judyherilla.com

I was scheduled to work in NYC the week of my birthday.

This was good, I wanted to the day to pass quietly, as the past year was such a roller coaster, I felt like easing into 34 without any big commotion about it.

There was a burner party planned the day my class ended, my birthday, June 19th.  Perfect timing so I did get a ticket for that, and made a run to a thrift store to find appropriate pink and orange burner attire.

I made plans to drive up to NYC, passing through Philly so that I could visit with my college friend, Cindy and her husband, Tom, and to meet her two daughters for the first time! That was a blast, I really had missed Cindy, and her daughters were so great! Megan and I played with MY Little Ponies and watched Smurfs (now available ON DEMAND!) and Kelsey was so happy and giggly.

Then on to New York. Early in the week Barbara announced that her honey, Samir, would be making a homemade birthday dinner on Friday for me and Cristina, whose birthday was 2 days after mine.  This was not only generous, but something I really looked forward to, as Samir is from Morocco and Barbara is from Italy, and how could it not be anything but absolutely perfect!

Another friend, Dr. Mercury from Connecticut, also had plans to come up for the party and was going to meet me after my class. I had driven to NYC, and had parked in Brooklyn for free, under advice from my friend Ryan who also decided to join the party.

It was going to be hectic, getting from Manhattan to Brooklyn, then driving to Queens for dinner and to get ready to head back to Brooklyn, for a party that was from 10pm to 6am, and I had to leave near 9am to drive back to Pittsburgh in time for a dinner party I had been looking forward to for months. Yikes!

But it all seemed worth it.

The week passed quickly.  The class was enjoyable, the students asked a lot of good questions, and it was nice to meet them.

At the end of class Thursday, most of the students had left, and two remained in the room, to wait for their trains and surf the web.  I sensed someone had walked in the room, and this is how my brain processed it

(It probably took 4 or 5 seconds to sink in):

1. someone has walked into the room
2. this person is another instructor (name tag)
3. they look familiar, I know this person
4. oh my goodness, it’s  Noise!

He had surprised me by flying up, so that he could be there for my birthday, and to drive to the Saturday party with me. I was shocked.

We were able to go to the dinner together - which was FABULOUS!

photography by Barbara Pilotto

So many appetizers and things I cannot pronounce, little flaky triangles stuffed with salmon cream cheese and another with meat, meat on skewers, chorizo, and lemon artichokes - made with imported aged lemons, and the best looking artichokes I have ever seen…and so much wine!   There were two that were especially favored, one being called Dido, although we inserted an L and had a lot of laughs on that one, and the other I believe was a Cabernet from Argentina.

We then had some drinks on the roof which has a beautiful view of the city, and the lights were gorgeous!

photography by Barbara Pilotto

Then we prepared for the party. The party was put on by a New York Burner group called Disorient.

The title of the event was GlamTech,and the idea was to dress in pink and orange. It was a flurry of boas, glitter, makeup, wigs and lots of giggling.

We got to the club and met Ryan, who was considered not to be in costume, since he was only wearing an orange shirt. BOO! It was his first burner event, give him some slack!

We soon realized all of our pink turned orange under the black light, who knew!

We danced until 4:30 or so, then cabbed it back to Queens.

Talking until sunrise, and then Noise and I made it back to the car and drove home, VERY SLEEPILY. I felt very lucky to have my boyfriend with me, as this drive would have been unbearable on my own.

So all in all I felt very lucky the entire time. Such amazing people I have been able to meet - and spend time with.

Everyday I would receive messages such as tomorrow is ____’s birthday!

Where the blank was filled in with a generic name such as John, Mary, Jim, etc.

Which John, Mary, Nancy or Jim I wondered?

So I would click the link, only to find it was someone I was not connected to, and therefore had no way of figuring out who they were, just a simple, first name.   Sometimes there might be an email, and I would search through my Google emails that span the last several years, but alas, no, no record of ever having communicated with them.

So, where were these coming from?

I emailed Plaxo and said I wanted the emails regarding people I didnt know to stop.
They sent me an email that said to click on my email settings, and disable all emails.

I responded that it could potentially be helpful to see that someone I AM connected to had a birthday,
but that whoever these people are that I didnt know, I wanted THAT to end. I suggested that maybe when I had supplied my Google user/pass that they grabbed everyone from my contacts. Google had (and may still) keep a record of everyone you have ever been cc’d on an email with you. Even SPAM mails.

