z104, is that you?

on my drive to swim practice last night i was flipping through my normal radio stations (100.3, 101.1, 94.7, 107.3) just trying to find something to listen to. tragically there was a commercial on each and every station. blast. so i just hit the seek button in search of some sort of music. when it stopped on 104.1 i was about to hit seek again (i mean, who wants to listen to classical??), but instead i was pleasantly surprised!

everyone must remember that sad day on january 4, 2005 when z104 suddenly went off the air. i was so upset by the news that i boycotted the radio in it's entirety! but now, when i forget my ipod at least, i do find myself listening to the radio in my car. but, i still haven't found a new favorite station. there is a big void left left by z104. now i end up switching stations a lot more than i used to in search of decent music (or music at all).

so back to last night. my radio seek stopped on 104.1. classical, ugh. (actually i don't really mind classical that much - i just wasn't in the mood). but to my surprise it was billy joel, not beethoven. what is this?

so i did some digging and found out that it has become george104 and they play "70's, 80's and whatever we want." and they also pledge "104 days of commercial free music!" definitely sounds promising...

thoughts on prison break

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT.

first of all: michael scofield/wentworth miller + lincoln burrows/dominic purcell = channing tatum

how annoying was it that they didn't let us hear what was on the tape?? aaaaaahhhhhh. that's two episodes in a row now that they've totally kept us hanging. although, i assume that's what their plan is.

also, can someone please explain to me how agent kim got run over by a car and majorly beat up by lincoln and he only has a little scratch over his eye?!?! i can't stand him. also i hope they bring back his boss who doesn't speak. i loved when he would pass him little notes while he was on the phone. and speaking of phones - he has the same cell phone as me. cool.

kellerman is insane. but he is totally going to kill the president and then she won't be able to pardon lincoln. dagger. but the good news is that we'll have a whole other season of adventures! (since there are only four episodes left this season!)

did anyone else catch who kellerman's sister was? it's ryan gosling's "girlfriend" from half nelson. nice catch sus. but overall an unnessecary cameo in my opinion. we get it - he's sorry he's killed pretty much everyone who steps in his way.

i liked that they finally brought lj back, if even for just a scene. we were wondering what had happened to him. so he's "happy" going to school out in washington (even if it is under a fake name).

it really irks me that mahone ALWAYS figures everything out. is he really that smart?? and what happened to his secret pen full of pills? did he just go cold turkey and kick the habit?

and then there were four. poor c-note. (i loved his nickname by the way). so who's next? sucre? t-bag? i wonder if they'll kill off all the other convicts and just make it into a show about the brothers and the conspiracy. maybe next season will be called prison break: the conspiracy (since this season was called prison break: the manhunt).

so when lincoln leads the supposed cooper green through all the hoops to get to scofield who else thought the fountain scene looked familiar? can anyone think of what movie/tv show that was from? i'm thinking it might be from the now cancelled vanished (wow, did i actually watch that??) - but i think it might actually be something else (too).

speaking of cooper green, clearly the secretary must be in on it. or the fake cooper green somehow got a hold of the real cooper green's phone. also i guess sara tancreddi's father's ex-worker guy is good. or he's just totally playing sara. which is totally plausible at the rate this show is going this season.

also, who would think to ask whether his inhaler had "albuterol, cortizaide or prednizone?" (more importantly, who would know three chemical names like that on the top of their head?) well, michael scofield of course! he's a genius. (and apparently likes to shop at walmart - that was a high class sweatshirt he was wearing!)

can't wait until next monday! only four episodes left...

saturday night, the blue light edition

the plan was simple - dinner at rustico then drinks at px. didn't work out so well, though. we finally made it to rustico at 8:30 and they told us it would be up to a two hour wait. ugh. this was a major problem since we had reservations at px for 10:30. we started looking at the beer list (which was quite impressive, by the way) before deciding we would never make it to old town in time and decided to just grab dinner elsewhere.

we ventured down king street and miraculously found some parking not far from the stretch. it was after 9:00 at this point so we decided that we would go into the first restaurant we saw and if they could seat us immediately that's where we would eat.

las tapas was first - and they had a table just waiting for us! we started with the important stuff and got a pitcher of sangria. and luckily they immediately brought out bread (they must have known how we get when we're hungry). we ordered enough food for an army - and finished every last bite. about mid-way through dinner a live band started playing some lively spanish music. i'm just sad we had to leave before we had a chance to dance along.

