New Artist Discovery – Carmen Consoli

FavoriteCousin invited me to a show coming up in September at Bimbo’s in SF. I was intrigued by the performer – Carmen Consoli – who is a Sicilian singing sensation. Apparently she’s won a lot of Italian MTV awards, as well as their version of the Grammys.

I love going to shows at Bimbo’s and even though I don’t understand Italian, I love this woman’s voice, so I’m looking forward to the show.

I’m trying to convince LC to go, because she could actually understand the words to the songs. It’s hard for her to go to a weeknight show, with the kids and work and everything, so I decided to entice her a bit. I bought three of Carmen Consoli’s albums from iTunes, burned copies, and sent them to LC in the mail. Hopefully she’ll love her voice so much that she’ll agree to go to the show. See, I’m good at persuasion.

I think Carmen’s voice sounds like Natalie Merchant on some of the songs. There’s a haunting quality to it. Very beautiful. Or as my Sicilian relatives would say, “beda.”

See what you think for yourself: The song is called “Eco di sirene.” It’s a bit more “pop” than some of the songs I really love that she sings, but I love how she looks in this live clip.

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Sister Day + John Mayer = The Best Present!

This post is long overdue – LC (my sister) and I had our sister day/John Mayer concert last Saturday, but I haven’t had time to write this post until now.

The best part about the day was that LC and I got to spend it together. Because we each have such full, rich lives and we live in cities that are 50 miles from each other, it’s not too often that we get together, just the two of us. I was looking forward to our “sister day” for weeks.

We started out in downtown Mt. View, with 2PM reservations at Cascal, a very trendy tapas restaurant. I’d heard quite a few good reviews of the restaurant and had been wanting to try it out for some time. Right away we ordered a pitcher of sangria – what sister day lunch is complete without lots of alcohol in the afternoon? We ordered lots of delicious dishes: warm rabbit salad, ahi tuna, a potato and chile gratin, eggplant tian, and Albondigas (spicy Moroccan style lamb meatballs in a paprika sauce). We were stuffed by the time we were through, but enjoyed every bite.

After lunch, we walked around and perused the shops in the downtown area, which were few and far between. Lots of restaurants but hardly any interesting shops. Plus the weather was over 90 degrees that day, so we chose some of the shops just for the fact that they had A/C. We did walk into Therapy, which is an adorable boutique-style shop filled with everything from Paul Frank kids’ bathrobes to cocktail napkins. I found a small, dark brown, retro-looking clutch that was way too cute. It’s a Lauren clutch from Hobo International (mine is a lot darker than the picture shown on the website). It was expensive, but it’s so classic that I think it was worth it. It’s going to go perfectly well with my dress for the wedding and for any other nighttime events that will no doubt pop up in the future.

After dropping way too much money at the stores, LC and I headed to Shoreline Amphitheatre to see the John Mayer concert. He was playing with Brett Dennen and Colbie Caillat. I have to say, I was extremely unimpressed with both of them. Brett Dennen sounds whiny and Colbie Caillat sounded so muffled and low energy. I usually like her cute, lighthearted pop music, but that night it was just tiresome.

As we impatiently waited for John Mayer to come onstage, LC and I unpacked a little picnic we had brought with us, which included: blackberries grown from her yard, nectarines, a variety of cheeses, pretzel chips and crackers, cashews, and some other nibbles. I gave LC a bad time because she only brought two paper towels. Two! I asked her if we were in the rationing times of WWII. She said she didn’t think we’d need more. I told her next time to let me take care of the napkins and that I’d bring a whole roll of paper towels to her house, so she can use as many as she wants. It was all in good fun, but I am still laughing about it as I sit here writing this. We had to entertain ourselves, since the singers on stage leaved quite a bit to be desired.

John Mayer, on the other hand, is a sexy beast! He had newly-shorn hair that gave him a much edgier vibe than I’ve seen before. Yum!

