Just listen.

It's been a great week for Hebrew Friend support and Hawktastic wins! Tonight we defeated Drexel and I will be honest that I had a hard time staying focused. It was a close game with Drexel tight on the Hawks' tail until the very end. My favorite little man Carl Jones had a late start, but it was C. J. who really owned the game with some amazing defense tonight. In celebration I've decided to dedicate this post to music. Win a game, get some music.

Adele - Rumour Has It

Adele, I love you and Lord knows Yonni loves you too. Obsessed with her sophomore album, 21, It's hard to believe that someone as young as she has experienced so many emotions and can sing so poignantly about them. Rumour Has It is the latest track that I have become obsessed with. 

Foster the People - Don't Stop

Everyone knows about Foster the People's Pumped Up Kicks and if you've seen the latest Nissan car commercials then you've heard Don't Stop as well. Everything about this song, the energy, the rhythm, and the lyrics are incredible. 

Fun - We Are Young

Fun's We Are Young featuring Janelle Monae has been blowing up the airwaves in Philadelphia and whenever it comes on the radio I roll down my windows and belt it out even at 8:30am, stares from strangers be damned! I can not wait to see this band live and I am eagerly awaiting their arrival in Philadelphia. 

Peter, Bjorn, and John - Second Chance

Everyone loves Peter, Bjorn, and John and everyone loves 2 Broke Girls. What do these two awesome thing shave in common? Second Chance. The band's song has become the theme song of CBS's new show and I think I heard it on the radio for a beer commercial. I love it, even more than I love Young Folks and I love that song a lot. 

Jimkata - When the Day Comes

If you haven't heard of Jimkata you haven't been listening close enough. It's okay though, I wasn't listening that well either until an acquaintance of mine introduced me to them a few months ago. I later found out that my friend Ryan went to high school with them and I have since been hooked. I listen to them in the car, on my ipod, and when I'm writing (they're playing right now). I get to see them in December at Kung Fu Necktie in Philadelphia and I've heard twitterings that they'll be in Vermont sometime in February (definitely worth the eight hour drive). I told Lance about them and now I need to give him some of their music to pass onto Charlie so that he'll book them at the Matterhorn in Stowe, VT. What's better than beer, sushi, and Jimkata?

P.S. you can download two of their albums at www.jimkata.com

Like punching in a dream breathing life into the nightmare.

Last night I found out one of my childhood mentors was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer that has metastasized throughout his body. He has been given 6 months to a year left to live his life. His family, friends, and the dozens and dozens of girls he has mentored through softball are devastated by this news because it feels like all we can do at this point is pray for his comfort and a miracle.

It's devastating to hear that this man may not be around for the next softball season and that so many girls will miss out on having such an amazing and inspirational coach. My mentor pushed me to my limits through sports and made me a better player and person because of it. He would not accept less than our best and when we weren't up for it he pulled us out of the game. He taught me the importance of teamwork and that a team is only as strong as their weakest player. Which is why I am so fiercely competitive on the ice and on the field. Because of him I can not accept anything but the best from myself.

Being so far away form home right now, I don't know when I will get the chance to see him soon, but I hope that I do get that chance. The girls on my old softball team have really banded together to be there for our coach and for each other. Whether we played together or not, every one of us knows what it means to be a part of his team because we are Fred's Girls.

Coach passengers are not allowed in first class, it's policy.

The good thing about a day/night full of stress is the day after when you don't have the feeling of a giant elephant crushing your lungs. After last night and my 40 oz. of coffee I can finally breathe again and maybe even get some sleep tonight. It's been a while since I've pulled an all-nighter and after being up for thirty-six hours already I'm not even entirely sure that I will be able to get to sleep tonight. Though it is very possible that I will crash down on my couch before I even finish this post. It has been a good evening though and better than yesterday.

I'm watching Bridesmaids after a dinner of broccoli and clams and I'm not sure how crazy I am about this film. I forgot to move all of the Wes Adams films up to the front of my Netflix queue. It was so hyped up during this past summer, but I just never had the time to go and see it. Now that I am watching it in my living room I'm afraid I hyped it up in my mind more than I should have. I love love LOVE Kristen Wiig and I have the biggest girl crush on Rose Byrne but their characters' constant competitive nagging is more grating than humorous. So far the only amusing character has been Jon Hamm as the asshole. Something comforting about a man like that.

