gmail is a tricksy thing

 The following post was taken from a number of emails I sent out to various friends and family members:

Hello, all! I'm currently sitting in an office apartment in Alphabet City in the lower east side (well, not technically, but CLOSE ENOUGH, OKAY?) of NYC. It's pretty exciting, even though it's kind of drizzling constantly here right now.

So last night, I drove out to Louisville with my friend, Amy Hunt, who is also being published in RED, to stay in a hotel so we wouldn't have to leave Lexington at like one am to make our flight. We first got Subway (my sandwich had too much mustard, woe), then sped over to the hotel in order to watch Gossip Girl (very important). Unfortunately, my plans to meet up with GSP peeps from the 'ville fell through, but it was all good, as we left later than expected &c and wouldn't have had time for me to chillax AND see Gossip Girl (my priorities are so skewed, woe).

Anyhow. Gossip Girl was amazing -- BLAIR AND CHUCK. HOW FANTASTIC. sorry for potentially spoiling anyone, ps -- and afterwards Amy and I checked our emails and she showered (I had done so before we left), and we got ready for bed. EASIER SAID THAN DONE, I MIGHT ADD. I HAD A DISTRESSING AND TOTALLY UNPROVOKED/UNFORESEEN ATTACK OF DANDRUFF (so upsetting), so I spent awhile trying to tell myself that it was all in my head. Um.

So after hair was dealt with and pajamas were put on, I convinced myself that leaving out the situp part of my nighttime exercise (hah. it's lame. it hardly even counts as exercise, really) regime was NOT something I could get up (I dislike situps :|). And then I couldn't fall asleep -- too excited! -- so I jumped around a lot in the dark. Amy joined me. We eventually collapsed on our beds, and I read RED while she read Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man until we fell asleep.

We woke up (~*I*~ woke up; Amy woke up earlier, what the heck) at 3:15, got dressed, watched an episode of Good Eats about cobbler (so yummy-looking!), finished packing, and left just when a hush puppy expose was supposed to start up on the FN. Woe that we missed that (to my family: we HAVE to watch the Iron Chef dessert special when it airs, okay?), but. It was time for our flight!

We got to the airport around four am. SO EARLY. WOE. and checked in (there was this cute guy who checked in after us, but he was being lame and going to Chicago instead of NYC. He was totally funny and we discussed the carry-on rules before going through security), then went through a really short security line (Apparently not many people are awake at 4 AM? The TSA were kind of lax about it all, too, which was surprising, but, then again, 4 AM. People who want to blow up planes are totally asleep then, like any sane person wou-- well. I guess they're actually ~*not*~ sane if they want to blow up/hijack planes? IDEK. whatever) and camped out at our exit until our plane was ready for boarding, at around 5:50 AM. Amy got a cheese danish and a hot chocolate from Starbucks -- I had most of her hot chocolate, hah -- and I observed how much I really like those rotating plastic protective things on airport toilets. So like. non-germy.

We got on the plane, and I fell asleep after about twelve minutes or so. IT WAS SO DARK WHEN I FELL ASLEEP, AND WHEN I WOKE UP I MOSTLY
KEPT MY EYES CLOSED, BUT I OPENED THEM AT SOME POINT AND WAS STARTLED BY THE LIGHT. and then I fell asleep again. We ended being 45 minutes late landing, because it had to circle lots.

After we picked up the one bag we checked (the stuff with our liquid items and my Liam (Liam is my special green blanket)), we headed waaaaaay downtown to Amy Goldwasser (the editor's) apartment. Which is four flights up, but because the flights in this building are skewed, it was more like nine flights. I was reminded of GSP (OH ALSO ABOUT GSP. ON THE RIDE HERE I HEARD ON THE RADIO ABOUT IDB BANK. GSP PEEPS WHO ARE GETTING THIS, I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT APPRECIATE THIS KNOWLEDGE).

