One day

One day, I will spell "enviornment" "environment" correctly. On the first try. Without the aid of that pesky red squiggly line, taunting me and rubbing salt in my grammatical wounds.

Today was not that day.

The Beginning of the End

Among the most highly anticipated events that occurred over my aforementioned bloggy hiatus has to be something that I've been waiting about 11 years for -- ever since I finally gave in to my Grandmom's persistence and begrudgingly opened the cover of a "silly children's book" one summer at Bethany Beach -- the beginning of the end...

Yep, that's right: The first installment of the last movie in the Harry Potter series... The Deathly Hallows.

I couldn't have been more excited. Or more prepared... I dressed up as Hermione last Halloween. I re-read books 6 and 7 over the summer. I intently watched as sneak peeks were featured throughout several Harry Potter Marathon Weekends on ABC Family (even though I own all but two of the DVD's...). I eagerly awaited every single new trailer release, and replayed it until no details were left unnoticed. I spent a recent Friday night (ok, two actually) watching the 6th movie, The Half-Blood Prince, with friends. I purchased tickets to the first midnight showing of HP7.1. I nerded out with some of my favorite fellow wizard-wannabes and stood in line with all of the other crazies for over an hour on a Thursday night. And then...

I laughed. I screamed. I hid my eyes. I cried. I woke up the next morning after 3 1/2 hours of magical dreams and was quite disappointed when my thoughts of "Accio Starbucks!!" went unanswered... In short: I loved it.

Sure, some purists are upset with slight deviations from the novel. But as a loyal fan for over a decade, I think that overall the movie did JK Rowling proud. And now I'm left to find ways to get my wizarding world fix until HP7.2 is released in July 2011...

Luckily, little gems like the following keep popping up. It probably comes as no surprise that Daniel Radcliffe has been among my Top 5 celeb crushes for quite some time... and this giggle-inducing video may have just edged him closer to the #1 spot (watch out, Henry Cavill...):

I Am Harry Potter from Daniel Radcliffe

Sigh. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: If loving a teenage wizard is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

NaBloPoMo

After hearing from a few of my bloggy friends that November has come to be known as the national daily blogging month, I decided to do some research. One quick Google search later, and I discovered that this nerdy exciting rumor was not only true, but that it's actually quite official: National Blog Posting Month, i.e. NaBloPoMo. Look! They have a web site and a bloggy social network of sorts and everything!

The site states the rules quite simply: "Post every day for a month. That's all you have to do." Fun, right?! Since my unintentional sabbatical this summer, I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I'd like, so this sounds like just the motivation I've been needing. Not to mention, I'm sure I'll discover lots of new bloggies to add to my Google Reader (because goodness knows my current subscription level of 114 isn't enough... meep.). And I get to have this super cute badge you'll notice to the left :) 

So with that, get excited for what will (hopefully) be 30 straight days of PTTP updates... Random thoughts, thoughtful thoughts, pictures, videos, quotes... Who knows what could be in store! 

xoxo

Happy Halloweekend!

I l.o.v.e. Halloween (more fondly known as "Halloweekend" ever since my days as a TCU sorority girl... but that's quite another story, I suppose). I guess my love for this holiday should come as no surprise - I mean, who am I to pass on a chance to play a lovely game of Dress-Up and Make Believe??

As much as I would love to kick off Halloweekend by wearing my costumes to the office, I'm just not sure Rosalie (circa '08... oh yes. Yes, I did.) or Hermione (coming '09.... oh yes. Yes, I am.) would be welcome in the working mortal/Muggle world of NYC. Next best thing though?? Year Two of J's and my trusty Target Sparkly Pumpkin shirts from our moms, of course!

I don't think I could sum up our silliness much better than Jamie just did, so with that, I give you PTTP's first Guest Bloggy feature (and really, I wouldn't have it any other way than for the first edition to be from my dear LulledByTheTrain :) ):

Happy Halloween

“Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.”

-Mason Cooley

(Not sure if sparkly pumpkin Target shirts from moms fall under "clothing" or "costume," but B and I are clearly making a statement and telling a story. A really riveting, childlike story involving Harry Potter, Theta Mix, awkwardness, WeeMees, blogs and pumpkin spice lattes.)

(*Please note: My curly-ish hair situation is in preparation for Hermione's first appearance tonight. xoxo)

Seriously, Universe?!

