with sticks. The USA/Canada game yesterday was played well. The most basic of fundamentals were adhered to for a solid sixty minutes. The Canadians out-skated USA but the Americans were able to take better advantage of the elusive powerplay. Each team was comprised 100% of NHL players. So why was that the best hockey game I've seen in a very long time?

Two words: salary cap.

Olympians, by definition, are the best of the best. Salary caps prevent these teams from ever being duplicated by the NHL and I am in support of that. The last thing the NHL needs is the hockey version of the New York Yankees taking over because this would also lead to teams that become the equivalent of oh say, the Padres. Because of the nature of the Olympics, the best of the best from every country are pretty damn good and there aren't too many teams at a disadvantage (okay, if Jamaica had a hockey team, then maybe).

And so, you see, it isn't "only hockey." It's Olympic Hockey. It's sixteen days of the best hockey the world has ever seen. Sixteen days of hockey fundamentals that just aren't a part of the NHL. Sportsmanship that isn't part of the NHL. Beyond anything, it is sixteen days of hockey played the way hockey has always intended to be played. It isn't "only hockey," it's hockey. Plain and simple.

The Best Character on TV: Creed Bratton

2010-02-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

In my world of obsessive TV watching, with endless favorite shows, I believe that I have finally pinpointed who is quite possibly the best (and most underrated) character on television: Creed Bratton of NBC's The Office.

Stop laughing, I'm being serious. Yes, I realize Creed sees about twenty to thirty seconds of screen time per episode but next time the show decides to have a clips show, maybe it should be a half an hour of all these clips one after the other. I guarantee you will never laugh so hard.

So who is Creed Bratton? First of all, the actor's name is actually Creed Bratton, originally born William Charles Scheider. Which explains this lovely scene in which Creed and Michael have a heart-to-heart about filing for bankruptcy:

Creed Bratton: Creed Bratton has never declared bankruptcy. When Creed Bratton gets in trouble, he transfers his debt to

[holds up fake passport]

Creed Bratton: William Charles Scheider.

I like these little random hidden jokes in the show. Furthermore, Creed works in Quality Assurance, but he can't remember his job title due to heavy drug use in the 60s. In addition to his drug use, the Office has implied that Creed may have been involved in many other crimes, including religious cults: "you have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader."

I'm not sure you can say that what he has are "one liners" because they aren't really jokes. They are just the bizzare thoughts of a man in his 60s who has no business being in Corporate America.

The biggest mystery surrounding this man is, in my opinion, brought up in the episode Chair Model

He can't wait for Michael to get a new chair when Pam gets Michael's old chair and he gets Pam's. Then, Creed will have two chairs and will have "only one to go."

I hope someday to know what this means.

As a closing argument, he looks a lot like John Locke. Keep up the good work Creed!

Another YouTube Clip... The Funniest Thing Ever

2010-02-15T17:00:00.000-05:00

I have, unfortunately, not been having the best of weeks. Luckily, I can easily compartmentalize this and was able to thoroughly enjoy a Valentine's Day weekend! (For details on the amazing restaurant, check out my Yelp! review here.) After a great dinner out we generally spent a very lazy Sunday, which is really the best kind of Sunday, watching an MTV True Life marathon with tons of cuddles. Excellent.

However, with back to work today (as I am not lucky enough to have this holiday off from work, only school) I am again finding myself not exactly having the best of times. And while I am doing my best to try to keep a positive attitude (and sending out as many resumes as possible) there is one thing that absolutely, always, without fail makes me smile.

Thank you Dana Carvey. Seriously. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do.

An Update on the Best Team in Sports (my opinion)

2010-02-12T17:00:00.000-05:00

I like that I can usually count on the simplest things to cheer me up. For those of you who I've talked to in the past few days, you know it's been a pretty tough week. Luckily for me, the Bruins have been turning it up and rocked out a win against Tampa Bay last night. It was not without it's drama, they were up 5-0 but the final score was 5-4, but in the end they pulled it off and I was easily able to forget about everything stressing me out.

As we go into the Olympic break, the Bruins are now in 6th place in the confrence and they have one more game on Saturday. They've come back from a ten game losing streak to win three in a row, and I hope they keep it up.

My hope is that two weeks off will do them a lot of good. Yes, five key players will be in the Olympics, but the rest of the team will be able to rest up and practice and regroup. When they come back there will be twenty-two game left for them in the regular season.

The way I see it is that they need to win about 75% of these games. Ideally, we need to finish top five to ensure making it past round one of the playoffs. If we go in lower than fifth, they're going to need one hell of a miarcle to win a seven game series against any of the teams they could possibly face. From there on out, I think the confidence of getting past the first round can carry them through a bit more.

But what's keeping me nervous is the number of games going into OT and SO. For those of you non-hockey fantatics, playoffs don't have SO, they just continue to play OT periods until a sudden death win. While I love this rule (especially since we are struggling with SO) it's not going to be good if we can't win in regulation. The more OT a team plays, the more tired they get. A seven game series is already tiring and draining on both teams, carrying it past regulation is even worse.

So these are my hopes and dreams for the Bruins. Beyond that, I hope they can work out one last win before they go on a break. I'm anxious to see how it all goes.

Another (Stolen) Lost Recap

2010-02-10T18:17:00.003-05:00

Okay folks. Wednesdays are deliriously busy, so I'm going to post this entry that I stole from my friend Steve for tonight. I don't feel too bad about it because I contributed...

In keeping with last week, here is another running diary, albeit belated, on this week's edition of LOST...
First segment: Hippie Richard tells Kung Fu that “he's alive,” referring to Sayid. This seems to get a big smile out of the Drunken Master. Then we switch to the gang, and Sawyer, that rascal, is already planning on running.

Next, we're back to the Bizzaro LAX, where Kate is holding the taxi guy hostage with a gun, and Claire is in the backseat. The taxi driver looks suspiciously like the puppet master from Heroes, but I'm not positive about that. He runs from the car, and then Kate steals Claire's purse before ordering her out of the car.
We switch again to the Temple, with the gang explaining to Sayid what is going on. I love Miles, who arguably has as many good, snappy lines as Sawyer at this point. “As you can see, Hugo here has assumed a leadership position, which is... really great.” There is a confrontation between Jack and the Kung Fu Master, who might not realize that Jack can probably speak whatever language he's using, because of his experience with the wacky Chinese lady in past seasons.

Anywho, Sawyer has magically procured a gun, because he's Sawyer. He decides to leave, and Kate offers to track him and bring him back, convincing the Tribal Others (my name for them) that she can do so.
Now we're back to Kate in LA, presumably, where she at first pulls a gun some fat, sleazy but kind of charming mechanic. (Think Bud from Kill Bill Volume 2.) She pays him $200 to break her handcuffs, and then goes into a restroom to change, at which point we get a stomach-punch scene with Kate going through Claire's bag. She has a picture of her pregnant, and a big stuffed Shamu doll. A really, really powerful scene.
We switch scenes again to Jack and Kate planning for the trip into the jungle to find Sawyer. Jack grabs Kate like he wants to kiss her, but doesn't, and she doesn't lean in for the lip-lock either.

On to the Kung Fu Master and Sayid, as the Master blows some sort of dust on to Sayid, before hooking up electrodes to him. He begins to shock him, getting a scream out of Sayid, and then he prepares a red-hot poker, scorching his skin with it. Hippie Richard tells him that he passed the test, but apparently, he did not, as Kung Fu says that Sayid didn't pass the test.

Back to the Bizarro LA, Kate somehow finds out where Claire is and gives her back her stuff. Then amazingly, she offers Claire a ride to the adopted parents house, which Claire seems to accept! (This whole turn of events strikes me as completely and utterly impossible – Kate just held her up at gunpoint, and then dumped her on a random street, and then she somehow finds Claire again, AND convinces her to not be very, very uncomfortable with this whole ride thing.)

Now we're on the Island again, and some member of the Tribal Others is leading him. And shockingly, it is Mac from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia! Wow! What an inexplicable bit of casting! Anyway, Rousseau the French Woman has apparently been dead for a couple years now, according to Mac, but then Kate manages to overpower Mac and the other guard (again) to escape.

Jack goes inside to talk with Kung Fu and Hippie Richard, and they say that Sayid is “infected” with something. They're trying to convince Jack to get Sayid to take a pill. If Sayid doesn't take the pill, Kung Fu said that he would be dead. Sayid and Jack then have a heart to heart.

We cut back to Kate and Jin in the jungle, with them breaking up a bit, and Kate trying to chase after Sawyer. Then another quick cut to Claire and Kate as they ride to Claire's baby adopted momma. It turns out that her husband dumped her, and she didn't tell Claire, and the shocking news causes Claire to start going into labor.

Another cut to the Others' village, which Kate is exploring. Sawyer is ripping up the floorboards in one of the houses, to reveal a shoebox with... Well, it's not really revealed, but I assume it is something of Juliet's that makes Kate change her mind that Sawyer could ever be her's. She tries to sneak out, but Sawyer discovers her, and they exchange awkward words.

Back to Bizarro LAX, Kate manages to take Claire to a hospital, and who is the doctor? Ethan, of course. Claire is given the option of having her baby at that time, or postponing it, and she chooses to postpone it. LOST teases that she'll have to deliver the baby anyway, and also, Kate seems to show some faint glimmers of recognition when Claire reveals that her baby is named Aaron.

On the Island, Kate and Sawyer are chatting, about how she wants to find Claire to reunite him with Aaron. Sawyer has a teary scene with Kate, and the item is revealed to be an engagement ring for Juliet, which he throws into the water.

Kung Fu is spinning a baseball, and he and Jack have another chat. You know, mostly about trust. Jack tries to swallow the pill instead, and Kung Fu has to attack him to force him to not swallow it. You see, it is full of poison.

In Bizarro LA, Claire covers for Kate as two cops come looking for Kate. (Lilly looks pretty in this scene, for some reason, and I'm not usually a fan of her.) Kate encourages Claire to keep Aaron.
Back to Kate and Sawyer at the village – they exchange looks, but that is all. Back again to Jack and Kung Fu, as they talk about why they wanted to kill Sayid. Kung Fu thinks that Sayid has been “claimed” by a darkness that is growing in him. Jack wants to know how he can be sure – And Kung Fu says it happened to Jack's sister! (For those of you not keeping close attention, I believe that would refer to Claire.)
Mac and the Black Dude stumble upon Jin, and threaten to shoot him for the ambush earlier. Jin tries to run away, and gets his leg caught in a bear trap! As Mac hovers over him, about to pull the trigger, he and the Black Dude are shot by... Claire! Dressed in plaid, and looking all woodsy and whatnot! So she IS alive
----
And now, Amanda's comments on the episode. You can find her full blog on all matters pop culture and Boston, Amanda.Jean, here.

