Category Archives: adventures

by | January 29, 2009 · 3:27 pm

oh hi, it’s me. i blog?

I’m back.  I’ve come back from an unsuccessful foray into the real world (read:  no place to live or a job…but I might have found a place to live.  But still no job.  That should be interesting.  That’s another post.) and I’m back to the la la land of blogging where I can do what I love and pretend I’m getting paid!  (Barack, could we speed up that fixing the economy business?  I know it’s not going to happen overnight…but I need it to get better so people want to hire me.)

So. Much. To. Talk. About.  So we have a new president.  AWESOME. (If you don’t want to read one more freaking word about inauguration then just skip to the next paragraph.) Yours truly was there in the throws of things.  I got to spend some quality time with Jessica Alba and her husband, Cash Warren.  Cash, by the way, was much nicer than she was and not nearly as much of a jerk as Perez Hilton makes him out to be.  If I had taken a picture with Jessica, I would have posted it, but I was trying to keep my cool and pretend like I didn’t care that she was a celebrity.  Maybe it worked but it was a HUGE mistake on my part, because now I have no actual evidence.  Whatev.  Barack’s speech was perfect.  It was HOPEy, CHANGEy, alluded to our new style of diplomacy, and presented a strong national image and showed he was not going to mess around.  RAWR.  I made it to a couple balls, but never got to see B and Meesh dance.  Wahhh.  We arrived just as Biden did, so they wouldn’t let us in.  They were going to let us in between Joe and Barack, but guess what.  They didn’t.  I stood in the cold for forty minutes waiting.  You know what made it better though?  Walking in and James Taylor was playing.  Niiiiiiiiiice.  Okay, that’s all I’m going to say about the great inaug.  Nope it’s not.  I would wear everything Michelle Obama wears.  Foxy.  Hell, I’d wear Sasha and Malia’s clothes too.  Too cute.  ENOUGH! ENOUGH.

Barack is going to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act today.  It will now be law that women deserve the same pay as men.  I cannot believe it took this long.  If you want to read the stories that prove we need this legislation, read this NYT op-ed.  Hooray!

In other great news, PETA is still batty.  I meant to blog about them wanting to change the word “fish” to “sea kittens” but I didn’t.  So get over it.  Hopefully, you know about that anyway.  If you don’t, here’s the deal.  Fish have feelings, etc.  So when you eat fish, they want you to feel bad about it.  Like REALLY REALLY bad.  They think the best way to do this is to change the name of fish to sea kittens.  I am not making that up.  But that’s not even what I am talking about.  PETA has a vegetable sex ad that got denied for a Superbowl slot.  Vegetable sex.  Yeah, I said it and yeah, I know you pervs want to watch it:

Wowie.  Thank you, PETA, for grossing me out AND making me feel bad about myself at the same time.  And I’d like to see their sources for their information.  How do they KNOW that vegetarians have better sex?

Okay, I’m off to stalk le internets and find more goodness for you to enjoy while you work.  And I do not work.  Really, this is community service.  Right, Mom and Dad?

[Posted by Kathleen]

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by | January 27, 2009 · 3:42 am

and it’s peace, man, cool, yeah.

This weekend, I was up in NYC visiting friends, and on Friday night I saw Joshua Radin (!!!) in concert. I was crazy excited about seeing him. He put on a good live show, brought Ingrid Michaelson out with him to duet on “Sky,” and we hooked up after the show. Most of that is true. Speaking of Ingrid Michaelson, she wasn’t wearing pants on stage. She had a longish sweater on (just BARELY covered her ass-thigh junction) with tights. Ribbed, partially see-through tights.

Ladies, do I need to say it again? Leggings are not pants. They should not be worn as though they are pants. And if LEGGINGS are not pants, it logically follows that PARTIALLY SHEER TIGHTS are ALSO not pants. Ingrid, I think you are wonderful and witty and very talented, but that does not exempt you from these rules. I hate pants as much as the next person (and probably more) but unfortunately, they’re a necessity. And Girl I Saw in Penn Station? It should go without saying that these rules apply to leather leggings as well.

But I digress. Back to the concert. My friends and I were there to see Joshua Radin, but I ended up really enjoying the other two acts as well. Jesse Harris opened, and he was great — a little dude in a flannel shirt playing a banjo. Here’s a sample of his stuff:

My friend Madeline and I stalked him a little the next day, and discovered that though Mr. Harris may have just been a rando dude in a flannel shirt to us, he’s pretty legit in the music business. In fact, he’s a Grammy-winner, and wrote Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why.” Pretty cool, eh?

The show was a double-headliner kind of thing, with Joshua and Dar Williams. I previously felt sort of “meh” about Dar Williams, but I like her a lot more after seeing her live. She closed with this song:

It’s probably the most adorable song I’ve ever heard, and it (clearly) made me cry. I had a lot of babysitters that I was close to, and I’ve been close to a lot of the kids I’ve watched, so this song really gets to me. It’s strange how for a few years, kids can have an incredibly significant relationship with their sitters, only to have both parties grow up and never see each other again. 