I had a great workshop today with my Brevity piece and I'm still flying a little high from it (by down I'm skimming the ground but it's still a good feeling). I tackled a harder subject that I haven't really written much about in a formal setting like that: sex. All of my classmates had very positive and exceptional critical feedback about my writing and my professor was really encouraging about pushing my writing as far as I can. I'm not the first person to write about sex, but this time I didn't chose to do in a humorous way or use extreme graphic imagery. I chose a moment in time that was a little more unique than any other time and wrote about in a darker light. I usually tell the story at the bar and it's always a drunken hit, but when I wrote it out on a cocktail napkin I really examined the event and realized what an empty hollow experience it was even if it left me with a good story.

Working... Like a dog.

Rawr. I downed 40 oz. of coffee and little while ago and now I'm all jittery. It's like having an anxiety attack without the anxiety (though that may hit around 1am or 2am). I'm jumping between pacing around my apartment and banging on everything with my hands like they're drumsticks. I took a shower, ate dinner, and now I'm drinking as much water as I can to calm myself down. I have a full night's worth of homework to get through and I need steady hands so that I'm not retyping everything later. So I'm putting my crazy energy to work with this since typos aren't a problem for internet talking.

I haven't had as restful a week as I would have liked. Thanksgiving is so short and I spent most of it driving across New Jersey and Pennsylvania to get much rest. It was good to see family and spend some time with the people that I rarely get to see, but between travel and work I haven't had very much me time. I have three more weeks of school and exams and then I intend to do nothing. I've taken time off of work so that I can go back to Vermont and experience a real winter, but while I'm there I don't plan on doing much of anything. You would think that switching from physics to English I wouldn't have as much work, but I think I have more to do now than I ever have before and it's very slowly but very intently eating me away until I not much more than a shell of a person. It's driving me crazy.

It also doesn't help having family who likes to belittle and eat at you too. I love my family, I really do, but some of them are just horrible, selfish people. I don't know how my aunt does it, she has so much patience and understanding for people and yet she's surrounded by some not very nice people. I only spent twenty-fours around them and by the time I got back to the city I was reduced to tears and self-loathing from all of the negative criticisms and I had to have Yonni build be back up while I was at work.

I'm trying to get rid of my Tuesday work shift so that I can sleep in before my night class, but I desperately need the little money that I get from it. I'm still deciding if I really need it or not.

You need something witty? That's too bad.

I think to date this is the longest I have gone without posting. Of course at the rate that I get distracted by not so shiny objects it probably won't be the longest I will go either. It's been a busy past few weeks with not registering, catching up with the school work that got left in the dust, and of course work: work study and Buca included. To fill in those brief gaps of time in between one thing and the next I've been able to fit in a pint of beer, and hour of sleep, and repeat the process. I've been putting off writing and reading any blog posts because I've been so depressed and uninspired with my life, but really I should have been writing all along. Regularly posts would have made me examine my life's recent event and given me a chance to reflect on them instead of bottling them up and hiding under the two down comforters I keep on my bed in my lonely, lonely apartment.

So to get back on track here is what I've been doing to keep my mind off things:

I recently snowed a few weeks ago. I forgot to through this up a few posts back, but better late than never. I ended up spending the evening with my Hebrew Friend drinking gin and watching movies. I also got to break out my new winter boots from L.L. Bean (they have since been put back in the closet) which were super warm and soft. Best birthday gift this year. 

I made acorn squash for the first time in my apartment. I was a little lost since I've started eating squash in recent years. I put a lump of butter and some maple syrup in the middle and let the whole thing bake for about an hour. I wasn't planning on squash but Ellie got stuck in the city and I had to go rescue her and on the way home I saw the squash and got inspired. The other day I saw a squash recipe on Mr. Kate with rosemary that I want to try out next. 

The men's home opener was Monday and it wasn't even a real home opener, just a scrimmage. We won! I know shocking. It was a great time though, I played my saxophone for the first time in a year; I was impressed with the fact that I could still play it without any major problems. Go me!

As a part of being in the band we get free food. I'm not a huge fan of hotdog (who is really?) but for some reason I really wanted one. I got luck too, someone on the track team must not have been paying attention when they wrapped the yum yums because I got a two for one deal. 

