Experiences « Mrs. Conception

One Week Later

December 20, 2007 at 5:43 pm | In Experiences, Places | Leave a Comment
Tags: Pets, travel

Wireless Internet has been a thing of the past since we left the Homewood Suites, but I have finally gained access to a computer plugged into the wall. I am still alive, still have the ability to type. I can’t wait until I can get Wi-Fi in my car. Or at least an iPhone.

Over the weekend, we spent some time in Charlotte, NC with the Greens, Mr. Andrews’s grad school roommate (and my former bowling teammate), and his wife.

Mr. and Mrs. Green

Our bowling team, circa 2002

We had originally planned to take the new Charlotte light rail downtown and walk around the city. When we got downtown, it was freezing and raining so we quickly got back on the train, went back to our friends’ house, and watched Scrooged. We also had lots of fun with the dogs, who were a little bit scared of Tyson, the gregarious boxer who belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Green.

Tyson and Mr. Green

In Columbia, the music video shoot went extremely well, and was even done a day early. We spent a few daytime hours walking around our old college campus, eating at some of my favorite local restaurants, and impressing people with our cute Chihuahua. I took many, many dog pictures, which I am sure I will share as soon as I can upload them, which should be by Sunday night. Thank goodness my mom is technologically advanced enough for the Internet.

Since we were done in Columbia early, we drove north to visit friends who live in Greenville, SC. Mr. Zufall and Mr. Muldrow are the college roommates of Mr. Andrews, and are always happy to let us stay with them when we are in town, or passing through town, or as we are now – temporarily homeless.

Mr. Zufall, Me, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Muldrow in August 2003

Mr. Muldrow, the Mac expert, is helping us install all the radical programs we want on our new computer, and Mr. Zufall is providing hours of entertainment with his HDTV, Playstation 3, and DVDs of the British version of The Office (also, I am using his computer right now). It is also a dog-centric universe over here as Mr. Muldrow has a dachshund, Sidney, who is the mother of Mr. Zufall’s dachshund, Mayday. Mr. Muldrow brought Sidney over (as well as some white chocolate key lime cookies his wife made – yum!), and all the dogs got along quite nicely.

Mayday

Sidney

Tomorrow, we are going to Charleston so Mr. Andrews can see his family, then we are going to Massachusetts so we can hang with some people we actually know through me. Mainly, these guys:

Harris/Roberts Christmas 2006

And these guys:

Christmas with Dad 2006

My mom just bought a mattress for the room that used to be my sister’s room, but is now is a guest room since she moved out. Hooray for not having to sleep on our camping air mattress for Christmas!

Us, Christmas 2006

As usual, too, there has been lots of discussion between husband and wife about what we will be doing with our future. We know we want to do something, we just don’t know what. Maybe when I narrow the options down, I will post a poll, and you guys can help us choose. Stay tuned for trip photos and deciding my fate!

A Journey of 20 Days

December 13, 2007 at 10:13 pm | In Experiences, Places | 2 Comments
Tags: roadtrip, travel

From tomorrow at 11AM until the evening of January 2, Mr. Andrews and I are free from the daily grind, weekday monotony, and an official place to live. In the great tradition of us, we are packing our stuff and our dogs and ourselves in the car and cruising a good portion of the Eastern United States. We will be visiting our tails off, and doing lots and lots of the work we actually like to do – the independent media kind.

When we found out we had this much time off for the winter holidays, we had originally planned a trip to the west coast, but since opportunities arose that we couldn’t pass up, we decided to make our rounds around here. On this trip, we are getting to spend some time with other married couples our age, which we never get to do . The Greens live in the Charlotte, NC area and were married in May, and the Barneses live on a farm in Indiana, have been married for a long time, and have a daughter. We are going to North Carolina first and Indiana last. In between we are going to Columbia, SC, our college town, for the previously mentioned video shoot for Closer’s single, The Difference. And rounding it out, we will be pit stopping in Charleston, SC to visit the Andrews side of the family, then heading North (stop snowing up there!) to celebrate Christmas with my family in Massachusetts. Fun times.

