Things should pick up when my arranged marriage comes through.

I've been meaning to write (complain) about this for a while, but it's only now that I've remembered to do it. Have you heard the remix for Adele's Rolling in the Deep? It is terrible. Like really really terrible. It's pretty much a slightly discofied version of the original song. If the producers were really thinking they would have brought Nicki Minaj in. Then it would have been a remix. I told one of my friends that the remix blew, but he adores ADORES Adele, no he's not gay, so it was like talking to the wind.

Sucks right?

Okay, bad song aside, its been a decent, but not too exciting weekend. It's been mostly a work weekend. I can back from vacation in Vermont and found out that my restaurant work schedule was completely messed up. I ended up not being able to work a bunch of the shifts that I was scheduled for because I was already at my other job. So I spent this weekend wheeling and dealing to get the shifts I want and ended up making a decent amount of money considering that the summer has been so slow. I gave up fighting about next weekend though and now I'm not working Friday night. Good thing or bad thing?

This weekend I also learned how to play beer roulette, well roulette in general. I didn't know there was such a thing as beer roulette and neither did anyone at work. One girl did get excited when I explained it to her, exclaiming, "Oh I love drinking games!" I got about two words into explaining the game when she said that so still no one at work knows how to play the game. I will say that it is quite fun, especially because I tend to get reckless when I gamble. I was not playing with money, if I had been I would now be behind in a year's worth of rent from losing so much. Fortunately the currency was beer and since I had no intention of sleeping in their oversized apartment I faked taking sips and then peaced out as soon as it got a little too crazy. 

I got out of work earlier than I usually do on Sundays. I opened today so I could get out early and I must say that I don't mind it at all. Losing a few hours in the morning more than makes up for the ones I gain at night. Though now that Neil is gone I have no one to hang out with on Sunday nights :( Instead I used the time to do Yoga Flex from P90X. This workout is a little longer than the others so it helps to have a large chunk of free time so that I'm not rushed and have to cut anything short. I love the yoga on this program because it's fast paced but it's also broken up into two parts: flow and balance. I have decent skill in the flow part because the movements are similar to what I used to do in dance and in skating, but I really excel in the balance poses. Jumping around on thin blades has finally paid off for me. 

Same concept. 

Now that I have all of this free time I almost don't know what to do with myself. I still have another week before school starts, but until then I'm left with my own devices. I told one of my friends that I was around tonight, but I'm not going to push it. If he wants to hang out with me then he'll call, but I'm not going to hold my breath. Neil's leaving has definitely left a hole in Sundays and everyone else is away on vacation or still a work. Poo. 

All images from google.

Anger as soon as fed is dead, tis starving makes it fat.

I got a very rested but very interrupted sleep last night. Last night I worked out and then read for a little while and then when I was trying to fall asleep the girly cramps kicked in full force. Now ladies you know what I'm talking about, the ones that are full body and crippling. The ones that come in waves like labor pains and have put me off childbirth forever and ever. If you're one of the lucky women out there that has no idea what I'm talking about I envy you. While my body was in the throes of agony I chatted up one of my friends. Not the best idea talking to a boy when all you want to do is rip out your uterus. The poor guy tried to be sympathetic, but all I heard was "thank god I'm a boy." Well poo poo on you.

Around 4am I was awakened by something. I'm not sure if it was the storm, the cramps, or something else, but I was up. For some reason I also had the need to check my email, since it hadn't been working earlier and was slightly disturbed by an actually nothing sort of email. In my paranoid state however, I was so freaked out that I couldn't fall back asleep until about 6am. I have problems, I know. Anyways while I was awake I texted a friend about my paranoia over the email and now I'm pretty sure he's ready to commit me to the nut house. I can't help it, I fear confrontation.

In between getting a little more sleep and going to work I decided not to work out (totally regret that now) and instead watch the new episode of Wilfred. Jason Gann is officially going on the potential husband list. Seriously he is brilliant as a man in a dog costume. The show has definitely made me want to get my Siberian husky sooner than later and now I want to play frisbee all of the time. Someone please play frisbee with me!

