Terrorized by a roach

I hate cockroaches. Does anyone not hate roaches? 

I work on the 25th floor of my building and it's a pretty well maintained building. So I'm walking out of the ladies room and I was pretty surprised to see a cockroach scurrying across the carpet. Of course I start freaking out and run past it towards the doors to our office. It starts running in my direction.

The doors to my office are locked and you either need to be buzzed in our hit the code on the keypad. Freaking out like I'm being chased by a velociraptor I reach the doors and start pulling on the handles and yelling for the receptionist to let me in. 

"Open the doors!!"

"What's going on is there a mouse?!"

"No a cockroach, NOW OPEN THE DOORS!"

I know the code for the keypad but I was busy freaking out here.

Once I was safely behind closed glass doors some of my other co-workers come out to see what was happening. We determined that someone should get the roach but none of us wanted to be the one to do it. As we're deciding what the do the Fed Ex guy and the cleaning lady come across the roach. The cleaning lady laughs at us and sweeps up the roach with her broom.

Thank you cleaning lady for not being a wussy girl like me.

Jacob Williamson is the best Spelling Bee contestant ever

Last night I watched the Scripps Spelling Bee for the first time. No one ever told me how entertaining the Spelling Bee is. I'm not even exaggerating, I was hooked.

Ansun Sujoe of Texas, and Sriram Hathwar, 14, of New York, were the first co-champions in over 50 years. They basically ran out of words on the list to give them so they both won.

The star of the Spelling Bee for me was Jacob Williamson.


Jacob was so excited because he totally knew how to spell kabaragoya except he didn't. Don't worry Jacob you were still the star of the Bee. Hopefully he's proud of himself because he was in the final six and is obviously a very smart kid.

I can't spell for the life of me so watching all of these kids spell words I've never heard of is very impressive. Half of the words didn't even sound like the English language. Apparently you should know French, German, Latin and Japanese to win a spelling bee. All I can say is thank God for spell check.

Plastic surgery for engagement selfies

I had no idea this was a thing. Apparently woman are getting all sorts of procedures done on their hands for their engagement selfie. I didn't even know hand lifts were a thing?

"Age spots, veins or a bony appearance (or, horrors, all three) have become an obsession for some women. And as with all obsessions, there is a price to be exacted. In Ms. Valencis’ quest for that perfect selfie of her diamond-adorned hand, she contracted for a series of six intense pulsed light (I.P.L.) and chemical-peel treatments and two syringes of an injected gel substance called Juvéderm Voluma XC for a total of $3,000."

I'm not the type of girl to look at strangers "engagement selfies". If it's a friend of mine I might but I'd rather see it in person and congratulate them. I certainly won't be judging their hands. It just seems like such a waste of money. That's $3,000.00 that could go towards your wedding. To each his own I suppose.

Things get a little crazy in CVS

Just a girl and her pony.

Pizza and razors? Don't mind if I do.

Hats off to you kind gentleman.

Sometimes Melissa and I completely lose our minds. We were in the most ridiculous mood for no reason at all. We ate some pizza, lip synched to 90s music in the pizza place and then ran wild around CVS.

Yes I'm 30 years old. FOREVER YOUNG........

Pizza will make everything better

Maya Angelou passed away today. What an amazing and brilliant woman. I wish I had an ounce of her talent and wisdom. Reading about everything she has done is just incredible. I've been meaning to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for a while now. I should move that to the top of my reading list.

My mother's boyfriend is doing better today. I went to visit last night but he only woke up for a minute or two. This morning he was more awake and his fever is down. Many of my friends have reached out to express their concern and I appreciate that. I am lucky in the friends and family department.

We have a new assistant starting at work tomorrow. Hold on to your hat new guy because you're going to hit the ground running. I just want to be able to catch up on my work. I swear my computer is out to ruin me. I almost had a break down when the bates stamping program wasn't working properly today.

