The Not-So-Secret Diary of a Bad Luck Girl

Ah, Thanksgiving – showing thanks by carving up a large bird carcass, ingesting too much food, and letting out past and petty grievances with the family. I know it’s one of my favorites holidays.

Actually, Thanksgiving with my parents is pretty mellow (except for the giant fight my mother and I had in 2006), just the three of us and some Mongolian hotpot. This year MB will be joining me. Should be interesting. Luckily he is so good-natured and sees fun in almost everything, even going to the mall.

This day with my ex and his family was always amazingly stressful – all the people coming over, my ex angry about us having to do the bulk of the work, and inevitably my ex fighting with his mom and/or dad. About a week before my eye would start twitching.

Not having to do that anymore is something I am definitely grateful for.

Yesterday at work was totally dead. I did a few things in the morning before getting in one last workout before the long and piggy weekend. Had lunch and tied up some loose ends before heading out to brave the crowds and pick up some wine and dessert for today. I thought I’d go to a couple of places, but Grand Central had everything I needed – apple pie from The Little Pie Company and a couple of reds from the wine store upstairs. I was all set.

And I thought luck was totally on my side when the bus arrived just as I got to the stop. But since it was only about 3, we ended up picking up all these school kids. There were tons and tons of them! And all Asian it seemed. I overhead a high school kid say it was because of P.S. 104, which is apparently almost all Chinese.

They were generally well-behaved, but there were so many of them, they were noisy, and took up a lot of room with their giant, nerdy backpacks and violin cases (I kid you not). And kids 10 to 13 are just annoying I think. They seem to repeat things a lot. “I told you she was on the bus! I told you! I told you! I TOLD YOU!” All right, kid, you’ve told everyone now.

What with the traffic, it took forever to get to the apartment. I tried to get the driver to let me off before my stop – at a non-stop – but he wouldn’t, though by law he’s supposed to.

Later MB and I decided to brave Whole Foods and pick up some stuff to make dinner in case restaurants were closed. It was crowded but not crazy. The check-out line was totally manageable and we were outta there pretty fast.

He made a good dinner of barbecue chicken chunks, steamed string beans, and stuffing, yay! to get in the holiday spirit. I ate way too much stuffing.

For most of the evening we just lazed around, then saw a midnight showing of Labyrinth. I actually have never seen that movie. I think I’ve seen only the beginning and then wasn’t interested. Now I know why: it is a bizarre and trippy movie, and oh so ’80s. David Bowie wears the craziest outfits that totally show his unit. Weird!

Okay, we’re outtie.

For some reason I had trouble sleeping last night. I think I slept way too much the night before, like 12 hours. I wasn’t up till 11.

This weekend was so cold, I didn’t want to leave the apartment. But on Saturday I braved the bitter temperatures and did my site visit at the New Museum.

We were supposed to put in three hours, but I was there only about 90 minutes. The Education Center of the museum is so tiny, and the museum itself isn’t very big. It’s not one of my favorite museums, to tell the truth, especially since I can’t get in for free.

I wrote my paper and presentation yesterday. Didn’t take very long. Now I’m just revising them, and will upload to our group website.

MB and I didn’t see any movies this weekend, if you can believe it. Sunday we took a walk up to Kiehl’s on 13th Street (we both needed product), and back. Later we went grocery shopping. It’s funny how Whole Foods can seem like a mad house, but then you get on line (the regular line, not the type-A express line), and there’s no one waiting.

What a boring post. Oh well.

Lazy, I guess.

Yesterday I left work early to watch a taping of the Conan O’Brien show with my brother.

Originally I wasn’t going to go since I’m taking tomorrow off. Not that I’m so busy at work, but I felt guilty. Then my brother, D., was like, “C’mon just go. How often do you get to see your brother?” Okay, so now a different kind of guilt. Or just an excuse to go.

It was great fun, though the now-famous NBC pages were kind of strict and mad with power. Or at least one of them was. D. has connections so we were able to bypass the joe-schmo line and get on a special line. To get on this special line, a page had to check our tickets. Fine. Then we got to the line, this Ashely Todd look-a-like spat, “Guys, I need to see our tickets and your wristbands.” How do you think we got back here?

