My Torrid Love Affair with Gravy.

I love gravy. LOVE IT. It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving. That being said, a highlight of this holiday is doing shots of gravy after dinner. My office pals have heard about this legend, so I let them catch my live show during our Thanksgiving potluck lunch today. It's fun to watch people's reactions to my gravy shooters. The shock value is about 25% of the reason I do the shots in the first place, but really, the other 75% is because it's SO DAMN GOOD. As I gulped it down, the same people that dumped a quart of gravy on their turkey and stuffing 20 minutes ago were squirming as they watched. Completely grossed out. But why? Gravy RULES...can you imagine Thanksgiving without it? No? Then, I rest my case. Drink up.

I can't wait for Thursday. Today was merely a warm up for Turkey Day.

QUESTION: Can Blue Shield drop me for reckless care of my arteries? I already have cholesterol issues. Off hand, I'd say my cholesterol count is hovering around 437 today.

Dang. I'm cool.

I've definitely mentioned my love for Bret and Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, and my friends Sara and Ro love them just as much, if not more. We recently did a remake of one of their videos for an HBO contest, and before you laugh at us for our extreme dorkery, know that we won it, bitches.

Here's the original:



Now here's our remake...



I know.

I have gas.

I just filled up my tank for under $30. Ah, the silver lining in our economic craphole.

One of my quirks. JUST ONE.

Turns out, every time I cross the street, I have to hit the button twice before crossing. HAVE TO. Or I'm convinced it didn't work. Like the first pressing of the button is practice, but the second one is for realsies. Because now the crosswalk is paying attention to the fact that there really IS a pedestrian waiting, and they're serious about crossing. I realized this tonight when I was at a crosswalk with a complete stranger, and the guy hit the button only ONCE. I was surprised by my high level of uneasiness. Was this dude out of his damn MIND? But by a stroke of dumb luck, the little white man* appeared to light our way to cross the street anyway.
I'm sure it was an isolated incident. I KNOW you have to hit it twice. Right?

I know it's a short post, but it's enough weirdness and potential OCD for one night. In fact, go ahead and pretend you didn't read this. Thanks.

*NOTE: Crosswalks are totally racist.

15 things I love about staying in hotels on business trips....

On a work trip to Palm Springs last weekend, I realized how much I love a good hotel stay. I was inspired to list the reasons why this is the case....

1. The invigorating feeling I get from simply being in a hotel. I love to travel, and being in a new place makes me feel like I'm on a grand adventure. Even if the reason I'm in Palm Springs is to attend a math conference to recruit teachers. Total nerd alert.
2. Tiny Soap.
3. Free HBO.
4. Air Conditioning at whatever temperature I want...because I'm not paying the electric bill.
5. My own balcony. Where I can look down on my minions.
6. Pay-per-view movies. Charged to the room...which is paid for by my company. And no, I'm not watching porn. Sheesh.
7. There were no fewer than 10 pillows on my 2 beds. (I'm not kidding, I actually counted) I was astounded. Why does ONE Jen need so many pillows? I didn't care...I just barricaded myself with pillows. Fantastic.
8. Having the previously mentioned 2 beds to choose from. I could sleep half the night in one bed, and change to the other one if I wanted to. I didn't, but I could have.
9. Toilet paper ends folded into a triangle by housekeeping.
10. Free coffee maker in my room. Ok, I don't drink coffee, but I still think it's a terribly thoughtful perk. HA! Perk! I slay me.
11. My free copy of USA Today. It never occurs to me to read that publication any other time than at a hotel, but I'm always excited to get it.
12. Blackout curtains.
13. I don't have to make the bed in the morning.
14. A night ALONE. Total freedom. To do whatever the hell I want. Even if that means sitting around and watching TV in my PJ's all night. Because at home, sitting and watching TV makes me feel guilty, because I know I should probably be cleaning or working on something. Hotel TV watching is a gloriously guilt-free zone for me.
15. The breakfast buffet in the morning. I'm not usually a breakfast fan (I only eat it out of necessity), but I go TO TOWN at hotel buffets.

I'm really a simple soul...it really takes so little to make me happy. I hope you've enjoyed your stay at the Hotel Yen. Don't forget to tip the maid.

A Night Off....

Last weekend, I had a rare Saturday night off from wedding coordinating, so Ro and I hit up Old Town Pasadena for a night out. We had a fabulous time, as was to be expected. Ro and I joke that we can be confined to a barrel, and still manage to have fun. Some of our best times have been sitting in train stations or airports amusing each other with our stupid humor, while the rest of the people around us are bored out of their brain cells. We just choose to find humor wherever we are, and it works for us.

Our first stop of the evening was El Toreo Mexican Restaurant. Not the best meal ever, but not the worst either. So-so service. Great chile rellenos. But the highlight of our visit was not the cuisine, but rather the awesome decor on the tables....

I give you...a rose in arroz.If you can find a classier table decoration than a fake flower stuck in a vase full of rice, then you're a better person than I am.

After dinner, our evening continued at Lucky Baldwin's pub for a couple pints. Our first pint was an Arrogant Bastard, and the name of the second one doesn't come to mind, because it was too gross to bother remembering.

Here's Ro and I, with our bastards. Delish.Our last stop will be appreciated only by Willy Wonka fans (the Gene Wilder version, not Johnny Depp's). We were walking back to Ro's car when we happened upon this:
"The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!!" Unfortunately, this ice cream place was closed, so we actually don't know if the snozzberries taste like snozzberries. But I'm making it a point to find out sooner rather than later.

So that was our evening last weekend. I'm currently putting a post together about this weekend (Halloween), and I'll try to get that up soon!