Meeting The Bloggess

Last Friday night I had the opportunity to meet the woman behind my favorite non-food blog.  Remember last year when I introduced you to The Bloggess by linking to her story on picking your battles and Beyonce the giant metal chicken?  Well, Jenny Lawson, The Bloggess herself wrote a book and visited Boston last week for a reading, Q&A and book signing.

My friend Rachel picked me up from work and we headed to the Brookline Booksmith.  Let me just say, as friendly as the staff are there, they really had no idea what they were in for.  Half of them didn't know who The Bloggess was or what her blog is about (duh, taxidermied animals, the zombie apocalypse and fighting mental illness), but they also had no idea how popular she was, the size crowd to expect, or how to spell her name.

Her name as The Bloggess is actually written on the cover of her book.  That they sell in this store.

I'd called the week before to see if tickets were needed (they weren't) and then asked when I should arrive for seating/getting in line.  The event started at 7 pm, so the clerk said they typically start seating between 6:30 and 6:45 pm.  This sounds like a bit of insanity to me, so I made a note to suggest to Rachel we try getting there around 6 pm.

Rachel and I did some window shopping, got some food (followed by some ice cream) and then met her husband John who had come from work.  We headed back to the bookstore to get seats.  There were about 25 seats set up in a small area when Rachel and I first got there around 4 pm.  When we came back at 6 pm, there were about 75 seats and the front rows were already filled.  We grabbed seats for ourselves and saved one for Dave, who was coming from work later.  We spent the next hour watching people trickle in, doing some serious people-watching in general and also being totally jealous of the woman who walked in carrying her own 3 foot replica of Beyonce.

The place got mobbed, but I must say the crowd (by and large) were friendly, nice and not stereotypical Boston-style irritating.  (Note: I say by and large because later when we got in line for the signing the guy behind us was a total douche to his wife.  But at least he wasn't being douchy to everyone else in line.)

Dave came in while people were standing in the aisles, sitting on the floor and mobbing the stairs (the room was in the basement level of the bookstore).  The crowd was so nice they didn't even give him a glare when he took the seat I saved for him (and surprisingly, no one asked if they could sit there or gave me a hairy eyeball for saving it). 

At one point I turned to Rachel and said I really had to pee and I kind of wanted to go to the bathroom to see if Jenny was hiding in there (she has anxiety and tells stories of how she'll often avoid crowds by hanging out in the bathroom all night).  But then the moment came and Jenny made her way through the crowd to begin the reading. 

She was totally adorable, humble, sweet and very, very funny.  She read from the book (complete with side notes which were even more funny stories) and took questions from the audience.  It was hilarious.  I started to record a portion, but knew I wouldn't be able to keep the camera steady what with the buckled over laughs and wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing so hard. 

There were easily over 150 people there and after all was said and done, we got in line for the signing.    She was signing upstairs, so those of us with seats actually ended up in the back of the line and the people on the stairs got to go first.  But it was still fabulous and then a manager announced that Jenny would stay until they closed to sign every last book or stuffed mouse, so a lot of people left the line and headed out to get food and whatnot, so that actually made the line move rather quickly.

Rachel, John and I waited (Dave went to get food--it was now past 8 and he hadn't had dinner), continued people watching and eventually wound our way to the front of the line where I got my book signed, a card for Amy (who had bought me the book in the first place), and got my picture taken with Jenny and Copernicus.  It was so much fun.

And Jenny totally signed the card to Amy "Knock, knock, mofo."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...Thud

That's the sound of me falling off my chair after laughing so hard. 

I'm still crying over this it's so funny.

I had a whole other post written for today, but as the blog gods have eaten the associated photos instead of publishing them in the post, I'm sharing this link to a very funny blog post a friend shared with me.  I've never read this blog before but you can guarantee I'm all over it now.

And That's Why You Should Learn to Pick Your Battles

Enjoy.

Bake Sale Begins Today!

Today's the day!  The Bloggers Bake for Hope Bake Sale has opened with dozens of delicious and tempting treats up for bid.  Please support this group of volunteer bloggers raising money for Race for the Cure by bidding on an item (or more).  Bidding will  close at midnight on Friday, so be sure to get your bids in by then.  And please pass this information along to anyone you know who might be interested!

From my kitchen, I've got Banana Split Cookies and Kid's Candy Cookies up for grabs.

Thanks for the support!

Bake Sale!

Bloggers Bake for Hope

Today I stumbled upon (literally, I was blog hopping and stumbled upon this link) a volunteer effort that I'm excited to join and something I think you might be interested in as well.

I hope you'll join me in supporting this cause.  If you're a baker, please register to donate an item.  If you like sweets, please consider bidding once the bake sale begins.

During the first week of May, a nation-wide, all volunteer virtual bake sale will take place to raise money for breast cancer research.  As a baking blogger, I am donating a batch of cookies I've featured on my baking blog.  Bloggers have until April 30th to register their goods, and already a lot of yummy treats are listed.  I'm sure you'll find something that catches your eye and teases your taste buds. 

Beginning May 4th you'll be able to bid on the treat (or treats) of your choosing.  If you win, your treats will be shipped directly to you.  The goal is raise $2,000 for the Komen Foundation, and I'm sure that can happen.  For more information, visit Bloggers Bake for Hope.

