Morsels.

• Curses to family gatherings with all of their leftover tasty treats. If only I could exercise self restraint. If only I could exercise. Note: I can exercise, I just, I dunno, don’t.

• My goodness, Lohan. You're a bigger idiot than I gave you credit for.

• 29 is stupid. I already think of myself as 30. Let's just get it over with already.

• Thanks to the 56 incher, I am readdicted to Super Mario 3. It's the summer of 1990 all over again. I'm strategizing now in my cube in anticipation of playing after the work whistle blows. Be afraid little goombas, I'm gonna pulverize the smirk right off your pface.

• A little piece of advice I'd like to pass on to my offspring: Forget variety, meatballs and wine are the spice of life.
  

Everything is official.

Had my first of two wedding showers on Saturday. It was SO nice. Per usual, my Mom and Aunt D went above and beyond with the food and decor and extras. I am so thankful to them both. Seeing my family members and friends gathered together laughing and celebrating made everything official. It was the kick-off to the Unbridled Emotion Fest of 2007, an event which will likely continue for the next 3 months. Expect many a tear.

*My cousin actually made a cake for me like the one pictured over there. It's a Barbie with a cake around it. Hilarious. Update: Now pictured, the cake my cousin made.

What would you do?

Last night I was at a lovely charity event and met a very smart, nice little girl. We got to chatting and I asked her what grade she was going to be in and she said, "Fourth, I think". I asked why she only thought she was going into the fourth grade, why didn't she know for sure. (After I asked this I felt bad, what if she was repeating the third grade and I just made her feel worse? Oops.) And she said, "Well, I could be going into fifth grade, my parents haven't decided yet."

Thus she could be skipping a grade.

After she walked away, my friend and I went into "well, if that were my kid" mode, even though neither of us are parents, and gave our unsolicited opinions. But just to each other, of course.

My thoughts: I wouldn't do it. Yes, she should be challenged with school work. Yes, she should be all she can be. But at what price? I'm sure she's growing up fast, why make the process faster? What about when the older kids are "developing" and she's still just the 'little' girl? She'd probably have to lash out Catholic-school-girl style to get accepted. I think it's about more than just scholastics when it comes to skipping a grade, especially at that age. And a bigger question is, do parents sometimes do this selfishly so they can boast to their friends?

My verdict: I would leave her in the fourth grade and let her be valedictorian someday.

3 months from today!

Yay! I can't believe there is only 3 months left until our wedding! I have a feeling this is when stuff starts to get hairy. Although we are in a very good spot with everything, it just seems like all of the final details will have to happen at once. But I've got my game face on. I'm ready.

Shower #1 is tomorrow. I still can't believe it's a shower for me. Or us.

Mi casa, su casa.

Right now I am in the midst of trying to sell my house. Not a fun task. So my new realtor says to me that she knows a guy whose house burnt down. In unfortunate ironies, he is a firefighter. So he and his family need a place to stay while their house is being rebuilt. And she asked me if I would be willing to let them rent my house for a couple months.

After some thinking, I've decided that there are many more pros than cons to doing this. Obviously the chance to help someone who suffered through a sad ordeal is a major pro. This family lost everything in the fire and have nothing. They loved my house because it's close to where their house was and their son will be able to continue playing with his friends as normal. Hearing that made the decision somewhat easier.

The only real con is that it's weird to think of someone I don't know living in my house while I still own it and essentially using all my stuff. With all of the legal mumbo jumbo and insurance policies and such, everything should be just fine. But I can't help but think that something bad will happen and I'm a little scared. Which I hope is normal?

So sometime in the next couple of weeks, I will be a landlord. Ha!

Pinch Me.

Ok, so here is my Dave news...

First let me say, this post is dedicated to the Ticket Girl at the Ed Sullivan Theatre to whom I shall bestow my first born.

For reasons we will probably never figure out, Ticket Girl put a special sticker on our tickets giving the 4 of us audience upgraded seats. As it was later explained to us, this meant we would be receiving some of the best seats in the house! I was already excited, but this pretty much sent me over the edge. Not only was I going to be at the show, I was going to have prime seating. I would have been happy sitting in the far back corner in the back row. I didn't care, I was there.

So, after much hooting and hollering and jumping up and down, we returned to the theatre at the time we were told. After we got our audience prep and knew the run down of what was expected of us as "leaders" of the crowd, we filed into the theatre. Some of the people in this group knew people who work for CBS and they were told they were getting the best seats in the house - the balcony. Unobstructed view and a bathroom. (Those of us not in the balcony were not allowed to use the facilities once taping had started.)