We're staying in Amy G's office, which is next door to the apartment she lives in. It's beautiful and tiny (compared to what I'm used to), with lots of stairs and kind of reminiscent of my friend Lauren's house (only, you know, it's an apartment). After dumping our junk, we met Amy G's cats and got water, before heading out for some most delicious bagels with most fantastic cream cheese from a wonderful Jewish deli/bakery/thing (there was lots of fish and chocolate and bagels, but not much else, so I don't know what you would classify it as?). We brought them back to eat, and Amy G went over the website for RED (redthebook.com; it's going up OFFICIALLY in less than an hour!) while Amy H and I called Henry Clay (:|) and got through to Ms Gill's room, where James and Vincent and Brian and Lauren and Tati were all at lunch. So we talked to them on speakerphone for awhile, and amused Amy G by doing so. Oh, yes.

Right now we're mostly avoiding the rain, and I am (clearly) sending this email as Amy G finishes up a few things that need doing next door and Amy H phone-posts to LiveJournal and browses the music selections. We're leaving in about three hours for the party (so early!) to help set up -- it's in the Jing  Fong dim sum hall, which is apparently a full city block big (!), even though the RED party is just getting a third of it. We have about 400 people scheduled to attend (!!!) -- Amy H and I are both reading our essays there (!!) -- but the hall holds up to 14 hundred. (AT THE PARTY there is going to be lots of dim sum and also red lip-shaped cookies and red punch. SO EXCITING. I'm still not 100% positive what I'm going to wear, but I'm thinking a firm black&white motif with like. Red lipstick and nail polish? Yeah.)

RED: the CD looks amazing, and the RED pens are pretty radtastic, and Amy and I are chillaxing before going to the party (I'm so stoked about meeting everyone -- Sarah S and Hayley H in particular, because I feel as if I've gotten to know them somewhat through vlogs and blogs -- we have plans to go to the Museum of Natural History with Sarah tomorrow, and we DID have plans for Spring Awakening with Hayley on Saturday, but our tickets were refunded, so we're probably just going to hang out that night instead -- but I digress)

Right now, I have to decide between the New York Documentary and some James Dean movie. fjdhg my vote is with James Dean -- I am a fan of this man -- but the NYD is pretty amazing, too.

Amy's waxing on about Amy's music selection, and I'm starting to cough again, so I'm going to wrap this up. I'm so stoked to be here, even with all the rain, and I'm ONLY THREE BLOCKS AWAY from the bakery that I decided was my favorite when I came here with my middle school ages ago (best raspberry lintzer tarts EVER), so that's cool.

AAAH. THREE HOURS.

Hope you all are having fantastic days (especially those of you in school, HAH. nyeah  nyeah. ;-) ), and that you all read RED! ;-) I think I'm going to take a quick nap now, and then. IDEK. Do something else before the party (like, oh, get ready).

dkfhg I wish that I could use italics now. woe woe woe.

much love,


After I sent out that last email, I took an hour, hour and a half -ish nap. While I did so, Amy H went to take the goody bags for the party (they contained RED: the CD, a temporary tattoo from the fashion line that's associated with the books, business cards, and RED: the pen) with Peter -- Amy G's husband. When they got back, we all got dressed. I wore a black and white striped skirt -- sort of dizzying to look at -- and a black top with black shoes, silver-and-red earrings, and red lipstick&nail polish. Amy H wore a lovely polka-dotted dress with maroon-red shoes, Amy G wore a SEQUINED DRESS, black, with bright red heels, and Peter wore a gray suit.

We got to the party around 3:45 -- it started at 6 -- to finish setting up. Claudia B, a fellow author, was somehow already there, so she and Amy H and I hit it off. She had come straight from school and was stoked and nervous, just like us. Some other people came rather soon, including Olive and her band (We are Thor, which is actually a reference to a spelling error)  and Hayley H, who is the awesomest youtuber ever. Hayley and I hit it off, too, especially after I suggested we put the tattoos on as Dark Marks. We had to find the bathroom together, because on the taxi ride over, I was holding the flowers, and they splashed a bit, and Hayley had to actually ~*go*~. (the bathrooms were disgusting, FTR)

When we got back from that, Sarah S (who I have been in contact with before today; we're LiveJournal friends) was there. It was her 15th birthday on Monday, so Amy H and I brought her chocolate and happy-birthday hugs. She was kind of radtastic. It was pretty amazing.

