Monthly Archives: April 2011

Royals and Reunions

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

Well, today got off to a lovely start, wouldn’t you say?

photo from bbc.com

I rolled out of bed and onto the couch in the other room at 5:30 to tune in to the royal wedding. (I’ve been doing one of those fitness boot camp things before work four days a week, so waking up at that hour wasn’t too bad. Also, clearly I skipped boot camp this morning.) As the ceremony got underway, I was struck by how commonplace the event was, and yet how remarkable: here were two twenty-somethings who met in college exchanging vows after many years together, but with a Prince for a groom in the most grand setting imaginable and with hundreds of millions of people watching across the globe. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Will and Kate) were the same year as my friends and I were in school, and one of my best friends graduated with them from St. Andrews. It was weird to watch and recognize that we’re about the same age, and that Jon and I did the same thing (er, sort of) almost a year ago.

(Related but not entirely on-topic: read my grad-school classmate’s thoughts on the wedding dress on her blog for Forbes. She’s getting married not this weekend but next, and also in Alexander McQueen. Wahoo!)

Speaking of life milestones, I’ve got my 10-year high school reunion this weekend. (I wonder if Will and Kate went to theirs… as if.) It’s actually a two-day affair, the way my school does it, so tonight each class holds its own party somewhere and tomorrow the school hosts events on campus for all of the reunion classes, 1961-2001. I signed up to help lead the charge and plan our class party to ensure that it wouldn’t suck, so my fingers are crossed for a kickass time tonight. Almost half the class signed up, and almost half of the classmates registered are bringing guests, so we’ve got a good-sized crowd coming to partake in all-we-can-drink SweetWater beer and Smilebooth hilarity. You’ll hear all about it next week, I promise.

In the meantime, read Abby’s post about our reunion with respect to Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion (which, to my great dismay, is not on Netflix instant and I do not yet own on DVD. BALLS.). Since we share the same brain, it’s more or less what I might have written on the matter.

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Posted in deep thoughts, friends who blog, grown-up stuff, in the media, love, nerdery, nostalgia, weddings

a prelude to end all preludes (and much, much more)

Posted on April 28, 2011 | 2 Comments

So, as we all know, The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is happening tomorrow.  One of my musician friends just shared on Facebook an update to the Royal Wedding Website — there are lots of unnecessary caps in these matters — announcing what the Music for the Wedding Service will be. Traditional brides, take note! There are surely some good ideas in here for your organist — or your full orchestra, should you have one on hand for your wedding.  (Photo at left from Brides.com)

The prelude will kick off with four pieces for organ, followed by seven — seven! — orchestral works. (That right there is a full-length recital in itself.) Then follows a Fanfare and three Processionals (for the Queen, the Clergy and the Bride); three Hymns during the service; a choral Anthem and Motet; the National Anthem; another choral piece while Kate and Wills sign the Register; and another Fanfare from the Fanfare Team (I did not make that up, I promise). Finally, a recessional for the happy couple and a postlude of two pieces, concluding with everyone’s favorite interminable commencement ditty, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance.

Yowza. If you’re curious about the specifics (that’s you, future brides looking for music ideas), allow me to refer you to this background page on ye olde Royal Wedding Website. All kidding aside, I like to see a service that incorporates so much music — not that it could have been any other way — even if it is all quite conventional and expected. They’ve balanced out the obviousness of the selections by adding in a recent premiere and a couple of pieces commissioned just for the occasion. (We should all be so lucky!)

I’m looking forward to hearing all of the service music, especially the new works — I’m definitely not going to catch much of the prelude, which probably starts at 5 a.m. or so over here. (And I obviously am excited to see Kate’s Royal Wedding Dress and the sure-to-be whimsical millinery in the congregation.) I just hope the wedding wraps up before I have to go to work. Can’t we get the day off too?

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Posted in highbrow, in the media, music, weddings

Old-Timey Tuesday: our Easter Sunday best

Posted on April 26, 2011 | 4 Comments

Atlanta, Georgia, Easters 1985-1990 (or so)

For this week’s OTT, I figured I’d just post all the Easter photos I had over at my place, mostly because they’re so damn cute.

I’m a little confused about why my brother is in his Ghostbusters pajamas and Care Bear slippers in the picture above, but perhaps it wasn’t taken on Easter. Our dad was certainly prone to lining us up for the camera for no particular reason, but my sister and I sure do look fancy for a normal day at church.

These two are from 1986. I love the totally ineffective hair clips I’m sporting, as well as my brother’s plaid tie and choose-your-own-adventure book.

This one is too sweet. I’m pretty sure that hat is still up in the sewing room at mom and dad’s house… Also, my brother is seriously rocking that double-breasted sport coat — with a bow tie, no less!