As though I needed any other reason to love:

A. Harry Potter/Daniel Radcliffe, or

B. The West Village...

... Now Dan goes and buys a drool-worthy place in one of my dream neighborhoods??! Yes, it's true - read all about it here. I mean, doesn't it seem pretty clear that the Universe is trying its hardest to bring us together?

Call me Professor Trelawney, but I think I foresee my Autumn to be filled with maybe a few more strolls through the colorful tree-lined streets of the Village this year than in the past...

Kites, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

As many of you might recall, NYC lost a couple of its really good ones this past Spring. I pretty much started a countdown to Kristen and/or Alyssa's return the second their planes took off.

So when Alyssa told me a couple months ago that she: A. got a great new job (wee!), and B. wanted one of her first big splurges to be a trip back to the City, well, let's just say there was much skipping and squealing down Third Avenue that day. And the best part? She was coming in for the weekend of Megan's Half Marathon in Philly! This clearly meant only one thing, two syllables:

Road. Trip.

By the time our double decker bus rolled out of Penn Station at 9:15 the Saturday morning before last, Meg had an entourage of 8 of us girls. We were ready for a touristy-and-fun-filled trip to the City of Brotherly Love, armed with Pumpkin Spice Starbucks and maybe just a bit too much luggage for an overnight trip. As we flipped through our NY Mag's, Glamour's, and In Style Weddings' (ok, I guess that was just Amy...) we tallied up our collective goals for the trip:

• Carbing up with Megan Cheering Megan on, obviously!
• Pictures. Lots. Of. Pictures.
• The Liberty Bell (more specifically, "Kiting" it with Tracey and/or Amy, my fellow Thetas on the trip. Kidding. But not.)
• Reid Rosenthal (See him? Hug him? Marry him? All of the above him?)
• Running up the Rocky steps, even though I'm pretty sure none of us have seen any of the movies... meh.
• Philly Cheesesteaks? For sure. Cheez Whiz? Undecided.
• Avoiding any and all people dressed in costumes
• Brunchy brunch brunch

I'm happy to report that in our 29 or so hours in Philadelphia, we successfully checked just about everything off our lists, and then some. These photos can't possibly do all of the giggles and delicious calories justice, but here's a peek at one of the best weekends ever:

Oh, well hello there, Reid. Thanks for welcoming us to Philly... Alyssa and I will now fight for your affections.

Despite our best efforts, we hadn't been wandering historical Philly for more than 20 minutes when we ran into our first Costume Situation. Sorry Meg. We tried.

Oh yes. Yes, we did. Theta Love.

I really do love history.

"Hey guys. Give me your best Patriotic Pose..."

I may or may not have Googled "Chick-fil-A, Philadelphia" within 10 minutes of checking-in to our hotel... NYC doesn't know what it's missing.

Cheers to Meg! Sure, she may have been in bed at this point, but it's the thought that counts.

Check out those pink (Meg) and blue (Stephanie) shorts go!

The Cheering Section

Theta Love for Megan! (p.s. two Kites in one trip?! Oh, I'm a happy girl.)

Meow (Video to come... Get excited.)

xoxo

Ta-Daaah!

After receiving my own new Fall-inspired look this weekend (more/pictures to come on that major life event... :) ), I decided that my bloggy might just be craving a little change too. So if you're one of my loyal Google Reader subscribers, A. Thank you!!, and B. Try clicking through to check the site out...

What do you think? It's obviously nothing too drastic - I'm trying out this fun template from The Cutest Blog on the Block for now. I didn't get as much time to play around with it on Sunday as I wanted, so there will probably be some tweaks here and there in the next week or so. Hopefully this will tide me over until I finally make up my indecisive mind about what exactly I want for a customized design... Speaking of which, anyone have any reco's of good bloggy designers that I should check out??

Hope y'all are having a Happy Monday!

I Want to Go to There. Now.

Happy happy Friday! Universal Orlando revealed more details this week about the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter... Oh. Yes. Needless to say, I may have spent the last few days geeking out watching the below video of 3-D renderings of the theme park on repeat...

Weeee!!! Now if only I had a magic wand so that I could make Spring 2010 get here immediately... Kidding. Kind of.

Go Frogs!

SuperFrog is a finalist in the Capital One Mascot Challenge!! Voting started today and runs through December 14th. It's a playoff sort of situation - there are weekly matchups, the winners advance to the next round, and all that good sports stuff. :) You can vote once a day and track SuperFrog's progress in the standings to the left... Yep. I'm that cool.

