Well, ya know, kinda…

So, I’ve been away for a while – combo of reasons, but mostly it boiled down to three main things:

1. the server I was using to host my website BLEW MONKEY CHUNKS and made posting a very challenging and frustrating event which made me not want to get on here much
2. school work and real work combined have been piling up (I am living, breathing, eating and dreaming nothing but thesis Thesis THESIS!!!) which is understandably consuming most of my life right now
3. and finally – after I fell of the wagon and was a few posts behind I did a classic move of letting myself feel overwhelmed by how much I needed to “catch up on” which scared me from  actually trying to “catch up”.

Of course other things like Sasha’s sudden blindness (yes, my five year old baby has been diagnosed as being acutely blind), a major thesis presentation I’ve been prepping for weeks for, fighting off a really nasty little cold (and finally winning), running my 6th marathon (Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco), traveling to Parisppany New Jersey and NYC for a long weekend and spending my tiny bit of free time with some of the very special people in my life (not all unfortunately) has ALSO played into my interweb absence. But my friends, (if anyone is even still out there checking up on this site) I am back, and I’m excited to say I should be posting at least a few times a week, if not every day.

It was brought to my attention that since I have become such an EXTREMELY heavy user of the demon commonly known as Facebook, I probably haven’t felt as strong an urge to post the way I previously had been on my blog anymore. At first I thought that was hog wash, but I have come to realize the truth behind that idea. I’m a Facebook junkie, and I post more tiny status updates there which leaves me feeling like I’ve done my “share things about yourself” for the day. I think I just figured no one was really out there reading this anyway that wasn’t already on FB and could see my stuff there. But thinking more about it (and re-reading older posts) I remembered all the fantastic differences with my blog and how I use Facebook. Besides, I spend at least 45 minutes every day reading all the blogs I follow, surely someone out there I don’t even know was reading this and then I just stopped posting. When any of the blogs I follow stop doing that, I get a little bummed out. So I recognized that both the blog and fb can serve different purposes and I really needed to get back on here. Besides, my “posting” on fb is totally different than what I ever say here. There I post things like “Devin Schuyler is feeling groovy” (lame) or “Devin Schuyler is soooo happy it’s almost the weekend; my apartment needs a cleaning!” (which is just as lame as the first). That’s not really me sharing anything of import, but I guess it was enough for a while to fulfill that fix.

But whatever,  I’ve made blogging easier again by having switched to a new hosting company. They are WORLDS better…soon ALL of the sites I own will be with the same company and it will all be SO MUCH BETTER. Woo hoo!

ANYwho…so here I am again, back in action. Now that the thesis presentation is behind me (I believe it went well, but it was all kind of a major blur) I am just focusing on doing the work & research while writing my grant proposal that is due mid December. This alleviates a tiny bit of pressure which has made me feel about ten pounds lighter than I’ve been feeling lately.

So, to update on things past; besides feeling thesis year stress (damn that stress level!!!) I may throw in a bit here or there about major events to go down over the past several weeks. For now I will start with Parsippany, New Jersey.

Oh man…what a crazy place. It’s close to Morristown which is just a real throw back to little towns in upper MD I used to drive through from time to time. My travel companion was attending a signature signing thing…I don’t even know what they call them, but it kinda reminds me of conventions where semi/famous people go and you buy stuff and get signatures and pictures…oh yes…it’s a REAL experience!

I didn’t do any of that, I just went down for a moment to check out the peeps that WERE there (both doing the signing and getting sh*t signed). WHAT A CRAZY MIXED UP BUNCH! Most notable famous people I saw where:

1. The woman who played Elvira – she looks bang’n. WOW…
2. Linda Blair still riding the fame from The Exorcist. Tight little body – woah – but ya know, face? Not so much…
3. Tia Carrare (my personal favorite famous person there) who is a TOTAL HOTTIE in real life! She seemed soooo friendly. She’d get right next to a person for a photo, she has the best smile, she was super nice to everyone and just seemed like a genuinely cool person. The offer was made for me to go get my picture with her which was VERY tempting, except that I looked like hell and didn’t want to have that immortalized in a picture with the smoke’n hot Tia. I don’t think that would have done good things for my ego. ha ha
4. Finally, Richard Dreyfuss was the other big famous guy I remember seeing. He seemed a little, uh, out of it. My travel companion seemed to be pretty sure Richard was D-RUNK from the start. That made me laugh a little. He looked old. He looked like a normal guy, nothing special. I was rather unimpressed actually.
5. Patrick Stewart was also there, but he is SOOOOOO “special” that he had some private room for signing. WHAT-EVER! Not only that, but it cost $100 to get his sig AND an addition $100 for a freaking photo with the guy. Now, don’t get me wrong…I dug on Capt. Picard as much as the next guy, but really? $100 freaking bucks for an autograph? LAME Mr. Stewart. I call you out sir. L A M E!