On the steps of our new house! (And the start of the awkward years, for me at least.) How about that plaid on my brother? Goes great with the flat-top haircut.

Well, apparently it wasn’t all awkward once we moved into the new house. How cute am I?

OTT Bonus pic: Easter morning, pre-fancying up (c. 1987, I’m guessing).

I could not be more excited about this Tom Kitten cassette & book set. I was a wee bookworm from an early age, and apparently cat-crazy even then.

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Posted in family, holidays, Old-Timey Tuesday

Back to school! Er, work… at a school.

Posted on April 20, 2011 | 9 Comments

As you may recall from a previous post, today was my first day at my new job! (Cue confetti cannons and dancing elephants!) Here’s my new 8:30-5:15 home:

That’s what I see from my office door. You heard right: I have an office, and said office has a door! This is a huge step up from my former common-space cubicle. Glory! Here’s what you see when you look in from the hallway:

It’s admittedly a pretty sad scene right now, but I’m taking in a calendar and at least one framed photo tomorrow to dress it up, and maybe my mini-pennants from my various schools. I won’t go too crazy because we’ll be moving offices later this year (for a fancier building. woo!), but I am very excited to have my own workspace walls to dress.

As you can see from my name plate, my title is PR Specialist. Pretty vague, right? I’ll be writing about the business, law and policy schools (collectively referred to as the university’s professional schools) for press releases, the university website and a couple of alumni magazines. I’m so excited to have a job that will have me writing a lot. My brain is ready to be exercised again! As for the name on the name plate, I think I’m gonna have to get them to spell out that “P” for me…

I picked a great day to start, because today also happened to be a departmental outing to the new dolphin show at the Georgia Aquarium. I was in the office for a grand total of about four hours. I had one meeting, got a tour of the two floors of the building relevant to me, met a ton of new colleagues and chatted with my boss before we headed out at lunchtime. (This was especially fortunate since I don’t have an email address or even a network login yet, so I would have just been putzing around on my smartphone or staring at that blue wall all day.)

We got to tour the galleries for a bit, but the main attraction was the dolphin production — and I mean production. It was absurd. Dramatic swells of music, an earnest singing guy in a light-up cape, stage fights between people and sea-monsters (both wearing wetsuit-based costumes)… oh, and some dolphins. (This rather diplomatic review has more detail, if you’re curious.) The dolphins were freaking amazing, actually, and I would have loved to see way more of them. Needless to say, I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for my admission.

We got back to the office close to the end of the normal workday, so I just headed out after a quick check-in with my boss, since there was nothing for me to do anyway. Tomorrow will be a day full of HR fun. Once I get all that out of the way (which I hear can take a while) I can finally get started learning my beat. Woo! I think I’m gonna like it here.

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Posted in grown-up stuff, higher ed, HUZZAH, let me bring you up to speed

Old-Timey Tuesday: puppy love

Posted on April 19, 2011 | 3 Comments

Castine, Maine, spring (I’m guessing) 1984

Since today is the puppy’s birthday, it seemed fitting to use a dog photo for OTT. This is wee baby (sailor) Jon rolling about in the seaside grass with a family dog whose name I don’t know. He was clearly a dog person from an early age.

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Posted in Old-Timey Tuesday, pets

Otto the birthday puppy!

Posted on April 19, 2011 | 2 Comments

Today is a big day in our house — Otto, our puppy, is a year old! Conventional wisdom says that means he’s now 7 in dog years, but the Pedigree dog age calculator (and a few others) puts him at 15. (Another one said he was 10.5, but I’ll go with the reputable ones.) Already a teenager! He’ll be driving in no time.

In honor of Otto’s birthday, I made my first attempt at dog biscuits. Jon’s mom gave me a set of dog treat recipes and cookies cutters as a cute extra at Christmas and I was going to use one of those recipes, but most of them involved way too many ingredients, one of which unfailingly was “desiccated liver” (GOO!), which I am not about to go near. Fortunately, the internet and Martha Stewart offered alternatives that involved things I mostly had in my pantry, so last night I baked up a batch of apple-cheddar dog biscuits:

I gave Otto a treat this morning before his breakfast and he loved it! Score one for Martha. (He loves cheese — a dog after my own heart.) Other birthday plans for Otto include eating a few more treats and taking a long walk around the park.

And because every blog post is made better with photos of cute animals, here’s a brief Otto retrospective, beginning in late June when he arrived at our house:

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

Last week when Matthew was here I got a couple of awesome Action Otto shots… hopefully I can share some of those later in the week. Happy birthday to Otto!

