Amber & Signs and Their Meanings

This can only mean one thing.

It's time to pull out the purple puff coat.

And maybe one of those flags to help me cross the street.

Amber & Target Demographic

So, I was just in D.C. overnight for biznusses.  And I stayed at the lovely Quincy hotel, mostly because it was cheap and also right around the corner from where the biznusses were conducted.  (And because my old apartment at the Argonne has probably been rented.)  There were several notable things about the Quincy which I will proceed to note hereforth.

1.  The couch in my room was totally the larger L version of my home couch.  Same fabric, same feet shape, same velcro attachments for the pillows.

Same, same, same-- except less cat fur.  And no sheet covering it to protect it from cats or little decorator pillows or Ginger.

2.  There was a very strange music thing happening, both in that they chose to blast all of the songs from my "HS Memories" playlist in the lobby (see sidebar), but also because, very randomly, there was a Billy Squier album cover on the wall on my floor near the elevator.

True, they never played any Billy Squier in the lobby, but there he was, gazing at me while I waited for the elevator.  This prompted Kevin to say, "This must be a hotel for young people."  And that made me laugh uproariously since that album came out before some of my younger friends were born.

3.  There was a giant mirror against the wall.  (Even bigger than yours, CRD.)  It made me realize that I really need a full length mirror if I am going to avoid making outfit mistakes like that one time I wore the balloon top out in public.  Or, maybe just forgetfully not make outfit choices at all.

4.  In this big mirror, I also noticed that my skirt (seen here with the oddly ruffly sweater, both acquired during my total blogging black out at Outlet Mall Weekend Edition of Awesome Club) matched the orange couch pillows.

Is there such a thing as fate?  Are some matches are meant to be?  E.g.,  My skirt + the couch pillows? Me + The Quincy?  This must be a hotel for me.

 Billy Squier doesn't want me to embed his video as my conclusion, but it's here.  But, we also heard this song in the lobby, and it made me touch my heart in nostalgia and emotion.  And a voice inside my head said, "Don't look back-- you can never look back."



Except at the Quincy.

Amber & So Much Has Happened

If you noticed, I have not been blogging lately.  Soooo much has been happening that it has been hard to find time to blog.

For example, I got this new hair...

But then I didn't like that hair and so I got this other new hair that has a tendency to Alfalfa.

I am also, in that photo, wearing a new and very strange ruffle sweater that I got on a special Outlet Mall Weekend Edition of Awesome Club with these boys in a rental vehicle that we could have removed the seats and camped in.

On that trip, I also got this new jacket which matches my tights that I already owned.

Oh!  And there were all these doilies in the office, mysteriously one Monday.  Kevin thought I brought them in.

Oh!  And then there was the week where I bent to get the soap in the shower and stood up and scraped a giant raspberry into my back.  And then, I stubbed my toe in the office.

Although from hair, we can tell that was before.  Probably around the same time I got these great wall flowers in San Francisco.

Oh!  And I painted my nails!

And alot of stuff happened with the cats, but they can't send their Skype BFF photos, so we don't really have the same level of documentation of their activities.

It sure is lucky I am back to blogging so I can do something with these photos daily rather than save them scattered all over my desktop.

Amber & BFFs

I know it's a shoe commercial, but it has the sweetest friends I have ever seen and lovely shots of my home town and an awesome cover by The Ravonettes.



And it's so darned happy making.

It reminds me of me and CRD.  Or me and Kevin.  Or me and Diana.  Friendship.

(Plus I get to use the rare "smoking birds" tag.)

Amber & It's Like Looking in a Mirror

Uncanny.

Lifelike rendering by CRD.  Maybe even more lifelike than this other one.  Your friends do often know you better than you know yourself.

Amber & Parting Gifts

CRD is changing jobs and sent me some wonderful parting gifts, including this one.

Me and my black family thank him.

Amber & Birthday Poose

Happy Birthday, Zachariah!

Make sure that you check our CRD's tribute to his beastie buddy to learn more about my second favorite Awesome Club regular attendee's Qualities which are numerous and cat-like.

If I wasn't on bed rest, I would squeeze you super hard, Zach.

Amber & Trend Smooshing

Who could have foreseen this latest trend in owner-and-cat photography?

The one-eyed love shot?

Oh, cat-allergic-readers, what you miss out on.  There's nothing like smooshing an eye into a cat.

