Last weekend was the annual Veggie Pride Parade in New York and since this was the second year I walked in the parade I was determined to morph myself into a veggie superstar. The reality is I would attend a Meat Maniacs Parade if it existed; I buy hot dogs from the vendor on the street, believe no meal is complete without some type of meat, and love the smell of a barbecue. I am a meat lover, but for the sake of being in the parade I had to disguise my love of the pig.
I knew I wanted to make a sign this year because last year I felt like an interloper without one, and also carrying a sign was a sure fire way of getting on the Veggie Pride Parade website — and I was right.
My goal in making the sign was to not take an anti-meat stand, but to celebrate vegetables and I came up with this:
I knew the sign was a success when random people (or should I say cucumbers, carrots, and asparagus.) asked to take my picture. It's a good day when a couple strangers dressed as pears ask to pose for a picture with you.
I had the best time breaking out some
No group wants to highlight their weirdos— and every group has a few— but it's too funny not to mention them here. I can respect passion for something but when your passion verges on insanity and feels preachy then I can't respect that. I dodged the guy toting the megaphone screaming, "You wouldn't eat your cat, so don't eat that burger!" to every man, woman and child innocently standing on the sidelines enjoying their Sunday. There was even a dude who wielded his pointed finger at the passersby like a catholic school nun preaching good manners– he was hard to take
Tomorrow is National Record Store Day!
http://www.recordstoreday.com/HomeThis day was developed in 2007 —took long enough to make such a day if you ask me— to celebrate independently-owned record stores. Stores across the country are getting together with local and big named musicians to basically rock out and celebrate music.
I'll definitely be visiting my favorite record stores tomorrow to celebrate the day, and hopefully come back with a handful of records and a jive in my step.
This makes me think about how much I loved the movie Empire Records and how I wanted to be Renee Zellweger's character, but not for the slutty disposition rather for the chance to sing with a rock band. She totally kicked butt at the end when she got up on stage and became a spunky, kick-ass, rock star. The movie didn't necessarily make me want to work in a record store when I grew up, but it did make me want to listen to rock music, fall in love with grunge rockstars, and mope around with my adolescent problems.
If you can't make it to any record stores tomorrow at least celebrate by renting this movie. In case you haven't seen it here's a little teaser, and if you have then you already know.
For information on the day and to find local record stores, go to their website.
I was bored one day so I decided to google "common acronyms used in texts", and I could not believe how many there were. I was just starting to get the hang of reading SMH (shaking my head) and now I have to look out for ACORN, A Completely Obsessive Really Nutty person. There's even a code for Starbucks (*$); it's crazy what's out there.
I've always found those acronyms to be ridiculous, lazy, and/or totally unrealistic. How many times do you witness something that makes you actually roll on the floor laughing (rofl)? And how long does it take to type sorry (soz), do we really need a short cut to apologize to someone?
http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.phpWhen I was perusing the list I found a few that don't seem to make texting easier. IHTFP stands for both I Have Truly Found Paradise and I Hate This F-ing Place. Now that's just confusing, how am I to know if you like the place or not?
I was pretty cool in the fifth grade when I would form a "W" with my hands to oppose another person or raise my palm out to someone and tell them to "talk to the hand" when they said something I didn't agree with, but these acronyms are on a completely different level. If I were a teenager now —which I assume are the majority of text acronym users— I would need a little print out of the list next to my computer to remember all of them.
This made me think whether teenagers ever accidentally slip in, 2B or not 2B, when quoting Shakespeare in their English reports. I'm sure there were times when I shot my teacher a "W" because I was so used to doing it with my friends.
I'm probably making a big deal out of nothing but text acronyms bug me, or maybe it's because I don't understand them. Either way I won't be Lol-ing in a text message anytime soon.
You should take a look at the list yourself here. It's pretty fun to read all the crazy ones out there.
This is what I've been telling myself almost everyday for the last month in a half, "Update your blog." But this wasn't said just simply in one concise sentence but rather placed on repeat until it got so loud I couldn't do anything else but, update my blog. So here I am; I've finally decided to listen to myself.
It feels good to finally shut my little voice up.
"Update your blog. Update your blog. Do it, Update your blog. Update! Blog!"
The End.
I promise this is only the beginning of a constant stream of updates.
I've been living in New York for 549 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes and 9 seconds. I think I would go a little crazy if I didn't leave every once in a while. I knew the time would come when I'd be on the brink of blowing smoke out of my ears and having my head explode if I didn't plan my mini-escape soon.
So with the pup safely boarded with my friends I headed out to the great Midwest, specifically my home state of Wisconsin. It felt good to be back amongst the open space, fresh air, and people that say "hi" to you for no reason but to be nice. It was a short trip, about five days, and I had a lot of ground to cover.
I always make a list of things I have to do when I visit home, and that list always seems to be a little different each time I make it. It usually consists of what some people might see as minimal things, but to me they're the things I haven't seen or done in a number of years. It's a remembrance time for me and often times a little therapeutic, especially this time around because I was about ready to blow my top in the city.
Good News!
Yesterday I started an Etsy shop. If you're unfamiliar with Etsy, it's an online store where you can buy and sell anything handmade, as well as
I've started my shop with a few photographs I've taken around NYC. I will be adding more items once I complete a few artistic projects I've been working on, so please check in periodically.
If you're interested, here's the link to my personal Etsy shop, http://www.etsy.com/shop/applepieandcheddar.
