When I was a kid, I used to go to a neighbor’s house all the time. She was an only child, and I lived with eleven other people, so I loved escaping the noise and bustle and general insanity that was par for the course at my house. We’d play Barbies or two-person Clue (I know, sounds ridiculous, but somehow we managed to do it) or just watch TV. We watched a lot of the USA Network for some reason – I think they had really cheesy kids game shows on in the afternoons or something – but they also showed these short one minute segments called “In A Minute”:

(To this day, when I hear anyone say, “In a minute,” that helium-laced loop at the beginning of the clip plays in my mind.)

Anyway, one time they had a segment on Rabbit Rabbit Day. This is the first day of every month, and supposedly if you say the words “Rabbit rabbit” as soon as you wake up, before anything else, you’ll have good luck the rest of the month.

The first time I ever told my boyfriend about Rabbit Rabbit Day, he basically told me that I was crazy and superstitious. I considered this. Crazy? No, not anymore than the next person. Superstitious? Yes. If I’m watching a Steelers game with you, and you remark at how incredibly well the team is playing, I will kill you with my eyes. Seriously, I’ll cut you. Because you just don’t do things like that. Not even if the score is 532-0 and there’s ten seconds left to play and we have possession of the ball and God has come down from the heavens and decreed that the Steelers will emerge victorious from the game. To say the Steelers are playing well is jinxing it, and they’ll immediately fumble the ball and the other team will score 533 points in those ten seconds and God will just go back to that big stadium in the sky and then probably strike you with a lightning bolt because you jinxed the Steelers. And everyone knows God’s a Steelers fan.

Getting back to the point, since tonight is the last night of the month, that makes tomorrow Rabbit Rabbit Day. And I did some poking around on the Internets (read: Googled “rabbit rabbit day”) and found out that it’s actually a thing. With a history. At least 600 years of history, actually, and maybe even 800.

Is it still superstitious? Of course. Will I forget to say it in the morning? It’s quite possible. I’d say there’s a fifty percent chance. But do I feel just a bit validated and maybe even a tad smug that Wikipedia has given me a factual basis for these two little words I’ve known of since I was a kid? You bet your ass I do.

See that fancy little NaBloPoMo badge to the left? That pretty green square with the flower stem-looking things inside it and the words “31 posts in 31 days?” I’m totally going to do it. I know I’ll hate it by the end of the month, and I’ll probably want to swear off blogging forever, but whatevs. I can totally handle it.

This month’s theme is “Voices.” Weird, and I’m not really sure what it means. But I’ll be exploring it, and I hope you stay tuned.

This video was super innovative when it came out, yo. Hell, it might still be considered innovative since MTV never shows any damn videos anymore and therefore there are no new videos to surpass its awesomeness. (Yes, I sound like an old fart. Oh well!) Like, dude, the floor’s moving. And then suddenly the furniture starts to bleed. And birds are flying around and cockroaches are rustling about. Craazay!

And check out Jamiroquai’s moves! I remember wishing that I could dance like he does … and then I remembered I’m a half-Irish, half-Polish girl from western Pennsylvania who will never look like that on a dance floor.

How much do I love the Dr. Seuss top hat thing that he’s wearing in this vid? For a fleeting moment in time, that hat was funky and cool and you wished you could pull it off but you knew you couldn’t. Then, afterwards, that godforsaken hat was ubiquitous. You could not escape it, especially not if you decided to go to the amusement park or county fair or some other place where teenagers would be congregating. And trust me, none of them could pull it off either. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t try.

I’m also loving that he’s wearing what appears to be an Old Navy performance fleece. (Admit it, you can still sing the jingles from those really hideously tacky commercials they showed in the 90s.)

What do you think the crow (raven? I’m not so up-to-speed on my birds) and the cockroach symbolize? If they symbolize anything at all, of course.

All the billboards along the freeway are for Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery (”We treat everyone like a celebrity.”), breast augmentation (only $2999!), AdultCon (the world’s largest Adult Convention), or Disneyland.

With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.

Boyf and I are heading to California for a few days to get extremely intoxicated while celebrating the marriage of a very dear aunt. Posting will probably be sporadic, but I’ll try to do my best.

Have fun, kids!

Ever since I changed my relationship status to “engaged” on Facebook, a mere 24 hours ago, every ad in my sidebar has been for something relating to weddings – invitations, rings, gowns.

What do you think they’ll try to push on me after my status changes to “married?”

I love weird old Pittsburgh houses that have been converted into weird old Pittsburgh apartments.

I actually have a pretty good excuse: the woman in question, in this post? The woman with her arms filled with books about how to have a cheap, yet dazzling, wedding? The woman who the librarian told that she should elope?

That’s me.

Eek.

The boyf and I have decided to get married and we’ve been telling family and friends the past few days. So you could say I’ve been a little preoccupied… =)

Lisa Loeb was so ahead of her time. The hip, thick-framed glasses, the indie artist who somehow managed to both avoid the music business and record a #1 single… she was pretty much the person that all the quiet, dorky bookworm girls wanted to secretly be. (Including me.) In other ways, though, she is so solidly 90s. That baby-doll dress? So Alicia-Silverstone-meets-Sad-Girl.

What I remember most about this video is that it was pretty much on endless loop on “Pop-Up Video.” God, remember “Pop-Up Video?” It was like the perfect marriage of two of my main interests during the Clinton administration: music vids and mindless trivia. That’s how I know that the cat hanging out in the apartment belongs to the video’s director and, more importantly, it’s how I know that Lisa Loeb HAS to wear those glasses because she’s allergic to contact lenses. I still don’t really understand how a person can be allergic to contact lenses, but whatevs. She rocks those glasses so hard.

I’m pretty sure that this video is squarely to blame for my obsession with someday living in a bright, spacious, airy post-industrial loft apartment. That, or this Jonathan Taylor Thomas movie.

So now I’m thinking a little bit more about the cat and … is Lisa Loeb supposed to be the stereotypical cat lady who’s lonely in her stark, bare apartment and is going to die alone someday? Because, excuse me, Lisa is way too cool for that. Come to think of it, most Lisas are too cool for that, at least the ones on the outskirts of fame: Lisa Bonet, Lisa Ling. (Full disclosure: I have followed Lisa Ling her entire career. Seriously, since day one. She was on Channel One news, which my high school showed after morning announcements, and I’ve always kept abreast of what she was doing ever since. Now, please refer back to paragraph one, wherein I say that I’m a quiet, dorky girl and nod your head in full agreement.)

Question: what do you think it means to talk “so” all the time? So?

A woman stands at the check-out counter at the Carnegie Library, arms full of books about how to have a cheap, yet dazzling, wedding. The woman behind the counter takes one look at the books, clucks her tongue, and shakes her head.

“Oh, honey,” she says wisely, “elope.”