And Always, Watch Your Rear

My Racist Birthday

linbmcc — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:46:52 +0000

We held dinner party on Saturday for my birthday which I titled “Dumplings and Dancing”. Justin, Toby, Caitlin and I rolled around 400 dumplings on Saturday, which ended up taking about 3-4 hours. We felt like sweatshop laborers, our hands and backs were so achy. But our toil was worth it because all of the dumplings were consumed. I don’t know how, but maybe it was Karibi as he mentioned that he had over 20 in one sitting (and he had several sittings). There was talk of dressing up in Kimonos or as Anime characters, in support of the “Asian” theme of the party, but that was cancelled last minute when one of the guests didn’t feel comfortable bringing his Japanese-American girlfriend to the party. There is nothing like feeling like a racist to kill your birthday buzz. Caitlin still came as Sailor Moon and we ended up bringing out the Kimonos late night. Please see the probably-offensive video that she made earlier in the day. AND YES there was a Hello Kitty cake that Emma and Maria spend all day making. All-in-all, a success! And we had our first snow!

Birthday

linbmcc — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:57:00 +0000

It was my 29th Birthday yesterday and I have been celebrating all week. As my gift, Justin and I went to Montauk for the long weekend. We stayed at an old hotel, the Montauk Manor, which is speculated to be haunted. Fortunately we didn’t see any ghosts. Most of the town is shut down for the winter so we spent a lot of time at the hotel, swimming in the indoor pool and relaxing in the hot tub and sauna. We also drove around the Hamptons in search of thrift stores. Justin researched the local thrift stores and had a map of the route we would take to visit all of them. I love Justin for his enthusiasm and dedication to whatever I want to do.

We went to see Book of Mormon on Wednesday with our roommate Toby. It was hillarious and wildly inappropriate. The theater was filled with mostly older couples and I wondered what they must be thinking.

And last night, for my actual birthday, a small group of us met for drinks at a bar near my apartment. We had fancy cocktails and cheese plates and it was just perfect! Emma gave me one of her “Herman Totes” which I had been coveting for the longest time.

Christmas

linbmcc — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:51:45 +0000

Justin and I took a few Christmas-inspired photos but I guess I’m a little late on posting.

We took the tree down today. It doesn’t get more depressing than leaving a brittle tree still decorated with colored string on the sidewalk.

Apartment

linbmcc — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 22:08:42 +0000

A few random pics of some of my favorites around the apartment.

A photo of Justin and I at Leigh’s wedding that is placed next to another photo of my brother and sister with me at Publix with melons in our miniature shopping carts. The bookmark at the bottom was made by Justin’s grandfather. We also have others that read “Only one finger cannot eat okra” and “We are all ignorant, just on different subjects”.

Towels hanging with horse.

Quilt pile.

Wicker clothes basket. I found this in Asheville at one of my favorite stores, Screen Door.

Iron bed with old lucky horseshoe hanging on the wall above. The knitting project is a gift for my sister.

Justin’s guitars next to the non-working fireplace.

Glass treasures from Dead Horse Bay. Dead Horse Bay is a a 19th century landfill on the water and a scavenger’s dream.

Kitchen shelves that Justin constructed from a discarded picnic table. I’m addicted to buying vintage kitchen supplies off of Etsy. And my most loved kitchen appliance, my Kitchenaid mixer, a birthday gift from my sweet friends.

Enamel-top kitchen table. Perhaps the cutest kitchen table to ever exist.

Colorful woven rag rug.

