Earthquake

Earlier today I was sitting at work when all of a sudden I felt this shaking. It felt like someone was rolling a cart around overhead. Then it got even more intense and lasted for what felt like a few minutes but probably was more like 30 seconds. All my co-workers were looking around at each other silently asking "you feel that too, right?". Even though I had never been in one before, I knew what it was - an earthquake! I was thinking "I don't know what to do" when all of a sudden I heard a enormous roar - it sounded like a gigantic bookshelf crashing over.  I heard girls scream, and then the next thing I know I was running down the stairs as fast as I could for the outside. The office congregated across the street, in our fire drill meeting spot, and then everyone pulled out theirs phones confirming it was indeed an earthquake.

I tried to call my mom to tell her I was ok but the circuits weren't working. I texted my loved ones in the area to make sure they were ok too. Everyone was. Phew. Even my friend Jenna felt it all the way in Columbus (she texted to make sure I was ok). They wouldn't let us back in the building because they were making sure it was structurally sound. Turns out that wasn't a bookshelf crashing down, it was a "structural noise" - scary! A bunch of us headed over to Starbucks to kill some time. After about 45 minutes they let us back inside and my co-worker told us we could go work from home if we were shaken up. Well at my office that meant let's go out and get a drink, so I headed home to make sure all was ok on the homefront.

Only thing that was awry were some of my picture frames fell over:

Missing 2 frames

One fell forward from the quake. Other one fell behind. Neither were broken.

All better! 

So that was my first ever experience with an earthquake. I don't know if I'll be better prepared if I happen to be in one again, but I do know that I was extremely scared. I really thought the building was going to collapse.  So glad there wasn't anything more serious going on and no one was hurt! Really makes you think how it could all be over in a second.....

Exciting News!

Note: not her actual ring, but sorta close to it

Yesterday, my sister Amy got ENGAGED to her boyfriend of 4 1/2 years! She is the 1st of the sisters to get engaged so this is ultra exciting for us all. Even more exciting is the fact that she asked me to be her MAID OF HONOR! I am so touched, honored, thrilled, and excited to be her maid of honor! I will of course update everyone on the plans as they unfold. I am also grateful that she was able to share her special day with me and the boyfriend. So much excitement around here!!!

Afternoon Treat

Today was one of those days and I needed a little afternoon pick-me-up. I was in luck because this week Starbucks is having a Frappuccino Happy Hour from 3-5pm, where all Frappuccinos are half price. I picked me up a Decaf Caramal Frappuccino and am in heaven sipping away on ever since. Yummm. I would upload a picture of me and my frap, but I forgot my phone (told you it was one of those days) so this generic one will have to do. You better hurry though because the happy hour ends May 15th!

Adventures in Dog Sitting - Part 2

Sadly the dog-sitting adventures are ending tonight. I really enjoyed taking long walks with her in the evening after work (especially when the weather was nice, like yesterday). I could have done without the morning walks - trying to schedule in an extra 20 minutes in the morning when I am not a morning person was not too much fun - but definitely worth it over all.

I also got to know a lot more of the neighborhood by walking around it everyday - I discovered some really cute houses in the area, and Poppy got to know all the neighborhood dogs (although not that well since she is so shy, aw). 

Well, it was fun while it lasted!

The boyfriend letting the Popsters up on the couch, aka teaching her how to be bad

No Heat

Yesterday my roommate was home and smelled gas in the house. She called our gas company and they came out to inspect. They found that there was nothing wrong with our gas, but that our furnace was emitting high levels of carbon monoxide. The technician placed a "Danger- Hazardous Condition" tag on the unit and said that the heat may absolutely not be used until someone comes out to fix it. This means that since yesterday afternoon we have had no heat.



After not getting back to us all day yesterday, our landlord finally got in touch with us today and had the heating people come out to the house to look at the furnace. Apparently now the entire furnace needs to be replaced, meaning it will be at least a few days before we get our heat back on. Thankfully it is not freezing like it was last week, and despite the highs being in the 50s this week, it still is getting down to the 30s at night.

I have never been so happy to go to work before, seeing as our heat actually works there. Hopefully this will get taken care of soon, otherwise I will be staying at the boyfriends place for a few days.

My Morning Commute

On most days, I walk to work. It takes me roughly 10 minutes door-to-door - it's one of the many things that makes me love my job! However, when I stay over at the boyfriend's it usually takes me 45ish minutes to get into work. We take a bus to the red line metro, and then I switch from the red line to the orange line, ride the orange for a bit, and then get off. Not too bad, especially since we do the commute together up until I switch to orange.