The 4 of us walked in behind a lovely couple we had met and befriended in line. The 10-15 people in front of us were ushered to the seats on the right-hand side. Then the man in front of me was told he could go that way. Well, that way meant... the front row, center. Um yeah, the 4 of us were in the VERY FRONT ROW, an arm's length away from the stage. Upon realization of this, the woman in front of me and I started shreiking at the top of our lungs, OMG, OMG, OMG, WE'RE IN THE FRONT ROW! It was incredible, just pure raw emotional excitement. I had MD pinch me.

After we sat down the man from the lovely couple said to me, "Yeah, the balcony seats suck ass!" I agreed.

I had a perfect view of Dave during his monologue, the musical guests (the Smashing Pumpkins) and Will It Float. I could see the guests (Queen Latifah and some comedy writer guy) pretty well when they were seated and I could see the top of Dave's head. There really are a lot of cameras and cue card people walking around. But that's ok, I was as close as one could get. And I was thrilled.

Oh, if that wasn't enough, I know, how could it get better? I also caught the guitar pick from the bass player of the CBS Orchestra, who totally threw it right to me. So I even got a souvenir!

I don't think we could have had a better experience. Things were going our way. And I will remember that day and our trip fondly. It was perfect, perfect, perfect.

The show airs tonight (Friday) . You better believe we are DVRing the heck out of it! You all should watch for us. We'll be easy to spot right there in the FRONT!

I still can't believe this all happened, I can't believe we were there. It'll probably hit me when we watch it tonight.

-- The picture above is of our tickets to the show with the audience upgrade sticker! We weren't allowed to keep them, but we sure as hell could take pictures of them! Sadly no pictures were allowed to be taken inside the theatre, but we got plenty of them outside.

Ideas that I wish were mine:

• Target commercials


• The subway system in New York


• Sharpie markers


• Microsoft


• Nachos
  

What do you wish you had thought of?

New York, New York

To say that our trip to New York was amazing would be an understatement. It was downright perfect! For only being there for 2 full days, we were able to do and see so much. With the Yankees game and tour and David Letterman(!), that alone was a lot, but we were also able to visit Times Square and Ground Zero and we still had time to conquer the public transportation system, visiting 3 boroughs in 2 days.

New York City is a fantastic city. I could spend days just standing in Manhattan watching the people and soaking up the excitement. I'm sure you could spend a lifetime there and still never see everything that it offers. I am very much pining to return. I hope it's not another 11 more years before I go back.

*I have Dave news, but I am not blogging about it yet because I don't want to spoil the news in case some people read it before I can tell them. But trust me, it's good stuff. You'll want to come back and read about it.

Pack it up, pack it in.

So tomorrow we take off for NYC. We’re staying in the lovely (I hope?) borough of Queens. (I quite like the word ‘borough’.) We’ll be 4 crazy midwestern kids left to our own devices in the man-swallowing metropolis of New York. It’ll be nothing if not an adventure, all activities aside.

The last time I was in New York, it was 11 years ago. I went on a bus trip with some of my family. We saw Broadway shows, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and went to the top of the World Trade Center. Interesting. I wonder how much of it I will remember once we're there. If I had my Mom's keen sense of direction, I would remember exactly where everything is and how to get there. Alas, I do not have that talent. Not even kinda.

I'm excited for all of it. Everyone is. It should be a blast.

It's all about me...or 'i'

I'm amazed at how everything is so i, i, i. We're so self-involved. We have the iPod, the iTunes, the iPhone, the iEvery apple accessory.

And how long before i takes over the world? We'll soon have iCar, iDouble cheeseburgers, iPergo flooring and iMore.

It's time that we start focusing on u and less on ourselves.

(But iWouldn't mind having one of these. They seem cool. But there's a little too much iRed tape to deal with right now. )

P.S. Did you all hear that I'm going to the Late Show with David Letterman!?

OMG!

I have a major announcement to make. You're going to want to sit down for this one...

I AM GOING TO THE LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN!

It's true, this dream, 13 years in the making, has finally come to be! I just don't even know what to do with myself, excited doesn't even come close to explaining how I feel. I am a behemoth fan of Mr. Letterman and have always dreamt of seeing the show. And now, on July 9, I will get that opportunity. Wow.

And the best part of it, is that I will get to see the show with my wonderful fiance and my best friend! What could be greater than that?

Wow. Still trying to breathe.