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January 30, 2006

Triple Scoop Sundaes

Yesterday I left to go back to school around 4 something. The drive started out with some light rain which quickly turned to a torrential downpour with thick fog somewhere between Greenwich and Hartford. The fog made the drive very eerie and creepy. Does eerie mean creepy? Am I being redundant and repeating myself? Haha I make bad jokes. ANYWAY, I took this picture in the rear-view mirror. For those of you reading this and thinking I'm crazy for taking pictures while driving in treacherous conditions... well, yeah.

Headlights behind me:

The fog got so bad that all I could see were headlights and black tree trunks in the woods. It was really scary, actually.

Bad rain:

Luckily I had my iPod with the cool iPod car converter thing to keep me entertained:

The conditions were so bad that I could hardly even recognize the roads to know where I was going! I accidentally took a wrong turn and thought I had gotten on the bridge to Cape Cod but it turned out it was just to East Hartford.

I'm not sure what bridge I was thinking of....

Anyway, I made it to school in one piece. Brent had spent the whole day in the library and was really bored so we went on a date to Taco Bell for dinner and then to see Hoodwinked, a new take on "Little Red Riding Hood." It was funny in a really stupid way.

This morning I got up for class and there was so much fog!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. I went to class, did some work, cleaned my room, and had some Friendly's for dinner! My mom gave me some coupons she got from the newspaper or something so Brent and I had appetizers and ice cream sundaes mmm! We both had Reese's peanut Butter Cup / Reeses Pieces sundaes and they were delicious, as expected. Unfortunately, now I have to go on the "need to fit into a dress this Saturday" diet which won't be any fun at all.

On the walk back to the car I saw a lamp with a purse and thought I should take a picture.

How cute!

Well, that's pretty much the end. I'm watching Scream 3 on TBS and then falling asleep now. Goodnight!

Posted by lauren at 11:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 29, 2006

Jon's Birthday and the Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes Case Race

Last night, Brent and I went to the library to get some work done for our classes. Aren't we good students?

Brent in the library:

After doing some political philosophy reading, we went back to Funtown to get ready for Jon's birthday party. Before going to the party, Brent and I joined the guys in my hall for a Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes Case Race. Unfortunately, the boys didn't tell the girls in time that they were to be dressed in tennis ho attire, so there aren't any cute pictures of the girls.

The golf pros:

Brent and Me:

Let the case race begin!
http://media.putfile.com/Case-Race

For those of you who don't know what a case race is, there are teams of three which race each other to finish a case of beer per team.

Some of the golf pros in CJ's room:

And then they got drunk....

Brent took a picture of me proudly sticking my boobs out:

Garner and Will participating in the case race in Will's room:

I love the bright green jacket:

Four polos at once... nice:

Tom, part of Joey, CJ, and Briggs:

Still in the race:

The guys unbuttoned their pants to make room for more beer:

We had a bunch of sticky mouse-traps in our dorm hall because of the problem we had with mice a few months ago, so someone made a very creative "Will Trap" with a Natty Lite:

Brent and Me (we were case race spectators):

Case Race winners! The guy in the background is Josh, the football recruit. I think we corrupted any and all of his morals last night:

After the case race, Brent and I went went to Jon's 20th birthday party! Jon is in a band called Late Night Uproar and you can check them out at http://www.latenightuproar.com. Jon's party was a lot of fun. We all had a crazy mix drink comprised of vodka, grain alcohol, Kool-Aid, and Sprite. It was pretty intense.

Jon's Party-- You can see Jon under the "B" in the "Happy Birthday" sign:

Brent and Hexx at Jon's party:

Brent and Mike with the jungle juice:

Hexx and Me at the party:

Andrew and birthday-boy Jon playing some beirut:

Brent and Andrew:

On top of the cooler full of jungle juice:

As Brent and I left the party, Brent leapt down the stairs:

On the walk, we discovered Joey wandering the LSC quad all alone. If you hadn't guessed, he participated in the case race too. He was completely drunk and lost, so Brent went to go get him and lead him back to Funtown:

Joey had his head down and was doing the sad Charlie Brown walk home:

Brent and Joey. Joey saying "I love you man, I love you! Take a picture with me man, I love you!"

Brent and Garner helped Joey find his bed and Garner threatened to draw on him if he didn't take his shoes off, to which Joey responded "No please! Not my highlighters, please no!" and jumped up out of bed and wandered down the hall because he was ready for some more partying! That's our Joey....

Brent and I then went to Brent's room where we ate some potato chips and watched a couple episodes of "Family Guy."

Brent and Me in his room at the end of the night:

"Family Guy" is awesome:

After a long night of partying I finally got some sleep only to wake up early this morning to come down to Greenwich for Sunday brunch! On the way home, I took this picture of the Capitol building in Hartford because I think it's really pretty:

I had eggs benedict for brunch and it was delicious! I have to get back to school now, though, but I hope you all had as fun of a weekend as I did!

Posted by lauren at 03:40 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 28, 2006

Settling In

We've been back to school for nearly a week now so I guess it's time to really start settling in. Brent re-arranged his room, I finally stopped living out of a suitcase and unpacked, and Brent and I made one of our usual trips to IHOP.

Brent in his newly arranged room. Still not perfect, but it's getting there:

Brent and I got hungry yesterday afternoon around 3pm, so we decided that we could be like the old folks and get a super early dinner at IHOP.

Leaving for IHOP:

Holding hands =)

Aww, BB (my car) and AC Slater (Brent's car) having some bonding time in the parking lot:

AC Slater is named after the slate blue color of Brent's Saab, and also just because "Saved By the Bell" was one of the best shows ever. Brent and I got to IHOP where we encountered another couple dining, in the middle of downtown Hartford, wearing pastel pink polo shirts. We decided they were probably fellow Trinity students. Brent and I both had omlettes and pancakes because we're huge fat kids. It was AMAZING.

IHOP for life:

After IHOP Brent and I went to Target to get some things for Brent's room. He needed attachments for his Swiffer and got confused because he's a boy:

Target:

Brent made fun of me for Wet-Napping my hands after touching the dirty, public shopping cart.

We stopped at a couple more places before going back to school last night, but for the most part, it was a very uneventful evening.

Brent driving:

This morning Brent and I tried to get some breakfast at school but everything was closed. We went to Bruegger's Bagels instead and had delicious bacon egg and cheese bagel sandwiches. http://www.brueggers.com/

On the walk back from the parking lot, I went through one of the many Trinity arches and it was really pretty:

Well, that's pretty much it I guess... I'm boring. Tonight Brent and I are probably playing some beirut with the Funtown guys, heading over to Jon's birthday party, then seeing what's up with Julie, Kara, and Kara. Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted by lauren at 03:35 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 26, 2006

The Story of How Coffee Ruined My Day

I woke up this morning at 6:30am to shower and get dressed in time for some breakfast before class. I hate waking up early. I don't even want to get into it because it will only make me angry. I took this picture because in some way, I thought it demonstrated the earliness, but it's really just a picture of nothing.

Picture of earliness:

Brent and I went to the Cave where I had a banana and Brent had an egg and cheese sandwich a la Al. Al is a cullinary mastermind. I don't know how he does it, but everything he makes tastes like I'm eating a little piece of heaven. Overall, Al is just a really cool guy.

Anyway, anyone who goes to Trinity knows that you absolutely do not drink the Cave coffee. I don't know who is responsible that whole mess, but certainly not Al. Brent and I have our favorite coffee places, the Gallows Hill Bookstore and the Peter B's in the library cafe. We began our trek over the Mather quad tundra towards Gallows Hill, stomping along the permafrost with our hiking boots. We weren't actually wearing hiking boots, I made that up. Brent had on Merrells and I had on my Uggs. We made it to the bookstore only to be met with an unfriendly note informing us of the new hours, 9am - 5pm. The Gallows Hill Bookstore used to be open 8am - 7pm but, in an effort to ruin my college experience, they changed their hours.