This morning however, things went horribly awry. We take the bus, get to the red line station when we hear that they are single-tracking for 3 stops, 1 of which being the stop we were at. We wait about 10 minutes before a single train arrives at the station. Since they are single-tracking, all trains are coming and going from just 1 of the 2 tracks. A train arrives, but it's not ours - heading in the wrong direction. About 5 minutes later, another train arrives - not ours again. Then we hear an announcement - the next 2 trains that are arriving will be heading in our direction. BUT, they are "express trains" meaning they won't be stopping at our stop. I guess that was for the best seeing as those 2 trains were packed to the brim when they went through. Finally, the 5th train arrives and we are finally able to get on a train.

Just when I think we are finally going to be on our way, we sit at the station while the doors keep opening and closing. I'm not sure if a door was malfunctioning, if someone was leaning on it, or if people just kept trying to dart on while the doors were closing, but it took about 10 tries before we were finally able to leave the station. We finally arrive at my stop, when I say goodbye to the boyfriend and run off to catch the orange line. I get down there just as the orange line is pulling away - of course! I look up at the sign and see that the next orange line train isn't coming for another 10 minutes! This is supposed to be RUSH HOUR!!!

I finally made it into work - after an hour and forty minutes. That's right one hour and forty minutes! And to think my commute could have been 10 minutes and stress free! Thankfully my boss could not have cared one bit that I was super late, and it looks like I won't be having my soccer game tonight, since they are predicting 5-10" of snow and the government has already shut down for the day (if the game is on, then I will have to leave work 45 mins early...of course, on the 1 day I come in late, sigh). Is it the weekend yet???

This Just In

I saw this video on the news the other night and thought it was hilarious. No one else I mentioned it to knew what I was talking about, so I thought I would share it with you all:

This Just In

For those of you who haven't heard, they added a 13th Zodiac called Ophiuchus, because something about the moon's gravitational pull on Earth changing the alignment of the stars. I'm now of the lucky few who now fall under this Zodiac. First of all, I think this is so stupid. I was born a Sagittarius, my personality fits with a Sagittarius, so that is what I'll be. As my roommate put it, "I am grandfathered in" to being a Sagittarius.

Also, why did they feel the need to change this? There was 12 zodiac signs before, why do we need a 13th? And how did they choose Ophiuchus. And couldn't they have picked one that people could pronounce.

On a happier note, I have a 3 day weekend and although I have nothing special planned, I'm so excited! Not only do I get an extra day off, I then only have a 4 days week next week!

This Just In

Bravo has just confirmed that newest addition to the The Real Housewives of New York will be Cindy Barshop (pictured left with Jill and Alex). She runs a chain of Day Spas called Completely Bare, which she first opened in 1998. She is reportedly friends with Ramona and runs in the same circle as Kelly, and is a Long Island native. She is the mother of twin girls Zoe and Jesse, who were born last year.

I hope she can hold her own against the others, especially seeing as she is replacing Bethenny, who left to star in her own spin-off show. Kelly, Ramona, LuAnn, Alex, Sonja and Jill are all returning on the new season, set to air in mid-February. I am so excited!

This Just In

This Just In, and it's a BIG one! I just heard that NeNe Leakes from Real Housewives of Atlanta is PREGNANT! She is two months along (usually you don't tell people until at least 3 months, which makes me a bit skeptical). As if this story wasn't juicy enough, apparently she isn't sure who the father is - it's either her husband Gregg Leakes (who last I heard she was divorcing), or the guy she's been dating NFL player Charles Grant (pictured).

If this is true, this means that both Kim and NeNe are preggers - and both due just a few months apart! Wow!

Teen Mom 2 Preview

I was reading People Online (getting the dirt on Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds), when I stumbled this article discussing the new stars of Teen Mom 2:

• CHELSEA: Raising a daughter, Aubree. Chelsea is still involved with her baby's father, Adam, but it's a tumultuous relationship – and one that Chelsea's friends and family would like to see end. A popular softball star, Chelsea dropped out of high school during her senior year while she was pregnant. The show will follow Chelsea as she moves into a new place with her best friend and dreams of enrolling in beauty school.

• JENELLE: Raising a son, Jace. The father is completely out of the picture, leaving Jenelle to rely on her own mother, Barbara, for parenting help. Jenelle is a party girl, and has trouble reconciling that part of her life with her mothering duties. Eventually, Barbara takes matters into her own hands and sues her daughter for custody of Jace. Meanwhile, Jenelle enrolls in college courses, works to support herself.

• KAILYN: Raising a son, Isaac. Kailyn's boyfriend Jo and his family supported her throughout the pregnancy and even took her in after Kailyn's mother left her with no place to go. But when Kailyn and Jo's relationship suffers, she moves into the basement as she juggles two part-time jobs and a full course load at community college.

