Always Anna

I recently discovered Google Reader’s “Next” button that you can add to your web browser’s favorites toolbar. I LOVE that I can just click on the button and see my favorite blogs, in their own format instead of the Reader feed.

And I really love that, when I got to the end of my Reader feed, I got this message:

I feel so accomplished, reaching the end of the internet!  Who knows what I can accomplish next?!?!

This version of Wordpress has a million differences from the one I used over a year ago. So I’m just checking a few things out to see how the new Wordpress rolls. I think I like it!

So, it’s been more than a year since I’ve posted… and I swear, it’s not my fault!  I was, for some reason or another, unable to log-in.

Wordpress couldn’t help me.  My hosting company couldn’t help me. Techy friends couldn’t help me. It was like my blog decided that my password was wrong and just wouldn’t let me in!

Okay, maybe I was being a little lazy about actually TRYING to figure it out. Whatever. Something changed, I was able to upgrade my Wordpress installation, and now I’m BACK!

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but my usual morning commute took a weird turn this morning.  I somehow ended up on a public bus that was just servicing the local high school.

I had to get to work a little earlier than usual, so did take my regular bus at an irregular time.  But the route number was the same, so I climbed aboard the bus, only to find it full of high school kids. 

Hmmm…. I thought.  This isn’t the way the bus usually looks.  Usually there are lots of old people and a couple people my age in suits.  Weird.  But this is kind of early, so maybe this is the time that the kids take the bus to school.  Wait a minute.  This isn’t the usual route.  Hmmm…. we just blew past Harvard Square.  Where are we going?  Are we actually going TO the high school?  Put the book away, Anna.  Pay attention. 

The bus pulled up next door to the public high school and everyone on the bus flooded out.  After it emptied, I walked up to the front and asked the driver if we was looping back to Harvard Square, or if this was the end of the line. 

He laughed and said, “This is usually my last stop at this time, but I have to go to Harvard anyways for my next route.  You can ride along.”  I thanked him, and he said, “You know, when you got on the bus, I was wondering if I should say something about this being the high school bus… but then I thought that you looked like a high school student.”

I’ve been thinking about this all morning.  Do I really pass for 18?  I mean, I’m 28!  I have smile lines around my eyes!  But maybe this is a good thing?  I can’t decide.

I wrote this a few weeks ago, after I went to NY to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to post it at that time, since my blog was fighting me, but I figure that I might as well post it now.  After all, I’d hate to waste this brilliance…

Saturday night, 25 friends went to a Mets game to celebrate our friend Dan’s 30th birthday.  We tailgated before the game, drank pretty steadily throughout the game, and took over a small bar in mid-town post-game.  And I’m not going to lie – I drank a lot of beer.  So much that I ended the night at 2 AM, hunting for food before passing out on a friend’s pull-out couch.

I woke up Sunday morning with a pounding headache – you know, the kind when jackhammers try to break through your skull?  My stomach was churning, threatening to revolt if I didn’t find a bagel.

It’s been a while since I’ve suffered a beer hangover, so I’d forgotten how painful they can be.

Next time, I’ll stick with vodka.

I’ve spent the last month trying to log-in to Wordpress to post new entries and have blogging fun. Unfortunately, I kept getting log-in errors. I finally realized that the problem was that I needed to upgrade WordPress installation.

And now I have. It looks like there are some random text errors in the old entries, but at least the whole installation isn’t effed up.

So I’m back!

Whenever work gets too crazy and I need to see something that will make me smile, I go to Cute Overload and look at the puppy pictures.  Today, that break didn’t go as well as I had hoped, since the first thing that popped up onscreen was a photo of fish eating a woman’s feet.  With a link to this article on CNN.

I’m so weirded out by this!  How could anyone even think of sticking their feet in a bowl for fish to nibble on?  Ew!  The thought makes me want to tuck my feet up underneath me and never leave them uncovered again.

The BF and I spent the weekend packing and preparing to move into our amazing and wonderful new place.  And – with one exception when Sneaky McTrickyPants came over to see the new place and help me mentally design it – I acted totally crazy.  I freaked out about not having enough boxes.  I sulked when the BF tried to be rational.  I cried for no apparent reason. 

And then the thunderstorms caused us to lose power for OVER SIX HOURS on Sunday.  Ever packed by candlelight?  In 90-degree weather and 90% humidity?  With NO AIR CONDITIONER BECAUSE THE POWER IS OUT? I don’t recommend it. 

Thanks to the BFs amazingness – in that he took the day off from work yesterday to move all of our big stuff – we were able to spend last night in the new place.  We still have some more to move, but it’s like being the new place lifted a raincloud away from my head, and now, all of a sudden, I’m fine. 

I’ve always moved around a lot – after hopping around Southern California as a child, I moved at least once per year from 1997 to 2005.  Granted, college was in there, so those four moves in four years is pretty typical.  But still… that’s a lot of packing.  A lot of going through stacks of paper and shredding things you don’t need anymore.  A lot of “How the h*ll did that get in the refrigerator?”  And – the only fun part – a lot of unpacking and decorating new places.

For the past three years, I’ve been living with the BF in a slum.  Okay, it’s not quite a slum, but… well, it isn’t nice.  Things broke.  MORE things broke.  And our property managers didn’t bother to return phone calls… even when our bathroom and part of the living room was under an inch of water.  Earlier this year – after the third flood in three years – we decided we’d had enough.  Time for a new place.  A more grown-up place that has more to offer than a great location (which was the one thing the slum did have).

And, as of yesterday evening, we have an awesome new place that has lots of light, more space, an incredible deck, and amazing landlords. 

I’m dancing with joy!

Oh my.  Thanks to Marta, I just found this website that lets you create your own monster.

I can’t even begin to explain how much I want to do this.  Or, if I can’t come up with the $250 it costs, just buy this one:

How freaking cute is this?