Obligatory post

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I promised I’d post every day during this BufBloPoFo thing, even if I didn’t get around to the prompt (and truthfully, I’m too lazy to go see what today’s prompt is…), so here I am.

Today was a typical day in the life of a sub…phone rang at 6 am (gah…hate that…but glad I took it) and I had a very laid-back day with a great schedule. Score. I managed to both finish Living Lost: Why We’re All Stuck on the Island by J. Wood (which I enjoyed, but somehow, not as much as I enjoy his blog!) and Boy Proof by Cecil Castellucci. I love how raw and honest her characters are.

Aside? Lost is totally rocking my world this season. Bring it on!

And what was even worse than the phone ringing at 6? Well, digging my car out. Rand had to give me a push b/c I was completely stuck.

Over the weekend, I ate too much pizza, slept too much, and had a brainstorm for a series of YA novels that I need to let marinade or percolate or whatever for a while. I think it could be really, really cool.

(Speaking of writing, I need to get going on my April article for TC!)

OH…and another big thing happened over the weekend, but I’m not quite ready to go totally public with it yet. Soon, as soon as things are definitely definite. 😉

And that’s what’s new with me today. Hope you’re all having a spectacular Monday!

Home sweet home

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BufBloPoFo Topic for Day 9: Share your own insider’s perspective on your hometown. Most of you, like me, are Talkin’ Proud, so share your expertise. What’s your favorite way to spend a Buffalo summer day? Which old timey Buffalo movie theatre is to most old timey? What’s your most vivid Buffalo memory (any Buffalonian worth his or her road salt knows where they were when the pigskin went wide right.) Your favorite Buffalo restaurant? (If you say Wild Wings, you’re dead to me.)

If you aren’t a Buffalonian, what should we know about your hometown?

Well, as many of you are aware, I am *not* a native Buffalonian, but I have made it my home for the past eight years and don’t see that changing in the near future. So I shall answer this question in two parts.

Part 1: Things I dig about Buffalo (and WNY)

Summer in Buffalo rocks. Shakespeare in Delaware Park. Countless festivals involving bad-for-you (but oh-so-good) food. Thursday at the Square.

I love Buffalo’s proximity to Toronto and Niagara Falls.

I love the fact that you can get such a variety of amazing food without having to go too far for it. Within 15 minutes of my apartment, I can get fantastic Greek, Korean, Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food…not to mention great pizza and wings!

Asking me to choose a favorite Buffalo restaurant…sigh. How can I possibly choose? Here are a few favorites, both within city limits and not: Gabriel’s Gate. Towne. Pano’s. India Gate/Taste of India. The Village Grille. Korea House. Morning Glory Cafe. Cole’s.

I love Wegmans. I love being able to get pretty much anywhere in 20 minutes. I love sitting by Glen Falls in the spring. But more than anything else, I like all the people I’ve met here!

Part 2: My hometown

Grew up in St. Marys, PA, a small town in northwestern Pennsylvania. What should you know about it? It isn’t near anything. It’s not near Erie, it’s not near Pittsburgh, it’s not near Philadelphia. The closest known commodity is State College (home of Penn State University), and that’s like an hour and a half away.

It was settled by German Catholics. It has a brewery and a convent. It consolidated with a surrounding township to gain the dubious distinction of ‘city’. And even though I’ve made Buffalo my adopted home, St. Marys will always be home.

Listening

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BufBloPoFo Topic for Day 8: What are you listening to these days? New stuff? Old stuff? This isn’t a hipster competition; I just want to know what’s in everyone’s ears out there. Playlist me. Or, if you don’t feel like making suggestions, open up your ipod on shuffle and just jot down the first ten songs that pop out.

Well, since I haven’t done my reading, watching, listening thing in quite a while, it’s been some time since I’ve blogged about what I’m listening to.

Bon Jovi–Lost Highway. Samantha recently gifted me with a copy of this CD. Awesome. I’ve only listened to it once, but I like what I heard.

A copy of the “Cleaning my Room Mix” sent to me by Miss Shortskirt (Jessica). Again, only listened to once, but lots of fun. 🙂

The soundtracks from Once and Juno.