I can honestly say that this concert was one of the best I’ve been to in at least 3 years. John Mayer is soulful, sexy, sincere, sexy, and sexy. (Did I mention sexy?) He is an amazing guitar player, which I had no idea about. I mean, sure the guitar sounds great on the albums of his that I have, but having never seen him perform life, I had no idea the depth of his talent. He is a true musician who loves music and as I was watching him, I felt connected to something bigger. I sat there on the lawn feeling so in awe of him and his performance.

Here’s a bit of his performance from that night (I’m so glad I found it on YouTube!):

A bit of guitar solo on “Gravity”:

The entire day was wonderful, little silly sister-fights and all. LC bought me the tickets to the concert, but the real present she gave me that day was spending time with me. I told her I hope we can plan sister days more often than we have been able to, because I miss hanging out with her like this. She agreed, so we’re definitely checking our calendars and figuring out fun new places to go.

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The Smile Award

Geggie gave me the Smile Award.  I was completely surprised, and I have to say, when I read her blog and saw that she’d given it to me, I did smile from ear to ear.  So sweet!  I have learned so many things from reading Geggie’s blog – I found Goodreads.com, a simple way to make homemade body scrubs, and too many scrumptious recipes to count.  

These are the characteristics of the Smile Award, and I feel so great knowing that Geggie thinks this about me.  

1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (not necessarily at all times–we are all human)
2. Must love one another
3. Must make mistakes
4. Must learn from others
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world
6. Must love life
7. Must love kids

And, now I get to pass it on!!

These are the rules:

1. The recipient must link back to the award’s creator (http://www.geggieblog.blogspot.com/)
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must chose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award, as posted by Mere.
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.

And the Smile Award goes to…

Joy because she is a friend, not just a blogging buddy.  She remembers my birthday with e-cards, and we’ve always enjoyed a special bond.  When I get to NYC someday, I definitely want to meet up with Joy for coffee or a drink!

Cammy because she is one of the most positive bloggers out there.  She shares so many wonderful tips, and always checks in to my Bella on the Beach blog to check out my weight loss progress.  She’s a great cheerleader to have on your side!

Jen Lancaster because she is sassy, amazing, hilarious, and I can relate to so much of what she writes about.  I know she and I would be friends if we lived near each other.  (On a side note, the other night DRMK told me that Jen Lancaster’s writing style reminds her so much of mine.  I was blown away and very flattered by the thought, although I think Jen is a much better writer than I am.  Still DRMK’s comment inspired me).

Kalyn is an amazing cook, and an inspiration to me as I take on this weigh loss journey.  Her site offers so many cooking tips and delicious recipes, whether you’re following the South Beach Diet or not.  I look at her site several times a week to figure out new ideas for dinner.  

Michelle because I think it’s so cool that she moved to Italy and lives with Italian man whom she met when she moved there.  Plus, she always posts such interesting stories, beautiful pictures, and just seems like a wonderful person.  And the name, Bleeding Espresso?  How can I not love her blog?!!!

So, go check out these bloggers, because once you do, you’ll be hooked!

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Put on your pearls, girls!

(I got the title for this post from this charming little book, which I have displayed in my bathroom: )

I knew I needed to get some sort of spectacular necklace for the dress that I bought for CTLB’s wedding, but I wasn’t sure which direction to go in.  I talked it over with my mom, and she said she thought pearls would be great with it, plus they’re so versatile, and I could wear them with lots of things.  

Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of pearls because I always thought they were too conservative.  I didn’t think that I was the type of girl who would wear pearls. (not that I’m sure what type of girl would wear pearls, but I think I pictured someone named Muffy who lives in the suburbs and drives her kids to soccer three times a week).

But yesterday when my mom mentioned pearls, I decided to be a bit more open-minded and give them a try.  Pearls are really gorgeous, and they do go with everything.  Plus, I think they look awesome on tanned skin.  I told my mom that I would look around to see if I could find a necklace of faux pearls.  Then she was really sweet and told me that she was going shopping, and she would look around. 

