Last week was pretty great. Robin and I went to the StyleFixx Girl's Night. For $10, we got a delightful bag filled with all kinds of goodies, such as hairspray, Lindt's Chocolate, Cabot cheese, liquid eyeliner, a can of coffee, a subscription to Lola magazine, and lots more. We also got 5 free drinks and a 10 minute massage. I got a $25 gift certificate for an one hour massage that usually costs $80, which was a win as well! I'm telling you that that massage took 20lbs. off of my shoulders. The guy that gave the massage started to pull the muscle on my neck and he said that I would feel a slight vibration in my muscle because it was resetting itself. Whoa, Nellie! It was painful for a second and then complete nirvana descended upon my body. I went home after the massage and slept like a baby. This has made me rethink my cheapskate ways. Perhaps I should splurge once a month just for this treat. I also got a coupon for a facial and two skin care treatments at Total Skincare for $59, which usually costs $140. I made my appointment for the week following my cousin's wedding because I figure that my family will completely stress me out, so I'll need to be pampered after having to hear about how single, imperfect, fat and ugly I am. Ah, family.

I went and saw Wolverine last night. I would have regretted spending the money if Hugh Jackman wasn't half naked throughout the movie. Let's just say that I wouldn't have minded if he did the whole movie naked. The dialogue and story weren't that great, but his muscles, sideburns, swagger, and arched eyebrow made me forget about it. My memory was just as foggy as the Wolverine's except I wasn't shot in the head with a memory erasing bullet. I was too stunned by his hotness to think straight. This film must have presented some awkward situations for guys. I can just imagine the guy's line of thought: dare I take a date to a film that is action packed (a dude film, if you will) or will this point out the fact that I haven't been to a gym in years? Thankfully, women have vivid imaginations when they date men.

Since I'm going on a whole money saving kick, I figured I'd troll around for the best deals and share them.

(1) It turns out that KFC is offering free grilled chicken today (only 80 calories).
(2) On April 29th, Baskin Robbins is having a 31 Cent Scoop Night.
(3) Target has the following on sale for the week:
- California Pizza Kitchen Frozen Pizzas($3.50 each after coupon).
- Kraft salad dressing (FREE when you buy 2, after coupons)
- Kraft mayo ($0.49 each when you buy 2, after coupons).
- Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh lunch meat.
- Oreo 100 Calorie Packs.
- Apples (FREE after coupon when you buy 1 lb).
- Wheat Thins (Save $1.50 per box of Nabisco Snacks).

Here are the links to the coupons for the products listed above and much more:
http://sites.target.com/site/en/supertarget/page.jsp?title=coupons_specials&ref=sc_iw_l_1_0
http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13903&nid=10&zid=xh20&cid=14532089

My very favorite actress passed away today. Bea Arthur made me laugh at my most miserable. There's a special place in heaven for her.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/ap_en_ce/us_obit_arthur

Here are some hilarious Dorothy Zbornak moments.

The Flight of the Conchords concert was absolutely amazing. Brett and Jermaine came out wearing spacemen costumes and they immediately started singing "Too Many Dicks On The Dance Floor." They sounded great and yes, Brett is incredibly cute in person. The rest of the set list included the "Jenny" song, "Business Time," and "If Your Into It." There was a good mix of songs from the first and second season.

The tickets were very expensive and it made me realize that I'm spending too much money. Most of the money is usually spent on other people. I spend money on supplies for the library, but I'm not reimbursed because they're not essential items, such as stuffed animals, colored pencils, sticky note paper, and handiwipes. I understand that these items are not necessary, but I think they help my job go a little more smoothly and more comfortably. Money has been tight at work, especially when it comes to paper and even electricity. I think I need to figure out a way of becoming a bit more frugal. Does anybody have any tips?

I can't wait to see The Flight of the Conchords tonight! Floor tickets! Huzzah!

"Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If "needy" were a turn-on?" --Aaron Altman

The ice was quite slippery this morning and I had to make sure I didn't fall on my ass. I've already done it twice this year, but this time my balance was in serious jeopardy because I was carrying two book bags and a chocolate cake. I brought the cake to school for the book club since we were reading Harriet the Spy and as you know, Harriet loves her chocolate cake.

