Ben Folds Rocks!

I saw Ben Folds in concert last night and was reminded once again just how incredible he is. Obviously, my camera phone leaves something to be desired in terms of quality, but this photo actually captures the energy of the show quite nicely.

This guy is so full of talent, it boggles the mind. He wrings more music out of a piano than seems possible. He pours so much energy into, the piano literally rocks. He stands up at the piano, jumps around, plays the piano with one hand and a maraca with the other (in different rhythms, mind you). He writes witty, thoughtful lyrics. He tells fantastic stories.

I saw him play in Raleigh, his home town, so that was a special treat. He told quite a few stories about growing up in the area and the crowd clearly loved it.

There were a ton of young people there. I felt old among all the apparent high school and college age kids aroud us. But really, that gives me hope - if the younger generation loves Ben Folds, then there must be hope for the world.

If you haven't listened to Ben lately, I highly recommend it.

Am I Snarky Enough?

I think not.

I have just realized that all of my posts and comments on this page reveal me to be more of a happy cheery oh yay! type. Which is somewhat accurate. But also, I think that I do have my edgy side, but the edge never visits here at ReallyTopDrawer.

Did you know that last week, I was dying to post about AnimalAttraction.com after I'd read about it in our local paper. It's a online dating site, which I am generally quite approving of, since that's where I met my one true love. But on this particular site, you not only write a description of yourself, your DOG or your CAT writes a description of you. You can only imagine "My mommy is so nice to me, she always gives me treats, and she will give you a treat too . . ."

But last week, I got stymied because I went to the site to pick out of a couple of profiles to lampoon here on ReallyTopDrawer and I realized that the guys on there all seem pretty interesting and sweet and even a little bit funny . . . and it does not help that since I've met my one true love, I have gone soft on doggies too - and all the dogs were so cute in the pictures.

It is ridiculous! I couldn't even bring myself to snark, even just once. Who am I?!? What has become of me?!?

Dating Eval Form

So I am officially an internet dater. Yes, I made the leap and signed up for match.com. I have to confess, the whole thing is a little overwhelming and the recruiter in me is trying to find useful and efficient ways to sort through the potential matches. To that end, I created my online dating eval form. If you click on the images above, you'll get versions you can actually read. The format should look familiar to some of you. Let me know if you have suggestions for further criteria or revisions!

My heart is broken....

Stupid UCLA. Stupid Gonzaga for letting stupid UCLA win.

March is maddening....

March Madness is kicking my ass.

Teams that are screwing me:
Oklahoma
Syracuse

Teams that have finally done me right:
Arizona

Stay Tuned...

A Recipe for Spring!

Now that Nancy is walking through the pink trees in her sandals and the snow is melting here where the rest of us are, it is time for a SPRING RECIPE!

Put some water for pasta on to boil. When it boils, cook the pasta (penne, bowties, fusilli best) and then drain it.

Meanwhile heat a skillet with some evoo, as my friend Rachel always says. Smoosh 2 cloves of garlic. Saute the garlic for a few minutes. Put in one or more of the following: halved cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, fresh green peas, chopped scallions. Pour in a little white wine. Saute for a litte while. Then toss in 2-3 handfuls of baby spinach (from the bags of pre-washed stuff, of course) and add a little more wine if you want. And cook the spinach til it wilts. Toss the veggies with the pasta, then stir in about 2 T of pinenuts (yum!) and 2T of gorgonzola or parmesean (it is gorgeous with the gorgonzola, but I know some people don't like that).

Eat it up. Serve with a glass of the white wine.

These are my new tweed shoes

I love them! I am wearing them today and they are surprisingly comfortable, given how darn sassy they are.

Perhaps the funniest website ever...

Now that Oscar season is over (whoo hooo! no more movies), I've decided to focus my attention on more productive pursuits. Like being crafty.

I don't have much to show for it yet (the DIY headboard is sitting in about 15 pieces in Mame's basement), but in the hunt for my next great project, I discovered some fabulous knitting websites.

My first thought was to tell you all about them. The gorgeous patterns, the rich yarn, the snapshots of various projects that motivate me to pick up one of my seventeen unfinished projects... there are many inspiring websites out there.

And then I found You Knit What

I cannot begin to describe how damn funny this site is. If it were just pictures, it would be pretty funny. Add a few biting descriptions... I'm in snark heaven.

When I start my TV network, I am definitely giving these bloggers a show.


Trees are pink, toes are red: It must be spring!

Not to make my fellow bloggers and readers jealous, but spring has most definitely sprung here in Central Virginia. Over the weekend, the trees started blooming and are covered in white and pink flowers. So amazingly beautiful. It is finally skirt-and-sandal weather, and I painted my toenails for the firt time this season this morning. Yay for open-toed shoes! My feet are freeeee!

I love cute summer skirts. I love open windows and sitting outside at restaurants and coffee shops. I love spring!

