FINALLY!!!

Last evening, the Philly Phabulous girls and I, under the name, Alicia Keyes is my Second Cousin Twice Removed, CAME IN FIRST PLACE IN QUIZZO LAST NIGHT!

Yes. I come to you with much gloat. Of course, the evil Sofa Kingdom wasn't there, but that's neither here nor there. We finally broke the 100 point mark last evening to win by 2 points. Good thing Jill and I spent an hour studying "Today in History" before Quizzo.

I know we're geeks. Embrace it.

But as Johnny Goodtimes (the Quizzo Master) surmised, we won because of Nick and Jessica's love. Or lack of, now that the two of them are separated. See, the wild card round, in honor of the separation, Johnny thought it would be fun to have the topic be "Famous Jessicas and Nicks in History." And thanks to Jessica Tandy, Stevie Nicks, Eight is Enough, and Nick Nolte, we got every single question in the round correct, moving us from 4th to last to 3rd place. We had done decently in the first round, bombed the second, and then rocked the 3rd. We then also get only one wrong in the Impossible Round and thanks to LBJ, Malaysia (the big 10 point question), and Michigan Football, we managed the win.

Seriously. Johnny was proud (the team picture will be there soon). So we got gloating rights for an eveing, $40 off the bar tab, decided to share with the guys at the table next to us (who gave us the correct answer to one in the impossible round), little old man at the bar (who gave us the correct answer to another one in the impossible round), shots of Jameson all around, and then closed the bar. We managed to make a few more friends as the night went on, but all in all in good fun.

That's the good news.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Alicia Keyes is Jill's second cousin twice removed. Yeah. We were surprised, too.

'Till next time...

WHEN THERE'S NOTHING ELSE...
I've been rather introspective lately. Had lots of time to mull since Turkey Day. Didn't really leave the homefire too much these past five days, caught up on sleep, paperwork, thinking.

Nothing terribly new to report except that I found this on the Brotzman's page and we all know that I can't resist a survey. So here goes:


1. What high school did you go to? Fayetteville-Manlius High School, baby.

2. What year did you graduate? 1997

3. What were your favorite band(s) or artist(s): Dave Matthews, Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Dancing for Nickels (my band, we did lots). This was all when I wasn't playing in the orchestra, so I guess that classical figures in there somewhere.

4. What was your favorite outfit? Jeans and a t-shirt. Birkensocks. And cargo shorts when it was nice out. Didn't really care much about fashion so much as comfort. Crunchy granola I was.

5. What was up with your hair? Not a whole hell of a lot. It was long in high school. For the most part.

6. Who were your best friend(s)? I had circles that expanded and closed tighter as folks graduated. For a while it was Joanna and that whole crew. Michelle. Elizabeth. Kelly. Nisha. Jamie. Sugene, Steve, Ander-Pander Whoopsie-Poopsie, Billy, Big Daddy Sung, Dave, Leah, Jeremy, Workman, Ange, Wound, Gibbon, the band. I was fortunate to have such great friends in high school. Most of us are still in touch when we can.

7. What did you do after school? God. I was President of my class all four years, so that took time. Orchestras - Chamber and the Pit variety. Yearbook. Various clubs I belonged to which I now conveniently forget. Thespians, MUN, NHS, I was always up to something, I remember not having much time in high school. Not much has changed since. Yeah, I'm a geek. I love it.

8. Where did you work? Well I did work at Fay's Drug Store in the Pharmacy for a year. Then I started at Mailboxes, Etc, which was a much better place of work. Better schedule. Even worked there when I was home for vacations from college for a couple of years.

9. Did you take the bus? Until I got my car, you betcha.

10. Who did you have a crush on? I think I might have had a crush on my guy friends as the years went on. Until I realized they really were just friends. But that's really about it. The good ones were all taken and the rest didn't interest me much.

11. Who did you date? See previous. I was rather busy, I didn't date much.

12. Did you fight with your parents? Who didn't?

13. Did you ever get detention? Maybe once? I can't quite remember, though upon more reflection, I don't think I ever had detention. I was quite the good kid.

14. Favorite subject? Orchestra with Hebert. Hands down. For obvious reasons. But I also always enjoyed my english and social studies classes.

15. Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on? Jesus. Dave Matthews for a good long time. Brad Pitt - hello, what girl didn't in our day? Or now, for that matter? Keanu around Speed. He had that sexy arm thing happening when he was under the bus. His acting might have sucked, but I sure as hell didn't mind watching him.

16. My grades were... Pretty good when I applied myself. Which was often, I have to admit. Because I'm Asian. That's how we do it. But I always walked that extracurricular/academic line, I probably could have done better.

17. Did you smoke cigarettes? Nope.

18. Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day? Not if I could help it. We used to take Freshman who had those huge L.L. Bean bags and spin them because they used to carry their all their books - they couldn't stop spinning from the weight in those bags. I learned pretty quick.

19. Did you have a clique? You could say that. I traveled in different circles, but I had my close circle by my senior year, for sure. We travelled in packs where ever we went. We were very close.

20. Where was your Senior Prom? The Landmark Theatre in Syracuse. It was historic. I picked the place myself - couldn't have asked for a better location. It should have been a sign of things to come.

21. Did you have a Max like "Saved by the Bell"? No, but my parents were always gone on the weekends to Delaware, so we hung at my house a lot. And I guess you could say that Happy Endings in the Armory was our Max - if we could get out there. I did a lot of lying to get out there. Nobody ever spends that much time in a library...

22. Admit it, were you popular? I don't know that I would ever characterize myself as popular. I certainly didn't hang out with the crowd I'd peg as the popular, in-fashion, perfect all the time kids. I just got along well with everyone for the most part. We were a crowd unto ourselves.

23. Who did you want to be just like? I was pretty content with me. No point in pretending to be someone I wasn't.

24. What did you want to be when you grew up? President. I'll admit it. Or just doing something that would make my kids proud. Helping people. I thought politics was where I'd end up. I was right on the money for the most part.

25. What was the color of your yearbook? For the most part, ours were green. Except for that year we had a blue one. Didn't understand that.

26. What were the colors of your school? Forest Green and White. Loved it.

27. What was your school mascot? The Hornet. It's an angry hornet if you look at it. GO HORNETS!

NOT GREAT QUIZZO NEWS. AAAND PAT MORITA. SIGH. BUT LICKING THE DOORKNOB DOESN'T WORK WHEN YOU HAVE A CHECK IN HAND...

Had a great Thanksgiving, but that's neither here nor there. Really.

For everyone's information, we came in sixth in Quizzo even with the Kennedy Wild Card Round. It was a rather difficult Kennedy Wild Card - all assassination - and the last five questions weren't even about Kennedy. We did what we could. We didn't do too bad. We got some really hard ones in there. But what can you do? Looks like we'll just have to keep trying - even though I'm leaving the area.

Sad news that Pat Morita, aka Mr. Miyagi died today. I am very saddened by it.

But there has been lots of good news on the horizon. Had lots of good qualitiy time with family and my aunt who is leaving tomorrow to return to the Philippines. My mom, myself, and my aunt, have had a fantastic time lately.

But most importantly, I found that even if you lick the doorknob, that can't trump someone with a check in hand. I have been searching for apartments in Albany for a while. Though I actually only did leg work for two days. Anyway, after looking at more than a dozen, I walked into the last place and just knew. You know what I mean? Where you just know? You get the feeling? I got it. And pretty strong. I knew this was the apartment that I wanted. It was pricier than I had hoped, but you know, it was exactly what I wanted. Right size, right location, perfect building.

Apparently, some girl had already seen it before me and the guy gave her "dibs" on it. Mad Dog was like, "Did she lick the doorknob?"

Well standard shotgun rules will never apply in apartment hunting. This girl had her parents come up from Westchester to see the apartment. My guess is that mommy and daddy were kicking in.

Long story short, I got the apartment. Turns out Mommy and Daddy Westchester didn't want baby living in an "urban" area, so they wanted her to go with the "safer" suburbs. Which don't really apply in this case. So hahahahahaha, I get the apartment. Now I just have to do the whole "moving" thing and get the process going. Which is a whole other story for another time.

Hope you all had good Turkey days. Talk to you all soon when I have something remotely entertaining. Which might be soon. Who knows?

SECOND PLACE AIN'T SO BAD SOMETIMES...