I’ll be reporting from the road, hopefully taking lots of pictures and having exciting times that will fill the internet with joy and wonder. At the very least, it will be more interesting than anything that has happened to us while living in a hotel in Maryland. But if you like that kind of thing, don’t worry. We’ll be back here in the new year!

Ticketless

November 29, 2007 at 11:32 pm | In Experiences | 1 Comment
Tags: NaBloPoMo, television

Mr. Andrews and I had tickets to a taping of The Daily Show today, but it was cancelled because of the WGA Writers’s Strike. Not really a big deal, since we are a lot farther from New York than we were when I booked the tickets, but it is the latest in a disturbing trend: TV shows clearly don’t want me in their audience.

I had tickets to On Air with Ryan Seacrest way back in May 2004, but it got cancelled the day I was supposed to go to the show. I had tickets to Montel this past August but they changed the show to an all teenage audience about a week before. I got in line too late for The Dr. Phil Show (couldn’t find anything to wear!), so the studio was already filled. Ditto with The Rachael Ray Show in September (it was pouring). The one shining exception is our trip to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in July 2002 where Mr Andrews and I, as well as our two friends, Miss Smith and Mrs. Nelson, had front row seats. Of course, we sat outside NBC studios from 10 AM until the show started at 4PM. That should have been a lesson to me. Get there hours early! That’s the key!

My sister & I missed the real Rachael, but we did see her made of wax

I supposedly get V.I.P. tickets to another taping of Rachael Ray because I got shut out last time, plus I’ve requested audience tickets to The Martha Stewart Show and will be calling The Oprah Show on December 4 to try against logic to get tickets for a January taping. If I get graced with tickets for any of these, you will find me on the sidewalk before dawn, because, by gosh, I’m going to get in! Unless, of course, it gets cancelled. Or I do not fit their demographic for the day.

Wax Oprah and Me (I didn’t see wax Jon Stewart)

Maybe I should stop trying to be in studio audiences. I could actually just watch this stuff on T.V. I don’t even need cable! But Miss Smith and our friend, Miss Brown, were in the audience at The Ellen DeGeneres Show once and got a new coffee maker and a new vacuum cleaner. And so I persevere. Maybe I should just start my own show. They probably couldn’t keep me out of that.

Whatever Happened to my Transylvania Twist?

October 31, 2007 at 7:10 pm | In Experiences, holidays | Leave a Comment
Tags: halloween, holiday, pumpkin

I love any holiday, and Halloween is an especially fun one. Dressing up, candy, ghosts?! Yes, please! Yet, for some reason, most of my Halloweens past are fuzzy. I remember being scared out of my mind at age 4 when my neighbors had a haunted house, vowing never to go back. I vaguely remember The Perfect Storm Halloween in 1991 when my friends and I drank liters of Jolt soda before going out, and the rain didn’t spoil everything because we got full sized candy bars at three different houses. I remember trick or treating with National Honor Society for canned goods my senior year in high school, and people not believing us and just giving us candy. One year I dressed up as Punky Brewster, another Cleopatra. There is a famous family photo where I am dressed up as the Velveteen Rabbit. In college, I dressed up as a rollerskater and climbed a ladder on skates. That’s all I got. I’m definitely missing some.

In my quest for a somewhat memorable Halloween, and to get the Family Traditions rolling, Mr. Andrews and I took a trip to the pumpkin patch at Terhune Orchards in Princeton, New Jersey and picked our own pumpkins.

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They also had apple and raspberry picking, and some tasty sounding Apple Cider donuts in their farm store, but we stuck with just the pumpkins.

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I also wore my costume, Black Cat with Bow Tie (which was my costume for The Office Convention minus the red Pam wig). That may be embarassing, as I am an adult, but I don’t really care. This is me being F!U!N!

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Tonight, we are making the pumpkins into Jack-O-Lanterns, and we’re making the Gloom Dolls from The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox. I am toasting the pumkin seeds, and serving a Halloween cocktail of Orange Vodka and Sambuca called Witch’s Kiss. We are watching the Hitchcock classics The Birds and Psycho. Even the dogs are dressing up. Johnny Drama is a St. Bernard.

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Sonny wore a tie dyed shirt just like my husband, but he wouldn’t let me take his picture.