New York State of Mind

I went to New York for a long weekend and had such a great time. If I were to blog about everything I did, you'd be reading all day, so I'll just hit a few highlights for now.

1. A new friendship. I stayed with my friend Diana. I know her because she is dating one of my closest friends, but Diana and I had never actually spent any time together just the two of us before this trip. So I was a little nervous - not that we wouldn't get along, just that we might not have that much in common or would run out of things to say or something. But as it turns out, I think we are kindred spirits in many ways. We had a great time hanging out, and I feel like now we have the beginnings of a fun and true friendship of our own!

2. An old friendship renewed. I met up with a friend of mine from high school who I haven't seen in several years. We were pretty close friends in high school, but just lost touch and I don't think I'd really talked to him in at least 3-4 years. But I'd kept track of him enough to know he was in NYC, so I got in touch and we met for lunch. I was nervous that it would be awkward or we wouldn't have anything to say to each other after all these years, but it was wonderful. We caught up on each other's lives, we talked about art and music and books and theater. And oddly enough, we've been going through similar existential ponderings lately, so we talked about life and dreams and how they change. I love it when things turn out even better than you hope.

3. Mad shopping. Diana is a great shopping partner and boy did we shop. And we found some great deals. For example, I got some super-cute black/grey tweed shoes from Ann Taylor for just $15. And a cute black linen skirt at H&M for $10! I love New York. I love shopping. I love having a fun girlfriend to shop with. YAY!

4. Fabulous art and music. Of course, being in NYC requires experiencing some high culture. We went to the New York Philharmonic and heard some terrific music. The highlight was a Brahms violin concerto that was truly transcendent. We also hit the MoMA for a little dose of great art. I sometimes struggle with modern art, but I loved the MoMA. It makes such a difference to see art in person. I saw some famous works (like Starry Night, for example!) but also lots of unfamiliar things that I really liked. What a great way to spend an afternoon.

5. Delicious food! Brunch at La Bonne Soupe; dinner at the hip, swanky Tribeca restaurant Landmarc; adventures in a whole new cuisine with Indonesian food at Borobudur on the Lower East Side; cupcakes at Magnolia, made famous by Sex and the City. So much good food, so little time!

And now that I've been to New York and know how easy it is to get there by train (love the train!!), I'm sure I'll be back soon for more adventures.

Sketchy Cell Phone Ringtones...

Ok. As you know, I'm rather snotty about cell phone ring tones. I think they are a racket to get you to spend more money, and I'm convinced that my new phone (despite being quite lovely otherwise) has a sad little anemic ring so I'll feel pressured to buy up.

I've resisted the ring tones so far, but am tempted whenever someone calls me and I have to hear said sad ring.

So, today I am browsing the ring tones available. They have a whole section called "Who's Calling" where you can choose your ring tone to match your relationship.

That seems fine; I know plenty of people who have special rings for their special someone. I once knew a girl who had "here comes the bride" play whenever her boyfriend called. Its probably not my style, but once I find true love, who knows?

In the meantime, Sprint has a section under Who's Calling for your Friends with Benefits. So when your FwB calls, you can have "Booty Call" or "One Night Stand" play.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm scandalized. Its one thing to have a FwB, another to have Booty Call play when he calls...

My Lenten Resolution

I am not typically a New Year's Resolution kind of girl. But I do sometimes give up or take on something for Lent. It just seems like a good opportunity to experiment with a change or challenge myself to try something new.

Last year I gave up sweets. That was hard. I didn't make it all the way through Lent, but I did make it about three weeks, I think. It was good for me to get out of the habit of eating crap all the time, and interesting to see how I felt with less sugar in my system. And I probably eat fewer sweets now in my normal course of life than I did before my little experiment.

Today is the first day of Lent, so I am making public my resolution so you can all hold me accountable.

The thing that has been driving me nuts about myself lately is the amount of television I watch. With a lighter work load, less active social life, and fabulous cable subscription, I find myself watching way too much TV. Between Netflix DVDs, syndicated reruns of my favorite shows, and regular old primetime, I'd say I average about 4-5 hours of TV per day. Which is WAY TOO MUCH!

Now, I know I can't just go cold turkey. I wouldn't make it. Plus, I don't think it's necessary. There's nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a little television now and then. So I've decided to limit myself to 8 hours of TV per week. Why 8? Well, an hour a day would be 7, but 8 seemed like a nicer, rounder number. And by 8 hours, I mean 8 hours with the TV on - including DVDs, videos, reruns, news, Gilmore Girls, the whole shebang.

One of the things I like about this plan is that I think it will force me to spend my time in better ways. While I haven't set any specific goals for these things, I'm hoping to spend more time exercising, reading, singing, cleaning my house, and doing other productive things. Here's hoping.

This morning, instead of watching the Today show while I ate my cereal, I read a book. That was nice. I don't really like Matt and Katie that much anyway.

I'll keep you posted on how this goes. I'm very excited.