It's all good guys because tonight I'm having pizza with the newly returned Melissa. Pizza and friends makes everything better. I've never been to this pizza place but they seem to have quite a few white pizza options which is great for this poor girl with the esophagus of an eighty year old.

Feeling helpless

I received some bad news this morning. My mother’s boyfriend is in the ICU. He came home from the hospital on Saturday and unfortunately he is now back in the hospital.

I’ve spoken with my mother over the phone and through text and I feel horrible not being able to do anything. All I can do is listen and tell her that I’m sorry this is happening. Her boyfriend is not awake at the moment so I hope that at least he is not in pain.

I hoping for the best, which is all I can do at this point.

Camping at Sandy Pond

I'm back from camping and drying my tent in my living room. The cats think it's a cat fort.

The weather was a little cooler than I would have liked it to be but it was bearable. I'd rather not be sweltering camping with no fans. It rained off and on most of the weekend.

Water and beer, the essentials. You can buy beer and wine on the camp ground. I think for the Fourth of July camping trip I'm going to make sangria.

Who invited the hipster bunny? I loved these light up glasses. I also colored in a coloring book. There's something very therapeutic about coloring. My future children are probably going be like "mom, we don't want to color anymore!" I did not bring the coloring book. There was a two and a half year old camping.

I ate so much great food. We had a shrimp boil one night, corn on the cob, burgers and dogs, so many snacks and roasted marshmallows. I should probably eat a few salads this week.

Back to work tomorrow but I had a great long weekend.

It's like you're crying from my mouth

Dinner and drinks at Eastern Standard last night. Is it weird that my favorite part of Eastern Standard is the hall the leads to the bathrooms? It's just so fancy and pretty. I think the hall connects to the Hotel Commonwealth.

My friend Melissa and I have had this weird thing we say to eachother - "It's like you're crying from my mouth". It makes no sense and I can't even remember where it came from. It might have been us poking fun at Twilight and we were probably intoxicated. As I was walking to the bathroom at Eastern Standard I came across this art work and started cracking up. Can I get my own copy please?

I tried a "classic" Miller Lite at Cornwalls. I then grew a very classic 80s stache.

I've been having dreams about moving and houses lately. I'm not sure what that means. Last night I had a dream that I moved into a giant house but it was haunted. I had a young child and I was nervous because the railings were just falling off in the house. Someone also kept slitting the screens and I was worried about the cats escaping. I went into the basement to do laundry (really? I'm dreaming of doing laundry?) and saw a strange man walk by out of the corner of my eye. I freaked out and told Derek I wanted to leave. He didn't want to. I told him I didn't want to leave either because we had laundry in our actual own home but I also couldn't stay in a home where a strange man was walking around the basement.

I guess the lesson here is I am really desperate for laundry "in unit".

Welcome to the crazy stress train. We have ice cream.

I'm off the internets for two days and Thailand is under martial law. I've been so busy at work and it's been pretty stressful. I like being busy but this is that "oh my God I will never ever get all of this done EVER" busy which is not good.

I just want ice cream all the time. Damn you warm weather and cheesecake bits in ice cream!

I'm also loving everything foliage related. I've been so deprived of green foliage this winter I think green is my current favorite color. Check back with me because my favorite color changes all the time. There will be a quiz later.

Have you ever gotten a compliment that sticks with you? In 9th grade my drama teacher used my face as an example of "lovely" high cheek bones. If you get a good one, don't ever forget it.

I've been thinking its Friday since Monday. I actually said today "thank God it's Friday" and then felt like flinging my body dramatically onto the floor when I realized it was not.

I'm going camping this weekend and I can't wait! Camping means we can kiss winter good bye, it's time for summer. I'm going to eat my weight in marshmallows and make Derek check every inch of me for ticks. Fun times everyone. Fun times.

In defense of selfies

I'm pretty sure this sweet boy is allergic to his low carb cat food.