Getting back to the ice, as I was leaving my apartment and was trying to concentrate on keeping my balance, I heard a cry. I looked around, but didn't see anyone lying on the ground until I rounded the corner and saw a guy lying on his side. I immediately went to him and asked if he was okay. He asked for his glasses since they went flying off when he fell down. I retrieved his glasses and helped him get up even though he was three times bigger than me. I couldn't believe that the gas station attendant, who saw the whole thing didn't even come out to help, which is weird because the man fell on the gas station's property. What is this world coming to? It was pretty obvious that the guy had hit the back of his head and his injury could have been a lot more serious.

What is this world coming to when we can't even help out a neighbor?

This month has kind of been a train wreck. I need to get back on the wagon and start eating right again and go back to yoga, but for the past couple of weeks, my heart hasn't been in it.

Chocolate is definitely my weakness. I was visiting my parents and saw a couple of boxes of chocolates on the coffee table. Now, I should have read all of the warning signs: old photographs were littered all over the table, which means that my mother was cleaning out a cabinet. My guess is that the chocolates were hidden behind the photographs. I didn't pay attention to these warning signals because I was so determined to consume those chocolates (toffee and chocolate, to be precise).

I ripped off the plastic wrapping and examined the chocolates. Sure, they looked like pieces of melted turds, but the thought of crunchy toffee distracted me from thinking straight. As soon as I put a piece in my mouth, I immediately regretted it. I can only tell you that the chocolates tasted like cat toes and poop. I ran to the kitchen and tried to wash out the foul taste by drinking large quantities of orange juice and washing my mouth out with water and milk. I consumed everything in sight, hoping that the horrid flavor would disappear, but it stayed with me for the rest of the day. It was disgusting.

When my mother finally came home, I told her about the chocolates and she immediately went and took them out of the garbage. She argued that the chocolates were fine even though some of them had turned white. In fact, she ate a couple of them and then said that they were fine. She must have a stomach made of iron.

The boxes were dated 1988. Yes, they were over 20 years old.

Last week was one of those weeks that couldn't quite decided whether it was going to be a bad one or a good one for me. I managed to have some sort of miserable dizzy spell on Wednesday and when I went back to work the following day, I found out that our digital camera had been stolen at the library. Most likely it was stolen by one of the staff members, which makes it all the more disappointing since I contribute a lot of supplies out of my own pocket for crafts and other projects. I find it absolutely horrible that someone could steal from little children (in this case, the camera was meant for projects that I would do with the kindergarten and the preschool). It is a shitty situation because I don't have any money in the budget for a new camera. I was planning on doing a unit on dressing up for the winter and I was going to have the kids dress up as little snowmen with a top hat, scarf, mittens, and candy cane, but I guess that won't be happening now.

I finally bought a new laptop for myself. I haven't had a new computer in over 5 years, so I figured this was a well overdue present. It's a white Sony Viao. I got a decent deal on it at Best Buy and I suppose that it will last me another 5 years (hopefully). I also bought a new bookcase to handle all of the books that I'm acquiring. Despite being a librarian, my profession hasn't managed to satiate my need to collect all kinds of books. I'd even go so far as to say that I have access to too many books and therefore, I tend to see what I want on a daily basis and it feeds into the addiction.

I saved this part for last because it's something that has deeply sadden me and there's nothing that can be done to change it. My cousin was killed in a car accident. She had been having some sort of car trouble and stopped to check it out. Another guy stopped to help her out, but a jerk decided to run them over. She didn't have a chance. There was a messy pile up of cars after that and there's really nothing left of my cousin. She was literally crushed to pieces. It is beyond unfair and there are no words to take away the pain. There is nothing to make things right. She was only 31.

I did considerably well this Christmas in terms of gifts. My parents gave me a generous check, which I promptly spent on a new pair of boots and a camera. I received an ugly red sweater from my brother and sister-in-law. On the upside, my godson gave me a beautiful book bag and a gift certificate to Target (win!). Addy gave me a book shaped jewelry box, which she made and Danny gave me a Cullen Crest key chain and some Madlibs (double win!).