In general, I frequently list to the “erin’s favorites” list on my ipod. Here’s a sample:

  • Super Trouper-ABBA
  • I Will-The Beatles
  • The Longest Time-Billy Joel
  • What About Everything-Carbon Leaf
  • On the Verge-Collin Raye
  • Here on Earth (I’ll Have My Cake)-Crash Test Dummies
  • Cowboy Take Me Away-Dixie Chicks
  • Solar Circle Girl-Einstein’s Sister
  • The Girl That’s Never Been-Escape Key
  • I’m a Rover-Great Big Sea
  • Striptease-Hawksley Workman
  • Molly-Jackdaw
  • Several Thousand-Jim Boggia
  • The Future Soon-Jonathan Coulton
  • Black Horse and the Cherry Tree-KT Tunstall
  • Cowboy Secret Space Detective-Ookla the Mok
  • Steady, As She Goes-The Raconteurs
  • Crackstatic (Acoustic)-Ron Hawkins and the Rusty Nails

That’s it for me. Happy weekend!

What’s in *your* wallet?

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BufBloPoFo Topic for Day 7: Open up your wallet/purse/backpack/hobo bag on a stick. What’s the one thing in there that no one else has in their wallet/purse/backpack/hobo bag on a stick? What’s been in there the longest, having never been used?

Uh. Hmm…

Having recently purchased a new purse and cleaned out the old one, there’s not much of interest in there at all. A small notebook and a pen, my wallet, a couple of pill containers (I carry ibuprofen and lactose pills with me at all times), my iPod, softlips, cell phone, an inhaler, change, tweezers, a glasses cleaning cloth, a list of books that I can’t remember the reason for writing…

Inside my wallet? Just the typical stuff. Zero cash except for some change. Cards. Driver’s license.

I’ll try to be more interesting next time. 😉

I could hear the voices of my childhood

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In response to today’s BufBloPoFo prompt:

BufBloPoFo Topic for Day 6: What kind of stuff (toys, books, TV shows) were you into when you were a kid? Do you think that had an effect on what kind of a person you are today?

Hmm…I had lots of the typical toys of a child of the 70s/80s. Hungry Hungry Hippos. Lite Brite. Viewmaster, Sit’n Spin, Etch-a-Sketch. I played with Barbies and Strawberry Shortcake dolls, My Little Pony, the Rubiks Cube, Cabbage Patch Kids (I had two). I enjoyed all that stuff, and I think that they serve as cultural markers–in some ways, we’re all identified by these things…the toys we played with, and the music we listened to, and the shows we watched on TV.

But of everything, I think the things that most influenced me were my books. I’ve always been a reader, ever since I can remember. I continue to tell people that my favorite book of all time was and continues to be A Wrinkle in Time. I loved the Chronicles of Narnia, particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Another one of my favorites was the lesser-known The Girl with the Silver Eyes. I absolutely ate up anything magical, anything extraordinary, and I so desperately wanted it to be real. I wanted to open a door and emerge in a different world. I wanted to bend the rules of space and time. I wanted to be able to move things with my mind. I loved these books, and I read them over and over and over again. It was in those stories, I think, that my desire to be a writer first emerged. I wanted to be able to make other people feel the way I felt when I was reading.

Books read so far…

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1. Love, Stargirl–Jerry Spinelli
2. Abadazad: The Road to Inconcievable–JM DeMatteis
3. Neptune Noir–edited by Rob Thomas
4. Blood Price–Tanya Huff
5. Looking for Alaska–John Green
6. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom–Cory Doctorow
7. Young Avengers
8. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born
9. Kimmie66
10. Blood Trail–Tanya Huff

Also read this year (but perhaps not in entirety) have been several wedding planning books and one homebuying book (are we buying a home? Sigh…I don’t know…). Slow start, but I’ve been a little busy.  😉

I also have several things started, just waiting for me to pick them up again…

What have you read lately? 🙂

Let me tell you about myself…

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For the first day of BufBloPoFo, the topic assigned was “tell us about your blog.” I answered this question back in June at this post, but here’s an excerpt:

When did you begin your first blog and what inspired you to do so?

I started my first blog (titled rather boringly “erin’s blog”) in late 2002 or early 2003. I was inspired by my good friend Eden of So Anyway, who had sung the praises of blogging and first sent me the link to Blogger to help me get started.

My blog sat mostly empty for quite some time. I posted now and then throughout early 2003, and when I began student teaching in the fall of 2003, I started a second blog-my online student teaching journal. (I don’t think that one’s online at this point
)

The thing that really got me blogging regularly was The Breakup in the fall of 2003. My long-term BF rather abruptly called it quits, and I began blogging regularly both as a way of dealing with my feelings and letting my friends know what was going on in my life without having to tell the same stories over and over and over again.