I just realized that I have start school in ten days which means that I only have one more official week to go to the beach. Total sad face right now. I need to plan this one carefully too because there's so much going on in the office and I don't want to spend the last beach week alone on the beach so I have to make sure my beach buddy is available and all that jazz. SO much planning goes into this, argh!

Lions and tigers and thunderstorms. Oh my!

This morning was a morning of "Let's wake Sidney up" oddisms. It started with my alarm going off a little before 7am. I had no real intention of getting up at 7am, but with school around the next couple of bends I figured it's time to start reminding myself that eventually I will have to get up at 7am. So I woke up, slightly. I noticed that I had an incredible long mass-text message from an unknown number on my phone and after a little sleepy sleuthing and brain racking I remembered that Marissa is leaving for school this morning and that she must have been saying ta-ta to all of us. Just to be sure though I texted her back and she awkwardly admitted that it had been her texting me before the sun had come up. I tentatively fell back asleep and I was only down for about a half hour when the thunderstorm from Hell rolled in and scared the crap out of me. The lightning and thunder were so bright and loud and after a night of reading and watching SVU episodes I was too tired and still a little shocked to do anything but huddle under the ten blankets I've accumulated on my bed from having the air conditioning on too high while I sleep. The storm outside was so wild that car alarms kept going off and I could hear women screaming as they tired to make their way to the Septa stop. I love rainy mornings and I wish that this storm had happened Wednesday morning instead, it would have been a lot nicer and more appreciated then. Around 8am I texted one of my friends who also appreciates insane weather. He must have still been asleep because his response was a bit typoed but I got his point. Eventually the rain bouncing off of every one's air conditioning units lulled me back into unconsciousness until my alarm went off sometime after 10am. By then I was up so I did a little blog reading and finished the rest of the movie that I had left in my laptop.

It's a slow day at work today but I am pleased to announce that I have become an aunt. Amazing I know since my only sister is probably the last person on the planet to give birth out of wedlock. Well rest assured mom and all you other Christian crusaders my sister did not give birth. I just an aunt in name. One of the ladies I work with brought her grandchildren into the office today and to introduce us to all of them she adds aunt to our names and calls us all her work family. It's cute especially since I don't actually have to participate in anything past the introductions. It's an incredibly slow day today which is good because it's given me time to work on this and get a little reading done. I've started read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I wish I could stop time and read all day because I can't put this book down. Unfortunately I have things to do and I keep getting interrupted. When I finish I'll let you know what I think, so far it's amazing. My friend over at My Everyday Discoveries is OBSESSED with the movies and the series and he even has a poll going about who makes a better Lisbeth Salander. You can share your opinion here.

After work I have to work out and then I think I'm going to head over to IKEA and pick up a few things and then go to Home Depot. I need spray paint to finish up my the stuff in my apartment and then I will be satisfied with any home improvements I've got going on for a little while. Somewhere in there I also have to clean up my kicthen.

They let me go early! I won 'Most Cooperative Inmate' four months running

Right now I am on the road. I'm probably in New York, but at the rate that I get up in the mornings there's still a strong chance that I'm only in Vermont still. Plus if I stopped to visit my mother in Berlin then yeah, I'm still in Vermont. It's been a good trip so far, here's hoping I make it home without a ticket or a flat tire.

I got my new license yesterday. Since I won't be home in September when my license expires and I needed to update my pictured, I ventured into the DMV. The DMV in Vermont may be small, but it is still the same as anywhere else: a big joke. I had to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in another line. I did meet a nice guy while I was waiting for my turn. He lives in a small town and works in the woods. If I had been home for the summer I would have considered asking for his number, but I'm also trying to move away from that type of guy no matter how nice and charming there are. I'm not going to settle for just good looks and a good body. I want more and I will wait impatiently until I meet that person. But anyways I now have a grownup license! Woot!

I look the same, but now I'm horizontal! Haha.

Yesterday at the book store I found the greatest thing ever. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the children's book Pat the Bunny. It's a cute peach colored book about a bunny and textures that the child can feel while they read the book. At the book store I saw a parody of it called, Pat the Zombie. As a lover of all things zombie, instantly I was thrilled and sent a picture of the book to my friend who is writing a zombie survival guide. (Yonni my 22nd birthday is in almost a month and I would love a first draft :) JK take your time and don't rush your art). If anyone finds any other cool zombie things please send them to me.