Amber & Back In The Day

The other day, in the context of a mutual outpouring of love fest for this song, CRD remembered that this was once The Only Song That Mattered.



I sure do.  Those were good times.

Amber & Mind Blenders

Sometimes on the weekend when I am engaged in meditative activities like laundry and house chores, my mind is like a blender mixing together different ideas and thoughts and quite often coming to exciting new conclusions (often then forgotten by Monday) or new resolutions.  Today, I made a smoothie from the different delicious fruits and yogurts and ice cubes that CRD served up over at Internals Plural.

I was thinking about what I would be like if I hadn't ever met some of my BFFs and also remembering how central Kate Bush, who might just become HUGE with the Twighlight fans any minute now when they Google "Wuthering Heights," was to many of my first conversations with CRD.  And if it wasn't for Kate, Jerry and I wouldn't have first bonded, and I would have never met his roommate, Kevin, who introduced me to Diana, or his friend Chuck's friend James.  And then who would I be?

And that made me think about how much of who I am, the quintessence not sparked by my BFFs and family, is all thanks to Kate.  After all, Kate defined pretty for me with leotards, beautiful sparkle eyes and red lips.

And where do you think my love of big hair came from?  When I want to be pretty, really, I want to be Kate.

And without Kate, I might not have pursued my dream and honed my skills in interpretive dance...and wouldn't the office be a less interpretive place without it?



And, aren't we, after all, what we eat?



Like a pomegranate, insides out, all is revealed: everything I am, Kate, is you, too.

Amber & Self-Recognition

The person CRD was with when he made this post made this for me.

He got my face shape totally right, and I did henna my hair on Gigi Pooja.  And I do like lady purses, especially ones from outlets, and tacos are a staple of my diet. And I wear glasses, and the body shape is almost dead on.  But I don't have bunny slippers or a gray tabby, and my eyes are so not blue.  I do have these shoes where the rubber outsoles are supposed to come off and you just have the indoor slipper shoe (two shoes for the price of one).

But I never do that.  Slipper inaccuracy aside, is it wrong that I'd rather think this is a better avatar?  Maybe if you squint?

She has bangs, and the right color eyes, and I love wearing scarves.

Amber & R.I.F.

Thanks to CRD for helping me read.

And thanks to Nick for showing me new places where you can read.

Amber & Micro-Targeted Marketing

CRD posted this pug in a Teen Wolf costume on my Facewall yesterday.

So, I logged on to check it out.  And there was this Facead on my profile page.

How did the Facemarketers know that I had a flame-point and a torty who love to drink running water?  What in my profile gave that away?

Amber & Last Week's Brain Fails Are Tomorrow's New Friends

Remember when I learned that I should listen to everything CRD says very very closely because he speaks infinite volumes of wisdom... at least pertaining to DANGER?

Meet Roger.

Roger arrived yesterday in a tube along with a poster about NEW YORK BREASTFEEDING that I had to try to hang on the office wall near the fax machine.  (It's hard to hang stuff on the wall when you are not tall.)  He came with a letter of introduction. It says...

Hello!

I am your new friend Roger. Roger for "roger that, CRD; this pan is hot!"  Please use me as a cute reminder that your pan handle is hot.  As a baby potholder, I can't stand up to hard core use, but I hope to someday grown into a whale of a hot pad.

Glub, glub,

Roger

I used Roger last night, seen above helping to steam edamame during Awesome Club.  Roger's chances of survival to adult potholderhood were put in jeopardy last night when he met Zach the kitty potholder.

But things came out okay, including the edamame, and I no longer have to pay any attention to CRD.

Thanks, Roger!

Amber & Also? This

The latest recent, but not very recent, discovery I made thanks to CRD and the annual playlist he xmas gifts unto me.



It seemed to go with the butterfly.  And I totally want a laser hat and matching gloves.  I wish I had made that video.  I kind of do, often alone in my living room.

Amber & Danger!

When you are cooking a steak for Awesome Club and CRD tells you to watch out because the handle of the cast iron skillet is very hot (since Alton Brown told you to heat it up in the oven first), you should really pay attention.  Or else.

Just like when the horrible studio head tells you that bad things will happen if you don't sign the contract, you'd better sign it.  But then bad things will probably happen anyway.  PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.