Okay enough nostalgia for tonight. I have books about child abuse to read, hooray!

UM MAJOR P.S. Look what I found!

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | January 19, 2009 · 4:44 am

t minus two days until history.

I should be out celebrating the four-day weekend and impending inauguration of my dear Barry with the rest of the District, but instead I’ve gotten sucked into watching yet another House marathon. It seems that every Sunday night for the past, oh, twelve Sundays, I’ve been glued to the teevee watching the delightful drama of Gregory House and crew. It’s weird, because I’ve never watched an entire season or enough shows in a row to get in tune with the relationships between all the characters, but it’s such an addicting show that it really doesn’t matter. (And I’ve watched enough to gather that Cameron and House almost had a thing, or maybe they did have a thing? Where are those episodes?!)

Because I’ve been watching so much House, it’s always a huge shock to me when I’m reminded that Hugh Laurie is English. I mean, who knew he really sounded like this?

So much more likable! I wonder if he gets really, really sick of faking the American accent of a very angry dude. 

In other news, there’s um, some pretty exciting stuff happening this week. I’m not nearly as excited as I feel like I should be, except for random moments of joy where I’m all “Oh my god…next week at this time George Bush will no longer be our President.” Won’t you just feel calmer and happier knowing that he’s out of the picture? I know I will.

I’m one of those poor, common DC residents who doesn’t have tickets to any fancy balls and who doesn’t get to be close enough to the actual inauguration ceremony to ask Malia and Sasha if they want me to be their new babysitter. But still, I’m really freaking glad to be in DC right now. The sheer fact that we all get Tuesday off is exciting; it’s like we get a snow day and the rest of the country doesn’t. (Suckaaas.)

Of course, we do have to deal with the four bajillion people who are apparently coming for the Big Day. I’m a leetle nervous for that. As of now, my inaugural plans are to attend a cheesy Obama-themed party tomorrow night (think Barackli and Cheese and Sloppy Joe Bidens) and then brave the crowds with the rest of the world tomorrow. I’m still crossing my fingers that a front row ticket will turn up and I’ll get to hold Michelle’s mom’s hand throughout the ceremony. I’ll keep you posted.

In other other news, I get to see Joshua Radin in concert in NYC on Friday! So if things this week aren’t exciting as I want them to be, I can always try to get Joshua to fall in love with me this weekend. 

Sometimes my friends tell me I’m delusional. Sometimes I think they’re right.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | January 17, 2009 · 6:54 pm

put your hands up and shout.

So our Argentine correspondent just sent this phenomenal video to me. Try to watch it without grinning, or if you’re a freak like me (and don’t you WISH your girlfriend was a freak like me?), prepare to cry a little, with joy:

Happy Inaugural Weekend.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | January 8, 2009 · 2:39 am

to cry face, smartfood, and pedicabs.

Because I miss my best friend, and because she is a phenomenal Cry Facer, and because I haven’t posted a Hump Day Cry Face for way too long…

kelsey

I swear, she’s pretty in real life. And if a pretty person can look this ugly, well, that’s a good Cry Face.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | January 8, 2009 · 12:43 am

all hail the naked vail skier.

Picture your most humiliating nightmare.  Perhaps you are naked in front of a crowd.  Mine might involve looking like I was 13 again.  You’re thinking about it now.  Mortifying, is it not?  Well some poor dude in Vail lived a very imaginative nightmare.  Like the only funny scene from an unbearably unfunny Jim Carrey movie, he found himself dangling upside down from a ski lift san pants with his dangly parts totally exposed in the frigid cold.  Errr… here are the pictures.  You can’t make this shit up.

0106091vail1

HAHAHAHA

0106091vail4b

And finally, he is showed some mercy.

0106091vail31

Stifle your laughter, fools!  The man suffered from exposure!  Okay, you can giggle, because it is comedy of the absurd.

According to the press release, he was suspended for about seven minutes.  NOT seven minutes in heaven, I’m sure.  Pantsless man, I know nothing we, your fellow Americans, can ever do will erase the pain of this ordeal, but I propose that any time you go to a bar, your drinks are free.  But you know who I feel worst for?  His kid.  Sitting right next to him.  Hahaha. oh dear.  Therapy much?

[Posted by Kathleen]

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by | January 1, 2009 · 7:36 pm

mohammed from johnny rockets sent me.

My wacky friend Colleen has a REALLY good feeling about 2009. It’s an underestimated year, she thinks, which means people will be blindsided by its goodness. (Except Colleen as she is totally anticipating the goodness.) 

I have to agree with her. Or, I hope to agree with her. We’re coming out of a really shitty year overall, and it simply has to go up from here. 

I had my first real New Year’s out last night (as in not a house party or random downtown adventures while underage). I know a lot of people hate New Year’s because of the pressure for it to be OMIGOD THE BEST NIGHT OF THE YEAR, and a lot of people simply hate the crowds. I totally get that, but I figured why not have at least ONE legit New Year’s before deciding to hate it.