Alright, Greenwell. Here's my take on this week's episode:

I'm going to start off by saying that I don't like Kate. I wasn't thrilled that this was a "Kate" episode, but I'm starting to like dopelganger Kate.

I like how doppelganger Claire is still forced to keep Aaron. Can we please get back to the psychic? WHY does she have to be the one to raise Aaron? Are we about to find out? Probably not, they'll keep us waiting for a Claire episode. I know this because she showed up at the very end of this one.

Sayid. What's up? Who is he? John Locke is now Old Smokey, would they really have two characters technically dead with "possessed" bodies? That's not like LOST to rehash storylines like that, so I'm guessing there's more to it. As far as this "infection" maybe we'll finally figure out what happens to people on the island. But maybe this is a different infection, because Sayid is not, as far as I know, pregnant.

Jack is still an arrogant ass.

Sawyer is still charming as hell. I liked how he went back to his old house with Juliette. He really is a softy at heart! This guy makes me believe in romance (that and I'm on a bit of a sappy-love-story high thanks to the upcoming Valentine's Day weekend). I am glad he and Kate made peace. Even if she's a whore. And yeah, I went there.

Is it me or is Hurley taking more of a backseat than usual? Then again, with such a large cast, it may be too early to really tell.

Where is Ben? Where is Desmond? Where did Locke take Richard Alpert? Where is Aaron? Where is Penny? TOO MANY QUESTIONS and still no answers.

So that's about it from me. Let's do this again next week.

The Power of YouTube

2010-02-09T22:31:00.000-05:00

I want you all to watch that video before reading this entry. If your computer doesn't have speakers or you can't have the volume on right now, hold off on this. You need to watch this video. If you are having trouble making out all the lyrics, fear not! The organization who put this on has a site "for the hearing impaired."

Now that you're all familiar with "That Christian Side Hug" we can proceed with the entry.

I understand a lot of things that Christians have to say about relationship and shall we say, relations. I get it. I don't necessarily thing preaching abstinence works, but I understand that in an ideal world it's a great solution. Certainly I find it disturbing that children (and yes they are children) are getting some first hand experience with the birds and the bees long before they ever take a sex ed class in high school. But can someone please explain to me how "full frontal hugging" is a problem?

First of all, it's not actually called "full frontal hugging." It's just plain old hugging. People have been hugging this way for a long time. I hug all of my friends and family this way. I have many male friends who I hug and it has in now way ever made me somehow lose control to the point where I have been overwhelmed with inappropriate thoughts.

There are about a million things I can think of that are more important to worry about than this.

And how come lame rap songs make things "cool?" In what world is this rap cool? I want to meet the person who heard this rap and decided, "Yeah man, no more full frontal hugs for me, Imma start hugging on the side. Christian style. What up!"

Cell Phones Are a Girl's Best Friend?

2010-02-06T17:00:00.002-05:00

I am desperately searching for an answer to this question: do people buy their sweethearts cell phones for Valentine's Day?

To backtrack a bit, I expect lame jewelry commercials and even lamer Hallmark ads this time of year. I expect to walk into CVS and see about three aisles where the colors pink and red have thrown up and left heart-shaped boxes of chocolates in their wake, and I expect movie theaters to exclusively show chick flicks that boys attend under duress in hopes of getting laid.

Personally, I love Valentine's Day in all its commercial glory. I like that it gives me an excuse to be my sappy self because I only have so many excuses for incessantly watching Titanic. I am excited to go on a real Valentine's Day date this year and also excited for the day after when all that chocolate left at CVS goes on sale for 80% off.

But I just don't get these cell phone ads at all. "Here, Honey! I got you a Blackberry for Valentine's Day. I even got you a cute red case to make it look holiday-appropriate. Oh and the fine print shows that you now have to pay an extra $30 a month for a data plan!" Alas! Nothing screams romance like a shiny new cell phone. If only I could be so lucky! Chocolates and diamonds be damned, this is the twenty-first century.

I would like AT&T and Verizon to publish statistics proving that there is a market for this, because I just don't believe it. I am a lover of all things technology, a true Blackberry addict, but if a boy ever tries to buy me one for VDay? Puh-lease!

Isn't this Hallmark holiday just another excuse to spend time with the people we love? Face-to-face that is? If a boy is going to be adorable enough to ask me on a date, I'm sure as hell going to be polite enough to keep my phone on silent and give him my attention.

Recapping Lost

2010-02-03T17:00:00.002-05:00

In lieu of a real entry, check out a recap of LOST last night that my friend Steve (with help from yours truly) live blogged last night:

Be aware there are spoilers and confusion abound in this entry.

9 p.m. - My friend Amanda spots a change right in the opening seconds, as Jack, in the original crash, got two bottles from the stewardess. And I seem to be right in my initial diagnosis that the plane crash wouldn't happen because of the actions of Juliet and what not.

As a result, Jack finds a dab of blood on his neck, and Desmond is next to him in his seat. Hey wait a second... Desmond wasn't originally on the plane! The mystery continues... Now we cut to under the water, with a picture of the giant foot statue thing. No other explanation, and we're at the first commercial break. (Amanda adds, "What the fuck? Why is this CGI SO BAD? Don't they have a big budget?"

9:10 p.m. - The episode resumes and we flashback to Juliet starting everything back in the past again. What the heck? How did Kate get into a tree? And why is the sound all messed up?

Amanda: I assume that's why the sound is effed up, since a bomb went off IN HER EARS.

Good call by Amanda. And sweet, Miles is still alive and what not! He was one of my favorite cast additions. The camera pans around after Kate says, "We're back," and it is revealed that they're both on the Island, after the Swan explosion. And hey, JACK is there too! And Sawyer comes out of nowhere to smack Jack across the face!

Amanda: SAWYER <3 kicking ass THEN taking names! After that scene, we switch to Jack back on the plane, and Kate (and her FBI agent friend) are still there. Kate bumps into Jack, so she obviously took something from him. Sawyer is on the plane as well, bringing up the idea of parallel universes or time splits or something similar. Hurley's luck has apparently changed, as he notes that "nothing bad ever happens to me." Another scene switch, and we're with Hurley, Sayid (still badly wounded) and Jin. Kate goes to inspect the wreckage of the Swan, and Juliet is buried underneath! Aw!

Meanwhile, Hurley consoles a dying Sayid, since Jack is probably helping out the hot blonde right now. (I would too.) The ominous music plays as Hurley hears something in the wood, and he turns around to see... Jacob! I guess that mofo is still alive, in some form or universe, and that gets us to the second commercial break at 9:21 EST.

9:23 p.m. - We're back, and Sun and Jin are playing kissy-poo a bit, and Locke and Boone are having a little chat. Amanda guarantees that Locke can walk now, and I agree. The scene then switches over to "Locke" (or whatever is possessing his body) and Ben; Ben is aghast that Jacob didn't fight back and just let him stab him. Another scene switch, and we're outside with Captain Frank and Sun. There is also friction between Richard and the New Others (which would make for a great rock band name). Ben goes to tell Richard that "Locke" wants to talk to him, and Richard shows Ben the corpse of Locke out on the beach. Ahhhh, another commercial! DRAMA!

Amanda: I like that Ben is at a disadvantage. Glad to see he doesn't have all the answers for once. His smug ass deserves it.

9:34 p.m. - Back again, with Jacob chatting to Hurley. Jacob is aware of his own death, and my friend Tom hypothesizes that the smoke monster is the thing possessing Locke.

Meanwhile, we flip back to the plane, and the stewardess / New Others member asks Jack the Doctor to help her with a guy locked in the restroom. Of course, it is Charlie, who has OD'ed - That was kind of easy to predict though. The show goes to commercial again, with his fate in the balance; I imagine that Jack brings him back to life somehow.

Amanda: OD. Sorry, badass musician, your luck ran out. But you make one sexy dead man. (Disclaimer: I am not a necrophiliac.) In all seriousness, a little Charlie Pace does the eyes good. I'm interested to see if he will play a bit of a role this season.

Eh, I just think he does a one-off. Maybe a few episodes here and there.

Amanda: Stop dashing my dreams, Greenwell.

9:40 p.m. - We're back, with Jack trying to clear Charlie's airway, and finding his baggie of heroin. He apparently choked on it, trying to keyster it. So, not technically an OD, although just about. He is apparently the only one who did not have a happy life with the time reset.

The scene switches to the Time Warp Gang trying to use the van to move the heavy machinery out of the way, so that they can try to dig Juliet out. She is soaked in blood, but seemingly conscious, and is playing a bit of kissy-kissy with Sawyer. Juliet realizes they're still on the Island, and reveals that she hit the bomb and detonated it.

Amanda: This is one hell of a love story. I'm glad James is so emotional these days.

Switching again, Jack and Hurley are talking about Jacob, who neither of them know; too bad they weren't in Locke's secret crew. Hurley stresses that he needs to take Sayid to Jacob's place. We switch again to the beach, and Ben and Richard are having a heart-to-heart.

Richard refuses to come into the shrine, but "Jacob's bodyguards" do. They try to shoot Evil Locke, and my friend Tom appears to be right, as the Smoke Monster appears again to mess up the bodyguards. One of them manages to keep him away for a few seconds by drawing a circle on the ground and standing in it, but the Smoke Monster makes him get out of it. Evil Locke says, "I'm sorry you had to see me like that," confirming that he is indeed most definitely the Smoke Monster. Plus Five for Tom.

Amanda: Holy disappearance Batman! You were RIGHT! (Referring to Tom.) He is in fact Old Smokey. And Old Smokey is my new petname for the monster. It sounds less mean. (After Evil Locke confirms that he is the Smoke Monster.) Badass.

9:52 p.m. - Sawyer and Juliet are again making kissy-faces as she dies. Uh, good times? They share a very, very dirty kiss, and by dirty, I mean physically unclean. Juliet says, "I have to tell you something," which on LOST is never a good thing, and then she dies. And Sawyer is Pissed at Jack, with the capital a definite.

Amanda: I think this moment just surpassed Titanic as far as my "romantic goodbye while dying moment."

We switch scenes again to the plane, with Charlie telling Jack he was supposed to die. Desmond is now missing again, of course. (Tom hypothesizes that the Smoke Monster is Desmond at this point in time, or in this universe, or whatever, and materialized into the plane as it passed over the Island.) It looks like the first hour is ending with a pretty routine landing, as everyone is buckling up for the descent into LAX, the name of the first episode... And then there are some cops on the plane, coming for Charlie.

However, the rest of the stuff seems pretty routine, with the passengers getting off. Unfortunately, it seems like Amanda and I were wrong, and Locke can't walk. And thus ends the first hour.

Amanda: I'm sad about Locke's legs. My cousin and his girlfriend are trying to watch - They have never seen LOST before. I am trying to recap and they think I'm nuts.

10:04 p.m. - Sawyer is now going through the trouble of burying Juliet. Kate says she'll leave a trail for him to follow as they try to save Sayid, but he says he ain't followin' no one. The others - Jack, Kate, Sawyer - leaves, while Sawyer and Miles hang back.