we made a quick stop across the street at murphy's to say hi to some friends. but then we had to go around the corner so we wouldn't be late for our reservation at the bar. (yes, we made a reservation at a bar).

we arrived at the corner of king st. and s washington st. good news - the pirate flag was us!(weird, we have a pirate flag up at our house too - i guess our bar is always open for business). we walked around the side of the building and noticed the blue light was lit by the door. the girls sent me ahead to ring the doorbell (something about the jeans i think). a moment later the slit in the door opens and a man (clinton) stands there staring at me.

i said "hi, i have a reservation." and then he shut the slit. yikes. but, a moment later the door swung open and he asked for my name and told me to wait there for a minute. so we took a few pictures and waited for our turn to go upstairs. a few minutes later the door opened again and this time a woman (in a skirt that was way beyong mini and tall silver boots - and her name was jessica) was at the door and took us upstairs.

we were led to the back room (there's only two small rooms, and a few seats at the bar). the five of us settled in on one of the blue couches (well we had to overflow onto the ottoman, but whatever). we took a look at the drink menu. everything sounded delicious - it took us a while to decide. we ended up getting two grogs (some sort of rum drink made with a homemade tea concoction - served in a silver "pirate" mug with a glass bottom), a mule (a spicy homemade ginger-ale based drink served in clay mug), a champagne cocktail (with a champagne soaked cherry at the bottom), and i settled on a sweet basil (a deliciously sweet mixture of lillet blanc, orange water and a homemade basil syrup - with a large basil leaf floating on top of the glass of course).

while waiting for our drinks to arrive (which takes a while since their all made from scratch) i decided to venture to the bathroom. plus, that's really the way to judge a place - by how nice/cool the bathrooms are. not sure where the bathroom was, but the place was so tiny it couldn't be hard to find. sus and i walked out of our private little room and clinton appeared out of thin air and said, "restroom?" freaky, but cool. he immediately pointed us in the right direction.

once in the bathroom we noticed the rules of the establishment. from the top of my head:
- dress appropriately (jackets for men, classy for ladies)
- keep your feet off the furniture
- when a woman says no, she means no
- don't ever just order a vodka tonic

i already loved this place - and we hadn't even gotten our drinks yet. we ventured back to our couch and when we got back we noticed there were three other people in the room - one of which we knew. what are the odds??

finally jessica returned with a tray (with a candle lighting the way) of our drinks. we toasted to our fun night, and got to sipping. we passed the drinks around (good thing we're all done with mono) so we could all get a good taste. let me tell you, they were definitely worth the $11+.

unfortunately there was another group of three in the back room with us, but they must have gotten annoyed with us quickly because they didn't stay long. (i'm sure they were amused with our random conversations though, since i heard them repeating a few of the things we said). after they got up and left we figured it would be a great idea to close the silver curtain and it a true private, vip room. let the craziness begin...

clinton and jessica kept randomly coming back to check on us (and i think they were a little frightened that we had closed the curtain - "what's going on back here?" - but whatever). we ordered another round of drinks (a few more grogs, a yin and tonic, and a mojito) so that our new drinks would be there by the time we finished our first drinks. jessica also brought us some homemade (mesh-like) potato chips to munch on. (like we needed any other food after what we had just consumed, oh well).

obviously there was music playing in the background. nothing you would have recognized, but some nice tunes nonetheless. since we had been unable to partake in the dancing at las tapas, we decided it would be great to do some dancing up here at px. (luckily the curtains were drawn). and i had remembered that earlier in the night shannon had mentioned she's been taking ballroom dancing classes - score! so we did the rumba. well, kind of. i mean a drunk shannon trying to lead when she's used to being led didn't lead to a very pretty dance. but hey, we had fun.

we didn't want to overstay our welcome, so we asked for the check and figured we'd be on our way. jessica went down to grab our jackets and clinton invited us back during the week when he bartends (sweet!). then we were led down the stairs and back onto the street. wow, what an experience.

but, clearly the night was not over yet. we meandered down king st. (some of us on piggy back, some just walking) in search of some karaoke bar. when we finally (read: 10 blocks later) made it there the bouncer was on an ego trip and wouldn't let us in because "it was too crowded." after enough people streamed out he finally let our group in. i do have to say the song list was impressive (at least to our standards), but after feeling like we were in blacksburg (yuck) we figured it was about time to head home. we just moved to party back to our car where we had our own karaoke party to the crucial cd sus and i had made that afternoon. (let's be honest any cd that has haddaway, whitney and stevie on it must be a winner).

guess my song

susie emailed me at 10am this morning with "i have officially done all my work for today. i am bored. please keep me occupied."

being the great roommate that i am, i happily complied. i replied to her:

i will give you $100 if you can guess what song i have stuck in my head.

so she emailed back and said:

oh wow. can i ask questions? each question knocks it down $20?
assuming you agree;
first stab at the song: wonderwall by oasis.
no? ok, first question: what genre of music?

we came to an understanding that she could ask yes/no questions and the pot would diminish by $10 for each question/guess. i've typed up her questions/guesses - read line by line and see if you can guess the song before susie did.