Yesterday when it was dreary and dull I decided to build myself a bear cave by putting thick blankets over the window and curling under the bed sheets. I drank a glass of white wine at 2pm and it sent me into anxiety so my Hebrew Friend had to talk off of a ledge. On the bright side the not so thick blankets made me some very nice poor man's stained glass. 

This was my version of chicken Florentine. I didn't use cheese and just used the food that I happened to have in my refridge/cabinet. What you see is crushed tomatoes and some seasoned spinach on top of some chicken with some whole wheat French bread. You can see the brown with blue flower plates underneath. Those were the original plates that my parents had back in the 80s. They've been become rare collectables after giving birth to me. 

A happy photo. Except for the fact that I have a huge forehead. Do they do forehead reduction surgery? IDK?

Ps. I remembered this week that I'm a viking and apparently related to the Wannamakers of Philadelphia? WTF bitches???

Not much ado about nothing.

I don't feel like writing. I don't feel like doing much of anything past laying in bed, watching Frasier, and downing a liter of pinot grigio on my own. I haven't felt like doing much of anything for awhile now, which is why when I call my mom this morning after classes the first thing she asked was, "are you feeling alright?" I kept it short, I kept it sweet and hung up before I got too tired and dropped my phone on the floor.

I think after this weekend I will have my groove back (or whatever it was that Stella lost) and want to write things down and send them out across the internetting internet. I'm supposed to make money, drink heavily, and go see a band play; those things usually put me in a cheery mood and leave me with mildly interesting anecdotes.

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur.

Last night was High School Throwback Night!, as in canned beer, bowling, and parking lots. It has been more than four years ago since I've drunk beer out of a can or in a parking lot. It's also been a while since I went bowling. We used to go all of the time in high school. Our reason being that it was more than an hour away to get there so we'd be using almost all of our Friday nights in transit and wouldn't have to spend much at home.

With The Girls in Atlantic City for the weekend I had to turn to The Boys for fun. We decided to go midnight bowling because of my late night work schedule and while I was at work The Hoch and I decided we wanted to go drinking so we compromised on getting a case of beer and drinking it in a parking lot until it was time to go inside. While we were sitting in my car eating yogurt and sipping Yuengling or as it's know in my family: Chinese Beer (sometimes we're not the most politically correct people out there), league bowlers kept exiting their yellow castle and we kept having to duck down behind the dash so people wouldn't question any of our questionable activities. I admit that looking back on last night we were probably a little too overcautious and brought more attention to ourselves by constantly ducking instead of just sitting still in the dark car.

Bowling was a success (at least for me!) The Hoch and I took our drinking inside to the bar, but once the black lights came on and illuminated the quinine in my drink all I could was stare at the pretty glowing drink. I love science! The gin helped be bowl my best games though. I won all three games against The Boys and I won by quite a bit too. I'm not a big fan of bowling because it always makes my fingertips hurt afterwards but last night was really fun. It's nice to take a turn away from the usual norms and do something different for a change.

The science of Tanqueray and tonic.

An Open Letter to My Bedroom

Dear Room,

Why are you so ridiculously hot? It is the beginning of November and the cold air has arrived. In fact just this past weekend we received a few inches of slushy snow, some of which sat in my car all weekend until I turned the floor heater on. Yet despite the chilliness you still remain sweltering and uncomfortable even with the window open.

Room, I hate you and your hot temperature. I am envious of everyone else with their barely above freezing boudoirs and their ability to adjust the temperature in their homes. Honestly I would trade all of my friends my bedroom for their tundra-like houses right now. I am tired of sleeping in underwear, bring on the flannels and fleeces that I brought with me from the North. Last night I even put a fan against the screen in a vain attempt to suck in the cold from outside.

Now why can't you be more like the kitchen/living room just around the corner? That's a cool room right there. With the window open and the blinds adjusted I have nice cold breeze sweeping over everything, I no longer have to worry about the butter melting if I forget to put it back in the fridge. It's cold in the living room and if I wasn't so attached to my wonderful bed I would sleep out here permanently.

Don't get get wrong Room. I love your delicate blue paint that reminds me of the ocean and the mismatched modge podge furniture that fills you. You're a great room with lots of space and a bigger closet than the room I had in my parents house before Lance moved a part of his library in and forced me and my things out. You're a lovely room in the summer with your wall-filling windows and eastern exposures, but right now you SUCK. S-U-C-K, suck suck suck.