The twins were pretty cool, too, and I hit it off really well with Sarah-from-Massachusetts, who wrote about homophobic football players. We talked college (She's also applying to some of the same schools I am, though she ED'd another one before she left for NYC) and stuff. Claudia and I, at some point, scavenged for food (it was, as I mentioned, in a huge dim sum restaurant, so there were many dumplings &c available. There were also these AMAZING COOKIES.) \u003cbr\>I had a lot of books going around to get signed, but I by no means managed to approach every RED author there. I did get a good number, though.\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Oh, there was this group of private school NYC girls who were published, and when they met Amy H and me, they were all, I've never met anyone from Kentucky before, in kind of a scornful tone. But overall the entire experience was WAY COOL, including/especially reading my bit of essay. Not all of the 400 invited showed, possibly due to rain, but it was still pretty crowded! We Are Thor was a great band -- they covered Cruel To Be Kind, which kind of makes me love them, though, so maybe I'm biased? OH WELL.\n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>After the party, Amy H and I were the last to leave (but not before setting up plans for tomorrow with Sarah S!), because Amy G was the last to leave, and we're staying with her. She was really hungry, so we went to this Chinese restaurant that was literally called Yummy Noodles for a late, official dinner with her and Peter and two of her friends (one of them was one of the Pepper & Pistol fashion designers, and she was wearing an AMAZING shirt she made. It's the 'official' RED shirt, and it's one of a kind.). Amy H and I split beef pan fried noodles, because we weren't all THAT hungry.\n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>After that, we taxied home, got ready for bed, and discovered the wireless wasn't working (thus this email being sent out... not Thursday night). I am so exhausted I can hardly stand up -- I did do my exercises, though I cheated on the situps a little bit -- possibly also due in part to all the stairs around here!\n\u003cbr\> \u003cbr\>Tomorrow (today) we're going to meet up with Sarah S and her mother for the Museum of Natural History, lots of food, the Apple store on 5th Avenue, and random madness. After dinner, we'll be heading to the bookstore where the reading (the fourth reading, technically) will be taking place, because Sarah is reading there. I can hardly wait! But I better get to sleep.\n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Much love, and hope everything is going great Kentucky (and elsewhere)-side,",1] ); //-->

I had a lot of books going around to get signed (like, too many), but I by no means managed to approach every RED author there. I did get a good number, though.

Overall the entire experience was WAY COOL, including/especially reading my bit of essay. Not all of the 400 invited showed, possibly due to rain, but it was still pretty crowded! We Are Thor was a great band -- they covered Cruel To Be Kind, which kind of makes me love them, though, so maybe I'm biased? OH WELL.

After the party, Amy H and I were the last to leave (but not before setting up plans for tomorrow with Sarah S!), because Amy G was the last to leave, and we're staying with her. She was really hungry, so we went to this Chinese restaurant that was literally called Yummy Noodles for a late, official dinner with her and Peter and two of her friends (one of them was one of the Pepper & Pistol fashion designers, and she was wearing an AMAZING shirt she made. It's the 'official' RED shirt, and it's one of a kind.). Amy H and I split beef pan fried noodles, because we weren't all THAT hungry.

After that, we taxied home, got ready for bed, and discovered the wireless wasn't working (thus this email being sent out... not Thursday night). I am so exhausted I can hardly stand up -- I did do my exercises, though I cheated on the situps a little bit -- possibly also due in part to all the stairs around here!
 
Tomorrow (today) we're going to meet up with Sarah S and her mother for the Museum of Natural History, lots of food, the Apple store on 5th Avenue (maybe), and random madness. After dinner, we'll be heading to the bookstore where the reading (the fourth reading, technically) will be taking place, because Sarah is reading there. I can hardly wait! But I better get to sleep.

Much love, and hope everything is going great Kentucky (and elsewhere)-side, \u003cbr\>Saskia\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>PS; DID I MENTION THAT WE HAVE A ROOFTOP PATIO/BALCONY THINGUMYMY HERE??\u003cbr clear\u003d\"all\"\>",1] ); D(["mb","\u003cspan class\u003dsg\>\u003cbr\>-- \u003cbr\>~I like my meaningful statements to be properly grounded in fact~\n\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003ca href\u003d\"mailto:saskiab@redthebook.com\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>saskiab@redthebook.com\u003c/a\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>\u003ca href\u003d\"http://redthebook.com/cs/members/saskiab.aspx\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>http://redthebook.com/cs\u003cWBR\>/members/saskiab.aspx\u003c/a\>\u003cbr\>\u003cbr\>Red: the Next Generation of American Writers -- Teenage Girls -- on What Fires Up Their Lives Today. (Available for order on \n\u003ca href\u003d\"http://amazon.com\" target\u003d\"_blank\" onclick\u003d\"return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)\"\>amazon.com\u003c/a\>. Search: Amy Goldwasser, or see your local bookstore!)\n\u003c/span\>",0] ); D(["ce"]); //-->