Gallows Hill Bookstore:

Brent and I both had class at 8:30am so we did not have any time to spare! We trudged back across the permafrost quad towards the library which was also closed! Why would coffee shops exist on campus if not to serve the early-rising students? I had class, I was tired, I was grumpy, and I wanted my morning coffee!

I was desperate, so I resorted to drinking the Cave coffee, ugh. It was nauseating. As if my day hadn't gotten off to a bad enough start already, I had to walk past a group of small children sledding down the hill on the LSC quad! I wanted to go sledding, but received no invitation! All I could think about the rest of the morning was how I would have rather been sledding.

Sledding!

The rest of the day went all right, I had a new class that I enjoyed despite the fact that I got unexpectedly called on at least 10 different times.

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged as often, and that is partly due to the fact that I have not had internet! When my old roommate, Danielle, moved down the hall, she took her wireless router with her and left Christie and me internetless! It was especially hard for me since I am also currently cell phone-less because Cingular is stupid. Anyway, after classes today, Brent and I went over to Best Buy to get a new wireless internet router.

This is a bad picture, but I wanted to put something with actual people in here. Brent and Me:

I think Trinity is definitely its most beautiful in the Spring, but I still wanted to take some pictures because we're so lucky to have such a gorgeous campus.

This is the main quad, it's actually the biggest unbroken campus quad in the country:

This part of the quad is called the Long Walk. I lived in that dorm last year!

Here's Brent on the Lower Long Walk. I told him that his sweatshirt / jacket combo made him look like a crazy hobo, but he said that's what he was going for, so I guess it worked out great!

Statue of a guy looking over the quad. I don't know who he is, but he looked cool. Oh, Brent just said it's the guy who founded the college. Awesome.

We have a beautiful chapel on campus. I think it's one of the prettiest buildings in Hartford:

After Best Buy, Brent and I went to the Westfarms Mall across the road and had some California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We had soup and split a Thai pizza, yumm! We made our usual stop at J-Crew where we saw Christie and Corey. I think the J-Crew in the mall is a regular hangout spot for Trinity kids. We checked out some really weird "new age" store called Blue Moon too because they sometimes have interesting/funny stuff.

This is so weird... "Body Frosting"

Everything in the store was sorta "out there" so I asked Brent, in probably too loud of a voice, where the meat-eating Republican section was, so we had to leave.

On the drive home, Brent and I saw a woman with her cat sitting in the front seat with her. You can't really see it, but the kitty was sooo cute!

Cat!

For the rest of the car trip home, Brent and I sang 80s songs without the actual music playing in the background, which made it extra special. We made an audition tape for the next "American Idol"

Come on Eileen: http://media.putfile.com/Come-on-Eileen48

We may not have tune, rhythm, or talent, but we have heart and that's what matters, right?

Now getting back to the coffee.... You didn't think I forgot, did you? Coffee ruining my day is the theme of this entry. Anyway, Brent and I decided that it would be fun to get our books that we're supposed to be reading and take them to Starbucks to have some coffee and read in the big comfy chairs there. We went back to Trinity, got our books, and drove all the way to West Hartford (the Starbucks in Hartford are sketchy). When we got to Starbucks, they were closed! There was brown paper covering all the windows and an unfriendly "closed" sign on the door, the second of the day! Hmph! I was outraged, or at least perturbed. We came back to Trinity sulking about our lack of delicious lattes in our stomachs as we walked along the little path across the soccer fields:

We spent the rest of the night rearranging Brent's room. Since about the first day of school, I've been telling Brent that if he just moved his furniture around that he'd have a lot more room and he didn't believe me! I was right, though, and now his little dorm room is very spacious!

Well, it's another early morning tomorrow... at least it might be. I'm considering going to the gym at 7am, so we'll see if that happens. Goodnight!

Posted by lauren at 11:55 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 24, 2006

Why I Love 8:30am Classes

Today was my first day of Tuesday/Thursday classes and also my first 8:30am class in over a year. My mom has decided that if I tell people what classes I'm taking that someone is going to stalk me, so despite the absurdity of that logic, I'll just say that it was a class of political nature. Anyway, I showed up at 8:30am on the dot along with about 20 other students. We all took a seat around a giant table and waited for our professor. Now, I'd like to first say that Kristina told me recently that people are considered actually drunk for the first hour after waking up in the morning, which I find completely believable. We all walked into a dark, empty classroom and not one of us thought to turn the lights on. We sat quietly in the dark for about five minutes until someone finally verbally acknowledged our lack of a professor. I'm sure everyone knows about the fifteen minute rule that the students are allowed to leave after fifteen minutes if the professor has not arrived. At 8:45am someone bravely suggested that we leave and was then attacked with evil glares from all around the room. We woke up for that class, some of us even managed to change out of our pajamas to make it there, and we did not do it for nothing! I have never seen a group of students so determined to hold a class, but come on... no one wanted to be out of bed before 8:30am for no reason.

We sat around for a few more minutes pondering the purpose of the professor-less class. We decided that he had probably hooked up a secret video camera somewhere in the room and was waiting for us to hold some sort of vote or something else political before jumping in to surprise us. When no professor arrived, we even called his office to see if we could reach him there which we could not. During the full half hour that we all waited around, a couple of interesting things happened. 1. I overheard someone say (jokingly I think), "Yeah, I was late to class because I was trippin' on acid and got lost chasing a squirrel." And 2. I witnessed the guy next to me take out a flask of scotch and take a few swigs of it while telling his friend that he's going to Scotland over the summer and might never come back because scotch is his favorite "hobby." He then said "Wow, I'm starting pretty late today!" to which his friend replied, "Uhh it's 8:30 in the morning dude," and the first guy's defense, "8:40 man, 8:40...." Yeah, that logic works I guess.

We passed two different sign in sheets around to leave for our professor which we all signed, but still... no one could leave. We wanted to have class! Well, too bad, it never happened. We finally left shortly after 9am, all of us disgruntled.

The rest of the day went pretty well, Brent and I went to the wrong class by accident and discovered that we're enrolled in perhaps the worst course offered at college (again, I won't say what it is). I'm doing some reading for another unnamed class now, so I'll write again later!

By the way, sorry about the lack of pictures today. I get embarrassed carrying my camera around campus being "that girl."

Posted by lauren at 04:10 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 23, 2006

First Day of Classes at Trinity

Today was the first day of the Spring semester here at Trinity. I woke up this morning and saw snow outside! I love snow, but only while it's still snowing... or if I have a sled, which I do not. I went to the showers in a generally good mood until I remembered that I had to wear flip-flops, ugh. College is dirty. Anyway, I'm sure everyone understands what I'm talking about when I say that I had to use my shower. Yes, it's mine. I have a very specific shower at school that I like to use and when it's occupied I get very upset.

The three showers on Funtown 3:

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you door number 2!

It may look dark and disgusting and, well, it is, but it has the finest water pressure this side of the Mississippi! Anyway, I turned the knob all the way towards the "hot point." I call it the "hot point" because it isn't actually marked hot or cold anywhere. This is where my mastery of shower temperaturizing comes in handy. "Temperaturizing" probably isn't a word, but I probably don't care. Back to the shower... there was no hot water!! I was distraught. I couldn't tear myself away from my shower stall.... I kept putting my arm in the stream of icy water and yanking it out over and over and over again, as if my standing there was going to somehow heat the water. After about 7 minutes (yes, I stood there for about 7 minutes) I decided to jump in and take the world's fastest shower only to realize that the water was actually really hot, I was just confused.

I took my shower behind that stupid shower curtain. I don't like not having doors on the showers, it's a PUBLIC restroom!! Yuck! I don't want people seeing me naked! I guess that's why there are two different shower curtains, but I never close the inner one because I like to live dangerously. Or that I'm scared of wet things touching me... either one.