Plaxo got back to me saying that they will pass this on to the developers who may include this in the next revision, 3.0.

Interesting that the developers get to make the decisions, but they lost my membership.

What was there business model anyway?  To get you to pay for ecards to people you dont know?

With all of the other social networking, Facebook being my favorite to keep in touch with people I actually DO know, I see no reason why anyone would be using Plaxo.

Last week, while leaving the Country Inn in Berkley Springs, WV,  (healing waters / George Washington’s bathtub), I struck up a conversation with a guy in a parking lot, after correctly guessing he was a designer. (the Helvetica shirt was a sure tip off). He had just been to SxSW and reminded me I needed to see this movie. Apparently, a second movie is now out.

I put it in the vault, figuring, someday…

Well, thanks to a stomach thing and Netflix online player, I started it tonight.  In studying web design, typography has come up time and again. I appreciate the psychology behind typeface choices, but never mustered the extreme interest that those being interviewed show.

During the movie, one designer was interviewed about his dislike for Helvetica. Stefan Sagmeister. He had a poster behind him with quotes. Some were very thought provoking and I wanted to be able to read the rest of them.

So I Googled two of the quotes:

“good deeds eventually are rewarded”
“government is a burden on the people”

…and found out the poster was a listing of Truisms, which were phrases from a 1977 work of art by Jenny Holzer.

So, maybe it is not so bad to end up in bed with your laptop. I was able to stop the film, rewind, grab the necessary phrases, then Google for their source.

This Jenny Holzer is pretty darn cool. Here is a wikipedia entry on her.

At any rate, here is the complete listing of Truisms, as far as I can tell.

I noticed my mileage on my car was approaching 155,555.

I wondered where I would be at the time and if it would hold any symbolic meaning for me.

Well, I was discussing selling my house to my aunt and moving back to the city. A friend recently got a steal on a house for only $11,500. My mind was all over the place on what to do, and in the end my aunt declined.

So, I was pulling into my driveway as the miles tripped over.

Picture of odometer showing total mileage of 155,555 and trip mileage of 7.7

So, I suppose I am where I am supposed to be at this time.

I decided to plant strawberries I got at a garage sale and to replant tomatoes in an area that a former boyfriend had accidentally mowed down one year.

When digging up a spot for the strawberries, I unearthed the following:

An unearthed walnut buried by a squirrel

A black walnut that had been buried

There is an old black walnut tree in the woods near my house, and I suspect a squirrel buried this at some point before i had covered the area with a black gardening paper. I had to break through the paper to find it. I was surprised by how slow it had grown.

So then I tackled the planting of the tomatoes. I took the plants out and placed them on the ground. Dig dig dig. Then, where are the plants? Der. I had buried two of them. This is the worst of them. I must have chopped it up with the shovel.

Tomato plant with top chopped off

I hope its sister plant will fare better.

This has been something I have wanted to do for a while, but I wasn’t ready for one piece or another. For the next 30 days, I will:

• Drink 8 glasses of liquid a day - not all wine
• Exercise at least 30 minutes a day
• Track my “points” - yeah, I have a goal of losing 20 pounds (not in 30 days but it will be a start)
• Meditate for 15 minutes
• Take vitamins
• Clean the house (at first 1 hour a day - hopefully this will taper)

I will monitor my progress here. Who knows maybe I will get some support or encouragement from stalkers.

Things have been moving in this direction. Last week I cycled 3 days in a row, 28 miles, 22 miles and all around Pittsburgh for maybe 20 miles or more. Need to get ready for my bike challenge in August! 500 miles in 6 days. Donations on my behalf to the American Cancer Society are welcome!   http://main.acsevents.org/goto/JudyHerilla

Just found the Weight Watchers books while, dun dun DUN….CLEANING.

The bedroom is looking great now its time for the rest of the house.

Of course, client work trumps most, but I need to make these items a priority. It amazes me that others are so easily able to achieve this!

Lots of changes the last few weeks.

Im a silver lining kind of gal, so all I can say to summarize is that I have learned a lot of lessons from my recently ended personal relationship, and only hope that all parties involved can find happiness.

So, my focus is on better organization: with my business, house, and calendar.

I have updated my calendar - my personal one - and have decided to pursue a goal that I had set for myself in riding long distances to raise money for awareness of causes that are important to me.

6 days, 500 miles!

Please consider lending your support as I ride my bike from Vermont to Pennsylvania in August.
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/JudyHerilla