My Fiancée....

My dear fiancée, the man who I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with - and the one who I like to believe is a is the inspiration for this blog... DOESN'T READ IT.

Yeah... This guy. 

For those of you who know him. Please chastise at will. kthxbai.

Concerts....

My parents never let me go to concerts as a kid - it aggravated the crap out of me. Even when my favorite band Dave Matthews toured with my other favorite band Guster (yes I am obviously a child of the 90s) toured upstate New York the year I graduated high school - still couldn't go. SO sad.

Anyway - to fufill one of my childhood dreams I decided to go to a Barenaked Ladies concert. Now - I know you are like "wtf - they still exist? after that chinese chicken song?" Guess what - yes. yes they do. And they are beloved by many many people the world over. Case in point:

So. Don't judge. Judgy McJudgerson.

Anyway - I probably shouldn't have felt too bad about not going to concerts in high school and such - I was even shorter back then. This was my view at the BNL concert this past summer:

Now - as much as I was there for the music and it was great to "see" them in concert - I was just short enough for that bar to be directly in my way. Concert tickets to see my most favorite band after 12 years of waiting ... $60 a pop, experiences of finally seeing my favorite band after 12 years of waiting... priceless - except for that annoying damn bar.

Next up - Rush. Now, for those of you who know Rush - they rock. You may remember their cameo in "I love you man" ....great movie... I was introduced to them by my dear fiancee a few years ago. They are a total arena rock band who have been putting out LPs since forever. They decided to do a tour this past summer and of course we jumped on the chance to finally see this awesome band in concert. We ended up with lawn seats to see the show... so as before - we ended up hearing the show instead:

It was great to hear them - would have been better to see them - but with the awesome factor of this band and the fact that everyone on the lawn couldn't see them and had this view made it feel ok.

Finally - my biggest pet peeve - general admission concerts. I went to see a band named Cap'n Jazz with my fiancee back in August. Spent $50 a ticket and it was general admission. Scott and I got there an hour before they came on and got the perfect spot. As the lights dimmed and the band came on stage - my view now looked like this:

Come on ugly plaid shirt guy. You've GOT to be kidding me. I've been standing here for an hour waiting for the show to start. You see that I am 5 feet tall and just because you don't see a head above 6ft doesn't mean NO ONE IS STANDING HERE. See those two little pink lights to the right of his head - i think that was the bassist's arm. 

Moral of the story... think before you plant your ass at a concert... Don't be that guy...

Guess who's back... back again...

Hello World.

Sorry I've been a bad blogger - since my last post on August 8, 2010 - quite a bit has happened:

September...I got engaged!

Me and my fiancée next to the bay bridge... 

October ... I went to Hawaii

Paradise Bay.... so pretty.

November ... I celebrated my engagement

...there were sparky outfits...

...and delicious Wegmans cookie cake!!!

December... I got a new job

Amazing - I found a Dilbert cartoon related to DR!!!

January... I went to China

...the quintessential tranquil Chinese garden.

And I moved to Baltimore! (January was a big month...)

The beautiful Baltimore skyline at dusk... my new home!

February... I got lazy and realized that I needed I need to start up my blog again...

...stay tuned friends - more tales from life at 5 feet coming soon! Charm city edition!

Blame Andrew...

For those of you who have been wondering why I haven't had any posts about being short since "five things I'm too short to do..." it is becuase I have been holding off on writing my new post until I get a very important photo from my dear friend Andrew (see below)

this is Andrew... and he's holding my photo hostage...

He just moved into a new apartment and can't seem to find it... Get on it Andrew! The world waits!

My Murtaugh List

Following the blog postings of Jenny @ GeekInHeels and my dear friend Jessica @ JessLovesCupcakes I too have decided to detail out my Murtaugh List. For those of you who watch How I Met Your Mother (affectionately known as HIMYM) you recall that there was an episode in season 4 titeled "Murtaugh".

Urban dictionary defines "Murtaugh List" as the following:

A list made famous from the TV show "How I Met Your Mother" inspired by Danny Glover's charater Roger Murtaugh in the movie series "Lethal Weapon." Murtaugh's catch phrase in these movies was "I'm too old for this shit" Putting something on the Murtaugh List acknowledges that as you grow up, there's stuff you just can no longer do that you did in your youth.

