Tempting fate...or, Come On, Irene

Magnet #1281 - Accidents will occur

This magnet made me laugh this morning, because as I type, I'm sitting in a rather nice but kind of ridiculous Delta gate at LGA, waiting for my noon flight. To North Carolina. In the midst of a hurricane.

Note: This silliness is only outdumb'd by me thinking I might actually make it home to NYC on Sunday night.

I'm headed to Raleigh, so that Save the World Couple and I can drive up to Richmond and meet up with DCSis for a weekend in Richmond. You know, the town that was superclose to this week's earthquake epicenter and that's now also relatively close to the Irene's path, too?

The airport's pretty calm right now, so I should be totally fine getting down to NC, but I suspect that it'll be DCSis' bus trip from DC down to Richmond that will be plagued with troubles, if not cancellation.

I'll totally admit here that I'm sad to be missing NYC in a hurricane, but at this point, nothing will stop us from heading into a hurricane to celebrate the baby sister's 30th birthday.

Ya'll stay safe out there, Eastern Seaboard!

A little rockin' and rollin'

Magnet #1278 - Keep Calm & Rock On

Earthquake! Good gravy. Before today, this magnet totally had another meaning. Now? It's all about the earthquake.

We were sitting in our offices when one of the 20somethings said, arms outstretched, "Whoa, what's that?" And we all realized we were feeling a little sustained flutter of movement.

Within seconds we realized it was an earthquake. Actually, I double-checked and it was @JenniferEhle who told me so. After that, TweetDeck totally blew up.

So totally cool! What a fun afternoon! I've always wanted to feel an earthquake, but didn't want to travel to California to do it. Now, I can cross that off my bucket list. And it was a small one, no really big casualties. Perfect! Thanks, Universe!

I do love how it was totally like a bad TNT movie, with people evacuating buildings, and shutting down businesses and other public institutions. You just know that somewhere out there, there's some really hot geologist, like a Dean Cain or John Schneider or Luke Perry, running around with stacks of paper in hand, saying, "I told you so, get me the President!" while searching for his family and cute kids.

Meanwhile, the team and I just sat upstairs in the office, and chatted away. (Much like the great blackout years ago, where I didn't leave the office once, and missed all the fun shenanigans on the streets.)

Now you know where I was when the Virginia Earthquake 2011 happened.

Of course, given that the rumble was felt from Toronto down to Georgia, it totally poked a hole in our family emergency plan, where if some giant emergency happens, I walk down to DC, pick up DCsis, and then we walk down to North Carolina and hang out at the Abellaland compound. We always figured nothing would be happening in North Carolina.

Yep. Guess we figured wrong.

Pine Bank Arch

Magnet #1091 - Pine Bank Arch, John Hall

John Hall shot this image of Pine Bank Arch in Central Park, back in 1996, the year after I moved to New York. It's gorgeous, no?

It was built in 1861, just at the beginning of the Civil War. If you want to get technical, it's really a bridge, and is about 80 feet long, and about 11 feet up (to allow for the bridle path below). It's also one of the few remaining original cast-iron bridges left in the park.

Snow-covered Central Park is pretty much how I left New York a few weeks ago before I came down here to North Carolina to take care of a family emergency. Who knows what it'll look like when I get back up there. When I do, though, I definitely have to take this Forgotten NY tour - would love to be able to see all of the stunning bridges and arches the park has to offer. You kind of just take them for granted when you're there, but flipping through those bridges makes me want to spend the day in the park.

For now, though, I'll definitely enjoy the spring temps of NC - it's supposed to be 73 tomorrow and in the high 60s this weekend.

Yep. I just did a magnetblog about the weather. Too bad I didn't think about the weather before I packed all my sweaters a couple of weeks ago!

I've been to the year 2000

Magnet #866 - OpSail 2000

C'mon. No one has that Year 3000 Jonas Brothers song in their head now? Just me? Ok, then.

