Mike made a label for his homemade chili. Pretty much the best thing ever.
Jason REQUIRES a game of Tecmo Superbowl to be played every year at our Superbowl party. I'm amazed that an original NES game looks as good as it does on our 50'' flatscreen. I would have thought the ratios would be all f'ed since this technology didn't exist when NES came out. Kinda cool.
Amanda's cupcakes. Droolfest and sprinklefuck.
Mom bought me those drunk cupmarkers a few years ago.
Quite handy after a few rum n' cokes, indeed.
A perfunctory photo I took showing everyone stuffing their faces and/or staring intently.
As Jason said on FB, probably due to the E*Trade baby.
In the past 21 days, I've worked 18. Three days off in three weeks, including every weekend and a holiday. Overtime pay and comp time in the bank. Ready for our party in a few hours. Thankful for friends. Thankful for laughter.
There are so many things, so many aspects, I could write for a long time. There's good and there's bad. But I'm going to keep it in because that's what I do. It's what I've always done.
I will take it and grow. My only option is to grow. I will find a way someday. I don't know where or how. But I have to make an impact. I have to. I have yet to prove myself. Even I am doubtful.
I hope I live long enough. I hope it's not all taken away.
Do these dreams have any meaning?
No, I think it's more like a ghost
That's been following us both
Something vague that we're not seeing
Something more like a feeling
Heading to the LOST Bar tomorrow for the premiere. Read: insanity. If there are any New York Losties who want to join the troop of nerds heading out there tomorrow, let me know via Woohu | FB | BBM | YouTube | Gmail, and it'll get to me.
Here's the video I took a few years ago for the Season 4 finale to give people who haven't gone an idea of what it's like there. If you haven't found out who's in the coffin by now then this would be, um, a giant f'ing spoiler.
Thankful that he is my President.
That's all I will say about that.
Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions - our corporations, our media, and yes, our government - still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.
No wonder there's so much cynicism out there.
No wonder there's so much disappointment.
Found my very first gray hair today.
Mmm, degradation.
I think it's remotely plausible that I've had them before but never known about it because I've been dying my hair since 8th grade, more or less nonstop. Even when it's near my natural color, it's dyed. So I've been finally letting my natural color grow out and POP! There she grows.
For some odd reason, I'm not at all upset about it. I was just sitting on the subway a few days ago looking at someone with salt and pepper hair thinking that it looks nice, kinda distinguished, and that I look forward to having that look someday. Not at 25, but c'mon, it's only a hair.
Anyway, with the rate of madness at work right now, I'll be gray in no time.
Bronx to testify tomorrow? Maybe twice? Or once Friday? This is what I get for offering to pick up a case that no one else would take from Evidence Control. Whatevs, I don't mind. I enjoy sitting on the train with a coffee, going over my casefile. A nice day out of the "office." Those lawyers don't scare me anymore. :)
Did I ever mention the ADA from my previous testimony sent me a really nice letter? The kind you hang over your desk to be a reservoir of smiles.
soiree
The boy sent out email invites today.
It's party season at the bebe abode! Shazam!
losties
We're getting together an epic Lost-watching party at the Lost Bar in Manhattan for the premiere. We are proud to have discovered the greatness that is the Lost Bar and have been gleefully spreading the word about it for several years now. It has officially gathered a sizable following as more nerds join the chaos. Homg it's gonna be packed, the premiere is gonna be insane.
manball
Superbowl party! NY Giants bombed like a bunch of douches this season but it won't stop us from throwing our annual bash. Excuse for food and beer? Oui merci!
brit love
Ricky Gervais is hosting the Golden Globes. We don't host a party for this one, but I'm happy to have a little shindig if anyone is interested because that silly heffa is hosting. I'll watch just to hear him laugh.
red carpet
Oscar party! This is a long-standing tradition, ballots and all. I think the first time I ever went to a Jason-sponsored Oscar party, I was still dating my ex-boyfriend Mike. There's always crazy antics to be had and gifts to receive and sometimes, fish bowls to be broken.
Other things not too terribly far away:
V-day
Trip to Seattle
My day of birth (Jason already bought me presents. What the what?!)
Found an old CD with mp3 files from a long, long time ago. One of the songs conjures a vivid memory of sitting at a old white wooden windowsill overlooking a cobblestone London side street while the rain streaks down the glass and a man with a black umbrella locks his door across the street.
Just one of those snapshots of time, somehow locked up in a song.
