The more things change...

You guys haven't seen too many photos of Deejster and I as wee ones, and rest assured, we've noticed the dearth too. I promise we have a slew of "awwww, look how cute" snap shots of ourselves collecting dust in my parents' basement, where all of our family photos currently reside. Sounds kind of effed up, right? Who leaves their FAMILY PHOTO ALBUMS, the keepsakes most cherished and lunged for at the mere hint of the word "FIRE!" in the freaking BASEMENT, WHERE THE CAT PISSES, where they are just TEMPTING FATE awaiting the next flash flood?

My mom does, that's who.

"Why don't you put the albums underneath the coffee table in the living room?" I suggest, referring to the barren second tier beneath the glass just begging to serve its damn purpose.

"Because I don't WANT THEM there," she'll say with exaggerated patience in way of explanation the way another person might say "because as you are well aware, there is a bulbous troll that lives underneath the table who will gorge himself on our family memories and squirt diarrhea all over the white carpet." Duh, Lizz!

So in the basement they remain, until my dad gets bored and shuffles down there for a nostalgia fix. Only problem? He's COMPLETELY BIASED, which is why Deej gets adorable photos like THIS sent to his attention:

While I get a copy of my PE report card from 5th grade:

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=c0e839fc1c&view=att&th=11dd493da8c6982c&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw

Yeah yeah, "too many puddings, tubby!" blah blah, but sadly, I'll bet those stats are pretty on par with what I can do today, running and sit-up wise. an 11 minute mile's not so bad, no? I definitely still can't do a pull up--go me!

and baby pictures that would lead the casual observer to believe I have Down Syndrome:

Thanks a million, Pops!

And Happy Thanksgiving! I'll be in Pittsburgh with Cor's family until Saturday, and the first thing I'm going to ask his brother when I arrive is where they keep their photo albums.

time to phone it in.

Shit, guys, I'm burnt out.

The next couple of weeks are kind of make-or-break time here at work, when the objective is to turn as many books into reprint orders before the new year, or before the economy irreversibly slides into the crapper, whichever comes first. So ever since I've returned from Frankfurt, it's been like "enter these ten books that arrived into the database. Are you done entering those? Great, now enter these ten. Are you done entering those? Great, now enter these twenty, make a bid on this one, get into a mind-numbingly pointless and tangential discussion with your department about why this book that clearly sucks doesn't really suck, does it? and do copyright pages for these 9 books."

That's what it's been like.

Pair this with a new eating regimen that has me feeling kind of out of sorts (but ultimately a lot more comfortable in my own skin) and I just don't seem to have a lot of excess energy for updating this thingy lately.

Not very conducive to regaling you with cool fodder, and as you can see, the tales I can offer up at this point in time are so boring they will make you want to cry. Hoping to rectify that by December, but for the time being, I'm happy to report that Cory has been in a frenzy of blog-updating activity. You see, my boyfriend has this thing. He loves making top ten lists. Of everything irrelevant, i.e, Sorry, John Cusak, but ex girlfriends and albums are a little too pat, as he would much rather focus his energies on Top Ten Time Machines of all time, Top Ten Sodas, and Top Ten Fictional Presidents. Check it out, and I'll be back when I'm back.

http://cdawgsworld.blogspot.com/

Big Shoes Like Boats to fill..

hope you're up to the task, new ladies of SNL...my heart still bleeds for Amy, particularly after seeing this:

http://jezebel.com/5087948/amy-poehlers-smart-girls-has-all-the-write-stuff

This makes me laugh and clap harder than you can ever imagine.

Autumn in Pictures

What's here isn't even half the pictures I've taken or have had taken in the past two months, but putting everything up through Blogger takes forever. This is a pretty decent assortment, methinks, with the primary focus obviously centered around my trip to Germany, as I have yet to load  any of those on Facebook or Snapfish.  

For someone who typically has to conjure deep within herself the gusto to walk across the street and get more toilet paper at On The Run, I'm pretty happy that it's been an inarguably eventful past few months. 