I've magnetblogged on the wonders of OpSail 2000 before, so I picked this for today's magnet for a couple of reasons...besides trying to get it out of my Photobucket "Not Used" album.

First, it's so darned hot outside that I could even relent on my No Sailing rule today. Might be nice to be out on the water. If only I could drag along a hospital on a barge behind me.

Second, because it's an old magnet. People always make fun of me for refusing to get rid of things. But lesson learned today. I had to go back into the archives to something we did back in 2003. Not only did I find the missing ad, but I found all the back-up for it. Which I guess is not any worse than when I had to pull stuff from the last century. But still. Keep it or need it, people!

Finally, because shoot, it's an old magnet! Which declares that I have apparently been collecting magnets for at least 10 years now. Now that's just crazy. Maybe I just happened to keep this magnet? I dunno.

Ok, ok. I'll admit to being a bit of a packrat.

After all, I'm still wearing T-shirts from whatever years those cute boys sold me T-shirts out of the bottoms of their duffel bags in the early 1990s at Carolina.

And I do still wear that one holey shirt from when Big River played in Charlotte.

In 1990.

Whoa.

Take cover!

Magnet #751 - Woman with a Parasol, facing right

There goes Monet again, painting a million studies of one subject in a million different lights. This one is a pretty famous subject, it's Monet's wife Camille, whom he's painted several times as the woman with a parasol, in the late 1800s.

I picked this one, because today was a rainy day, and the last rainy day I had was the Sunday of the Transitions Championship, where we were inundated with hours and hours of rain, lightning and thunderstorms.

As my friend posted on my Facebook status, they do not play with lightning down in Florida. No freakin' kidding.

They had horns! Blowing! They cleared off the course in seven minutes flat!

We had to shoo people into pavilions!

Seriously. And, there I was, standing outside our tent, yelling at the passing crowds, "If you are seeking shelter, please! Come! Inside! But remember! Do NOT touch any of the metal parts of the tent!"

The crowds giggled as they passed me, and then I found a slew of frat boys in front of the tent...leaning up against the metal braces.

Mind you, who knows if those boys were any better off than the guys walking with their own little golf parasols ignoring the inclement weather warnings altogether.

Silly boys.

Rollin' with the snowballs

Magnet #735 - Snowman

I couldn't have the "mega" storm of the century go by without using this CVS magnet!

I've said it before - one of my favorite things in this city is driving through a fresh snow in the middle of the night. It's one of the few times when New York seems at peace.

And, right now, we have a fair amount of snow on the ground, and falling. It's lovely out there.

Snow always reminds me of rolling snowballs in our front yard.

We'd start at the farthest corner, and just start rolling. Across the whole front lawn, down the front of the house, down the hill, then along to the road and back to the front again.

We'd just keep going round and round, til all you could hear in the quiet was the crunching and packing in of the snow on to the ball, and then the sounds of the grunts, as it the snowball grew bigger and bigger, until it was both bigger than we were, and hard as hell to push around.

Then the snowball would just sit at the far end of the front yard, melting day by day, sometimes the only pile of snow left as far as the eye could see.

No, there wasn't any reason we did it. But, man, we'd do that snowball before we'd even think of doing a snowman. Heh.

Good times.

I kinda wanted to do that tonight, on the way home, when the only sound in the car was the clicking of my blackberry keys and the sound of snow crunching and packing in under the car.

Can you imagine? Rolling a snowball down Broadway in the middle of the night, before everyone starts shoveling and salting the sidewalks. How big would that thing be if you want all the way down the West Side.

Freakin'. Awesome, is how big.

Baby, it's cold outside

Magnet #719 - SoapNet Cold

Oh, it's not that cold, but how could I let Snowmaggeddon 2010 go by without using this magnet?

Seriously, I can't believe how much people are all freaking out over this snow here in NYC. It isn't that bad.

Well, I guess, til I try to go to work tomorrow. And even then, it still probably won't be that bad.

Sheesh.

