Archive for April, 2009

*Calls Mom*
Mom: Hey! I saw you called earlier. I was putting some bread in the oven. Sorry I didn’t call you back!
Jenny: Oh that’s ok – go take care of that. Call me back later!
Mom: Ok! Love you!

*Calls Dad*
Dad: Hey. Just got your message. There was a murder/suicide today and I’ve been on the phone with investigators. Sorry I didn’t get back to you.
Jenny: Yeah, um. Why don’t you go take care of that. Call me later.
Dad: Yeah, ok. Love you!

A while back when my favorite favorite favorite radio show in the whole world, This American Life announced they were doing another live show which would then be beamed to movie theatres across the country, I immediately got tickets. Two tickets. One for me and … one for someone else. I decided I wasn’t going to ask a fellow fan to go see the show with me – mostly because the real fans would buy their own tickets. No, I wanted to give my ticket to someone who knew nothing about the show and would never in a million years spend $20 on a show they knew nothing about.

My plan was to show someone else something I loved with all my heart and hopefully, they’d fall in love too.

I can’t explain my love for this show, the stories, the contributors, the cleverness, the Mr. Ira Glassness… from the moment I first heard the show … YEARS ago I was hooked. Hooked to the point where I went archive diving and have listened to or downloaded EVERY SHOW EVER RECORDED. A huge chunk of my iPod space is dedicated to Podcasts, and most of that space is This American Life.

I know I wouldn’t turn someone into THAT kind of fan, but I just wanted someone else to “get” it.

It took me a few days to figure out who that person would be. In the end I chose Andrew – not because we spend a ton of time together – but because he’d never heard of the show. He’d never experienced the hilarious, clever, funny, witty stories from Dan Savage or Starlee Kine. He’d never heard THAT VOICE that is Ira Glass. (*swoon*.) Best of all .. I don’t think he really cared to take the time to listen to the show.

But a free ticket is a free ticket, so Andrew accompanied my like a good sport to the theatre. We got there about an hour early because I assured him not only would it be sold out, but we’d probably have a problem getting good seats. He looked at me like I was crazy and admitted he thought the theatre would be completely empty but the two of us.

HA. I know my show. I know how much people love it. And I was totally right. (IN YO FACE ANDREW). There was not an empty seat in the house.

Halfway through the live taping, they “cut” (for radio purposes), but where it was live, Ira obviously kept talking. He asked people in each theatre to applaud if they had never heard of him, of the show – if they had “been dragged there” by someone else. He basically asked if those people were here with people who got really excited when he announced Starlee and they were like “who the eff is that and why should I care?”

This was especially funny to me because I WAS THAT PERSON. “So let’s bring out Mike Birbiglia …” “OHMYGODILOVEHIMHESSOFUNNY!” “Jenny. Shut. Up.”

At the end of this whole story Ira said “Well I hope if you got dragged here, you’ll at least get something out of it. Sex or something!”

To which Andrew and I could not contain ourselves and BURST OUT LAUGHING. Because. Please. Have you seen him? (No offense Andrew, but there is no way you are ever engaging in relations with a woman.)

The show was amazing. The opening credits were gorgeous. The stories were funny and touching (and god damn you Dan Savage for making me cry). It was perfect.

But what made it even more perfect? My plan worked.

If you’ve never heard of the show, I urge you to go to the site and read more about it, go to iTunes subscribe to the podcast (it’s FREE!), and if you’re interested in seeing the show I saw last night they are doing a second showing in movie theatres May 7th. It was incredible and worth every penny.

Cucumber, grape tomatoes, avocado, garlic roasted almonds, and spinach artichoke hummus.

My “bento” pales in comparison to my friend Rena’s bentos. Hers are truly a work of art:

Check out her whole gorgeous set here.

A few weeks back my friend Mike asked if I wanted to join him for a trip to Philly – it had already been planned and booked, all I had to do was say yes.

Of course I said yes, and with it being so busy at work the past few weeks, I promptly forgot about it. Which was actually quite nice, except the part where I realized I didn’t tell anyone I was going. Which I figured out on Friday night after my sister asked “What’s up this weekend? What are we doing?” Oops.

Friday night before the trip I spent with my friend Chris, having dinner and cocktails and chatting about everything going on in our lives. Chris is my twin (in that we have the same birthday and basically used to be inseparable), but over the past couple of years, between work and relationships, we’ve have seen each other less. So Friday was an amazing treat and we vowed to never go more than two weeks without seeing each other. I’ll let you know how that goes in two weeks. :)

I grabbed my bag from my sister who so thoughtfully drove it in town for me and made my way down Tremont to Andrew’s apartment. I’ve joked about it in the past, but I think it’s fair to say I’m a permanent fixture in the gayborhood when I can’t make it 3 blocks without running into friends eating outdoors, restaurant managers hanging out of windows calling my name, and a certain straight(!) who shall remain nameless. Mostly because he’s a bit of an asshole. But that is neither here nor there ;) I love having a ‘hood. Even if I don’t live there. YET.