1. wonderwall by oasis
no, sorry. but good guess - i've heard this song a bunch this week.

2. is it by a group or a solo artist?
solo artist

3. guess: josh kelley - "small town boy"
wrong, but great song!

4. is it a guy?
yes.

5. guess: stevie - superstition
nope.

6. is he above the age of 40?
yes.

7. is this over-40 male solo artist white?
no.

8. are this guy or any of his family members frequently in the news?
no. sus, where are you going with this?

9. BLAST. there goes that idea.
ok. wow. now i am stumped.
ok i lied. one more question.
is this song within the past say, 15 years?
yes, it's from within the last 15 years.

then, susie did a little recap for herself: solo artist, male, over 40, black, not in the news (nor are his family members), song is within past 15 years.

here's her "last" guess:
10. ok well i was thinking lionel richie. but then no family in the news.
same goes for michael jackson.

stevie wonder? that is my last guess.

OHHHHHHHHHH wait. scratch stevie wonder.

ROBERT RANDOLPH????????????
wow, great guess. but it's wrong. again.

so i told susie she could keep guessing until she got it. not for any money prize anymore though. and i asked her if she wanted any clues. she said no, not yet.

11. is it a rock song?
no.

12. ok is this a rap/hip-hop/r&b song?
no.

13. is it a pop song?
no. well maybe kind of pop i guess.

14. does this guy have other famous songs or is he a one hit wonder?
one hit wonder.

15. did this song come out after 2000?
no.

16. wowwwwwwwww. ok.
is this guy from america?
17. is he tall?
18. does he have facial hair?
haha. i totally have her stumped!
no. don't know. don't know.
but, i don't recommend trying to guess the artist. try to focus on the song.

then susie decided it was time to disregard the yes/no rule.

19. if it were on the radio what station would it be played on?
the devil station (aka 99.5).

20. did this song come out when we were in high school?
it was officially released in 1993 (thanks wikipedia). but we definitely would have listened to it during middle school/high school.

i then told her that she would definitely know this song. and if she didn't i would no longer be friends with her. (or you either!)

and then she asked for (another) hint.

hint: think ultimate dance party

21. i was on that track...i was thinking ub40. but that's a group, right?
yeah, sorry sus. that's a group.

(2:53) sus: man. ok let me think about it for a while.
(2:54) me: ok. i have another hint when you want it.
(2:58) sus: i would like it now please

hint: night at the roxbury

and then she got it.

did you?

cupcakes!

i plan on eating my way through the city (and surrounding areas) one cupcake at a time.

so far i've sampled delicious (well some not so delicious) treats at:

1. baked & wired.
you have not tasted a cupcake until you've tasted one from b&w. this woman makes the most unreal buttercream icing (see above) that you will ever taste. and their red velvet cupcakes? amazing. once you taste their cupcakes (and other delicious treats) you will understand why i named my fantasy football team "baked & wired." and yes, my logo was a cupcake.

2. cakelove.
i've been reading things about this for year(s) now. everyone says they have the best cakes. well everything i've read failed to mention the minor (no, make that major) fact that they refrigerate all of their cupcakes. i mean, really?? i was more than disapointed in their icing. i feel like their cake could have potential if allowed to warm to room temperature. apparently there's a cupcake bar at lovecafe across the street. you can mix and match and make your own cupcakes. and they're at room temperature. maybe, just maybe, i'll give them another chance.

3. buzz.
buzz has been getting lots of buzz in the press lately (good one, i know). i finally got to sample some of their cupcakes this past weekend. they pretty much lived up to all their hype. the icing was a little too sweet for me, but the cake was very moist and buttery.

places i still need to try:
1. firehook.
2. furin's.
3. sweet surrender.

anyone have any other suggestions?

also, there's a plan floating out there that we will drive around and get a cupcake from everywhere in the area and have a true taste test. who's in?

[and check this out - it's amazing]

things that annoy me - part III

you knew there'd be more of these eventually...

