Archive for January, 2009

Yeah I got tagged a few times. And caved today. I don’t really have much to add to the Blogosphere today, so I figured a copy and paste job of that would do. I suppose this will only be new and interesting if we’re NOT friends on Facebook (and if so, why is that. Friend me already. Ha!)

1.) I say my favorite colors in the whole wide world are “teal paired with chocolate brown accented with lime green.” But what I REALLY want to say is “Pantone 322 paired with Pantone 4975 and accented with Pantone 583″ but that would just make me sound weird.

2.) I love black licorice. Always have. As a child I used to be the freak who would pick all the black jelly beans out of the mix. Surprisingly, no one complained.

3.) I started drinking (sneaking) coffee when I was 4. No I’m not kidding.

4.) Despite the fact that I was told I was the “most qualified candidate” for a job, I was also told I did not get it because of my relationship with Britney Spears. And yes, every word of that is true. I don’t blame her though. She’s got her own problems to deal with …

5.) I had a permanent retainer in Kindergarten to correct my under bite. It gave me a horrible lisp and all the kids made fun of me, so I ripped out of my mouth. To this day I have a scar on my tongue from it. Sometimes I tell people it was from a tongue ring because somehow that seems more … normal.

6.) I’ve never actually had a tongue piercing. Sadly, I still have my navel ring. But am thinking of taking it out. Except I don’t want a weird hole/scar there either. (Any youngins who read this – don’t do it. It’s not as cool when you’re 28 and faced with “piece of stupid jewelry” or “weird ugly hole”.)

7.) After the retainer incident in my early years, I obviously had to go back in for braces. Which I had for 3.5 years. I was told last year that I need braces again. After a hearty “HELLZ NO.” I opted for a retainer instead. I wear it every night.

8.) I love the taste of (silver) tequila. I drink it on ice, splash of club soda, and with a lime. That, my friends, is called a “Cheech”. I used to drink it with tonic and called it a “Patronic” (Patron + tonic). I don’t know where “Cheech” came from.

9.) I’m fairly certain I could live on: slabs of raw salmon, avocados, heirloom tomatoes, celery, french fries and brie. They are my favorite foods ever.

10.) I had a double hernia operation. In 1983. When I was 2. I’m still unsure how a 2 year old ends up with a double hernia.

11.) I can only put on clothes left limb first. Shirt, left arm first, pants, left leg first, left sock, left shoe, left glove. When saying goodbye to someone or leaving a house/car, I always touch the person/car/house last with my left hand.

12.) HAI. I’m a lefty to a debilitating (OCD?) degree.

13.) I own 17 domains. And actively use only 9 of them.

14.) I played clarinet for 12 years. In 4th grade I made it to 2nd seat in band. In high school I bounced around the first row. Which is hilarious because I am tone deaf.

15.) I am ridiculously proud of the fact that I can do “real” push ups and that I can do them properly. My personal trainer as my witness, I did 35 today. And it was awesome.

16.) My favorite book in the world is East of Eden.

17.) My bedroom, my studio, my websites, and my business cards are all done up in the colors mentioned in #1. I was going to put this fact as #2 but I thought that would make me seem somehow even weirder.

18.) I did not go to school for graphic design. In fact, I have never taken a single graphic design class. And yet, I’m a professional graphic designer. (Should I be admitting this?)

19.) Six years ago I did take one class on TYPE. Which I suppose technically is design. It also revealed a deep dark dirty secret of mine …. I am OBSESSED with typefaces. OBSESSED. I have had several hour long conversations about FONTS. (For those of you that care or get it, yes I do in fact LOVE Helvetica.)

20.) If you come near me with Papyrus font, I will cut you. It literally makes my skin itchy it’s so ugly. http://papyrus-sucks.com Yeah. That’s one of my 9 active domains. Now that’s HATE.

21.) Recently an ex-boyfriend asked if I ever thought I was born the wrong gender. I was not offended. If you know me in real life, you would know why this is totally plausible.

22.) Jenny is my real name. No it’s not Jennifer. I only allow ONE person in the world to call me Jennifer. No it’s not you (except … unless it is you because I know you’re reading this. Shhhhbackatchoo! You know who you are.). Sidenote: My father wanted to name me “Jen” and my sister (Kaitlin) “Kate”. I don’t know if I’ve ever heard him actually call us “Jenny” or “Kaitlin”.