It turns out that one of the stores she went to was having a major sale on cultured pearls, and she found the most unique, highest quality pearl necklace I’ve ever seen, and it was 1/3 its normal price.  Talk about a steal.  And I’ll have these pearls forever.

I love the necklace and think it’s going to look beautiful and classy with the dress I’m wearing to CTLB’s wedding.  I like the pearls so much that I decided to wear the necklace to work today:

 

I love the 3 different sized pearls, and how each is individually knotted.

Does my mom know how to shop, or what?  Now you know where I get it!

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I got a dress!

I thought I was going to wear the Cabi dress to CTLB’s wedding. It was my inspiration outfit, after all. I knew that if I could fit into that dress, which is a size 16, I would have lost a significant amount of weight. Well, I tried the dress on and it fits…but it doesn’t really fit. It gaps in the back at the small of my back because my hips are still too wide for it. I could wear it, but I want to look really nice for the wedding, and that dress simply wasn’t working for me.

So, I’ve put off shopping for a dress for the wedding because I wanted to wait to lose a bit more weight. Finally tonight, I knew that it was time to go shopping. I’d perused the racks at Lane Bryant, Torrid, and Avenue, all to no avail. All of the dresses were way too boxy for my hourglass shape. I looked a bit at Macy’s, but most of the plus-sized dresses I saw there were a bit too matronly.

And then I remembered where I always seemed to find cute dresses – Dress Barn. Say what you will about it, but Dress Barn always seems to have dresses that fit me well. Yes, it’s hit or miss in the store and a lot of their plus-sized items are for the senior set, but they do have quite a few cute and sassy dresses for a woman my age who still feels young, even if she is in her late thirties.

So, DRMK agreed to go dress shopping with me. Of all of my friends, I love going shopping with DRMK because she will give me her honest opinion, is ridiculously patient with me, and is completely supportive. She loves going shopping for other people, which is so great. I like to think I’m like that, too, and I am for the most part, but my patience sometimes wears thin when it takes people a while to make up their minds. Or, if they’re like my mom who “just wants to look.” To me, if I’m going shopping, I’m going to buy something. Plus, I’m a quick shopper. No hemming and hawing from me – I know if I like it or not from the moment I put it on. I’m a quick decision maker.

I knew I didn’t want another black or black & white dress, since I seem to have a lot of those. I wanted something different. I also wanted to find a few cute brown-colored tops, because I had bought a great pair of brown capri pants, but didn’t have too many tops that would go with them. We found all of this, and then some.***

I tried on 5-6 dresses, but this one was the very first I saw and the one that looked the best on me:

I love this dress because it looks great on me, shows off my curves, and isn’t black & white. I love the rich, chocolate brown paired with the deep turquoise and green. It’s silky & satiny, and I think it’s going to be perfect for an evening wedding in Connecticut in August. It’s fancy enough for nighttime but it’s cool enough for the humidity. (I hope). I do need to get it taken in on top, because it’s a bit too big. The straps are too long and the back is too lose, but it fits really well everywhere else (re: my hips and butt). My mom knows a seamstress who is really reasonable, so it shouldn’t be a problem getting it done in the next week (crossing my fingers). Plus, the dress was only $50, so if I have to spend a bit more on the alterations, it’s still a steal.

I also have the greatest pair of Franco Sarto shoes to go with it:

Granted, these aren’t the most comfortable shoes in the world, because after a few hours the balls of my feet start to ache, but I figure that after a few wedding toasts (or 10!) I shouldn’t feel any pain.

Now all I need is a cute little dark brown purse. I think my mom may have one I can borrow, but I’m also going to keep on the lookout, just in case.

I’ve been looking forward to this wedding for so long, and now I feel I have a dress that truly marks the occasion and shows off my 48 pound weight loss!

—————————————–

*** I also bought 2 tops that have brown prints that fit amazingly well, show off my shape, and will look great with jeans or my brown capri pants.  Then DRMK made me try on a sleeveless, polka-dot, brown and cappuccino colored dress.  I wasn’t sure about it, because it looked sort of conservative, but when I tried it on and saw how it fit, I knew I should get it.  It will be a really nice Back-To-School-Night dress, and I have the perfect shoes to match it (I just need to find them from the darkened depths of my closet).

