I was randomly clicking around the intertubes this afternoon, desperately attempting not to fall asleep at work, when I came across this slice of online awesomeness: TYWKIWDBI. The blog’s name, which the authors pronounce as “Tai-Wiki-Widbee,” stands for “Things You Wouldn’t Know if We Didn’t Blog Incessantly.” And they’re probably right. After all, did you already know that the hands of people with Reynaud’s Phenomenon tend to be awesomely bright colors (although Reynaud’s phenomenon itself is infinitely less awesome)? Doubtful.
First, let me start by saying that I generally like casinos. I don’t gamble much; $20 is usually the most I’ll spend in a casino, and I try to stop if I’m up even a little. But I think that casinos make for fun people-watching, and try really hard to make you not want to leave. This was not the experience that I had at Mohegan Sun. The arena was awesome, although I am still mystified that I ended up in the second-to-last row, since I got my ticket in a presale. It was non-smoking, which was great, and a huge difference from the rest of the casino. That place was nasty! Ugh. It smelled terrible, and even though there were supposed to be designated smoking areas, people lit up everywhere except for the food court and the non-smoking gaming area. Even at the food court, you could not completely escape the stench of other people’s cigarettes. Aside from the four hours that I spent in the arena, I was only at Mohegan Sun for another hour, yet when I left, I smelled like an ashtray. It was gross. I had to air out my clothes overnight.
I find the Atlantic City casinos to be vastly superior in their regulation of where people can smoke. I don’t feel as nasty when I leave the casinos there. I can’t remember enough about Vegas casinos to say whether they were smoky, but I don’t remember feeling nauseated by them.
My feelings about Mohegan Sun were definitely tied into the fact that I’m a non-smoker with little to no interest in gambling. I think that if I smoked, or if I were more used to being around cigarette smoke, I would have noticed or minded less how bad I ended up smelling. Or, if I was used to gambling, I’d probably be more accustomed to smelling smoke.
The real reason that I hate to receive email forwards is that the sentiments expressed therein are usually mawkish, wrong, obnoxious, or just not true. Forwards that fall in the first three categories are quickly archived, but for emails whose veracity is not immediately determined, I’m forced to do actual research. Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy research. It’s my job, after all. I just hate spending any more time thinking about the crap that people email me about. Today’s example was the Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant email. It’s such a good story, I couldn’t pass up the chance to find out whether it was true. And…it’s not.
The tiny part of my heart that is not shriveled up and black loves this wedding entrance so much. Makes me feel like I’m not such a freak for wanting to march out of the church to Jason Mraz’s “Butterfly,” which ends with joyous repetitions of the phrase “You’ve got it all, you’ve got it all, you’ve got it all.” Anyway, I know that I would love to attend a wedding like this, and as much as I might play it cool, I’d probably have a blast if I could be one of the dancers.
Note: In order to forestall any claims of Pepsi Blue-ness in this post, I will not link to anything.
I’m a sucker for marketing. I understand what advertising and commercials are for, and I actually try to limit my exposure to them, because they’re often so insidious, and I prefer to be completely aware of what I’m absorbing. Still, when I saw the ads for Pepsi Throwback, I was intrigued. Not because the low-budget kitschiness of the commercials, but because I’ve always wanted to drink soda that was sweetened with real sugar, instead of corn syrup. I have friends who can’t wait until Passover, because then they stock up on the Kosher for Passover Coke products that are sweetened with real sugar, and their descriptions of their joyful sodagasms have always made me a little jealous.
That being said, I just don’t get it. This Pepsi tastes to me almost exactly like regular corn-syrup Pepsi. If I hadn’t bought it myself, I wouldn’t even be convinced that this is a different product. It’s not bad, but it’s not amazing. I was kind of giving up soda before this, and this hasn’t really made me rethink my plan. What is good about this stuff, though, is that it is seemingly impossible to spill. I have a bad habit of upsetting my soda cans, and I’ve already knocked over two cans of this stuff, and even though both cans were at least a third full, only drops of soda spilled. Drops!!!! If for no reason other than this, this stuff should stick around forever, so that klutzes like me can enjoy soda like the normal people do.