Happy Birthday, Blog!

Holy crap, I've been doing this for a year.  And what a year it's been.  I've really enjoyed having an outlet to share stories and thoughts with my dear readers and I thank each and every one of you for your support.  Your feedback and enjoyment of my musings really do make me want to tell my stories in the best (and often funniest) ways. 

Growing up I always thought I'd be an author.  Many spare moments were spent crafting short (and long) stories.  Creative writing classes were encouraged and completed.  Who knew that the spiral-bound notebooks full of pencil scribbles would later be replaced by a blog?  It's interesting because I was never one for a journal or a diary, opting to focus more on my imagination for stories.  But through the encouragement of many of you, I find telling my own tales often more amusing.  Seriously, without Dave and the mice I don't know what I would have talked about last spring (and fall). 

Two of my biggest supporter have been my mom and my grandmother, who have always been supportive of my writing.  It helps that Grandma also makes for good content (Mom does too, but I'm being kind to her by focusing my energies on making fun of JR.  It's much more therapeutic.)  A year later it still brings a smile to my face to hear someone reference something I wrote here.  It means people actually read this stuff.  Who knew?

The past year has been a big and busy one.  Starting my 3rd decade I wanted a repository to both store memories but also archive things I've done.  There have been challenges--Dave being injured, laid off and working toward finding a job, as well as others I haven't shared yet.  I actually thought I would focus much of this on how Dave and I have been dealing with his situation and our marriage.  I guess I'm lucky that it hasn't been a topic because that means it hasn't defined who we are as a couple or how we live our life.  Not to say that it hasn't changed things.  We've just decided to focus more on the things we can control in life. 

Mostly, I have focused on the positives of the past year.  Funny moments aside, I took on a new position which has treated me well; I learned a new hobby and feel I'm not to shabby at this whole crochet thing; we started rescuing dogs which has been a rewarding part of our life; and then I went ahead and started another blog to chronicle my baking passion.  And we've continued to have great friends and family who support us and help us remember what life should be about.

I hope this next year is as fun and funny.  I imagine we'll have some changes in store (I mean, eventually the economy will turn around and someone will see the value in Dave's skills, right?) and perhaps I'll find new and exciting ways to embarrass myself.  I'll settle for Dave, JR or one of our friend's doing dumb stuff too.

Thank you for reading, thank you for your feedback, and thank you for being funny.  In gratitude, I offer you this LOLdog.

Shameless Post So I Can Enter a Contest

At least I'm honest, right?

When deciding to start a blog, I toyed with the idea of doing a cooking or food blog but then realized there are many people out there with more attention to detail than me that already do it better. Like my friend E at Simply Satisfying. I also started following Cake, Batter, and Bowl after my mom saw Kerstin compete on the Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown. Kerstin has a lot of healthy and tasty recipes, as well as yummy desserts, so I've enjoyed seeing what new things she's whipping up.

And now she's having a contest! She's giving away a package of Girard's salad dressings and all I have to do is tell you about her contest and blog. So consider yourself told and go visit her blog. Now. I'll wait.

See, isn't her blog cute and yummy sounding? And for the record, my go to salad is just romaine, halved grape tomatoes, and cucumber, sometimes with bacon bits and mozzarella cheese. It's my cheap and filling salad inspired by my favorite salad, which is a basic Caprese salad. Yummy.


This however, would not be my favorite salad. I'm anti-furry vegetables.

Jumping in Feet First

I'm not going to lie, a little bit of me can't believe I just started a blog. But then another part of me (the bigger part) is pretty excited about this. We'll see where it goes.

I suppose an introduction is in order. I recently (three weeks ago) turned 30 and 5 months ago married my best friend, D. Life is really starting for me. Yes, I graduated almost nine years ago, have held no less than 4 "real" jobs since then and have lived a lot, but something's changed over the last few months. My perspective, perhaps my maturity. My response to life is different than it was even 3 months ago. I'm recognizing with understanding that life it too short to get bogged down by stuff that ultimately doesn't matter. That's a huge thing for me, because for a long time I really couldn't just let things go. And I'm looking forward to what adventures I have in store.

So what can you expect from me? I'm not really sure! My husband and I have been back and forth on moving closer to our jobs for the last 3 years (I have over an hour commute), so maybe some house hunting/venting. My husband is transitioning jobs--something he's been working on for over a year, but moreso now since he was recently laid off. Scary, but I think we're strong enough. And we're at an age where soon we'll need to decide if we're having children. My family and friends live 5-12 hours from me, although I've created a very close group of friends near my new home and some virtual friends I'm glad to have. My job offers unique and fun stories along with more soap opera gossip than I thought could exist in a single department--but that will happen when you have over 20 women ages 24-40 working together.

Overall my life has been good, so I can only look forward to my future. I'm not sure if 30 is the new 18 or 21 or 25, but I must say, I don't mourn my 20s and I almost feel liberated to be happy being 30. I have no regrets of wishing I had (or had not) done certain things in my younger days. But I do feel like 30 is an opportunity to say "This is who I really am" and regardless of judgment from others, to take ownership of that and be my own person. And that feels good.

I hope to entertain, bring perspective and maybe enlighten. But mostly, I hope to have fun (and expose you to as many LOLcats as possible).