Downton Abbey tears and Warm Bodies

People are still talking about Sunday's episode of Downton Abbey. I can't talk about it without getting teary. I can't remember the last time I cried that hard over a tv show. It was way too realistic and sad. Ok, I'm done talking about it now before the water works start again but please feel free to discuss in the comments if you saw it.

I have a window open right now because it's 60 out. Oh New England and your weird weather. The cats are enjoying.

Speaking of enjoying, I'm really liking Warm Bodies. I'm about half way through. The movie opens Friday but I probably won't see it for a week or two. I don't like going to movies opening weekend. Too packed.

I wondered when we'd have a zombie/human love story. It was bound to happen eventually.

National Grid wants my pretend baby to freeze

I woke up around 4 a.m. freezing. My nose was cold, and when my nose is cold that means it's freezing in my book. I turn on my lamp and blind myself trying to read my thermostat. It was in the low 60s which meant my heat was not working. I felt my radiators to be sure and they were cold.

I swore a few times and grabbed my flash light to investigate.

My basement is pretty creepy. It's old and has a creepy room with a single wooden chair with that lone light bulb swinging overhead. Yea, creepy.

Every unit in my building has gas heat so there's 17 burners. I find the one for my unit and there's a notice on there from National Grid telling me they shut off my heat due to carbon buildup. I looked at the date and it was dated Sunday so this just happened. I was PISSED. Why would National Grid shut off my heat and not tell me? A phone call, a note on my door, anything would have been nice. I was not the only unit to have their heat turned off, 5 other units had their heat shut off along with mine.

I texted my landlord at 4:30 a.m. and he called me back right away. He had someone come out at 7 a.m. but as of right now it's still not fixed.

I called National Grid to ask them why they didn't inform me that they shut off my heat. Apparently they have no record of anyone going out there and the guy kept telling me that there should be a note on my door if my heat was turned off. I told him three times that there was not note on my door, only on the burner.

I lost my patience. I finally angry whispered (I was at work):

ME:  "What if I had a baby and you shut off my heat!"

National Grid Guy: "Do you have a baby?"

ME: "No...."

NGG: .....silence......

NGG: Well we didn't send anyone out there.

me+head+desk=repeat

The slip had the National Grid logo on it so someone from National Grid was there.

I finally told him never mind and hung up.

Right now I'm using a small space heater. The cats are enjoying it.

I'm hoping it will be fixed tomorrow because my pretend infant child needs heat!

Karaoke night and crazy nails

It's been freezing in Boston. I am officially done with winter. Every time I step outside and an icy blast of wine hits my face I whimper a little on the inside and try to think summer thoughts.

The weather has not stopped me from going out though. People comment sometimes that they don't know where I get the energy from. I say do it now while I still can.

Thursday I went to a gay karaoke night with Ashley. I highly recommend that you do a duet with a gay man. They have some style!

This is what I do when Ashley goes outside to smoke, take pictures of myself.

Ashley mid song. The sign of a true rock star - you have time to pose for pictures while singing.

I think I was singing Before He Cheats here. I'm really into it as you can see. I also sang Gangster's Paradise.

Ah yes, the Backstreet Boys duet. It was quite good.

Karaoke was Thursday night. I took Friday off so I wouldn't be dead. Ashley made us brunch in the morning and it was delicious.

Friday and Saturday I went out with Derek. He had been sick so I hadn't seen him for about a week. I was greeted with flowers back at his place.

Derek and I met an interesting couple Friday night. I couldn't stop looking at the woman's nails. They were impressive. I'm talking zebra print, leopard print, glitter. I don't know how we started talking (it was not due to me looking at her nails) but at some point I asked them how they met. I was expecting online dating but turns out they met at a threesome and left their spouses for each other. Not the answer I was expecting. This is why I like talking to random people in bars, you never know what crazy conversations you'll end up having.

Stay warm if you live somewhere cold guys, and if you live in Florida or some place warm I don't want to hear about your weather.

Putting on my bootleg crown

My day didn't start out so well yesterday. The green line was evacuated due to an electrical fire so I ended up walking 20 minutes in the freezing cold to get work. I couldn't feel my toes and that's not the way to start the day.

But then I saw a tweet that said I was voted best 20sb Contributor. Honestly, that made my day. I really enjoy 20sb and I can't thank you guys enough for nominating and voting for me.

 Congrats to all the other winners and thanks again. I now have an excuse to wear a crown and when people stare at me I'll be like "I won a bootleg award on the internets! WHAT."