• LEAH: Raising twin girls, Alianna and Aleeah. Leah has been trying to make things work with the girls' father, Corey, but they broke up after she cheated on him with an ex-boyfriend. When Leah discovers that one of the babies is dealing with health issues, her bond with Corey strengthens and they try to reconcile.

Teen Mom 2 premieres Jan. 11 (10 p.m. ET) on MTV.

This Just In

I was chatting with my friend Jenna earlier when she informed me that Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds are splitting up. I was so surprised! I'm personally not a huge Scarlett Johansson fan, I think she is a good actress and all that, but that she is only pretty when she is supposed to be playing a normal person (because compared to a normal person, she is pretty), and that when she is all dressed up she doesn't look nearly as good.

I think she got married way too young (she was 24). They claim that they "grew apart", especially since they have spent most of their marriage apart due to their careers. I'm sad that they split up, I always hate to hear of marriages not working out....but this means Ryan Reynolds is available!

In other news, Jenna also informed me that Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron have broken up. People tell me I'm wrong about this, but I've always believed their relationship has just been a sham. I'm not sure if it's cause I think he's gay and therefore wouldn't be dating a girl, or that they are way too into themselves to ever have a real relationship with another person, or that they just would never date each other. Not sure what it is, but I've always felt this way. So, I'm not very surprised to hear that have broken up, but that's probably just me.

This Just In

I'm back and I've got some news about The Real Housewives. Kim Zolciak, who is pregnant from NFL player Kroy Biermann, reportedly gets $30,000 from her ex-husband (Arianna's father) Daniel Toce, whom she was married to for only 3 years. Not a bad deal if you ask me. If she marries Kroy, then she looses her child support money. Also, here are pictures of Kim smoking while 3 months pregnant.


The Manzo brothers, Chris and Albie, from The Real Housewives of New Jersey, are getting their own show. They've moved out Caroline's Casa and into their own place in Hoboken, NJ.

Kyle Richards and her über hot husband Mauricio are selling their pad. Sheree also has her pad on the market. Lisa Vanderpump's home is also for sale, listed at $29 million by Mauricio. Speaking of Mauricio, one of the Grammer's LA homes is on the market (listed at $18.9 million), and despite Camille's accusations that Mauricio will no longer work with them, he is indeed the realtor. To see this house, and others that Mauricio has listed, check out this site: http://laluxuryestates.com/261-Baroda-Drive-a181078.html

Lastly, Bethenny's show will premiere it's season 2 in February. It's now called Bethenny Ever After. She also reportedly made $15 million last year. Since Bethenny received her own show last year, Jill Zarin, Danielle Staub, Teresa Giudice, Gretchen Rossi and DeShawn Snow have all asked Bravo for their own show, and all have been turned down.

This Just In

Sonja Morgan has become the latest in a long line of Real Housewives to file for bankruptcy. According an article in Gawker, she listed about $13 million in assets and $19 million in debt. It also stated that part of her debt comes from a movie deal she had going with John Travolta. Apparently, she couldn't "meet his demands" and he backed out, leaving her $7 million in debt. They are unsure where her other $12 million in debts came from.

Also, according to a celebrity website called "celebritynetworth" here is the net worth of the different housewives:

New York
Bethenny: $14 million
Ramona: $18 million
Kelly: $15 million
Jill: $35 million
LuAnn: $2 million
Alex: $400,000

(also, it should be noted that only Bethenny and Alex made their own money, the rest married into money).

New Jersey
Danielle: $6 million
Caroline: $8 million
Dina: $4.5 million
Teresa: -$11 million
Jacqueline: $5 million
Kim G: $20 million

Beverly Hills
Kim: $20 million
Kyle: $20 million
Lisa: $65 million
Camille: $5 million
Adrienne: $300 million
Taylor: $10 million

(guess who's higher in the pecking order now Camille, oh kharma!)

DC
Michaela: $100,000
Mary: $5 million
Lynda: $10 million
Cat: $4 million
Stacie: $18 million

Atlanta
NeNe: $3.5 million
Lisa: $100,000
Kandi: $35 million
Phaedra: $12 million
Sheree: $50,000
Kim: $1.5 million
Cynthia: $8 million

(guess that explains why Sheree wants a rich man so badly)

Orange County
Vicki: $7 million
Tamra: $10,000
Gretchen: $3 million
Alexis: $3.5 million
Jeana: $750,000

(note that Lynne, Jo, Quinn, Tammy, and Lauri were all not listed on the site)

To check out how much your favorite celebrity is really worth, go to http://www.celebritynetworth.com/

About Time

This Just In

Amber Portwood from MTV's Teen Mom is facing domestic violence charges. She is charged with one misdemeanor count of domestic battery and two felony counts as the violence was committed in the presence of a child. I'm glad to learn that domestic violence (a misdemeanor) committed in front of your child is upgraded to a felony. If convicted, she faces up to 3 years in jail and fines up to $10,000.