It needs brains! Zombie bunny brains!

By the time you've finished this I have hopefully made it to I-87 and am cruising my way on down to the Thruway. What an evil evil road the Thruway is. Almost as bad as the expressway in rush hour. Goodbye empty Vermont highway, hello six lane traffic. It's been fun but Philadelphia needs me.

True fact: This is what a Vermont interstate highway looks like and there are only two of them. 

P.S. Please think good thoughts for my Hebrew Friend. He hasn't been feeling very well lately.

Hey that last guy was at least a six.

I haven't written in a few days because A: I'm on vacation, B: I didn't want to and C: I'm on vacation. The problem with not writing though is that I have all of these awesome things happening to/around me that I end up having too much to say and so my posts become super long (and a little boring) and I forget half the stuff that I wanted to write about in the first place. So I've decided to write now instead of waiting until I get home tomorrow night. I'm in Vermont right now for those of you aren't Cynthia! or Yon or missed the fact that I typed vacation twice in a sentence (see above). I have so much energy from all of the thoughts zooming through my head right now I keep getting distracted by the episodes of M*A*S*H that I'm watching right now and all of the cool stuff that I keep finding on the internet (because there is so much cool stuff out there besides the porn), it's hard to focus and put this all down.

Alright I'll just start. Today I bought more books. I had the car in Burlington while my mom was at an appointment and since it was raining I did the obvious thing, go to Barnes and Noble. I have purchased so many books this summer I could open up my own bookstore, hey there is a space available in Wynnewood so you never know. Actually I do know, I don't like to share my books with most people, a trait I've inherited from Lance. So I went in and it seriously is the book Mecca of Vermont. There has never been a better Barnes and Noble than the one in South Burlington. It is the best corporate bookstore around. Two stories of book bliss. While I was there I purchased the second Flappers book, I have an unabashed addiction to YA literature, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, my Hebrew Friend has been telling everyone to read this book and since Lance doesn't lend his books to anyone I had to buy my own, and a copy of One Day. I've been seeing this book everywhere and when I went to see The Help with my mom the trailer for One Day played and the movie looks amazing so I'm hoping that the book is as well.

I also went to the Good Will today too. I've become obsessed with finding thrifty things to decorate my apartment with. I started at the car show flea market this weekend looking for empty frames to paint and hang on my wall. I saw the idea of hanging empty frames at art pieces in an article on Hello Giggles and now I have to do it to my own walls. I painted three that I found at the car show white and then I found three more at the Good Will for .99 cents each. I was excited and I think I'm going to paint these one a couple of different colors and hang them on the purple wall in my living room. I'm only in the apartment for nine more months but I think that's still plenty of time to make the apartment cool and pretty. I've also become obsessed with spray painting things. I have a couple of lamps that need to be painted when I get back to the city and them I'm going over to IKEA to get cheap lampshades and a small area rug if I can find one.

I'm also taking home the extra power drill in the garage. I have to hang up the frames and and some shelves to hold up all of the new books that I've bought recently. I picked up a few Faulkner's at the library book sale this weekend for the price of: on the house (that was for you Kyle). Since my book shelves are completely filled I have to put them somewhere else. I love old books so the ones that don't fit in the cases and shelves I am going to use as part of the decor I have going on: mumbly jumbly.

The best thing about this weekend was the visit to the Matterhorn. The greatest little ski bar at the base of Mountain Mansfield. It was first opened by my Latin teacher Ms. Knapp back in the 80s and has since changed hands many times, but it is now a super cool bar where you can get the greatest sushi. I always get the soft shell crab roll, it has the legs and claws sticking out of the ends of the roll. I also went with the spicy tuna martini this time too. It's segments of raw tuna and seaweed tossed in a spicy Thai sauce, topped with caviar and served in a martini glass. So yummy! And of course to accompany this I also had one of Jesse mai tais. 

A delicious drink that smells like coconut rum. 

My sushi. There is next to no real lighting and my phone doesn't have a flash :(

Check back tomorrow. I'll be in transit but there will be a post sometime tomorrow afternoon. 