Scene switch to LAX, and Jack's dad is missing! Uh oh. They can't find Christian, as the airline says they have no idea where the coffin is. Good times, good times.

The crew brings Sayid to the Temple, where they find a skeleton with a missing arm and a book. After some more exploring, they find a spiral staircase further down, and some whispering voices get into Kate's ear. Jack alls out for her, and she doesn't seem to be responding, and he runs around looking for her. Then Jack runs back, because he can't find Hurley, and he gets punched out by... some weird guys in turbans! And then it reveals the actual Temple that was hidden by the wall.

Man, LOST is even more confusing than usual tonight... I keep having to ask Tom and Amanda what certain things are called. Like, I barely remember all of this Temple business.

10:15 p.m. - We're back, and Kate is up to her old tricks. She gets the FBI agent to take her to the bathroom, where she works on loosening up her handcuffs. She gets the jump on him, because he doesn't notice that she's not pissing or taking a dump. And of course, who does she meet in the elevator? Sawyer! Aw, they're thick as thieves already.

Amanda: "Well if it's confidential how am I supposed to know if I see one?" That is the kind of wit and charm that steals a girl's heart.

Then, we go to the Island, where Sawyer is burying Juliet's body. mwhahaha. I laughed like an evil person for some reason. Miles and Sawyer are bonding, as Sawyer realizes that Miles can talk to dead people. Juliet's final message to Sawyer? "It worked."

We switch again to the present time, where the weird group of natives is threatening to shoot the gang. But Hurley reveals what is inside the case for them - A wooden cross! The leader guy breaks it over his knee, and inside is a note from Jacob, presumably. This seems to smooth things over a bit, and they decide to bring Sayid to the Spring. Hurley wants to know what the paper says, and Hippie Richard Alpert says that if Sayid dies, they're all in a lot of trouble.

10:29 p.m. - We're back at the airport, as Jin and Sun are being detained by security. He has a bunch of cash on him, and a fancy watch, and Sun may or may not speak English any more, which presents a bit of a problem for Jin, who is led away by police. Sun does look like she is dressed much more conservatively, so she might not realize Jin's history anymore.

Scene skip to the Spring, where one of the natives cuts his hand and dips it into the water - I bet it is some sort of restorative fountain, but it doesn't seem to be working exactly correctly, judging from the Asian guy who cut his hand and then tried to fix it by dipping it in the water. He seemingly comes back to life, but then they drown him further? It is hard to tell exactly what happens.

Amanda: Sometimes, in my free time, I like to cut my hands open with knives, dip them in fountains, and then speak vaguely in a foreign language. I also have a vast collection of large hourglasses. And I drown Arabs.

And now, the Chinese leader dude says, "Your friend is dead." Amanda says, "We're all in big trouble." I'm also wondering what the heck is going on, since it fades to a commercial after Jack tries to give CPR to Sayid, failing. Amanda and Tom also have no idea where this is going.

10:40 p.m. - We're back after a pretty long break, with Kate trying to find her way out of the airport as her picture is circulated among the police. She manages to get her way to a taxi JUST as the FBI guy spots her, so she hijacks the cab, pulling a gun on him and making him drive away. And oh, by the way, Claire is in the cab with her!

Amanda: Oh HI CLAIRE.

Back to the Temple, they manage to find Miles and Sawyer, who was knocked out by a rock. Hurley is brought to the room with the Chinese guy, and spills that Jacob is dead, which makes everyone freak out. They start fortifying the place to protect against, I presume, the Smoke Monster.

We flip to Evil Locke and Ben, who are having a heart to heart. Ben rightly guesses that Smokey couldn't kill Jacob, and Evil Locke reveals Locke's last thought - "I just don't understand." Evil Locke then goes into a bit of a siloliquoy about how Locke was admirable, because he was weak and became strong, and because he didn't want to leave the Island. However, he then drops the bombshell that he wants what Locke didn't - To go home. So where is Evil Locke's home??? Ahhhh!

10:52 p.m. - Back to the Temple we go, where Sawyer is alive and what not. (Hey, at least not everyone is dead.) Sawyer says he won't kill Jack, because he deserves to "suffer on this rock like the rest of us."

The scene switches to Jack talking to his mom on the phone about the missing body of his dad, and then Locke and him are chatting a bit. After a little chat, Jack gives Locke his card, saying that nothing is reversible, and hinting that he might be able to fix his spine.

Amanda: If the rest of the season goes on in this parallel universe where they all becomes friends in L.A. I am going to go down to ABC and bomb the place.

Back to the beach, Evil Locke chats with Richard for a few seconds before quickly beating the snot out of him. Richard was apparently in chains at some point, although we have no indication why.

The episode ends with Hippie Alpert trying to convince Jack to come with him for a bit, but he resists. Hurley calls out to Jack, only for the Hippie to notice that... Sayid is still alive! Gasp!

Amanda: This is too weird. Even for LOST. WTF to the last two hours of my life!

I agree! Man. What the frick is going on? I think this is going to take a few more episodes to develop, unfortunately, with even more questions than answers for a while.

Getting Ready to Get LOST

2010-02-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Even you non-Losties out there probably know that tonight is the final season premier for the hit TV show. I have been counting down to this since... well since about a year ago when season five ended. In the meantime, I have gone back and rewatched the show in its entirety, which only made me more anxious for the whole thing to be over!

On the one hand, this is the kind of show I wish could go on forever, but on the other, I know it's about to peak and I can't wait for some answers. But will we get them? I'm a little nervous. Though JJ Abrams has promised us a conclusive season six, my boss reminded me of the X Files.

For those of you unfamiliar, when the X Files ended, enough loose ends were tied up so that you knew it was a series finale. There was nowhere left for the show to go. At the same time, there were about a million other things yet to be explained, hundreds of thousands of mysteries still out there. I fear this may happen with Lost. In all likelihood, Abrams will give us enough to know the fate of our favorite characters but the Island is likely to stay shrouded in mystery.

A few nights ago, while speaking to a good friend, he predicted that it's likely someone dies tonight right off the bat, "just so they make sure we know they're getting down to business." And my guess is that he's right. One thing I love about this show is that they get right to it, I don't expect a fluffy season intro and the leaked first four minutes is further confirmation for this.

In case you missed it, the first four minutes of the premier were posted online sometime last week. I'd say spoilers ahead, but I'd practically be lying. The first three and a half minutes or so were all rehashed scenes, the last thirty however (and here's where the spoiler comes in) indicate the plane either does not crash or crashes differently. Jack's interaction with the stewardess is different and the turbulence stops. So did they reset the timeline? We'll find out in a mere three hours... or will we? Knowing Lost, we probably won't learn too much in this episode. I think the producers still want us to ask a few more questions before they give us any answers.

Chanel's RTW Spring Line 2010

2010-02-01T17:00:00.000-05:00

Coco Chanel is famous for saying that women should always be two things: classy and fabulous; and her lines have always reflected this. From practically inventing the little black dress to some of the most sought after handbags on the planet, Chanel is arguably one of the most timeless designers out there and the 2010 ready-to-wear spring line does not disappoint. Though the line debuted back in October during Paris Fashion Week, it seems far more relevant now that warm weather is actually upon us.

This ready-to-wear collection is down to earth, simple and classic but also a little bit country. That's right, the catwalk looked more like a barn for this line's premier complete with haystacks and super high heels, this was definitely a fashionable farm. It looks like this spring's color palate is a muted one: beiges, ivories and blacks were the stars here but a very bright red made many an appearance in small does. The collection blends rough textures with more delicate laces; from a tweed mini dress to power suits with hints of lace there is a perfect combination of masculine and feminine in the line.

But as any fashionista knows, it's all about the accessories. Clog inspired pumps and studded purses in all sizes brought lots of eye catching details into this line. Of course the classic quilted purses were featured as well in many new sizes. Another of Chanel's staples, oversized sunglasses are also still in.

This line did an amazing job of incorporating the brand's must-haves with newer, trendier fashion statements. It's savvy and chic and the best part is, it's also entirely wearable! One look at this line and you will be all about this spring. And so to recap, things to look out for this season are: more natural tones (and of course black) with pops of brighter colors, a combination of masculine and feminine fabrics, studded shoes and purses, chunky heels with soft details, and a rocking pair of sunglasses to pull it all together.

Summer?

2010-01-31T21:00:00.000-05:00

Between school and being sick I've been MIA this week. In addition to that, I've been doing as much as possible to encourage warm weather:

Drinking iced coffees
Making my desktop summery
Buying spring clothing
Opening the blinds (but not the windows)

We'll see how this goes... hopefully it all works out.

And you can expect a legitimate post tomorrow.

60 Days from Today

2010-01-24T17:00:00.000-05:00

Exactly sixty days from today, I will be waking up entirely too early (or more likely, not going to sleep). My best friend Megan and I will get on the T around 5:00am so as to get to the airport around 6:30am so as to get on a plane taking off at 8:00am that will bring us to California.

Yes, officially we booked our plane tickets, bought concert tickets, and smooth talked my dad into shelling out some Marriott points for a hotel stay. And so, my friends, from March 25th through the 29th we will be in the sunny city of Anaheim all to see a band we love maybe just a bit too much.

In my defense, I had a plane voucher that I needed to use up before it expired and my dad was concerned when I asked, "is $35 a night too cheap for a hotel?" so really all I'm paying is the $101 for two days of concert passes. Oh and food and merch and such. But I won't need to worry about that until later, and I'm getting paid just before we leave.

Already I have much higher expectations about this travel than my recent trip to Florida. For one, by late March, Anaheim has average temperatures in the high 60s!! Also, we are flying American Airlines and were able to choose our seats. Thanks to Seat Guru I was able to change our seats to ones that have power outlets which will come in handy on such a long flight. The only disappointment is that American doesn't have direct flights from Logan to John Wayne, so we will have a connection in Dallas on the way there and in Chicago on the way home. Oh well.

And from the looks of it, my dad hooked us up with a pretty nice hotel too. Not only is it literally next to Angel Stadium where the show is, but it's got sweet looking rooms, a nice pool, and complimentary breakfast (if we wake up early enough). Since we'll have all day Friday available, I am especially excited to see my friend Jason who will be driving up from San Diego where he lives these days.

Getting Caught Up In Arrested Development

2010-01-21T17:00:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of favorite TV shows. Of course, proper grammar will tell you this is impossible, I should only have on ultimate favorite and yet I find myself telling people that LOST, Law & Order, How I Met Your Mother, and sadly even Gossip Girl are all my favorites.

However, a conversation with my sister last night over Wagamama noodles has led me to the conclusion that ultimately, I do have one single favorite television program: Arrested Development.