14. wapo sports coverage.
no i really don't care that the terps still have a slim chance of making the tournament. and please explain to me why when we beat fsu on saturday the story was buried in the sports section on sunday. but, when we lost to miami last night there was an article on the front page of the sports section.

15. post office workers.
the ones who work in the georgetown branch must hate life. they are the most miserable people i have ever come into contact with.

16. cakelove.
the hype so did not deliver. seriously, who refrigerates baked goods?? if i want a cupcake i don't want to have to wait for it to dethaw before i devour it.

17. weather people.
so they're allowed to be completely wrong ninety percent of the time yet still keep their job?? explain that one to me. their winter weather forecasts cause unnecessary freak-outs in the region. [i still got love for bob ryan though].

18. bathroom attendants.
no i am not going to tip you for handing me a paper towel. and don't try to trick me by taking them out of the dispenser. watch out mcfadden's lady - i'm onto you.

19. 99.5
how can anyone listen to this garbage? please bring back z104. please.

i love long weekends

with the day off on monday, we figured we'd really take advantage of the extra weekend time. we sure did pack it all in.

after the uva game (nice win hoos!) we watched half nelson. ryan gosling (aka young hercules) was amazing. so was the girl (sister/daughter of omar epps??). movie was kind of all over the place, but good overall.

after about five plan changes we ended up at posh on saturday night. it's a fun new "lounge and supper club" right at metro center. on our "tour" of the place upon arrival the guy told us that they had nelly perform a few weeks ago (sad i missed that one, if it's actually true) and apparently dominique dawes had her thirtieth birthday party there.

we were escorted upstairs to the vip room (thanks to our elevator man "collassel") to meet the rest of the party. and don't worry i was quick to go check out the bathrooms. pretty nice, but there was an annoying bathroom attendant that just sat there. i don't tip bathroom attendants anywhere, but if you're just going to sit there and chat then i am most definitely not going to leave you any money.

the dj was spinning some fun old school jams. we clearly requested whitney, to which he responded "of course i had whitney." we danced up in the vip room, and we even made it down to the dance floor for a bit. but, when we went to check on the status of whitney he told us "oh sorry, i don't have any." thanks for getting our hopes up.

all and all a really cool place. i want to go back and try it out again soon. and i want to try their food. it looked pretty delicious (especially the fondue fountain at one couple's table). i've heard the veal chops are yummy (and reasonably priced).

NOTE: if you have to go to the bathroom at metro center and the metro person tells you "sure, it's right inside the hotel." don't believe him/her. susie and i found ourselves in this situation saturday night. we noticed we have six minutes until the next train home so we decided to go inside the hotel lobby and try to find the bathroom. we made it all the way to the front of the hotel, couldn't find a bathroom anywhere and made an executive decision to sprint back to the metro station in order to make the train. let me tell you, running in heels when having to use the bathroom is quite possibly the worst combination ever. also - who knew there was a giant pool in the lobby of the hyatt downtown??

luckily we made it on the first car on the train home so we avoided the big crowd of people. or so we thought. two guys got on at foggy bottom. suddenly we noticed a burning smell. now on the metro that isn't too unusual, but as it persisted someone said "wow, i wonder if the track's on fire." to which the guy behind us responded, "no, don't worry my friend is just lighting matches." what?!?! lucky for those guys they got off the train (later babes...) and didn't start any fires.

sunday we decided to go exploring in dc. we headed up to u st. for some brunch and shopping. we finally made our way to busboys and poets and after an hour wait in the bookstore we finally got a table. the food was delicious and definitely worth the wait. it's a very cool atmosphere in there - lots of cool art all around.

we meandered around u st. and stopped in a bunch of fun boutique/vintage shops. on our trek down u st. we passed cake love and decided to stop in on the way back for a few cupcakes. for a while now i've been on a search for the area's best cupcake. i work across the street from baked a wired so i might be a little biased, but i was very disappointed in cakelove's cupcakes. first of all they keep them in the refrigerator. and the icing was entirely too sweet. the cake was ok, and probably would have been even better if we had let it warm up a bit. but clearly we had to inhale them immediately.

next stop was hawk and dove. somehow we made our way down to SE and even found a parking spot right near the bar. we went into say hi to the birthday girl and caught up for a while. we'll definitely be heading back up to the cap hill/barracks row area again soon - there are lots of fun places up there to explore.