The tops (which look a lot better on me than they do on the hanger):

The cute, yet conservative polka dot dress:

$180 later, I think I got some really good deals, and nice clothes, on this little shopping excursion.

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Fresh Flower Fridays

This week’s bouquet is a mix of astremeria and roses, all in a sunset hue. I think they’re gorgeous, and it only cost $5.99 – what a bargain.

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Via iPhone

I just found out that WordPress now has an application for the iPhone!

This is so cool because it means I can blog while I’m in Boston. Almost like a travel log.

That’s all for now. I just wanted to test this feature out.

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Even their hobbies are cool!

I’ve been finding out little tidbits about the people I work with throughout my summer fellowship, and I have to say, they are a very interesting group of people.

For example:

My mentor (summer boss) co-founded Wired magazine. How cool is that?! I found this out from a bio she wrote for an end-of-summer slideshow presentation that I needed. Ok, so as much as I didn’t want to do the slides with everything else that’s going on with my fellowship, I ended up learning something pretty cool because of them.

The senior designer on the team plays the dulcimer. Do you even know what a dulcimer is? I didn’t, before he explained it to me. Here’s some video, showing someone playing a dulcimer. That way you can see what it looks like and hear what it sounds like. The designer has shown me a lot of dulcimer music this summer, and I’m drawn to the Irish folk sound more than the more “old timey” music. There’s even a group that meets weekly at a middle school in my neighborhood to participate in a group practice/performance with their dulcimers.  Who knew?  

The admin for the team is an avid horsewoman. Not only does she own a horse, but she goes on horseback riding vacations. Last year she went to the Masa Mara in Kenya, and this fall she’s going to Crete. I think it’s amazing that she’s going to ride horses in the hilly landscape of Greece. I would just love to travel to those countries, let alone ride horses, too. Although, wait a minute. I don’t really know how to ride horses, so that’s probably not something I would want to do in those countries, but still, the idea of it is cool.

I’ve never worked with a group of individuals who had such eclectic backgrounds and interests/hobbies. This is just a little example of what makes this company such a neat place to work, if only for the summer.

It also makes me want to truly explore my interests and invest time in practicing them. Right now my plans include continuing my yoga classes (I love how calm/refreshed I feel afterwards) and enrolling in a non-fiction writing course. I’m sure more hobbies or interests will surface (like finally learning to speak Italian!), and thankfully this year I’ll finally have the time to pursue them.

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“New” Author I Love – Laurie Notaro

So Laurie Notaro isn’t new, in fact she’s been writing for over 10 years, but I recently found out about her.  I was searching another book on Amazon.com and one of Laurie’s books came up as a “people who bought that book also bought this book” selection.  I loved the retro image on the cover so much that I decided to click on it for more info.  (I know the old saying about not judging a book by its cover, but in this case, I was drawn in).

Laurie must be hot right now, because Cammy mentioned her in a recent post, too.  In the post Cammy mentions that she can’t wait for Laurie’s book signing in Memphis.  I’m so jealous, because as of now, Laurie doesn’t have any tour dates scheduled for the Bay Area at all.  It’s a pity, too, because I think they’d love her here.  

Laurie is snarky, ill-tempered, hilarious, sarcastic, quick-witted, and an all around fun author to read.  Add to that the fact that she’s Italian, and I could totally relate to so much of what she writes.  

So far I’ve read  Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood

and  There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell.  There are several other books that I have in my queue in the library and in my cart on Amazon.  

I think I love Laurie’s non-fiction more than her fiction, but I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve read by her so far.  Her down-to-earth yet intelligent writing style really draws me in.  She’s not pretentious, yet she makes allusions to literature and pop culture that you might have to be “in the know” to follow.  I like reading books like that – they make me feel smarter after I’m through reading them, somehow.  

