I think I suffer from letting myself think I’m too old when I’m not. I justify limiting myself by saying everything’s too late. I’ve been saying I’m almost 25 the whole time I’ve been 24; whenever anyone remotely younger appears to be checking me out, I want to yell at them that I’m almost 30.

At the same time, I do think time seems to be slipping away. I started this blog exactly one year ago today. It’ s been just over a year since and old friend of mine unexpectedly died, and I want to say that it’s been almost a year since my father died, but that won’t really be true for three and a half months. I acted like both of these events were going to propel me to do something, but so far, if you’ve been reading this, you know how much my plan is working.  Most recently, I feel like the month of October didn’t even exist, and now November is almost halfway over.

As always, I attended some shows which I do want to write about at some point, though not right now, and I baked stuff and was up to some crafty business in the past weeks that I still need to document (lack of emphasis on need). I’ve been getting totally ripped at the gym (not true) and watching a lot of movies and 30 Rock audio commentaries (very true). Just last night I was clipping coupons in the silence of my kitchen while admiring the mail-order clothing advertised in the circulars. Have I officially given up?

In conclusion, on the year anniversary of this stupid collection of thoughts, I’d like to mark a change in how I view things. I hope that one year from now I will look back on this entry and think, “Oh my god, why did you say that on the internet?” Here’s hoping.

Hello, handful of loyal readers. As this blog approaches its one year anniversary, you are readings its 100^th post. I’m trying to make it count.

BRICKS for Young Adults (Building Resources In Cancer Knowledge & Services) is having their second annual Blood & Cupcakes blood drive this Saturday, November 7.

Here is their  mission statement:

BRICKS is a (soon to be non-profit) organization in Pittsburgh, PA, that aims to connect Young Adult cancer patients to people and resources that may be useful to them as they undergo treatment and beyond. We also hope to raise awareness about Young Adult cancers, and impact survival rates through education and activism.

I tried to donate blood at Mellon Arena about a month ago but my iron was too low again. I have since been taking vitamins in hopes of being able to donate at this. Also, I’m going to donate cupcakes. I was thinking of making red velvet, but am not sure if that is too gross, given the image that the name of the event already conjures.

If you live in Pittsburgh and have blood, why not arrange a donation time? I’ve only been regularly donating blood for the past few years, and the only thing I regret is that I didn’t start sooner.

• Fear of needles is not a legit reason to avoid donating. It barely hurts, you get to watch your blood go in a bag which is kind of neat, and then you can show people your bruise as you explain to them how charitable you are, if that makes you feel better.

• The organizer of this event, Charissa, founded BRICKS after the death of her husband, Rick Gribenas, from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma at the age of 31. Though I don’t know them personally, I was lucky enough to see Rick perform a little more than a month before he died. Give blood in his memory or for anyone else you know who is dealing with cancer (sadly, I imagine everyone knows or has known someone with cancer). Here’s your chance to help somebody. Maybe people aren’t motivated by the “Save a life!” factor of donating blood, but maybe they don’t realize how blood donations help actual people in their community.

• Earn a cupcake. You can be all, “Oh man, I ate so much 50% off Halloween candy all week, but uh, I just donated blood so I get to eat all these cupcakes.” Word on the street is there will also be a donor raffle and commemorative mugs.

I just read something from the Central Blood Bank saying how donations start dwindling around the holidays because people are so busy. Give up the blood, people!

What should you do when have hours and hours of work left to complete your Halloween costume? Make pierogies, of course! It only takes forever! It’s your pierogative.

Here are some do’s & don’ts for your church lady Sunday:

DO read the comments first if you find a recipe online. Here, you will find out that it will yield double the amount of potato filling you will need. Also, DO make the dough and filling a day or two beforehand to save time (really, split time).

DO NOT carelessly throw a potato ball on the floor, even if you have an abundance of them. DO throw it away.

DO befriend a kind Polish princess to borrow a pierogi maker from.

DO use a vodka bottle as a rolling pin, even if there is alcohol still in it! This made me feel like a funny, modern woman. (PS – DO NOT buy “Cherry Wave” vodka. It’s GROSS.)

DO use a cup to make cute little discs.

DO NOT make a special batch for a dumb boy who doesn’t eat cheese. You’re stupid!

MarmaDOke: DO recall a Marmaduke comic strip that made you laugh in Friday’s funny pages.

DO take the time to dance in your kitchen with flour on your hands. Turns out Phantom Planet, Weezer, Kanye West and Pavement can be good for this. No photo.

DO NOT be frightened to put your babies in the water. They’ll be okay.

DO make as many as you can at once and freeze the rest. This relatively simple process is deceptively time consuming.

DO bring your pierogies to a dinner party! Maybe you will eat a sausage!

– The End -

Because of my laziness, today you get not one, but two kindergarten drawings:

Last week, I was practically wearing the exact outfit that is in the first panel (obviously, as it would appear that there are no clothes in the second one at all). Please note that an adult wrote “bits me,” and not me. If I remember correctly, I think my brother would hold me down to the floor with his leg, and not exactly hit me. I’m sure it was difficult for my teacher to decipher what was happening from that illustration. I’m also surprised it wasn’t investigated by DYFS.