saw breach yesterday afternoon. great movie. kind of freaky that hanssen lived ten minutes away and sold secrets to the russians for twenty two years. also weird that there was a question about him on my espionage final exam fourth year. chris cooper was great. so was ryan phillipe. apparently he only likes playing "sidekick/good guys" in movies (crash, training day, breach, etc.)

tragically susie had to go into work today, so nari and i clearly offered to come meet her downtown for lunch. we went ot matchbox over in chinatown. very cool place. it's narrow but tall - we sat all the way up on the third floor. unfortunately our food took forever to come out, but the pizza was delicious. i want to go back late night to try their infused alcohols - i've heard they're good.

i still had to make up for the disappoinment in the cakelove cupcakes, so i got some cupcakes from buzz over in alexandria. way better. the icing is fluffier (a little too sweet for me, but most icing is too sweet for me). the cake is really moist and buttery.

and as if we didn't have enough cupcakes i decided to make red velvet cupcakes from scratch. i was a little freaked out when i saw the recipe called for two ounces of red food coloring, but they turned out well! and i even made a homemade cream cheese icing. i really should just start a baking company out of our kitchen (what with the scones, cookies, cupcakes).

can't wait for the short week. and it's supposed to be almost sixty degrees on thursday!!

i love google!

how do i love thee? let me count the ways...

1. gmail
- i have 3,500 emails and am only using 15% of my storage space. awesome.

2. g-chat
- i'll admit it, i'm not the biggest fan. but i know i'll come around eventually. maybe after they get rid of that heinus sound it makes when you have a new message.

3. google maps (...are the best. true that. double true.)
- granted i do work in real estate, but i use google maps all the time. and it just keeps getting better and better. two new things i just recently noticed are metro stops and building outlines on the maps. now if they would only put county lines in there - that's the only the thing mapquest has on google maps.

4. google earth
- i can sit at my desk at work and travel the world. how cool is that?

5. google image search
- it's just genius, simply genius.

6. froogle
- on-line shopping made ridiculously easy.

7. google desktop
- check this one out for sure. i can keep a running tab on my email, my pictures, cool maps, weather, etc. all on the side on my screen. i do believe people have told me they love my computer just because of that feature.

my absolute favorite thing about google is the fact that they serve free food to their employees all day, every day. i'm kind of glad i don't work there. i have really bad self control when it comes to food - i would probably gain at least 20 pounds.

i hate anyone who thought to invest in google back in 1998. their stock is currently trading at $461.47 - that's insane.

things that annoy me - part II

let's continue where we left off...

7. myspace.
let's just all stick with facebook.

8. maryland.
i used to have a strong hatred for the entire state, but now that i live with a marylander i have come to respect certain [read: very small] parts of that state up north. but don't worry, i still completely 100% detest the terps.

9. evites.

so don't be offended when i don't respond to yours.

10. people on the metro who blast their music.

no, it is no ok when i can clearly hear every single word from your ipod. you know it's especially bad when you can hear someone else's music over your own.

11. megan from ameriprise financial.

how long do i need to avoid her phone calls and emails before she realizes i was just using her for a free lunch? beware where you drop your business cards, you might get hounded by megan.

12. oprah.

however, i did think that superbowl commercial w/ her and david letterman was funny. but, i still can't stand her.

13. abercrombie.

making you deaf since 1892.

everyone's happy when duke loses

becky, i'm sorry in advance. but, let's remember hoo started this losing streak.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/12/AR2007021200894.html

[please check out the picture of the duke bench. specifically the coaches shoes.]

highlights from charlottesville

friday night i ventured to happy hour with susie and a bunch of her work friends. when one of her coworkers suggested a spontaneous road trip to charlottesville the next day, we quickly agreed. little did we know that it might have been the best idea we could have ever had.

even though we were only there for less than 24 hours, we really did manage to pack it all in. i'll try to cover all the highlights...

we arrived in charlottesville and immediately went to take it away. we parked in the lot right next door and had to wait about 10 minutes for the parking attendant to return from the "bathroom." that was annoying. but take it away is always worth the wait. for any of you that are lucky enough to be down in charlottesville will be happy to know that take it away is now open on sundays.

next we got some coffee and headed around grounds for a tour/walk down memory lane. we hit all the high spots and reminisced about all the good times we had. we even took it all the way back to first year and walked around the dorms. who knew there was a wooden bear back by watson?!?

we ended up back at the special collections library. somehow i hadn't made it down there fourth year, so we decided to take a look around. there's a pretty cool exhibit on the declaration of independence down there. if you're in cville you should definitely check it out.