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Posted in pets

so long, farewell

Posted on April 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

This afternoon I left my first real office building for the last time, after more than three and a half years. I’m officially done with my old job! Footloose and fancy free until next Wednesday, when I start my new one! It feels pretty good.

I somehow feel a little more grown-up now that I’ve got this peacing-out-for-a-new-job situation under my belt. Onward and upward! After a nice long weekend, of course…

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Posted in deep thoughts

Old-Timey Tuesday: Leader of the Pack

Posted on April 12, 2011 | 10 Comments

Atlanta, Georgia, April 1996

This gem is from the junior high chorus spring concert when I was in 7th grade. The spring show always had a theme — this year’s was the ’60s, I believe — and while the full chorus would sing a few tunes, the bulk of the show was made up of “specialty” numbers performed in small groups. (Weird name for that, right?)

This particular year I was assigned by Mrs. Smith, the chorus director, to sing “Leader of the Pack,” and I had my own group of backup singers. I borrowed my mom’s old knee-high boots, strung her high school class ring on a chain around my neck and applied lots of blue eyeshadow to get that authentic ’60s high-schooler look. Wearing a headband was also a purposeful choice, but otherwise I have no excuse for my hair.

The worst part of singing this song was having to do that little spoken interlude — you know, the one that ends with “LOOKOUTLOOKOUTLOOKOUT!!!” [screeeeeCRASH!] I was mortified. Looking back on it now, I’m sure this and other performances that took me outside of my comfort zone (see: that time I was cast as Tina Turner singing Proud Mary) helped me as I went through my undergraduate degree in voice & opera performance… which is really to say that my threshold of embarrassment has gotten a lot higher over the years.

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Posted in hair, Old-Timey Tuesday, style

more choppin’ (but this time for the Braves)

Posted on April 11, 2011 | 2 Comments

Man did I pick a bad weekend to be away from the internet… my Google reader is full of like 8,000 bridal market posts from all the wedding blogs I still follow, and that’s on top of everything else.  I barely had time to make a dent in all of it today at work because I was busy getting ready to not be there anymore. Muha!

Anyway, I had a great excuse for falling behind — as I mentioned, my brother-in-law was in town for the Braves first home games of the season, so we spent a lot of time at Turner Field. The remainder was spent eating delicious food and playing with the pup. Oh, and sweating our asses off, because the air conditioning in our apartment seems to be broken. (It was 86 degrees inside on Saturday — not even kidding. Brutal.)

Otto with his benefactor, Matthew (Matthew gave us the puppy)

And speaking of sweating our asses off (here’s where I come back to my point), after the Braves game on Sunday there was a free concert… by the Avett Brothers! Holy crap, dude! Since when were post-game concerts awesome? Since this season, apparently. (Also slated to perform this year: The B-52s and Ludacris, among others.) They sell limited field passes for the shows, so for $25 bucks we got to be right up close to the stage, which was set up on the dirt at second base. Needless to say, it was awesome. (Also needless to say: the Avett Brothers are really, really damn attractive.)

At the end of the hour-long concert we were pleasantly surprised that the grounds crew didn’t immediately kick us off the field, so we were able to take some sweet photos. The concert and on-field pics really helped ease the pain of the sorry loss the Bravos racked up that afternoon. This one’s totally a keeper:

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Posted in Atlanta, concerts, family, pets, ROCK

The Chop!

Posted on April 8, 2011 | 5 Comments

This morning I finally got the haircut I’ve been thinking about for so long. Yahoo! Check it out:

BEFORE
AFTER

This is the shortest it’s been since I left for my year abroad in Germany in the fall of 2003. It’s also considerably straighter now than it was then, which hopefully bodes well for styling and maintenance.

My stylist was totally game for a big chop, and when we started talking about it she said we would probably be cutting enough to donate. Virgin hair! Never been dyed! These are good things when it comes to donations. Locks of Love requires a 10″ ponytail to donate, but Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program only requires that ponytails be 8″ long. I had come prepared with a ziploc in case we’d be cutting that much , so my stylist made three little ponytails (so the length of each would be more uniform than just one ponytail) and snipped them off right away.

So far, I’m loving my new look, and I’ve gotten the thumbs-up from my sister, husband and brother-in-law in person and others via picture message. We’re headed to the Braves game tonight (to do a different kind of chop — ba-dum ching!), so I’ll find out how it does in somewhat sultry weather conditions. I feel really good about my ability to make it look nice on a regular basis.

Otto also got a haircut this week — or, more accurately, got shorn — so I thought ahead and had Jon take a before photo of the two of us on Monday evening, then got another one this afternoon. Otto and I are ready for warm spring weather!

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Posted in grown-up stuff, hair, HUZZAH