So my Philly Phabulous girls and I had a boffo time at Quizzo this week. Our team, "Alan Alda is my Friend's Cousin" came in SECOND PLACE waaay above Sofa Kingdom, the team that ALWAYS wins at Quizzo. We got a whopping $20 off our bar tab and an evening of pointing fingers and laughing at the members of Sofa Kingdom.

So give me a second to gloat. We only came in second by a measley 2 points, which we could have won if we had guessed South Dakota instead of West Virginia or Little Ricky Ricardo instead of Bobby Brady. Or had gotten the Edward Muskie question right and put 1972 instead of 1980. You get the drift.

But the winds are 'a changin' 'cause you ain't seen so many 's in one sentence. Seriously, though. I have a good feeling about next Tuesday. Could it be that it is November 22nd and Johnny promised us a Kennedy Wild Card Round if the assassination happened to fall on a Tuesday? Hells yes. And I reminded him, too.

So hang on to your hats, kids. We might have some good news next Tuesday.

Until then, I'm getting my Ikea furniture delivered tomorrow for my new apartment in Albany, which I will be searching for on Friday. New York City and Thursday. Buffalo and Niagara Falls on Saturday. Back to Albany on Sunday if necessary, but watch out, this Monkee may be coming to a town near you soon!

Hah! I've always wanted to say that.

Until then, be well, friends.

WELCOME TO THE MONKEEHAUS' 100TH POST!

I actually can't believe it's only 100. I need to be better about this.

So I find myself cleaning and packing. And bored as all hell.

Yes, we won big in Buffalo. Something like 64% to 27%, which can basically be described as a blowout victory. In fact, all the Upstate Mayoralties are all Democrat. We won in Virginia, New Jersey, and defeated all of the Governator's ballot proposals in California. To say we didn't have a good night is understated. But we celebrated and now it's back to work. It's a long way to next November...

In the meantime, I am back in Delaware and attempting to clean, organize, and pack. And finding it difficult to do because after the campaign and being sick, all I did for three days was play tour guide with my family, one of whom was visiting from the Philippines. So now that I've fully caught up on sleep and rest, I'm turning towards the cleaning. Which I am not too happy to do.

In the meantime, I'm bored as hell down here. So bored that I have been studying for Quizzo tonight and found out that it's illegal to have sex with a porcupine in Florida. You heard it here. Which of course makes me wonder: "Why would anyone have to write this law down unless someone actually attempted to have sex with a porcupine in Florida?"

Chew on that one for a minute.

I also forgot to tell all of you that if you find yourself on a puddlehopper from Albany to Buffalo, your stewardess might also be the co-captain of the flight. Just FYI.

Right. I'm really off to clean and pack now. Sigh. Gotta get some work done. Off I go.

IV's ARE FANTASTIC

So I started writing this post and then I lost it. So here's the short version.

I'm sick as a dog. Extremely sick. So sick that I was in the Emergency Room yesterday. Nothing to worry about. I was just desperate for medical attention. After spending an hour with every doctor in my network in Buffalo, no one could see me. So I called the insurance company who said to go to the ER. So to the ER I went.

After much waiting, they finally saw me. See, I was not only feverish, I was achy, I was sweating, I had the chills, I couldn't swallow, I was breathing shallow, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I knew I had white spots on the throat that doesn't go away with rest alone, needs medical attention, I hadn't eaten for over 24 hours, and I was starting to have trouble swallowing water because my throat and glands were so swollen.

Enough to warrant an ER visit, I feel. So did the doctors.

By the time they saw me, my blood pressure had dropped. My heartrate was accelerated. I was dehydrated. Any longer, they suspect I would have gone into septic shock - after at least another few hours, of course, but it's a good thing I went in, they said.

So they worked quickly. They stabalized my fever, gave me steroids to undo the swelling in my throat, they hooked me up to two ivs to replace my lost fluid and slow my heart rate. It also stabilized my blood pressure. I immediately started to feel better. The pressure on my head went far away. I was able to swallow again. In fact, my mother and I went to get food afterwards because I needed it. A good sign.

So in the meantime, I am resting. And with everyone at work telling me to get my strength back. It does me or the campaign no good to continue being sick. And I certainly wouldn't want to infect anyone. It's just nice because it's been so long since I've had a bacterial infection, I forgot antibiotics work. I've had viral infections every time I've been sick in the past five years or so that all I can do is rest. So it's nice knowing that I can be better with a few pills. Seriously.