Can you blame him? Low carb sounds horrible. I'm switching back to his old wet food to see if he stops licking his poor little feet so much.

I feel like the biggest jerk in the world. Derek got me some really lovely jewelry for our two year anniversary and I got him nothing. I thought we weren't doing gifts this year.

Derek actually pays attention to what I wear and like and because of that is a very good gift giver.

Classy classy on my wrist.

I think I have an idea in mind to make up for it though. I know it's something he'll like.

I've decided to start posting more photos on my blog again. I went through a period where I posted a lot of photos and then I sort of stopped. I think I'm having a blogging identity crisis.

I vote for more selfies and since it's my blog I win the vote.

I think I look like my mom when she was younger here. I love that.

I think selfies get a bad rap. I love looking at other people's self portraits whether it be a photo or a painting. People are nosey, or maybe that's just me. I love that I live in the age of social media and sharing.

I rarely post selfies on facebook. I feel more comfortable posting them on my blog or instagram. It seems less obnoxious that way.

I think it's time to admit that Derek is a better cook than me.

I'm not bad but he's very good at adding spices and flavors to food. I'm good at baking so at least there's that.

My neighborhood continues to provide entertainment. A couple was fighting outside my window pretty hard core. She was slapping him and he was pushing her away. At one point he shoved her hard enough that she fell to the ground. I almost called the police but then she screamed a few more fuck yous and took off running down the street.

This is my favorite part of my bathroom. My little dish with my "pretty things". I can't wait to one day have an actual home of my own that I can put up shelves and paint the walls and put all the pretty things on my shelves. Renting kind of sucks sometimes as does living in Allston.

If we can't find the baby shower we can go home right?

I went to edit my post from earlier today and my computer froze and now the post seems to be completely deleted. Because of that you now get a whole new post! Lucky you.

I just got back from a very long baby shower. My co-worker Carrie picked me up and we drove a half hour to Hanscom Air Force Base. The shower invitation listed an address that was on the base but did not tell you which gate you could go in from. We ended up at the wrong gate and spent another 15 minutes driving around trying to find the correct gate. We drove by a Margaritas restaurant and I made sad puppy eyes as we drove past. I was really hungry at that point. The gift opening didn't start until we were there for two hours. I felt bad but by hour three and still many unopened gifts we had to go.

Last night I didn't get to bed until 3 in the morning and woke up early to go to the baby shower. I think I'm at the delirious stage of tiredness. It was worth it though to hang out with Germana in the burbs on Saturday night.

I wore my best flannel. I really need to get a spring jacket.

I have a lot of boring chores to do but a nap sounds like the most amazing idea in the world right now.

Before I forget and since I know he reads my blog, happy 2 year anniversary Derek! I'm glad I stuck with online dating when I was about to throw in the towel.

A Christopher Nolan Sci-Fi movie? Yes please. Interstellar movie trailer.

I am a huge sci-fi fan. I am also a huge Christopher Nolan fan. The trailer for Interstellar doesn't reveal too much about the movie and I kind of like that. The trailer for Inception was similar in that sense.

If you read this interview with Christoper Nolan he talks about using real locations rather than CG.

Meanwhile, Viggo Mortensen throws some shade towards Peter Jackson for using CG too much. I kind of agree with him. Someone remind me why the Lovely Bones needed CG again?

Now for some random thoughts:

I need to go to the laundromat to wash sleeping bags for camping next weekend but I'm being extremely lazy. Someone motivate me otherwise I'm going to sit on my ass all day watching Bar Rescue.

For some reason there is a street sweeper going up and down my street every couple of minutes. I think he's on trip #4 by now.

There have been so many college graduations happening around Boston and I am thrilled because that means I'll get a few months peace from the drunk college parade. Let's celebrate! (like responsible adults)

Link round up: Rihanna mocks a fan, cattle auctioneer is the new rap God

I thought I would share a few of my favorite links I've come across this week.

