Thursday, August 26, 2010

Updates

Updates on my life:
- I have returned to the Bronx, where all is noisy and colorful
- I have a beautiful new apartment, which I have taken over
- My roommate Katie is moving in tomorrow, which means I have to reign myself in a bit
- We all know that this task is a little difficult for me
- There is a rap video being shot outside bedroom window
- There is a train going by my window
- Contrary to popular belief, the train is not the loudest noise outside my window
- In actuality, the loudest noise outside my window is the rap music that gets played through blown out speakers in beaten up cars
- I don't like rap music when I'm sleeping
- I don't like rap music ever
- My Mac is in the mail after being fixed and will be sent to me shortly which is why I haven't updated
- I miss my Mac
- I miss my blog
- I miss Amy too much
- The same goes for her missing me
- A BAG GOT STOLEN FROM MY CAR AT MOVE IN
- THIS BAG HAD ELEVENISH PAIRS OF SHOES IN IT
- I miss my blue Steve Madden suede boots, the only expensive shoes I own(ed)
- They no longer make my boots in blue. I hate change
- I miss my Apt 9 plaid blue heels. The brand is "madi." Look them up and you'll comprenday
- They no longer make these heels
- Can someone ask Steve Madden and Kohls to make these shoes for me again?
- I did, however, find three pairs of my shoes online
- For this reason, I should always shop at Payless
- It's BOGO at Payless. This is a sign
- This is bedtime

Love and seepy-seeps,
Courtney

Monday, August 23, 2010

Bronx Courtney is Back

My eight million bags are packed, I have way too much stuff, and the only thing left to do is to get everything in the cars (yes, multiple) and get to the Bronx in one piece.  And unpack it all.  Sigh.

Because my mother is watching Bachelor Pad, I have like five seconds to write up a little ditty for you all before I have to go drown in material objects again.  But I thought that this video was appropriate for my transition from Somers to Bronx again tomorrow.  It was brought to my attention last week by Joanna, and I think it's rather appropriate for me in many ways.  (Hint: Watch until the end!!!)


The Top 60 Ghetto Black Names


Peace out, gangsta's,
Courtney

Sunday, August 22, 2010

You Can Stand Under My (Red) Umbrella, ella, ella

Disclaimer: Yes, I know I've been a little MIA lately, but I am trying to win the "most obscene display of materialism" award on Tuesday at move-in and am trying to pack everything I own into bins and suitcases.  It's tough, time-consuming work, so don't blame me.  Please.

After two summers and a winter at the T, Travs, Travelers, as a non-tech technical intern (contradiction?  Yes), Friday was my last day in good ol' Hartford.  Well, maybe.  Unless Amy and I get the a-okay to come back in the winter.  But just in case, I am mourning this ending as it should be mourned.

In honor of Travelers and all the people in it, here are some pictures from my phone that I took while interning this summer.  They bring a tear to my eye...

This is TechDP headquarters, aka "The Corner Part 2," aka the place everyone wants to be, aka Amy's and my desks.  Normally, they're a lot messier than shown, but we were... were... were... about to leave.  Pictured in the desk area are Amy (naturally) and two of the main frequenters of our desks, Jay and ScottyMac.  HEY JAY!  HEY SCOTTY!  BET YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO POST THIS PICTURE, DID YOU???

Do you miss us?

...Jay?  Scotty??

...you miss us, right???!?!?!!

Sad now.

[Update 8/23/10: This section of my entry was clearly a desperate cry for attention, and I expected some sort of heartwarming and/or sarcastic comment from Jay or ScottyMac on my blog and/or Facebook.  I got neither.  From either person.  Disappointment reigns.]


Here is the entrance to our desk area, complete with a picture of last year's TechDP intern class (NOSTALGIA) and a sign for the counseling chair which subsequently went out of service when we got our exercise balls.  Oh, and there's a quote about our exercise balls.  It reads: "Do you know what this is?  This is a fitness orb, and it has completely changed my life." -Dwight Schrute.  Only the coolest of cool kids live their lives by The Office wisdom.