Back to rest. And work from the hotel. I find that I'm catching up on a lot of things - there's only so much sleep one can take in a day. Especially me. In the meantime, I've added yet another new link to the left - Deviation by a brilliant mind - my friend and yours, the brilliant mindy. a beers. So take a look around. Check it out.

And take care of yourselves. And each other.

THE HAPPIEST MONKEE...

Well, sort of.

My prayers (?) have been answered. I will be rather busy starting tomorrow morning. At least I might feel useful.

On the other hand, I'm in a lot of pain. My back has locked up in the past two days and movement of any kind is really quite painful. Sitting for a long time, standing for a long time - I just seem to be uncomfortable no matter what I try to do.

So I caved in. I called a local chiropractor, had him contact my chiro in Delaware, and went in for the adjustment. Different method, but nonetheless, useful. My back still hurts, but that's to be expected considering that I haven't had an adjustment in weeks. The whole "unwinding" thing that I don't feel like going into. But instead of the bear hugs that I get from my chiro, I had the "drop" method. Which is really interesting. You lie on your stomach onto a table where the waist down moves. The doctor pokes around on your back, lifts up that part of the table, presses on the vertebrae, and then the table drops, moving your back into the correct position. It's interesting. To say the least. But I can already tell my back is unlocked. Now it's just sore as hell and I need to be drinking lots of water because of all the moving around they did back there (all the negative juice the spine releases when adjusted). So I think I'm headed for the jacuzzi as soon as I post this.

But why am I a happy monkee? A few reasons.

1. I will be busy starting tomorrow. GOTV, here I come.

2. AFSCME has been working their little butts off over here. And it makes me happy knowing we're kicking ass and taking names.

3. I drove by two Frank Lloyd Wright houses here in Buffalo - might be the best I can do given my schedule. Maybe I can work in a tour. I'm hoping. But driving by was enough - jeebus, that man was a brilliant designer and architect.

4. And finally, RIGHTEOUS BABE RECORDS.

So yesterday I spent all day at the AFSCME office, which happens to be right 'round the corner from the Righteous Babe Records Headquarters - which I didn't know was there (Ani DiFranco's company - for those who don't know) - and across the street from the future home of Righteous Babe Records, the church the company saved from demolition (I did know this).

And as we were leaving to go to lunch, apparently, my car keys fell out of the hole in my old peajacket pocket. I'd mend the hole if I had some cloth and a needle and thread. I heart this old jacket.

Either way, my keys fell out. Neat.

It wasn't until I was done with lunch 15 minutes away did I realize my keys must have fallen out of the pocket. I had gotten a call over lunch that I ignored because I didn't recognize the number. Turns out someone had found my keys, called the Avis number, and Avis called me to give me the guy's information. So I called. Matt is the guy who had my keys and he told me to come over to 121 W. Tupper Street, right around the corner from the AFSCME office.

So I walk into the place. And suddenly, it becomes clear. I'm standing right in the entrance of Righteous Babe Records, a Mecca for any aspiring independent musician. And after I ask for Matt, I say, "So you guys are here, huh?" They were like, "Yes, yes we are." They were all really laid back and cool. And so then I take a look around and realize that all of the RBR products are on shelves, posters, promo materials are all over the walls. And I ask if I can buy RBR stuff there instead of online and they're like, "Hell yes, you can."

So being busy with AFSCME work yesterday, I told them I'd return to take a look around. So I returned today.

Spent a pretty penny, but I ended up chatting with the folks that worked there, getting to know them. I think we all thought each other was cool. So I tell them that I'll definitely be back for more when Matt asks me if I want some free stuff. Hell to the yes.

I ask them when they are moving into their new space. They were like, "How long are you in town?" I told them that I was only here for another week when Matt and the other chick (I never got her name) were like, "Well you have to definitely come back for the opening or after we open, we'll give you a grand tour of the space - the whole nine."

Who wants to go to Buffalo in January or February? I'm totally taking them up on this offer.

So not only did I spend a lot of money, but I walked away with loads of Ani promo material that's pretty damn cool. And for someone who's been listening to her since I was 15 (that would be eleven years and counting), this is a pretty damn cool day. And I made some pretty cool friends in the meantime. I think I'm going back there soon.

In the meantime, it's to the jacuzzi for me. Surreal.