The Modern Gal

Teach a gal to fish

Published on 2010-08-01 15:33:00

So a few months back I decided I'd done enough hemming and hawing about moving my blog from ye ol' Blogger to a self-hosted Wordpress site. I went ahead and snapped up themoderngal.com and nailed down a host. The Modern Gal needed freshening up a bit too, so what better time to send her to the powder room? Well, I contacted a designer who's work I admired to inquire about a redesign and migration of archives from Blogger to Wordpress, and well, let's just say this designer quoted me a price with

Public service announcement

Published on 2010-07-29 20:15:00

Modern Friends, after several months of banging my head against the wall I've managed to tie down a slightly better domain name in themoderngal.com and have located hosting space and have installed wordpress.org and all that great jazz that the rest of you figured out a long time ago. I'm in the process of attempting to migrate my blog over that way. Take that obnoxious comment spammers!*Hopefully* you won't notice a change in your RSS feeds, but if you do, I apologize in advance. I'm totally fe

Stay: The lady behind the book

Published on 2010-07-28 20:00:00

Have you gotten your copy of Stay yet? No??? Here's the Amazon link. I'll STAY here and wait until you take care of that....Now that you've taken care of that, Allie did me the huge favor of answering some of the questions I had about Stay, and I hope you'll enjoy her answers as much as I did:MG: While reading, I noticed several Allieisms in Stay: Van and her mother's love of Boston and an exchange where Van and Agnes call each other 'Lady.' How much of your own personality did you put into Stay

Stay: Four paws up

Published on 2010-07-27 22:04:00

So this post is way, way, way overdo, but I didn't want to sit down and write it until I had legitimate time and brain power to give it the focus it deserved. You may have read on some other awesome blogs about Allie Larkin's new novel, Stay, but just in case you didn't, I wanted to introduce you to Allie and Stay! Really, even if you know about Stay and lucky enough to know Allie, I think you should still read :)Almost three years ago I got to reading Allie's blog about all things green, then k

Baseball, and a whole lot of it

Published on 2010-07-23 10:57:00

Thank you so much for all of your comments on that last post! It's reassuring to know there are others who have either gone through this or feel the same way. Let's figure this all out together. I'll be sharing more details about what I'm studying and considering as time goes on.But it's Friday, and I'm so terribly excited because these weeks are starting to stretch out longer and longer (although my life will start getting super-busy again next month, so I'm trying not to complain). In celebrat

Reinventing myself

Published on 2010-07-19 16:58:00

I had a really crummy week at work last week for reasons I won't get into, but suffice it to say I'm tired of dealing with the same old BS that makes work difficult at times. It's not something that bothers me 100 percent of the time, but it keeps rearing it's ugly head.BUT. I'm not just going to complain about it. I am finally doing something about it. Really.No, I'm not quitting. I'm too practical to do something like that, and I'm a whore for my paycheck because it's a pretty decent paycheck

Am I old enough to stop having them?

Published on 2010-07-13 14:44:00

Tommorow is my 28th birthday. I know you probably won't believe me when I say this, but I honestly kept forgetting that my birthday was on deck until two days or so, and even then I haven't given it a whole lot of thought.I told the Modern Love Machine that I really wasn't feeling my birthday, and he said that was sad. Except that I've never been one to care a whole lot about my birthday.** I tried making a big to-do about it last year, figuring it had been an up-and-down year and I need to cele

Kroger fail

Published on 2010-07-12 12:47:00

The Modern Love Machine, who, as a teacher is off work for the summer, has done most of our grocery shopping and cooking since we moved into the new house, God bless him.While at work today, I received this text from him:Look how much I can save! ...

This post ends with gay square dancers

Published on 2010-07-10 21:58:00

So Auntie mentioned she was going on a road trip soon with her boyfriend and was worried about the trip possibly ending in killing one another, likely over what was being played on the radio. Fortunately, the Modern Love Machine and I didn't have too much trouble agreeing with what to fill the air waves during our countless hours on the road.The MLM is a huge World Cup soccer fan and has helped me get a bit more into the sport this year, and two segments of our drive coincided with two of the U

At the home again, with apologies to Willie Nelson

Published on 2010-07-07 10:24:00

I wish I had kept stats on our beach-to-Midwest road trip just to quantify how ridiculous of a plan it was, but I didn't so I'll now estimate a few stats for you ...14 days10 states (three of them we crossed through twice) ***3,000 miles of driving4 MLB games and stadiums12ish fast food stops2 soccer games listened to on the radio7ish podcasts listened to in the car1 taping of an NPR show2 Stieg Larsson books devoured by the MLM (you know, The Girl Who ... books)1 stop at Ikea1 million calories

The best day of Adrien Brody's life

Published on 2010-06-28 05:02:00

I will now take a break from personal posts to present the following to amuse you on a Monday morning. The two are not related, save their inherent weirdness.And now this:

Beechy keen

Published on 2010-06-25 16:26:00

After having some very last-minute work done on the Modernmobile and despite the air conditioning at the new place not getting fixed (did I mention the air conditioning stopped functioning properly on the first day of summer, about the time that the temperatures in Knoxville reached the upper 90s? Yeah, that happened), the Modern Love Machine and I departed on Tuesday for our two week-long road trip.The first day was spent on a really obnoxious drive between Knoxville and Nashville thanks to som

In which you are the therapist

Published on 2010-06-18 12:41:00

I have a whole list of posts I've been dying to write but haven't written out of sheer exhaustion -- more about the movecation/moving in with The Modern Love Machine, some weird videos and a post about NY that's about four months overdue. The MLM and I are about to go on a long road trip, so I may try to type those up while he's driving through the cornfields of the midwest.But in the mean time, I have this to say: 2010 has kicked my ass, and I am exhausted. And not in the I-woke-up-a-little-too

And half of half is ...