Especially if you are a big-mouthed, not very bright aspiring starlet played by Miss Shelley Winters.

I love Robert Aldrich.  He could Kiss Me Deadly any time.  PSYCHO-ANALYSIS.

Also, did you know you aren't supposed to ice burns?

Amber & Le French

You may not know, but Coffee, my on-again-off-again lover, and I broke up again.  I'm totally head over heals for the bean, but we're just not a good fit.  It's not you, Coffee; it's me.  And my shaking hands and acid reflux.

And, I totally recognize that I am on the rebound.  I went back to my old flame, Red Lipstick.  Although I know in the past Lipstick has treated me wrong, it claims to have reformed.  And, I believe it--although I recognize that I may just be taken in by its obvious charms.  Only time will tell.  And my Scramble 2 scores.

When we're going out together, I feel like I can be myself--more monochromatic--just because lipstick is with me.  (That makes Purple my BFF, the third wheel, who will be waiting for me patiently and comfortingly when Lipstick and I are on the rocks again.)  So, today's outfit revolved around a black and white striped t-shirt.  And that made me think of France, and then I had to know why.  So I Googled.  And lo!  It's because of their naval uniforms.

And that made me think of all of the other great things the French have given us.  Herewith, a list of my top five favorite French things.

1.  Striped shirts.

(Even better with red lipstick, which is not French.)

2.  Mayonnaise.  Great with fries, burgers, Sapporo rolls, and turkey sandwiches.  Really, great with just about everything.

3.  Casablanca.  Without Paris, what would we always have?

4.  Jacques Lacan.  Because without the Symbolic Order, I wouldn't have a BFA.  And if I hadn't gotten that degree, I wouldn't have met James or Kevin, and CRD and I wouldn't have half the jokes we have now.  And I wouldn't have really utilized these over-active mirror neurons.

5.  That really great episode of Murder She Wrote where Jessica is in France.

Merci beaucoup, les grenouilles.

Amber & The Simple Pleasures

In the middle of the night, I made a sleepy attempt to reclaim my pillow from Woody.  Although there are two pillows on the bed, he likes to lay on mine, and I know it's not about togetherness because he often winds up nudging my head off the pillow altogether.  So, sometime before dawn, I decided, in my half-awake state to try to create an environment more enticing than my pillow.  And it worked.

It's now the most sought-after environment in the house.

It's just a bunched up sheet on the other side of the bed, with a pillow against it, but I guess that's very snuggly.  (Sorry, CRD.  In the darkness of night, I thought it was my yellow sheet.  I will, of course, wash it again before returning it.)

You'll note that Pickles is snuggled down on the environment with Howl, the wolf bean bag toy.  This is a sign of a truly great environment-- it's comfy enough that you can bring and nap with your prey.

(See Howl sticking out under his tail?)

Of course, the whole point of the environment was to improve my sleeping, and Woody's arrival with Howl, making all kinds of primal, well, howls, was not so conducive to that effort.  But, it sure is a good environment.

Amber & Thinking Ahead

My birthday is just eight and a half months around the corner, so here's a helpful hint-- because there's nothing I am if not a helper.

There is a store on CRD's street that normally sells these patterned hens that I love.  They've now added a second item to their wares which I must have.

See them, there, behind the decorative hens?  They seem to be little coffee tables or stools with photographs of animals wearing suits on them.

See?  That's a cow and a cat up front and what I think is an ostrich and maybe an iguana in the second row.  I love it.  I think maybe I even need it to be happy.

Maybe CRD can go investigate and tell us more (like a price, what they are, etc.).  The shop is never open when I am leaving Awesome Club.

Amber & The Tragedy of Winter

I like winter.  At least when it's cold I can bundle up; there's not much you can do during the hottest days of summer and not get arrested, really.  And I like puff coats, and boots, and wool socks, and hand-knit scarves.  It's a good fashion season for me, maybe because it's so covering.

Plus, if you live in New York, as I do, there's not much use in wasting energy hating the seasons.  They come.  And, they go.  Sunrise, sunset.

But, it sure is hard on my hair.

It's mostly a bummer because my hair is just starting to get flippy again, and I know CRD will never get to see it as long as the weather necessitates wearing a hat.  CRD loves flippy almost as much as he loves girl detectives.

Did you ever notice how unsymmetrical my eyes are?  I sure just did.