+ Ask Amy tells it like it is. “First, let’s establish that I agree with your sister. You are a horrible person.”

Ask Amy has always been one of my favorite advice columnists.

+ Rihanna mocks a teen after the fan posts a photo of her prom dress inspired by Rihanna.

May I remind you Rihanna that it's your fans that help you pay for your clothes. This girl is just 16 years old and you bully her on the internet? The teen changed her twitter background to Chris Brown after Rihanna started mocking her.

+ Cattle auctioneer turned into a fast rap star.


+ How football sounds to people that don't care.

"Firstly, imagine every time within a day that football is mentioned by someone else. Secondly, replace it with something that you don't want to hear about every day. Say... Archaeology. Then, think carefully about how an average day would pan out.

So, you awaken to the clock radio. It's 7AM. Just as you awaken, it's time for the news and archaeology already. Not news and other historical investigations, like library restorations or museum openings (unless there's another event happening), but just the news and archaeology. Malaysian plane is still missing. Pistorius is still on trial. New dig announced in Giza. Ancient Mayan temple discovered. Exciting stuff."

Have a good weekend everyone!

I am the mommy blogger

I am the mommy blogger

Have you heard of me before

Did you see me on instagram

Mopping my self-installed floor

My children are perfect

And let's not forget about dad

He brings me roses and page hits

And never gets mad

I am the mommy blogger

Haven't you heard

Click on this sponsored link

I've got money to earn 

I told Melissa I wrote a poem about mommy bloggers and she wanted to see it so here it is. I do not feel this way about all mommy bloggers and there are some that I like and respect very much.

My car is fixed and I didn't have to sell a kidney

I have horrible luck with cars. 99% of the time if my car needs to be repaired it will cost more than $800.00. My newest car (Legolas the Nissan) had a check engine light come on. This was the first time I've had to bring Legolas to a mechanic since I purchased the car last spring. I was preparing myself for a hefty bill and eating soup every meal for a month. Luckily it was under $300.00. I was thrilled!

I don't want to jinx myself so I'm knocking on internet wood here but it's nice to not want to cry when you pickup your car from the mechanic.

And if you haven't guessed I do name my cars and other inanimate objects. Legolas is obviously green.

On learning to not worry about your weight

I recently realized that I don't worry about my weight anymore, or at least not in the same way I did in my 20s.

I used to think I was fat pretty much all the time. Looking back on photos from that time I realize that I was crazy to think that. I wasn’t fat, my self-esteem is just a big giant jerk.

I do weigh more than I did in my early 20s but I no longer think I’m fat. I’ve lost 10lbs since December and it’s all been through exercise. Trust me I was shocked because it was a loooong and cold winter. My motivation to start exercising again was my high cholesterol. I don’t think I look very different after losing 10lbs but I feel better about myself for exercising more.

I am trying to eat healthier but that’s harder for me than exercising. I love food. I mean I really LOVE food.

Look how happy I was to find Peanut lovers Chex Mix in St. Thomas.

I can't find it in Massachusetts. I need to order a crate full online.

My other weakness is french fries. I did make it a full 30 days without potato products one time and it was the longest 30 days of my life. I do try to limit my french fry consumption but if I completely avoid french fries I am a miserable human. I would not shut up about french fries

I’m not saying that I just don’t care and I’m going to go hog wild and end up on My 600lb Life. What I’m saying is that I’ve finally learned to accept my body and focus on staying active and attempting to eat healthier and not on those “last” 10lbs. Avoiding a food I love completely is a recipe for disaster and exercising makes me feel good.

Who has time to worry about their weight all the time? I don't. I have things to do and Chex Mix to eat.

This seasons Bachelorette suitors are revealed. Let me break it down for you.

Andi Dorfman's suitors have been revealed. We have some real treats this season. Who on earth does the casting for this show? You are hilarious.

Let's see what we've got this season.