23.) I look like my mother, but I act like my father. My sister looks like my father, but acts like my mother. My parents divorced when I was 9, yet me and Kaitlin (their Mini-Mes) are best friends and live together.

24.) I’ve only gotten in one physical fist fight in my life. It was on the playground. I was 7 and I lost miserably. We are friends on Facebook. Hopefully she reads this ;)

25.) My favorite thing in the whole world is brunch. The first week of this year I brunched 4 days out of 7.

This past weekend I went to New York City. It wasn’t planned. Last Wednesday Andrew and I had the following conversation:

Andrew: I’m bored.

Jenny: Me too.

Andrew: This weekend is a holiday. Long weekend.

Jenny: I know.

Andrew: Let’s go somewhere.

Andrew: LET’S GO TO NYC!!!

Jenny: Booked.

So we went. And we dragged along Peter (who’s blog I would link, but it’s private therefore pointless to link to. PETER.) and my sister.

We sang showtunes the whole way there. There is video of this which is hilarious. But probably only to us, so I won’t post it. (Good thing I told you about it though, right?)

We did a lot of stuff in New York. Including meeting up with longtime e-friend Josh. Josh and I have been friends online for literally YEARS. 3? 4? We talk nearly everyday and live only 4 hours apart but have never met in real life.

I did not mention this to my fellow travelers because unless you’re one of us (“us” being the kind of e-peeps who travel across the country to stay/meet people you’ve only known in the land of the internerds) you don’t really “get” us.

But, hello. I’m Jenny. Clearly I have no problem befriending people online and then booking a trip to go hang out with that person. IRL.

So anyway, we did a lot of stuff in New York. The short list: lots of good meals, shopping, cupcakes, naked karaoke, sing-a-longs, dancing in the streets, sign stealing (ok I didn’t steal the sign … a friend of a friend did. C’mon. The sign, which once read “Coat Check”, but now with the help of a Sharpie reads “Goat Check”. Maybe you had to be there?), way too much swearing, big hair, vests & bowties, entertaining an entire room full of people (where the people included a table full of lesbians having hotflashes, the waitstaff and us) …. I could go on and on.

This is the only photo I deem appropriate for the blog, but you know how to find the rest. And if you don’t, sucks to be you.

At Therapy.

And on a final Semi-Obama-related note: Do you know about “Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country”? If you don’t you need to. It’s a book of letters to President Obama written by kids.

Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country includes such advice as:

“If I were president, I would help all nations, even Hawaii.”
— Chad Timsing, age 9, Los Angeles

“I really hope you put America back together. No pressure though.”
— Sheenie Shannon Yip, age 13, Seattle

“1. Fly to the White House in a helicopter. 2. Walk in. 3. Wipe feet. 4. Walk to the Oval Office. 5. Sit down in a chair. 6. Put hand sanitizer on hands. 7. Enjoy moment. 8. Get up. 9. Get in car. 10. Go to the dog pound.”
— Chandler Browne, age 12, Chicago

And, while it wasn’t advice, exactly, we thought this was worth sharing:
“You are just like a big me.” — Avante Price, age 7, Seattle

Read the letters: here.
Buy the book: here. (Proceeds benefit 826 National, a network of nonprofit writing and tutoring centers around the country.)
Listen to some of the kids read their letters in the Second Act: here.

Today I am proud to be an American.
(Click on an image to go to that site.)

and just for fun:

Do you have any idea what it’s like to wake up in the morning and just be in pain? Joints so swollen it hurts to get out of bed? The only way to get going in the morning is a long hot shower? And to make matters worse, you’re covered in miserable, itchy hives? And when I say covered, I mean covered. Head to freaking toe. Why don’t you throw in a few ambiguous cancer diagnosis? A decade of lupus? Mandatory meds up to here? How about a year of zero information about what the hell is going on with your body? How about 2 lymph node surgeries? Spleen? What spleen? They removed it. And after all that? Still no answers. How about waking up in January of 2009 and being in the exact same fevery, hivey state as you were in January of 2008 roughly 100 doctors visits, 4 hospital stays and 3 surgeries (including the removal of an ORGAN) ago.