Reading authors like Notaro (and Jen Lancaster) inspire me to pursue my own writing career.  I feel like I should look into taking a non-fiction writing class in order to hone my craft a bit more.  I have the ability to write, and the creativity to come up with some interesting topics, but I think I need a bit of instruction about how to organize all of it into a format that could fit into a book.  (One of my goals in life is to have a book published).  

So if you find yourself at the bookstore or library, I’d highly recommend picking up a book by Laurie Notaro – I’m sure you’ll be glad you did.

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Fresh Flower Fridays

I love flowers. I guess that’s not too unique – what woman doesn’t love flowers, right? But I’ve grown up knowing a bit about flowers because my mom used to work as a sales associate in a florist shop while I was in high school. My dad was a master with flowers, too – my family has always had pretty extensive gardens, but my dad seems to be able to make any plant or flower grow healthy and happy. When I was 16 I worked at the florist shop my mom was working at and learned so much about flowers. They really were floral artists in that shop and I got spoiled by the beauty that surrounded me. And so my love affair with flowers began.

When I lived and worked in San Francisco, one of the things I loved about Fridays (besides the fact that it meant the weekend was almost here) was buying fresh flowers. There was one flower vender in particular at the Embarcadero BART station that would discount his inventory after 4pm on Friday afternoons. I always made sure to stop by his shop and pick up whatever variety of flowers struck my fancy. My ride home was always a little bit happier because I had this beautiful bouquet in my hands.

Once I stopped working in SF, I didn’t buy flowers for myself as regularly, although I did it from time to time. And then once I moved out of the City completely, I almost never bought flowers for myself. I would always forget, or I didn’t think I had the money for it, or I ran out of time, or…

I still bought flowers for myself now and then, but usually only if I was having people over my place and wanted to have it look its best.

Until this summer. I’ve been buying fresh flowers for myself each week, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I usually get them at Safeway or Trader Joe’s or the farmer’s market. I’ve gotten dahlias, peonies, tulips, and sunflowers. I love how they brighten up the room and lift my mood every time I see them. I usually find the flowers on sale, so spending $8-10 a week on myself isn’t too much of a splurge. It feels so good to do something nice for myself. I get so much enjoyment out of them that I have decided to keep this up.

From now on Fridays are going to be Fresh Flower Fridays for me.

Here are this week’s flowers, some beautiful gerbera daisies. 

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Mamma Mia!

Tomorrow night my friends and I and our moms are going to go see Mamma Mia. I’m actually really excited about going to see this movie, even though I am not an ABBA fan, nor have I ever seen the musical.

One of my friends is a HUGE fan of the musical, and she’s seen it at least 3 times. She’s the one who organized this little movie night, and is also the one who is encouraging us to come in our best “Dancing Queen” clothes. I quickly informed her that I don’t have any clothes like that, and I’d opt for dressing as if I was on a Greek Isle, which is where the movie is set. (See how I got outta that one?)

Some of you may be wondering why we’re worrying about what we’re going to wear in a dark theatre. Well, dressing up is part of the fun of the movie night. It helps us set the tone for ourselves, plus it does give us some attention from the rest of the people in line for the movie. We did the same thing when we all went to see Sex and the City – we wore our fanciest party dresses and had a ball!

The main reason I’m looking forward to our movie night is more about the bonding time with our moms. I love having reasons for all of us to get together, relax, and enjoy each other’s company. Plus, I can’t wait to see any new movie with Meryl Streep in it – she’s fantastic.

It should be a great night!

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World Market Whirlwind

I was out with FavNeighbor and her husband today, looking for a patio set for our backyard. We went to Cost Plus World Market, where we found this awesome 5-piece pub set (high, bistro-type table & 4 stools) for $149, but decided that we wanted to look around a bit more before getting it.

Anyway, Cost Plus is a dangerous place for my pocketbook, because they have so many cool, exotic, unique things that are really reasonably priced. We went to look at the outdoor furniture and I ended up buy a few other things:

I have wanted mugs like these for the longest time, and I finally found them. I bought one in every color, and then 2 more in yellow and red, just to have 6 so they fit on my coffee counter perfectly.  The print I have in my kitchen has those colors in it, so they look really good. I love that the colors are so bright and happy. They sort of remind me of Fiesta Ware, which I love because of its retro style.