Published on 2010-06-13 15:52:00

Well, Movecation 2010 is over, and I deem it a success for the most part. Success in that I got all my crap moved in by yesterday and technically I'm supposed to be out of the old place by today, although my roommate is taking an extra day to move, so technically I was out EARLY. Early is not generally a part of my vocabulary.A success, despite the fact I have bruises and cuts all over my body from playing one half of the Modern Moving team that consisted of myself, the Modern Love Machine and a

Movecation 2010

Published on 2010-06-07 08:01:00

You guys, it's June 7. Do you know what that means?? That means I survived six weekends of being on the road. It means I survived a weeklong work assignment away from home (and one that involved an average 10 hours of day of work OUTSIDE in the South in June). Most importantly it means that I'm on vacation and finally in possession of my new house.Those last two things are directly related.Yep, today kicks off Day 1 of Movecation 2010. Before this year it would have been unheard of me to take an

Who's going to see SATC2?

Published on 2010-05-27 12:08:00

Um, not me. I know, I'm probably letting some of you down. But I just can't do it.I've said this before here, but I wanted the writers to leave the ending with the TV series and not screw up Big's coming around with a movie, especially one where he leaves her at the altar (briefly). Yet, in the name of loyalty I went to see the first movie on opening night and found it mediocre at best.No more.I've watched the previews and read every plot summary and review that my eyes have come across in the p

Be in the moment

Published on 2010-05-21 09:16:00

Last night the Modern Love Machine picked me up for us to head to a local track to run and noticed one of my car's tires was flat. That nail was the straw that almost broke the camel's back.I've been super stressed out lately, and in a way that's completely of my own doing. I'm in my slow period at work, where my work pace slows down to about 0.1 mile per hour after being 1,000 miles an hour for about nine months straight. I have a lot more free time in which to let my mind wander. And when it w

To dream the American Dream

Published on 2010-05-18 14:49:00

In the past couple of months I've managed to all but moved in with the Modern Love Machine in his teeny one-bedroom apartment. Except all my stuff is at the house where I pay rent. If you've been following my blog for a very long time, you might know this has happened to me before (but on a slightly more long-distance basis) and that having my life in one spot and my stuff in another makes a homebody like myself absolutely insane.Adding insult to injury is the fact that I OWN MY OWN HOUSE BUT HA

RIP, Single Ladies

Published on 2010-05-12 14:17:00

I am now officially declaring the Single Ladies fad dead and deceased because of the super skeevy video I've posted below of some 7-year-old dancers slutting it up to our favorite Beyonce song. Single Ladies has had a great life, with a heelarious spoof by Justin Timberlake and a shout out from President Obama when he demonstrated his own hand-flipping ability, but now it's time to bid it farewell (and I do so with great sadness) because it's just gone too far.BTW, the Modern Love Machine and I

And now for a word from the Modern Love Machine

Published on 2010-05-11 19:39:00

The Modern Love Machine asked one day if he was allowed to blog here at The Modern Gal, and I said, 'Of course! I'd be thrilled if you wrote regularly at the MG.' And then he claimed he had no idea what to blog about. Sheesh. Amateurs.So instead of come up with his own idea, he asked his students to submit a list of interview questions to him, and he has graciously answered them here so you can all get a chance to know him better. Keep in mind he teaches Algebra and Geometry at an inner-city sch

Natural disasters can be funny. Except that they're not.

Published on 2010-05-05 19:11:00

Oh my goodness, modern friends, I am emotionally tapped out. So many major things have been going on -- both good and bad -- that to say I've been stressed out lately is kind of an understatement. Who knew that buying a house, preparing to move, getting engaged, working a stressful job and watching a natural disaster engulf your former hometown would be taxing on the emotions?Yeah, on that last little bit about the natural disaster engulfing my former hometown ... Nashville is underwater. Or at

Rain delay theater

Published on 2010-04-27 21:08:00

It has rained A LOT in the past two days, so I feel like today is an appropriate day to share this video, which the Modern Love Machine shared with me. It combines my love of my favorite sport (baseball) with ridiculously choreographed things. There is some choreographed dancing, but my favorites are the roller coaster and the Shake Weight.dance offUploaded by freestylerama. - Watch the latest news videos.

I have an anger problem

Published on 2010-04-26 09:44:00

So we've been trying to make wedding plans these past few days, and let me go ahead and say I have yet to find the fun in wedding planning. I'm sure I'll enjoy it more when I'm shopping for dresses and thinking of reception decor, but finding venues and getting a date nailed down is maddening.Couple that with some really crappy drivers I encountered this morning, and Monday did not start well.And then I saw this. And it made me spit out my coffee. (Please for the love of all things modern, go ch

I fall in love whenever we meet

Published on 2010-04-19 20:21:00

Holy crap, you guys. I knew there was lots of excitement to be had when you get engaged, but my goodness, I can't keep up with the outpouring of excitement in person, on the phone, on Facebook and here at the ol' MG blog. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your kind wishes. I cannot begin to express how much it means to me and the Modern Love Machine.So only one person got the "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" reference? Shame, you should all go rent that movie (or see a prod

A funny thing happened on the way to the triathlon*

Published on 2010-04-18 19:31:00

*Props to anyone who gets the reference in that post title.Like a triathlon, this post requires endurance. I promise it's worth it to get to the end.Having successfully swum, biked and run as much as I could in the past two weeks, I woke up this morning pumped to complete the triathlon I'd registered for two weeks ago. I knew it wasn't the best idea I'd ever had -- doing a triathlon on only two weeks of training -- but my primary goal was to finish. Sure, I would have loved to have beat my time