Saturday and the 7 days that follow are going to look a whole lot like this:

No laptop. No cell service. But a whole lot of this:

And a whole lotta them:

Don’t miss hate me too much.

Tonight I got my pre-vacation mani/pedi with my friends Matt & Pia.

When we got to the nail salon I asked what color I should get. Matt said “Something Caribbean, in honor of our trip. Maybe coral?”

So I picked my color.

Matt got his nails buffed to a lovely natural. Pia got a color called “Bubblebath” (the shearest of all pinks).

I got this:

And then. Knowing how clumsy I am, I knew I’d chip my nails in five seconds or less, I bought the color from the salon.

I refuse to have the brightest nails. So I recruited a friend to share in the Cajun Shrimp JOY.

Now you can enJOY. GET IT? GET IT?

MICHAEL.

PS ……

Hello. *tap tap* Is this thing on?

Oh look at that. Still works. I guess I ….. forgot how to use this?

Whatever. I have no excuse. I just didn’t feel like blogging for a bit. But here I am! Triumphant return!

Noteable events/observations from the past several weeks of disappearance:

1) I went to Dallas. Yup. Not really voluntarily. I was there for PCMA 2010. Sorry Dallas readers, but I did not have the best time in your city. The conference was great. But a) I got sick. b) the only food available to me for several days was either covered in, dipped in, or prepared with lard, butter, cheese or ranch dressing. I ordered a salad my first day – just your typical mixed greens with chicken. It came served on a pizza. SERVED ON A PIZZA. Like a full PIZZA. By the end of the conference, I was begging bartenders for their bar fruit (yeah I stole an orange. SO WHAT.) I’m sure Dallas is a lovely city – out of the convention circuit.

2) I recently discovered that every time I try to type “things” on my iPhone, it automatically changes it to “thugs”. I don’t know how many times I’ve substituted “thugs” for “things” to friends, family, clients – but I kind of think that’s awesome.

3) I only discovered the above because post-Dallas my cold continued and I was pretty much banished to the couch and in and out of sleep for the next 5 days, iPhone in hand. I attempted to go out for my friend Grace’s birthday party on Saturday night and nearly fell asleep at the bar. Sorry Grace. I suck. I do have a gift for you though :)

4) After nearly two years of only dreaming about them, I actually got to drink a Blue Bottle latte. It was beautiful and delicious.

5) Ok sooooo… can you keep a secret? I’ve sort of been …. seeing someone for a bit (which might have a litttttle something to do with my lack of updates. Maybe). I probably won’t say too much more – yet. But … suffice it to say he is the kind of man who remembered and filed away a conversation from more than a month ago where I mentioned an early 2008 trip to San Francisco where I had the “best latte I’ve ever had from this place called Blue Bottle”. Last week he knew I was feeling terrible, called the company and asked what kind of espresso bean I may have had in my latte when I was out there, placed the order, and had the beans delivered the day I got back from Dallas. And, if you can believe it, that’s just the beginning of the ridiculous journey this has been. But I’m not going to brag or anything :) I will say that after a relationship gone bad, two years of horrific dates including some recent absolutely terrible events, this …. is an unexpected but welcome turn of events.

6) My friends Sarah aka “Sasky” and Tony aka “Tony” had their very first baby a couple of days ago! They named him Desmond and he is absolutely precious. I would post his pics, but I’m not sure how far out into the internerd they’d like those to go, but here’s a visual: deliciously pudgy, tons of hair (OH THE HAIR!) and absolutely tiny and sweet and adorable.

So there you go. I hope I fulfilled at least a bit of my “where has she been?”/”Jen-gossip” quota for the day.

2008 was not a terribly good year. 2009 started more or less the same. Without getting into too many details, eventually I realized enough is enough. By the summer, I was turning things around.

I turned 29 this past week.

I was presented with adorable cupcakes by coworkers. I was taken out for a lovely birthday dinner, rang in my birthday with my best friend, had a birthday lunch with my grandparents, parents, uncle and sister. I drank good beer. I drank good wine. I was in good company.

I celebrated Christmas with the neighbors I call family. Every muscle in my body hurt the next day from laughing so hard.

My mother, father, sister and I celebrated Christmas. We took our time and passed around the most thoughtful gifts. We cooked more food than is even necessary for four people. We ate an Italian feast. We sipped on really good red wine. We watched movies and played around with our gifts. We had a small, lovely Christmas for a family of four.

I spent the evening curled up in front of the fire with friends. The next morning I had brunch, got a manicure (deep purple nailpolish) with one of my best friends. We danced around the city.

