hello darkness, my old friend

This day is always a hard day for me, and I will never let that not be the case.

fresh as a poppy

I used to write about a lot of things here that I look back at and could perhaps care about less than I do, but it would be difficult.

Note that the last time I did write here I was five years younger and a Vermonter.

Now I'm 21 again for the millionth time and live in NYC so am a New Yorker.

I now have 4 cats instead of 3.

I now live with some guy who's Internet famous.

I now work at an institution that is world famous.

I now have a very complicated existence but wouldn't actually trade it back for what I was trying to enjoy five years ago.

I now have an accent, because if I don't talk like you then I must have one, right?

Let's pretend we just met.

Hi, I'm Poppy. Some people call me Stef but the guy who sleeps in my bed doesn't, so why should you?

George's head

It's pretty over here. Maybe I will just hang out here again. Does anyone still have a snobmeter that makes you think it's gauche to be on Blogspot? Eh, who cares. You love me anyway. Hi! Also, I think I can put pictures directly into my posts again if I blog here, unlike at my .com blog where pictures have been broken for about a year and a half. *sad panda*

Awwwwwww, yah, look at that!

I love it when I can hear the kitties snoring but I can't see where they are because they're hidden someplace fun. I love being a kitty mommy. :) :)

Poppy is amused

Dawg snacked me into a full-on meal this week:



I really don't think I'm quite that entertaining, but apparently I'm wrong.

This video is very relevant to me.

Not all is lost when I can't attend the Avitable party of the year.

I may be missing the party itself but I will be living vicariously through Fab's drunk texts this evening. Yay. :) :)

(Actually, I'm a little scared.)

WWTDD

Am I the only one who wonders aloud in my head, "what would Tyler Durden do?"

Yes? Hmm. Ok.


If you have no idea what I'm talking about:
1. You are no longer cool.
2. You haven't seen Fight Club enough or perhaps read a Chuck Palahniuk novel lately.
3. You don't read celebrity blogs.
4. You've repressed. Unrepress, silly.

Natalie Portman is a goddess

She's beautiful.



(No disagreeing allowed. This means you.)

Confercation days 7-9 highlights

I'm sorry to anyone who was really looking forward to the specific babbling, but I can't do the long posts so I'll do bullets:

• It's hard for me to not want to move to Texas after visiting B.
  
• I like Cheesecake Factory fried mac and cheese.
  
• I like the Dallas Arboretum.
  
• B and I made a vlog for Sourpuss while at the arboretum, and I hope someday B will post it or at least give it to Sour because it's HILARIOUS.
  
• I like helping B shop for new skinny girl clothes (girl, you skinny).
  
• I won't drink lemon drops ever again. :)
  
• I will smoke cigars again, but I'll make B pick them.
  
  
• I will try to never fly while hung over again.
  
• I enjoyed being Dawg's first blogger he ever met and being the first blogger to do Cereal Wednesday with him. He even gave me a(nother!) present of one of the PostSecret books signed by Frank Warren. And a sloop (spoon straw) from Cereality, which is in my silverware drawer waiting for me to eat cereal that is Cap'n Crunch ... but bluer!
  
• It's good to be home, but now my mind is contemplating life choices more than ever.

And so concludes the confercation highlights.

Oh good, now everyone can stop complaining.

I mentioned coComment in the comments of one of my posts for those who were bitching that I am still on Blogger, but apparently the Blogger people read my comments and decided to just implement their own solution:



(Click the photo to learn more.) About fucking time.

I am internet famous

Miss Britt would like me to share with you all that I am internet famous. (A link to the featured video is here.)

Just for the record, I wasn't trying to be. I'd rather be a rich recluse. :D

reminiscing

Dwight: Are you near sighted or far sighted?
Ben Franklin: Both. That is why I invented the bifocal.
Dwight: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Love that show...

Repeat

It's possible I could listen to "Lack of Color" by Death Cab for Cutie all. day. today without getting sick of it ever.



I'm not really talking about the video, I'm talking about just listening to it in iTunes over and over again. I don't need the imagery, I have my own images to put to it, but I offer the video version so you can listen along. :)

My mom just sent me a text message. :) Yay, Mom.

Confercation day 6

J, K, and I wake up, roll outta bed, and head directly to Epcot. Let me just say, I have no idea why we revisited Epcot while I was there. I was at Epcot on day 2. J and K have both been to Epcot. I didn't plan stuff. I guess I could ask why we revisited Epcot instead of hitting another park, but ... yah, we'll just leave it at that.