I also went to see Benjamin Button on Christmas day. I have some advice: don't waste your money. I haven't read the F.Scott Fitzgerald short story that the movie was based on, but something tells me that Hurricane Katerina was not a part of the original plot. I know I was supposed to feel sorry for Benjamin's plight, but I didn't. I didn't care that he was getting younger and that his friends were dying...I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said, "So?" There was one line of dialogue though that I did enjoy in the movie. Here's the setup: Daisy surprises Benjamin with a visit. They've been in love for years. He places her luggage on the floor, she locks the bedroom door and turns to him and says, "Sleep with me." Benjamin just takes her into his arms and says, "Absolutely." Brad Pitt kind of looked like an alien in this movie and at least we now know that he'll look awful as an old guy. For the record, I know that this movie will probably make some sort of epic sweep at the Oscars, especially for the makeup, but Pitt couldn't make me feel anything for his character. My sympathy went to my wallet, which was missing $10 after the entire affair.

I made baklava, kourabedies, finikia, gingerbread and sugar cookies for the holidays, so I've been very busy baking. All of this baking made me wonder why I haven't gone into business for myself. Is it possible to sell my sweets on etsy? I don't see a lot of people making baklava, so maybe I should. I obviously don't have time to make it into a full time gig, but baking relaxes me and it's something that I'm very good at and if I can make some extra cash on the side even better. :-)

I got up at 8am this morning. Last night, I fell asleep reading, so that might be why I had so much damn energy today. So this was my day:

(1) I went to a 2 hour yoga class.
(2) Vaccummed and dusted the apartment.
(3) Did a load of laundry.
(4) Read several chapters of Choke.
(5) Took a nap.
(6) Ate a gingerbread cookie.

and now I'm blogging...

I'm being pretty productive.

I didn't have to go to work on Friday, so I'm hoping for a delay tomorrow morning because I really, really don't want to go out into the cold tonight and shovel my car out. I know the kids will be disappointed because we won't have a literary magazine club meeting, but shoveling is not my idea of a good time.

I have to say that there's one particular boy in the club, who amuses me to no end. Little Benjamin is chubby, nerdy and extremely quotable. He has a bit of lisp and is too smart for his own good. Another little boy, Nicholas always makes fun of him, and poor Ben always says, "Ms.S can I make fun of him in the magazine?" Unfortunately, the answer is always "no," but at least he tries to convince me otherwise. On Thursday, Ben wore a red star communist pin, which featured a hammer and sickle on it. He wrote trivia questions for the activities page of the magazine and this is one of the questions that he came up : "Was Adolph Hitler a thief before he became a fascist leader?"

Ben absolutely loves Elvis and wrote an article about him. He kind of flipped out when I showed him the official Elvis Presley website. He decided to print out the lyrics to "All Shook Up," but somehow he printed out a bunch of lyrics that he did not want, and the printer kind of went haywire, so it kept on spitting out page after page. I don't know how the boy ended up on the floor, but he was rolling around trying to catch the pages. The kid is a miniature version of Clark Kent when it comes to coordination, and he kept on sputtering, "Ms.S, I can't stop the printer! I don't know what's happening!" I tried to keep a straight face and help him to his feet, but he scrambled after each piece of paper. The kid is a hoot. :-)

Instead of using my French ballet terms during my date, I should have followed the advice of my favorite TV duo...



Ananas
Jus d'orange
Boeuf
Soup du jour
Le camembert
Jacque Cousteau
Baguettte

I can't wait for the new season!

My work has been going very well except for my migraines and this horrible head cold that I can't seem to shake. Actually, the cold has now diminished into a dry cough that just refuses to let me get a good night's sleep. Bah! I feel kind of crappy, which bothers me. I mean, I think in the past I usually just accepted my poor health, but now I'm starting to wonder why I never seem to get well. A combination of events has forced me to kind of look into what I'm doing wrong. Oddly enough, this self reflection came about through a blind date that I had on Friday night.

I had a date with a French guy, who is a bio engineer in the Longwood Medical area. He was incredibly handsome - dark brown hair, lovely eyes, tall, and well groomed, but I'm sad to say that he lacked any kind of charisma. Of course, you can imagine before the date I had all kinds of fantasies involving poetic conversations a la Cyrano de Bergerac, but alas, I suffered just as much disappointment as Roxanne.