We left the signs up when we left.  Everyone must remember us.


Speaking of exercise balls, here is mine.  It used to live under my desk; now it will live under my desk at school.  It misses its friend, Amy's exercise ball, just as I miss my friend, Amy.  COME BACK FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE!


This is FrankyPanky, another intern.  He is one half of the intern combo Frandy, of which the other half is not pictured.  I'm not sure if that sentence was grammatically correct.


I love this picture because Amy and I are so devious.  Gregg will totally miss us pranking him 24/7.


Oh yes.  Oh yes.  Excellent.


I first learned about VitaMuffins at Travelers, and Amy was nice enough to bring one in for me.  I ate it.  It was very delicious, as the package boasts.  I need to buy me some of those.


Oh wait... we do work at Travelers?  I almost forgot.  I didn't take this pictures (obviously), but here are Amy and I presenting our end-of-summer presentation.  Why present together?  Possible reasons: we are the same person, we did the same thing all summer, we don't like extended periods of time away from one another, we rely on each other for validation, we didn't want to waste everyone's time by saying the same thing twice, we wanted to...


On our last day, Nancy took us to lunch and we got these gorgeous looking lemonades and iced teas.  Then we tasted them and had a sugar rush for ten hours.


There was also a giant heart character in a top hat to send us off.  Amy was especially excited and ran up to hug him right away.  And by that last sentence, I actually meant that she was totally freaked out and hid behind me as we walked by.


Some fine gentlemen were practicing their Wii skills in the Link.  Everyone knows that to be a successful businessman you have to have excellent golf skills!  Just ask my Dad.  And John Rossley.  Nerd.


But of course, we had to let everyone know that we will never be gone for good.  AmCo leaves a permaimpression wherever we go.

-----

Bye, dearest Travs!  See you soon...??

Love and red um-ber-ellas,
Courtney

Unrelated PS: SOMEBODY THAT I DON'T KNOW ACTUALLY COMMENTED ON MY OLD BLOG!  THEY THANKED ME FOR A RECIPE!  I'M FAMOUS!

Friday, August 20, 2010

You Know You're in Somers When...

The new flavor of ice cream is called "Cow Tippin."

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

This is Embarassing

When I was in high school, we liked to make funny videos when we hung out.  Because we didn't drink or party or act normal, so we had to find other things to entertain ourselves.  And since we were Drama Club kids (so stereotypical high school, man) we liked to act out.  Get it?  Act out?

Stop me now, please.

This is one of those videos.  I believe that it demonstrates my ridiculousness, inappropriateness (please don't watch the part where I lick the spoon...), love for cooking...?, and general belief that I am funny when I, in fact, am not.

Enjoy.

The Best of Cooking with Courtney



Love and facepalm,
Courtney

Monday, August 16, 2010

Weekend in Pikshures

The weekend went by so fast that it probably was just a dream (INCEPTION!), and Monday is bringing rain and yuck to darken and dampen and crush the Hartford area, just as it does to my soul.

I don't like Mondays, okay?  Monday means getting up early, and getting up early does not work well with me.  I need my sleep.  I need the sun to rise before I do.  I need many things.

Plus, my Droid did a software update this morning, and I don't like it.  It's not as pretty.  And I swear that it's slower.  Plus, according to this website, Verizon started the wave of Android 2.2 updates on August 3rd.  It is now August 16th.  I feel forgotten and offended.

But let's not dwell on the present, shall we?  Let's think of happier times... when the skies were clear... when there was no need for an alarm clock... when our Droids still had blue backgrounds instead of black...

Let's look at the weekend in pictures:

We had an excellent time at TECHDP HAAAY!!! on Friday, but when Colleen and I left on Saturday morning, we found this little guy on the door.  I guess that's what happens when you go to college in Storrs, Connecticut, and not the Bronx.