I need to renew my passport. It expired in 2004. Geez.
I also need to get back to Europe. It's been too long. That will be one of my goals for this decade.
Seven days since my last entry, here's how it goes.
After New Year's, Jason's dad had a heart attack. I had recently driven back to Detroit when Jason called and said his parents were on the way to the hospital. I had seen him a day earlier and didn't notice anything wrong. I had always thought he was healthy--he works out at the Y, isn't overweight, and doesn't smoke cigarettes. But when he started showing signs of a heart attack, Georgia took him in. I know their quick action saved his life. How many times do you hear about someone thinking they just have congestion or indigestion only to drop dead later that day? Doctors found he had 80-90% blockage and recommended a quadruple bypass. An unsettling cloud of uncertainty loomed over the rest of the day as I waited for news. I didn't know if he was okay, or if he would be okay. All I could do is wait near the phone and try to concentrate on packing for NY. I'm sure it was harder for things on Jason's end. Scott ended up having to wait two days for the surgery. Which was positive in a way, since it meant he wasn't in immediate danger, and they weren't rushing into things. They could afford to wait, but it was hell for Scott to sit there not knowing exactly when they would open up his chest and insert parts of his leg. Especially when earlier in the week, this wasn't even on anyone's radar.
I flew back to the city before the surgery could happen. He seemed in good spirits and I talked to him on Gmail chat one more time. On the way to New York, Delta managed to lose my luggage. The luggage with all of my underwear and socks and new Christmas presents. I'm super paranoid about this because when Jason and I went to Las Vegas, his luggage was lost and never found. Never. The only comfort I had was that there was not anything specifically expensive in there. Only clothes and coffee and candles--various Christmas presents but no electronics or blatantly prized possessions. Still, as I stood there watching the same luggage recycle its stolid route on the conveyor in front of me, I worried that what happened to Jason had happened to me. A heavy lump forms at the prospect of never seeing your things again, some so common to your existence as a favorite pair of jeans. Despite the fact that they are just that, things, of no real consequence and easily replaceable, it's still unsettling to face and a tangible void exposed. I relented and went to baggage services to make a claim. They had no record of my bag on the plane, or any other plane for that matter. I was told to wait for news so I hailed a taxi and went to my apartment toothbrushless, all the while waiting for news on Jason's dad just the same.
Later, at 10pm that night, a phone call alerted me that my baggage was downstairs in my lobby. I was already ready for bed, contacts out but no glasses to compensate, I went downstairs blurry-eyed in bare feet and my least favorite sleep pants. Truth it was, my luggage was safe and sound, coffee and all.
I woke up the next morning, grateful I could brush my teeth for work. Scott's surgery was scheduled. He was operated on for several hours and I received text updates throughout the day. A quadruple bypass turned into only a triple, and he remained unconscious the rest of the day. Jason was able to visit the next morning before his flight out. He was able to talk to his dad, who was alert sitting up in a chair. Jason was entirely prepared to stay in Michigan until his dad was better, but the parents wouldn't hear of it. Since then, Scott has improved daily and will be getting out of the hospital within the next few days.
With one minor blip. His heart rate shot up and the nurses needed to give him medication.
Because he was watching the Michigan State Spartans.
Only a Rockwell.
With the luggage crisis averted and Jason's dad improving, things were better. Then of course I had to get sick. Maybe this isn't a point of interest for most, but I have not been sick since August 2008. I still remember it: I was at the Medical Examiner's office amplifiying DNA and getting my face mask full of snot, sitting there in my full body coverings, feeling like hell. But this time I only have a sore throat and a cough and some snot so like usual, I worked through it. However, my brave leukocytes have forsaken me. My lymph nodes in my neck are swollen and sore, even the ones in the back that are usually totally chill and nonchalant about maladies. So I finally folded and took my first sick day today. I just felt like hell this morning and decided I shouldn't have to push through it. I don't know why I always feel the need to do that, especially when people I work with are out all the time. So I text my boss and I'm out for the day.
Only to receive a hurried phone call in the middle of the day from him about one of my cases. The ADA is on the phone at work and the arresting officer needs the drugs because they want it in court now but I'm the only one with access to it because it's still in my custody. Why? Why on the one and only sick day I have ever taken? Meanwhile there are some people at work who are seriously out sick all the time; to the point that I think they obviously need to take an assload of vitamins or something because someone should not be sick that often. I offered to come in today, even though I felt like crap and hadn't showered or left bed much for that matter, but he asked if I could come in tomorrow morning for morning overtime to get it done.