I made my way to Andrew’s where I would “stay” for the night. And by “stay” I mean barely put my head down because we had to be up at 3:30 when Mike would pick us up to leave for Philly.

We left sometime around 4:00 am and had a lovely drive filled with coffee, sunrises over Connecticut, showtunes and Lady Gaga.

We got to Philly at 9:30 am. Check in was at 4:00 so we spent the day walking around, snapping pics, shopping, lunching, nearly getting mugged (oh that was me and apparently someone stuck their hand in my purse? And a member of waitstaff saw? Which makes no sense because he told me well after the alleged muggers did this AND despite the fact that my iPhone, wallet and iPod were sitting right there on top, NOTHING was taken?).

We went back to the hotel – which was newly remodeled and GORGEOUS – showered up, hit the liquor store and hosted an impromptu hotel party.

(Andrew announced to a street full of people that his shirt was “Gayer than Christmas”. I’d have to agree. It is gayer than Christmas, but also completely adorable. Especially with the bowtie.)

Later we went out for Dominic’s birthday dinner (pictured above in the pink button down), back to the hotel for more drinks, and then to a club that confused me because of SO MANY MIRRORS. At one point Andrew said “I keep making eye contact with this guy …. and then I realize …. it’s ME.”

That was a good quote but the two BEST quotes of the night came from birthday boy Dominic:

Immediately after taking a shot of jager:

“That …. just made my face stop.”

This is why we don’t DO jager shots.

Immediately after seeing a pack of transexuals heading in the direction of the bar we were hitting up next:

Dominic: “Why are trannies so tall?”

Andrew: “Um …. because they’re MEN. In HEELS?”

Dominic: “Oh … yeah….”

The next morning, I got up, ran to the Museum (and up the “Rocky stairs” of course), then hit the gym before coffee and a long leisurely brunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around checking out South Street before heading back the hotel, showering and getting ready for dinner at Dominic’s mother’s house. She so graciously decided to host us.

Oh my god the food. So much food. Food for days. FOR WEEKS. After we got there, had some wine and ate she asked if we like the APPETIZERS. Oh holy jesus. There was more. SO MUCH MORE. A whole dinner. THEN dessert. Which consisted of THREE kinds of biscotti and a whiskey cake.

None of us could move after. We lay there like lumps (well except when we hopped out to hit up Wawa).

We played some wii and just relaxed all night. Which is basically what we did for the remainder of the trip.

The trip was lovely. The drive back was NOT. We hit so much traffic on the way back, instead of taking 5 hours like it did on the way down, it took us nearly EIGHT to get back. Gross.

Oh well. If that was the only snag in the trip it was well worth it. Plus I got to spend more time with Mike & Andrew and we all know I love that :)

For the full set of pics, click here. And if you’re feeling saucy, here’s a clip from the hotel party of the boys … kind of doing the Single Ladies dance. Except it’s really just a mess of laughter and button popping. This is why I love them.

And finally, can we talk about this? And which one is real (the one on the left. The one on the right is photoshopped. Both are horrific.)

On second thought, let’s NOT talk about that.

1.) I am going on a roadtrip this weekend to a place (not-so) far away with two of my favorite people. I took Monday off.
1a.) Let’s hope we don’t tear each other’s faces off halfway through our 6 hour drive.
1b.) the only thing I’m sad about is missing all the Marathon Monday parties …. Mandarin … Lenox … Stephanie’s. DAMN.

2.) The car we’re driving is a stick shift. So when I say “we’re driving” I mean those other two ;)

3.) It’s not that I don’t know how to drive stick, but the only times I have were a.) when my date passed out in the passenger seat of his car an hour and half away from my house. AWESOME b.) during my Nantucket trip where the person I was with refused to allow me to not know how to drive stick anymore. And I drove and did great! But haven’t practiced again. That was 2 years ago. Oops.

4.) I forgot to tell anyone I was going away. Hi everyone. I won’t be here this weekend.

5.) I only realized this when my sister asked what was up this weekend. Oh …..

6.) We’re leaving at 4 am.

7.) That sounds insane, but I’ll also probably freaking be awake anyway.

8.) I got the most amazing parking spot today. I want to take a picture of it and frame it, it was THAT good.

9.) Keep up with my trip on Flickr and Twitter.

10.) If you own a Sidekick, or even know someone who does, I would like to talk to you. And give you money. To buy me Lady Gaga tickets. No, I’m not exaggerating or kidding. Get in touch. We’ll negotiate.