This now-cult-phenomenon didn't even make it through a full third season before FOX cancelled it way back when, and the vast majority of the show's fans didn't even watch it on the original air date. Which is really too bad, because there is something irresistably funny about what is arguably the most dysfunctional family in the history of television.

I can't quite pinpoint the best episode, the funniest thing to happen, or even a favorite character; it was hard enough establishing a favorite show! You love to hate about half the cast and feel genuinely sorry for the rest of them. The story arcs range from ridiculous to outlandish and even if you are completely by yourself you will laugh so hard you're crying.

The follow up movie is highly anticipated and due out sometime next year. I can't wait for quite a few loose ends to be tied up and I especially can't wait to laugh for two or so hours straight without pause. For those of you who haven't experienced the awesome that is this show, most if not all of it is usually up on Hulu and I dare you to watch it and tell me it isn't the funniest thing you've ever seen.

Bringing Back Arena Football

2010-01-20T17:00:00.001-05:00

Am I the only one who is super pumped for the revival of the AFL? Personally, I was heartbroken when the league filed for bankruptcy. Good thing it's coming back this year!

Here's what you need to know; arena football is better than the NFL for several reasons.

1) The teams have better names. From Chicago Rush to Colorado Crush, these teams have some pretty sweet names, way better than the Miami Dolphins and the Texas Cowboys. My personal favorite, the New Orleans VooDoo is sadly no longer in existence.

2) Legendary rock star Bon Jovi is the owner of the Philly Soul. In my opinion, he's a cooler celebrity than oh say, Bob Kraft?

3) The field is only 50 yards and the goalposts are smaller. This isn't your average football game (though the ball itself is identical)! Teams consist of twenty active and four inactive players; this cuts down on how many names you have to remember, always a plus! There are eight players on the field at once: four offensive, three defensive and one linebacker.

4) It's easy to learn! Movement of the ball is easy for NFL fans; there are four downs to advance the ball ten yards. Field goals, touch downs, extra points, and two point conversions all work the same way and are worth the same scores. There are four fifteen minute periods.

5) But it's not the same as the NFL either! For example, a field goal is worth four points when it's scored by a drop kick instead of placement. There is no punting. AFL passing rules are the same as those in the NCAA, pretty gosh darn cool! In OT, each team gets one possession to score, a very fair system if you ask me.

So now that you've got the basics down, you too can be excited about the league's comeback. I know I am. I am especially excited that prior to the league going bankrupt, they had been looking into expansion to Boston. Well, season tickets here I come! That would just be incredible.

Hopefully a rebranding and some management adjustments will let the sport succeed this time around. So give it a shot, I promise you'll love it!

My 5 Favorite Things Right Now

2010-01-19T21:35:00.000-05:00

1) Remembering that you're watching a DVR-ed program after one commercial. Currently I'm catching up on my programs and after one annoying ad for some medication with too many side affects, I remembered "oh hey, I can fast forward through all of this garbage." Awesome.

2) Boys who are also musicians. For my birthday, Nick wrote a song called "Amanda, It's Your Birthday!" and it is my new favorite song. Not only is it a bazillion times better than the standard "Happy Birthday to You" but "having someone write a song for me" is number four on my secret list of things that I hope happen in my life. Check mark.

3) My Blackberry. See previous entry - it's only gotten better.

4) Skinny jeans that fit well. Today I bought the ultimate pair of skinny jeans: curvy in the hips and skinny all the way down. They're a really nice dark wash too with a little stretch to the fabric and extra comfortable. Rock out.

5) Cuddling. Because this is always on my list of favorite things and I've been cuddling a lot lately. With a super cute boy who writes super cute songs and would be perfect if only he didn't love the Yankees and Rangers.

My Newest Addiction: The Blackberry Bold

2010-01-18T17:00:00.001-05:00

Last week while updating Twitter via text, my second hand and “well loved” LG Vu decided it would be as good a time as any to just up and die on me. I can’t say I was surprised, it hadn’t been holding much of a charge, the sound quality on a call was hugely diminished, and the exterior of the phone was in a sorry state.

So on my break from work I walked over to the AT&T store on Boylston and purchased a Blackberry Bold 9700 (sometimes referred to as the Blackberry Bold 2). Let me tell you, after just over a week’s worth of use, I am in love.

I had seen it online offered for free after a mail in rebate; in store it would’ve been $100 after rebate but when I asked the sales associate, Maria, about it, she offered me an additional $50 off instantly. I was disappointed that the white color was only an online offer, but she pointed out that with a case, you’d hardly notice anyway, and she was right.

Though I had to suck it up and add a $30/month data plan, so far it has been worth it. Not only did Maria set the whole thing up for me, she also carried over all of my contacts for free! Verizon used to charge me all sorts of money for that. Upon leaving the store, I was all set to go. I’m glad to have gotten a smart phone back; I feel much more connected and the interface has been so easy to use.

I love streaming Pandora while checking my Facebook on the bus, at the airport, walking down the street, and even at my desk! At first I was apprehensive because I’d been told Blackberries weren’t compatible with Macs, but a quick Google search revealed that you can download the Mac software on the Blackberry website, which is easier than using an install disc anyway.

The 9700 model uses a trackpad, not a trackball which I have heard many negative things about. I also love using BBM to communicate with all my friends (and there are an awful lot of them) who are also Blackberry users - I was able to save money by dropping my texting plan from 1500 to 200 a month, a savings of $10. The sound quality is very good on calls and I am already a pro on the QWERTY keypad. It was also very easy to create ringtones on my computer and e-mail them to myself, no more $3.99 per tone from a very limited selection!

So yes, I am already an addict. I already love it more than I ever loved my iPhone (sorry Apple, I still love my MacBook and iPod). And I have become one of those people who preaches the awesomeness of the Blackberry to everyone else. So if you’re ready for an upgrade, I’d recommend the Bold. And I’d highly recommend the Boylston St. AT&T store if you’re in the Boston area, I have never received better customer service from a cell phone provider.

Why I'm Never Flying Southwest Again

2010-01-17T17:00:00.003-05:00

So amidst writing my planned entry for today, I was suddenly inspired instead, to write about air travel. This is largely due to the fact that the person in the seat behind me has been kicking the back of my chair for the last hour and a half. I turned around, expecting a small child who was getting restless, only to see a middle aged woman. Now I’m even more aggravated, because she should know better.

I spent this past week in Central Florida visiting with my grandparents. It has been the first time I’ve used Southwest and I have to tell you, I’m disappointed. For one, I actually like their ads on TV and the concept of open seating intrigued me. However, I think that for future trips I will go back to my ever reliable Jet Blue.

The biggest advantage in flying Southwest was the ability to leave out of Providence. Though I live in Boston and Logan is only a quick train ride away, I’m traveling with my grandmother who lives outside the city, so to be dropped off at TF Green eliminated the hassle of driving back into the city and security only took a few short minutes.

But these conveniences have nothing to do with the airline themselves. I noticed that while boarding for our flight down, people were getting very antsy about the seating situation. You line up in groups A through C and then numbers 1 through 60. Easy enough, right? Yet when a man said to a couple, “Oh I’m just ahead of you, I’m number 40.” The couple seemed taken aback and said, “Don’t worry, there are plenty of seats.” Sure there are, but some are better than others!

I also think this concept is easier for some people to understand than others. Many people seemed a little confused or were disappointed when they couldn’t sit with family. I myself like to choose my seat ahead of time. Window, on the wing, preferably the emergency exit row. I live by seatguru.com which rates the best seats on all models of commercial airlines. Window seats have the best views, sitting by the wing ensures the smoothest flight, and the emergency exits have an additional two inches of precious leg room. But with this flight, I just had to hope to get lucky and I only got two of the three, a window on the wing, but no emergency exit, and my legs are already getting cramped.

I also like the TVs on JetBlue flights! Even though I prefer to relax to my iPod, I like the map station which tells you where you are. I just like to know these things, especially on longer flights.

In its defense, Southwest has offered very good customer service. All of the flight attendants have been very pleasant and upbeat, which I certainly appreciate. The pilots seem experienced enough though we did have a very shaky landing on the trip down and a rocky takeoff this morning. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and blame it on the wind.

These airlines rely on customer loyalty, and they need to be innovative to attract new customers in an industry that’s not exactly a money maker. So thanks, Southwest for thinking outside the box and offering cheap fares but I’m just not so sure you’ve hooked me as a customer.

UPDATE:

The flight attendants SANG the safety instructions for landing... SANG. Also, the landing home was horrible too... but it could've been worse, I could've flown Oceanic!

2010-01-11T23:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lack of frequent posting - I am in the not-so-sunny state of Florida this week and trying to take a break from the world; it's been tough! Let me tell you. In a post scheduled for when I get back, I will tell you all about how I caved in and joined the world of Blackberry users.

My Blackberry Bold is making it tough to ignore my e-mails and work and Facebook notifications and all of that. But this is also the only week in a long time that I am not actually forced to sit in front of a computer screen at least eight hours a day, so I'm trying to take full advantage.

I'm not completely cut off of course, and the discovery of BBM is keeping me pretty in touch with a few of my best. My flight gets me back in Providence Friday afternoon and on Saturday I am turing what I like to call "twenty-one part two" or "twenty-one 2.0" because really, who wants to be twenty-two? Nothing special happens at twenty-two! So barring any major hangovers as a result of this magnificent event, I will back in front of my MacBook typing away on Sunday the 17th.

A Few Social Media Annoyances of Late

2010-01-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

As you all well know, I absolutely love social media. Despite working all day, I keep Twitter and Facebook opened in the background and I check my LinkedIN account roughly every other day. It's nice to easily keep in touch with friends and get all my sports scores when I can't be in front of the game. But lately, I've been getting slightly annoyed.

If anyone can explain the following phenomenons to me, I'd greatly appreciate it:

1) Posting the SAME thing to your FB, Twitter, and LinkedIN accounts... ALL of the time! Okay, I maybe get FB and Twitter, if you primarily use Twitter to talk to friends. But ultimately this floods my news feed with things I've already read and it doesn't always make a lot of sense in the context of FB. And last I checked, wasn't LinkedIN primarily about job networking? Yeah, that's what I thought.

2) The boyfriend/girlfriend who love to tweet each other. Haven't you heard of txting? It's the same 140 characters of puppy love dribble - only it's PRIVATE. You could also consider checking out the DM feature. Trust me, I'm happy for you, but I don't need your relationship playing out on my TweetDeck. That's not to say you shouldn't ever mention your significant other, I certainly do from time to time; all I'm saying is that you don't need to have a full length conversation via tweet.

3) Tweeting over 140 characters and then continuing in a second tweet. I like that Twitter forces me to be concise - that's actually a very difficult skill to master. If you can't keep it under the limit - try posting through a 3rd party application such as Tumblr or even Facebook. It's not that I don't love hearing from you, but when you are the ONLY person I can see on the screen, well, I just think that's a little crazy!