PS; DID I MENTION THAT WE HAVE A ROOFTOP PATIO/BALCONY THINGUMYMY HERE??

SO. Today was essentially amazing.

Amy H and I slept in (and by 'slept in' I mean as much as one can DO in New York, which means we woke up -- ~*I*~ woke up -- around 9:30 AM). We had breakfast -- rice krispies and cookies -- and I sent off last night's email and hung around, getting ready for the day, before setting up our thing with Sarah S: meeting at the Museum of Natural History.

We were late, of course -- I held us up with leaving putting real clothes on to the last minute -- but Sarah and her mom ended up getting to the MoNH just a few minutes before we did, so all was good.

THE MUSEUM WAS AMAZING. The three of us got in free, thanks to Amy's parent's membership, and we started at the very top and worked our way down. We managed to see ALMOST everything, however briefly, in about four and a half hours, too. Because I cheated on my situps last night, and didn't make them up this morning, I ended up doing five situps (so not very many, but whatever) in one of the sections with Indians. :| oh me. We also got a lot of shots of me being extremely irreverent and picking the noses (pretending to) of various huge statues and blue whales and things. We did the whole Big Bang walk, and we made a lot of dorky comments about the dinosaurs and early mammals, and all sorts of good stuff (SOME OF THOSE SKELETONS WERE REALLY QUITE TERRIFYING. THERE WAS THIS THING THAT LOOKED RATHER LIKE A TINY DEVILISH REINDEER AND IT TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT :| :| :| (reindeer terrify me a little)). We had an (overpriced) meal in the museum cafeteria (I was a total pig and got pizza AND fries AND chicken dino!nuggets AND vitamin water AND two kinds of candy, because no one was there to tell me to get just what I could eat, and make sure it was healthy -- ;) hi mom! -- but I haven't eaten the candy yet, and I didn't eat all the food. :|). After that, Sarah S and I had traumatic bathroom experiences (they were FILTHY with BROKEN DOORS) and the three of us traveled a good deal of the first floor before tiring out around the minerals.

After the MoNH, we went to Central Park, intent on finding Strawberry Fields. We passed it by, actually, the first time around (walked twice as far as we had to, HAH), but found it on our second try. We took pictures before the cold drove us to find our way to dinner.

Dinner was Ellen's Stardust Diner, at my insistence. I had forgotten exactly which street MMSK (my middle school) stayed at when we visited in eighth grade, so we ended up going a subway stop farther than we had to -- which ended up being a good thing, because we got to see the Gap ad in Times Square with the cast of Spring Awakening!

Ellen's was freaking amazing, as always. It's this fifties throwback diner, with a ~*singing wait staff*~ (mostly Broadway star wannabes, I think?). It has classic American fare (but really flipping tasty) -- Amy H and I both got 'the Elvis, with bananas', which is a triple-decker PB&J sandwich with fries and a pickle, while Sarah S got grilled cheese. My throat was bugging me, so I had peppermint tea as well, while Sarah had lemonade, &c &c &c. They sang songs from Grease, and Phantom of the Opera, and Sound of Music, and Hairspray, and various other absolutely amazing songs ('Freddy, My Love', 'I Love Rock&Roll', 'Greased Lightning', and 'Great Balls of Fire' were the highlights!), including Happy Birthday to one of the customers there. It's so phenomenal and fun there! Amy AND Sarah can attest to this.

After that, we bought one-ride subway passes, to get to the reading for the night, but the subway wasn't COMING for some reason, and we would have had to take a taxi (shorter ride, less money) once we got to our stop, so the tickets ended up being extraneous. We got a cab, and got down to the reading eventually (with some time to spare), which was pretty freaking amazing. Sarah was brilliantly funny, and there were some really poignant pieces, too.

