back and forth....

Forever. That's how long it's been since I posted to the blog. Sorry! So here goes:

I think the last time I blogged was early December. Since then, I finished my first semester of grad school (as did Tara-- yay!). Grades were fine, but I'm still a little helpless.

I then went NYC to my parent's in Harrisburg, PA. Spent a few days there, soaking up cookies and Christmas and presents. super fun :).
A few days later, Dan came and picked me up (and gave me lovely presents!) and the next day we headed down to Annapolis for a few days. This included my super fun birthday '05. Geoff, Paulie, Dan, Stacey, Elliot, and others came out and partied it up at Pharmacy Bar in DC until I was drunk enough to eat a jumbo slice.

On the 30th, Dan and I went to West VA to go skiing at snowshoe with 15 of his closest friends. Turns out, they're super-cool. We had hella fun. I'm not such a bad skiier, if I do say so myself. There was a sweet hot tub, lots of games, and some cool people. Mikey and I are now set on planning a co-new-years trip of our own. Penny, meanwhile, had a great week in nap-town with Dan's sister.
We went back from WVA to Annapolis, and from there I hit Harrisburg for a night, and then back home to NYC.

Dan moved up to Queens last Friday! He had a lovely Lost/birthday party here on Wednesday, and is finally 24, so I don't feel so old. He got a job at a restaurant a block from Mikey & I's place, and started yesterday. Geoff-- remember Annie's? The place with the insane brunch of great happiness? He's working there.

I start back to classes on Tuesday-- I think it's going to be a tough semester. We'll see though. I guess I'll make it through. :)

So that's all for now-- sorry I'm not more interesting. Happy New Year to everyone; I hope all your dreams come true and each of you moves to New York.

"If you hurt us, I'll kill you."

...That was the opening line to the rogue cab ride that ended our evening last night. It was POURING rain and as expected, no cab drivers wanted to pick us up (why the FUCK are DC cab drivers so fuckin stuck up?!?!). we finally got picked up by some dude in a black nissan (he was from some one of those countries in Africa). he was sitting at his house in alexandria and decided that he should try to make a few extra bucks by bringing drunk people home from adams morgan (tara says "he could've gotten in _major_ trouble." ...it's true). i told him he was quite the entrepeneur.

it was a fantastic birthday w/ fantastic folks. i wish more opals could've been there, but it was quite opalistic (sans bistro du coin). the evening started at lucky bar (at 5:30pm) and rocked itself through to gazuza, then chief ike's (where i love to party-- so does tara) and then to the post-bar binge of 2000 calorie pizza mart pizza (bigger than your head, yo). tara, in fact, walked halfway through adams morgan w/ her stilletos in her hands instead of on her feet (mad respect to a girl who wears heels and even more to a girl who's not afraid to take 'em off). tara says "i probably have some horrible fungus now, or probably caught VD --even though that's not possible." geoff says "what's VD?"

that's it for now every opal. we love you.

co-posted by: Geoff and Tara, "we aim to entertain."

Happy drunk birthday to every

Happy drunk birthday to every opal!!

happy birthday goog.

i hope you get everything you've ever wanted for your birthday.

have fun!

Nicholas Sparks is my hero.

Ummm...speaking of crying because of movies, I just saw The Notebook for the first time (you know, starring Ryan Gosling's and Rachel McAdams's kisses). I have been sobbing for the last ten minutes. After watching The Notebook. Jesus Christ, I'm hopeless.

retro december mash

ladies and gentlemen... i've been holding back on posting for a really long time, and then i just realized i had a ton of fun things to share from the past month. now i'm feeling a bit of blog'vomit coming on... roll w/ me for a moment though, it might be fun. yah? you want to?