I wanted to get a few interesting bottles of wine, and boy, did I! I saw these bottles and knew I had to get them. How cool are they? I love the name of the label, as well as the titles of the wines. So cute. I’m definitely adding these bottles to my fun wine bottle collection.

How cool is it that the label is called Oops?! I bought the variety shown on this bottle, called Cheeky Little Red, as well as another called Voluptuous Beauty.

There were lots of other things that I saw that I could’ve bought, but I’m trying not to spend too much money right now, since I should be saving for the Boston trip. If you live near a Cost Plus, I highly recommend going and browsing.

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Weekend WrapUp

This weekend flew by because I have two major events planned.

The first was my niece’s 1st birthday party. I can’t believe she’s already 1! Time really does go by so quickly, although it shouldn’t surprise me, because most of this last year is a complete blur. My sister organized a really nice party, complete with cupcakes. It was nice to see both of my nieces, since it seems our schedules are so busy that we can rarely get together.

On Sunday, I organized my annual Ladies’ Afternoon Tea, which began 4 years ago. I had bought a dress that I really liked and no occasion to wear it to, so I created one. I got a bunch of my friends and their moms together and we went to high tea. It was such fun that I’ve been planning a tea ever since. I had a great time with all of my friends and our moms, but I was extremely disappointed with the b.s. I went through with the venue. For an example – I wanted to order half iced tea and half hot tea, since it’s July and hot here. The afternoon of the tea the server began putting the iced tea into my teacup. I asked for it in a glass and was told by the manager that it would be an extra $2.50 per person to have the iced tea in a separate glass. WTF? I don’t want to take the damn glass home with me, I just want to drink out of it. I was appalled, and that wasn’t the only thing that happened like that. So, needless to say, I’ll be writing them a fairly scathing email and we’ll be changing locations next year. I’m thinking we may even move on from tea to something more enjoyable – wine and apps, perhaps?

Busy weekends like this are so much fun, but also really draining. I felt like I didn’t get any downtime, and wasn’t really ready for work this morning. I usually like having one of the weekend days to catch up on laundry, tidy up the house, and just relax. I did fit in a couple of loads of laundry and I did freshen up my house, but I didn’t really have the feeling of bumming around. Ah, well, there’s always next weekend, right?

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May I Introduce…

My new iPhone 3G!!!!!!

Somehow I didn’t realize how much of a story getting this iPhone was going to be. But then again, I can turn anything into a story, right?

I went to the Apple store that’s about 10 minutes from my house, in a very busy mall. I got there at 7:45am, thinking there would be about 40-50 people in line ahead of me. I’d be there for an hour, two tops. Oh, how wrong I was!

When I got there, I saw literally 500-600 people waiting in line. Some of them had spent the night! Apparently since there were so few diehards that wanted to be the first in line, the mall security guards decided to let them stay, but kept a close eye on them. Anyway, even with all those people, I still figured it wouldn’t take that long to get through the line. Plus, I brought the current book I’m reading with me, so I had something to keep my company. “I can do this,” I told myself. “Just wait patiently for a little while and then go into work. No biggie.” Again, oh, how wrong I was!!

I knew it was bad when 9:30 hit and they started bringing out waters for everyone in line.

