A Phloggerific Farewell

The time has come for a new chapter in my life. The last several years of blogging on Phloggerific have been fun, but I am joining forces with Fernando to create a new blog together. Our new blog address is http://chroniclesofmarbecca.blogspot.com. Thanks for reading and we look forward to you visiting us there!

NKOTB

Many moons ago, when I was just a wee lassie of age 13, my best middle school friend was Ali Mae. Quite fitting for a southern belle. We were typical teenagers - sneaking over to the all boys boarding school to check out the hunks. We were in love with a new scrawny teenager every other week and made tapes of our favorite songs that reminded us of them. And then there were the phone calls. I think we must have collectively purchased one of the pay phones they had in the dorm hallways. Those were the days of slumber parties, Tiger Beat, and posters on our walls of New Kids On the Block, or NKOTB as they have evolved.

When it came to our favorite boy band, we were silly little teenage girls. I was in love with Joey, of course. And Ali Mae drooled over Jordan. I think we listened to the tapes and The Right Stuff until they no longer would play. The NKOTB never came to do concerts anywhere near where we lived because we grew up in the small city of Asheville in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. The closest they ever came was Charlotte or Atlanta, but that was too far. So we never got to see our dream guys. I secretly had dreamed that we would get old and they would lose their fame and I could have Joey all to myself. Then, a few months ago, Ali Mae emailed me to let me know that our teenage fantasy boys had gotten back together and were going on tour. We both knew then and there that we had to close the loop on this outstanding lingering unaccomplished desire from our past. She booked a ticket to New York City and we got tickets to the concert at Madison Square Gardens, the mother of all concert venues. If you are going to do it.... do it right!!

We arrived at Madison Square Gardens to find a sea of 20 thousand women who were also re-living their teenage years. The screams at the concert were deafening...it was as if they all shed their suits and doctors scrubs and were back 20 years in the 80s with their girlfriends sneaking off to the boys boarding schools.

The concert was surprisingly phenomenal. To be completely honest, I was going more for the fun of it and had no expectation that it would actually be a good concert. But it was. When they sang my favorite bygone song "I'll be Loving You Forever". I feld a surge of my old teen emotion come back to me. And then I realized: I still love Joey and I always will.

So my dream that they would lose their fame never came true. But I decided that night that my old-age wish is going to be that my kids will search out the nursing home where Joey McIntyre ends up and put me in the same one so we can at least play some bingo together in 2060. Hey, a girl can dream can't she?

Toilets Again

Ok, I do realize that this is at least the second time I have featured a picture of a bathroom on my blog...but it is a good reason. So, you know when you go in the bathroom and there are the pull down trays. WHAT ARE THESE FOR?????? I mean really? Does anyone use them for anything? Am I supposed to sit on the commode and do my taxes? It's too high for that. I dont trust putting my purse on it. Afraid it's going to snap back up and drop it to the ground. Please... if you actually use these trays, reply and enlighten others of the use. I took a survey and no one I ask actually uses them.

Worlds Largest Truckstop and Corn

Today Fernando and I began our Iowa vacation. Here is how the last few weeks have been for Fernando and I - "We're going on Vacation!" Friend: "Where?" Us: "Iowa". Friend: "Why Iowa?". The standard answer to that question was that my mom was getting married and my other side of the family was having "Christmas" early because my brother and I were coming to town. But, there is much more to Iowa than just those things!

As we pulled out of the Airport with our spankin new orange Saturn Vue (I loved it, he hated it - It matched my cell phone!) our first stop was to get something to eat. Lucky for us it happened to be a very historical place - the Worlds Largest Truck Stop. You just don't see something like that every day. We stopped in for some food and I introduced Fernando to Cheese Curds. We then visited the trucking museum and paid homage to the truckers of yester-year.

On day two of our Iowa adventure, we went to my mom's wedding in a park. The leaves were changing and it was a very nice day for an outdoor wedding. Then, Fernando and I were invited out to a dance in a stable with my aunt and uncle and cousins. We learned the Barn Dance, Western Cha Cha and the Watermelon Crawl.

Day three - we headed up to Mason City Iowa to celebrate my dad's family "Christmas". Fernando walked through a cornfield for the first time ever. He insisted on doing horror movie remake photoshoot in the corn - and we have way too many action shots trying to look scared in a cornfield. After wading through corn, we returned into the house to play cards and Fernando was surprised to find that corn kernels were used as the "money" for texas hold em. Thinking about it, I guess that does seem a little strange. I mean, its not like you would go to Raleigh and play cards using cigarettes for ante. OR WOULD YOU???? hmm.

Day Four - we attended the Mennonite auction. They auction off tons of produce from their farms.

Day Five - we headed up to Minneapolis, my old hometown. We rode the rollercoaster in the mall of America, the log flume, another roller coaster, nascar simulators. In the evening I met up with old friends from middle school for a 20 year reunion.

Day Six - Back in Iowa, Fernando and I took a trip with some farmers out to pick the corn on their high tech combines. Its way more complicated than it looks. The temperature and humidity of the air determine whether the corn needs to be dried before going into the grain elevator for holding. I felt like we were on our very own Nova or How things Work show.


Day Seven - headed to Dubuque Iowa where Fernando ran 15 miles along the Mississippi while I secured a room for the night. 15 MILES! Better him than me! A librarian convention was in town so there were no rooms and we ended up having to stay at a bed and breakfast which was fantastic! Its funny the things you end up doing out of circumstance that can enrich your vacation.