Full on freakout happening here

I went down to the basement to move my laundry from the washer to the dryer. When I open the machine I was using I see someone else's clothing. I open both dryers and my clothes are also nowhere to be found. Upon closer inspection of the machine I was using my clothes were in the machine they were just covered by someone else's clothing. Not just clothing, but some dude's socks.

vomit vomit vomit vomit. I hate feet. vomit vomit vomit.

So I'm going through the machine pulling out my clothes which are covered by men's socks. I have my underwear in this wash! Now I have some dudes socks washed with my underwear. I don't even wash my own socks with my underwear.

I'm going to assume that this guy thought he was throwing his socks in with his wife or girlfriend's laundry, either that or he has a sick sick laundry fetish.

Do you not know what kind of underwear your lady wears? Wouldn't you be like "I've never seen these underwear or these pjs so I don't think these are hers." I'm so mad. I never thought I could be so mad about laundry.

OH! I just realized that I paid for this dude's sock washing! I want my $1.50 back you potentially freaky but possibly just dumb man!

Derek's response to my freakout: Apparently his girlfriend is afraid of thongs too?
 

My lap is not a carnival ride

I've discovered two things today. Old people shop at Whole Foods on Mondays and I don't like shopping at the same time as old people. They hit you with carriages and swing a bag of green peppers into your face but you can't say anything because you will look like a giant jerk.

Food shopping was pretty much the only productive thing I did on my day off. I watched some Super Natural on netflix which I'm loving. Jensen Ackles (Dean) and Jared Padalecki (Sam) have awesome bro chemistry. Why have I not watched this show sooner?

I need to get back to work because the cats are driving me nuts. They're treating my lap like a carnival ride. "My turn for the lap!" I push one off and the other gets on and then it just keeps going round and round and they really need to find something else to do.

I've had enough, cats! I will take my lap back! It's is mine!

And as I type this Mr. Binx actually listened and is now sitting on my arm while I'm trying to type. Great.

I'm also realizing the title of this post was probably not the best idea but I'm going to leave it.

No way Jose

Of course I go to Meadhall and semi panic at the beer list and then get an old faithful - Allagash White. Don't worry I did mix it up after that with some German beers.

So many taps, so little time, so hard to choose.

I spy Todd and Katie on the opposite side of the tracks.

I ended the night at the Tavern. Some Puerto Rican guy kept asking me if I was racist because I kept calling him Jose. But the reason why I kept calling him Jose is because that's what he said his name was. Then he said he lied and it was something else. I decided to keep calling him Jose and told him that I was racist against stupid people. I'm such a charmer.

On my way home I was trying to take a picture of a bunny because that's what ones does when one sees a bunny after a few beers. You say "BUNNY!" out loud to no one in particular and then try to get as close as you can to take a picture.

Then your friend calls asking about late night pizza places and the bunny hops away.

It's weird to see bunnies in Boston but I'm not complaining. Bunnies are cute!

Now it's back to wasting my life playing Minecraft. Derek needs to hurry up and not be sick anymore before I build a replica of Hogwarts.

I'ma take your grandpa's style

This is my new favorite song.

Thrift Shop by Macklemore

Savin' my money and I'm hella happy that's a bargain

bitch I'ma take your grandpa's style, I'ma take your grandpa's style

No for real - ask your grandpa - can I have his hand-me-downs? (Thank you)

I'm very excited about the quarters

I'm lucky to work with some pretty fun ladies. Lilly had a ladies poker night at her house so a few of us headed over to her place last night. Funny thing is none of us actually know how to play poker so we played this game called Skat instead. I now have so many quarters for laundry which is awesome because I hate going to the bank. I have to thank Susan for that though. She didn't bring any quarters with her so I gave her some of mine and she won big. I tried to get her to take at least half the winnings but she was having none of that.

I now know my gambling strategy. Give my money to someone else and have them win for me. I'm not very lucky when it comes to gambling otherwise. 

Despite the jello shots I was not hungover at all today, just a bit tired. I've been having really vivid dreams lately and last night they were pretty creepy. At one point in my dream I walked into a room and a man was standing there with his shirt off sticking needles into himself and leaving them there. I woke up a little freaked out around 5 a.m. and cuddled the kitties. Eventually I fell back asleep.

I have a long weekend coming up and everyone keeps asking what my plans are. Well sleeping for one, I'm a big fan of that. There's also a trip to Meadhall planned for Saturday.

If you're a fan of American Horror Story like I am or if you watch it because your girlfriend makes you like Derek, you might be interested in what Ryan Murphy has to say about Season 3. I'm glad Jessica Lange is returning. It would seem weird without her. I hope that Taissa Farmiga and Evan Peters are the couple similar to Violet and Tate that is mentioned because I liked them together in season 1. I guess we shall see.