I spent the remainder of my time off curled up with hot drinks, a blanket, and a dog. I watched more movies in a weekend than I have in the past year. I let my guard down. I shut my phone off. I drank good coffee, I snacked on imported chocolates, I sipped on champagne. I stayed up until 5 a.m. and told a million stories and listened to a million more. I slept easily for the first time in months.

I hate to brag, but – life is good. In that super annoying, omg-please-shut-up-you-big-ball-of-cheese kind of way. Yeah. It feels nice to just … this. This is good. Life is good.

About a month ago, I posted a tweet (and fed it in to Facebook) asking “If you were invited to my house and could pick one song to be added to the playlist, what would it be?”

I got some AWESOME requests and put in a bunch of my own – it was my birthday party after all :) But here’s some pictures of all my awesome friends and below that the playlist we all made together to celebrate the very momentous day of my birthday (a week early!)

Thanks guys. Lots and lots of love.

(Click the pic for the whole set of photos!)

You Belong to Me – Michael McDonald
Fidelity – Regina Spektor
How Deep is Your Love – The Bird & The Bee
Sour Sour Times – Portishead
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Alone – Heart
Somebody to Love – Queen
You Make My Dreams – Hall & Oates
Don’t Stand So Close to Me/Young Girl mashup – Glee
Don’t Rain on My Parade – Glee
Rich Girl – Hall & Oates
Vision of Love – Mariah Carey
Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’ – Journey
Hotel Song – Regina Spektor
Sweet Freedom – Michael McDonald
Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z (feat. Alicia Keys)
How Will I Know – Whitney Houston
Jump (For My Love) – The Pointer Sisters
La Isla Bonita – Madonna
Damn Girl – Justin Timberlake
Wanna Be Startin’ Something – Michael Jackson
Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
F**K You – Lily Allen
Let Me Think About It – Ida Corr vs. Fedde Le Grand
Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Party In The USA – Miley Cyrus
TiK ToK – Ke$ha
Million Dollar Bill – Whitney Houston
Evacuate the Dancefloor – Cascada
Teeth – Lady Gaga
Girlfriend (remix) – Avril Lavigne feat Lil’ Mama
Heartbreaker – Mariah Carey feat Jay-Z
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) – Beyonce
Birthday Sex – Jeremih
Circus – Britney Spears
Paparazzi – Lady Gaga
Band of Gold (remix) – Kimberley Locke
I Get So Emotional – Whitney Houston
My Life Would Suck Without You – Kelly Clarkson
Halo/Walking on Sunshine mashup – Glee
Awake – Letters to Cleo
River Deep, Mountain High – Celine Dion
Christmas Tree – Lady Gaga
Telephone – Lady Gaga & Beyonce
Meet Me Halfway – Black Eyed Peas
Roxanne – The Police
Boyz – MIA
Diva – Beyonce
Got Some Teeth – Obie Trice
Ladies Choice – Hairspray
Defying Gravity – Wicked
Bust Your Windows – Glee
Love You I Do – Jennifer Hudon
LoveGame – Lady Gaga
We Belong Together (remix) – Mariah Carey
Spotlight – Jennifer Hudson
Prove Yourself – Joan Armatrading
Beautiful, Dirty Rich – Lady Gaga
Jenny From the Stronger Block (mash up) – Jennifer Lopez vs. Britney Spears
Hot Dog! – The Detroit Cobras
Gay Boyfriend – The Hazzards
Overprotected – Britney Spears
Boys Boys Boys – Lady Gaga
All My Life – K-Ci and Jojo

Feel free to make fun or make your own :)

Wednesday
Go out of work early! Yay! Went home and had some dinner with my roommate and then headed to Boston’s left bank (Cambridge) to see my friend Jay’s band – the Bodega Girls. I can’t even tell you how fun and amazing this band is. If they’re in your area, go see them. They have some songs on MySpace but to be honest, their recordings don’t even do them justice. You have to see them live. Absolutely worth it.

Thursday
Awesome day with these awesome people:

There was pie, and food, and pie, and more food, and coffee, and Baileys and more pie. SO MUCH PIE.

During the evening my sister put on an episode of Hoarders. Have you seen this show? Oh my god. I threw up in my mouth. Twice. And then proceeded to go home and stay up until 1:30 in the morning cleaning and disinfecting my apartment from top to bottom.

Friday
Headed back over to Cambridge for brunch at the Friendly Toast. Great food. Terrible service.