Afterwards, some of the girls decided to go to Lombardi's (I think? Someplace nearby.), but Sarah S, Amy H, and I were waiting on Amy G and her husband, and by the time we got to Lombardi's (it would have been my second dinner. I was SO not hungry, but I wanted to try their pizza :|), but we couldn't find our group, so we ended up just hugging Sarah S goodbye (she's leaving tomorrow, SO upsetting, but I am firm in my belief that we'll see here again eventually) and taking a cab back to the apartment.

And now, as I type this up, Amy and I are making plans to visit our hosts next door and maybe watch a movie and eat cookies before heading
off to bed. So much fun!

Okay, so someone in this apartment building has this like. THUMPING NOISE going from dawn till dusk and it's really quite. Eerie? no. Odd? yes. Terrifying? perhaps. IT IS A MYSTERY. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THIS THUMPING IS, BUT, THEN AGAIN, I REALLY DON'T.

here's wishing Justine a very happy birthday, and everyone else a very happy unbirthday,



Greetings from Lexington again!

SO. NYC on Saturday (and a little bit of Sunday).

Amy H and I woke up relatively early (especially for a Saturday) and walked down to the bakery right next door to Katz's Deli for raspberry lintzer tarts (me) and... whatever Amy had (her). Afterwards, we walked back to the apartment and chilled, eating and eating and eating :| (and checking emails, &c) until Amy G and Peter had checked out the RED site (redthebook.com!) and stuff and were ready to go out to lunch.

We walked from our quite easterly location (Avenue C, people. You don't get much farther east than that) to the Peanut Butter and Company restaurant in Greenwich Village. We passed through a cute little street fair on the way, which had really yummy-smelling grilled food and really gorgeous scarves, but we didn't stop. For lunch at the PB&Co, I got the The Heat Is On sandwich, which was ~*spicy*~ peanut butter sandwich with 'chilled grilled chicken' and pineapple jam, (And, um. it really was spicy) and a chocolate egg cream a la Harriet the Spy. And I--- forget what Amy H had, but it had cinnamon and honey and was on a bagel and it looked really good, too. (She got a vanilla egg cream. Amy G got the EXACT same thing. Apparently it's an Amy thing? ;) hah. I unfortunately don't remember what Peter got.)

After lunch, we walked through the NYU campus a little bit and ended up Washington Square Park, where there was this crazy street show going on. It scandalized me a little - it was highly racist and sexist - but the men doing it were apparently playing off the Avenue Q theory that 'everyone's a little bit racist' or something, and rightfully so, because there was a lot of laughter. It was pretty talented, but I feel kind of stick-in-the-mudish about it, because I was too shocked to really enjoy it (the drummer was fantastic, though, and the Human Helicopter was impressive).

And then Amy H and I took a cab in an uptownly direction, to the New World Theater for Altar Boyz. Altar Boyz is a play about a Christian boy band, and it was totally amazing and hilarious. After the show, Amy H and I had several discussions that went much along the lines of:

ahem. So the play was amazing, and Amy and I got our picture taken with the Boyz afterwards (money went towards AIDS relief and *** cancer awareness in the NYC area) and hit the merchandise table for the Carols for a Cause CD (same as above; each Broadway and some off-Broadway casts sang Christmas songs and proceeds go towards AIDS and *** cancer relief) (me) and shirts (both of us: Amy got a generic Altar Boyz shirt and I got a 'You Make Me Wanna Wait' tee.)

Afterwards, we hit the streets. I got a kebab from a vendor and we wandered around, found the Spring Awakening theater (with strikers outside) and examined the posters outside. We browsed Times Square and then headed off in the vague direction of the Saint Thomas Church (because I remembered the carvings from eighth grade and wanted to visit again). We stopped at Saks Fifth Avenue and ended up going up eight floors to look at the shoe department 'that is so big it gets its own zip code!'. Most of the shoes were gorgeous and at least $300 :|. On the first floor, I had my eyes open for Coach, because I couldn't find any vendors for fake Coach and my sister wanted fake Coach purses for her birthday (today), so I figured I'd get her the real thing.