After getting ready (in record time, I might add!), I went to my statistics class. There's nothing interesting to say about statistics... we talked about statisticsey stuff and left. By that time, the snow had entirely turned to rain and I had to walk through slush! Luckily I had my snow boots on!

Snow boots!

Ugliest building on campus in the yucky slush:

I met up with Brent and we went to go get some lunch at the Cave (one of the cafeterias on campus). We were nearly killed by a bobcat! And no, I don't mean an actual bobcat, I'm referring to one of these terrible creatures:

I was chased by one of these miniature napoleonic snow plows last year and it was terrifying, and now he's back! Beware!

After recovering from our brush with death, Brent and I walked through the slush to the gym to exercise for a while.

Check out our cute matching sneakers! Yes, we're those people:

Brent lifted while I used the elliptical trainer. We were really tired when we got back, but found the energy to have a TV marathon.

Brent yawning:

We used our workout to justify ordering a lot of Chinese food while watching the rest of season one of Dawson's Creek. How many people have a boyfriend who would watch a Dawson's Creek marathon? I'm so lucky =)

Brent gave this to me for Christmas!

This is the super cheap soda that came free with our super unhealthy Chinese food:

Well, Brent and I are watching some TV now, but maybe something crazy will happen soon that I'll blog about, so keep coming back!

Posted by lauren at 10:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 22, 2006

Weekend at Brent's House

I spent this past weekend at Brent's house in Avon, CT. I left Greenwich around 2:30pm on Friday afternoon and only got a little bit lost.... Actually, I didn't get lost, I just found a more creative way to get to Brent's house. I read somewhere once that women find their way around by remembering landmarks and men find their way with street signs. Is it true? Well... if you don't think so, then explain to me how I got to Brent's:

1. I arrived at the Target directly off the highway and drove in the general direction of the mall.
2. I saw the mall and knew that IHOP was right down the road.
3. I turned left at IHOP because I remembered seeing it on my left once while Blockbuster was in front of me, and I didn't know when else I would have seen that other than on my way from Brent's house.
4. I turned left in the general direction of a white church steeple that I always see when I'm drinking coffee at the Starbucks in West Hartford.
5. I got my bearings by placing myself at the Starbucks, but ultimately followed a girl with pretty boots (in my head: "Ooh! Pretty!!").
6. The girl was wearing a black shirt which made me think of how Brent's high school's colors were red and black so I figured she must be heading in the general direction of my boyfriend (if she actually had been, I would have run her over with my car).
7. I encountered the Exxon station where I always have trouble turning out of the driveway, so I went in the direction that always gives me problems, because that's usually the way to go.
8. I saw one of the UConn satellite schools and drove past it, the way I remembered doing once with Brent.
9. I was completely lost, but saw at least 10 cars turning left at an intersection, so I figured they must know where to go and followed.
10. I decided to take a chance on a blinking yellow light and turned on that street.
11. I found Brent!

Brent later told me that I took the longest, most round-about route possible, but I got there, right?

Anyway, here's Brent with a HUGE smile on his face in the guest room I was staying in. I hope he was smiling because I was visiting!

Brent:

Brent has a house in Martha's Vineyard where he spends his summers, and I found a shirt with his area of the Vineyard on it and had to buy it for him!

Brent in his new shirt:

Brent and I went to the mall that afternoon to find the right cord for his dad's new iPod nano (it's so small and cute!) and we secretly got some Mrs. Field's cookies... don't tell! After the mall, we picked up Brent's mom and went to the Hartford Golf Club to meet Brent's dad for dinner. Brent and I were very predictable and got the filet mignon. Mmm so good! After dinner, Brent and I went to the movies where we saw Fun with Dick and Jane which was hilarious! We laughed out loud a number of times, especially Brent... he's "that guy." You know the one I'm talking about... the guy who laughs obscenely loudly at everything. I loved it though... almost as much as I love it when my mom does it... all the time.

Yesterday morning, Brent's mom made us crepes which were so good! I had crepes provencal with my mom at the little restaurant in Bloomingdale's a while ago, but I had never had crepes with syrup before and they were delicious! After breakfast, Brent and I went to the mall to pick up iPod speakers and then to school to drop off a lot of our stuff from winter break.

Brent driving out of his driveway:

We stopped at the gas station because Brent needed gas. He's doing the "Why do you take so many pictures?" face. I think he might be right....

Brent and me at the gas station. I didn't realize he was making that face:

We drove past a pretty lake at sunset and I took this picture. You can't see the sunset... so it's sort of pointless... but that's my style:

Why do I even try to get him to take a nice picture?

This is the view on Brent's street. It's so beautiful, it's hard to see in this picture but it's a huge mountain with a gorgeous sunset:

Brent lives on a mountain, and it's so pretty:

Back at Brent's house, Brent played with his dog Beamer in the family room:

And in the kitchen:

Brent showed me a game he likes to play with Beamer where he puts peanut butter on her nose and watches her try to lick it off:

We got a short video of Beamer with the peanut butter:
http://media.putfile.com/Beamer

After playing with Beamer for a while, Brent and I went out to dinner at Carmen Anthony's in Avon http://www.carmenanthony.com/ . Brent's parents were so nice to have given us a gift certificate there, so we got to have a really nice seafood meal. Brent had tilapia and I had swordfish, and it was so good! I was wearing a big, puffy, white jacket which I zipped up all the way and snapped the hood up and, after making sure no one was around, chased Brent down the stairs saying "I'm the abominable snowman!! Ahhhh!!" Brent started running away from me. I thought he was playing along, but it turns out he was just pretending not to know me because some people had come outside right behind me... how embarrassing.

After I ran, frantically, to the car trying to hide my face, Brent and I went back to his house to have some tea which Brent made all by himself! I was very proud of his cullinary skills.

Brent making tea:

Brent and Me attempting to take a cute picture:

Brent made tea for both of us, and then decided that we should go see a movie. The movie was starting in just a few minutes, so he told me to chug my scorching hot tea as fast as I could. I didn't. We made it to the theater in time, though, where we saw Tristan & Isolde. We both thought it was a good movie, despite the fact that Isolde was a dirty, adulterous, slut and Tristan totally didn't actually love her... but I still cried.

This morning Brent and I brought some more stuff to Trinity College (where we go to school) and I realized just how messy Christy and my room is. We have quite a bit of work to do:

By the way, Christie and I now officially have the biggest college dorm double EVER. Still, quite a lot of work needs to be done. Brent and I ended up going back to his house again to have pizza with his parents for dinner, but first, Brent, being a good son, pounded in some stakes in his driveway before the snow (we're expecting 10 inches of snow tonight)!

Brent with the stakes:

The wind storm that I talked about a few entries ago (60mph+ winds) did this to a lamp post near Brent's street:

Here's another picture of the view over the mountain from Brent's street:

And Brent again. Isn't he cute?

Well, classes start again tomorrow and I still haven't finished unpacking, ugh! Brent and I have been waiting for Family Guy to come on, but the football game seems to have taken over television. Stupid football.... We'll probably be getting to bed early tonight, but make sure to check back soon! Hopefully I'll have a nicer picture of my room to be the "after" picture haha.

Goodnight!

Posted by lauren at 09:37 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

January 20, 2006

Beach Exploration

Yesterday, around noon, I embarked on an explorative adventure from my house to the beach and (part way) back. How can I even begin to document such a momentous trip? I suppose I could start with the fact that I got tired and bored about half way down my street. I spent the first few minutes of my trip thinking about how badly I wanted to live on an island. My dad got to show a house yesterday that has its own island!!

Check it out:

If I had an island all my own, I'd give my family a tribe name and make them carry spears. To answer your next question, yes, there would also be sacrifices... but I digress.