Just please cool off soon before I have maintenance come and cool you off permanently (I don't even think that's a possibility for me).

With Love (a little annoyance),
Sidney

PS. I'm sorry I broke the radiator last night.

I might as well just stick my straw in your vagina.

It's been a busy weekend and first half of the week and if I didn't write anything today I might as well not bother at all because if I wait any longer the entire weekend will have flown right out of my head. I had to take notes again on my phone to remember what happened (there was a lot of drinking and non-Mary Ann approved activities going on). Most of the notes were gargly jokes about menstruation and glory holes (that's right I made menstruation funny and a lot of people uncomfortable). This post's title was one of my gargly text drafts and a product of Employee of the Month, Ben. Thank you Ben for today's contribution.

Let's begin with Friday the night of red pants, lady glory holes and all the period jokes I could come up with in four hours of imbibing (high five for big vocab!). What was supposed to be the first night of Halloweekend turned into Let's Just Drink At McShea's Night. W. decided to ignore all of my innuendos at work especially my own little cherry gem. For those of you who weren't there it went something like this (I think):

"Hey W. you don't have any more cherries in your caddy. It's okay I don't have mine either."

That was really the beginning of the end for me, I'm pretty sure Alanna almost busted a gut at my disgusting wit. McShea's was quiet so we took over the bar and I took my time emptying the bar's PBR keg. I kept a lookout for one of my hockey coaches before remembering that he was on retreat for the weekend with the freshman. I need to remember to get his number for next time, it turns out that the man I  so adamantly despised three years ago is the man version of me. All that wasted drinking time, oh well live and learn. Dez showed up three beers and two games of Spot the Difference later which almost made my night complete. What really did it was sitting next to W. while he made friends at the bar and making loud vagina references and sexy jokes out loud (Mom don't bother calling me I was drinking and it was Friday). The Ladies arrived just as I was about to call it a night, but I stayed an hour later to chat with them and sober up a bit more for the ride home. Don't drink and drive people, you might back into a dumpster and break your side view mirror off. I was glad I stayed too, turns out Slolly had seen The Crush and I always appreciate little nuggets of info about The Crush (word of advice: bad costume choice). When I got home I fully intended to make the cookies that I kept telling everyone I was  going to make, but somewhere between getting in the apartment and tripping over my pants I missed the opportunity to whip up a batch of Netsle Tollhouse goodness.

The good thing about drinking for me is that I tend to wake up super early no matter what time I went to bed the night (morning) before. I used the time to make the cookie dough I had been intending to make since Wednesday before I had to be off to work. Work schmork. The only good thing was that it snowed buckets on Saturday and so people decided to wait until the last minute to get supplies from Superfresh and once they got to Superfresh and realized that Buca was open and that they could just eat out and bring home leftovers instead of buying groceries they came and tipped me money for serving them mediocre Italian food. Sometimes Mainliners can be cool. Sometimes.

After having the loud Friday night that I had (it turns out I can't really remember a chunk of it) I decided to have a quieter Saturday. I hung out with The Bear at his house. We watched Horrible Bosses and drank gin, I also ate the cookie dough from earlier. It was good. I also got my ass kicked by The Bear. It turns out I'm not good at wrestling someone who's a foot taller and has forty pounds of muscle on me. It was quite embarrassing and I let my competitive edge out way too aggressively which led me to hurting my back and looking like a complete fool. Once again live and learn.

Sunday and what should have been the culmination of Halloweekend fun was more like let's tuff my face as fast as possible at McShea's 2.0. For some reason going straight from work to hockey practice and then right to the bar for the Eagles-Cowboys game made me incredibly hungry (and incredibly smelly after a night of skating). D. handed over his plat of wings with the intention of letting me have one or two and I devoured the whole plate in two minutes (not quite record breaking but still impressive) I went on to have a very tall cheeseburger and more wings. At one point in the night D. bought us all green shots that were made up of rum, Midori, and pineapple juice. I don't do shots, but this one went down pretty easy. I told Lance about them and we're going to order some the next time we hit the Matterhorn.

I need to write more frequently so that I can remember more.

Finally....I AM A SORT-OF-AUNT AGAIN!!!! My cousin Dani has just given birth to her beautiful baby girl Rylee. I am ridiculously excited to meet the baby, hopefully the Little Ball of Laugh won't get too jealous.