A few hours later I went to the doctor. Reason #274 of why I love New York: apartment buildings typically have offices or businesses in the lower level of apartment buildings and my apartment happens to have my doctor's office. She is my doctor that I go to for everything, so I literally only walk like 5 feet from my front door to the doctor's office. I could even go in my slippers if I wanted to be classy. This, combined with completely free health care = awesomesauce.
She said I have bronchitis and doesn't want me to go back to work until Monday. This, I told her, is not possible. She wasn't happy, but she didn't argue with my reason why I needed to go back.
So I get a prescription for an antibiotic and walk to the pharmacy in the cold with a chest that already hurt. I'm not even going to start on the pharmacy. I pretty much despise them and could do a whole separate rant on that but I'll refrain. There's not much point. So of course, I didn't end up getting my prescription.
So now I'm sitting here with a chest that hurts, no medication, and I have to get up earlier than normal for overtime to make up for the one sick day that I've had.
I'm sorry this entry was long and complainamatic. I'm not typically rant-inclined, especially concerning work related things, but I'm just worn. The fact that I actually AM complaining about it and that I actually DID take a sick day means something, since I rarely do either.
I don't want to be underestimated and underappreciated.
I guess I just have to prove myself and keep singing my song.
Driving across the state singing at the top of my lungs in a warm car with twilight shimmering at my back and a hot coffee in my hand has got to be one of the greatest feelings ever.
New Years was a good time. Jason was a nut. We were all nuts. Got a random surprise visit in downtown Grand Rapids. :) Maybe entry and pics later. I need to get stuff together, heading back to the city soon.
New Year's Resolution 2010:
Don't make the same mistake twice.
I've lived in New York City for almost four years, but my first brush with a terrorist attack happens in Detroit. I flew Northwest airlines and landed in Detroit just before noon today. So did a friendly Nigerian with a bomb.
I wasn't on the plane with the bomb (obvs) since I wasn't coming from Amsterdam. So I'm fine. Everyone is fine. Props to the passengers and their heroics. Can I go back to NYC so I can be safe again?
for elliot
Our neighbor has been dead since September. The one who was found on the floor after our doorman called the police. His apartment was sealed off after he died and it has remained that way ever since. Every day I pass by his door and remember that all his belongings, all his life, his DNA and coffee mugs and hairs on the bathroom sink are sealed inside that one room studio. No one has come for his things. Three months, and no one has come. Halloween passed, Thanksgiving came, the cold blew in, a snowstorm raged, but no one came. I don't know why. Maybe he was the last one in line, or maybe there was a rift that not even death can close. No matter the case, this is for you Elliot. I didn't know your name when you were alive. I only learned it when I looked at the letters piling up underneath your door. Elliot. The old man who always said hello and apologized if his tv was too loud. It never was.
I'm sorry that your apartment is still a tomb for your possessions. I'm sorry no one came. But this is for remembering you. That this Christmas, even if no one would have been there if you were alive, I will remember you when you are gone.
There's something very relaxing about looking at marijuana trichomes under a microscope while listening to my iPod. It's like looking at a little jungle world.
I want to buy my own microscope someday, but I don't know what kind yet. Probably a regular compound microscope. But I like the stereoscopes and PLM ones too. I guess if I worked in Hair and Fiber I'd probably go for the PLM. Can't I have stereo plus light? No, not sure they make those.
I bought Hershey Chocolate Mint candy canes tonight. Ho man.
Reading some Seed Magazine now and getting a bit soporific. GRE word, what!
Wonder if my subpoena will be activated tomorrow. Might end up in Brooklyn.
Jason made pumpkin spice pancakes at 9 o'clock tonight. Because we're healthy.
I haven't talked about work much, even though it takes up most of my life. I've done over 110 cases so far. Last week I got my first subpoena to testify in court (subpoena duces tecum) as an expert witness. Mega short notice. I was at my lab bench working on a case when I was told I was alerted for a Brooklyn court that day. An alert doesn't necessarily mean you have to go, especially for Brooklyn and Manhattan, so I kept working. But around 1:30pm I was activated, which means I had to pull a Clark Kent and rush down to my locker, change into my suit, and get on the subway with my boss by 2pm. In Brooklyn, we met with the ADA for a pretrial meeting. After some circumstances I probably shouldn't talk about since it's an ongoing trial, it was adjourned and I didn't testify. Got another subpoena later in the week though, so I'll probably be heading back again this week unless they stipulate before trial. Really glad my boss went with me. There was a lot to learn about the whole process in general and it was nice to talk about work on the way there.