As I walked up the hill directly adjacent to my house, I realized that although Juicy does make nice sweatsuits and Uggs are warm and fuzzy... they actually don't make the most believable adventurer ensemble, but that's all right because I'm a different kind of adventurer. As I walked down Sound Beach Ave. (somewhat of a miniature, beachy Greenwich Ave.) I encountered two young girls, one wearing hot pink knee-high socks and the other, too insignificant to notice. They started playing tag on the sidewalk, yes... tag. They ran in front of me, in back of me, and every which way until we reached the crosswalk. We have the cool crosswalk buttons that are heat sensors or motion sensors or something and don't require any button pushing. Pink Legs, however, felt it necessary to activate the sensor at least 18 times (18 annoying beeps). Anyone who knows me is aware of the personal restraint I exercised in not throwing her into oncoming traffic. I continued my journey down Sound Beach until I had lost those little pastel street rats.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of trees down from the previous storm. When I got close to the beach, I saw a tree that I thought had dropped all of its branches into its lawn until I realized that they were still attached... the following picture is of one of the oddest trees I have ever seen. The branches dipped so low that they were actually touching the grass:

I finally arrived at the beach with no further incidents of any importance. It was a beautiful, January afternoon at Tod's Point (the name of our beach).

View from Tod's Driftway:

This tree at the beach was entirely uprooted during the storm. The most amazing thing about it, however, is the fact that I didn't even notice it until I had walked past.

Uprooted tree:

Here's a tree that uprooted right below the sidewalk!

I walked all the way to the end of the point where I took this picture:

At the time I thought that would be a cool picture, but maybe not. I think that's Kathy Lee Gifford's house in the background though. My friends and I went trick-or-treating there sometimes back when we still did that. Her dog's name is Regis.

Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis has already seen a lot of my beach pictures, so I tried to take some different ones this time. This is that same shell beach that I talked about a while ago, but this picture really shows just how many shells there are:

I walked across the shells so that they'd know I'm better than they are... because I am. I got all the way around to the other side of the point where I saw a swan right by the island with the bird statue tower thing on it. I don't know what that island is called, so I shall name it Bird Statue Tower Thing Island. I can do that, you know, because I'm an explorer!

Swan near Bird Statue Tower Thing Island:

Across that same body of water are the old castle ruins. I had forgotten how cool they are... I should take Brent there sometime.

Ruins:

As I continued back to the beach entrance/exit, the back of my left knee started to hurt. It wasn't a regular pulled muscle feeling, it kept getting worse until it became a sharp pain and started burning. I made it out of the beach and called my mom to come get me, like any great adventurer would have done, but not before taking a few more pictures!

Well, something I didn't get a picture of was the group of children driving their go-karts around the beach. What happened to the good old days of walking or riding bikes? I hope they drove into the water. Well, maybe not... that would have ruined those cool go-karts... Mom, I want a go-kart!

Moving on...

I love this stuff. I don't know what it's called, so I'll name this new species of plant Tall Stalks With Fluffy Things:

This is the parking lot where my Christmas tree went to die:

For those of you who have never been to Tod's Point, this is the main stretch of beach where people go in the summer. Isn't it pretty?

And so concluded my explorative adventure.

After resting up after my long day, my parents and I went out to dinner at a little restaurant on Sound Beach Ave. called Mackenzie's:

I had some delicious filet mignon with french fries, of course! Davey was on his cell phone, as always. I'm not sure if you're aware, but he's actually the most important man on Earth and needs to be reachable 24/7 in case he has to save the world. I think I should start making a list of crazy places he takes phone calls... number 1 would have to be the middle of a corn field in Nebraska. Don't ask... I have pictures, though.

Davey on the phone:

Well, I have to go pack now! I'm visiting Brent in Avon, CT tonight and then it's back to school for both of us!

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January 18, 2006

Blackout

Yesterday moring, we stopped at the Mountain Creamery in Woodstock, VT for some breakfast. I had scrambled eggs with Vermont cheddar cheese and it was so good! Brent's mom got me into cheesy eggs... mmm. Anyway, we've been going to the creamery for so many years that it just wouldn't have been right not to stop there at least once.

Davey walking into the Mountain Creamery:

The top level is a really cute diner-style restaurant and the lower level has the most amazing ice cream in the whole world. The drive home was uneventful, and we found Chloe in her little indoor dog house passed out with an empty tub of cream cheese.... My grandparents had been staying with Chloe and Frisky (our dog and cat) and my grandma is known for over-feeding, so naturally, Chloe and Frisky love her.

Chloe being fat:

I think she's pretty spoiled. My mom makes her omlettes in the morning (another reason why the dog is so fat) and I mean, come on... she has an indoor dog house! Oh, and my mom has decided that she should get an electrician in to HEAT it. Oh the life of a dog....

Last night, the weather was awful (or awesome if you're like me and love bad weather). The wind was really strong again, I think the news said 58mph (it was 56mph last time by the way, I think I had said 50mph). The power went out this morning because I guess a power line was down up the street from me. The house was getting cold without any heat and it started to get dark, so we lit some candles and turned on our camping lanterns (not that we go camping...).

Oooh candle...

I thought this looked cool with my dad behind the candle. And yes, I take too many pictures... but you love it.

We ended up going to my grandparents' house to watch TV and eat dinner. We had all been cold over at my house, so we sat by the fire to warm up.

The fire at my grandparents' house:

The fire turned blue/green on the bottom and it was really pretty:

These are a couple pictures that have nothing to do with this blog entry except that I thought they were really cool, and I think my blog is cool.... Maybe I'm the only one, but anyway... here's the train station in Old Greenwich!

And again:

I watched "American Idol" with Davey and Poppy. I don't care about the show itself, but I definitely enjoy watching the completely useless people try out.

Simon:

When left to come home, we brought hot water bottles to keep us warm (we heard from the power company that there would be no power until Monday! Ahh!) but when we got to my house, there was power! I've had a long day with no TV, so I need to check up on Tivo now!

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January 17, 2006

Fire Stones

Last night we went out to dinner at a restaurant in Quechee called Fire Stones http://www.firestonesrestaurant.net/. Fire Stones is known for their flatbread, so we ordered two of them to share between the three of us. We tried a mushroom pizza and the "special" pizza which had alfredo sauce, cheese, onions, and broccoli (doesn't that sound like something from CPK?).

Fire Stones:

Me at Fire Stones in front of the window that I thought was really pretty:

Davey drinking wine:

The oven where they cook the flatbreads:

The decor at Fire Stones is oversized and "woodsy." It was very Vermont and very pretty. Here's a deer head and some cool lamps right inside the door:

I don't agree with having animal heads on the wall, but oh well. It's Vermont, that's just how they roll.

Huge doors outside:

When we got back to the inn, we warmed up for a minute in front of the giant fireplace. Here's davey in front of the fire:

We went to Richardson's Tavern (inside the inn) to have some drinks before watching the 2nd half of the "24" season premier! The tavern is lit by candles inside lamps with shades which gives it a very relaxed feeling.

The fireplace in the tavern (and Davey's leg):

My parents at the tavern:

My mom and I had coffee:

And Davey having a Heineken:

The back staircase with a painting of Suicide Six:

I'm getting yelled at by Davey who wnats us to go get breakfast at the creamery NOW so I have to go! Check back later for more Vermont pictures!

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January 16, 2006

Suicide Six

Today, my dad and I got up early (Davey much earlier than I) and headed over to Suicide Six to go skiing! When we got there it was only 4 degrees! Brrr! With all our winter gear zipped, snapped, and buttoned, we hopped on the chair lift and made it to the summit!

