Best Great, Just Great

There was this pretty good digital short on Saturday Night Live this week. I don't know anything about Twilight, but I get these jokes...


But the video is kind of a bummer because it pretty much kills my hopes to write a series of books about a girl that moves from Seattle to Phoenix and falls in love with a hot teen mummy at her school.

Best Another Thing About My Building

Following up on yesterday, I want to show you the scary urinal at work.

As you can see, there's a little door by it. It opens into the innards of our building, to a shaftway, it seems. A draft flows through this space, it will blow the door open and slap your thigh while you find yourself in a vulnerable state.

Best First Brazil Post or Damn Yankees indeed.

Here's a question that Yahoo Answers couldn't answer for me: Is a consulate count as foreign soil like an embassy does? If so, I took my first trip to Brazil on Friday.

I had to slip out of work at 9:30 to get up to the consulate to turn in my visa application. The Yankees Victory Parade was to head up Broadway in front of my work, "How neat" I thought as I left my building, admiring the small crowd that had gathered.

Going to the consulate was just great, I loved it so much. I'm being serious. It was like going to the Brazilian DMV, I got yelled at in Portuguese, I was so happy, so glad to be there in the country I love with the people that I love from that country that I love.

When I got back downtown I was definitely in America again and Americans were definitely getting on my nerves.

These masses...they were everywhere, everyone desperate to catch the sight of a Yankee or two on a double decker bus or flatbed truck. It took me 20 minutes to walk the two blocks from the subway stop to my building...and that was with me being absolutely savage about getting through that crowd. I trampled the elderly, I toppled strollers, I shoved enthusiasts, I had to get to work.

Our plaza was mostly blocked off, but still more crowded than before. My favorite part of battling my way through the crowds was elbowing through everyone pressed against the Church street barricades and showing my ID to the security guards and being let through as knuckleheads in blue begged me to take them with me.

Up in the office we had a perfect view of the parade. Can you spot any hardcore Phillies fans?


See, perfect view of the parade without any parade.

The Best, Apparently, is Yet to Come

And suddenly I wonder: Were the first three seasons just setting everything up for the introduction of these two?

Best Most Impressive

These timelines for Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and 12 Angry Men are some of the most interesting and study-worthy things I've seen on the internet in a while.

Check them out. If your heart is right, you'll be amazed.

Best This Is How I Found Out About Brazil

When I was a kid (I'm talking nursery school or kindergarten age here) there were these kids from Reno would sometimes come and visit their relatives across the street. And then I saw this song on the Muppet Show. In my mind, I could tell no difference between "Reno" and "Rio" so I was curious about this festive place the visitors from across the street came from. I asked my dad where Rio was, he told me in another country really, really far away. I was confused as to how those visiting kids could come so frequently from such a far off place and seem so non-exotic.

And now, in two and a half weeks, I'm finally taking my first trip to Reno!

Best Third Time Was Charming

This weekend was special, Collin came back for a bit. We celebrated by celebrating his birthday at La Casa de los Tacos. Just like we did last year And the year Before.

We mobbed the place, as per the usual. Would you believe that, even after we called in advance to tell them we were coming, they only had one waitress working that night?




Jason got smart and took the solo table.

Brittany had the enchiladas. We all freaked out (in the good way), we'd never seen anyone have the enchiladas before.

The weirdest thing about dear old La Casa? That their cups are from the Hat. Of course, you'd have to have even heard of the Hat for this to be weird to you.

Unlike in previous years, we did not go to Emily's house to party afterwords. Didn't want to be totally predictable, after all.

Best Four Times Were Enough

New York, Halloween. Here we go again! (here's last years parade, it was a good one. And here's the 2006 parade, my first. Oh! And here's the 2007 parade. That's all of them. I've done 4 now.)

This year I was Mickey Mouse, ending my streak of unrecognizable costumes. This one started as enthusiastic joking at Duane's birthday party and wound up being for real Saturday night.

Collin (who was visiting for the weekend from Bowling Green) was Richie Tenenbaum and Jeff was Abraham Lincoln. He grew out the beard himself.

We headed over to the parade where we bumped into/met up with Amber and Ashley

And Chris (as Bob Ross!)

and Di
and Brian
and Jeff and Pete and also Mattias but I didn't get his picture

A Minnie! So many Minnies were out that night with barely another Mickey in sight.

"Hey Minnies!"
Lion-O. The problem with Saturday night was that it was rainy. Real rainy. Horribly rainy. The parade was total chaos. It became a thing to survive or escape from.


Barely left me in the spirit to admire costumes, just made our way as fast as possible for 21st street.




Shredder.

Hannah Solo. Wouldn't turn around.


Parade accomplished. Time to head to the regional dance.


Regional dance. Cher was there (as Cruella). The dance seemed a little off this year.

Off, but not broken.



If it's October 31st and Garrett isn't dressed as Napoleon Dynamite is it really Halloween?

Split the dance and headed downtown to a major gathering on 27th street. Faces were more friendly and familiar down there.



Kunz sister convention.

Orbit gum lady, brilliant.




(it was a 7 Deadly Sins party, Liz was there to elevate the situation)


Finally, after running uptown after work to grab my ears which I forgot to bring to work, running back downtown for the parade, uptown for the dance, downtown for the party, finally I was on a train uptown for to bed.

These old ladies outlasted me. I'm a lightweight.