I Heart Free Air Travel

So I returned home from class tonight to find an email waiting for me from Southwest Airlines with the subject heading Bonus Credits for a Hometown Victory. They're giving me 3 bonus credits (16 equals a free flight, so 3 is no small change) because THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES. This email makes me want to say publicly (to the handful of you who read my blog) that Southwest, despite its cattle-call boarding system, is pretty awesome.

Speaking of THE RED SOX WINNING THE WORLD SERIES, I was walking to school from my internship tonight (both which are near Fenway) and there were no less than 4 helicopters and one blimp flying overhead to report on the fans gathering to welcome the players back home. It was fun to be that close.

Not sure yet if I'm going to be able to sneak away from my internship tomorrow to see the start of the parade, but I'm gonna try!

This past weekend was my a cappella group's 45th reunion, so I spent the weekend in cold and rainy Vermont singing my heart out with about 60 other women. It was an amazing weekend, and energized me in a way that I really needed. I came home feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of this semester.

Also (this is BIG news!), I came home to newly washed sheets. Ok, the sheets being clean isn't really big news (ok, it kind of is), but what IS really big news is that before I put my clean sheets back on, I put my heated mattress pad on my bed. Then I went away for the weekend, so last night was my first night of the season with the heated mattress pad. For those of you who have never experienced the wonder of the heated mattress pad, let me just say this: mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Despite my bedroom being somewhere around 50 degrees last night (here's why), I was snug and warm.

Almost took away the sting of my fantasy football team losing yet again.

Almost.

Lots going on...

...too little time to write about it.

For now, I'll leave you with these thoughts:

1. I heart The Sports Guy. A lot.

2. It is really fun to be in Boston when all this winning is going on , but I will say that I miss being a fan on the west coast when the games ended at 9:30pm instead of 12:30pm.

3. As I already shared with some friends via pix message, only in New England would one go to see a play on a Sunday afternoon and get football score updates on a whiteboard. I love it.

4. Oh yeah - almost forgot, I also heart Fitzy.

Yahoo Mail Beta Has a Great Sense of Humor

A while back, I wrote about how werewolves had taken over my email.

Tonight, as I wrote an email from my Yahoo account, I went to edit the subject heading line, and accidentally hit the "subject" button to the left of the text box. Right before my eyes, the subject heading changed from a boring "hi" to "I've never seen a man eat so many chicken wings." I clicked it again, and the subject heading changed to "You can't make friends with salad."

It's called the "Subject-o-matic" and it is brilliant.

(Other great lines include "Did you or did you not order the CODE RED?!" and "I'll transfer your skills to the legumes")

Survivor China: Episodes 2 & 3

(aka. "It's good to stay home sick so I can justify catching up on Survivor.")

In episode 2, we find Dave taking himself a little too seriously as leader of his tribe. For someone who didn't do much as a leader before the 1st tribal council, it seemed as though he's overcompensating a bit now...

JR - pretending to be lazy to be able to look good later?!?! I'll be interested to see how that plays out in the long-run.

Dave's smug look when Ashley got voted out made me want to jump into my television and strangle him.

Episode 3 showed JR's creepy side, both trying to snuggle with all the girls, and saying such things as, "The only thing better than a million dollars is a million dollars and some ass!" Classy fellow, that one.

On a related note, how could JR and James be so stupid as to have that conversation where they did!? Are they really so full of themselves they thought no one would hear them!? And even if they thought that none of their tribemates could hear them, what about the camera crews hanging out nearby??? JR had to know that was a great soundbyte - which just makes him ickier to me...

Though I found Courtney's performance at the immunity challenge to be pretty pathetic, I was actually on her side when she complained at tribal council about how the challenges are all designed for brawn, and how she kept getting sat out of challenges by her team. I had noticed the physical nature of the challenges to and I'm hoping they start doing some that are more balanced or that at least make some room for a tiny person to shine.

Best reason to vote someone out: "I'm voting for you because when you snore at night it sounds like someone's choking a walrus." (Courtney voting for JR)

Exhaustion Sets In

So my schedule is kind of nuts... Monday-Wednesday, I have my internship all day. Thursday I babysit all day. Monday and Tuesday nights I have class from 6:45-9:15. Thursdays I have class from 4:00-9:15. And then there are Wednesdays...

Every other Wednesday I babysit for a family to allow the parents to have a date night. But on the other Wednesday nights, I have class. From 4:00-9:15.

And what I'm discovering (after my second of these such weeks with Wednesday classes) is that I am 100% exhausted on those nights. I just got home from class, and I am ready to crash. All I have the energy to do is watch bad TV (yes, the game was already over by the time I got home) and read other people's blogs and sometimes (though not often) update my own.

So now I get into bed by 9:30, watch The Daily Show online, and go to bed by 10 or 10:15.

Kinda kills my social life. But... on the other hand, it's an investment to make sure I can make it through tomorrow.

Gratitude today for:

- Diet Coke
- Josh Beckett
- The sleep I'm about to get

Weekend Highlights

So I went up to Maine this weekend to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. That in itself was a highlight. Also a highlight was my uncle asking my grandmother if she had found a use of a "For Rent" sign she had purchased a month or so ago when they had been shopping together.

"I'm trying to figure out whose door to stick it on," she answered (she lives in an independent living facility). Brilliant. My 90-year-old, prankster grandmother. I love it.

I also got in a beach walk, which was really special, and I managed to fight off some sort of mean-feeling sickness with sheer determination, Emergen-C, and Zicam. So I'm feeling particularly proud of myself for that.

Oh yeah - and watching NESN's coverage of the Friday night game - or more specifically, watching NESN's coverage of after the Friday night game, when they were waiting on the results of the Yankees/Orioles game and they couldn't show the game live, so they showed the fans who had stayed in Fenway watching it on the jumbo-tron, and then gave commentary on their reactions, and then 10 seconds later would show the "instant replay" of what the fans had been reacting to. A funny way to watch a game, but totally worth it in the end.

In other news, my fantasy football team kinda sucks. It's funny, though, because it really isn't a bad team - it's just that I keep going up against teams that have a couple players who have out-of-this-world weeks and end up scoring rediculous points. I'm 0-4 and starting to get depressed. Thank goodness the actual, in-the-flesh football team I root for is 4-0.

Highlight of the week so far: My professor last night telling us that if any of us were able to get tickets to any of the playoff games, that we should absolutely, without question, skip class.