So, more of the same stuff, mostly. Redid Test Track, Mission Space, and Soarin'. Then we also did the Finding Nemo talk which was super dull, but I got to see a bunch of stingrays and jellyfish so I can't complain.



I only had a little bit of time left so we ate lunch. I had Chinese food then we drove back to the hotel in a mad dash to get me showered, dressed, packed, and downstairs for 1:15pm so that Douglas the town car driver (SHUT. IT.) could drive me back to the airport to fly out to see B.

On the way to the airport I was so tired that I didn't talk to Douglas at all. I'm normally not quite so... rude... in one-on-one situations, but I was just too tired to do anything more than rest my eyes. When I got to the airport I checked my bags curbside, but ... no boarding pass. I didn't know better so I went inside and waited in the (wrong line) for over an hour. I was yelled at by the woman behind the ticket counter about this. I don't take kindly to waiting in a line for an hour then being yelled at for doing that WITHOUT COMPLAINT TO YOU so I said something slightly snippy to her and we got on with the process of getting me that boarding pass.

The flight itself was uneventful. I arrived to Dallas, went down the escalator to baggage claim, and THERE WAS B LOOKING UP AT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I waved my cute girl wave and she waved back! And then I shoved the guy in front of me out of the way (not really, but I was fake shoving him from behind) then I ran over to B and we gave each other a huge hug. My bags popped right out and we were on our way to dinner! (Note: I am kinda certain this photo embarrasses B, but it is my second favorite photo from the whole trip. My favorite photo will be listed on day 7.)

I met B's DH (whose name I know) in the parking lot of the restaurant (the name of which I forget), then we all wandered in for fanfuckingtastic Tex-Mex food. After dinner we went to their house where I met the kittos. I have photos of BlackJack, Kino, and Menchi but I have ZERO photos of Joey because he was zonked out in B and DH's room. I really thought I took photos of him, but I can't find them anywhere. How can that be? I know we spent a bit of antisocial time at the dining table, but I don't really remember much else about that night. I was exhausted. :)

Confercation day 5, part 2

This time the line at Earl of Sandwich was slightly shorter and moving quickly so we stayed. I ordered the original sandwich (roast beef and cheese with mayo), a chocolate milk, a fountain soda (have I ever mentioned I'm a 2-fisted drinker?), and a bag of BBQ chips. J and I went to a table outside where J proceeded to apologize for about the 15 millionth time for G's behavior. Lemme let you in on a little secret: I get over stuff VERY quickly. You piss me off and I've bounced back five minutes later, if it takes even that long. So, continuing to remind me about a situation is like it being brand new. I don't care anymore, and now you're annoying me by rehashing it! And, speak of the effing devil, somehow G figures out where we are and comes to join us. He eats my chips, drinks my chocolate milk, and belches. A charming man.

We all walk over to the Cirque tent so that J can get a La Nouba souvenir now that there's no crowd because the first show of the day isn't for several hours. While on the way there G just wanders into House of Blues without saying anything. J and I start blathering about Raglan Road again (hey, what can I say, it's a favorite topic) then G wanders out with hot sauce. We continue to Cirque and J buys souvenirs while I pretend to be interested in buying anything there. We then head to the cigar shop version of the cigar bar so that I can buy cigars for my TX leg of the trip to smoke with B and her DH. I attempt to text B for consultation on what cigars to get, but she's at work so she doesn't respond fast enough. I buy cigars with a lion on them (1. I am a leo; 2. I love cats; 3. rawr) and we move along back to the hotel because it's time for J's girlfriend (my friend) K and G's wife S to arrive from the airport to our old hotel with a rental car!!!

When we arrive I am all nasty sweaty and hot from the Orlando sun but I give K a big hug anyway. I then meet G's wife S who I had been told I am a lot alike... Yah, not so much. It's not that we don't have similar physical features, it's that she's a fucking bitch and won't even acknowledge my existence. I take higher road and put my hand out to shake hers; she coldly offers her own in return. I'm sure she and G will be very happy together forever. Gahhhh.... J, G, and I grab all our stuff from the bell service and shove it into the rental car. Because of space J decides to walk across the street rather than be sandwiched next to G and S who are full-on making out in the back seat.