Except I had a ridiculously good time last night. I went to a huge party that involved three bars, two DJ’s and a live band, an open bar, etc. etc. When I first arrived, I was freezing to death and couldn’t help but hate the crowdedness of it all. But once we discovered the room with dancing and beer that didn’t require a 20-minute wait and the fighting off of douchebags, we were set. 

After midnight, we moved on to the live band and got hit on by creeps and bouncers and it was a wonderful time. I would, though, like to make a public complaint about the live band. They didn’t know/wouldn’t play any of the following songs:

“The Weight,” by The Band (too slow)

“Romeo and Juliet”, by Dire Straits (too slow)

“Your Love,” by The Outfield (THEY DIDN’T KNOW IT)

“You Shook Me All Night Long,” by AC/DC (they can’t sing that high)

I mean, REALLY?! And you call yourself a cover band?! 

My New Year’s ended with Johnny Rockets’ french fries and milkshakes, which were UM-MAZING. If you’re ever in Georgetown, go to Johnny Rockets and ask for Mohammed. He dances and recommends great bars for you to go to after your meal. (We, um, didn’t take his advice.)

Here’s to 2009! In the wise words of The Walkmen, I know that it’s true, it’s gonna be a good year.

Let’s bring it in with the help of some mullets and bad dancing:

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | December 25, 2008 · 2:05 am

but you’ll shoot your eye out!

a_christmas_story

Yes, it is Christmas eve and I am blogging. What of it?  But I have to share this with the world.  In case you didn’t know, the best movie EVER is on the teevee for a solid 24 hours straight.  Twenty-four hours of “A Christmas Story”?  YES PUHLEASE!  I’ll watch it inbetween meals.  So turn on TBS.  This movie makes me laugh so hard I cry.  The scene with the leg lamp?  PRICELESS!

Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra!

Also, in case you wanted to keep tabs on the big guy in red, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has a Santa tracker going.  As of right now, he’s in between the South Pole and South America.  He best be getting to the US of A tonight!  Specifically, my house.

http://www.noradsanta.org/

Merry Christmas!  I hope Santa is good to you!

[Posted by Kathleen]

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by | December 22, 2008 · 5:35 am

nothing like stone for the holidays.

A few months ago, I ordered myself a Rolling Stone subscription on some sketchy website using my super sweet student discount. I never saw an issue of the magazine, so I figured I had been scammed. Little did I know, the magazines were somehow coming to my home address, so there was a stockpile of them waiting when I arrived in Denver at 3 a.m. last night.

Flight delays are fun, huh? I checked into the airport in DC at 12:30 p.m. and arrived in Denver well over twelve hours later thanks to the clusterfuck that was the Boston airport. Not that I’m really complaining. I had Dave Egger’s What Is the What with me, which provided many hours of distraction along with the perspective check of, “Hey, waiting in a climate-controlled airport with plenty of food and water for half a day is not even remotely bad when compared to walking through the Sudanese desert for months, starving and half-naked.”

In general, I’m just glad I was able to get home last night and didn’t get stuck for a few days. (I’m also glad that I wasn’t in the position of these poor people on a flight out of Denver last night.) Plus, my luggage never left Boston, so I’ve been able to justify not leaving my couch because, you know, I don’t even have any CLOTHES to wear in public.

Which leads me back to my real point: I love Rolling Stone. For starters, I always feel pretty damn cool reading it, a la William Miller in Almost Famous. But I really, erm, read it for the articles. I started with the oldest magazine so I could read them in chronological order (OCD, people. OCD), so I’m back in mid-November reading articles about the election and the bailout. Naomi Klein’s article on the bailout made me veddy veddy angry, and Matt Taibbi’s roundup of his favorite moments on the campaign trail made me even happier to be an elitist liberal. Take this quote, for instance:

“The collapse of the Bush administration left the Republican Party utterly bankrupt of ideological advantage. The Bush era made it impossible to sell the party as fiscally conservative ($10 trillion deficit), militarily superior ($12 billion a month fighting a handful of Arabs in sandals to a blood draw), or even as the party of ‘moral values’ (a raft of Republicans caught offering to suck off strangers in restrooms or texting little boys on the Internet).”

Politically correct, Taibbi is not. But still, GO BARRY.

So if you need me over the next few days, you can find me on my couch, in my high school pajamas, weeping into a Rolling Stone as I watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

[Posted by Mallory]

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by | December 17, 2008 · 7:23 pm

and i’m back in the game!

Hello dear readers!

It’s me, Kathleen, your long lost backpacking blogger.  I’m back from South America and I look tan!  Wooohooo!  I went to five countries in 32 days, had “stomach issues” and saw flamingos.  Some other stuff too, I guess.  Now this is going to sound lame, but one of the things I missed most while away was writing for this blog.  Obviously though, M and M held down the fort quite well.  In fact, I’m happy to still have a “job” with this blog.  And a job it will be, because I still do not have a real one.  Haha.

It’s good to be back!

Oh, and just because it’s Wednesday, here is a special edition South American adventure Machu Picchu hump day cry face. (Yes, it was taken with a timer.  What of it?):

dsc00056

[Posted by Kathleen]

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