One of my coworkers was subpoenaed for the Bronx (shudder) and our boss couldn't go with her even though it was her first time too. Total bummer, but she survived. If I never have to testify in the Bronx or Staten Island I'll be a happy criminalist. Most of my cases are from Brooklyn anyway.
While I can't talk about case specifics in general, some of them can be pretty interesting. I've had defendants be 13 and 14 years old. Somebody should get those kids some extracurricular activities. Geez. On the other hand, I've had defendants in their 80's. Those are always the crackheads. It must keep their heart going or something.
I'm waiting for the Criminalistics section to open again. They closed it while things are sorted out at work. I applied awhile ago so hopefully something will come of it. I would like to work in case management and train in some new disciplines so I can work on homicides and assaults. I think I have a good background for it. I just want to do more. Have more impact.
I'm also trying to go to the American Academy of Forensic Science conference in February. It's in Seattle this year. I sent a memo up the ranks to try and go in an official capacity for the NYPD, then it turned into this bigger thing where they're trying to get more people to go with me and work out a budget and whatnot. I don't know if it'll get approved--I think it's unlikely--but hopefully I'll fly out anyway because I really want to go. I was going to use my own vacation time anyway, but my boss said I should try to see if I can represent the NYPD while I'm there. Our friends Chris and Stashia live in Seattle so Jason and I would have a place to stay at least. Looking through the conference program gets me all happy for all the cool forensic learning I can do there. :)
Christmas is almost here. I got my time off approved even though I'm pretty low on the seniority chain of criminalists. They've always been good about giving time off. I'm thankful for it. Especially when I only see my parents twice a year. So there are Christmas parties planned in Michigan and by some grace of god I have my shopping done already. I usually bollocks up the timing and cut it pretty close, but I currently have a cluster of online shipping packages residing in my bedroom that proves I didn't procrastinate this year. PS: Online shopping = god.
Christmas is very pretty in the city. Jason and I went to the Rockefeller Christmas tree lighting. There was about a hundred thousand people crowding the few blocks surrounding Rockefeller, but I used my badge to get us close to the tree.
Me to Officer: "Can we go through here?" Officer: "Here? No, you have to go around." ::shows badge:: Officer: "Now you can."
Heh, perks.
On a more serious note, I received a message about my coworker's murder regarding media interest. Some people have been contacted by Dateline and other media outlets wanting to do a show about her. It was a public message to her Facebook group and I will repost here:
We have recently been made aware that there has been an increased influx of media coverage and journalists that have reached out to quite a number of Michelle's friends. These include Matthew Malone from Cosmopolitan, Dateline, local newspapers, local networks, etc.
At the respect of the family and the ongoing investigation, please politely decline these requests and media inquiries. We are trying to respect the privacy of the family but also make sure we do not jeopardize the investigation and ongoing trial.
Am reaching out to you as one of Michelle's close friends to please decline talking to any media until the trial is over. Once the trail has been fully closed, you are more than welcome to reach out to anyone who has gotten in touch with you, but until then, please just let the media know that we are not offering any information until the trial is over. Please cascade this message to other people who may not be included in this group.
Really appreciate everyone's understanding and cooperation with this event. Let's not remember how she was taken away but how she lived.
We had a moment of silence for her at the NYPD Christmas lunch last week. I feel bad for her family this holiday season. Rest in peace.
Yep! You were one of the ones I was talking about. For some reason I kind of think of you as like the unofficial Queen of Woohu. I really have no idea why I feel this way, but I do. Haha.
Hallofest
Annual Halloween party was quite the success. Although I somehow managed to make a Smurf creepy. I was...just creepy. Used a whole tube of blue paint and still wasn't completely covered. Blue on my pants, blue on the carpet, and blue on the walls when I woke up in the morning. Sacre bleu.
Then when you add in my Scully wig for an extra effect, it's just a slutty sort of creepy.
No shame.
Although, I was less slutty than last year...
I feel like Halloween is an excuse for girls to be slutty, so this year I made an effort not to be. But ended up whoring myself out in other ways. Har har.
Took about 150 photos that night. Uploaded a good bit of them. Facebook, bien sur.