4) People who over-promote trending topics. Yes, they are obviously popular points but no, you don't need to talk about them all day! Just because you can think of 100 different things to say about #LadyGaGa doesn't mean you have to post them! I will make an exception for sports here, as I like getting updates.

5) Companies who post too often. I think social media is really key for businesses - it's a great way to reach a large (and young) audience all at once. I do this myself for my internship and the company I work for full time also uses Twitter and Facebook to promote. When it's done well, it's great! When it's done poorly, it's a disaster. Companies that send out the same Tweet over and over are just annoying - spice it up a bit! It feels a lot less personal and lot like spam, which I am sure is not their intent. I like to try to make as many personal connections with @STAConsignment followers as I can and I try not to spam them with facts. You don't want to beg for business, it looks desperate. Instead you want to build an audience and keep them up to date on what's going on in the company.

A Recycled Post: Why I STILL Love Themed Parties

2010-01-06T19:30:00.001-05:00

Oh look at me posting late again. I guess that's what happens when work continues to promote me and give me more and more to do on a daily basis. I suppose I'll get this all worked out in due time, but until then, well, patience is a virtue.

Also - I'm running a tad bit late to trivia this evening, so pardon me while recycle a post that I made for my good friend Steve's blog. This is a favorite of mine, so without further ado, I present to you my love of themed parties!

So as previously mentioned, it’s now seeming like fall and it’s definitely back to school. Now, I don’t know if you know this, but Boston is kind of a college town and our city’s population has very recently swelled to 800,000, accommodating an additional 200,000 or so twenty-somethings. And what’s a better way for these co-eds to spend a night at than at a party? Specifically, at a themed party!

A ride on the Green Line last weekend reminded me of just how hip and happening themed parties are here. I would say that a good 60 to 70 percent of the parties I am invited to have some sort of theme. Popular themes include white and/or black parties, the 1980s, CEOs and corporate hos, Boston sports figures and the roaring twenties.

Now, I admit, from time to time I have been the host of such a party. Last year, my roommate and I got a tad drunk and we ended up whipping out our credit cards and buying some costumes online. It was July. Later that week the costumes arrived and we realized, “Oh crap! We just wasted $60 each on costumes... in July!” So we had a very, very premature Halloween Costume Extravaganza. (I want to make a quick side note, I was very happy with the costume, which was purchased here. I highly recommend the site if you find yourself invited to a themed party or if you are considering a career as a stripper and/or exotic dancer.)

I’m going to include some photos inspired by this party to really illustrate the rest of my story, which I call ‘The Three People You Meet at Themed Parties.’

First, we see the girl who drunkenly (though often these costumes are bought stone cold sober) bought an elaborate ‘army girl’ costume (and yes this is exactly what I bought, and you should all just stop laughing right now). These are the people who secretly (or openly) love themed parties and want to go above and beyond to fit in at the event, they are also usually female. These people are the ones who are “attending” on Facebook, who instead of bringing their own beer, brought their own tequila. These people aren’t just in costume, they have the makeup, shoes, and jewelry to complete the outfit. They are absolutely offended by the other types of people at this party.

This leads me to person number two. This person is called “guy in the horse mask.” This guy responded as “maybe attending” on Facebook, because he loves parties, but doesn’t love themes and is holding out for a better offer. When a better offer is not found, he will pull together a lame excuse of a costume at the last minute, but will ensure it has enough comic value for him to still get appreciation on the effort. This person is usually a guy, and his prime motivation for complying to the theme is the possibility of getting laid later on by one of the girls who fell into the first category.

The last type of person at a themed party is “that other dude.” This guy (and this person is almost certainly a guy) came for the booze and didn’t even bother to dress up, and he probably didn’t even respond to the Facebook invite. He knows he’ll get crap for his lack of dress, but only until everyone in costume is wasted, at which point they will promptly forget about it. This guy probably came under duress, as a date, or possibly due to peer pressure from a good friend. In the end, he still has as much fun as everyone else, possibly more, and the pictures on Facebook the next day are far less embarrassing for him.

Now I’m not here to pass judgment on any of these people, just a few observations I have made at the many parties I go to. I will even be so bold as to say that while you were reading that, you said “oh my gosh, it’s like she knows ME” during one of those descriptions. And by the way, since I clearly fall into the first category, if anyone has some cool and not overdone themes to suggest for my future parties, please let me know. I might even invite you and make you the guest of honor!

I don't need a boyfriend... I have the Bruins

2010-01-05T21:14:00.002-05:00

My relationship with the Bruins started like any other. We were introduced by a mutual friend, and it was love at first sight when I saw how talented, confident, and generally charming the team was (oh and the side of "badass" didn't hurt either). It was from this first meeting that our relationship really began to develop.

Like all good relationships, we're dedicated to each other. I rarely miss a game and even when they lose, they rarely let me down. Sure, sometimes I'll be too busy to watch but it evens out when they have a night of sloppy skating. They make me laugh and they make me cry; they keep me on the edge of my seat and always know just when to surprise me. The emotional roller coaster ride I go through during the hockey season is similar to the one every single boyfriend has ever taken me on.

Our relationship has variety. They keep it spicy and interesting, never using the same tricks too many times. Sometimes it's a good sixty minutes of foreplay with no real action until overtime, sometimes they even keep me waiting in a shootout. But other nights they're down and dirty and score in minutes.

They fight to keep my affection. The second the other team does anything impressive, I can count on Milan Lucic, Shawn Thornton, and Zdeno Chara to throw some punches. You don't mess with the Bruins, they can out-fight anyone in the NHL.

There's a skanky girl on the side that you have to hate. Her name, in this case, is Katherine Tappen. They've been friends for years, she knows everything about them, but they keep her on the sidelines. I still get jealous of their quality time together, though.

Oh and did I mention they're good looking?

Of course, I have a boyfriend; and keeping up two relationships is hard, let me tell you! But it's okay, he's got this thing on the side with the New York Rangers. It keeps things interesting.

2009: In Review

2010-01-02T17:00:00.049-05:00

Due to all of the work that I need to get done this weekend, I'm going to skip a real post and instead steal this meme from my good friend Steve and I hope that you all enjoy it. This really brought back some amazing memories (and maybe a few regrettable ones as well).

1. What did you do this year that you've never done before?

I made Dean's List at UMB, started attending (and totally rocking) trivia nights at some local bars, and really got to know one of my cousins. We quite literally hadn't talked more than five minutes at a time before but decided to become roommates and so far it is a huge success!

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I'm pretty sure I made some - I don't remember them and probably didn't keep them!

3. Any new births this year?

Yes! Baby Sierra was born in August - congratulations Lauren! She's the best baby ever! This is a photo of my "older sister" and her beautiful four month old on Christmas Eve!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Unfortunately, yes. My Pepe passed away in February after 73 wonderful years of marriage to my Meme. He was really something special and I feel so blessed to have been so close to a great-grandparent, not many people can say that.

In June, one of my very good friends from high school, Marcello Ventrella, passed away at the very young age of 19; he was a passenger in a crash that resulted from drunk driving. He and his friends were served underage at a bar in Providence, RI and made the poor choice to drive home that night. This has taught me so many valuable lessons and allowed me to reassess some of my own behaviors. Rest in peace, Cello.

5. What countries did you visit this year?

I stayed in the US this year, and with the exceptions of VT and RI, I didn't leave the state. What a boring year for travel!

6. What would you like to have in the next year that you lacked this year?

Free time! I don't see it happening though. Maybe instead I would like to make better use of the free time I do have. I hope to be more productive this year.

7. What date from this year will remain etched upon your memory - and why?

July 4th. I decided to be spontaneous and even a bit touristy (if you know
me, you know that almost never happens!). Very last minute, I took the commuter rail into Boston (I had been living at home over the summer between leases) and went to the Esplanade for fireworks, The Pops!, and Neil Diamond with Nick and some of his friends. We had a picnic of Vietnamese food and mojitos! I also fell in love and didn't realize it until many months later. Also, as you can see in this photo, we saw some amazing fireworks! After all of the fun, I learned that Nick owns every season of Saved by the Bell on DVD and we watched our favorite episodes until about five in the morning. The spontaneous fun on the 4th gave the the courage, and a million new reasons, to finally end a very abusive relationship for good.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I got a huge promotion at work! My job is now more along the lines of what I would like to be doing ten years from now and I am learning so many new things. Finally, I feel challenged in a job, I have gained a lot of new responsibility, and I got a nice raise to go with it.

9. What was your biggest failure of the year?

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to stay in a really horrible relationship for a very long time. But we don't need to get into that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing outside of the usual, luckily: a few bumps and bruises from my klutziness and some sniffles here and there.

11. What was the best thing you bought this year?

I expanded my shoe collection to no less than ninety-seven pairs. This sounds crazy to most people, and maybe this also sounds a bit self-centered; I just love them. There's nothing like a good pair of shoes to scream "confidence." Marilyn Monroe put it best, I think, when she said, "Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world."

12. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Jon and Kate Gosselin. These two managed to cause so much drama in the media, I found it hard to find any real news to read, and they have probably ruined the lives of their eight children forever. Divorce is hard enough on children, but carrying out a divorce on the cover of US Weekly and national television has to be even worse. A close second on this would have to be Tiger Woods. I'm really disappointed in him; he seemed so classy!

13. Where did most of your money go this year?

Bills. I know, I know, not a very exciting tale at all! But such is life for us broke college students. I would estimate that about 50% of my take home pay goes to utilities, cable and internet, rent, tuition and other very boring items like groceries.

14. What did you get really, really, really excited about this year?

My new apartment! I was very excited to move to Brighton and I still love this place. I also got really psyched up for the Bruins making the playoffs in the 08/09 season and hope they can take the Cup this year!

15-17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

- happier or sadder? Much happier. I have some amazing new friends, a wonderful family, and not much at all to complain about.

- richer or poorer? About the same. I may be a bit richer as I have finally started building a savings account.

- thinner or fatter? Thinner! I've lost a bit of weight this year and managed to stick to my running regimen for the most part. I also took up Wii Fit which I am loving.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Sleeping. At some point, it stops being okay to go to bed at 3am and wake up for an 8am class. I need to work on this.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Worrying. I am such a worrier, and hope to do better this year when it comes to thinking things through and letting the things I have no control over just happen.

20. How did you spend the holidays?

I'm going to consider my 21st birthday a holiday - I spent it at the Garden, cheering on the Celtics to my first legal (and very over priced) beer!

I spent Valentines Day in Vermont with my former boyfriend and I got to visit Joe while I was there.

The 4th of July was spent with Nick in Boston as previously mentioned.

Thanksgiving was pretty low-key this year - I had a great sleepover with my little cousins the night before and helped make a big turkey dinner in the morning!

Christmas Eve was, as always, a giant ordeal - I spent it with family and friends at my house and it was very festive and fun.

Christmas Day was better this year than most - we went to my Granny's house for a nice dinner and a huge Yankee Swap.