we rushed back to my sister's apartment to watch the basketball game. wow, big mistake. that was just depressing. luckily they had mini-cookies for us, so the afternoon wasn't a total bust.

lucky for us, my sister was hosting a women's gymnastics party at her apartment saturday night (no really, lucky for us). she had bought lots of valentines decorations and fortunate for her the guys we brought along just happened to be in the mood to hang up shiny hearts all around the apartment. i have honestly never seen two people be so strategic about hanging decorations in my life.

susie had the genius idea to go to starr hill for dinner. good thing we got a ride there because we decided to play a little game called "don't stand up til your drunk." somehow we managed to have our $112 bill comped. i'm still not sure how that one worked out. so a delicious dinner (and just a few beers) later we called a cab and were on our way to the party.

now my only cab experience in charlottsville was with LJ, who might have been the coolest cab driver in the whole world. boy was i in for a surprise saturday night. first off the cab was a mess and driver had the greasiest mullet i've ever seen. when we piled into the cab susie attempted to make some small talk with the driver. what a bad idea. when she asked how his night was so far he responded: "you don't want to know," and then proceeded to turn the volume on the radio WAY UP. so whatever, the cab ride was only about 2 miles, we could handle this. we proceeded to chat about what the plan for the night was and i commented on how much i loved charlottesville. another bad idea. the driver then interjected: "i would cut off my right arm to get out of virginia." wow, tell us how you really feel.

we somehow made it back to my sister's apartment in one piece and busted in on the party. there was so much pink and red i almost wanted to vomit. we were definitely the oldest people there, by a lot. after we overheard about the fifth person say "let's ask if the old people want to play/take a shot," we figured it was about time to head to bars. we called another cab and went to wait outside. i guess we didn't get out there fast enough, because when we called to check on the status of our cab the dispatcher said they had already picked someone up. dagger.

i made the executive decision that we were going to walk out (clearly i am not the most patient person in the world). so we grabbed a beer (or two) for the road and bundled up for the walk to the corner. i was able to hail a cab about halfway down jpa, but if we hadn't walked that little bit we would have never met the couple dressed as hamburlers on their way to a "cops and robbers" party. that was priceless.

clearly the first stop of the night was biltmore. we settled in at a table (not the table, but a table just the same), got some drinks and started playing 1,2,3/scenarios. if you've never played that game you have missed out on life. at some point during this game sus got up to check on the status of the back room. she came back to report that there were no tables set up and there was a dj. what?!?!

we got up and moved to the back room for a while (i mean we had to experience a dj at bilt), but after 15 minutes of us being the only people back there we decided it was about time to head to the next bar of the night. [note - a reliable source informed us the next morning that the party definitely got started once we left. yes, that's right, there was a giant dance party in the back room at biltmore. wow, things have sure changed since we graduated].

next stop, zydeco (or is it zyde-company??). for those of you who don't know, it's the new place that's in the buffalo wing factory space. we headed straight to the back bar, and lucky for us they've enclosed it since the wing factory so it wasn't too cold. we played some photo hunt (a charlottesville tradition), met up with some friends and had a few drinks.

then it was time to head down the corner. jaberwoke looked pretty happening so we decided to head in there for a bit. they had a legitimate dj booth set up and he was playing some crucial 80s songs. our group (which had miraculously grown to seven at this point) immediately took over the stage and started a giant dance party. quite possibly the best part of the night was when def leppard came on and one guy who was with us put one arm in his shirt and starting "playing the drums." it was priceless.

1:30 am - the lights go on and the bouncers begin to literally throw people out of the bar. once our tabs got closed we meandered out to the street and did the only rational thing to do at 1:30 am in charlottesville - go to the white spot (which evidently is not a dance club). i fought to the front and got us some gusburgers and we headed toward the lawn.

our newly made friends had never been to charlottesville and they had already told us that they wanted to soak in as much charlottesville in the little time we were there. clearly they were dead set on streaking the lawn. sus and i held onto their clothes so they could run (to homer and back).

after a few group pictures on the rotunda (fully clothed, don't worry) we started heading home. we made a quick stop in some random lawn room (where our friends grilled the guy who lived in it about whether or not he was a seven). then we cut through cabell and finally we made it out to jpa (where the boys punk'd a group of girls). it was really cold on saturday night - my sister's apartment felt really good when we got in.