Suicide Six:

My dad at the summit:

Me at the summit:

The wind at the top of the mountain picked up to 20-25mph so the windchill was INTENSE!! I was so cold that I completely lost feeling in my toes and had to go in early just to thaw my feet! Anyway, the wind was whipping the snow up off the ground and blowing it all over. At one point, there was such a strong gust that it actually blew all the skiers backwards! The following is a picture of my dad being blown backwards, and the snowy wind right above the ground is quite visible (it almost looks like a layer of fog).

My dad being blown up the mountain by the wind:

Our shadows right before the first run down the mountain:

Around noon we stopped for lunch. My dad had chilli and I had the most amazing french fries, almost as good as yacht club fries, and that's saying a lot coming from me. Yes, I'm the kind of person who orders filet mignon with a side of french fries and ketchup.

I was really entertained by this sign... apparently we were eating with the illiterate!

Get me some macarroni and brocilli!

Once we got cold and tired we brought our stuff back to the VERY dirty car to head home.

Me in front of the mountian on the way out:

Davey in front of the mountain:

Davey putting the skis on top of the disgustingly dirty car:

Once we got home, showered, and re-dressed, my parents and I walked through the village to go into some of our favorite little shops. We started at Gillingham's, an adorable Vermont-style country market. http://www.gillinghams.com/

How cute is this? We don't have grocery stores like this in Greenwich:

My parents shopping with the adorable little hand baskets they have there:

Me shopping:

After the market, we went to Aubergine's, one of my mom's favorite kitchen stores. I was extremely bored, but I survived. We went to a little toy store where my mom got a souvenier for my nephew, Brady, the we headed over to the local art gallery, one of our regular stops. Gallery on the Green, http://www.galleryonthegreen.com/pages/default.htm, is where I first saw some of the work of one of my favorite painters, Pino.

Some Pino paintings:

A cute statue called "The Singing Cook"

Going golfing:

The dogs that my mom said reminded her of herself and Davey. I'd have to agree:

We finally came back to the inn and are hanging around for another ten minutes or so until we leave for dinner at Firestone. Yumm!!

The Woodstock Inn:

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January 15, 2006

High Tea and Bentley's

My parents and I arrived at high tea around 4pm where we had tea and cookies with live piano music in the garden room.

Piano player at high tea:

My dad and me having tea and cookies in the little sitting area next to the library:

You have to love an inn that still serves high tea, there's just something so sophisticated about it. It made me discover yet another group of people that I hate, though. The people who think that just because they're on a ski trip that they can wear ski pants and winter parkas EVERYWHERE! Ugh!

After tea my mom and I went shopping in the gift shop right by the garden room. The Woodstock Inn always has some really cute stuff in their gift shop and this year they're selling all sorts of custom designed Vineyard Vines things with The Woodstock Inn's eagle logo. I mostly put this up to show my boyfriend, Brent, who worked at Vineyard Vines over the summer. I also discovered recently that the Vineyard Vines guys live down the street from me and go to my yacht club!

Eagle Vineyard Vines tote:

We didn't get anything... yet. I have something sweet (hint!) picked out for Brent though! After spending some time in the room, we got all bundled up and walked down the street to Bentley's, one of our favorite restaurants in Woodstock.

Woodstock at night, Bentley's is right on the corner in the middle of the picture:

I thought I had to put up a picture of Aubergine, one of my mom's favorite kitchen stores, which is right underneath Bentley's. I know I know... it's a kitchen store... but it's one of our Woodstock landmarks almost so I had to include it.

Aubergine:

When we got to the door, my mom took a picture of Davey and me in front of the restaurant, but with Davey wearing black and me wearing white, you can hardly tell there are two people!

Bentley's is such a cute little restaurant, all of the tables have different table lamps on them, most with beautiful fringed lampshades. The seats are old fashioned couches and the walls are decorated with gorgeous framed mirrors and other dining-room-esque items. We started with nachos and then my dad had salmon and my mom and I had maple mustard chiciken (one of the main reasons we come to Bentley's) which is SO GOOD!

My mom and me in Bentley's:

It was only about 4 degrees when we left the restaurant so I zipped my coat up all the way and snapped the hood around my face (the hostess at the restaurant made fun of me).

What does this remind you of?

Me:

Kenny from "South Park"

Oh well, I was warm. I'm back in the room now keeping warm under the giant, fluffy, down comfortor watching "24" with my parents, so I have to get back to the show!

Try to keep warm everyone!

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Woodstock, VT

Today we all got up early to leave for a three day vacation in Woodstock, Vermont. The storm last night left a few inches of snow that my dad had to shovel slash snow-blow... is that a verb?

Davey:

After clearing the driveway, we packed all our many bags into the car, got the skis in the ski rack, and headed out. The conditions were "treacherous" as Brent put it this morning.

Driving conditions:

It took us quite a while to get here with all the snow and ice. We passed a bunch of accidents on the way, including a jack-knifed truck and a bunch of cars in the snowbanks on the side of the highway. Luckily we made it here in one piece.

Woodstock, VT got some snow last night also, so everything is just as beautiful as we could have hoped for!

Snowy Woodstock:

This is a covered bridge (so typical of VT) that would have been even more beautiful without all the power lines. Woodstock itself (this was on the outskirts) has all the powerlines burried which makes the whole town so much more... "quaint" for lack of a better word.

Covered bridge:

We're staying at The Woodstock Inn where my grandparents spent their honeymoon in 1936, seventy years ago! We are their oldest customers so we always get special treatment which is really nice. We got our usual room with a beautiful view of Mt. Tom and the town of Woodstock. The rooms have just been renovated with $75,000 put into each room, so they are gorgeous! The carpets are imported from Spain, the beds are made of tiger maple, the bathrooms are brand new with marble floors, the TVs were replaced with plasma flat screens... it's amazing. I took a bunch of pictures so that everyone can see how nice it is and make reservations for themselves!

Davey sitting in the room:

Really comfortable beds:

Plasma screen TV:

The bathroom:

That's me in the mirror!

The view out the window of Woodstock:

Mt. Tom:

I didn't take this picture of the Inn, but it's so pretty so I had to put it up:

I hope everyone has a chance to visit The Woodstock Inn at some point. Check it out here: http://www.woodstockinn.com/

We're off to high tea right now and then probably having cheese and crackers at the bar followed by dinner at Bentley's, so check back later!

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Freak Blizzard!

My day started off to a relatively boring start... I called up Cingular where I was put on hold forever and was finally connected to one of the most incompetent people I have ever spoken with. I don't even want to get into how much I hate Cingular because it's just not worth it. If you have ever tried speaking with the Cingular customer service people, you know exactly what I mean... and if you haven't, then you obviously have a better phone service; but enough about Cingular.

This afternoon I watched "The OC," which Kristina was so nice to send me in the mail (I missed it, can you believe it?!). I heated up some Thai food that my mom bought from the grocery store. I was a little skeptical of Thai food that I had to make on my own in the microwave, but it was actually really good, so definitely pick it up sometime!

My Thai food with "The OC" in the background:

After watching some "Oprah" on Tivo, I went out to Blockbuster and rented Dark Water to bring over to Vanessa's house. Vanessa, Ali, Cathy, Jenn, Molly, and I had a movie night in Vanessa's basement... or at least we tried to.

The night began with Molly eating... as always.

Molly with her McDonald's:

We all just sat around talking for a while, as girls always do.

Ali and Me:

We made an attempt at taking a nice group picture, but we never take nice pictures. Here's the progression...

Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3:

Yeah, that's how it went down. Molly stripping... again.

We finally started Dark Water and the power went out and came back on about three times and then half way through the movie, went out and stayed out. We were watching one of the worst "power outage during a freak storm" movies possible, so we turned on some flashlights and cuddled.

Flashlight tag anyone?