We arrive to the Regal Sun across the street, check into our rooms (I'm staying with J and K because I'm only there for a night), then G and S wander off to go do it while the rest of us go to our room to prepare for Magic Kingdom. J, K, and I leave to go to the kingdom because we are informed that G and S will be running late. J, K, and I arrive then do a lot of fun stuff, such as Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, Mickey's PhilharMagic, the Pooh ride, and Tomorrowland. Pictureses...






We then walked over to the castle and watched the fireworks. No photos of that. I know they're supposed to be impressive, but... I've been to La Ronde. A lot. It's hard to impress me with simple fireworks set to music. (shrug, I'm a fireworks snob)

A break in the post to compare....

La Ronde (YAR):


Magic Kingdom (yawn):


...resuming confercation.

After fireworks we spent exactly one hour trying to get back to the car with G and S who we finally located via S's cell phone. We then drove 10 minutes back to the hotel so that J, K, and I could get ungrubby then head back to Downtown Disney for ... RAGLAN ROAD!!!!!!!! We got a seat right next to the band (squeeeeeeeeee!!!!) then K ordered a margarita, J ordered a whiskey, and I ordered (grin) a whiskey AND a Smithwick's. (Double. fisted. drinker.) I am the only one who got to have a buzz going because the waiter was super awesome at serving us when he was around, but he didn't visit much. I had fish and chips. I don't eat fish, but JFC that fish was TASTY. The waiter finally came back around and K ordered another margarita while J and I ordered Harps. J and I stared intently at Danielle every time she danced.

(I just found this video. I am resmittened.)



(siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh)

After this we stumbled back to the hotel where we all did a shot of Maelstrom (btw, a mistake, I had to grab onto J's shoulder because it burned so bad going down I thought I would die) then went to bed to wake up bright and early for my last day in FL.

Confercation day 5, part 1

I woke up, rolled outta bed, showered and got dressed, then went downstairs to meet J at which time he reminded me that we needed to check out by 11am to go across the street to the Regal Sun (BWAHAHAHAHA, oh, the irony) because the conference ends today and we're paying for the hotel so we're staying someplace cheaper. F.U.C.K. I definitely forgot ALLLLLLLLL about that. G makes an appearance and tells us, "oh, just tell the front desk you need a late checkout time." So, J and I tell the front desk we need a late checkout time, and now we can stay in our rooms until 12:30pm. Yaaaaaaaaay.

We all three head to breakfast and eat stuff. (Again, you wanna know what I eat for breakfast you follow me around. It's not my fault you're not properly stalking me.) After breakfast J and I went to the final session, which happened to be the best session of all. It had to do with whole-disk encryption and centrally managing policies and passwords for those machines. In a mixed environment the presenter found that PGP was the best option. At $150-$250 a seat I have no idea how they were able to work out this model, because that's fucking expensive. For my company the price per seat would be way less because we have thousands of employees, but still. I wanted to ask why they weren't just trying out BitLocker for Vista and built-in encryption for Win 2k/XP, then File Vault and disk image 128-bit encryption for Mac, but I only got to ask one question and the one question I did ask was the best question of the day. I won't bore you with the details, but let's just say I ask a mean question. ;) After whole-disk encryption was a presentation about educating employees about security. This particular company somehow has a big budget for creating all kinds of material to educate their users. I asked the killer question in that presentation, which I'll share with you: How'd they get the buy-in from the suits? They didn't have an awesome answer for that. They are from West Virginia. Somehow I'm just thinking that West Virginia is more hospitable to security, whereas France could give a flying fuck. I think I should move to West Virginia and join this team. :) The final presentation was about herding cats aka employees to be on board with desktop security. It was an interesting presentation with no great answers, just questions. :)

After this last presentation I skipped the closing remarks to go pack up my room. J, G, and I met in the lobby and checked all our bags with the bell service then we headed out to Downtown Disney where I got lost in the magic of World of Disney. I almost bought stuff and then decided not to bother because I was crashing and needed food. J informed me that G had actually left about 10 minutes earlier to go find food, with no plan of how to find us since he doesn't carry around his cell phone, so J and I went to Earl of Sandwich. ...

(This post is going to be fucking long. And I'm only up to 1pm. I'm publishing part 1 in the hopes that I'll be way less verbose in part 2. That'd be nice.)

LISS PASSED HER LSATs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAYAYAYAYYAYYYAYYYYYYYYAYAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!@!!!~!!~~!~~!!!!


Thatisall.

I just saw Uma Thurman's boob. My day is now complete.