In the Bronx, the only sticks you see are nightsticks.  ROFLCOPTER!


Then, I took the train to New York Citaaayyy to meet my fam.  We went to see Rock of Ages, which was pretty darn rockin'.  I'll bet my dad and brother were really upset that we didn't see Promises, Promises.

Not.


Everyone got this thingies when they entered the theater.  They're little flashlights shaped like lighters that light up when you squeeze them.  It's so that you can wave it in the air and be all eighties and stuff.

You know what else they do when you enter the theater?  Make you throw out your Diet Snapple.  I need to get a purse with more pockets.


Apparently it was like the something-somethingth (65th?) anniversary of that picture where that World War 2 guy kisses that girl in Times Square, so they built an enormous statue and let people kiss in front of it.  There were bajillions of people in Times Square and in front of this statue milling about and pissing me off.  I hate the amount of people in Times Square.

Did you know that the girl and the guy in the WW2 picture didn't even know each other?  Well, apparently.  Because no one has ever really figured out who the subjects were for sure, but Edith Swain, who everyone believes is the girl in the picture, says that this random guy just came up to her and kissed her.  I hope his breath didn't stink because that would've been gross.


And then.  And then.  And then we went to Rosa Mexicano, my favorite Mexican restaurant in the history of the world.  Joe and his fam met us in the city, and all seven of us had some mad deliciouso food, including the freshly made guac that you see above.  Well, actually, I took that picture like four months ago when we went for Joe's birthday.  But it was just like that.  Only spicier.


The hotel wouldn't put out our cot for us because they maintained that it wouldn't fit.  So I slept standing up.  Just kidding.  But it's pretty funny looking, right?  IT LOOKS LIKE I'M SLEEPING BUT I'M NOT!!!


I ate this burger on Wednesday, and okay yeah, that wasn't a weekend, but it was a happier time.  It's from Shady Glen, which I saw on the Food Network once, and it has CRISPY CHEESE THAT GOES OUTSIDE THE BURGER!  Can you see it???

I folded mine inside the burger and ate it that way, and it was so good.  Then I ate some peppermint ice cream.  Then I went to Body Pump.  Then I puked.  Almost.


This is what happened when I got home from NYC.  I was tryin' to surf the net and sheeet, and my cat climbed on my stomach in between me and my laptop.  Despite the angry face he has on in this picture, he really loves me and is glad that I'm home.  He's going to miss me so much when I leave in a week.

--

In other cat-related news, I looked through my phone and realized that approximately 70% of my photos are of my cat.  Need a life much?  More on this tomorrow.

I just realized that "more on" sounds like "moron" and laughed a lot.  Now I feel like a more on.

Love and Monday blues,
Courtney

PS: But.  But.  But.  But.  Mondays are Moe's Mondays.  This afternoon is looking to be a lot more promising.

Friday, August 13, 2010

What We're Doing Tonight



I am an excellent invite person.

HAPPY FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH!
Love, Courtney

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Alarm Clock, Beep-Boop-Bap-Boop-Beep

If you thought that yesterday's video was excellent, wait until you see today's video.  Did you think that you had to live with a boring alarm clock forever?  Well, not anymore.

New Alarm Clocks: Saturday Night Live



--

Okay, so you can't really buy those alarm clocks.  But you CAN buy these awesome alarm clocks that Amy and I want because we're nerdy and need special alarm clocks to make us feel cool.  Even though "alarm clocks that make you feel cool" is probably some form of oxymoron.


Here's my pick:

Moshi, the alarm clock that will talk to you and be your best friend.  Okay, so I added that last part.  But all you have to do is talk to Moshi and it will do what you say!  Example:
"Good morning, Moshi." 
"Good morning." 
"What is the temperature, Moshi?" 
"Twenty-one degrees and miserable, because you're dumb enough to live in the Northeast."
"Please make my coffee, Moshi."
"..."
"Moshi?"
"..."
"MOSHI?!??"