Even from all the way down in Vanessa's basement we could hear the wind outside. Everyone kept getting phone calls from concerned families because the conditions had gotten really bad all of a sudden. The pouring rain that I drove in on the way to Vanessa's house had turned into heavy snow/ice with terrible wind! The Weather Channel (or TWC for all you weather dorks like myself) said that there were gusts above 45mph, and I would have to say that was an understatement. My guess would be that we had sustained winds around 30mph and gusts around 50, but what do I know (probably more than you! ha!).

The power wasn't coming back on so we had to decide whether to brave the storm or spend the night at Vanessa's. Everyone had things to do the next morning so we all chose to leave... probably not the smartest decision. My car doors were iced shut and there was such a solid layer of ice on my windshield that I had to use my ice scraper on it, and even that didn't work completely!

Look at how fast the wind is whipping that snow around!

I got in the car and turned the heat all the way up in an attempt to regain feeling in my fingertips. I couldn't see anything and had to lean over towards the passenger side of the car just to see out the windshield. What a mess! On the way out of Vanessa's neighborhood I saw a few cop cars and a couple trees and powerlines down. It was amazing how much went wrong in just one little area! As it turned out, it wasn't just one little area, it was all over town! Everything was illuminated because of the white snow, so I could see the damage all over the roads even without the street lights (which were flickering on and off even in areas that still had power). Branches were falling from the sky right and left, trash cans rolled across the street, Molly told me that she even saw shopping carts from the nearby CVS out in the middle of the Post Road! I kept seeing bright flashes like lightning in the sky, but realized that it wasn't some crazy weather phenomenon, but the bright flashes of powerlines being hit by trees, sparking, and exploding all over the place! These were some of the worst conditions I have ever seen.

A tree that had recently been hauled off to the side of the road near Vanessa's house:

So many roads were blocked, whether by debris from the storm or police barricades, that I had to keep searching for alternate routes home. I tried going down my street, but found a giant tree that had fallen across the whole road making it impossible to pass through:

I tried to go down another street to get to my street the back way, but encountered yet another giant tree blocking my path:

I turned around and went down one more road to try my luck there. The weather was so crazy that I didn't notice the predicament I was in until it was nearly impossible to get out of it! I had driven over a down powerline and was stuck between the wires behind me, and the giant tree in front of me that was just barely holding itself above the ground by balancing on another powerline... the one directly above my car! I backed up over the down wires because I figured that was my best bet. The police had taped off one entrance to that street, but of course they had neglected to tape off the other end so that unknowing drivers like myself wouldn't meet an electrifying death at the end of the raod! I ended up driving over the tape just to get out of there!

I couldn't get a good picture of the powerlines and the tree because the snow was too heavy and there wasn't enough light, but I did get a picture of my car stopped by the police tape:

What a crazy night! Tomorrow morning we leave for Woodstock, VT to go skiing and I still haven't packed! I have to get going, but leave comments of your own weather horror stories from last night!

Posted by lauren at 02:20 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 13, 2006

New York City and The Melting Pot

Yesterday was a very busy day! I woke up around 9am to get ready to go to the city to meet my sister, Jocelyn, for lunch and a lot of shopping. After the train ride in, I walked to Jocelyn's office on Park Ave. where we waited for two of her co-workers (who I also worked with this summer), Kim and Pete. We also met up with Jess, Jocelyn's roommate, and the five of us walked to Vong together. Vong is an amazing Asian-French fusion restaurant that you should all check out sometime: http://www.jean-georges.com/main.html I had grilled shrimp followed by mahi mahi, then sorbet for dessert. The sorbet had little flower petals that were covered in sugar. We got Kim to try one to see if it was a cookie... it wasn't. Anyway, the decor was beautiful and the food was delicious!

Jess at Vong:

Me:

Pete:

Everyone had to get back to work except for Jocelyn (she took a half vacation day), so the two of us began our shopping trip around the city. We got on the subway to head over to Union Square and saw an entirely blue woman:

We checked out a few stores in Union Square including the Diesel store which had its own DJ! Anyway, I got some Betsey Johnson lingerie; I decided that's not the kind of thing to post a picture of, but it's very cute. We took the subway all over the place and ended up at H&M where I got a little white lace tank top to go under sweaters (too boring to take a picture of).

Me at H&M:

I look sweaty and gross... it was actually very hot in the city! Well, hot considering that it's January. I think it got up in the 50s. Anyway, we went to the MoMA store which was really cool. Jocelyn bought her husband, Paul, an Andy Warhol Pop Box and I just looked around.

Me... looking around:

We also went to SoHo to a really cool little boutique where Jocelyn looked at a bunch of shoes and I got a cute dress for the summer!

Jocelyn looking at red cowboy boots:

My new dress! Of course it's pink...

Jocelyn in SoHo:

Me in SoHo. Don't you love the cobblestone streets?

We went to the Apple store in SoHo which was amazing. I thought the one in the Westfarms Mall up in Hartford was pretty cool but it's nothing compared to this!

Jocelyn took a picture of me walking down the huge, transparent staircase:

I saw this statue and it made me think of good old Anton, or "Uncle Tony" as he told us to call him one day. He was my English teacher my sophomore and senior years of high school, and also one of the coolest people I know. I don't remember what he told us about this thing... but something about feeding the earth... mother earth... lots of boobs? I don't know!

After a lot of walking, Jocelyn and I stopped in Dean & Deluca for some iced lattes. http://www.deandeluca.com/ For those of you who have never been there, Dean & Deluca is a grocery store slash coffee shop slash sandwich bar, and very tasty!

Jocelyn and Me at Dean & Deluca... very hot and tired:

We ended up making our way to Sephora where Jocelyn got some new Ole Henriksen products.

Jocelyn's "in action" shopping shot:

I didn't get anything, but I did use the hand sanitizer... NYC is dirty. We walked to Chinatown where we went to the Pearl River Mart which is a really cool store that sells all sorts of Chinese knick-knacks, dishes, statues... anything you can think of.

Jocelyn in line at Pearl River:

I thought the ceiling with all the Chinese lanterns would make a cool picture:

We went to Williamsberg for a while to look at some vintage stores there. Jocelyn got some cool t-shirts but I didn't find anything. I was freaked out by the weird sales girls wearing mis-matching punk outfits with funky hair-don'ts. We don't have a lot of their kind at my usual shopping venues on Greenwich Ave.

My mom started getting worried that Jocelyn and I were out wandering the streets at night and called to ask us to come home. Jocelyn explaned that there was nothing to worry about, that all we were doing was wandering through some dark alleys looking for drugs, but our shopping trip had to come to an end at some point.... We got back on the subway to go to Grand Central Station. On the very crowded subway we saw a Xerox box with a little hole in the top. After watching it for a while, wondering what kind of exotic city creature could be living in it, I saw a little, tiny kitten peek its head through and try to use its paws to pull itself through the hole. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen and I wish I could have gotten a picture! In my attempts at doing so, however, I made a terrible mistake and accidentally touched the subway bar with one of my fingers.... Brent had to listen to me talk about how I thought I had contracted ebola for a good 20mins. Oh well, it's better to be safe than sorry!

Here's the box, but I don't think you can see the kitten very well:

When we got to Grand Central Station I ran to catch my train and just made it. Once I got home I had a few, short minutes to get ready to go out to The Melting Pot with my friends (yes, we go there all the time now). Anyway, I took off my belt, wrapped my Pucci scarf into a headband, and headed over to Vanessa's house where we were all meeting to head over to Darien for fondue! We didn't have dinner this time, we just had the chocolate mmmm....

Kristina, Vanessa, Me, Jenn, and Ali with our chocolate fondue!

We got the s'mores chocolate and they lit the marshmallow on fire to toast it right in front of us:

Kristina, Vanessa, and Me:

Molly showed up late, but we were all glad to have her join us!

Jenn, Ali, and Molly:

Molly throwing up or something... so basically, the usual.