Although I’m trying to do better about managing my money, and am making an effort to say “no” in situtations where I previously would have offered a wholehearted “yes,” I still like to have to option to get things, should I really need or want to. I have belonged to Gilt Group and Ideeli for about a year now, and now I joined Rue La La and HauteLook. You may ask yourself why somebody who is trying to practice more self-control is doing this to herself, and I don’t necessarily have a great answer. I know that I like my options, and that I try to get the most for my money when I do buy things.
So, anyway, all of these clubs are private, but in scouring the interwebz, I was able to secure invitations for all of them in a matter of minutes. Since I always live to save people the bother of searching the Internet, if you’re interested in joining any of these clubs, you may use my refererral links below, or visit any of them and use my email address, nicole[at]nonsenseuponstilts[dot]com (replacing the brackets and words with the usual email symbols and punctuation) as your referral. And, yes, I do get a credit if you join under my name and then make a purchase (from $10 to $25, depending on the web site). Happy shopping!
Beyond the Rack – Please use the following code: NNWF60BB2B3
I wrote a couple of days ago about getting ready to move to the city. Since then, I’ve viewed apartments, and actually saw something that was billed as a “two room studio” that was bigger than some of my friends’ one bedroom apartments. It was where I wanted to be and the price was really reasonable (for Manhattan). So I feel good about that.
But I was looking over my expenses and realized that while I could afford an apartment now, it would be smarter to unload my consumer debt while I have fewer fixed monthly costs. To that end, I’ve already paid off a couple of accounts I could have zeroed out earlier, and have set myself to do better about paying off my remaining bills. It’s kind of scary when I look at how much money I make per year, and realize how little I have to show for it, aside from clothes, shoes, and yarn.
My mother, of course, is thrilled, because that means that I’ll be in the immediate area longer, and that gives her more time to try to convince me that living in New Jersey is the way to go. My father, who I thought was on my side or just didn’t care, seems to have sided with her, as had my aunt. Traitors.
I was searching the library’s catalog for dvds of the A-Team, (which I surprisingly cannot find) when I discovered that George Peppard of the A-Team was also in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Color me surprised. I know that a few decades had passed between that movie and the tv series, but you’d think that I would have recognized him. In my own defense, 1) I hardly know the names of any male actors from before I was born and 2) he did change a bit.
There are few bright sides to getting unengaged after having been engaged for six months. Luckily, I have found one. I am probably the foremost unmarried, unengaged local expert on New York/North Jersey weddings, not counting people who work in the wedding industry. I spent six months reluctantly planning a wedding (which would have kicked so much ass anyway), making innumerable phone calls, sending out a googleplex emails, and reading a brazillion web sites and blogs. All of this led to the creation of a pretty fantastic spreadsheet which, several months after my broken engagement, I was able to fish out of my Google Docs trash and place in a more benign, but also rarely-visited folder.
At work, I seem to get a lot of questions regarding weddings, wedding web sites, venues, costs, vendors, etc. These people have no reason to know that I know this stuff, but somehow they always ask the questions when I’m around. If I were more self-centered, I’d think it was some sort of retribution (why, universe??? I recycle), but I tend to think it’s just their good luck.
So I DO know the going rate for a wedding band (no less than $4500 for a good 4-piece band), the busiest month for weddings in NJ (October), and how much you can expect to pay for a sit down country club reception during prime wedding season (Friday: ~$125; Saturday night: ~$145). I know where on the reference shelves to find that book about wedding venues in the area, since we all remembered seeing it but nobody could recall the title. I know which Manhattan bridal boutiques engage in ridiculous markups, and which are relatively honest (because, let’s face it, the same dress should not cost $200 more at another store).
I just hung out the other day with a friend who unfortunately needed to get a divorce after a brief marriage. I know that this is a really rough time for her right now, and as bad as it was for me last year, I can’t help but thank my lucky stars that my ill-advised engagement did not culminate in marriage.
August 20, 2009 4:35 pm | 
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