New Year's Eve was spent with an old friend from high school and was generally full of shenanigans.

21. Did you fall in love this year?

I did, but I didn't manage to tell him until about an hour and a half into 2010.

22. How many one-night stands did you have this year?

Zero. I'm the classiest girl I know! I did, however, have many fun dates this year.

23. What was your favorite TV program for the year?

The best thing to come out of my bad relationship was a love of LOST which I have now watched through twice. I am highly anticipating the final season this coming February. Some other notable mentions are Glee which I have fallen totally in love with and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which I have just started to watch, courtesy of Nick.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

I try not to hate; it's tiring and takes up too much energy. There are people with whom I have parted ways, but I try not think about them.

25. What was the best book you read this year?

I absolutely loved My Sister's Keeper and Handle With Care, both by Jodi Picoult. This was my year of embracing chick-lit shamelessly.

26. What was your favorite film of the year?

Inglorious Basterds was by and large the best movie I went to go see this year. It was so refreshing to see a movie in theaters and not instantly regret the high ticket prices. I also discovered my inner trekkie and was glad to have spent the money to see Star Trek in IMAX on opening night. JJ Abrams can do no wrong in my book.

27. How would you describe your personal fashion concept this year?

Rockin'! This year I embraced (and totally pulled off) boots, bright tights, skinny jeans, tunics, and statement jewelry. I also landed an internship for Second Time Around which is a chain of designer consignment stores. My job is to update their Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts; in return, I receive $100 a week in store credit which has really helped me spice up my wardrobe on the cheap.

28. Whom did you miss this year?

Ronald Reagan. I started missing him even more the day Obama was inaugurated.

29. Who was the best new person you met this year?

I have met so many fantastic people this year!! One of my co-workers, Naike, has become a very close friend and it's been nice to have such a tight friendship with a girl, most of my friends seem to be boys. Monday mornings seem less miserable now that I know I will have someone to gossip with about the weekend and share all my crazy stories with!

Photo is of Nick, myself, Isaac, and Naike at our company's holiday party.

30. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned for this year.

Honesty is always the best policy. I learned to be a lot more honest with people - not that I lied to them before - but I stopped telling a million white lies to give people ego boosts and I've found that people actually respect and appreciate it. I've also started telling people what is on my mind, because I was reminded that life is short, and I may not get another chance.

Why 2010 Is Already Better Than 2009

2010-01-01T19:00:00.001-05:00

I'm going to keep this one short. I'm tired and hungover and generally not feeling well - but that's why today is a day off, right?

But I just have to brag - 19 hours in and 2010 is already shaping up to be amazing! For starters, the Bruins had a ridiculous win over the Flyers and it was a great game to watch. I was so glad to see Timmy in his Team USA jersey!! I am a huge fan of the Olympics and so very excited that they are in Vancouver this year. It's going to be so great to watch!!

The other memorable moment so far is something that I am half embarrassed about and half really impressed with myself for. Shortly after midnight when I was still sobering up, I took out my phone and decided to text a very special and very adorable boy and tell him that I missed him and wished I could have kissed him at midnight and that I hope he had a great show with his band and that he needs to come home from NY soon. So after six months, I finally told him. And of course, his response was, "Yeah, wouldn't that have been nice? :) Happy 2010."

Gearing Up for the Winter Classic

2009-12-30T17:00:00.001-05:00

Let's talk hockey today. While I've always considered myself to be a fan, I've never really thought of Boston as a hockey town. That is, until our amazing season last year and the buzz about the winter classic in two days. But while these newly found lovers of the greatest sport on Earth are excited, I must say that I'm actually a bit nervous for my beloved Bruins.

For starters, we're playing the Flyers, who have managed to crush us so far this season despite being in last place in their own division (granted, the Eastern Atlantic is a tough division). Meanwhile, we are playing four games in just six days: playing back-to-back Sunday and Monday with another game tonight, and then of course the Classic on Friday. While I typically complain that I sometimes have to wait 5 days to see another game, these guys need (and rely on) the rest they get.

My last concern rests in the uncertainty of the love of my life and the morale maker of the team: Milan Lucic. Lucic is currently out with an upper-ankle sprain and though he has been skating with the team this week, his status is still a bit shaky. Hopefully he'll be back in it, the team performs better with him on ice due to the intensity of his play.

Now don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to this game. I'll be drinking beers and cheering my team on from the (warm) comfort of my living room - there was no way I was about to spend $200 on crummy seats just to freeze my butt off in 2 degree weather. Despite my doubts of a sure win, I know we have one of the best teams in the NHL and players who aren't going to give up a win easily.

My biggest hope is that this Classic will bring back some lovin' for hockey here in Boston. I dream of the days when the Garden sells out for them night after night. I remember going to empty Celtics games a while back, and now they're packed to the ceiling - that energy here is unbeatable.

But of course, this is just a regular season game for the B's. It's really the playoffs I'm looking forward to (though my wallet, I admit, is not).

The Winter Classic will be aired on NBC(HD) in the US and CBC(HD) in Canada - coverage starts at 1:00pm January 1st.

Realistic New Year's Resolutions

2009-12-29T17:00:00.000-05:00

Yes, I make resolutions every year and no, I have never really succeeded... so this year I'm going to try to be at bit more realistic about them:

1) Get my GPA back to somewhere around a 3.5 - this should be pretty attainable, I have a much more relaxed course load and no 8am classes this semester!!

2) Save more, spend less - my internship is really helping me on this front, I shop without spending!

3) Embrace fearlessness, trust more easily, forgive more easily, and love more - this is a lot, but baby steps, right? I think I'm already half way there!

4) Cook more - I have no excuses here, I'm just lazy most of the time. I know how to cook, I have everything in my kitchen needed to do it, I just have to take the time. I'm going to aim for 3 meals a week that do not consist of take out or pasta or canned soup. We'll see how it goes from there!

5) Figure out what I want to do when I graduate - there will be just about two and a half weeks left in 2010 when I graduate college. I should probably decide what to do when school is over! For the time being, I have the ability to work full time at my current job, but it's not my dream or anything. I'm not really sure what is...

So we'll see how all of this turns out. I think I've kept it realistic this year, and when it comes to number 5, I don't really have a choice!

In other news, I'm ringing in 2010 with some amazing new friends and then spending the next day watching the Bruins kick some butt in the Winter Classic v. the Flyers. I honestly can't think of a better way to start off the new decade!

Never Did I Ever...

2009-12-28T17:00:00.001-05:00

... think that I would be one of those crazy people who pays way too much money to follow a band literally across the country. And yet, I find myself in the midst of planning a trip to The Bamboozle Left in Anaheim, CA this March to see Something Corporate reunite.

I always knew I was maybe just a little crazy seeing Guster every time they played in MA, RI, NH, or CT these past few years - totaling over 30 shows since I started college (and a couple shows in high school as well). I have spent hundreds, probably thousands, of dollars on tickets and I can justify every penny of it. Not once have I had a terrible time, not even the times I was on a terrible date!

My best friend in the whole wide world got me into Something Corporate years ago, I was lucky enough to see them twice before they went on hiatus. Since then, we have managed to go to a couple of Jack's Mannequin shows (Andrew McMahon's side project) and we even saw him perform solo on his acoustic tour a few months ago. Though SoCo's status has officially been "on hiatus," Andrew had hinted that it was on a more permanent basis.

Photo: Andrew signed my copy of 'Everything in Transit' at his solo show!!!

So imagine the freak out I had when YouTube explained to me that they were headlining this festival! It was during this video that I all of a sudden understood why people do this. In my previous entry, I reviewed Dear Jack, McMahon's documentary about his battle with leukemia. His connection with his fans is truly impressive, he performs my all time favorite song, and his California Piano Punk is starting to become cooler than Guster in my mind. This is a pretty huge feat!

I'll be sure to keep you all posted on the trip planning. This would truly be the best concert I could possibly imagine attending. End of story.

To Recap on the Holidays

2009-12-26T17:00:00.001-05:00

Oh Christmas morning. This year I got a whole lot of IKEA furniture. I can't wait to get back to Brighton, carry it up two flights of stairs, and spend the weekend making sense of the directions. Once that part is done I'm sure I'll better appreciate it. I also received a waffle iron, a crock pot, and my mom went over the top with a gift card for a massage at one of Newbury St's hoity-toity-est salons.

But the best gift I received this Christmas was from my landlord. A 30 rack of Beck's. Classiest gift ever. This is why you should all try to find British landlords. My last entry hinted at my love of the accent, after all, that makes up about 99% of Hugh Grant's charm. He also says funny things like "tea towel," and "cooker," which, I really find quite amusing.

Moving right along - this holiday season has led me to not one but two amazing reviews that you absolutely must take my advice on.

Earlier this year my aunt and god mother wrote a book called Letters. I read it because she was the one who wrote it, but I highly, highly recommend it. She's one of the most thoughtful and entertaining women I know, and though I now know way too many details of her personal life, it was a very fun read and incredibly reflective. I'm including a link for you to check it all out here.

My next review is for the 'Dear Jack' documentary put out by Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin. My best friend knows me all too well, and this really was the perfect gift; I cried the whole time I watched it. 'Dear Jack' starts on the day Andrew was diagnosed with leukemia in and around the scheduled release of Jack's first Album Everything in Transit. As one of Something Corporate's biggest fans, I have truly been touched by all of their music and was heartbroken when I learned that one of my favorite artists of all times was battling this disease. This rare look into Andrew's personal life is a must-see for any fan. Aside from the amazing story, there are also quite a few live performances throughout the hour long documentary and the soundtrack is made up mostly of B-side tracks. Check out the trailer below:

Holiday Movie Review - Why You Need to Watch 'Love Actually' (again)

2009-12-24T17:00:00.005-05:00

This is my new favorite holiday flick. It has a lot of things other movies just don't: Hugh Grant, British accents, octopi and lobsters in a the nativity scene, and Colin Firth.

For those of you who haven't seen it, Love Actually follows nine different love stories (only eight if you're watching it on tv, the ninth is a bit "mature") from five weeks before Christmas up until the big holiday. I like this movie because two of my favorite things in the world are Christmas and love stories - you really can't go wrong with that combination.

So of course I watched again for what I would estimate to be the zillionth time or so and fell in love all over again. What is it about Christmas that makes it seem so easy to fall in love? What keeps the story interesting is that there are so many different kinds of love, cheating husbands finding new girlfriends, men in love with married women, a washed up rockstar finding the person he most loves is his manager, the British Prime Minister falling for a member of his house staff. It's easy to get caught up in the movie and you really find yourself wishing you lived in London with all these wonderful people.

Quite possibly my favorite new scene of any movie out there is shown here. While I don't normally approve of men hitting on married women (even if she is Kierra Knightly), I appreciate the courage and the crazy measures that he goes to just to confess his crazy little crush. I fall for it every single time, I can't help but cry during this scene and again, despite my normal disapproval of cheating, the kiss that follows is wonderful. So here's to hoping that this movie has inspired me to also have maybe just a little more courage to tell someone how I feel this year.