Next time you're in Upper Darby you better let me know. I'm about to get laid off and I live with my mom.

The heartland of Uzbekistan is the Fergana Valley. Located across most of the country, this valley is extremely fertile and protected by mountains at the north and at the south. Two rivers run through the valley supplying life to area. Once part of the Northern Silk Road, it sustains the country's silk industry. It is a beautiful part of a often overlooked country in western Asia. I want to go to Uzbekistan and see the Fergana Valley. I want to stay in a yurt and hike through the mountains and travel along the rivers.

Fergana Valley

I just got back recently from a trip to Ocean City, NJ with my Hebrew Friend to see some friends who are staying at the shore for the week. It was the perfect day for the shore. Completely flawless skies and just the right amount of waves to go swimming and body surfing. We left the city early and were able to have a full rich day in Jersey. The shore was not too crowded, kind of like going to the Park on a weekend when the state park is too full to get into. We were all able to swim (those of us that actually like water), read, rest, and play Frisbee. Hebrew Friend taught me to play football though I still need some help with my catching and aim. He and I are going to have to go throw a ball around when I get back from Vermont (I'm not terribly excited about driving home alone tomorrow evening). Mini golf and pizza concluded our day and I did get a chance to see Chem Anna in action at the coffee shop. On the way home I nearly fell asleep, but then had a extremely enlightening experience with a friend. 

Yes I was with this person and yes he wore socks and shoes on the beach.

This time last year Chem Anna began her senior freak out. She would unexpectedly cry and fret about the idea of leaving school and getting into grad school. She had a hard time letting go of her safety net and preparing for the scariness of the real world. I though she and my other senior friends were crazy for crying about leaving school. They were only nine months away from no more homework. I thought that they should be celebrating and not mourning. Now that it's my turn, I feel even less prepared and successful than Chem Anna and some of my other friends who recently graduated. I just cry and cry at unexpected moments about school and the paths I've taken and how my life is going to turn out at the end of the next nine months. I'm scared about graduating especially since I will only have been working at my chosen major for three semesters. I don't have enough material for a portfolio to send to graduate schools and I haven't started studying for the GREs. I'm also terrified about leaving because I don't know where I'm going and I know I can't go home. I also don't want to leave my best friend. For the first time I have someone that I am unconditionally close to and I'm not quite prepared to put any distance between us. When I was in Vermont last time Lance said some very sage words to me: "Most choices aren't wrong, they're just not right." The decisions that I've made may not have been the best or the wisest for me but they've led me to finding a passion or two and to Yonni and to new skills. I'm just waiting for when I can start making the right choices the first time around. 

All dads like what their sons get them.

Last night I had dinner out with a friend and I can't believe how much I've missed just having a nice dinner with good company. Too often I'm just at the bar with friends and it's too loud to actually spend any quality time, and someone always leaves too early, and of course someone always drinks too much. It just gets old too after a while and it becomes more like people drinking in the same place than friends spending any real time together. Having dinner with my friend tonight was nice. We went out which I haven't done in a while and got to catch up and be together. I prefer doing dinner at home because I like to be in charge of the food I'm eating and I like cooking with other people and it's infinitely cheaper to cook at home for me. But the point of all this is that I need spend less time at the bars and more time in with friends.

 "All this over a book? I have cousins who shot each other, and they got over it."

I watched Peep World when I got home form dinner. It was an interesting and funny movie about a son who wrote a thinly veiled tell-all about his family and has gone off to make a ton of money and a movie about his family's dirty secrets. The movie takes place the day of his father's 70th birthday and how the family reacts about coming together for the first time since the publication of the book, Peep World. It's fantastic and completely true for everyone, we all have dysfunctional families, some more than others. The casting was prefect for this movie too. It starred Ben Schwartz as the youngest brother who wrote the book depicting his siblings, played by Michael C. Hall, Sarah Silverman, and Rainn Wilson, in bad lights. The acting by these people was phenomenal and very different from the roles that you usually see them in. The supporting cast of Judy Greer, Kate Mara, and Taraji P. Henson was also outstanding. And nothing is better than Lewis Black as the narrator.