Why I pick Moshi: Because I'm too lazy to look at the time/temperature/alarm set myself.  Because it currently takes me ten minutes to set my alarm, due to the fact that my IHome click wheels are broken.  Because I have a need to talk a lot, and Moshi will always listen.  Because I wasn't socialized enough and need as many friends as possible.

Or E, all of the above.


Here's Amy's pick:

Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away from you.  When your alarm goes off, Clocky rolls off of your nightstand and "looks" for places to hide by detecting the amount of light in any given area.  So, if you really want to snooze or shut off your alarm, you have to find Clocky first.

Why Amy picks Clocky: Amy sets "at least six alarms a day," she says, because she shuts each one off in her sleepy stupor (my words, not hers, sorry buddy).  Therefore, she needs a little booger of an alarm clock that she has to chase around the room in the morning.  Fewer alarms + early morning cardio = Amy's perfect man... er... clock.  Yeah, clock.


But neither of us knew that...

CLOCKY HAS A BROTHER!

Meet Tocky, the next version of Clocky.  I'm not really sure what's different about this one except for that you can add mp3's to it, but once again, the little stinker Tocky will roll away and hide from you when your alarm goes off.

Now Amy wants Tocky instead of Clocky because "Tocky is prettier," she says.  Tocky is also $75. 

It's not that pretty.

--

We are now searching for more superfun and totally unnecessary alarm clocks.  Needless to say, there will be more to come in the near future.

Love and alarm clock mania,
Courtney

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Do You Enjoy a Fancy Fly Lifestyle?

Amy and I have fallen in love with this video from SNL, and we feel that you all should be exposed to it too.  Plus, Taylor Lautner is in it.  But his hair looks really bad, and he doesn't take off his shirt.


New Doorbells: Saturday Night Live





--
If you would like to see Amy's and my imitations of Tina Tina Shanuz, you may petition us here, on this blog.  And we will film them Friday night.  No, she does not know about this agreement

Psst... Tina Tina returns to SNL with Alarm Clocks and More... will post tomorrow.

--
In other matters, I'm watching Teen Mom, and this is how Gary proposed to Amber for like the fifty-ninth time:
Gary: "Okay, so we're getting married."
Amber:  "You have to ask me if I will marry you."
Gary: "You'll marry me."
Amber: "No, you have to ask me."
Gary: "Okay, you wanna get married?"
Amber: "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU ASK!  You have to say 'will you'."
Gary: "Okay I'll say it exactly how you want, fieeeene."
Amber: "Gareeeeeyyyyyy!"
Gary: *resigned" "Will you marry me?"
Amber: *forlorn* "Sure...."

I love Teen Mom.

Love and reality television,
Courtney

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

More from the Memory Box

If you read yesterday's post about my SHS Drama Club memories that I pulled out of my junk cabinet, you'll know that I'm making a futile attempt to clean out my room.  If you didn't, read it now.

The following are photos and paper clippings that I also found in the cabinet.  I think that you will find them amusing.

Ready?  Let's go!

--
That's me, seven years old, right after my first leading role onstage.  I was Gretel in Hansel and Gretel.  To the left is my adorable brother Jonathan, and to the right is my good high-school friend-and-costar Kevin, who played Hansel and who subsequently played many leading roles in our shows throughout high school.  He's a cool Somers native- turned- New Yorker like me now, but he's downtown at NYU, so he's hipper than I am.

But I'm in the Bronx, so I can beat everyone up.  Just kidding.  Please don't hit me.

And, for your information, this was actually my second play in my life.  In the second grade I was in Miss Peterson's class play Shirley Holmes and the FBI, in which I played the role of Mallory.  I had exactly six lines and I picked the part because Mallory was the name of a character in The Babysitter's Club, which I loved.