Later in the evening, a group of us headed over to Harvard Square to see the Donkey Show. This was by far the highlight of the weekend. The show is so fun – you dance, you sing, you’re part of the show … but you’re not. It’s rather impossible to explain. Go see it for yourself. Tickets are $25 for standing room, and trust me, you want standing.

Post Donkey Show a group of us headed to our gayborhood bar for some alcohol-fueled group antics. PS. Thanks SE boys. Hearts, hugs and laughs.

Saturday
This was a very productive day actually. I got a lot of work done (who works on a holiday weekend? THIS ONE RIGHT HERE.) Due to the ridiculous ASSUMPTION that baby showers are held on Sundays and the fact that I didn’t think to check the invitation sitting on top of the gift, I worked through the afternoon only to discover I missed by friend Sarah’s baby shower. Because I’m a terrible friend. Getting sucked into work is a vicious cycle of disaster.

The evening was spent at Danny’s with the Usual Suspects and Danny’s adorable parents. Where Danny’s adorable dad schooled us in Apple to Apples.

Sunday
Sunday was a Tour de el South End. My friends and I started with brunch at Metropolis (great food, again terrible service. UGH), followed by a quick shopping stop at Flock, my new favorite boutique, followed by cocktails first at Ginger Park (formally Banq), then, per usual, at Stella. Eventually we all made our way over to Joe V’s for pizza, wine and trip making plans.

Yeah that’s right. Trip making plans. Vieques? Yeah I’ll be seeing you for a week in March. Bioluminescent plankton? Get ready to get swam with. I’m coming to get you. Oh yeah – and Jean? You better start getting ready NOW. This birthday is going to be the best one yet…

After all … you made it this far :P

Video 1: Adam, Jon and me (and Julie’s voice) Sometimes we make pterodactyl noises. Adam is apparently the dad, and me and Jon are the kids. I don’t remember WHY we started this, but we can’t stop. And without fail it makes us dissolve in to giggles every time.

Video 2: A bit more of an investment. Almost 4 minutes worth. Danielle, Dan, David, me and an owl. This is what I did on Saturday. We are very easily entertained. *And one of the comments we made was the direct result of a conversation we had a few minutes before we turned the camera on about …. piercings (NOT OURS) that went very very so very wrong.

*Lounging in Andrew’s bed painting my nails with a Nicole/Opi Nic Stick (which by the way is the best product ever invented.)*

“Andrew … want to go for a walk?”

“Sure. Where do you want to go?”

“Wait. Let me paint your nails.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Fine. Just one.”

*Paints his awkwardly long pinky nail a lovely sparkly hot pink.*

“You are such a pretty pretty princess!”

“Leave the nail polish remover out. I am NOT going to work like this tomorrow.”

“Can we not go for a walk and have a beer instead?”

“I was hoping you say that. But seriously. Where is that nail polish remover?”

“Shut up and drink your beer.”

Eating, drinking, swimming, playing games with friends …. and documenting a Father/Son cookoff.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you two of my favorite South Africans: Adam and his dad. No spoilers … you have to watch for yourself to see who wins.

Thanks again Shane family (Ren too!). As always, you were the best hosts ever.

In addition to a lot of really great evenings of cooking dinners and drinking wine:

I spent a good portion of everyday blowing bubbles, five year old style. No. Seriously.

And then came the day for Bread and Puppet. What’s Bread and Puppet? I really don’t even think I can explain it.

THIS is Bread and Puppet:

And THIS:

And THIS:

THIS:

THIS:

AND THIS:

IS Bread & Puppet:

Something you can’t tell from these photos is the SCALE of Bread and Puppet. Enter Jean. Five foot six (ish?) Jean.

Yeah. Huge.

Bread and Puppet is a politically radical puppet theatre that dates back to the 1960s. This is one of those things that to truly appreciate the scale, the enormity, the (I have to say it) creepiness of this place, you have to visit.

Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of insightful information offering up very different points of view and some interesting artwork available at Bread and Puppet – it’s just …. we happened to show up just as a women with glassed-over eyes told us that we “Caught them at lunch.” She disappeared into a small dark room, full of children we could hear but could not see, on the lower level of the barn. We had the place to ourselves. Which I don’t know if it was better or worse for the creep factor.

Read more about them on their Wiki page or visit their site directly.

(I did take some video while I was there, but to be honest, I was so engrossed in the puppets, I kind of forgot to steady the camera. Basically it would make you vomit. So go visit and experience it for yourself.)

For more of my pics, go visit my Bread and Puppet set on Flickr.