After dinner we stopped by Nicole's house to see some people then went over to Vanessa's where we all talked in the car for 40 minutes before going home. It was a very busy, but also very fun day!

Today was far less exciting... I woke up late and spent the day hanging around my house watching TV. My amazing mom and I made a pumpkin cake together:

Yes, I'm wearing my scarf around my head. I was being a ninja. Or I was just bored and playing with stuff....

After making our cake, we had dinner and my parents and I watched The Constant Gardener which was a little strange, but still a good movie. I think that's enough blogging for today. I might go out with my friends later tonight, but if I do I'll save that for tomorrow! Goodnight everyone.

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January 12, 2006

Dental Bleach and Super Glue

I'm going to try to limit my verbosity in this entry because I need to get to sleep soon (shopping trip in NYC tomorrow with my sister, Jocelyn!) although I don't want that to detract from the harsh message I am sending out into cyberland about Brite Smile and super glue! Forget that comment about limiting my verbosity, because now that I've gotten all riled up about it again I can't stop myself.

WELL

My day got off to a good start as I, excitedly, headed over to the local Brite Smile center where I was to have my laser teeth whitening consultation. The dentist, whose name I will not post online, was one of the most dangerous threats to blonde girls... the hostile brunette. She told me that she would not whiten my teeth because 1. in her opinion they're white enough already and 2. because I'm blonde! What? Does that even make any sense? She just said no. You know what, she's probably right... I guess NO ONE with blonde hair has EVER gotten their teeth whitened, I certainly can't think of 300 examples off the top of my head or anything.... UGH! I was sort of pushing to try to get her to do it anyway so she asked how old I was and I said 19. Her response was "Oh, 19 right... well, if you were 20 I'd do it but at 19 you're just not old enough." I'm closer to 20 than I am to 19... but why should that even matter? And to think, brunettes call us blondes dumb! Hmph! Needless to say, I left angrily and will not be returning anytime soon, that's for sure!

After my traumatic dental fiasco, I needed to relax for a while so I watched Tivo. Tivo taped Wild Things 3 for me which was really weird. It's along the lines of a Cruel Intentions 3 kind of movie... no-name actors in a low-budget copy of the original film. I'm easily entertained, though, so it kept me busy for a couple of hours while I painted a pine cone red and gold. Yes, I'm 5 years old on the inside and need afternoon activities to keep myself busy. Isn't my pine cone pretty, though?

Who doesn't love a good pine cone?

After dinner I read my book, Vanity Fair, for a while. It's over 800 pages and I'm on 450 right now so I think I'm making some good progress... well, maybe not, considering that I started in August. It's a really good book, though, and it has my favorite actress, Reese Witherspoon, on the cover! My wonderful boyfriend Brent, or Brent the Wonderful (BTW) as my parents refer to him, heard me talking about how I wanted Vanity Fair but wouldn't be able to read it if Reese weren't on the cover, so he went out and got just the right copy for me for my birthday last May.

I'm getting sidetracked... let's get to the super glue incident. Do I even need to tell you what happened? I super glued my fingers to my other fingers and the super glue tube. Yes, I'm using The Blonde Excuse on this one. It really wasn't my fault, though. Have you ever seen those metal-like pressurized tubes that super glue sometimes comes in? Well, it was in one of those and, not realizing that the seal had not yet been broken, I squeezed and I squeezed to no avail. When I discovered the problem, I broke the seal with the tip of a pen and the super glue was super pressurized and came exploding out the top of the tube. In a desperate attempt to save the kitchen table from a super mess, I tried to catch all the dripping glue in my hands and hold the tube in such a way that the glue would stop erupting out of the nozzle. Pretty soon, my fingers were in a big, sticky mess and I had to wake my mom up to get her to help me un-stick myself... but not before I managed to get a picture! Yes, I found a way to take a picture for my blog while my fingers were stuck to a super glue tube, now that's dedication.

No, this is not a failed attempt at shadow puppets, these are my fingers stuck to the super glue tube:

I got my hands un-stuck using nail polish remover at the expense of the top layer of my skin and my beautiful French manicure... what a tragedy. I still have dried, hardened glue all over my fingertips, so if anyone has any helpful tips on how to remove super glue it would be much appreciated!

I think that's enough excitement for one night, so I'm going to bed. Wish me good shopping luck in the city tomorrow! Goodnight, and to all my fellow fair-haired girls, beware the hostile brunettes!

Posted by lauren at 01:17 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

January 11, 2006

Greenwich Ave. All Day Long

Yesterday, Kristina came up from her Dad's house in Long Island to visit for the day and night. Her mom moved to Fresno, CA so she likes to come visit Greenwich whenever she can. Once she got here we headed right over to Greenwich Ave. to go shopping. We started at one of my favorite boutiques, Reflection, where I bought the most beautiful dress for our Oscars Night formal at Trinity! The dress was in the window and they took it off the mannequin for me to try on. I LOVE IT! It's and Allen B. Schwartz design with brown on the top and tan on the bottom and beading right below the chest.

My dress!

We hit all the best boutiques along with my favorite department store, Richards: http://www.mitchellsonline.com/index.aspx I love the beautiful staircase right in front:

After a couple hours we ventured into western Greenwich to go to Anthropologie. I think Anthropologie is such a cool store, so definitely check it out if you've never been there before. They have a beautiful fireplace with a little sitting area that I thought I should take a picture of:

Kristina and I tried on old lady hats together:

At night, Kristina and I met up with some people at Thataway Cafe, one of our favorite restaurants on the bottom of Greenwich Ave.

Jenn and Kristina:

Ali and Kate:

Kristina, Me, and Nicole:

After dinner we stopped at Gofer Ice Cream where Nicole used to work. Ali wanted me to take her picture to go on my blog. "Don't miss this opportunity! This is a photo opportunity! Take my picture to show everyone our ice cream!!"-Ali:

Back at my house we watched Red Eye which I would definitely recommend. I thought it was another Wes Craven horror movie, but I think it definitely fits more into the action category.

Hayley and Molly:

And another picture of Molly in this position... she was choking and freaking out:

Kristina will be back tomorrow night for another trip to The Melting Pot (we go all the time now!) so make sure to check back soon!

Posted by lauren at 02:09 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 10, 2006

Molly, Michaels, and Munich

Well, I started my day at 8am when I woke up to shower and get ready for my 9am hair appointment. I got it cut by Dorlene at Enzo Spa in the Greenwich Hyatt (a Dubya hotspot for all you Bush lovers). Check it out here: http://greenwich.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/activities/spa/index.jsp I went to Dorlene who cut my hair over the summer, and I'm very happy again. What do you think?

Good or Bad?

Shh... I'm cheating on Trisha, my long-term hairstylist... but what can I say? We were in a hairstyling rut and we just couldn't seem to get out of it! On an even more exciting note, my jacket finally came in the mail! I had to return the J-Crew jacket I got for Christmas and get a smaller size and it arrived by Fed-Ex this morning.

Me in my new jacket in front of my car, Bebe (My parents named her Black Beauty but I call her Bebe, for short. Yes, I name things. My purse in this picture is named Priscilla not to be confused with Purse-zilla).

I drove over to Molly's to get her and head over to the craft store, Michaels, in Stamford, CT where Molly got scrapbook supplies and I bought Altoids. I wasn't very successful, I know. After listening to some old 90s music on my iPod on the drive home (Eve 6 - "Inside Out" if you're curious), I dropped Molly off and headed back to my house where I passed the new Starbucks being built. It will be Greenwich's 5th Starbucks... like we need any more caffeine.

Taking over the town:

What are you doing little man in the yellow Christmas tree truck... and why did I take your picture?

This is an entry of random, useless pictures, but that's sort of what I'm known for now, so here are some more!

Since when are they called "humps" rather than "bumps?" As Mike would probably say, sex sells! Wait, what? I guess you don't sell speed bumps... but I suppose you could encourage one to abide by the sign and be cautious. I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore!