Sure, SuperFrog may not be the cuddliest of all the mastcots, but nothing says "Team Spirit" quite like a reptile that shoots blood out of its eyes, right? Plus I love wearing purple. So come on y'all! Throw your Frogs up and vote!

It's Heeeere!!

Can you believe it?? After all these days, it's finally here! Happy 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Premieres at Midnight' Day!!!

Astonishingly enough, I'm somehow managing to wait and see the movie with my parents when I'm in Seattle later this week (!!!!). But in lieu of joining my friends in the traditional Hogwarts-shirt-wearing, wand-and-owl-carrying fun in Times Square tonight, I thought that an appearance by the Potter Puppet Pals was the perfect way to celebrate this momentous day... Enjoy! :)

"Let us step into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."

-Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

MTV Wins At Life Tonight

After the debacle/foolishness that was the last MTV Music Awards, thank GOODNESS MTV is seeming to redeem itself with the Movie Awards tonight. I'm still watching on my DVR, but after I rewound the World Premiere of the New Moon trailer several times, I noticed Ryan Seacrest posted it on Twitter!!

... Wait. I'm sorry. Did that last sentence REALLY just happen? Rewinding for New Moon? Ryan Seacrest? Twitter?? Who am I??...

Sigh. Ok. Aaanyways, I couldn't wait any longer to share this fabulousness. Between Rob in his dreamy suit and a shirtless Taylor who is apparently all grown up, I dare you to watch just once... :)

Spock and Speidi

You know you should probably just head to bed when... Gchat conversations like this start taking place:

me: is it weird that i want to have a dvd marathon of Laguna Beach.....?

Kristen: mmmm...yes, but i love Spock so i have no room to talk...

Yep. We win. At life.

Reasons of the Moment Why I'm Loving This Weekend

1. This is how I just spent the last hour, jogging along the river:










2. It's ABC Family Harry Potter Weekend! Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone! Chamber of Secrets! Prisoner of Azkaban! Goblet of Fire (featuring none other than the dreamy Robert Pattinson)! And rumors of more Sneak Peeks into the upcoming Half-Blood Prince! O.M.G. (And yes, that link is to a fan site called "The Leaky Cauldron"... No shame when it comes to my love for Harry P... Sigh.)

3. I have a ton of space on my DVR, which means I'll be taking advantage of both of these glorious, aforementioned points... Starting with meeting up with a few of my favorites for Shake Shack and/or cupcakes in Madison Square Park. xoxo!

Calendar Comet

I was one of those super cool high schoolers who took Advanced Calculus while many of my friends opted for a Free Period our senior year - I just couldn't get enough of math. So I guess it should come as no surprise that I now spend my days happily engrossed in calculations and Excel spreadsheets. I usually tend to forget just how nerdy my chosen profession of media planning is... until days like yesterday.

Ever heard of... Square Root Day? Anyone? Bueller? Well, believe it or not, but I actually hadn't either before yesterday. Thanks to no less than four of my new co-workers, I learned that I was living one of the nine days every century when the square root of the year (2009) is the month (March) and day (3rd)... 03/03/09... √9 = 3... 3² = 3 × 3 = 9. I mean, how cool is that??

No? Just me?

Being the Google-Lover that I am, I obviously spent a little (read: an embarrassing) amount of time looking into this mathematical marvel. Can you believe that it wasn't until September 9, 1981 that "Square Root Day" was even officially created?? Thanks to Ron Gordon, a high school teacher and the holiday's official publicist, this day now has an impressive fan base among my fellow number crunchers everywhere. I mean, who doesn't love an excuse to eat some celebratory root veggies cut in squares?

Aside from getting to live in anticipation of the next Square Root Day in only seven short years (April 4, 2016, in case you don't have a calculator handy), I'm particularly grateful for this new found knowledge because my Googleing led me to the below gem. It's a clip from Mathnet, a Dragnet parody featured on the late '80s/early '90s hit, Square One - only one of my favorite. shows. ever. Turns out the series was really just one sneaky ploy to underhandedly encourage an early childhood intrigue in math... And look at me now. Well-played, PBS. Well-played.

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day--and poof--they're gone." -Ron Gordon, on Square Root Days. Yep, I officially heart him.