Here’s a Tip

To anyone who rides public transportation please pay attention to the following announcement: Do NOT eat spiced meats on the subway. You are in an enclosed area and not everyone in the car wants to smell your stinky food. You may be hungry but I implore you not to open your Tupperware container of food that looks (and smells) like it has been sitting out under a heat lamp to make it look like mashed peanut butter. Think of your fellow commuters and wait until you are standing at a bus stop or at home, that way the only people who need to smell your food will be you and others who want take their life in their own hands and eat what ever culinary delight you have. Thank you for your time and thank you for ridding the T.

A Birthday List

Well today I turn 24. So far it’s been a pretty good day, Paul and Steve and I had breakfast at my favorite diner.


Paul gave me Birthday Frenchtoast

Last week I was talking with Steve about birthdays and when I think of birthdays past I have a top four. In chorological order they are:

1. The Birthday I was in Kindergarten (five maybe?) my parents had a birthday for me in the basement of our house and I had friends over. My mom made a clown cake, the theme was clowns for some reason, and she was so proud of the cake. I still remember what it looks like.

2. Seventh-grade birthday party (thirteen?), having commented about how Jenny always got pool parties at our house, my dad transformed our basement into a Hawaiian themed party with a small kiddie-pool. We spent the day filling the pool with warm water, hanging curtains to hide the washer and dryer and borrowing space heaters to warm up the basement. An all girl contingent from my junior high came and we sat in the pool of warm water and giggled four about two hours until we got pruney and then ate cake.

3. My twenty-first birthday. My best friends from Minneapolis had driven down to Rochester and, along with my friends from nursing school, we bar hopped to two bars until I was too drunk to remember. We then went home (or so I’m told) and ate massive amounts of pizza. A few days later I drove home and went out to a celebratory dinner with my parents. We went to Chino-Latino and had cocktails and I remember it was the first time I felt like an adult around them

4. My twenty-third birthday, my first birthday where I wasn’t with my family. Steve took me snowboarding and made me a cake. My cousin and his now wife along with Steve and I went out to dinner and then I came home and had cake with Adrianne, her then boyfriend, and Steve.

Today is my birthday and I hope there are many more happy ones to come.

It’s Derby Time!

Last Saturday Steve and I went to our first Roller Derby. One of our friends wanted to go for her birthday so along with four thousand some odd fans we packed into the Shriner Center and watched girls roller-skate around in a circle and get hurt-it was awesome!

They move so fast!

I’ve never been to an all female football game but I think it would hold the same attraction. These women were tough, they crashed into poles, into chairs, and into each other all while wearing fishnets and hot pants. It made me proud to be a woman. The score keeping is completely beyond me but has something to do with how many people from the other team you can pass before time for a “jam” runs out. The Boston team, The Boston Massacre, was racing against the Philadelphia Liberties. Boston got massacred but it was still enjoyable to see and I’m already planning on buying advanced tickets for next months match.

I’m a Hundredaire!

When I was a kid I always remember my dad playing squares for the super bowel, joining the office pool to have a 4 in one hundred chance in winning money. It seemed so adult: the office pool, gambling, watching football! So when one of my co-workers asked me if I wanted to buy squares I bellied up $20 because I wanted to feel like a grown up figuring that if I didn’t win at least I would be interested in the game for a change.

Steve and I had the game on and sort of watched it in between making dinner and cleaning the house. At the first quarter I looked up my numbers and realized that I had won! I did a little dance around the house yelling “I won a hundred dollars,” then settled down on the couch to watch the commercials. The second quarter one team had scored 10 points and the last numbers had stayed the same, I won a second time. I was pretty happy that I had been able to make my twenty bucks into something then ate dinner and watch Prince try not to further break his hips. Third quarter I didn’t really pay attention and only really looked up at the end to see who had won the money, it was me again! I spent the rest of the game in disbelief of my luck and am now contemplating how to spend my earnings.

They Say It’s Your Birthday

I don’t get what it is with people not wanting to celebrate birthday recently. In my world your birthday is the day where everyone does what you want and thanks you for deciding to push your way out of a nice cozy womb into the world. You get to eat what you want, wear what you want, and go where you want. Who wouldn’t like that?

I remember when I was a kid wanting to have steaks on the grill for my birthday so, in the middle of February, my dad fired up the Webber and we all had steaks. Amy Sedaris shares similar sentiment saying “(her) brother always had (her) mother make him duck for his birthday but he made the rest of the kids eat Spanish rice so (they) would envy him.” While I never went to that extreme I still think the sentiment holds true, it’s your birthday and it’s your day.

Happy Birthday Paul, enjoy your day.


Paul rocking out to Birthday jams.