Happy New Year to every opal! While we begin this new year, i just wanted to stroll you through the fun i had in december. december marked the month that i applied for, was offered and accepted a new position at fleishman-hillard... this past friday was my last day at CTSG. CTSG is dunzo! i'll keep you posted on my new work'life at FH. so in the midst of interviewing for a new job, quitting and transitioning out of my old one...


i went to boston to see my buddy tom from high school. our other buddy joe happened to be in town for the same weekend so we had a little reunion (the last time we'd really spent a lot of time together was 7th period lunch hour of my senior year of high school). mucho fun...


then the next weekend mr. mikey fabiani came down to DC to hang out. we chilled and did a lot of relaxing and chillin out. it was much fun. one night, paulie and mikey took this picture with my camera, but i had no idea they'd taken it... it's fun though, right?


oooh, then i got to hang out w/ pretty patty for christmas. we had a wonderful time. my mom gave each of us one of these little turtle dove ornaments because she said they reminded her of that bird lady from home alone 2 (when they say something like "as long as you have one, and i have one, we'll always be friends." oh pretty patty. you're so cute!)


i also got to hang out w/ my little baby cousin. well, he's my cousin's baby... so that makes him something other than my cousin, but fuck that whole geneology thing for right now. he's just super cute and we had a ton of fun hanging out.


a quick trip back down to DC and low and behold ms. erica martinson was standing by, ready to celebrate her big, bad 25 birthday. we went out in adams morgan and had a ton of fun. at the end of the night i made erica take a glamour shot to showcase her new jewelry from her two favorite guys: dan and geoff (look out dan, it's a competition now...)




and as erica headed out to the mountains w/ dan, i headed up to NY w/ amtrak. a quick train ride took me right to mikey where we went to see brokeback mountain a few hours later (i cried and cried and cried for about half hour AFTER the movie ended). all the cool kids made their way to mikey's apt and we ate momma fabiani's italian cooking before heading out to central park to ring in the new year w/ a bunch of crazy folks who embarked on a 4 mile run at midnight... we drank champagne (like normal people).

BON ANNIVERSAIRE, ERICA!

A pineapple opal for a pineapple opal kind of girl:



(i'm completely incapacitated today. erica, i started celebrating your birthday early and it hurts;)

amusez-vous bien ce soir, mes opals!

happy holidaze

Hmmm....

Your Christmas Song Is

Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer Grandma got run over by a reindeer Walking home from our house Christmas eve. You can say there's no such thing as Santa, But as for me and Grandpa, we believe. You're not looking to the family holiday thing... Unless someone gets run over by a reindeer!

What Christmas Carol Are You?

Your 2005 Song Is

Feel Good Inc by Gorillaz "Love forever love is free. Let's turn forever you and me." In 2005, you were loving life and feeling no pain.

What Hit Song of 2005 Are You?

Whither Clark Griswold?

There should be a brand new Family Guy on right now AND the first network showing of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation this year, but instead, I must watch W drawl his way through a national address, trying to tell me that the war in Iraq must go on. Hearing him speak makes me want to break up Christmas ornaments and shove the glass shards in my ears. I just want to watch some holiday programming, but must instead listen to this bullshit. Joy to the world and peace on earth and goodwill toward men, my ass.

It's that time of year!

I know that, like me, many of you o-pals are watching The OC right now, and so I just wanted to extend a little holiday cheer.

Happy Chrismakkuh, everyone!
(And a Festivus for the rest of us.)

I don't get it...

How can time move so fast and so slow all at the same time? I can't wait to be done with finals, but I don't have enough time to get anything done! On top of that-- Christmas is next week!

So, since I don't have much time to post, here's my addition:

Go here to download a free podcast of A Christmas Carol. It's free from Penguin Classics, and they're doling it out in installments. You can subscribe directly in iTunes, and it's still free. Get your holiday spirit on the go!

xoxo, Erica

Party party party party party

Okay, I am definitely having a New Year's Eve par-TAY. And yes, it will be a par-TAY. So, come one, come all. You are obviously excused if you live overseas or in a cooler city than DC. I found a ton of champagne flutes at IKEA last weekend, so this shin-dig will have class. And I have lots and lots of space for people to mill around and generally have a good time. Do come, all Opals. It might even turn into a dance party.

funny... i think

Ok- I didn't rewatch it, but this weekend Mikey & I lost our shit watching Dane Cook's 9 minute opening monologue on SNL. We may have been, well, let's say more-inclined-to-laugh at the time. Still worth watching. See it here.