Well that’s if for famous people I remember. I was kinda in a daze anyway – sleep deprived and all. But seemed kinda fun, and I could see how one could get into something like this. The BEST part of the whole show though was the little nook all the artist people hung out…like the McFarlane guys and famous poster art people etc. There was this guy there who did animation for the Original Ghostbusters animated series. Yeah – tre cool. He was selling actual stills USED for the tv series for $20 a pop. Freaking cool. He had slimmer which was nifty, but for me, Egon was totally where it was at. Yeah…I remembered that show. Met and talked with the guy who did the work. SUPER cool…my geekness was totally coming out. I LOVE talking shop with these guys – probably could have pulled up a chair and chatted all night with them if it would have been acceptable to do so. The same artist also had some WICKED original Jack Skellington paintings that he did. The one I was totally in love with tho he had already sold and only had a reprint of. SOOOOO cool. They looked really nice. Big big fan. This guy was so cool, it’s a real shame I can’t recall his name right now…

Anyway, the next day (Saturday) it had been my plan to get up and go INTO the city (NYC) and troll around till we met back up again for dinner. I think we both knew this probably wouldn’t happen. While more signatures and pictures were being gathered, I slept in bed until 4PM. True story. CLEARLY I needed the sleep. The whole Sasha blindness (which only JUST happened) and thesis presentation plus the yucky cold really had drained me of all energy and motivation to MOVE. So I slept. And ya know what? It.was.AWESOME.

Around 4 something I did get up, we got ready and hopped the train to head into the city for some sure to be delicious seafood. Oh yes, City Crab, you were mine for the taking. Not having eaten for over 24 hours meant I was a starving beast so until I had food in my belly, I was kinda sluggish – but then the plate of King Crab legs appeared and the delirium began. Ya know, I’m a big eater, and I can usually pack it in, but that pound of (half pound?) of legs was TOO MUCH for me to handle…I forced my partner in crime to eat some of mine (after eating his own plateful) and thought I’d never eat again…until the dessert menu landed on my lap. OK, so I had enough room to take out the oreo cookie ice-cream pie. YUM. All in all, while the service left a LOT to be desired, the food was pretty darn good. Not the best I’ve ever had there, but I’m not gonna complain either.

We left there and met my girlie Lara Miller for some world series action and NYC Marathon chatter (she was running, I was gonna be cheering on the sidelines). We went to a place called Rogue…and DAMN, it was PACKED. Of course, it WAS Halloween, so I guess that made sense. The costumes were pretty sweet too…made me miss not really doing a Halloweenie thing this year. :/ WE only stuck around for a drink – I was getting knocked into left and right and kinda over it right quick. Besides, I wanted more sleep. Ha.

We arrived back at Penn Station with plenty of time to kill and guess what…I was hungry again. EEK. The picture below is of me scarfing down my SECOND Taco Bell bean taco after guzzling a gatorade and water. My my my, just call me piggy Devin why don’t cha! I think the photo is funny. “Yes, I’ll have my King Crab legs steamed with a Taco Bell taco chaser. Thanks”.

Sunday was a crazy day, I missed even getting TO the marathon cause we drove into the city. HA HA HA HA…silly Devin, do you know nothing? Traffic crawled and we missed Ms Miller, but she did a rock’n job, PRing with a 4:30 something. GO LARA!

Instead we met up with one of my high school besties Michelle B and her man. It was SOOOOOOO great to see her. I miss her so much. She’s my soul sista! And still as radiantly beautiful as ever. Shes also “in love” and man did it show. I don’t think I’ve seen her THAT happy in ages. Literally. Freaking awesome. So spending time with her was incredible, meeting her man was awesome too. It was a great end to a quick little weekend away in one of my favorite cities.

I’m bummed that on Friday when we drove into the city before checking into our hotel I couldn’t remember where the Ghostbusters Firehouse was. DAMN! I knew it was near the Tribecca Film building thingie, and I was sooooooo close to it, but I just couldn’t get my bearings straight (I blame the sleep deprivation again). That was a bummer. But we did go to ground zero.

Man. I’m kind impressed with myself, I really kept it together, but all I wanted to do was cry. Seriously…I can’t believe it’s been so many years since the attacks – yet it is something I think about almost every day. There is a new little place to go to where they show you what they’ll have at the memorial site. There was video, interviews, snippets of docs on the topic, survivors…the works. My heart is swelling up just thinking about what I got to see. There is an incredible collaborative piece they are putting together for the memorial. It looked like you went into this sound booth and for 3 minutes you recorded “where you were when it happened” and any thoughts that you wanted to share.

I SERIOUSLY considered doing it, but to be honest, I knew I’d choke up if I went in. I’d like to go back sometime soon…participate by adding my 3 minutes of the story – but if you are reading this, and you live in the city, I encourage you to go and participate in this installation piece. It’s right near the little Chapel by ground zero, pretty hard to miss.

Anyway…that was the real emotional part of the trip. I personally feel like it’s incredibly important we remember the events of that day, and honor all those that were lost by living OUR lives to the best of our ability. Spreading love, peace and happiness to those around us and the world.

It’s interesting now that I think about it, we started the trip with a stop at the site where hundreds of men and women, fire fighters and cops lost their lives. We ended the trip with Michelle and her beau Anthony who is a member of the NYPD. Very very cool. Bookends. The yin and the yang. Love it.

ANYWAY…that was that trip. It was followed by an extremely delayed flight back home (THANK YOU BAD FLYING KARMA THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO ME!!!) and goofiness in the car. I was thrilled to come back home and find my little baby finally willing to eat after not eating since the Wednesday morning before Halloween.

I’ll post an update on the kitty soon, but for now this post has gotten MORE than long enough. I think I’m gonna grab the little one and go watch another movie before calling it a night.

In the mean while, I hope this message finds all out there on the interweb happy and healthy. Looking forward to getting back to regular posting and also picking up the Fave Five again! THANKS FOR STICKING WITH ME PEEPS!!!

Cheers and well wishes,
Devin