Cody

Just take a guess as to what Cody does for work. Did you guess personal trainer? Ding ding ding! Congratulations, you just won a haircut and style by Cody's hair dresser!

Dylan

Wut up bro? Dylan is an accountant who loves sports, wants to be Tom Brady and says if he could have any job it would be to be the GM of the Red Sox. I do have to root for Dylan because he's a fellow Masshole. If he doesn't win Andi's heart I'm sure he will be on OkCupid as soxfan4lyf83.

Brett

Brett is a hairstylist. Brett seems to have a mullet. That's all I have to say about Brett......

Josh B.

Was this the best picture they had? This is like a bad high school year book photo. I feel bad for the guy. Ok never mind, his occupation is a telemarketer.

JJ

JJ is another fellow Masshole and a "Pantsapreneur". So he sells pants? I'm confused. And what is that sweater?

Tasos

Tasos says the most romantic gift he was given was a guitar and money to pursue a musical career. Girl run away fast! I see that musical career is going really well with your occupation as a wedding event coordinator. I'm already predicting Tasos to be the asshole of the season that "breaks her heart".

Questions I have after reading the profiles:

Do that many guys actually really list the Lion King as their favorite movie?

How many guys have actually set up scavenger hunts for their ladies because apparently a lot of these guys have.

The Bachelorette starts next Monday, I can't wait.

Diana St. Thomas photos

You're probably sick of my St. Thomas photos now but here are a few that I took with my iphone and then edited with the Diana app.

I'm still playing around with the app but it's fun. It basically takes two photos and melds them together and then you pick a filter.

The best friend is back in town

My friend Melissa has moved back to Boston. We had one of our usual lunch dates at Panera followed by frozen yogurt. Apparently I'm very good a frozen yogurt presentation because the cashier commented on how nice it looked. Maybe I have a career as a frozen yogurt artist.

I told Melissa about this woman on the T the other day that was right out of some SNL skit. Every time the train moved she would say really loudly "Woah! Woah Mr. train conductor! Slow down I can't get injured here!" She was completely serious about it too. As we're sitting on a park bench with Melissa's dog I hear this voice say "that's a small dog there!" and I look up and try so hard not to laugh because it's the same woman. 

I'm sure Melissa missed my amazing sense of humor while she was gone.

"Yea this thing has seen better days."

"It's been the star of many plays? ........"

"Did you really just say that?"

Yes, yes I did.

Creepy childhood games

I don't consider myself old at 30 but I am old enough to remember a time before the internet and when cell phones looked look a brick.

We couldn't afford cable so what was a kid to do? Come up with your own creative games. Apparently my creativity style was more Tim Burton than Disney.

Here is a list of some of my favorite games to play:

Helen Keller

cripple kids

orphanage

Helen Keller involved my friends and I wandering around in the back yard with our eyes closed trying to find the other person without seeing or speaking. My mom was really confused when she saw this and asked what we were doing. I told her I couldn't talk because I was playing Helen Keller.

Cripple kids was a game where we went to a school for "cripple kids". It's ok to shake your head and go "WTF Ginny!" We used plastic baseball bats as crutches and tricycles as wheel chairs. I don't even know where this idea came from or why my friends went along with this game.

Orphanage was a game where we were "kidnapped" from our parents and had to escape from the orphanage. To escape the orphanage you had to make it into the basement without my friend's father noticing. He was usually working down there with drills and saws which we pretend were orphans being disposed of if they got caught.

When I volunteered at the local hospital when I was 13 I would have wheelchair races past the morgue with other candy stripers.

I had a pretty good childhood so I'm not sure where these weird ideas for games came from. I've also learned to be a little more politically correct. Thank God for that.

Upcoming TV shows I will not be watching

Maybe I'm being a bit judgmental here judging shows before they even air but sometimes you see a tv premise and you just go huh? Why would anyone watch that?