Real Talk with Judy and DeLanna

linbmcc — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:12:40 +0000

I have a friend, Mary, who lives in Ireland but visits NY often for extended periods of time. We met 2 or so years ago when she sublet Amy’s room for few months. I was unemployed at the time which allowed me to spend my time working on fun, creative and always non-purposeful projects. I was reminded of this a few days ago when she came over to visit. We watched some of the old videos that were made at that time in my life and it made me realize how lame I am now. Besides the occasional knitting project I rarely do anything creative these days. I can’t even make time to write on this blog. This is a depressing realization. It’s hard to work full time. My job is good and rewarding in many ways but rarely exciting and definitely not creative. So the day after Mary stopped by, filled with my newly realized disappointment in myself, Emma and I filmed the first of what will hopefully be a series of short videos titled “Real Talk with Judy and DeLanna”. The characters are two wealthy southern women, Judy Pinch and DeLanna Margaret Ballentine, who have generously dedicated an hour of their time each week to giving life-style advice on a local access TV station. My character, Judy Pinch, is a sassy, straight-talking southern housewife married to Duane Pinch, who owns several local car dealerships and currently running for City Council. We have a teenage son, Wayne, and an adolescent daughter as well (who’s name has escaped me). Emma plays DaLanna Margaret Ballentine, my dear friend, gossip partner and fellow housewife. Her husband owns a profitable insect exterminator business. Hopefully the details will work themselves out as we go. For our first episode we sat down with a 2 liter of Coca-Cola and answered listener’s questions on topics such as fashion, manners and entertaining. It was pretty funny to film but for now the project is stalled as both Emma and I don’t have video editing software nor any video-editing skills. But no matter, we will figure it out. My favorite part of my outfit was my enormous wedding ring. I super-glued an oversized fake diamond earring on another ring to create the kind of wedding ring that a self-respecting southern woman would expect to receive.

Hopefully this little step is in the right direction to restore some balance in my life.

Notes on the Holidays

linbmcc — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:42:34 +0000

It hasn’t been easy getting into the Christmas spirit this year. The weather is warm and often rainy and I haven’t come up with any good gift ideas. On Saturday we brought home a tree as an attempt to generate some Christmastime feelings and I must say, it is working because it’s the cutest tree EVER. It is no bigger than a 9 year old but has such personality. We spent Saturday night decorating it while listening to old piano records. We don’t have an ornament collection yet but I did find a bag of vintage mercury glass ball ornaments which we used, along with jingle bells and colored string. I placed burlap around the base and Justin carefully made the bow for the top. I couldn’t be more thrilled with this tree.

For Thanksgiving we went to Justin’s family’s house in New Hampshire. Many of his siblings, cousins and extended family were there and at the end of the weekend his mom carefully staged a holiday photo for the whole family. She brought down the 8ft Christmas wreath from the barn and doled out red scarves and hats which she explained would make the photo “pop”. We set the self-timer and took our places and it wasn’t until we were back in the house that everyone realized that Justin’s cousin, Brian, had purposefully put on his ski mask. It’s sort of perfect.

One last unrelated story. Last night Justin asked me if he could tell me something and I responded that of course he could. He then proceeded to recount the first few episodes of the TV series “The Walking Dead”. It took him about 20-25 minutes and he went into great detail. He is wild.

Second Annual Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Party

linbmcc — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:58:35 +0000

Yes, we held it again. We ate, we danced and Caitlin is boiling a turkey carcass as we speak. This year’s theme was “Neon Indian”.

Fall

linbmcc — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:45:06 +0000

I stepped out of the apartment this morning to the smell of crunchy leaves and realized that it is fall!

Babyyyyy

linbmcc — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:57:30 +0000

We just got back from Chloe and Hunter’s wedding celebration in NC and I finally had a chance to have some quality time with my friend’s babies. I met Chloe’s baby, Davis, who was wearing mini jeans and a cashmere sweater at brunch.

Christina’s 10-month old, Nora Jane, was walking and working it in a Ralph Lauren onesie.

Jessica’s 5-week-old twins, Cooper and Mason came too and they were wearing matching velour sweatsuits with little ears on their hoodies. You can never go wrong with mini ears on a hoodie.

There were about 20 of us at brunch and of course we all wanted to hold the babies so I had to act fast. I snatched Davis out of Chloe’s arms as she entered the restaurant before even greeting her and then made sure that I had my turn with both Cooper and Mason. It can get a bit tense with 15 ladies and only 4 babies to hold but we managed to get through it without any altercations. Nora Jane was a bit trickier as she is walking now and not as easy to man-handle but I managed to kiss her fat cheeks a few times. You can see her trying to escape my grip in the picture below.

Oh man I miss being around those girls!

Facebook TMI

linbmcc — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:25:12 +0000

This was on my Facebook news feed this morning, posted by a former classmate from Grad School:

Is this the “high” that so many people speak of? To finally find that special someone, commit and the promise the rest of your life to that person? I don’t know, but when I look at her, I smile and I’m happy.

Stop it, I barf.