we quickly figured out sleeping arrangments so we could get some shut eye. don't worry, i got stuck with the short couch again. of course susie and i woke up early the next morning. instead of making the boys get up we decided to go pick up some bagels. i love bodos. and i love how cheap it is. and a word to the wise - the woman at bodo's seriously told me that they reccommend one tub of cream cheese for every six bagels.

we managed to get on the road not too much later, and took a drive down rugby to complete the charlottesville experience. well, truthfully the speeding ticket we got on they way home really did complete the charlottesville experience.

a fitting end to the whole trip was when they dropped susie and me off and as we were walking into our house they said "it was nice to meet you." hard to believe we had met them just a mere 24 hours before.

in anticipation of my next trip to charlottesville, i've already started a to-do list:
1. meet will harris
2. stick around for the dance party at bilt
3. more to come...

cabbing in dc

as most of you know the dc cab system is whack. they don't have meters - instead you are charged based on the number of "zones" you pass through en route to your destination. for this reason i usually avoid cabs in dc because the whole system confuses me. but this afternoon i stumbled upon the greatest resource ever! you can type in your starting and ending destinations and then it will calculate your estimated fare. check it out - it might just change your life.

http://citizenatlas.dc.gov/atlasapps/taxifare.aspx

things that annoy me - part I

this list is endless, so where do i begin?

1. the word verification thing on ticketmaster.

i mean honestly, who can tell what letters/numbers those are? it usually takes me about 2-3 times to get the combination correct. pathetic, i know.

2. english muffins.

well not english muffins, per se. i just can't stand how they aren't pre-cut. i have the hardest time splitting the halves, and inevitably i make a mess in the kitchen and/or end up with big chunks missing from my english muffins.

3. the epoch times lady at the metro.

every tuesday without fail that heinous woman is at the DL metro with her cheery face on trying to push the epoch times on everyone. it should be against the law to be that happy in the mornings. seriously.

4. the over-acheiving student activists.

no i don't want to spend my lunch break supporting [insert semi-worthy cause here], but thanks for asking.

5. "see it, say it."

typing that just makes me cringe. could that woman's voice be anymore annoying?

6. gwen stefani

well her and fergie, i can't decide who's worse. gross.

...

(one of) the most miserable commute ever

i'm beginning to count down the days until march when i can drive into work again. the metro has just been ridiculous lately. i get on at the second stop on the orange line and all week have not been able to get a seat (and even i am not mastered reading the post while standing on the metro). but i would gladly stand everyday if it meant not having to deal with the hellish commute that was this morning.

susie and i arrived at the metro at 7:44 (we've determined there is some sort of time warp between our house and the metro because we ALWAYS arrive at the metro at 7:44, it's actually kind of creepy). we're going down the stairs (because the down escalator is out of service until may 2007, explain that one to me). so anyways, we get down the stairs and the platform is packed with people. great. but there's only one minute until the train comes so we head down the platform to our normal waiting area. we get on the train and the conductor is already announcing that there's another orange line train right behind this one, susie and i just looked at eachother and knew this wasn't a good sign.

we pull into wfc and more people pack onto the train, it's already almost to capacity and we're only at the third stop. so then we arrive at efc and even more people pack onto the train. and then the chimes come on - "doors closing" - and the chimes continue for nearly five minutes. the conductor comes on the loud speaker - "if you see any doors open, please jam them shut 0r we're going to have to off-board this train." well the door(s) never closed. so finally after five minutes of trying, the conductor took the train out of service and made everyone get off. BLAST.

so now we're standing outside in the bitter cold (ok, i lie, it wasn't so cold since there were so many people crowded around). the broken train pulls out of the station and a few minutes later a new train pulls in. susie and i don't even bother trying to squeeze onto that one. we luckily got onto the next one, but the commute wasn't over, in fact it had really just begun. so we pull into ballston and maybe a few people get off, but then 25 people try to squeeze on. at this point susie and i are separated (tragedy) and pushed in opposite directions. same sort of thing happens at virginia square. [side note - you know there's a problem when the virginia square metro stop is packed].

and then there was clarendon. we pulled in and i don't think a single person got off the train. clearly we're already at capacity, yet some guy thinks he can fit in. he tries pushing his way onto the train and starts yelling at everyone to move in. when no one moved (probably because there was literally no where to move) he pushed even harder right into some other guy. and then this guy had the nerve to say "i need to be on this train, i've already let a bunch of trains pass me by." ok seriously dude, everyone needs to be on this train, just take a chill pill. a fight almost ensued, but i guess the guy who was pushed into realized it wasn't worth it.