Well that's all I got today. Tales of jello shots and American Horror story updates.

Gone Girl or the book of cray cray

I finished Gone Girl and all I can say is WHAT? I had so many theories running through my head and all of them were wrong. I know a lot of people didn't like the ending but I actually didn't mind it. It wasn't what I expected but once I thought about it, would I have been happy with an ending I did expect? Probably not.

I did not like most of the characters (besides Go). Sometimes that makes me not like a book (i.e. Perfume) but that was not the case with Gone Girl. I was too wrapped up in trying to figure out what was going to happen to care.

I was emailing/g-chatting with Lorraine as I was reading since she had already read the book. Once I finished I think our conversation was something like "_____ be cray cray". I will not spoil it by saying who is cray cray.

The rights to the movie have been bought so now I've been thinking about who I would like to see cast. I'm think Rachel McAdams for Amy, Leonardo DiCaprio for Nick and Krysten Ritter for Go.

I'm considering reading another Gillian Flynn book. Has anyone read her other books? What do you think of Gone Girl.

Ginny vs. chopsticks

I have finally learned how to use chopsticks! This is a big deal because it was quite embarrassing attempting to eat with them in front of people. I've asked Derek a few times to show me how to use them but his response was something along the lines of "use them to pick up the food." Not helpful.

I was a little worried about going to Shabu-Zen because I knew it would involve moving food into a hot-pot and then to my mouth. For some reason it all clicked though and I was doing just fine. I kept showing Derek how good I was doing. "Look I'm finally getting food into my mouth!"

You tried to beat me and starve me chopsticks but I have persevered. Now I can eat at Chinese restaurant with no shame.

Shabu-Zen was quite yummy. I've never had a hot-pot dinner. I kind of pigged out but there was a lot of veggies so I don't feel so bad. I also had a Japanese mojito. I still can't figure out why it was Japanese. Imported ice from Japan? Made by a Japanese bartender? It's a mystery.

Smashley

It's been a while since I've seen my favorite Canadian. My friend Ashley was near my work the other day so we met up for a few drinks.

Let me show you why we're friends.

Ashley went outside to smoke and I get this picture via text followed by "rebel bitches".

Ah but she left her purse with ME.

Free $ and things!

Reunited. Two crazy peas in a pod.

We should be models clearly. You need to have friends where you can be your weird-o self.

Why does my work area smell like an Abercrombie store?

Here's a fun Ginny fact: I don't like perfume. I rarely wear it and if I do I only wear a little. Most perfumes make me nauseous and give me a headache. I guess this is an improvement from my childhood when I'd break out in hives just being in the same area as someone wearing perfume. I still can't go near bubble bath.

While dutifully working at my desk I noticed that it smelled like an Abercrombie store. You know what those stores smell like - a perfume and cologne explosion. The smell that emanates from that store makes me gag, so I certainly don't want to be smelling it while trying to work.

I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I don't have perfume in my purse and there's no one that sits close enough to me where it would be that strong. I start looking around the floor area of my desk and that's when I see it, a scented diffuser sitting in its box on its side. Sure enough when I picked it up it was leaking and now my work area smells like an Abercrombie store.

It's really fun trying to get your work done when you feel gagging. I should have given away that diffuser months ago.

This blog post is kind of lame I realize but it was either that or my dream about being carried in a coffin with Gandalf WHO WAS NOT DEAD.

50 Shades of Crazy on the Bachelor

I don't hide the fact that the Bachelor and Bachelorette are guilty pleasures. Is it the tears or the ugly dresses that look like they came from Tellos - I can't quite say.

On the premiere of the Bachelor we had a girl in a wedding dress begging for a kiss.

A girl crying on the stairs because she wasn't going to fight for a guys attention. You are are on the wrong show girl! That's what the Bachelor is all about.

Among all the hair extensions and spray tan and tears there was one shinning beacon of shame. The 50 Shades of Grey Girl. She showed up with a tie telling the Bachelor that she hoped he would show her how to use it. I'm pretty sure the look on his face was not excitement but fear and confusion.

Do girls not realize that guys don't read these books? Sean probably had no idea what she was referring too. As the night went on she just kept getting drunker and more ridiculous and kept pulling out her Christian Grey tie. Needless to say she did not get a rose.

I'm sure there are some woman out there that read the 50 Shades series who are normal but this woman pretty much sums up my idea of who reads these books and thinks they're good.

It's just as glittery as I hoped

Why hello there Furla glitter bag. I've been waiting for you and we're going to have so many glittery adventures together.