Roxane: Speak. I'll listen.
Christian: I love you.
Roxane: Yes, talk to me of love.
Christian: I love you.
Roxane: That's your theme. Embroider it. Embroider it. Embroider it!
Christian: I love you so much.
Roxane: Yes. And then?
Christian: And then... I'd love you to love me. Tell me you love me.
Roxane: You give me milk instead of cream. Say how you love me.
Christian: I love you... so much!
Roxane: Unravel your feelings!
Christian: Your throat! I want to kiss it!
Roxane: Christian!
Christian: I love you.
Roxane: Again?
Christian: No... I don't love you.
Roxane: That's better.
Christian: I worship you.
Roxane: Oh no.

So, yes, I was disappointed because although he impressed me with his choice of a fine restaurant, I wanted to hear what was on his mind. I wanted him to look at me instead of studying the menu; it seemed as if he were up for some sort of chef's exam the way he was reading that thing. The conversation was so dull that I think it would have been better if I had been out with an ugly man with at least an ounce of wit. Le sigh. Ah, well.

Despite the lack of conversation, the food was out of this world. This man spared no expense in wining and dining me. Although I felt slightly out of place on Newbury Street since I don't own any designer clothing or anything that would make me even look like I belong in a restaurant in that area. Mon cheri, what a shame!

I was quite bored as my date looked at the menu, which afforded me plenty of time to study the restaurant, which was imported from France (really!). The chef, the staff, the silverware, the decor and menus were brought over to Boston. I also noticed that at the next table, a local celebrity, Peter Mehegan of Chronicle fame, was having dinner with his companion.

I ordered a lobster for an appetizer. Yes, it was the appetizer and not just the entre! I couldn't believe it. For the main course, I had the chicken and rice dinner, which wasn't like the chicken and rice that you have over at Joy Asia. The waiter placed a napkin in my lap and brought over a large plate, where he put steamy white rice and then poured a chicken broth mixture along with a boiled chicken, truffles and other yummy vegetables. The whole meal was rather elaborate and the food was so good that I actually felt better after it. My date also bought a bottle of red wine and I have to say that my sinuses cleared up. I felt full in a good way. My tummy and body felt really energized; it also made me realize how poorly my diet has been lately. I eat nothing but junk food, which probably has to do with the fact that I just haven't had a lot of money to spare. You can eat really, really well if you've got the scratch!

When you get down to it, when I go out with my friends, we really don't have the money for fine dinning, so we end up with a pitcher of beer, a slice of pizza or a chicken nugget that's been microwaved. I never get to eat well, so you can imagine what a change of pace Friday night was for me. I went to a restaurant that actually served food that was good for me, where the staff brought the food to the table instead of screaming out your order.

After the meal, I felt well enough to continue the evening, so my date suggested the Top of the Hub. I've lived in Boston for nearly 10 years and I had never been to this restaurant. First of all, I never dated a guy that would actually take me there and secondly, I never had the money to go on my own. Sure, I had heard of the place and I had wanted to go for a long time, so of course, I nabbed the opportunity as soon as he mentioned it. The Top of the Hub is on the 52nd floor and each person has to spend at least $24 in order to be a patron! In my daily life, $24 is usually the amount that I spend on food and drinks for an entire weekend. LOL! I had a cider apple martini! Yummy stuff. The view was absolutely magnificent and I wouldn't mind going there again if I ever have the cash.

Sadly, I don't think I matched up with my date, but kudos to him for taking me to some top notch spots in town. Maybe it was a good thing that he didn't talk. Most men ruin things by talking. ;-)

Getting back to the whole point of this post, I realize that my diet has been absolutely terrible, so it's little wonder that I've been sick and just feeling crummy. I wrote down the things that I usually eat and I find it hard to believe that I actually maintain my 125lbs.