After Saks, we headed back in the general direction of Broadway. Passing by the Rockefeller Center and Plaza and stuff, I noticed a Coach store on the other side of the street, so Amy and I crossed the street at the next intersection, walked back a block, and I proceeded to wibble for approximately fifteen minutes about putting down such a LARGE sum of money on such a SMALL purse-thing (I ended up doing it. My sister's ecstatic that she has a REAL Coach bag, no matter how small). After Coach, Amy and I walked to the Anthropologie store about a block away, where I called mom to say, OKAY I JUST SPENT ALMOST A [insert large sum of money here] ON THESE TWO TINY THINGS THAT ARE AUTHENTIC COACH FOR PORTIA ~*WHAT*~ DID I JUST DO (I was hyperventilating a little) but she calmed me down.

Then, Amy and I started heading towards Ellen's Stardust Diner (again :|) but the lines were vastly long and out the door, so we ended up sitting at Sbarro for about forty-five minutes before heading back in the general direction of the Spring Awakening strike.

We didn't end up meeting Hayley H, as plans had gone, but in the ~20, 25 minutes we hung around the strikers (the cast wasn't required to show, so we didn't get to see them), we met this somewhat creepy woman who is like OBSESSED with Spring Awakening. She's seen it six times already, and took a train from the DC area earlier Saturday to see it Saturday night and the Sunday matinée (was there a Sunday matinée? Some show on Sunday, anyhow), and she brought PRESENTS for everyone on the cast and was all, oh I know them I know that they'll be here, &c and stuff and idk. She gave me this weird creepy sort of vibe, so I sort of stayed away from her.

Oh! But we saw RED author Jasmin S and one of her friends walking along near there. They saw part of the cast, which did show up during the time of the matinée. It was cool seeing them one last time (small world! I swear!)

Anyhow after the strike was struck at 7:30, Amy and I took a cab back down to Amy and Peter's, where we tossed all our purchases and bags &c onto our respective piles of junk (me) and suitcases (her), and headed over to Amy and Peter's actual apartment for Project Runway and, um. four episodes of Heroes. One of their cats (she likes licking hairlines?) licked my hairline a bit, and I pet her a lot, which was nice, because. I was missing my cats somewhat horribly. (They kept making these jokes about how they were MAKING ME WATCH TV D: and how when I write the follow-up essay that's coming in the follow-up book that's supposed to happen in fifteen, twenty years (?right?) I'll say, ...AND THEY MADE ME WATCH TV!! or something. Hah.

And then we got back to our end of things and I hastily piled everything clothing-related in my suitcase and haphazardly piled everything else up in a more or less organized fashion and ate rice krispies and half a snickers bar and brushed my teeth (OH HOW DETAILED I'M GETTING) and set my alarm for early and went to bed.

My alarm didn't wake me up.

Amy G came over around seven, and I got up and finished packing. When I was finished, I decided I HAD to go on the rooftop terrace, because it was THERE and I hadn't been on it yet, so I stepped out and looked the city of New York face-on for one last time before finishing up a few things and getting all my bags down to the front. Amy G helped us carry things downstairs (her husband was still in bed) and stuff and we were all ready when our car for the airport came.  And then there was the whole airport deal, checking in, getting through security, sleeping on the plane, landing, getting the toiletries bag that we checked, and heading home. And now! I'm back home, the laptop has a zillion viruses, and my sister has a birthday makeover. (she's stoked about the Coach)

I am so pumped for dinner! And Thanksgiving, because I really want some corn pudding. I kind of wish we hadn't had to leave so soon, BUT it was an amazing three-odd days, and I'm so glad I got to have them. AND! The book is getting all of these RAVE REVIEWS and stuff. It's pretty incredibly exciting. I'm, like, shocked. SHOCKED AND SLIGHTLY AMAZED. I am in AWE. This is so freaking cool. (HEY! BOYS! YOU'RE NEXT! potentially there's going to be a book JUST LIKE THIS for boys. Amy G is going to keep me posted, and I'll let you know if she starts wanting submissions from male adolescents!) Did I mention an Oprah associate or something was at the official party?

Happy birthday to my most darling sister, and here's hoping everyone else is having a fantastic day,


PS; Uncle G, when mom forwards this to you, I am, like, so ~*totally*~ not like talking or, like, typing like a, like, valley girl! like. ;)