And in the spirit of the holiday, I'll leave you with this quote from Hugh Grant which opens the film:
Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2009-12-23T17:00:00.035-05:00

Oh hello again. Sorry I went missing for a week, but finals are my extreme enemy! Luckily I don't have to worry about school again until January 25th! Gotta love UMass' ridiculous break schedule. And on that note, let's proceed to tonight's entry...

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the city, there's at whole foot of snow but at least it looks pretty. Unfortunately, it's also ruined a pair of Uggs due to all my last minute holiday shopping and various parties. I ask for a "white Christmas" every year, and it looks like this year I've gotten my wish. But as nice as it all looks (especially now that I'm home in the suburbs where the snow stays white) it really isn't the weather that makes it feel like the holidays.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and being Italian, this is far more important than Christmas Day itself. Every year I count the days until I can eat seven fish dishes and entirely too many desserts. When I was about twelve my grandmother also got me and all of my younger cousins trashed by giving us too much wine. We're slightly older and slightly more responsible these days, but these crazy traditions are honestly my favorite part of the year. I spent all day today whipping up literally eleven different cookie batters and I can't wait to bake them tomorrow!!

It makes me so sad that in the past few years my family spread out a bit across the country and it's tough to see traditions change - but all of the important things are still there. We've come a long way from my childhood where Nona ran the kitchen and tried to serve us dishes like eel. Not a single one of us still believes in Santa and we don't go entirely overboard with our swap gifts.

But some things don't change. I will still probably gain a good ten pounds over dinner tomorrow, my little cousins are going to fight for mine and my sister's attention all night, the kids are going to love their presents, and undoubtedly Annie and I will convince our parents that it's a good idea to open about fifty percent of our gifts that night.

And then some things do change. Inevitably I will drunkenly text all of my friends to wish them a happy holiday and Annie wants to organize a family beer pong tournament. There will only be about ten people at dinner, not the usual fifty plus that I remember, but they're a very important ten people and there's no one I'd rather spend the holidays with.

I love the uniqueness of my family, our crazy get togethers, our delicious food, and our ridiculous conversations and I love how the holidays bring all of these things together. I hope that everyone else has something so special to look forward to and that Santa is good to you all.

Finals Week...

2009-12-15T22:20:00.002-05:00

I'll be back to blogging on Sunday when I don't have a million papers to right.

In the meantime- I'm thankful that I did not buy Winter Classic tickets after last night's showing against the Flyers. More on this next week.

Putting your best face forward... during finals

2009-12-13T17:00:00.000-05:00

So between all this blogging has been an awful lot of studying, I have finally finished up classes and I'm getting ready for finals. Usually this means that I spend so much time reading books that I completely for get to think about fashion- but why should a girl have to choose? She shouldn't!

1) My new favorite spin on a study break is to step away from Facebook and step into my closet. When I know I'm only getting three hours of sleep, choosing an outfit in the morning is next to impossible, but picking an outfit out the night before is downright brilliant. And when I really, really want to put off those papers, I even pick out jewelry and undies.

2) No fuss makeup. I'm all about black eyeliner, and spending time perfecting my smokey eye technique, but when I know I'll be in the library for 24 hours straight, it's not practical. Instead, opt for a waterproof mascara to open up your eyes and stick with a typical moisturizer and Chapstick. If you're feeling ambitious, go for some gloss too.

3) Never, ever, ever, forget how important skin care is. Seriously, finals stress you out enough to make you break out, so abandoning your skin care routine is a very bad idea. Whatever you do, wash that gorgeous face of yours regularly and your skin will thank you later.

4) I, for one, am sick of seeing girls destroy their hair in the name of laziness! Guess what, super messy pony tails on the top of your head are not attractive and they are ruining your hair! I understand you are literally rolling out of bed and getting out the door because you slept through your alarm, but that is why God invented headbands. Buy them. Use them. Love them.

5) Personally, I am always over tired and over caffeinated this time of year. It's not an attractive look for anyone, but it's really easy to fake a normal appearance in this situation. Just before your two hour power nap, use a cool cloth on your eyes and when you wake up you'll be sparkling and ready to drink another triple latte guaranteed.

As tempting as it is, don't wear your PJs to finals. Come on now, I just gave you five easy ways to look like you belong on the runway instead of behind a desk. Besides, it's all too easy to fall asleep in your sweats during that test.

Tweeting for Days in Only an Hour

2009-12-11T17:00:00.003-05:00

Rate that Twitter App: Cotweet 4.5/5 stars

TGIF and TF for Cotweet. My new favorite third party application in the vast realm of Twitter. My goal for the @STAConsignment account that I manage for my internship is to tweet about three times a day: 1) fun fashion trend 2) a RT of one of our stores with some merchandise 3) a RT from one of Twitters many #fashion or #style talkers. Sounds easy?

Well, sort of. The thing is, managing a Twitter for a company is tough just because I'm not in front of my computer 24/7 (and while I advocate technology, we all need to take a break now and
then). So what's the solution? Well, every Saturday I scour the fashion blogs, find my favorite links, and save them. From there, I log in to Cotweet and schedule them all in advance.

Okay, so that's nothing new- lots of sites do that. So where's the advantage? I can view all my accounts (personal and work) at the same time, and the other admins on my work account are all linked. We can edit each others messages ahead of time and I can make sure that my boss and I aren't scheduling our posts too close together and that we aren't doubling up on info and essentially spamming our followers.

So where am I docking that half star from? Overall appearance. It's easy to use and fairly intuitive, but it's slow to update new messages and even slower to delete older ones or mark them as "read." I get so excited when I see I have twenty new mentions only to be greatly disappointed by the fact that I've already seen at least 15 of them...

At the Movies: Boston Does It Better

2009-12-10T17:00:00.002-05:00

You only need to meet me for about thirty seconds before you know that I'm from Boston Proper: the accent, the aggressive driving, the feeling that the rest of the nation owes me personally for Thanksgiving and Sam Adams... oh and I think we make the best movies too.

No seriously. Just read through my list of favorites and you'll see: Good Will Hunting, The Departed, Mystic River, The Boondock Saints even My Best Friend's Girl - I love them all! I take pride in seeing some of my favorite locals (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Marky Mark Wahlberg) drop their r's and glamorize the Southie projects and I fell in love with Leo DiCaprio all over again when I realized he could fit in here better than the 800 thousand college students who invade Suffolk County every fall.

We have spirit. We have class. We have stories. Hell, we have everyone from John Adams to Whitey Bulger. It's no wonder these movies are so big (and not just for us locals, these are major box office hits). So call me crazy, but one of my legitimate favorite hobbies is watching these movies over and over again, criticizing the accents (Dear Martin Sheen, only the Kennedys talk like that!), the silly inaccuracies (Hey Matt Damon, you missed your stop on the Red Line day after day in Good Will Hunting- why did you insist on going all the way out to Dorchester?), and generally loving the fact that my city seems to exemplify the creme de la creme of "American Dream-like" stories.

From the Revolutionary War, to the Irish and Italians of Boston, to the gentrification since the 70s there are a million more movies out there to be made. So New York can have its sky scrapers and its pizza, I'll take my "walking city" with our straightforward (okay, rude) attitudes any day.

Marky Mark once said that "girls from Boston will kick your ass, you've got to be on your toes, but there's a loyalty there that's hard to find." And he's right. Those of us born and raised here fit that description to a tee, and those are the qualities characters are made of.

So keep making your movies here, you Hollywood producers- because we love it!

Let's Take Care of Some Administrative Things

2009-12-09T17:00:00.002-05:00

I think that really for my own sanity, I need to try to set up some sort of schedule for my blog here. Of course, the fact that I'm about to begin finals is certainly not helping my mental state, so here goes.

Sundays: I'm going to try to make a good fashion-oriented update because Saturdays are when I catch up on all my fashion news for my internship.

Mondays: This is the day for social media news- after all that is half the point of my blog/website.

Tuesdays: Because Tuesdays are usually my least favorite day of the week, I will discuss one of my favorite things: SPORTS. Be warned that this will largely revolve around hockey.

Wednesdays: I think the middle of the week is as good a day as any to share a funny personal story or other random musing. I have a lot of thoughts that really start to collect by Wednesdays.

Thursdays: I will use this fine day to discuss something related to TV or movies, because I watch a lot of both and have a lot of opinions on them.

Fridays: Another social media update. Because there is just so much to say!

Saturdays: Everyone deserves a day off. For me, Saturday is that day.

So anyway, I will try to stick to this as much as possible. Tune in tomorrow for a fabulous TV or movie related update. What will it be? Well, you'll have to come back and see!

On Corporate Holiday Parties

2009-12-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

There's a lot of buzz around my office this week as we are all anxiously awaiting our annual holiday party this coming Saturday. Overall I think that people tend to have a lot of mixed feelings on the issue, and as such, I have made a pros and cons list to celebrating the holidays with coworkers.

Pros:

-Dressing up: I like this for two reasons. 1) I am a girl. 2) We dress very casual in the office, so it's nice to see people all dressed up.
-Free meal: I'm a broke college student.
-Open bar: I'm a broke college student.
-Seeing co-workers in a non-work setting: I genuinely like the people I work with!
-Partying at a fancy hotel: enough said.

Cons:
-Dressing up: who am I really trying to impress?
-Free meal: okay, there is no con here.
-Open bar: this has the potential to go from awesome to awful in one shot.
-Seeing co-workers in a non-work setting: too many people are going to be talking about work!
-Partying at a fancy hotel: who are we kidding? We're not that fancy, most of us are twenty-somethings who don't need a waterfront hotel to make us happy.

A quick Google search for holiday office parties reveals only the obvious. The bottom line is that it's still a company function- don't be too revealing, don't flirt, and don't drink too much. But maybe these authors haven't been to one of our parties; we break EVERY rule in the book. Part of working for a young company seems to mean that people act all but professional. Our summer party was a mess and we're rampant with inner-office relationships on an ordinary day. We also do silly little awards. Remember "The Dundees" episode of The Office? Yeah, it's like that. This is more like a party with close friends than a corporate event- and maybe it's not so bad that this is the environment they have chosen to foster. I don't know too many people in their early twenties who would be up for some stuffy corporate party where fun isn't a priority.

Besides, I think it's always a good idea to take advantage of the company's generosity- it's not every day someone offers to buy me dinner and unlimited drinks. So tomorrow after work I'm going to hit up Newbury St. in the search for a classy but fun holiday dress and somewhere between now and Saturday morning I'll touch up my roots, put my best face forward and pray that I don't win "Part-Timer of the Year."

Sorry I Disappeared!

2009-12-07T22:20:00.003-05:00

As it would turn out, I'm very clumsy, ruined my laptop and have been computerless for a few days. Expect a real update tomorrow!