so now we still had two more stops until i could get off. courthouse was pretty non-eventful. but then there's rosslyn - there's always a problem at rosslyn. so many people getting on and off, and so many people not getting out of the way to let people get on and off. seriously people, learn the metro rules. if only we had had the best conductor ever, i have a feeling he would have been able to smooth things over.

so now we're in the tunnel approaching foggy bottom (finally). the train stops in the station, and there's that awkward wait until the doors actually open. i'm near the center of the car at this point and i say "excuse me" and attempt to make my way towards the door, but some heinous woman won't move, so i do the only thing i can - i push her out of the way. whatever. if you don't move then i will make you move. susie still had a ways to go, but hopefully she made it without any more debacles. the metro really needs to get itself in order - with all the track fires, people getting hit by trains and out of service cars in the past week - it's really getting ridiculous.

wahoowa

great win by the hoos last night. swept the season series w/ the terps for the first time since 2002-2003. and the boys are on a win streak that's the longest since 1982. that's before i was born. wow.

not only are we winning big, but we're winning big ON THE ROAD! last night jr said it best:

“I love to hear the silence of the crowd,” said Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds. “That’s why I love playing on the road.”

next up: hokies. saturday. 4pm.

gilbert v. duke

stumbled across this. it's hilarious. some guy pretends as if arenas actually took on duke, and won.

http://www.wizznutzz.com/2007/02/gil-vs-duke.html

music from grey's

the musical director for grey's is the same as for the oc. coincidence? i think not. while the show may have a few off episodes now and then, the musical selections are always strong. and i just discovered this site (http://abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/music?pn=mguide) which allows you to search the episodes to the titles of the songs that were played.

check out ingrid michaelson - season 3, episode 6. i saw her open for josh kelley (engaged to izzy) this weekend. her whole cd is awesome.

i'm the 9th guru

got a question? "going out" or otherwise, i'll answer it. i promise. just post it in the comments and i'll get back to you.

my name is rachel brown, and that's hoo i am

1. Loves to swim
2. Favorite band is Pat McGee, with many others coming in at a close second
3. Can eat anyone under the table. No, seriously.

Anyone else been to a UVA basketball game at JPJ? If so you understand the lame/hilarious thing I'm referencing. If you haven't been yet you need to get down there - it is truly amazing.

So I guess I'll give this whole blog thing a shot...

observations from the duke game

went down to charlottesville for the duke game on thursday night. wow. in addition to the spectacular game we clearly had to soak in as much "charlottesville" as possible in the few hours we were there. we're pros at this point. here's what we managed to get in:

1. hanging out at #1 - clearly a necessity everytime i go down. and witnessing my sister play guitar hero - that was just priceless.

2. dinner at michael's bistro - i forgot how amazing that place is. delicious (and nutritious!) food at such an affordable price (well at least compared to up here in dc). and their beer list? it's intimidating. so much so that we told the waiter to surprise us with some beers. we ended up with delicious beers, 8.5% alcohol, for $5. i love charlottesville.

3. biltmore. a trip to charlotesville is not complete without a stop at the bilt. we arrived at 7:45 on a thursday, in my college days i would be lined up at the bar in anticipation of survivor hour. but now i'm old. instead, we sat at the bar and sipped our $3 beers (!) and were scolded by the bartenders when we told them "no, we don't want to wait the extra 3 minutes to get $1 drinks. " sorry guys, we had a game to get to.


so then we walked over to JPJ (over the lambeth bridge!). my third trip to the arena, yet it always manages to impress me even more. here are some observations from the game:

1. duke fans are obnoxious. and to further validate my point:
- duke fan behind us: "does anyone have any extra orange? i'm ashamed to be a duke fan right now." - in response to the redneck, totally annoying duke fans behind him

2. cav man rode onto the court in a motorcycle. seriously.

3. best sign of the night: "sports center coming up next, unless duke needs more time."

4. beth duffy should be ban from JPJ.

5. most pathetic thing at the game - the coach k assistant-assistants who obsessivly wipe the court after timeouts - IN THEIR SUITS. it was truly pathetic.

6. roger mason jr. was there (representing the wiz!). i'm just dissapointed that arenas didn't make a showing, especially condsidering this:
"One college game that's five fouls, right? ... 40-minute game at Duke, they got soft rims I'd probably score 84 or 85. I wouldn't pass the ball. I wouldn't even think about passing it. It would be like a NBA Live or an NBA 2K7 game, you just shoot with one person."

more to come as i remember...