Jamie and Chris's Wedding, September 26th

Wine tasting in Seneca Falls/Geneva, NY with Cory, Kerstin and Matt, September 27th






Frankfurt Bookfair. October 15th--18th

A list of all of the international publishers representing books.
The outside of the original part of the convention center
a view from inside one of the halls. There were 8 in total.

Birds-eye view of the floor of Hall 8.0, the English speaking hall where my colleagues and I spent most of the fair.
  View of the International Hall 6.0 floor.
The fun hall where all the comic books were, Hall 3.0. Sadly, no meetings here, but I had quite a bit of time to wander around between appointments and actually hit every hall (no small feat), so can't complain.
This fair is so big that they appoint these little trams to shuttle you from one hall to the next.
Outside one of the convention halls.
They also had indoor corridors linking each hall, but even taking advantage of the moving sidewalks the center provided (by which I mean CONTINUING TO WALK ON THEM to your destination--it's not a damn RIDE, people! Whew, sorry about that) didn't guarantee that your feet wouldn't be aching by the end of each day, which they totally were.
The vendors who set up shop outside the convention center could easily have gotten me into a lot of trouble, but I resisted their siren call: only bought some souvenirs for friends and the fam.
A gift shop we stumbled on in the "old" part of Frankfurt that had a gift shop chock full of teddy bears!  Since going here, I've been inspired to start singing Mama the "Teddy Bear Picnic" song, but I can't remember any of the words except "That's the day, the teddy bears have their piiiiicc-nic." I'm sure Mama is crushed.

I looked everywhere for the capuchin, but no dice.

The reason I sandwiched "old" in quotations when describing this particular section of Frankfurt is because the architecture of these buildings is meant to replicate those of the original set along this square, sort of an Epcot Center-esque tribute to what was there before WWII. All but a few of the buildings in downtown Frankfurt were bombed during the war, and this is the only part of the city that tries to capture that old world charm. The rest of the city is thoroughly modern and sleek; skyscrapers, a huge airport and train station that puts our own to shame, and both subway and tram systems for navigating the city.


Sausages! Confession time--they were kind of bland. But the saurkraut and potatoes were delicious.
Not to mention the huge steins of beer (duh).

View of the River Main from a footbridge.  Despite Frankfurt being less tourist driven than Berlin or Munich, pedestrians and cyclists are catered to everywhere. This was just one of a few bridges.









Oh Irish pub behind my hotel, you don't know how indebted to your beer and surprisingly decent nachos I was. 
View of the Main River from the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel, where were invited to a fancy party.
The city at night.


Frankfurt Opera House




I like this statue.
Haha, I never know which one our own economy is at any given time, but as far as I'm concerned, they should both be wearing signs that say "SOL" anyway--the only silver lining is that Germany's own economy also took a hit just before we arrived, which meant that the exchange rate dramatically lowered and I didn't end up having to spend as much money on my hostel, sight-seeing, and souvenirs as I had originally anticipated.


haha, it says "schmuck."

Inside the immaculate train station.
The outside of the train station

Tram! 
 I believe this is the oldest and most expensive hotel in the city, probably on par with our Waldorf.


Halloween at Colie's in Bethlehem, PA--new apartment!

November 4th/5th--Celebrating Obama's victory and the wee hours of my birthday with about three hundred of my closest friends. An incredible night.

This is where I was on Tuesday/Wednesday!

Specifically, the crowd that amassed at St. Marks and 1st around 12:30 after our game. It was an amazing night to be a New Yorker and an even more amazing night to be an American. That I got to share the experience with some of my favorite people, including Meghan, Evan and Jess, and cherished broomball peeps--and have them sing to me hours after the win was announced--was icing on the birthday cake. What will top 28?

What a week. Lots of pictures to come and lots to catch up on in general when the celebrating dies down a bit (not tonight! slightly post birthday happy hour @ Iggy's, should you be in the area and reading this) and I can catch up on things.