Day Eight - Flew into Chicago for a layover before heading home to New York. Ironically, Fernando's very good friend Vince was also on the same flight back to New York AND it was his birthday. We celebrated with drinks in Chicago. Weird.

So there you have it. So much to do in Iowa, so little time!

Economic Downturn

The events of the past few months and days have dramatically changed the landscape of Wall Street. The aftermath from the Bear Stearns takedown and credit crisis was a little jilting. You could notice things here and there...less travel for work, hiring freezes, no more lunches or dinners. Things that would be appropriate to do in order to tighten up the belt a little. Its the same as in our personal lives, when we forsee tougher time we put ourselves on a budget to reduce the impact.

In the last week though, things have seemed to have gone from "being careful" to a much more elevated state. The flat screen TVs across the floor that are usually on mute are no longer silenced. You find people stopping to watch the news in disbelief that major long standing institutions are selling off and disappearing forever.

So many people in NY work with Wall Street firms and I feel like an aura of gray cloud is hanging over the city. I sit on the subway or walk down the street and see the sad, angry and resigned faces passing. But more and more I start to see fear.

Its hard to know what will happen, but with the way things are going it feels like it is the beginning.

I am thankful to have my job and am glad that I feel comfortable with their standing and position amongst all this.

Roadside Assistance

Today I was invited to attend a celebration for the engagement of my coworkers and friend, Jessica. Several girls from work were invited and we decided to car pool with one of our friends.

Right around the time that we would have to leave, our driver - Jax- called and announced that she was having some sort of hair emergency/situation and was going to be very late. So, I borrowed Fernando's car and picked everyone up.

Prior to leaving the house, I took extra care to put on on on nice dress, blow out my hair, do my makeup, and find some hot heels. The other girls had all done the same, despite the impending possibility that it could all be dramatically ruined by the landfall of a hurricane earlier that day.

I made the rounds and picked them all up - glamorous and lovely each of them. After picking up the last of the girls, we made our way to the Verazzano bridge to cross into Staten Island. We entered the belt parkway (one of the busiest highways in the city) with a thud. I thought we hit a pothole but pulled over anyway to make sure. I opened the door as little as possible to avoid the downpour and wind. Much to my dismay I was able to see the lumpy flat tire on the back drivers side.

I promptly called Fernando to ask if he had triple A. No such luck. I had changed A tire before and had all the confidence in the world that I could do it again. So, we hung up and rolled up our sleeves.

Two of the girls stood near the side of the road to try to flag down a passing car while me and Irina got the essentials out of the trunk. The doomsday feeling set in when we couldn't get the lug nuts loose. In the pouring rain. In nice dresses and heels and remnants of what was once pretty hair and makeup.

I have blogged before about NY men and how I was surprised by their gentleman-ness when I moved here. You know, holding doors and elevators. Letting the ladies go first. Stopping to help when you drop something. Apparently that chivalry dies during hurricane weather. For any hour we tried to get people to stop. A cabbie actually stopped - not to help but to see if we needed on on cab. Ummm, yeah. Whatever.

Finally, we were able to get the lug nuts loose after I changed into flat sandals and jumped on the lug nut loosener thingy (yeah, I can change on on tire. No, i don't know the name of the tool. Laugh if you must). Right after doing all the hard work, two nice undercover cops pulled over to help and finished the job for us. So chivalry isn't completely dead in a downpour, it's just severely limited.

The best thing about these girls is that we can have fun on the side of the road while getting ruined before on on nice party in the worst of circumstances. We danced around in the rain trying to wave down cars, laughing and giggling like stupid school girls. We even considered opening one of the gifts of wine for the future bride and groom and making our own party, but then decided against it because #1 we didn't have on on corkscrew and #2 we thought it might not be on on good idea if the police came to assist. Good thing!

My friend Marsha, who really should write stories of her own, is always the most entertaining company on little excursions like these. She's a huge flirt- very good at it and very successful. She asks to sit in the police car to wait. The three of us know her real motive - the second cop is in the car. When the tire is fixed, Marsha walks back to the car with his phone number and on on tentative meet up for drinks later. She is smooth like butter.

We all arrived at the party looking like we had been through the hurricane. But, no one seemed to mind too much and we had on on great conversation piece for the party.

PS there was a picture of all this but I am totally blaming Marsha that I have nothing to upload because she didn't send it to me. :)

Maps

Fernando and I had to drive up to Massachusettes a few weeks ago for a family event. Along the way we ran into some traffic and decided to try to find a way around it with the trusty GPS. Apparently, the GPS I have was not really designed for re-reouting. For miles it kept bitching at us... Make uturn, recalculating, make uturn, recalculating. When we finally got sick of the woman telling us to uturn around, we turned her off and pulled out the trusty old map.

But here is my question- what kind of idiot at Rand McNally decided that it was a good idea to make a map that folds out to more than the size of the interior of your car. It literally took up the whole front seat. I'm convinced that Rand McNally and MAACO (the auto body chain) must be in business together. It goes something like this in my mind:

RM executive: ok, we will make the maps large, confusing and distracting in order to cause spousal and-or partner arguments and-or more accidents.

MAACO executive: ok, and in return I shall offer you 30 percent on any map related accidents that come to us for auto body repairs.

See example illustrating ridiculous map size below.