I think our first married Halloween will end up being a happy one. Hope yours is memorable, too!

Ain’t No Party Like a Scranton Party

October 29, 2007 at 3:22 pm | In Experiences, Places | 2 Comments
Tags: Scranton, television, The Office, The Office Convention

Our trip to Scranton this Saturday for The Office Convention was a good time. Although it was raining, and I seemed to be the only one without a Dunder Mifflin umbrella, there was lots to see and the cast was everywhere (especially Craig Robinson, aka Darryl from the Warehouse, who must have some sort of teleporter to be so many places in so little time). At the Steamtown Mall, we got our Dunder-Mifflin stock certificates (although, sadly, I bled all over mine from a cut on my finger that I don’t know how I got), plus they were giving out t-shirts that said “Schrute You.” Under tents downtown, there were autograph signings and tons of merchandise to be bought by fans. The Scrantones concert at the street fair included a few cast members, and the Q&A at the University of Scranton was really great. The gym was packed, they warmed up the crowd with an Office blooper video and some silly Scranton-made music videos, and it was really long, which gave all the actors ample time to talk and be hilarious. We took some video of some of the more enjoyable stuff. Click on the pic to see:

Ed Helms (Andy) singing & doing impressions at the cast Q&A

Craig Robinson and the Scrantones cover Radiohead’s Creep

Mr. Andrews even looked like a really big fan when we were shopping in the University of Scranton bookstore (I got a Scranton I.D. holder) and was able to recite some lines from the episode “Traveling Salesman”, which was playing in the store (“Fool me once, strike one. Fool me twice, strike three.”).The city of Scranton was extremely involved (a funeral home even got in on the action, advertising a funeral for Ed Truck on Sunday followed by a screening of the episode “Grief Counseling.”) and the locals really seem to love the show. After my two trips to Scranton, I am certain that if I ever create a T.V. show, I’ll set it in a place that doesn’t normally get television exposure. Why set it in New York or L.A. when you can set it in a small city with lots of character and really, really excited residents?

Thanks, Scranton, and Office employees. I will always remember ya!

That’s What She Said.

October 26, 2007 at 4:53 pm | In Experiences | Leave a Comment
Tags: television, The Office

I like to think of myself as a television connoisseur. Some others may think I am a television junkie. After all, I recently watched all 10 seasons of Friends on DVD, searched high and low in San Francisco for the Full House house, cheered and had my picture taken when I stumbled upon the Buttercup Bakeshop straight out of How I Met Your Mother, and named my puppy after a character on Entourage.

Next up is The Office Convention this weekend in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Scranton Welcomes You

Scranton welcomes me.

Mr. Andrews and I had never even seen The Office until this summer when, curious about what all the fuss was about amongst many of my favorite indie filmmakers, I got the first (American) season from Netflix. We liked it so much that we binged and, thanks to iTunes, watched the other two seasons in about two days. Not long after that, I insisted upon a trip to Dunder-Mifflin’s hometown of Scranton (this was the counterpart to a trip planned by Mr. Andrews, to Holsten’s in Bloomfield, NJ, from the final scene of his favorite show ever, The Sopranos.)

Us at Holsten's

Holsten’s

We ate lunch at Cooper’s, found Poor Richard’s Pub (and bowled at the bowling alley in the same building), visited the Welcome to Scranton sign at Steamtown Mall, took a walk around Lake Scranton, and enjoyed Herr’s chips and Crystal Club soda (just like Jim). It was actually really fun.

Outside Poor Richard's Pub

Poor Richard’s Pub

So tomorrow, we are making the two and half hour trip to Scranton again, with our Assistant to the Regional Manager passes (the V.I.P. Corporate pass was way out of our price range), to see some Office Olympics (yay, Flonkerton!), a Q&A with most of the cast, and a Character Look-Alike/Halloween costume contest (Mr. Andrews will be Three-Hole Punch Jim, I am going as Pam in her black cat Halloween costume). Super nerdy? Of course. But as Super Nerds, I expect my husband and I will enjoy it. At the very least, we’ll probably come back with something overpriced from the NBC store, and that will make me happy. I am a souvenir junkie, too!