Imaginary secrets

Do you ever have the urge to blog but don't really know what to say? That's how I'm feeling right now. Shall I tell you about my weekend?

Derek and I went to a place called Penguin Pizza for dinner and drinks last night. The menus were called "Penus". I was really amused by that. We played trivia and lost. I really liked that place. We ended the night at Red Bones where I thought I lost my license and had a mini freak out. I wanted my margarita damn it! Luckily it was found and margaritas were had.

My mother came over today and I finally gave her her Christmas present. She gave me some nice bowls and a piggy bank with cash in it. I really have too many bowls though. I'm going to have to tell her I'm good on that front. She'll probably switch to mugs.

My mother thinks I'm very secretive about my love life. She asked me if Derek and I talked about moving in together and I told her that we planned on it when our leases were up. She asked me why I didn't tell her sooner and the answer is simple, she never asked. That answer was not acceptable though, clearly I keep secrets.

So that's pretty much my weekend. I'll probably finish reading Shatter Me, which I'm enjoying and then it's time for Downton Abbey! FINALLY.

Your first cassette and twisted ankles

I was reading this blog post by Amanda Palmer and it got me thinking as to what my first cassette was and if I was a musician and were going to play an album in its entirety what would it be?

My first cassette was Ace of Base the Sign

I sang every song at the top of my lungs and danced around my bedroom like I was on stage - or what a 10 year old in 1994 thought one should look like while dancing on stage. I still have this album on my ipod by the way. It's a classic I tell you!

As much as I love The Sign, I don't think that would be the album I would perform all the way through.

That honor would have to go to No Doubt's album Tragic Kingdom.

I bought Tragic Kingdom with a gift card to Strawberries that I got for my 11th birthday. I also bought a lava lamp (it was awesome). I didn't have a CD player yet because they were too expensive back then. My friends and I listened to that tape for hours and when my friends went home I listen to it by myself.

Tragic Kingdom is responsible for me twisting my ankle. I was dancing in my room by myself when I landed on my foot wrong and hit the floor hard. My brother hearing the crash came running into my room to see what happened. Oh no big deal. Just injuring myself skanking to No Doubt.

So if I had the opportunity to perform one album all the way through it would be Tragic Kingdom. But with less ankle injury. Plenty of lava lamp and skanking though.

Baby it's cold outside so get me my glitter purse

One of the first things I do when I wake up in the morning is check the weather. Today my blurry eyes read 7 degrees. Sadly this was not a nightmare but my very real single digit degree life.

With the holidays being over and the winter boots I purchased online not fitting me despite being really cute, I've been a little grumpy. I've decided to make a list of things that I do like about winter.

+ being inside with candles burning and snow falling

+ tea

+ snuggling under blankets

+ winter hats and scarves

+ ice sculptures

Well it's a start. Winter will never win me over but I do what I can and count the days until spring. Also, I have a red glittery purse coming to me shortly. Red + glittery + purse = happy Ginny. It also can't get ruined by rain or snow. It's the prefect winter purse.

I like the way you die boy

I saw Django Unchained last night. I thought it was great. The dialogue was probably my favorite part of the film. I did find it hard to watch the scenes of slaves being whipped or killed.

It was a bit long but it didn't feel that way while watching it.

Django is now my favorite Tarantino movie. He can be hit or miss with me. I loved Kill Bill but I can't finish watching Inglorious Bastards. I don't like a re-imagining of history. It happened how it happened and I can't get myself in the mind set of "what if".

Now the eating and movie watching is done and it's back to work today. It's currently 18 degrees out. I'm not looking forward to going outside today.

Year of the water snake

Hello and welcome to 2013. Is it everything you hoped for?

It's the year of the water snake.

Did I ever tell you about the time a snake or eel or something that looked like a snake or eel wrapped itself around my ankle in a pond? Fun times, really.

Golden Temple was packed. We somehow eventually got a few seats at the bar. Lil Anne is a master at chair sniping. I've never seen anything like it.

Melissa is back from FL and photo bombing better than ever.

My tights lasted a few hours.

$8 well spent :(

Here's my full outfit with rip in stockings. I highly recommend wearing fringe when drinking because it's really fun to shake your dress. This was at Washington Square Tavern which was much calmer.

I think this is my last GT New Years. I've done it two years in a row and next year it's time to mix it up.

I really need to exercise more in 2013. I've been lazy and eating and drinking a lot. I pretty much only drink water and beer. The water part is good but the beer I could cut back a little. I love the taste of beer. Some people like the taste of coke I like the taste of a delicious hefeweizen. Cutting back a little will be a good thing.

Happy 2013 everyone! May you never have a water snake wrapped around your ankle.