So this one time I was wrong...

2009-12-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

While back I posted a nice little rant about coffee and the never ending battle between Dunkin' and Starbucks on my friend Steve's blog.

Well fellow coffee drinkers... my sentiment rings true. Enter November and wonderousness that is the Starbucks gingerbread latte. This is $5 a day well spent if you ask me (and it's my blog, so yes, you asked me). So I have gone along for a month or so getting my daily caffeine fix with a bit of a holiday twist.

But today this stopped abruptly. No, I'm not giving up coffee and no I'm not giving up the seasonal flair, but I am giving up on Starbucks. Part of it was the abysmal (and I mean seriously, seriously awful) customer service I've received the past week or so and part of it is my love of supporting local business, but I have discovered that there are at least a dozen or so small cafes that aren't terribly far out the way featuring their own version of my favorite beverage.

Now don't worry, I'm not going to go all Jeffery Steingarten and review each of these places for you (if this disappoints you- check out my reviews on Yelp!) All I'm trying to say is that I was wrong, and that's not something I'll easily admit to often - especially when it comes to my spending habits - so this is a big deal. I learned a big lesson this week: I can get my daily latte at a lower price, with more flavor, all while basking in the coziness of a quaint cafe and skipping the crazy lines and snobby baristas at The 'Bux.

Silly me! I should've realized this long ago- Boston has tons and tons of cute indie coffee places, but better late than never, right?

As a quick apology...

2009-12-02T23:48:00.000-05:00

So I would have posted an entry tonight, but last minute Bruins tickets 10 rows behind the goal were too good to turn down! Look forward to an exciting entry tomorrow night!

Twitter & Advertising

2009-12-01T17:00:00.001-05:00

Something that I've realized this week is that a vast majority of my favorite tweeters are actually companies. So how is it that I can hate commercials so much, but can't get enough of advertisements in the form of 140 characters or less?

Simplicity. No fancy thrills or sexy, seductive models, straight-to-the-point text works for me (and a lot of other people too). Sure those flashy Sephora e-mails are full of millions of products I'd like but one simple tweet about free shipping actually brings in a sale.

Other companies like sports teams are equally effective. It's always nice to see a quick reminder from my beloved Bruins letting me know that they've released more tickets at student prices and even nicer to see that Blake Wheeler uses the account so I get the sense the players are real and that they care about the fans.

I myself am constantly trying to come up with new ways to use Twitter to connect to fans for my internship. We advertise sales, tweet about current merchandise, and post trendy fashion stories. It may sounds pretty simple, but it's hard work! Looking for news that is relevant and important is hard, narrowing down stories worth reading or that are likely to be read are also difficult. Something I find even stranger is that with an application that's all about being concise, for a company that's even more important. If I want our followers to retweet and comment, I need to make sure that tweets are less than 100 characters to allow for this.

But when done well, this hard work pays off. In fact, our tweets about our Black Friday sales were a huge hit and over the last few months we've done a great job of building our brand. For a second hand designer store, we're making a name for ourselves as a fashion expert- up on all the latest trends. This isn't a store for clothes that no one wanted, it's a mecca for bargain hunting fashionistas, and thanks to Twitter, we're getting the word out.

Meanwhile, my own wallet is falling for all of it- makeup, sports tickets, clothing, half-price burritos- I'm buying it all. In a world where everyone is talking about tight budgets at Christmas, advertisers need to be creative. And they certainly are. In 140 characters or less at that.

And the winners of this week's DVR lineup are...

2009-11-30T17:00:00.047-05:00

Sundays are my least busy days of the week. I sleep in, I run a few errands, catch up on the news, and then settle in for a day of catching up on my DVR (thank God for this wonderful, wonderful invention).

Today is Monday, which means I'm getting all of my weekly recordings set, and here is what I'll be watching six days from now:

Monday Night:
-Gossip Girl. Don't judge me, Manhattan's Upper East Side is glamorous and full of drama. I can get some stellar fashion notes for my @STAConsignment tweets and get some fictional gossip, to keep real drama out of my life, all at the same time.
-One Tree Hill. Again, don't judge me! I've been watching since high school. It's the last season. I'm committed. I admit, I have a slight crush on this season's newcomer Clay, played by the gorgeous Robert Buckley (you may know him as Kirby on Lipstick Jungle).
-House. Probably the least embarrassing show on the list. I find myself a little less excited about this current season because vicodin-addict-House was so much more charming. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he got over his bad habit, but I think his sarcasm has suffered from it.
-How I Met Your Mother. This is my newest obsession. I love Ted Mosby and would like to audition for the part of "the mother." I love that Robin and I are basically the same person. I love that Neil Patrick Harris can play a very, very convincing straight man. I love Lilly's (Alyson Hannigan) inappropriate outbursts. This is one of the better concepts on TV right now AND it's narrated by Bob Saget. You can't go wrong!

Tuesday Night:
-So You Think You Can Dance. THE ideal DVR show. Why? I watch the dancing, fast-forward through the judging, and I do not watch the results show, I just Google it Thursday morning. Mary Murphy and Cat Deely are two of the most annoying women on television, but the dancing on this show is of such high quality, that I continue to watch. Recording it is the perfect solution!

Wednesday Night:
-Glee. I am in love with this show. The drama. The music. The complicated love triangles (yes, plural). After seeing the pilot early last summer, I had my doubts, but I am glad I gave this show another shot. The characters are easy to like, they are stereotypical without being unrealistic, and while they may face a lot of problems, none of them are far out of the realm of what is currently going on in high schools. Most high schools today have kids who are coming out, getting pregnant, trying to fit in etc. and while in real life they may not all also belong to a Glee club, it's still relevant.
-Top Chef: Las Vegas. I have been a Top Chef fan since season 1 and while I think that this year's contestants may be slightly boring when compared to past years, the food is anything but.

Thursday Night:
-Survivor: Samoa. Again, I've been a fan since season 1, though I stopped watching at some point and have only recently become a fan again. Russell is really making this season memorable, lying about basically everything and outsmarting everyone. He has probably screwed over every single person on the island and none of them even know! I appreciate good drama and give props to the producers for finding people still worthy of reality TV... I was beginning to think maybe everyone interesting had already been on a show!
-The Office. With all of the big character developments to the show, it is just as funny as ever. I'm a little iffy about the "recession is hurting the company" storyline, because everyone else is doing it too. Times are tough, I don't need one of my favorite sitcoms to remind me! That being said, my love of Jim Halpert will compel me to continue watching even if the writing gets bad.

Friday Night:
-The Soup. Just in case I forgot to catch anything important during the week, I can rely on Joel McHale to keep me in the loop!

Getting Ready for the Holidays

2009-11-29T17:00:00.041-05:00

It's the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Tuesday marks the start of December, and my DVR is set to record about ten different holiday movies and specials in the coming week. There's no doubt about it, the holidays are here and let me tell you, I am ready.

For the last week or so, my iPod has continuously looped a playlist consisting only of the three Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas albums, Josh Groban's holiday CD, and that annoying Mariah Carrey version of "All I Want for Christmas Is You." I was no sooner done eating turkey and apple pie on Thursday when I just had to watch Love Actually on TV and today I went to see my little cousin dance as Fritz in Boston Ballet's The Nutcracker.

Growing up we had the best holiday traditions. We went to my aunt and uncle's house in NH in early December to select the perfect tree from their Christmas tree farm. On Christmas Eve the whole family would gather at my grandparents' house for seven courses of seafood and presents. On Christmas itself, my granny would make a pot roast and spoil us silly with presents.

But with time, traditions have changed. My parents don't go crazy with decorating now that my sister and I have moved out and my roommates think I'm crazy for wanting to buy a real tree (which I expect them to help set up in our third floor walk-up). We still have Christmas Eve dinner with all that fish, but people have moved and there are fewer of us. My grandmother has cut back to a sensible amount of gifts but the pot roast is still amazing.

And despite these changes, I am still looking forward to the holidays as much as ever. My daily gingerbread soy lattes and never-ending lists of people to send cards to really seem to help.

Meanwhile, this year I find myself getting ready for the holidays at work as well. At CSN I am busy making sure that all of the holiday requests are in and that we're finding coverage for them. This coming Monday is the infamous "Cyber Monday," the e-commerce equivalent of Black Friday. At Second Time Around we had a post-Thanksgiving sale all weekend and we're encouraging people to stop in for gifts as well as fabulous outfits for holiday parties.

Oddly enough, I think that Twitter is the source of much of my early holiday cheer, both work-wise and personal-wise. Using Twitter to advertise holiday sales and seeing the holidays under trending topics is helping me realize that I am not the only nutcase out there who starts celebrating over a month early!

Today I discovered...

2009-11-28T20:26:00.002-05:00

Today I discovered Orkut, Google's social networking service. I've been looking through the profile options and setting it up. Honestly, I think that Google is trying to get a little too personal if you ask me. These questions went way beyond Facebook. Yes I have a strategically placed tattoo, but does anyone need to know about it? I'm not so sure.

On the upside, there are some features that I wish the more popular Facebook had. Right off the bat you can tell this is a Google product- intuitive, easy to use, clean layout, and the familiar chat interface. There is also quite a bit more detail on the work and education section. There are more opportunities to showcase oneself in a professional sense which improves the business networking feature. I'm going to keep playing around with this to see what my thoughts are the more I use it.

This week I also got a Google Wave account, still not sure how much I like it. Unlike their other products, I'm not finding it as intuitive... I'm a little confused about where and how to begin. It doesn't help that my friends who are using it right now aren't the people I would generally use this program with- we talk socially, not collaboratively. I'd really like more opportunity to use it in the way it is intended.

In actuality, it's been a very Google-ish week for me between a few friends suddenly discovering how great g-chat is and me being in one of my organizational moods and going a little crazy with the calendar... A few weeks ago, The Metro highlighted the company as they are expanding their facilities in nearby Cambridge. It's the top company to work for according to pretty much everyone, so with graduation soon, it's nice to know that they are now right next door.

Orkut Update:
I'm having trouble figuring out how to tag pictures which is really very frustrating, starting to think it's a bug with Safari perhaps. Otherwise, I'm starting to like it. Yes, some of the questions seem a bit "high school" and very TMI, but for the most part I actually like the interface a lot. Now I guess I'll just have to convince all of my friends to try it out too. From the 94 contacts in my address book using GMail, only one had an Orkut account and it looks like he used it once and then abandoned it. But hey, maybe everyone will catch on.

Welcome!!

2009-11-27T23:47:00.002-05:00

So this is my boring first entry. This week I have launched my website www.amandajeanmeyer.com which I am using as both a personal site and a way to showcase what I have been doing with social media as a companion to my resume.

I'll be posting all of my exciting updates to this blog along with other entries about what has been going on in my life here in Boston.

-Amanda.Jean