I called my mom for a quick consultation about whether or not I should continue to wait in line. To my surprise, Mom was totally onboard and said, “Of course you should stay, you’ve invested that much time – get the phone! Just think of a reason why you’re so late to work…Oh, I know! Say that you had to go to the dentist for an emergency.” A dental emergency? Well, it was original. I asked my mom what she was thinking of and she replied, “Well, BFF told me the other day that she woke up in terrible pain and had to go to the dentists office right then and there. They put a temporary cap on it, but she needs a root canal. The same thing happened to me one time. Yes, that’s good.” It was like my mom was hatching some elaborate scheme to get me out of work. It would look pretty fishy if I happened to just call in sick at this point in the morning, when I should’ve been there half an hour ago. I told her I was a bit worried about the detailed nature of the lie, since I’ve never had any dental problems, and only have 2 fillings in my whole mouth. I asked her if she wouldn’t mind calling my boss for me, to make it seem more believable. She wrote down what I wanted her to say:

“Hi Bella’s Boss, Bella won’t be in today because she had a bit of a dental emergency this morning. I’m at the dentist’s office waiting for her now. I’m not sure exactly what the problem is, but she has every intention of coming in to work today. I’ll have her contact you as soon as she’s able to.”

With that taken care of, the next few hours were really surreal. There were masses of humanity waiting for this awesome phone. How could this many people all have the day off? Were they like me, cooking up some crazy story to tell their bosses? Calling in sick for work to do something like this is so unlike me, but my current project is at the point where I’m waiting for the rest of the team to give me more content, so I would’ve spent a lot of the day today twiddling my thumbs. So waiting in line is a much better use of my time, I justified.

After spending an hour and a half reading my book, I became bored of reading while standing, and put it away. At that point, the guy in front of me turned around and started chatting with me. He was such a cool guy, and he and I spent the next 3 hours talking about music, his fiance, his new condo, my life as a teacher, my upcoming trip to Boston, more music, his recent trip to Japan, how cool the iPhones are going to be, his planned honeymoon in Italy (I gave lots of great tips), and a bit of this and that. He was like a God-send. He even gave me some tips about my calling-in-sick-plan that he had overheard. He told me that I definitely shouldn’t go in to work today, because he had a root canal recently, and “you’d definitely not be feeling up to going in after that.” (He recommended I extend the lie into an emergency root canal, just to make it more believable). This guy was awesome! I’m so glad someone so cool was right in front of me. We were in this together now! Plus, they had wheeled out coffee about mid-way through these 3 hours, so we were refreshed and perky.

After 4 1/2 hours, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel – we were at the entrance to the Apple store. It was like the gates of heaven opened up and we were almost in front of St. Peter himself. Or like we were at the North Pole and Santa was about to open his workshop doors. Or… ok, ok, you get the idea.

We waited another 20 minutes for an Apple “specialist” to individually help us get it all set up. That’s one thing I have to say about Apple, for all the time I spent waiting, they really did treat me like a V.I.P. once they finally helped me. My specialist, Jesus, spent quite a bit of time helping me set up my pre-existing AT&T account, getting the Apple Care warranty, and showing me how to set up my Yahoo email so it would be on the iPhone. He was spending so much time with me that one of his supervisors came over and told him that he could take over helping me and that Jesus had to help someone else get started. At that point I told them both that I could take it from here and I walked out of the store with the biggest smile on my face. So what if I was starving and my back hurt? I had my new iPhone!!!

I got home, called my mom from the new iPhone, and went through the email I was going to send my boss. I figured that since my mouth would be numb from an emergency canal. I told my mom that we’d have to work out the details of my “symptoms” later this weekend. My boss was completely understanding and told me to take care of myself. Whew! Now I just have to pray that the camera guy who was filming us in line at the mall didn’t get any clear shots of me. 😛

I spent the next 3 hours setting up the iPhone – all my music, contacts (with pictures), etc. is ready to go. I love the new GPS feature, and I know that’s going to come in really handy in Boston. How fun!

The day definitely didn’t turn out the way I expected it to, but it was amazing, all the same.

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Guess What I’ll Be Doing Early Friday Morning?

For my birthday my parents gave me the money to buy the new iPhone 3G, and I’ve been counting down the days ever since.

I have no idea how crowded the Apple stores will be at 8am tomorrow morning when they open.  I’m having terrible visions of people already camped outside, sitting in lawn chairs, preparing for a long night.  I’m hoping that it won’t be too bad and I can get in and out pretty quickly.

I’ll update you tomorrow.

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