When I started dating again, I blogged about my experiences to entertain people, and soon I had a small but loyal readership!

Unfortunately, the vast majority of those early posts were lost in the Tragic Blog Incident. (I accidentally deleted my database. Don’t ask
)

Since those early days, I’ve changed urls a couple of times (the first one I chose was too close to the email address I had at the time, and I thought that was a mistake, given the topics I was blogging about. ) and moved from Blogger to hosting my own blog using a WordPress format. I like it here. 😉

This is the first post in existence on my current blog, from March of 2004, almost four years ago. A few of my older posts (from Blogger) are still floating around the net somewhere, but most are gone forever. Eh, what are ya gonna do…

I do believe my first real post (January 2003) was about Super Bowl commercials.

Almost exactly a year ago, I completed a meme asking for 5 reasons why I blog. It took me a while to find that so I could link to it, but there it is!

And how did I choose my blog name? I dunno…it just amused me. 🙂

I maintain several other blogs (some of which are more active than others…you can find the links either on that first post I linked to above or on the “about me” page. Also, there’s my recently formed wedding blog, with the boring name “Erin’s Wedding Blog.” I’ll take suggestions for a new name. 😉 )

BufBloPoFo #4

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Yeah, yeah…so I haven’t done 1-3…

Even though I am not officially participating in BufBloPoFo (I read about it after the start date, and did not post in any of my blogs on March 1), I wanted to try today’s topic.

(Actually, I may officially participate anyway. I’ll leave it up to the judges. ;))

Who would play you in a movie?

Hmmm…interesting. Over the years, I’ve had quite a few “OMG, you look like ______” moments. I can’t say I agree with all of them, but I’m going to post their photos, maybe a brief story for each, and see what you think.

lisarinna

Lisa Rinna. Most people know Lisa Rinna for (a) Dancing with the Stars and/or (b) Being married to Harry Hamlin. But before that , I knew her as Billie Reed on Days of Our Lives.

In the summer of 1994, I taught cheerleading camp around the country. While at a camp in Tennessee, a couple of the girls stopped me and said, “You look just like Billie Reed offa Days of Our Lives.” (imagine it said with a bit of a twang…) I smiled and said thanks.

susannahoffs

Susanna Hoffs. Okay, close your eyes and imagine, if you will, your humble narrator (circa 1992) with shoulder-length hair, bangs, and a perm. One of my college friends insisted that I looked just like Ms. Hoffs.

liza_minelli

Truthfully, I can’t remember who told me I looked like Liza Minelli. But I did dress up as Lucille II for our Arrrested Development party:

lucille II

isabellarosellini

Isabella Rosellini. This was from a drunk guy at a bar who assumed I must be a lesbian because I blew him off.

AnnabellaSciorra

Not sure who said this one.

Linda Cardellini…but only because people think I look like Velma, but I’m pretty sure they’re talking about this Velma. 😉

velma

Anyway…

Laura San Giacomo, of Pretty Woman and Just Shoot Me fame.

As far as I can tell…what these women all have in common is that they are Italian and have dark hair. Most of them have brown eyes. Many of them are petite. However, the only one the right age to play me in a movie is Linda Cardellini.

So, what do you think? And who would you cast as my leading man? 😉

Weekend wrap-up

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The weekend was fun, mellow and relaxing. Here are some of the highlights…

Spend Friday afternoon with a couple of Rand’s friends up from Houghton. We ate lunch at the Village Grille (best. hummus. ever.) and went to see Be Kind Rewind. I liked the movie. It was very funny, and also very touching.

Later, Rand and I watched The Darjeeling Limited, which Rand had just bought. It was as quirky as you would expect, coming from Wes Anderson, but enjoyable. I don’t think it was as good as Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, but I liked it.

Saturday…breakfast and discussion of weddingstuff. Then grocery shopping. We also watched Once, which we’ve had sitting around from Netflix, oh, forever. I liked it a lot. We immediately purchased the soundtrack. (One note, though…could not stop crying. Seriously. I cried for about ten minutes after the movie was over.)

Sunday, we went out and played at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, looking for items we want to include on our registry.

Other things we watched over the weekend…a couple of episodes of Freaks and Geeks, a couple of episodes of Sex and the City (in watching the early episodes, I remember that I was a Carrie-Big fan. It was later that I jumped ship.) I’m probably forgetting something, but oh well.

And as always, the weekend went by too quickly, and I am at work. Happy Monday!