You may remember some recent episodes of Teen Mom in which Amber shoved Gary against a wall, slapped him and choked him; slapped him 5 times and punched him; and when she slapped him and punched him repeatedly and pushed him down the stairs.

Such an excellent role model for her daughter Leah.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Today, while being extremely productive at work, I found this website which discusses the evolution of facebook. Here's a little walk down memory lane:

- Remember when the only pictures on facebook were your profile picture
- Remember when you had to go to the thefacebook.com to get to facebook
- Remember when you had to have an .edu email to be on facebook
- Remember when they opened it up to high school students as well
- Remember when it used to list on there "member since"
- Remember when facebook used to list out the schools that your friends went to
- Remember when they used to have the connections, so you could see who someone was friends with
- Remember before facebook had the news feed feature
- Remember before facebook had chat (fyi, i have never used the chat before, i think it's dumb and gchat is WAY better)
- Remember when facebook to look like this:



Also, just for fun, remember when google used to look like this:


Remember when youtube looked like this:


Remember when craigslist looked like this:


And remember when Wikipedia looked like this:


Ah, how far we've come! For more information, check out http://guestofaguest.com/social-media/internet-nostalgia-what-facebook-and-other-sites-used-to-look-like/

Cooking Recap and This Just In

The cooking adventure last night went fairly well. I made the mac and cheese with chicken and the coconut chicken strips. The mac and cheese was delicious, and I decided to take my friends advice and bread the chicken with rosemary, and pan fry it. Then i cut it up and put it in the mac and cheese, but there was way more mac and cheese than chicken. The coconut chicken strips were tasty, and super duper easy. I made a dipping sauce to go with it, which was key.

I was supposed to also make the soup, but forgot to get the potatoes for it, which is the key ingredient. Oops. Postponed to later this week.

Lunch was also a success, with a ham/salami/pepperoni sandwich, gigantic grapes, and individual-sized Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn. Yum.

Tomorrow is our company's Thanksgiving Potluck which I helped plan (I'm on the Social Committee), so that should be fun and filling. And tonight is my second official non-work related outing with work friends.

In random celebrity news, Eva Longoria and Tony Parker are getting divorced. Not sure if I should be sad about this, but I never really saw them as a good fit in the first place.

Almost the Weekend

When I got home yesterday, I had a furry little friend chilling in my bed. What a cutie!


Speaking of furry friends, the other morning I was awoken to scurrying sounds by the window. It sounded like an animal was burrowing his way into my room, but it turns out it was just some squirrels climbing on my window screen.

Massive Reorganization

I decided that I had too much stuff and I needed to reorganize all the stuff that I do have. So I hit up the Container Store and bought a bunch of storage containers that all arrived yesterday.
I also bought a over the door shoe rack (that is me assembling it), and thanks to the help of my wonderful (and patient) boyfriend, it is now assembled and hanging over one of my closet doors. The closet doors were too short for the full length of the shoe rack, so we trimmed a bit of it off, which was surprisingly easier than I thought. Now I just need to decide what to get rid off...


When I started assembling the shoe rack, I saw that I would need a hammer, so I asked my roommate when she got home if she had one that I could borrow. She said she didn't have one, but knew where one was. This is what she gave to me to use:

As the boyfriend so eloquently put it, "I didn't know a hammer could be girly". In case you can't see the picture very well, the top of the hammer is covered in a floral print, and it's hard to tell from the picture but the hammer is miniature sized. But it did get the job done, so I guess it did serve it's purpose, even if it is "pretty".

Just What Those Needed

Have you ever been eating a Skittles and wondering what they were missing? Did you ever think "these Skittles would be so much better with some sugar on them!" Well you are in lucky because the geniuses over at the Wrigley Company (I had to look that up, had no idea they made Skittles), did that just that. Introducing new Skittles Fizzl'd Furits.

They taste similar to sour Skittles, but with more of a rotting your teeth of feeling. Also, the traditional Skittles flavors are replaced by Berry Punch, Melon Berry, Raspberry, Strawberry, and Wild Cherry.

On a side tangent, what exactly is the difference between Cherry and Wild Cherry? Is this all just a marketing ploy to make it seem cooler than it is?

Personally, I didn't see anything wrong with the original Skittles and would prefer those any day to these sugar-coated "fizzle in your mouth" candies.