We've established that I'm a nerd, right?


This is a newspaper clipping from my senior year of high school, and yes, that lovely couple is Hansel and Gretel, all grown up.  The incredibly flattering outfits are courtesy of the Somers High School Jazz Choir.  I miss the Jazz Choir.  I don't miss the dress.

Why didn't someone warn me that in four years I would be regretting my unfortunate bangs and pasty white skin?  And yes, I know that I'm short.  And yes, I know that I still have pasty white skin.  But I got rid of the bangs, thank god.


Here's an article from the seventh grade about our Destination Imagination team.  See those medals??  Eh?  Eh?  We won our division in Connecticut and went onto the international competition in Tennessee.  Man, I've never seen so much orange in my life than at the U of Tennessee.

(I'm in the back row, all the way on the right.  Can anyone say, "awkward years?"  I look like a frog.)


I don't remember what paper this was in, but it's about the community theatre show I did at the beginning of my junior year of high school with three other high school friends.  I'm in the bottom left picture, wearing the unfortunate red shirt, with my partner in crime Maureen (her real name is Amanda).

Story time: One time, in high school, we were at a singing competition and convinced this guy that Courtney and Amanda were our middle names and Joanne and Maureen were our first names, but we went by our middle names because we were named after our mothers.  He believed us.

The real reason behind our nicknames?  We're Rentheads and named eachother after the lesbian lovers.  That's what theatre people do.

--
The following pictures I have chosen of myself for a specific reason.  I shall tell you why at the end.

Throwing a softball at the Senior Dunk Tank at the Four Town Fair.  I missed.


In Kevin's basement, likely waiting to play Sims 2 on his computer, because that's how I do.


On the Senior float in the Four Town Fair parade.  I'm in the white, on the top.  To my right are my high school friends Alison and Connell (that's his last name), and to my left is my high school boyfriend Nick.  He takes professional wrestling classes and Joe and my college friends like him better than me.  I've accepted this fact.

Our float theme?  "Seniors of the '07 Seas."  HOW EFFING CLEVER IS THAT?!?


At Bigalow Hollow, where we used to picnic and swim and try to make campfires.  I was trying to do the sprinkler dance move.  I failed.

--
Now, why were these specific pictures chosen from the many high school ones that I could have chosen?

Because they establish that I have always been completely and certifiably insane.  I'm so ridiculous.  And very little of that has changed.

That concludes our trip down Courtney's memory lane.  Please visit the gift shop on your way out.

Love to all of the people from my past,
Courtney

Monday, August 9, 2010

A Dream from Joe Spedale

Joe texted me this morning to tell me he had a strange dream.  This is his text message summary of said dream:

"Ok, me, you, these two random girls and this guy were all staying at this house in the woods, an we had to play baseball in this field, but you would never let me get up to bat!  Then all of a sudden i was the only one in the house and i looked outsside and there were these 3 babies just walking around so i brought them inside and when i got inside you were back and i was like 'what should i do?' and would were like 'shut up, youre such an idiot' then i woke up."

It's good to know that my boyfriend's unconscious mind thinks I'm a total bitch.

Somers High School Drama Club, Revisited

Because I have two weeks and one day until I go back to college for my final (eek) year, I started to clean out junk from my room.  I have since come to the conclusion that I will most definitely not finish cleaning it out before I leave, but that will just be a fun project for when I move out in a year.  Yippee.

I found a lot of memerobilia in my cabinet that I shove lots of useless stuff in, and among the various birthday cards and middle-school awards were these:

Backstage Union cards, from the Somers High School Drama Club!  Every show, audience members (and club members) could pay one dollar to send a card to their Drama Club member of choice, and although you can't see it here, I built up quite a stack over the four years and eight shows.

Some were from "Drama Mamas and Papas," like the card above.


Some were from family... even family that traveled from far away!