My humps, my humps, my humps:

I passed Chicken Joe's and thought I should show out-of-towners where all the cool kids get fat:

Well, I finally made it home, got my things together, and headed over to my grandparents' where I tried to teach my grandmother how to use e-bay. Things got heated and I went home after telling her no one was going to buy her 40 year old out-dated wildflower book for $50. Oh Grandma, how we love her.

When I got back to my house, I had a lovely note waiting for me in the mail from my amazing boyfriend, Brent:

He's so cute and he always knows how to make me smile =)

After dinner, my dad and I went to see Munich on the bottom of Greenwich Ave. I thought it was very good but also very long. I think we were in there for about 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was interesting, though, so I would definitely recommend it. I'm really tired and I have a busy day tomorrow with Kristina's visit and a bunch of people coming over to my house that evening, so I better get going!

Posted by lauren at 12:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 09, 2006

James' 21st Birthday

I can't believe some of my friends are already turning 21! I wonder if drinking is as fun when it doesn't follow "underage." As I'm sure you can all imagine, James received a lot of alcohol and kindly shared it with all his friends last night. Just to give you an idea of how the night went, we were drinking Grey Goose vodka and playing beirut with white wine.

Ali telling James that he couldn't play beirut with wine:

Cathy and Me (we won beirut!):

James breaking out the double G:

Too much alcohol:

No one thought to bring cups, so before Cathy, Molly, and I went out to buy some, we were drinking out of these:

Yes, we used an A&W root beer toy cup to measure shots and we drank mix drinks out of a jelly jar, a "Jesus Loves Me" mug with a bunny on it, and a clown cup....

I got to meet James' cat, Frisky, last night. It is absolutely the biggest cat I have ever seen and according to James, it just lost weight!

Jackie holding Frisky:

One of the best parts of the party was James' balloon that sang some variation of "Happy Birthday" whenever you tapped it. I was lucky enough to catch Molly on video dancing with it, so check this out: http://media.putfile.com/James-21st-021

Cathy with the balloon:

Unfortunately I had my camera on a weird setting so a lot of the pictures came out dark and blurry so not everyone is pictured, but here are a few more of James' party-goers.

Greg and Ali wearing coordinating outfits:

Cathy and Ali:

Cathy and Me:

Molly and Me:

Me, Ali, and Cathy:

James had some Peppermint Schnapps which he mixed with chocolate syrup to make a disgustingly minty chocolate drink. I love Greg's expression in the background of this picture:

After the drinks and sitting around the kitchen counter talking for a few hours, we decided to go to the 24 hour McDonald's to get some food. Let me list for you what James ordered to eat for a snack. 2 Double Cheeseburgers, 1 McChicken Sandwich, 2 Fries, and 4pc Chicken Nuggets. He's done much worse on previous McDonald's trips... trust me. The drive-thru guy was really weird... our conversation with him went something like this:

Molly: Do you still have the dollar menu prices?
Drive-Thru Guy: Not for you.
Molly: Why not for me?
Drive-Thru Guy: Your car is too ugly.

Molly: We're in a Cadillac!
Drive-Thru Guy: 20 dollars!!
Molly: What??
Drive-Thru Guy: $8.50, drive around!

Is that how he flirts with people? I don't even know....

Our sketchy drive-thru guy:

After getting food we dropped James back off at his house, said our last "Happy Birthday," and took our underaged selves back home.

Posted by lauren at 10:18 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 08, 2006

Spooners

It's about time I got around to blogging about the Spooners. I don't like to put last names up, but Spooner isn't actually our last name so it doesn't really matter. Anyway, Cathy, Mike, their parents, my parents, and myself comprise the Spooners, a highly dysfunctional family that should never be let out unsupervised. Being "the Spooners" started probably 9 or 10 years ago when we were too embarrassed to give our real names so we made up a new one... Spooner. The Spooners have traveled together to Lake George, NY and Daytona Beach, FL (by car!) a number of times and trust me, no one ever forgets us. I don't have the time or the space to describe all the adventures we've had and embarrassing situations we've gotten ourselves into, but I can say this... there are most likely a number of states all down the East coast that don't want us back. I'll have to dedicate another entry to the Spooners sometime soon, but for now let me stick to today.

The seven of us went to The Melting Pot for fondue. Wow, we really do fondue quite a bit. We had cheese fondue and chocolate fondue and, as always, it was spectacular. Davey and his Tommie even got to stir the cheese! "Don't get too wild on us now, Davey! That's it, you've got to whisk it!" -Tommie. Cooking advice from the dads is always entertaining. Cathy, Mike, and I watched on in horror....

Cathy, Mike, and Me:

Cathy, Mike, and Me minus Davey's fat kid arm getting in the way because he couldn't wait five seconds before getting more food:

Davey got a little sleepy...

Cathy choked about 20 times so Mike had to hold her arms in the air. I don't think that's actually how to assist someone who is choking, but it made for a funny picture anyway:

The seven of us got together for a Spooner family picture!

Mike said he'd pay Cathy $5 if she could spit her mint into the cup. She did, but I don't think she got the five bucks:

After dinner we went back to Cathy and Mike's house where we played with their baby cousin, Jensen. She's only about five and a half pounds and she's so tiny and adorable! I got to hold her and I'm hoping it's just a strange camera angle because my head is SO HUGE!!

Later tonight Molly is picking up Cathy and Me and a bunch of us are going over to James' house to celebrate his birthday (Happy Birthday James)! Maybe I'll have some more pictures later, so be sure to check back!

Posted by lauren at 07:41 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Our First Winter Break Goodbye...

I guess it had to happen... winter break is coming to an end for some people and we have to start saying our goodbyes. Tonight, Cathy and I went over to Alberto's house to see him for a little while before he left to go back to school in Vermont. We parked down the street where we were nearly attacked by a loose cat! It was dark and that ferocious feline came out of the bushes to hunt us down. The trauma.... It wasn't nearly as terrifying as the movie Hostel, though. Yes, I saw Hostel... I felt like I had to, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Alberto and Cathy (near the site of our run-in with the cat/monster):

Alberto and Me:

Anyway, Alberto had a lot of people at his house for a tradition he taught us about where someone bakes little dolls into big circles of bread and when it's eaten, whoever gets one of the dolls has to bring the food for the next party. A party focused on food and the planning of another food-oriented party? Count me in!

Mmmm this is making me hungry, so I better move on. The new Lowe's Theater in Pocho (Port Chester, NY for those of you who aren't from here) is really big and nice. It's very clean and the snack stands are amazing! There is no need to limit yourself to popcorn and candy, they sell real food. They had places to get hot food like you would at a fast food restaurant, ice cream, and a glass cabinet filled with cakes and pastries! Wait, wasn't I trying to get off the topic of food?

Lowe's Theater:

Ok, here I go again... so the movie, not the snack stand.... Hostel was, as I had expected, gory and disgusting; but yes, I somewhat enjoyed it. I think I've become numb to most of the generic teenage horror movies, so I have to appreciate a movie that can actually make me jump in my seat. But here are some of my thoughts, as always: SPOILER ALERT (not that the plot matters in this kind of movie... and this doesn't actually spoil anything) but for those of you who either don't care if I ruin anything or don't plan to see it, the premise of the movie is that there's this factory somewhere in Eastern Europe where people can pay to torture and kill other people. The whole idea is just that getting some sick pleasure out of torturing and killing someone is disgusting! ...but then again, isn't paying $10.50 to watch a movie about people who kill other people for pleasure just as horrible? Now there's something worth pondering....

All right, I have to go watch some cartoons now so that I won't have nightmares!! Goodnight everyone!

Posted by lauren at 01:04 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 07, 2006

Girls' Night at Ali's!

Wh