Then later she checked them again before we got on the elevator, then shouted at us, “Everyone has to move back! Everyone. . .MOVE BACK!” Then upstairs she barked, “Have your tickets ready!” cuz this other girl was collecting them at the door. Geez, I know it’s important to run an organized show, but you’re still just a page.

We had awesome seats, just a few rows back from the stage and on the aisle. But then this other page asked us if we would move for this couple who was on their honeymoon. We just stared at her, trying to comprehend why they would deserve special seats. I don’t care if they’re on their honeymoon, and was starting to get fed up with getting pushed around by these pages. Still, I felt sorta bad, but then my bro was like, “Um, no, I don’t really want to move.” And neither did anyone else. Ha!

Before the show started, Conan came out and joked around with us. He’s extremely tall and his hair seemed much higher in person than on TV. He also looked a bit older than I expected. There was music and he started dancing, and this random guy on the aisle got up and danced with him. Then later that guy and his girlfriend ended up getting picked for the audience participation portion, which was the funniest part of the show.

The guests were Tom Brokaw and this comedian. The comedian was funny, but Tom Brokaw was snoresville. There was also a musician (yawn).

In the end, I’m really glad I went, and glad we didn’t move because we had a great view and you can totally see us in the audience. Here’s the show online. t will probably disappear soon.
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On another note, I’ve had two celebrity sightings – aside from Conan and everyone on the show – in the past few days. Earlier this week I saw Clinton Kelly from What Not to Wear right outside my workplace. He was very tall and more handsome in person. He might have been shooting but there were no cameras or Stacey around, just two serious looking women. He looked right at me as I walked by. I like to think he was thinking, Nice jacket!

Last night I saw Quincy Jones at the Barnes & Noble MB were hanging out in. I think he had just finished a reading or talk. He was getting on the elevator and talking on his cell phone. “We’ll be right there,” he said.

MB’s all done with his semester – he passed his classes, yay!, and gets to return next semester. Last night we took a break and saw Splinter. We had read some good reviews, but I thought it was just okay. Better as a rental.

I have tomorrow off, yay! I so need to do laundry before meeting up with D. Then this weekend I need to do school work, boohoo.

After the election last week, I was barely able to do anything except look at news stories and videos and cry, cry, cry, in a good way of course.

This weekend was kinda busy. Friday night MB and I saw JCVD, which was actually pretty good! I’ve never been a huge Van Damme fan, though I did enjoy Timecop, but the movie was well-done. Of course MB loved it. Jean-Claude was supposed to be there that night, but for some reason couldn’t make it.

Saturday I headed out to NJ. My brother’s in town this week, and will be in the city in a few days, but my mom wanted me to come home so that we could all be together. My brother’s plane wasn’t getting in till later that night so that afternoon I just lazed around. Read, took a nap, then actually got some homework done. And of course ate, then ate again when he got in around 10.

Sunday morning I was up fairly early, around 8:30, and got more homework and a tiny bit of writing done. Then we all went to the mall, the usual Jersey thing. My brother got some shirts; I got a brown hat to go with my new green and brown scarf. Then we got some dim sum, which was tasty but very salty.

I got back into the city around 6, and MB and I went to meet YP to see Otto, or Up with Dead People. We had drinks beforehand, luckily, because the movie was – I can’t even say it was awful. It was just really bizarre, and not in a David Lynch way. We expected it to be a zombie movie with some gayness, but actually it was gay porn with one zombie, who may or may not have actually been a zombie, and the parts between the porn parts were pretty boring.

But like I said I was drunk (from one drink!) so I didn’t care much, except now I’m totally hungover.

At home MB and I watched the new 30 Rock on Hulu, which was HILARIOUS (Liz Lemon: “Madonna’s arms are CRAZY!”), and a Burn Notice, which we are enjoying a lot.

Today I need to finish some reading for school tomorrow. Thursday I have a paper due but I already finished it. Wednesday I’m leaving work early to see a taping of the Conan O’Brien show with my brother (connections!), and I’m taking Friday off to hang with my bro again.

I guess I should try to do *some* work today.