This one was from my "little brother" through Big Brothers/Big Sisters.  He came to all of my shows, and now he's doing shows of his own with the SHS DC (I'm old, boo).


Some were from old friends, former DC'ers that came back to see the shows!


This one was from Eric, our nine-year-old family friend who probably hated coming to see Once Upon a Mattress.  He's fourteen now.  And he's taller than me.


This one was from Brianna, also a nine-year-old family friend who was the easiest babysittee in the world and who I love to death.  She's going to be in the high school this year.  Why is this happening to me?

The card reads: "I hope you do a good job and have fun!  Dont forget I'm waching you!"

She's such a cutie.  She almost died when I told her that I met Justin Bieber once.


This one was from Bri's sister, Jessica, who was five, I think, at the time.  She laves me :).


Of course, there were many, many cards from my biggest supporters, my mom and dad and Jonathan, who has been dragged along to too many shows to count.  The only reason he comes now is to videotape the shows at Fordham and make money off of my friends.  He'll be a good businessman.

Speaking of Jonathan...

There were also a couple of these in the stack of cards... graduation notes that parents and friends could write.  In case you can't read it, it says: "I am now known as 'Courtney's brother' by all the teachers.  It will be so nice when you are gone!  Just kidding.  Have a good time!!!"

Thanks, bro, for all the love.  And, by the way, I asked him the other day how he felt about having my old English teacher next year.  He said, "Everyone's so excited that I'm your brother and then I disappoint them."  He had a grin on his face.

Some things never change.

Love and feeling too old (already),
Courtney

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Stormtastic

Pictorial footage of the video I shared the other day...

The sky darkened quickly, and pretty soon there was only a little sliver of light yet.


And as the cloud moved in, so did the rain.


And with rain, there came wind.  You know what doesn't go well with wind?  Beach supplies.  Because, oh yeah, THE WIND BLOWS THEM!

Then a beach umbrella came tumbling down the beach, and I don't have any pictures of this because we were trying to be Good Samaritans and yell to the man who was in the umbrella's way.  It didn't work.  I don't have any pictures of that, either, because I am sympathetic to human pain and I was watching my brother and dad run down to help the guy.

But then like twenty people rushed out of their houses just like us, and we were the furthest away, so they came back.  We later realized that everyone was just running out to get their beach floaties, which were flying away.  We think he was okay, though.

Well, there was an ambulance that went down the street a couple of minutes later.  But we tried.  Oops.


After that, everyone left the beach.  It was pretty dumb that they hadn't before.


This poor Easy-Up was a victim of the storm, though.  It looks like a crab.  Crabbity-crabbity-crab.


Mom and Grandpa were pretty tired after that exciting storm, though, so they took a nap.  It was pretty cute.

--
All in all, I miss our vacation.

I miss our beautiful beachfront house.


I miss our kitchen, where we made pancakes and eggs and bacon and homefries for breakfast every morning.  And I miss our table, where we played lots of board games and I got schooled by an eleven-year-old.


I miss my room, where I read lots of books and watched Say Yes to the Dress.  And BLOGGED, of course.


I MISS OUR PORCH SO MUCH!  Our big porch, where we could sit and look at my father and grandfather be stubborn and get sunburnt on the sand, or where my mother could hope that I wouldn't drown in the surf because obviously I'm five and can't swim.  Not.

Or where, at night, we could look around with my uncle's night vision goggles and watch the rocking chairs creepily rock back and forth in the wind, like there were ghosts!

Damn, I miss that porch.


I don't miss this sliding glass door, though.  It was really heavy.


Yup.  I miss vacation and family and seeing this silly look on Jonathan's face.  Way to be ready for the camera, little bro.  Have I taught you nothing?

Tomorrow, it's back to the daily grind of exercise balls, interns, and TechDP newsletters.  See ya, Fo'Schiessl Fest 2010.  Suggestions for 2011???

Love and No-I'm-never-unpacking-are-you-crazy?,
Courtney