Only Team Worth Biting Your Nails

For giggles, I PhotoChopped my way into Mr. Zetterberg's life, and [already funny] wedding photo. What a dashing striped duo!

It's a miracle I have any semblance of fingernails after the Wings' game 7 against the Sharks Thursday (and I'm not a nail biter). I didn't grow up a Wings fan - and I generally never cared much for sports. In middle school I had a brief encounter with volleyball, whined my way through summer tennis camp in high school and turned down the cross country coach's suggestion I give running a shot (I think he was insinuating it's the only sport wherein my gangling body could earn any marginal success).

When my family uprooted from Virginia Beach and settled in Mid-Michigan during my awkward middle-school years, it was difficult to ignore the sea of red and white that would take over our school when the Wings made it to playoffs. Prior to moving to the mitten, my understanding of hockey was limited to what I'd seen in The Mighty Ducks. I probably couldn't have told you if they scored goals or baskets, but I took note that no other sport was as exhilarating to watch as hockey - if nothing else for the requisite fist flailing. Our tube was typically tuned in for playoff games and having made it to the playoffs for 20 consecutive years, the Red Wings have certainly earned the rights to Hockeytown.

My athletic prowess certainly has not developed like my interest in watching the Wings, save for a brief burst in my sophomore year at Grand Valley when I maintained a steady gym routine. It was fall semester when I (a) doubted my preternatural metabolism (b) wanted to spend time wooing Ryan, a [then] GV Lacrosse player. I'm planning on a hula hoop class for this month and, beyond that, my athleticism is limited to what I like to call recreational eating [see: throwing table manners and caution to the wind in the presence of hot dogs, cookies and all things slathered in butter].

I did woo the lacrosse player who helped me finally learn more about the foreign world of sports, and I have been genuinely excited to cheer on the best (and best looking) team in the NHL. I've even made it to a few games at the Joe. Who doesn't like drinking an $8 beer with a stranger's knees digging into their head while shouting at the top of your lungs for a consistently awesome team?

I appreciate other sports, but for different reasons: football has Super Bowl commercials, and soccer has devastatingly handsome soccer players. Sports stats largely sound like another language to me, and I can't get behind the yelling in Sports Center. I am also still confounded by most sport culture. In a nutshell, comedian Whitney Cummings expresses my feelings best:

Springing Forward

I'm falling in love with winter things again - drinking tea, being swallowed in blankets, tights and comfort food...namely butternut squash soup. This might be because my 100 year old house is a veritable 20 degrees colder than it is outdoors, or because embracing spring would mean I've accepted that I am graduating from university in 23 days. [Didn't I just finish high school?]

In addition to coincidentally coordinating my fingernails to my mug of tea, here are some small things that made the past week pretty amazing:

♥ Finally seeing The King's Speech. Amazed by Colin Firth once again. ♥ Thunderstorms before bed, or listening to Rainymood. ♥ Finishing my Whitestrips ♥ Browsing cheeky swimsuits ♥ Yale offering therapy dogs to students. Why hasn't this idea gone viral? ♥ Not drinking soda in ages. ♥ Finding $15 in my Babar cookie jar. ♥ Helping an adorable client and her mother find the perfect graduation dress. ♥ Finding my own graduation dress - with school colors &bold pattern to boot. Need: pockets for snacks during commencement. ♥ Realizing I'm not the only senior experiencing anxiety attacks while looking for jobs

♥ French toast brunch at Marie Catrib's. Long wait &my eggs were a bit dry, but the french toast was pretty fluffy. Challah!!

♥ Did I mention french toast? This creme brulee french toast from Rose's with Michigan maple syrup and strawberries is the best of them all. Talk about incentive to wake up before noon. 

♥ This song, which takes me back to aperitivo with the Ed Banger crew in Roma.




♥ 90s music like this, which remind me of dancing around in piles of costume jewelry with Bridget in our Catholic school uniforms.

Stanley Pup

I've been neglecting this. To make up for it: here's the new pup: Stanley Pup.

[Late] Travel Tuesday

Here's a video I put together from my 20th birthday weekend [September 18-20, 2009] in southern Italy with my Roma roommates. The hostel didn't have enough room for all of the students on our trip, so the six of us were given our own apartment [complete with an elevator x_x].

We took a ferry to the island of Capri and laid out on the rocks, sipped Coronas and took a two hour cruise around the island. We also had the opportunity to jump overboard and swim through a grotto [not the Blue Grotto, as the water was too high].

The next day, we rented motorinos for a modest 35€ a day and drove to Positano. [More on that, later!]

Before we returned to Roma on my birthday, we took the train to Pompeii and got some funny tan lines!

Best weekend of my life.