I am a victim of crime...

because I was mugged on my way to sing at church on Sunday. Literally 1/2 block away from the front door of Immaculate Conception on 8th and N, a teenager grabbed me, said, "Give up your purse, bitch," hit me in the neck, and ran away. Not only did he get my bag, palm pilot, Aveda Lip Saver, and wallet, but he knocked my fresh Gingerbread Latte out of my hand. My only consolation is that he only got $1 after publicly assaulting me...A passerby tried to chase him down in his jeep, but the young man who relieved me of my possessions ducked into an alley somewhere. And honestly, what sort of legitimate criminal is out and about at 9:30 on a Sunday morning? All joking aside, it is very upsetting that this kid was a kid, and that he felt the need to call me a bitch and hit me to get my bag. I was actually looking up to say hello to him before he attacked me, so filled am I with the holiday spirit. Son of a bitch.
But on a different note, I just saw a story on the news about an aspiring model who hired a hitman to kill four men who she thought were cocaine dealers with a huge stash (she wanted to sell the coke herself to make money for modeling school). Turns out, the hitman was an undercover cop, and the coke stash was a block of cheese. Yes, cheese.

BONNE NOUVELLE

STAYING UNTIL JUNE!!!!!!!!!!!


so fucking happy.

irregardless

It rained last night…

…and I realized that my jacket isn’t completely water-proof. It was raining as I waited for 15 minutes to get into a cab at U Street. The cabs were unwilling to pick up new passengers. Using my drunken logic, I decided to move to a new location.

Soaked and freezing, I eventually got a cab at Thomas Circle. As the cabby started driving, he talked about how it sucked that he had to go all the way to my out-of-the-way neighborhood. He’d rather be driving home to be with his family. He stopped at a red light; I asked him with the lazy tone of Paris Hilton, "Why are you trying to make me feel bad about this?" I got out of the cab without paying.

After more struggle with unwilling cab drivers, I got a new cab. The driver was a lanky, dark-skinned man who had scraggly hair and a graying beard. He put the cab into gear, turned the radio up and sang along to Bob Marley. In the back seat of his warm cab, I swept the water off my jacket and sat listening to him singing, with a smile across my face.

Big Ad

I think this might be my new favorite beer just because of this commercial:
http://www.bigad.com.au/
Brilliant!

now it's on

all of yous that are prancing around in 50+ weather, you are not normal. it is décembre...and it is definitely right around 0°C every parisian day. and that is not normal either, but sometimes i wish that all opals (not just caropal) had to wear winter coats.
i won't post that tasty turkey picture because i think it disturbed far too many people. luckily, most of them saw it after thanksgiving, which was not the case for me. nevertheless i convinced a french team of chefs to rent another resto's oven and cook 16 turkeys last thursday. i've acquired some SKILLS...or maybe just a really cute accent. the resto even put small jars of peanut butter on each table, which i thought was completely endearing but everyone else thought was just plain odd. and quite a few students-with too many bottles of bad table wine on their table-claimed some sort of subversion as the cause, whereas it was really just sweet frenchies sticking to their american culinary stereotypes. thus went my thanksgiving.
keeping with the recent holiday twist of e-opaldom, i bought a christmas tree, bags of gummy candy and lots of arts&crafts material yesterday and threw it all in the "salon" of our maison particulière (NYU). the tree salesman said "joyeux noël" to me as i walked away with the stumpy tree, truly giving meaning to this cold cold time of year. it sparked something, and even though i had only 3 hours of sleep the night before (or maybe because of), i was prancing around all day turning up the frenchie xmas tunes and encouraging the artsy kidz to get more creative with construction paper.
oh yes. watch this little short and fall in love with it: http://www.cube-creative.fr/site/html/nt/nt_lc/akoa_hd.html (how do i add a link?) à quoi ça sert l'amour = what's the use in love? the clip explains it all: amusement. hope y'all are amused.
xoxo
care