The CW has picked up a show called Jane the Virgin. The premise is a young religious Latina woman accidentally gets artificially inseminated. It's listed as a "dramedy". I'm expecting lots of Virgin Mary jokes and references. You'll have to tell me if I'm right on that though because I won't be watching.

Mark Wahlberg has a new reality series coming out about MIT grads trying to start a micro-brewery. The show is called "The Big Brew Theory". And so the tradition continues of Mark Wahlberg trying to make a reality tv show out of anything in Boston.

I think my Boston based reality tv show idea is much better. It's called "Ginny tries to get home from work when there's a Red Sox game." It's a working title but I think you get the idea. It will be a dramedy with a dash of horror.

I wish it was 1992

I wish it was 1992
I’d wear a flower print dress
and combat boots
I’d grab my walkman
extra batteries too
listen to Bell Biv DeVoe
snack on some dunk a roos

P.S. I rarely put my "poetry" on my blog but you know, who can't appreciate dunk a roos?

P.P.S. If you don't know what a walkman is, thank you very much for making me feel old.

Iguana eating on the beach in St. Thomas. I didn't run away this time.

I only took one video in St. Thomas. I wish I took more. I was too busy taking pictures and sipping on drinks I guess. Vacationing is very time consuming you know.

Here's the video I took of an iguana snacking on the beach at Bolongo.

St. Thomas trip and the loooooong way home

I made it home from St. Thomas at midnight. I was supposed to be back Sunday and have a day to relax and do laundry and such but US Airways decided to screw us over big time with the flight home. More on that later. Let's get to the good stuff. The pictures.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and right when you get off the plane you are offered a shot of rum. Derek and I passed as we are not really into shots but man they want to get the party going the second you get off the plane.

We stayed at Bolongo Bay. By the reviews online I thought it would be a good spot for us and I'm glad we picked Bolongo. Bolongo is a nice small resort with friendly staff and a beautiful beach. Our balcony overlooked the pool and the ocean.

The pool and the beach were amazing. The water was the perfect temperature.

I took a ton of photos of palm trees and the beach. I love palm trees.

Iggiges Beach Bar and the Lobster Grille both had amazing food. We spent more time at Iggies as it was open later and had live music. The Lobster Grille had very good breakfast.

The view of the Lobster Grille from the pool.

There were iguanas everywhere. I went to take a photo of this guy and he started coming towards me so I ran into the ocean.

Here is his smaller friend.

Stalking me from a tree.

We went into town on the last day of carnival. It was so hot. I'm not used to people being able to walk around anywhere they want drinking. Certainly can't do that in Boston.

Our flight was supposed to leave Sunday but we got to the airport and found out that US Airways had cancelled our flight. We were told the next flight out was Wednesday!! We sort of panicked because we both had to get back to work. I was making phone calls to anyone I knew seeing if someone could book us a flight on a different airline. Thankfully Fiona answered and saved the day. The flight was expensive but we could fly out on Monday via Jet Blue. US Airways acted like this was no big deal to have a flight cancelled for three days. We did get to stay in a nice resort for Sunday night

These pictures are from our one day/night in Sugar Bay.

View from our balcony. Seriously amazing.

We met some nice ladies at the bar who were giving us drinks since they were all inclusive and felt bad about our flight. They were having a get away from their husbands and kids and were having a great time. 

Our last day was a long wait in the airport. We arrived at the airport around 11:30 am and got into Boston around 11:30 that night. I then had to go take a cab to a tow lot because my car was towed for street cleaning since I could not get back in time to move it. I think the tow truck messed up the alignment of my car so I'm going through insurance for that. When it rains it pours. There could have been worse places to be stuck that's for sure. It was just so frustrating having US Airways be of no help and provide no information. I had to ask a few times why our flight was cancelled for three days (mechanical problem and no back up plane). For such a major airline I expected more.

Overall though it was a really great trip. The weather was perfect and I wish the water was that blue here in Boston. I also learned iguanas kind of scare me, tequila tastes better on the beach and to never fly US Airways.