beautiful friends

disclaimer what follows may very well be the most shallow post in the history of blogdom. read only on a empty stomach and with the thought "hey, at least she stops the car for little old ladies in crosswalks." end disclaimer

at some point during my senior year of college, i decided all of my girlfriends were far too attractive. case in point: this photo of my two best friends, taneka and nora from high school (please note, this was taken this year, NOT in high school)



once you stop drooling (or hating, depending on your gender) let me tell you how these are two of the girls who know me the best. they're the kind of friends who tell you when you have something in your teeth... or when your jeans just aren't fitting as well as they used to. they're the kind of friends who will hug you when you're down... and then tell you when it's time to pick yourself up and brush yourself off again.

anyway, i was talking about prettiness. the bottom line is that my quest for unattractive girlfriends has proved fruitless.



even some of my newest friends (note tiffany, the redhead) have proved to be far too attractive! tiff and i met through the celery stick from last summer. she was, by far, the best thing that came out of that "relationship." i knew that when she gave me a handmade scarf for my birthday and when she held my hair back one particularly intoxicated night.

i've known both emily (blonde on the right) and kate (blonde on the left)forever too... kate and i used to bond in the sixth grade in our elective. we lost each other for a while, but ended up working together the summer of 2002. emily and i were always the tall girls in high school. you can't tell from this photo, but em is 6'1" (that's tall for a girl). we played tennis and soccer together and one of my biggest triumphs came during my junior year soccer season- when i knocked this tennis/basketball/soccer playing swimmer down during one practice. good times!

so, no unattractive girls to make me look better... just fabulous girls to support me when i need to feel better.

well, hot damn, i'm inspired!

quick, somebody talk me out of enlisting!!



spiderman and captain america? now THAT'S what i call patriotism.

a moment in time

in my haste to find programming last night after what will henceforth be known as "W Ruins My Week," i stumbled across a show that brought me straight back to my childhood... why don't they make quality title sequences any more?

now this is my story, all about how
my life got flipped, turned upside down
i'd like to take a minute, just sit right there...
i'll tell you how i became prince of a town called bel air...

sadly, i could continue... i think if all my brain cells which are taken up with random song lyrics were taken up with chemical equations, there would be a cure for cancer...

the OC pre-empted!!

ohhhhhh how my night is ruined!! i can't even explain how mad i am...

i leave happy hour drinks early to come home and watch my favorite show (the OC). i start the tea kettle, change into my sweatpants... and prepare to indulge myself.

i tune in to FOX 43 and see, not the love of life Adam Brody... but the hate of my life W!!!!!!!

THE OC WAS PRE-EMPTED WITH A PRESS CONFERENCE WITH STUPID GEORGE W BUSH!!

AND NOT JUST ANY PRESS CONFERENCE, MY FRIENDS-- ONE TO TALK ABOUT HIS SOCIAL SECURITY "REFORM" BILL... JUST IN CASE I WASN'T ANGRY ENOUGH...

aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

i bet if virginia were a blue state i would have gotten to see my show.

dude from ja's poker night

"i'm more about the dollars and cents than the handcuffs."

...but the celery can still hurt your feelings.

greek tragedy is my second favorite blog. stephanie klein writes about adventures in and around new york city in such an honest voice it's hard not to believe her. (we can all thank brad for sending me the link to it and getting me hooked.)

in one of my favorite posts funnel cake and celery sticks she writes about two different types of men: the bad but oh-so-good boy who is so good at the time [funnel cake] but hurts later and the good-for-you boy who just doesn't seem to be quite right [celery stick] and just doesn't fill you up, no matter how much you have.

my celery stick came in the form of the-boy-i-dated-last-summer (please note: NOT my ex-boyfriend).

like a washing machine, as one of my friends described him, reliable. non-offensive. attractive in the way that makes your friends say 'erika he's cute' but doesn't make you worry when you go out in public. nice guy. nice.

i got stuck in my own inertia. i knew it wasn't going anywhere-- but everyone knows it's nice to have someone to be the last call of the evening. someone to try new restaurants with. someone who would go see the movie you want to see. [apparently, my time limit for moving out of my own inertia is longer than 3 months] i got comfortable.

maybe i put too much peanut butter [not reduced fat peanut spread] on my celery stick. smothered it in full-fat buttermilk ranch dressing. breaded it and put it in the deep fryer. i don't know- but, it seems, the celery stick can still hurt your feelings.

does she really like me, or is she just faking it?

third time is the charm. upon the advice of 3 people smarter than me, i've removed this post.

DOOCED.

the real world sucks.

people who suffer

do you think people who suffer great tragedy appreciate their happiness more? do they deserve happiness more than the rest of us?

this is my friend michelle and her fiance- well, husband now! michelle is someone who deserved happiness and found it. she has continuous health problems... her sister died unexpectedly a few years ago... and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

i may act otherwise, but i have had a virtually suffer-free life. i had food to eat, i had sisters to run around with, i had clothes on my back. and, let's face it, i have a dooney hearts bag. my life is pretty great.

does that mean i don't appreciate my happiness as much as michelle does?

if my sister gets rich...

my life will be complete.


"i'm buying a villa in tuscany.  mom and dad can live in a house on the property.  paul's parents can too, if they want. 

i will have cats and a goat and will make goat cheese."


on a related note, my cat LOVES goat cheese.

I couldn't fall asleep last night

And if there's one thing I'm good at, it's sleeping!

I laid in bed for like 45 minutes and then turned the light back on to write for a bit.

Then I woke up at 3:30. ( I sleep through the night)

Then I woke up at 5:30 (my alarm goes off at 6:20)

Then I finally just got up at 6:00.

I took a power walk along the beach. The Chesapeake Bay was as calm as it can be, really.

calm down

does life every really calm down? as i get older i keep waiting for things to plateau, for there to be less drama in my world- personally, professionally, financially- but the drama factor just keeps increasing.

maybe drama is the wrong word. chaos, too, has a negative connotation. it's not always bad, though. sometimes i have too much social life, too many people i love around, too much happiness! more times than not, however, it is some great deal of upheaval causing my head and heart to ache.

My worlds collide

As it turns out my two worlds aren't that different. I can't escape my work even in my favorite TV show!!

Check this out:

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/6771.html

just plain old crazy

does a doctor have to tell you if you've had a nervous breakdown? or is it like a cold, all the symptoms are there so it must be true.

runny nose, check.
hacking cough, check.

hyperventilation, check.
restlessness, check.
uncontrollable tears, check.


maybe it's more like a bladder infection. you feel the symptoms, but really need the doc to confirm it.

feeling philosophical

how do you know when you want to be with someone?

is it in the moments... when he says the sweet things that make your heart hurt a bit? when he says the things that make your head hurt even more?

how do you know when you want to be with yourself?

i'm good at that. i'm good at being alone, at being single the word most girls hate. i don't think of myself as erikaand but rather as erika- me, the real me, the crazy me, the me who says things she doesn't mean.