So ... I decided it was time to come up with my own list as well...  

1. Eat anything that comes out of an aerosol can (with the exception of whip cream)
2. Try and use my college ID to get discounted tickets at movies (sadly the photo on my ID is 11 years old but I do not look any different - including my hair... this should be an issue)
3. Shop for shoes in the kids department (my feet are still small enough that they fit)
4. Decorate my house with pillows that are shaped like cartoon characters
5. Eat food that is prepared by "just adding water" or says "no cooking needed" as an entire meal (I lived off of this in college)
6. Drink so much that I end up eating at a diner past 3am (to be fair - I went out hard enough last weekend that I ended up at a diner - but I was home by 3am... so... there)
7. Wear any cosmetic product that is primary made of glitter
8. Get a tattoo (yes... its just too late for me)
9. Go to a frat party (my kid sister tried to get me to go when I visited her at Northwestern during Halloween... something about drinking natty ice from a keg just didn't sit well with me)
10. Order off the kids menu at a restaurant (sike - i'll do this everytime they let me!)

Zach Galifianakis and Steve Carell.... amazing.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Steve Carell from Between Two Ferns

A great perspective on San Francisco...

Everyone has a morning ritual. On most days I take the shuttle into work. On the rare day I get to drive down to work, I savor it. Unlike most people - I love driving. There is nothing like coffee in hand, air conditioned (or heated) car and your dial tuned to your favorite radio station, which in my case, is NPR. I love listening to NPR in the morning, and on Tuesday I got to hear an interesting piece in NPR's "Perspectives" series. 

Here in the bay area - the Perspectives series features local authors who present their perspectives on different topics. Today's was especially interesting - it was a perspective presented by Debbie Duncan, an author of children's books who lives on the peninsula. She provided some interesting insight on the topic of the abbreviation of San Francisco (i.e. SF, San Fran, Frisco). Its a discussion point I've heard several times in the three years I've been living here in the bay. Listen for yourself and see what you think!

First, It Was 'Frisco'
Now, according to Debbie Duncan, it's "San Fran." And the verbal virus must be stopped.

By Debbie Duncan

Has this happened recently to you? You're on a flight bound for San Francisco, and the pilot comes over the loudspeaker and announces you will be arriving in "San Fran" at such-and-such a time? Or you read a tweet asking about the weather in "San Fran?" (It's summer. It's foggy. Why do you ask? And if you want to save characters in your 140 limit, use the letters "SF." It's shorter.)

Even some recent transplants call their new home "San Fran." At times like these I'm reminded of the old Herb Caen header, "Don't Call it Frisco," and want to shout "Don't call it San Fran!"

Where did "San Fran" come from, anyway? I blame Southern California, or SoCal, as they like to call it. SoCal is where "the I-5 meets the 405 on the way to the PCH in the O.C." I grew up in Orange County, not the "OC," the title of a TV show, for heaven's sake. I wrote to the author of an (otherwise) terrific book for young adults set in a near-future San Francisco, complaining about his characters hopping on "the BART." THE BART??? He acknowledged the error and said he'd written the book while living in Los Angeles. I knew it! There's no hope of Northern California breaking away from the South, but must we allow them to invade our language?

"NorCal" doesn't grate on me as much as "San Fran," or a "the" tacked onto every freeway or form of public transportation. It's used in youth sports leagues. My daughters tell me there's another term teens are using: "the Bay," instead of the "Bay Area." Well, if someone told me she's "from the Bay," I'd be tempted to ask if she'd toweled off when she got out of the water. Or: Are you amphibious?

Newspapers, long may they live, still use "Calif." for our state instead of the unkind-to-look-at, dreadful-to-pronounce two-letter abbreviation, capital C, capital A, which is really appropriate only on snail mail. It was invented by the U.S. Postal Service for its address reading machines, and to make room for ZIP codes on envelopes.

San Francisco is a mellifluous, historic name. It honors our state's cultural heritage. Don't decapitate it. Don't call it "San Fran."

With a Perspective, I'm Debbie Duncan.