Do you know what that feels like?

I know you know what it’s like to pay rent, pay bills, pay school loans, pay credit cards, pay car loans and car insurance – we all do. We’re lucky if we have enough money left over to HAVE A LIFE. But do you know what it’s like to pay for all of that and then be sick for a year. Sick every day for an entire year. Not “I have a cold sick”, but “I have to check back into the hospital” sick. Being sick is expensive.

Insurance is great, but copays? Copays 1, 2, 3, even 4 times a week? Pill bottle upon pill bottle upon PILL BOTTLE of prescriptions adds the eff up.

Do you know what that’s like?

Pardon my language, but I have no fucking idea what that’s like. I don’t know how someone can focus on figuring out what’s going on with their body when they have to also focus on work to come up with the money to pay for it all. I have no idea what that kind of stress feels like.

But you know who does and does it everyday, and does it everyday with a god damn smile on her face? Dink.

This girl doesn’t complain. EVER. And no I’m not exaggerating. But you know what? I’m going to complain and be frustrated about all this for her.

It’s been a year, THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE DAYS, of being sick, countless doctors visits, still no answers, but plenty of mounting medical bills.

My friends and I aren’t doctors. We can’t fix her. We can’t figure out what’s wrong. We can’t make it all better. But we can help her out to the best of our ability.

A few people have put together a benefit for our Dinkaroo. It’s going to be February 21st in Quincy at the Beachcomber. All of our friends bands are playing, we’re organizing a raffle, a silent auction, accepting donations of any kind to help give this girl a fucking break.

If you can, you should COME. If you have items (pieces of art? gift certificates? random pieces of celebrity trash that you stole out of their garbage?) that you can donate for the raffle or silent auction, you should EMAIL ME.

Dinkstock for Dinkstrong. Get into it.

Dinkstock: The Website
Facebook event page.

(click the flyer for a larger version)

Hello. My name is Jenny and I’ve had issues sleeping since …. forever. Yes I have sleeping pills, but don’t like to take them. Waking up in a pill induced haze is sometimes worse than just not sleeping at all. This post is not looking for suggestions – I don’t have caffeine in the evening! My sugar intake is minimal! I kick my ass daily at the gym! In the mornings or afternoons! So the high wears off before bed! Yeah. I’m just really sleep-challenged. Rather this is a post to give you a little look into what my days are like after not sleeping well …. or at all. Two nights in a row.

This morning I woke up pissed off. Or rather, too tired to be pissed off, but if I had any sleep at all, I would have had the energy to be sufficiently pissed off. I got ready and trudged out the door of my apartment and headed towards the subway listening to Dan Savage. Somewhere in between a call about a 28 year old fag hag (I SWEAR IT WASN’T ME) and a call about sounding (DO NOT GOOGLE IMAGE THIS) I reached up and touched my head. I WAS SOAKING WET.

HUH?

Oh that’s right. It looked like THIS out in Boston this morning:

AND I HADN’T NOTICED. And no, I’m not kidding. I showed up to work looking like a wet noodle.

Somehow I made it through a 2.5 hour meeting this morning and MADE SENSE during the whole thing. Although I did find my eyes getting pretttty heavy at times. Which was probably a combo of the fact that a.) I obviously didn’t sleep b.) I hadn’t eaten yet today and c.) my venti coffee ran out roughly .02 seconds into the meeting.

Just now I was talking to Danielle and telling her that I am using the totally awesome and totally environmentally friendly mug she got me for my birthday. (Seriously, it’s awesome. Get one.)

And I was telling her that it’s great for tea, because the lid catches and holds the tea bag string for you. To which Dink responded with “You’re a tea bag!”

And here’s where the reaaaalllllly tired part comes in. The part where that internal filter, the one that stops you from saying stupid or gross things, kicks in. Except when you don’t sleep … it just goes away.

Case in point: My comeback?

“I’ll tea bag you.”

Yup.

Jenny, GET SOME SLEEP. For all our sakes.

PS. If that post didn’t entertain you, check out this outfit from Chanel Hell that I snapped in my Starbucks this morning: