My Daily Blogs
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Blog Links
NYC Bloggers-a must for all new yorkers

Eatonweb Portal-a pretty neat blog directory

 
Help!

I like my referrers list on the right side of my page so that I can figure out how people got here, but can anyone help me fix the page so that the column doesn't take over the rest of the page?

 
I Miss My Computer Nerd!

While I am quite happy with my computer skills and consider myself quite proficient, I am in desparate need of my personal computer nerd that I left behind in Boston (I'm allowed to call him that because he actually works as a computer engineer, just as I will not be offended if anyone calls me an enginerd because I know in my heart of hearts that it is true).

Spyware has invaded my home computer such that using the internet has become at your own risk. One minute I am cruising the web at high speed and the next minute the pages start loading slower and slower until they no longer load at all. Imagine my apprehension at trying to post my blog, knowing that the other page I had open has not been able to load. I try opening word so that I can at least save the text for when I restart my computer, but to no avail, I am unable to open anything and my computer has officially stalled! WAAH!

Of course I can't post at work since the few glorious days of firewall holes have been since clogged so I will have to hope that when I get home tonight the internet will work long enough for me to publish the page that will hopefully at least post when I'm done.

 
Dating Update

Met up with B last night for drinks after work, and was sooo glad he had to leave to eat dinner with his parents for the end of Passover. Here I was thinking he looked pretty hot in his photo and was a baseball player at a D-1 school for a year and a fratboy, at that he was my height, but he was shorter than me and really not all that attractive. He really reminded me of this guy who used to have a crush on me my freshman year in college who's pledge name was Gleek (which pretty much summed him up.) B was taller than Gleek, but pretty boring to talk to, and I must say when it was over, I couldn't believe it had been less than an hour.

And I just read this Gothamist: Interview #1 and check out question #9, which is exactly what J used to say! Funny how J definately did not end up being the sweet boy he claimed to be. Granted I don't hold it against him for being too busy for a relationship, but I do hold it against him for thinking that he was too busy to drop me a line explaining why he was too busy to talk or see me.

 
Menial Labor, Pt. 2

Did you know you can type the word "average" with just your left hand? Another fun fact you learn when doing data analysis in excel (why can't the formula use avg as the shortcut!)

 
Menial Labor

Have spent past few hours cutting and pasting in Excel. So thaaaat's what an engineering degree is for......

Listening To



Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over

Favorite Track: Tailights Fade

I can't really decide if I like Buffalo Tom or not. I fell in love with the song they played on "My So-Called Life" all those years ago and went out and bought this album thinking it was on here. But no, its not. And while the album is ok, it all kind of blends together into an indistiguishable song. That said, I do really like "Tailights Fade", as well as "Soda Jerk" from the "My So-Called Life" soundtrack. I keep giving them a try every once in a while to see if their other stuff will sink in, but so far no luck.

If anyone knows the name of the song they played in "My So-Called Life" though, please let me know.

 
Dating Update

Just got email from B (would link to last reference of this but my archives are being screwy--wrote about him last week if anyone can access them). He finally asked to see if I wanted to get together, after too much emailing. So he's ahead of Tunes, who warned me about being very busy during Passover but regardless has not emailed since last week when he suggested we get together this weekend. Do I hold it against him that he asked me if I was part of a sorority in college? I guess that can be construed as a good thing but I hope I don't come off as a sorority girl...

 
I Love the Big Apple

Woo-Hoo! Since I missed the last one of these, I will do my best to attend this one!

 
Change that-Barbara H is the best track.

 
Listening To


Fountains of Wayne (self-titled)

Favorite Track: Tough call, either She's Got A Problem or Radiation Vibe

Side note: When I saw the Counting Crows in October (2nd night at Hammerstein), they worked Radiation Vibe into one of their songs, and everyone was cheering for it, but my guess is about 10% of the people there actually knew what song they were playing.

 
Double Date?

Had very fun weekend. Spent Friday night with family visiting for Passover and we went to Turkuaz, which was excellent (though did have to break a few Passover laws).

Spent Saturday installing my new car radio, since my old one died quite a while ago. And it actually works, much to everyone's amazement! So much for girls not being handy with their cars!

Then on Saturday evening, my college roommate was back in town for the long weekend (Patriot's Day in Massachusetts--the only thing that makes me want to be back in Boston!) so we went out with a lot of her friends from high school who are in the area, since she's a Jersey girl. In addition to the h.s. friends were a couple friends of one of her guy friends, M +P who live in the city and whom I've met once before. We all went down to The Living Room at the W Hotel in Times Square because P's sister was in town (coincidentally also visiting from Boston) and she was going to Les Miz first and she wanted a taste of the swanky NY scene. Now P and I get along pretty well and I think he's pretty cute, plus available, but he seems to be interested in someone he met online that he's been emailing with a lot recently.

So P's older brother ended up meeting us there (super cool, very hot, but taken) and at the end of the night, as we're leaving the bar, P's bro pulls me aside and we have the following conversation:

P's bro: So Dahl, how do you know everyone here?
Me: L was my college roommate, and she's friends with O. from high school.
P's Bro: So have you met P before?
Me: Yeah, I met him once before tonight.
P's Bro: Cause I've never met you before, but watching you tonight, I've decided I want to set you up with P.
Me (with semi shocked look on my face): Really? Cause I think he might be interested in someone else.
P's Bro: Nah, I know my brother....we should go on a double date.
Me: Sure, anytime.

So then we rejoin the rest of the group, and P's Bro pulls P aside and talks to him for a sec, and they rejoin the group, and then we all say bye and nothing happens! So who knows if P didn't want to say anything besides bye in the large group, or if he really isn't interested, but only time will tell.

Listening To



DJ Shadow - The Private Press

 
A Nice Short One

I apologize for the super long entry yesterday, so here's a nice short one...Happy Passover! I made the best desert for my seder (Passover dinner for those not of the tribe) - a White Chocolate Semifreddo with Strawberry Coulis - its from the January 1990 Gourmet, but for some reason Epicurious doesn't have it. Sure the cream and eggs aren't the best for you, but it is kosher for Passover!

 
London Tales

Once upon a time, a junior in college decided to go to London to study for her spring semester. I had recently gotten her heart stomped on (story for another day) and then proceeded to have a rebound (also for another day), which only made me feel shittier, so when it was time to head across the pond, I couldn’t be more ready to get away.

After a couple of days of orientation, she moved into her dorm in East London at Queen Mary and soon met her flatmates, of which one was another American girl, and the other four were British (one female, the rest male, two of which, Chris and Miles, were good friends and on the rugby team).

The first couple of weeks went by and after spending a good deal of time with other Americans, I decided that I needed to interact more with the Brits. Since the school did not have a swim team, I decided to join the crew team (boat club as it was known there), having done a semester of novice crew in freshman year of college. Turns out they were pretty short on women so they were glad to have me aboard, and I soon found out why they were so eager for American women.

The typical practice schedule for the boat club was as follows: Tuesday, dryland practice at the gym at the campus center, Wednesday, head to the boathouse in West London around 1pm for a couple hours of practice, and then either Saturday or Sunday morning, head to the boathouse around 11am for a couple of hours practice. However, the gym at the campus center was conveniently located above the campus pub, which you actually had to walk through to get to and from the gym. Needless to say, after working out, we had to stop in the pub for a drink or two. And on Wednesday, the campus nightclub (yes, there was a < a href=”http://www.qmsu.org/ents/index.html”>nightclub on campus) was free, so Wednesday evening usually involved some kind of pub crawl or sitting around playing drinking games before heading up to the nightclub. And Saturday evening we always went to the campus nightclub as well, so if you added up all the time spent together, the crew team spent more time drinking each week then practicing. And they wondered why they had so much trouble getting down the basics of balancing the boat when everyone was rowing!

So after hanging out with the team for a while, I met people on the other sports teams as well (for some reason, the “athletes” were the ones who were always out at the pubs), including Tim, who was a rugby player that also dabbled in crew on occasion. I had noticed him before because from afar, he reminded me of a guy I hooked up with in freshman year, so I was excited to meet him and we hit it off. I can’t remember all the details, but we hooked up once on a drunken Saturday night but was walked home by my flatmate Chris, Tim’s best friend, instead.

Then Valentine’s Day rolled around and I was out with some Americans. We ended up going to the campus pub because we figured the only other people who would be there would be other single people, and sure enough, Tim was there as well. One of my friends basically forced me to go up and talk to him, and during our conversation he actually told me he was so glad he didn’t have a girlfriend to take care of.

Later on, Chris kept telling me that Tim really liked me and that he was just really shy and hadn’t had a proper girlfriend before so he didn’t know how to ask, so I just needed to make the first move. I didn’t want to start chasing anyone though, especially since I was just there for a few months and didn’t want to spend that wondering whether he really liked me or not, so I chose to do whatever I wanted, and if he wanted me, he had to come and get me. Eventually, after another hookup at the nightclub that resulted in nothing more than kissing, he asked me out to go see a movie. However, my brother was visiting so I couldn’t go until he left. While he was there, though, the rugby team auctioned off their players for a day to raise money for the team, and I, of course, bid on Tim, and even though I was outbid by some random girl, she never paid up, so I got him after all.

So we went on our date to go see The Beach, since that was the first movie to come out in England that hadn’t come out in the states before I left, and we had a good time, and he walked me home and then proceeded to stand in my doorway for an hour while talking and then left without a kiss goodnight or anything! And I was going away for the next week, so I was a bit confused by this. Especially since he supposedly really liked me!

When I got back to London a week later, I gave him a call and we tried to meet up on Tuesday, but kept missing each other, so I told him to just stop by my flat, and once again, he proceeded to stand in the doorway for an hour. This time when he was about to leave, I wouldn’t let him go without a kiss and from then on, it was history. We planned for Saturday to be my day to have him as a slave, and on Friday night we slept together for the first time, so this was a bit awkward, but it was quite sweet because he went out and made me a big fry up (like an English or Irish Breakfast), and later cooked me a lasagna for dinner and let me sit around his house and watch TV while his flatmates all stared.

We were pretty much attached at the hip after that, but not in that sickenly sweet kind of way (I know cause I asked people later) cause we were rarely out just the two of us. We were almost always with his friends or mine drinking in the pub, so it wasn’t like we just hung out by ourselves, and I became really good friends with his group. A friend of mine who was studying in Madagascar that semester was going to stop in France on her way back to the States in May, since her mom owned a small apartment in Montpelier that she only used a couple times a year. Another of my friends from college was going to fly to Europe as well and they went to travel in Spain before coming to Montpelier, so I decided to meet them in France, since I had finished finals, and Tim scrounged up enough money to come with me. We got to Montpelier a couple days before them, so we were able to have the apartment to ourselves for a few days as well. That whole trip was probably one of my happiest memories, and Tim got on great with my friends.

I ended up changing my plane ticket back to the States so that I could be in London for the Summer Ball, which was kind of like prom for them, and was really glad I did since. However, I don’t think I realized how much I cared for him until the End of Term party, the night before we got kicked out of the halls. I had to pack up everything in my flat, so Chris, Tim and I finished off all the alcohol I had left, and then we proceeded to go out at around 7. I don’t remember much of the night after that but I don’t think I made it much past 9. I do vaguely remember sitting on the toilet puking my guts out and Tim taking care of me.

The next morning, I woke up lying in bed with Tim beside me, fully clothed (I was wearing a purple skirt with glitter on it, so not ideal sleeping clothes). While we were in our half awake state, we started discussing the fact that I was leaving in a couple of days, and he mumbles something that I didn’t catch. All along, we hadn’t planned on staying together after I left, but I told him I didn’t want to break up either because I thought I was in love with him. He then replied, “So you did hear what I said!” and told me that he had just said he loved me.

I was staying with him for the last couple days since I had to leave the halls, and it was great. We went to see Shakespeare in Regents Park, to the Millennium Wheel, and lots of other touristy stuff, and he gave me a little package of going away presents to remind me of London, including a can of Strongbow Cider, my staple while I was over there, and I still haven’t opened it to this day. Saying goodbye at the airport was horrible, but we got through it thinking we’d see each other soon, that he’d visit me over the summer.

The summer went by quickly and we talked a couple times each week, though it was difficult with the time difference. And he finally booked a flight over for two weeks, but it wasn’t until September, when school had already begun. In addition, I was having knee surgery in the end of August, so I had a couple hours of physical therapy every day. When he finally came, I was really excited to see him, but things became hard pretty quickly. He didn’t really have any plan other than to hang out with me, and I had five classes plus the PT so I didn’t have much time free. Plus, I had just switched into the engineering department, so I had a lot of pretty tough classes that I couldn’t slack off on.

Tim was pretty incapable to entertaining himself in the city and just sat around my apartment watching TV and playing on my computer. He barely even spoke with my roommates, for some reason becoming the shyest person ever. While he was shy around me initially in London, I had never seen him like this, seemingly unwilling to talk to anyone without me there. I began to feel like he was weighing me down, and I didn’t like how he was acting completely dependent on me.

We went down to New York to see the city, since he’d never been there before, and he met my parents. Apparently, they could tell things were getting awkward between us. Also, since I was recovering from my knee injury, sex was a bit awkward and not very interesting. So by the time he left, I was eager to have him go, and broke up with him in the airport. I felt bad doing it, but I even if we were together, I probably wouldn’t have been able to see him until the next summer, and he was never willing to get his act together as far as work and his debt and would never consider moving to the States.

After a while, though, we were able to email each other, and soon, we were telling each other what was going on with our love lives. We made a pact that if by 35 we are not married, we’ll marry each other, and that he’ll even move here (I know, cliché, but sweet none the less). Last summer, he dropped off the face of the earth, though, surfacing only to send me a birthday card, until December. Turns out, he was still unemployed (having quit a permanent temp job at Accenture in March) and didn’t want to look like a loser in front of me.

We got back in touch for a while after I told him I would never think less of him, but in January, he got called up as an army reserve, which he joined last February to add some fun to his life. I told myself he was just going to take over the duties of the standing army while they were away, but no, in the end of February, I got word from him that he was shipping out the next week. From what he’s told me, he still describes the military training like a little kid would—you get to play with all these guns and grenades and tanks! I’m so scared for him and his immaturity, and have heard from him only once, before war broke out, so now I spend each day wishing him well and promising myself I’ll write him some more letters.

 
I was reading Jezebel's blog this morning and realized that I have not eaten a single Cadbury Cream Egg this Easter season. Yes, I'm Jewish, but I adore Easter for this wonderful creation. In high school, I used to eat about one of these a day in the month of april, and when I studied in London (yes, I know, I still owe you the story), they have them year round. Yes, this was bad news for Dahl. And then I discovered Kinder Suprise, which deludes you into thinking its not as unhealthy since its not filled with cream, but has a toy inside instead. By the time I left, I had quite the toy collection!

 
It's A Small World

And check out my new toy--a guest map! The graphics do bring back memories of Zelda, but its still very cool.

 
Spring Cleaning

As many of you have probably noticed, I have done little to change my site recently, so today I have taken advantage of my work firewall letting me through to Blogger and I have actually updated my links, so please check them out. The Eatonweb Portal sounds particularly interesting because it has a feature to create blog geneology....for instance I put in the blogs that influenced me to start my own (Jane, Fish, Krissa and Ari). If anyone else was influenced to start their blogs by them as well, it will then list them as my "siblings", and if any of them add themselves to the directory, then I will be listed as their "child". So it could get interesting if the few of you who read this fill it out and see how the tree unfolds.

 
Dating Update

For those of you who've been following, I haven't mentioned Boston boy for a while for good reason. I emailed with him when I got back from vacation, and we were making plans for during the week since he was, once again, going to be away over the weekend. However, on Tuesday he got a new project that was causing him to work till 11pm every night that week, so he said he'd get back to me last week. Naturally, he did not get back to me, which I am not at all suprised by. He was cute and a good kisser, but I certainly have no desire to date anyone else with such large work commitments. I mean sure, it'd be nice to date someone who has a good job and earns a lot, but I'd rather have someone who's actually around on occasion and I could see more than once every couple of weeks.

As for other prospects, have had a couple of interesting JDate guys that might have potential. One of them, lets call him Tunes, is a songwriter (rock) and composer (classical). He made a list of the artists which influence his rock music and they are practically identical to what I have on my shelf. And his dream composing job is to score movies, where as my dream job (in an alternate world where this would be possible) is to compile soundtracks for movies, so sounds like we have a lot in common. So the cons? He's shorter than me (though not by much), he lives at home Westchester (near where I work though), and doesn't really have a job (just started a part-time thing, but nothing permanant). Last email he talked about getting together next weekend, so sounds like potential. Plus, he has this Adrian Brody look going for him which I love!

Other JDate guy that I've been emailing with we'll call B and he seems cute enough and tall and nice, but also lives in Westchester, though he works in the city and goes out there a lot. Not as much to say about connection, but we've been emailing about every day stuff. I'd go out on a date with him before I decide about whether there's a connection, but he hasn't made any mention of meeting yet so we'll see.

 
Getting Dumped

When you're dating a guy and things go bad, you break up and its usually something definite. However, when you have friends, the end of a friendship is never as clear. I went to college in Boston, and after freshman year I lived there in the summers as well, and after college I stayed in Boston for another year before moving to NYC where I grew up. Every time I visited home, I hung out with my friends from high school and had a blast. I didn't have that many friends that I kept in touch with, but there were three of them that I was really close with. They all talked me into coming back to the city and how great it would be, but since I've been back, I've seen them about as much as I did when I was in Boston, if not less. The problem with good friends is you don't know if they really are just busy with their lives (med school, boyfriend, travels for work) or if they are trying to dump me. Its something I've talked to them about before and they brush it off, but it doesn't change the fact that when I moved to the city, it was because I thought I was going to be back with my friends and that hasn't been true at all. I've never had to try so hard to make new friends before and I've now realized how hard it is when you're no longer in school.

 
They Call Them Professional?

Will post proper stuff over the weekend, but must vent frustration that my baseball team, the Mets, have blown the third game out of the last four! They seem to have a knack at giving up runs in the 9th inning and driving their fans insane. This from one of the best pitching staffs in the league! Maybe if some of their star hitters (Piazza? Vaughn? Burnitz?) actually hit once in a while, they would actually be able to support them. There, venting done (until tomorrow, when it is quite likely that they will blow it again).

 
London Calling

Have just discovered a new blog that makes me miss London soooo much. I studied in London for a semester and my 6 months there were among the happiest of my life, due in large part to very little attention paid to studies and large amount of attention paid to T, the second love of my life. When I have time, I will tell the extended story of my London tales.

 
The Problems of Alone Time

Bob's entry yesterday voiced exactly how I often feel....that my internal dialogue progressively makes me insane, so I had a thought....maybe I should actually instruct guys I date to read my blog so they can be forwarned of my insanities and learn how to deal with them. This way, a guy can see in advance that when they say make plans and then cancel them, I am secretly thinking I know he said it was because of work, but what if its because he doesn't really want to see me? Of course, then I could no longer write about them on the blog, but it could be worth it....

 
Work Really Can Be Fun

On Friday and Saturday, my company had its national conference, at which I had the "lucky" opportunity to give a presentation (it went very well, but I still am shooting darts at my boss for somehow getting me into it). I didn't have high expectations for the conference though, since I didn't know people from the other offices (I work at our corporate headquarters but we have about 20 smaller offices across the country). Plus, the conference was in Stamford, Conn., so I stayed over at the hotel, but I figured most people from my office wouldn't because most of them live in Westchester or north. Much to my suprise, though, I met tons of very cool people from offices across the country and to my suprise, most of them were my age. I felt like I was on a class trip. And the conference itself was much more interesting then I had expected--I don't particuarly love my job and have been wondering whether to go to grad school in the fall, but now I got inspired by all the cool stuff we do, and that maybe I really would like to stay with my job a bit longer.

On another note, daylight savings screws with my mind---ended up waking up this morning at 1:30, and was supposed to be at a luncheon at 1, so what did I do? Climb onto my couch instead and watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 
The World of Sap

I can't believe it but I actually sat down and watched a complete episode of Dawson's Creek for the first time all year. They had all these ads saying that its the first of the last 7 episodes, leading me to believe that they will actually cancel the show at the end of this season, thus making me feel as if my college years are truly over. I can remember watching the first episode my freshman year, back in the days when Joey and Dawson were the ones meant to be together, not Joey and Pacey, which they seem to want to make us believe are destined for each other.

By senior year Wednesday night's had become Dawson's night, a cause to sit around and drink excessive amounts before going to play pool. We even had a Sex Party for when Joey and Pacey finally did the deed! Its definately gone downhill now that everyone is sleeping around. It was always a soap opera, but at least they weren't sleeping around....more like Swan's Crossing for the next generation.

But alas, I must move on and wait for the next evening soap to be my guilty pleasure and mark another period in my life.