Here's the list from the last 3 days:
Snickers (2 bars)
Campbell's Soup At Hand (2 cans)
Oreo cookies (1 sleeve)
Microwaved vegetable lasagna
chicken nuggets (6) with sweet and sour sauce
corn
english muffins with butter (2)
grapes (1 bunch)
baby tomatoes with ranch dip
bulkie roll with turkey and mayo

I think it's safe to say that I'm addicted to chocolate and I'm heavy on the dips, mayo and butter. Lord, I don't know where to start to fix this, but I'll have to do some major adjustments soon if I plan on living past the age of 50.

When I was a child, I never really thought about where the librarian or any of my teachers go after school...come to think of it, I might of thought that they just lived in the teacher's lounge or in some other mysterious closet or crevice in the school. My elementary school was rather old and I remember being fascinated by the gym teacher's closet, which most of us weren't allowed into except for a few of the gym heroes (kind of creepy now that I think about it). Of course, I loved going to the library and just couldn't wait to read all of the books on every shelf, especially The Babysitter's Club and those old black & white horror movie books. The reason why I bring all this up is because the little ones at the early childhood center are always astounded whenever they see me outside of the library. They usually yell at me when they see me leaving and ask, "Where are you going?!" I guess they don't know that I actually have a home. Yesterday, a little girl saw me walking to school and she came up to me in the library, gave me a hug, and said, "I saw you walking outside!" I laughed and gave her a hug back. This is what happens when you work with kids: they're shocked when they see you outside of the school or library.

I went to Pete's birthday extravaganza this weekend. We started at a posh bar in the Sheraton and ended up at T.C.'s. After drinking ourselves silly and also acquiring a guy from New Zealand, we headed over to Stevie's for pizza and spinach pie. Margie should get the girlfriend of the year award for organizing the party.

The guy from New Zealand happened to share Pete's birthday, so he joined in on the party. I finally got the chance to say what I never thought I'd ever say in this lifetime, "Oh, from New Zealand. I hear it's beautiful. There's vikings there, right?" Luckily, he recognized my quote and laughed. He ended up wearing Pete's fedora and somehow we ended up giving him our phone numbers (I wrote mine on a purple tissue, which had a bunch of pink martini glasses printed all over it). I bet once he woke up from his drunken stupor, the guy must have been confused as to why he had a man's phone number written on his hand and a purple tissue in his pocket.

I finally got a chance to see Dark Knight and I have to say that I absolutely loved it! Christian Bale is extremely handsome (hot damn!), but the whole gravelly voice thing that he did as Batman was a bit odd. I haven't enjoyed a Bruce Wayne like this since Michael Keaton's portrayal. This is probably the best written Batman film that I've ever seen and I'll be shocked if they don't get a couple of Oscar's out of the deal, especially since it is being released again in January. What made the film impossibly sad is that Heath Ledger will never be able to come back as the Joker in other subsequent Batman films. Le sigh.

I spent the rest of my weekend trying to catch up on some sleep. Oh, I also bought Season 4 of The Office. I'll finally catch up in time for the next season. Huzzah!

I leave you with my favorite New Zealanders....

I've been busy. I have about 17 kindergarten classes per week, which is interesting to say the least. Luckily, most of my training in library school was with very young children, especially when I volunteered at Mary Finn and when I did my practicum. You have to have a lot of patience and you constantly repeat yourself, but the children usually say and do the most amusing things to make it worth your while. Quotes of the week include:

"My daddy went to Canobe lake and caught a shark with his hands."

"I have big girlfriends. Big ones!"

"You're a lot prettier than our teacher."

"The strawberries on your shirt look good enough to eat."

I caught a group of them rolling up their pant legs so that they could show each other their boo-boos.

In addition to a new job, I also have new neighbors that live in the apartment below me. Unfortunately, I can also hear them. One of the guys thinks it's cool to have his telephone conversations outside on the fire escape. EGADS! I had to listen to him talk about his supposed sexual prospects (he said that he had about 6 different women lined up). Let's hope I don't have to listen to him or any of these prospects getting it on at 3 in the morning.

Lastly, did anyone else hear about Color Me Badd's Bryan Adams getting arrested? The creep beat up his girlfriend and threated to kill her. In case you don't know who he is, here's one of their videos from the early 90's. He's the one that has a pencil thin mustache with matching eyebrows.



"We can do it until we both wake up." Huh? I still don't get it.