Notes to Self, From the Future

October 25, 2007 at 1:23 am | In Experiences, Ideas, Places | Leave a Comment
Tags: college, marriage, roadtrip

The summer between my first and second years of graduate school in South Carolina, I lived in Los Angeles with my classmate, Miss Smith. This was her first time even living out of her mother’s house, never mind all the way across the country, and by July she was utterly homesick. She decided to go home, and I was left on my own until August (which I’ll admit was not horrible, considering we had rented a one bedroom apartment). Thanks to the miracle of Instant Messenger, my iMac and my alone time gave me ample opportunity to better get to know Mr. Andrews, who up until this point had been nothing more than a classmate, albeit one I had a secret crush on. He was in South Carolina, gathering up shopping carts across a steaming Walmart parking lot for a living, which allowed him to save up enough money to come visit Hollywood (and me) at the end of the summer.

We had such a good time that week – visiting Dodger Stadium, attending a taping of The Tonight Show, witnessing a valet crash an Escalade on Hollywood Blvd seconds after being handed the keys, and, oh yeah, getting tattoos – that he decided to scrap his plane ticket home and drive back across America with me. After a quick trip up the PCH to visit his brother in San Francisco, Mr. Andrews and I had embarked on our first joint cross country roadtrip (there would be many more to come).

Our first night going east, we stopped near Salt Lake City at a deserted campground in the mountains. It was unimaginably beautiful, and as we sat in our little Kmart tent, we got philosophical. Who would have thought, we mused, as we sat in Research class as strangers, that one day we’d be camping out in Utah together? With tattoos! Unbelievable, we said. Never would have imagined it.

This became a running gag along the rest of the trip. Who’d have thought we’d be buying sweatpants together in Laramie, Wyoming? Who’d believe we’d be eating late night dinner at a Perkins in Kearney, Nebraska? Who’d imagine he’d show me my first episode of The Sopranos in Jeffersonville, Indiana? Not us, that’s for sure.

Once we were home and back to being grad students, we spent the especially excrutiating moments in our Fall Semester classes passing notes to one another. Where do you think we’ll find ourselves next summer? In Spain, getting lip piercings. In Moscow, watching Sex and The City dubbed in Russian. In a Airstream, on Mars. It was a fun way to distract ourselves when Creativity class was stifling our creativity.

Last night, before we fell asleep, Mr. Andrews and I were reminiscing about our grad school days. We touched upon on our note passing habit when Mr. Andrews stopped to exclaim with not a little bit of shock, “We’re married now!” I had to agree I had felt just as freaked out when we brought up the subject.

“What if we had put that in a note?” he mused, “In five years, we’ll be married.“

“We should go back in time and pass it to ourselves,” I said.

“We’d never believe it.”

And yet, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

They Say There’s Always Magic In The Air

October 23, 2007 at 9:49 pm | In Experiences, Places | Leave a Comment
Tags: Broadway, New York, Theater

On Sunday, Mr. Andrews and I went to see The Color Purple at the Broadway Theater in New York City. While my husband enjoys a good movie musical (Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar top the list), the closest thing he has ever seen to a real live Broadway show is a community theater production of Annie Get Your Gun in Mesa, Arizona. I am no veteran, either, having seen the Broadway Productions of Tommy and Big: The Musical on a few high school trips to New York, and then Stomp on a college art class trip, where we sat so close to the stage that the guys dancing with brooms swept dirty stage dust right into my eyes (now that is theater!). So, needless to say, we were very excited.

We got the super cheap seats for $26.50, and sat literally in the last row of the theater, but the show was awesome even from there. I was especially impressed by Fantasia not only as a singer, which was even more outstanding to hear live than on American Idol, but also as an actress. Her character ages from a teenager to an old woman in the play, and Fantasia’s transformation was amazing. Her performance in the second act was very powerful, and she is almost unrecognizable as she completely becomes Celie. It ultimately turns out to be an uplifting show, big on Woman Power.

Mr. Andrews was blown away by the sets, and the lighting, and basically the entire production. It was much more than he had imagined, and I am very happy to say that he was not bored, as I had feared he might be, but mesmerized and touched as a theater-goer should be. We both highly recommend The Color Purple – especially before January 6, when Fantasia leaves the show!