I will say it is wreaking havoc over work schedules around here, folks from the burbs having to work from home, or dragging their kids around, or businesses closing because people can't get in.

I'm kinda torn. For as much as I really, really, really want a snow day, we don't have time for it at work. But, I love coming in on snow days, because seriously, I get so much more work done when others aren't around. I'm betting it's partially because I'm way more productive in sweatshirts and jeans.

On the other hand, it does bug the crap out of me when people use it as an excuse. Oh, I'm not coming in today, because I don't want to be in the weather. Oh, I can't get into work, because of the weather.

Which holds true, if you're far away and relying on trains, planes and automobiles.

But, seriously, if you live nine blocks away from work?

I think you should be getting your ass out into that cold. Heh.

Skid row

Magnet #671 - Washington, DC

Yep, I'm supposed to be shopping for pick-up presents and birthday presents, but I totally bought this magnet today - with a special trip to CVS and a fight with the self-checkout machine over it, as well.

With me having lived in NY since 1995, and DCsis having lived DC since 2000, we've always had a healthy competition over who has the better city. I tend to side with NY, naturally.

But for today and all of next week, I'm going to be a Washingtonian, shopping and eating here today, and next week working out of our DC office.

I like that my first day here, the U.S. Senate passed an $871 billion health care reform plan. And I'll tell you, they're gonna need it, all for the folks in DC who have to walk around the sidestreets of town.

I just spent 10 minutes navigating through what should have been a 5-minute walk to the Metro, stepping over several icy patches on the sidewalks - which of course is totally homeowners liability, methinks - and over streets that were plowed a while ago, but not salted, so now, they're a ridiculous mess - half ice, half clear.

What is that? You can say DC wasn't prepared for the Storm of the Century, but c'mon now, it's been a week! Go borrow some salt from somewhere. These icy conditions are treacherous.

Oh, I'm not saying NY's any better, but at least they seem to be maintaining streets and sidewalks. Leaving whole neighborhoods to fend for their icy selves seems to be pretty dangerous.

I full on expect the main arteries to be perfectly fine, but dang, throw a girl some salt!

eta:
OMG! Hey, whatever holidays you're celebrating, hope they're merry and bright, and of course, joyful!

Not yet!

Magnet #601 - Hawaii

I've done several magnetposts on Hawaii - it's so weird how many magnets I have from there, considering I've never been!

And no offense to our 50th state, but I'm not a huge fan of islands. Mostly because of the sun, surf, and sand - nope, not a beachgoer, am I.

Yet, here we are.

My sister gave me this supercool retro Hawaii travel poster, and I'm using it today because right now, I kinda want to be there right now.

Because right now, on the 15th of October, at 5:40pm, it's flippin' 40 damn degrees!

October!

15th!

What the heck, man?

I mean, I love winter as much as the next person, but it is way too early for it to be snowing anywhere. That's just insane.

And from what I hear, it's supposed to be a supercold winter. I'm not entirely sure what happened to Global Warming, and yet. Here. We. Are.

Not yet, Old Man Winter! Not! Yet!

What's bugging joy

Magnet #347 - John Derian Bug 29

Time again for this series of John Derian magnets from Target that I mentioned a while ago.

Pretty much everything's bugging me today, so I won't pick on any one thing. Mainly because oh, there are SO many to choose from, and then I wouldn't be spreading any joy, now would I. Hmph. You've no idea how hard it is to live up to my name sometimes. People just expect me to be happy, when in fact, this pretty much sums up how I feel right now.

Of course, it's the thing out of my control that I'm most frustrated about, which is that they're calling for 3-5 inches of snow today and tonight. It's been snowing steadily since I left the apartment this morning. And I just took this from our floor within the last hour.

Good grief. If you're gonna snow, then snow, darnit. None of this pretty, pretty snow crap and then not sticking.

Otherwise, it's superpretty, but doesn't get me out of being here at work.


eta:
And of course, London's all oooooh, we gots snooooow. Hmph.