But perhaps best of all…

ON THIS DAY, NINETEEN YEARS AGO…

The only thing wrong with this is that I’m Donatello. While I have been a witch at least five times throughout my childhood, I have still yet to be a Ninja Turtle. Two years ago, I was the opposite:

Shreddin'

A lot has happened since a few weeks ago (including but not limited to me touching the Stanley Cup and seeing David Cross). I also failed to blog one of my kindergarten pictures that I drew in early October. I have been watching a tremendous amount of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so we are all probably better off with me not blogging a lot for the time being. I’ve been saying “bummer” a lot. And eating a lot of pizza. Coming soon, I will tell you about the lasting impact of TMNT on my life.  (I just want to mention right now that in an episode I just watched, Michelangelo was tied up and groaned, “This is stupid!” This made me laugh and laugh.)

Tomorrow, I am going to finally see They Might Be Giants. Speaking of lasting impacts, I saw their video for “Dr. Worm” on KaBlam! on Nickelodeon about thirteen (!!!) years ago. This is one of my favorite videos/songs of all time. It is right up there with Foo Fighters’ “Everlong.” Tomorrow night, they are performing their album Flood from beginning to end, but I hope maybe they throw this song in as an encore or something. Do watch this video if you enjoy heart warming happiness:

Friendly message (on the plywood of a boarded up bank Downtown)

I ought to mention the G-20. There are A LOT of uniformed officers in our fair city, as well as some out-of-towner protester/anarchist types. This picture from The Pitt News is nuts:

There are a lot of cool images out there that I currently don’t have the energy to hunt down. There are some great photographers out there – and then there was me! Here are some snapshots from yesterday in Bloomfield:

Here is an interesting vehicle

Marty Griffin interviewing some anarchists

In the South Side, there was a small group of people going up and down Carson St. with a bucket of chalk writing messages about animal testing and education and so on. They gave my friend and I a piece of chalk. Good thing they gave us a voice for this:

Mat's contribution

My contribution

On Tuesday, I made this very joke that appears in today’s Sally Forth comic. Thanks to Andybot for bringing it to my attention.

I posted my friend’s childhood artwork a few months ago, and if you haven’t seen it,  it’s really worth a look. But first, look at my drawing!

I have a tattered collection of monthly drawings from kindergarten that span the school year. It is my only other prized possession from my early years in addition to A Surprising Visit from Tom. I’m going to do my best to post them on the actually date they were drawn, but I’m already off to a late start. Here is the first one, with my self portrait at the beginning of my school career:

Startlingly accurate! Lucky for all of you, there will be two drawings for the month of October.

My friend Orlando (BusCrates) released a 7″ EP a little while back, 16-Bit Ensemble, and now it’s for sale on Turntable lab, which I understand is something of a big deal. They left the ‘h’ off of Pittsburgh. I guess that’s what we get for not turning out the jams enough. Also, one of the songs was recorded at Pete’s house! Sadly, a glockenspiel jam session that I took part in is not featured.

In video news, a group of my buds took part in the Pittsburgh 48 Hour Film Project and came in third place – excuse me, 2nd runner up – and also won ‘Best Acting’ this year.  They’re a wonderful bunch, and I think you will enjoy this even if you don’t know them. Their genre was Family Film, and it’s about a guy going to meet his girlfriends parents. Hi-jinks ensue!

Forget everything I said about stupidly becoming obsessed with The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Greek is officially my favorite show on ABC Family. Just like last time though, I am catching up with the series just in time for the new season to begin on Monday. Since I fell for Secret Life, which is as stupid but much funnier than 7th Heaven, I also started watching Make It or Break It and 10 Things I Hate About You online (all of ABC Family’s stuff is on Hulu). I finally broke down and decided to give Greek a chance.

I used to see commercials for the show, which centers around a brother and sister (literally related to each other) and their frat and sorority, respectively, and think it looked really awful. The logo has the ubiquitous red solo cup behind it. I mean, come on! Here is a weird promo photo of them in said cup:

I was surprised to find out that the show is like an adorable cross between Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared. Some of the dialogue reminds me of another non-guilty favorite, Gilmore Girls, though less obnoxious. The actors are all roughly my age, and I have the suspicion that at least some of the writers are only slightly older than me. Here are some references/things I appreciated from the past couple episodes:

- Cameron from Ferris Bueller is the dean, and there have been two references to it, including him driving a red convertible with a woman named Sloan. Secret Life has not taken advantage of Molly Ringwald’s John Hughes past.

- An engineer character was also really into the movie Weird Science

- During a protest, someone chants, “Donna Martin graduates!” which is from (the original) 90210. Several episodes later, the actress who was Mrs. Walsh was on it. I confirmed that one of the directors worked on 90210, and assuming maybe some writers, too.

- A ditzy girl, after seeing 9 ½ Weeks, described Kim Basinger as “the mom from 8 Mile”

- A member of a secret society group made a comment about Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker without actually mentioning The Skulls

- The main boy said someone reminded him of Ralph Wiggum, and the girl he liked said, “Me fail English? That’s unpossible!”

- Ken Marino had a cameo as a camp counselor and Janeane Garofalo played a women’s studies professor

- The gay frat guy described hearing about his frat brothers’ sexual exploits as being like “an episode of Entourage, but watchable”

- Someone said Jesse McCartney’s character dresses like a pop star, which I suppose you could describe him as in real life

- They played one of my favorite songs, “Bridge and Tunnel” by The Honorary Title, which came out like three years ago or more

*EDIT – I forgot to mention the Glengarry Glen Ross nods (ABC, “Beer is for closers,” etc.)

It was bugging me for a while that the main girl looked like someone but I couldn’t place her. SHE’S FRASIER’S DAUGHTER:

Even in the episode where she’s watching TV and says, “Ooh! Frasier’s on!” I didn’t figure it out. She looks just like her father. It’s really weird, because she’s really pretty. But looks like Frasier.

Anyway, Greek rules. I will not be ashamed.